State and Position and thereby attaining that Perfection Happiness and Everlasting Blessedness and Rest that is possible for any reasonable Man to desire or expect Only I must add this Caution that when I speak of the Doctrine of the Gospel and Christian Religion I do by no means exclude the Divine Revelation of the Old Testament for both Testaments make but one entire System of the True Christian Doctrine the Old Testament is preparatory to the New and the New Testament Explicative of the Old and takes in either in express Terms or by necessary admission all the Truths of God delivered in the Old and is recommended by Christ himself to his Disciples and Followers together with those other additional Discoveries and Precepts that he made and gave But yet thus much must needs be added That the Doctrine of Christianity as it is singly revealed in the New Testament gives a much greater Light makes more full Discoveries and contains more effectual Instances to bring about the Soul to Almighty God than that Old Testament alone did or could do And I shall now proceed to some of those most Eminent Particulars and Instances for this purpose 1. Whereas the Notion of God was greatly Corrupted in the Minds of Men as is shewn in the former Chapter the Christian Doctrine rectified those Notions and gives us a true Discovery of the Divine Nature so far as our finite Understandings are capable of it Acts 17.23 Whom ye ignorantly worship him declare I unto you here we have the great Discoveries of the Perfection Excellency and Beauty of the Divine Nature and therefore an Object infinitely deserving the greatest Excess of our Love and of our Dependance and Reverence his Eternity Unity Purity Holiness Goodness Wisdom Power Justice Mercy Placability Long-suffering Gentleness Faithfulness Truth in a word that he is the Perfection of all Excellencies the Chiefest Good and the most Sovereign Object of all our Love even upon the single Account of his own transcendent Perfection and Excellence But I come to things more specifically applicable to the Redemption of Mankind by Christ Jesus Therefore 2. I have in the former Chapter mentioned the Suspicions and Inclinations of Mankind to think the Soul is immortal and that there is a Future State thereof for Rewards and Punishments but this Supposition was much clouded with uncertain Conjectures and Imaginations But Christ in the Gospel hath given us a full Discovery and Assurance of the Immortality of the Soul and a full Prospect of the future State of Rewards and Punishments and therefore is truly said to have brought Immortality and Life to Light by the Gospel 3. Whereas in the former Chapter I have shewed that although the External Blessings distributed among the Children of Men were greatly Valuable and more than any Creature could either deserve or by his own Power procure and therefore Almighty God in respect of these highly deserved our Love as our greatest Benefactor yet that many wise and considerate Men considering the promiscuous Dispensation of External Blessings and the great Excellency of the humane Soul did reach after Blessings of a higher Nature and Use than such as only served the Meridian of this Life Here we have a Discovery of the immense Beneficence and Love of the Glorious God unto Mankind and therefore the highest Attractive of the Soul namely Immortal Happiness Glory and Blessedness freely and bountifully offered by Almighty God through Jesus Christ to all that will be but converted and turn unto him and this done upon the Account of his own Beneficence and communicative Goodness unto the Children of Men that were Enemies and estranged from God by Evil Works as well as to the rest of Mankind Certainly if Love undeserved Love be the greatest Attractive of Love if the free Collation of the greatest Benefits that the humane Nature is capable of namely Immortal Glory Life and Blessedness be the greatest Allective of Love and Gratitude to our Benefactor then here is such an Attractive of the Soul to God as its chiefest Benefactor that cannot be elsewhere matched or equalled But this is not all Therefore 3. There is yet farther such an Instance of Love in the manner of procuring this Benefit that seems to equal the very Benefit it self namely God Almighty sending his Son his only Son into the World so far to humble himself as to take our Nature upon him with all its Natural Infirmities Sin only excepted 2. In that Nature to live a poor despised persecuted Life reproached with the most odious though undeserved Calumnies 3. In that Nature to be betrayed by his own Disciple condemned by his own Country-men that were of highest Esteem among them the Priests Scribes and Sanhedrim mocked by the Soldiers Crowned with Thorns his Flesh torn with Scourging delivered over to the Gentiles to be Executed and then exposed