a dead Lion Eccles 9. 4. But I may say to these even as our Saviour said to that woman in Joh. 4. 18. concerning her Husband The life that we live here is not our life The union of the sensitive soul with the body is indeed truly and properly the life of a beast and its greatest happiness for it is capable of no higher perfection But the union of the rational soul with God is the noblest perfection of man and his highest life so that the life of a believing soul is not destroyed at death but perfected Neither was the Apostle weary of his life because of the adversities of it The Apostle was of a braver spirit sure than any Stoick he durst live though he rather desired to dye All the conflicts he endured with the world never wrung such a sigh from him as the conflict that he had with his own corruptions did Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man c. All the perfecutions in the world never made him groan so much as the burden of his flesh doth here and his great distance from the Lord. A godly soul can converse with persecuting men and a tempting Devil can handle briars and thorns can grapple with any kind of oppressions and adversities in the flesh without despondency so long as it finds it self in the bosome of God and in the arms of Omnipotence But when it begins to consider where it is how far it is from its God its life and the happy state that God hath prepared it for then it cannot but groan within it self and be ready with Peter to cast it self out of the ship to get to its God to land it self in eternity Neither indeed to speak truly is it only the sense of sin against God which seâ—s the godly soul a going For though it must be confest that this is a heavy burden upon the soul yet the Apostle makes no complaint of this here but only of his distance from God that necessary distance from God that the body kept him it at 2. See here the excellent spirit of true Religion Godly souls do groan after an unbodyed estate not only because of their sins in the body but even because of the necessary distance at which the body keeps them from God We may suppose a godly soul at some time to have no manner of affliction in the world to grieve him no sin unpardoned unrepented of to trouble him yet for all this he is not at perfect rest he is burdened and groans within himself because he is at such a distance from that absolute good whom he longs to know more familiarly and enjoy more â—ully than he doth yet or than is allowed to mortal men And though nothing else ayl him yet the consideration of this distance makes him cry out Oh when shall I come and appear before God! be wholly swallowed up in him see him as he is and converse with him face to face Bare innocency or freedom from sin cannot satisfie that noble and large spirit that is in a truly and God-like soul but that spirit of true goodness being nothing else but an efflux from God himself carryes the soul out after a more intimate union with that Being from whence it came God dwelling in the soul doth by a secret mighty power draw the soul more and more to himself In a word a godly soul that is really toucht with the sense of divine sweetness and â—ulness and imprest with divine goodness and holiness as the wax is with the stamp of the seal could not be content to dwell for ever in this kind of animal body nor take up an eternal rest in this imperfect mixed state though it could converse with the world without a sinful sullying of it self but must needs endeavour still a closer conjunction with God and leaving the chase of all other objects pant and breath not only after God alone but after more and more of him and not only when it is under the sense of sin but most of all when it is under the most powerful influences of divine grace and love cry out with Paul Oh who will deliver me out of this body 3. Suffer me from hence to expostulate a little to expostulate with Christian souls about their unseemly temper Doth this animal life and mortal body keep us at such a distance from our God our happiness Why are we then so fond of this life and mixed state Why do we so pamper this body Why so anxiously studious to keep it up so dreadfully afraid of the ruines of it If we take the Apostles words in the first sense that I named then I may ask with him in the first verse Know we not that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we had a building of God a house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens or vers 8. Why are we not willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord If we take them in the latter sense as this animal body is an hinderance to the souls knowledge of and communion with God then I ask concerning this as the Apostle doth concerning rich men James 2. 6. Why do ye pamper prize honour dote upon this body Doth not this body oppress you distract you burden you clog you hinder you Doth not this body interpose between the Sun of Righteousness between the Father of Lights and your souls that should shine with a light and glory borrowed from him even as the dark body of the earth interposes between the Sun and Moon to ecclipse its light Why are we not rather weary that we are in the body Surely there are some objections some impediments to the souls longing after its happy state which I shall come to anon But I doubt also that there is something that chains the soul to this animal life some cords in this earthly tabernacle that tye up the soul in it but I cannot well imagine what they should be Say not There is something of God to be enjoyed in this life which makes it pleasant For although this be true yet I am sure God gives nothing of himself to a soul thereby to clog it or cloy it Did Moses send for some Clusters of the Land of Canaan into the wilderness think ye that the people might see and taste the fruits and sit still and be satisfied and say Oh it is enough we see that there are pleasant things in that Land we will never come at it or did he not do it rather that they might make the more haste to possess themselves of it Will any man say Away I will have no more land no more mony I have some already Can a godly soul say God hath given me an earnest I desire no more No no but the report that a Christian hears of a rest remaining a happy life remaining for it and the chariots of divine graces that he sees God hath sent out into his soul to
