so much good among all my Books by a whole days plodding in a Study as by an Houres discourse I have got with him For he was not a Library lock'd up nor a Book clasped but stood open for any to converse withall that had a mind to learn Yea he was a Fountain running over labouring to doe good to those who perhaps had no mind to receive it None more free and communicative then he was to such as desired to discourse with him nor would he grudge to be taken off from his studies upon such an occasion It may be truely said of him That a man might alwaies come Better from him and his mouth could drop Sentences as easily as an ordinary man's could speak Sense And he was no less happy in expressing his Mind then in conceiving wherein he seems to have excelled the famous Philosopher Plotin of whom Porphyry tells us that he was something careless of his words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but was wholy taken up into his Mind He of whom we now speak had such a copia verborum a plenty of words and those so full pregnant and significant join'd with such an active Phansy as is very rarely to be found in the company of such a deep Understanding and Judgment as dwelt in him I have done with his Learning when I have told you That as he look'd upon Honours Riches and the eagerly-pursued things of this world as Vanities so did he look upon this also as a piece though a more excellent piece of Vanity as he was wont to phrase it if compared with the higher and more divine accomplishments of the Soul For he did not care to value himself by any of those things which were of a perishing nature which should fail and cease and vanish away but only by those things which were more solid and substantial of a Divine and Immortal nature which he might carry out of the world with him to which my Discourse shall not be long before it descend He was of very singular Wisdom and great Prudence of admirable skill and readiness in the managery of affairs which I make an account is an Imitation of that Providence of God that governs the World His Learning was so concocted that it lay not as an Idle notion in his Head but made him fit for any imploiment He was very full and clear in all his Resolutions at any debates a most wise Counseller in any difficulties and streights dextrous in untying any knot of great judgment in satisfying any scruple or doubt even in matters of Religion He was one that soon saw into the depth of any business that was before him and look'd it quite through that would presently turn it over and over in his Mind and see it on all sides and he understood things so well at the First sight that he did not often need any second thoughts but usually stood to the present resolution and determination of his Mind And adde to this his known Integrity Uprightness and Faithfulness his strong and lively his waking and truly-tender Conscience which joined with the former things I spoke of made him more then a Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as men now goe He was as one of the Ancients speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Exemplar of true Christian Philosophy and Vertue and as it were the spiritual Rule Line and Square thereof of so poized and even a life that by his Wisdom and Conscience were it not that every man should know for himself one might live almost at a venture walking blindfold through the world and not miscarry He had incorporated shall I say or insoul'd all Principles of Justice and Righteousness and made them one with himself So that I may say of him in Antoninus his phrase he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dip'd into Justice as it were over head and eares he had not a slight superficial tincture but was dyed and coloured quite through with it so that wheresoever he had a Soul there was Justice and Righteousness They who knew him very well know the truth of all this And I am perswaded he did as heartily and cordially as eagerly and earnestly doe what appeared to be Just and Right without any Self-respect or particular reflections as any man living Methinks I see how earnest he would be in a good matter which appeared to be Reasonable and Just as though Justice her self had been in him looking out at his Eyes and speaking at his Mouth It was a Vertue indeed that he had a great affection unto and which he was very zealous to maintain in whose quarrel he was in danger to be angry and sometimes to break forth into a short passion But he was alwaies very urgent upon us that by the Grace of God and the help of the mighty Spirit of Jesus Christ working in us we would endeavour to purge out the corruption of our Natures and to crucifie the Flesh with all the affections and lusts thereof yea to subdue as much as it is possible even the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in our Souls those first motions that are without our consent and to labour after Purity of heart that so we might see God For his endeavour was not only to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the pollutions of the world through lust but as Plotin speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to come to the true likeness of God and his Son or in the Apostles language to be partaker of the Divine nature And here now what words shall I use What shall I say of his Love None that knew him well but might see in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzen I think speaks Love bubling and springing up in his Soul and flowing out to all and that Love unfained without guile hypocrisie or dissimulation I cannot tell you how his Soul was Universaliz'd how tenderly he embraced all God's creatures in his arms more especially Men and principally those in whom he beheld the Image of his heavenly Father There one might have seen running 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he would ever have emptied his Soul into theirs Let any that were throughly acquainted with him say if I lie And truly my Happiness is that I have such a subject to exercise my young and weak Oratory upon as will admit of little Hyperbole His Patience was no less admirable then his Love under a lingering and tedious disease wherein he never murmured nor complained but rested quietly satisfied in the Infinite Unbounded Goodness and Tenderness of his Father and the Commiserations of Jesus Christ our merciful High Priest who can be touched with a feeling of our infirmities He still resolved with Job Though he kill me yet will I trust in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzen in an Epistle to Philagrius O bravely done most noble Soul who canst play the Philosopher the Christian in thy sickness and sufferings who canst not only talk but doe not only doe but suffer
be pleniores Deo then those that are really inform'd and actuated by the Divine Spirit and do move on steddily and constantly in the way towards Heaven as the Seed that was sown in the thorny ground grew up and lengthened out its blade faster then that which was sown in the good and fruitfull soil And as the Motions of our Sense Fancy and Passions while our Souls are in this mortal condition sunk down deeply into the Body are many times more vigorous and make stronger impressions upon us then those of the Higher powers of the Soul which are more subtile and remote from these mixt and Animal perceptions that Devotion which is there seated may seem to have more Energy and life in it then that which gently and with a more delicate kind of touch spreads it self upon the Understanding and from thence mildly derives it self through our Wills Affections But howsoever the Former may be more boisterous for a time yet This is of a more consistent spermatical and thriving nature For that proceeding indeed from nothing else but a Sensual and Fleshly apprehension of God and true Happiness is but of a flitting and fading nature and as the Sensible powers and faculties grow more languid or the Sun of Divine light shines more brightly upon us these earthly devotions like our Culinary fires will abate their heat and servour But a true Celestial warmth will never be extinguish'd because it is of an Immortal nature and being once seated vitally in the Souls of men it will regulate and order all the motions of it in a due manner as the natural Heat radicated in the Hearts of living creatures hath the dominion and Oeconomy of the whole Body under it and sends forth warm Bloud and Spirits and Vital nourishment to every part and member of it True Religion is no piece of artifice it is no boiling up of our Imaginative powers nor the glowing heats of Passion though these are too often mistaken for it when in our juglings in Religion we cast a mist before our own eyes But it is a new Nature informing the Souls of men it is a God-like frame of Spirit discovering it self most of all in Serene and Clear minds in deep Humility Meekness Self-denial Universal love of God and all true Goodness without Partiality and without Hypocrisie whereby we are taught to know God and knowing him to love him and conform our selves as much as may be to all that Perfection which shines forth in him THUS far the First part of this Discourse which was designed according to the Method propounded to give a particular account of mens Mistakes about Religion The other part was intended to discover the reason of these Mistakes But whether the Author did finish that Part it appears not by any Papers of his which yet came to my hands If he did and the Papers should be in others hands for the Author was communicative if they or any other Papers of the Authors be sent to M r William Morden Bookseller in Cambridge the like care shall be taken for the publishing of them as hath been for this Collection THE EXCELLENCY and NOBLENESS OF TRUE RELIGION 1. In its Rise and Original 2. In its Nature and Essence 3. In its Properties and Operations 4 In its Progress 5. In its Term and End Psalm 16. 3. To the Saints that are in the earth and to the excellent in whom is all my delight Greg. Nazianzenus in Orat. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem in Orat. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hieronymus ad Celantiam Ep. 14. Nescit Religio nostra personas accipere nec conditiones hominum sed animos inspicit singulorum Servum Nobilem de moribus pronunciat Sola apud Deum Libertas est non servire peccatis Summa apud Deum est Nobilitas clarum esse virtutibus THE EXCELLENCY and NOBLENESS OF TRUE RELIGION Proverbs 15. 24. The Way of life is above to the wise that he may depart from hell beneath The Introduction IN this whole Book of the Proverbs we find Solomon one of the Eldest Sons of Wisdom alwaies standing up and calling her blessed his Heart was both enlarged and fill'd with the pure influences of her beams and therefore was perpetually adoring that Sun which gave him light Wisdome is justified of all her Children though the brats of darkness and children of folly see no beauty nor comeliness in her that they should desire her as they said of Christ Esay 53. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Mind which is not touch'd with an inward sense of Divine Wisdom cannot estimate the true Worth of it But when Wisdom once displays its own excellencies and glories in a purified Soul it is entertained there with the greatest love and delight and receives its own image reflected back to it self in sweetest returns of Love and Praise We have a clear manifestation of this sacred Sympathy in Solomon whom we may not unfitly call Sapientiae Organum an Instrument which Wisdom herself had tuned to play her divine Lessons upon his words were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every where full of Divine sweetness matched with strength and beauty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as himself phraseth it like apples of gold in pictures of Silver The mind of a Proverb is to utter Wisdom in a Mystery as the Apostle sometime speaks and to wrap up Divine Truth in a kind of Aenigmatical way though in vulgar expressions Which method of delivering Divine doctrine not to mention the Writings of the ancient Philosophers we find frequently pursued in the Holy Scripture thereby both opening and hiding at once the Truth which is offered to us A Proverb or Parable being once unfolded by reason of its affinity with the Phancy the more sweetly insinuates it self into that and is from thence with the greater advantage transmitted to the Understanding In this state we are not able to behold Truth in its own Native beauty and lustre but while we are vail'd with mortality Truth must vail it self too that it may the more freely converse with us S. Austin hath well assign'd the reason why we are so much delighted with Metaphors Allegories c. because they are so much proportioned to our Senses with which our Reason hath contracted an intimacy and familiarity And therefore God to accommodate his Truth to our weak capacities does as it were embody it in Earthly expressions according to that ancient Maxim of the Cabbalists Lumen Supernum nunquam descendit fine indumento agreeable to which is that of Dionysius Areop not seldom quoted by the School-men Impossibile est nobis aliter lucere radium Divinum nisi varietate sacrorum velaminum circumvelatum His words in the Greek are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus much by way of Preface or Introduction to these words being one of Solomon's excellent Proverbs viz. The way of life is above to the wise Without any mincing or
