recreates the Eyes of ordinary Mortals seem'd to him not a bright azure but a funeral black nor Sun nor Moon real and true Lights but two painted Scutcheons Or and Argent hung upon the Melancholly Tapestry of this House of Mourning Wherefore to be buried in the Body with him is a real Death and this Terrestrial Region wherein we seem to live but one great Caemeterium or Dormitory No life no joy no pleasure is here no not amongst those that seem to enjoy most that have the greatest portion in this Life nay their only portion therein Wherefore what expectation of Happiness before that blessed Resurrection When we shall see the Face of God and be satisfied with his Likeness in whose presence there is fulness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore But for the present Interval that is the time of our Immersion into the Sense of this Body the Prophet David as well as Heraclitus does plainly deem it a state of Sleep or Death which are the same in Scripture every where as to any Mystical meanings or purposes As for me I shall behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness Munster piously and I believe truly paraphrases thus upon the Text. Egó verò omnes electi tui Domine non ita quaeremus has temporarias transitorias divitias ut in illis deliciemur sed justè piè vivemus in hoc seculo ut aliquando in futuro seculo videamus faciem tuam eâ satiemur cum scilicet è pulvere evigilaverimus reformati fuerimus ad similitudinem Christi tui And this may go for the Philosophical sense of the Text. But there is a Moral sense thereof which Castellio seems to reach at and is indeed the most easie to the words of the Text which run thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of which the easie and accurate Sense is I will behold thy face in Righteousness at the awaking of thy image I shall be satisfied according as Castellio has also rendered it Tum satiandus cum tua experrecta fuerit imago And his Gloss is accordingly Per Christi resurrectionem qui Dei imago est plenam consecuturus justitiam foelicitatem For the Image of God is Christ who is called also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brightness of the Glory of God answerably to the LXX Translation of my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall be satisfied when I shall see thy Glory Which Glory like the beams of the Sun reach and touch the very eye-lids of him that is asleep but are not seen nor enjoy'd till he awake for then the image of the Sun is also awoke in him that is to say excited into actual being According to which Analogy is that Saying of the Apostle Awake thou that sleepest and Christ shall give thee light The Evigilation therefore or Resurrection of the Image of God in us is our Evigilation or Resurrection in a Mystical or Moral Sense into it which as soon as it does appear we also do appear in Glory with it but while Christ is thus hid or dead or asleep in us we are in a state of Death or Sleep and the true Life of our Soul is hid in him And this I would have the First Truth comprised in my Text viz. That the immersion of the Soul into the life of the Body and love of this present World which is the Image of the Earthly Adam is as it were the Sleep or Death of the Soul The Second That there is no true Satisfaction in this Worldly or Terrestrial Life which is but a torpid Sleep and the very shadow of Death The Third That the true Evigilation and real Life of the Soul is the recuperation of the Image of God the Resurrection of Christ in us according to the Spirit The Fourth That this Mystical Resurrection of Christ is the only solid Enjoyment and Satisfaction to the Souls of the Faithful even in this Life The Fifth and Last That the way to attain to this Satisfaction which arises from the Evigilation of that Divine Image in us which is also stiled the Face of God or if you will the Image thereof whereby we see his Face so far forth as he is visible to Man is Righteousness and Sincerity of Heart I shall behold thy face in righteousness These are the precious Truths comprized in the Text which I shall handle with all possible brevity 1. That the Image of the Earthly Adam is as it were the Sleep or Death of the Soul the very Text does apparently intimate especially that Translation in our Liturgy When I shall awake into thy Image which is the Image of the Heavenly Adam I shall be satisfied therewith which implies that till this awaking we are in a state of Sleep or Death For in that we can eat and drink and go up and down these are no Arguments that we are truly alive no more than the growing of the Hair and the Nails of them that have lain long buried in the ground is any Argument of Life in them I mean of the Sensitive Life Nor though the Flesh be full of Worms will the man be thought ever the more alive for that For neither is Sense the Life of a man nor meer Carnal and Worldly Reason the Life of the Child of God The Divine Image is the Soul of his Soul and the Life of his Life of which seeing every Soul is capable it is rightly deemed dead till it partake thereof till it be awaken'd into this Image of God But so long as the mind is addicted to the things of this World to the Law of the Body which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so long is she dead or asleep call it which you will Hierocles calls it Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the Death of every Rational Essence sayes he is the loss or suppression of her Divine and Intellectual excellencies Plotinus Sleep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So far forth as the Soul is immerged into the Body so far she is asleep And therefore those that are wholly taken up with the concerns thereof as relishing nothing but what is Worldly and Carnal may justly be look'd upon as fallen into a deep Sleep And what if they can walk and talk and go up and down and do such things as men that are awake also do do not the Noctambuli do the same Whose eyes being shut yet unwittingly do they several exploits some hazardous others ridiculous other some as it some seldomer times happens safe and congruous if the chain of Phantasms that leads them attract luckily and to convenient Objects But in the mean time they know not what they do but without any free consultation or deliberation are carried out hoodwink'd to action by the meer suggestion of Dreams and Phansies And is not this the very condition of those who have arriv'd no higher than to the Image of the Earthly
Adam Surely every such man walketh like a vain image or shadow or like a winking Noctambulo that sees not whither he goes nor in what plight he is nor whom he may meet nor what Eyes are upon his nakedness nor what sad events may attend his fortuitous motions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every wicked man or unregenerate not yet awak'd into the Image of God has the eye of his mind closed as these Noctambuli those of the body and do not walk by sight but by fortuitous phansie their whole Life being but a series of dreams and all the transactions thereof the execution of the dictates of their imagination impertinently busie in this profound Sleep For these Phantasms under whose conduct they are in this condition and which is their first mover in all their actions creep upon them by meer chance as dreams in the Night suggested by the temper of the external Air or of their own Blood or from some other casualty and so one Phantasm or commotion occasions another and the man like a Ship at Sea whose Pilate is asleep may be driven one while one way another while another in a right tract or out of it as it happens there being neither judge nor guide to stear to any end that due examination or mature deliberation has made choice of And therefore all the passages of such a Life whether thoughts or actions are so as it fares in dreams either fatal or fortuitous And although there be a great confidence that things are true and real and such as they appear and that we have concluded sure yet in all this we do but imitate those that dream 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thinking those things they see to be clear Realities while they are but Dreams as Plotinus speaks and few but do experience it Nor can we give judgment what is right or wrong what false or what true whether we have dreamt luckily and divinatorily or all be falshood and delusion till that Mystical Resurrection the Resuscitation of the Image of God in our Souls And this briefly may suffice for the First Particular That the immersion of the Soul into the Life of the Body and love of this World is as it were the Death or Sleep of the Soul 2. The Second is That there is no true Satisfaction in this condition And indeed how can any true Satisfaction be there expected where we suppose nothing but Delusions and Dreams nor any one in a case to profess himself satisfied as being utterly unable to compute right or make a due estimate of things No man thinks him that is grosly cheated truly satisfied no not though he give it under his own hand he is so And is not this state of Sleep and Dreams a meer cheat and delusion There only is true Satisfaction where that which satisfies is truly that which it would appear to be and will be found so by a man when he can judge aright For that which every man means in all his pursuits is Happiness nor would he put forth his hand towards any thing that did not bear upon it that Inscription Which if it be false he must needs at last find himself in a wrong box and what profit is there in those things whereof he then must be ashamed And as in the sequels of Reason some one latitant falshood being admitted it will discover it self by the inference of some more gross and palpable absurdity to be false it self So some practical mistake in adhering to some false good though pleasing and alluring for the present will in the conclusion prove it self a real evil by the calamitous Consequence that will necessarily issue from it For the end of such things is Death as the Apostle speaks Thus plain it is that though we should dream pleasingly and prosperously it is no true Satisfaction because at the long run we shall find our selves disappointed and deceived But the truth is that those that dream most successfully are not happy no not so much as in this Dream but have an unquiet Night of it there being so many interruptions and disturbances from the fortuitous clashings of flying Phantasms that rise by chance and bring in scenes of Discontent as well as Pleasure Insomuch that those that have cast up the compute most accurately have concluded it best never to be born but next to that quickly to dye as the Epigrammatist inferrs upon his Synopsis of all the wayes and conditions of Humane Life And Solomon who was a King whose Reign also was Peaceable Splendid and Prosperous yet when he had laid all things together and compleated his account the whole summe was Vanity and vexation of Spirit Nay the scene of things in this present World seem'd to him so sad and Tragical that he praises the Dead which are already dead more than the Living which are yet alive and accounts him better than them both which hath not yet been because he hath not seen the toil that is done under the Sun So far is this Worldly or Terrestrial Life from affording any true Satisfaction to them that are immerse into it But this is a Theme so trite that it had been enough only to have named it and therefore we will pass to the Third Particular 3. That the true Evigilation and real Life of the Soul is the recuperation of the Divine Image The truth of which assertion we shall easily understand if we but consider what Life is and wherein its fulness does consist as also what is the Image of God For we know that Death is a privation of Life and Sleep a partial Death as being a partial privation of the Vital Functions And therefore the recovery of the Soul into more full and ample Functions of Life must needs be her expergefaction if not resuscitation from the dead Now I conceive the fulness of Life to be compleated in these three things in self-motion or self-activity in sense or speculative perception and in pleasure love or joy And that the heightning or enlargement of these in several degrees is the enlargement of Life and a releasement from such a measure of Sleep or Death These Principles are so plain and manifest that scarce any one can be so dull and sleepy but that he will acknowledge them at the first sight What the Image of God consists in we shall easily understand if we have recourse to the Attributes of his Nature by which only he is cognoscible to us Which Nature of God consists in Omnipotency Omnisciency and Infinite Goodness Whence the Image or Face of God as it is called in the Text so far forth as it is visible to us is nothing else but our perception approbation or rather devotional admiration of these Divine Excellencies and the being effectually impressed upon by them to the transfiguration of our Souls into this similitude so far forth as Humane Nature is capable to be assimilated unto God For we cannot be absolutely Omnipotent nor Omniscient nor Infinitely
