to bribe Gods justice or engage mens charity to purchase favour with God or man or his own clamarous conscience but he prays because he wants and loves and believes he wants the fuller presence of that God whom he loves he loves the presence which he wants he believes that he that loves him will not suffer him to want any good thing that he prays for And therefore he do's not bind up himself severely and limit himself penuriously to a morning and evening Sacrifice and solemnity as unto certain rent-seasons wherein to pay a homage of dry devotion but his loving and longing Soul disdaining to be confin'd within Canâ—nical hours is frequently soaring in some heavenly raptures or other and sallying forth in holy ejaculations He is not content with some weak assays towards Heaven in set and formal Prayer once or twice a day but labours also to be all the day long sucking in those Divine influences and streams of grace by the mouth of faith which he beg'd in the morning by the tongue of prayer which hath made me sometimes to think it a proper speech to say the faith of Prayer as well as the prayer of faith for believing and hanging upon Divine grace doth really drink in what Prayer opens its mouth for and is in effect a powerful kind of praying in silence By believing we pray as well as in praying we do believe A truly godly man hath not his hands tyed up meerly by the force of a National Law no nor yet by the authority of the fourth commandment to keep one in seven a day of rest As he is not content with meer resting upon the Sabboth knowing that neither working nor ceasing from work doth of itself commend a Soul to God but doth press after intimacy with God in the duties of his worship so neither can he be content with one Sabboth in a week nor think himself absolved from holy and heavenly meditations any day in the week but labours to make every day a Sabboth as to the keeping of his heart up unto God in a holy frame and to find every day to be a Sabboth as to the communications of God unto his Soul Though the necessities of his body will not allow him it may be though indeed God hath granted this to some men to keep every day as a Sabboth of Rest yet the necessities of his Soul do call upon him to make every day as far as may be a Sabboth of communion with the blessed God If you speak of Fasting he keeps not Fasts meerly by vertue of a civil no nor a divine institution but from a principle of godly sorrow afflicts his â—oul for sio and daily endeavours more and more to be emptied of himself which is the most excellent Fasting in the world If you speak of Thansgiving he do's not give thanks by laws and ordinances but having in himself a law of thanksulness and an ordinance of love engraven upon and deeply radicated in his Soul delights to live unto God and to make his heart and life a living descant upon the goodness and love of God which is the most divine way of thank offering in the world it is the hallâ—lujah which the Angels sing continually In a word wherever God hath a tongue to command true godliness will find an hand to perform whatever yoke Christ Jesus shall put upon the Soul religion will enable to bear it yea and to count it easie too the mouth of Christ hath pronounâ—'d it easie Mat. 11. 30. and the spirit of Christ makes it easie Let the commandment be what it will it will not le grievous 1 Joh. 5. 3. The same spirit doth in some measure dwell in every Christian which without measure dwelt in Christ who counted it his meat and drink to do the will of his Father Joh. 4. 34. 2. And more especially the true Christian is free from any constâ—aint as to the inward acts which he performeth Holy love to God is one principal Act of the gracioâ—s soul whereby it is carryed out freely and with an ardent lust towards the object that is truly and infinitely lovely and satisfâ—ctory and to the enjoyment of iâ— I know indeed that this springs from self indigency and is commanded by the soveraignty of the supream good the object that the Soul eyes but it is properly free from any constraint Love is an affection that cannot be excorted as sear is nor sorâ—â—d by any external power nor indeed internal neither the revenues of the King of Persia or the treasuâ—es oâ— Aegypt cannot commit a rape upon â—â— Heb. 11. 26. neither indeed can the soul it self raise and lay this spirit at pleasure which made the Poet complain of himself as if he were not sole Emperour at home Non amo te Sabidi nec possum dicere quare c. Though the outward bodily Acts of Religion are ordinarily forced yet this pure chast virgin-affection cannot be ravished it seems to be a kind of a peculiar in the soul though under the jurisdiction of the understanding By this property of it it is elegantly described by the spirit of God Cant. 8. 7. if a man would give all the substance of his house for love it would utterly be contemned It cannot be bought with money or money-worth cannot be purchased with gifts or arts and if any should offer to bribe it it would give him a sharp and scornful check in the language of Peter to Simon Thy money perish with thee love is no hireling no base born mercenary affection but noble free and generous Neither is it low-spirited and slavish as Fear is therefore when it comes to full age it will not suffer this Son of the Bond woman to divide the inheritance the dominions of the Soul with it when it comes to be perfect it casteth out fear sayes the Apostle 1 Joh. 4. 18. Neither indeed is it directly under the authority of any law whether humane or Divine it is not begotten by the influence of a divine law as a law but as holy just and good as we shall see more anon quis legem dat amantibus ipse Est sibi lex amor the Law of Love or if you will in the Apostles phrase the spirit of love and of power in opposition to the spirit of fear 2 Tim. 1. 7. doth more influence the godly man in his pursuit of God than any law without him this is as a wing to the Soul whereas outward commandments are but as guides in his way or at most but as spurs in his sides The same I may say of holy delight in God which is indeed the flower of love or love grown up to its full age and stature which hath no torment in it and consequently no force upon it Like unto which are holy confidence Faith and Hope ingenuous and natural Acts of the Religious Soul whereby it hastens into the Divine embraces as the Eagle hastneth to the prey swiftly and speedily