he burned it put him in a kind of fever and all this was easie to him because he had the bowels of a Father Such another was S. John who hath every where in his mouth My little children A good old Father he was who breathed forth nothing but Love to man And it need be no offence if I add there was a Socrates in Athens who had so much of this kind of Spirit in him that he stiled himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Servant of love and professed that he knew nothing but how to love He would often acknowledge himself to be an Ignoramus in all those things whereinto their wise men used to enquire and that he could say nothing in those Controversies that were agitated about the Gods and such like as Max. Tyrius expresly tells us but he durst not deny himself to have skill in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Art of love wherein he was continually busied and imploied instructing of their Youth amending of their Manners and making them truely vertuous which thing the ungrateful wretches of the City called corrupting of their children And truly it is very often the Lot of these Fathers which I am speaking of who nourish up Youth in true piety and vertue to be esteemed by many the corrupters of the fountain Pestes rather then Patres of the places where they live But they fare no worse then Elijah did who was accounted the Troubler of Israel though he was the Chariot and Horsemen thereof a man so useful that they could not tell how to want him though they knew not how to value him And that is the third thing to which I am to proceed Only let me intreat you that you would think within yourselves in my passage Such an one was the party deceased 3. We have here observable the Usefulness of Elijah he was not only a Father but the Chariot and Horsemen of Israel the Security and Safeguard of the place where he was He calls him by this name in an allusion to the Chariot wherein he was fetched to heaven and would express by this form of speech the good service he did for Israel He was in stead of an Army to them like David worth ten thousand of the people He alone was able to fight with all their enemies and by his force to break all their Legions in pieces And indeed all Good men especially men of extraordinary Wisdome and Godliness such as I have been speaking of are the Guard and Defence of the towns where they reside yea of the Country whereof they are Members They are the Tutelar Angels of a Nation men that can doe more by their prayers and tears their vertuous and holy actions then an host of men wherein none is of less valour then Samson or the fam'd Hercules and Achilles How had it been with Israel had it not been for Moses the meekest man on earth and yet terrible as an army with banners And in what a case had Samaria often been if it had not been for this Elisha the son of Elijah who was encompassed about with Chariots and horses of fire to fight at his command What if I say of such men in the Platonists phrase That they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Keepers of the world that preserve it from being made like to Sodom and Gomorrah And if there had been but Ten of these holy Champions there they had shielded their heads from the arrows of the Almighty and kept the showers of fire and brimstone from raining upon them Good men are the Life-guard of the World next to God and good Angels they are the Walls and Bulwarks of a nation for by their strength they have power with God as it is said of Jacob. And so the Chaldee Paraphrast reads these words of my Text Thou wast better to Israel by thy prayers then Chariot and Horsemen They are the Glory of the world and without them it would be but a rude rabble a Beast with many heads and no brains a mere Chaos and Confusion And it is by reason of them that it doth not run into such disorder as a company of Children would doe without their Father or as a multitude of mad Souldiers without their skilful Leader and Commander And so I have briefly set before you what Elijah was what those who are Eminent for Godliness are what every good man ought in some measure to be and what you shall shortly hear our deceased Father was in an high degree Men of worth and great renown 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a good sense men of Name men that may be taken notice of in the world that shine by their Wisdome Justice and Goodness that chear the world by their Love and Fatherly care of all that heartily endeavour to doe good and would not for a world see men perish if they can help it in a word men that are as the Soul of the world without whom it would be a stinking and unsufferable place 2. Now let us look a while upon Elisha and see what he thought of such a man And 1. We meet with his great Affections expressed in the very Form of the Words My Father my Father Methinks I feel within my self with what pure dear and ardent love he spake these words what a glowing fire there was in his breast when he thought of his spiritual Father He burnt in love to him as if some spark had fallen from Elijah's fiery Chariot into his Heart He was all in a desire as if the Angels that fetcht his Father had lent him a waft of their wings whereby he strove to fly with him to Heaven There is not a child that can cry more after the breasts that give it suck and the arms of her that carried it in her wombe then he calls and cries after his Father O my Father my Father where shall I find my Father what will become of me without my Father A tender love and kindness there is to be in our Hearts to all men of what nature or nation soever no man ought to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lover of himself but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lover of mankind Yet a more singular cleaving of Souls there should be to those that are good but the most unspeakable and greatest adhaesion and union to those by whom we have profited in Wisdome and Godliness and whose lips have dropped the words of life into our Minds For as Solomon hath it There is Gold and a multitude of rubies but the lips of knowledge are a pretious Jewel We should stand affected to them as the Galatians to S. Paul who would have pull'd out their very eyes and given them unto him They ought to be to us oculis chariores as the ordinary phrase is dearer then our eyes by which speech God expresses his extraordinary love to his people Israel saying that he kept them as the apple of his eye And indeed it
being content to enjoy himself except he may enjoy God too and himself in God How he denyes himself for God To deny a mans self is not to deny Right Reason for that were to deny God in stead of denying himself for God Self-love the only Principle that acts wicked men The happy privileges of a Soul united to God pag. 385. Chap. III. 3. The Nobleness of Religion in regard of its Properties c. of which this is one 1. Religion enlarges all the Faculties of the Soul and begets a true Ingenuity Liberty and Amplitude the most Free and Generous Spirit in the Minds of Good men The nearer any Being comes to God the more large and free the further is slides from God the more streightened Sin is the sinking of mans Soul from God into sensual Selfishness An account when the most Generous freedom of the Soul is to be taken in its just proportions How Mechanical and Formal Christians make an Art of Religion set it such bounds as may not exceed the scant Measure of their Principles and then fit their own Notions as so many Examples to it A Good man finds not his Religion without him but as a living Principle within him God's Immutable and Eternal Goodness the Unchangeable Rule of his Will Pecvish Self-will'd and Imperious men shape out such Notions of God as are agreeable to this Pattern of themselves The Truly Religious have better apprehensions of God pag. 392. Chap. IV. The Second Property discovering the Nobleness of Religion viz. That it restores man to a just power and dominion over himself enables him to overcome his Self-will and Passions Of Self-will and the many Evils that flow from it That Religion does nowhere discover its power and prowess so much as in subduing this dangerous and potent Enemy The Highest and Noblest Victories are those over our Self-will and Passions Of Self-denial and the having power over our Wills the Happiness and the Privileges of such a State How that Magnanimity and Puissance which Religion begets in Holy Souls differs from and excells that Gallantry and Puissance which the great Nimrods of this world boast of pag. 397. Chap. V. The Third Property or Effect discovering the Nobleness of Religion viz. That it directs and enables a man to propound to himself the Best End viz. The Glory of God and his own becoming like unto God Low and Particular Ends and Interests both debase and streighten a mans Spirit The Universal Highest and Last End both ennobles and enlarges it A man is such as the End is he aims at The great power the End hath to mold and fashion man into its likeness Religion obliges a man not to seek himself nor to drive a trade for himself but to seek the Glory of God to live wholy to him and guides him steddily and uniformly to the One Chief Good and Last End Men are prone to flatter themselves with a pretended aiming at the Glory of God A more full and distinct explication of what is meant by a mans directing all his actions to the Glory of God What it is truly and really to glorifie God God's seeking his Glory in respect of us is the flowing forth of his Goodness upon us Our seeking the Glory of God is our endeavouring to partake more of God and to resemble him as much as we can in true Holiness and every Divine Vertue That we are not nicely to distinguish between the Glory of God and our own Salvation That Salvation is nothing else for the main but a true Participation of the Divine Nature To love God above our selves is not to love him above the Salvation of our Souls but above our particular Beings and above our sinfull affections c. The Difference between Things that are Good relatively and those that are Good absolutely and Essentially That in our conformity to these God is most glorified and we are made most Happy pag. 403. Chap. VI. The Fourth Property or Effect discovering the Excellency of Religion viz. That it begets the greatest Serenity and Composedness of Mind and brings the truest Contentment the purest and most satisfying Joy and Pleasure to every holy Soul God as being that Uniform chief Good and the One last End does attract and fix the Soul Wicked men distracted through a Multiplicity of Objects and Ends. How the restless Appetite of our Wills after some Supreme Good leads to the knowledge as of a Deity so of the Unity of a Deity How the Joys and Delights of Good men differ from and far excell those of the Wicked The Constancy and Tranquillity of the Spirits of Good men in reference to External troubles All Perturbations of the Mind arise from an Inward rather then an Outward Cause The Stoicks Method for attaining 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and true rest examined and the Insufficiency of it discovered A further Illustration of what has been said concerning the Peacefull and Happy State of Good men from the contrary State of the Wicked pag. 412. Chap. VII The Fifth Property or Effect discovering the Excellency of Religion viz. That it advanceth the Soul to an holy boldness and humble familiarity with God and to a comfortable confidence concerning the Love of God towards it and its own Salvation Fearfulness Consternation of Mind and frightfull passions are consequent upon Sin and Guilt These together with the most dismall deportments of Trembling and amazement are agreeable to the nature of the Devil who delights to be serv'd in this manner by his worshippers Love Joy and Hope are most agreeable to the nature of God and most pleasing to him The Right apprehensions of God are such as are apt to beget Love to God Delight and Confidence in him A true Christian is more for a solid and well-grounded Peace then for high raptures and feelings of joy How a Christian should endeavour the Assurance of his Salvation That he should not importunately expect or desire some extraordinary manifestations of God to him but rather look after the manifestation of the life of God within him the foundation or beginning of Heaven and Salvation in his own Soul That Self-resignation and the subduing of our own Wills are greatly available to obtain Assurance The vanity and absurdity of that Opinion viz. That in a perfect resignation of our Wills to God's will a man should be content with his own Damnation and to be the subject of Eternal wrath in Hell if it should so please God pag. 423. Chap. VIII The Sixth Property or Effect discovering the Excellency of Religion viz. That it Spiritualizes Material things and carries up the Souls of Good men from Sensible and Earthly things to things Intellectual and Divine There are lesser and fuller representations of God in the Creatures To converse with God in the Creation and to pass out of the Sensible World into the Intellectual is most effectually taught by Religion Wicked men converse not with God as shining out in the Creatures they
