Eternal Spiritual Riches he will endue us with hereafter 3. The Third Motive is taken from the persons to whom we are to communicate The rich and the poor meet together and the Lord enlightens both their eyes Prov. 29. No difference between the greatest Prince and the poorest Beggar but the goods of Fortune or rather of Providence For they come not to us by chance but by the good will of God who hath made out of his Wisdom some Poor and some Rich that we may have occasion to exercise the acts of Mercy and tender Compassion to our Brethren who live by the same Air vvalk in the light of the same Sun vvere created by the same God are to be saved by the same Christ. There is one Body and one Spirit even as you are called in one hope of your calling One Lord one Faith one Baptism One God and Father of all which is above all and through all and in you all Eph. 4. What One Body and one Member despise and disregard another One Spirit and not sympathize one vvith another One Hope and not help one another One Lord and not one fellovv-servant acknovvledge another One Father and Brethren not relieve one another One God above all over-seeing us all in all our actions vvho though he be so high yet beholdeth things here belovv upon earth and vve poor earthly vvorms overlook one another One God in us all and no goodness in us all God vvho is Love it self pierce through us all and yet not those lovely shafts of holy Charity vvound any of our hearts God forbid If vve abide not in Love God abideth not in us If our hearts be contracted and darkened by frozen rigidness the light of God shineth not through us If our poor contemptible Neighbour be so far under us that vve disdain to stretch forth our armes to help him vve forget God above us If vve love not as Brethren God is not our Father If vve be asham'd of our Fellovv-servants the Lord is not our Master If vve be cold in mutual affection our Faith is dead and Hypocrisie is our Religion If vve have no sympathy or fellovv-feeling the Spirit vve boast of is but vanity or empty air If vve favour not one another as Members of the same Body vve are not Members of the same Body but disunited Dust vvhich the Wind blovves to and fro upon the face of the Earth and the Angel of God scatters it Community is but a name vvhere there is no communication of good Vnity but a deceivable phansie vvhere there is no real Mercy He that will endanger the Soul of his Brother by with-holding the sustenance of his Body which out of Brotherly affection he is to administer to him surely that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Brotherly Love which the Apostle calls for dwelleth not in him The very shame of Poverty will force a man to do or suffer any thing How much more will pinching hunger scorching thirst benumming cold Necessity hath no Law or at least necessitous persons are easily drawn to think so Give me not poverty saith the Wise Man Prov. 30. 8 9. lest I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain A good man is merciful to his beast and shall not we be so good as to have compassion upon men The miserable and penurious condition of the Poor man would afford me great store or plenty of Arguments to plead his cause but I will only name them Hunger thirst nakedness rags filth deformity pensiveness sickness torture contempt sighs tears groans fear despair disconsolateness assaults of the Devil hard-heartedness of the World dejectedness of his spirit weak and vain looks loss of limbs blindness and deafness I cannot name them all Poverty is attended with such a numerous regiment of defects and infirmities that they may win the most strong and stony heart to compassionate their miseries But because we are fallen into these ill latter times in which the Apostle hath foretold that the love of many or rather of most if not almost of all shall wax cold Mercy and Pity are not passions easily to be stirred up out of the representation of our Neighbours misery and ill plight These are poor contemptible vertues befitting the weak womanish sect A strong vigorous faith I would to God it were so or if you will a deep conceited phansie that we are Gods Children though we be not merciful as our Heavenly Father is merciful is altogether in request and fashion amongst us Christians So this conceit makes us abound with Love toward God as vve think But when all comes to all it will prove but false and adulterate Love It will not abide that touchstone If you love me keep my commandements Or that of S. Iohns Epistle Chap. 3. Whosoever hath this worlds good and seeth his brother have need and shutteth up his compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him 4. But if we do love God so much and our Neighbour so little yet we may not evade or escape this duty of doing good for all that For say that all our time is to be spent in the duties of the First Table all our Piety to be shewed in performances toward God If I shew that these acts of Mercy and Bounty be acts of the First Table too I hope we will not shew our selves so ungrateful and impious as to decline this manner of Worship which he requires at our hands Now that acts of Mercy are duties of the First Table I need go no farther for proof than my Text which tells us that doing good and communicating is a sacrifice And Sacrificing you know is a duty of the First Table even the immediate service of God How fitly the Apostle hath framed his Argument for convincing of mens corrupt Consciences and discovering that mysterious hidden wickedness that lurks in our hypocritical hearts a strong perswasion that we are Gods though there be little of the inward power of Godliness in us This holy kind of irreligiousness that is so immerse and lost as it were in a false counterfeit love of God that it quite forgets all respect and duty to our Neighbour That foolish impudent Spirit that would so confidently father it self upon God and perswade him that he is his Child when it s nothing but the deceitful breath of the Devil A handsome slight to travel to Heaven at least charges The service of God that is a strong perswasion that we are one of them that God hath sign'd to be his though there be no other sure argument or sign saving that we do strongly perswade our selves so The hearing of the Word the saying of Prayers and such outward performances or outward deceivable phansies is a Religion so cheap and easie that it asks a man neither cost nor labour But to be crucified with Christ to suffer with him to undergo the deadly dolorous pangs of mortification to sweat drops of Blood and endure
etiam hic Dii sunt Come in Sir if God doth not lodge here also Sub sordido pallio latet Sapientia Wisdom sometimes is no better covered than with rags BUT I leave this point for your selves to enlarge upon I pass on from this first Part viz. the Occasion with all the Circumstances thereon depending to the Proposal of the Parable In the mean time his disciples prayed him saying Master eat But he made answer I have meat to eat that you know not of It is usual with our Saviour to ascend from sensible and Corporeal things to those things which are inward and Spiritual I need not look for instances far off Here in this very Chapter when as our Saviour had arriv'd at Iacobs Well at the heat of the day faint and thirsty and desired the Samaritan Woman that came to draw water that she would give him to drink and she reply'd How is it that thou being a Iew askest drink of me which am a woman of Samaria Iesus answered and said unto her if thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith unto thee Give me to drink thou wouldest have asked of him and he would have given thee living water Ver. 10 11. viz. the very same water that he speaks of Iohn 7. ver 37. where he is said in the last day that great day of the feast of Tabernacles to stand and cry If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink He that believeth in me out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water Which speech was occasion'd as is not without Reason conceiv'd from the custom of the day For upon this day by the Institution of Haggai the Prophet and Zacharias and such like they did with Joy and Solemnity bring great store of water from the River Siloah to the Temple where it being delivered to the Priests it was poured upon the Altar together with Wine the people singing that of the Prophet Esaiah Ch. 12. With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation From this visible Solemnity and Natural Water Christ took occasion to invite them to an invisible and Spiritual Water As he doth the Samaritan Woman here in this present Chapter shewing her that whosoever drinks of the water that he asked of her shall thirst again But whosoever should drink of the Water that he should give shall never thirst but the water shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life So at the 6th Chapter of this Gospel of S. Iohn when our Saviour had fed them with Natural Bread he endeavours to raise their desire and appetite to the Bread of Eternal Life Ver. 26. Ye seek me not because ye saw the miracles but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled Labour not for the meat that perisheth but for that meat which endureth to everlasting life And at the 32th Verse Moses gave you not that bread from Heaven but my Father giveth you the true bread from Heaven For the bread of God is he which cometh down from Heaven and giveth life unto the world I might instance in other Examples but this point is clear It remains only that we imitate that Pattern we understand so well Whether we would be Teachers of others or Instructers of our selves For indeed the whole World is ingens quoddam Sacramentum a large sign or symbol of some Spiritual Truths that nearly concern our Souls Methinks when the Morning Sun rises upon us the Eyes of our Souls should open at once with the Eyes of our Bodies and our Hearts should send out this Ejaculation Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us and our minds presage that promised Happiness In thy light shall we see light When we breathe in the fresh Air it might mind us of something like that of the Emperours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not only to draw in the common Air but also to be of one mind with that Intellectual Spirit that fills all the World Solitude and darkness that makes our Hearts shrink within us and overwhelms our Souls with horrour and misdoubt what is it in Spirituals but a privation of perfect Love that casteth out fear as the Apostle speaks He that hateth his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whether he goeth 1 Ioh. cap. 2. There is nothing that the Natural man is sensible of in this outward World but the Spirit of God has made use of to prefigure and set out the condition and nature of Reward and Spiritual things that hence the Soul may receive hints to raise her self towards him that made her for to inherit Spirituality and not alwayes lye groveling on the Earth Whatsoever we see or hear or smell or taste or feel we may in all these even very sensibly feel some hidden mystery and find out in those shells and husks some more precious food than this that pleases our mortal Body and perishable Senses And he that doth not feel through these sensible Creatures something better than themselves certainly is exceedingly benum'd or rather Spiritually dead and has his Conversation in the World no otherwise than the Beasts of the field and Nebuchadnezzars Curse is upon him till such a Mind be restor'd unto him that he doth acknowledge the most High and find him residing even in this lower World the habitation of mortal men Beauty Riches Strength Agility Sweetness Pleasure Harmony these are all better relish'd in the Soul than in the Body Our Blessed Saviour in the midst of his thirst after the Water of Iacobs Well which he beg'd of the Samaritan Woman was so refreshed with the remembrance of the Spiritual and Living Waters which he enjoy'd within that he had forgot his first request his Soul being inebriate as it were with the sweetness of that hidden spring in his Heart And this Storehouse he found within afforded him not Drink only but Meat also it should seem by his ansvver to his Disciples when they invited him to eat He did not as those starvling Souls that not at all being able to entertain themselves with their own store no not for a moment so soon as the Bodies treasure is exhaust men of this world which have their portion in this life and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure as the Psalmist speaks so soon I say as the carnal or outward man is emptyed and impoverished have their desire strait way furiously kindled like a broad fiery Meteor that is swiftly wasted hither and thither accordingly as the earthly unctuous Vapour its proper Pabulum is scattered in the Air. And it is no wonder that they are thus furious and impatient For what is Desire but a living death or an actual non-entity It is for 't is Desire But it is not viz. that which it desires to be And what Soul can endure to be in such a case Wherefore it is too too probable that that mind that can
