as he further expresses it but the true badges of an Eternal nature and speak a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plato is wont to phrase it in man's Soul Such are the Archetypall Idea's of Justice Wisdome Goodness Truth Eternity Omnipotency and all those either Morall Physicall or Metaphysical notions which are either the First Principles of Science or the Ultimate complement and final perfection of it These we alwaies find to be the same and know that no Exorcisms of Material mutations have any power over them though we our selves are but of yesterday and mutable every moment yet these are Eternall and depend not upon any mundane vicissitudes neither could we ever gather them from our observation of any Material thing where they were never sown If we reflect but upon our own Souls how manifestly doe the Species of Reason Freedome Perception and the like offer themselves to us whereby we may know a thousand times more distinctly what our Souls are then what our Bodies are For the former we know by an immediate converse with our selves and a distinct sense of their Operations whereas all our knowledge of the Body is little better then meerly Historicall which we gather up by scraps and piecemeals from more doubtfull and uncertain experiments which we make of them but the notions which we have of a Mind i. e. something within us that thinks apprehends reasons and discourses are so clear and distinct from all those notions which we can fasten upon a Body that we can easily conceive that if all Body-Being in the world were destroyed yet we might then as well subsist as now we doe For whensoever we take notice of those Immediate motions of our own Minds whereby they make themselves known to us we find no such thing in them as Extension or Divisibility which are contained in every Corporeal essence and having no such thing discovered to us from our nearest familiarity with our own Souls we could never so easily know whether they had any such things as Bodies joyned to them or not did not those extrinsecal impressions that their turbulent motions make upon them admonish them thereof But as the more we reflect upon our own Minds we find all Intelligible things more clear as when we look up to the Heavens we see all things more bright and radiant then when we look down upon this dark Earth when the Sun-beams are drawn away from it so when we see all Intelligible Being concentring together in a greater Oneness and all kind of Multiplicity running more and more into the strictest Unity till at last we find all Variety and Division suck'd up into a perfect Simplicity where all happily conspire together in the most undivided peace and friendship we then easily perceive that the reason of all Diversity and Distinction is that I may use Plotinus his words not much differently from his meaning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For though in our contentious pursuits after Science we cast Wisdome Power Eternity Goodness and the like into several formalities that so we may trace down Science in a constant chain of Deductions yet in our naked Intuitions and visions of them we clearly discern that Goodness and Wisdome lodge together Justice and Mercy kiss each other and all these and whatsoever pieces else the crack'd glasses of our Reasons may sometime break Divine and Intelligible Being into are fast knit up together in the invincible bonds of Eternity And in this sense is that notion of Proclus descanting upon Plato's riddle of the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it were generated yet not generated to be understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Soul partaking of Time in its broken and particular conceptions and apprehensions and of Eternity in its comprehensive and stable contemplations I need not say that when the Soul is once got up to the top of this bright Olympus it will then no more doubt of its own Immortality or fear any Dissipation or doubt whether any drowsie Sleep shall hereafter seize upon it no it will then feel it self grasping fast and safely its own Immortality and view it self in the Horizon of Eternity In such sober kind of Ecstasies did Plotinus find his own Soul separated from his Body as if it had divorc'd it for a time from it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I being often awakened into a sense of my self and being sequestred from my body and betaking my self from all things else into my self what admirable beauty did I then behold c. as he himself tells us En. 4. l. 8. c. 1. Thus is that Intelligence begotten which Proclus l. 2. in Plat. Tim. calls a Correction of Science his notion is worth our taking notice of and gives us in a manner a brief recapitulation of our former discourse shewing how the higher we ascend in the contemplation of the Soul the higher still we rise above this low sphear of Sense and Matter His words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that is Science as it is in the Soul by which he means the Discoursive power of it is blameless but yet is corrected by the Mind as resolving that which is Indivisible and dividing Simple Being as if it were Compounded as Fansy corrects Sense for discerning with passion and material mixture from which that purifies its object Opinion corrects Fansie because it apprehends things by forms and phantasms which it self is above and Science corrects Opinion because it knows without discerning of causes and the Mind as was insinuated or the Intuitive faculty corrects the Scientifical because by a Progressive kind of Analysis it divides the Intelligible Object where it self knows and sees things together in their undivided essence wherefore this onely is Immoveable and Science or Scientifical reason is inferiour to it in the knowledge of true Being Thus he But here we must use some caution lest we should arrogate too much to the power of our own Souls which indeed cannot raise up themselves into that pure and steddy contemplation of true Being but will rather act with some Multiplicity or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they speak attending it But thus much of its high original may appear to us that it can as our Author told us correct it self for dividing and disjoyning therein as knowing all to be every way One most entire and simple though yet all men cannot easily improve their own Understandings to this High degree of Comprehension and therefore all ancient Philosophers and Aristotle himself made it the peculiar priviledge of some men more abstracted from themselves and all corporeall commerce CHAP. VII What it is that beyond the Highest and most subtile Speculations whatsoever does clear and evidence to a Good man the Immortality of his Soul That True Goodness and Vertue begets the most raised Sense of this Immortality Plotinus his excellent Discourse to this purpose AND now that we may conclude the Argument in hand