converse with them in a Sensual and Unspiritual manner Religion does spiritualize the Creation to Good men it teaches them to look at any Perfections or Excellencies in themselves and others not so much as Theirs or That others but as so many Beams flowing from One and the Same Fountain of Light to love them all in God and God in all the Universal Goodness in a Particular Being A Good man enjoys and delights in whatsoever Good he sees otherwhere as if it were his own he does not fondly love and esteem either himself or others The Divine temper and strain of the antient Philosophy pag. 429. Chap. IX The Seventh and last Property or Effect discovering the Excellency of Religion viz. That it raiseth the Minds of Good men to a due observance of and attendance upon Divine Providence and enables them to serve the Will of God and to acquiesce in it For a man to serve Providence and the Will of God entirely to work with God and to bring himself and all his actions into a Compliance with God's Will his Ends and Designs is an argument of the truest Nobleness of Spirit it is the most excellent and divine life and it is most for mans advantage How the Consideration of Divine Providence is the way to inward quietness and establishment of Spirit How wicked men carry themselves unbecomingly through their impatience and fretfulness under the disposals of Providence The beauty and harmony of the various Methods of Providence pag. 435. Chap. X. 4. The Excellencie of Religion in regard of its Progress as it is perpetually carrying on the Soul towards Perfection Every Nature hath its proper Centre which it hastens to Sin and Wickedness is within the attractive power of Hell and hastens thither Grace and Holiness is within the Central force of Heaven and moves thither 'T is not the Speculation of Heaven as a thing to come that satisfies the desires of Religious Souls but the reall Possession of it even in this life Men are apt to seek after Assurance of Heaven as a thing to come rather then after Heaven it self and the inward possession of it here How the Assurance of Heaven rises from the growth of Holiness and the powerfull Progress of Religion in our Souls That we are not hastily to believe that we are Christ's or that Christ is in us That the Works which Christ does in holy Souls testify of him and best evidence Christ's spiritual appearance in them pag. 439. Chap. XI 5. The Excellency of Religion in regard of its Term and End viz. Perfect Blessedness How unable we are in this state to comprehend and describe the Full and Perfect state of Happiness and Glory to come The more Godlike a Christian is the better may he understand that State Holiness and Happiness not two distinct things but two several Notions of one and the same thing Heaven cannot so well be defined by any thing without us as by something within us The great nearness and affinity between Sin and Hell The Conclusion of this Treatise containing a serious Exhortation to a diligent minding of Religion with a Discovery of the Vanity of those Pretenses which keep men off from minding Religion pag. 443. DISCOURSE X. OF A CHRISTIANS CONFLICTS with CONQUESTS over SATAN CHap. I. The Introduction Summarily treating of the perpetual Enmity between God the Principle of Good and the Principle of Evil the Devil as also between Whatsoever is from God and that which is from the Devil That Wicked men by destroying what there is from God within them and devesting themselves of all that which hath any alliance to God or true Goodness and transforming themselves into the Diabolical image fit themselves for correspondence and converse with the Devil The Fears and Horrors which infest both the Apostate Spirits and Wicked men The weakness of the Devil's kingdom Christ's success against it pag. 455. Chap. II. The First observable That the Devil is continually busie with us The Devil consider'd under a double notion 1. As an Apostate Spirit which fell from God The great danger of the Devils activity not only when he presents himself in some corporeal shape but when he is unseen and appears not The weakness and folly of those who are afraid of him only when he appears embodyed That the Good Spirit of God is active for the Good of Souls How regardless men are of the gentle motions of the Divine Spirit and how unwatchfull and secure under the Suggestions of the Evil Spirit How we may discover the Devil in his Stratagems and under his several disguises and appearances pag. 458. Chap. III. 2. Of the activity of the Devil considered as a Spirit of Apostasie and as a Degenerate nature in men That the Devil is not only the name of one Particular thing but a Nature The Difference between the Devil and Wicked men is rather the Difference of a Name then of Natures The Kingdom and Tyranny of the Devil and Hell is chiefly within in the Qualities and Dispositions of mens Minds Men are apt to quarrell with the Devil in the name and notion and defie him with their Tongues while they entertain him in their Hearts and comply with all that which the Devil is The vanity of their pretended Love to God and Hatred of the Devil That there is nothing Better then God himself for which we should love him and to love him for his own Beauty and Excellency is the best way of loving him That there is nothing worse then Sin it self for which we should hate it and to hate it for its own deformity is the truest way of hating it How Hell and Misery arises from within men Why Wicked men are so insensible of their Misery in this life pag. 462. Chap. IV. The Second Observable viz. The Warfare of a Christian life True Religion consists not in a mere passive capacity and sluggish kind of doing nothing nor in a melancholy sitting still or slothfull waiting c. but it consists in inward life and power vigour and activity A discovery of the dulness and erroneousness of that Hypothesis viz. That Good men are wholy Passive and unable at any time to move without some external impetus some impression and impulse from without upon them or That all Motions in Religion are from an External Principle Of the Quality and Nature of the true Spiritual Warfare and of the Manner and Method of it That it is transacted upon the inner Stage of mens Souls and managed without Noise or pompous Observation and without any hindrance or prejudice to the most peacefull sedate and composed temper of a religious Soul This further illustrated from the consideration of the false and pretended Zeal for God and his Kingdome against the Devil which though it be impetuous and makes a great noise and a fair shew in the world is yet both impotent and ineffectual pag. 469. Chap. V. The Third Observable viz. The Certainty of Success and victory
to all those that resist the Devil This grounded upon 1. The Weakness of the Devil and Sin considered in themselves 2. God's powerfull assisting all faithfull Christians in this warfare The Devil may allure and tempt but cannot prevaile except men consent and yield to his suggestions The Devil's strength lies in mens treachery and falseness to their own Souls Sin is strong because men oppose it weakly The Error of the Manichees about a Principium mali defended by men in their lives and practices Of God's readiness to assist Christians in their Spiritual Conflicts his Compassionate regards and the more special respects of his Providence towards them in such occasions The Conclusion discovering the Evil and Horridness of Magick Diabolical Contracts c. pag. 474. A DISCOURSE Concerning The true WAY or METHOD of attaining to DIVINE KNOWLEDGE Psal. 3. 10. The Fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Wisdome a good Understanding have all they that doe his Commandments John 7. 17. If any man will doe his Will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God Clem. Alexandr Strom. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A PRAEFATORY DISCOURSE CONCERNING The true Way or Method of attaining to DIVINE KNOWLEDGE Section I. That Divine things are to be understood rather by a Spiritual Sensation then a Verbal Description or meer Speculation Sin and Wickedness prejudicial to True Knowledge That Purity of Heart and Life as also an Ingenuous Freedome of Judgment are the best Grounds and Preparations for the Entertainment of Truth Sect. II. An Objection against the Method of Knowing laid down in the former Section answered That Men generally notwithstanding their Apostasie are furnished with the Radical Principles of True Knowledge Men want not so much Means of knowing what they ought to doe as Wills to doe what they know Practical Knowledge differs from all other Knowledge and excells it Sect. III. Men may be consider'd in a Fourfold capacity in order to the perception of Divine things That the Best and most excellent Knowledge of Divine things belongs onely to the true and sober Christian and That it is but in its infancy while he is in this Earthly Body SECT I. IT hath been long since well observed That every Art Science hath some certain Principles upon which the whole Frame and Body of it must depend and he that will fully acquaint himself with the Mysteries thereof must come furnisht with some Praecognita or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that I may speak in the language of the Stoicks Were I indeed to define Divinity I should rather call it a Divine life then a Divine science it being something rather to be understood by a Spiritual sensation then by any Verbal description as all things of Sense Life are best known by Sentient and Vital faculties 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Philosopher hath well observed Every thing is best known by that which bears a just resemblance and analogie with it and therefore the Scripture is wont to set forth a Good life as the Prolepsis and Fundamental principle of Divine Science Wisdome hath built her an house and hewen out her seven pillars But the fear of the Lord is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beginning of wisdome the Foundation of the whole fabrick We shall therefore as a Prolegomenon or Preface to what we shall afterward discourse upon the Heads of Divinity speake something of this True Method of Knowing which is not so much by Notions as Actions as Religion it self consists not so much in Words as Things They are not alwaies the best skill'd in Divinity that are the most studied in those Pandects which it is sometimes digested into or that have erected the greatest Monopolies of Art and Science He that is most Practical in Divine things hath the purest and sincerest Knowledge of them and not he that is most Dogmatical Divinity indeed is a true Efflux from the Eternal light which like the Sun-beams does not only enlighten but heat and enliven and therefore our Saviour hath in his Beatitudes connext Purity of heart with the Beatifical Vision And as the Eye cannot behold the Sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless it be Sun-like and hath the form and resemblance of the Sun drawn in it so neither can the Soul of man behold God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless it be Godlike hath God formed in it and be made partaker of the Divine Nature And the Apostle S. Paul when he would lay open the right way of attaining to Divine Truth he saith that Knowledge puffeth up but it is Love that edifieth The knowledge of Divinity that appears in Systems and Models is but a poor wan light but the powerful energy of Divine knowledge displaies it self in purified Souls here we shall finde the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the antient Philosophy speaks the land of Truth To seek our Divinity meerly in Books and Writings is to seek the living among the dead we doe but in vain seek God many times in these where his Truth too often is not so much enshrin'd as entomb'd no intrate quaere Deum seek for God within thine own soul he is best discern'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plotinus phraseth it by an Intellectual touch of him we must see with our eyes and hear with our ears and our hands must handle the word of life that I may express it in S. John's words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Soul it self hath its sense as well as the Body and therefore David when he would teach us how to know what the Divine Goodness is calls not for Speculation but Sensation Tast and see how good the Lord is That is not the best truest knowledge of God which is wrought out by the labour and sweat of the Brain but that which is kindled within us by an heavenly warmth in our Hearts As in the natural Body it is the Heart that sends up good Blood and warm Spirits into the Head whereby it is best enabled to its several functions so that which enables us to know and understand aright in the things of God must be a living principle of Holiness within us When the Tree of Knowledge is not planted by the Tree of Life and sucks not up sap from thence it may be as well fruitful with evil as with good and bring forth bitter fruit as well as sweet If we would indeed have our Knowledge thrive and flourish we must water the tender plants of it with Holiness When Zoroaster's Scholars asked him what they should doe to get winged Souls such as might soar aloft in the bright beams of Divine Truth he bids them bathe themselves in the waters of Life they asking what they were he tells them the four Cardinal Vertues which are the four Rivers of Paradise It is but a thin aiery knowledge that is got by meer Speculation which is usher'd in by Syllogisms and
