so much good among all my Books by a whole days plodding in a Study as by an Houres discourse I have got with him For he was not a Library lock'd up nor a Book clasped but stood open for any to converse withall that had a mind to learn Yea he was a Fountain running over labouring to doe good to those who perhaps had no mind to receive it None more free and communicative then he was to such as desired to discourse with him nor would he grudge to be taken off from his studies upon such an occasion It may be truely said of him That a man might alwaies come Better from him and his mouth could drop Sentences as easily as an ordinary man's could speak Sense And he was no less happy in expressing his Mind then in conceiving wherein he seems to have excelled the famous Philosopher Plotin of whom Porphyry tells us that he was something careless of his words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but was wholy taken up into his Mind He of whom we now speak had such a copia verborum a plenty of words and those so full pregnant and significant join'd with such an active Phansy as is very rarely to be found in the company of such a deep Understanding and Judgment as dwelt in him I have done with his Learning when I have told you That as he look'd upon Honours Riches and the eagerly-pursued things of this world as Vanities so did he look upon this also as a piece though a more excellent piece of Vanity as he was wont to phrase it if compared with the higher and more divine accomplishments of the Soul For he did not care to value himself by any of those things which were of a perishing nature which should fail and cease and vanish away but only by those things which were more solid and substantial of a Divine and Immortal nature which he might carry out of the world with him to which my Discourse shall not be long before it descend He was of very singular Wisdom and great Prudence of admirable skill and readiness in the managery of affairs which I make an account is an Imitation of that Providence of God that governs the World His Learning was so concocted that it lay not as an Idle notion in his Head but made him fit for any imploiment He was very full and clear in all his Resolutions at any debates a most wise Counseller in any difficulties and streights dextrous in untying any knot of great judgment in satisfying any scruple or doubt even in matters of Religion He was one that soon saw into the depth of any business that was before him and look'd it quite through that would presently turn it over and over in his Mind and see it on all sides and he understood things so well at the First sight that he did not often need any second thoughts but usually stood to the present resolution and determination of his Mind And adde to this his known Integrity Uprightness and Faithfulness his strong and lively his waking and truly-tender Conscience which joined with the former things I spoke of made him more then a Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as men now goe He was as one of the Ancients speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Exemplar of true Christian Philosophy and Vertue and as it were the spiritual Rule Line and Square thereof of so poized and even a life that by his Wisdom and Conscience were it not that every man should know for himself one might live almost at a venture walking blindfold through the world and not miscarry He had incorporated shall I say or insoul'd all Principles of Justice and Righteousness and made them one with himself So that I may say of him in Antoninus his phrase he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dip'd into Justice as it were over head and eares he had not a slight superficial tincture but was dyed and coloured quite through with it so that wheresoever he had a Soul there was Justice and Righteousness They who knew him very well know the truth of all this And I am perswaded he did as heartily and cordially as eagerly and earnestly doe what appeared to be Just and Right without any Self-respect or particular reflections as any man living Methinks I see how earnest he would be in a good matter which appeared to be Reasonable and Just as though Justice her self had been in him looking out at his Eyes and speaking at his Mouth It was a Vertue indeed that he had a great affection unto and which he was very zealous to maintain in whose quarrel he was in danger to be angry and sometimes to break forth into a short passion But he was alwaies very urgent upon us that by the Grace of God and the help of the mighty Spirit of Jesus Christ working in us we would endeavour to purge out the corruption of our Natures and to crucifie the Flesh with all the affections and lusts thereof yea to subdue as much as it is possible even the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in our Souls those first motions that are without our consent and to labour after Purity of heart that so we might see God For his endeavour was not only to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the pollutions of the world through lust but as Plotin speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to come to the true likeness of God and his Son or in the Apostles language to be partaker of the Divine nature And here now what words shall I use What shall I say of his Love None that knew him well but might see in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzen I think speaks Love bubling and springing up in his Soul and flowing out to all and that Love unfained without guile hypocrisie or dissimulation I cannot tell you how his Soul was Universaliz'd how tenderly he embraced all God's creatures in his arms more especially Men and principally those in whom he beheld the Image of his heavenly Father There one might have seen running 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he would ever have emptied his Soul into theirs Let any that were throughly acquainted with him say if I lie And truly my Happiness is that I have such a subject to exercise my young and weak Oratory upon as will admit of little Hyperbole His Patience was no less admirable then his Love under a lingering and tedious disease wherein he never murmured nor complained but rested quietly satisfied in the Infinite Unbounded Goodness and Tenderness of his Father and the Commiserations of Jesus Christ our merciful High Priest who can be touched with a feeling of our infirmities He still resolved with Job Though he kill me yet will I trust in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzen in an Epistle to Philagrius O bravely done most noble Soul who canst play the Philosopher the Christian in thy sickness and sufferings who canst not only talk but doe not only doe but suffer
converse with them in a Sensual and Unspiritual manner Religion does spiritualize the Creation to Good men it teaches them to look at any Perfections or Excellencies in themselves and others not so much as Theirs or That others but as so many Beams flowing from One and the Same Fountain of Light to love them all in God and God in all the Universal Goodness in a Particular Being A Good man enjoys and delights in whatsoever Good he sees otherwhere as if it were his own he does not fondly love and esteem either himself or others The Divine temper and strain of the antient Philosophy pag. 429. Chap. IX The Seventh and last Property or Effect discovering the Excellency of Religion viz. That it raiseth the Minds of Good men to a due observance of and attendance upon Divine Providence and enables them to serve the Will of God and to acquiesce in it For a man to serve Providence and the Will of God entirely to work with God and to bring himself and all his actions into a Compliance with God's Will his Ends and Designs is an argument of the truest Nobleness of Spirit it is the most excellent and divine life and it is most for mans advantage How the Consideration of Divine Providence is the way to inward quietness and establishment of Spirit How wicked men carry themselves unbecomingly through their impatience and fretfulness under the disposals of Providence The beauty and harmony of the various Methods of Providence pag. 435. Chap. X. 4. The Excellencie of Religion in regard of its Progress as it is perpetually carrying on the Soul towards Perfection Every Nature hath its proper Centre which it hastens to Sin and Wickedness is within the attractive power of Hell and hastens thither Grace and Holiness is within the Central force of Heaven and moves thither 'T is not the Speculation of Heaven as a thing to come that satisfies the desires of Religious Souls but the reall Possession of it even in this life Men are apt to seek after Assurance of Heaven as a thing to come rather then after Heaven it self and the inward possession of it here How the Assurance of Heaven rises from the growth of Holiness and the powerfull Progress of Religion in our Souls That we are not hastily to believe that we are Christ's or that Christ is in us That the Works which Christ does in holy Souls testify of him and best evidence Christ's spiritual appearance in them pag. 439. Chap. XI 5. The Excellency of Religion in regard of its Term and End viz. Perfect Blessedness How unable we are in this state to comprehend and describe the Full and Perfect state of Happiness and Glory to come The more Godlike a Christian is the better may he understand that State Holiness and Happiness not two distinct things but two several Notions of one and the same thing Heaven cannot so well be defined by any thing without us as by something within us The great nearness and affinity between Sin and Hell The Conclusion of this Treatise containing a serious Exhortation to a diligent minding of Religion with a Discovery of the Vanity of those Pretenses which keep men off from minding Religion pag. 443. DISCOURSE X. OF A CHRISTIANS CONFLICTS with CONQUESTS over SATAN CHap. I. The Introduction Summarily treating of the perpetual Enmity between God the Principle of Good and the Principle of Evil the Devil as also between Whatsoever is from God and that which is from the Devil That Wicked men by destroying what there is from God within them and devesting themselves of all that which hath any alliance to God or true Goodness and transforming themselves into the Diabolical image fit themselves for correspondence and converse with the Devil The Fears and Horrors which infest both the Apostate Spirits and Wicked men The weakness of the Devil's kingdom Christ's success against it pag. 455. Chap. II. The First observable That the Devil is continually busie with us The Devil consider'd under a double notion 1. As an Apostate Spirit which fell from God The great danger of the Devils activity not only when he presents himself in some corporeal shape but when he is unseen and appears not The weakness and folly of those who are afraid of him only when he appears embodyed That the Good Spirit of God is active for the Good of Souls How regardless men are of the gentle motions of the Divine Spirit and how unwatchfull and secure under the Suggestions of the Evil Spirit How we may discover the Devil in his Stratagems and under his several disguises and appearances pag. 458. Chap. III. 2. Of the activity of the Devil considered as a Spirit of Apostasie and as a Degenerate nature in men That the Devil is not only the name of one Particular thing but a Nature The Difference between the Devil and Wicked men is rather the Difference of a Name then of Natures The Kingdom and Tyranny of the Devil and Hell is chiefly within in the Qualities and Dispositions of mens Minds Men are apt to quarrell with the Devil in the name and notion and defie him with their Tongues while they entertain him in their Hearts and comply with all that which the Devil is The vanity of their pretended Love to God and Hatred of the Devil That there is nothing Better then God himself for which we should love him and to love him for his own Beauty and Excellency is the best way of loving him That there is nothing worse then Sin it self for which we should hate it and to hate it for its own deformity is the truest way of hating it How Hell and Misery arises from within men Why Wicked men are so insensible of their Misery in this life pag. 462. Chap. IV. The Second Observable viz. The Warfare of a Christian life True Religion consists not in a mere passive capacity and sluggish kind of doing nothing nor in a melancholy sitting still or slothfull waiting c. but it consists in inward life and power vigour and activity A discovery of the dulness and erroneousness of that Hypothesis viz. That Good men are wholy Passive and unable at any time to move without some external impetus some impression and impulse from without upon them or That all Motions in Religion are from an External Principle Of the Quality and Nature of the true Spiritual Warfare and of the Manner and Method of it That it is transacted upon the inner Stage of mens Souls and managed without Noise or pompous Observation and without any hindrance or prejudice to the most peacefull sedate and composed temper of a religious Soul This further illustrated from the consideration of the false and pretended Zeal for God and his Kingdome against the Devil which though it be impetuous and makes a great noise and a fair shew in the world is yet both impotent and ineffectual pag. 469. Chap. V. The Third Observable viz. The Certainty of Success and victory
