indeed then neither nor can it be until he come to the measure of the stature of his Lord and be grown up into him in all things who is the head even Christ Ephes 4. 15. He delights and glories in God beholding his spices growing in his soul but that does not satisfie him except he may see them flowing out also Cant. 4. 16. He is neither barren nor unfruitful as the Apostle Peter speaks but that is not enough he desires to be fat and fruitful also as a watered Garden as the Prophet phraseth it even as the Garden of God The spirit lusteth against the flesh and struggles with it in the same womb of the soul as Jacob with Esau until he had cast him out The seed of God warreth continually against the seed of the Serpent raging and restless like Jehu shooting and stabbing and strangling all he meets with till none at all remain of the family of that Ahab who had formerly been his Master Oh how do's the godly and devout soul long to have Christ's victory carried on in it self to have Christ going on in him conquering and to conquer till at length the very last enemy be subdued that the Prince of Peace may ride triumphantly thorow all the Coasts and Regions of his heart and life and not so much as a Dog move his tongue against him â— This holy principle which is of God in the soul is actually industrious too it doth not fold the arms together hide its hand in its bosome faintly wishing to obtain a final conquest over its enemies but advances it self with a noble stoutness ness against lusts and passions even as the Sun glorieth against the darkness of the night until it have chased it all away The godly soul puts it self under the banner of Christ fights under the conduct of the Angel of God's presence and so marches up undauntedly against the children of Anak those earthly loves lusts sensual affections which are indeed taller and stronger than all other enemies that do encounter it in this wilderness state and the gracious God is not wanting to such endeavours he remembring his promise helpeth his servants even that promise Isa 49. 31. That they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength A true Israelitish soul impregnated with this noble and heroick principle is not like those slothful Israelites that were content with what they had got of the holy Land and either could not or cared not to enlarge their border Judg. 1. But he makes war upon the remainder of the Canaanites and is never at rest till be have with Sarah cast out the bond woman and her Son too You may see an emblem of such a soul in Moses holding up his hands all the day long till Amalek was quite discomfited Exo. 17. As oft as the floods of temptation springing from the Devil the world or the flesh do offer to come in upon him he opposeth them in the strength of Christ or if you will in the Prophets phrase Isa 59. 19. The Spirit of the Lord lifteth up a standard against them so that he is not carried down by them or at least not overwhelmed with them In the beginning of my discourse upon this head I hinted to you the reason why the godly soul continually studies conformity of God even because he is the perfect and absolute good and the soul reckons that its happiness consists only in being like unto him in partaking of a divine nature But I might also here take occasion speak of three things which I will but briefly name and so past on First A godly man reckons with himself that conformity to the image and nature of God is the most proper conversing with God in the world The great and indeed only imployment of an immortal soul is to converse with its Creator for this end it was made and made so capacious as we see it Now to partake of a divine nature to be indutd with a God-like disposition is most properly to converse with God this is a real powerful practical and feeling converse with him infinitely to be preferred before all notions professions performances or speculations Secondly A godly man reckons that the image of God is the glory and ornament of the soul it is the lustre and brightness and beauty of the soul as the soul is of the body Holiness is not only the duty but the highest honour and dignity that any created nature is capable of And therefore the godly soul who hath his senses exercised to discern good and evil pursues after it as after his sull and proper perfection Thirdly A godly man reckons that conformity to the divine image participation of the divine nature is the sureft and most comfortable evidence of divine love which is a matter of so great enquity in the world By growing up daily in Christ Jesus we are infallibly assured of our implantation into him The Spirit of God descending upon the soul in the impressions of meekness kindness uprightness which is a Dove-like disposition is a better and more desirable evidence of our Sonship and God's favour towards us than if we had the Spirit descending upon our heads in a Dove-like shape as it did upon our blessed Saviour These things may pass for a kind of reasons why the religious Christian above all things labours to become God-like to be formed more and more into a resemblance of the supreme good and to drink in divine perfections into the very inmost of his soul 2. The active and industrious nature of true Godliness or Religion manifests its self in a good man's continual care and study to do good to serve the interest of the holy and blessed God in the world A good man being mastered with the sense of the infinite goodness of God and the great end of his life cannot think it worth while to spend himself for any inferiour good or bestow his time and strength for any lower end than that it and therefore as it is the main happiness of his life to enjoy God so he makes it the main business of his life to serve him to be doing for him to lay out himself for him and to display and propagate his glory in the world And as he is ravished with the apprehensions of the supreme goodness which doth infinitely deserve and may justly challenge all that he can do or expend for him so he doth indeed really partake of the active and communicative nature of that blessed Being and himself becomes active and communicative too A godly soul sluggish and unactive is as if one should say a godly soul altogether unlike to God a pure contradiction I cannot dwell upon any of those particular desigus of serving the interest of God's glory which a good man is still driving on in the world Only this in general whether be pray or preach or read or celebrate Sabbaths or administer private reproof or instruction or indeed plow or sow eat or
Though faith abhors the blasphâ—my of laying blame upon God yet it so fixes the soul upon him and causes her so to eye his hand and end in all mal-administrations of men that she hath no leisure to fall out with men or quarrel with instruments These Discontents I said were frequently attended with an evil and seditious zeal for relaxation discovering itself in secret treacherous conspiracies and many times in boisterous and daring attempts These are at the first sight so directly contrary to the character given of Religious men viz. the Psal 35. 20. Gal. 5. 22 23. Col. 3. 12 13 14 15 16. quiet of the Land and the genius of Religion which is wholly made up of love peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faithfulness meekness temperance mercy kindness humbleness of mind forbearance forgiveness charity thankfulness wisdom that it is easie to conceive that Religion in the power of it would certainly heal this evil disease also There are many pretenders to Religion whose complaint is still concerning oppression and persecution their cry is all for liberty and deliverance but to make it the more passable and plausible they stile it the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ This pretence is so fair but withall so deceitfull that I count it worth my time to speak a little more liberally to it And here I do from the very bottom of my soul protest that I account the advancement of the glory of God and the Kingdom of Christ to be the most desirable thing in the World and that it is highly becoming the greatest spirits upon earth to employ the very utmost zeal and diligence to assist the accomplishment thereof yea so utterly do I abhor irreligion and Atheism that as the Apostle speaks in somewhat a like case I do verily Phil. 1. 18. rejoyce that Christ is professed though it be but pretended and that truth is owned though it be not owned in truth I will further add that the oppressing and obstructing of the external progress and propagation of the Gospel is hated of Christ and to be lamented of all true Christians Yea I will further allow men a due sensibleness of their personal oppressions and injuries and a natural warrantable desire to be redeemed from them And now having thus purged my self I entreat the Christian Reader patiently and without prejudice to suffer me to speak somewhat closely to this matter Yea I do verily assure my self that I shall be accepted or at least indulged by all free and ingenuous spirits who are rightly acquainted with the genius of Christian Religion and do preferr truth before interest And first For the complaint that is mostly concerning oppression and persecution certainly Religion if it did rightly prevail in our hearts would very much heal this distemper if not by a perfect silencing of these complaints yet surely by putting them into another tune I reckon that Religion quite silences these complaints when it engages the soul so entirely in serving the end of God in afflictions and in a right improvement of them for religious purposes that she list not to spend her self in fruitless murmurings and unchristian indignations As fire seizeth upon every thing that is combustible and makes it fewel for itself and a predominant humour in the body converts into its own substance whatever is convertible and makes it nourishment to itself so doubtless this spirit of