man till he consider with himself that one part of these mens uncleanness is that very blindness which keeps them from discerning it I speak principally of the defilement of the Soul though indeed the same do pollute the whole Conversation Every action springing from such an unclean Heart thereby becomes filthy even as Moses his hand put into his bosome became leprous Exod. 4. or rather as one that is unclean by a dead body defileth all that he toucheth Hag. 2. 13. Now Religion is the cleansing of this unclean spirit and conversation so that though the Soul were formerly as filthy odious as Augeus his Stable when once those living Waters flow into it and thorow it from the pure Fountain of Grace and Holiness the Spirit of our God one may say of it as the Apostle of his Corinthians 1 Cor. 6. 11. Such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified c. The Soul that before was white as leprosie is now white as Wool Isa 1. 18. the Soul that before was like Moses his hand leprous as snow is now like David's Heart white as snow yea and whiter too Psal 51. 7. Oh what a beauty and glory is upon that godly Soul that shines with the image and brightness of God upon it Solomon in all his glory was not beautiful like such a Soul nay I dare say the splendor of the Sun in its greatest strength and altitude is a miserable glimmering if it be compared with the Day-Star of Religion that even in this Life arises in the heart or if you will in the Prophets stile the Sun of Righteousness which ariseth with healing in his wings upon them that fear the Name of God To speak without a Metaphor the godly Soul having entertained into its self the pure effluxes of Divine Light and Love breathes after nothing more than to see more familiarly and love more ardently its inclinations are pure and holy its motions spiritual and powerful its delights high and heavenly it may be said to rest in its love and yet it may be said that love will not suffer it to rest but is still carrying it out into a more intimate union with its beloved object What is said of the Oyntment of Christs Name Cant. 1. 3. is true of the Water of his Spirit it is poured forth therefore do the Virgins love him Religion begets a chaste and virgin-love in the Soul towards that blessed God that begot it it bathes it self in the Fountain that produc'd it and suns it self perpetually in the warm beams that first hatch'd it Religion issues from God himself and is ever issuing out towards God alone passionately breathing with the holy Psalmist Whom have I in Heaven but thee In Earth there is none that I desire beside thee The Soul that formerly may be said to have lain among the Pots by reason of its filthiness is now as the wings of a Dove covered with silver and her Feathers with yellow gold the Soul that formerly may be said to have sitten down by the flesh pots of Egypt in regard of its sensual and earthly Loves being redeemed by the almighty grace of God is upon its way to the holy Land hastning to a Country not earthly but heavenly Heb. 11. This pure Principle being put into the Soul puts it upon holy Studies indites holy Meditations directs it to high and noble ends and makes all its embraces to be pure and chaste labouring to compass God himself which before were adulterous idolatrous free for sin and self and the world to lodge and lie down in In a word this Off-spring of Heaven this Kings Daughter the godly Soul is all glorious within yea and outwardly too she is cloathed with wrought gold Psal 45. 13. Her faith within is more precious than gold 1 Pet. 1. 7. and her Conversation curiously made up of an Embroidery of good Works some of Pâ—ety some of Charity some of Sobriety but all of Purity shineth with more noble and excellent splendor than the high Priests Garments and Brest-plate spangled with such variety of precious Stones This precious Oyntment this holy Vnction as the Apostle calls it 1 John 2. 20. is as diffusive of it self and ten thousand times more fragrant than that of Aaron so much commended in Psal 133. that ran down from his head upon his beard and from thence upon the skirts of his garment Not my feet only but my hands and my head Lord said Peter John 13. Not well knowing what he said but the Soul that is truly sensible of the excellent purity which is caused by Divine Washings longs to have the whole man the whole Life also made partaker of it and cries Lord not my head only not my heart only but my hands and my feet also make me wholly pure as God is pure In a word then true Religion is the cleansing of the Soul and all the powers of it so that whereas Murderers sometimes lodged in it now Righteousness the Den of Thieves thievish Lusts and Loves and Interests and Ends which formerly stole away the Soul from God its right Owner is now become a Temple fit for the great King to dwell and live and reign in And the whole Conversation is turned from its wonted vanity worldliness and iniquity and is continually employed about things that are true honest just pure lovely and of good report Phil. 4. 8. 2. By the phrase Water the Quenching nature of Religion is commended to us God hath indued the immortal Soul with a restless appetite and raging thirst after some chief Good which the heart of every man is continually groping after and catching at though indeed few find it because they seek it where it is not to be found If we speak properly it is not gold or silver or popular applause which the covetous or ambitious mind doth ultimately aim at but some chief good happiness sufficiency and satisfaction in these things wherein they are more guilty of Blasphemy than Atheism for it is clear that they do not deny a supreme Good for that which men do chiefly and ultimately aim at is their God be it what it will but they do verily blaspheme the true God when they place their happiness there where it is not to be found and attribute that fulness and sufficiency to something else besides the living God Sin hath not destroyed the nature and capacity of the rational Soul but hath diverted the mind from its adequate object and hath sunk it into the Creature where it wanders hither and thither like a banished man from one Den and Cave to another but is secure no where A wicked man who is loosed from his centre by sin and departed from the Fountain of his Life flies low in his affections and flutters perpetually about the Earth and earthly Objects but can find no more rest for the foot of his Soul than Noah's Dove could find for the sole of her foot Now Religion