we shall adde but this one thing further to clear the Soul's Immortality and it is indeed that which breeds a true sense of it viz. True and reall goodness Our highest speculations of the Soul may beget a sufficient conviction thereof within us but yet it is onely True Goodness and Vertue in the Souls of men that can make them both know and love believe and delight themselves in their own Immortality Though every good man is not so Logically subtile as to be able by fit mediums to demonstrate his own Immortality yet he sees it in a higher light His Soul being purged and enlightned by true Sanctity is more capable of those Divine irradiations whereby it feels it self in conjunction with God and by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greeks speak the Light of divine goodness mixing it self with the light of its own Reason sees more clearly not onely that it may if it please the supreme Deity of its own nature exist eternally but also that it shall doe so it knows it shall never be deserted of that free Goodness that alwaies embraceth it it knows that Almighty Love which it lives by to be stronger then death and more powerful then the grave it will not suffer those holy ones that are partakers of it to lie in hell or their Souls to see corruption and though worms may devour their flesh and putrefaction enter into those bones that fence it yet it knows that its Redeemer lives and that it shall at last see him with a pure Intellectual eye which will then be clear and bright when all that earthly dust which converse with this mortal body filled it with shall be wiped out It knows that God will never forsake his own life which he hath quickned in it he will never deny those ardent desires of a blissfull fruition of himself which the lively sense of his own Goodness hath excited within it those breathings and gaspings after an eternal participation of him are but the Energy of his own breath within us if he had had any mind to destroy it he would never have shewn it such things as he hath done he would not raise it up to such Mounts of Vision to shew it all the glory of that heavenly Canaan flowing with eternal and unbounded pleasures and then tumble it down again into that deep and darkest Abyss of Death and Non-entity Divine goodness cannot it will not be so cruel to holy souls that are such ambitious suitors for his love The more they contemplate the blissfull Effluxes of his divine love upon themselves the more they find themselves strengthned with an undaunted confidence in him and look not upon themselves in these poor bodily relations and dependences but in their eternal alliances 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Arrianus sometimes speaks as the Sons of God who is the Father of Souls Souls that are able to live any where in this spacious Universe and better out of this dark and lonesome Cell of Bodily matter which is alwaies checking and clogging them in their noble motions then in it as knowing that when they leave this Body they shall then be received into everlasting habitations and converse freely and familiarly with that Source of Life and Spirit which they conversed with in this life in a poor disturbed and streightned manner It is indeed nothing else that makes men question the Immortality of their Souls so much as their own base and earthly loves which first makes them wish their Souls were not immortal and then to think they are not which Plotinus hath well observed and accordingly hath soberly pursued this argument I cannot omit a large recital of his Discourse which tends so much to disparage that flat and dull Philosophy which these later Ages have brought forth as also those heavy-spirited Christians that find so little divine life and activity in their own Souls as to imagine them to fall into such a dead sleep as soon as they leave this earthly tabernacle that they cannot be awakened again till that last Trumpet and the voice of an Archangel shall rouse them up Our Authors discourse is this Enn. 4. lib. 7. c. 10. having first premised this Principle That every Divine thing is immortall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let us now consider a Soul saith he not such an one as is immerst into the Body having contracted unreasonable Concupiscence and Anger 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to which they were wont to distinguish between the Irascible and Concupiscible faculty and other Passions but such a one as hath cast away these and as little as may be communicates with the Body such a one as this will sufficiently manifest that all Vice is unnaturall to the Soul and something acquired onely from abroad and that the best Wisdome and all other Vertues lodge in a purged Soul as being allyed to it If therefore such a Soul shall reflect upon it self how shall it not appear to it self to be of such a kind of nature as Divine and Eternall Essences are For Wisdome and true Vertue being Divine Effluxes can never enter into any unhallowed and mortall thing it must therefore needs be Divine seeing it is fill'd with a Divine nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by its kindred and consanguinity therewith Whoever therefore amongst us is such a one differs but little in his Soul from Angelicall essences and that little is the present inhabitation in the Body in which he is inferiour to them And if every man were of this raised temper or any considerable number had but such holy Souls there would be no such Infidels as would in any sort disbelieve the Soul's Immortality But now the vulgar sort of men beholding the Souls of the generality so mutilated and deform'd with Vice and Wickedness they cannot think of the Soul as of any Divine and Immortall Being though indeed they ought to judge of things as they are in their own naked essences and not with respect to that which extraessentially adheres to them which is the great prejudice of knowledge Contemplate therefore the Soul of man denuding it of all that which it self is not or let him that does this view his own Soul then he will believe it to be Immortall when he shall behold it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fixt in an Intelligible and pure nature he shall then behold his own Intellect contemplating not any Sensible thing but Eternall things with that which is Eternall that is with it self looking into the Intellectuall world being it self made all Lucid Intellectuall and shining with the Sun-beams of eternall Truth borrowed from the First Good which perpetually rayeth forth his Truth upon all Intellectuall Beings One thus qualified may seem without any arrogance to take up that saying of Empedocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Farewell all earthly allies I am henceforth no mortall wight but an Immortall Angel ascending up into Divinity and reflecting upon that likeness of it which I find
to love him with a most Universall and Unbounded Love to trust in him and reverence him to converse with him in a free chearful manner as One in whom we live and move and have our Beings being perpetually encompassed by him and never moving out of him to resign all our Waies and Wills up to him with an equall and indifferent mind as knowing that he guides and governs all things in the Best way to sink our selves as low in Humility as we are in Self-nothingness And because all those scatter'd Raies of Beauty and Loveliness which we behold spread up and down all the World over are onely the Emanations of that inexhausted Light which is above therefore should we love them all in that and climb up alwaies by those Sun-beams unto the Eternall Father of Lights we should look upon him and take from him the pattern of our lives and alwaies eying of him should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as Hierocles speaks polish and shape our Souls into the clearest resemblance of him and in all our behaviour in this World that Great Temple of his deport our selves decently and reverently with that humility meekness and modesty that becomes his house We should endeavour more and more to be perfect as he is in all our dealing with men doing good shewing mercy and compassion advancing justice and righteousness being alwaies full of charity and good works and look upon our selves as having nothing to doe here but to display blazon the glory of our heavenly Father and frame our hearts and lives according to that Pattern which we behold in the Mount of a holy Contemplation of him Thus we should endeavour to preserve that Heavenly fire of the Divine Love and Goodness which issuing forth from God centres it self within us and is the Protoplastick virtue of our Beings alwaies alive and burning in the Temple of our Souls and to sacrifice our selves back again to him And when we fulfill this Royall Law arising out of the heart of Eternity then shall we here appear to be the Children of God when he thus lives in us as our Saviour speaks Matth. 5. And so we shall close up this Particular with that High privilege which Immortall Souls are invested with they are all the Off-spring of God for so S. Paul allows the Heathen Poet to call them they are all royally descended and have no Father but God himself being originally formed into his image and likeness and when they express the purity and holiness of the Divine Life in being perfect as God is perfect then they manifest themselves to be his Children Matth. 5. And in Matth. 7. Christ encourageth men to seek and pray for the Spirit which is the best gift that God can give to men because he is their Heavenly Father much more bountifull and tender to all helpless Souls that seek to him then any earthly parent whose Nature is degenerated from that primitive goodness can be to his children But those Apostate Spirits that know not to return to the Originall of their Beings but implant themselves into some other stock and seek to incorporate and unite themselves to another line by sin and wickedness cut themselves off from this divine priviledge and lose their own birth-right they doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if I may borrow that phrase and lapse into another nature All this was well express'd by Proclus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All Souls are the Children of God but all of them know not their God but such as know him and live like to him are called the Children of God CHAP. IX An APPENDIX concerning the Reason of Positive Laws BUT here as an Appendix to the two former Deductions it may be of good use to enquire into the Reason of such Laws as we call Positive which God hath in all times as is commonly suppos'd enjoyn'd obedience to which are not the Eternall dictates and Decretals of the Divine Nature communicating it self to Immortall Spirits but rather deduce their Originall from the free will and pleasure of God To solve this Difficulty that of S. Paul may seem a fit Medium who tells us The Law was added because of transgression though I doubt not but he means thereby the Morall Law as well as any other The true intent and scope of these Positive laws and it may be of such an externall promulgation of the Morall seems to be nothing else but this to secure the Eternall Law of Righteousness from transgression As the Jews say of their decreta sapientum that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an hedge to the Law so we may say of these Divine Decretals they were but cautionary and preventive of disobedience to that Higher Law and therefore Saint Paul tells us why the Morall Law was made such a Political business by an external promulgation c. 1 Tim. 1. 