be in him a Well of Water springing up into everlasting Life THis Chapter contains an excellent profitable familiar discourse of the blessed Saviour of the World into whose Lips grace was poured Psal 45. 2. and he ceased not to pour it out again That which is said of the Wise Prov. 15. 7. is fully verified of Wisdom it self His Lips dispersed Knowledge A poor Woman of Samaria comes to draw Water and our Saviour takes occasion from the Water to instruct her in the great and excellent Doctrines of the Kingdom of Heaven Oh the admirable zeal for God and compassion for Sonls which dwelt in that Divine Breast And Oh the wonderful unsearchable Councels of an all-wise God! He ordains Saul's seeking of Asses to be the means of his finding a Kingdom upon Earth and this poor Woman's seeking of Water to be an occasion of her finding the way to the Kingdom of Heaven She comes to the Well of Jaceb and behold she meets with the God of Jacob there The Occasion Passages and Issue of this Discourse would each afford many good and profitable Observations But I think none more than this verse that I have pitch'd upon in which the mystery of Gospel-Grace is rarely unfolded and true Christian Religion is excellently described For so I understand our Saviour not as speaking of Faith or Knowledge or any other particular Grace but of Grace in general of the holy Spirit of God that is the Gifts and Graces of it of true Godliness or if you will of Christian Religion for that word I shall choose to retain throughout my Discourse as being most intelligible and comprehensive In which words we find true Christian Religion unfolded in the original nature properties consequent and end of it The original of it is found in those words I shall give him The nature of it is described by a Well of Water The properties of it will be found in the phrase of springing up The consequent of it that the man that is endued with it shall never thirst The end or perfection of it is everlasting Life Of all these by Gods assistance in this order First I begin with the Original of it as it seems meet I should for indeed it is first found in the words The Water that I shall give him And here the Proposition that I shall go upon must be That True Christion Religion is of a Divine Original All Souls are indeed the Off-spring of God Those Noble Faculties oâ— Vnderstanding and a Will free from constraint do more resemble the nature of God than all the World besides There is more of the glory beauty and brightness of God in a Soul than there is in the Sun it self The Apostle allows it as a proper speech spoken in common of all men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act 17. 28. God hath derived more lively prints of himself and his Divine Essence upon a rational Soul than he hath upon the whole Creation so that the Soul of man even as to its constitution doth declare and discover more of the rature of God than all the other things that he hath made whereof the Apostle speaks Rom. 1. 20. He that rightly converseth with his own Soul wâ—ll get more acquaintarce with God than they that gaze conâ—â—ually upon the material Heavens or traverse the dark and uâ—most corners of the Earth or go down unto the Sea in Ships the sâ—rious consideration of the little World will teach more of him than the great one could do So that I doubt not to take the Apostles words concerning the Word of God and apply them to the Nature of God Rom. 10. Say not in thy heart Who shall ascend into Heaven to bring a discovery of God from thence or who shall descend into the Deep to fetch it up from thence The Nature and Essence of God is nigh thee even in thine own Soul excellently displayed in the Constitution and Frame Powers and Faculties thereof God hath not made any Creaâ—uâ—e so capable of receiving and â—â—flecting his Image and Glory as Angels and Men Which hath made me often to say That the vilest Soul of Man is much more beautiful and honourable than the most excellent Body than the very Body of the Sun at noon day And by the way this may render Sâ—n odious and loaâ—h some because It hath defiled the fairest piece of Gods Workmanshâ—p in the World and blurâ—ed the clearest Copy which he had drawn of himself in the whole Creation But though all rational Souls be the Children of God yet all of them do not imiâ—ate their Father though their Constitution do express much of the Essence of God yet their Disposition doth express the Image of the Devil But godly Souls who are followers of God are indeed his dear Children Ephes 5. 1. Holy Souls who are endued with a divine and god like disposition and do work the workâ— of God these are most truly and properly his Off spring Mat. 5. 44 45. And in this respect God's Children are his workmanship created unto good Works Ephes 2. 10. Religion is of a Divine Original God is the Author and Father of it both from without and from within 1. God is the Author of it from without When Man had sallen from God by sin and so had lost his way and was become both unwilling and unable to return God was pleased to set up that glorious Light his own Son the Sun of Righteousness in the World that he might guide their feet into the way of peace who is therefore called A Light to lighten the Gentiles Luk. 2. 32. and compared to a Candle set upon a Candlestick Mark 4. 