the collection of Humane Reason which at the best and containing it self within its own more proper Bounds the representations of Nature is slippery enough and uncertain if it be promoted with urgency of Affection over-proportionated to the weight of Reason and Argument by how much it transgresseth this way by so much largely doth it partake of superstitious Phrenzy and Fanaticalness And that this heat is but mistaken zeal not divine Love of the Truth this one thing may be a shrowd sign That they hate a man commonly more for not being of their Sect than they love him for being a Christian. 2. The Second Branch of Love is Benevolence Which as it is nothing so precious as the former viz. Complacency so we may and should be the more prodigal thereof We may wish well to all men but can delight in none but such as be good The Purity therefore and perfection of Benevolence is that it shoots out before and lasts longer if need be than Complacency may do For God also loved us when there was nothing lovely in us And we are to be like-minded with God who is kindly affected to those who deserve it not And though there be a good rude Honesty in such a disposition that makes a man not able to be at all kindly affected to them that are debauched yet certainly we are obliged to a more high and Divine temper if that which is most perfect and most Divine doth oblige us as certainly it doth Object But then Anger and Hatred and such churlish Passions are useless nay sinful Sol. That follows not For we may wish well to the man though we be angry or hate or grieve at his Vices Nay it s impossible to bear a sincere Good-will to any man that goes out of the way but that he should be angry or grieved at such a mans wicked courses and reprove him Benevolence is so far from excluding Anger and Rebuke that the want of this upon due occasions is an argument of the impureness or counterfeitness of the Affection at least in those men who hold it lawful or are upon any occasions brought into this Passion When a man sees God dishonoured and his Brother endangered by his vain ways Quis est tam ferreus ut teneat se He that can be still and smooth in such matters has some unwarrantable Complacence in his Friend they are not united in the bond of Vertue The Impurity of this part of Love is the well-wishing to others for our own sakes This is called Amor Concupiscentiae in contradiction to Amor Amicitiae as being indeed nothing akin but rather opposite thereunto He that loves a man thus is no more a Friend to him than a Country Farmer is a Friend to his Team of Horses his Cart or Plough I wish that most Polititians were not of this stamp to look upon all the World as the Rustick does upon his Horse Plough Sheep Dog c. as profitable and instrumental The World is so Epidemically corrupt herein that the whole Conversation or dealing of men even of them that would seem something more than ordinarily serious is not much better and more generous than the trade and commerce of Fairs and Markets They make choice of their Friends after the same rate they would seek out a purchase Profit and Pleasure share all the Societies of men betwixt them two He that is not instrumental to either of these ends is overlookt as a thing of no worth so that there is no room but for the skilful flatterer or the able purse And indeed none can love at a better rate that is not born of God who is Love it self and made the World and the whole Creature out of no such self-respects at all but for their Happiness or if for any thing in reference to himself for the delight that should arise to him from their being Happy Nor do I know that they are obliged to any thing but what is conducible to this end whatever unlearned Melancholly or rude Mistake may surmize to the contrary 3. The Third and last considerable in Love is Beneficence And 1. This should spread out as large as our Benevolence Humanity is to be extended so far as Mankind reacheth at least 2. Those who partake most of Vertue and the Divine Image should share the greatest part of our Favour 3. It must be devoid of all self-respects What a shameful thing is it That where that noble and generous title of a Friend is pretended there should be no other Love found at the bottom if the business be unravelled than such as he bears to the meanest utensil he has in his house WE pass on now to the Intension of our Love viz. Doct. III. That we are to love one another fervently And if we did make good the foregoing Precept of loving sincerely we might easily arrive to the doing of it fervently Quis enim celaverit ignem Indeed the most accurately well painted Flame that is gives no heat But true Fire without a miracle will betray it self in burning or warming at least Quest. But you will say We are uncertain of the due measure and degree of this fervency of our Affection Answ. The least degree that we can allow our Brotherly Affection is that it must be fervent Coldness here is Death and Luke-warmness an Abomination a thing to be spued out as being nauseating and distastful to all good men But when we are got to that due warmth and heat that we are really constituted in the Divine Life and Heavenly Love we are in a very good and safe and commendable condition though we have not reached all the degrees thereof for a little fire is as truly fire as a great deal And these degrees of Divine Love are it may be best proposed unto us in several Examples of Saints and Prophets which have gone before us carrying the Glorious Lamps of Divine Love in their hands to light us the way that we might follow them by a godly imitation Such were Abraham Ioseph Moses S. Paul c. This kindly Flame did so inact Abraham that in the very heat of the day at the door of his Tent he waited with as much earnestness for an opportunity to exercise that excellent Vertue of Hospitality as our greedy Inn-keepers at their Sign-posts expect a Traveller Nor does this generous Fire only melt him into all sweet behaviour and kindness unto Strangers but elsewhere we shall find it bravely to raise him to feats of Arms and hardy Enterprizes in behalf of his Captived Friends Gen. 14. And certainly no truer root of Valour and Bravery can be found than Hearty and Compassionate Love to those that be in affliction and oppressed Nor any cause that God is more engaged to prosper Nor does this Principle of holy fervency only express it self in bounty and indignation and just revenge but in Grief also whether mixt with joy or downright sadness Thus Ioseph fell upon his brother Benjamins
enjoyments it is very unworthy and unbecoming so noble a Being as the Soul not to abstain from Fleshly Lusts not to be so much master of the Natural Desires of the Flesh as not to be enslaved to them or transported by them either to seek them or sue after them with over-much eagerness whether Riches Honours the Pleasures of the Flesh or whatever gratifications of the Animal Life or to embrace them with over much transportedness when they are offer'd unto us Epictetus expresses how we ought to be minded toward these things excellently well by a Similitude taken from a Feast or Banquet If a Dish come to thee that thou likest take part thereof with Modesty and Temperance Is it to be removed from thee detain it not Is it not yet come at thee stretch not thine Appetite out to it before its approach If thou shalt be thus affected toward all the things of this World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if when they are offered thee thou yet refuse them thou shalt not only be a worthy Guest but even a Fellow-Prince amongst the Gods And truly if we would but duly consider the Original of our Souls from what Fountain and Archetypon they are derived and of what an excellent nature they are and how little they are intended for this Terrestrial condition methinks it should be no hard task to fulfil this Precept of the Stoick or rather that of S. Iohn in his General Epistle Love not the world neither the things of the world If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but of the world Wherefore our Original being so peculiarly Divine we are bound if we bear a due respect to that to gather up our Affections from sinking towards the vain and transitory things of this World and look upon our selves as very little concerned in them Christian Souls especially who by reason of their new birth are of a noble and divine extraction indeed and therefore upon a double account ought not so to undervalue themselves as to adhere to the fading pleasures and gratifications of this mortal Life If in vertue of this new birth ye be risen with Christ into the sense of the Divine Life and into a true and lively Faith seek those things which are above where Christ fitteth on the right hand of God Set your affections on things above not on things on the earth For what is there that this Earthly Life affords which we do not enjoy but as Tenants in common with the very Brutes Eating Drinking Sleeping hunting after a prey or pursuing a project for the satisfaction of our Carnal Desires begetting or bringing up our young applauses caresses the pleasure of dominion or revenge and the like These set up but on one level with the Beasts of the field and do not at all reach the excellency of our proper Nature But yet this is the guise of this Land of our Pilgrimage thus to be clad in the manners and habits of our fellow-Animals of the Earth as well as Strangers put on Turbants in the Turkish Empire But who would put on an odd habit in a strange Country but merely out of necessity Could he strut and please himself in it and be curious and sollicitous about a thing that he has no conceit or opinion of For us to make provision for the Flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof as the Apostle speaks is as fond as if some Slave should be very curious to provide himself of Chains and Fetters or other badges of his Slavery or a Fool should be very careful that his Coat have all the peculiar laces or tassels of a Fools-Coat And all this Worldly Pomp and Enjoyments are no better nor bear no more agreeable proportion to the Nobleness of the Soul than a Fools-Coat to the Body of a Grave and Wise Man Nay I think that Grave and Wise Philosopher Plotinus took his own Body to be such a Coat and therefore was loath to be painted in it and so leave a durable disgrace of himself behind him But suppose these Worldly things were not altogether so vile and contemptible yet our stay is here so short that to us they cannot be valuable For as both S. Peter and Plato have told us this Life is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of Pilgrimage here upon Earth and we are but passing through it into our own Country How fond a thing therefore would it be to love any thing of the World or to addict our Affections to it when we must so suddenly leave it As fond as if one should be inveigled with the love of his Inn or any thing there when as he must leave it the next morning Wherefore being thus in a strange Land which we are to pass through not to make any abode in let not our minds be fixt or glued to any thing from which our Persons are so suddenly to remove And because we are Strangers in the Land let us take heed how we tamper with any bewitching Objects lest that which looks fair may prove no safe food but either a present or more lingring poyson and we may find the mischief of it at our return into the other State It is S. Iudes Character of some in the antient Christian Feasts of Charity that they fed themselves without Fear as if they had made that perverse sense of our Saviours Saying That which enters into the man cannot defile him by either quantity or quality But we are environed with so much ignorance and inexperience in this strange Land that we ought carefully to stand upon our guard and take heed how over-greedily or over-heartily we close with any tempting delight remembring that there may lye hid the most dangerous poyson in the greatest sweetness Let us therefore trust no strange Objects in this strange Land but keep close to what is nearest akin to us that is to our true Manhood which is the sense of true Honour and Vertue the Fear and Love of God and whatever Graces descend from that Fountain of Light and Giver of every good and perfect gift But the gifts of this World are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which few can receive without parting with that which is infinitely better a pure Mind and a peaceable Conscience and the assured hopes of Eternal Happiness hereafter And thus much for the Apostles first Argumentation to perswade us to abstain from Fleshly Lusts fetch'd from the Dignity of the Soul 2. We come to the Second which is The Enmity and Hostility of these Lusts against the Soul the law of the members warring against the law of the mind and endeavouring to lead us captive into the bondage of sin This Hostility is exercised 1. In treacherous Circumventions 2. In violent Assaults And 3. in the spoil and pillage of the Soul upon Victory 1.
signifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What a dismal darkness will there be then For the blind then leading the blind both will fall into the Infernal Pit THE meaning of the Text I conceive is now abundantly plain and that the scope and end of our Saviours uttering this Parable to his Disciples was to stir them up to a constant and earnest endeavour of utterly disentangling themselves from all the attractions of the relish of the Flesh or Spirit of the World and of joyning themselves entirely and cordially with and of dwelling wholly in the relish sense and life of the Spirit of God or of that Divine Spirit whose suggestions are no dictates of self-self-love or partial interest but the substantial concerns of the Kingdom of God and the good of the whole World For which he who has this Divine relish will not stick to lay down his Life if need require according to that endearing Example of our ever-blessed and adored Saviour Let it be therefore my task at this time to exhort you earnestly to endeavour after this great and indispensable attainment of this Single Eye this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Wisdom of the Spirit which this Parable of our Saviour points to and is indeed the proper Spirit of Christ concerning which S. Paul expresly declares He that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his Which ought to be a rousing Argument to awaken us into a due sense of so great a want For unless we regain this Single Eye we shall never see the right way to Heaven There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus namely to such as walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath freed me from the law of sin and of death For the relish of the flesh or carnal-mindedness is death But the relish of the spirit or spiritual-mindedness is life and peace But the carnal mind is enmity against God because it cannot submit it self to the law of God but is in perpetual opposition against it ever suggesting what is contrary to it Wherefore we must wholly withdraw our selves out of that Principle as we hope to attain to the glorious liberty of the Sons of God And assuredly whosoever has that Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus it will free him and rid him from the power of all the urgings suggestions or subtil insinuations of that Law of the sinful flesh of self-love and self-interest Though he may feel these self-savouring suggestions and the more clearly discern them to be such by the perspicuity of the Single Eye the Spirit of Christ yet he is so freed from their power that he will never act according to them but constantly act according to the relish and suggestion of that pure Principle of the Spirit which has not the least tincture of self-love or carnal interest And there is a neceffity of perfectly clearing up at last into this Single-mindedness by reason of the war and enmity betwixt the Carnal Principle and this of the Spirit for without this there is no peace nor joy nor enjoyment in this Life nor in that which is to come The Law of the sinful life of the Flesh therefore is utterly to be abrogated nulled and annihilated and we are to judge and act in all things according to the discernments of that Single Eye or pure Principle of the Spirit of Christ. But I will rather confine the Arguments of my Exhortation to the Text and content my self with what it will afford namely the four Analogies I have produced and explained and so conclude 1. The light of the Body is the Eye What therefore the Eye is to the Body that is some vital and sensible leading Principle in the Soul to the Soul Is it not therefore of infinite consequence what this leading Principle is when it is of as much consequence to the Soul as the Eye is to the Body and the Soul of incomparably more worth than the Body What man would have the Eye of a Batt of an Owl or of a Mole for the guidance of his Body unless he were to have his abode under the Earth with the Mole or to venture abroad only in the Night with the Batt and Owl Every Animal is to have an Eye congenerous to its own Nature And therefore that Divine Animal which we call Man I mean the inward man the Soul is to have an Eye congenerous to hers she is to have this Single Spiritual Eye unless she will converse only with Brutes or Devils in their Kingdom of Darkness 2. Again The Single Eye makes the whole Body full of light that is it is a fit and faithful guide to it which way soever it goes And that is the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Iesus to the Soul Which assuredly is the Law of Divine love which is not the love of a mans self or any particular or partial Interest but the hearty love of God and a mans Neighbour that is of all mankind when with a single heart he wishes them and is ready to do them all the good they are capable of and himself in a capacity to administer to them This is that pure and lovely Eye of the Soul indeed which fills her full of Celestial light and enrolls her in the Book of Life and of the Children of Light This is that Vnction from the Holy one even from the Father of Lights whereby we know all things appertaining to Life and Godliness and that Iesus that stupendious Pattern of this Divine Love is the Lord and Christ And that that man of sin that exalts himself above all that is called God and supports his Power Pride and Pomp with gross Imposture and barbarous Bloodshed is that notorious Antichrist he that has this Single Eye easily discerns this and can hardly forbear to suspect that they that do not see it are blind through the Spirit of the World or else drunk with the steames of that Cup of abominations and see double This Simple and Unself-interested Spirit of Love is that Anointing of which S. Iohn saith that if it abide in us we need not that any man teach us but the same Anointing will teach us of all things and is truth and is no lie It is very Truth substantial and essential without any shadow of vanity or imposture in it and such as will seal our hearts with an eternal adhesion to our ever-blessed Saviour as being the communication of his own Spirit to us and be evermore a safe guide to us in our passage thorough this present life He that loveth his brother abideth in the light and there is no occasion of stumbling in him Wherefore as we tender our safe conduct through the wilderness of this World through all the dangers and perils of so difficult a journey we must earnestly endeavour the recovering of this Single-mindedness this amiable Eye of the pure love
naturally from the Text and be most profitable for you to hear But God forbid That hath reference to the precedent Verse But they desire to have you circumcised that they might glory in your flesh Yet the Holy Apostle devoid of all ambition and emulation and of making an outward shovv among them contents himself vvith that vvhich is but the scorn of Worldly men nay glories in it and in it alone the Inward Cross the Mortification of the Old man the Circumcision of the Heart God forbid that I should glory in any thing c. See the exceeding deep humility of the Apostle a man endued vvith such excellent gifts from God so learned and vvell versed in the Lavv one acquainted vvith so Divine Revelations rapt up into the Third Heavens an Hebrew also an Israelite a Son of Abraham such an excellent Oratour as he approved himself before Felix before Festus before Agrippa and also at Lysta vvhere they took him to be the God of Eloquence Mercury himself and would have Sacrificed unto him so well versed in the Poets as his quotations out of Aratus and others testifie him to be But these are but trifles I mean Poetry and Oratory You may see him in the Acts casting out Devils healing the Sick making the Lame walk recovering the Dead to Life nay giving the Spirit of Life even the Holy Ghost and with it the power of Prophesie and speaking with Tongues Yet all these and many more the least whereof were able to puff up the vain mind of our ordinary Christians and swell them to an unusual extent stir not S. Paul above his wonted measure But he still continues himself a Paul i. e. little in his own eyes though the endowments God had bestowed on him were very great A true Disciple of Christ who taught his to be thus minded Learn of me for I am meek and lowly And methinks I hear the Apostle call to us out of this Text saying Be you followers of me as I am of Christ. But if a man propound the Example of the Apostles and Saints of God to some they look on them rather as Prodigies to gaze at than Examples to imitate and do usually with the rude Cyclops in Erasmus return this answer Paulus est Paulus Ego sum ego Paul had a privilege to be good my privilege is to be as bad as he was good But let Reason move thee if Example will not Why shouldst thou glory and in what Art thou Noble No more than the blood that runs out of thy Fathers Nose or that which is blown out of it unless thou be Vertuous Art thou well Apparel'd Yet a Lilly is better Art thou Fair It is but in thy superficies or surface of thy Body within is stinking dung and dirt Art thou Strong Yet weaker far than an ordinary Cart-horse Art thou Proper Yet not so tall as a Pine A goodly great-bodied man The whole Earth is but a Point why struttest thou then so proudly as if thou wouldst out-face Heaven Thou art a wise and subtil piece So is the Devil and a Serpent Thou art extolled and admired of men So is Vanity Beloved of women But their own Lust and Lasciviousness a great deal more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All whatsoever thou boastest thy self in is but ludicrous and ridiculous contemptible dust and less than dust even nothing Why then dost thou glory in any thing God forbid that I should glory in any thing save in the cross What a Paradox is this More strange than not to boast at all For not to boast there being nothing worthy boasting of is but reasonable But to boast of that which is a shame and reproach among all men is uncouth and strangely admirable Crux crux inquam infaelici miseris The Cross was but the fate and doom of Thieves and Malefactors and as little glorious as the deserts that bring to it But it may be it was some fine Silver or Golden Crucifix A pretty toy for Children to glory in What was it The Cross of our Lord Iesus Christ Yet it is but a stumbling-block to the Iews and to the Greeks foolishness I but it is the Cross of Christ Whereby the World is crucified to him and he unto the World This is worse and worse a scandal also to the Christians themselves Sufficient for them it is that Christ bore his own Cross and the Cross bore him It was fitter one man should dye for the people What that we may securely live in sin God forbid He that will be my disciple let him take up his cross and follow me saith our blessed Saviour The death therefore of the Cross belongs to us as well as to him though we would fain avoid it This is true then truer than we would have it that a right Christian whose Pattern S. Paul is must be crucified to the World and the World to him be dead unto the World and the World dead to him But what is the World and what to be dead to it S. Iohn in his 1 Ep. Chap. 2. describes it from its parts Ver. 15 16. Love not the world neither the things that are in the world If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but of the world These then ought we to be dead to viz. The lust of the flesh i. e. all carnal concupiscence and unlawful desires of the Body all gluttony drunkenness and leachery To the lust of the eyes i. e. all covetousness and filthy avariciousness desiring to encroach and compass all that we see and pleasing our selves with looking upon what we have got already but making no good use of it to the glory of God or good of our Neighbour To the pride of life i.e. ambition stately and lordly living the praise and applause of men superiority and authority over others All these things we are to be dead to by the inward Cross by an holy and serious mortification of our corrupt Life But how shall a man be able to mortifie this corruption to kill these inordinate desires I will tell you an infallible way upon condition you will remember it By a constant denial of their Cravings Give a Beggar nothing at thy door and he will never visit thee Desire is starved by being unfulfill'd A man you know often loseth his appetite by staying very long for his Dinner Inordinate desire will hurt a man like an Ague if we pamper or satisfie it The Devil and the Sop will both down into our guts at once But thou mayst pine out both Desire and the Devil that lurks in it by a pertinacious Temperance or stopping thy self in thy outward actions Affect not vain glory in thy actions or words but modestly decline it and Pride will fall in thy Soul in good time thou shalt find Humility rise