9. not so much because of righteous men in whom the Law of Nature lives who perform the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without any outward Law but it was given for the lawless and disobedient c. And therefore I doubt not but we may safely conclude that God gave not those Positive Laws meerly pro imperio if I may use that expression it was not meerly to manifest his Absolute Dominion Soveraignty as some think but for the good of those that were enjoyned to obey and this belief Moses endeavours almost throughout the whole Book of Deuteronomy to strengthen the Israelites in and therefore God was so ready upon all occasions to dispense with these Laws and requires the Jews to omit the observance of them when they might seem to justle with any other Law of Morall duty or Humane necessity as may be observ'd in many Instances in Scripture But for a more distinct unfolding of this point we may take notice of this difference in the notion of Good and Evil as we are to converse with them Some things are so absolutely and somethings are so onely relatively That which is absolutely good is every way Superiour to us and we ought alwaies to be commanded by it because we are made under it But that which is relatively good to us may sometime be commanded by us Eternall Truth and Righteousness are in themselves perfectly absolutely good and the more we conform our selves to them the better we are But those things that are onely good relatively and in order to us we may say of them that they are so much the better by how much the more they are conform'd to us I mean by how much the more they are accommodated and fitted to our estate and condition and may be fit means to help and promote us in our pursuit of some Higher good and such indeed is the matter of all Positive Laws and the Symbolicall or Rituall part of Religion And as we are made for the former viz. what is absolutely good to serve that so are these latter
Righteousness of Faith which the Apostle sets up against the Law and compares with it is indeed in its own nature a Vital and Spiritual administration wherein God converseth with Man whereas the Law was merely an External or Dead thing in it self not able to beget any true Divine life in the Souls of Men. All that Legal Righteousness which the Jews boasted so much of was but from the Earth earthly consisting merely in External performances so falling extremely short of that Internal God-like frame of Spirit which is necessary for a true conjunction and union of the Souls of Men with God and making of them capable of true Blessedness But that we may the more distinctly handle this Argument we shall endeavour to unfold the true Difference between the Law and the Gospel as it seems evidently to be laid down every where by S. Paul in his Epistles and the Difference between them is clearly this viz. That the Law was merely an External thing consisting in such Precepts which had only an Outward administration but the Gospel is an Internal thing a Vital Form and Principle seating it self in the Minds and Spirits of Men. And this is the most proper and formal Difference between the Law and Gospel that the one is considered only as an External administration and the other as an Internal And therefore the Apostle 2 Cor. 3. 6 7. calls the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ministration of the letter and of death it being in it self but a dead letter as all that which is without a mans Soul must needs be But on the other side he calls the Gospel because of the Intrinsecal and Vital administration thereof in living impressions upon the Souls of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ministration of the Spirit and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ministration of righteousness By which he cannot mean the History of the Gospel or those Credenda propounded to us to believe for this would make the Gospel it self as much an External thing as the Law was and according to the External administration as much a killing or dead letter as the Law was and so we see that the preaching of Christ crucified was to the Jews a Stumbling-block and to the Greeks Foolishness But indeed he means a Vital efflux from God upon the Souls of men whereby they are made partakers of Life and Strength from him and therefore ver 7. he thus Exegetically expounds his own meaning of that short description of the Law namely that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I think may be fitly thus translated it was a dead or liveless administration for so sometimes by an Hebraisme the Genitive case in regimine is put for the Adjective or else an administration of death exhibited in letters and engraven in tables of Stone and therefore he tells us ver 6. what the Effect of it was in those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The letter killeth as indeed all External precepts which have not a proper vital radication in the Souls of men whereby they are able to secure them from the transgression of them must needs doe Now to this dead or killing letter he opposes ver 8. a quickning Spirit or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ministration of the Spirit which afterwards v. 9. he expounds by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ministration of righteousness that is the Evangelical administration So that the Gospel or Evangelical administration must be an Internal impression a vivacious and Energetical Spirit and Principle of Righteousness in the Souls of men whereby they are inwardly enabled to express a real conformity thereto Upon this Ground the Apostle further pursues the Effects of both these from the 14. verse to the end By all which the Apostle means to set forth to us How vast a Difference there is between the External manifestations of God in a Law of Commandements and those Internal appearances of God whereby he discovers the mighty power of his Goodness to the Souls of men Though the History and outward Communication of the Gospel to us in scriptis is to be always acknowledged as a special mercy advantage and certainly no less Privilege to Christians then it was to the Jews to be the Depositaries of the Oracles of God yet it is plain that the Apostle where he compares the Law and the Gospel and in other places doth by the Gospel mean something which is more then a piece of Book-learning or an Historical Narration of the free love of God in the several contrivances of it for the Redemption of mankind For if this were all that is meant properly by the Gospel I see no reason why it should not be counted as weak and impotent a thing as dead a letter as the Law was as we intimated before and so there would be no such vast Difference between them as the Apostle asserts there is the one being properly an External declaration of Gods will the other an Internal manifestation of Divine life upon mens Souls and therefore Gal. 3. 21. he so distinguisheth between this double Dispensation of God that this Evangelical dispensation is a vital and quickening thing able to beget a Soul and Form of Divine goodness upon the Souls of men which because the Law could not doe it was laid aside as being insufficient to restore man to the favour of God or to make him partaker of his righteousness If there had been a Law which could have given life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verily Righteousness should have been by the Law where by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he seems to mean the same thing which he meant by it when in his Epistle to the Corinthians he calls the Oeconomy of the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ministration of righteousness or as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken among the Jewish writers for acceptance with God and that Internal form of Righteousness that qualifies the Soul for Eternal life and so he takes it in a far more large and ample sense then that External righteousness of Justification is and indeed it seems to express the Just state of those who are renewed by the Spirit of God and made partakers of that Divine life which is emphatically called the Seed of God For this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Righteousness which he here speaks of is the proper result of an enlivening and quickening Law which is this New Law of the Gospel in opposition to that Old Law which was administred only in scriptis and therefore this New Law is called in the Epistle to the Hebrews chap. 8. 6. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the better Covenant whereas the Old was faulty In which place this is put down as the Formal difference between the Legal and Evangelical administration or the Old and New Covenant That the Old Covenant was only externally promulged and wrapt up as it were in Ink and Parchment or as best engraven
of sinners insatiably greedy after their prey never satisfied till they have devoured the Souls of men Lest we should by such dreadful apprehensions be driven from God we are told of the Bloud of sprinkling that speaks better things for us of a mighty Favourite solliciting our Cause with perpetual intercessions in the Court of heaven of a new and living way to the Throne of grace and to the Holy of holies which our Saviour hath consecrated through his flesh We are told of a great and mighty Saviour able to save to the utmost all that come to God by him We heare of the most compassionate and tender Promises that may be from the Truth it self that Whosoever comes to him he will in no wise cast out that They that believe on him out of them should flow streams of living water We hear of the most gracious invitations that Heaven can make to all weary and heavy-laden sinners to come to Christ that they may find rest The great Secrets of Heaven and the Arcana of Divine Counsells are revealed whereby we are acquainted that Glory to God in the highest Peace on earth Good will towards men are sweetly joined together in Heavens harmony and happily combin'd together in the composure of it's Ditties That the Glory of the Deity and Salvation of men are not allaied by their union one with another but both exalted together in the most transcendent way that Divine love and bounty are the supreme rulers in Heaven and Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is no such thing as sowre Despight and Envy lodged in the bosome of that ever-blessed Being above whose name is LOVE and all whose Dispensations to the Sons of men are but the dispreadings and distended radiations of his Love as freely flowing forth from it through the whole orbe and sphear of its creation as the bright light from the Sun in the firmament of whose benign influences we are then only deprived when we hide and withdraw our selves from them We are taught that the mild and gentle breathings of the Divine Spirit are moving up and down in the World to produce life and to revive and quicken the Souls of men into a feeling sense of a blessed Immortality This is that mighty Spirit that will if we comply with it teach us all things even the hidden things of God mortifie all the lusts of rebellious Flesh and seal us up to the day of redemption We are taught that with all holy boldness we may in all places lift up holy hands to God without wrath or doubting without any sowre thoughts of God or fretfull jealousies or harsh surmises We can never distrust enough in our selves nor ever trust too much in God This is the great Plerophory and that full Confidence which the Gospel every where seems to promote and should I run through all the Arguments and Solicitations that are there laid down to provoke us to an entertainment hereof I should then run quite through it from one end to another it containing almost nothing else in the whole Complex and Body of it but strong and forcible Motives to all Ingenuous addresses to God and the most effectual Encouragement that may be to all chearfull dependance on him and confident expectation of all assistance from him to carry on our poor endeavours to the atchievment of Blessedness and that in the most plain and simple way that may be sine fraude fuco without any double mind or mental reservation Heaven is not acquainted so feelingly with our wicked arts and devices But it is very strange that where God writes Life so plainly in fair Capital letters we are so often apt to read Death that when he tells us over and over that Hell destruction arise from our selves that they are the workmanship of our own hands we will needs understand their Pedegree