Though faith abhors the blasphâ—my of laying blame upon God yet it so fixes the soul upon him and causes her so to eye his hand and end in all mal-administrations of men that she hath no leisure to fall out with men or quarrel with instruments These Discontents I said were frequently attended with an evil and seditious zeal for relaxation discovering itself in secret treacherous conspiracies and many times in boisterous and daring attempts These are at the first sight so directly contrary to the character given of Religious men viz. the Psal 35. 20. Gal. 5. 22 23. Col. 3. 12 13 14 15 16. quiet of the Land and the genius of Religion which is wholly made up of love peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faithfulness meekness temperance mercy kindness humbleness of mind forbearance forgiveness charity thankfulness wisdom that it is easie to conceive that Religion in the power of it would certainly heal this evil disease also There are many pretenders to Religion whose complaint is still concerning oppression and persecution their cry is all for liberty and deliverance but to make it the more passable and plausible they stile it the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ This pretence is so fair but withall so deceitfull that I count it worth my time to speak a little more liberally to it And here I do from the very bottom of my soul protest that I account the advancement of the glory of God and the Kingdom of Christ to be the most desirable thing in the World and that it is highly becoming the greatest spirits upon earth to employ the very utmost zeal and diligence to assist the accomplishment thereof yea so utterly do I abhor irreligion and Atheism that as the Apostle speaks in somewhat a like case I do verily Phil. 1. 18. rejoyce that Christ is professed though it be but pretended and that truth is owned though it be not owned in truth I will further add that the oppressing and obstructing of the external progress and propagation of the Gospel is hated of Christ and to be lamented of all true Christians Yea I will further allow men a due sensibleness of their personal oppressions and injuries and a natural warrantable desire to be redeemed from them And now having thus purged my self I entreat the Christian Reader patiently and without prejudice to suffer me to speak somewhat closely to this matter Yea I do verily assure my self that I shall be accepted or at least indulged by all free and ingenuous spirits who are rightly acquainted with the genius of Christian Religion and do preferr truth before interest And first For the complaint that is mostly concerning oppression and persecution certainly Religion if it did rightly prevail in our hearts would very much heal this distemper if not by a perfect silencing of these complaints yet surely by putting them into another tune I reckon that Religion quite silences these complaints when it engages the soul so entirely in serving the end of God in afflictions and in a right improvement of them for religious purposes that she list not to spend her self in fruitless murmurings and unchristian indignations As fire seizeth upon every thing that is combustible and makes it fewel for itself and a predominant humour in the body converts into its own substance whatever is convertible and makes it nourishment to itself so doubtless this spirit of burning this divine principle if it were rightly predominant in the soul would nourish itself by all things that lye in its way though they seem never so heterogeneous and hard to be digested and rather than want meat it would with Sampson fetch it out of the very eater himself But if Religion should not utterly silence these complainings by rendring the soul thus forgetful of the body and regardless of its smart in comparison of the happy advantage that may be made of it yet methinks it should draw the main stream of these tears into an other channel and put these complaints into an other tune It is very natural to the Religious soul to make God all things unto itself to lay to heart the interest of truth and holiness more than any particular interest of its own and to bewail the disservice done to God more than any self-incommodation Must not he needs be a good subject to his Prince who can more heartily mourn that Gods Laws are not kept than that he himself is kept under that can be more grieved that men are cruel than that they kill him that can be more troubled because there are oppressions in the world than because he himself is oppressed such subjects Religion alone can make As for the Cry that is made for liberty and deliverance I confess I do not easily apprehend what is more or more naturally desirable than true liberty yea I believe there are many devout and Religious souls that from a right noble and generous principle and out of a sincere respect to the Author and End of their creation are almost intemperately studiouâ— of it do prefer it above all prefermeâ—◠〈◊〉 hing that may be properly 〈◊〉 â—â—sual and would purchase it with any thing that they can possibly part with But yet that I may a little moderate if not quite stifle this cry I must freely profess that I do apprehend too much of sensuality generally in it because this liberty is commonly abstracted from the proper end of it and desired meerly as a naturally convenient good and not under a right religious consideration Self-love is the very heart and centre of the animal life and doubtless this natural principle is as truly covetous of self-preservation and freedom from all inconveniences grievances and confinements as any Religious principle can be And therefore I may well allude to our Saviours words and say If you love and desire Mat. 5. 47. deliverance only under the notion of a natural good what do you more than others Do not even Publicans the same But were this divine principle rightly exercising its Soveraignty in the soul it would value all things and all estates and conditions only as they have a tendency to the advancement and nourishment of itself With what an ordinary not to say disdainfull eye would the Religious soul look upon the fairest self-accommodations in the world and be ready to say within itself What is a meer abstract deliverance from afflictions worth Wherein is a naked freedom from afflictions to be accounted of Will this make me a blessed man Was not profane and impudent Ham delivered from the deluge of Water as well as his brethren Were not the filthy shameless daughters of Lot delivered from the deluge of Fire as well as their Father And yet we are so far from rising up and calling these people blessed that the heart of every chast and modest Christian is ready to rise against the very mention of their names when he remembers how both the one and the other though in a different sense