21. God of his infinite free grace and over-flowing goodness provided a Mediator in and by whom these Apostate Souls might be reconciled and re-united to himself and to as many as receive him to them he giveth power to become the Sons of God John 1. 12. Yet further It pleased God in his infinite Wisdom and Mercy to chalk out the way of Life and Peace in the holy Scriptures and therein to unlock the secrets of Salvation to succeeding generations Herein he hath plainly laid down the terms of the Covenant of Peace which was made in the Mediator and given Precepts and Promises for the direction and encouragement of as many as will enquire into the same These are the sacred Oracles which give clear and certain answers to all that do consult them about their future state Rom. 3. 2. Christ Jesus opened the way into the holiest of all and the Scriptures they come after and point it out unto us He purchased life and immortality and these bring it to light 2 Tim. 1. 10. And yet further That these might not be mistaken or perverted to mens destruction which were ordain'd for their salvation which sometimes doth come to pass 2 Pet. 3. 16. God hath been pleased to commit these Records into the hands of his Church and therein to his Ministers whom
whom she had so long straggled by sin and wickedness For the God of hope filleth the godly soul with all peace and joy in believing Rom. 15. 13. Christ doth on purpose speak words to the hearts of his Disciples that their joy may be full Joh. 15. 11. But whether the most benign and gracious Father of spirits doth immediately from himself inspire the holy soul with divine joys and pleasures kindled as I may say with nothing but his own breath or whether he bring them to his holy Mountain and into his house of prayer and by that or any other the like means make them joyful and of glad heart as in the day of a solemn festival as he hath promised to do Isa 56. 7. and Isa 25. 6. However it be I say sure it is that he frequently puts a gladness into their hearts beyond that of the Harvest or the Vintage Psal 4. 7. and makes them to rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1. 8. Having now unfolded the meaning of the gracious soul 's nor thirsting any more I should pass to the last thing contained in the Text but finding my self opprest in my spirit by the consideration of this necessary consequent of true Religion when I compare the temper of Christians with it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I must crave leave to stay a little and breathe And what shall I breath but a sad and bitter complaint over that low earthly selfish greedy spirit which actuateth the world at this day yea and the generality of Professors of that sacred Religion which we call Christianity Alas what a company of thieves and murderers I mean base and sensual loves and lusts lodge in those very souls who would be taken for Temples consecrated to the name and honour and inhabitation of the eternal God the spirit of Truth and Holiness Oh what pitty is it that the precious souls of men yea and of Christians the best of men that are all capable of so glorious liberty so high and honourable a happiness should be bound down under such vile and sordid lusts feeding upon dust and gravel to whom the hidden Mannah is freely offered and God himself is ready to become a banquet And oh what a shame is it for those who profess themselves children of God Disciples of the most holy Jesus and Heirs of his pure and undefiled Kingdom of Heaven for these I say willingly and greedily to roll themselves in filthy and bruitish sensualities to set up that on high in their souls which was made to be under their bodies and so to love and live as if they studied to have no affinity at all but would be as unlike as they could to that God and Redeemer and unfit for that inheritance How often shall it be protested to the Christian world by men of the greatest devotion and seriousness that it is utterly mad and perfectly vain to dream of entring into the Kingdom of Heaven hereafter except the Kingdom of Heaven enter into our souls during their union with these bodies How long shall the Son of God who came into the world on purpose to be the most glorious example of true and divine purity exact and perfect self-denial and mortification how long shall he lye by in his word as an antiquated pattern only cut out for the Apostolical ages of the world and only suited to some few morose and melancholick men Is it not a monstrous spectacle and to be hist out of the world with the greatest indignation a covetous voluptuous ambitious sensual Saint With what face can we pretend to true Religion or a feeling acquaintance with God and the things of his personall service and Kingdome whilest the continual bleatings and lowings of our souls after created good do bewray us so manifestly and proclaim before all the world that the beast the brutish life is still powerful in us If ye seek me saith Christ to his followers as well as he did once to his persecutors then let these go let go the hold of these earthly objects let vanish these worldly joys and toys with-hold your throat from thirst and your feet from being unshod and come follow me only and ye shall have treasure in Heaven for he that will not deny all for me is not worthy of me But O