to be from Heaven and that they were conceived in the Womb of Life and Blessedness No but the Gospel tells us we are not come to Mounts of burning nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest c. Hebr. 12. v. 18. Certainly a lively Faith in this Love of God and a sober converse with his Goodness by a cordial entertainment and through perswasion of it would warm and chafe our benummed Minds and thaw our Hearts frozen with self-Self-love it would make us melt and dissolve out of all Self-consistencie and by a free and noble Sympathie with the Divine love to yield up our selves to it and dilate and spread our selves more fully in it This would banish away all Atheisme and ireful slavish Superstition it would cast down every high thought and proud imagination that swells within us and exalts it self against this soveraign Deity it would free us from all those poor sorry pinching and particular Loves that here inthrall the Souls of men to Vanity and Baseness it would lead us into the true liberty of the sons of God filling our Hearts once enlarged with the sense of it with a more generous and universal love as unlimited and unbounded as true Goodness it self is Thus Moses-like conversing with God in the Mount and there beholding his glory shining thus out upon us in the face of Christ we should be deriving a Copy of that Eternal beauty upon our own Souls and our thirstie and hungry spirits would be perpetually sucking in a true participation and image of his glory A true divine Love would wing our Souls and make them take their flight swiftly towards Heaven and Immortality Could we once be throughly possess'd and mastered with a full confidence of the Divine love and God's readiness to assist such feeble languishing creatures as we are in our assays after Heaven and Blessedness we should then finding our selves borne up by an Eternal and Almighty strength dare to adventure courageously and confidently upon the highest designes of Happiness to assail the kingdome of heaven with a holy gallantry and violence to pursue a course of well-doing without weariness knowing that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord and that we shall receive our Reward if we faint not We should work out our salvation in the most industrious manner trusting in God as one ready to instill strength and power into all the vital faculties of our Souls We should press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus that we may apprehend that for which also we are apprehended of Christ Jesus If we suffer not our selves to be robb'd of this Confidence and Hope in God as ready to accomplish the desires of those that seek after him we may then walk on strongly in the way to Heaven and not be weary we may run and not faint And the more the Souls of men grow in this blissfull perswasion the more they shall mount up like Eagles into a clear Heaven finding themselvs rising higher and higher above all those filthy mists those clouds and tempests of a slavish Fear
suppose we may fairly gloss upon S. Paul's Discourses which so much prefer Faith above Works We must not think in a Gyant-like pride to scale the walls of Heaven by our own Works and by force thereof to take the strong Fort of Blessedness and wrest the Crown of Glory out of God's hands whether he will or no. We must not think to commence a suit in Heaven for Happiness upon such a poor and weak plea as our own External compliance with the Old Law is We must not think to deal with God in the Method of Commutative Justice and to challenge Eternal life as the just Reward of our great Merits and the hire due to us for our labour and toil we have took in God's Vineyard No God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble it must be an humble and Self-denying address of a Soul dissolved into a deep and piercing sense of its own Nothingness and unprofitableness that can be capable of the Divine bounty he fills the hungry with good things but the rich he sends empty away They are the hungry and thirsty Souls alwaies gasping after the living springs of Divine grace as the parched ground in the desert doth for the dew of Heaven ready to drink them in by a constant dependance upon God Souls that by a living watchfull and diligent Faith spreading forth themselves in all obsequious reverence and love of him wait upon him as the Eyes of an handmaid wait on the hand of her Mistress These are they that he delights to satiate with his goodness Those that being master'd by a strong sense of their own indigency their pinching and pressing povertie and his All-sufficient fulness trust in him as an Almighty Saviour and in the most ardent manner pursue after that Perfection which his grace is leading them to those that cannot satisfie themselves in a bare performance of some External acts of righteousness or an External observance of a Law without them but with the most greedy and fervent ambition pursue after such an acquaintance with his Divine Spirit as may breath an inward life through all the powers of their Souls and beget in them a vital form and soul of Divine goodness These are the spiritual seed of faithful Abraham the sons of the Free-woman and heirs of the promises to whom all are made Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus These are they which shall abide in the house for ever when the sons of the Bond-woman those that are only Arabian proselytes shall be cast out CHAP. VII An Appendix to the foregoing Discourse How the whole business and Undertaking of Christ is eminently available both to give full relief and ease to our Minds and Hearts and also to encourage us to Godliness or a God-like righteousness briefly represented in sundry Particulars FOR the further illustration of some things especially in the latter part of this Discourse it may not be amiss in some Particulars which might easily be enlarged to shew How the Undertaking of Christ that Great Object of Faith is greatly advantageous and available to the giving full relief and ease to our Minds and Hearts and also to the encouraging us to Godliness or a true God-like righteousness In the General therefore we may consider That full and evident assurance is given hereby to the world That God doth indeed seek the saving of that which is lost and men are no longer to make any doubt or scruple of it Now what can we imagine more available to carry on a Designe of Godliness and to rouze dul and languid Souls to an effectual minding of their own Salvation then to have this News sounding in their Ears by men that at the first promulgation thereof durst tell them roundly in the Name of God that God required them every where to repent for that his Kingdome of grace was now apparent and that he was not only willing but it was his gracious designe to save recover lost Sinners who had forsaken his Goodness Particularly That the whole business of Christ is very advantageous for this purpose and highly accommodate thereto may appear thus We are fully assured that God hath this forementioned designe upon lost men because here is one viz. Christ that partakes every way of Humane Nature whom the Divinity magnifies it self in and carries through this world in Humane infirmities and Sufferings to Eternal glory a clear manifestation to the World that God had not cast off Humane Nature but had a real mind to exalt and dignifie it again The way into the Holy of holies or to Eternal happiness is laid as open as may be by Christ in his Doctrine Life and Death in all which we may see with open face what Humane Nature may attain to and how it may by Humility Self-denial and divine Love a Christ-like life rise up above all visible heavens into a state of Immortal glory and bliss Here is a manifestation of Love given enough to thaw all the iciness of mens hearts which self-Self-love had quite frozen up For here is One who in Humane Nature most heartily every where denying himself is ready to doe any thing for the good of Mankind and at last gives up his life for the same pupose and that according to the good will and pleasure of that Eternal love which so loved the World that he gave this beloved and his only-begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Whereas every Penitent Sinner carries a sense of Guilt upon his own Conscience is apt to shrink with cold chill fears of offended Majesty and to dread the thoughts of violated Justice He is assured that Christ hath laid down his life and thereby made propitiation atonement for sin That He hath laid down his life for the Redemption of him and so in Christ we have Redemption through his bloud even the forgiveness of sins Thus may the Hearts of all Penitents troubled at first with sense of their own guilt be quieted and fully establisht in a living Faith and Hope in an Eternal goodness seeing how their Sins are remitted through the bloud of Jesus that came to die for them and save them and through his bloud they may have free access unto God Seeing Sin and Guilt are apt continually to beget a jealousie of God's Majesty and Greatness from whom the Sinner finds himself at a vast distance he is made acquainted with a Mediator through whom he may address himself to God without this jealousie or doubting for that this Mediator likewise is one of Humane Nature that is highly beloved and accepted of God he having so highly pleased God by performing his Will in all things Certainly it is very decorous and much for the Ease of a Penitent's mind as it makes also for the disparagement of Sin that our Addresses to God should be through a Mediator The Platonists wisely observ'd that between the Pure Divinity and Impure Sinners as
mangling of the Words or running out into any Critical curiosities about them I shall from these Words take occasion to set forth The Nobleness and Generous Spirit of True Religion which I suppose to be meant here by The way of life The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here rendred above may signifie that which is divine and heavenly high and excellent as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does in the New Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 3. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Col. 3. 2. S. Austin supposeth the things of Religion to be meant by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 superna for this reason quòd merito excellentiae longè superant res terrenas And in this sense I shall consider it my purpose being from hence to discourse of the Excellent and Noble spirit of true Religion whether it be taken in abstracto as it is in it self or in concreto as it becomes an inward Form and Soul to the Minds and Spirits of Good men and this in opposition to that low and base-born spirit of Irreligion which is perpetually sinking from God till it couches to the very Centre of misery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the lowermost Hell In discoursing upon this Argument I shall observe this Method viz. I shall consider the Excellency and Nobleness of True Religion 1. In its Rise and Original 2. In its Nature and Essence 3. In its Properties and Operations 4. In its Progress 5. In its Term and End CHAP. I. 1. The Nobleness of Religion in regard of its Original and Fountain it comes from Heaven and moves towards Heaven again God the First Excellency and Primitive Perfection All Perfections and Excellencies in any kind are to be measured by their approach to and Participation of the First Perfection Religion the greatest Participation of God none capable of this Divine Communication but the Highest of created Beings and consequently Religion is the greatest Excellency A twofold Fountain in God whence Religion flowes viz. 1. His Nature 2. His Will Of Truth Natural and Revealed Of an Outward and Inward Revelation of God's Will WE begin with the First viz. True Religion is a Noble thing in its Rise and Original and in regard of its Descent True Religion derives its pedigree from Heaven is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it comes from Heaven and constantly moves toward Heaven again it 's a Beam from God as every good and perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning as S. James speaks God is the First Truth and Primitive Goodness True Religion is a vigorous Efflux and Emanation of Both upon the Spirits of men and therefore is called a participation of the divine Nature Indeed God hath copyed out himself in all created Being having no other Pattern to frame any thing by but his own Essence so that all created Being is umbratilis similitudo entis increati and is by some stamp or other of God upon it at least remotely allied to him But True Religion is such a Communication of the Divinity as none but the Highest of created Beings are capable of On the other side Sin and Wickedness is of the basest and lowest Original as being nothing else but a perfect degeneration from God and those Eternal Rules of Goodness which are derived from him Religion is an Heaven-born thing the Seed of God in the Spirits of men whereby they are formed to a similitude likeness of himself A true Christian is every way of a most noble Extraction of an heavenly and divine pedigree being born 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from above as it is express'd Joh. 3. The line of all earthly Nobility if it were followed to the beginning would lead to Adam where all the lines of descent meet in One and the Root of all Extractions would be found planted in nothing else but Adamah red Earth But a Christian derives his line from Christ who is the Only-begotten Son of God the shining forth of his glory and the Character of his person as he is stiled Heb. 1. We may truly say of Christ and Christians as Zebah and Zalmunna said of Gideon's brethren As he is so are they according to their capacity each one resembling the children of a king Titles of Worldly honour in Heavens heraldry are but only Tituli nominales but Titles of Divine dignity signify some Real thing some Real and Divine Communications to the Spirits and Minds of men All Perfections and Excellencies in any kind are to be measured by their approach to that Primitive Perfection of all God himself and therefore Participation of the Divine nature cannot but entitle a Christian to the highest degree of dignity Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God 1 Jo. 3. 