instead of the infinite fulness of God Now there seem to be three things in a formal hypocrite that do especially force a kind of devotion and shew of religion from him viz. Conscience of guilt self-love and False apprehensions of God First There is in all men a natural conscience of guilt arising from that imperfect and glimmering light that they have of God and of their duty towards him which though it be in some men more quick and stinging in others more remiss and languid yet I think is not utterly choaked and extinguished no not in the worst and most disâ—olâ—â—e men but that it doth sometimes beget a bitter sadness in the midst of their sweetest merriments and doth disturb their most supine and secure rest by fastning its stings in their very souls at some time or other and filling them with agonies and anguish and haunting them with dreadful apparitions which they cannot be perfectly rid of no more than they can run away from themselves This foundation of hell is laid in the bowels of sin itself as a preface to eternal horrour Now although some more profligate and desperate wretches do â—uriously bluster through these briars yet others are so cought in them that they cannot escape these pangs and throws except they make a composition and enter into terms to live more honestly or at least less scandalously In which undertaking they are carryed on in the next place by the power of self-love or a natural desire of self-preservation For the worst of men hath so much Reason left him that he could wish that himself were happy though he have not so much light as to discover nor so much true freedom of will as to choose the right way of happiness Conscience having discovered the certain reward and wages of sin self-love will easily prompt men to do something or other to escape it But now what shall they do why Religion is the only expedient that can be found out and therefore they begin to think how they may become friends with God they will up and be doing But how come they to run into so great mistake about religion why their false and gross apprehensions of God do drive them from him in the way of superstition and â—ypocrisie instead of leading them in the way of sincere love and self-resignation to him Self being the great Diana of every natural man and the only standard by which he measures all things he knows not how to judge of God himself but by this and so he comes to fancy God in a dreadful manner as an austere passionate surly revengeful Majesty and so something must be done to appease him but yet he fancies this angry Deity to be of an impotent mercenaâ—y temper like himself and not hard to be appeaâ—ed neither and so imagines that some cheap services specious oblations external courtesies will engage him and make him a friend a sheep or a goat or a bullock under the old Testament a prayer or a Sacrament or an Almes under the new For it is reconciliation to an angry God that he aims at not union with a good God he seeks to be reconciled to God not united to him though indeed these two can never be divided Thus we see how a man void of the life and spirit of Religion yet forces himself to do God a kind of worship and pay him a kind of homage 2. Sometimes men may be said in a sense to be forced by other men to put on a vizard of holiness a dress of Religion And this constraint men may lay upon men by their tongues hands and eyes By their tongues in the business of education often and ardent exhortation and inculcation of things divine and heavenly and thus an unjust like the unjust Judge in the Gospel though he fear not God sincerely yet may be overcome by the importunity of his father friend minister tutor to do some righteous acts This seems to have been the case of Joash King of Judah the spring head of whose religion was no higher than the instructions of his tutor and guardian Jehojada the high-priest 2 King 12. 2. By their hands that is either by the enacting and executing of penal laws upon them or by the holy example which they continually â—et before them exempla trahunt By their eyes that is by continual observing and watching their behaviour when many eyes are upon men they must do something to satisfie expectations of others and purchase a reputation to themselves It may be said that sometimes God doth lay an external force upon men as particularly by his severe judgements or threatnings of judgements awakening them humbling them and constrâ—ining them to some kind of worship and religion Such a forc'd devotion as this was the humillation of Ahaâ— 1 King 21. and the supplication of Saul 1 Sam. 13. 11 12. For God himself acting upon men only from without them is far from producing a living principle of free and noble Religion in the Soul Now the better to discern this forc'd and violent Religion I will briefly describe it by three or four of its properties with which I will shut up this point 1. This forc'd Religion is for the most part dry and spiritless I know indeed thaâ— Fancy may be screw'd up to a high pitch of joy and frolickness so as to raise the mind into a kind of a rapture as I have formerly hinted in my discâ—orse upon these words A meer artificial and counterâ—â—it Christian may be so strongly acted by imagination and the power of self love that he may seem to himself to be fuller of God than the sober and constant soul You may see how the hypocritical phatisâ—â—â— swâ—llâ—â— with â—â—â—conceit gloryed over the poor man that had been blind but now saw more than all they Joh. 9. 34. Thou wast altogether born in sin and dost thou teach us and indeed over the whole people Joh. 7. 49. This people that knoweth not the law is cursed A counterfeit Christian may rise high as a Meteor and blaze much as a Comet which is yet drawn up by meer force from the surface of the earth or water And as to the external and visible acts and duties of Religion which depend much upon the temper and constitution of the body it may easily be conceived and accounted how the mimical and mechanical Christian may rise higher in these and be more zealous watchful and cheerful than many truly religious and godly men as having greater power and quickness of fancy and a greater number of animal spirits upon which the motions and actions of the body do mainly depend The animal spirits may so nimbly serve the soul in these corporal acts that the whole transaction may be a fair imitation of the motions of the divine spirit and one would verily think there were a gracious principle in the soul itself This seems to be notably exemplified in capâ—ain Jehu whose religious actions as he would fain have them