which have been written of the Soul's Heraldry will not blazon it so well to us as it self will doe When we turn our own eyes in upon it it will soon tell us it 's own royal pedigree and noble extraction by those sacred Hieroglyphicks which it bears upon it self We shall endeavour to interpret and unfold some of them in our following Discourse 3. There is one thing more to be considered which may serve as a common Basis or Principle to our following Arguments and it is this Hypothesis That no Substantial and Indivisible thing ever perisheth And this Epicurus and all of his Sect must needs grant as indeed they doe and much more then it is lawful to plead for and therefore they make this one of the first Principles of their Atheistical Philosophy Ex nihilo fieri nil in nihilum nil posse reverti But we shall here be content with that sober Thesis of Plato in his Timaeus who attributes the Perpetuation of all Substances to the Benignity and Liberality of the Creatour whom he therefore brings in thus speaking to the Angels those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. You are not of your selves immortal nor indissoluble but would relapse and slide back from that Being which I have given you should I withdraw the influence of my own power from you but yet you shall hold your Immortality by a Patent of meer grace from my self But to return Plato held that the whole world howsoever it might meet with many Periodicall mutations should remain Eternally which I think our Christian Divinity doth no where deny and so Plotinus frames this general Axiom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that no Substance shall ever perish And indeed if we collate all our own Observations Experience with such as the History of former times hath delivered to us we shall not find that ever any substance was quite lost but though this Proteus-like Matter may perpetually change its shape yet it will constantly appear under one Form or another what art soever we use to destroy it as it seems to have been set forth in that old Gryphe or Riddle of the Peripatetick School Aelia Laelia Crispis nec mas nec faemina nec androgyna nec casta nec meretrix nec pudica sed omnia c. as Fortunius Licetus hath expounded it Therfore it was never doubted whether ever any piece of Substance was lost till of latter times some hot-brained Peripateticks who could not bring their fiery and subtile fancies to any cool judgement began rashly to determine that all Material Forms as they are pleas'd to call them were lost For having once jumbled and crouded in a new kind of Being never anciently heard of between the parts of a Contradiction that is Matter and Spirit which they call Material Forms because they could not well tell whence these new upstarts should arise nor how to dispose of them when Matter began to shift herself into some new garb they condemn'd them to utter destruction and yet lest they should seem too rudely to controul all Sense and Reason they found out this common tale which signifies nothing that these Substantial Forms were educed ex potentia Materiae whenever Matter began to appeare in any new disguise and afterwards again returned in gremium Materiae so they thought them not quite lost But this Curiosity consisting onely of words fortuitously packt up together being too subtile for any sober judgment to lay hold upon and which they themselves could never yet tell how to define we shall as carelesly lay it aside as they boldly obtrude it upon us and take the common distinction of all Substantiall Being for granted viz. That it is either Body and so Divisible and of three Dimensions or else it is something which is not properly a Body or Matter so hath no such Dimensions as that the Parts thereof should be crouding for place and justling one with another not being all able to couch together or run one into another and this is nothing else but what is commonly called Spirit Though yet we will not be too Critical in depriving every thing which is not grosly corporeal of all kind of Extension CHAP. III. The First Argument for the Immortality of the Soul That the Soul of man is not Corporeal The gross absurdities upon the Supposition that the Soul is a Complex of fluid Atomes or that it is made up by a fortuitous Concourse of Atomes which is Epicurus his Notion concerning Body The Principles and Dogmata of the Epicurean Philosophy in opposition to the Immateriall and Incorporeal nature of the Soul asserted by Lucretius but discover'd to be false and insufficient That Motion cannot arise from Body or Matter Nor can the power of Sensation arise from Matter Much less can Reason That all Humane knowledge hath not its rise from Sense The proper function of Sense and that it is never deceived An Addition of Three Considerations for the enforcing of this first Argument and further clearing the Immateriality of the Soul That there is in man a Faculty which 1. controlls Sense and 2. collects and unites all the Perceptions of our several Senses 3. That Memory and Prevision are not explicable upon the supposition of Matter and Motion WE shall therefore now endeavour to prove That the Soul of man is something really distinct from his Body of an Indivisible nature and so cannot be divided into such Parts as should flit one from another and consequently is apt of it's own Nature to remain to Eternity and so will doe except the Decrees of Heaven should abandon it from Being And first we shall prove it ab absurdo and here doe as the Mathematicians use to doe in such kind of Demonstrations we will suppose that if the Reasonable Soul be not of such an Immaterial Nature then it must be a Body and so suppose it to be made up as all Bodies are where because the Opinions of Philosophers differ we shall only take one viz. that of Epicurus which supposeth it to be made up by a fortuitous Concourse of Atomes and in that demonstrate against all the rest for indeed herein a particular Demonstration is an Universal as it is in all Mathematical Demonstrations of this kind For if all that which is the Basis of our Reasons and Understandings which we here call the Substance of the Soul be nothing else but a meer Body and therefore be infinitely divisible as all Bodies are it will be all one in effect whatsoever notion we have of the generation or production thereof We may give it if we please finer words and use more demure smooth language about it then Epicurus did as some that lest they should speak too rudely and rustically of it by calling it Matter will name it Efflorescentia Materiae and yet lest that should not be enough adde Aristotle's Quintessence to it too they will be so trim and courtly