God The righteous Nation in whom there is no guile As our Saviour saith of Nathanael Behold a true Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile And thus the Psalmist Surely God is good unto Israel even to such as are of an upright heart God continue his Goodness to them and encrease it sevenfold And encrease them in number above the Sands of the Sea and the Stars of Heaven that none may be able to count the dust of Jacob or to number the fourth part of Israel That the Heathen may be swallowed up of them and that the very memorial of wickedness may perish from off the Earth To the King of Saints the Holy one of Israel who inhabits Immortality and the Light inaccessible to the only Wise and All-powerful God be ascribed as is most due all Honour c. DISCOURSE XIII 1 PET. i. 22 23. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently Being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever THE Text is an Exhortation to Christian Love The Duty is enforced from a double Argument 1. From the end of our Sanctification in those words Seeing ye have purified your Souls in obeying the Truth through the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto or for unfeigned brotherly love And this ushers in the Precept or Duty Love one another with a pure heart fervently 2. The other Argument follows of no less force than the former which is drawn from the condition of our new Birth Being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever THE several Truths or Doctrines contained in the First Argument are these viz. Doctrine I. That the Christian mans Soul is Purified Purified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word synonymous to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both imply a purging or cleansing from filth They are both used together Iames 4. 8. in one signification But yet there is a more special sense belonging to them both they both signifie a Sacred and Ceremonial kind of cleansing and purification and after appropriation to God as Titus 2. 14. where the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with allusion to the Consecration of the Levites Numb 8. and their washing of their Cloths and sprinkling the Water of Purification is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that the purifying of the Soul in the Text implies cleansing and appropriation But the Objects are not here express'd yet very safely supposed we cannot miss of them if we would For from what should the Soul be purified but from its filth What is the filth of the Soul but Sin To whom should the Soul thus purg'd be appropriated or consecrated To it self It is not purg'd if not purg'd from it self To the Creature It is the height of Impiety palpable Idolatry To Sin It is not Sense To what then but to God its Creator and Redeemer who gave himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he might purifie unto himself a peculiar people Tit. 2. 14. Thus is purified the Christians Soul which is true not only in that narrower sense of taking the Soul but also as it includes the Body or the Beast as the Platonists call it even the very Passions and more fiery motions which those Philosophers resemble to Horses drawing the Chariot of the Soul these also shall be Sanctified So that upon the reins of the Horses if I may speak with Zechary there is inscrib'd Holiness to the Lord. But certainly more properly and chiefly this Purification belongs to the Soul her self and from thence will sink through all the powers and faculties of the Body taking hold of them wielding them and ruling them at its own pleasure or at least not suffering it self to be over-ruled by them Now this purifying of a Christian implies that he was unholy and foul before And not only the whole man but also whole mankind is in this sinful state till wash'd and purified Rom. 3. 12. 1 Ioh. 1. 8 9 10. where we have both these points confirm'd 1. That we all have sinned and stand obnoxious before God 2. That by the worth and merit of Christ and the effectual working of the Divine Spirit we have forgiveness and that God doth cleanse us from all unrighteousness And this is the true Christian Mystery If we be Christians we must be as certainly purified as its certain we were once impure Doct. II. That the Christians Soul is purified in obeying the Truth Here meets us the unwelcome visage of Obedience but with its face turn'd upon a safe object the Truth Where we may note that it is not any Obedience that purifies but the Obedience to the Truth A man may toil like a Mill-horse in a circuir of Ceremonies and outward performances and yet but take his walk with the wicked unless the Truth be obey'd Again it is such a Truth as Obedience belongs to not an high aery speculative Truth not a Truth only to be believed but to be put in practice for we cannot be said properly to obey speculative Truth because the Soul there has no power to resist or disobey For the Devil himself would glady embrace and assent to all pure and inoffensive speculation that doth not touch his own interest and present condition and so would all his and Natures children the most wicked men that are And that the Devil is cast into a fit of trembling at this grand speculative Maxime There is a God is because his quick memory doth presently recollect that he is Just and that himself stands obnoxious to his Justice here is his interest toucht The Truth therefore here meant is not so much those general speculations of the Infinite Power and Wisdom of God the Incomprehensible Trinity c. which both good and bad men do easily spend their time in and promiscuously believe and yet sit securely upon their lees their hearts being untoucht unbroken unstir'd But the Truths which we are said most properly to obey are the Practical Truths such as Matth. 5. Chap. 16. 24. Chap. 11. ult Chap. 7. 13. c. The Purification of a Christian is in obedience to such Truths and Christ admits none for his that be disobedient workers of iniquity Matth. 7. 23. Doct. III. That the purified and obedient Soul is thus purged and obedient through the Spirit This is he of whom Malachi 3. 2 3. But who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth for he is like a refiners fire and like fullers sope And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver and he shall purifie the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness We having then so powerful a Purifier what hinders but the Christian
Soul may be purified No doubt of this Refiners Art or Skill Is his Will doubted of It is one with the Will of God and Gods Will is that we be purified 1 Thess. 4. 3. And Christ is no teacher of loosness but of the height of Righteousness 'T is not the privilege of the Gospel that we may sin securely because Christus solvit but that we may live more exactly because Christ requires it and doth inwardly enable us to perform it See also Rom. 8. 1 2 3 4. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Iesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Here we will acknowledge that God is able his Spirit is willing but we are uncapable of so great a good by reason of the infirmity of the Flesh But answer me O vain man what is this infirmity of the Flesh is it not the strength of Sin And is there any strength that can withstand the powerful operation of the Spirit of God The weakness or strength if you will of the Body bears it towards the Earth but the fire and activity of the Natural Spirits bears it above and enables it to walk upright on the Earth contrary to be bend of its own Essence and Nature Shall not the Spirit of God then be as able to actuate and lead the Soul contrary to its accidental and ascititious Principles as the Natural Spirits to actuate the Body contrary to its innate and essential Principles Certainly if it be not effectual in us we our selves are in fault who abuse our shuffling Phansie and Reason to fend off the stroke and power of Truth that at once would cleave our hearts that 's a tender place the seat of Life it self and any Religion but that which kills us and mortifies us The Devil knew well enough what he said and his Children make it good Skin for skin and all that a man has will he give for his life This is the shuffling hypocrisie of the Natural Spirit of man and the root of infidelity But let us make better use of this precious Scripture Seeing ye obeyed the Truth through the Spirit 1 st For the encrease of Faith and Confidence and Courage in the wayes of Obedience sith we have so strong assistance as the Spirit of our God with true Christian Fortitude to conflict with all our Spiritual Enemies wearing that Motto in our Minds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 dly For hearty Thankfulness to God when ever we find our selves successful in our Spiritual Warfare as to the only giver of Victory 3 dly and lastly For Humility AEquanimity and Christian Patience and expectancy towards our Neighbours that are not yet reclaim'd from their evil ways being compassionate over them not to insult in other mens weaknesses and miscarriages sith we our selves stand not by our own power but by the gracious assistance of our Saviour Jesus Christ And certainly Purification arrived at its full end will easily afford us this for the end of Purification is Brotherly Love which is the Fourth Doctrine Doct. IV. That this Purification of the Soul and Obedience to the Truth through the Spirit is for this end viz. the eliciting of Brotherly Love and Sincerity in the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are distinguished as 2 Pet. 1. 7. But that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here may be as large as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know nothing considerable to the contrary The word is capable of that Sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being used in as great a latitude as Proximus and Alter including all that descended from our Father Adam So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the love of our Neighbour and this Love is the end and height of our Purification and Obedience the aim and scope of it as much as concerns the Second Table Rom. 13. 9 10. and 1 Tim. 1. 5. Who is able to express so Divine an excellency For certainly the unfeigned Love of men is the very Divine Love it self whereby God loves himself and all things and we also love God and all things in reference to him This is that Love of whom the whole Universe was begotten and that rock'd the cradle of the Infant World the very Spirit of God whose Splendour none can behold and live for he must first be dead to himself and extinguish the love of himself before he can be touch'd and quickened by this Spirit of Life and Love THUS much for the Doctrines included in the First main Argument In the Second are these viz. Doctrine I. That there is a Regeneration of the Soul By understanding what Generation is we may better know what is Regeneration 1. The notion in general of Generation according to Aristotle implies no more than a right and fit union of a form substantial with some capable subject whether that form be elicited of the subject or matter or be brought in from elsewhere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle speaks of the Rational Soul 2. There may be more Forms substantial than one in one subject so they be but subordinate one to the other and that a new Species doth not arise so much from the destruction of the pre-existent Form as by addition of a new one which might actuate the whole that doth pre-exist As the numerus ternarius is not made by taking from the numerus binarius but by adding an Unite thereto Thus Aristotle seems to speak Metaph. 7. Cap. 3. 3. Observe That one Soul actuating a Body if any part of that Body be cut off and lose the benefit of information suppose an Hand or Foot that is then said to be but equivocally what it was before which implies it is then of another Nature or Species as much of it as there is though it be not an entire substance if compared with the whole and consequently that the Soul actuating it did then specificate it another way We have now a tolerable insight into Generation and Regeneration is but this twice told That which is this specifical substance now by adding a new substantial Form thereto becomes something else This is Regeneration And to apply it to our selves We are already once born according to Nature our Bodies and Souls being fitly united together by him that is the Father of all Life and the Lord of Nature But though we be thus specificated yet we are not thence perfected but this Binary of Body and Soul the Pythagoreans would
