Divinity to work upon Religion is the Queen of all those inward Endowments of the Soul and all pure Naturall knowledge all virgin and underflowred Arts Sciences are her Handmaids that rise up and call her Blessed I need not tell you how much the skill of Toungues and Languages besides the excellent use of all Philology in generall conduceth to the right understanding of the Letter of Sacred Writings on which the spiritual Notions must be built for none can possibly be ignorant of that which have but once heard of a Translation of the Bible The Apostle exhorteth Private Christians to whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue if there be any praise to think on those things and therefore it may well become you Noble Gentlemen in your Publick Spheare to encourage so Noble a Thing as Knowledge is which will reflect so much Lustre and Honour back again upon your selves That God would direct you in all your Counsels and still blesse you and prosper you in all your sincere Endeavours for the Publick Good is the hearty Prayer of Your Most humble Servant RALPH CUDWORTH I. JOHN ii 3 4. And hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his Commandments He that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him WE have much enquiry concerning knowledge in these latter times The sonnes of Adam are now as busie as ever himself was about the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil shaking the boughs of it and scrambling for the fruit whilest I fear many are too unmindfull of the Tree of Life And though there be now no Cherubims with their flaming swords to fright men off from it yet the way that leads to it seems to be solitary and untrodden as if there were but few that had any mind to tast of the Fruit of it There be many that speak of new glimpses and discoveries of Truth of dawnings of Gospel-light and no question but God hath reserved much of this for the very Evening and Sun-set of the World for in the latter dayes knowledge shall be increased but yet I wish we could in the mean time see that day to dawn which the Apostle speaks of and that day-starre to arise in mens hearts I wish whilest we talk of light and dispute about truth we could walk more as children of the light Whereas if S. Johns rule be good here in the Text that no man truly knows Christ but he that keepeth his Commandments it is much to be suspected that many of us which pretend to light have a thick and gloomy darknesse within over-spreading our souls There be now many large Volumes and Discourses written concerning Christ thousands of controversies discussed infinite problems determined concerning his Divinity Humanity Union of both together and what not so that our bookish Christians that have all their religion in writings and papers think they are now compleatly furnished with all kind of knowledge concerning Christ and when they see all their leaves lying about them they think they have a goodly stock of knowledge and truth and cannot possibly misse of the way to heaven as if Religion were nothing but a little Book-craft a mere paper-skill But if S. Johns rule here be good we must not judge of our knowing of Christ by our skill in Books and Papers but by our keeping of his Commandments And that I fear will discover many of us notwithstanding all this light which we boast of round about us to have nothing but Egyptian darknesse within upon our hearts The vulgar sort think that they know Christ enough out of their Creeds and Catechismes and Confessions of Faith and if they have but a little acquainted themselves with these and like Parrets conned the words of them they doubt not but that they are sufficiently instructed in all the mysteries of the Kingdome of Heaven Many of the more learned if they can but wrangle and dispute about Christ imagine themselves to be grown great proficients in the School of Christ The greatest part of the world whether learned or unlearned think that there is no need of purging and purifying of their hearts for the right knowledge of Christ and his Gospel but though their lives be never so wicked their hearts never so foul within yet they may know Christ sufficiently out of their Treatises and Discourses out of their mere Systems and Bodies of Divinity which I deny not to be usefull in a subordinate way although our Saviour prescribeth his Disciples another method to come to the right knowledge of Divine truths by doing of Gods will he that will do my Fathers will saith he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God He is a true Christian indeed not he that is onely book-taught but he that is God-taught he that hath an Unction from the holy one as our Apostle calleth it that teacheth him all things he that hath the Spirit of Christ within him that searcheth out the deep things of God For as no man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God Inke and Paper can never make us Christians can never beget a new nature a living principle in us can never form Christ or any true notions of spirituall things in our hearts The Gospel that new Law which Christ delivered to the world it is not merely a Letter without us but a quickning Spirit within us Cold Theorems and Maximes dry and jejune Disputes lean syllogisticall reasonings could never yet of themselves beget the least glympse of true heavenly light the least sap of saving knowledge in any heart All this is but the groping of the poore dark spirit of man after truth to find it out with his own endeavours and feel it with his own cold and benummed hands Words and syllables which are but dead things cannot possibly convey the living notions of heavenly truths to us The secret mysteries of a Divine Life of a New Nature of Christ formed in our hearts they cannot be written or spoken language and expressions cannot reach them neither can they ever be truly understood except the soul it self be kindled from within and awakened into the life of them A Painter that would draw a Rose though he may flourish some likenesse of it in figure and colour yet he can never paint the sent and fragrancy or if he would draw a Flame he cannot put a constant heat into his colours he cannot make his pensil drop a Sound as the Echo in the Epigramme mocks at him si vis similem pingere pinge sonum All the skill of cunning Artizans and Mechanicks cannot put a principle of Life into a statue of their own making Neither are we able to inclose in words and letters the Life Soul and Essence of any Spirituall truths as it