as the Architect of the world and we may adde as that which begets in us this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these strong passionate desires whereby all sorts of men even those that are rude and illiterate are first known to themselves and by that knowledge may know what diminutive poor and helpless things themselves are who can never satiate themselves from themselves and what an Excellent and Soveraign goodness there is above them which they ought to serve and cannot but serve it or some filthy idol in stead of it though this mental Idolatry be like that gross and external in this also that howsoever we attend it not and so are never the more blameless yet our worship of these images and pictures of Goodness rests not there it being some all-sufficient Good that as we observed before calls forth and commands our adorations CHAP. IV. Deductions and Inferences from the Consideration of the Divine Nature and Attributes 1. That all Divine productions are the free Effluxes of Omnipotent Love and Goodness The true Notion of God's glory what it is Men very apt to mistake in this point God needs not the Happiness or Misery of his Creatures to make himself glorious by God does most glorifie himself by communicating himself we most glorifie God when we most partake of him and resemble him most WE have seen how we may rise up to the understanding of the Deity by the contemplation of our own Souls and now it may seem worthy of the best attention of our Minds to consider some Deductions and Inferences which naturally flow from the true knowledge of the Divine Nature and Attributes And the First is this That all Divine productions or operations that terminate in something without Him are nothing else but the free Effluxes of his own Omnipotent Love and Goodness which alwaies moves along with them and never willingly departs from them When God made the world it was not out of a piece of Self-Interest as if he had had any design to advance himself or to enlarge his own stock of glory and happiness for what Beauty or Perfection can be in this whole Creation which was not before contained in himself as the free Fountain of all or what could he see out of himself that could adde any thing to his own stature which he found not already in himself He made not the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was not for any need or that he might gain some honour to himself from Men Archangels or Angels as the Tribute or Rent to be paid to him from his Creation as Clemens Alexandrinus observes out of Plato Though I know not how it comes about that some bring in God as it were casting about how he might erect a new Monopoly of glory to himself and so to serve this purpose made the World that he might have a stock of glory here going in it And I doubt we are wont sometimes to paint him forth too much in the likeness of corrupt and impotent men that by a fond ambition please themselves and feed their lustfull phansies with their own praises chanted out to them by their admirers and another while as much sport themselves and applaud their own Greatness to hear what hideous cries the Severity of their own Power can extort from those they have a mind to make miserable We all speak much of the Glory of God and entertain a common belief that that 's the onely End for which we were all made and I wish we were all more inwardly moved with a true and lively sense of it There can be nothing else that either God could propound to himself or that we ought if it be rightly understood But we must not think that God who is Infinite fulness would seek for any thing without himself he needs neither our Happiness nor our Misery to make himself more illustrious by but being full in himself it was his good pleasure to communicate of his own fulness for as Proclus hath well observ'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. How can he look without himself being he is a pure Mind alwaies encompass'd with its own glorious brightness But the good pleasure of his Will being fill'd with bounty and the power of a most gracious Deity proceeding from it liberally dispensed themselves and distributed those gifts of grace that might make all created Being the more to resemble that Archetypall Idea of themselves Accordingly Timaeus Locrus represents the Creatour of the World in the same strain that Moses did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 delighted as it were in himself to see that all things that he had made were good and some things exceeding good God himself being infinitely full and having enough and to spare is alwaies overflowing and Goodness and Love issue forth from him by way of redundancy When he made the World because there was nothing better then himself he shadowed forth himself therein and as far as might be was pleased to represent himself and manifest his own eternall glory and perfection in it When he is said to seek his own glory it is indeed nothing else but to ray and beam forth as it were his own lustre as R. Jehuda in his Book Cofri hath glanc'd at it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gloria haec scintilla est lucis divinae cedens in utilitatem populi ejus in terra ejus God does then most glorifie and exalt himself in the most triumphant way that may be ad extra or out of himself if I may so phrase it when he most of all communicates himself and when he erects such Monuments of his own Majesty wherein his own Love and Goodness may live and reign And we then most of all glorifie him when we partake most of him when our serious endeavours of a true assimilation to him and conformity to his Image declare that we think nothing Better then He is and are therefore most ambitious of being one with him by an Universall Resignation of our selves unto him This is his Glory in its lowest Humiliation while it beams forth out of himself and our Happiness in its Exaltation which Heaven never separates nor divides though Earth doth His Honour is His Love and Goodness in paraphrase spreading it self over all those that can or doe receive it and this he loves and cherishes wheresoever he finds it as something of himself therein Thus I should leave this particular but that being gone so far in it it may be worth the while to take notice of Three things wherein God most of all glories and takes the greatest complacency in reference to Creatures as they are laid down by Proclus l. 4. in Tim. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The First and chiefest is concurrent with his own internall vision of all things in that simple expedite and simultaneous comprehension of all things intelligible piercing through all their essences and viewing them all in himself he is delighted therein as
Righteousness of Faith which the Apostle sets up against the Law and compares with it is indeed in its own nature a Vital and Spiritual administration wherein God converseth with Man whereas the Law was merely an External or Dead thing in it self not able to beget any true Divine life in the Souls of Men. All that Legal Righteousness which the Jews boasted so much of was but from the Earth earthly consisting merely in External performances so falling extremely short of that Internal God-like frame of Spirit which is necessary for a true conjunction and union of the Souls of Men with God and making of them capable of true Blessedness But that we may the more distinctly handle this Argument we shall endeavour to unfold the true Difference between the Law and the Gospel as it seems evidently to be laid down every where by S. Paul in his Epistles and the Difference between them is clearly this viz. That the Law was merely an External thing consisting in such Precepts which had only an Outward administration but the Gospel is an Internal thing a Vital Form and Principle seating it self in the Minds and Spirits of Men. And this is the most proper and formal Difference between the Law and Gospel that the one is considered only as an External administration and the other as an Internal And therefore the Apostle 2 Cor. 3. 6 7. calls the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ministration of the letter and of death it being in it self but a dead letter as all that which is without a mans Soul must needs be But on the other side he calls the Gospel because of the Intrinsecal and Vital administration thereof in living impressions upon the Souls of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ministration of the Spirit and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ministration of righteousness By which he cannot mean the History of the Gospel or those Credenda propounded to us to believe for this would make the Gospel it self as much an External thing as the Law was and according to the External administration as much a killing or dead letter as the Law was and so we see that the preaching of Christ crucified was to the Jews a Stumbling-block and to the Greeks Foolishness But indeed he means a Vital efflux from God upon the Souls of men whereby they are made partakers of Life and Strength from him and therefore ver 7. he thus Exegetically expounds his own meaning of that short description of the Law namely that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I think may be fitly thus translated it was a dead or liveless administration for so sometimes by an Hebraisme the Genitive case in regimine is put for the Adjective or else an administration of death exhibited in letters and engraven in tables of Stone and therefore he tells us ver 6. what the Effect of it was in those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The letter killeth as indeed all External precepts which have not a proper vital radication in the Souls of men whereby they are able to secure them from the transgression of them must needs doe Now to this dead or killing letter he opposes ver 8. a quickning Spirit or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ministration of the Spirit which afterwards v. 9. he expounds by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ministration of righteousness that is the Evangelical administration So that the Gospel or Evangelical administration must be an Internal impression a vivacious and Energetical Spirit and Principle of Righteousness in the Souls of men whereby they are inwardly enabled to express a real conformity thereto Upon this Ground the Apostle further pursues the Effects of both these from the 14. verse to the end By all which the Apostle means to set forth to us How vast a Difference there is between the External manifestations of God in a Law of Commandements and those Internal appearances of God whereby he discovers the mighty power of his Goodness to the Souls of men Though the History and outward Communication of the Gospel to us in scriptis is to be always acknowledged as a special mercy advantage and certainly no less Privilege to Christians then it was to the Jews to be the Depositaries of the Oracles of God yet it is plain that the Apostle where he compares the Law and the Gospel and in other places doth by the Gospel mean something which is more then a piece of Book-learning or an Historical Narration of the free love of God in the several contrivances of it for the Redemption of mankind For if this were all that is meant properly by the Gospel I see no reason why it should not be counted as weak and impotent a thing as dead a letter as the Law was as we intimated before and so there would be no such vast Difference between them as the Apostle asserts there is the one being properly an External declaration of Gods will the other an Internal manifestation of Divine life upon mens Souls and therefore Gal. 3. 21. he so distinguisheth between this double Dispensation of God that this Evangelical dispensation is a vital and quickening thing able to beget a Soul and Form of Divine goodness upon the Souls of men which because the Law could not doe it was laid aside as being insufficient to restore man to the favour of God or to make him partaker of his righteousness If there had been a Law which could have given life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verily Righteousness should have been by the Law where by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he seems to mean the same thing which he meant by it when in his Epistle to the Corinthians he calls the Oeconomy of the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ministration of righteousness or as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken among the Jewish writers for acceptance with God and that Internal form of Righteousness that qualifies the Soul for Eternal life and so he takes it in a far more large and ample sense then that External righteousness of Justification is and indeed it seems to express the Just state of those who are renewed by the Spirit of God and made partakers of that Divine life which is emphatically called the Seed of God For this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Righteousness which he here speaks of is the proper result of an enlivening and quickening Law which is this New Law of the Gospel in opposition to that Old Law which was administred only in scriptis and therefore this New Law is called in the Epistle to the Hebrews chap. 8. 6. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the better Covenant whereas the Old was faulty In which place this is put down as the Formal difference between the Legal and Evangelical administration or the Old and New Covenant That the Old Covenant was only externally promulged and wrapt up as it were in Ink and Parchment or as best engraven