Christian such a State I say as the Resurrection from Death Then it is worth our pains to try our selves whether we be in that state or no. We have seen many Easter-Mornings God be praised but if the Sun of Righteousness hath not yet risen upon us with healing in his Wings all those solemnizations of the Resurrection of Christs Body from the grave is but Death and Darkness unto us is no Health no Light nor Life It was the manner of Primitive Christians to salute one another with this Salutation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord is risen If we could this Easter-Sunday and every Lords-day make such Salutations as this in the very Spiritual Truth The Lord is risen That is is risen from Death in our Souls and we by him become enlivened to all Righteousness O what Mutual Rejoycing and true Spiritual Triumph would there be in the Church of God! Verily Beloved if you partake not of the Mysteries of Christianity in the Spirit and Truth of them as well as in the History and Ceremony your Profession is but vain you are still in your Sins and dismal Sentence of Damnation remaineth still upon you DISCOURSE XVI Appendix to DISCOURSE XIII 1 PET. 1. 22 23. Seeing ye have purified your Souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently Being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever I Have already insisted upon the Doctrines or Truths which are as so many enforcements to the great Duty in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which may be observed out of this Precept is a fourfold Doctrine 1. That we are to love one another 2. That we are to love one another out of a pure Heart 3. That we are to love one another fervently 4. That we are to love one another universally and continually The First of these I have done with I come now to Doct. II. That we are to love one another out of a pure Heart This Purity may be set out in these three Constitutives or at least Consecutives of Love viz. Complacentia Benevolentia Beneficentia 1. The Purity of Complacency consists in this that we love and like that of a man that is the adequate object of honest Love and that is Divine Beauty which is not in the Body but in the Soul adorn'd with all Moral and Divine Vertues He that loves not according to this in a man he loves after the same manner he may love an horse a dog or any beast that is fitted for the satisfying of his natural or extravagant humours For if there be no ground of right Friendship but Vertue then is there no Love in vain and leud men but after the manner of Brutes that is eating together as Sheep and Kine in one pasture or sporting together like young Greyhounds at their going out into the fields or better natur'd Spaniels or such like fond Animals I but the gaudes of Phansie and queint toyes of Wit or at least the subtilty thereof Art and accomplishment of the Intellectual parts these all of them put together at least may make up an object of Complacency and friendly delight Verily as much as a well proportioned Body clear Complexion a vigorous Eye gentle Deportment c. which are so far from that living object of Pure Love that by the same Law we may join Friendship with a well wrought Statue or some more curious Picture Complacency in any person saving for Vertues sake is as far removed from pure and Divine Love as the affections of Xerxes Glauca the Youth of Athens and that others of Sparta who loved trees statues rams geese c. were distant from Natural Vid. AElian lib. 1. cap. 39. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as ridiculous and absurd will their Love prove in respect of that more pure and holy affection that can take Complacency in the person of men that have but the outward accomplishment of parts and abilities or outward artifice or natural well-favouredness their Souls being dead to Vertue and Righteousness For beside that these are as helpless to the best things as a dumb statue or a dead picture they are also very dangerous for either hindering the first shooting out of divine worth in the Soul of man or for corrupting and destroying what already is grown up of Vertue and Goodness For so it is with man that so soon as he is capable of Vertue he must either have it or the contrary Mans Nature is no barren Soil it brings forth or good grain or stinking weeds And where once corruption has taken hold it is even worse than a Gangrene it catches hold on the companion and is the very pest of the Souls of men But if the Love and Complacency of those be not pure that can love notwithstanding the foulness of their friends what pollution is there in theirs that can love for foulness it self viz. whose society pleaseth one another for some bad quality as for being a vain Gamester Swearer for their Lasciviousness or that delicious condiment of Friendship good Fellowship which some loving Souls are so taken with When as it s nothing but the similitude of their evil manners or equality of their enlarged bellies do thus joyn their affections Fellow-wine-bottles of the same size or Ale-tap-urinals c. And as this Impurity in Love is Bestial so there is also that is Devilish as when men like one another the better for being alike imbittered against this or the other party Such complyance as this is but like the twining together of Snakes and venomous Serpents in one bed A Paradox That that which is the most ugly of all the affections viz. embittering Malice and Hatred should make men so amiable one to another Thus Hags and Imps love one another And there is a knot of Friendship that is as Fond at least as this is Devilish viz. endearment from Identity of opinion Fellow-Thomist Fellow-Scotist c. And when it riseth no higher than Scholastick siding or Philosophical altercations it is not much worse than fondness or childishness But when this unskillful affection interweaves it self with matters of Religion and toucheth upon the Attributes actions or designs of the highest God where men are very loth to be deceiv'd though no where more subject to err Fondness is then too mild a term for that which is boil'd up to Fury and Fanaticalness For here men of the same Sect are not content with the pleasure and good-will they exhibit one to another but they grow to that heat as to scorch all gainsayers as well as warm themselves at these misguided flames God forbid that I should go about to slack any mans affection in the pursuit and profession of Divine Truth such as is plainly contained in the Scripture or evidenced by palpable experience in his heart But that which is but
enjoyments it is very unworthy and unbecoming so noble a Being as the Soul not to abstain from Fleshly Lusts not to be so much master of the Natural Desires of the Flesh as not to be enslaved to them or transported by them either to seek them or sue after them with over-much eagerness whether Riches Honours the Pleasures of the Flesh or whatever gratifications of the Animal Life or to embrace them with over much transportedness when they are offer'd unto us Epictetus expresses how we ought to be minded toward these things excellently well by a Similitude taken from a Feast or Banquet If a Dish come to thee that thou likest take part thereof with Modesty and Temperance Is it to be removed from thee detain it not Is it not yet come at thee stretch not thine Appetite out to it before its approach If thou shalt be thus affected toward all the things of this World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if when they are offered thee thou yet refuse them thou shalt not only be a worthy Guest but even a Fellow-Prince amongst the Gods And truly if we would but duly consider the Original of our Souls from what Fountain and Archetypon they are derived and of what an excellent nature they are and how little they are intended for this Terrestrial condition methinks it should be no hard task to fulfil this Precept of the Stoick or rather that of S. Iohn in his General Epistle Love not the world neither the things of the world If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but of the world Wherefore our Original being so peculiarly Divine we are bound if we bear a due respect to that to gather up our Affections from sinking towards the vain and transitory things of this World and look upon our selves as very little concerned in them Christian Souls especially who by reason of their new birth are of a noble and divine extraction indeed and therefore upon a double account ought not so to undervalue themselves as to adhere to the fading pleasures and gratifications of this mortal Life If in vertue of this new birth ye be risen with Christ into the sense of the Divine Life and into a true and lively Faith seek those things which are above where Christ fitteth on the right hand of God Set your affections on things above not on things on the earth For what is there that this Earthly Life affords which we do not enjoy but as Tenants in common with the very Brutes Eating Drinking Sleeping hunting after a prey or pursuing a project for the satisfaction of our Carnal Desires begetting or bringing up our young applauses caresses the pleasure of dominion or revenge and the like These set up but on one level with the Beasts of the field and do not at all reach the excellency of our proper Nature But yet this is the guise of this Land of our Pilgrimage thus to be clad in the manners and habits of our fellow-Animals of the Earth as well as Strangers put on Turbants in the Turkish Empire But who would put on an odd habit in a strange Country but merely out of necessity Could he strut and please himself in it and be curious and sollicitous about a thing that he has no conceit or opinion of For us to make provision for the Flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof as the Apostle speaks is as fond as if some Slave should be very curious to provide himself of Chains and Fetters or other badges of his Slavery or a Fool should be very careful that his Coat have all the peculiar laces or tassels of a Fools-Coat And all this Worldly Pomp and Enjoyments are no better nor bear no more agreeable proportion to the Nobleness of the Soul than a Fools-Coat to the Body of a Grave and Wise Man Nay I think that Grave and Wise Philosopher Plotinus took his own Body to be such a Coat and therefore was loath to be painted in it and so leave a durable disgrace of himself behind him But suppose these Worldly things were not altogether so vile and contemptible yet our stay is here so short that to us they cannot be valuable For as both S. Peter and Plato have told us this Life is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of Pilgrimage here upon Earth and we are but passing through it into our own Country How fond a thing therefore would it be to love any thing of the World or to addict our Affections to it when we must so suddenly leave it As fond as if one should be inveigled with the love of his Inn or any thing there when as he must leave it the next morning Wherefore being thus in a strange Land which we are to pass through not to make any abode in let not our minds be fixt or glued to any thing from which our Persons are so suddenly to remove And because we are Strangers in the Land let us take heed how we tamper with any bewitching Objects lest that which looks fair may prove no safe food but either a present or more lingring poyson and we may find the mischief of it at our return into the other State It is S. Iudes Character of some in the antient Christian Feasts of Charity that they fed themselves without Fear as if they had made that perverse sense of our Saviours Saying That which enters into the man cannot defile him by either quantity or quality But we are environed with so much ignorance and inexperience in this strange Land that we ought carefully to stand upon our guard and take heed how over-greedily or over-heartily we close with any tempting delight remembring that there may lye hid the most dangerous poyson in the greatest sweetness Let us therefore trust no strange Objects in this strange Land but keep close to what is nearest akin to us that is to our true Manhood which is the sense of true Honour and Vertue the Fear and Love of God and whatever Graces descend from that Fountain of Light and Giver of every good and perfect gift But the gifts of this World are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which few can receive without parting with that which is infinitely better a pure Mind and a peaceable Conscience and the assured hopes of Eternal Happiness hereafter And thus much for the Apostles first Argumentation to perswade us to abstain from Fleshly Lusts fetch'd from the Dignity of the Soul 2. We come to the Second which is The Enmity and Hostility of these Lusts against the Soul the law of the members warring against the law of the mind and endeavouring to lead us captive into the bondage of sin This Hostility is exercised 1. In treacherous Circumventions 2. In violent Assaults And 3. in the spoil and pillage of the Soul upon Victory 1.