1. Thus much for a more general discovery of the Nobleness of Religion as to its Fountain and Original We may further and more particularly take notice of this in reference to that Twofold fountain in God from whence all true Religion flows and issues forth viz. 1. His Immutable Nature 2. His Will 1. The Immutable Nature of God From thence arise all those Eternal Rules of Truth and Goodness which are the Foundation of all Religion and which God at the first Creation folded up in the Soul of man These we may call the Truths of Natural inscription understanding hereby either those Fundamental principles of Truth which Reason by a naked intuition may behold in God or those necessary Corollaries and Deductions that may be drawn from thence I cannot think it so proper to say That God ought infinitely to be loved because he commands it as because he is indeed an Infinite and Unchangeable Goodness God hath stamp'd a Copy of his own Archetypal Loveliness upon the Soul that man by reflecting into himself might behold there the glory of God intra se videre Deum see within his Soul all those Ideas of Truth which concern the Nature and Essence of God by reason of its own resemblance of God and so beget within himself the most free and generous motions of Love to God Reason in man being Lumen de Lumine a Light flowing from the Fountain and Father of Lights and being as Tully phraseth it participata similitudo Rationis aternae as the Law of Nature the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Law written in mans Heart is participatio Legis aternae in Rationali creatura it was to enable Man to work out of himself all those Notions of God which are the true Ground-work of Love and Obedience to God and conformity to him and in modling the inward man into the greatest conformity to the Nature of God was the Perfection and Efficacy of the Religion of Nature But since Mans fall from God the inward virtue and vigour of Reason is much abated the Soul having suffered a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
and all created things so little that we reckon upon nothing as worthy of our aims or ambitions but a serious Participation of the Divine Nature and the Exercise of divine Vertues Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Kindness Goodness and the like When the Soul beholding the Infinite beauty and loveliness of the Divinity and then looking down and beholding all created Perfection mantled over with darkness is ravish'd into love and admiration of that never-setting brightness and endeavours after the greatest resemblance of God in Justice Love and Goodness When conversing with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a secret feeling of the virtue sweetness and power of his Goodness we endeavour to assimilate our selves to him Then we may be said to glorifie him indeed God seeks no glory but his own and we have none of our own to give him God in all things seeks himself and his own glory as finding nothing Better then himself and when we love him above all things and endeavour to be most like him we declare plainly that we count nothing Better then He is I doubt we are too nice Logicians sometimes in distinguishing between the Glory of God and our own Salvation We cannot in a true sense seek our own Salvation more then the Glory of God which triumphs most and discovers it self most effectually in the Salvation of Souls for indeed this Salvation is nothing else but a true Participation of the Divine Nature Heaven is not a thing without us nor is Happiness any thing distinct from a true Conjunction of the Mind with God in a secret feeling of his Goodness and reciprocation of affection to him wherein the Divine Glory most unfolds it self And there is nothing that a Soul touch'd with any serious sense of God can more earnestly thirst after or seek with more strength of affection then This. Then shall we be happy when God comes to be all in all in us To love God above our selves is not indeed so properly to love him above the salvation of our Souls as if these were distinct things but it is to love him above all our own sinfull affections above our particular Beings and to conform our selves to him And as that which is Good relatively and in order to us is so much the Better by how much the more it is commensurate and conformed to us So on the other side that which is good absolutely and essentially requires that our Minds and Affections should as far as may be be commensurate and conform'd to it and herein is God most glorified and we made Happy As we cannot truly love the First and Highest Good while we serve a designe upon it and subordinate it to our selves so neither is our own Salvation consistent with any such sordid pinching and particular love We cannot be compleatly blessed till the Idea Boni or the Ipsum Bonum which is God exercise its Soveraignty over all the Faculties of our Souls rendring them as like to it self as may consist with their proper Capacity See more of this in the Discourse Of the Existence and Nature of God Chap. 4. and more largely in that Latine Discourse shortly to be printed Pietati studere ex intuitu mercedis non est illicitum CHAP. VI. The Fourth Property or Effect discovering the Excellency of Religion viz. That it begets the greatest Serenity and Composedness of Mind and brings the truest Contentment the purest and most satisfying Joy and Pleasure to every holy Soul God as being that Uniform Chief Good and the One Last End does attract and fix the Soul Wicked men distracted through a Multiplicity of Objects and Ends. How the restless appetite of our Wills after some Supreme Good leads to the knowledge as of a Deity so of the Unity of a Deity How the Joys and Delights of Good men differ from and far excell those of the Wicked The Constancy and Tranquillity of the Spirits of Good men in reference to External troubles All Perturbations of the Mind arise from an Inward rather then an Outward Cause The Stoicks Method for attaining 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and true rest examined and the Insufficiency of it discovered A further Illustration of what has been said concerning the Peacefull and Happy State of Good men from the contrary State of the Wicked THe Fourth Property Effect of True Religion wherein it expresseth its own Nobleness is this That it begets the greatest Serenity Constancy and Composedness of Mind and brings the truest Contentment the most satisfying Joy and Pleasure the purest and most divine Sweetness and Pleasure to the Spirits of Good men Every Good man in whom Religion rules is at peace and unity with himself is as a City compacted together Grace doth more and more reduce all the Faculties of the Soul into a perfect Subjection and Subordination to it self The Union and Conjunction of the Soul with God that Primitive Unity is that which is the alone Original and Fountain of all Peace and the Centre of Rest as the further any Being slides from God the more it breaks into discords within it self as not having any Centre within it self which might collect and unite all the Faculties thereof to it self and so knit them up together in a sweet confederacy amongst themselves God only is such an Almighty Goodness as can attract all the Powers in man's Soul to it self as being an Object transcendently adequate to the largest capacities of any created Being and so unite man perfectly to himself in the true enjoyment of one Uniform and Simple Good It must be one Last End and Supreme Good that can fix Man's Mind which otherwise will be tossed up and down in perpetual uncertainties and become as many several things as those poor Particularities are which it meets with A wicked man's life is so distracted by a Multiplicity of Ends and Objects that it never is nor can be consistent to it self nor continue in any composed settled frame it is the most intricate irregular and confused thing in the world no one part of it agreeing with another because the whole is not firmly knit together by the power of some One Last End running through all Whereas the life of a Good man is under the sweet command of one Supreme Goodness and Last End This alone is that living Form and Soul which running through all the Powers of the Mind and Actions of Life collects all together into one fair and beautifull System making all that Variety conspire into perfect Unity whereas else all would fall asunder like the Members of a dead Body when once the Soul is gone every little particle flitting each from other It was a good Maxim of Pythagoras quoted by Clemens Alexandrinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oportet etiam hominem unum fieri A divided Mind and a Multiform Life speaks the greatest disparagement that may be it is only the intermediation of One Last End that can reconcile a man perfectly to himself and his