and not by force and constraint as a fool to the correction of the stocks or a bear to the stake These are all genuine off-springs of holy religion in the Soul and they are utterly uncapable of force Violence is contrary to the nature of them for to use the Apostles words with the change of one word Hope that is forc'd is not hope Now a little further to explain this excellent property of true Religion we may a little consider the Author and the object of it The author of this noble and Free principle is God himself who hath made it a partaker of his own nature who is the Free agent himself is the fountain of his own Acts. The uncreated life and liberty hath given this priviledge to the religious Soul in some sense to have life and liberty in it self and a dominion over its own Acts. I do not know that any created Being in the world hath more of divinity in it than the Soul of man qua nihil homini dedit Deus ipse divinius as Tully speaks nor that any thing in the Soul doth more resemble the Divine essence than the noble Freedom that the soul hath in itself which freedom is never so divine and generous as when it is objected upon God himself This excellent freedom is something of God in the Soul of man and therefore may justly claim the Free spirit for its author Psal 51. 12. 2. Cor. 3. 17. or the Son of God for its original according to that in Joh. 8. 36. If the Son shall make you free then shall ye be free indeed But here it may be demanded whether the command of God do not act the godly soul and set it upon its holy motions I confess indeed that the command of God is much eyed by a godly man and is of great weight with him and do's in some sense lay a constraint upon him but yet I think not so much the authority of the Law as the reasonableness and goodness of it do's prevail principally with him The Religious Soul do's not so much eye the Law under the notion of a command as under the notion of holy just and good as the Apostle speaks and so embraces it chooses it and longs to be perfectly conformable to it I do nor think it so proper to say that a good man loves God and all righteousness and holiness and religious duties by vertue of a command to do so as by vertue of a new nature that God hath put into him which doth instruct and prompt him so to do A religious Soul being reconciled to the nature of God do's embrace all his Laws by vertue of the equitableness and perfection that he sees in them not because they are commanded but because they are in themselves to be desired as David speaks Psal 19. 10. In which Psalm the holy man gives us a full account why he did so love and esteem the laws and commandments of God viz. because they are perfect right pure clean true sweet and lovely as you will find v. 7 8 9 10. To love the Lord our God with all our heart and strength and mind is not only a duty by vertue of that first and great commandment that doth require it but indeed the highest priviledge honour and happiness of the Soul To this purpose may that profession of the Psalmists be applyed Psal 119. 173. I have chosen thy precepts and ver 30. I have chosen the way of truth Choosing is an act of judgement and understanding and respects the quality of the thing more than the authority of the command David did not stumble into the way of truth accidentally by vertue of his education or acquaintance or the like circumstance nor was he whipt or driven into it by the meer severity of a law without him but he chose the way of truth as that which was indeed most eligible pleasant and desireable What our blessed Saviour sayes concerning himself is also true of every true Christian in his measure he makes it his meat and drink to do the will of God Now we know that men do not eat and drink because Physitians prescribe it as a means to preserve life but the sensual appetite is carryed out towards food because it is good sweet suitable so is the spiritual appetite carryed out towards spiritual food not so much by the force of an external precept as by the attractive power of that higher good which it finds suitable and sufficient for it As for the object of this Free and generous spirit of Religion it is no other than God himself principally and ultimately and other things only as they are subservient to the enjoyment of him God as the supream good able to fill and perfectly satisfie all the wants and indigencies of the soul and so to make it wholly and eternally happy is the proper object of the Souls most free and chearful motions The Soul eyes God as the perfect and absolute good and God in Christ as a feasable and attainable good and so finds every way enough in this object to encourage it to pursue after him and throw it self upon him Religion fixes upon God as upon its own centre as upon its proper and adequate object it views God as the Infinite and absolute good and so is drawn to him without any external force The Godly Soul is overpowred indeed but it is only with the infinite goodness of God which exercises its Soveraignty over all the faculties of the Soul which over-powring is so far from straitning or pinching it that it makes it truly free and generous in its motions Religion wings the Soul and makes it take a flight freely and swiftly towards God and eternal life it is of God and by a sympathy that it hath with him it carryes the Soul out after him and into conjunction with him In a word the godly Soul being loosned from self-love emptyed of self-fulness beaten out of all self-satisfaction and delivered from all self-confining lusts wills interests and ends and being mightily overcome with a sense of a higher and more excellent good goes after that freely centres upon it firmly grasps after it continually and had rather be that than what itself is as seeing that the nature of that supream good is infiâ—itely more excellent and desirable than its own Thus have I briefly explain'd and confirmed the Freeness of this principle in the truly godly Soul I would now make some little improvement of it but that it seems needful I should here interweave a cautionary concession or two First It must be granted that somethings without the Soul may be motives in our common sense and encouragements to the Soul to quicken and â—asten and strengthen it in its religious acts Though grace be an internal principle and most free from any constraint yet it may be excited or stirred up as the Apostle speaks 2 Tâ—m 1. 6. by such means as God hath appointed hereunto as prayer