of the Soul not only for its loveliness but for its light which it so plentifully imparts unto her That his Godly Simplicity and Sincerity that is devoid of all Self-interest of all Self-reflection or Self-gloriation but pursues what is simply good meerly for the good 's sake is that which answers to the Single Eye in the Parable is plain from the preceding and subsequent Context where our Saviour gives Monitions against Hypocrisie that when we fast we should not be as the Hypocrites of a sad countenance disfiguring their faces that they may appear unto men to fast and that we should lay up our treasure in Heaven not in Earth that our Heart or Affection may not be distracted nor divided for where your treasure is there will your heart be also and likewise immediately after my Text he sayes No man can serve two Masters It is therefore that Oneness of purpose and affection that seems here to be aimed at as in several other Parables of our Saviour He that layes his hand to the plough and looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God Which implies that there should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that our mind should be taken up with one thing only Martha is troubled with many things but Mary has chosen the better part which shall not be taken from her The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hid in the field for which a man selleth all that he hath that he may purchase it or like that Pearl of great price for which a Merchant parts with all that he hath that he may buy it To be at one therefore or to have the lively savour or relish of some one most excellent divine and indispensable Principle seems to be that which is figured out by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by this Single Eye in my Text. Which I conceive is this Not to seek a mans self in any thing but simply and entirely to follow the will and pleasure of God or that which is simply good not pleasing and grateful to our Animal relishes or corresponding with our personal interest and concerns but that which comports with the Interest of the Kingdom of God and the real good of Mankind To be thus affected is to have this Single Eye that is this pure and clear Eye for so the word will also signifie devoid of all self-tincture or self-colouring and therefore capable of receiving the pure Light as it is and every Object in that Hue and Circumstances that they are The being quit from our selves and all Selfishness and having our Desires sincerely bent to what is simply the Best in every thing this is here that Single Eye of the Soul which our Saviour Enigmatically indigitates by that of the Body but is not the Light it self as the Eye of the Body is not the Natural light but they both be that which receives the Light the one the Divine the other the Natural Nor yet is either this Natural or Spiritual Eye to be said to be altogether devoid of light But as Plato conceiv'd there was an innate light in the Eye and that by the conjunction of this with the external light which Union in Plutarch is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vision was performed So we may not deny but that in some sense this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have described to be thus simply and sincerely affected as we have endeavoured to set forth as well as we can in words for what words can communicate the Sense of Life unless to them that have it that this sincere affection is the Inward Light of the Soul her diaphanous capacity of admitting Divine Truths whether suggested from without or from the Spirit of God within in vertue of the happy meeting together of which inwardly pure disposition of the Soul with those outward suggestions she is assured of the reality of the Divine and Spiritual Objects of the Understanding what is to be believed and what to be done as well as the Eye is assured of the truth of outward Natural Objects by the corradiation of its innate light with the external Rayes of the Sun What the Spirits are in the diaphanous Eye that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the relish of the Spirit in the pure Soul And this may suffice for the understanding the Second Analogy 3. From whence we shall easily understand the Third after we have taken notice what is meant in this place by an Evil Eye which is opposed to a Single one And the right meaning is easily fetch'd out from the Opposition For it is obvious to conceive that it is that kind of Evil of the Eye that is opposed to the clearness purity and diaphanousness thereof which is signify'd by the Single Eye For blindness obscureness or depravation of sight may come from sundry causes but the main is and the only here aimed at such as takes away the clearness and diaphanousness of the Eye whereby it ceases to be actuated by its own innate light and animal Spirits and becomes impervious and impenetrable by the Beams of the Sun or any other external lights or at least is so infected by some impure tincture that the rayes of light cannot enter without being soiled and contaminated by that internal infection Now as such an Evil Eye as this leaves the Body either wholly in the dark or obnoxious to perpetual errour touching the right hue of external Objects so the Carnal relish or Carnal-mindedness whereby we do so affectionately savour our personal concerns our Animal pleasure and interest this self-self-love self-respect self-desire self-will self-gloriation self-prelation or whatever touch of smack there is of selfishness be it brutish or diabolical pride or lust the inordinate desire of enjoying the pleasures of the Body or the desire of appearing some-body in the World and the impatience and abhorrence of being thrust below every body and to be in a worse condition than all other mortals though our ever-blessed Saviour submitted himself to that state this carnal relish I say which with the Apostle we will call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we did the single Eye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Carnal-mindedness will in such sort leave the Soul to blindness and errour in things Spiritual to be believed and practised as the Evil Eye does the Body in things Natural Which is the Third Analogy 4. And the Fourth and last is this That as that Darkness which is the darkness of the Eye is in reference to the Body the most calamitous and deplorable darkness that is So the ignorance and insensibleness of the relish of the Spirit is the most hideous and miserable ignorance that can befal the Soul or which is all one to have no other light or sight but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the most hideous and miserable darkness that can possess the Mind If Carnal-mindedness become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Eye of the Soul for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will
signifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What a dismal darkness will there be then For the blind then leading the blind both will fall into the Infernal Pit THE meaning of the Text I conceive is now abundantly plain and that the scope and end of our Saviours uttering this Parable to his Disciples was to stir them up to a constant and earnest endeavour of utterly disentangling themselves from all the attractions of the relish of the Flesh or Spirit of the World and of joyning themselves entirely and cordially with and of dwelling wholly in the relish sense and life of the Spirit of God or of that Divine Spirit whose suggestions are no dictates of self-self-love or partial interest but the substantial concerns of the Kingdom of God and the good of the whole World For which he who has this Divine relish will not stick to lay down his Life if need require according to that endearing Example of our ever-blessed and adored Saviour Let it be therefore my task at this time to exhort you earnestly to endeavour after this great and indispensable attainment of this Single Eye this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Wisdom of the Spirit which this Parable of our Saviour points to and is indeed the proper Spirit of Christ concerning which S. Paul expresly declares He that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his Which ought to be a rousing Argument to awaken us into a due sense of so great a want For unless we regain this Single Eye we shall never see the right way to Heaven There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus namely to such as walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath freed me from the law of sin and of death For the relish of the flesh or carnal-mindedness is death But the relish of the spirit or spiritual-mindedness is life and peace But the carnal mind is enmity against God because it cannot submit it self to the law of God but is in perpetual opposition against it ever suggesting what is contrary to it Wherefore we must wholly withdraw our selves out of that Principle as we hope to attain to the glorious liberty of the Sons of God And assuredly whosoever has that Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus it will free him and rid him from the power of all the urgings suggestions or subtil insinuations of that Law of the sinful flesh of self-love and self-interest Though he may feel these self-savouring suggestions and the more clearly discern them to be such by the perspicuity of the Single Eye the Spirit of Christ yet he is so freed from their power that he will never act according to them but constantly act according to the relish and suggestion of that pure Principle of the Spirit which has not the least tincture of self-love or carnal interest And there is a neceffity of perfectly clearing up at last into this Single-mindedness by reason of the war and enmity betwixt the Carnal Principle and this of the Spirit for without this there is no peace nor joy nor enjoyment in this Life nor in that which is to come The Law of the sinful life of the Flesh therefore is utterly to be abrogated nulled and annihilated and we are to judge and act in all things according to the discernments of that Single Eye or pure Principle of the Spirit of Christ. But I will rather confine the Arguments of my Exhortation to the Text and content my self with what it will afford namely the four Analogies I have produced and explained and so conclude 1. The light of the Body is the Eye What therefore the Eye is to the Body that is some vital and sensible leading Principle in the Soul to the Soul Is it not therefore of infinite consequence what this leading Principle is when it is of as much consequence to the Soul as the Eye is to the Body and the Soul of incomparably more worth than the Body What man would have the Eye of a Batt of an Owl or of a Mole for the guidance of his Body unless he were to have his abode under the Earth with the Mole or to venture abroad only in the Night with the Batt and Owl Every Animal is to have an Eye congenerous to its own Nature And therefore that Divine Animal which we call Man I mean the inward man the Soul is to have an Eye congenerous to hers she is to have this Single Spiritual Eye unless she will converse only with Brutes or Devils in their Kingdom of Darkness 2. Again The Single Eye makes the whole Body full of light that is it is a fit and faithful guide to it which way soever it goes And that is the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Iesus to the Soul Which assuredly is the Law of Divine love which is not the love of a mans self or any particular or partial Interest but the hearty love of God and a mans Neighbour that is of all mankind when with a single heart he wishes them and is ready to do them all the good they are capable of and himself in a capacity to administer to them This is that pure and lovely Eye of the Soul indeed which fills her full of Celestial light and enrolls her in the Book of Life and of the Children of Light This is that Vnction from the Holy one even from the Father of Lights whereby we know all things appertaining to Life and Godliness and that Iesus that stupendious Pattern of this Divine Love is the Lord and Christ And that that man of sin that exalts himself above all that is called God and supports his Power Pride and Pomp with gross Imposture and barbarous Bloodshed is that notorious Antichrist he that has this Single Eye easily discerns this and can hardly forbear to suspect that they that do not see it are blind through the Spirit of the World or else drunk with the steames of that Cup of abominations and see double This Simple and Unself-interested Spirit of Love is that Anointing of which S. Iohn saith that if it abide in us we need not that any man teach us but the same Anointing will teach us of all things and is truth and is no lie It is very Truth substantial and essential without any shadow of vanity or imposture in it and such as will seal our hearts with an eternal adhesion to our ever-blessed Saviour as being the communication of his own Spirit to us and be evermore a safe guide to us in our passage thorough this present life He that loveth his brother abideth in the light and there is no occasion of stumbling in him Wherefore as we tender our safe conduct through the wilderness of this World through all the dangers and perils of so difficult a journey we must earnestly endeavour the recovering of this Single-mindedness this amiable Eye of the pure love