suppose we may fairly gloss upon S. Paul's Discourses which so much prefer Faith above Works We must not think in a Gyant-like pride to scale the walls of Heaven by our own Works and by force thereof to take the strong Fort of Blessedness and wrest the Crown of Glory out of God's hands whether he will or no. We must not think to commence a suit in Heaven for Happiness upon such a poor and weak plea as our own External compliance with the Old Law is We must not think to deal with God in the Method of Commutative Justice and to challenge Eternal life as the just Reward of our great Merits and the hire due to us for our labour and toil we have took in God's Vineyard No God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble it must be an humble and Self-denying address of a Soul dissolved into a deep and piercing sense of its own Nothingness and unprofitableness that can be capable of the Divine bounty he fills the hungry with good things but the rich he sends empty away They are the hungry and thirsty Souls alwaies gasping after the living springs of Divine grace as the parched ground in the desert doth for the dew of Heaven ready to drink them in by a constant dependance upon God Souls that by a living watchfull and diligent Faith spreading forth themselves in all obsequious reverence and love of him wait upon him as the Eyes of an handmaid wait on the hand of her Mistress These are they that he delights to satiate with his goodness Those that being master'd by a strong sense of their own indigency their pinching and pressing povertie and his All-sufficient fulness trust in him as an Almighty Saviour and in the most ardent manner pursue after that Perfection which his grace is leading them to those that cannot satisfie themselves in a bare performance of some External acts of righteousness or an External observance of a Law without them but with the most greedy and fervent ambition pursue after such an acquaintance with his Divine Spirit as may breath an inward life through all the powers of their Souls and beget in them a vital form and soul of Divine goodness These are the spiritual seed of faithful Abraham the sons of the Free-woman and heirs of the promises to whom all are made Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus These are they which shall abide in the house for ever when the sons of the Bond-woman those that are only Arabian proselytes shall be cast out CHAP. VII An Appendix to the foregoing Discourse How the whole business and Undertaking of Christ is eminently available both to give full relief and ease to our Minds and Hearts and also to encourage us to Godliness or a God-like righteousness briefly represented in sundry Particulars FOR the further illustration of some things especially in the latter part of this Discourse it may not be amiss in some Particulars which might easily be enlarged to shew How the Undertaking of Christ that Great Object of Faith is greatly advantageous and available to the giving full relief and ease to our Minds and Hearts and also to the encouraging us to Godliness or a true God-like righteousness In the General therefore we may consider That full and evident assurance is given hereby to the world That God doth indeed seek the saving of that which is lost and men are no longer to make any doubt or scruple of it Now what can we imagine more available to carry on a Designe of Godliness and to rouze dul and languid Souls to an effectual minding of their own Salvation then to have this News sounding in their Ears by men that at the first promulgation thereof durst tell them roundly in the Name of God that God required them every where to repent for that his Kingdome of grace was now apparent and that he was not only willing but it was his gracious designe to save recover lost Sinners who had forsaken his Goodness Particularly That the whole business of Christ is very advantageous for this purpose and highly accommodate thereto may appear thus We are fully assured that God hath this forementioned designe upon lost men because here is one viz. Christ that partakes every way of Humane Nature whom the Divinity magnifies it self in and carries through this world in Humane infirmities and Sufferings to Eternal glory a clear manifestation to the World that God had not cast off Humane Nature but had a real mind to exalt and dignifie it again The way into the Holy of holies or to Eternal happiness is laid as open as may be by Christ in his Doctrine Life and Death in all which we may see with open face what Humane Nature may attain to and how it may by Humility Self-denial and divine Love a Christ-like life rise up above all visible heavens into a state of Immortal glory and bliss Here is a manifestation of Love given enough to thaw all the iciness of mens hearts which Self-love had quite frozen up For here is One who in Humane Nature most heartily every where denying himself is ready to doe any thing for the good of Mankind and at last gives up his life for the same pupose and that according to the good will and pleasure of that Eternal love which so loved the World that he gave this beloved and his only-begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Whereas every Penitent Sinner carries a sense of Guilt upon his own Conscience is apt to shrink with cold chill fears of offended Majesty and to dread the thoughts of violated Justice He is assured that Christ hath laid down his life and thereby made propitiation atonement for sin That He hath laid down his life for the Redemption of him and so in Christ we have Redemption through his bloud even the forgiveness of sins Thus may the Hearts of all Penitents troubled at first with sense of their own guilt be quieted and fully establisht in a living Faith and Hope in an Eternal goodness seeing how their Sins are remitted through the bloud of Jesus that came to die for them and save them and through his bloud they may have free access unto God Seeing Sin and Guilt are apt continually to beget a jealousie of God's Majesty and Greatness from whom the Sinner finds himself at a vast distance he is made acquainted with a Mediator through whom he may address himself to God without this jealousie or doubting for that this Mediator likewise is one of Humane Nature that is highly beloved and accepted of God he having so highly pleased God by performing his Will in all things Certainly it is very decorous and much for the Ease of a Penitent's mind as it makes also for the disparagement of Sin that our Addresses to God should be through a Mediator The Platonists wisely observ'd that between the Pure Divinity and Impure Sinners as
into the Soul of man wasts and eats out the innate vigour of the Soul and casts it into such a deep Lethargy as that it is not able to recover it self But Religion like that Balsamum vitae being once conveighed into the Soul awakens and enlivens it and makes it renew its strength like an Eagle and mount strongly upwards towards Heaven and so uniting the Soul to God the Centre of life and strength it renders it undaunted and invincible Who can tell the inward life and vigour that the Soul may be fill'd with when once it is in conjunction with an Almighty Essence There is a latent and hidden virtue in the Soul of man which then begins to discover it self when the Divine Spirit spreads forth its influences upon it Every thing the more Spiritual it is and the higher and nobler it is in its Being the more active and vigorous it is as the more any thing falls and sinks into Matter the more dull and sluggish unwieldy it is The Platonists were wont to call all things that participated most of Matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now nothing doth more purifie more sublimate and exalt the Soul then Religion when the Soul suffers God to sit within it as a refiner and purifier of Silver and when it abides the day of his coming for he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers sope Mal. 3. Thus the Soul being purified and spiritualliz'd and changed more and more into the glorious Image of God is able to doe all things out of weakness is made strong gives proof of its Divine vigour and activity and shews it self to be a Noble and Puissant Spirit such as God did at first create it CHAP. V. The Third Property or Effect discovering the Nobleness of Religion viz. That it directs and enables a man to propound to himself the Best End viz. The Glory of God and his own becoming like unto God Low and Particular Ends and Interests both debase and streighten a mans Spirit The Universal Highest and Last End both ennobles and enlarges it A man is such as the End is he aims at The great power the End hath to mold and fashion man into its likeness Religion obliges a man not to seek himself nor to drive a trade for himself but to seek the Glory of God to live wholy to him and guides him steddily and uniformly to the One Chief Good and Last End Men are prone to flatter themselves with a pretended aiming at the Glory of God A more full and distinct explication of what is meant by a mans directing all his actions to the Glory of God What it is truly and really to glorifie God God's seeking his Glory in respect of us is the flowing forth of his Goodness upon us Our seeking the Glory of God is our endeavouring to partake more of God and to resemble him as much as we can in true Holiness and every Divine Vertue That we are not nicely to distinguish between the Glory of God and our own Salvation That Salvation is nothing else for the main but a true Participation of the Divine Nature To love God above our selves is not to love him above the Salvation of our Souls but above our particular Beings and above our sinfull affections c. The Difference between Things that are Good relatively and those that are Good absolutely and Essentially That in our conformity to these God is most glorified and we are made most Happy THE Third Property or Effect whereby Religion discovers its own Excellency is this That it directs and enables a man to propound to himself the Best End and Scope of life viz. The Glory of God the Highest Being and his own assimilation or becoming like unto God That Christian in whom Religion rules powerfully is not so low in his ambitions as to pursue any of the things of this world as his Ultimate End his Soul is too big for earthly designes and interests but understanding himself to come from God he is continually returning to him again It is not worth the while for the Mind of Man to pursue any Perfection lower then its own or to aim at any End more ignoble then it self is There is nothing that more streightens and confines the free-born Soul then the particularity indigency and penury of that End which it pursues when it complies most of all with this lower world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as is well observed by an excellent Philosopher the true Nobleness and Freedome of it is then most disputable and the Title it holds to true Liberty becomes most litigious It never more slides and degenerates from it self then when it becomes enthrall'd to some Particular interest as on the other side it never acts more freely or fully then when it extends it self upon the most Universal End Every thing is so much the more Noble quò longiores habet fines as was well observ'd by Tully As low Ends debase a mans spirit supplant rob it of its birth-right so the Highest and Last End raises and ennobles it and enlarges it into a more Universal and comprehensive Capacity of enjoying that one Unbounded Goodness which is God himself it makes it spread and dilate it self in the Infinite Sphere of the Divine Being and Blessedness it makes it live in the Fulness of Him that fills all in all Every thing is most properly such as the End is which is aim'd at the Mind of man is alwaies shaping it self into a conformity as much as may be to that which is his End and the nearer it draws to it in the atchievement thereof the greater likeness it bears to it There is a Plastick Virtue a Secret Energy issuing forth from that which the Mind propounds to itself as its End to mold and fashion it according to its own Model The Soul is alwaies stamp'd with the same Characters that are engraven upon the End it aims at and while it converses with it and sets it self before it it is turned as Wax to the Seal to use that phrase in Job Man's Soul conceives all its Thoughts and Imaginations before his End as Laban's Ewes did their young before the Rods in the watering troughs He that pursues any worldly interest or earthly thing as his End becomes himself also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Earthly the more the Soul directs it self to God the more it becomes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God-like deriving a print of that glory and beauty upon it self which it converseth with as it is excellently set forth by the Apostle But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory That Spirit of Ambition and Popularity that so violently transports the Minds of men into a pursuit of Vain-glory makes them as vain as that Popular air they live upon the Spirit of this world that draws forth a mans designes after worldly interests makes him
