also is in our power This is the importance of those words Let us search and try our ways and turn unto the Lord. And this is a great Fundamental the very Pillar of the Law and Precept according to what is written Deuter. 30. See I have set before thee this day life and death good and evil Thus we see Maimonides who was well vers'd in the ancientest Jewish learning and in high esteem among all the Jews is pleased to reckon this as a main Principle and Foundation upon which that Law stood as indeed it must needs be if Life and Perfection might be acquired by virtue of those Legal precepts which had only an External administration being set before their External Senses and promulged to their Eares as the Statute-laws of any other Common-wealth use to be Which was the very notion that they themselves had of these Laws And therefore in Breshith Rabba a very ancient Writing the Jewish Doctors taking notice of that passage in the Canticles Let him kiss m with the kisses of his mouth they thus gloss upon it At the time of the giving of the Law the Congregation of Israel desired that Moses might speak to them they being not able to heare the words of God himself and while he spake they heard and hearing forgat and thereupon moved this debate among themselves What is this Moses a man of flesh and blood and what is his law that we so soon learn and so soon forget it O that God would kiss us with the kisses of his mouth that is in their sense that God would teach them in a more vital and internal way And then as they goe on Moses makes this answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That this could not be then But it should so come to pass in the time to come in the daies of the Messiah when the Law should be written in their hearts as it is said Jer. 31. I will write it in their hearts By this we may see how necessarie it was for the Jews that they might be consistent to their grand Principle of obtaining Life and Perfection by this dead letter and a thing merely without themselves as not being radicated in the vital powers of their own Souls to establish such a power of Free-will as might be able uncontrollably to entertain it and so readily by its own Strength perform all the dictates of it And that Maimonides was not the first of the Jewish writers who expound that passage Gen. 3. Behold man is become like one of us to know good and evil of Free-will may appear from the several Chaldee Paraphrasts upon it which seem very much to intimate that Sense Which by the way though I cannot allow all that which the Jews deduce from it I think is not without something of Truth viz. That that Liberty which is founded in Reason and which Mankind only in this lower world hath above other Creatures may be there also meant But whatever it is I am sure the Jewish Commentators upon that place generally follow the rigid sense of Maimonides To this purpose R. Bechai a man of no small learning both in the Talmudick and Cabalistical doctrine of the Jews tells us That upon Adam's first transgression that grand Liberty of Indifferency equally to Good or Evil began first to discover it self whereas before that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all Intellect and wholy Spiritual as that common Cabalistical Notion was being from within only determined to that which was Good But I shall at large relate his words because of their pertinency and usefulness in the Matter now in hand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Adam before his sin acted from a necessity of Nature and all his actions were nothing else but the issues of pure and perfect Understanding Even as the Angels of God being nothing else but Intelligences put forth nothing else but acts of intelligence just so was Man before he sinned and did eat of the Tree of Knowledg of good and evil But after this transgression he had the power of Election and Free-will whereby he was able to will good or evil And a little after glossing on those words Gen. 3. 7. And the eyes of them both were opened he addeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They derived the power of Free-will from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil And now they became endued with this power of determining themselves to Good or Evil and this Property is divine and in some respect a good Property So that according to the mind of our Author the First original pedigree of Free-will is to be derived not so much from the Aera of Creation as from that after Epocha of Mans transgression or Eating of the forbidden fruit so that the Indifferency of mans Will to Good or Evil and a Power to determine himself freely to either did then first of all unfold it self whereas before he conversed like a pure Intelligence with its First cause without any propension at all to Material things being determined like a proper natural Agent solely to that which is good and these Propensions arising upon the First transgression to Material things which they supposed to be in mens power either so to correct and castigate as to prevent any sin in them or else to pursue in a way of vice are if not the Form and Essence yet at least the Original and Root of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they speak so much of But of this in another place All this we have further confirmed out of Nachmanides an Author sufficiently versed in all Matters concerning the Jewish Religion His words are these in his Comment upon Deut. 30. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From the time of the Creation Man had a power of Free-Will within him to do Good or Evil according to his own choice as also through the whole time of the Law that so he might be capable of Merit in freely chusing what is Good and of Punishment in electing what is Evil. Wherein that he tells us that this Free-will hath continued ever since the Creation we must not understand rigidly the very moment of mans Creation but that Epocha taken with some latitude so that it may include the time of mans First transgression for he after suggests thus much That before the First Sin Adam's power to Good was a mere Natural power without any such Indifferency to Evil and therefore he makes that State of Adam the Model and platform of future perfection which the most ancient Jewish Authors seem to expect in the time of their Messiah which he expresseth in this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall not covet nor desire after a Sensitive manner but Man shall return in the times of the Messiah to that Primitive State he was in before the sin of the First man who naturally did whatsoever was good neither was there any thing and its contrary then in his choice Upon which Ground he afterwards
concludes That in those times of the Messiah there shall neither be Merit nor Demerit because there shall be no Free-will which is the alone Mother and Nurse of both of them But in the mean while That Good or Evil are to men that I may phrase it in the language of the Stoick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 none prejudicing or in the least degree hindering the exercise of this Liberty neither from within nor from without none either in Heaven or in Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And thus the same Nachmanides expounds that solemn Attestation Deut. 30. 19. wherein Heaven and Earth are called to witness That that day Life and Death were set before them as if God himself had now established such a Monarchical power in man which Heaven and Earth should be in league withall and faithfull to Hereupon R. Saadia Gaon so call'd by way of Eminency doubts not to tell us that the common sense of all the Jewish Doctors was That this Liberty to good or evil was such an Absolute kind of authority established in a mans soul that it was in a sort Independent upon God himself this being as he saith in the book call'd Sepher emunah the meaning of that old and vulgar Maxime amongst the Jews sometimes mentioned in the Talmud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Omnia sunt in manu Coeli i. Dei excepto timore Dei I am not ignorant there is another Axiome of the Jews as common which may seem partly to cross this and what hitherto hath been spoken viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the meaning of which is this That assistence is perpetually afforded to all endeavours both of Sanctity and Impiety But Maimonides hath somewhere told us and as I remember in his Sepher Hamedang how they mince the matter and mean nothing else by it but this That when men endeavour after the performance of the Law God in a way of providence furnisheth them with External matter and means giving them peace and riches and other outward accommodations whereby they might have advantage and opportunity to perform all that good which their own Free-will determines them to whereas Wicked men find the like help of External matter and means for promoting and accomplishing their wicked and ungodly designes Thus we see how the Jews that they might lay a Foundation of Merit and build up the stately and magnificent fabrick of their Happiness upon the sandy Foundation of a dead Letter without them endeavour to strengthen it by as weak a Rampart of their own Self-sufficiency and the Power of their own Free-will able as they vainly imagined to perform all Righteousness as being adequate and commensurate to the whole Law of God in its most Extensive and Comprehensive sense and meaning rather looking upon the Fall of man as the Rise of that Giant-like Free-will whereby they were enabled to bear up themselves against Heaven it self as being a great Accessory to their happiness rather then prejudicial to it through the access of that multitude of divine Laws which were given to them as we shall see afterwards And so they reckoned upon a more Triumphant and Illustrious kind of Happiness victoriously to be atchieved by the Merit of their own works then that Beggerly kind of Happiness as they seem to look upon it which cometh like an Alms from Divine bounty Accordingly they affirm That Happiness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of Reward is farr greater and much more magnificent then that which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of Mercy CHAP. III. The Second ground of the Jewish Notion of a Legal Righteousness viz. That the Law deliver'd to them on Mount Sinai was a sufficient Dispensation from God and all that needed to be done by him to bring them to Perfection and Happiness and That the Scope of their Law was nothing but to afford them several ways and means of Merit The Opinion of the Jewish Writers concerning Merit and the Reward due to the Works of the Law Their distinguishing of men in order to Merit and Demerit into three sorts viz. Perfectly righteous Perfectly wicked and a Middle sort betwixt these The Mercenary and Low Spirit of the Jewish Religion An account of what the Cabbalists held in this