recreates the Eyes of ordinary Mortals seem'd to him not a bright azure but a funeral black nor Sun nor Moon real and true Lights but two painted Scutcheons Or and Argent hung upon the Melancholly Tapestry of this House of Mourning Wherefore to be buried in the Body with him is a real Death and this Terrestrial Region wherein we seem to live but one great Caemeterium or Dormitory No life no joy no pleasure is here no not amongst those that seem to enjoy most that have the greatest portion in this Life nay their only portion therein Wherefore what expectation of Happiness before that blessed Resurrection When we shall see the Face of God and be satisfied with his Likeness in whose presence there is fulness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore But for the present Interval that is the time of our Immersion into the Sense of this Body the Prophet David as well as Heraclitus does plainly deem it a state of Sleep or Death which are the same in Scripture every where as to any Mystical meanings or purposes As for me I shall behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness Munster piously and I believe truly paraphrases thus upon the Text. Egó verò omnes electi tui Domine non ita quaeremus has temporarias transitorias divitias ut in illis deliciemur sed justè piè vivemus in hoc seculo ut aliquando in futuro seculo videamus faciem tuam eâ satiemur cum scilicet è pulvere evigilaverimus reformati fuerimus ad similitudinem Christi tui And this may go for the Philosophical sense of the Text. But there is a Moral sense thereof which Castellio seems to reach at and is indeed the most easie to the words of the Text which run thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of which the easie and accurate Sense is I will behold thy face in Righteousness at the awaking of thy image I shall be satisfied according as Castellio has also rendered it Tum satiandus cum tua experrecta fuerit imago And his Gloss is accordingly Per Christi resurrectionem qui Dei imago est plenam consecuturus justitiam foelicitatem For the Image of God is Christ who is called also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brightness of the Glory of God answerably to the LXX Translation of my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall be satisfied when I shall see thy Glory Which Glory like the beams of the Sun reach and touch the very eye-lids of him that is asleep but are not seen nor enjoy'd till he awake for then the image of the Sun is also awoke in him that is to say excited into actual being According to which Analogy is that Saying of the Apostle Awake thou that sleepest and Christ shall give thee light The Evigilation therefore or Resurrection of the Image of God in us is our Evigilation or Resurrection in a Mystical or Moral Sense into it which as soon as it does appear we also do appear in Glory with it but while Christ is thus hid or dead or asleep in us we are in a state of Death or Sleep and the true Life of our Soul is hid in him And this I would have the First Truth comprised in my Text viz. That the immersion of the Soul into the life of the Body and love of this present World which is the Image of the Earthly Adam is as it were the Sleep or Death of the Soul The Second That there is no true Satisfaction in this Worldly or Terrestrial Life which is but a torpid Sleep and the very shadow of Death The Third That the true Evigilation and real Life of the Soul is the recuperation of the Image of God the Resurrection of Christ in us according to the Spirit The Fourth That this Mystical Resurrection of Christ is the only solid Enjoyment and Satisfaction to the Souls of the Faithful even in this Life The Fifth and Last That the way to attain to this Satisfaction which arises from the Evigilation of that Divine Image in us which is also stiled the Face of God or if you will the Image thereof whereby we see his Face so far forth as he is visible to Man is Righteousness and Sincerity of Heart I shall behold thy face in righteousness These are the precious Truths comprized in the Text which I shall handle with all possible brevity 1. That the Image of the Earthly Adam is as it were the Sleep or Death of the Soul the very Text does apparently intimate especially that Translation in our Liturgy When I shall awake into thy Image which is the Image of the Heavenly Adam I shall be satisfied therewith which implies that till this awaking we are in a state of Sleep or Death For in that we can eat and drink and go up and down these are no Arguments that we are truly alive no more than the growing of the Hair and the Nails of them that have lain long buried in the ground is any Argument of Life in them I mean of the Sensitive Life Nor though the Flesh be full of Worms will the man be thought ever the more alive for that For neither is Sense the Life of a man nor meer Carnal and Worldly Reason the Life of the Child of God The Divine Image is the Soul of his Soul and the Life of his Life of which seeing every Soul is capable it is rightly deemed dead till it partake thereof till it be awaken'd into this Image of God But so long as the mind is addicted to the things of this World to the Law of the Body which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so long is she dead or asleep call it which you will Hierocles calls it Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the Death of every Rational Essence sayes he is the loss or suppression of her Divine and Intellectual excellencies Plotinus Sleep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So far forth as the Soul is immerged into the Body so far she is asleep And therefore those that are wholly taken up with the concerns thereof as relishing nothing but what is Worldly and Carnal may justly be look'd upon as fallen into a deep Sleep And what if they can walk and talk and go up and down and do such things as men that are awake also do do not the Noctambuli do the same Whose eyes being shut yet unwittingly do they several exploits some hazardous others ridiculous other some as it some seldomer times happens safe and congruous if the chain of Phantasms that leads them attract luckily and to convenient Objects But in the mean time they know not what they do but without any free consultation or deliberation are carried out hoodwink'd to action by the meer suggestion of Dreams and Phansies And is not this the very condition of those who have arriv'd no higher than to the Image of the Earthly
Adam Surely every such man walketh like a vain image or shadow or like a winking Noctambulo that sees not whither he goes nor in what plight he is nor whom he may meet nor what Eyes are upon his nakedness nor what sad events may attend his fortuitous motions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every wicked man or unregenerate not yet awak'd into the Image of God has the eye of his mind closed as these Noctambuli those of the body and do not walk by sight but by fortuitous phansie their whole Life being but a series of dreams and all the transactions thereof the execution of the dictates of their imagination impertinently busie in this profound Sleep For these Phantasms under whose conduct they are in this condition and which is their first mover in all their actions creep upon them by meer chance as dreams in the Night suggested by the temper of the external Air or of their own Blood or from some other casualty and so one Phantasm or commotion occasions another and the man like a Ship at Sea whose Pilate is asleep may be driven one while one way another while another in a right tract or out of it as it happens there being neither judge nor guide to stear to any end that due examination or mature deliberation has made choice of And therefore all the passages of such a Life whether thoughts or actions are so as it fares in dreams either fatal or fortuitous And although there be a great confidence that things are true and real and such as they appear and that we have concluded sure yet in all this we do but imitate those that dream 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thinking those things they see to be clear Realities while they are but Dreams as Plotinus speaks and few but do experience it Nor can we give judgment what is right or wrong what false or what true whether we have dreamt luckily and divinatorily or all be falshood and delusion till that Mystical Resurrection the Resuscitation of the Image of God in our Souls And this briefly may suffice for the First Particular That the immersion of the Soul into the Life of the Body and love of this World is as it were the Death or Sleep of the Soul 2. The Second is That there is no true Satisfaction in this condition And indeed how can any true Satisfaction be there expected where we suppose nothing but Delusions and Dreams nor any one in a case to profess himself satisfied as being utterly unable to compute right or make a due estimate of things No man thinks him that is grosly cheated truly satisfied no not though he give it under his own hand he is so And is not this state of Sleep and Dreams a meer cheat and delusion There only is true Satisfaction where that which satisfies is truly that which it would appear to be and will be found so by a man when he can judge aright For that which every man means in all his pursuits is Happiness nor would he put forth his hand towards any thing that did not bear upon it that Inscription Which if it be false he must needs at last find himself in a wrong box and what profit is there in those things whereof he then must be ashamed And as in the sequels of Reason some one latitant falshood being admitted it will discover it self by the inference of some more gross and palpable absurdity to be false it self So some practical mistake in adhering to some false good though pleasing and alluring for the present will in the conclusion prove it self a real evil by the calamitous Consequence that will necessarily issue from it For the end of such things is Death as the Apostle speaks Thus plain it is that though we should dream pleasingly and prosperously it is no true Satisfaction because at the long run we shall find our selves disappointed and deceived But the truth is that those that dream most successfully are not happy no not so much as in this Dream but have an unquiet Night of it there being so many interruptions and disturbances from the fortuitous clashings of flying Phantasms that rise by chance and bring in scenes of Discontent as well as Pleasure Insomuch that those that have cast up the compute most accurately have concluded it best never to be born but next to that quickly to dye as the Epigrammatist inferrs upon his Synopsis of all the wayes and conditions of Humane Life And Solomon who was a King whose Reign also was Peaceable Splendid and Prosperous yet when he had laid all things together and compleated his account the whole summe was Vanity and vexation of Spirit Nay the scene of things in this present World seem'd to him so