burning this divine principle if it were rightly predominant in the soul would nourish itself by all things that lye in its way though they seem never so heterogeneous and hard to be digested and rather than want meat it would with Sampson fetch it out of the very eater himself But if Religion should not utterly silence these complainings by rendring the soul thus forgetful of the body and regardless of its smart in comparison of the happy advantage that may be made of it yet methinks it should draw the main stream of these tears into an other channel and put these complaints into an other tune It is very natural to the Religious soul to make God all things unto itself to lay to heart the interest of truth and holiness more than any particular interest of its own and to bewail the disservice done to God more than any self-incommodation Must not he needs be a good subject to his Prince who can more heartily mourn that Gods Laws are not kept than that he himself is kept under that can be more grieved that men are cruel than that they kill him that can be more troubled because there are oppressions in the world than because he himself is oppressed such subjects Religion alone can make As for the Cry that is made for liberty and deliverance I confess I do not easily apprehend what is more or more naturally desirable than true liberty yea I believe there are many devout and Religious souls that from a right noble and generous principle and out of a sincere respect to the Author and End of their creation are almost intemperately studiouâ— of it do prefer it above all prefermeâ—◠〈◊〉 hing that may be properly 〈◊〉 â—â—sual and would purchase it with any thing that they can possibly part with But yet that I may a little moderate if not quite stifle this cry I must freely profess that I do apprehend too much of sensuality generally in it because this liberty is commonly abstracted from the proper end of it and desired meerly as a naturally convenient good and not under a right religious consideration Self-love is the very heart and centre of the animal life and doubtless this natural principle is as truly covetous of self-preservation and freedom from all inconveniences grievances and confinements as any Religious principle can be And therefore I may well allude to our Saviours words and say If you love and desire Mat. 5. 47. deliverance only under the notion of a natural good what do you more than others Do not even Publicans the same But were this divine principle rightly exercising its Soveraignty in the soul it would value all things and all estates and conditions only as they have a tendency to the advancement and nourishment of itself With what an ordinary not to say disdainfull eye would the Religious soul look upon the fairest self-accommodations in the world and be ready to say within itself What is a meer abstract deliverance from afflictions worth Wherein is a naked freedom from afflictions to be accounted of Will this make me a blessed man Was not profane and impudent Ham delivered from the deluge of Water as well as his brethren Were not the filthy shameless daughters of Lot delivered from the deluge of Fire as well as their Father And yet we are so far from rising up and calling these people blessed that the heart of every chast and modest Christian is ready to rise against the very mention of their names when he remembers how both the one and the other though in a different sense
trampled upon Plato's stately bed saying calco Platonis fastum it was answered him very sharply sed majore fastu he was prouder in treading upon it than Plato was in lying upon it I doubt it may be applyed too truly to a great deal of that cynical and scornful zeal that is in the world at this day men declaim against the pride and pomp and grandieur of Antichristian Prelates with a pride no whit inferiour to theirs whom they thus decry However it is plain that those things which are imitable by a sensual heart and indeed performable by the meer magick of an exalted fancy are not to be rested in by a sincere Christian Read over therefore I beseech you the fruits of the spirit Gal. 5. 22. c. 2 Pet. 1. 5 6 7. recorded by the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Peter and estimate your selves by them These things are utterly incompetible to the meer animal man All the natural men and Devils in the world cannot be humble meek self-denying patient charitable lovers of God more than of themselves or of their enemies as themselves Would you judge rightly of the goodness of any opinion then value it by the tendency that is in it to advance the life of God particularly judge of the millenarian opinion which begins to be so much hugged in the world Concerning which I will only say thus much at present that in the common notion of it as it promises a state of much ease liberty power prosperity and freedom from all persecutions and oppressions it is as gratefull to the fleshly palate and will be as gladly embraced by the meer animal man as by the greatest Saint upon earth And therefore supposing it to be true yet I cannot but wonder how it comes to administer so much satisfaction and afford such a marvellous rellish to minds divinely princâ—pled as many seem to taste in it By this same tendency to advance the divine life in your souls judge also of all your enjoyments riches honours liberties friends health children c. and value them if it be possible only under this consideration But to hasten to an end I will endeavour to set on this general exhortation by two or three weighty considerations First It is utterly impossible that any speculation opinion profession enjoyment ornament performance or any other thing but the transformation of the mind into the very image and nature of God should ever be able to perfect our souls or commend us unto God They cannot perfect our souls as being most of them exteriour and all of them inferiour to it They cannot commend a man to God who loves us and whom we so far know and love as we partake of his nature and resemble him This is the love of God this is the worship of God and this is really the souls acquaintance with him and nothing but this Secondly The advancement of the divine life is that which God mainly designs in the world I need instance but in two things first the sending of his own son into the 1 John 3. 5. 8. world for this very end and purpose that he might take away our sins sayes the Apostle John and again that he might destroy the works of the devil and again sayes the Apostle Paul That he might redeem us from all iniquity Tit. 2. 14. and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Secondly It appears that this is the grand design of God in the world in as much as he doth not deliver his faithfull servants out of their afflictions and tribulations which he would not fail to do did he not intend them a greater good thereby and design to lead them on and raise them up to a higher life Now what can more ennoble these souls of ours than to live upon the same design with God himself And now Reader I commend thee to the blessing of God in the perusal of this small tract which I have composed and now exposed under a sense of that common obligation that lyes upon every person to be active in his sphear for the interest of the name and honour of God and to render his life as usefull as he may more particularly under a sense of my own deficiency in several accomplishments whereby others are better fitted to serve their generation and especially under a sense of the peculiar engagement that lyeth upon me to dedicate my life entirely to his service from whom I have so lately and that so signally received the same afresh In imitation of whom I hope thou wilt be indulgent towards my infirmities To whom I heartily commend thee and to the precious influences of his Eternal Spirit and Rest Thy Servant in his Work and for his Sake S. S. Courteous Reader be pleased to correct these gross mistakes which with many other lesser hapned in the Printing IN the Title Page for 1 John 4. 14. r. John 4. 14. in the inscription of the preface for treating r. healing In the preface p. 2. l. 12. for more r. now p. 4. l. 16. for excellently r. exceedingly p. 6. l. 11. for apostate r. apostatise p. 7. l. 9. after run put in me p. 9. l. antepenult for exalt r. exact p. 14. l. 8. for put read out In the body of the Book page 17. line 2. for part r. peart l. 17. after same put in sense p. 20. l. ult for translated r. transacted p. 23. l. 19. for either r. rather and l. 23. for more r. mere p. 25. l. 24. before Solomon put in what p. 48. after the last line insert these words from thinking that he hath an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or self p. 56. l. 21. for foul r. business p. 70. l. 16. for proselite r. propertie p. 104. l. 3. for performance r. perseverance p. 120. for actively r. activity p. 179. l. penult for indisputable r. indissoluble p. 196. l. 19. for fully r. fitly p. 199. l. 18. for external r. eternal p. 204. l. 7. for soul r. Saul p. 220. l. 19. for piety r. Deity p. 227. l. 3. for more r. mere and l. 7. r. declame p. 273. l. 12. blot out with p. 315. l. 10. for notion r. motion p. 356. l. 16. for but still r. but is still CHAP. I. The occasion of the words of the Text the principal contents of it The original of true Religion All Souls the Off-spring of God and a more especial Portraicture of Him but godly Souls yet more especially God the Author of Religion from without in several respects God the Author of it from within enlightning the faculty Religion something of God in the Soul A discovery of religious Men by the affinity that they have to God God alone to be acknowledged in all holy Accomplishments The original of Sin from hence discovered John 4. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But whosoever drinketh of the Water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall
instead of the infinite fulness of God Now there seem to be three things in a formal hypocrite that do especially force a kind of devotion and shew of religion from him viz. Conscience of guilt self-love and False apprehensions of God First There is in all men a natural conscience of guilt arising from that imperfect and glimmering light that they have of God and of their duty towards him which though it be in some men more quick and stinging in others more remiss and languid yet I think is not utterly choaked and extinguished no not in the worst and most disâ—olâ—â—e men but that it doth sometimes beget a bitter sadness in the midst of their sweetest merriments and doth disturb their most supine and secure rest by fastning its stings in their very souls at some time or other and filling them with agonies and anguish and haunting them with dreadful apparitions which they cannot be perfectly rid of no more than they can run away from themselves This foundation of hell is laid in the bowels of sin itself as a preface to eternal horrour Now although some more profligate and desperate wretches do â—uriously bluster through these briars yet others are so cought in them that they cannot escape these pangs and throws except they make a composition and enter into terms to live more honestly or at least less scandalously In which undertaking they are carryed on in the next place by the power of self-love or a natural desire of self-preservation For the worst of men hath so much Reason left him that he could wish that himself were happy though he have not so much light as to discover nor so much true freedom of will as to choose the right way of happiness Conscience having discovered the certain reward and wages of sin self-love will easily prompt men to do something or other to escape it But now what shall they do why Religion is the only expedient that can be found out and therefore they begin to think how they may become friends with God they will up and be doing But how come they to run into so great mistake about religion why their false and gross apprehensions of God do drive them from him in the way of superstition and â—ypocrisie instead of leading them in the way of sincere love and self-resignation to him Self being the great Diana of every natural man and the only standard by which he measures all things he knows not how to judge of God himself but by this and so he comes to fancy God in a dreadful manner as an austere passionate surly revengeful Majesty and so something must be done to appease him but yet he fancies this angry Deity to be of an impotent mercenaâ—y temper like himself and not hard to be appeaâ—ed neither and so imagines that some cheap services specious oblations external courtesies will engage him and make him a friend a sheep or a goat or a bullock under the old Testament a prayer or a Sacrament or an Almes under the new For it is reconciliation to an angry God that he aims at not union with a good God he seeks to be reconciled to God not united to him though indeed these two can never be divided Thus we see how a man void of the life and spirit of Religion yet forces himself to do God a kind of worship and pay him a kind of homage 2. Sometimes men may be said in a sense to be forced by other men to put on a vizard of holiness a dress of Religion And this constraint men may lay upon men by their tongues hands and eyes By their tongues in the business of education often and ardent exhortation and inculcation of things divine and heavenly and thus an unjust like the unjust Judge in the Gospel though he fear not God sincerely yet may be overcome by the importunity of his father friend minister tutor to do some righteous acts This seems to have been the case of Joash King of Judah the spring head of whose religion was no higher than the instructions of his tutor and guardian Jehojada the high-priest 2 King 12. 2. By their hands that is either by the enacting and executing of penal laws upon them or by the holy example which they continually â—et before them exempla trahunt By their eyes that is by continual observing and watching their behaviour when many eyes are upon men they must do something to satisfie expectations of others and purchase a reputation to themselves It may be said that sometimes God doth lay an external force upon men as particularly by his severe judgements or threatnings of judgements awakening them humbling them and constrâ—ining them to some kind of worship and religion Such a forc'd devotion as this was the humillation of Ahaâ— 1 King 21. and the supplication of Saul 1 Sam. 13. 11 12. For God himself acting upon men only from without them is far from producing a living principle of free and noble Religion in the Soul Now the better to discern this forc'd and violent Religion I will briefly describe it by three or four of its properties with which I will shut up this point 1. This forc'd Religion is for the most part dry and spiritless I know indeed thaâ— Fancy may be screw'd up to a high pitch of joy and frolickness so as to raise the mind into a kind of a rapture as I have formerly hinted in my discâ—orse upon these words A meer artificial and counterâ—â—it Christian may be so strongly acted by imagination and the power of self love that he may seem to himself to be fuller of God than the sober and constant soul You may see how the hypocritical phatisâ—â—â— swâ—llâ—â— with â—â—â—conceit gloryed over the poor man that had been blind but now saw more than all they Joh. 9. 34. Thou wast altogether born in sin and dost thou teach us and indeed over the whole people Joh. 7. 49. This people that knoweth not the law is cursed A counterfeit Christian may rise high as a Meteor and blaze much as a Comet which is yet drawn up by meer force from the surface of the earth or water And as to the external and visible acts and duties of Religion which depend much upon the temper and constitution of the body it may easily be conceived and accounted how the mimical and mechanical Christian may rise higher in these and be more zealous watchful and cheerful than many truly religious and godly men as having greater power and quickness of fancy and a greater number of animal spirits upon which the motions and actions of the body do mainly depend The animal spirits may so nimbly serve the soul in these corporal acts that the whole transaction may be a fair imitation of the motions of the divine spirit and one would verily think there were a gracious principle in the soul itself This seems to be notably exemplified in capâ—ain Jehu whose religious actions as he would fain have them
drink all this while he lives not to himself but serves an higher interest than that of the flesh and a higher good than himself or any created Being A true Christian actively doth not only appear in those things which call duties of Worship or religious performances but in the whole frame of the heart contriving and the conversation expressing and unfolding the glory of God A holy serious heavenly humble sober righteous and self-denying course of life do's most excellently express the divine glory by imitating the nature of God and most effectually call all men to the imitation of it according as our Saviour hath nakedly stated the case Joh. 15. 8. Hereby is my Father glorified that ye bring forth much fruit By which fruits are not to be understood only preaching praying conference which are indeed high and excellent duties but also righteousness temperance self-denial which things are pure reflections of the divine image and a real glorifying of God's Name and perfections A good Christian cannot be content to be happy alone to be still drawing down Heaven into his own soul but he endeavours also both by prayer counsel and holy example to draw up the souls of other men Heaven-ward This God witnesseth of Abraham Gen. 18. 19. I know him that he will command his children and his houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord And this Moses doth excelently witness of himself in that holy â—apture of his Numb 11. 29. Would God that all the Lord's people were Prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them By such examples as these a good man desires to live yea by higher presidents than either Abraham or Moses even by the example of the Father and of the Son He admires and strives to imitate that character which is given of God himself Psal 119. 68. Thou art good and dost good and that which is given of Christ Jesus the Lord of life Act. 10. 38. Who went about doing good who also witnessed elsewhere concerning himself that he came not into the world to do his own will nor seek his own glory but the will and glory of him that sent him And again Luk. 2. 49. Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business Oh how happy would the godly soul count it self if it could but live and converse in the world at the same rate and with the same devout fervent exalted spirit as Christ Jesus did whose meat and drink it was still to be doing the will and advancing the glory of his Father But alas the poor soul finds it self ensnared by passions and selfish affections from within clogg'd with an unweildy body and distracted with secular affairs from without that it cannot rise so nimbly run so swiftly nor serve the infinite and glorious God so chearfully nor liberally as it would and therefore the poor prisoner sigbs within it self and wishes that it might escape But finding a certain time determined upon it in the body which it must be content to live out it looks up and is ready to envy the Angels of God because it cannot live as they do who are alwaies upon God's errand and almost thinks much that it self is not a Ministring Spirit serving the pure and perfect will of the supreme good without grudging or ceasing The godly soul under these powerful apprehensions of the nature of God the example of Christ and the honourable office of the holy Angels is ready to grudge the body that attendance that it calls for and those offices which it is forc't to perform to it as judging them impertinent to its main happiness and most excellent employment it is ready to envy that more chearful and willing service which it finds from the heavy and drossy body with which it is united and to cry out Oh that I were that to my God which my body my eyes hands and feet are to me For I say to one of these go and he goeth and to another do this and he doeth it In a word a good man being acquainted feelingly with the highest good eying diligently the great end of his coming into the world and his short time of being in iâ— serves the Eternal and Blessed God lives upon eternal designs and by consecrating all his actions unto God gives a kind of an immortality to them which are in themselves sâ—tting and transient He counts it a reproâ—ch to any man much more to a godly man to do any thing insignificantly much more to live iâ—percinently and he reckons all things that have not a tendency to the highest good and a subserviency to the great and last end to be impertinencies yea and absurdities in an immortal soul which should continually be springing up into everlasting life 3. The active and vigorous nature of true Religion manifests it self in those powerful and incessant longings after God with which it fills that soul in which it is planted This I superadd to the two former because the godly man though he be formed into some likeness to God yet desires to be more like him and though he be somewhat serviceable to him yet desires to be more instrumental to his will though he be good yet desires to be better and though he do good yet he desires to do better or at least more And indeed I reckon that these sincere and holy hungrings after God which I am going to speak of are one of the best signs that I know in the world of spiritual health and the best 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a true Christian For in this low and animal state we are better acquainted with lovings and languishings than with fruition or satisfaction and the best enjoyment that we have of God in this world is but scant and short indeed but a kind of a longing to enjoy him Love is certainly a high and noble affection but alas our love whilst we are here in the body is in its non-age in its weak and sickly state rather a longing than a loving much unlike to what it will be when it shall be grown up unto its perfect stature in glory But this sickly kind of languishing affection is a certain symptom of a healthful constitution or as the Apostle calls it of the spirit of a sound mind Godly souls are thirsty souls alwaies gasping after the living springs of divine grace even as the parched Desart gapeth for the dew of Heaven the early and the later rain One would wonder what kind of Magick there was in Elijahs mantle that the very casting of it upon Elisha should make him leave Oxen and Plough yea Father and Mother and all to run after a stranger Elijah himself seems to wonder at it 1 King 19. 20. What have I done to thee oh but what a mighty charâ— is there in divine love which when it is once shew abroad in the soul makes the soul to spread itself in it and to it as the heliotrope attending the motions
of the Sun and turning itself every way towards it wellcoming its warm and refreshing beams Elijah passing by Elisha as he was at plough and catching him with his mantle is but a scant resemblâ—nce of the blessed God passing by a carnal mind and wrapping it in the mantle of his love and thereby causing it to run yea to flye swiftly after him If divine grace do but once touch the soul the soul presently sticks to it as the needle to the Loadstone They that heard Christ Jesus chiding the winds and the waves cryed out what manner of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him But if one had been present when he called James and John from their nets Matthew from the Custome-house and Zaâ—heus from the tree and by calling made them willing to come would have cryed oâ—t sure what manner of God is this that by his bare word makes poor men leave their trades and livelyhood and rich men their gainfull exactions usuries oppressions to follow him and shews them no reason why What a mighty vertue is there in the oyntment of Christs name that as soon as it is poured out the Virgins fall in love with him Cant. 1. 3 Micah cryed out when he was in pursuit of his Gods and should they ask him what ailed him And will ye wonder that a holy Soul in pursuit of the holy God should be â—arnest that he should run and cry as he runs as I have seen a fond child whom the father or mother have endeavoured to leave behind them God breathing into the Soul makes the Soul breath after him and in a mixture of holy disdâ—in and anger to thrust away from itself all distracting companions occasions and concernments saying with Ephraim to her Idols Get ye hence The Soul thus inspired is so far from prostituting it self to any â—arthly sensual selfish lusts and loves that it cannot brook any thing that would weaken it in the prosecution of the highest good it is impatient of every thing that would either stop or slacken its motions after God The godly man desires still to be doing something for God indeed but if the case so fall out that he cannot spend his life for God as he desires yet he will be spending his soul upon him though he cannot perpetually abide upon the knee of prayer yet he would be continually upon the wing of faith and love when his tongue cleaves to the roof of his mouth that he cannot speak for God yet his Soul shall cleave unto him and complain because it can speak no longer For faith and love are kniâ—â—ing graces and do long to make the soul as much one with their object as is possible for the creature to be with its Creator Religion puts a restless appetiâ—e into the soul after a higher good and makes it to throw itself into his arms and wind itself into his embraces longing to be in a more intimate conjunction with him or rather entirely wrapt up in him Itself is an unsatiable and covetous principle in the soul much like to the daughter of the horseleech crying continually Give Give what the Prophet speaks rhetorically of Hell Isa 50. is also true concerning this off-spring of Heaven in the Soul it enlargeth it self and openeth its mouth without measure The spirit of true godliness seems to be altogether such that it cannot rest in any measures of grace or be fully contented with any of its attainments in this life but ardently longs to receive the more plentiful communications of love the more deep and legible impressions of grace the more clear and ample experiences of divine assistance the more sensible evidences of divine favour the more powerfull and ravishing illapses and incoms of divine consolation into itself let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth Cant. 1. 2. such is the spirit of true godliness that the weakest that is indued with it longs to be as David and the Davids to be as God as the Angel of the Lord according to that promise Zach. 12. 8. The godly soul that is in his right senses under the powerfull apprehensions of the loveliness of God and the beauty of holiness cannot be content to live by any lower instance than that of David whose soul even broke for the longing that it had unto the Lord Psal 119. 20 or that of the spouse who was even sick of love Cant. 2. 5. You have read of the Mother of Sisera looking out at the window waiting for his coming and crying through the lattess why is his Chariot so long in coming why tarry the wheels of his Chariots But this is not to be compared to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the earnest expectation of the creature the new creature waiting sort he manifestation of God which the Apostle elegantly expresseth and yet seems â—o labour for words as if he could not sufficiently express it neither Rom. 8. 23. you have read of the Israelites marching up towards the promised land and murmuring that they were held so long in the wilderness But the true Israelitish Soul makes more hast with less discontent marches as under the conduct of the Angel of Gods presence and longs to arrive at its rest But alas it is held in the wilderness too and therefore cannot be fully quiet in itself but sends forth spyes to view the land the scouts of Faith and Hope like Caleb and Joshua those men of another spirit and these go and walk through the holy land and return home to the soul and come back not as Noahs dove with an Olive leaf in her mouth but with some clusters in their hands they bring the soul a taste of the good things of the Kingdom of the glories of her eternal state yea the soul self marches up to possess the land goes out with the spouse in the Canticles to meet the Lord to seek him whom her soul loveth Religion is a sacred fire kept burning in the temple of the soul continually which being once kindled from Heaven never goes out but burns up Heaven-wards as the nature of fire is this fire is kept alive in the soul to all eternity though sometimes through the ashes of earthly cares and concernments cast into it or the Sun of earthly prosperity shining upon it it may sometimes burn more dimly and seem almost as if it were quite smothered this fire is for sacrifice too though sacrifice be not alwayes offered upon it the same fire of faith and love which offered up the morning Sacrifice is kept alive all the day long and is ready to kindle the evening Sacrifice too when the appointed time of it shall come In this chariot of fire it is that the soul is continually carryed out towards God and accomplisheth a kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or glorification daily and when it finds iâ— self firmly seated and swiftly carryed herein it no longer envies the translation of Elias The spirit of sanctification is