and suck a Divine Sweetness out of every flower There is a Twofold meaning in every Creature as the Jews speak of their Law a Literal and a Mystical and the one is but the ground of the other and as they say of divers pieces of their Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so a Good man sayes of every thing that his Senses offer to him it speaks to his lower part but it points out something above to his Mind and Spirit It is the drowsie and muddy spirit of Superstition which being lull'd asleep in the lap of worldly delights is fain to set some Idol at its elbow something that may jogg it and put it in mind of God Whereas true Religion never finds it self out of the Infinite Sphere of the Divinity and whereever it finds Beauty Harmony Goodness Love Ingenuity Wisdome Holiness Justice and the like it is ready to say Here and There is God wheresoever any such Perfections shine out an holy Mind climbs up by these Sun-beams and raises up it self to God And seeing God hath never thrown the World from himself but runs through all created Essence containing the Archetypal Ideas of all things in himself and from thence deriving and imparting several prints of Beauty and Excellency all the world over a Soul that is truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God-like a Mind that is enlightned from the same Fountain and hath its inward Senses affected with the sweet relishes of Divine Goodness cannot but every where behold it self in the midst of that Glorious Unbounded Being who is indivisibly every where A Good man finds every place he treads upon Holy ground to him the World is God's Temple he is ready to say with Jacob Gen. 28. How dreadfull is this place this is none other but the House of God To conclude It was a degenerous and unworthy Spirit in that Philosophy which first separated and made such distances between Metaphysical Truths the Truths of Nature whereas the First and most antient Wisdome amongst the Heathens was indeed a Philosophical Divinity or a Divine Philosophy which continued for divers ages but as men grew worse their queazy stomachs began to loath it which made the truly-wise Socrates complain of the Sophisters of that Age which began now to corrupt and debase it whereas heretofore the Spirit of Philosophy was more generous and divine and did more purifie and ennoble the Souls of men commending Intellectual things to them and taking them off from settling upon Sensible and Material things here below and still exciting them to endeavour after the nearest resemblance of God the Supreme Goodness and Loveliness and an intimate Conjunction with him which according to the strain of that Philosophy was the true Happiness of Immortal Souls CHAP. IX The Seventh and last Property or Effect discovering the Excellency of Religion viz. That it raiseth the Minds of Good men to a due observance of and attendance upon Divine Providence and enables them to serve the Will of God and to acquiesce in it For a man to serve Providence and the Will of God entirely to work with God and to bring himself and all his actions into a Compliance with God's Will his Ends and Designs is an argument of the truest Nobleness of Spirit it is the most excellent and divine life and it is most for mans advantage How the Consideration of Divine Providence is the way to inward quietness and establishment of Spirit How wicked men carry themselves unbecomingly through their impatience and fretfulness under the disposals of Providence The beauty and harmony of the various Methods of Providence THE Seventh and last Property or Effect wherein True Religion expresseth its own Nobleness and Excellency is this That it raiseth the Minds of Good men to a due observance of and attendance upon Divine Providence and enables them to serve the Will of God and to acquiesce in it Wheresoever God hath a Tongue to speak there they have Eares to hear and being attentive to God in the soft and still motions of Providence they are ready to obey his call and to say with Esay Behold here am I send me They endeavour to copy forth that Lesson which Christ hath set Christians seriously considering how that they came into this world by God's appointment not to doe their own Wills but the Will of him that sent them As this Consideration quiets the Spirit of a Good man who is no idle Spectator of Providence and keeps him in a calm and sober temper in the midst of all Storms and Tempests so it makes him most freely to engage himself in the service of Providence without any inward reluctancy or disturbance He cannot be content that Providence should serve it self of him as it doth even of those things that understand it least but it is his holy ambition to serve it 'T is nothing else but Hellish pride and Self-love that makes men serve themselves and so set up themselves as Idols against God But it is indeed an argument of true Nobleness of Spirit for a man to view himself not in the narrow Point of his own Being but in the unbounded Essence of the First Cause so as to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to live only as an Instrument in the hands of God who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will Optarem id me esse Deo quod est mihi manus mea was the expression of an holy Soul To a Good man to serve the Will of God it is in the truest and best sense to serve himself who knows himself to be nothing without or in opposition to God Quò minùs quid sibi arrogat homo eò evadit nobilior clarior divinior This is the most divine life that can be for a man to act in the world upon Eternal designes and to be so wholy devoted to the Will of God as to serve it most faithfully and entirely This indeed bestows a kind of Immortality upon these flitting and Transient acts of ours which in themselves are but the Off-spring of a moment A Pillar or Verse is a poor sorry Monument of any Exploit which yet may well enough become the highest of the worlds bravery But Good men while they work with God and endeavour to bring themselves and all their actions to a unity with God his Ends and Designs enroll themselves in Eternity This is the proper Character of holy Souls Their Wills are so fully resolv'd into the Divine Will that they in all things subscribe to it without any murmurings or debates they rest well satisfied with and take complacency in any passages of Divine dispensation * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being ordered and disposed by a Mind and Wisedome above according to the highest rules of Goodness The best way for a man rightly to enjoy himself is to maintain an universal ready and chearfull complyance with the Divine and Uncreated Will in all things as knowing that nothing can issue and
some men had there not first come an Apostasy from sober Reason had there not first been a falling away and departure from Natural Truth It is to be feared our nice speculations about a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Theology have tended more to exercise mens Wits then to reform their lives and that they have too much descended into their practice and have tended rather to take men off from minding Religion then to quicken them up to a diligent seeking after it Though the Powers of Nature may now be weakned and though we cannot produce a living form of Religion in our own Souls yet we are not surely resolved so into a sluggish Passiveness as that we cannot or were not in any kind or manner of way to seek after it Certainly a man may as well read the Scriptures as study a piece of Aristotle or of Natural Philosophy or Mathematicks He that can observe any thing comely and commendable or unworthy and base in another man may also reflect upon himself and see how face answers to face as Solomon speaks Proverbs 27. 19. If men would seriously commune with their hearts their own Consciences would tell them plainly that they might avoid and omit more evil then they doe and that they might doe more good then they doe and that they doe not put forth that power which God hath given them nor faithfully use those Talents nor improve the advantages and means afforded them I fear the ground of most mens Misery will prove to be a Second fall and a Lapse upon a Lapse I doubt God will not allow that Proverb The Fathers have eaten sour grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge as not in respect of Temporal misery much less will he allow it in respect of Eternal It will not be so much because our First parents incurred God's displeasure as because we have neglected what might have been done by us afterwards in order to the seeking of God his face and favour while he might be found Up then and be doing and the Lord will be with us He will not leave us nor forsake us if we seriously set our selves about the work Let us endeavour to acquaint our selves with our own lives and the true Rules of life with this which Solomon here calls the Way of Life let us inform our Minds as much as may be in the Excellency and Loveliness of Practical Religion that beholding it in its own beauty and amiableness we may the more sincerely close with it As there would need nothing else to deterr and affright men from Sin but its own ugliness and deformity were it presented to a naked view and seen as it is so nothing would more effectually commend Religion to the Minds of men then the displaying and unfolding the Excellencies of its Nature then the true Native beauty and inward lustre of Religion it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither the Evening nor the Morning-Star could so sensibly commend themselves to our bodily Eyes and delight them with their shining beauties as True Religion which is an undefiled Beam of the uncreated light would to a mind capable of coÌ„versing with it Religion which is the true Wisedome is as the Author of the Book of Wisedome speaks of Wisedome a pure influence flowing from the glory of the Almighty the brightness of the Everlasting light the unspotted mirrour of the power of God and the image of his Goodness She is more beautiful then the Sun above all the order of Stars being compared with the light she is found before it Religion is no such austere sour rigid thing as to affright men away from it No but those that are acquainted with the power of it find it to be altogether sweet and amiable An holy Soul sees so much of the glory of Religion in the lively impressions which it bears upon it self as both wooes and winns it We may truly say concerning Religion to such Souls as S. Paul spake to the Corinthians Needs it any Epistles of Commendation to you Needs it any thing to court your affections Ye are indeed its Epistle written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God Religion is not like the Prophet's roll sweet as honey when it was in his mouth but as bitter as gall in his belly Religion is no sullen Stoicisme no sour Pharisaisme it does not consist in a few Melancholy passions in some dejected looks or depressions of Mind but it consists in Freedom Love Peace Life and Power the more it comes to be digested into our lives the more sweet and lovely we shall find it to be Those spots and wrinkles which corrupt Minds think they see in the face of Religion are indeed nowhere else but in their own deformed and misshapen apprehensions It is no wonder when a defiled Fancy comes to be the Glass if you have an unlovely reflection Let us therefore labour to purge our own Souls from all worldly pollutions let us breath after the aid and assistance of the Divine Spirit that it may irradiate and inlighten our Minds that we may be able to see Divine things in a Divine light let us endeavour to live more in a real practice of those Rules of Religious and Holy living commended to us by our ever-Blessed Lord and Saviour So shall we know Religion better and knowing it love it and loving it be still more and more ambitiously pursuing after it till we come to a full attainment of it and therein of our own Perfection and Everlasting Bliss A CHRISTIANS Conflicts and Conquests OR A DISCOURSE Concerning The Devil's active Enmity and continual Hostility against Man The Warfare of a Christian life The Certainty of Success and Victory in this Spiritual Warfare The Evil and Horridness of Magical Arts and Rites Diabolical Contracts c. Siracides Cap. 2. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cap. 36. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyprianus De Zelo Livore Exâ—ubandum est Fratres dilectissimi atque omnibus viribus elaborandum ut â—â—iâ—nico saevienti jacula sua in omnes corporis partes quibus percuti vulnerari possumus dirigenti sollicitâ plenâ vigilantiâ repugnemus Quamobrem contra omnes Diaboli vel fallaces insidias vel apertas minas stare debet instructus animus armatus tam paratus semper ad repugnandum quam est ad impugnandum semper paratus inimicus A CHRISTIANS Conflicts and Conquests Represented in a Discourse upon James 4. 7. Resist the Devil and he will flee from you CHAP. I. The Introduction Summarily treating of the perpetual Enmity between God the Principle of Good the Principle of Evil the Devil as also between Whatsoever is from God That which is from the Devil That Wicked men by destroying what there is from God within them and devesting themselves of all that which hath any alliance to God or true Goodness and transforming themselves into the Diabolical image fit themselves for