Oh how sweet is the God that made it so Is there any thing lovely it is a picture of him whose name is Love Is any thing firm stable lasting it is a shadow of that glorious essence with whom there is no shadow of change Have you any thing strong it arises out of that God with whom is everlasting strength Doth any creature give rest ease refreshment it springs out of the All satisfying fulness of God In a word labour to climb up by every created excellency as by so many beams to the Father of lights let all the world be to you as Gods Temple and be ready to say of every place as Jacob How dreadful is this place surely this is no other than the house of God! that God who runs thorow all created Beings and from himselves derives several prints of beauty and excellency all the world over But especially take heed of your own created-comforts that they do not insensibly lead a way your hearts and ensnare you into a sinful particular distinct love of them which is a sin soon committed hardly discerned and most hardly reformed If any be freed from these inordinate affections sure they are but few and those few have come dearly by it as he said in another case with a great summ they have obtained this freedom they have payed for it not with the foreskins of the Philistines but with the lives of what they so loved there being no way to cure this evil distemper but cutting off the member infected with it the part that it fed upon As a branch of this head let me add labour to live upon God in the excellencies of other men value them and all their accomplishments only in God as he that did diligere Deum habitantem in Augustino Admire God and enjoy God in them Where ever you see wisdom goodness ingenuity holiness justice or any other accomplishment say Here and there is God And this is the honest way of making our selves Masters of whatever is another mans and enjoying it as truly as he himself doth yea as truly as if it were our own when we behold all these beams as coming from the same fountain of lights and do love them all in him with an universal love This is the rare Art of having nothing yet possessing all things of being rich though one have nothing and of being wise though one know nothing 3. The last way of living upon God in the creature is To taste and feed upon the love of God in them not only his common bounty but his special love in Christ The good will of God gives a sweet relish to every morsel as I hinted before Even in the midst of all your delightful pleasant sweet enjoyments let your souls be more affected with this than with them let this be as the Manna lying upon the top of all your outward comforts which your spirits may gather up and feed upon But this I toucht upon before therefore I shall add no more concerning it Thus I have shewed you how you may imitate the life of Angels in living upon God even whilst you live in the body To this I may add another particular or two 3. Converse with God and live upon him in all his Ordinances Let communion with God be your drift in every duty and the very life and soul and sweetness of every ordinance You never read of a soul more thirsty after ordinances than David as might appear abundantly yet if you look well into the expressions you will find that it was not so much after them as after God in them not after the dead letter but after the living God Psa 4. 2. 2. My soul thirsteth for God for the living God and Psal 84. 2. My heart and my flesh cryeth out for the living God Let the Word preacht or read be as a voyce from Heaven talking you let your conserence be a comment upon that Word let meditation be as a kind of bringing down God into your souls and prayer as a raising up of your souls into God nothing but faith and love put into phrases And so of all the rest 4. Converse with God in all his Providences prosperity adversity plenty penury health sickness peace and perplexity This is a large Theme But as to prosperity I have speken something a ready under that head of conversing with God in creature enjoyments As for adversity I have said much more in a large discourse to describe and commend the Art of conversing with God in affictions Briefly at this time converse not with losses wants afflictions but with God in them and that not only with the justice righteousness severity and soveraignty of God in them but with the goodness and mercy of God in them They are dark Providences we had not need to dwell all together on the dark side of them If all the wayes of the Lord towards his people be mercy and truth Psa 25. 10 then his roughest and most uncouth wayes are so 100 If God be wholly love 1 Joh. 4. 8. then his very corrections proceed not from hatred If it be his name to be good and to do good Psal 119. 