were to incorporate it in them Some Philosophers have determined that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} vertue cannot be taught by any certain rules or precepts Men and books may propound some directions to us that may set us in such a way of life and practice as in which we shall at last find it within our selves and be experimentally acquainted with it but they cannot teach it us like a Mechanick Art or Trade No surely there is a spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth this understanding But we shall not meet with this spirit anywhere but in the way of Obedience the knowledge of Christ and the keeping of his Commandments must alwayes go together and be mutuall causes of one another Hereby we know that we know him if we keep his Commandments He that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him I Come now unto these words themselves which are so pregnant that I shall not need to force out any thing at all from them I shall therefore onely take notice of some few observations which drop from them of their own accord and then conclude with some Application of them to our selves First then If this be the right way and methode of discovering our knowledge of Christ by our keeping of his Commandments Then we may safely draw conclusions concerning our state and condition from the conformity of our lives to the will of Christ Would we know whether we know Christ aright let us consider whether the life of Christ be in us Qui non habet vitam Christi Christum non habet He that hath not the life of Christ in him he hath nothing but the name nothing but a phansie of Christ he hath not the substance of him He that builds his house upon this foundation not an airy notion of Christ swimming in his brain but Christ really dwelling and living in his heart as our Saviour himself witnesseth he buildeth his house upon a Rock and when the flouds come and the winds blow and the rain descends and beats upon it it shall stand impregnably But he that builds all his comfort upon an ungrounded perswasion that God from all eternity hath loved him and absolutely decreed him to life and happinesse and seeketh not for God really dwelling in his soul he builds his house upon a Quicksand and it shall suddenly sink and be swallowed up his hope shall be cut off his trust shall be a spiders web he shall lean upon his house but it shall not stand he shall hold it fast but it shall not endure We are no where commanded to pry into these secrets but the wholesome counsell and advise given us is this to make our calling and election sure We have no warrant in Scripture to peep into these hidden Rolls and Volumes of Eternity and to make it our first thing that we do when we come to Christ to spell out our names in the starres and to perswade our selves that we are certainly elected to everlasting happinesse before we see the image of God in righteousnesse and true holinesse shaped in our hearts Gods everlasting decree is too dazeling and bright an object for us at first to set our eye upon it is far easier and safer for us to look upon the raies of his goodnesse and holinesse as they are reflected in our own hearts and there to read the mild and gentle Characters of Gods love to us in our love to him and our hearty compliance with his heavenly will as it is safer for us if we would see the Sunne to look upon it here below in a pale of water then to cast up our daring eyes upon the body of the Sun it self which is too radiant and scorching for us The best assurance that any one can have of his interest in God is doubtlesse the conformity of his soul to him Those divine purposes whatsoever they be are altogether unsearchable and unknowable by us they lie wrapt up in everlasting darknesse and covered in a deep Abysse who is able to fathom the bottome of them Let us not therefore make this out first attempt towards God and Religion to perswade our selves strongly of these everlasting Decrees for if at our first flight we aime so high we shall happily but scorch our wings and be struck back with lightning as those Giants of old were that would needs attempt to invade and assault heaven And it is indeed a most Giganticall Essay to thruft our selves so boldly into the lap of heaven it is the pranck of a Nimrod of a mighty Hunter thus rudely to deal with God and to force heaven and happinesse before his face whether he will or no The way to obtain a good assurance indeed of our title to heaven is not to clamber up to it by a ladder of our own ungrounded perswasions but to dig as low as hell by humility and self-denyall in our own hearts and though this may seem to be the furthest way about yet it is indeed the neerest and safest way to it We must {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as the Greek Epigramme speaks ascend downward descend upward if we