Point of Legal Righteousness THE Second Ground of that Jewish Notion of a Legal Righteousness is this That the Law delivered to them upon Mount Sinai was a sufficient Dispensation from God and all that needed to be done by him for the advancing of them to a State of Perfection and Blessedness and That the proper Scope and End of their Law was nothing but to afford them several waies and means of Merit Which is expresly delivered in the Mishnah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The meaning whereof is this That therefore the precepts of the Law were so many in number that so they might single out where they pleased and in exercising themselves therein procure Eternal life as Obadias de Bartenora expounds it That whosoever shall perform any one of the 613 Precepts of the Law for so many they make in number without any worldly respects for love of the Precept 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 behold this man shall merit thereby everlasting life For indeed they supposed a Reward due to the performance of every Precept which Reward they supposed to be encreased according to the secret estimation which God himself hath of any Precept as we find suggested in the Mishnah in the Book Pirke avoth in the words of the famous R. Jehuda 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be carefull to observe the lesser Precept as well as the greater because thou knowest not the Reward that shall be given to the observation of the Precepts Here we must take notice that this was a great debate among the Jews which Precepts they were that had the greatest Reward due to the performance of them in which controversie Maimonides in his Comment upon this place thus resolves us That the measure of the Reward that was annex'd to the Negative Precepts might be collected from the measure of the Punishments that were consequent upon the breach of them But this knot could not be so well solved in reference to the Affirmative Precepts because the Punishments annex'd to the breach of them were more rarely defined in the Law accordingly he expresseth himself to this sense As for the Affirmative Precepts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not express'd what Reward is due to every one of them and all for this end that we may not know which Precept is most necessary to be observed and which Precept is of less necessity and importance And a little after he tells us that for this reason their Wise men said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Qui operam dat praecepto liber est à praecepto which he expounds to this sense That whosoever shall exercise himself about any one Precept ought without haesitation or dispute to continue in the performance of it as being in the mean while
Worse then Sin it self for which we should hate it Our assimilation to God and conformity to him instates us in a firm possession of true Happiness which is nothing else but God himself who is all Being and Blessedness and our dissimilitude to God and Apostasy from him involves us in our own Miserie and sets us at the greatest enmity to what our unsatiable desires most of all crave for which is the enjoyment of True and Satisfying Good Sins are those fiery Snakes which will eternally lash and torment all damned spirits Every mans Hell arises from the bottom of his own Soul as those stinking Mists and tempestuous Exhalations that infest the Earth have their first original from the Earth it self Those streams of fire and brimstone ordained for the torment of all damned spirits are rather the exsudations of their own filthy and corrupt nature then any external thing Hell is not so much induced as educed out of mens filthy Lusts and Passions I will not here dispute what external Appendixes there may be of Heaven or Hell but methinks I no where find a more Graphical description of the true Properties and Operations of them though under other names then in those Characters of the Flesh and Spirit in Galat. 5. ver 19 20 21 22 23. Eternal death is begotten and brought forth out of the wombe of lust and is little else but Sin consummated and in its full growth as S. James intimates chap. 1. Would wicked men dwell a little more at home and descend into the bottome of their own Hearts they should soon find Hell opening her mouth wide upon them and those secret fires of inward fury and displeasure breaking out upon them which might fully inform them of the estate of true Misery as being a short anticipation of it But in this life wicked men for the most part elude their own Misery for a time and seek to avoid the dreadfull sentence of their own Consciences by a tergiversation and flying from themselves into a converse with other things Ut nemo in sese tentat descendere else they would soon find their own home too hot for them But while mens Minds are perpetually rambling all the world over in a pursuit of worldly designes they are unacquainted with the affairs of their own Souls and know not how deeply a Self-converse and reflection upon their own prodigious deformities would pierce their Souls with anguish how vastly would they swell with Fury Rage Horrour Consternation and whatsoever is contrary to that ineffable Light and Love and Peace which is in Heaven in natures fully reconciled and united to true Goodness As true Goodness cannot borrow Beauty from any external thing to recommend it self to the Minds and Affections of Good men seeing it self is the very Idea and true life of all Beauty and Perfection the source of Bliss and Peace to all that partake of her so neither can Sin and Wickedness to an enlightned Soul appear more Ugly loathsome and hatefull in any other shape then its own CHAP. IV. The Second Observable viz. The Warfare of a Christian life True Religion consists not in a mere passive capacity and sluggish kind of doing nothing nor in a melancholy sitting still or slothfull waiting c. but it consists in inward life and power vigour and activity A discovery of the dulness and erroneousness of that Hypothesis viz. That Good men are wholy Passive and unable at any time to move without some External impetus some impression and impulse from without upon them or That all Motions in Religion are from an External Principle Of the Quality and Nature of the true Spiritual Warfare and of the Manner and Method of it That it is transacted upon the inner Stage of mens Souls and managed without Noise or pompous Observation and without any hindrance or prejudice to the most peaceful sedate and composed temper of a religious Soul This further illustrated from the consideration of the false and pretended Zeal for God and his Kingdome against the Devil which though it be impetuous and makes a great noise and a fair shew in the world is yet both impotent and ineffectual FRom these words Resist the Devil we may take notice of the Warfare of a Christian life of that Active life and valour which Good men express in this world A true Christian spirit is masculine and generous it is no such poor sluggish pusillanimous thing as some men fansie it to be but active and noble We fight not saith the Apostle against flesh and bloud but against principalities and powers and spiritual wickednesses in high places True Religion does not consist in a mere Passive capacity in a sluggish kind of doing nothing that so God himself might doe all but it consists in life power within therefore it is called by the Apostle The spirit of power of love of a sound mind it 's called the law of the spirit of life strongly enabling Good men against the law of Sin and Death True Wisdome as the Wise man hath well stiled it is the unspotted mirrour of the power of God and a pure influence flowing from the glory of the Almighty neither can any defiled thing enter into it it goes in and out in the strength of God himself and as is the heavenly such are they also that are heavenly Every thing as it partakes more of God and comes nearer to him so it becomes more active and lively as making the nearer approaches to the Fountain of life and virtue A Good man doth not only then move when there is some powerfull impression and impulse upon him but he hath a Spring of perpetual motion within When God restores men to a new and divine life he doth not make them like so many dead Instruments stringing and fitting them which yet are able to yield no sound of themselves but he puts a living Harmony within them That is but a Mechanical religion which moves no longer then some External weights and Impulses are upon it whether those be I think I may safely say from some Worldly thing or from God himself while he acts upon men from without them and not from within them It is not a Melancholy kind of sitting still and sloathfull waiting that speaks men enlivened by the Spirit and power of God It is not Religion to stifle and smother those Active powers and principles which are within us or to dry up the Fountain of inward life and virtue How say some amongst us That there is no resurrection from the dead no spirit or life within but all our motions in Religion are merely from some assisting Form without Good men do not walk up and down the world merely like Ghosts and Shadows or like dead Bodies assumed by some Spirit which are taken up and laid down again by him at his pleasure But they are indeed living men by a real participation from him who is indeed a quickning Spirit Were our Religion