Though faith abhors the blasphâ—my of laying blame upon God yet it so fixes the soul upon him and causes her so to eye his hand and end in all mal-administrations of men that she hath no leisure to fall out with men or quarrel with instruments These Discontents I said were frequently attended with an evil and seditious zeal for relaxation discovering itself in secret treacherous conspiracies and many times in boisterous and daring attempts These are at the first sight so directly contrary to the character given of Religious men viz. the Psal 35. 20. Gal. 5. 22 23. Col. 3. 12 13 14 15 16. quiet of the Land and the genius of Religion which is wholly made up of love peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faithfulness meekness temperance mercy kindness humbleness of mind forbearance forgiveness charity thankfulness wisdom that it is easie to conceive that Religion in the power of it would certainly heal this evil disease also There are many pretenders to Religion whose complaint is still concerning oppression and persecution their cry is all for liberty and deliverance but to make it the more passable and plausible they stile it the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ This pretence is so fair but withall so deceitfull that I count it worth my time to speak a little more liberally to it And here I do from the very bottom of my soul protest that I account the advancement of the glory of God and the Kingdom of Christ to be the most desirable thing in the World and that it is highly becoming the greatest spirits upon earth to employ the very utmost zeal and diligence to assist the accomplishment thereof yea so utterly do I abhor irreligion and Atheism that as the Apostle speaks in somewhat a like case I do verily Phil. 1. 18. rejoyce that Christ is professed though it be but pretended and that truth is owned though it be not owned in truth I will further add that the oppressing and obstructing of the external progress and propagation of the Gospel is hated of Christ and to be lamented of all true Christians Yea I will further allow men a due sensibleness of their personal oppressions and injuries and a natural warrantable desire to be redeemed from them And now having thus purged my self I entreat the Christian Reader patiently and without prejudice to suffer me to speak somewhat closely to this matter Yea I do verily assure my self that I shall be accepted or at least indulged by all free and ingenuous spirits who are rightly acquainted with the genius of Christian Religion and do preferr truth before interest And first For the complaint that is mostly concerning oppression and persecution certainly Religion if it did rightly prevail in our hearts would very much heal this distemper if not by a perfect silencing of these complaints yet surely by putting them into another tune I reckon that Religion quite silences these complaints when it engages the soul so entirely in serving the end of God in afflictions and in a right improvement of them for religious purposes that she list not to spend her self in fruitless murmurings and unchristian indignations As fire seizeth upon every thing that is combustible and makes it fewel for itself and a predominant humour in the body converts into its own substance whatever is convertible and makes it nourishment to itself so doubtless this spirit of burning this divine principle if it were rightly predominant in the soul would nourish itself by all things that lye in its way though they seem never so heterogeneous and hard to be digested and rather than want meat it would with Sampson fetch it out of the very eater himself But if Religion should not utterly silence these complainings by rendring the soul thus forgetful of the body and regardless of its smart in comparison of the happy advantage that may be made of it yet methinks it should draw the main stream of these tears into an other channel and put these complaints into an other tune It is very natural to the Religious soul to make God all things unto itself to lay to heart the interest of truth and holiness more than any particular interest of its own and to bewail the disservice done to God more than any self-incommodation Must not he needs be a good subject to his Prince who can more heartily mourn that Gods Laws are not kept than that he himself is kept under that can be more grieved that men are cruel than that they kill him that can be more troubled because there are oppressions in the world than because he himself is oppressed such subjects Religion alone can make As for the Cry that is made for liberty and deliverance I confess I do not easily apprehend what is more or more naturally desirable than true liberty yea I believe there are many devout and Religious souls that from a right noble and generous principle and out of a sincere respect to the Author and End of their creation are almost intemperately studiouâ— of it do prefer it above all prefermeâ—◠〈◊〉 hing that may be properly 〈◊〉 â—â—sual and would purchase it with any thing that they can possibly part with But yet that I may a little moderate if not quite stifle this cry I must freely profess that I do apprehend too much of sensuality generally in it because this liberty is commonly abstracted from the proper end of it and desired meerly as a naturally convenient good and not under a right religious consideration self-Self-love is the very heart and centre of the animal life and doubtless this natural principle is as truly covetous of self-preservation and freedom from all inconveniences grievances and confinements as any Religious principle can be And therefore I may well allude to our Saviours words and say If you love and desire Mat. 5. 47. deliverance only under the notion of a natural good what do you more than others Do not even Publicans the same But were this divine principle rightly exercising its Soveraignty in the soul it would value all things and all estates and conditions only as they have a tendency to the advancement and nourishment of itself With what an ordinary not to say disdainfull eye would the Religious soul look upon the fairest self-accommodations in the world and be ready to say within itself What is a meer abstract deliverance from afflictions worth Wherein is a naked freedom from afflictions to be accounted of Will this make me a blessed man Was not profane and impudent Ham delivered from the deluge of Water as well as his brethren Were not the filthy shameless daughters of Lot delivered from the deluge of Fire as well as their Father And yet we are so far from rising up and calling these people blessed that the heart of every chast and modest Christian is ready to rise against the very mention of their names when he remembers how both the one and the other though in a different sense