would indeed come to heaven or get any true perswasion of our title to it The most gallant and triumphant confidence of a Christian riseth safely and surely upon this low foundation that lies deep under ground and there stands firmely and stedfastly When our heart is once tuned in to a conformity with the word of God when we feel our will perfectly to concurre with his will we shal then presently perceive a Spirit of adoption within our selves teaching us to cry Abba Father We shall not then care for peeping into those hidden Records of Eternity to see whether our names be written there in golden characters no we shall find a copy of Gods thoughts concerning us written in our own breasts There we may read the characters of his favour to us there we may feel an inward sense of his love to us flowing out of our hearty and unfained love to him And we shall be more undoubtedly perswaded of it then if any of those winged Watchmen above that are privie to heavens secrets should come tel us that they saw our names enrolled in those volumes of eternity Whereas on the contrary though we strive to perswade our selves never so confidently that God from all eternity hath loved us and elected us to life and happinesse if we do yet in the mean time entertain any iniquity within our hearts and willingly close with any lust do what we can we shall find many a cold qualme ever now and then seizing upon us at approching dangers and when death it self shall grimly look us in the face we shall feel our hearts even to die within us and our spirits quite
nor be all this while impassionated with so sad a spectacle Surely we cannot think he hath such an adamantine breast such a flinty nature as this is What then must we say that though indeed he be willing yet he is not able to rescue his crucified and tormented Sonne now bleeding upon the crosse to take him down from thence and save him Then must Sinne be more powerfull then God that weak crasie and sickly thing more strong then the Rock of ages and the Devil the Prince of Darknesse more mighty then the God of Light No surely there is a weaknesse and impotency in all Evil a masculine strength and vigour in all Goodnesse and therefore doubtlesse the Highest Good the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as the Philosophers call it is the strongest thing in the World Nil potentius Summo Bono Gods Power displaied in the World is nothing but his Goodnesse strongly reaching all things from heighth to depth from the highest Heaven to the lowest Hell and irresistibly imparting it self to every thing according to those severall degrees in which it is capable of it Have the Fiends of Darknesse then those poore forlorn spirits that are fettered and locked up in the Chaines of their own wickednesse any strength to withstand the force of infinite Goodnesse which is infinite Power or do they not rather skulk in holes of darknesse and flie like Bats and Owls before the approching beams of this Sun of Righteousnesse Is God powerfull to kill and to destroy to damne and to torment and is he not powerfull to save Nay it is the sweetest Flower in all the Garland of his Attributes it is the richest Diamond in his Crown of Glory that he is Mighty to save and this is farre more magnificent for him then to be stiled Mighty to destroy For that except it be in the way of Justice speaks no Power at all but mere Impotency for the Root of all Power is Goodnesse Or must we say lastly that God indeed is able to rescue us out of the Power of sinne Satan when we sigh grone towards him but yet sometimes to exercise his absolute Authority his uncontrollable Dominion he delights rather in plunging wretched souls down into infernall Night everlasting Darknesse What shall we then make the God of the whole World Nothing but a cruell and dreadfull Erynnis with curled fiery Snakes about his head and Firebrands in his hands thus governing the World Surely this will make us either secretly to think that there is no God at all in the World if he must needs be such or else to wish heartily there were none But doubtlesse God will at last confute all these our Misapprehensions of him he will unmask our Hypocriticall pretences and clearly cast the shame of all our sinfull Deficiencies upon our selves and vindicate his own Glory from receiving the least stain or blemish by them In the mean time let us know that the Gospel now requireth far more of us then ever the Law did for it requireth a New Creature a Divine Nature Christ formed in us but yet withall it bestoweth a quickening Spirit an enlivening Power to inable us to expresse that which is required of us Whosoever therefore truly knows Christ the same also keepeth Christs Commandments But he that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandments he is a liar and the truth is not in him I Have now done with the First part of my Discourse concerning those Observations which arise naturally from the Words and offer themselves to us I shall in the next place proceed to make some generall Application of them all together NOw therefore I beseech you Let us consider whether or no we know Christ indeed Not by our acquaintance with Systems and Modells of Divinity not by our skill in Books and Papers but by our keeping of Christs Commandments All the Books and writings which we converse with they can but represent spirituall Objects to our understandings which yet we can never see in their own true Figure Colour and Proportion untill we have a Divine light within to irradiate and shine upon them Though there be never such excellent truths concerning Christ and his Gospel set down in words and letters yet they will be but unknown