It were perhaps a vain curiosity to inquire whether the number of Evil spirits exceed the number of Men but this is too too certain that we never want the secret and latent attendance of them The Devil is not onely a word or a name made to affright and scare timorous men with neither are we then onely in danger of him when he presents himself to us in some Corporeal form it is nothing else but a superstitious weakness to be afraid of him onely then when he appears embodyed and to neglect that unseen and insensible influence which his continual converse with us as an unbodyed spirit may have upon us Those Evil spirits are not yet cast out of the world into outer darkness though it be prepared for them the bottomless pit hath not yet shut its mouth upon them They fell from God not so much by a Local descent as by a Mental apostasy and dissimilitude to God and they are now in libera custodia having all this habitable world for their Rendezvous and are stiled by the Apostle Spiritual wickednesses in high places Wheresoever there are any in a disposition to sin against God wheresoever there are any capable of a Temptation or Diabolical impression here and there are they A man needs not dig into the chambers of death or search among the shadows of darknesse to find them he needs not goe down into hell to seek them or use any Magical charms to raise them up from thence No those wicked and impure spirits are always wandring up and down amongst us seeking whom they may devour As there is a Good Spirit conversant in the world inviting and alluring men to Vertue and Goodness so there is an Evil spirit perpetually tempting and inticeing men to Sin and Vice Uncloathed and unbodyed natures may converse with us by secret illapses while we are not aware of them I doubt not but there are many more Divine impressions made upon the Minds of men both Good and Bad from the Good Spirit of God then are ordinarily observed there are many soft and silent impulses gentle motions like our Saviour's putting in his hand by the hole of the door as it is in the Canticles solliciting and exciting men to Religion and Holiness which they many times regard not and take little notice of There are such secret messages often brought from Heaven to the Souls of men by an unknown and unseen hand as the Psalmist speaks Once yea twice have I heard it that power belongeth unto God And as there are such divine irradiations sliding into the Souls of men from God so there are no question many frequent suggestions to the Fancies and Imaginations of men arising from the Evil Spirit and a watchfull observer of his own heart and life shall often hear the voice of Wisdome the voice of Folly speaking to him he that hath his eyes opened may see both the visions of God falling upon him and discern the false and foolish fires of Satan that would draw away his mind from God This is our unhappiness that the Devil is so near us and we see him not he is conversant with us and yet we are not aware of him Those are the most desperate designs likeliest to take effect that are carried on by an unseen and unappearing enemy and if we will provide our selves against the Devil who never misseth any opportunity that lies in his way to tempt us nor is ever failing in any plot we must then have our Senses exercised to discern both good and evil we must get our Minds awakened with clear and evident Principles of Light we must get our Judgments and Consciences well informed with sober and practical Truth such as tends to make us most like to God and to reconcile our natures more perfectly to Divine goodness Then shall we know and discover that Apostate Spirit in all his Stratagems whereby he seeks to bereave us of our happiness we shall know him as well when he cloaths himself like an Angel of light as when he appears in his own nakedness and deformity It is observed by some That God never suffered the Devil to assume any humane shape but with some Character whereby his Body might be distinguished from the true Body of a man and surely the Devil cannot so exactly counterfeit an Angel of light but that by a discerning mind he may be distinguished from him as they say a Beggar can never act a Prince so cunningly but that his behaviour sometime sliding into the course way and principles of his Education will betray the meannesse of his pedigree to one of a true noble extraction A bare Imitation will always fall short of the Copy from whence it is taken and though Sin and Errour may take up the mantle of Truth and cloath themselves with it yet he that is inwardly acquainted with Truth and an ingenuous lover and pursuer of it will be able to find out the Imposture he will be able to see through the vail into the naked deformity of them CHAP. III. 2. Of the activity of the Devil consider'd as a Spirit of Apostasy and as a Degenerate nature in men That the Devil is not onely the name of one Particular thing but a Nature The Difference between the Devil and Wicked men is rather the Difference of a Name then of Natures The Kingdome and Tyranny of the Devil and Hell is chiefly within in the Qualities and Dispositions of mens Minds Men are apt to quarrell with the Devil in the name and notion and defy him with their Tongues while they entertain him in their Hearts and comply with all that which the Devil is The vanity of their pretended Love to God and Hatred of the Devil That there is nothing Better then God himself for which we should love him and to love him for his own Beauty and Excellency is the best way of loving him That there is nothing worse then Sin it self for which we should hate it and to hate it for its own deformity is the truest way of hating it How Hell and Misery arises from within men Why Wicked men are so insensible of their Misery in this life 2. WHen we say The Devil is continually busy with us I mean not onely some Apostate spirit as one particular Being but that spirit of Apostasy which is lodged in all mens natures and this may seem particularly to be aimed at in this place if we observe the context as the Scripture speaks of Christ not onely as a Particular person but as a Divine Principle in holy Souls Indeed the Devil is not onely the name of one particular thing but a nature He is not so much one particular Being designed to torment Wicked men in the world to come as a hellish and diabolical nature seated in the minds of men He is not onely one Apostate Spirit fallen down from heaven out of the lap of Blessedness but also a Spirit of Apostasy a
Worse then Sin it self for which we should hate it Our assimilation to God and conformity to him instates us in a firm possession of true Happiness which is nothing else but God himself who is all Being and Blessedness and our dissimilitude to God and Apostasy from him involves us in our own Miserie and sets us at the greatest enmity to what our unsatiable desires most of all crave for which is the enjoyment of True and Satisfying Good Sins are those fiery Snakes which will eternally lash and torment all damned spirits Every mans Hell arises from the bottom of his own Soul as those stinking Mists and tempestuous Exhalations that infest the Earth have their first original from the Earth it self Those streams of fire and brimstone ordained for the torment of all damned spirits are rather the exsudations of their own filthy and corrupt nature then any external thing Hell is not so much induced as educed out of mens filthy Lusts and Passions I will not here dispute what external Appendixes there may be of Heaven or Hell but methinks I no where find a more Graphical description of the true Properties and Operations of them though under other names then in those Characters of the Flesh and Spirit in Galat. 5. ver 19 20 21 22 23. Eternal death is begotten and brought forth out of the wombe of lust and is little else but Sin consummated and in its full growth as S. James intimates chap. 1. Would wicked men dwell a little more at home and descend into the bottome of their own Hearts they should soon find Hell opening her mouth wide upon them and those secret fires of inward fury and displeasure breaking out upon them which might fully inform them of the estate of true Misery as being a short anticipation of it But in this life wicked men for the most part elude their own Misery for a time and seek to avoid the dreadfull sentence of their own Consciences by a tergiversation and flying from themselves into a converse with other things Ut nemo in sese tentat descendere else they would soon find their own home too hot for them But while mens Minds are perpetually rambling all the world over in a pursuit of worldly designes they are unacquainted with the affairs of their own Souls and know not how deeply a Self-converse and reflection upon their own prodigious deformities would pierce their Souls with anguish how vastly would they swell with Fury Rage Horrour Consternation and whatsoever is contrary to that ineffable Light and Love and Peace which is in Heaven in natures fully reconciled and united to true Goodness As true Goodness cannot borrow Beauty from any external thing to recommend it self to the Minds and Affections of Good men seeing it self is the very Idea and true life of all Beauty and Perfection the source of Bliss and Peace to all that partake of her so neither can Sin and Wickedness to an enlightned Soul appear more Ugly loathsome and hatefull in any other shape then its own CHAP. IV. The Second Observable viz. The Warfare of a Christian life True Religion consists not in a mere passive capacity and sluggish kind of doing nothing nor in a melancholy sitting still or slothfull waiting c. but it consists in inward life and power vigour and activity A discovery of the dulness and erroneousness of that Hypothesis viz. That Good men are wholy Passive and unable at any time to move without some External impetus some impression and impulse from without upon them or That all Motions in Religion are from an External Principle Of the Quality and Nature of the true Spiritual Warfare and of the Manner and Method of it That it is transacted upon the inner Stage of mens Souls and managed without Noise or pompous Observation and without any hindrance or prejudice to the most peaceful sedate and composed temper of a religious Soul This further illustrated from the consideration of the false and pretended Zeal for God and his Kingdome against the Devil which though it be impetuous and makes a great noise and a fair shew in the world is yet both impotent and ineffectual FRom these words Resist the Devil we may take notice of the Warfare of a Christian life of that Active life and valour which Good men express in this world A true Christian spirit is masculine and generous it is no such poor sluggish pusillanimous thing as some men fansie it to be but active and noble We fight not saith the Apostle against flesh and bloud but against principalities and powers and spiritual wickednesses in high places True Religion does not consist in a mere Passive capacity in a sluggish kind of doing nothing that so God himself might doe all but it consists in life power within therefore it is called by the Apostle The spirit of power of love of a sound mind it 's called the law of the spirit of life strongly enabling Good men against the law of Sin and Death True Wisdome as the Wise man hath well stiled it is the unspotted mirrour of the power of God and a pure influence flowing from the glory of the Almighty neither can any defiled thing enter into it it goes in and out in the strength of God himself and as is the heavenly such are they also that are heavenly Every thing as it partakes more of God and comes nearer to him so it becomes more active and lively as making the nearer approaches to the Fountain of life and virtue A Good man doth not only then move when there is some powerfull impression and impulse upon him but he hath a Spring of perpetual motion within When God restores men to a new and divine life he doth not make them like so many dead Instruments stringing and fitting them which yet are able to yield no sound of themselves but he puts a living Harmony within them That is but a Mechanical religion which moves no longer then some External weights and Impulses are upon it whether those be I think I may safely say from some Worldly thing or from God himself while he acts upon men from without them and not from within them It is not a Melancholy kind of sitting still and sloathfull waiting that speaks men enlivened by the Spirit and power of God It is not Religion to stifle and smother those Active powers and principles which are within us or to dry up the Fountain of inward life and virtue How say some amongst us That there is no resurrection from the dead no spirit or life within but all our motions in Religion are merely from some assisting Form without Good men do not walk up and down the world merely like Ghosts and Shadows or like dead Bodies assumed by some Spirit which are taken up and laid down again by him at his pleasure But they are indeed living men by a real participation from him who is indeed a quickning Spirit Were our Religion