them except they wilfully and shamefully deliver over their strength into the Enemies hand It is indeed nothing else but Hell it self in the Souls of men that gives the Devil such free entertainment there the Wills of men stamped with a Diabolicall form and bearing the Devil's image and inscription upon them declare his right over them Men are therefore so much captivated by him because they voluntarily take his yoke upon them Could we or would we resist Sin and Satan they could not hurt us Every thing is weak and impotent according to the distance it stands from God who is the onely Fountain of life and power and therefore it was well resolved by the Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sin in it self is a weak and impotent thing and proceeds from weakness it consists not properly in any native power and strength which it hath within it self but in an impotency and privation of all true Being and Perfection and therefore wheresoever any thing of God appears it will destroy it He that is born of God shall overcome the World the Devil and Sin for the seed of God remaineth in him Let us endeavour to get our Minds enlightned with Divine Truth clear and Practical Truth let us earnestly endeavour after a true participation of the divine nature and then shall we find Hell and Death to slee alway before us Let us not impute the fruits of our own sluggishness to the power of the Evil spirit without or to God's neglecting of us Say not Who shall stand against those mighty Giants No arme thy self with the mind of Christ a fixt resolution to serve the will and pleasure of the Almighty and then fear not what Sin and Hell can doe against thee Open thy windows thou Sluggard and let in the beams of Divine light that are there waiting upon thee till thou awake out of thy Slothfulness then shalt thou find the shadows of the night dispell'd and scattered and the warm beams of Light and Love enfolding of thee which the higher they arise upon the Horizon of thy Soul the more fully they will display their native strength and beauty upon thee transforming thee more more from darkness to light from the similitude of Satan into a participation of the Divine image The Devil is not to be kept off from us by setting any Spell about us or driven away from us by any Magical charms We need not goe and beat the air to drive away those Evil spirits from about us as Herodotus reports the Caunians once to have beaten out the strange Gods from amongst them but let us turn within our selves and beat down that Pride and Passion those Holds of Satan there which are therefore strong because we oppose them weakly Sin is nothing else but a degeneration from true Goodness conceived by a dark and cloudy Understanding and brought forth by a corrupt Will it hath no consistency in it self or foundation of its own to support it What the Jews have observed of Errour is true of all Sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mendacium non habet pedes it hath no feet no Basis of its own to subsist and rest it self upon Let us withdraw our Will and Affections from it and it will soon fall into nothing It was the fond Errour of the Manichees That there was some solid Principium mali which having an Eternal existence of its own had also a mighty and uncontrollable power from within it self whereby it could forcibly enter and penetrate into the Souls of men and seating it self there by some hidden influences irresistablie incline and inforce them to evil which Errour I wish were as well confuted by the lives and practices of men as it hath been by the Writings both of Fathers and Philosophers But it 's too apparent that men maintain that Lie by a compliance with the Diabolical powers We ourselves uphold that kingdome of darkness which else would tumble down and slide into that nothing from whence it came All Truth and Goodness are of an Eternal nature they are One and Unchangeable subsisting upon the strength of Omnipotency But all Sin and Vice is our own creature we onely give life to them which indeed are our death and would soon wither and fade away did we substract our concurrence from them Secondly We have a further Ground for our expectation of Victory in all contests with Sin and Satan from the powerful assistance of God himself who is never wanting to those that seek after him and never fails those that engage in his quarrels While we strive against Sin we may safely expect that the Divinity it self will strive with us and derive that strength and power into us that shall at last make us more then Conquerors God hath not forsaken the earth but as his Almightyessence runs through all things sustaining and upholding the frame of the whole Universe so more especially does it bear up in its Almighty armes those things that are more nearly related to himself always cherishing them with his own Goodness Wheresoever God beholds any breathings after himself he gives life to them as those which are his own breath in them As he who projects wickedness shall be sure to find Satan standing at his right hand ready to assist him in it so he that pursues after God and Holiness shall find God nearer to him then he is to himself in the free and liberal communications of himself to him He that goes out in God's battels fighting under our Saviour's banner may look upwards and opening his eyes may see the mountains full of horses and chariots of fire round about him God hath not so much delight in the death and destruction of men as to see them strugling and contending for life and himself stand by as a looker on No but with the most tender and fatherly compassions his bowels yern over them and his Almighty arme is stretched forth for them and in his strength they shall prevail they shall be born up as upon Eagles wings they shall walk in the might of his strength who is able to save and not faint Where there is any serious and sober Resolution against Sin any reall motion towards God there is the blessing of Heaven in it he that planted it will also water it and make it to bud and blossome and bring forth fruit Wherefore to shut up this Discourse by way of Application Let us make use of this as a further Argument to enforce the Apostles Exhortation upon our selves Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might and as the Psalmist speaks of his Enemies so let us say of our spiritual Enemies They compass me about they compass me in on every side but in the name of the Lord I will destroy them Let us set our selves with all our might to mortify the old man to crucify all the affections of the Flesh Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily
Select Discourses TREATING 1. Of the true Way or Method of attaining to Divine Knowledge 2. Of Superstition 3. Of Atheism 4. Of the Immortality of the Soul 5. Of the Existence and Nature of God 6. Of Prophecy 7. Of the Difference between the Legal and the Evangelical Righteousness the Old and the New Covenant c. 8. Of the Shortness and Vanity of a Pharisaick Righteousness 9. Of the Excellency and Nobleness of True Religion 10. Of a Christians Conflicts with and Conquests over Satan By JOHN SMITH late Fellow of Queen's College in Cambridge As also a SERMON preached by SIMON PATRICK then Fellow of the same College at the AUTHOR's FUNERAL WITH A brief Account of his LIFE and DEATH Hebrews 11. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed by J. Flesher for W. Morden Bookseller in Cambridg Anno Domini M DC LX. To the READER THE intendment of this Preface is not to court the Reader into an high esteem of either these Discourses or their Author the Discourses will best speak what they are and for the Author his own Works will praise him but only to give a clear and plain Account of what concerns This Edition and withall to observe Something concerning the Discourses themselves and the Author of them not unnecessary perhaps for the Reader to be acquainted with The Papers now published I received from the Author's Executor Mr. Samuel Cradock then Fellow of Emmanuel College now Rector of North-Cadbury in Somerset-shire whose Beneficence to the publick in imparting these Treasures I thought worthy to be here in the first place gratefully remembred Having taken a more general view of these and some other Papers divers of which were loose and scattered not being written by the Author in any Book my First care was to collect such as were Homogeneal and related to the same Discourse as also to observe where any new additional Matter was to be inserted For the Author whose Mind was a rich fruitful soil a bountiful ever-bubling Fountain sometimes would superadde upon further thoughts some other Considerations to what he had formerly delivered in publick and this he would doe sometimes after he had gone off from that Argument and though Matter of a different nature had come between This emploiment I found at first sufficiently perplex'd and toilsome but through more then once reading over the Manuscripts I got through those difficulties and dispatch'd that First trouble And I am well assured that the severed Parts and also the additional Considerations are brought to their due and proper places where the Author himself would have disposed them if he had transcribed his Papers And now I found that I stood in need of more Hands and Eyes then mine own for the fair transcribing of the Papers otherwise impossible to be printed as also for the examining of the material Quotations in this Volume and in this Labour I had the assistance of some Friends to whom the memory of the Author was very pretious As for some short Allusions and Expressions borrow'd out of ancient Authors serving rather for Ornament then Support of the Matter in hand there seem'd to be less need of being sollicitous about all of them But for the other Testimonies which are many and weighty there were but Few some possibly among such a number of Quotations might escape that were not examin'd and I am sure that this labour was not unnecessary and in vain how wearisome soever it was especially where the Authors or the places in the Authors were not mention'd And then for the sake of such Readers whose Education had not acquainted them with some of the Languages wherein many of the Testimonies were represented being otherwise men of good accomplishments and capable to receive the designed benefit of these Papers it seemed expedient to render the Latine but especially the Hebrew and Greek Quotations into English except in such places where the substance and main importance of the Quotations being insinuated in the neighbouring words a Translation was less needful For the Author seldom translated the Hebrew and more seldom the Greek but into Latine as considering that he delivered these Discourses in the College-Chappel before an Auditory not needing any such Condescensions as are requisite in the publishing of these Papers for the benefit of some Readers To dispatch this First part of the Preface which concerns the Preparations to this Edition I shall add only one thing more That whereas the Papers now published especially those that contain'd the Six first Discourses were written in the Author 's own Copy without any Distinction or Sections uno tenore continuâ serie as the Jews observe of the ancient writing of the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The whole Law was but as one Verse it seem'd expedient for the Reader 's accomodation to distinguish them into several Discourses or Treatises the Title-page to each Discourse giving a General account of the Matter contain'd therein and the Discourses themselves into Chapters and Sections except the Discourses were short as two or three of them are which therefore have the Contents set in the Beginning and before the Chapters to give a Particular account of the Chief matters therein contained that so the Reader might have a clearer and fuller view as of the strength and importance so also of the Contexture of the whole and the Coherence of the several Parts of the respective Discourses which otherwise would not be so easily discerned by every Reader especially where there are some Excursions and Digressions in any of the Treatises things not unusual in the Writings or Discourses of other men when the Notion does strongly affect and possess their Minds and their Phansies are therefore more active and vigorous and some such Digressions the Reader will meet with here more then once though even therein he will see that the Author did still respicere titulum and kept the main designe alwaies in his Eye Nor does the Author in these Digressions lead the Reader a little out of the way only to see a Reed shaken with the wind an ordinary trifle some slight and inconsiderable Object but for better purposes that he might the better present to the perspicacious Reader something which is worthy his Observation and therefore these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being usually of such importance need not be severely censured by rigid Methodists if any such chance to read these Treatises This is a plain Account of some Instances of the care and labour preparatory to this Edition of all which I accounted the Author of these Discourses to be most worthy For I considered him as a Friend one whom I knew for many years not only when he was Fellow of Queen's Col. but when a Student in Emman Col. where his early Piety and the remembring his Creator in those days of his youth as also his excellent improvements in the choicest parts of Learning endear'd him to many particularly to his careful Tutor