and more properly than they that watch for the morning they may be said rather to be weary of the long and cold and troublesome night than properly covetous of the day but he out of a pure and spiritual sense of his estrangement from God longs to appear before him and be wrapt up in him Heal the Godly man of all his afflâ—ctioâ—s grievances adversities in the world that he may have nothing to trouble him nor put him to pain yet he is not quiet he is in pain because of the distance whereat he stands from God give him the whole world and all the glory of it yet he has not enough he still cryes and craves give give because he is not entirely swallowed up in God he openeth his month wide as the Psalmist speaks and all the Silver and Gold peace health liberty preâ—erment that you cast into it cannot fill it because they are not God he cannot look upon them as his chiefest good In a word A godly man doth not so much say in the sense either of sin or affliction Oh that one would give me the wings of a Dove that I may fly away and be at rest as in the sense of his dissimilitude to and distance from God Oh that one would give me the wings of an Eagle that I might fly away towards Heaven CHAP. V. An expostulation with Christians concerning their remiss and sluggish temper an essay to convince them of it by some considerations which are first The activity of worldly men secondly The restless appetites of the body thirdly The strong propensions of every creature towards its own centre An enquiry into the slothfulness and inactivity of Christian souls two things premised and so an answer is given to the enquiry in five particulars The grace of faith is vindicated from the slander of being meerly passive A short essay to awaken Christians unto a greater vigour and activity WE have seen in what respects Religion is an Active principle in the soul where it is seated give me leave to enlarge a little here for Conviction or Reprehension By this property of true Religion we shall be able to discover much that is false and counterseit in the world If Religion be no lazy languid sluggish passive thing but lift love the spirit of power and Freedom a fire burning a well of water springing up as we have sufficiently seen what shall we say then of that heavy sluggish spiritless kind of Religion that most men take up with Shall we call it a spirit of life with the Apostle and yet allow of a Religion that is cold and dead shall we call it a spirit of love and power with the same Apostle and yet allow of it though it be indifferent low and impotent or will such pass for currant with the wise and holy God it we should pass a favourable censure upon it And why should it ever pass with men if it will not for ever pass with God But indeed how can this inactivity and sluggishness pass for Religion amongst men who can think you are in pursuit of the infinite and supream good that sees you so slow in your motions towards it who can think that your treasure is in Heaven that sees your heart so far from thence The more any thing partakes of God and the nearer it comes to him who is the fountain of life and power and vertue the more active powerful and lively will it be We read of an Atheistical generation in Zeph. 1. 12. who fancied to themselves an idle and slothful God that minded not the affairs of the world at all saying the Lord will not do good neither will he do evil which was also the false and gross conceit of many of the Heathen as Cicero confesses of some of the Philosophers themselves qui Deum nihil habere negotii dicunt nihil exhibere alteri And indeed though it be not so blasphemous yet it is almost as absurd to fancy an idle Saint as an idle Deity Sure I am if it be not altogether impossible yet it is altogether a shamesull and deformed sight a holy soul in a lethargy a godly soul that is not in pursuit of God Moses indeed bids Israel stand still and see the salvation of the Lord but there is no such divinity in the holy Scriptures as this stand still and see the salvation of the soul though some have violently prest those words Exod. 14. 13. to serve under their slothful standard No no the Scripture speaks to us at another rate Phil. 2. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 work out your own salvation and indeed the spirit of God doth everywhere describe Religion by the activity industry vigour and quietness of it as I hinted in the very beginning of this discourse and could abundantly confirm and explain if there were need of it But that I may more powerfully convince and awaken the lazy and heavy spirit and temper of many professors I will briefly touch upon a few particulars which I will next propound to their serious consideration 1. The children of this world earthly and sensual men are not so slothful so lazy so indifferent in the pursuit of earthly and sensual objects You say you have laid up your treasure in Heaven we know they have laid up their treasure in the earth now who is it that behaves himself most suitably and seemly towards his treasure you or they you say you have a treasure in Heaven and are content to be able to say so but make no haste to be fully and seelingly possest of it to enjoy the benefit and sweetness of it But they rise up early and sit up late and either pine themselves or eat the bread of sorrow to obtain earthly and perishing inheritances they circuit the world travel farr sell all to purchase that part which is of so great price with them And when they have accomplisht it oh how do they set their heart upon it bind up their very souls in the same bags with their money and seale up their affections together with it yea and so they are not at rest neither but find a gnawing hunger upâ—n their hearts after more still to add house to house and land to land and one bagg to another the covetous miser is ready to sit down and wring his hands because he hath no more hands to scrape with the voluptuous Epicure is angry that he hath not the neck of a Crane the better to taste his dainties and ambitious Alexander when he domineeâ—s over the known world is ready to sit down and whine because there are no more worlds to conquer What Christian can choose but be ashamed of himself when he reads the description which Plautus the Comoedian makes of a covetous worldling under the person of Euclio how he hid his pot of Gold heeded it waâ—cht it visited it almost every hour would not go from it in the day could not sleep for it in the night suspected
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
acts and carcase-services and to think it is nothing else but a running the round of duties and ordinances and a keeping up a constant set and course of actions such an external legal righteousness the Apostle Paul after his conversion could not take up with but counted it all loss and dung in comparison of that Godlike righteousness which was now brought into his soul that inward and spiritual conformity to Christ which was now wrought in him Phil. 3. 9 10. I know indeed that men will be loth to confess that they place their Religion in any thing without them but I pray consider seriously wherein you excell other men save only in praying or hearing now and then or some other outward acts and judge your selves by your nature and not by your actions 2. The Active spirit of Religion where it is in the soul will not suffer men to take up their rest in a meer pardon of sin and they are but slothfull souls that could be so satisfied Blessed is the man indeed whose inquities are pardoned Psal 32 1 2. but if we could suppose a soul to be acquitted of the guilt of all sin and yet to lie bound under the dominion of lusts and passions and to live without God in the world he were yet far from true blessedness A reall hell and misery will arise out of the very bowels of sin and wickedness though there should be no reserve of fire and brimstone in the world to come It is utterly impossible that a Soul should be happy out of God though it had the greatest security imaginable that it should never suffer any thing from him The highest care and ambition indeed of a slavish and mercenary spirit is to be secured from the wrath and vengeance of God but the breathings of the ingenuous and holy soul are after a divine life and Godlike perfections This right gracious tempe you may see in David Psal 51. 9 10 11 12. which is also the temper of every truly Religious soul 3. The Active spirit of Religion where it is in the soul will not suffer men to take up their rest in meer innâ—cency freedom from sin and they are slothful souls that could count it happiness enough to be harmless I doubt men are much mistaken about holiness it is more than meer innocency or freedom from the guilt or power of sin it is not a negative thing there is something active noble divine powerfull in true Religion A soul that rightly understands its own penury and self-insufficiency and the emptiness and meanness of all creature-good cannot possibly take up its rest or place its happiness in any thing but in a real participation of God himself and therefore is continually making out towards that God from whom it came and is labouring to unite itself more and more unto him Let a low-spirited fleshly minded Pharisee take up with a negative holiness and happiness as he doth Luke 18. 11. God I thank thee that I am not so and so a noble and high-spirited Christian cannot take up his rest in any negation or freedom from sin Every godly soul is not so learned indeed as to be able to describe the nature and proper perfection of a soul and to tell you how the happiness of a soul consists not in quiete but in actu vigore not in cessation and rest as the happiness of a stone doth but in life and power and vigour as the happiness of God himself doth But yet the spirit of true Religion is so excellent and powerfull in every godly soul that it is still carrying it to the fuller enjoyment of an higher good and the soul doth find and feel within itself though it cannot discourse Philosophically of these things that though it were free from all disturbance of sin and affliction in the world yet still it wants some supream and possible good to make it compleatly happy and so bends all its power thiâ— herward This is the description which you will everywhere find made in Scripture of the true spirit of holiness which hath alwayes something positive and divine in it as Isâ— 1. 