Body in his Speculations it will entangle his mind with so many contradictions that it will be impossible to attain to any true knowledge of things We shall conclude this therefore as Tully doth his Contemplation of the Soules operations about the frame of Nature the fabrick of the Heavens and motions of the Stars Animus qui haec intelligit similis est ejus qui ea fabricatus in coelo est Secondly We also find such a Faculty within our own Souls as collects and unites all the Perceptions of our several Senses and is able to compare them together something in which they all meet as in one Centre which Plotinus hath well expressed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That in which all those several Sensations meet as so many Lines drawn from several points in the Circumference and which comprehends them all must needs be One. For should that be various and consisting of several parts which thus receives all these various impressions then must the sentence and judgment passed upon them be various too Aristotle in his de Anima 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That must be one that judgeth things to be diverse and that must judge too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 setting all before it at once Besides we could not conceive how such an immense variety of impressions could be made upon any piece of Matter which should not obliterate and defacē one another And therefore Plotinus hath well disputed against them who make all Sensation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which brings me to the Third Thirdly That Knowledge which the Soul retains in it self of things past and in some sort Prevision of things to come whereby many grow so sagacious in fore-seeing future Events that they know how to deliberate and dispose of present affairs so as to be ready furnished and prepared for such Emergencies as they see in a train and Series of Causes which sometimes work but contingently I cannot think Epicurus himself could in his cool thoughts be so unreasonable as to perswade himself that all the shuffling cutting of Atomes could produce such a Divine piece of Wisdome as this is What Matter can thus bind up Past Present and Future time together which while the Soul of man doth it seems to imitate as far as its own finite nature will permit it to strive after an imitation of God's eternity and grasping and gathering together a long Series of duration into it self makes an essay to free it self from the rigid laws of it and to purchase to it self the freedome of a true Eternity And as by its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Platonists are wont to speak its Chronical and successive operations it unravels and unfolds the contexture of its own indefinite intellectual powers by degrees so by this Memory and Prevision it recollects and twists them up all together again into it self And though it seems to be continually sliding from it self in those several vicissitudes and changes which it runs through in the constant variety of its own Effluxes and Emanations yet is it alwaies returning back again to its first Original by a swift remembrance of all those motions and multiplicity of operations which have begot in it the first sense of this constant flux As if we should see a Sun-beam perpetually flowing forth from the bright body of the Sun and yet ever returning back to it again it never loseth any part of its Being because it never forgets what it self was and though it may number out never so vast a length of its duration yet it never comes nearer to its old age but carrieth a lively sense of its youth and infancy which it can at pleasure lay a fast hold on along with it But if our Souls were nothing else but a Complex of fluid Atomes how should we be continually roving and sliding from our selves and soon forget what we once were The new Matter that would come in to fill up that Vacuity which the Old had made by its departure would never know what the Old were nor what that should be that would succeed that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that new pilgrim and stranger-like Soul would alwaies be ignorant of what the other before it knew and we should be wholly some other bulk of Being then we were before as Plotinus hath excellently observed Enn. 4. l. 7. c. 5. It was a famous speech of wise Heraclitus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man cannot enter twice into the same River by which he was wont symbolically to express the constant flux of Matter which is the most unstable thing that may be And if Epicurus his Philosophy could free this Heap of refined Atomes which it makes the Soul to be from this inconstant and flitting nature and teach us how it could be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some stable and immutable thing alwaies resting entire while it is in the Body though we would thank him for such a goodly conceit as this is yet we would make no doubt but it might as well be able to preserve it self from dissolution and dissipation out of this gross Body as in it seeing it is no more secured from the constant impulses of that more gross Matter which is restlesly moving up and down in the Body then it is out of it and yet for all that we should take the leave to ask Tully's question with his sober disdain Quid obsecro terrâne tibi aut hoc nebuloso caliginoso coeno aut sata aut concreta videtur tanta vis memoriae Such a jewel as this is too precious to be found in a dunghill meer Matter could never thus stretch forth its feeble force spread it self over all its own former praeexistencies We may as well suppose this dull and heavy Earth we tread upon to know how long it hath dwelt in this part of the Universe that now it doth and what variety of Creatures have in all past Ages sprung forth from it and all those occurrences events which have all this time happened upon it CHAP. IV. The second Argument for the Immortality of the Soul Actions either Automatical or Spontaneous That Spontaneous and Elicite Actions evidence the Distinction of the Soul from the Body Lucretius his Evasion very slight and weak That the Liberty of the Will is inconsistent with the Epicurean principles That the Conflict of Reason against the Sensitive Appetite argues a Being in us superiour to Matter WE have done with that which we intended for the First part of our Discourse of the Soul's Immortality we have hitherto look'd at it rather in Concreto then in Abstracto rather as a Thing complicated with and united to the Body and therefore considered it in those Operations which as they are not proper to the Body so neither are they altogether independent upon it but are rather of a mixt nature We shall now take notice of it in those Properties in the exercise whereof it hath less commerce with the Body