to a most painful ignominious Death among Thieves and Malefactors And which yet was more than all this his very Soul made as it were an Offering for Sin heavy unto the Death astonished and in an Agony by the Eclipsing for the time of the Comfort and Influence of the Divine Presence and Love And all this done to expiate the Sins of Men to become a Sacrifice for the Sins of his very Enemies and purchase and impetrate for them this greatest Benefit of Everlasting Life and Glory and all this thus done by the very Design Counsel and Contrivance of the Offended God to satisfie his own Justice to magnifie his own Mercy and to save his undeserving Creature These are Instances of a strange and stupendous Love and do Aggrandize the very Benefit it self than which yet there could not be a Greater So God loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son into the world that as many as believed on him should not perish 1 John 4.10 Here is Love not that we loved him but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our Sins Herein the Love of God is manifest that when we were yet Sinners Christ dyed for us And now if any be so inquisitive as to ask Why was all this adoe Could not God have saved Men without such a hard and bloody Scene or if he would not give Mankind Everlasting Life without Conversion of the Soul to him could he not by the Empire of his Power have over-ruled the Hearts of the Children of Men to such a Temper and Position I Answer It is true he could and might have done so but he that made Man an intellectual and a free Agent and placed all those Affections in his Nature which I have before-mentioned was not minded to abrogate nor alter the humane Nature and at once to shew both his Constancy to those Laws he hath most wisely settled in Nature and yet to bring about this Great Work of Conversion of the Soul to God without offering Violence to the Laws that he had settled in Nature and therefore in
Love Fear and Obedience the other that which indeed should be in Subjection namely the sensual part which naturally respects the pleasures contentments and delights of this World and such Provisions as may be subservient to them as Riches Honour c. Now if the intellectual Part be so servile and base as to be overmatched by the sensual or to be carried and governed by it the true genuine Verticity or Direction of the Soul is in a manner altered and transposed especially if that prevalence be strengthned by long Custom and Usage which gives a kind of other Nature to the Soul than what is truly natural to it whereby it comes to pass in process of time that the whole Soul even the intellectual part thereof becomes sensual and is entirely leavened with a sensual Ferment if I may so call it and so habituated to a constant Conversion of it self to the World as if indeed it were no other than a sensual Soul the innate and connatural Characters of even Natural Religion being wonderfully obscured and weakened in it CHAP. IX Concerning the several Instances and Means of the Conversion of the Soul to God THe true and natural state and position of the Soul of Man consists in the entire converting of it self to God the Author and End of its Being in all Submission and Obedience in Gratitude and Thankfulness in Resignation and Dependance in Worship and Adoration in Sincerity and Uprightness And in this Position and State it first stood before the Apostasy of the first Man And besides what is mentioned in the former Chapter there were three things especially that carried off the Soul from this state and position and still very much obtain among the Children of Adam 1. A want of due Attention to those Natural and implanted Principles of Religion and Piety that are connatural to the Soul radicated in it and with due Attention capable of great Advance and Improvement 2. The Byass and Inclination of the sensual Appetite to present and sensual Delights and affectation of the present worldly Advantages which are a sort of Provisions for these sensual Lusts as Wealth Honour Worldly Power Glory Splendour which wheel about the Soul towards them avert it from its Duty unto and Delight in God and corrupt and imbase and prostitute the humane Soul And thereby it comes to pass in the Soul thus displac'd from its true position that these very external Blessings that Almighty God lends us to draw us to him as Health Strength Wealth Reputation Honour Abundance of all external good things are made so many Means of averting the Soul from that God that gives them and makes us place our whole Desires towards them and delight in them and to forget that God that gives them 3. The Temptations and subtle Insinuations of Satan that Enemy of Mankind who being irrecoverably fallen from his Duty to his Maker useth all the Means he can to avert the Souls of Men from God and to render