16 17. cease to do evil learn to do well and Ephes 4. 22 24. Put off the old man put on that new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness And accordingly a truly godly soul to use the Apostles words though he know nothing by himself yet doth not thereby count himself happy 4. The Active spirit of true Religion whâ—re it is in the Soul will not suffer men to take up their rest in some measures of grace received and so far as the soul doth so it is sluggish and less Active than it ought to be This indeed oft times comes to pass when the soul is under some distemper of proud selfishness earthly-mindedness or the like or is less apprehensive of its object and happiness as it seems to have been the case of the spouse Cant. 5. 3. Some such fainting fits languishings suâ—ferings in sensibleness must be allowed to be in the Godly soul during its imprisoned and imperfect state But we must not judge our selves by any present distempers or infirmities The nature of Religion when it acts the soul rightly and powerfully is to carry it after a more lively resemblance of God which is the most proper and excellent enjoyment of him A mind rightly and actually sound is most sick of love and the nature of love is not to know when it is near enough to its object but still to long after the most perfect conjunction with it This well of water if it be not violently obstructed for a time is ever springing up till it be swallowed up in the Ocean of divine love and grace The soul that is rightly acquainted with itself and its God sees something still wanting in itself and to be enjoyed in him which makes it that it cannot be at rest but is still springing up into him till it come to the measure of the stature of the fulness of its Lord. In this holy loving longing striving active temper we find the great Apostle Phil. 3. 12 13 14. And by how much the more of divine grace any soul hath drunk in the more thirsty is it after much more 5. The Active spirit of true Religion where it is powerfully seated in the minds of men will not suffer them to settle into a love of this animal life nor indeed suffer them to be content to live for ever in such a kind of body as this and that soul is in a degree lazy and slothful that doth not desire to depart and be with his Lord. The godly soul eying God as his perfect and full happiness and finding that his being in the body doth separate him from God keep him in a poor and imperfect state and hinders his blissfull communion with the highest good groans within itself that mortality were swallowed up of life with the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 4. I
know not how much but I think he hath not very much of God neither fight of him nor love of him that could be content to abide for ever in this imperfect mixed low state and never be perfected in the full enjoyment of him And it seems that they in whom the love of God is rightly predominant potent flourishing do also look earnestly for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life Jude 2. without doubt they ought to do 2 Pe◠3. 12. What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God! Let this suffice by way of general Reprehension 2. More particularly the consideration of the Active nature of true Religion may well serve to correct a mistake about that noble grace of faith How dishonourably do some speak of this excellent and powerfull grace when they make it to be a slothfull passive thing an idle kind of waiting or a Melancholick sitting still which indeed and in truth is Life and power Be not mistaken in so high and eminent a grace True faith doth not only accept the imputed righteousness of Christ for justification but by a lively dependance upon God drinks in divine influences and eagerly sucks in grace and vertue and life from the fountain of grace for its more perfect sanctification And for this cause I think a purifying vertue is ascribed to it Act. 15. 9. Faith is not a lazy languid thing content to wait for salvation till the world to come but it is even now gasping after it and accomplishing it too in a way of mortification self-denyall and growing up in God it is not content to be a candidate waiting for life and happiness but is actually drawing down Heaven into the soul attracting God to itself sucking in participations of divine grace and image into the soul Its motto is that of the famous painter nulla dies sine lineâ it longs to find some divine lineament some line of Gods image drawn upon the soul daily Faith is a giving grace as well as receiving it gives up the whole soul to God and is troubled that it can give him no more it binds over the soul afresh to God every day and is troubled that it can bind it no faster nor closer to him The believing soul is wearyed because of muderers murdering loves lusts cares earthly pleasures and calls mightily upon Christ to come and take vengeance upon them it is wearyed because of those robbers that are daily stealing away precious time and affections from God which are due unto him and calls upon Christ to come and scourge these thieves these buyers and sellers out of his own Temple In a word the godly soul is Active and faith is the very life and Action of the soul itself Lastly Let me exhort all Christians from hence to be zealous to be fervent in spirit serving the Lord and longing after him Stir up the grace of God that is in you Quench not i. e. blow up enflame the spirit of God in you Awake Christian soul out of thy Lethargy and rejoyce as the Sun to run the race that is set before thee and as a mighty man refreshed with Wine to fight thy spiritual battels against the armies of uncircumcised prophane and earthly concupiscences love and passions Eye God as your centre the enjoyment of him as the Happiness and full conformity to him as the perfection of your souls and then say Awake Arise O my Soul and hide not thy hand in thy bosome but throw thy self into the very heart and bosome of God lay hold upon eternal life Again observe how all things in the world pursue their several perfections with unwearied and impatient longings and say come my soul and do thou likewise Converse not with God so much under the notion of a Law giver but as with love itself nor with his commands as having authority in them but as having goodness and life and sweetness in them Again consider your poverty as creatures and how utterly impossible it is for you to be happy in your selves and say Arise O my soul from off this weak and tottering foundation and build thy self up in God cease pinching thy self within the straits of self-sufficiencies and come stretch thy self upon infinite Goodness and Fulness Again pore not upon your attainments do not sit brooding upon your present accomplishments but forget the things that are behind and say Awake O my soul there is yet infinitely much more in God pursue after him for it till thou have gotten as much as a created Being is capable to receive of the divine nature In a word take heed you live not by the lowest examples which thing keeps many in a dwindling state all their dayes but by the highest Read over the Spouse her temper sick of Love Davids temper waiting for God more than they that watch for the morning breaking in heart for the longing that he had to the Lord and say Arise O my Soul and live as high as the highest it is no fault to desire to be as Good as holy as happy as an Angel of God And thus O my soul open thy mouth wide and God hath promised to fill thee CHAP. VI. That Religion is a lasting and persevering principle in the soules of men proved by several Scriptures The grounds of this perseverance assigned first negatively It doth not arise from the absolute inamissability of grace in the creature nor from the strength of mans Free-will Secondly Affirmatively the grace of election cannot fail The grace of Justification is neither suspended nor violated The Covenant of grace is everlasting The Mediator of this Covenant lives for ever The promises of it immutable The righteousness brought in by the Messiab everlasting An objection answered concerning a regenerate mans willing his own apostasie An Objection answered drawn from the falls of Saints in Scripture as also from those Scriptures that seem to imply a mans falling away A discovery of counterfeit Religion and the shamefull apostasie of false professors An encouragement to all holy diligence from the consideration of this doctrine the rather that we may stop the mouths of those that falsly affirm that the same is prejudicial to true godliness I Come now to the third property of true Religion contained in these words and that is the perseverance of it And here the foundation of my following discourse shall be this proposition True Religion is a lasting and persevering principle in the Souls of good men It is said of the hypocritical Jews that their goodness was as the early dew that soon passeth away Hos 6. 4. But that principle of true goodness which God planteth in the souls of his people is compared to a well of water evermore sending forth fresh streams and incessantly springing up towards God himself our Saviour compares hypocritical professors to seed sown upon stony ground that springs up