clear and spiritual discerning of God They did as it is storied of one of the Persian Kings enshrine themselves in a Temple of their own But what speak I of Heathen Philosophers Is there not the same unclean spirit of self-adoration to be found amongst many Christians yea and Teachers of Christianity too witness that whole brood those men who whilest they hang the grace of God upon mans free-will do rob him of his glory Some of these have impudently given a short but unsavoury answer to the Apostles questâ—on in 1 Cor. 4. 7. Who maketh you to differ from an other Ego me ipsum discerno I make my self to differ These men whilest they pretend to high attainments do discover a low and most ignoble spirit To fasten and feed upon any thing in the Creature is the part of a low and degenerate spirit on the other hand it is the greatest perfection of the Creature not to be its own not to be any thing in it self or any way distinct from the blessed God the father and fountain of light and grace Holy Paul is all along in a different strain as in 1 Cor. 15. 10. I yet not I but the grace of God which was with me I told you before what a fair and honourable character the Holy Ghost hath given of holy David a man after Gods own heart now you may also find a description of these men too in Scripture not much differing from the other in phrase but very much in sense it is the same that is given of the proud Prince of Tyrus Ezek. 28. 2. They set their heart as the heart of God But we if we do indeed partake of the Divine Nature shall not dare to take any part of the Divine Glory if we conform to Gods Image we shall not set up our own This self-glorying in the predominancy of it is utterly inconsistent with true Religion as Fire is with Water For Religion is nothing else but the shinings forth of God into the Soul the reflection of a beauty and glory which God hath put upon it Give all therefore unto God for whatsoever is kept back is sacrilegiously purloined from him Glory we in the fulness of God alone and in selfpenury and nothingness The whole of Religion is of God Do we see and discern the great things of God It is by that light that God hath set up in us according to that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 2. 11. The things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God That love whereby we love him he first shed abroad in our hearts If our Souls be beautiful it is with his brightness the beauty and glory of essential Holiness according to that of the Apostle Heb. 12. Partakers of his holiness If we be really and truly full we receive it of his fulness according to that of the Apostle Ephes 3. 19. filled with all the fulness of God In a word if we be in any God-like dispositions like unto him it is by his spreading of his image in us and over us By all which it appears to be a thing not only wicked and unwarrantable but utterly impossible for a godly Soul to exalt himself against God for grace to advance it self against divine glory for grace is nothing else but a communication of divine glory and God is then glorified when the Soul in holy and gracious dispositions becomes like unto him How is it possible that grace should be a shadow to obscure divine glory when it self is nothing else as it comes from God but a Beam of glory and as it is found in the Creature may properly be called a reflection of it To conclude then Be ye perswaded that a man hath so much of God as he hath of Humility and Self denial and Self-nothingness and no more He is so far of God as he loves Him honours Him imitates Hâ—m and lives to Him and no further 3. By this discovery of the Original of Religion we come to understand the Original of Sin and Wickedness And here according to the method wherein I spoke of the Original of Religion I might shew you how the original of Sin from without is of the Devil that first usher'd it into the World and ceaseth not to tempt men to it continually as also of men who are his instruments and that it does in a sense spring from many occasions without But these things are more improperly said to be the causes of Sin The inward cause is the corrupt heart of man that unclean spirit that devillish nature which is indeed the worst and most pernicious Devil in the world to Man It is an old saying Homo homini Daemon One Man is a Devil to another which though it be in some sense true yet it is more proper to say Homo sibi Daemon Man is a Devil to himself taking the spirit and principle of Apostacy that rebellious nature for the Devil which indeed doth best deserve that name But yet if we enquire more strictly into the original and nature of this Monster we shall best know what to say of it and how to describe it by what we have heard of Religion Sin then to speak properly is nothing else but a degeneration from a holy state an apostacy from a holy God Religion is a participation of God and sin is a stragling off from him Therefore it is wont to be defined by Negatives a departure from God a forsaking of him a living in the World without him c. The Souls falling off from God does describe the general nature of Sâ—n but then as it sinks into it self or settles upon the World and fastens upon the Creature or any thing therein so it becomes specified and is called Pride Covetousness Ambition and by many other names All Souls are the Off-spring of God were originally formed into his image and likeness and when they express the purity and holiness of the Divine Nature in being perfect as God is perfect then are they called the Children of God But those impure Spirits that do lapse and slide from God may be said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to implant themselves into a other stock by their own low and earthly lives and are no more owned for the Children of God but are of their father the Devil John 10. 44. By which you may understand the low and base original of Sin Nothing can be so vile as that which to speak properly is nothing else but a perfect falling off from glory it self By this you may also by the way take notice of the miserable condition of unholy Souls We need not call for Fire and Brimstone to paint out the wretched state of sinful Souls Sin it self is Hell and Death and Misery to the Soul as being a departure from Goodness and Holiness it self I mean from God in conjunction with whom the Happiness and Blessedness and Heaven of a Soul doth consist Avoid it therefore as you would avoid being miserable