them as irrecoverably lost as himself There seems also to be Three great Means to retain the Human Soul in its just and due Respect and Position toward Almighty God and to reduce him to it and thereby to attain that Happiness and Felicity that is sutable to his Condition For it is a certain Truth as I have before observed That every created Being then and only then attains that Felicity that it is capable of when it stands in that Place Station Position and Order that the Wise and Glorious God hath appointed and instituted for it and when it loseth that Station or Position it is like a Bone out of joint full of disorder discomposure and Pain The First is that Connatural Propension and Byass that is implanted and tincted in the very Texture and Fabrick of the Human Soul whereby it is secretly inclined to an Acknowledgment and Veneration and Subjection unto a Supreme Being Secondly The Rational and Intellectual Sight in the Soul not considered simply and singly in it self alone but as it stands furnished by the Divine Goodness with Objects attracting and bringing about the Soul unto God and containing and keeping it in that Position Thirdly A Secret and Sweet and Efficacious Influx of the Divine Spirit upon the Human Soul solliciting moving and inclining it to the Love and Obedience of Almighty God The First Means I call Natural the Second Rational and the Third Spiritual and Supernatural CHAP. X. Concerning the Natural Means of the Soul's Conversion to Almighty God THERE are implanted and characterized in the Human Soul certain common Notions and Inclinations which seem to be the first Rudiments of Natural Religion and Conversion to God even antecedently to any actual Ratiocination And as the Glorious God hath planted in the Animal Nature certain Animal Instincts and Inclinations whereby they are guided and governed to the conserving and perfecting of their Animal Life so he hath ingraven on the very Fabrick of the Human Soul certain Characters and Inclinations which may conduct or assist him to the perfection of his Rational and Intellectual Life which consists in the Conversion and due Position and Respect of the Soul to the Glorious God and his Will And among many of these common Notions that might be observed this is the greatest and the most universal and of the greatest Importance namely that there is a most Soveraign Being the Cause and Governour of all Things of perfect Power Wisdom and Goodness that Loves and will reward them that fear honour and obey him and will punish them that neglect or disobey him And that therefore he is to be Feared to be Worshiped to be Invoked and to be Praised And these common imprinted Notions have been a great Means of the establishing a Natural Religion almost in all Nations of the World though Ignorance and Evil Custom have oftentimes corrupted these Notions as to the manner and object of their Worship And this is that which Tully Lib. 2. Cap. 24. de Legibus observ'd to my Hand Nam quod aliquibus cohaerent homines è mortali genere sumserunt quae fragilia essent caduca Animam esse ingeneratam à Deo ex quo verè vel agnatio nobis cum Coelestibus vel genus vel stirps appellari potest Itaque extot generibus nullum est animal praeter hominem quod habeat notitiam aliquam Dei de ipsisque Hominibus nulla Gens est neque tam immansueta neque tam fera quae non etiam si ignoret qualem habere Deum deceat tamen habendum sciat This secret connatural Byass as I may call it of the Human Soul towards God seems to arise from Two sorts of Principles The former sort of Principles are such as are in their kind common to all created Beings the latter more specifically applicable to the Make and Frame of the Human Soul Touching the former sort those Inclinations Propensions and Dispositions of all created Beings are these whereby by a kind of
of the things of this Life he cannot want a powerfull Incentive to draw out his Love to such a Benefactor Let a Man but consider the noble Structure and Frame of the Humane Body the admirable Faculties of his Soul the Dominion that thereby he hath over all things in the inferiour World the Provision that is made for his Food Cloathing Habitation Medicine Delight the Accommodation of Animals Vegetables Minerals Elements Meteors nay of the very Motions and Influences of the Heavenly Bodies to his Use Contentation Convenience Health Pleasure Delight and infinite more Topicks of this nature he hath reason to conclude even upon the Account of the Works of Nature and of the common Effects of Divine Providence that Almighty God is a most Bountiful Benefactor unto him and therefore deserves his highest and intensest Love And most certainly it is the want of due Attention and Consideration that all the Good we have is from his Bounty and Beneficence if we do not return unto him the greatest Love and Observance