as unstable unconstant tumultuous and perplex'd a thing as the world is On the contrary the Spirit of true Religion steering and directing the Mind and Life to God makes it an Uniform Stable and quiet thing as God himself is it is only true Goodness in the Soul of man guiding it steddily and uniformly towards God directing it and all its actions to the one Last End and Chief Good that can give it a true consistency and composedness within it self All Self-seeking and Self-love do but imprison the Soul and confine it to its own home the Mind of a Good man is too Noble too Big for such a Particular life he hath learn'd to despise his own Being in comparison of that Uncreated Beauty and Goodness which is so infinitely transcendent to himself or any created thing he reckons upon his choice and best affections and designes as too choice and precious a treasure to be spent upon such a poor sorry thing as himself or upon any thing else but God himself This was the life of Christ and is in some degree the life of every one that partakes of the Spirit of Christ. Such Christians seek not their own glory but the glory of him that sent them into this world they know they were brought forth into this world not to set up or drive a trade for themselves but to serve the will pleasure of him that made them to finish that work he hath appointed them It were not worth the while to have been born or to live had it been only for such a penurious End as our selves are it is most God-like and best suits with the Spirit of Religion for a Christian to live wholy to God to live the life of God having his own life hid with Christ in God and thus in a sober sense he becomes Deified This indeed is such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deification as is not transacted merely upon the Stage of Fancy by Arrogance and Presumption but in the highest Powers of the Soul by a living and quickning Spirit of true Religion there uniting God and the Soul together in the Unity of Affections Will and End I should now pass from this to another Particular but because many are apt to misapprehend the Notion of God's glory and flatter themselves with their pretended and imaginary aiming at the Glory of God I think it may be of good use a little further and more distinctly to unfold the Designe that a Religious mind drives on in directing it self and all its actions to God We are therefore to consider that this doth not consist in some Transient thoughts of God and his Glory as the End we propound to our selves in any Undertakings a man does not direct all his actions to the Glory of God by forming a Conception in his Mind or stirring up a strong Imagination upon any Action That that must be for the Glory of God it is not the thinking of God's glory that is glorifying of him As all other parts of Religion may be apishly acted over by Fancy and Imagination so also may the Internal parts of Religion many times be acted over with much seeming grace by our Fancy and Passions these often love to be drawing the pictures of Religion and use their best arts to render them more beautifull and pleasing But though true Practical Religion derives its force and beauty through all the Lower Powers of a mans Soul yet it hath not its rise nor throne there as Religion consists not in a Form of Words which signifie nothing so neither doth it consist in a Set of Fancies or Internal apprehensions Our Saviour hath best taught what it is to live to God's glory or to glorifie God viz. to be fruitfull in all holiness and to live so as that our lives may shine with his grace spreading it self through our whole man We rather glorifie God by entertaining the Impressions of his Glory upon us then by communicating any kind of Glory to him Then does a Good man become the Tabernacle of God wherein the Divine Shechinah does rest and which the Divine glory fills when the frame of his Mind and Life is wholy according to that Idea and Pattern which he receives from the Mount We best glorifie him when we grow most like to him and we then act most for his glory when a true Spirit of Sanctity Justice Meekness c. runs through all our actions when we so live in the World as becomes those that converse with the great Mind and Wisdom of the whole World with that Almighty Spirit that made supports and governs all things with that Being from whence all good flows and in which there is no Spot Stain or Shadow of Evil and so being captivated and overcome by the sense of the Divine loveliness and goodness endeavour to be like him and conform our selves as much as may be to him When God seeks his own Glory he does not so much endeavour any thing without himself He did not bring this stately fabrick of the Universe into Being that he might for such a Monument of his mighty Power and Beneficence gain some Panegyricks or Applause from a little of that fading breath which he had made Neither was that gracious contrivance of restoring lapsed men to himself a Plot to get himself some Eternal Hallelujahs as if he had so ardently thirsted after the layes of glorified spirits or desired a Quire of Souls to sing forth his praises Neither was it to let the World see how Magnificent he was No it is his own Internal Glory that he most loves and the Communication thereof which he seeks as Plato sometimes speaks of the Divine love it arises not out of Indigency as created love does but out of Fulness and Redundancy it is an overflowing fountain and that love which descends upon created Being is a free Efflux from the Almighty Source of love and it is well pleasing to him that those Creatures which he hath made should partake of it Though God cannot seek his own Glory so as if he might acquire any addition to himself yet he may seek it so as to communicate it out of himself It was a good Maxime of Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 w ch is better stated by * S. James God giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not And by that Glory of his which he loves to impart to his Creatures I understand those stamps and impressions of Wisdom Justice Patience Mercy Love Peace Joy and other Divine gifts which he bestows freely upon the Minds of men And thus God triumphs in his own Glory and takes pleasure in the Communication of it As God's seeking his own Glory in respect of us is most properly the flowing forth of his Goodness upon us so our seeking the Glory of God is most properly our endeavouring a Participation of his Goodness and an earnest uncessant pursuing after Divine perfection When God becomes so great in our eyes
and all created things so little that we reckon upon nothing as worthy of our aims or ambitions but a serious Participation of the Divine Nature and the Exercise of divine Vertues Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Kindness Goodness and the like When the Soul beholding the Infinite beauty and loveliness of the Divinity and then looking down and beholding all created Perfection mantled over with darkness is ravish'd into love and admiration of that never-setting brightness and endeavours after the greatest resemblance of God in Justice Love and Goodness When conversing with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a secret feeling of the virtue sweetness and power of his Goodness we endeavour to assimilate our selves to him Then we may be said to glorifie him indeed God seeks no glory but his own and we have none of our own to give him God in all things seeks himself and his own glory as finding nothing Better then himself and when we love him above all things and endeavour to be most like him we declare plainly that we count nothing Better then He is I doubt we are too nice Logicians sometimes in distinguishing between the Glory of God and our own Salvation We cannot in a true sense seek our own Salvation more then the Glory of God which triumphs most and discovers it self most effectually in the Salvation of Souls for indeed this Salvation is nothing else but a true Participation of the Divine Nature Heaven is not a thing without us nor is Happiness any thing distinct from a true Conjunction of the Mind with God in a secret feeling of his Goodness and reciprocation of affection to him wherein the Divine Glory most unfolds it self And there is nothing that a Soul touch'd with any serious sense of God can more earnestly thirst after or seek with more strength of affection then This. Then shall we be happy when God comes to be all in all in us To love God above our selves is not indeed so properly to love him above the salvation of our Souls as if these were distinct things but it is to love him above all our own sinfull affections above our particular Beings and to conform our selves to him And as that which is Good relatively and in order to us is so much the Better by how much the more it is commensurate and conformed to us So on the other side that which is good absolutely and essentially requires that our Minds and Affections should as far as may be be commensurate and conform'd to it and herein is God most glorified and we made Happy As we cannot truly love the First and Highest Good while we serve a designe upon it and subordinate it to our selves so neither is our own Salvation consistent with any such sordid pinching and particular love We cannot be compleatly blessed till the Idea Boni or the Ipsum Bonum which is God exercise its Soveraignty over all the Faculties of our Souls rendring them as like to it self as may consist with their proper Capacity See more of this in the Discourse Of the Existence and Nature of God Chap. 4. and more largely in that Latine Discourse shortly to be printed Pietati studere ex intuitu mercedis non est illicitum CHAP. VI. The Fourth Property or Effect discovering the Excellency of Religion viz. That it begets the greatest Serenity and Composedness of Mind and brings the truest Contentment the purest and most satisfying Joy and Pleasure to every holy Soul God as being that Uniform Chief Good and the One Last End does attract and fix the Soul Wicked men distracted through a Multiplicity of Objects and Ends. How the restless appetite of our Wills after some Supreme Good leads to the knowledge as of a Deity so of the Unity of a Deity How the Joys and Delights of Good men differ from and far excell those of the Wicked The Constancy and Tranquillity of the Spirits of Good men in reference to External troubles All Perturbations of the Mind arise from an Inward rather then an Outward Cause The Stoicks Method for attaining 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and true rest examined and the Insufficiency of it discovered A further Illustration of what has been said concerning the Peacefull and Happy State of Good men from the contrary State of the Wicked THe Fourth Property Effect of True Religion wherein it expresseth its own Nobleness is this That it begets the greatest Serenity Constancy and Composedness of Mind and brings the truest Contentment the most satisfying Joy and Pleasure the purest and most divine Sweetness and Pleasure to the Spirits of Good men Every Good man in whom Religion rules is at peace and unity with himself is as a City compacted together Grace doth more and more reduce all the Faculties of the Soul into a perfect Subjection and Subordination to it self The Union and Conjunction of the Soul with God that Primitive Unity is that which is the alone Original and Fountain of all Peace and the Centre of Rest as the further any Being slides from God the more it breaks into discords within it self as not having any Centre within it self which might collect and unite all the Faculties thereof to it self and so knit them up together in a sweet confederacy amongst themselves God only is such an Almighty Goodness as can attract all the Powers in man's Soul to it self as being an Object transcendently adequate to the largest capacities of any created Being and so unite man perfectly to himself in the true enjoyment of one Uniform and Simple Good It must be one Last End and Supreme Good that can fix Man's Mind which otherwise will be tossed up and down in perpetual uncertainties and become as many several things as those poor Particularities are which it meets with A wicked man's life is so distracted by a Multiplicity of Ends and Objects that it never is nor can be consistent to it self nor continue in any composed settled frame it is the most intricate irregular and confused thing in the world no one part of it agreeing with another because the whole is not firmly knit together by the power of some One Last End running through all Whereas the life of a Good man is under the sweet command of one Supreme Goodness and Last End This alone is that living Form and Soul which running through all the Powers of the Mind and Actions of Life collects all together into one fair and beautifull System making all that Variety conspire into perfect Unity whereas else all would fall asunder like the Members of a dead Body when once the Soul is gone every little particle flitting each from other It was a good Maxim of Pythagoras quoted by Clemens Alexandrinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oportet etiam hominem unum fieri A divided Mind and a Multiform Life speaks the greatest disparagement that may be it is only the intermediation of One Last End that can reconcile a man perfectly to himself and his