to that uncreated Will which is nothing else but pure overspreading Love Again this Seed as hath been shewed which is the Word is a living Seed But where Life is and Understanding or Sense there must needs be Love for it is the flower and sweet of all desire What then can be the desire of the living Word but Love and how can he want desire sith he is Life and what can he so much desire as the good and welfare of Mankind What therefore should that part of Mankind that partake of this Divine Nature desire more than the good of one another and of those also that as yet have not partaked of that Divine Nature For God also loves those or else how could ever any partake of it 2. From the Regeneration of the Soul It is the Holy Ghosts own arguing 1 Ioh. 4. 7. Beloved let us love one another for love is of God and every one that loveth is born of God and loveth God Ver. 16. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him By Righteousness and Unrighteousness by Love and Hatred are the Children of God and the Children of the Devil manifested 1 Iohn 3. 10. In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the devil Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God neither he that loveth not his brother Ver. 14. We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren he that loveth not his brother abideth in death If Water or Earth be turn'd into Fire we expect it should burn and be hot How shall then a Son of Satan or the Earthly man be turn'd by Regeneration into the Son of God and not love 3. From the end of our Sanctification Love is the very End of it Shall Envy shall Hatred shall Lust Ambition Luxury c. shall all these enormous Desires and Affections be cast out of the Soul by Sanctity and Purity that she may be but a transparent piece of Ice or a spotless fleece of Show Shall she become so pure so pellucid so christalline so devoid of all stains that nothing but still shadows and night may possess that inward diaphanous Purity Thus would she be no better than the nocturnal Air no happier than a statue of Alabaster it would be but a more cleanly sepulchre of a dead starved Soul Nay certainly at this cleansing and preparing is for something well worth that labour The Stoicks themselves that were such severe Sentencers of Passion would retain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stoicism it self brings in upon that deadness and privation of other Passions that divine motion of the Soul which is Love or Goodwill to all Mankind And shall Christianity be but a cold grave to the mortified Soul of man No surely there is a Resurrection to Life Love and the Divinity as well as a Death of the enormous Affections of this Mortal Body Bitter Zeal harsh Censure busie Revenge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are so far from being able to supply the place of Charity that it 's a manifest sign that we are as yet carnal and unsanctified DISCOURSE XIV PSAL. cvi 28. They joined themselves also unto Baal-Peor and are the sacrifices of the dead THIS Psalm is a compendious commemoration of those many slips and falls the Children of Israel had in their Journey to the Land of Canaan As foul and as dangerous as any is this in my Text this business of the Baal-Peor In the handling whereof I will observe this method First I will explain what may seem difficult to understand or ambiguous Secondly I will further confirm out of Scripture the narration in this Particle of Scripture Thirdly and Lastly I will make some Observations or Deductions from the truth of this Text such as will come from it with as much ease as profit I. For the First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. They joyned themselves For although the word be in Niphal and may seem to signifie either Passively or Neutrally yet as Elias the Grammarian hath observed the Conjugation Niphal sometimes signifies as Hithpael which denotes a reflex act Tota actio ejus est retransitiva quum recipiatur ab ipso agente So he expounds that in 2 Kings 20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Amasa non est custoditus that is saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non custodivit se. So Lev. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Et venditus tibi Vt dicunt sapientes bonae memoriae saith Elias upon this place loquitur hic versus de vendente seipsum necessitate cogente Other Examples this Grammarian brings for the further confirmation of the matter but I will omit them these being sufficient for proof According therefore to this Analogy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be interpreted as our Translators have expounded it They joined themselves also to Baal-Peor To Baal-Peor But what 's that Such an Abomination that I am loth to name it I am almost forced back at the evil sight of it and ill sent And well may be if we believe the Hebrew Writers Peor saith Vatablus testantibus Hebraeis spurcissimum Idolum Madianitarum fuit a denudando nempe nomen habens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enim aperire denudare significat I will not venture any further in this description The impure Dog hath more modesty than the Worshippers of that Deity For that which they hide by scraping over earth from the sight of men they lay open to the view of their God Yet as filthy Abomination as it is the Iews as Moses the Egytian for example and R. Salomon stick not to assert it as true Origen durst conclude that at least it is idolum turpitudinis though not define what kind of turpitude in his twentieth Homily upon Numbers Cum multae sint turpitudinum species una quaedam ex pluribus turpitudinis species Beelphegor appellatur S. Ierom ventures to parallel it with the Latines Priapus and makes it to be chiefly workshipped of Women Others I could bring in to confirm this of the turpitudo of this Idol But I lift not to dwell so long upon an history so foul It is enough and too much that it be true that all assent to that it was an Idol that Israel joined himself to Those things concerning it that be questionable and uncertain I will let go and will build nothing but upon a sure foundation Let the condition therefore of their transgression be set as low as Venerable Bede hath pitch'd it in his Exposition upon this Text Initiati junt saith he or consecraverunt se vel initiati sunt sacricaverunt Beel qui colebatur in Phegor Belus enim fuit Pater Nini in cujus honorem Filius Idolum fecit quod vocabatur Beel colebatur in regione Phegor cui isti in deserto sacricaverunt And hence we may have some little light to find
he is notwithstanding one of the Children of Grace And besides this though he may have some Grace and Vertue in him yet let him further consider unless he do with these Travellers in the Valley of Baca pass e virtute in virtutem from one vertue to another and from one degree of vertue to another so that he can say with S. Paul that though my outward man perish yet my inward man is renewed day by day he will never come to his Journeys end and never appear before God in Sion And that we may understand this point more distinctly let us consider the several parts of this gradual proficiency that we may the better know whether we be at all as yet in the way to Sion and the Temple of God or no. We know in Nature that the weaker any thing is the stronger ought to be the prop that is to support it and so the less our Power is to do those things that are holy and good for their own sakes the stronger that Passion ought to be that must carry us to or support us in such actions and performances And truly the strongest and most enforcing Passion seems to be that of Fear we being more concerned not to be tormentingly miserable in intolerable pain and anguish than to enjoy the greatest Pleasure and Happiness Wherefore the first Degree of vertue and power is that which is so small as if it were not enforced with the fear of the wrath and displeasure of the Almighty and those dreadful punishments that ensue thereupon could not exercise it self in the ways of Righteousness and Piety could not abstain from undue Pleasures of the Flesh or from seeking unjust gains and advantages in Worldly affairs nor expose it self to any hazards and hardships for the Truths sake and for the Interest of the Kingdom of Christ but yet in vertue of the Fear of God and of his dreadful displeasure is carried through all these Duties in some considerable measure Which therefore if men be not it is a demonstration that either the Fear of God is not before their eyes or that they have not so much as this first degree of Vertue which jointly with the Fear of God should enable them to become Travellers in the Valley of Baca that they may at last arrive to the Vision of God Every man therefore must examine himself as to this point and observe wherein his wayes are defectuous and what it is that makes him so slack or fail so much of his Duty whether that due Fear of God has not slipt from him which should be a stay and prop to the small measure of Vertue he has as yet attained to and enforce and support the weakness thereof Which help if men let go unseasonably and it is unseasonable for every one to let it go while he finds himself subject to fall into Sin he will be like a City without Walls and his security in the notional considerations of the Goodness of God and fond and perverse conclusions fetch'd from that sweet Topick will betray him to ruine For being thus fudled as it were and made drunk with this delicious liquor of his own brewing he will grow light-headed or light-minded and presume of safety even when he is entring into the Jaws of Death With Agag they will come out delicately saying Surely the bitterness of death is past when as the Sword of the Lord stands ready to hew them in pieces Wherefore this Fear of the Lord is a Tower of Safety and the strongest Garrison against Vice that is It is true even in the vulgar sense of that place Perfect Love casts out Fear but that Love is not perfect that will let in any Sin or admit of any defect of Duty Indeed if a man had but so ardent a desire after the reward of Righteousness as that it would keep him in the performance of all Duties required by the Law of God that might excuse him from this less chearful state of Fear And it would be the Second advance in this Journey through the Valley of Baca to be able upon the consideration of those Joyes and Glories that are to be enjoy'd amongst the blessed Saints and Angels in Heaven to abstain from all Earthly Lusts and from whatever in our Pilgrimage through this World sollicits us to Sin This I say would be a further step in our Journey toward the House of God But we must by no means be content to stick here For this is but the state of mercenaries and as it falls exceeding short of that Perfection we are called unto so he that takes up here will most assuredly fall short of his Journeys end How far off then are they that endeavour no amendment of their lives either out of the fear of Punishment or hope of Reward how sunk and besotted must the condition of such Souls be and how vastly removed from their Eternal Happiness The progress hitherto in Vertue which I have described borrowing a term from Plotinus we may call Political it reaching no further than a conformity to an outward Law upon the consideration of an external Reward or Punishment which yet I have made part of the Journey in the Valley of Baca because these wayes lead to a nearer approach to the House of God as facilitating the Soul to a speedier attainment to higher Perfections For Temperance and Justice and chastising the Flesh and keeping in a method of Sobriety and Abstinence do of their own nature better dispose the Soul to a more absolute Purification and quicker sensation of Holy and Divine things and put her in a capacity of a more clear and certain conviction of the Reasonableness of the Commandments of God So that though there were no External Law to direct yet we should be satisfy'd in our own Minds and Reasons that such and such Vertues are better than their contrary Vices and that we have as we are Rational Creatures an obligation to follow the one and decline the other This is still a further step in the Journey but the state is but yet Legal if not Political This is rather a Law of life and prescript though more intrinsecal than the former than a Living law For to be in that Dispensation which I call a Living law it not only to be convinced of the Reasonableness of the Precept in our Imagination or Reason but to have it the genuine and natural ebullition of the Spirit of Life in us that it be not a Notion in the Head but the very Sentiment of our Heart and as it were essential to our Life and Being that we should not deem our selves alive without it and as the carnal man will part with all he has to save his Natural life so we will be willing to part with our Natural life and all rather than quit this This being the only Principle in which we find and feel our selves to live indeed He that has arrived hither is not far from the House