68. where have we learnt then to call his afflicting Providences Evils and to divide evil which is but one even as God is one into culpae and paenae sin and affliction surely we speak as men And if God call them so he speaks after the manner of men as he often doth If the governing will of God be pure persect and infinitely good and righteous ought we not to converse with it in a free and chearful manner yea and to love it too In a word pore not upon creature-changes nor the uncertain wheels of motion that are turning up and down we know not how nor how oft but fix your souls upon that All-seeing eye that unbounded understanding that unsearchable and infinite goodness that derives it self thorow the whole universe and sits in all the wheels of motion governing all the strange motions of the creatures in a wonderful and powerful manner and carrying them all in their several Orbs to one last and blessed end Thus imitate the Angelical life even whilst you are in the body converse with God in self-excellencies in creature-excellences Ordinances Providences And yet labour to be more like them still to abstract your mind from all these and all material and sensible things and to converse with God without the help of any creature I mean in the spirit and by a secret feeling of his Almighty Goodness and the energy of grace and the communications of a divine life in your souls In a word if you would taste of Heaven whilst you are upon Earth labour above all things for a true conjunction of your hearts with God in a secret feeling of his goodness and a reciprocation of love to him and to find the holy and blessed God exercising his grace and power upon all the faculties of your souls and
for which we should bewail it and hate it and so consequently that there is something better than God for which we should love him Alas how apt are we to run into a practical blasphemy before we be aware In a word then to decide this controversie Our afflictions losses distresses in the world may possibly be as a Bucket to draw up this water of godly sorrow but they must not be the Cistern to receive and hold it Serious and spiritual Humiliation is a real conversing with the Righteousness of God To meet God is indeed to fall down before him and to converse with him is to lie down under him The truth of which temper is best evidenced by that excellent Commentator the Life of a Christian This doth best declare the nature and interpret the meaning of heart-Humiliation He that breaks off his sins doth best make it appear that his heart is broken for them If you would know whether there have been Rain in the night look upon the ground and that will discover Oh my frieâ—ds if the dust be layd if all earthly joys contentments pleasures concernments be layd you may conclude your sorrow was a shower sent into your souls from Heaven If you see a Boy both sobbing and minding his Book you may conclude he hath some right sense of his Masters severity Conversion to God is the most proper and real conversing with him in the way of his Judgments so he himself interprets in that complaint made Isa 9. 13. The people turneth not to him that smiteth them c. That which happened to Moses when he had been in the Mount with God Exod. 34. 29. should also be the condition of every good Israelite when he hath been with God in the valley the vale of tears an afflicted state his face should shine his conversation should witness that he hath been with God the smell of this fire should pass upon his garments his whole outward man The spirit of mourning should be demonstrated by the spirit of burning If God from Heaven set fire on the standing Corn of our worldly comforts we must answer him from within and set fire on the stubble of our worldly lusts and corruptions Let me change our Saviours words therefore a little Mat. 6. 18. and exhort you earnestly Thou Christian when thou fastest when thou humblest thy soul for sin wash thy face also cleanse thy outward conversation from all sinful pollution that thou mayest appear to be humbled indeed And this shall be accounted as a true and real conversing with the Righteousness of God in the time of affliction 3. Converse with the Faithfulness of God This attribute of God hath respect to his promises and therefore it may be you will think strange that I should speak of this in a discourse of afflictions as not having place there at all Every one will readily acknowledge that Gods Soveraignty and Righteousness do clearly appear in his Judgments but how his Faithfulness can be exercised therein they see not What faithful in punishing in plaguing in visiting in afflicting distressing his creature how can that be Many will be ready to think rather that God is not faithful at such a time when he denyes what he had promised to give takes away what he had promised to continue when he plagues David every morning when he had promised him that the Plague should not come nigh his dwelling when he brings Abijah to the grave whom he had promised that his dayes should be long upon the Land and Job to the dunghill to whom all the promises were made both of the life that now is and of that which is to come Is this faithfulness Doth God fulfil his promises by frustrating them Notwithstanding all this it seems that the faithfulness of God hath place in the afflictions of his people For so saith David expresly Psal 119.75 I know that in faithfulness thou hast afflicted me if indeed faithfulness be taken properly in that place Neither indeed need it seem so strange as some men make it for God hath promised his covenant-people to visit their iniquity with a Rod Psal 89. 