imaginable even upon the bare Account of this liberal Beneficence And this is that which the Apostles intimate even in relation to the Heathens Act. 14.17 Nevertheless he left not himself without Witness in that he did good and gave rain from Heaven and fruitful Seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness Therefore the Divine Love and Beneficence to Mankind is a great Attractive of the Love of the Soul to God Magnes amoris amor And what is said by the Apostle as to those greater Indications of the Divine Love whereof hereafter 1. Joh. 4.10 the antecedent Love of God to Mankind even in these common Administrations of his Providence doth not only deserve but upon a kind of natural Attraction draws out our Love to him 2. The second Affection that I principally insisted upon is that of Gratitude which seems to be an Inclination or Rational Instinct of the Humane Soul and so naturally radicated in the Soul that he that is without a kind of natural Cogency as I may call it to it seems to have put off the very humane Nature and Apostatized from it The Obligation to it is so natural so universal and so operative that Ingratitude is both odious to Mankind and breeds in the Person himself a secret Shame and Self-Condemnation And the Effects of Gratitude are 1. A secret Connexion and uniting of the Soul to the Benefactor 2. An Endeavour by all due Means to requite the Benefit with all the Offices of Love and Duty And to say the truth Gratitude is but a kind of Instance and Indication of Love to a Benefactor and ariseth upon the same Account namely as Benefits received inviteth Love so it raiseth Gratitude to the Benefactor And therefore the very same Communicative Goodness of God that naturally exciteth our Love exciteth our Gratitude and therefore need not again to be here repeated And because the Goodness of God to Mankind even in his common Providences doth exceed any commensurate Retribution or Recompence to him we cannot by any Means advantage him that is All-sufficient in himself therefore the natural Effect of Gratitude is to make the best Retribution we can namely to Observe Honour Glorifie Praise and Acknowledge his Goodness and Bounty to Obey his Will with all Chearfulness and Alacrity to convert and turn the Aspect and Tendency of our Souls to him which is the true state position and verticity of the humane Soul 3. The Third Affection which I shall instance in is that of Trust and Dependance which ariseth upon Four Premises 1. A daily Sense and Experience of our own Wants Deficiencies and Dangers and of our own Insufficiency to overmatch or avoid them All the Instances of our Lives furnish us with Experiences of this Nature And 2. A due Sense of a Sufficiency of Power in some other Being to relieve or supply us 2. A due Sense of abundant Goodness Beneficence and Good Will in the same Powerfull Being to be propitious unto us 4. A Sense that that Powerfull and Beneficent Being is or may be acquainted with our Exigencies and Extremities And upon this Account it is that in such Instances which Men ordinarily suppose are governable or to be mastered by other Means Men ordinarily fly unto them as to their Wits and Contrivances to their Riches and Wealth to their Friends and Relations to Princes and Magistrates to Physicians and Surgeons according to the various Conditions of their Needs or Wants but when Extremities or Fears rise above the Relief of ordinary Means there are few People in the World but have recourse to the Sovereign Power of God for their Relief Jonah 1.5 When the Mariners the roughest and boldest Generation of Men were in a Storm that exceeded their Pilot's Skill then the Mariners were afraid and cryed every one unto his God and reproved Jonah for not calling upon his God so that the Affection of Fear also hath its part in the Exercise of this Affection and though the Saying of the Poet savours too much of Atheism Primus in orbe Deos fecit Timor yet in this Sense it hath a Truth that Extremities and invincible Fears and Dangers draw Men to the Recognition and Veneration of God which possibly could not be so easily drawn thereunto In their Affliction they will seek me early And not only Extremities are the Motives of this Conversion to God in Supplications and Dependance but also the common Experience of the Deficiency and Disappointments that do so commonly happen in ordinary Means doth carry the Minds of Men to the Sovereign Power of Almighty God to bless and prosper the Means to supply the Defects thereof to interpose in their Disappointments And this in all Ages and Nations we may observe to be usual And now although the Divine Beneficence even in these external Benefits is in it self a sufficient Attractive of our Love and Gratitude to God and our Dependance upon him since all these are Acts of his free Bounty and