of the Soul not only for its loveliness but for its light which it so plentifully imparts unto her That his Godly Simplicity and Sincerity that is devoid of all Self-interest of all Self-reflection or Self-gloriation but pursues what is simply good meerly for the good 's sake is that which answers to the Single Eye in the Parable is plain from the preceding and subsequent Context where our Saviour gives Monitions against Hypocrisie that when we fast we should not be as the Hypocrites of a sad countenance disfiguring their faces that they may appear unto men to fast and that we should lay up our treasure in Heaven not in Earth that our Heart or Affection may not be distracted nor divided for where your treasure is there will your heart be also and likewise immediately after my Text he sayes No man can serve two Masters It is therefore that Oneness of purpose and affection that seems here to be aimed at as in several other Parables of our Saviour He that layes his hand to the plough and looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God Which implies that there should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that our mind should be taken up with one thing only Martha is troubled with many things but Mary has chosen the better part which shall not be taken from her The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hid in the field for which a man selleth all that he hath that he may purchase it or like that Pearl of great price for which a Merchant parts with all that he hath that he may buy it To be at one therefore or to have the lively savour or relish of some one most excellent divine and indispensable Principle seems to be that which is figured out by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by this Single Eye in my Text. Which I conceive is this Not to seek a mans self in any thing but simply and entirely to follow the will and pleasure of God or that which is simply good not pleasing and grateful to our Animal relishes or corresponding with our personal interest and concerns but that which comports with the Interest of the Kingdom of God and the real good of Mankind To be thus affected is to have this Single Eye that is this pure and clear Eye for so the word will also signifie devoid of all self-tincture or self-colouring and therefore capable of receiving the pure Light as it is and every Object in that Hue and Circumstances that they are The being quit from our selves and all Selfishness and having our Desires sincerely bent to what is simply the Best in every thing this is here that Single Eye of the Soul which our Saviour Enigmatically indigitates by that of the Body but is not the Light it self as the Eye of the Body is not the Natural light but they both be that which receives the Light the one the Divine the other the Natural Nor yet is either this Natural or Spiritual Eye to be said to be altogether devoid of light But as Plato conceiv'd there was an innate light in the Eye and that by the conjunction of this with the external light which Union in Plutarch is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vision was performed So we may not deny but that in some sense this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have described to be thus simply and sincerely affected as we have endeavoured to set forth as well as we can in words for what words can communicate the Sense of Life unless to them that have it that this sincere affection is the Inward Light of the Soul her diaphanous capacity of admitting Divine Truths whether suggested from without or from the Spirit of God within in vertue of the happy meeting together of which inwardly pure disposition of the Soul with those outward suggestions she is assured of the reality of the Divine and Spiritual Objects of the Understanding what is to be believed and what to be done as well as the Eye is assured of the truth of outward Natural Objects by the corradiation of its innate light with the external Rayes of the Sun What the Spirits are in the diaphanous Eye that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the relish of the Spirit in the pure Soul And this may suffice for the understanding the Second Analogy 3. From whence we shall easily understand the Third after we have taken notice what is meant in this place by an Evil Eye which is opposed to a Single one And the right meaning is easily fetch'd out from the Opposition For it is obvious to conceive that it is that kind of Evil of the Eye that is opposed to the clearness purity and diaphanousness thereof which is signify'd by the Single Eye For blindness obscureness or depravation of sight may come from sundry causes but the main is and the only here aimed at such as takes away the clearness and diaphanousness of the Eye whereby it ceases to be actuated by its own innate light and animal Spirits and becomes impervious and impenetrable by the Beams of the Sun or any other external lights or at least is so infected by some impure tincture that the rayes of light cannot enter without being soiled and contaminated by that internal infection Now as such an Evil Eye as this leaves the Body either wholly in the dark or obnoxious to perpetual errour touching the right hue of external Objects so the Carnal relish or Carnal-mindedness whereby we do so affectionately savour our personal concerns our Animal pleasure and interest this self-self-love self-respect self-desire self-will self-gloriation self-prelation or whatever touch of smack there is of selfishness be it brutish or diabolical pride or lust the inordinate desire of enjoying the pleasures of the Body or the desire of appearing some-body in the World and the impatience and abhorrence of being thrust below every body and to be in a worse condition than all other mortals though our ever-blessed Saviour submitted himself to that state this carnal relish I say which with the Apostle we will call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we did the single Eye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Carnal-mindedness will in such sort leave the Soul to blindness and errour in things Spiritual to be believed and practised as the Evil Eye does the Body in things Natural Which is the Third Analogy 4. And the Fourth and last is this That as that Darkness which is the darkness of the Eye is in reference to the Body the most calamitous and deplorable darkness that is So the ignorance and insensibleness of the relish of the Spirit is the most hideous and miserable ignorance that can befal the Soul or which is all one to have no other light or sight but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the most hideous and miserable darkness that can possess the Mind If Carnal-mindedness become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Eye of the Soul for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will
etiam hic Dii sunt Come in Sir if God doth not lodge here also Sub sordido pallio latet Sapientia Wisdom sometimes is no better covered than with rags BUT I leave this point for your selves to enlarge upon I pass on from this first Part viz. the Occasion with all the Circumstances thereon depending to the Proposal of the Parable In the mean time his disciples prayed him saying Master eat But he made answer I have meat to eat that you know not of It is usual with our Saviour to ascend from sensible and Corporeal things to those things which are inward and Spiritual I need not look for instances far off Here in this very Chapter when as our Saviour had arriv'd at Iacobs Well at the heat of the day faint and thirsty and desired the Samaritan Woman that came to draw water that she would give him to drink and she reply'd How is it that thou being a Iew askest drink of me which am a woman of Samaria Iesus answered and said unto her if thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith unto thee Give me to drink thou wouldest have asked of him and he would have given thee living water Ver. 10 11. viz. the very same water that he speaks of Iohn 7. ver 37. where he is said in the last day that great day of the feast of Tabernacles to stand and cry If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink He that believeth in me out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water Which speech was occasion'd as is not without Reason conceiv'd from the custom of the day For upon this day by the Institution of Haggai the Prophet and Zacharias and such like they did with Joy and Solemnity bring great store of water from the River Siloah to the Temple where it being delivered to the Priests it was poured upon the Altar together with Wine the people singing that of the Prophet Esaiah Ch. 12. With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation From this visible Solemnity and Natural Water Christ took occasion to invite them to an invisible and Spiritual Water As he doth the Samaritan Woman here in this present Chapter shewing her that whosoever drinks of the water that he asked of her shall thirst again But whosoever should drink of the Water that he should give shall never thirst but the water shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life So at the 6th Chapter of this Gospel of S. Iohn when our Saviour had fed them with Natural Bread he endeavours to raise their desire and appetite to the Bread of Eternal Life Ver. 26. Ye seek me not because ye saw the miracles but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled Labour not for the meat that perisheth but for that meat which endureth to everlasting life And at the 32th Verse Moses gave you not that bread from Heaven but my Father giveth you the true bread from Heaven For the bread of God is he which cometh down from Heaven and giveth life unto the world I might instance in other Examples but this point is clear It remains only that we imitate that Pattern we understand so well Whether we would be Teachers of others or Instructers of our selves For indeed the whole World is ingens quoddam Sacramentum a large sign or symbol of some Spiritual Truths that nearly concern our Souls Methinks when the Morning Sun rises upon us the Eyes of our Souls should open at once with the Eyes of our Bodies and our Hearts should send out this Ejaculation Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us and our minds presage that promised Happiness In thy light shall we see light When we breathe in the fresh Air it might mind us of something like that of the Emperours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not only to draw in the common Air but also to be of one mind with that Intellectual Spirit that fills all the World Solitude and darkness that makes our Hearts shrink within us and overwhelms our Souls with horrour and misdoubt what is it in Spirituals but a privation of perfect Love that casteth out fear as the Apostle speaks He that hateth his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whether he goeth 1 Ioh. cap. 2. There is nothing that the Natural man is sensible of in this outward World but the Spirit of God has made use of to prefigure and set out the condition and nature of Reward and Spiritual things that hence the Soul may receive hints to raise her self towards him that made her for to inherit Spirituality and not alwayes lye groveling on the Earth Whatsoever we see or hear or smell or taste or feel we may in all these even very sensibly feel some hidden mystery and find out in those shells and husks some more precious food than this that pleases our mortal Body and perishable Senses And he that doth not feel through these sensible Creatures something better than themselves certainly is exceedingly benum'd or rather Spiritually dead and has his Conversation in the World no otherwise than the Beasts of the field and Nebuchadnezzars Curse is upon him till such a Mind be restor'd unto him that he doth acknowledge the most High and find him residing even in this lower World the habitation of mortal men Beauty Riches Strength Agility Sweetness Pleasure Harmony these are all better relish'd in the Soul than in the Body Our Blessed Saviour in the midst of his thirst after the Water of Iacobs Well which he beg'd of the Samaritan Woman was so refreshed with the remembrance of the Spiritual and Living Waters which he enjoy'd within that he had forgot his first request his Soul being inebriate as it were with the sweetness of that hidden spring in his Heart And this Storehouse he found within afforded him not Drink only but Meat also it should seem by his ansvver to his Disciples when they invited him to eat He did not as those starvling Souls that not at all being able to entertain themselves with their own store no not for a moment so soon as the Bodies treasure is exhaust men of this world which have their portion in this life and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure as the Psalmist speaks so soon I say as the carnal or outward man is emptyed and impoverished have their desire strait way furiously kindled like a broad fiery Meteor that is swiftly wasted hither and thither accordingly as the earthly unctuous Vapour its proper Pabulum is scattered in the Air. And it is no wonder that they are thus furious and impatient For what is Desire but a living death or an actual non-entity It is for 't is Desire But it is not viz. that which it desires to be And what Soul can endure to be in such a case Wherefore it is too too probable that that mind that can