32. The Rod The Rod of a man a fatherly chastisement as it is explained 2 Sam. 7. 14. where this seems to be made a branch of the Covenant and is understood by many as a promise But if that be not a plain promise I am sure there is one in Psal 84. 11. No good thing will he with hold from them that walk uprightly And if no good thing then no correction neither for that is often good and profitable for the people of God in this world for many excellent ends which considering the nature of man cannot well be accomplished without it as might appear in many particulars but it is not needful to run out into them God will take more care of his own people than of the rest of the world and will rather correct them than not reduce them It is their main bappiness that he takes care for and he will in kindness take out of the way whatever hinders it and give whatever may promote it Gods thoughts are not as our thoughts he judges otherwise of health riches liberty friends c. than we do We are apt to measure God by ourselves and our own affections which is the ground of our mistake in this business We mind the things that please our flesh our senses our appetite our fancy but God minds the things that concern our souls and their true happiness The Saints are much dearer to God and much more beloved of him than they are to themselves and therefore he will not give them what 's sweet but what 's meet he will give them what makes for their real and eternal happiness whether they would have it or no. He loves them with a strong and powerful love and will not deny them any thing that is truly good for them though they cry out under it nor allow them any thing that is really hurtful though they cry after it So will a wise Father upon Earth do by his children to the best of his skill and power much more will God then qui plusquam patrium amorem gerit in suos whose bowels are infinitely larger and stronger than those of a Father Now then labour to converse with the Faithfulness of God in the time of afflictions which is by studying the Covenant and the promises of it and your present condition and comparing them together and observing how consonant and agreeable they are each interpreting other As also by perswading your hearts of the consistency of afflictions with divine love and favour and by studying to reconcile the hand and heart of God together But especially converse with it practically by a holy establishment and settlement of heart under all afflictions For whereas afflictions in themselves are apt to beget a fearfulness despondency or at least fluctuation in the soul the lively sense of Gods Faithfulness in
The Well is deep and they have nothing to draw with as the Woman said concerning another Well Joh. 4. Therefore be sure you get an interest in the Fulness and Sufficiency of God or as Solomon speaks in another case Prov. 5. 15. Drink waters out of thine own Well 3. Converse with the Self-sufficient Fulness of God by delighting your selves in it Drink of this Fountain yea drink abundantly ye beloved of God Cant. 5. 1. yea lie down by it Psal 23. 2. yea bathe you selves wholly in it Enter into the Joy of your Lord lie down in his bosome spread your selves in his Love and Fulness The Beloved Disciple leaning upon the breast of his Lord at Supper was but a dark shadow a poor scant resemblance of a beloved soul which by the lovely acts of Joy and Confidence and Delight layes it self down in the bosome of Jesus and doth not feed with him but feed upon him and his Alsufficiency Then do we converse indeed feelingly and comfortably with the Infinite Fulness when the soul is swallowed up in it doth rest in it is filled with it and centred upon it Oh the noble and free-born spirit of true Religion that disdaining the pursuit of low and created things is carryed out with delight to feed and dwell and live upon uncreated Fulness Then is a soul raised to its just altitude to the very height of its Being when it can spend all its powers upon the supreme and self-sufficient good spreading and stretching it self upon God with full contentment and wrapping up it self entirely in him This is the souls way of living above losses and he that so lives though he may often be a loser yet shall never be at a loss He who feeds upon created Goodness or Sweetness may soon eat himself out of all the stock will be spent and which is worse the soul will be dryed up that hath nothing else to nourish it But he that lives upon uncreated Fulness is never at a loss though he lose never so much of the creature For who will value the spilling of a dish of water that hath a well of living water at his door from whence he had that and can have more as good though not the same Nay to speak properly this is the only way to lose nothing For how can he be properly said to lose any thing who possesses all things And so doth he I am sure who is filled with the Fulness of God Be sure therefore that in the want in the loss of all things you live upon the Fountain-fulness delight your self in the Lord after the example of the Prophet Habakkuk cap. 3. 17 18. A Farewel to Life 2 COR. 5. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. THE holy Apostle having in the first verse of this Chapter layd down the Doctrine of Eternal Glory which shall follow upon this transitory life of Believers shews in the following verses how he himself longed within himself and groaned after that happy state And then Proceeds to give a double ground of this his confident expectation one in vers 5. therefore is the Apostle confident concerning the putting off of this mortal body because God had wrought and formed him for this state of glory and already given him an earnest of it even his holy Spirit The other ground of the confidence and settledness of his mind as to his desires of a change is taken from his present state in the body which was but poor and uncomfortable in comparison of that glorious state This in the words of the Text Therefore we are alwayes confident knowing that whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For I do not take the words we are confident concerning the Apostles resolvedness with a quiet and sober mind to suffer any kind of persecution or affliction whatever but we are alwayes confident i. e. we do with confidence expect or at least we are alwayes well satisfied contented well resolved in our minds concerning our departure out of this life For the Apostle was speaking not of afflictions or persecutions in the former verses but indeed of death which he calls a dissolving of the earthly house of this tabernacle vers 1. and a being cloathed upon with our house which is from Heaven vers 2. 4. Yea and thus the Apostle explains himself vers 8. where he tells you what he means by this his confidence we are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body where the latter words are exegetical to the former q. d. It is better to be with the Lord than in this mortal body but we cannot be with the Lord whilst we are in this body it keeps us from him therefore we have the confidence to part with it It is the reason of the Apostles confidence and willingness to part with the body that I am to speak of and the reason is because this body keeps him from his Lord whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. The words are a Metaphor and are to be translated thus we indwelling in the body do dwell out from the Lord which our Translation renders well taking little notice of the Metaphor whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. Though indeed if they had left out that word at home it would have been as well and so have neglected the Metaphor altogether as we may haply hint hereafter The words are a reason of the Apostles willingness to be dissolved and do contain a kind of an accusat on of the body and so seem to lay a blame upon it and upon this animal life which must be remembred Now for the former phrase of being at home in the body it is easily understood and generally I think agreed upon to be no more than whilst we carry about with us this corruptible flesh whilst we live this naâ—ural animal life It only signifies man in his compounded animal state 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and doth not at all allude to his sinful unregenerate or carnal state But the latter phrase Absent from the Lord is capable of a double sense both good and true and I think both fit enough to the context and drift of the Apostle I shall speak to both but insist most upon the latter 1. Whilst we are in the body we are absent from the Lord i. e. from the bodily presence of the Lord in Heaven absent from Christ Jesus and his glory And so the words are the same in sense with 1 Cor. 15. 50. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God for by flesh and blood there must needs be meant man in this animal corruptible state And so the Apostle accuses this kind of life in the body and as it were blames it for standing between him and his glorified Lord and so consequently between him and the glory of his Lord.
And this sense doth well agree with what went before and with what follows The Apostle hath a great mind to depart for whilst he is in the body he is absent from his perfect happiness For this is the consummation of a Christians happiness to be with the Lord to be admitted to a beholding of his infinite glory as appears by our Saviours earnest prayer for this Joh. 17. 24. Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory Besides if we shall see him as he is we must also needs be made lâ—ke unto him 1 Joh. 3. 2. else how can we be fit to live for ever in his presence Now we are kept from this seeing and beholding of the Lord in glory by this animal life It stands between us and the Crown between us and our Masters Joy between us and the perfect enjoyment of God To be with the Lord is a state of perfect freedom from sin No unclean thing shall or can enter into Heaven Rev. 21. 27. A perfect freedom from all manner of afflâ—ctions Rev. 21. 4. There shall be no more sorrow nor crying nor pain and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all tears shall be wiped away from their eyes A state of freedom from all temptations to sin For a tempting Devil and all tempting lusts shall be cast out for ever A state of perfect peace without the least disturbance from within or from without of perfect joy that shall neither have end nor abatement and of perfect holiness when the whole soul shall be enlarged and raised to know and love and enjoy the blessed God as much as created nature is capable This is the happy state of seeing God of being with the Loâ—d And it is thy corruptible body this animal life that interposes between us and it so that the Apostle is confident and rather willing to depart and be with the Lord than stay here and be without him 2. Whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord without any reference to the world