highest pitch of perfection unto which the New Creature is continually growing up which the Apostle Paul hath exprest with as much grand eloquence as words are able to magnifie if calling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ This is that unbounded Ocean which this living fountain by so many incessantissues and unwearied streamings perpetually endeavours to empty it self into or rather to embosom it self in Now what this is we must confess with the Apostle John and indeed we have more reason to make such a confession than he had that it doth not yet appear viz. neither fully nor distinctly But yet since I am thus cast upon the contemplation of it it will be a pertinent piece of pleasure a little to enquire into it and though it surpass the power and skill of all created comprehensions to take the just dimensions and faithfully give in the height and depth and length and breadth of it yet we may essay to walk about this heavenly Jerusalem as the Psalmist speaks of the earthly and tell the Towers thereof mark her Walls consider her Palaces that we may tell it to the generation following First Then we will consider Eternal Life in the most proper notion of it as it implies the essential happiness of the soul and so it is no other than the souls pure perfect and establisht state By a state I do designedly disparage that grosser notion of a place as that which scarce deserves to enter into the description of such a glory or at best will obtain but a very low room there By purity I do purposely explode that carnal ease rest immunity affluence of senfual delights accommodated only to the animal life which last the Mahumetans and the former too many profest Christians and the Jews almost generally do dream of and judge Heaven to be By perfection I do distinguish it from the best state which the best men upon earth can possibly be in So then I take Eternal Life in the primary and most proper notion of it to be full and perfect and everlasting enjoyment of God communion with him and a most blissful conformity of all the powers and faculties of the soul to that eternal goodness truth and love as far as it is or may become capable of the communications of the divinity This life was at the highest rate imaginable purchased by our ever blessed Lord and Saviour in the daies of his flesh and here in the Text promised to every believing soul Now in as much as we are ignorant both of the present capacity of our own faculties how large they are and much more ignorant how much more large and ample they may be made on purpose to receive the more rich and plentiful communications of the divine life and image therefore can we not comprehend neither the transcendent life happiness and glory nor that degree of sanctity and blessedness which the believing soul may be advanced unto in another world The Popish Schoolmen do nicely dispute about the sight of God and the love of God to wit in whether of these the formal blessedness of the soul consisteth ill separating those whom God hath so firmly joyned together as if it were possible that either a blind love or a jejune and unaffectionate speculation could render a soul entirely happy But it is much safer to say that the happiness and eternal life of the soul standeth in the possession or fruition of God and this doth necessarily import the proper perfection of every faculty Nothing can be the formal happiness of a spirit that is either iuferiour or extrinsecal to it it must be something divine and that wrought into the very nature and temper of it I doubt not to affirm that if the soul of man were possibly advanced so as to receive adoration or divine power yet if it were in the mean time void of divine dispositions and a god-like nature it were far from being glorified and made happy as to its capacity What health is to the body that is holiness to the soul which happily the Apostle alludes to when he speaks of the spirit of a sound mind 2 Tim. 1. 7. Secondly There is another notion of Eternal Life which some contend for by which they mean not barely the essential happiness of the soul but that with the addition of many suitable and glorious circumstances the essential happiness of the soul as it is attended with the appendixes of a glorified body the beholding of Christ the amicable society of Angels freedom from temptations the knowledge of the secrets of nature and providence and some such like To which may be also added though of a lower degree open absolution or a visible deliverance of the Saints out of the overthrow of the wicked at the conflagration of the world power over Devils eminence of place enjoyment of friends and some other like Now let us briefly consider what tendencies there are in the religious soul towards each of these And here I must crave leave to speak joyntly both of the End and of the Motion thereunto though it may be thought that the former only falls fairly under our present consideration First Then I suppose that Eternal Life in the first sense of it is intended here to wit the essential happiness of the soul or its perfect and everlasting enjoyment of God For the description is here made of Religion it self in the abstract or that principle of divine life which Christ Jesus implanteth in the soul and being so considered it is hard to conceive how that should spring up into any of these appendant circumstances or into any thing but the completion and perfection of it self though the religious soul taken in the concrete possibly may And indeed though we should allow which we shall take into consideration under the next head that many of those high scriptural phrases which are brought to describe the future condition of believing souls do principally respect the appendixes of its essential happiness as a Kingdom a house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens an inheritance reserved a place prepared and the like yet it seems very unnatural to interpret this phrase Life and Eternal Life any otherwise than of that which I call the essential happiness of the soul But if we interpret it of this the sense is very fair and easie thus this principle of divine life is continually endeavouring to grow up to its just altitude to advance it self unto a triumphant state even as all other principles of life do naturally tend towards a final accomplishment and ultimate perfection Carnal self or the animal life may be indeed said to be a well of water too poysonous water but that springs up into a sensual life popular applause self-accommodations or if you will in the Apostles phrase into the fulfilment of the lusts of the flesh This I speak only by way of illustratory opposition for to speak more