Ex tot generibus nullum est animal praeter hominem quod habeat notitiam aliquam Dei ipsisque in hominibus nulla gens est neque tam immansueta neque tam fera quae non etiamsi ignoret qualem habere Deum deceat tamen habendum sciat OF THE EXISTENCE AND NATURE OF GOD. CHAP. I. That the Best way to know God is by an attentive reflexion upon our own Souls God more clearly and lively pictur'd upon the Souls of Men then upon any part of the Sensible World WE shall now come to the other Cardinal Principle of all Religion treat something concerning God Where we shall not so much demonstrate That he is as What he is Both which we may best learn from a Reflexion upon our own Souls as Plotinus hath well taught us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He which reflects upon himself reflects upon his own Originall and finds the clearest Impression of some Eternall Nature and Perfect Being stamp'd upon his own Soul And therefore Plato seems sometimes to reprove the ruder sor◠of men in his times for their contrivance of Pictures and Images to put themselves in mind of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Angelicall Beings and exhorts them to look into their own Souls which are the fairest Images not onely of the Lower divine Natures but of the Deity it self God having so copied forth himself into the whole life and energy of man's Soul as that the lovely Characters of Divinity may be most easily seen and read of all men within themselves as they say Phidias the famous Statuary after he had made the Statue of Minerva with the greatest exquisiteness of Art to be set up in the Acropolis at Athens afterwards impress'd his own Image so deeply in her buckler ut nemo delere possit aut divellere qui totam statuam non imminueret And if we would know what the Impresse of Souls is it is nothing but God himself who could not write his own name so as that it might be read but onely in Rationall Natures Neither could he make such without imparting such an Imitation of his own Eternall Understanding to them as might be a perpetual Memorial of himself within them And whenever we look upon our own Soul in a right manner we shall find an Urim and Thummim there by which we may ask counsel of God himself who will have this alway born upon its breast-plate There is nothing that so embases and enthralls the Souls of men as the dismall and dreadfull thoughts of their own Mortality which will not suffer them to look beyond this short span of Time to see an houres length before them or to look higher then these materiall Heavens which though they could be stretch'd forth to infinity yet would the space be too narrow for an enlightned mind that will not be confined within the compass of corporeal dimensions These black Opinions of Death and the Non-entity of Souls darker then Hell it self shrink up the free-born Spirit which is within us which would otherwise be dilating and spreading it self boundlesly beyond all Finite Being and when these sorry pinching mists are once blown away it finds this narrow sphear of Being to give way before it and having once seen beyond Time and Matter it finds then no more ends nor bounds to stop its swift and restless motion It may then fly upwards from one heaven to another till it be beyond all orbe of Finite Being swallowed up in the boundless Abyss of Divinity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beyond all that which darker thoughts are wont to represent under the Idea of Essence This is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Areopagite speaks of which the higher our Minds soare into the more incomprehensible they find it Those dismall apprehensions which pinion the Souls of men to mortality churlishly check and starve that noble life thereof which would alwaies be rising upwards and spread it self in a free heaven and when once the Soul hath shaken off these when it is once able to look through a grave and see beyond death it finds a vast Immensity of Being opening it self more and more before it and the ineffable light and beauty thereof shining more and more into it when it can rest and bear up itself upon an Immaterial centre of Immortality within it will then find it self able to bear it self away by a self-reflexion into the contemplation of an Eternall Deity For though God hath copied forth his own Perfections in this conspicable sensible World according as it is capable of entertaining them yet the most clear and distinct copy of himself could be imparted to none else but to intelligible and inconspicable natures and though the whole fabrick of this visible Universe be whispering out the notions of a Deity and alway inculcates this lesson to the contemplators of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plotinus expresseth it yet we cannot understand it without some interpreter within The Heavens indeed declare the glory of God and the Firmament shews his handy-work and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which may be known of God even his eternal power and Godhead as S. Paul tells us is to be seen in these externall appearances yet it must be something within that must instruct us in all these Mysteries and we shall then best understand them when we compare that copie which we find of them within our selves with that which we see without us The Schoolmen have well compared Sensible and Intelligible Beings in reference to the Deity when they tell us that the one doe onely represent Vestigia Dei the other Faciem Dei We shall therefore here enquire what that Knowledge of a Deity is which a due converse with our own naked Understandings will lead us into CHAP. II. How the Contemplation of our own Souls and a right Reflexion upon the Operations thereof may lead us into the knowledge of 1. The Divine Unity and Omniscience 2. God's Omnipotence 3. The Divine Love and Goodness 4. God's Eternity 5. His Omnipresence 6. The Divine Freedome and Liberty IT being our design to discourse more particularly of that knowledge of the Deity that we may learn immediately from our selves we shall observe First There is nothing whereby our own Souls are better known to us then by the Properties and Operations of Reason but when we reflect upon our own Idea of Pure and Perfect Reason we know that our own Souls are not it but onely partake of it and that it is of such a Nature that we cannot denominate any other thing of the same rank with our selves by and yet we know certainly that it is as finding from an inward sense of it within our selves that both we and other things else beside our selves partake of it and that we have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither doe we or any Finite thing contain the source of it within our selves and because
and ungrounded suspitions of his partiality with that Question If thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted Wheresoever God finds any stamps and impressions of Goodness he likes and approves them knowing them well to be what they indeed are nothing else but his own Image and Superscription Whereever he sees his own Image shining in the Souls of men and a conformity of life to that Eternal Idea of Goodness which is himself he loves it and takes a complacency in it as that which is from himself and is a true Imitation of himself And as his own unbounded Being Goodness is the Primary and Original object of his Immense and Almighty Love so also every thing that partakes of him partakes proportionably of his Love all Imitations of him and Participations of his Love and Goodness are perpetually adequate and commensurate the one to the other By so much the more acceptable any one is to God by how much the more he comes to resemble God It was a common Notion in the old Pythagorean and Platonick Theology 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as Proclus phraseth it That the Divinity transformed into Love and enamour'd with it's own unlimited Perfections and spotless Beauty delighted to copy forth and shadow out it self as it were in created Beings which are perpetually embraced in the warm bosome of the same Love which they can never swerve nor apostatize from till they also prove apostate to the estate of their Creation And certainly it is true in our Christian divinity that that Divine light and goodness which flows forth from God the Original of all upon the Souls of men never goes solitary and destitute of Love Complacency and Acceptation which is alwaies lodg'd together with it in the Divine Essence And as the Divine Complacency thus dearly and tenderly entertains all those which beare a similitude of true Goodness upon them so it alwaies abandons from its embraces all Evil which never doth nor can mix it self with it The Holy Spirit can never suffer any unhallowed or defiled thing to enter into it or to unite it self with it Therefore in a sober sense I hope I may truly say There is no perfect or through-reconciliation wrought between God and the Souls of men while any defiled and impure thing dwells within the Soul which cannot truly close with God nor God with that The Divine Love according to those degrees by which it works upon the Souls of men in transforming them into its own likeness by the same it renders them more acceptable to it self mingleth it self with and uniteth it self to them as the Spirit of any thing mixeth it self more or less with any Matter it acts upon according as it works it self into it and so makes a way and passage open for it self Upon this account I suppose it may be that S. James attributes a kind of Justification to Good works which unquestionably are things that God approves and accepts and all those in whom he finds them as seeing there a true conformity to his own Goodness and Holiness Whereas on the other side he disparageth that barren sluggish and drowsie Belief that a lazy