man till he consider with himself that one part of these mens uncleanness is that very blindness which keeps them from discerning it I speak principally of the defilement of the Soul though indeed the same do pollute the whole Conversation Every action springing from such an unclean Heart thereby becomes filthy even as Moses his hand put into his bosome became leprous Exod. 4. or rather as one that is unclean by a dead body defileth all that he toucheth Hag. 2. 13. Now Religion is the cleansing of this unclean spirit and conversation so that though the Soul were formerly as filthy odious as Augeus his Stable when once those living Waters flow into it and thorow it from the pure Fountain of Grace and Holiness the Spirit of our God one may say of it as the Apostle of his Corinthians 1 Cor. 6. 11. Such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified c. The Soul that before was white as leprosie is now white as Wool Isa 1. 18. the Soul that before was like Moses his hand leprous as snow is now like David's Heart white as snow yea and whiter too Psal 51. 7. Oh what a beauty and glory is upon that godly Soul that shines with the image and brightness of God upon it Solomon in all his glory was not beautiful like such a Soul nay I dare say the splendor of the Sun in its greatest strength and altitude is a miserable glimmering if it be compared with the Day-Star of Religion that even in this Life arises in the heart or if you will in the Prophets stile the Sun of Righteousness which ariseth with healing in his wings upon them that fear the Name of God To speak without a Metaphor the godly Soul having entertained into its self the pure effluxes of Divine Light and Love breathes after nothing more than to see more familiarly and love more ardently its inclinations are pure and holy its motions spiritual and powerful its delights high and heavenly it may be said to rest in its love and yet it may be said that love will not suffer it to rest but is still carrying it out into a more intimate union with its beloved object What is said of the Oyntment of Christs Name Cant. 1. 3. is true of the Water of his Spirit it is poured forth therefore do the Virgins love him Religion begets a chaste and virgin-love in the Soul towards that blessed God that begot it it bathes it self in the Fountain that produc'd it and suns it self perpetually in the warm beams that first hatch'd it Religion issues from God himself and is ever issuing out towards God alone passionately breathing with the holy Psalmist Whom have I in Heaven but thee In Earth there is none that I desire beside thee The Soul that formerly may be said to have lain among the Pots by reason of its filthiness is now as the wings of a Dove covered with silver and her Feathers with yellow gold the Soul that formerly may be said to have sitten down by the flesh pots of Egypt in regard of its sensual and earthly Loves being redeemed by the almighty grace of God is upon its way to the holy Land hastning to a Country not earthly but heavenly Heb. 11. This pure Principle being put into the Soul puts it upon holy Studies indites holy Meditations directs it to high and noble ends and makes all its embraces to be pure and chaste labouring to compass God himself which before were adulterous idolatrous free for sin and self and the world to lodge and lie down in In a word this Off-spring of Heaven this Kings Daughter the godly Soul is all glorious within yea and outwardly too she is cloathed with wrought gold Psal 45. 13. Her faith within is more precious than gold 1 Pet. 1. 7. and her Conversation curiously made up of an Embroidery of good Works some of Pâ—ety some of Charity some of Sobriety but all of Purity shineth with more noble and excellent splendor than the high Priests Garments and Brest-plate spangled with such variety of precious Stones This precious Oyntment this holy Vnction as the Apostle calls it 1 John 2. 20. is as diffusive of it self and ten thousand times more fragrant than that of Aaron so much commended in Psal 133. that ran down from his head upon his beard and from thence upon the skirts of his garment Not my feet only but my hands and my head Lord said Peter John 13. Not well knowing what he said but the Soul that is truly sensible of the excellent purity which is caused by Divine Washings longs to have the whole man the whole Life also made partaker of it and cries Lord not my head only not my heart only but my hands and my feet also make me wholly pure as God is pure In a word then true Religion is the cleansing of the Soul and all the powers of it so that whereas Murderers sometimes lodged in it now Righteousness the Den of Thieves thievish Lusts and Loves and Interests and Ends which formerly stole away the Soul from God its right Owner is now become a Temple fit for the great King to dwell and live and reign in And the whole Conversation is turned from its wonted vanity worldliness and iniquity and is continually employed about things that are true honest just pure lovely and of good report Phil. 4. 8. 2. By the phrase Water the Quenching nature of Religion is commended to us God hath indued the immortal Soul with a restless appetite and raging thirst after some chief Good which the heart of every man is continually groping after and catching at though indeed few find it because they seek it where it is not to be found If we speak properly it is not gold or silver or popular applause which the covetous or ambitious mind doth ultimately aim at but some chief good happiness sufficiency and satisfaction in these things wherein they are more guilty of Blasphemy than Atheism for it is clear that they do not deny a supreme Good for that which men do chiefly and ultimately aim at is their God be it what it will but they do verily blaspheme the true God when they place their happiness there where it is not to be found and attribute that fulness and sufficiency to something else besides the living God Sin hath not destroyed the nature and capacity of the rational Soul but hath diverted the mind from its adequate object and hath sunk it into the Creature where it wanders hither and thither like a banished man from one Den and Cave to another but is secure no where A wicked man who is loosed from his centre by sin and departed from the Fountain of his Life flies low in his affections and flutters perpetually about the Earth and earthly Objects but can find no more rest for the foot of his Soul than Noah's Dove could find for the sole of her foot Now Religion