Goodness and as without him we cannot procure them so neither can we at all deserve them or the least of them yet these Means had not that effect that might reasonably be expected by such a Benefactor And the Reasons or Occasions thereof were principally these First Because by Evil Education and Customs and by the subtlety of the Enemy of God and Man and his Instruments the Notion of God was greatly corrupted in the Minds of Men they fell to Idolatry and Polytheism making Creatures and Idols their Gods This is that which the Apostle learnedly and truly describes Rom. 2. Secondly The Commonness and Assiduity of these Benefits rendered them less observed and valued and Mankind thereby grew almost as senseless of their value or of the Author of them as the Brute Beasts they were either not taken notice of or not considered but enjoyed as things of Course and a common Natural State of things and so Men enjoyed them without any value or
it is truly said that life and immortality are brought to light by the Gospel But although this be true that the Contrivance of Man's Redemption could only be by infinite Wisdom and the Discovery it self is supernatural a divine Message from Heaven and published to us by the Son of God Heb. 1. yet the Truths thus revealed do bear a great Consonance and Congruity to the True Light of Reason to the true State of the humane Nature For to say the Truth True Reason in the Souls of Men is but a Ray or Beam of that transcendent Wisdom that is in God and it is no longer true Reason than as it bears a Congruity and Consonance to that Divine Reason as I may with Submission call it namely the Divine Wisdom And though in relation thereunto the humane Reason bears not so great a Proportion as the Light of a Candle doth to the Sun yet certainly if it be True Reason it holds an Analogy and Conformity to its Fountain and Original and ceaseth to be Reason when it suits not to it And in this respect I have adventured to range this means of Conversion of the Soul to God among Means that are rational and to call them reasonable and intellectual Means And indeed they are so there is no Religion that is or ever was professed in any Age that hath so great a sutableness to True Reason no Means or Method of bringing the Soul into its true genuine State and Position as the Christian Religion and Doctrine I shall not pursue this Subject at large but shall give some Instances making good my Affirmation 1. The Evangelical Doctrine gives us a clear Account of the Immortality of the Soul and this is a Doctrine highly sutable to the very Sentiments of our Souls 1. The Consent of the most Learned and Judicious Sects of the Philosophers the Platonists and many of the Stoicks 2. It seems an utter unlikely thing that the Noble Creature Man of such admirable Endowments and Faculties of Mind a Mind of that great Capacity furnished with Conceptions that are of an Extent beyond a Life of Sense a Mind reaching after Immortality and Communion with Almighty God or at least with those Noble Creatures the Angels I say it is highly incredible that such a Nature such a Mind should be placed and made only to take a Turn for a few years upon the Theatre of this World and then die and perish and vanish like a blast of flame or smoke and have a lesser Privilege of Duration than many Vegetables and Brutes 2. The Evangelical Doctrine gives us a distinct Account of a Future State of Rewards and Punishments This is also a Truth highly consonant to natural Sentiments of Mankind and to the ordinary Appearances in the State of humane Nature 1. There is scarce any Sect of Learned and Judicious Men nay scarce any Nation under Heaven but is highly persuaded of the Truth thereof in general though they labour under differing manners of explicating it 2. The whole Frame of the Universe do proclaim Almighty God to be delighted in the due Order and Disposal of all things every thing is full of Order Congruity Beauty and Comeliness only the Dispensations of External Good and Evil to Mankind seem very confused and disproportionable to the Conditions and Deserts of Men Good Men to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked and wicked men to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous therefore it is not conceptible but that there must be a time to set things at rights a day of the manifestation of the Righteous Judgments of the God of Order this was the natural Conclusion of the Wise Man Eccles 3.16 17. when he saw the Disorder that was in the Dispensations among Men I said in my heart God shall judge the righteous and the wicked for there is a time for every purpose and for every Work 3. The Gospel teacheth that the Way and Means to attain a State of Blessedness and Glory in that future Life of Immortality is by converting the Soul to Almighty God by Faith Love