Characters to us untill we have a Living-spirit within us that can decypher them untill the same Spirit by secret Whispers in our hearts do comment upon them which did at first endite them There be many that understand the Greek and Hebrew of the Scripture the Originall Languages in which the Text was written that never understood the Language of the spirit There is a Caro and a Spiritus a Flesh and a Spirit a Bodie and a Soul in all the writings of the Scriptures it is but the Flesh and Body of Divine Truths that is printed upon Paper which many Moths of Books and Libraries do onely feed upon many Walking Scheletons of knowledge that bury and entombe Truths in the Living Sepulchres of their souls do onely converse with such as never did any thing else but pick at the mere Bark and Rind of Truths and crack the Shels of them But there is a Soul and Spirit of divine Truths that could never yet be congealed into Inke that could never be blotted upon Paper which by a secret traduction and conveiance passeth from one Soul unto another being able to dwell and lodge no where but in a Spirituall being in a Living thing because it self is nothing but Life and Spirit Neither can it where indeed it is expresse it self sufficiently in Words and Sounds but it will best declare and speak it self in Actions as the old manner of writing among the Egyptians was not by Words but Things The Life of divine Truths is better expressed in Actions then in Words because Actions are more Living things then words Words are nothing but the dead Resemblances and Pictures of those Truths which live and breath in Actions and the Kingdome of God as the Apostle speaketh consisteth not in Word but in Life and Power {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} saith the Morall Philosopher {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Sheep do not come and bring their Fodder to their Shepheard and shew him how much they eat but inwardly concocting and digesting it they make it appear by the Fleece which they wear upon their backs and by the Milke which they give And let not us Christians affect onely to talk and dispute of Christ and so measure our knowledge of him by our words but let us shew {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} our knowledge concocted into our lives and actions and then let us really manifest that we are Christs Sheep indeed that we are his Disciples by that Fleece of Holiness which we wear and by the Fruits that we dayly yield in our lives and conversations for herein saith Christ is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit so
us are like those Children whose Stomacks are so vitiated by some disease that they think Ashes Coal Mudwall or any such trash to be more pleasant then the most wholesome food such sickly and distempered Appetites have we about these spirituall things that hanker after I know not what vain shews of happinesse whilst in the mean time we neglect that which is the onely true food of our souls that is able solidly to nourish them up to everlasting life Grace is Holinesse Militant Holinesse encumbred with many enemies and difficulties which it still fights against and manfully quits it self of and Glory is nothing else but Holinesse Triumphant Holinesse with a Palme of Victorie in her hand and a Crown upon her head Deus ipse cum omni suâa bonitate quatenus extra me est non facit me beatum sed quatenus in me est God himself cannot make me happy if he be onely without me and unlesse he give in a participation of himself and his own likenesse into my soul Happinesse is nothing but the releasing and unfettering of our souls from all these narrow sâ—ant and particular good things and the espousing of them to the Highest and most Universall Good which is not this or that particular good but goodnesse it self and this is the same thing that we call Holinesse Which because we our selves are so little acquainted with being for the most part ever courting a mere Shadow of it therefore we have such low abject and beggerly conceits thereof whereas it is in it self the most noble heroicall and generous thing in the World For I mean by Holinesse nothing else but God stamped printed upon the Soul And we may please our selves with what conceits we will but so long as we are void of this we do but dream of heaven and I know not what fond Paradise we do but blow up and down an airy Bubble of our own Phancies which riseth out of the froth of our vain hearts we do but court a painted Heaven and woo happinesse in a Picture whilst in the mean time a true and reall Hell will suck in our souls into it and soon make us sensible of a solid woe and substantiall misery Divine wisdome hath so ordered the frame of the whole Universe as that every thing should have a certain proper Place that should be a Receptacle for it Hell is the Sinke of all sinne and wickednesse The strong Magick of Nature pulls and draws every thing continually to that place which is suitable to it and to which it doth belong so all these heavy bodies presse downwards towards the Centre of our earth being drawn in by it In like manner Hell wheresoever it is will by strong Sympathy pull in all sinne and Magnetically draw it to it self as true Holinesse is alwayes breathing upwards and fluttering towards Heaven striving to embosome it self with God and it will at last undoubtedly be conjoyned with him no dismall shades of darknesse can possibly stop it in its course or beat it back {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Nay we do but deceive our selves with names Hell is nothing but the Orbe of Sinne and Wickednesse or else that Hemisphear of Darknesse in which all