Lethargy in Religion began in his times to hugg so dearly in reference to acceptation with God I suppose I may fairly thus gloss at his whole Discourse upon this Argument God respects not a bold confident and audacious Faith that is big with nothing but its own Presumptions It is not because our Brains swim with a strong Conceit of God's Eternal love to us or because we grow big and swell into a mighty bulk with airy fancies and presumptions of our acceptance with God that makes us ere the more acceptable to him It is not all our strong Dreams of being in favour with Heaven that fills our hungry souls ere the more with it It is not a pertinacious Imagination of our Names being enrolled in the Book of life or of the Debt-books of Heaven being crossed or of Christ being ours while we find him not living within us or of the washing away of our sins in his bloud while the foul and filthy stains thereof are deeply sunk in our own Souls it is not I say a pertinacious Imagination of any of these that can make us ere the better And a mere Conceit or Opinion as it makes us never the better in reality within our selves so it cannot render us ere the more acceptable to God who judges of all things as they are No it must be a true Compliance with the Divine will which must render us such as the Divinity may take pleasure in In Christ Jesus neither Circumcision nor Uncircumcision availeth any thing nor any Fancy built upon any other External privilege but the keeping of the Commandments of God No but If any man does the will of God him will both the Father and the Son love they will come in to him and make their abode with him This is the Scope and Mark which a true Heaven-born Faith aims at and when it hath attain'd this End then is it indeed perfect and compleat in its last accomplishment And by how much the more ardency and intention Faith levels at this mark of inward goodness and divine activity by so much the more perfect and sincere it is This is that which God justifies it being just and correspondent to his own good pleasure and in whomsoever he finds this both it and they are accepted of him And so I come to the second Particular God's justifying of Sinners in pardoning and remitting their sins carries in it a necessary reference to the sanctifying of their Natures without which Justification would rather be a glorious name then a real privilege to the Souls of men While men continue in their wickedness they do but vainly dream of a device to tie the hands of an Almighty Vengeance from seizing on them No their own Sins like so many armed Gyants would first or last set upon them and rend them with inward torment There needs no angry Cherub with a flaming Sword drawn out every way to keep their unhallowed hands off from the Tree of life No their own prodigious Lusts like so many arrows in their sides would chase them their own Hellish natures would sink them low enough into eternal death and chain them up fast enough in fetters of darkness among the filthy fiends of Hell Sin will alwaies be miserable and the Sinner at last when the empty bladders of all those hopes and expectations of an aiery mundane Happiness that did here bear him up in this life shall be cut will find it like a Talent of Lead weighing him down into the bottomless gulf of Misery If all were clear towards Heaven we should find Sin raising up storms in our own Souls We cannot carry Fire in our own bosoms and yet not be burnt Though we could suppose the greatest Serenity without us if we could suppose our selves nere so much to be at
truce with Heaven and all divine displeasure laid asleep yet would our own Sins if they continue unmortified first or last make an Aetna or Vesuvius within us Nay those Sun-beams of Eternal Truth that by us are detained in unrighteousness would at last in those hellish vaults of vice and darkness that are within us kindle into an unquenchable fire It would be of small benefit to us That Christ hath triumph'd over the principalities and powers of darkness without us while Hell and Death strongly immur'd in a Fort of our own Sins and Corruptions should tyrannize within us That his Blood should speak peace in heaven if in the mean while our own Lusts were perpetually warring and fighting in and against our own Souls That he hath taken off our guilt and cancell'd that hand-writing that was against us which bound us over to Eternal condemnation if for all this we continue fast sealed up in the Hellish dungeon of our own filthy Lusts. Indeed we could not expect any relief from Heaven out of that misery under which we lie were not Gods displeasure against us first pacified and our Sins remitted But should the Divine Clemency stoop no lower to us then to a mere pardon of our sins and an abstract Justification we should never rise out of that Misery under which we lie This is the Signal and Transcendent benefit of our free Justification through the Bloud of Christ that God's offence justly conceived against us for our sins which would have been an eternal bar and restraint to the Efflux of his Grace upon us being taken off the Divine grace and bounty may freely flow forth upon us The Fountain of the Divine grace and love is now unlock'd and opened which our Sins had shut up and now the Streams of holiness and true goodness from thence freely flow forth into all gasping Souls that thirst after them The warm Sun of the Divine love whenever it breaks through and scatters the thick Cloud of our iniquities that had formerly separated between God us it immediately breaks forth upon us with healing in its wings it exerciseth the mighty force of its own light and heat upon our dark and benummed Souls begetting in them a lively sense of God and kindling into sparks of Divine goodness within us This Love when once it hath chased away the thick Mist of our Sins it will be as strong as Death upon us as potent as the Grave many Waters will not quench it nor the Floods drown it If we shut not the windows of our Souls against it it will at last enlighten all those Regions of darkness that are within us and lead our Souls to the Light of Life Blessedness and Immortality God pardons mens Sins out of an Eternal designe of destroying them and whenever the sentence of death is taken off from a Sinner it is at the same time denounced against his Sins God does not bid us be warm'd and be fill'd and deny us those necessaries which our starving and hungry Souls call for Christ having made peace through the bloud of his cross the Heavens shall be no more as Iron above us but we shall receive freely the vital dew of them the former and the later Rain in their season those Influences from above which Souls truly sensible of their own Misery and Imperfection uncessantly gaspe after that Righteousness of God which drops from above from the unsealed Spring of Free goodness which makes glad the city of God This is that Free Love and Grace which the Souls of Good men so much triumph in This is that Justification which begets in them lively Hopes of an happy Immortality in the present Anticipations thereof which spring forth from it in this life And all this is that which we have called sometimes the Righteousness of Christ sometimes the Righteousness of God and here the Righteousness which is of Faith In Heaven it is a not-imputing of sin in the Souls of men it is a reconciliation of rebellious Natures to Truth and Goodness In Heaven it is the lifting up the light of God's countenance upon us which begets a gladsome entertainment in the Souls of men holy and dear reflections and reciprocations of Love Divine Love to us as it were by a natural emanation begetting a Reflex love in us towards God which like that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spoken of by the Ancients live and thrive together CHAP. VI. How the Gospel-righteousness is conveighed to us by Faith made to appear from these two Considerations 1. The Gospel lays a strong foundation of a chearful dependance upon the Grace and Love of God affiance in it This confirmed by several Gospel-expressions containing plainly in them the most strong Motives and Encouragements to all ingenuous addresses to God to all chearfull dependance on him and confident expectation of all assistance from him 2. A true Evangelical Faith is no lazy or languid thing but an ardent breathing and thirsting after Divine grace and righteousness it looks beyond a mere pardon of sin and mainly pursues after an inward participation of the Divine nature The mighty power of a living Faith in the Love and Goddness of God discoursed of throughout the whole Chapter WE come now to the last part of our Discourse viz. To shew the Way by which this God-like and Gospel-righteousness is conveighed to us and that is by Faith This is that powerful Attractive which by a strong and divine Sympathy draws down the virtue of Heaven into the Souls of men which strongly and forcibly moves the Souls of good men into a conjunction with that Divine goodness by which it lives and grows This is that Divine Impress that invincibly draws and sucks them in by degrees into the Divinity and so unites them more and more to the Centre of Life and Love It is something in the hearts of men which feeling by an Occult and inward sensation the mighty insinuations of the Divine goodness immediately complies with it and with the greatest ardency that may be is perpetually rising up into conjunction with it and being first begotten and enlivened by the warm Beams of that Goodness it alwaies breaths and gasps after it for its constant growth and nourishment It is then fullest of life and vivacity when it partakes most freely of it and perpetually languisheth when it is in any measure deprived of that sweet and pure nourishment it derives from it But that we may the more clearly unfold this business How Gospel-righteousness comes to be communicated through Faith we shall lay it forth in 2 Particulars First The Gospel lays a strong foundation of a chearfull dependance upon the Grace and Love of God and affianee in it We have the greatest security and assurance that may be given us of God's readiness to relieve such forlorn and desolate Creatures as we are That there are no such dreadful Fates in Heaven as are continually thirsting after the bloud