life into which true Religion daily springs up and will at length infallibly conduct the Christian soul unto This work thus undertaken and in a great measure then carryed on I have since perfected and do here present to the perusal of my dear Countrey having made it publick for no private end but if it might be to serve the interest of Gods glory in the world which I do verily reckon that I shall do if by his blessing I may be instrumental to undeceive any soul mistaken in so high and concerning a matter as Religion is or any way to awaken and quicken any Religious soul not sufficiently ravisht with the unspeakable glory nor cheerfully enough springing up into the full fruition of Eternal life What a certain and undefeatable tendency true Religion hath towards the eternal happiness and salvation of mens souls will I hope evidently appear out of the body of this small Treatise But that 's not all though indeed that were enough to commend it to any rational soul that is any whit free and ingenuous and is not so perfectly debauched as to utterly from right reason For it is also the sincerest pollicy imaginable and the most unerring expedient in the world for the uniting and establishing of a divided and tottering Kingdom or Common-wealth To demonstrate which was the very design of this Preface It is well known Oh that it were but as well and effectually believed that godliness is profitable to all things and that it 1 Tom. 4. 8. hath the promises and blessings of the life that now is and of that which is to come that the right seeking of the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness hath no less than all things Mat. 6. 33. annext to it How unmeasurable is the body and bulk of that blessedness to which all the comforts of this life are to be as an Appendix to a volume But men are apt to shuffle off generals therefore I will descend to instances and shew in a few Particulars what a mighty influence Religion in the power of it would certainly have for the political happiness and flourishing state of a Nation Wherein I doubt not but to make it appear that not Religion as some slanderously report but indeed the wâ—nt of it is the immediate trouhler of every Nation and individual society yea and soul too according to that golden saying of the holy Apostle From whence come Jam. 4. 1. wars and fightings Come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members Here let me desire one thing of the Reader and that is to bear in his mind all along where he finds the word Religion that I have principally a respect to the description given of it in the Text and that I mean thereby a divine principle implanted in the soul springing up into everlasting life And now I should briefly touch those faults both in governours towards their subjects subjects towards their governours and towards each other which do destroy the peacefull state and the sound and happy constitution of a body politick And indeed I fear it will run upon some inconvenience if not confusion to wave this method But out of a pure desire to avoid whatever may be interpretable to ill will curiosity presumption or any other bad disposition and that it may appear to any ingenuous eye that I am more desirous to bind up than to rake into sores I will expresly shew how Religion would heale the distempers of any Nation without taking any more than an implicite notice of the distempers themselves First Then it is undoubtedly true that Religion deeply radicated in the nature of Princes and governours would most effectually qualifie them for the most happy way of reigning Every body knows well enough what an excellent Eucrasie and lovely constitution the Jewish polity was in under the influences of holy David wise Solomon devout Hezekiah zealous Josiah and others of the same spirit so that I need not spend my self in that enquiry and so consequently not upon that argument Now there are many wayes by which it is easie to conceive that Religion would rectifie and well temper the spirits of Princes This principle will verily constitute the most noble heroical and royal soul in as much as it will not suffer men to find any unhallowed satisfaction in a divine authority but will be springing up into a Godlike nature as their greatest and most perfective glory It will certainly correct and limit the over-eager affectation of unweildy greatness and unbounded Dominion by teaching them that the most honourable victory in the world is self-conquest and that the propagation of the image and Kingdom of God in their own souls is infinitely preferrible to the advancement or enlargement of any temporal jurisdiction The same holy principle being the most genuine off-spring of divine Love and Benignity will also polish their rough and over-severe natures instruct them in the most sweet and obliging methods of government by assimulating them to the nature of God 1 Cor. 7. 22. 2 Cor. 3. 17. who is infinitely abhorrent from all appearance of oppression and hath most admirably provided that his servants should not be slaves by making his service perfect freedome The pure and impartial nature of God cannot endure superstitious flatterers or hypocritical professors and the Princes of the Earth that are regenerate into his Image will also estimate men according to God I mean according to his example who loves nothing but the communications of himself and according Lâ—v. 2. 11. to their participation of his Image which is only amiable and advanceable in the world What God rejected in his fire-offerings Religion will teach Princes to disgust in the devotions as they call them of their Courtiers I mean not only the leaven of superstitious pride and dogged morosity but also the honey of mercenary prostrations and fawning adulations In a word this Religious principle which makes God its pattern and end springs from him and is alwayes springing up into him would soveraignty heal the distempers of ruling by humour self-interest and arbitrariness and teach men to seek the good of the publick before self-gratifications For so God rules the world who however some men slander him I dare say hath made nothing the duty of his creature but what is really the good of it neither doth he give his people Laws on purpose that he might shew his Soveraignty in making them or his justice in punishing the breach of them much less doth he give them any such statutes as which himself would as willingly they broke as kept so he might but the penalty What I have briefly said concerning political governours the judicious Reader may view over again and apply to the Ecclesiastical For I do verily reckon that if the hearts of these men were in that right Religious temper and holy order which I have been speaking of it would plentifully contribute towards the happy and