sad and Tragical that he praises the Dead which are already dead more than the Living which are yet alive and accounts him better than them both which hath not yet been because he hath not seen the toil that is done under the Sun So far is this Worldly or Terrestrial Life from affording any true Satisfaction to them that are immerse into it But this is a Theme so trite that it had been enough only to have named it and therefore we will pass to the Third Particular 3. That the true Evigilation and real Life of the Soul is the recuperation of the Divine Image The truth of which assertion we shall easily understand if we but consider what Life is and wherein its fulness does consist as also what is the Image of God For we know that Death is a privation of Life and Sleep a partial Death as being a partial privation of the Vital Functions And therefore the recovery of the Soul into more full and ample Functions of Life must needs be her expergefaction if not resuscitation from the dead Now I conceive the fulness of Life to be compleated in these three things in self-motion or self-activity in sense or speculative perception and in pleasure love or joy And that the heightning or enlargement of these in several degrees is the enlargement of Life and a releasement from such a measure of Sleep or Death These Principles are so plain and manifest that scarce any one can be so dull and sleepy but that he will acknowledge them at the first sight What the Image of God consists in we shall easily understand if we have recourse to the Attributes of his Nature by which only he is cognoscible to us Which Nature of God consists in Omnipotency Omnisciency and Infinite Goodness Whence the Image or Face of God as it is called in the Text so far forth as it is visible to us is nothing else but our perception approbation or rather devotional admiration of these Divine Excellencies and the being effectually impressed upon by them to the transfiguration of our Souls into this similitude so far forth as Humane Nature is capable to be assimilated unto God For we cannot be absolutely Omnipotent nor Omniscient nor Infinitely
the Spirit of Christ. For the First Eph. 6. 12. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places Beloved The great work of Salvation is not then accomplished when we have through the power of God and the strength of Jesus Christ overcome the Lusts of the Body as Drunkenness Gluttony Whoredom and the like But we shall find a new task the taming of our proud Spirit For after our first conquest I mean the overcoming the Lusts of the Body then pride and haughtiness and contempt of our Neighbour the thinking of our selves some-body rigour and unmercifulness to our sinful Brother the magnifying of our selves in some conceited Opinions searching out and confidently concluding concerning the secrets of God censuring and contemning all men that are not of the same conceit in Divine Speculations with our selves These and many such like evil delusions the Devil will sow in our Hearts The Devil himself is neither Whoremaster nor Drunkard nor Glutton But he is Proud but he is Contemptuous but he is Hypocritical but he is a Blood-sucker a Murderer from the beginning full of self-self-love full of self-admiration full of cruelty under pretence of Religion full of deceit and injustice under pretence of Truth and maintenance of Godliness full of ambition and desire of rule even over the Souls and Consciences of men full of self-applause and arrogancy and strutting in his own supposed knowledge and power But true denyal of our selves and unfeigned deep humility a sensible apprehension of our nothingness as I may so say or real detestable vileness will cause such dreadful agonies in our Souls that no tongue can express nor heart conceive that hath not had experience of those bitter Sufferings With so great pain and torment are we torn and riven from our spiritual wickedness disjointed and dislimb'd as it were from our head that Prince of Pride and Father of Disobedience the Devil But I will now shew you the other kind of suffering which is the suffering in Spirit by reason of other mens wickedness When we are united to God and Christ in the union of Spirit then do those things that are contrary to the Spirit of God as all manner of sin trouble our Spirit Envious or cruel acts drunkenness deceit pride rigour fierceness folly and whatsoever else is sinful or vain our Spirit being enlivened by the Spirit of God is grieved and vext at these wickednesses or vanities Then we plainly see how Christ is cut and lash'd and hew'd and stab'd with our wicked deeds how he is crucified afresh as the Apostle speaketh Here may the true Church of God the Holy Ierusalem take up fitly that Lamentation in Ieremy Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow See how the Prophet David was affected with the wickedness of men Psal. 119. Mine eyes gush out with water because men keep not thy law I beheld the transgressours and was grieved because men keep not thy word So Lot was tormented at the wickedness of Sodom 2 Pet. 2. 7. And delivered just Lot vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked For that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds So God complains in the Spirit of his Prophet Amos. Behold I am pressed under you as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves Amos 2. 13. And surely there is good Reason it should be so a sure Necessity For Fire is not more contrary to Water nor Light to Darkness nor any enmity in Nature or among men so strong as that betwixt the Spirit of God and the Spirit of the Devil that is in evil wicked men according to which they live and act So then when that detestable ugliness flowes out in their words or actions it must needs offend the Children of God God being of pure eyes and not abiding to behold wickedness Hence are they driven into consuming zeal or deep inexpressible grief And this is the second kind of suffering in Spirit But Beloved take this in by the way That he that can be angry at other mens faults and not much more angry at his own is a dissembler an Hypocrite Herein let every man examine himself But he that is so stupid that he is not moved at all with the wickedness of others or of himself is perfectly dead in Sin and is in the full power of Satan and is covered with Eternal Death and Darkness THIS Second Doctrine is now sufficiently plain That they that would be Heirs of the Kingdom of Christ must suffer with Christ. I will again here stir you up to an examination and tryal of your Spiritual state whether you have any interest in the Heavenly Inheritance The Sign and infallible Seal is our suffering with Christ. But not any suffering For the fuffering in Estate if we escape it yet may we be inheritors of Heaven But to be evil spoken of for Christ is harder to efcape yet admit we escape that too we may for all that be secure of our Eternal Inheritance Nor have all that are now with God been whip'd and tortur'd and put to death or martyrdom But yet we ought to be so minded that we had rather endure all these things than depart from Christ. But all the other sufferings as abstinence from voluptuousness from the delights of the flesh from priding our selves in any thing that God hath bestowed upon us a suppressing our anger abstaining from the sweetness of revenge denying of the ever-craving appetite of covetousness keeping our tongues from the delight of defamation and evil reports our ears from hearing evil of our Neighbour These be necessary All which endeavours will surely afflict and vex the corrupt Natural Spirit of a man But he that will not undergo this suffering believe it Beloved he is none of Christs he hath neither part nor portion in the Kingdom of Christ and of God But he that doth though with great agony of Soul and affliction of Mind fight against all this corruption of Flesh and Spirit He may bless God for his good condition and with good reason lay hold of the hope of Heaven They that are troubled in Spirit for the wickedness of men the prophanation of Gods name and any manner of sin and iniquity these men may conclude that they have the Spirit of God and consequently that they are the Sons of God And if sons then heirs heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ If so be that we suffer with him Which our own Spirit together with Gods Spirit doth testifie to us that we do and that we shall be certainly glorified with him Let every man herein examine himself that he may find a true ground of his hope of Eternal Salvation For none shall be saved but they that are
the Children of God elect to this Inheritance none are the Children of God but those that have the Spirit of God none have the Spirit of God but those that suffer with Christ that mortifie their own sins and are grieved for the sins of others Be not deceived Beloved with flattering dreams and phansies This is the very Truth of God and according to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And this Truth being so apparently true I need not exhort in many words to those Christian Sufferings Stand fast in the true Faith of the Power of God and quit your selves like men Cast away all softness and effeminateness and be so stout-hearted as to endure the pangs of Death of the mortification of your sinful flesh and carnal mind for his sake that dyed for you Resist unto Blood even unto the effusion of the wicked Life and unrighteous devilish Spirit that resideth in you For this is the good will of your God that you be mortified that you be thoroughly sanctified that you destroy all things contrary to God in you 1 Thess. 4. And let this be the First Motive to run with patience the race that is set before us Secondly These our Sufferings though great are not comparable to the rich Reward that Glorious Inheritance in Heaven 2 Cor. 4. For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Thirdly If we compare the future state of the Wicked and the Godly how all their Glory and Pleasure vanisheth and how the Children of God are received into Everlasting Happiness crown'd with Eternal Light it will more firmly establish us in our Christian resolutions It cannot be better described then it is in the Book of Wisdom The iniquities of the wicked shall convince them to their own face and they shall approach the tribunal of God with fear and quaking But then shall the righteous man stand in great boldness before the face of such as have afflicted him and made no account of his labours When they see it they shall be troubled with terrible fear and shall be amazed at the strangeness of his salvation And they repenting and groaning for anguish of spirit shall say within themselves This is he whom we had some time in derision and a proverb of reproach We fools counted his life madness and his end to be without honour How is he numbred among the children of God and his lot is among the saints Wisd. 5. You may read the whole Chapter at your leasure Fourthly and Lastly The Inheritance of Heaven is conditional If we suffer with him we shall be glorified with him which implies if we do not suffer with him we shall not be glorified with him 2 Tim. 2. 