of sinners insatiably greedy after their prey never satisfied till they have devoured the Souls of men Lest we should by such dreadful apprehensions be driven from God we are told of the Bloud of sprinkling that speaks better things for us of a mighty Favourite solliciting our Cause with perpetual intercessions in the Court of heaven of a new and living way to the Throne of grace and to the Holy of holies which our Saviour hath consecrated through his flesh We are told of a great and mighty Saviour able to save to the utmost all that come to God by him We heare of the most compassionate and tender Promises that may be from the Truth it self that Whosoever comes to him he will in no wise cast out that They that believe on him out of them should flow streams of living water We hear of the most gracious invitations that Heaven can make to all weary and heavy-laden sinners to come to Christ that they may find rest The great Secrets of Heaven and the Arcana of Divine Counsells are revealed whereby we are acquainted that Glory to God in the highest Peace on earth Good will towards men are sweetly joined together in Heavens harmony and happily combin'd together in the composure of it's Ditties That the Glory of the Deity and Salvation of men are not allaied by their union one with another but both exalted together in the most transcendent way that Divine love and bounty are the supreme rulers in Heaven and Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is no such thing as sowre Despight and Envy lodged in the bosome of that ever-blessed Being above whose name is LOVE and all whose Dispensations to the Sons of men are but the dispreadings and distended radiations of his Love as freely flowing forth from it through the whole orbe and sphear of its creation as the bright light from the Sun in the firmament of whose benign influences we are then only deprived when we hide and withdraw our selves from them We are taught that the mild and gentle breathings of the Divine Spirit are moving up and down in the World to produce life and to revive and quicken the Souls of men into a feeling sense of a blessed Immortality This is that mighty Spirit that will if we comply with it teach us all things even the hidden things of God mortifie all the lusts of rebellious Flesh and seal us up to the day of redemption We are taught that with all holy boldness we may in all places lift up holy hands to God without wrath or doubting without any sowre thoughts of God or fretfull jealousies or harsh surmises We can never distrust enough in our selves nor ever trust too much in God This is the great Plerophory and that full Confidence which the Gospel every where seems to promote and should I run through all the Arguments and Solicitations that are there laid down to provoke us to an entertainment hereof I should then run quite through it from one end to another it containing almost nothing else in the whole Complex and Body of it but strong and forcible Motives to all Ingenuous addresses to God and the most effectual Encouragement that may be to all chearfull dependance on him and confident expectation of all assistance from him to carry on our poor endeavours to the atchievment of Blessedness and that in the most plain and simple way that may be sine fraude fuco without any double mind or mental reservation Heaven is not acquainted so feelingly with our wicked arts and devices But it is very strange that where God writes Life so plainly in fair Capital letters we are so often apt to read Death that when he tells us over and over that Hell destruction arise from our selves that they are the workmanship of our own hands we will needs understand their Pedegree to be from Heaven and that they were conceived in the Womb of Life and Blessedness No but the Gospel tells us we are not come to Mounts of burning nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest c. Hebr. 12. v. 18. Certainly a lively Faith in this Love of God and a sober converse with his Goodness by a cordial entertainment and through perswasion of it would warm and chafe our benummed Minds and thaw our Hearts frozen with Self-love it would make us melt and dissolve out of all Self-consistencie and by a free and noble Sympathie with the Divine love to yield up our selves to it and dilate and spread our selves more fully in it This would banish away all Atheisme and ireful slavish Superstition it would cast down every high thought and proud imagination that swells within us and exalts it self against this soveraign Deity it would free us from all those poor sorry pinching and particular Loves that here inthrall the Souls of men to Vanity and Baseness it would lead us into the true liberty of the sons of God filling our Hearts once enlarged with the sense of it with a more generous and universal love as unlimited and unbounded as true Goodness it self is Thus Moses-like conversing with God in the Mount and there beholding his glory shining thus out upon us in the face of Christ we should be deriving a Copy of that Eternal beauty upon our own Souls and our thirstie and hungry spirits would be perpetually sucking in a true participation and image of his glory A true divine Love would wing our Souls and make them take their flight swiftly towards Heaven and Immortality Could we once be throughly possess'd and mastered with a full confidence of the Divine love and God's readiness to assist such feeble languishing creatures as we are in our assays after Heaven and Blessedness we should then finding our selves borne up by an Eternal and Almighty strength dare to adventure courageously and confidently upon the highest designes of Happiness to assail the kingdome of heaven with a holy gallantry and violence to pursue a course of well-doing without weariness knowing that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord and that we shall receive our Reward if we faint not We should work out our salvation in the most industrious manner trusting in God as one ready to instill strength and power into all the vital faculties of our Souls We should press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus that we may apprehend that for which also we are apprehended of Christ Jesus If we suffer not our selves to be robb'd of this Confidence and Hope in God as ready to accomplish the desires of those that seek after him we may then walk on strongly in the way to Heaven and not be weary we may run and not faint And the more the Souls of men grow in this blissfull perswasion the more they shall mount up like Eagles into a clear Heaven finding themselvs rising higher and higher above all those filthy mists those clouds and tempests of a slavish Fear
suppose we may fairly gloss upon S. Paul's Discourses which so much prefer Faith above Works We must not think in a Gyant-like pride to scale the walls of Heaven by our own Works and by force thereof to take the strong Fort of Blessedness and wrest the Crown of Glory out of God's hands whether he will or no. We must not think to commence a suit in Heaven for Happiness upon such a poor and weak plea as our own External compliance with the Old Law is We must not think to deal with God in the Method of Commutative Justice and to challenge Eternal life as the just Reward of our great Merits and the hire due to us for our labour and toil we have took in God's Vineyard No God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble it must be an humble and Self-denying address of a Soul dissolved into a deep and piercing sense of its own Nothingness and unprofitableness that can be capable of the Divine bounty he fills the hungry with good things but the rich he sends empty away They are the hungry and thirsty Souls alwaies gasping after the living springs of Divine grace as the parched ground in the desert doth for the dew of Heaven ready to drink them in by a constant dependance upon God Souls that by a living watchfull and diligent Faith spreading forth themselves in all obsequious reverence and love of him wait upon him as the Eyes of an handmaid wait on the hand of her Mistress These are they that he delights to satiate with his goodness Those that being master'd by a strong sense of their own indigency their pinching and pressing povertie and his All-sufficient fulness trust in him as an Almighty Saviour and in the most ardent manner pursue after that Perfection which his grace is leading them to those that cannot satisfie themselves in a bare performance of some External acts of righteousness or an External observance of a Law without them but with the most greedy and fervent ambition pursue after such an acquaintance with his Divine Spirit as may breath an inward life through all the powers of their Souls and beget in them a vital form and soul of Divine goodness These are the spiritual seed of faithful Abraham the sons of the Free-woman and heirs of the promises to whom all are made Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus These are they which shall abide in the house for ever when the sons of the Bond-woman those that are only Arabian proselytes shall be cast out CHAP. VII An Appendix to the foregoing Discourse How the whole business and Undertaking of Christ is eminently available both to give full relief and ease to our Minds and Hearts and also to encourage us to Godliness or a God-like righteousness briefly represented in sundry Particulars FOR the further illustration of some things especially in the latter part of this Discourse it may not be amiss in some Particulars which might easily be enlarged to shew How the Undertaking of Christ that Great Object of Faith is greatly advantageous and available to the giving full relief and ease to our Minds and Hearts and also to the encouraging us to Godliness or a true God-like righteousness In the General therefore we may consider That full and evident assurance is given hereby to the world That God doth indeed seek the saving of that which is lost and men are no longer to make any doubt or scruple of it Now what can we imagine more available to carry on a Designe of Godliness and to rouze dul and languid Souls to an effectual minding of their own Salvation then to have this News sounding in their Ears by men that at the first promulgation thereof durst tell them roundly in the Name of God that God required them every where to repent for that his Kingdome of grace was now apparent and that he was not only willing but it was his gracious designe to save recover lost Sinners who had forsaken his Goodness Particularly That the whole business of Christ is very advantageous for this purpose and highly accommodate thereto may appear thus We are fully assured that God hath this forementioned designe upon lost men because here is one viz. Christ that partakes every way of Humane Nature whom the Divinity magnifies it self in and carries through this world in Humane infirmities and Sufferings to Eternal glory a clear manifestation to the World that God had not cast off Humane Nature but had a real mind to exalt and dignifie it again The way into the Holy of holies or to Eternal happiness is laid as open as may be by Christ in his Doctrine Life and Death in all which we may see with open face what Humane Nature may attain to and how it may by Humility Self-denial and divine Love a Christ-like life rise up above all visible heavens into a state of Immortal glory and bliss Here is a manifestation of Love given enough to thaw all the iciness of mens hearts which Self-love had quite frozen up For here is One who in Humane Nature most heartily every where