their rest in them Neither is it the pursuing of any interest that will denominate them religious but the grand interest of their Souls 2. A godly Soul in his more inward and spiritual acts hath not his motive without him For a man may be somewhat more inward in his motions and yet as outward in his motives as the former Religions acts and gracious motions are not originally and primarily caused by some weights hung upon the Soul either by God or men neither by the worldly Blessings which God gives nor the heavy afflictions which he sends The Wings by which the godly Soul flies out towards God are not waxt to him as the Poets feign Icarus's to have been but they grow out of himself as the wings of an Eagle that flies swiftly towards Heaven On the other side a Soul may be press down unto humiliation under the heavy weight of Gods Judgements that has no mind to stoop no self-denying or self-debasing disposition in it Thus you may see Jehu flying upon the Wings of Ambition and Revenge born up by successes in his Government and his Predecessor Ahab bowing down mournfully under an heavy Sentence The Laws and Penalties and Encouragements and Observations of men do sometimes put a weight upon the Soul too but they beget a more sluggish uneven and unkindly motion in it You may expect that under this head I should speak something of Heaven and Hell and truly so I may very pertinently for I think they do belong to this place If you take Heaven properly for a sull and glorious union to God and fruition of him and Hell for an eternal separation and stragling from the Divinity and suppose that the love of God and the fear of living without him be well drunk into the Soul then verily these are pure and religious Principles But if we view them as things meerly without us and reserved for us and under those common carnal notions of delectableness and dreadfulness they are no higher nor better motives to us than the carnal Jews had in the Wilderness when they turned their Backs upon Egypt where they had been in bondage and set their Faces towards Canaan where they hoped to find Milk and Honey Peace Plenty and Liberty A Soul is not carried to Heaven as a Body is carried to the Grave upon mens Shoulders it is not born up by Props whether humane or divine nor carried to God in a Charior as a man is carried to see his Friend The holy fire of ardenâ— Love wherein the Soul of Elijah had been long carried up towards God was something more excellent and indeed more desirable than the Fiery Chariot by which his Body and Soul were translated together Religion is a spring of motion which God hath put into the Soul it self And aâ— all things that are external whether actions or motives are excluded in this Examination which we make of Religion So neither 2. Must we allow of every thing that is internal to be Religion And therefore 1. It is not a fit a start a sudden passion of the mind caused by the power and strength of some present Conviction in the Soul which in a hot mood will needs make out after God in all haste This may fitly be compared to the rash and rude motion of the Host of Israel who being chidden for their slothfulness over night rose up early in the morning and gat them up into the top of the Mountain saying Lo we be here and will go up unto the place which the Lord hath promised for we have sinned Numb 14. 40. And indeed it â—ares with these men oftentimes as it did with those both as to the undertaking and as to the success their motion is as sinful as their station and their success is answerable they are driven back and discomfited in their enterprize Nay though this passion might arise so high as to be called an extasie or a rapture yet it deserves not the name of Religion For Religion is as one speaks elegantly like the natural heaâ— that is radicated in the hearts of living Creatures which hath the dominion of the whole body and sends forth warm Blood and Spirits and vital nourishment into every part and Member it regulateâ— and orders the motions of it in a due and even manner But these extatical Soulâ— though they may blaze like a Comet and swell like a torrent or land-flood for a time and shoot forth fresh and high for a little season are soon extinguished emptied and dried up because they have not a Principle a stock to spend upon or as our Saviour speaks no root in themselves These mens motions and actions bear no more proportion to Religion than a Land-flood that swells high and runs swiftly but it is only during the rain or in the Scripture-phrase no more than a morning-dew that soon passes away Hos 6. 4. is like a Well or Fountain of Water 2. If Religion be a Principle a new Nature in the Soul then it is not a meeâ— Mechanismâ— â— piece of Art Art imitates Nature nothing more ordinary I doubt than for Religion it self that new Nature to go into an Art I need not tell you how all the external acts and shootings forth of Religion may be dissembled and imitated by Art and be acted over by a mimical apish Pharisâ—â— who finds nothing at all of the gentle and mighty heaâ— not the divine and noble life of it in his own Soul whereby he may fairly deceive the creduâ—ous World as I have partly hinted already But it is possible I wish it be not common for men that are somewhat more convinced enlightened and affected to imitate the very power and spirit of Religion and to deceive themselves too as if they possest some true living Principle and herein they exceed the most exquisite Painters Now this may be done by the power of a quick and raised Fancy men hearing such glorious things spoken of Heaven the City of the great King the New Jerusalem may be carried out by the power of self-Love to wish themselves there being mightily taken with a conceit of the place But how shall they come at it Why they have seen in Books and heard in discourses of certain signs of Grace and evidences of Salvation and now they set their fancies on work to find or make some such things in themselves Fancy is well acquainted with the several Affections of Love Fear Joy Grief which are in the Soul and having a great command over the animal Spirits it can send them forth to raise up these Affections even almost when it listeth and when it hath raised them it is but putting to some thoughts of God and Heaven and then these look like a handsome platform of true Religion drawn in the Soul which they presently view and fall in love with and think they do even taste of the powers of the world to come when indeed it is nothing but a self-fulness and sufficiency