meditation reading administration of our callings as the Apostle intimates in the body of that forequoted Epistle But perhaps there will a question arise concerning some other things which may seem to lay a constraint upon the spirits of men I deny not but that the seemingly religious motions of many men are meerly violent and their devotion is purely forc'd as we shall see by and by but I affirm and I think have confirmed it that true and sincere Religion is perfectly free and unconstrain'd This being premised now if you ask me what I think of afflictions I confess God doth ordinarily use them as means to make good men better and it may be sometimes to make bad men good these may be as weights to hasten and speed the Souls motions towards God but they do not principally beget such motions If you ask me of temporal prosperity commonly called mercies and blessings of promises and Rewards propounded I confess they may be as oyle to the wheels and ought to quicken and encourage to the study of true and powerful godliness but they are not the spring of the souls motions they ought to be unto us as dew upon the grass to refresh and fructifie the Soul but it is the root which properly gives life and growth Secondly It may be granted that there is a kind of constraint and necessity lying upon the godly Soul in its holy and most excellent motions according to that of the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 14. The love of Christ constraineth us and again 1 Cor. 9. 16. Necessity is laid upon me to preach the Gospel But yet it holds good that grace is a most free principle in the Soul and that where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty For the constraint that the Apostle speaks of is not opposed to freedom of Soul but to not acting Now although the Soul so principled and spirited cannot but act yet it acts freely Those things that are according to nature though they be done necessarily yet are they done with the greatest freedom imaginable The water flows and the fire burns necessarily yet freely Religion is a new nature in the soul and the religious Soul being toucht effectually wiâ—h the sense and imprest with the influences of divine goodness fulness and perfection is carryed indeed necessarily towards God as its proper centre and yet its motions are pure free generous and with the greatest delight and pleasure conceivable The necessity that lay upon Paul to preach the Gospel is not to be understood of any external violence that was done to him much less of â—odily necessity by reason of which many men serve their own bellyes in that great function more than the Lord Jesus for though he preacht the Gospel necessarily yet did he preach freely and willingly as he oft professeth The godly Soul cannot but love God as his chiefest good yet he delights in this necessity under which he lyeth and is exceeding glad that he finds his heart framed and enlarged to love him I say enlarged because God is such an object as do's not contract and pinch and straiten the soul as all created object do but ennoble ampliate and enlarge it The sinful soul the more it lets out and lays out and spends itself upon the creature the more it is straitned and contracted and the native freedom of it is enslaved debased and destroyed but grace do's establish and ennoble the freedom of the Soul and restore it to iâ—s primitive perfection so that a godly soul is never more large more at rest more at I berty thâ—â— when it finds itself delivered from all self confining creature-loves and lusts and under the most powerful influences and constraint of infinite love and goodness By this that hath been said of the free and generous spirit of true Religion we may learn what to think of the forc'd devotion of many prest Souldiers of Christ in his Church militant that there is a vast difference and distance between the prest and the imprest Christian Though indeed the freedom of the will cannot be destroyed yet in opposition to a principle many mens devotion may be said to be wrung out of them and their obedience may be said to be constraiâ—ed I shall explain it briefly in two or three particulars 1. Men force themselves many times to some things in Religion that are besides yea and against their nature and genius I need not instance in an overly conformity to the letter of the law and some external duties which they force themselves to perform as to hear pray give almes or the like in all which the violent and unnatural obedience of a pharisee may be more popular and specious than the true and genuine obedience of a free-born disciple of Jesus Christ If going on hunting and catching of Venison might denominate a good and dutiful Son Esau may indeed be as acceptable to his father as Jacob but God is not such a father as Isaac whose affections were bribed with fat morsels he feeds not upon the pains of his children nor drink the sweat of their browâ— I doubt not but that an unprincipled Christian that hath the heart of a slave may also force himself to imitate the more spiritual part of Religion and as it were to act over the very temper and disposition of a son of God Therefore we read of a semblance of joy and zeal which was found in some whom yet our Saviour reckons no better than stony ground Mark 4. 16. and of great exâ—asies in some whom yet the Apostle supposes may come to nothing Heb. 6. 5. and what appearance of the most excellent and divine graces of patience and contempt of the world many of the sowrer sort of Monastical Papists and our mâ—ngrel breed of Papists the Quakers do make at this day all men know nay some of these last sort do seem to themselves I believe to act over the temper and experiences of the chiefest Apostles rejoycing with Peter and the rest that they are counted worthy to suffer shame Act. 5. 41. and keeping a catalogue of their stripes with Paul 2 Cor. 11. 24. and in these things I am confident to use the Apostles words that they think themselves not a whit behind the very chiefest Apostles nay they are not ashamed to lay claim to that grace of graces self-denyal which they have forced themselves to act over so artificially that even a wise man might almost be deceived into a favourable opinion of them but that we know that whilest they profess it they destroy it for it is contrary to the nature of self-denyal to magnifie and boast itself And indeed it is very evident to a wise observer that these men by a pretence of voluntary humility and counterfeit self-denyal do in truth endeavour most of all to establish their own righteousness and erect an idol of self-supremacy in themselves and do really fall in love with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or self-sufficiency