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
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
portion in the World to come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and this nowithstanding their Sins Now that Maxime of theirs All Israelites have a portion in the world to come is taken out of the Mishnah l. Sanhedr c. 11. where it is put down as the most Authentick opinion of the Jewish Doctors only some Few there are there recited who are excepted from this happiness otherwise their greatest Malefactors are not excepted from it for so Obadias de Bartenora unfoldeth their meaning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even such as are judged by the great Synedrium worthy of death for their wickednesse these have a portion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the world to come I know here that the Notion of The World to come is differently represented by Nachmanides and Maimonides and their followers But whether Maimonides his sect or the other prevail in this point it is not much material as to our present business seeing both sides conclude that this Seculum futurum or World to come points out such a state of happiness as should not revolve or slide back again into Misery And by the way we may observe what a Lean and Spiritless Religion this of the Jews was and how it was nothing else but a Souleless and Liveless form of External performances which did little or nothing at all reach the Inward man being nothing but a mere Bodily kind of drudgery and servility and therefore our Saviour when he modells out Religion to them Matth. 5. he points them out to Something fuller of inward life and spirit and such a one as might make them Perfect as their Father in heaven is Perfect Such dull heavy-spirited Principles as this Talmudical doctrine we have quoted affordeth us is very like began to possess the Chair in Antigonus his time who therefore put in this Caution against part of it That God was not to be served so much upon the account of Merit and for hope of Wages as out of Love though his Disciples Sadoc and Baithus the founders of the sect of the Sadducees straining that sober Principle too far might more strengthen that Mercenary belief amongst the other Doctors which they had before entertained But before I leave this Argument it may not be amiss to examine also what the Cabbalistical Jewes thought concerning this matter in hand which in summe is this That the Law delivered upon Mount Sinai was a Device God had to knit and unite the Jews and the Shechinah or Divine presence together Therefore they are pleased to stile it in the Book Zohar which is one of the ancientest monuments we have of the Jewish learning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Treasures of life And as if the living God could be united to the Souls of men by such a dead letter as this was as it is stiled by the Apostle 2 Cor. 3. they are pleased to make this External administration the great Vinculum Dei hominis And to this purpose R. Simeon ben Jochai the Compiler of the fore-quoted Book which is a mystical Comment upon the Pentateuch discourseth upon those words Deut. 30. 20. He is thy life and the length of thy days upon which he grounds this Observation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Shechinah or Divine Presence is no where established but by the Mediation of the Law and a little after he thus magnifies the study of the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whosoever doth exercise himself in the Law doth merit the possession of the upper inheritance which is in the holy kingdome above and doth also merit the possession of an inheritance here below in this World Where by the way we may take notice that the ancient Jews looked upon the Inheritances of the land of Canaan as being Typical and significative of an higher inheritance in the kingdome of heaven both which they supposed to be the due rewards of mens works and therefore they talk so much in the same place of Guardian Angels which are continually passing to and fro between Heaven and Earth as the Heralds and Messengers of Mens good works to God in Heaven And further upon those words in Levit. 18. 5. Ye shall keep my statutes and judgments which if a man doe he shall live in them he tells us That the portion of Israel is meritorious because that the Holy Blessed One delighteth in them above all the Idolatrous Nations and out of his favour and goodness to them gave them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the laws of Truth and planted amongst them the Tree of life and the Schechinah was with them Now what doth all this signifie Thus much That since the Israelites are signed with the Holy seale in their flesh they are thereby acknowledged for the Sons of God as on the contrary They that are not sealed with this mark in their flesh are not the Sons of God but are the children of uncleanness Wherefore it is not lawful to contract familiarity with them or to teach them the Words of the Law Which afterwards is urged further by another of their Masters Whosoever instructeth any uncircumcised person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though but in the least precepts of the Law doth the same as if he should destroy the World and deny the name of the Holy Blessed One. All which plainly amounts to thus much as we had before out of the Talmudists That the Law was given unto the Israelites for this purpose To enrich them with good works and to augment their Merits so to establish the foundations of Life Blessedness amongst them and to make it a Medium of the Union betwixt God and Men as R. Eliezer in the same Book speaketh of the near Union between these Three the Holy Blessed One the Law and Israel There is one Passage more in our fore-named Author R. Simeon ben Jochai at the end of Parashah Jethro which though it be more Mystical then the rest yet may be well worth our observing as more fully hinting the Perfection of the Law setting that forth as an absolute and complete Medium of rendring a man Perfect upon which R. Jos. Albo in his third Book de fundament is hath spent two or three Chapters Thus therefore as if the Law was the great Magazine and Store-house of Perfection our foresaid Author there telleth us That when the Israelites stood upon Mount Sinai they saw God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eye to eye or face to face and understood all Secrets of the Law and all the arcana superna inferna c. and then he adds That the same day in which the Israelites stood upon Mount Sinai 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all uncleanness passed away from them and all their Bodies did shine in brightness like to the Angels of heaven when they put on their bright shining Robes to fit themselves for the Embassy upon which they are sent by God their Lord. And a little after thus And when their uncleanness passed away from them the bodies of the