point of Religion exerciz'd all the time God himself bears witness against them Ezekiel 33. They speak every one to his brother saying Come I pray you and hear what is the word that cometh from the Lord. They come unto thee and sit before thee as my people and they hear thy words but they will not do them with their mouth they shew much love but their heart goeth after covetousness And lo thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument for they hear thy words but they do them not And Reading of the Scripture privately is so like the publick Preaching of it that I need not take any new pains to refute the vanity of it if it be not accompanied with due obedience We may fetch that up to Divinity which Epictetus hath both wittily and gravely of Moral Theorems The Sheep tell not their keeper how much Fodder or Grass they eat but shew that they feed sufficiently by their Milk and Wooll Let us not therefore Beloved do as vain Limners they say have done drawn Venus and the Virgin Mary according to the feature of some Face they themselves love best Let us not I say picture out Religion to our own liking and then be in love with an Idol of our own making but love and like that which the Apostle has so plainly pourtray'd to us That whose description consists in visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction and keeping our selves unspotted of the world Which in two words is this Charity and Purity Of these two consists that true Religion acceptable to God For I conceive visiting the Fatherless and Widows in their affliction excludes not other good deeds from this definition but by a Synecdoche is put for the whole office of Charity 1. The First branch is Charity I will not curiously and artificially set out the bounds of this Vertue It will be enough to intimate that it is not confin'd to the relief of the Body only as he is not only Fatherless that wants his Natural Parent but he much more that has not God for his Father through the seed of the new birth Nor she alone a Widow that has lost her Natural Husband but every Soul is a Widow that is estranged and divorced from her God whose sins have made a separation betwixt her and her Maker Thy Maker is thy Husband Esa. 11. 54. He is so indeed to those that are not faithless and play the Harlot for of such saith the Lord She is not my Wife neither am I her Husband Hosea 2. 2. He therefore that can reconcile a Soul unto God doth not only relieve the Fatherless and Widow but procures an Husband and Father for them and wholly rids them out of their distressful estate These outward transient actions tending to the spiritual or temporal good of our Neighbour are fit testimonies of our sincere Religion before men but for every mans private satisfaction concerning himself there be divers inward and immanent motions of the Soul which will abundantly help on this confirmation I will reckon them up out of the mouth of the Apostle 1 Cor. 13. Where I will not balk those that be at ad extra too they being all very well worth our taking notice of Charity suffereth long and is kind Charity envieth not Charity vaunteth not it self is not puffed up Doth not behave it self unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no evil rejoyceth not in iniquity but rejoyceth in the truth Beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things 2. I pass on now to the Second branch Purity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to keep himself unspotted from the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word signifies properly such kind of spots as are in Clothes by spilling some liquid or oyly thing on them An hard task certainly to be Religious at this height Is it to be thought possible that we should wear this Garment of Mortality every day nay every hour and moment for thirty forty fifty sixty years together and soil it by no mischange or miscarriage either of careless Youth violent Manhood or palsied Old Age To pass through the hurry and tumult of this World and never be crouded into the dirt nor be spattered by them that post by us But verily this is not the meaning of the Apostle or of his description of Religion that no man is Religious but he that is absolutely spotless But he sets before us an Idea or Paradigme of true Religion that men having their eyes upon it may know how much or rather how little of Religion they have attained to By how much nearer conformable to this pattern by so much more Religious by how much further off by so much the less Religious He that is not so much as within the sight of it has not so much as seen the least glimpse or glance of Godliness but may be without any wrong to him writ down Atheist Let every man herein examine himself and ask his own Conscience how unspotted he has kept himself from the World And here as hard a difficulty represents it self if not harder than before To keep himself unspotted from the World Is it not pure Irreligiousness to think so Impossible to be so Who can keep himself pure I answer it may be a mistake in the Idiom of the Tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is no more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be kept unspotted from the World Hithpael for Niphai as there is elsewhere Niphal for Hithpael Acts 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Beza Or to keep himself unspotted from the World is to be understood so far forth as is in our power which in truth is very little Here therefore steps in the power of Christ that strong Arm of God for our Salvation the stay and trust of all Nations and the hope of the ends of the Earth For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us that walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Rom. 8. We walk though it be in the power of that Spirit of Life in Christ as our Body moves by vertue of our Natural Spirit But whether this act of purification or keeping our selves pure be so from God that it is not in any wise from us I leave to them to dispute that are more at leasure That it must be in us if there be any Religion in us is all that the Text affords me and 't is enough for the tryal of our Religion Pure Religion is to keep our selves unspotted from the World What to keep our selves
God Let us administer our part as God doth the whole not by immersion or spilling our Souls or Affections upon the visible Creature but collectedly into God as God is collected into himself Let not our Souls cleave unto the dust nor be spilt upon the ground as the Prophet David sometimes complains but be as the Rayes of the Sun which though they reach to the Earth sink not in the Earth but being fast fixt in their fountain or not the Sun it self do alwayes move whither he carries them Let us also acknowledge our own Original which is from above and move with God and the Lamb wheresoever they go Let us be so pure as not to drown our selves in the muddy stream of this transient World Let us be so Charitable as to wade in it that others be not drown'd Let our Love to men be such that we make not our selves unprofitable members of the World Let our Love to God be such that we keep our selves pure and unspotted from the love of the World Let our whole Conversation be such that all men may see that have eyes to discern both whence and whose we are that we serve not the Will of man nor are Vassals to our own vain Desires but are the free Servants of Christ and true Worshippers of the Living God O Lord our God thou which alone art able to speak to the Hearts and Consciences of men descend we beseech thee powerfully into us by thy Holy Spirit Guide and teach us in thy ways Open our eyes that we may see the wonders of thy Law Set up thy Truth in us and the Life of thy Son above all contentious opinions and conceits of men Take away all Pride and Prejudice and Wrathfulness and Hypocrisie and grant that the whole Christian World may agree in Meekness and that sweet Candour and Simplicity that is in Christ Iesus Shew unto us and convince us of that acceptable Service thou requirest at our hands Let bitterness and heart-burning reviling and all deceit and falseness cease from amongst us and let the Scepter of thy Son bear rule over us in Peace and Truth and Righteousness Enrich us with those precious Graces of Love and Purity And let the effectual power of thy Spirit be so felt amongst us that the least of thy Church may be as David and the House of David as the Angel of the Lord before thee Hear us O Merciful Father c. DISCOURSE XI HEB. xiii 16. To do good and communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased THE Philosophers define good to be that which all things desire Now all Desire is founded in Life And Life is twofold There is the Life of Nature and the Life of God which in men is called the Life of Grace Now both these Lives desire good But here is the difference The Life of Nature is only carried to good as it is good to it self or if it wish good to others it s for its own sake The Life of God or Life of Grace desires good too but not only for it self but simply it desires good wheresoever it can be effected in due order and right means So that the Heart of the Divine Life is enlarged toward every capable thing and would impart its good so much as any is capable and so oft any is disposed For there is neither envy want nor niggardness in the Divine Nature So then he that is thus affected whose bowels are enlarged to his fellow-creatures to every one as they are capable He that is merciful to the beast loving to men feeds the hungry clothes the naked visits the sick directs the traveller is courteous to the stranger informs the ignorant heartens the poor-spirited sheweth the proud his folly comforts him that is in sorrow ballasts him that floats in vain joy soders up enmities and stints strife flies envy and exerciseth an universal amity to all This man is like his Heavenly Father who makes his Sun to rise on the evil and the good and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust This man will neither persecute his enemy out of hatred nor acquit his friend in his fault out of fond love But deals his doals of all kinds to every one as he is fitted for receiving slips no opportunity of doing any manner of good loseth no occasion of hindering of evil His Soul is nothing but the inward Life of Charity his Life nothing but the passing from munificency to munificency from one good deed to another Out of love to God he embraceth his Neighbour after his duty to his Neighbour faithfully perform'd he is nearer united unto God He becomes a King for his bountiful liberality and royal free mind He becomes a Priest by offering these Sacrifices so acceptable to God Nay he himself is but one intire Sacrifice whom that great High-Priest Christ Jesus offers to his Father The fire of Love and Charity is the fire that consumes and wasts continually all corruption in his Soul and loosen'd every day more and more from the body of sin and iniquity ascends in holy fume up nearer unto Heaven a sweet savour unto God and all the assistants of the Divine Majesty But for a more orderly handling of this present Text of Scripture Be pleased to observe with me these three Truths contained in the same 1. That we are not to forget to do good and communicate 2. That doing or communicating good is a Sacrifice 3. That it is a Sacrifice in which God is well pleased I. That we are to do good I think no man is so devoid of reason or goodness as to deny it no not so much as in his silent thoughts Though this Truth that he is so certainly perswaded of lies not alwayes so freshly in his mind but he may easily overslip the practice of it Yea because a mans understanding cogitations and affections are so mightily taken up for his own projects and the advancement of his own private peculiar good it were somewhat strange if he did not omit too too oft this Duty of communicating good to others his fierce and eager pursuit after his private welfare so strongly and steddily directing his eyes upon his own We being therefore so subject out of the extream love of our selves to forget the good of our Neighbour it is no wonder that the Apostles Exhortation is not delivered in a bare simple manner Do good and communicate But runs thus To do good and communicate forget not As if he should say I have delivered in this my Epistle many high and Divine Mysteries concerning the Divine Nature of Christ the Office of the Angels of the Levitical Priesthood and Ceremonies of the Old Law the Sacrifice of Christ and the excellency of Faith and many other Heavenly Theories which for their profoundness may easily invite the curious to muse upon them and for their mysteriousness made me write somewhat more largely upon them But that which I speak to you