but out of each Testament of the holy Scriptures one text thereunto I think it cannot reasonably be doubted but that the Prophesie and promise made in Isa 49. 10. is to be performed unto believers in this present life for so must the foregoing verses necessarily be understood and there we have the doctrine expresly asserted They shall not hunger nor thirst c. for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them even by the springs of water shall he guide them To which those words of our Saviour are parallel Joh. 6. 35. he that believeth on me shall never thirst which doctrine of his is yet amplified and enlarged in Joh. 7. 38. he that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water What greater security from thirst can be desired than that one should be led by springs of water yes one may be led by the springs of water and yet not be suffered to drink of them well therefore to put all out of fear the godly soul shall contain within himself a spring of water he shall have rivers of living waters in himself and for his fuller security these rivers shall be ever flowing too It shall suffice at present thus briefly to have establisht this conclusion And now having lapt up the meaning of the words in this short position I shall endeavour to unfold it in these six following propositions 1. There is a raging thirst in every soul of man after some ultimate and satisfactory good The God of nature hath implanted in every created nature a secret but powerful tendency towards a centre which dictates arising out of the very constitution of it it cannot disobey untill it cease so be such and utterly apostatize from the state of its Creation And the nobles any Being is the more excellent is the object assigned unto it and the more strong and potent and uncontrollable are its raptures and motions thereunto Wherefore the soul of man must needs also have its own proper centre which must be something superiour to and more excellent than itself able to fill up all its indigencies to match all its capacities to master all its cravings and give a plenary and perfect satisfaction which therefore can be no other than uncreated goodness even God himself It was not possible that God should make man of such faculties and those of that capaciousness as we see them and appoint any thing below himself to be his ultimate happiness Now although it be sadly true that the faculties of this soul are miserably maimed depraved benighted distorted yet I do not see that the soul is utterly unnatured by sin so as that any other thing should be obtruded upon it for its centre and happiness than the same infinite good that was from the beginning such or so as that its main and cardinal motions should be ultimately directed to any other than its natural and primitive object The natural understanding hath not indeed any clear or distinct sight of this blessed object but yet it retains a darker and more general apprehension of him and may be said even in all its pursuits of other things to be still groping in the dark after him neither is it without some secret and latent sense of God that the will of man chooseth or embraceth any thing for good The Apostle sticks not to affirm that the idolatrous Athenians themselves did worship God Act. 17. 23. though at that time indeed they knew not what they worshiped their worship was secretly and implicitly directed unto God and did ultimately resolve itself into him though they were not aware of it whom ye ignorantly worship Him declare I unto you now that he declared God unto them appears abundantly by the following verses what he sayes in point of worship the same methinks I may say in point of love trust delight dependance and apply it to all sorts of Idolaters as well as image-worshipers and affirm that the covetous idolater even when he most fondly huggs his bags and most firmly confideth in his riches doth ignorantly love and trust in God the proud idolater in the highest acts of self-seeking and self-pleasing doth ignorantly admire and adore God the ambitious idolater even in the hottest chase of secular glory and popular applause doth ignorantly pursue and advance God For that Rest Contentment peace happiness satisfaction which these mistaken souls do aim at what is it other than God though they attribute it to something else which cannot afford it and so commit a real blasphemy For they that do in their hearts and course of their lives ascribe a Filling and saisfying vertue to riches pleasures or honours do as truly though not so loudly blaspheme as they who cryed out concerning the Calf of Gold Exod. 32. 4. These be thy Gods O Israel c. And in this sense that I have been speaking one may safely affirm that the most profest Atheist in the world doth secretly pursue the God whom he openly denies whilest his will is catching at that which his judgement renounceth and he allows that piety in his lusts which he will not own in Heaven The Hypocrite professes to know God but in works denies him on the other hand the Atheist though in words he deny God yet in his works he professeth him so natural and necessary it is for all men to acknowledge a Deity though some are so brutish and besotted as to confine him to their own bellies of whom the Apostle speaks Phil. 3. 19. Whose God is their belly I say natural for it is not only some few men of better education and more contemplative complexions that hunt after this invisible and satisfying good but indeed â—he most vulgar souls retaining still the nature of souls are perpetually catching at an ultimate happiness and satisfaction and are secretly stung and tormented with the want of it Certainly the motions of a soul are more strong and weighty than we are ordinarily aware of and I think one may safely conclude that if there were no latent sense or natural science of God the poor man could not spend the powers of his soul so intensely for the purchasing a little food and raiment for the body nor the covetous man so insatiably thirst after houses and land and a larger heap of refined earth Did they not secretly imagine I mean some Contentment Happiness or satisfaction were to be drunk in together with these acquirements they would seem to be but dry and insipid morsels to a soul which ultimate happiness and satisfaction as I said before can be no other than God himself whom these mistaken souls do ignorantly adore and feel for in the dark Neither let any one think that this ignorant and unwary pursuit of God can pass for Religion or be acceptable in the sight of God for as it is impossible that ever any man should stumble into a happy state without foresight and free choice and be in it