curvae in terras animae c. Ah sad and dreadful fall that hath so miserably crampt this royal off-spring and made the Kings Son to be a same Mephibosheth Ah dolesul Apostasie How are the Sons of the morning become Brats of darkness and the heirs of Heaven vassals and drudges to earth How is the Kings Daughter unequally yoaked with a churlish Nabal that continually checketh her with more divine and generous motions How unhappily art thou matcht O my soul And yet alas I see it is too properly a marriage for thou hast clean forgotten thine own people and thy Fathers house Take up oh take up a lamentation thou Virgin Daughter of the God of Zion Sometimes indeed a Virgin but now alas no longer a Virgin but miserably married to an unworthy mate that can never be able to match thy faculties nor maintain thee according to the grandeur of thy birth or the necessary pomp of thy expences and way of living nay thou art become not only a miserable wife but in so being thou art also a wicked adulteress prostituting thy self to the very vilest of thy lawful Husbands servants if thou be not incestuous it is no thank to thee there being nothing in this world so near of kin to thee as to make way for incest Return return O Shulamite return return put away thine adulteries from between thy breasts and so shall the King yet again greatly desire thy beauty for so he hath promised Jer. 3. 21. that when there shall be a voice heard upon the high places weeping and supplications of the children of Israel because they have perverted their way and forgotten the Lord their God and the backsliding children shall return that then he will heal their backslidings CHAP. VIII The term or end of Religion eternal life considered in a double notion First as it signifies the essential happiness of the soul The second as it takes in many glorious appendices The former more fully described the latter more briefly The noble and genuine breathings of the godly soul after and springing up into the former in what sense she may be said to desire the latter The argument drawn from the example of Christ Moses and Paul moderated A general answer given to the Quaery It ends in a serious exhortation made to Christians to live and love more spiritually more suitably to the nature of souls redeemed souls resulting from the whole discourse I Am now come to the last thing whereby this most noble principle is described viz. the Term or End of it and that is said here in the Text to be Everlasting Life This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or
life into which true Religion daily springs up and will at length infallibly conduct the Christian soul unto This work thus undertaken and in a great measure then carryed on I have since perfected and do here present to the perusal of my dear Countrey having made it publick for no private end but if it might be to serve the interest of Gods glory in the world which I do verily reckon that I shall do if by his blessing I may be instrumental to undeceive any soul mistaken in so high and concerning a matter as Religion is or any way to awaken and quicken any Religious soul not sufficiently ravisht with the unspeakable glory nor cheerfully enough springing up into the full fruition of Eternal life What a certain and undefeatable tendency true Religion hath towards the eternal happiness and salvation of mens souls will I hope evidently appear out of the body of this small Treatise But that 's not all though indeed that were enough to commend it to any rational soul that is any whit free and ingenuous and is not so perfectly debauched as to utterly from right reason For it is also the sincerest pollicy imaginable and the most unerring expedient in the world for the uniting and establishing of a divided and tottering Kingdom or Common-wealth To demonstrate which was the very design of this Preface It is well known Oh that it were but as well and effectually believed that godliness is profitable to all things and that it 1 Tom. 4. 8. hath the promises and blessings of the life that now is and of that which is to come that the right seeking of the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness hath no less than all things Mat. 6. 33. annext to it How unmeasurable is the body and bulk of that blessedness to which all the comforts of this life are to be as an Appendix to a volume But men are apt to shuffle off generals therefore I will descend to instances and shew in a few Particulars what a mighty influence Religion in the power of it would certainly have for the political happiness and flourishing state of a Nation Wherein I doubt not but to make it appear that not Religion as some slanderously report but indeed the wâ—nt of it is the immediate trouhler of every Nation and individual society yea and soul too according to that golden saying of the holy Apostle From whence come Jam. 4. 