Eternal Spiritual Riches he will endue us with hereafter 3. The Third Motive is taken from the persons to whom we are to communicate The rich and the poor meet together and the Lord enlightens both their eyes Prov. 29. No difference between the greatest Prince and the poorest Beggar but the goods of Fortune or rather of Providence For they come not to us by chance but by the good will of God who hath made out of his Wisdom some Poor and some Rich that we may have occasion to exercise the acts of Mercy and tender Compassion to our Brethren who live by the same Air vvalk in the light of the same Sun vvere created by the same God are to be saved by the same Christ. There is one Body and one Spirit even as you are called in one hope of your calling One Lord one Faith one Baptism One God and Father of all which is above all and through all and in you all Eph. 4. What One Body and one Member despise and disregard another One Spirit and not sympathize one vvith another One Hope and not help one another One Lord and not one fellovv-servant acknovvledge another One Father and Brethren not relieve one another One God above all over-seeing us all in all our actions vvho though he be so high yet beholdeth things here belovv upon earth and vve poor earthly vvorms overlook one another One God in us all and no goodness in us all God vvho is Love it self pierce through us all and yet not those lovely shafts of holy Charity vvound any of our hearts God forbid If vve abide not in Love God abideth not in us If our hearts be contracted and darkened by frozen rigidness the light of God shineth not through us If our poor contemptible Neighbour be so far under us that vve disdain to stretch forth our armes to help him vve forget God above us If vve love not as Brethren God is not our Father If vve be asham'd of our Fellovv-servants the Lord is not our Master If vve be cold in mutual affection our Faith is dead and Hypocrisie is our Religion If vve have no sympathy or fellovv-feeling the Spirit vve boast of is but vanity or empty air If vve favour not one another as Members of the same Body vve are not Members of the same Body but disunited Dust vvhich the Wind blovves to and fro upon the face of the Earth and the Angel of God scatters it Community is but a name vvhere there is no communication of good Vnity but a deceivable phansie vvhere there is no real Mercy He that will endanger the Soul of his Brother by with-holding the sustenance of his Body which out of Brotherly affection he is to administer to him surely that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Brotherly Love which the Apostle calls for dwelleth not in him The very shame of Poverty will force a man to do or suffer any thing How much more will pinching hunger scorching thirst benumming cold Necessity hath no Law or at least necessitous persons are easily drawn to think so Give me not poverty saith the Wise Man Prov. 30. 8 9. lest I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain A good man is merciful to his beast and shall not we be so good as to have compassion upon men The miserable and penurious condition of the Poor man would afford me great store or plenty of Arguments to plead his cause but I will only name them Hunger thirst nakedness rags filth deformity pensiveness sickness torture contempt sighs tears groans fear despair disconsolateness assaults of the Devil hard-heartedness of the World dejectedness of his spirit weak and vain looks loss of limbs blindness and deafness I cannot name them all Poverty is attended with such a numerous regiment of defects and infirmities that they may win the most strong and stony heart to compassionate their miseries But because we are fallen into these ill latter times in which the Apostle hath foretold that the love of many or rather of most if not almost of all shall wax cold Mercy and Pity are not passions easily to be stirred up out of the representation of our Neighbours misery and ill plight These are poor contemptible vertues befitting the weak womanish sect A strong vigorous faith I would to God it were so or if you will a deep conceited phansie that we are Gods Children though we be not merciful as our Heavenly Father is merciful is altogether in request and fashion amongst us Christians So this conceit makes us abound with Love toward God as vve think But when all comes to all it will prove but false and adulterate Love It will not abide that touchstone If you love me keep my commandements Or that of S. Iohns Epistle Chap. 3. Whosoever hath this worlds good and seeth his brother have need and shutteth up his compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him 4. But if we do love God so much and our Neighbour so little yet we may not evade or escape this duty of doing good for all that For say that all our time is to be spent in the duties of the First Table all our Piety to be shewed in performances toward God If I shew that these acts of Mercy and Bounty be acts of the First Table too I hope we will not shew our selves so ungrateful and impious as to decline this manner of Worship which he requires at our hands Now that acts of Mercy are duties of the First Table I need go no farther for proof than my Text which tells us that doing good and communicating is a sacrifice And Sacrificing you know is a duty of the First Table even the immediate service of God How fitly the Apostle hath framed his Argument for convincing of mens corrupt Consciences and discovering that mysterious hidden wickedness that lurks in our hypocritical hearts a strong perswasion that we are Gods though there be little of the inward power of Godliness in us This holy kind of irreligiousness that is so immerse and lost as it were in a false counterfeit love of God that it quite forgets all respect and duty to our Neighbour That foolish impudent Spirit that would so confidently father it self upon God and perswade him that he is his Child when it s nothing but the deceitful breath of the Devil A handsome slight to travel to Heaven at least charges The service of God that is a strong perswasion that we are one of them that God hath sign'd to be his though there be no other sure argument or sign saving that we do strongly perswade our selves so The hearing of the Word the saying of Prayers and such outward performances or outward deceivable phansies is a Religion so cheap and easie that it asks a man neither cost nor labour But to be crucified with Christ to suffer with him to undergo the deadly dolorous pangs of mortification to sweat drops of Blood and endure
Soul may be purified No doubt of this Refiners Art or Skill Is his Will doubted of It is one with the Will of God and Gods Will is that we be purified 1 Thess. 4. 3. And Christ is no teacher of loosness but of the height of Righteousness 'T is not the privilege of the Gospel that we may sin securely because Christus solvit but that we may live more exactly because Christ requires it and doth inwardly enable us to perform it See also Rom. 8. 1 2 3 4. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Iesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Here we will acknowledge that God is able his Spirit is willing but we are uncapable of so great a good by reason of the infirmity of the Flesh But answer me O vain man what is this infirmity of the Flesh is it not the strength of Sin And is there any strength that can withstand the powerful operation of the Spirit of God The weakness or strength if you will of the Body bears it towards the Earth but the fire and activity of the Natural Spirits bears it above and enables it to walk upright on the Earth contrary to be bend of its own Essence and Nature Shall not the Spirit of God then be as able to actuate and lead the Soul contrary to its accidental and ascititious Principles as the Natural Spirits to actuate the Body contrary to its innate and essential Principles Certainly if it be not effectual in us we our selves are in fault who abuse our shuffling Phansie and Reason to fend off the stroke and power of Truth that at once would cleave our hearts that 's a tender place the seat of Life it self and any Religion but that which kills us and mortifies us The Devil knew well enough what he said and his Children make it good Skin for skin and all that a man has will he give for his life This is the shuffling hypocrisie of the Natural Spirit of man and the root of infidelity But let us make better use of this precious Scripture Seeing ye obeyed the Truth through the Spirit 1 st For the encrease of Faith and Confidence and Courage in the wayes of Obedience sith we have so strong assistance as the Spirit of our God with true Christian Fortitude to conflict with all our Spiritual Enemies wearing that Motto in our Minds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 dly For hearty Thankfulness to God when ever we find our selves successful in our Spiritual Warfare as to the only giver of Victory 3 dly and lastly For Humility AEquanimity and Christian Patience and expectancy towards our Neighbours that are not yet reclaim'd from their evil ways being compassionate over them not to insult in other mens weaknesses and miscarriages sith we our selves stand not by our own power but by the gracious assistance of our Saviour Jesus Christ And certainly Purification arrived at its full end will easily afford us this for the end of Purification is Brotherly Love which is the Fourth Doctrine Doct. IV. That this Purification of the Soul and Obedience to the Truth through the Spirit is for this end viz. the eliciting of Brotherly Love and Sincerity in the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are distinguished as 2 Pet. 1. 7. But that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here may be as large as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know nothing considerable to the contrary The word is capable of that Sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being used in as great a latitude as Proximus and Alter including all that descended from our Father Adam So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the love of our Neighbour and this Love is the end and height of our Purification and Obedience the aim and scope of it as much as concerns the Second Table Rom. 13. 9 10. and 1 Tim. 1. 5. Who is able to express so Divine an excellency For certainly the unfeigned Love of men is the very Divine Love it self whereby God loves himself and all things and we also love God and all things in reference to him This is that Love of whom the whole Universe was begotten and that rock'd the cradle of the Infant World the very Spirit of God whose Splendour none can behold and live for he must first be dead to himself and extinguish the love of himself before he can be touch'd and quickened by this Spirit of Life and Love THUS much for the Doctrines included in the First main Argument In the Second are these viz. Doctrine I. That there is a Regeneration of the Soul By understanding what Generation is we may better know what is Regeneration 1. The notion in general of Generation according to Aristotle implies no more than a right and fit union of a form substantial with some capable subject whether that form be elicited of the subject or matter or be brought in from elsewhere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle speaks of the Rational Soul 2. There may be more Forms substantial than one in one subject so they be but subordinate one to the other and that a new Species doth not arise so much from the destruction of the pre-existent Form as by addition of a new one which might actuate the whole that doth pre-exist As the numerus ternarius is not made by taking from the numerus binarius but by adding an Unite thereto Thus Aristotle seems to speak Metaph. 7. Cap. 3. 3. Observe That one Soul actuating a Body if any part of that Body be cut off and lose the benefit of information suppose an Hand or Foot that is then said to be but equivocally what it was before which implies it is then of another Nature or Species as much of it as there is though it be not an entire substance if compared with the whole and consequently that the Soul actuating it did then specificate it another way We have now a tolerable insight into Generation and Regeneration is but this twice told That which is this specifical substance now by adding a new substantial Form thereto becomes something else This is Regeneration And to apply it to our selves We are already once born according to Nature our Bodies and Souls being fitly united together by him that is the Father of all Life and the Lord of Nature But though we be thus specificated yet we are not thence perfected but this Binary of Body and Soul the Pythagoreans would