already come into us CHAP. VIII The Sixth Property or Effect discovering the Excellency of Religion viz. That it Spiritualizes Material things and carries up the Souls of Good men from Sensible and Earthly things to things Intellectual and Divine There are lesser and fuller representations of God in the Creatures To converse with God in the Creation and to pass out of the Sensible World into the Intellectual is most effectually taught by Religion Wicked men converse not with God as shining out in the Creatures they converse with them in a Sensual and Unspiritual manner Religion does spiritualize the Creation to Good men it teaches them to look at any Perfections or Excellencies in themselves and others not so much as Theirs or That others but as so many Beams flowing from One and the Same Fountain of Light to love them all in God and God in all the Universal Goodness in a Particular Being A Good man enjoys and delights in whatsoever Good he sees otherwhere as if it were his own he does not fondly love and esteem either himself or others The Divine temper and strain of the antient Philosophy THE Sixth Property or Effect wherein Religion discovers its own Excellency is this That it Spiritualizes Material things and so carries up the Souls of Good men from Earthly things to things Divine from this Sensible World to the Intellectual God made the Universe and all the Creatures contained therein as so many Glasses wherein he might reflect his own Glory He hath copied forth himself in the Creation and in this Outward World we may read the lovely characters of the Divine Goodness Power and Wisdom In some Creatures there are darker representations of God there are the Prints and Footsteps of God but in others there are clearer and fuller representations of the Divinity the Face and Image of God according to that known saying of the Schoolmen Remotiores Similitudines Creaturae ad Deum dicuntur Vestigium propinquiores verò Imago But how to find God here and feelingly to converse with him and being affected with the sense of the Divine Glory shining out upon the Creation how to pass out of the Sensible World into the Intellectual is not so effectually taught by that Philosophy which profess'd it most as by true Religion that which knits and unites God and the Soul together can best teach it how to ascend and descend upon those golden links that unite as it were the World to God That Divine Wisdome that contrived and beautified this glorious Structure can best explain her own Art and carry up the Soul back again in these reflected Beams to him who is the Fountain of them Though Good men all of them are not acquainted with all those Philosophical notions touching the relation between Created and the Uncreated Being yet may they easily find every Creature pointing out to that Being whose image and superscription it bears and climb up from those darker resemblances of the Divine Wisdome and Goodness shining out in different degrees upon several Creatures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Antients speak till they sweetly repose themselves in the bosom of the Divinity and while they are thus conversing with this lower World and are viewing the invisible things of God in the things that are made in this visible and outward Creation they find God many times secretly flowing into their Souls and leading them silently out of the Court of the Temple into the Holy Place But it is otherwise with Wicked men they dwell perpetually upon the dark side of the Creatures and converse with these things only in a gross sensual earthly and unspiritual manner they are so encompass'd with the thick and foggy mist of their own Corruptions that they cannot see God there where he is most visible the Light shineth in darkness but darkness comprehends it not their Souls are so deeply sunk into that House of Clay which they carry about with them that were there nothing of Body or bulky Matter before them they could find nothing to exercise themselves about But Religion where it is in truth and in power renews the very Spirit of our Minds and doth in a manner Spiritualize this outward Creation to us and doth in a more excellent way perform that which the Peripateticks are wont to affirm of their Intellectus agens in purging Bodily and Material things from the feculency and dregs of Matter and separating them from those circumstantiating and streightning conditions of Time and Place and the like and teaches the Soul to look at those Perfections which it finds here below not so much as the Perfections of This or That Body as they adorn This or That particular Being but as they are so many Rays issuing forth from that First and Essential Perfection in which they all meet and embrace one another in the most close friendship Every Particular Good is a Blossom of the First Goodness every created Excellency is a Beam descending from the Father of lights and should we separate all these Particularities from God all affection spent upon them would be unchast and their embraces adulterous We should love all things in God and God in all things because he is All in all the Beginning and Original of Being the perfect Idea of their Goodness and the End of their Motion It is nothing but a thick mist of Pride and Self-love that hinders mens eyes from beholding that Sun which both enlightens them and all things else But when true Religion begins once to dawn upon mens Souls and with its shining light chases away their black Night of Ignorance then they behold themselves and all things else enlightned though in a different way by one and the same Sun and all the Powers of their Souls fall down before God and ascribe all glory to him Now it is that a Good man is no more solicitous whether This or That good thing be Mine or whether My perfections exceed the measure of This or That particular Creature for whatsoever Good he beholds any where he enjoys and delights in it as much as if it were his own and whatever he beholds in himself he looks not upon it as his Property but as a Common good for all these Beams come from one and the same Fountain and Ocean of light in whom he loves them all with an Universal love when his affections run along the stream of any created excellencies whether his own or any ones else yet they stay not here but run on till they fall into the Ocean they do not settle into a fond love and admiration either of himself or any others Excellencies but he owns them as so many Pure Effluxes and Emanations from God and in a Particular Being loves the Universal Goodness Si sciretur à me Veritas sciretur etiam me illud non esse aut illud non esse meum nec à me Thus may a Good man walk up and down the World as in a Garden of Spices
It were perhaps a vain curiosity to inquire whether the number of Evil spirits exceed the number of Men but this is too too certain that we never want the secret and latent attendance of them The Devil is not onely a word or a name made to affright and scare timorous men with neither are we then onely in danger of him when he presents himself to us in some Corporeal form it is nothing else but a superstitious weakness to be afraid of him onely then when he appears embodyed and to neglect that unseen and insensible influence which his continual converse with us as an unbodyed spirit may have upon us Those Evil spirits are not yet cast out of the world into outer darkness though it be prepared for them the bottomless pit hath not yet shut its mouth upon them They fell from God not so much by a Local descent as by a Mental apostasy and dissimilitude to God and they are now in libera custodia having all this habitable world for their Rendezvous and are stiled by the Apostle Spiritual wickednesses in high places Wheresoever there are any in a disposition to sin against God wheresoever there are any capable of a Temptation or Diabolical impression here and there are they A man needs not dig into the chambers of death or search among the shadows of darknesse to find them he needs not goe down into hell to seek them or use any Magical charms to raise them up from thence No those wicked and impure spirits are always wandring up and down amongst us seeking whom they may devour As there is a Good Spirit conversant in the world inviting and alluring men to Vertue and Goodness so there is an Evil spirit perpetually tempting and inticeing men to Sin and Vice Uncloathed and unbodyed natures may converse with us by secret illapses while we are not aware of them I doubt not but there are many more Divine impressions made upon the Minds of men both Good and Bad from the Good Spirit of God then are ordinarily observed there are many soft and silent impulses gentle motions like our Saviour's putting in his hand by the hole of the door as it is in the Canticles solliciting and exciting men to Religion and Holiness which they many times regard not and take little notice of There are such secret messages often brought from Heaven to the Souls of men by an unknown and unseen hand as the Psalmist speaks Once yea twice have I heard it that power belongeth unto God And as there are such divine irradiations sliding into the Souls of men from God so there are no question many frequent suggestions to the Fancies and Imaginations of men arising from the Evil Spirit and a watchfull observer of his own heart and life shall often hear the voice of Wisdome the voice of Folly speaking to him he that hath his eyes opened may see both the visions of God falling upon him and discern the false and foolish fires of Satan that would draw away his mind from God This is our unhappiness that the Devil is so near us and we see him not he is conversant with us and yet we are not aware of him Those are the most desperate designs likeliest to take effect that are carried on by an unseen and unappearing enemy and if we will provide our selves against the Devil who never misseth any opportunity that lies in his way to tempt us nor is ever failing in any plot we must then have our Senses exercised to discern both good and evil we must get our Minds awakened with clear and evident Principles of Light we must get our Judgments and Consciences well informed with sober and practical Truth such as tends to make us most like to God and to reconcile our natures more perfectly to Divine goodness Then shall we know and discover that Apostate Spirit in all his Stratagems whereby he seeks to bereave us of our happiness we shall know him as well when he cloaths himself like an Angel of light as when he appears in his own nakedness and deformity It is observed by some That God never suffered the Devil to assume any humane shape but with some Character whereby his Body might be distinguished from the true Body of a man and surely the Devil cannot so exactly counterfeit an Angel of light but that by a discerning mind he may be distinguished from him as they say a Beggar can never act a Prince so cunningly but that his behaviour sometime sliding into the course way and principles of his Education will betray the meannesse of his pedigree to one of a true noble extraction A bare Imitation will always fall short of the Copy from whence it is taken and though Sin and Errour may take up the mantle of Truth and cloath themselves with it yet he that is inwardly acquainted with Truth and an ingenuous lover and pursuer of it will be able to find out the Imposture he will be able to see through the vail into the naked deformity of them CHAP. III. 2. Of the activity of the Devil consider'd as a Spirit of Apostasy and as a Degenerate nature in men That the Devil is not onely the name of one Particular thing but a Nature The Difference between the Devil and Wicked men is rather the Difference of a Name then of Natures The Kingdome and Tyranny of the Devil and Hell is chiefly within in the Qualities and Dispositions of mens Minds Men are apt to quarrell with the Devil in the name and notion and defy him with their Tongues while they entertain him in their Hearts and comply with all that which the Devil is The vanity of their pretended Love to God and Hatred of the Devil That there is nothing Better then God himself for which we should love him and to love him for his own Beauty and Excellency is the best way of loving him That there is nothing worse then Sin it self for which we should hate it and to hate it for its own deformity is the truest way of hating it How Hell and Misery arises from within men Why Wicked men are so insensible of their Misery in this life 2. WHen we say The Devil is continually busy with us I mean not onely some Apostate spirit as one particular Being but that spirit of Apostasy which is lodged in all mens natures and this may seem particularly to be aimed at in this place if we observe the context as the Scripture speaks of Christ not onely as a Particular person but as a Divine Principle in holy Souls Indeed the Devil is not onely the name of one particular thing but a nature He is not so much one particular Being designed to torment Wicked men in the world to come as a hellish and diabolical nature seated in the minds of men He is not onely one Apostate Spirit fallen down from heaven out of the lap of Blessedness but also a Spirit of Apostasy a