Israelites became shining and clear without any defilement and their Bodies did shine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the brightness of the Firmament And then thus concludeth all When the Israelites received the Law upon Mount Sinai 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the world was then perfum'd with a most aromatick smell and Heaven and Earth were established and the Holy Blessed One was known above and below and he ascended in his glory above all things By all which Mystical and Allegorical Expressions our Author seems to aim at this main Scope viz. To set forth the Law as that which of it self was sufficient without any other Dispensation from God for the perfecting of those to whom it was dispensed and to make them Comprehensours of all Righteousness here and Glory hereafter Which they are wont to set forth in that transcendent state of Perfection which the Israelites were in at the receiving of the Law whence it hath been an ancient Maxime amongst them In Statione montis Sinai Israelitae erant sicut Angeli ministerii And thus we have endeavoured to make good that which we first propounded namely to shew That the grand Opinion of the Jews concerning the way to Life and Happiness was this viz. That the Law of God externally dispensed and only furnished out to them in Tables of Stone and a Parchment-roll conjoined with the power of their own Free-will was sufficient both to procure them acceptance with God and to acquire Merit enough to carry them with spread sails into the Harbour of Eternal rest and blessedness So that by this time we may see that those Disputes which S. Paul and other Apostles maintain against the Jews touching the Law and Faith were not merely about that one Question Whether Justification formally and precisely respects Faith alone but were of a much greater latitude CHAP. IV. The Second Enquiry Concerning the Evangelical Righteousness or the Righteousness of Faith and the true difference between the Law and the Gospel the Old and the New Covenant as it is laid down by the Apostle Paul A more General Answer to this enquiry together with a General observation of the Apostle's main End in opposing Faith to the Works of the Law viz. To beat down the Jewish proud conceit of Merit A more particular and Distinct answer to the Enquiry viz. That the Law or Old Covenant is considered only as an External administration a dead thing in it self a Dispensation consisting in an Outward and Written Law of Precepts But the Gospel or New Covenant is an Internal thing a Vital Form and Principle of Righteousness in the Souls of men an Inward manifestation of Divine life and a living Impression upon the Minds and Spirits of Men. This proved from several Testimonies of Scripture HAving done with the First Enquiry we now come to the Second which was this What the Evangelical Righteousness or the Righteousness of Faith is which the Apostle sets up against that of the Law and in what Notion the Law is considered by the Apostle Which in summe was this viz. That the Law was the Ministery of death and in it self an External and Liveless thing neither could it procure or beget that Divine life and spiritual Form of Godliness in the Souls of men which God expects from all the heirs of Glory nor that Glory which is only consequent upon a true Divine life Whereas on the other side the Gospel is set forth as a mighty Efflux and Emanation of life and spirit freely issuing forth from an Omnipotent source of Grace and Love as that true God-like vital influence whereby the Divinity derives it self into the Souls of men enlivening and transforming them into its own likeness and strongly imprinting upon them a Copy of its own Beauty and Goodness Like the Spermatical virtue of the Heavens which spreads it self freely upon this Lower world and subtily insinuating it self into this benummed feeble earthly Matter begets life and motion in it Briefly It is that whereby God comes to dwell in us and we in him But that we may the more distinctly unfold the Difference between That Righteousness which is of the Law That which is of Faith so the better shew how the Apostle undermines that fabrick of Happiness which the Jews had built up for themselves we shall observe First in general That the main thing which the Apostle endeavours to beat down was that proud and arrogant conceit which they had of Merit and to advance against it the notion of the Divine grace and bounty as the only Fountain of all Righteousness and Happiness For indeed that which all those Jewish notions which we have before taken notice of aim principally at was the advancing of the weakened Powers of Nature into such an height of Perfection as might render them capable of Meriting at Gods hands and that Perfection which they speak so much of as is clear from what hath been said was nothing else but a mere sublimation of their own Natural Powers and Principles performed by the strength of their own Fancies And therefore these Contractors with Heaven were so pleased to look upon Eternal life as a fair Purchase which they might make for themselves at their own charge as if the spring and rise of all were in themselves their eyes were so much dazled with those foolish fires of Merit and Reward kindled in their own Fancies that they could not see that light of Divine grace and bounty which shone about them And this Fastus and swelling pride of theirs if I mistake not is that which S. Paul principally endeavours to chastise in advancing Faith so much as he doth in opposition to the works of the Law For which purpose he spends the First and Second Chapters of this Epistle to the Romans in drawing up a charge of such a nature both against Gentiles and Jews but principally against the Jews who were the grand Justitiaries that might make them bethink themselves of imploring Mercy and of laying aside all plea of Law and Justice and so chap. 3. 27. he shuts up all with a severe check to such presumptuous arrogance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where then is boasting This seems then to be the main End which S. Paul every where aims at in opposing Faith to the works of the Law namely to establish the Foundation of Righteousness and Happiness upon the Free mercy and grace of God the glorifying and magnifying of which in the real manifestations of it he holds forth upon all occasions as the designe plot of the Gospel-administration seeing it is impossible for men by any Works which they can perform to satisfie God's Justice for those Sins which they have committed against him or truly to comply with his Divine will without his Divine assistance So that the Method of reconciling men to God and reducing of straying Souls back again to him was to be attributed wholy to another Original then that which the Jews imagined But Secondly That