and Obedience by Purity and Holiness by Righteousness and Charity by Sobriety and Patience and all these Christian Vertues recommended to us by the Precept and Example of Christ Jesus And certainly if we examine this impartially by Reason such a State and Position and Temper of the Soul is most sutable and agreable to a Life of Immortality and Happiness And we may take a measure of it by the contrary Let us but suppose a Soul entirely addicted to a Sensual Life and the love of this World placing its Felicity in Carnal Pleasures Eating Drinking Wantonness Recreations Bravery of Apparel Splendid Houses and Furniture Great Retinue great Store of Lands Money Flocks Herds in Delights of the Ear the Eyes and other Senses in Power and Rule over others and in the Sence and Delight of these Enjoyments the Soul to be wholly immersed let any Man but think with himself how it is possible for such a Soul thus addicted and habituated to be in any kind of Congruity with the State of Happiness of a separated immortal Soul nay how it is possible for such a Soul to be without extream Vexation Sorrow and Perturbation when it comes into such a State as is wholly unsutable to and uncapable of such Enjoyments which once it made its Felicity and if it had a Capacity to relish and taste such worldly Contentments yet they are not in that State to be had they are quite gone and out of date and vanished away 4. The Doctrine of the Gospel commands and commends unto Mankind Piety towards God Vertue Charity Righteousness Justice Veracity Fidelity Sincerity Integrity Purity Holiness Humility Sobriety Temperance Patience Longanimity and all other excellent Vertues and certainly if we take a Measure of these Precepts even by the Light of Nature and True Reason we shall find them admirably consonant thereunto though there were no other future Life to come 1. If once that most radical and natural Notion of the Existence of a Deity and of his great Perfection be but deeply digested in the Soul the greatest and most divine sort of Evangelical Precepts are and would be as naturally consequential thereupon as the most necessary Conclusion of a Logical Demonstration such as are the Love and Fear of God Reverence and Veneration of him entire Obedience to him Patience and Resignation of our Wills to his Will Sincerity and Uprightness of Heart Thankfulness to him Dependance upon him Trust in him a vigilant Conversation becoming his Sight and Presence an imitation of him in all things that we are capable to imitate him in Again 2. Tranquillity of Mind and Conscience was accounted among the Wisest of the Philosophers the greatest Pitch of Happiness attainable by Man in this Life and I dare confidently assert That no Precepts no Practice under Heaven is more conducible to the Tranquillity of the Mind
of Man than these Evangelical Precepts before-mentioned as might be made easily evident by Induction of Particulars 3. The Peace and Good of Mankind and of humane Societies is a thing justly valuable by all Wise and Good Men And what in the world is more conducible thereunto then Veracity and Truth Fidelity Righteousness Justice Temperance Sobriety Charity Beneficence Longanimity Goodness Forgiveness Meekness Humility Contentation and all this bound on to the Soul by the strictest Bond of the Love Fear and Duty we owe to the God of Heaven The greatest part of the Disorders in humane Society arise by those Vices that are contrary to those excellent Vertues as by Pride Ambition Covetousness Falseness Dissimulation Churlishness Injustice Unrighteousness These and the like Distempers of Soul fill the World with Rapine Violence Oppression Contention and Deceit which are cured and remedied by an Observance of the Evangelical Doctrine than which there cannot be any thing more conducible to the perfecting of the humane Nature and benefit of humane Societies 5. The Evangelical Doctrine evermore inculcates these two great Qualifications of the humane Soul namely the True Knowledge of God and the true Love of God the former is that which excites the latter and the latter is that great commanding Affection of the Soul that fully brings about the Soul to God and to a chearful and sincere Observance of him and his Will The Love of God is the First and great Commandment and draws along with it the Whole Duty of Man to God And this is most consonant to what Reason it self dictates and Experience evidenceth he that hath but the firm hold upon this Affection governs a Man as he pleaseth 6. The Evangelical Doctrine in order to bring about Man to love God gives us the highest most transcendent and obliging Instances of the Love of God the antecedent undeserved Love of God to Man especially in the admirable Oeconomy of our Redemption by Christ as hath been before-shewed And certainly this is the most rational way that