11. This is a faithful saying that if we be dead with him we shall also live with him if we suffer with him we shall also reign with him Wherefore Beloved sooth not up your selves in vain hopes and flatteries For without killing of your sinful Lusts without Mortification there is no Salvation He that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his Now no body hath the Spirit of Christ unless he be dead unto sin For if he be dead unto Sin then shall he be raised from Death to Life by the Spirit of Christ that quickeneth us to Righteousness But if he be dead unto Righteousness and alive unto Sin he is a son of Belial a child of the Devil a vessel of perdition a faggot for Hell and the devouring Wrath of God remains upon him No Heir of God no Coheir with Christ but he shall have his portion with those infernal Fiends to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever Wherefore Beloved awake from your beds of ease shake off your idle dreams and bewitching phansies that either the Devil or his false Prophets have buz'd at any time into your heads If you will be the Sons of God and Disciples of Christ take up the Cross of Christ afflict your own carnal minds give not way to wrath to envy to anger to revenge to lust to wantonness to back-biting to swearing to revelling to drinking to pride to contemning to reproaching to fighting to contesting to censuring to defaming or whatsoever else Flesh and Blood is easily carried out to but deny your selves in abstaining from all those evil acts and so give no encouragement to the Devil to assault you Which if you shall do in the precious Christian Patience even to the mortification of all manner of Sin in you God shall stir up in you the Spirit of his Son and enrich you with the Power and Wisdom of the Holy Ghost And the Peace of God which passeth all understanding shall fill your hearts with all joy and you shall find in your selves an unexpressible taste of the delights of Heaven and receive an infallible earnest of your Eternal Inheritance Which God grant that we may all do through Iesus Christ our Lord to whom c. DISCOURSE X. JAM i. 27. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world THE Text is a description of pure and undefiled Religion And certainly if any thing Religion it is that wants the pointing out by the most evident plain and conspicuous descriptions that may be to be writ in Capital Letters in so large and visible Characters that he that runs may read it For indeed most men are but at leasure to read it running 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the by tanquam aliud agentes still keeping on their course in that broad way that beaten path that leads to the reward of impiety and irreligiousness But yet I know not how it comes to pass that though men make not Religion their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their main business and work yet they prove most-what far more fortunate in this than in their worldly occasions and employments where though they take a great deal more pains yet we shall more ordinarily hear them complain of ill success But as for Religion how few are there that find themselves at a loss therein nay that are not suited to their own hearts liking and from these slight and transient glances cast upon it are kindled into so hot a passion and inflammation of love and zeal for it that finding their own breasts too strait and narrow for such a violent heat would even force open the hearts of other men that there may be more room and freedom for so ample a flame Not content to keep alive this Vestal fire within the walls of its own Temple but to disthrone the Sun and ordain it the sole Lamp of the Universe where all other Religions and Worships must like the lesser Stars disappear and vanish Every rash Religion is Popery
point of Religion exerciz'd all the time God himself bears witness against them Ezekiel 33. They speak every one to his brother saying Come I pray you and hear what is the word that cometh from the Lord. They come unto thee and sit before thee as my people and they hear thy words but they will not do them with their mouth they shew much love but their heart goeth after covetousness And lo thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument for they hear thy words but they do them not And Reading of the Scripture privately is so like the publick Preaching of it that I need not take any new pains to refute the vanity of it if it be not accompanied with due obedience We may fetch that up to Divinity which Epictetus hath both wittily and gravely of Moral Theorems The Sheep tell not their keeper how much Fodder or Grass they eat but shew that they feed sufficiently by their Milk and Wooll Let us not therefore Beloved do as vain Limners they say have done drawn Venus and the Virgin Mary according to the feature of some Face they themselves love best Let us not I say picture out Religion to our own liking and then be in love with an Idol of our own making but love and like that which the Apostle has so plainly pourtray'd to us That whose description consists in visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction and keeping our selves unspotted of the world Which in two words is this Charity and Purity Of these two consists that true Religion acceptable to God For I conceive visiting the Fatherless and Widows in their affliction excludes not other good deeds from this definition but by a Synecdoche is put for the whole office of Charity 1. The First branch is Charity I will not curiously and artificially set out the bounds of this Vertue It will be enough to intimate that it is not confin'd to the relief of the Body only as he is not only Fatherless that wants his Natural Parent but he much more that has not God for his Father through the seed of the new birth Nor she alone a Widow that has lost her Natural Husband but every Soul is a Widow that is estranged and divorced from her God whose sins have made a separation betwixt her and her Maker Thy Maker is thy Husband Esa. 11. 54. He is so indeed to those that are not faithless and play the Harlot for of such saith the Lord She is not my Wife neither am I her Husband Hosea 2. 2. He therefore that can reconcile a Soul unto God doth not only relieve the Fatherless and Widow but procures an Husband and Father for them and wholly rids them out of their distressful estate These outward transient actions tending to the spiritual or temporal good of our Neighbour are fit testimonies of our sincere Religion before men but for every mans private satisfaction concerning himself there be divers inward and immanent motions of the Soul which will abundantly help on this confirmation I will reckon them up out of the mouth of the Apostle 1 Cor. 13. Where I will not balk those that be at ad extra too they being all very well worth our taking notice of Charity suffereth long and is kind Charity envieth not Charity vaunteth not it self is not puffed up Doth not behave it self unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no evil rejoyceth not in iniquity but rejoyceth in the truth Beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things 2. I pass on now to the Second branch Purity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to keep himself unspotted from the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word signifies properly such kind of spots as are in Clothes by spilling some liquid or oyly thing on them An hard task certainly to be Religious at this height Is it to be thought possible that we should wear this Garment of Mortality every day nay every hour and moment for thirty forty fifty sixty years together and soil it by no mischange or miscarriage either of careless Youth violent Manhood or palsied Old Age To pass through the hurry and tumult of this World and never be crouded into the dirt nor be spattered by them that post by us But verily this is not the meaning of the Apostle or of his description of Religion that no man is Religious but he that is absolutely spotless But he sets before us an Idea or Paradigme of true Religion that men having their eyes upon it may know how much or rather how little of Religion they have attained to By how much nearer conformable to this pattern by so much more Religious by how much further off by so much the less Religious He that is not so much as within the sight of it has not so much as seen the least glimpse or glance of Godliness but may be without any wrong to him writ down Atheist Let every man herein examine himself and ask his own Conscience how unspotted he has kept himself from the World And here as hard a difficulty represents it self if not harder than before To keep himself unspotted from the World Is it not pure Irreligiousness to think so Impossible to be so Who can keep himself pure I answer it may be a mistake in the Idiom of the Tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is no more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be kept unspotted from the World Hithpael for Niphai as there is elsewhere Niphal for Hithpael Acts 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Beza Or to keep himself unspotted from the World is to be understood so far forth as is in our power which in truth is very little Here therefore steps in the power of Christ that strong Arm of God for our Salvation the stay and trust of all Nations and the hope of the ends of the Earth For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us that walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Rom. 8. We walk though it be in the power of that Spirit of Life in Christ as our Body moves by vertue of our Natural Spirit But whether this act of purification or keeping our selves pure be so from God that it is not in any wise from us I leave to them to dispute that are more at leasure That it must be in us if there be any Religion in us is all that the Text affords me and 't is enough for the tryal of our Religion Pure Religion is to keep our selves unspotted from the World What to keep our selves
God Let us administer our part as God doth the whole not by immersion or spilling our Souls or Affections upon the visible Creature but collectedly into God as God is collected into himself Let not our Souls cleave unto the dust nor be spilt upon the ground as the Prophet David sometimes complains but be as the Rayes of the Sun which though they reach to the Earth sink not in the Earth but being fast fixt in their fountain or not the Sun it self do alwayes move whither he carries them Let us also acknowledge our own Original which is from above and move with God and the Lamb wheresoever they go Let us be so pure as not to drown our selves in the muddy stream of this transient World Let us be so Charitable as to wade in it that others be not drown'd Let our Love to men be such that we make not our selves unprofitable members of the World Let our Love to God be such that we keep our selves pure and unspotted from the love of the World Let our whole Conversation be such that all men may see that have eyes to discern both whence and whose we are that we serve not the Will of man nor are Vassals to our own vain Desires but are the free Servants of Christ and true Worshippers of the Living God O Lord our God thou which alone art able to speak to the Hearts and Consciences of men descend we beseech thee powerfully into us by thy Holy Spirit Guide and teach us in thy ways Open our eyes that we may see the wonders of thy Law Set up thy Truth in us and the Life of thy Son above all contentious opinions and conceits of men Take away all Pride and Prejudice and Wrathfulness and Hypocrisie and grant that the whole Christian World may agree in Meekness and that sweet Candour and Simplicity that is in Christ Iesus Shew unto us and convince us of that acceptable Service thou requirest at our hands Let bitterness and heart-burning reviling and all deceit and falseness cease from amongst us and let the Scepter of thy Son bear rule over us in Peace and Truth and Righteousness Enrich us with those precious Graces of Love and Purity And let the effectual power of thy Spirit be so felt amongst us that the least of thy Church may be as David and the House of David as the Angel of the Lord before thee Hear us O Merciful Father c. DISCOURSE XI HEB. xiii 16. To do good and communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased THE Philosophers define good to be that which all things desire Now all Desire is founded in Life And Life is twofold There is the Life of Nature and the Life of God which in men is called the Life of Grace Now both these Lives desire good But here is the difference The Life of Nature is only carried to good as it is good to it self or if it wish good to others it s for its own sake The Life of God or Life of Grace desires good too but not only for it self but simply it desires good wheresoever it can be effected in due order and right means So that the Heart of the Divine Life is enlarged toward every capable thing and would impart its good so much as any is capable and so oft any is disposed For there is neither envy want nor niggardness in the Divine Nature So then he that is thus affected whose bowels are enlarged to his fellow-creatures