Evil moves and Heaven is the opposite Hemisphear of Light or else if you please the Bright Orbe of Truth Holinesse and Goodnesse and we do actually in this life instate our selves in the possession of one or other of them Take Sinne and Disobedience out of Hell and it will presently clear up into Light Tranquillity Serenity and shine out into a Heaven Every true Saint carrieth his Heaven about with him in his own heart and Hell that is without him can have no power over him He might safely wade through Hell it self and like the Three children passe through the midst of that fiery Furnace and yet not at all be scorched with the flames of it he might walk through the Valley of the shadow of death and yet fear no evil Sinne is the onely thing in the World that is contrary to God God is Light and that is Darknesse God is Beauty and that is Uglinesse and Deformity All sinne is direct Rebellion against God and with what Notions soever we may sugar it and sweeten it yet God can never smile upon it he will never make a truce with it God declares open warre against sinne and bids defiance to it for it is a professed enemy to Gods own Life and Being God which is infinite Goodnesse cannot but hate sinne which is purely Evil And though sinne be in it self but a poore impotent and crazy thing nothing but Straitnesse Poverty and Non-entity so that of it self it is the most wretched and miserable thing in the world and needeth no further punishment besides it self yet Divine Vengeance beats it off still further and further from God and wheresoever it is will be sure to scourge it and lash it continually God and Sinne can never agree together That I may therefore come yet nearer to our selves This is the Message that I have now to declare unto you That God is Light and in him is no darknesse at all if we say that we have Fellowship with him and walke in Darknesse we lie and do not the truth Christ and the Gospel are light and there is no darknesse at all in them if you say that you know Christ and his Gospel yet keep not Christs Commandments but dearly hug your private darling corruptions you are liars and the truth is not in you you have no acquaintance with the God of Light nor the Gospel of Light If any of you say that you know Christ and have an interest in him and yet as I fear too many do still nourish Ambition Pride Vainglory within your brests harbour Malice Revengfulnesse cruell Hatred to your neighbours in your hearts eagerly scramble after this worldly Pelfe and make the strength of your parts and endeavours serve that blind Mammon the God of this World If you wallow and tumble in the filthy puddle of flleshly Pleasures or if you aime onely at your selves in your lives and make your Self the Compasse by which you sail and the Starre by which you steer your Course looking at nothing higher and more noble then your selves deceive not your selves you have neither seen Christ nor known him you are deeply incorporated if I may so speak with the Spirit of this World and have no true Sympathy with God and Christ no fellowship at all with them And I beseech you let us consider Be there not many of us that pretend much to Christ that are plainly in our lives as Proud Ambitious Vainglorious as any others Be there not many of us that are as much under the power of unruly Passions as Cruell Revengefull Malicious Censorious as others that have our minds as deeply engaged in the World as much envassalled to Riches Gain Profit those great admired Deities of the
faint away though we strive to raise them and recover them never so much with the Strong Waters and Aqua vitae of our own ungrounded presumptions The least inward lust willingly continued in will be like a worme fretting the Gourd of our jolly confidence and presumptuous perswasion of Gods love and alwayes gnawing at the root of it and though we strive to keep it alive and continually besprinkle it with some dews of our own yet it will alwayes be dying and withering in our bosomes But a good Conscience within will be alwayes better to a Christian then health to his navell and marrow to his bones it will be an everlasting cordiall to his heart it will be softer to him then a bed of doune and he may sleep securely upon it in the midst of raging and tempestuous seas when the winds bluster and the waves beat round about him A good conscience is the best looking-glasse of heaven in which the soul may see God's thoughts and purposes concerning it as so many shining starres reflected to it Hereby we know that we know Cbrist hereby we know that Christ loves us if we keep his Commandments Secondly If hereby onely we know that we know Christ by our keeping his Commandments Then the knowledge of Christ doth not consist merely in a few barren Notions in a form of certain dry and saplesse Opinions Christ came not into the world to fil our heads with mere Speculations to kindle a fire of wrangling and contentious dispute amongst us and to warm our spirits against one another with nothing but angry peevish debates whilst in the mean time our hearts remain all ice within towards God and have not the least spark of true heavenly fire to melt and thaw them Christ came not to possesse our brains onely with some cold opinions that send down nothing but a freezing and benumming influence upon our hearts Christ was Vitae Magister not Scholae and he is the best Christian whose heart beats with the truest pulse towards heaven not he whose head spinneth out the finest cobwebs He that endeavours really to mortifie his lusts and to comply with that truth in his life which his Conscience is convinced of is neerer a Christian though he never heard of Christ then he