Worse then Sin it self for which we should hate it Our assimilation to God and conformity to him instates us in a firm possession of true Happiness which is nothing else but God himself who is all Being and Blessedness and our dissimilitude to God and Apostasy from him involves us in our own Miserie and sets us at the greatest enmity to what our unsatiable desires most of all crave for which is the enjoyment of True and Satisfying Good Sins are those fiery Snakes which will eternally lash and torment all damned spirits Every mans Hell arises from the bottom of his own Soul as those stinking Mists and tempestuous Exhalations that infest the Earth have their first original from the Earth it self Those streams of fire and brimstone ordained for the torment of all damned spirits are rather the exsudations of their own filthy and corrupt nature then any external thing Hell is not so much induced as educed out of mens filthy Lusts and Passions I will not here dispute what external Appendixes there may be of Heaven or Hell but methinks I no where find a more Graphical description of the true Properties and Operations of them though under other names then in those Characters of the Flesh and Spirit in Galat. 5. ver 19 20 21 22 23. Eternal death is begotten and brought forth out of the wombe of lust and is little else but Sin consummated and in its full growth as S. James intimates chap. 1. Would wicked men dwell a little more at home and descend into the bottome of their own Hearts they should soon find Hell opening her mouth wide upon them and those secret fires of inward fury and displeasure breaking out upon them which might fully inform them of the estate of true Misery as being a short anticipation of it But in this life wicked men for the most part elude their own Misery for a time and seek to avoid the dreadfull sentence of their own Consciences by a tergiversation and flying from themselves into a converse with other things Ut nemo in sese tentat descendere else they would soon find their own home too hot for them But while mens Minds are perpetually rambling all the world over in a pursuit of worldly designes they are unacquainted with the affairs of their own Souls and know not how deeply a Self-converse and reflection upon their own prodigious deformities would pierce their Souls with anguish how vastly would they swell with Fury Rage Horrour Consternation and whatsoever is contrary to that ineffable Light and Love and Peace which is in Heaven in natures fully reconciled and united to true Goodness As true Goodness cannot borrow Beauty from any external thing to recommend it self to the Minds and Affections of Good men seeing it self is the very Idea and true life of all Beauty and Perfection the source of Bliss and Peace to all that partake of her so neither can Sin and Wickedness to an enlightned Soul appear more Ugly loathsome and hatefull in any other shape then its own CHAP. IV. The Second Observable viz. The Warfare of a Christian life True Religion consists not in a mere passive capacity and sluggish kind of doing nothing nor in a melancholy sitting still or slothfull waiting c. but it consists in inward life and power vigour and activity A discovery of the dulness and erroneousness of that Hypothesis viz. That Good men are wholy Passive and unable at any time to move without some External impetus some impression and impulse from without upon them or That all Motions in Religion are from an External Principle Of the Quality and Nature of the true Spiritual Warfare and of the Manner and Method of it That it is transacted upon the inner Stage of mens Souls and managed without Noise or pompous Observation and without any hindrance or prejudice to the most peaceful sedate and composed temper of a religious Soul This further illustrated from the consideration of the false and pretended Zeal for God and his Kingdome against the Devil which though it be impetuous and makes a great noise and a fair shew in the world is yet both impotent and ineffectual FRom these words Resist the Devil we may take notice of the Warfare of a Christian life of that Active life and valour which Good men express in this world A true Christian spirit is masculine and generous it is no such poor sluggish pusillanimous thing as some men fansie it to be but active and noble We fight not saith the Apostle against flesh and bloud but against principalities and powers and spiritual wickednesses in high places True Religion does not consist in a mere Passive capacity in a sluggish kind of doing nothing that so God himself might doe all but it consists in life power within therefore it is called by the Apostle The spirit of power of love of a sound mind it 's called the law of the spirit of life strongly enabling Good men against the law of Sin and Death True Wisdome as the Wise man hath well stiled it is the unspotted mirrour of the power of God and a pure influence flowing from the glory of the Almighty neither can any defiled thing enter into it it goes in and out in the strength of God himself and as is the heavenly such are they also that are heavenly Every thing as it partakes more of God and comes nearer to him so it becomes more active and lively as making the nearer approaches to the Fountain of life and virtue A Good man doth not only then move when there is some powerfull impression and impulse upon him but he hath a Spring of perpetual motion within When God restores men to a new and divine life he doth not make them like so many dead Instruments stringing and fitting them which yet are able to yield no sound of themselves but he puts a living Harmony within them That is but a Mechanical religion which moves no longer then some External weights and Impulses are upon it whether those be I think I may safely say from some Worldly thing or from God himself while he acts upon men from without them and not from within them It is not a Melancholy kind of sitting still and sloathfull waiting that speaks men enlivened by the Spirit and power of God It is not Religion to stifle and smother those Active powers and principles which are within us or to dry up the Fountain of inward life and virtue How say some amongst us That there is no resurrection from the dead no spirit or life within but all our motions in Religion are merely from some assisting Form without Good men do not walk up and down the world merely like Ghosts and Shadows or like dead Bodies assumed by some Spirit which are taken up and laid down again by him at his pleasure But they are indeed living men by a real participation from him who is indeed a quickning Spirit Were our Religion
can scarce be otherwise but that there should be an unknown love between such persons there being such a secret fascination in frequent converse and familiarity as entices a mans Soul and Heart out of himself Those Precepts which we imbibe from anothers mouth naturally call forth a strong affection to flow from us to him and he who inflames our Souls with love to God will certainly enkindle a subordinate love within us to himself The words of Wisdome smite an ingenuous Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as with a dart if I may use Greg. Thaumaturgus his expression concerning Origen's Discourses and cannot but wound it both with a love to Wisdom him that shoots those piercing arrows into its Heart They bind a tractable Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it werein indissoluble necessities so that it cannot but love those words kiss the mouth also from whence they flow unto it A teachable Mind will hang about a wise mans neck and thereby they come to cleave and cling as fast together as the Soul of Jonathan did unto the Soul of David So the aforesaid Gregory speaks of himself and Origen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. This David meaning Origen hath intangled and bound up my Soul in such necessary fetters of Love he hath so tyed and even knit me to him that if I would be disengaged I cannot quit my self No 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though we depart out of this world our love cannot die for I love him even as my own Soul and so my affection must remain for ever The words of the wise saith Solomon are as goads and as nails fastned by the Masters of the Assemblies Eccles. 12. 11. If a Master fix his Doctrine in his Scholars mind he nailes himself likewise with the same stroke quasi trabali clavo by a pin as strong as a beam to his Scholars heart They mingle Souls as they doe Notions and mutually pass into each other 2. We have here likewise the Sense which Elisha had of his great loss For these Words are Expressions of Sorrow and Lamentation as appears by the words following And he took hold of his own clothes and rent them in pieces and also from chap. 13. 14. where we find Joash weeping over this Elisha and saying these very words of my Text O my Father my Father the chariot of Israel and the Horsemen thereof And methinks I see Elisha himself here bedewing his cheeks with tears and hear these words sob'd and sighed out of his Heart having lost his dear Father one that took such special care of him whilst he was in the world Methinks I see his Heart rent as well as his Garments and there I see Elijah graven in letters as great as was his Love How could he look on himself and not lament to think that he had lost his Head how could he behold Israel unguarded and not throw off his own clothes as a token of his Sorrow It is said of Jehoiakim Jer. 22. 18. That they shall not lament for him saying Ah my Brother or ah my Sister they shall not lament for him saying Ah Lord or ah his Glory which both shews that this is a Form of speech to denote sorrow and that it is an Honour wicked men shall want that none shall bemoan their Departure But the Just shall be had in everlasting remembrance they shall die desired and those who can value them will not let them pass away in silence and with dry eyes No Tears are spent so well as for the want of God and a good Friend or a Good man especially such a one as i before described And indeed who can think of his gracious lipps his profitable and delightful converse his cordial love without a sigh and a tear without saying Ah my Father Ah his Glory No man will be sooner miss'd then such an one as he Ten thousand others may steal out of the world and no body scarce mind or inquire after them but let Elijah goe away and you shall have fifty men goe three days to seek him that if it be possible they may enjoy his company a while longer We find that Jesus himself wept for his friend Lazarus Joh. 11. 35. at which the Jews said Behold how he loved him Two Souls joined together in cordial love cannot part without a groan especially a Son and his Father a Scholar and his Master The Child cannot hold it self from crying when it wants the Breast that used to feed it nor can a Soul thirsty of knowledg but be pained when the Fountain is stop'd that used to quench it There are not so many of these men in the world but their loss will be as soon felt as the want of a stake in a rotten hedg or of a Buttress against a bowing wall He who knows one to have been a Light in the world and a Lamp unto him will surely be melancholy and sad when he sees that Light goe out and himself left in the dark without that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those chearful and beloved beams which used to shine upon him to illuminate and warm his Soul with a true knowledg and love of all real goodness 3. We may further take notice of the Honourable thoughts he had of Elijah of the Reverence Worship and Respect which he gave unto him For so we may look upon these Words as an Expression of the high Esteem he had of him and Regard he bare to him even after he was gone from this Earth and could do no more kindnesses for him Elisha who had been a minister to him when he was below and used to powre water upon his hands could not but have very reverend thoughts toward him now that the Angels came to wait upon him and in Flames of fire to carry him up above He could not but honour him as his Elder and Father as his Leader and Commander as the General of the Sons of the Prophets as the very Host and Army of Israel And indeed the Souls of those men that are as full of God as the name of Elijah is which includes Two if not Three of the Divine names in it cannot but draw our eyes toward them but then they so dazzle us with their lustre and brightness they strike us into such amazement at their Perfections that the weakness of mans nature hath been apt to give no less then Divine veneration to such persons It had not been lawful I know to have worshipped Elijah though he had been an Angel but yet methinks I see Elisha bowing down with some respect to the very Mantle which fel from his Master and taking it up as a precious Relique of so holy a man And I could very well pass some Civility upon the Gown in which this Holy man departed used for to walk out of the great honour which I bear to him There was so much of Divinity enshrined in this Excellent man's Soul that it made every thing about him