can be imagined for the gaining of this great Affection and the Conversion of the Soul to God 1. It is in it self a most effectual Means to that end Love and Beneficence is the great Attractive of Love as hath been before shewn and that Great God that formed the humane Soul and placed it in its several Habitudes and Affections and therefore best knows what doth most vigorously strike upon those active Strings the Soul did therefore choose this effectual Magnetism to bring about the Soul to him 1 John 4.10 Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us first Again 2. This Method of Attracting the Soul to God by the great and primitive Instances of his Love to Man is most sutable to the Frame and Mould of the Nature of the humane Soul and offers no Violence to it It is true the Glorious God is not necessarily bound to the Laws that he hath established in Nature they were Laws given to his Creatures and not to himself and he may and sometimes for great Ends derogates from those Laws by the Interposition of his own immediate Power as in Miracles And upon the same Account may or might if he please break in upon the Laws that he hath instituted in the humane Soul and might infringe the Liberty of his Will and turn him about to him by an irresistible over-powring Necessity But the Wise God hath settled and established the Rules and Laws of the Natures of things with so great Wisdom and Foresight that he rarely violates them but ordinarily proceeds in the way of his Providential Regiment of all things according to those Laws and Institutions which he hath fixed in the Natures of things in things simply Natural he usually proceeds by Natural Applications and in Rational Beings by Means sutable to a Rational Nature and therefore hath chosen this Means to draw the Soul of Man to him namely by the Cords of a Man and the Bonds of Love as most sutable to the Complexion Nature and Constitution settled by his own Ordination in the humane Soul Upon the whole Matter therefore I conclude that as the Apostle Rom. 12. stiles the Consecration of the Body and Soul to God a reasonable Service so I do with the same Evidence of Reason style the Doctrine of the Gospel the Christian Religion a reasonable Religion a Religion fitted and ordered with the most exquisite Reason and sutableness thereunto to bring the Soul to its due Position Respect and Habitude to Almighty God and thereby to have an Everlasting Happiness CHAP. XIV Concerning the Supernatural Means of retaining the Soul in its due Respect and Position to Almighty God and of the Reduction thereof unto it I Have hitherto considered of those two Means of Reduction of the Soul to its due Position and Respect to Almighty God which I have stiled Natural and Rational It now remains that I should consider the Third Means which I call Supernatural It appears in the consideration of the Natural Causes and Effects in the World that besides the Intrinsick Powers and Propensions of things there are certain Extrinsick common adjuvant Causes that have a great Influence in the Effects and Appearances in the World The Magnet hath not only its intrinsick active Principle its Form from which its Motions proceed but there is also a common Magnetism of the Earth and its Effluxes that greatly assist excite and direct its Motions Animals and Vegetables have not only their intrinsick specifical vital Principles of their specifical Motions and Operations but the Sun and its heat and influence is an universal adjuvant exciting Principle of all vital and sentient Operations And not only the ancient Philosophers as Aristotle and Plato and their several Commentators as Simplicius Themistius Alexander Aphrodiceus Avicen and Averroes but also the Jewish Doctors and the Christian Philosophers and Divines for some Ages after Christ did think that besides the individual intellectual Soul of every Man there was also a certain common intelligent Nature or Being substituted by Almighty God whose Office it was to illuminate the humane Soul to excite actual Intellection in it and to communicate unto it these common intellectual Principles which ordinarily and generally obtain in all Men and stood in relation to the humane Intellectual Soul as the Sun and its Light and Influence stands in relation to vital Natures in the Lower World And this they call Intellectus Agens which Averroes supposeth to be Vltima Intelligentiarum separatarum and deputed to the actuating and exciting of Intellection in Men. This Opinion hath been possibly upon Reasons probable enough laid aside for many Ages in the Christian Church the Use therefore that I make of it only is this that though this Opinion seems to be dark and obscure and not bottom'd upon a clear Evidence yet it carries with it and under it an Adumbration of a great and real Truth though they attained not a