that believes all the vulgar Articles of the Christian faith and plainly denyeth Christ in his life Surely the way to heaven that Christ hath taught us is plain and easie if we have but honest hearts we need not many Criticismes many School-distinctions to come to a right understanding of it Surely Christ came not to ensnare us and intangle us with captious niceties or to pusle our heads with deep speculations and lead us through hard and craggie notions into the Kingdome of heaven I perswade my self chat no man shall ever be kept out of heaven for not comprehending mysteries that were beyond the reach of his shallow understanding if he had but an honest and good heart that was ready to comply with Christs Commandments Say not in thins heart Who shall ascend into heaven that is with high speculations to bring down Christ from thence or Who shall descend into the abysse beneath that is with deep searching thoughts to fetch up Christ from thence but loe the word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart But I wish it were not the distemper of our times to scare and fright men onely with opinions and make them onely solicitous about the entertaining of this and that speculation which will not render them any thing the better in their lives or the liker unto God whilst in the mean time there is no such care taken about keeping of Christs Commandments and being renewed in our minds according to the image of God in righteousnesse and true holinesse We say Loe here is Christ and Loe there is Christ in these and these opinions whereas in truth Christ is neither here nor there nor anywhere but where the Spirit of Christ where the life of Christ is Do we not now adayes open and lock up heaven with the private key of this and that opinion on of our own according to our severall fancies as we please And if any one observe Christs Commandments never so sincerely and serve God with faith and a pure conscience that yet happely skils not of some contended for opinions some darling notions he hath not the right Shibboleth he hath not the true Watch-word he must not passe the Guards into heaven Do we not make this and that opinion this and that outward form to be the Wedding-garment and boldly sentence those to outer darknesse that are not invested therewith Whereas every true Christian finds the least dram of hearty affection towards God to be more cordiall and sovereign to his soul then all the speculative notions and opinions in the world and though he study also to inform his understanding aright and free his mind from all errour and misapprehensions yet it is nothing but the life of Christ deeply rooted in his heart which is the Chymicall Elixer that he feeds upon Had he all faith that he could remove mountains as S. Paul speaks had he all knowledge all tongues and languages yet he prizeth one dram of love beyond them all He accounteth him that feeds upon mere notions in Religion to be but an aiery and Chamelion-like Christian He findeth himself now otherwise rooted and centred in God then when he did before merely contemplate and gaze upon him he tasteth and relisheth God within himself he hath quendam saporem Dei a certain savour of him whereas before he did but rove and guesse at random at him He feeleth himself safely anchored in God and will not be disswaded from it though perhaps he skill not many of those subtleties which others make the Alpha and Omega of their Religion Neither is he scared with those childish affrightments with which some would force their private conceits upon him he is above the superstitious dreading of mere speculative opinions as well as the superstitious reverence of outward ceremonies he cares not so much for subtlety as for soundnesse and health of mind And indeed as it was well spoken by a noble Philosopher {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that without purity and virtue God is nothing but an empty name so it is as true here that without obedience to Christs Commandments without the life of Christ dwelling in us whatsoever opinions we entertain of him Christ is but onely named by us he is not known I speak not here against a free and ingenuous enquiry into all Truth according to our severall abilities and opportunities I plead not for the captivating and enthralling of our judgements to the Dictates of men I do not disparage the naturall improvement of our understanding faculties by true Knowledge which is so noble and gallant a perfection of the mind but the thing which I aime against is the dispiriting of the life
commendeth to his Disciples in a peculiar manner This is my commandment That ye love one another as I have loved you and again These things I command you that you love one another Let us follow peace with all men and holinesse without which no man shall see God Let us put on as the Elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindnesse humblenesse of mind meeknesse longsuffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another if any man have a quarel against any even as Christ forgave us And above all these things let us put on Charity which is the bond of perfectnesse Let us in meeknesse instrust those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth that they may recover themselves out of the snares of the Devil that are taken captive by him at his will Beloved Let us love another for Love is of God and whosoever loveth is born of God and knoweth God O Divine Love the sweet Harmony of souls the Musick of Angels The Joy of Gods own Heart the very Darling of his Bosome the Sourse of true Happinesse the pure Quintessence of Heaven That which reconciles the jarring Principles of the World and