will be as scant and sparing as may be here they will be as strict with God as may be that he may have no more then his due as they think like that Unprofitable servant in the Gospel that because his Master was an austere man reaping where he had not sown and gathering where he had not scattered was content and willing he should have his own again but would not suffer him to have any more This Servile spirit in Religion is alwaies illiberal and needy in the Magnalia Legis the great and weightier matters of Religion and here weighs out Obedience by drams and scruples it never finds it self more shrivell'd and shrunk up then when it is to converse with God like those creatures that are generated of slime and mud the more the Summer-sun shines upon them and the nearer it comes to them the more is all their vital strength dried up and spent away their dreadfull thoughts of God like a cold Eastern wind blasts all their blossoming affections and nips them in the bud these exhaust their native vigour and make them weak and sluggish in all their motions toward God Their Religion is rather a Prison or a piece of Penance to them then any voluntary and free compliance of their Souls with the Divine will and yet because they bear the burden and heat of the day they think when the evening comes they ought to be more liberally rewarded such slavish spirits being ever apt inwardly to conceit that Heaven receives some emolument or other by their hard labours and so becomes indebted to them because they see no true gain and comfort accruing from them to their own Souls and so because they doe God's work and not their own they think they may reasonably expect a fair compensation as having been profitable to him And this I doubt was the first and vulgar foundation of Merit though now the world is ashamed to own it But alas such an ungodlike Religion as this can never be owned by God the Bond-woman and her son must be cast out The Spirit of true Religion is of a more free noble ingenuous and generous nature arising out of the warm beams of the Divine love which first hatch'd it and brought it forth and therefore is it afterwards perpetually bathing it self in that sweetest love that first begot it and is alwaies refresh'd and nourish'd by it This Love casteth out fear fear which hath torment in it and is therefore more apt to chase away Souls once wounded with it from God rather then to allure them to God Such fear of God alwaies carries in it a secret Antipathy against him as being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plutarch speaks one that is so troublesome that there is no quiet or peaceable living with him Whereas Love by a strong Sympathy draws the Souls of men when it hath once laid hold upon them by its powerfull insinuation into the nearest conjunction that may be with the Divinity it thaws all those frozen affections which a Slavish fear had congealed and lock'd up and makes the Soul most chearfull free and nobly resolved in all its motions after God It was well observed of old by Pythagoras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are never so well as when we approach to God when in a way of Religion we make our addresses to God then are our Souls most chearfull True Religion and an Inward acquaintance with God discovers nothing in him but pure and sincere Goodness nothing that might breed the least distaste or disaffection or carry in it any semblance of displeasingness and therefore the Souls of good men are never pinching and sparing in their affections then the Torrent is most full and swells highest when it empties it self into this unbounded Ocean of the Divine Being This makes all the Commandements of God light and easie and far from being grievous There needs no Law to compel a Mind acted by the true spirit of divine love to serve God or to comply with his Will It is the choice of such a Soul to endeavour to conform it self to him and draw from him as much as may be an Imitation of that Goodness and Perfection which it finds in him Such a Christian does not therefore obey his Commands only because it is God's Will he should doe so but because he sees the Law of God to be truly perfect as David speaks his nature being reconciled to God finds it all holy just and good as S. Paul speaks and such a thing as his Soul loves sweeter then the honey or the honey-combe and he makes it his meat and drink to doe the Will of God as our Lord and Saviour did And so I pass to the Fourth and last Particular wherein Religion is sometimes mistaken CHAP. V. The Fourth and last Mistake about Religion When a mere Mechanical and Artificial Religion is taken for that which is a true Impression of Heaven upon the Souls of men and which moves like a new Nature How Religion is by some made a piece of Art and how there may be specious and plausible Imitations of the Internals of Religion as well as of the Externals The Method and Power of Fancy in contriving such Artificial imitations How apt men are in these to deceive both themselves and others The Difference between those that are govern'd in their Religion by Fancy and those that are actuated by the Divine Spirit and in whom Religion is a Living Form That True Religion is no Art but a new Nature Religion discovers it self best in a Serene and clear Temper of Mind in deep Humility Meekness Self-denial Universal love of God and all true Goodness THE Fourth and last Particular wherein men mis-judge themselves is When a mere Mechanical and Artificial Religion is taken for that which is a true Impression of Heaven upon the Souls of men and which moves like an Inward nature True Religion will not stoop to Rules of Art nor be confin'd within the narrow compass thereof No where it is we may cry out with the Greek Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God hath there kindled as it were his own Life which will move and act only according to the Laws of Heaven But there are some Mechanical Christians that can frame and fashion out Religion so cunningly in their own Souls by that Book-skill they have got of it that it may many times deceive themselves as if it were a true living thing We often hear that mere Pretenders to Religion may go as far in all the External acts of it as those that are best acquainted with it I doubt not also but many times there may be Artificial imitations drawn of that which only lives in the Souls of good Men by the powerful and wily Magick of exalted Fancies as we read of some Artificers that have made such Images of living creatures wherein they have not only drawn forth the outward shape but seem almost to have copied out the life