denying himself is ready to doe any thing for the good of Mankind and at last gives up his life for the same pupose and that according to the good will and pleasure of that Eternal love which so loved the World that he gave this beloved and his only-begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Whereas every Penitent Sinner carries a sense of Guilt upon his own Conscience is apt to shrink with cold chill fears of offended Majesty and to dread the thoughts of violated Justice He is assured that Christ hath laid down his life and thereby made propitiation atonement for sin That He hath laid down his life for the Redemption of him and so in Christ we have Redemption through his bloud even the forgiveness of sins Thus may the Hearts of all Penitents troubled at first with sense of their own guilt be quieted and fully establisht in a living Faith and Hope in an Eternal goodness seeing how their Sins are remitted through the bloud of Jesus that came to die for them and save them and through his bloud they may have free access unto God Seeing Sin and Guilt are apt continually to beget a jealousie of God's Majesty and Greatness from whom the Sinner finds himself at a vast distance he is made acquainted with a Mediator through whom he may address himself to God without this jealousie or doubting for that this Mediator likewise is one of Humane Nature that is highly beloved and accepted of God he having so highly pleased God by performing his Will in all things Certainly it is very decorous and much for the Ease of a Penitent's mind as it makes also for the disparagement of Sin that our Addresses to God should be through a Mediator The Platonists wisely observ'd that between the Pure Divinity and Impure Sinners as
consist in Bodily pleasure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and when the molestation is gone and the just constitution of Nature recovered Pleasure ceaseth But the highest Pleasure of Minds and Spirits does not onely consist in the relieving of them from any antecedent pains or grief or in a relaxation from some former molesting Passion neither is their Happiness a mere Stoical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Happiness of the Deity is not a mere Negative thing rendring it free from all disturbance or molestation so that it may eternally rest quiet within it self it does not so much consist in Quiete as in Actu vigore A Mind and Spirit is too full of activity and energy is too quick and potent a thing to enjoy a full and complete Happiness in a mere Cessation this were to make Happiness an heavy Spiritless thing The Philosopher hath well observ'd that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is infinite power and strength in Divine joy pleasure and happiness commensurate to that Almighty Being and Goodness which is the Eternal source of it As Created Beings that are capable of conversing with God stand nearer to God or further off from him and as they partake more or less of his likeness so they partake more or less of that Happiness which flows forth from him and God communicates himself in different degrees to them There may be as many degrees of Sanctity and Perfection as there are of States and Conditions of Creatures and that is properly Sanctity which guides and orders all the Faculties and Actions of any Creature in a way suitable and correspondent to that rank and state which God hath placed it in and while it doth so it admits no sin or defilement to it self though yet it may be elevated and advanced higher and accordingly true Positive Sanctity comes to be advanced higher and higher as any Creature comes more to partake of the life of God and to be brought into a nearer conjunction with God and so the Sanctity and Happiness of Innocency it self might have been perfected Thus we see how True Religion carries up the Souls of Good men above the black regions of Hell and Death This indeed is the great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Souls it is Religion it self or a reall participation of God and his Holiness which is their true restitution and advancement All that Happiness which Good men shall be made partakers of as it cannot be born up upon any other foundation then true Goodness and a Godlike nature within them so neither is it distinct from it Sin and Hell are so twined and twisted up together that if the power of Sin be once dissolv'd the bonds of Death and Hell will also fall asunder Sin and Hell are of the same kind of the same linage and descent as on the other side True Holiness or Religion and True Happiness are but two severall Notions of one thing rather then distinct in themselves Religion delivers us from Hell by instating us in a possession of True Life and Blisse Hell is rather a Nature then a Place and Heaven cannot be so truly defined by any thing without us as by something that is within us Thus have we done with those Particulars wherein we considered the Excellency and Nobleness of Religion which is here exprest by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The way of life and elsewhere is stiled by Solomon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A tree of life true Religion being an inward Principle of life of a Divine life the best life that which is Life most properly so called accordingly in the Holy Scripture a life of Religion is stiled Life as a life of Sin and Wickedness is stiled Death In the ancient Academical Philosophy it was much disputed whether that Corporeal and Animal life which was always drawing down the Soul into Terrene and Material things was not more properly to be Stiled Death then Life What sense hereof the Pythagoreans had may appear by this practise of theirs They were wont to set up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Empty coffins in the places of those that had forsaken their School and degenerated from their Philosophy and good Precepts as being Apostates from life it self and dead to Vertue and a good life which is the true life therefore fit only to be reckoned among the dead For a Conclusion of this Discourse The Use which we shall make of all shall be this To awaken and exhort every one to a serious minding of Religion as Solomon doth earnestly exhort every one to seek after true Wisedome which is the same with Religion and Holiness as Sin is with Folly Prov. 4. 5. Get Wisedome get understanding and v. 7. Get Wisedome and with all thy getting get understanding Wisedome is the principal thing This is the summe of all the Conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandements for this is the whole duty business and concernment of man Let us not trifle away our time and opportunities which God hath given us wherein we may lay hold upon Life and Immortality in doing nothing or else pursuing Hell and Death Let us awake out of our vain dreams Wisedome calls upon us and offers us the hidden treasures of Life and Blessedness Let us not perpetually deliver over our selves to laziness and slumbering Say not There is a lion in the way say not Though Religion be good yet it is unattainable No but let us intend all our Powers in a serious resolv'd pursuance of it and depend upon the assistance of Heaven which never fails those that soberly seek for it It is indeed the Levity of mens spirits their heedlesseness and regardlesseness of their own lives that betrays them to Sin and Death It is the general practice of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extempore vivere as the Satyrist speaks they ordinarily ponderate and deliberate upon every thing more then how it becomes them to live they so live as if their Bodies had swallowed up their Souls their lives are but a kind of Lottery the Principles by which they are guided are nothing else but a confused multitude of Fancies rudely jumbled together Such is the life of most men it is but a meer Casual thing acted over at peradventure without any fair and calm debates held either with Religion or with Reason which in it self as it is not distorted and depraved by corrupt men is a true Friend to Religion and directs men to God and to things good and just pure lovely and praise-worthy and the directions of this Inward guide we are not to neglect Unreasonableness or the smothering and extinguishing the Candle of the Lord within us is no piece of Religion nor advantageous to it That certainly will not raise men up to God which sinks them below men There had never been such an Apostasy from Religion nor had such a Mystery of iniquity full of deceiveableness and imposture been revealed and wrought so powerfully in the Souls of
so much a Thing without us as some men would seem to fansy it were we so dead and liveless as that we could never move but from an External impetus as our Religion could never indeed be called Ours so neither could we ever have the inward sense of that Bliss and Peace which goes along with it but must be like so many heavy loggs or dul pieces of Earth in Heaven and Happiness That is a very earthly and flat Spirit in Religion which sinks like the lees to the bottome or rather it is like that Terra damnata which the Chymists speak of having no vigour life or activity left in it is truly dead to God and is reprobate to any thing of Heaven We know the Pedigree of those Exhalations that arise no higher then a mere external force from the Sun's heat weigheth them up to be but base and earthly and therefore having no natural warmth or energy within themselves imparted to them they sink down again to the Earth from whence they came The Spirit which is from Heaven is alwaies out of an in-bred Nobleness which bears it up carried upwards again towards Heaven from whence it came powerfully resisting all things that would deprive it of God or hinder it from returning to its Original it is alwaies moving upwards in an even and steady way towards God from whence it came leaving the dark Regions of Hell and Death under it it resists Hell and Darkness by assimilating and conforming it self to God it resists Darkness in the armour of light it resists Death and destruction by the power of Divine love It must be something of Heaven in the Minds of men which must resist the Devil and Hell We do not alwaies resist the Devil then when we bid defiance to him or when we declame most zealously against him neither does our Resisting and Opposing of Sin and Wickedness consist in the violence of some Feminine passions which may sometimes be raised by the power of Fancy in the Minds of men against it But it consists rather in a mature and sedate resolution against it in our own Souls arising from a clear judgment of the foul and hatefull nature of Sin it self and him who is the Patron of it in a constant and serious endeavour of setling the government of our own Souls and establishing the principality of Grace and Peace within our selves There is a pompous and popular kind of tumult in the world which sometimes goes for