1. wars and fightings Come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members Here let me desire one thing of the Reader and that is to bear in his mind all along where he finds the word Religion that I have principally a respect to the description given of it in the Text and that I mean thereby a divine principle implanted in the soul springing up into everlasting life And now I should briefly touch those faults both in governours towards their subjects subjects towards their governours and towards each other which do destroy the peacefull state and the sound and happy constitution of a body politick And indeed I fear it will run upon some inconvenience if not confusion to wave this method But out of a pure desire to avoid whatever may be interpretable to ill will curiosity presumption or any other bad disposition and that it may appear to any ingenuous eye that I am more desirous to bind up than to rake into sores I will expresly shew how Religion would heale the distempers of any Nation without taking any more than an implicite notice of the distempers themselves First Then it is undoubtedly true that Religion deeply radicated in the nature of Princes and governours would most effectually qualifie them for the most happy way of reigning Every body knows well enough what an excellent Eucrasie and lovely constitution the Jewish polity was in under the influences of holy David wise Solomon devout Hezekiah zealous Josiah and others of the same spirit so that I need not spend my self in that enquiry and so consequently not upon that argument Now there are many wayes by which it is easie to conceive that Religion would rectifie and well temper the spirits of Princes This principle will verily constitute the most noble heroical and royal soul in as much as it will not suffer men to find any unhallowed satisfaction in a divine authority but will be springing up into a Godlike nature as their greatest and most perfective glory It will certainly correct and limit the over-eager affectation of unweildy greatness and unbounded Dominion by teaching them that the most honourable victory in the world is self-conquest and that the propagation of the image and Kingdom of God in their own souls is infinitely preferrible to the advancement or enlargement of any temporal jurisdiction The same holy principle being the most genuine off-spring of divine Love and Benignity will also polish their rough and over-severe natures instruct them in the most sweet and obliging methods of government by assimulating them to the nature of God 1 Cor. 7. 22. 2 Cor. 3. 17. who is infinitely abhorrent from all appearance of oppression and hath most admirably provided that his servants should not be slaves by making his service perfect freedome The pure and impartial nature of God cannot endure superstitious flatterers or hypocritical professors and the Princes of the Earth that are regenerate into his Image will also estimate men according to God I mean according to his example who loves nothing but the communications of himself and according Lâ—v. 2. 11. to their participation of his Image which is only amiable and advanceable in the world What God rejected in his fire-offerings Religion will teach Princes to disgust in the devotions as they call them of their Courtiers I mean not only the leaven of superstitious pride and dogged morosity but also the honey of mercenary prostrations and fawning adulations In a word this Religious principle which makes God its pattern and end springs from him and is alwayes springing up into him would soveraignty heal the distempers of ruling by humour self-interest and arbitrariness and teach men to seek the good of the publick before self-gratifications For so God rules the world who however some men slander him I dare say hath made nothing the duty of his creature but what is really the good of it neither doth he give his people Laws on purpose that he might shew his Soveraignty in making them or his justice in punishing the breach of them much less doth he give them any such statutes as which himself would as willingly they broke as kept so he might but the penalty What I have briefly said concerning political governours the judicious Reader may view over again and apply to the Ecclesiastical For I do verily reckon that if the hearts of these men were in that right Religious temper and holy order which I have been speaking of it would plentifully contribute towards the happy and
every body that so much as lookt towards it and by all means kept it even as his life For where is the like eager and ardent disposition to be found in a Christian towards God himself Tell me is it possible for a man that vehemently loves a Virgin to be content all his life long to Court her at a distance and not care whether ever he do actually enjoy her or no or must not such an one necessarily pursue a matrimonial and most intimate union with her let us now confess the truth and every one judge himself 2. This dull and earthly body is not so indifferently affected towards meat and drink and rest and the things that do serve its necessities and gratifie its temper Hunger will break down stone walls and thirst will give away a kingdom for a cup of water sickness will not be eased by good words nor will a drowsie brain be bribed by any entertainments of company or recreation no no the necessities of the body must and will be relieved with food and physick and sleep the restless and raging appetite will never cease calling and crying to the soul for supplies till it arise and give them Behold O my Soul consider the mighty and incessant appetites and tendencies of the body after sensual objects after its suitable good and proper perfection and be ashamed of thy more remiss and