to come and so it may be fitly translated distant from the Lord estranged from God This agrees well with the context and scope of the Apostle also And thus the words are also a good ground of the Apostles resolution and willingness to dye q. d. I am willing to be absent from this body for whilst I am in it I find my self to be at a great distance from God And indeed the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies properly to be at a distance or to be estranged So I find it interpreted by a learned Critick without any mystery as he speaks of the distance that even Believers themselves stand at from God in this life And in thâ—s sense I shall chuse to prosecute the words In which sense the Apostle blames this body and animal life because it keeps us at a distance from God is a clog a snare a fetter a pinion to the soul And so the words do agree in sense with those of our Saviour Mat. 26. 41. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak where by the flesh must needs be understood the body if we consider the contexâ— viz. the occasion upon which the words were spoken the sleepiness of the Apostles or if we consider the propriety of speech according to the style of the New Testament True indeed the corruption of nature is sometimes called Flesh but according to that way of speaking our Saviour would rather have said That the spirit was willing but the flesh was strong as he saith elsewhere That the strong man armed kept the house Now to explain this Doctrine a little That even the godly themselves whilst they are in this body are at a distance from the Lord It must be granted that the godly soul is nigh unto God even whilst it so journs in this mortal body and tottering flesh All souls are involved in the Apostasie of Adam and are fallen down from God have alike stâ—agled from their God and are sunk into self and the creature God opened a way for their return by the blood of Jesus for we owe it unto Christs death not only that God is reconciled to us pardoning our sins but that any of our natures become reconciled to God by accepting of him as our God and loving him as the chiefest good Now there is a double being brought nigh to God by Christ The first is more general external and as I may say relational Thus the partition-wall being broken down the Gentiles that were converted from their Idolatry to a profession of God and Christ and admâ—tted to a communion with the Visible Church are upon that account said to be Brethren to the rest of Gods Children 1 Cor. 5. 11. and as to the Church they are said to be within it vers 12. though at the same timâ— they were Fornicators Covetous Drunkards And as to God they are said to be made nigh Ephes 2. 13. A prosessing of God is said to be a being nigh to him and even an external performance is said to be a drawing nigh to him and so Nadab and Abihu even in the offering of strange fire are said to have drawn nigh to God Levit. 10. 3. And this though it be a priviledge yet it is not that honourable priviledge of the truly godly souls who are by Christ Jesus raised up to God in their hearts and reconciled to him in their natures and united to him in their affections and so are made nigh unto him in a more especial and spiritual manner Thus all sinful and wicked souls notwithstanding all their profession and performances are far from God estranged from the life of God Enmity and dissimilitude are the most real distance from God And truly God-like souls only are nigh unto him they dwell in him and he dwelleth in them as in his most proper Temple As to any kind of Apposition no man can draw nigh to God nor by any local accession for so all men are alike nigh to him who is everywhere and the worst as well as the best of men do live and move in him But they are really nigh unto God who do enjoy him and they only enjoy him whose natures are conformable to him in a way of love goodness and God-like perfections We do not enjoy God by any gross and external conjunction with him but we enjoy him and are nigh unto him by an internal union when a Dâ—vine Spirit informeth and acteth our souls and derives a Divine Life into them and thorow them And so a godly soul only is really and happily nigh unto God Thus the Apostle Paul I believe was as nigh unto God as any man in the world who did not only live and move in God as all men do though few understand it but God did even live and as it were breathe in him the very life that he 〈◊〉 was by faith in the Son of
from them as grief Isa 53. 3. fear Heb. 5 7. who yet was free from all sin 1 Pet. 2. 22. Nay it seems necessary as I said before considering the nature of this animal life that the soul should have the corporeal passions and impressions feelingly and powerfully conveyed to it without which it could not express a due benevolence to the body that belongs to it and indeed were it not so we could not properly be said in the Apostles phrase here to be at home in the body the soul would rather dwell in domo alienâ quà m suâ But the soul being called out to attend upon these passions is easily ensnared by them for it can hardly exercise it self about them but it stâ—ps insensibly into a sinful inordinacy As for example The animal spirits nimbly playing in the brain and swiftly flying from thence thorow the nerves up and down the whole body do raise the fancy with mirth and chearfulness which we must not presently mistake for the power of grace nor condemn for the working of corruption So also when the Gall empties its bitter juice into the liver and