makes them all chime together That which melts mens Hearts into one another see how S. Paul describes it and it cannot choose but enamour your affections towards it Love envieth not it is not puffed up it doth not behave it self unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no evil rejoyceth not in iniquity beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things I may adde in a word it is the best natur'd thing the best complexioned thing in the World Let us expresse this sweet harmonious Affection in these jarring times that so if it be possible we may tune the World at last into better Musick Especially in matters of Religion let us strive with all meeknesse to instruct and convince one another Let us endeavour to promote the Gospel of Peace the Dove-like Gospel with a Dove-like Spirit This was the way by which the Gospel at first was propagated in the world Christ did not cry nor lift up his voice in the streets a bruised reed he did not break and the smoking flax he did not quench and yet he brought forth judgement into victory He whispered the Gospel to us from Mount Sion in a still voice and yet the sound thereof went out quickly throughout all the earth The Gospel at first came down upon the world gently and softly like the Dew upon Gideons fleece and yet it quickly soaked quite through it and doubtlesse this is still the most effectuall way to promote it further Sweetnesse and Ingenuity will more powerfully command mens minds then Passion Sowrenesse and Severity as the soft Pillow sooner breaks the Flint then the hardest Marble Let us {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} follow truth in love and of the two indeed be contented rather to misse of the conveying of a Speculative Truth then to part with Love When we would convince men of any errour by the strength of Truth let us withall poure the sweet Balme of Love upon their heads Truth and Love are two the most powerfull things in the world and when they both go together they cannot easily be withstood The Golden Beams of Truth and the Silken Cords of Love twisted together will draw men on with a sweet violence whether they will or no Let us take heed we do not sometimes call that Zeal for God and his Gospel which is nothing else but our own tempestuous and stormy Passion True Zeal is a sweet heavenly and gentle Flame which maketh us active for God but alwayes within the Sphear of Love It never calls for Fire from Heaven to consume those that differ a little from us in their Apprehensions It is like that kind of Lightning which the Philosophers speak of that melts the Sword within but singeth not the Scabbard it strives to save the Soul but hurteth not the Body True Zeal is a loving thing and makes us alwayes active to Edification and not to Destruction If we keep the Fire of Zeal within the Chimney in its own proper place it never doth any hurt it onely warmeth quickeneth and enliveneth us but if once we let it break out and catch hold of the Thatch of our Flesh and kindle our corrupt Nature and set the House of our Body on fire it is no longer Zeal it is no heavenly Fire it is a most destructive and devouring thing True Zeal is an Ignis lambens a soft and gentle Flame that will not scorch ones hand it is no predatory or voracious thing but Carnall and fleshly Zeal is like the Spirit of Gunpowder set on fire that tears and blows up all that stands before it True Zeal is like the Vitall heat in us that we live upon which we never feel to be angry or troublesome but though it gently feed upon the Radicall Oyl within us that sweet Balsame of our Naturall Moisture yet it lives lovingly with it and maintains that by which it is fed but that other furious distempered Zeal is nothing but a Feaver in the Soul To conclude we may learn what kind of Zeal it is that we should make use of in promoting the Gospel by an Emblem of Gods own given us in the Scripture those Fiery Tongues that upon the Day of Pentecost sate upon the Apostles which sure were harmlesse Flames for we cannot reade that they did any hurt or that they did so much as singe an haire of their heads I will therefore shut up this with that of the Apostle Let us keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Let this soft and silken Knot of Love tie our Hearts together though our Heads and Apprehensions cannot meet as indeed they never will but alwayes stand at some distance off from one another Our Zeal if it be heavenly if it be true Vestall Fire kindled from above it will not delight to tarry here below burning up Straw and Stubble and such combustible things and sending up nothing but grosse earthy fumes to heaven but it will rise up and return back pure as it came down and will be ever striving to carry up mens hearts to God along with it It will be onely occupied about the promoting of those things which are unquestionably good and when it moves in the irascible way it will quarrel with nothing but sinne Here let our zeal busie and exercise it self every one of us beginning first at our own hearts Let us be more Zealous then ever we have yet been in fighting against our lusts in pulling down those strong holds of Sinne and Satan in our hearts Here let us exercise all our Courage and Resolution our Manhood and Magnanimitie Let us trust in the Almighty Arme of our God and ' doubt not but he will as well deliver us from the