without any kind of sense or feeling of it so neâ—â—her can God accept the blind for sacrifice or be pleased with any thing less than reasonable service â—râ—m a reasonable creature Aâ— the Athenians worshipping God by altars and images are counted superstitious not devout so the whole generation of gross and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 admiring loving and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after God in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—â—ages of true goodness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 blasphemers and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—â—ligious they cannot be We cannot excuse them from idolatry who direct their worship purposely to the true God by or through images much less sure can we be favourable to them who bestow their love joy confidence and delight ignorantly upon the supream and self-sufficient good by or through any created good in which they as far as they understand do terminate their devotion I do not say that all souls have a distinct discovery of the good they aime at it is evident they have not but yet the will of every man is secretly in chase of some ultimate end and happiness and indeed in its eager tendencies outflies the understanding All which mysterie seems to be wrapt up in that short but pithy enquiry which if it were a little otherwise modified would be an excellent description of the natural soul Psal 4. 6. Many say who will shew us any good The nature of the object is set out in the word good the eagerness of the motion in the form of the question who will shew us and the ignorance of the mover appears in the indeterminateness of this object which is well explained by the supply of the word any who will shew us any good And that this is the cry of every rational soul is insinuated by the word many which many is also in Meter multiplyed into the greater sort and must indeed necessarily be extended unto All. 2. Every natural man thirsteth principally after happiness and satisfaction in the creature The fall of the soul consisteth in its sinking it self into the animal life and the business of every unrenewed soul is in one kind or other still to gratifie the same life For although as I have shewn God is in the boâ—tome of these mens cares and loves and desires and implicitly in all their thirstings yet I may well say of them as God sayes of the Assyrian Monarch at what time he executed his pleasure in correcting his people Israel Isa 10. 7. howbeâ—t he meaneth not so neither doth his heart think so God is not in all theâ—â— thoughts whilest they pursue that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 creature which really none but God alone can be unto them They do ultimately direct as to their intention all their cares and covetings and thirstings to some created object all which are calculated for the animal life the gratifying and accomplishing their own base lusts This is very apparent in the idolatry of the Pagans whose lusts gave being to their Gods and so their Deities were as many as their concupiscences and filthy passions To Sacrifice to their own revenge and sensuality under the names of Mars Bacchus and Venus what was it else but to proclaim to all the world that they took the highest contentment and satisfaction in the fulfilling of such kind of lusts this was unto them their God or supream felicity The case is the same though not so expresly and professedly with all carnal Christians who although they profess the true God yet in truth make him only a pander to their own lusts and base ends though they name the name of Christ yet in very deed Deifie their own passions and sacrifice to the gratification of their animal powers The Psalmist as we have seen determines the main end of all men to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or good Psal 4. 6. but left any man should be deceived in them he presently tells us where this good was placed ver 7. viz. in Corn and Wine by which we must understand the animal life and whatsoever administers to the delight thereof And certainly this will go far for not only meats and drinks venereal pleasures gorgeous apparel sumptuous buildings splendid descent honourable preferments popular applanse inordinate recreations and an unweildy bulk of earthly riches but also orthodox opinions philosophical political yea and Scholastical learning fair professions much pompous worship yea and worship industriously void of pomp specious performances to which we may add the most seemly exercises of undaunted valour unshaken constancy unbribed justice uninterrupted temperance unspotted chastity and unlimited charity if much giving may deserve so sacred a name even all these and as many more may serve only as fewell for the rapacious fire of lust and selslove to maintain and keep alive the more animal or at most logical life and are ordinarily designed as sacrifices to that which we significantly call self in contradistinction from God I need not here declare against covetous luxurlous ambitious souls the Apostle having so expresly prevented me by his plain and punctual arraignment of such men Col. 3. 5. Phil. 3. 19. where he charges them with placing a deity in their bags and bellies otherwise I durst appeal to all the world that are not parties yea to the parties themselves whether it be God or themselves that these persons do intend to serve and please and gratifie whether it be a real assimulation unto God and the true honour of his name or some lust or humour of self-pleasing self-advancing and self-enjoying that they sacrifice their cares and pains and the main thirstings of their souls unto I am confident it will be easily acknowledged that the covetous voluptuous and ambitious do sacrifice all they are and do to the latter but alas it is not yet agreed among men who are such the hypothesis is grented but the thesis is disputed and indeed this is no wonder neither for it is as natural for the animal self-life to shift off guilt as it is to contract it and the pride of the natural man is no less conspicuous in his wrongfull endeavours to seem innocent of what he is indeed guilty than his covetousness and voluptuousness is apparent in the matter wherein his guilt consisteth It is not only these and some few of the greatest and prophanest sort of souls that are guilty in this kind which I have been describing though they indeed are grosly and most visibly guilty but verily the whole generation of meer animal men who have no principle of divine life implanted in them do spend all their dayes bestow all their pains and enjoy all their comforts in a real strain of blasphemy from first to last What a blasphemous kind of Philosophy was that which professedly placed the supream good and chiefest happiness of man in the fruition of pleasures And indeed all those kinds of Philosophy which placed it elsewhere in things below God himself and the enjoyment of him were no less prophane though they may seem somewhat less beastly For whether the
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
Jesus Christ hath implanted in it And if there be any other circumstance which cannot be reduced to one of these kinds I suppose it may be reckoned amongst the objects and gratifications of the animal life and not to make up any part of the godly man's Heaven or that Eternal Life which Religion springs up into For I do easily imagine that a fleshly fancy may verily be mightily ravisht with the desire of such a Heaven as is suitable to it and that a meer animal man may be as heartily desirous to be in such a Kingdom of God as he hath shaped out to himself as he is utterly unwilling that the true Kingdom of God such as the Apostle describes Rom. 14. 17. consisting in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost should be in him If our continual cry be after safety self-preservation liberty redemption and deliverance from those things only that oppress and grieve our fleshly interest and our thirstings principally terminated in Knowledge though it be of God himself freedom from condemnation power over Devils yea or any visible pomp glory or splendour though it be of never so aethereal and heavenly a nature what do we more than others what is all this more than may naturally spring up from the animal life and be ultimately resolved into carnal self Wherefore as a result from the whole discourse especially from this last part of it let me earnestly entreat all the professors of this holy Religion which the blessed Messiah Christ Jesus hath so dearly bought for the world and so clearly revealed in it not to value themselves by any thing which the power of natural self-love may exert or desire perform or expect nor by any thing below the image of God and the internal and transforming manifestations of Christ Jesus in them the perfection of which is eternal life in the most proper and true notion of it as you have heard I know that I have often suggested the same lesson in this short treatise but I know also that I can never inculcate it often enough nay the eloquence of Angels is not sufficient to imprint it upon the hearts of men Possibly it may startle some hypocritical professors and carnal-Gospellers God grant it may effectually and make the ears of many that hear it to tingle but yet I will proclaim it It is possible for a man to desire not only the things of this world which Sâ— James speaks of Jam. 4. 3. But even Heaven it self to consume it upon his lusts and he may as truly be making provision for the flesh to fulfil it in the lusts thereof in longing after a kind of self-salvation as in eating and drinking and rising up to play Certainly a true Christian spirit rightly â—nvigorated and actuated by this divine and potent principle Christian Religion cannot look upon Heaven as meerly future or as something perfectly distinct from him but he eyes it as life eternal life the perfection of the purest and divinest life communicable to a soul and is daily thirsting after it or rather as it is in the Text growing up into iâ— I know that Heaven is sometimes called a Rest in opposition to the dissatisfaction of the unâ—entred and unbelieving soul but in opposition to a sluggish inert and dormient rest it is here said to be life eternal life Let us shew our selves to be living Christians by springing up into the utmost consummation of life Let it appear that Christ Jesus the Prince of Life who was manifested on purpose to take away our sins 1 Joh. 3. 