to this purpose Vid. lib. 5. and lib. 6. And this Philosopher attempts by many wayes and Arguments to keep us in this so pleasant temper of Spirit to all men good and bad friends and foes viz. 1. A settled perswasion that all those things which the Stoicks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are so indeed not truly good or bad in themselves there being nothing truly good but what is in our own power such are the voluntary motions of our Mind or Soul Thus he And indeed a very little observation will make this good to us That an eager and sharp desire of outward things Riches Honour and Corporeal Pleasure whose maintenance is from the outward Creature that this is the main if not only Cause of all Dissention amongst the Sons of men So that I think Envy it self is not moved at the Vertuous Accomplishments of any but merely at the effects thereof viz. the Admiration and Glory they get amongst the People Therefore the best way to be friends with all the World is not to desire the things of this World but to reckon them as nothing to the purpose and so shall we assuredly provoke very few against us and be provoked by none 2. Consider Socrates's Maxime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Christ said Father forgive them they know not what they do This is true in injuries done to our selves but the Stoick would drive it to an universality 3. That thou thy self transgressest in many things c. 4. Mans Life is but for a moment of time 5. Consider how many things may and do often follow upon such fits of Anger and Grief far more grievous in themselves than those things we are grieved for and angry 6. The Meekness is a thing unconquerable if it be true and natural 7. It is a mad mans part to look there should be no wicked men in the World because it is impossible c. Thus he But observe that in all these attempts for a continued Meekness and Benignity towards all men whatsoever the ease and quiet of the Philosophers Mind is rather aimed at than any thing else And that it is not so much an Vniversal Love to all men as an universal fencing of himself against the provocations of all whatsoever may at any time chance to assault and shake that firmness and stillness of Temper he proposes to himself being loth to be so obnoxious to any man that it should be in his power to plough up in uneven furrows the settled Planities of his smoothed mind Object But here it will be Objected That unless we endeavour after and at some time reach that Stoical state of the Mind it will be impossible to hold out perpetually in that mild and even tenour of Love to all men For some men are so habitually evil that nothing is tolerable much less lovely in them So that when we light on such some other Affection will be drawn out And for those of the better sort They are sometimes so unlike themselves that it cannot be that the same Affection should be continued to them How then is it That we are to love continually Sol. To this I answer three wayes First We are to love all men i. e. all manner of men of what Religion Sect or Nation soever so be that God has manifested his Graces in them any way And then that this Love should continue as long as the deserts of them that are loved And this takes away all partiality in Love Or Secondly We are to love all men and alwayes amore Benevolentiae though not Complacentiae And thus all particularity or peculiarity will be taken away or swallowed up All men whatsoever being objects capable of this Love We may wish those to be good that are notoriously evil and endeavour too to make them so which are real fruits of Love Or we may pitty them that they are not so already it being so great a Misery for them to be otherwise which is a Symptome of Love if not a genuine Notion thereof nay the very Act of Love only under another modification Which minds me of a Third way of Answer which I cannot so well make out without giving first some settled Notion or Definition of the Nature of Love The general Description whereof let be this Love is an Affection or Passion of the Mind conversant about Divine Beauty and Perfection introducible into the Souls or Persons of the Sons of men And I say Conversant about Divine Perfection and Beauty communicable to the Sons of men to distinguish it from what Love soever else For that Love that ariseth from Interest is but such as a man would bear to his Saddle-horse that carries him safely and easily And that Pitty we bear to calamitous men in Sickness Death or great distress without reference to what we have mention'd in our definition is but the same we may be haply moved with toward a dying beast or a bemoaning and whining dog That Love therefore that like the Vestal Fire is never to go out but alwayes to burn and shine in our hearts is the motion of our Mind one way or other taken up about the Divine Beauty communicable to man And thus I have at large as if I should define Colour in general described the Nature of Love But as Colour is not at all but in its several kinds and distinctions viz. either White or Red or Yellow or Green c. or some other particular kind So this Love is not any Passion at all indeed nothing at all but in its several kinds such as are Hope Fear Ioy Anger Sorrow c. For the very root or matter of all these is Love yea of Hatred it self if we look to the bottom of this Mystery As the Wax takes all shapes and yet is Wax still at the bottom The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 still is Wax So the Soul transported in so many several Passions of Ioy Fear Hope Sorrow Anger and the like has for its general ground-work of all this Love which if it were taken away those various superstructures would suddenly fall For he that loves nothing how can he fear any thing or hope or joy or hate any thing For how can he hate when there is nothing to injure or cross him in what he loves he loving nothing Or yet to make a more fit representation Love is that to the Soul that the Light is to the Sun For Light being simple in it self and uniform is yet the Basis or ground of much variety in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Nature Light being in it self one according as it lights on various surfaces of things returns modifyed into this or that colour If it fall upon Grass it becomes green if upon the Piony-flower red on the Marigold yellow from the Swans back it is reflected white and so according to the variety of the surfaces of Bodies which occur there is a change of light into some particular
modification which to us are so many distinct Colours But take away the Light and all these Colours cease to be As if there were a way to intercept the Suns light from coming to the Cloud where the Rainbow is figured all the Colours of the Rainbow would soon vanish and disappear So if Love be not no other Passion can be but that first supposed the other occasionally will arise from it As from the hitting of the Sun-beams against several Objects several Colours arise which are nothing else but the Beams or Light it self variously modify'd according to the variety of surfaces against which it doth impinge and is reverberated from So in like manner the Passion of Love in a mans Soul being one is variously transformed into several shapes and modes according as the occurrences and occasions it meets with And this we may sensibly perceive in the love of our selves which Domestick fire is kept alive in us with more superstition and care than that more Sacred flame of Divine Love but in a multifarious transfiguration as we may easily observe For Example When a man has committed any thing against his own Profit or Interest through some carelesness or mistake and so grows vext at it what is this but Self-love appearing in the disguise of Anger Sadness and discontent at the death or displeasure of some potent friend what is this but self-Self-love mufled up in the sad attirements of Sorrow Those pleasing motions and prefigurations of the mind upon the promise of future Honours and Preferments what is that but Self-love putting on the smiling countenance of hope And so of the rest But now to transfer all this to the present purpose That Love which I have defined to you is one simple and uniform thing like the visible Light And this is a perpetual well-liking of or benign affection to the Divine Beauty communicable to man which is as one still Sun-shine day or if you will as the Sun shining in silence and solitude there being no Earth or any opake part of the World to reflect and variegate his Rays Such is the mind of him that is possest with this Divine Love as it is freely and uncurb'dly working in it self But lighting upon several objects is after several manners modified and transfigured into several shapes This Love at the Conversion of a Sinner shines forth in that chearful aspect of Heavenly Ioy and Exultation of Spirit at the unworthy usage of good and holy men it burns with Anger and Indignation looking as red and purpled as the Horizontal Sun at the doubtful carriages of men is broken into distractful thoughts careful Fear and Anxiety at the sight of Solomons Fool devoid of understanding is struck with Forlornness and Sadness of Spirit such a one being as a lonesome desolate Cottage where no man inhabits For as he that is in the Wilderness though he have the company of Beasts yet being destitute of the society of men finds himself really in sadness and solitude so certainly he that is regenerate into the Image of the true man the Heavenly Adam i. e. Christ even in a crowd of acquaintance devoid of that Image perceives himself but in solitude And whensoever he converses or meets with any in whom that Heavenly inhabitant is wanting it is to him as forlorn a spectacle as a lonesome and empty Lodge in the midst of a Desart whither when the weary Traveller diverts he finds no man to refresh him with a morsel of Bread or a dish of Water For certainly they that once have a right sense and esteem of the lovely Image of Christ out of a kind of a Divine dotage as I may so speak can not endure to find it missing any where would have it hung up in every room would have it inhabit every house that they may meet with it at every turn And therefore where they miss of it it is as sad a chance as Divorce or Exile from our dear Friend as discomfortable as close Imprisonment and seclusion from all Conversation with men Thus we see Divine Love ceases not by other Passions but remains still the same though in several postures And that it is the several operations of one simple Nature about one and the same Object that is the Image of God or Divine Accomplishments communicable to man Which when they begin to spring and flourish in men this Love is figur'd into Ioy when they decay or are lost into Sorrow when despightfully used into Anger and the like So that if we know what we chiefly love and for whose cause man is to be loved we shall find it not impossible to have our Souls work according to this Principle of Love upon what Object soever So that we may without contradiction fulfil these Duties in the Text of Vniversal and Perpetual Love And now that the Thing is understood feasible it will not be hard to fetch out Arguments for the enforcement of the same The present Text will afford them And the First is From the State of Purification which every Christian is bound to be in and is in if he be truly a Christian. For the Soul of man being a kind of Flame or Fiery Essence Igneus est olli vigor Coelestis origo whereas that foulness and rubbish which it lies in to wit sensual and corruptible Pleasure the instrument whereof is this faeculent and misgoverned Body makes the Soul wrathful lustful self-will'd impetuously given to petty interests and particular poor contentations and delights Surely the purging of it from this foul dross and dregs must needs wing it free it universalize it and make it as generally benign to all men as the Sun is universally courteous to all the World in lending Light and Heat to all For by how much the Soul doth purge her self by so much nearer she approaches to that Primogeneal or Original Fire which is God himself that lets his sun rise on the evil and good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust Matth. 5. 45. This is the Chaldaean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of which proceeds all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as those Oracles speak And the Soul of man the Image of God is in the same said also to be Fire which Psellus more expresly defines in his Notes upon those Oracles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Soul is an immaterial and incorporeal Fire which withdrawing it self from the thickness and foulness of this low Corruption incorporates with that Original Fire even God himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the same Author upon those Oracles hath it Wherefore mingling Essences as it were with the Divinity it must be of the same sense and mind with God and therefore never ceases from loving all men as God himself refuses none The Publishers POST-SCRIPT THree things I shall here advertise the Reader of 1. The First is That the Appendix to Discourse XIII th should not have been Printed apart but that most of it was wanting till that other part was Printed off 2. The Second is That what is still wanting to complete that Discourse as also the Continuation of Discourse XV th never came into my hands 3. The Third is That if those Papers or any other of the Authors be sent to me all due care shall be taken for the making of them Publick FINIS A Catalogue Books Published by His Grace JOHN Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury THirty Sermons and Discourses upon several Occasions in three Volumes in Octavo The Rule of Faith or an Answer to the Treatise of Mr. I. Sergeant Octavo Since which is Published Nine several Sermons on several Occasions in Quarto Books writ by the Learned Dr. Isaac Barrow late Master of Trinity College in Cambridge And Published by His Grace JOHN Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in Four Volumes in Folio The First Volume containing Thirty Two Sermons Preached upon several Occasions An Exposition of the Lords Prayer and the Ten Commandments also the Doctrine of the Sacraments A Learned Treatise of the Popes Supremacy With some Account of the Authors Life The Second Volume containing Sermons and Expositions upon the Apostles Creed The Third Volume containing Forty Five Sermons upon several Occasions Compleating his English Works The Fourth Volume being his Opuscula Viz. Determinationes Conc. ad Clerum Orationes Poemata c. Any of the said Volumes may be had alone All Sold by Brabazon Ayliner at the Three Pigeons in Cornhil