that mingles it self with the blood there it begets fiery spirits which presently fly up into the brain and cause impressions of anger Now though I dare not say that the souls first sensating and entertaining of these passions is sinful yet it is sadly evident that our souls being once moved by these undisciplin'd animal spirits are very apt to fit upon and cherish those passions of grief fear mirth anger and as it were to work them into it self in an inordinate manner and contrary to the dictates of reason and so the will presently makes those sinful which before were but meerly humane or as one calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the more blossomings or shooâ—ings forth of animal life within us We see then in these particulars that not only the depraved dispositions of the soul do keep us at a distance from God but even this body also is a great hinderance to that knowledge of God which we shall attain to that service of God which we might perform and that sweet communion with him which we shall enjoy It is a clog to the soul that would run a mist to the soul that would see clearly a manacle to the soul that would work a snare to the soul that would be free a fetter to chain it to earthly and material things and as it were a pinion to the wings of contemplation More particularly it is a hinderance to it as to those three things which I have â—â—amed As to the souls knowledge of God the body is an occasion of ignorance and errour As to its serving of God an occasion of distract on and weariness lightness and triflingness and as to its communion with God an occasion of earthliness and sensuality Now this distance which this body keeps the soul at from God might more particularly appear in another way of explication by observing the especial grievances that do arise to the soul from those three great animal faculties if I may so speak The Senses the Appetite the Fancy 1. The Senses I mean the external senses of the body seeing hearing c. These convey passions to the soul upon which it insists and feeds with a sinful fondness and eagerness Set open the eye and it will set hard to convey some species to the soul of earthly objects that shall justle the Ideas of God out of it Set open the ear and it will fill the soul with such a noise and earthly tumult that the secret whispers of the divine spirit cannot be heard The like I may say of the rest Oh how easily do these discompose the fixed soul distract the devout soul cast a mist before the contemplative soul and hale down the raised soul from communion with Heaven to converse with earthly objects Vt vidi ut perii is the complaint of many a Christian as well as it was of the Heathen The souls of most men are quite sunk into their senses and do nothing but as it were lacky to them all their lives and so the servants are on horseback and Princes go on foot Though the eye will never be satisfied with seeing nor the ear with hearing yet forsooth these importunate suiters must be gratified the eye must see what it will see and the ear must hear what it will hear nothing must be with held from them that these childish senses do whine after These mens souls are indeed incarnate swallowed up in their eyes ears and mouths But not only these but even godly souls are often charmed and ensnared by their senses even they converse not only in the body but too much with it also and it becomes as a Dalilah to lull them asleep and bind them too Good Job found his senses so treacherous that he was fain to make a covenant with them Job 31. 1. And well if he could scape so too The words are a Metaphor for indeed the worst of it is that these senses are not capable of any discipline one cannot bring them into any covenant-terms so that whilst we have senses they will be treacherous whilst our eyes are in our heads they will be wandring after forbidden objects 2. The Appetite the sensitive appetite which is a faculty of the sensitive soul whereby this animal man is stirred up to desire and lust after the things which his senses have dictated to him This bodily lust following upon the neck of the former becomes a greater snare to the soul This restless suitor comes whining ever and anon to the soul for every trâ—fle that the eye hath seen or the ear heard or the mouth hath tasted and by it continual coming and importunate crying wearies her into an observance of it As the fond child comes crying to the Mother for every knack and gaw that it hath seen upon the stalls and she though she cannot in judgment approve of the request yet either in fond indulgence or for peace sake will condescend to purchase it This is the Daughter of the Horsleech that cryes continually Give Give Why what would it have even any thing that it hath seen or heard or touched or tasted any thing that it sees a fellow-creature to be possest of And so indeed the Appetite doth not only ensnare the soul unto drunkenness and glutâ—ony but voluptuousness lascivousness and all manner of sensuality The evil of the sensual appetite appears in wantonness and lasciviousness whether real verbal or mental in immoderate and inordinate trading ingrossing sporting building attiring sleeping visiting as well as in eating and drinking I will determine nothing concerning the first motions of the appetite whereby it sollicits the will to fulfil it only this that if it sollicite to any thing simply and morally evil it is sinful in that first act and that at all times it ought carefully to be watcht lest it seduce to intemperance in things lawful