5. hath not only covered our shame and as it were embalmed our dead souls to keep them from putrefaction and stâ—â—wed them with the flowers of his merits to take away their noisome stink from the nostrils of his Father but hath truly advanced reâ—instated and made to flourish the souls that sin had so miserably degraded and deflowred Deliver your selves O immortal souls from all those unsuitable and unseemly cares studies and joys from all those low and particular ends and lusts which do not only pinch and straiten but even debase and debauch you Let it not be said that the King of Sodom made Abraham rich that your main delight happiness and contenâ—â—ent is derived from any prosperous plentiful peaceable pompous state any thing that may be called a self-accommodation either in the world that now is or that which is to come but from the righteousness of Faith and your vital union with the Father and the Son To whom in the unity of the spirit be honour and glory world without end Amen 1 John 1. 3. Our fâ—llowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ THese words do express the way of a Christians living and that kind of Converse whereby a good man is distinguished from all other men A good man is not differenced from other men by any thing without him any Church Priviledges which are common to hypocrites and sincere Christians any external visible performances in which the Disciples of the Pharisees may be more abundant and more specious than the Disciples of Christ Mat. 9. 14. much less by any corporal or temporal enjoyment or ornament strength beauty riches descent c. nor by any carnal relation though it were to Abraham as the Jews bragg'd of their Father Abraham Joh. 8. 33. but by something internal substantial by a relation to God The character of a good man must be fetcht from his correspondence to the chief good and the happiness of a soul must be judged of by its relation to life and love and blessedness it self Things external corporal temporal make some difference amongst men but it is but nominal and titular in comparison By these men are said to be rich or poor noble or ignoble but men are really and substantially differenced by the relation that they have to God by this they are good or bad Godly or wicked This is the most certain and proper note of a good man viz. communion with God In all other things he may be liâ—e other men but in this he differs from and excells them all This is a character proper quarto modo for it agrees to every good man to none but a good man and alwayes to him as we shall see hereafter The ground of my discourse then shall be this short and plain Proposition viz. A godly man hath communion with God In order to the more distinct handling hereof I must premise a few things briefly 1. That the gracious and loving God made nothing miserable of all that he had made There are no slaves born in his great house of the world He made all things out of himself and he hath no idea of evil in himself so that it was not possible that he should make any thing evil or miserable Every thing was good Gen. 1. and so in some sense happy He was free to make the world but making it he could not make it evil or
of God as the chiefest rule and therefore wicked men who pitch upon other objects and walk by other laws even the lusts and ordinances of their own flesh and fancy are properly strangers to God and miserable He is not properly said to know God who hath a notion of him formed in his head but he whose heart and will is molded into a conformity to God and a delight in him so that a wicked man though he know and believe and tremble as much as any of the Devils yet not loving nor delighting in him as his chiefest good not being conformed to his Image as the highest and purest perfection may be truly said to be estranged from God which is a state of hell and death and darkness This is the man who though not in words yet interpretatively and really saith unto God Depart from me I desire not the knowledge of thy wayes with them in Job 21. 14. These do really exempt themselves from the dominion of Christ and do really though not audibly say with them in the Gospel Luk. 19. 14. We will not have this man to reign over us However men pretend to and boast of their relation to and acquaintance with God certainly all that live a meer sensual life non-conformists to the image of God are truly said to be strangers to him and in a state of non-communion with him 1 Joh. 1. 6. 2 Cor. 6. 14. 2. The life of a true Christian is the most high and noble life in the world it exceeds the life of all other men even of the greatest of men The character that is here given of the godly man is the highest that can be given of any man or indeed of any creature It is the highest glory and excellency of the creature to partake of the life of God of the perfections of the Creator and such is the description that the spirit of God here makes of the godly man What an unreasonable and senseless reproach is that which this wicked world doth cast upon Religion calling it a low and despicable thing and upon Religious and godly men calling them low spirited puny people Can a man be better spirited than with the spirit of God Can any thing more truly ennoble a soul than a divine nature Can a man be raised any higher than unto Heaven it self So noble is the godly soul Prov. 15. 24. The way of life is above to the wise And consequently all wicked men lead a low life and are bound under chains of death and darkness The righteous man is of a high and divine original born of God born from above and therefore is more excellent than his neighbour than any of his neighbours even a King himself being judge Prov. 12. 26. What a hellish baseness is that sinful gallantry of spirit what a brutishness is that sensuality of living which the degenerate Sons of Adam do so much magnifie True goodness and excellency of spirit must be measured by the proportion that it bears to the supream good the infinite pattern of all perfection What excellent persons were those renowned Saints of old of whom the Apostle sayes that the world was not worthy Heb. 11. 38. however they were thought not worthy to live in the world What a noble and generous spirit of true Christian valour patience meekness contempt of the world and self-denyal was that which was to be seen in the blessed Apostles however they were esteemed as the filth and sweepings of the world the off-scouring of all things To which of the noble wise mighty men of the world as such did God ever say these as the men that have fellowship with me these are the men that lead a noble and divine life No no not many noble are called and when they are called they are made more noble than ever they were by birth or descent by places of preferment or command The life of every wicked man of what rank or size soever he be in the world is but a low life a life in most things common to the very beasts with him If the main of his business and delight be to eat and drink and work and sleep and enjoy sensual pleasures what doth he what enjoyeth he more than the beasts that perish But the life of the meanest soul that hath true and spiritual communion with God is a life common to him with the blessed Angels those sons of the morning the flower of the whole Creation That life which hath self for its centre must needs be a penurious and indeed a painfull life For how can the soul of man possibly feed to the full upon such spare diet such scant fare as it finds at home Nay indeed how can it choose but be in pain and torture whilest it stretcheth itself upon a self-sufficiency or creature-fulness which is not at all commensurate to it But the soul that rightly stretches and spends all its faculties upon the infinite and blessed God finds all its capacities filled up to the brim with that fountain of goodness and it self perfectly matcht with a suitable and satisfactory object This is the true and only nobleness of spirit when all the powers and faculties of this immortal soul are exalted and advanced into a true and vital sympathy and communion with the chiefest good formed according to his will conformed to his image And oh that wisdom might be more justified of her children Oh that the life of God did but clearly manifest it self and shine forth in the lives of them that call themselves godly Alas that ever God himself should suffer reproach by reason of the low-spiritedness and laziness of his servants For this cause is Religion evil spoken of The Lord awaken and ennoble us to express and shew forth the divine life with all power and vigour to live as high as the calling wherewith we are called and so roll away this reproach 3. The life of a Christian is not a heavy sluggish thing but active and vigorous as the phrase communion with God imports Religion is a communication of life and vigour from him who is life it self which makes the truly godlike soul to be quick and powerfull in its motions Every thing is by so much the swifter and stronger in its motions by how much the nearer it is to its centre as Philosophy tells us Certainly by how much the nearer any man is gotten to God who is the center of souls by so much the more do's he covet after more intimate communion with him and the more eagerly lay hold upon him Communion do's necessarily imply reaction or reflection the soul that receives of God and his fulness will certainly be emptying it self into him again Communion in the very force of the phrase implies a mutualness we cannot suppose a soul partaking of God but it must needs mutually render up it self to him again There can be no commerce nor correspondence without returns but what return can the godly soul make unto