meditation reading administration of our callings as the Apostle intimates in the body of that forequoted Epistle But perhaps there will a question arise concerning some other things which may seem to lay a constraint upon the spirits of men I deny not but that the seemingly religious motions of many men are meerly violent and their devotion is purely forc'd as we shall see by and by but I affirm and I think have confirmed it that true and sincere Religion is perfectly free and unconstrain'd This being premised now if you ask me what I think of afflictions I confess God doth ordinarily use them as means to make good men better and it may be sometimes to make bad men good these may be as weights to hasten and speed the Souls motions towards God but they do not principally beget such motions If you ask me of temporal prosperity commonly called mercies and blessings of promises and Rewards propounded I confess they may be as oyle to the wheels and ought to quicken and encourage to the study of true and powerful godliness but they are not the spring of the souls motions they ought to be unto us as dew upon the grass to refresh and fructifie the Soul but it is the root which properly gives life and growth Secondly It may be granted that there is a kind of constraint and necessity lying upon the godly Soul in its holy and most excellent motions according to that of the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 14. The love of Christ constraineth us and again 1 Cor. 9. 16. Necessity is laid upon me to preach the Gospel But yet it holds good that grace is a most free principle in the Soul and that where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty For the constraint that the Apostle speaks of is not opposed to freedom of Soul but to not acting Now although the Soul so principled and spirited cannot but act yet it acts freely Those things that are according to nature though they be done necessarily yet are they done with the greatest freedom imaginable The water flows and the fire burns necessarily yet freely Religion is a new nature in the soul and the religious Soul being toucht effectually wiâ—h the sense and imprest with the influences of divine goodness fulness and perfection is carryed indeed necessarily towards God as its proper centre and yet its motions are pure free generous and with the greatest delight and pleasure conceivable The necessity that lay upon Paul to preach the Gospel is not to be understood of any external violence that was done to him much less of â—odily necessity by reason of which many men serve their own bellyes in that great function more than the Lord Jesus for though he preacht the Gospel necessarily yet did he preach freely and willingly as he oft professeth The godly Soul cannot but love God as his chiefest good yet he delights in this necessity under which he lyeth and is exceeding glad that he finds his heart framed and enlarged to love him I say enlarged because God is such an object as do's not contract and pinch and straiten the soul as all created object do but ennoble ampliate and enlarge it The sinful soul the more it lets out and lays out and spends itself upon the creature the more it is straitned and contracted and the native freedom of it is enslaved debased and destroyed but grace do's establish and ennoble the freedom of the Soul and restore it to iâ—s primitive perfection so that a godly soul is never more large more at rest more at I berty thâ—â— when it finds itself delivered from all self confining creature-loves and lusts and under the most powerful influences and constraint of infinite love and goodness By this that hath been said of the free and generous spirit of true Religion we may learn what to think of the forc'd devotion of many prest Souldiers of Christ in his Church militant that there is a vast difference and distance between the prest and the imprest Christian Though indeed the freedom of the will cannot be destroyed yet in opposition to a principle many mens devotion may be said to be wrung out of them and their obedience may be said to be constraiâ—ed I shall explain it briefly in two or three particulars 1. Men force themselves many times to some things in Religion that are besides yea and against their nature and genius I need not instance in an overly conformity to the letter of the law and some external duties which they force themselves to perform as to hear pray give almes or the like in all which the violent and unnatural obedience of a pharisee may be more popular and specious than the true and genuine obedience of a free-born disciple of Jesus Christ If going on hunting and catching of Venison might denominate a good and dutiful Son Esau may indeed be as acceptable to his father as Jacob but God is not such a father as Isaac whose affections were bribed with fat morsels he feeds not upon the pains of his children nor drink the sweat of their browâ— I doubt not but that an unprincipled Christian that hath the heart of a slave may also force himself to imitate the more spiritual part of Religion and as it were to act over the very temper and disposition of a son of God Therefore we read of a semblance of joy and zeal which was found in some whom yet our Saviour reckons no better than stony ground Mark 4. 16. and of great exâ—asies in some whom yet the Apostle supposes may come to nothing Heb. 6. 5. and what appearance of the most excellent and divine graces of patience and contempt of the world many of the sowrer sort of Monastical Papists and our mâ—ngrel breed of Papists the Quakers do make at this day all men know nay some of these last sort do seem to themselves I believe to act over the temper and experiences of the chiefest Apostles rejoycing with Peter and the rest that they are counted worthy to suffer shame Act. 5. 41. and keeping a catalogue of their stripes with Paul 2 Cor. 11. 24. and in these things I am confident to use the Apostles words that they think themselves not a whit behind the very chiefest Apostles nay they are not ashamed to lay claim to that grace of graces self-denyal which they have forced themselves to act over so artificially that even a wise man might almost be deceived into a favourable opinion of them but that we know that whilest they profess it they destroy it for it is contrary to the nature of self-denyal to magnifie and boast itself And indeed it is very evident to a wise observer that these men by a pretence of voluntary humility and counterfeit self-denyal do in truth endeavour most of all to establish their own righteousness and erect an idol of self-supremacy in themselves and do really fall in love with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or self-sufficiency