fast in fetters and Irons To please our selves with a Notion of Gospel-liberty whilest we have not a Gospel-principle of Holinesse within us to free us from the power of sinne it is nothing else but to gild over our Bonds and Fetters and to phancy our selves to be in a Golden Cage There is a Straitnesse Slavery and Narrownesse in all Sinne Sinne crowds and crumples up our souls which if they were freely spread abroad would be as wide and as large as the whole Universe No man is truly free but he that hath his will enlarged to the extent of Gods own will by loving whatsoever God loves and nothing else Such a one doth not fondly hug this and that particular created good thing and envassal himself unto it but he loveth every thing that is lovely beginning at God and descending down to all his Creatures according to the severall degrees of perfection in them He injoyes a boundlesse Liberty and a boundlesse Sweetnesse according to his boundlesse Love He inclaspeth the whole World within his out-stretched arms his Soul is as wide as the whole Universe as big as yesterday to day and forever Whosoever is once acquainted with this Disposition of Spirit he never desires any thing else and he loves the Life of God in himself dearer then his own Life To conclude this therefore If we love Christ and keep his commandments his commandments will not be grievous to us His yoke will be easie and his burden light it will not put us into a State of Bondage but of perfect Liberty For it is most true of Evangelicall Obedience what the wise man speaketh of Wisdome Her wayes are wayes of pleasantnesse and all her paths are peace She is a tree of Life to those that lay hold upon her and happy are all they that retain her I will now shut up all with one or two Considerations to perswade you further to the keeping of Christs Commandments First from the desire which we all have of Knowledge If we would indeed know Divine Truths the onely way to come to this is by keeping of Christs Commandments The Grossenesse of our apprehensions in Spirituall things and our many mistakes that we have about them proceed from nothing but those dull and foggy Stemes which rise up from our foul hearts and becloud our Understandings If we did but heartily comply with Christs commandments and purge our hearts from all grosse and sensuall affections we should not then look about for Truth wholly without our selves and enslave our selves to the Dictates of this and that Teacher and hang upon the Lips of men but we should find the Great Eternall God inwardly teaching our souls and continually instructing us more and more in the mysteries of his will and out of our bellies should flow rivers of living waters Nothing puts a stop and hinderance to the passage of Truth in the World but the Carnality of our hearts the Corruption of our lives 'T is not wrangling Disputes and Syllogisticall Reasonings that are the mighty Pillars that underprop Truth in the World if we would but underset it with the Holinesse of our Hearts and Lives it should never fail Truth is a prevailing and conquering thing and would quickly overcome the World did not the Earthinesse of our Dispositions and the Darknesse of our false heares hinder it Our Saviour Christ bids the Blind man wash off the Clay that was upon his eyes in the Pool of Siloam and then he should see clearly intimating this to us that it is the Earthinesse of mens Affections that darkens the Eye of their understandings in Spirituall things Truth is alwayes ready and near at hand if our eyes were not closed up with Mud that we could but open them to look upon it Truth alwayes waits upon our souls and offers it self freely to us as the Sun offers its beams to every Eye that will but open and let them shine in upon it If we could but purge our Hearts from that filth and defilement which hangeth about them there would be no doubt at all of Truths prevailing in the World For Truth is great and stronger then all things all the Earth calleth upon Truth and the heaven blesseth it all works shake and tremble at it The Truth endureth and is alwayes strong it liveth and conquereth for evermore She is the Strength Kingdome Power and Majestie of all ages Blessed be the God of Truth Last of all if we desire a true Reformation as we seem to do Let us begin here in reforming our hearts and lives in keeping of Christs Commandments All outward Formes and Models of Reformation though they be never so good in their kind yet they are of little worth to us without this inward Reformation of the heart Tinne or Lead or any other baser Metal if it be cast into never so good a Mold and made up into never so elegant a Figure yet it is but Tin or Lead still it is the same Metal that it was before And if we be Molded into never so good a Form of outward Government unlesse we new mold our Hearts within too we are but a little better then we were before If adulterate Silver that hath much Allay or Drosse in it have never so current a Stamp put upon it yet it will not passe notwithstanding when the Touch-stone trieth it We must be reformed within with a Spirit of Fire and a Spirit of Burning to purge us from the Drosse and Corruption of our hearts and refine us as Gold and Silver and then we shall be reformed truly and not before When this once comes to passe then shall Christ be set upon his Throne indeed then the Glory of the Lord shall overflow the Land then we shall be a People acceptable unto him and as Mount Sion which he dearly loved Finis Die Mercurii ultimo Martii 1647. ORdered by the Commons assembled in Parliament That Sr Henry Mildmay do from this House give thanks unto Mr Cudworth for the great paines he took in the Sermon he preached on this day at Margarets Westminster before the House of Commons it being a day of Publick Humiliation and that he do desire him to print his Sermon Wherein be is to have the like Priviledge in printing thereof as others in like kind usually have had H. Elsynge Cler. Parl. D. Com.