withered the choicest flowers in natures Garden that they have now no more form nor comeliness beauty or fragrancy as to deserve to be desired she hath tasted the pure and perfect sweetness of the fountain which hath so imbittered all cistern-waters that she finds no more thirstings in her self after them which is chat which our Saviour promiseth here shall never christ A godly soul cannot posfibly be put off with any thing short of God give him his God or he dies Give him never so much fair usage in the world never so much of earthly accommodations they are not accommodated to his wants and thirsts if they have not that God in them out of whom all worldly pleasures are even irksome and unpleasant and all fleshly case is tedious and painsul Creature-employments are but a weatisome Crudgery to a soul that is acquainted with the work of Angels and creature-enjoyments in themselves considered are very insignificant if not burdensome to a mind that is feelingly possest of the chiefest good But here it will be seasonable to take into consideration a grand enquiry viz. whether a godly man may not be said in some sense to desire the creature and how far such a person may be said to thirst after it This I shall speak to as briefly and yet as clearly as I can in these four following particulars 1. All godly souls are not equally mortified to worldly loves nor equally zealous and importunate lovers of God This is so evident de facto that I need not insist upon it Abraham seems to have been as much higher and nobler in spirit than his Brother Lot as Lot was more excellent than one of the ordinary Sons of Adam I had almost said than one of the Sodomites amongst whom he dwelled The one leaves all the pleasant and plentiful accommodations of his native Country at the very first call going out not knowing whither he went only relying upon the gracious guidance of him whom he followed he seems to reckon all soils alike for his sojourning and the whole habitable world as his own City and home as appears by his readâ—ness to break up house and quit his present habitation rather than interfere with the conveniences of his Nephew Gen. 13. 9. The other preferred a fruitful soil before a faithful society and so in some sense his body before his soul and yet as if it had not been enough to make so unadvised a choice he rests in it too yea though he was so severely reproved by the captivity that befell him there whereby he was not so much call'd as indeed carried away thence yet this will not loosen him from his earthly conveniences but he returns to Sodom and from thence he will not part till he be fired out nay and then also it is with much lingring and loathness Gen. 19. 16. It is evident I say de facto both from this and many other instances which I purposely omit that it is so that all godly souls are not equally careless of these earthly things not carried out with equal ardour and intemperance as I may call it towards the supreme and most glorious object of which I can assign no fitter reason than this because they are not all equally godly For 2. So far as grace prevails and Religion in the power of is acteth the soul in which it is planted so far earthly loves decay and wither For these two cannot stand together mutuo se pellunt the love of the world is inconsistent with the love of God 1 Joh. 1. 15. If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him So far as any soul is sanctified so far is it mortified also to all creature-enjoyments to all things that are only fuel for the animal life honour ease victory plenty liberty relations recreations all the entertainments and delights in this lower life yea and this very life it self Earthly and heavenly loves are to each other as the two ends of a pair of ballances save that they are never found equally poizing as the one rises the other falls just so much advantage as this gets that loses The more the sensual and self-central life thrives and prospers and the creature is exalted the more Religion and the divine life fainteth and flogeth in the soul And so certainly on the other hand the more divine grace prevails and the divine life flourisheth in the soul the more all earthly objects wither away and lose their beauty and the soul cooleth and languisheth as to its love and desire of them So far as a regenerate soul is unregenerate so far she will be bufling after other Lovers which regeneration will not I conceive be throughly perfected and therefore these lustings not utterly extinguished till this mortal put on immortality or as the Apostle speaks elsewhere till mortality be swallowed up of life 3. For the preventing of rash and uncharitable judging I do affirm that divine and holy souls are oft mistaken by them that behold their ordinary converse and actions in the body They are thought sometimes to take pleasure in the creature and to gratifie the flesh when indeed it is no such matter but they take pleasure in the stamp of God or the evidence of his fatherly love which they contemplate therein and do perhaps most of all serve a spiritual end and an eternal design in those very actions which others may think are calculated for the gratification of the animal life and the service of the flesh Let not the purblind world nor the self-befriending hypocrite be judge and it will appear that the truly godly soul counts nothing savoury to it self but what represents teaches exhibits something of God nothing pleasant but what hath a tendency to him Such a soul doth not feel himself in his highest raptures doth not tast himself in his noblest accomplishments doth not seek himself in his most excellent performances be nor mistaken he doth not so much thirst after long life riches friends liberties as indeed after God in them all these all signifie nothing to him if they bring him not nearer to his God and conduce to his real and spiritual happiness Yea possibly in his most suspicable actions and those that seem most alien from Religion and most designed to please the flesh he may be highly spiritual and pure So was our blessed Saviour we know even in his conversing with scandalous sinners eating and drinking with Publicans and notorious oâ—fenders however he was traduced by a proud and hypocritical generation and so I doubt not is many a good Christian according to his measure pure as Christ was pure When a painted Hypocrite who can guess aâ— the temper of others no other way but by what he finds in himself and by what he should be and do if he were under the same circumstances comes to be Judge of the actions or disposition of one who is transformed into the Image of the divine freedom and benignity