drink all this while he lives not to himself but serves an higher interest than that of the flesh and a higher good than himself or any created Being A true Christian actively doth not only appear in those things which call duties of Worship or religious performances but in the whole frame of the heart contriving and the conversation expressing and unfolding the glory of God A holy serious heavenly humble sober righteous and self-denying course of life do's most excellently express the divine glory by imitating the nature of God and most effectually call all men to the imitation of it according as our Saviour hath nakedly stated the case Joh. 15. 8. Hereby is my Father glorified that ye bring forth much fruit By which fruits are not to be understood only preaching praying conference which are indeed high and excellent duties but also righteousness temperance self-denial which things are pure reflections of the divine image and a real glorifying of God's Name and perfections A good Christian cannot be content to be happy alone to be still drawing down Heaven into his own soul but he endeavours also both by prayer counsel and holy example to draw up the souls of other men Heaven-ward This God witnesseth of Abraham Gen. 18. 19. I know him that he will command his children and his houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord And this Moses doth excelently witness of himself in that holy â—apture of his Numb 11. 29. Would God that all the Lord's people were Prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them By such examples as these a good man desires to live yea by higher presidents than either Abraham or Moses even by the example of the Father and of the Son He admires and strives to imitate that character which is given of God himself Psal 119. 68. Thou art good and dost good and that which is given of Christ Jesus the Lord of life Act. 10. 38. Who went about doing good who also witnessed elsewhere concerning himself that he came not into the world to do his own will nor seek his own glory but the will and glory of him that sent him And again Luk. 2. 49. Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business Oh how happy would the godly soul count it self if it could but live and converse in the world at the same rate and with the same devout fervent exalted spirit as Christ Jesus did whose meat and drink it was still to be doing the will and advancing the glory of his Father But alas the poor soul finds it self ensnared by passions and selfish affections from within clogg'd with an unweildy body and distracted with secular affairs from without that it cannot rise so nimbly run so swiftly nor serve the infinite and glorious God so chearfully nor liberally as it would and therefore the poor prisoner sigbs within it self and wishes that it might escape But finding a certain time determined upon it in the body which it must be content to live out it looks up and is ready to envy the Angels of God because it cannot live as they do who are alwaies upon God's errand and almost thinks much that it self is not a Ministring Spirit serving the pure and perfect will of the supreme good without grudging or ceasing The godly soul under these powerful apprehensions of the nature of God the example of Christ and the honourable office of the holy Angels is ready to grudge the body that attendance that it calls for and those offices which it is forc't to perform to it as judging them impertinent to its main happiness and most excellent employment it is ready to envy that more chearful and willing service which it finds from the heavy and drossy body with which it is united and to cry out Oh that I were that to my God which my body my eyes hands and feet are to me For I say to one of these go and he goeth and to another do this and he doeth it In a word a good man being acquainted feelingly with the highest good eying diligently the great end of his coming into the world and his short time of being in iâ— serves the Eternal and Blessed God lives upon eternal designs and by consecrating all his actions unto God gives a kind of an immortality to them which are in themselves sâ—tting and transient He counts it a reproâ—ch to any man much more to a godly man to do any thing insignificantly much more to live iâ—percinently and he reckons all things that have not a tendency to the highest good and a subserviency to the great and last end to be impertinencies yea and absurdities in an immortal soul which should continually be springing up into everlasting life 3. The active and vigorous nature of true Religion manifests it self in those powerful and incessant longings after God with which it fills that soul in which it is planted This I superadd to the two former because the godly man though he be formed into some likeness to God yet desires to be more like him and though he be somewhat serviceable to him yet desires to be more instrumental to his will though he be good yet desires to be better and though he do good yet he desires to do better or at least more And indeed I reckon that these sincere and holy hungrings after God which I am going to speak of are one of the best signs that I know in the world of spiritual health and the best 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a true Christian For in this low and animal state we are better acquainted with lovings and languishings than with fruition or satisfaction and the best enjoyment that we have of God in this world is but scant and short indeed but a kind of a longing to enjoy him Love is certainly a high and noble affection but alas our love whilst we are here in the body is in its non-age in its weak and sickly state rather a longing than a loving much unlike to what it will be when it shall be grown up unto its perfect stature in glory But this sickly kind of languishing affection is a certain symptom of a healthful constitution or as the Apostle calls it of the spirit of a sound mind Godly souls are thirsty souls alwaies gasping after the living springs of divine grace even as the parched Desart gapeth for the dew of Heaven the early and the later rain One would wonder what kind of Magick there was in Elijahs mantle that the very casting of it upon Elisha should make him leave Oxen and Plough yea Father and Mother and all to run after a stranger Elijah himself seems to wonder at it 1 King 19. 20. What have I done to thee oh but what a mighty charâ— is there in divine love which when it is once shew abroad in the soul makes the soul to spread itself in it and to it as the heliotrope attending the motions