contentment without it self and so it wanders up and down from one creature to another and thus becomes distracted by a multiplicity of Objects And while it cannot find some One and Onely object upon which as being perfectly adequate to its capacities it may wholly bestow it self while it is tossed with restless and vehement motions of Desire and Love through a world of painted beauties false glozing Excellencies courting all but matching nowhere violently hurried every whither but finding nowhere objectum par amori while it converseth onely with these pinching Particularities here below and is not yet acquainted with the Universal Goodness it is certainly far from true Rest and Satisfaction from a fixt composed temper of spirit but being distracted by multiplicity of Objects and Ends there can never be any firm and stable peace or friendship at home amongst all its Powers and Faculties nor can there be a firm amity and friendship abroad betwixt wicked men themselves as Aristotle in his Ethicks does conclude because all Vice is so Multiform and inconsistent a thing and so there can be no true concatenation of Affections and Ends between them Whereas in all Good men Vertue and Goodness is one Form and Soul to them all that unites them together and there is the One Simple and Uniform Good that guides and governs them all They are not as a Ship tossed in the tumultuous Ocean of this world without any Compass at all to stear by but they direct their course by the certain guidance of the One Last End as the true Pole-starr of all their motion But while the Soul lies benighted in a thick Ignorance as it is with wicked men and beholds not some Stable and Eternal Good to move toward though it may by the strength of that Principle of Activeness within it self spend it self perpetually with swift and giddy motions yet it will be always contesting with secret disturbances and cannot act but with many reluctancies as not finding an object equall to the force and strength of its vast affections to act upon By what hath been said may appear the vast difference between the ways of Sin and of Holinesse Inward distractions and disturbances tribulation and anguish upon every Soul that doth evil But to every man that worketh good glory honour and peace inward composednesse and tranquillity of spirit pure and divine joys farr excelling all sensual pleasures in a word true Contentment of spirit and full satisfaction in God whom the pious Soul loves above all things and longs still after a nearer enjoyment of him I shall conclude this Particular with what Plotinus concludes his Book That the life of holy and divine men is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a life not touch't with these vanishing delights of Time but a flight of the Soul alone to God alone CHAP. VII The Fifth Property or Effect discovering the Excellency of Religion viz. That it advanceth the Soul to an holy boldness and humble familiarity with God and to a comfortable confidence concerning the Love of God toward it and its own Salvation Fearfulness Consternation of Mind and frightfull passions are consequent upon Sin and Guilt These together with the most dismall deportments of Trembling and Amazement are agreeable to the nature of the Devil who delights to be serv'd in this manner by his worshippers Love Joy and Hope are most agreeable to the nature of God and most pleasing to him The Right apprehensions of God are such as are apt to beget Love to God Delight and Confidence in him A true Christian is more for a solid and well-grounded Peace then for high raptures and feelings of joy How a Christian should endeavour the Assurance of his Salvation That he should not importunately expect or desire some Extraordinary manifestations of God to him but rather look after the manifestation of the life of God within him the foundation or beginning of Heaven and Salvation in his own Soul That Self-resignation and the subduing of our own Wills are greatly available to obtain Assurance The vanity and absurdity of that Opinion viz. That in a perfect resignation of our Wills to God's will a man should be content with his own Damnation and to be the subject of Eternal wrath in Hell if it should so please God THe Fifth Property or Effect whereby True Religion discovers its own Nobleness and Excellency is this That it advanceth the Soul to an holy boldness and humble familiarity with God as also to a well-grounded Hope and comfortable Confidence concerning the Love of God toward it and its own Salvation The truly religious Soul maintains an humble and sweet familiarity with God and with great alacrity of spirit without any Consternation and Servility of spirit is enabled to look upon the Glory and Majesty of the most High But Sin and Wickedness is pregnant with fearfulness and horrour That Trembling and Consternation of Mind which possesses wicked men is nothing else but a brat of darkness an Empusa begotten in corrupt and irreligious Hearts While men walk in darkness and are of the night as the Apostle speaks then it is onely that they are vext with those ugly and gastly Mormos that terrify and torment them But when once the Day breaks and true Religion opens her self upon the Soul like the Eye-lids of the Morning then all those shadows and frightfull Apparitions flee away As all Light and Love and Joy descend from above from the Father of lights so all Darkness and Fearfulness Despair are from below they arise from corrupt and earthly minds are like those gross Vapors arising from this Earthly globe that not being able to get up towards heaven spread themselves about the circumference of that Body where they were first begotten infesting it with darkness and generating into Thunder and Lightning Clouds and Tempests But the higher a Christian ascends 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above this dark dungeon of the Body the more that Religion prevails within him the more then shall he find himself as it were in a clear heaven in a Region that is calm and serene and the more will those black and dark affections of Fear and Despair vanish away and those clear and bright affections of Love and Joy and Hope break forth in their strength and lustre The Devil who is the Prince of darkness and the great Tyrant delights to be served with gastly affections and the most dismal deportments of trembling and astonishment as having nothing at all of amiableness or excellency in him to commend himself to his worshippers Slavery and servility that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Longinus truly calls it is the badge and livery of the Devil's religion hence those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Heathens perform'd with much trembling and horror But God who is the supreme Goodness and Essentiall both Love and Loveliness takes most pleasure in those sweet and delightfull affections of the Soul viz. Love Joy and Hope which are most