he burned it put him in a kind of fever and all this was easie to him because he had the bowels of a Father Such another was S. John who hath every where in his mouth My little children A good old Father he was who breathed forth nothing but Love to man And it need be no offence if I add there was a Socrates in Athens who had so much of this kind of Spirit in him that he stiled himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Servant of love and professed that he knew nothing but how to love He would often acknowledge himself to be an Ignoramus in all those things whereinto their wise men used to enquire and that he could say nothing in those Controversies that were agitated about the Gods and such like as Max. Tyrius expresly tells us but he durst not deny himself to have skill in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Art of love wherein he was continually busied and imploied instructing of their Youth amending of their Manners and making them truely vertuous which thing the ungrateful wretches of the City called corrupting of their children And truly it is very often the Lot of these Fathers which I am speaking of who nourish up Youth in true piety and vertue to be esteemed by many the corrupters of the fountain Pestes rather then Patres of the places where they live But they fare no worse then Elijah did who was accounted the Troubler of Israel though he was the Chariot and Horsemen thereof a man so useful that they could not tell how to want him though they knew not how to value him And that is the third thing to which I am to proceed Only let me intreat you that you would think within yourselves in my passage Such an one was the party deceased 3. We have here observable the Usefulness of Elijah he was not only a Father but the Chariot and Horsemen of Israel the Security and Safeguard of the place where he was He calls him by this name in an allusion to the Chariot wherein he was fetched to heaven and would express by this form of speech the good service he did for Israel He was in stead of an Army to them like David worth ten thousand of the people He alone was able to fight with all their enemies and by his force to break all their Legions in pieces And indeed all Good men especially men of extraordinary Wisdome and Godliness such as I have been speaking of are the Guard and Defence of the towns where they reside yea of the Country whereof they are Members They are the Tutelar Angels of a Nation men that can doe more by their prayers and tears their vertuous and holy actions then an host of men wherein none is of less valour then Samson or the fam'd Hercules and Achilles How had it been with Israel had it not been for Moses the meekest man on earth and yet terrible as an army with banners And in what a case had Samaria often been if it had not been for this Elisha the son of Elijah who was encompassed about with Chariots and horses of fire to fight at his command What if I say of such men in the Platonists phrase That they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Keepers of the world that preserve it from being made like to Sodom and Gomorrah And if there had been but Ten of these holy Champions there they had shielded their heads from the arrows of the Almighty and kept the showers of fire and brimstone from raining upon them Good men are the Life-guard of the World next to God and good Angels they are the Walls and Bulwarks of a nation for by their strength they have power with God as it is said of Jacob. And so the Chaldee Paraphrast reads these words of my Text Thou wast better to Israel by thy prayers then Chariot and Horsemen They are the Glory of the world and without them it would be but a rude rabble a Beast with many heads and no brains a mere Chaos and Confusion And it is by reason of them that it doth not run into such disorder as a company of Children would doe without their Father or as a multitude of mad Souldiers without their skilful Leader and Commander And so I have briefly set before you what Elijah was what those who are Eminent for Godliness are what every good man ought in some measure to be and what you shall shortly hear our deceased Father was in an high degree Men of worth and great renown 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a good sense men of Name men that may be taken notice of in the world that shine by their Wisdome Justice and Goodness that chear the world by their Love and Fatherly care of all that heartily endeavour to doe good and would not for a world see men perish if they can help it in a word men that are as the Soul of the world without whom it would be a stinking and unsufferable place 2. Now let us look a while upon Elisha and see what he thought of such a man And 1. We meet with his great Affections expressed in the very Form of the Words My Father my Father Methinks I feel within my self with what pure dear and ardent love he spake these words what a glowing fire there was in his breast when he thought of his spiritual Father He burnt in love to him as if some spark had fallen from Elijah's fiery Chariot into his Heart He was all in a desire as if the Angels that fetcht his Father had lent him a waft of their wings whereby he strove to fly with him to Heaven There is not a child that can cry more after the breasts that give it suck and the arms of her that carried it in her wombe then he calls and cries after his Father O my Father my Father where shall I find my Father what will become of me without my Father A tender love and kindness there is to be in our Hearts to all men of what nature or nation soever no man ought to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lover of himself but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lover of mankind Yet a more singular cleaving of Souls there should be to those that are good but the most unspeakable and greatest adhaesion and union to those by whom we have profited in Wisdome and Godliness and whose lips have dropped the words of life into our Minds For as Solomon hath it There is Gold and a multitude of rubies but the lips of knowledge are a pretious Jewel We should stand affected to them as the Galatians to S. Paul who would have pull'd out their very eyes and given them unto him They ought to be to us oculis chariores as the ordinary phrase is dearer then our eyes by which speech God expresses his extraordinary love to his people Israel saying that he kept them as the apple of his eye And indeed it
can scarce be otherwise but that there should be an unknown love between such persons there being such a secret fascination in frequent converse and familiarity as entices a mans Soul and Heart out of himself Those Precepts which we imbibe from anothers mouth naturally call forth a strong affection to flow from us to him and he who inflames our Souls with love to God will certainly enkindle a subordinate love within us to himself The words of Wisdome smite an ingenuous Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as with a dart if I may use Greg. Thaumaturgus his expression concerning Origen's Discourses and cannot but wound it both with a love to Wisdom him that shoots those piercing arrows into its Heart They bind a tractable Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it werein indissoluble necessities so that it cannot but love those words kiss the mouth also from whence they flow unto it A teachable Mind will hang about a wise mans neck and thereby they come to cleave and cling as fast together as the Soul of Jonathan did unto the Soul of David So the aforesaid Gregory speaks of himself and Origen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. This David meaning Origen hath intangled and bound up my Soul in such necessary fetters of Love he hath so tyed and even knit me to him that if I would be disengaged I cannot quit my self No 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though we depart out of this world our love cannot die for I love him even as my own Soul and so my affection must remain for ever The words of the wise saith Solomon are as goads and as nails fastned by the Masters of the Assemblies Eccles. 12. 11. If a Master fix his Doctrine in his Scholars mind he nailes himself likewise with the same stroke quasi trabali clavo by a pin as strong as a beam to his Scholars heart They mingle Souls as they doe Notions and mutually pass into each other 2. We have here likewise the Sense which Elisha had of his great loss For these Words are Expressions of Sorrow and Lamentation as appears by the words following And he took hold of his own clothes and rent them in pieces and also from chap. 13. 14. where we find Joash weeping over this Elisha and saying these very words of my Text O my Father my Father the chariot of Israel and the Horsemen thereof And methinks I see Elisha himself here bedewing his cheeks with tears and hear these words sob'd and sighed out of his Heart having lost his dear Father one that took such special care of him whilst he was in the world Methinks I see his Heart rent as well as his Garments and there I see Elijah graven in letters as great as was his Love How could he look on himself and not lament to think that he had lost his Head how could he behold Israel unguarded and not throw off his own clothes as a token of his Sorrow It is said of Jehoiakim Jer. 22. 18. That they shall not lament for him saying Ah my Brother or ah my Sister they shall not lament for him saying Ah Lord or ah his Glory which both shews that this is a Form of speech to denote sorrow and that it is an Honour wicked men shall want that none shall bemoan their Departure But the Just shall be had in everlasting remembrance they shall die desired and those who can value them will not let them pass away in silence and with dry eyes No Tears are spent so well as for the want of God and a good Friend or a Good man especially such a one as i before described And indeed who can think of his gracious lipps his profitable and delightful converse his cordial love without a sigh and a tear without saying Ah my Father Ah his Glory No man will be sooner miss'd then such an one as he Ten thousand others may steal out of the world and no body scarce mind or inquire after them but let Elijah goe away and you shall have fifty men goe three days to seek him that if it be possible they may enjoy his company a while longer We find that Jesus himself wept for his friend Lazarus Joh. 11. 35. at which the Jews said Behold how he loved him Two Souls joined together in cordial love cannot part without a groan especially a Son and his Father a Scholar and his Master The Child cannot hold it self from crying when it wants the Breast that used to feed it nor can a Soul thirsty of knowledg but be pained when the Fountain is stop'd that used to quench it There are not so many of these men in the world but their loss will be as soon felt as the want of a stake in a rotten hedg or of a Buttress against a bowing wall He who knows one to have been a Light in the world and a Lamp unto him will surely be melancholy and sad when he sees that Light goe out and himself left in the dark without that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those chearful and beloved beams which used to shine upon him to illuminate and warm his Soul with a true knowledg and love of all real goodness 3. We may further take notice of the Honourable thoughts he had of Elijah of the Reverence Worship and Respect which he gave unto him For so we may look upon these Words as an Expression of the high Esteem he had of him and Regard he bare to him even after he was gone from this Earth and could do no more kindnesses for him Elisha who had been a minister to him when he was below and used to powre water upon his hands could not but have very reverend thoughts toward him now that the Angels came to wait upon him and in Flames of fire to carry him up above He could not but honour him as his Elder and Father as his Leader and Commander as the General of the Sons of the Prophets as the very Host and Army of Israel And indeed the Souls of those men that are as full of God as the name of Elijah is which includes Two if not Three of the Divine names in it cannot but draw our eyes toward them but then they so dazzle us with their lustre and brightness they strike us into such amazement at their Perfections that the weakness of mans nature hath been apt to give no less then Divine veneration to such persons It had not been lawful I know to have worshipped Elijah though he had been an Angel but yet methinks I see Elisha bowing down with some respect to the very Mantle which fel from his Master and taking it up as a precious Relique of so holy a man And I could very well pass some Civility upon the Gown in which this Holy man departed used for to walk out of the great honour which I bear to him There was so much of Divinity enshrined in this Excellent man's Soul that it made every thing about him