Zeal to God and his kingdome against the Devil whenas mens own Pride and Passions disguise themselves under the notions of a Religious fervencie Some men think themselves the greatest Champions for God and his Cause when they can take the greatest liberty to quarrel with every thing abroad and without themselves which is not shaped according to the mould of their own Opinions their own Self-will Humour and Interest Whereas indeed this Spiritual warfare is not so much maintained against a forrein enemy as against those domestick rebellions that are within neither is it then carried on most successfully when men make the greatest noise and most of all raise the dust That impetuous violence and tempestuousness with which men are acted in pretensions of Religion arises ordinarily I doubt from unquiet and disturbed Minds within whereas it is indeed the inward conflicts and commotions sin and vice and not a holy zeal for God which discompose the Minds of men Sin where it is entertained will indeed breed disturbance and break the peace of a mans own spirit but a true resisting and opposing of it is the restoring of the Soul to its just Consistency Freedome and Serenity again As God's kingdome is set up so the Devil's kingdome may be pulled down without the noise of axes and hammers We may then attain to the greatest atchievements against the gates of Hell and Death when we most of all possesse our own Souls in patience collect our Minds into the most peacefull composed and united temper The motions of true Practical Religion are most like that of the Heavens which though most swift is yet most silent As Grace and true Religion is no lazy or sluggish thing but in perpetual motion so all the motions of it are soft and gentle While it acts most powerfully within it also acts most peacefully The kingdome of heaven comes not with observation that men may say Loe here or Loe there it is not with the devouring fire coming after it or a whirlwind going before it This fight and contest with Sin and Satan is not to be known by the ratling of the Chariots or the sound of an alarm it is indeed alone transacted upon the inner stage of mens souls and spirits and is rather a pacifying and quieting of all those riots and tumults raised there by Sin and Satan it is rather a reconciling the minds of men to Truth Justice and Holiness it is a captivating and subjecting all our Powers and Faculties to God and true Goodness through the effectual working of a divine Love and Humility and this Ressistance is always attended with Victory and Triumph warts upon this Fight which is the Third and last Observation we shall make upon these Words CHAP. V. The Third Observable viz. The Certainty of Success and victory to all those that resist the Devil This grounded upon 1. The Weakness of the Devil and Sin consider'd in themselves 2. God's powerfull assisting all faithful Christians in this warfare The Devil may allure and tempt but cannot prevail except men consent and yield to his suggestions The Devil's strength lies in mens treachery and falseness to their own Souls Sin is strong because men oppose it weakly The Errour of the Manichees about a Principium mali defended by men in their lives and practices Of God's readiness to assist Christians in their spiritual Consticts his Compassionate regards and the more special respects of his Providence towards them in such occasions The Conclusion discovering the Evil and Horridness of Magick Diabolical Contracts c. THe Certainty of Successe to all those that resist the Devil Resist the Devil and he will flee from you He cannot stand when opposed in the strength of God he will fall down as swift as lightning he cannot bear the glory of God shining in the Souls of men Here it is no more but Stand and Conquer Resist and Vanquish For First of all The Devil and Sin in themselves considered are but weak and impotent they cannot prevail over that Soul which yields not to them the Evil spirit then onely prevails over us when we our selves consent to his suggestions all his strength lies in our treachery and falseness to our own Souls Though those wicked spirits be perpetually so near us yet they cannot bow or bend our Wills there is a place of defence in the Souls of men into which they cannot enter they may stand at a distance allure and intice them but they cannot prevail over
besets us and run with patience the race that is set before us Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who is set down at the right hand of the throne of God as a great and mighty Conquerour who will declare the perfection of his own power in our weakness if we lay hold of his strength Though we are not able to change our own natures or to rise above the source of our Animall and Selfish Beings by our own power yet let us endeavour to subdue all those External vices of Luxury and Wantonnesse of Injustice Revenge and the like let us withdraw the fewel of Pride Malice Vain-glory and whatsoever else holds us in captivity to Hell and with confidence apply our selves to him who is an Almighty Saviour and when he joyns his Almighty strength with us we need not fear any thing He shall tread down Satan under our feet and we shall one day tread upon the Lion and Adder the young Lion and the Dragon shall we trample under our feet we shall break the Serpent's head though he may bruise our heel Though God may suffer him so far to serve his own rage and the hellish malice of such as are in league with him as to pull down with violence our earthly Tabernacles yet while we so suffer by him we are conquerors over him I should now conclude all and leave you with this General application but that the present Occasion hath drawn it down for me to a particular case Did we not live in a world of professed wickedness wherein so many mens Sins goe in open view before them to judgement it might be thought needless to perswade men to resist the Devil when he appears in his own colours to make merchandise of them and comes in a formal way to bargain with them for their Souls that which humane nature however enthrall'd to Sin and Satan in a more mysterious way abhors and none admit but those who are quite degenerated from humane kind That which I shall further adde shall be by way of Caution onely to suggest two things which are the forerunners to such Diabolical contracts and put temptations into the hands of the Tempter 1. Those Hellish passions of Malice Envy and Revenge which are the black Form and Image of the Devil himself these when they are once ripened fit men for the most Formal converse with the Devil that may be That nature cannot easily abhorr him which is so perfectly conformed to him 2 ly The use of any Arts Rites or Ceremonies not understood of which we can give no Rational or Divine account this indeed is nothing else but a kind of Magick which the Devil himself owns and gives life to though he may not be corporeally present or require presently any further Covenant from the users of them The Devil no question is present to all his own Rites and Ceremonies though men discern him not and may upon the use of them secretly produce those Effects which may gain credit to them Among these Rites we may reckon Insignificant forms of words with their several modes and manner of pronunciation Astrelogical arts and whatsoever else pretends to any strange Effects which we cannot with good reason either ascribe to God or Nature As God will onely be convers'd withall in a way of Light and Understanding so the Devil loves to be convers'd with in a way of Darkness and Obscurity The End A SERMON PREACHED AT THE FUNERAL OF M r JOHN SMITH late Fellow of Queens College in Cambridge who departed this life Aug. 7. 1652. And lyes interred in the Chappel of the same College WITH A SHORT ACCOUNT of his Life and Death BY SIMON PATRICK then Fellow of Queens College Prov. 10. 7. The memory of the Just is blessed 2 KINGS 2. 12. And Elisha saw it and he cryed My Father My Father the Chariot of Israel and the Horsemen thereof WHen I saw the blessed Spirit of our Brother shall I say or our Father making hast out of that Body which lyes before us these words which I have now read came into my Mind And methought I saw the good Genius of this place which inspired us with so much sense of Learning and Goodness taking its flight and leaving this lower world At whom my Soul catch'd as I fansied Elisha to have done at Elijah and I cryed out O my Father My Father c. Desirous I was me-thought that his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might have been a little while deferr'd that I might have stai'd the wheels of that Triumphant chariot wherein he seemed to be carried that we might have kept him a little longer in this world till by his holy breathings into our Souls and the Grace of God we had been all made meet to have some share in that inheritance of the Saints in light and so he might have gone to Heaven with his Train taking all his Friends along with him as Attendants to that Glory and Honour wherewith I make no doubt he is crowned It grieved me in my thoughts that there should be so many Orphans left without a Father a Society left naked without one of her best Guardians and Chieftains her very Chariot and Horsemen unto whose instruction and brave conduct not a few of us will acknowledge that they owe much of their skill and abilities For I do not fear to say as Antoninus doth of the Best man that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Priest or Minister of God's who was very subservient to him in his great work If he was not a Prophet like Elijah yet I am sure he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Gr. Nazianzen I think speaks of S. Basil an Interpreter of the Spirit and very well acquainted with his mind a man sent down from heaven for our good and is now gone thither from whence he came leaving us behind him here a company of poor Fatherless children the Sons of this Prophet weeping and crying out O my Father my Father the Chariot of Israel and the Horsemen thereof Which sad note would have been most fitly sung just at the Ascension of his holy Soul yet give me leave to descant a while upon it now that we are come to inter his Body which was the dark Shadow where that admirable and illustrious Learning Wisdome and Godliness walk'd up and down and shone through upon the world You will easily see at the first glance that Something will here offer it self to be said of Elijah and Something of Elisha Of Elijah in that he is called Father the Chariot and Horsemen of Israel of Elisha in that he applies this relation to himself saying My Father My Father Concerning Elijah we may observe First His Superiority Eminency and Dignity Secondly His singular Care which he took of others Thirdly His great Usefulness or the Benefit which his Country enjoyed by him Concerning Elisha we may observe the Expression of Three things likewise First Of his great Affection