correspondent to his own nature The ancient superstition of the Heathens was always very nice and curious in honouring every one of their Gods with Sacrifices and Rites most agreeable to their natures I am sure there is no Incense no offering we can present God with is so sweet so acceptable to him as our Love and Delight and Confidence in him and when he comes into the Souls of men he makes these his Throne his place of rest as finding the greatest agreeableness therein to his own Essence A Good man that finds himself made partaker of the Divine nature and transform'd into the image of God infinitely takes pleasure in God as being altogether Lovely according to that in Cant. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Totus ipse est desideria and his Meditation of God is sweet unto him Ps. 104. S. John that lay in the bosome of Christ who came from the bosome of the Father and perfectly understood his Eternal Essence hath given us the fullest description that he could make of him when he tells us that God is Love and he that dwells in God dwells in love and reposing himself in the bosome of an Almighty Goodness where he finds nothing but Love and Loveliness he now displays all the strength and beauty of those his choiest and most precious affections of Love and Joy and Confidence his Soul is now at ease and rests in peace neither is there any thing to make afraid He is got beyond all those powers of darknesse which give such continual alarms in this lower world and are always troubling the Earth He is got above all fears and despairs he is in a bright clear region above Clouds and Tempests infra se despicit nubes There is no frightful terribleness in the supreme Majesty That men apprehend God at any time in such a dismayed manner it must not at all be made an argument of his nature but of our sinfulness and weakness The Sun in the heavens always was and will be a Globe of Light and brightness howsoever a purblind Eye is rather dazled then enlightned by it There is an Inward sense in Mans Soul which were it once awaken'd and excited with an inward tast and relish of the Divinity could better define God to him then all the world else It is the sincere Christian that so tasts and sees how good and sweet the Lord is as none else does The God of hope fills him with all joy and peace in believing so that he abounds in hope as the Apostle speaks Rom. 15. He quietly reposes himself in God his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord he is more for a solid peace and setled calme of spirit then for high Raptures and feelings of Joy or Extraordinary Manifestations of God to him he does not passionately desire nor importunately expect such things he rather looks after the Manifestations of the Goodness and Power of God within him in subduing all in his Soul that is unlike and contrary to God and forming him into his image and likeness Though I think it worthy of a Christian to endeavour the Assurance of his own Salvation yet perhaps it might be the safest way to moderate his curiosity of prying into God's Book of life and to stay a while untill he sees himself within the confines of Salvation it self Should a man hear a Voice from Heaven or see a Vision from the Almighty to testify unto him the Love of God towards him yet methinks it were more desireable to find a Revelation of all from within arising up from the Bottome and Centre of a mans own Soul in the Reall and Internal impressions of a Godlike nature upon his own spirit and thus to find the Foundation and Beginning of Heaven and Happiness within himself it were more desirable to see the crucifying of our own Will the mortifying of the mere Animal life and to see a Divine life rising up in the room of it as a sure Pledge and Inchoation of Immortality and Happiness the very Essence of which consists in a perfect conformity and chearfull complyance of all the Powers of our Souls with the Will of God The best way of gaining a well-grounded assurance of the Divine love is this for a man to overcome himself and his own Will To him that overcomes shall be given that white stone and in it the new name written which no man knoweth but he that receives it He that beholds the Sun of righteousness arising upon the Horizon of his Soul with healing in its wings and chasing away all that misty darkness of his own Self-will and Passions such a one desires not now the Starr-light to know whether it be Day or not nor cares he to pry into Heaven's secrets and to search into the hidden rolles of Eternity there to see the whole plot of his Salvation for he views it transacted upon the inward stage of his own Soul and reflecting upon himself he may behold a Heaven opened from within and a Throne set up in his Soul and an Almighty Saviour sitting upon it and reigning within him he now finds the Kingdome of Heaven within him and sees that it is not a thing merely reserved for him without him being already made partaker of the sweetnesse and efficacy of it What the Jewes say of the Spirit of Prophesy may not unfitly be applyed to the Holy Ghost the true Comforter dwelling in the minds of good men as a sure Earnest of their Eternal inheritance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Spirit resides not but upon a man of Fortitude one that gives proof of this Fortitude in subduing his own Self-will and his Affections We read of Elisha that he was fain to call for a Musical instrument and one to play before him to allay the heat of his Passions before he could converse with the Prophetical Spirit The Hely Spirit is too pure and gentle a thing to dwell in a Mind muddied and disturb'd by those impure dreggs those thick fogs and mists that arise from our Self-will and Passions our prevailing over these is the best way to cherish the Holy Spirit by which we may be sealed unto the day of redemption To conclude this Particular It is a venturous and rugged guess and conceit which some men have That in a perfect resignation of our Wills to the Divine will a man should be content with his own Damnation and to be the Subject of Eternal Wrath in Hell if it should so please God Which is as impossible as it is for him that infinitely thirsts after a true Participation of the Divine Nature and most earnestly endeavours a most inward Union with God in Spirit by a denial of himself and his own will to swell up in Self-love Pride and Arrogancy against God the one whereof is the most substantial Heaven the other the most real Hell whereas indeed by conquering our selves we are translated from Death to Life and the kingdom of God and Heaven is
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