sluggish inclinations towards the highest good a God-like perfection 3. No creature in the whole world is so languid slow and indifferent in its motions towards its proper rest and centre How easie were it to call Heaven and earth to witness the free pleasant cheerfull eager addresses of every creature according to its kind towards its own centre and happiness The Sun in the Firmament rejoyces to run its race and will not stand still one moment except it be miraculously overpowred by the command of God himself the rivers seem to be in pain till by a continued flowing they have accomplisht to themselves a kind of perfection and be swallowed up in the bosome of the Ocean except they be benummed with cold or otherwise overmastered and retarded by forraign violence I need not instance in sensitives and vegetatives all which you know with a natural vigour and activity do grow up daily towards a perfect state and stature Were it not a strange and monstrous sight to see a stone setling in the ayre and not working towards its centre such a spectacle is a godly soul setling upon earth and not endeavouring a nearer and more intimate union with its God Wherefore Christians either cease to pretend that you have chosen God for your portion centre happiness or else arise and cease not â—o pursue and accomplish the closest union and the most familiar conjunction with him that your souls are capable of otherwise I call Heaven and Earth to witness against you this day and the day is comming when you will be put to shame by the whole creation Doth every even the meanest creature of God pursue its end and perfection and proper happiness with ardent and vehement longings and shall a soul the noblest of all creatures stand folding up itself in itself or choaking up its wide and divine capacity with dust and dirt shall a godly soul the noblest of all souls hang the wings suspend its motions towards the supream good or so much as once offer to faint and languish in iâ—s enterprizes for eternal life Tell it not at Athens publish it not at Rome lest the Heathen Philosophers deride and hiss us out of the world But you will ask me when a Christian may be said to be sluggish and unactive and who these lazy souls are I will premise two things and then give you a brief account of them First When I speak of a sluggish and spiritless Religion I do not speak as the hot-spirited Anabaptists or Chiliasts who being themselves acted by a strange fervour of mind miscalled zeal are wont to declaim against all men as cold and benummed in their spirits who do not call for fire from Heaven to consume all dissenters under the notion of Antichristian who are not afraid to reproach the divine holy gentle yet generous spirit of Religion calling it weak womanish cowardly low cold and I know not what These men I believe so far as I can guess at their spirit if they had lived in the dayes of our Saviour and had beheld that gentle meek humble peaceable and pacate spirit which did infinitely shine forth in him would have gone nigh to have reproved him for not carrying on his own Kingdom with sufficient vigour and activity if not have judged Christ himself to be much Antichristian I hope you see nothing in all my discoveries of the Active spirit of Religion that savours of such a fiery spirit as this is Secondly when I do so highly commend the Active spirit of true Religion and the vigorous temper of truly Religious souls I would not be understood as if I thought all such souls were alike swift or that any such soul did alwayes move with like swiftness and keep a like pace towards God I know that there are different sizes of Active souls yea and different degrees of Activity in the same soul as may be seen Cant. 5. 3. compared with the sixth verse of the same chapter and in many other places of Scripture But yet that none may flatter and deceive themselves with an opinion of their being what indeed they are not I will briefly discover the sluggishness and inactivity of Christians in a few particulars I pray take it not ill though the greatest part of Christians be found guilty for that is no other than what Christ himself hath prophesied 1. The Active spirit of Religion in the soul will not suffer men to take up their rest in a constant course of external performances and they are but slothful souls that do place their Religion in any thing without them By external performances I mean not only open and publick and solemn services but even the most private and secret performances that are in and by the body and ab extra to the soul It is not possible that a soul should be happy in any thing that is extrinsecal to itself no not in God himself if we consider him only as something without the soul The devil himself knows and sees much of God without him but having no communications of a divine nature or life being perfectly estranged from the life of God he remains perfectly miserable I doubt it is a common deceit in the world men toyle and labour in bodily acts of worship and Religion in a slavish and mercinary manner and think with those labourers in the parable that at the end they must needs receive great wages and much thanks because they have born the heat and burden of the day Alas that ever men should so grosly mistake the nature of Religion as to sink it into a few bodily