to every one as they are capable He that is merciful to the beast loving to men feeds the hungry clothes the naked visits the sick directs the traveller is courteous to the stranger informs the ignorant heartens the poor-spirited sheweth the proud his folly comforts him that is in sorrow ballasts him that floats in vain joy soders up enmities and stints strife flies envy and exerciseth an universal amity to all This man is like his Heavenly Father who makes his Sun to rise on the evil and the good and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust This man will neither persecute his enemy out of hatred nor acquit his friend in his fault out of fond love But deals his doals of all kinds to every one as he is fitted for receiving slips no opportunity of doing any manner of good loseth no occasion of hindering of evil His Soul is nothing but the inward Life of Charity his Life nothing but the passing from munificency to munificency from one good deed to another Out of love to God he embraceth his Neighbour after his duty to his Neighbour faithfully perform'd he is nearer united unto God He becomes a King for his bountiful liberality and royal free mind He becomes a Priest by offering these Sacrifices so acceptable to God Nay he himself is but one intire Sacrifice whom that great High-Priest Christ Jesus offers to his Father The fire of Love and Charity is the fire that consumes and wasts continually all corruption in his Soul and loosen'd every day more and more from the body of sin and iniquity ascends in holy fume up nearer unto Heaven a sweet savour unto God and all the assistants of the Divine Majesty But for a more orderly handling of this present Text of Scripture Be pleased to observe with me these three Truths contained in the same 1. That we are not to forget to do good and communicate 2. That doing or communicating good is a Sacrifice 3. That it is a Sacrifice in which God is well pleased I. That we are to do good I think no man is so devoid of reason or goodness as to deny it no not so much as in his silent thoughts Though this Truth that he is so certainly perswaded of lies not alwayes so freshly in his mind but he may easily overslip the practice of it Yea because a mans understanding cogitations and affections are so mightily taken up for his own projects and the advancement of his own private peculiar good it were somewhat strange if he did not omit too too oft this Duty of communicating good to others his fierce and eager pursuit after his private welfare so strongly and steddily directing his eyes upon his own We being therefore so subject out of the extream love of our selves to forget the good of our Neighbour it is no wonder that the Apostles Exhortation is not delivered in a bare simple manner Do good and communicate But runs thus To do good and communicate forget not As if he should say I have delivered in this my Epistle many high and Divine Mysteries concerning the Divine Nature of Christ the Office of the Angels of the Levitical Priesthood and Ceremonies of the Old Law the Sacrifice of Christ and the excellency of Faith and many other Heavenly Theories which for their profoundness may easily invite the curious to muse upon them and for their mysteriousness made me write somewhat more largely upon them But that which I speak to you
Paul in this present Epistle if so we may happily wind our selves out of this dangerous maze or labyrinth Whereas then he seems to nullifie or vilifie at least the Law in the advancing of that Righteousness that is by Faith Let us see what this Righteousness that is of Faith and what that of the Law is Chap. 2. 19. For I through the law am dead to the law that I might live unto God Ver. 20. I am crucified with Christ Nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me I through the law am dead to the law What a riddle is this that the Law should deprive it self of its Disciples And yet it doth so For it is a Schoolmaster to Christ or rather an Usher Which when it hath well tutour'd us and castigated us removes us up higher to be made in Christ perfect who is the perfection of the Law But the Law it self makes nothing perfect And this is the reason that Righteousness is not of the Law And to this purpose speaks the Apostle in this very Epistle Chap. 3. Ver. 21. Is the law then against the promises of God God forbid For if there had been a law given which could have given life verily righteousness should have been by the law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Law that could enliven and enquicken us But that is beyond the power of the Law That 's the Title and Prerogative of Christ who is the way the truth and the life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am the resurrection and the life He that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live Iohn 11. 25. This therefore is the Righteousness of Faith or Belief far above the Righteousness of the Law or killing Letter Now when this Faith is come we are no longer under that Poedagog of Punie-boys the Low-master But are all the Children of God by Faith in Jesus Christ. And none are the Children of God but those that are led by the Spirit of God as the Apostle witnesseth in his Epistle to the Romans And those that have the Spirit of God what fruits they bring forth is amply set out by the Apostle in this to the Galatians Chap. 5. ver 22 23. But the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Against such there is no Law For indeed there is no need of it they being a Law unto themselves So we see how those that are in Christ are not under the Law because their Obedience or that living Law in their Hearts are above it They do really and truly fulfil it through the Spirit that is by Faith For that Spirit is the begetter of Love and Love is the fulfilling of the Law For all the law is fulfilled in one word even in this Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self But if ye bite and devour one another take heed that ye be not consumed one of another This I say then Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh For the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would But if ye be led by the spirit ye are not under the law Ver. 14 15 16 17 18. Observe that If you be led by the Spirit For against such there is no Law as was said before Which implies if thou art not led by the Spirit thou art liable to the Curse of the Law to Death Hell and Damnation For so also speaks the Apostle when he hath reckoned up the works of the flesh ver 21. But here methinks I see some filching away an excuse for their own hypocrisie out of some of the foregoing words at the 6th Verse of that 5th Chapter The flesh and the spirit are contrary so that you cannot do that you would I but withal this is true too That if we will that which we do amiss we are then under the Curse of the Law For we are not then led by the Spirit of God but are servants of Sin and Satan We are not then in Christ no more than our bodies at Athens or Carthage but our phansies roving thither For they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts Ver. 24. So we see plainly Beloved that the Righteousness that is of Faith is not a mere Chimaera or phansie but a more excellent Righteousness than that of the Law For the Law is no quickening Spirit but a dead Letter But Christ is the resurrection and the life And he is God our Righteousness mighty to save and can with ease destroy the powers of Death Darkness and the Devil out of the Soul of man But we must have the patience to endure the work wrought in us by him I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me And if we will still cloak and cover our foul corrupt Hearts with forged conceits of Hypocrisies own making and excuse our selves from being good to one another or to our selves because God in Christ is so good to us Hear what the Apostle speaks in the last Chapter of this Epistle for it is now time to draw nearer to my Text Ver. 7 8. Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption But he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting The aim therefore of the Apostle is not to extenuate or discountenance real Vertue and Righteousness but to point us to it and tell us where it may be had Not in Days and Years not in New Moons or Festivals not in Circumcision nor in the dead Letter of the Law But in Christ and the Spirit of God in the renewed Image of God in the New Birth in the New life in the second Adam from Heaven in the New Creature in that stumbling block to all Flesh and Blood in the Cross of Christ. But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross c. THE Text contains briefly the Summ of the whole Discourse we may cast it into these Three parts 1. The Apostles Resolution He will not glory in any thing save in the cross of Christ whereby the man of Sin in his very Soul is crucified and made dead that the Life of Christ may abide in him 2. The Reason of his Resolution Because when a man hath given his name to Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision nor any of the Ceremonial Laws is any thing but a new creature 3. His Benediction or well-wishing to all that walk after the rule i. e. according to the new man that is fram'd in Righteousness and true Holiness the true Israel of God Peace be on them But I will rather fall upon the words themselves And in my passage point out such Observations as shall arise most
naturally from the Text and be most profitable for you to hear But God forbid That hath reference to the precedent Verse But they desire to have you circumcised that they might glory in your flesh Yet the Holy Apostle devoid of all ambition and emulation and of making an outward shovv among them contents himself vvith that vvhich is but the scorn of Worldly men nay glories in it and in it alone the Inward Cross the Mortification of the Old man the Circumcision of the Heart God forbid that I should glory in any thing c. See the exceeding deep humility of the Apostle a man endued vvith such excellent gifts from God so learned and vvell versed in the Lavv one acquainted vvith so Divine Revelations rapt up into the Third Heavens an Hebrew also an Israelite a Son of Abraham such an excellent Oratour as he approved himself before Felix before Festus before Agrippa and also at Lysta vvhere they took him to be the God of Eloquence Mercury himself and would have Sacrificed unto him so well versed in the Poets as his quotations out of Aratus and others testifie him to be But these are but trifles I mean Poetry and Oratory You may see him in the Acts casting out Devils healing the Sick making the Lame walk recovering the Dead to Life nay giving the Spirit of Life even the Holy Ghost and with it the power of Prophesie and speaking with Tongues Yet all these and many more the least whereof were able to puff up the vain mind of our ordinary Christians and swell them to an unusual extent stir not S. Paul above his wonted measure But he still continues himself a Paul i. e. little in his own eyes though the endowments God had bestowed on him were very great A true Disciple of Christ who taught his to be thus minded Learn of me for I am meek and lowly And methinks I hear the Apostle call to us out of this Text saying Be you followers of me as I am of Christ. But if a man propound the Example of the Apostles and Saints of God to some they look on them rather as Prodigies to gaze at than Examples to imitate and do usually with the rude Cyclops in Erasmus return this answer Paulus est Paulus Ego sum ego Paul had a privilege to be good my privilege is to be as bad as he was good But let Reason move thee if Example will not Why shouldst thou glory and in what Art thou Noble No more than the blood that runs out of thy Fathers Nose or that which is blown out of it unless thou be Vertuous Art thou well Apparel'd Yet a Lilly is better Art thou Fair It is but in thy superficies or surface of thy Body within is stinking dung and dirt Art thou Strong Yet weaker far than an ordinary Cart-horse Art thou Proper Yet not so tall as a Pine A goodly great-bodied man The whole Earth is but a Point why struttest thou then so proudly as if thou wouldst out-face Heaven Thou art a wise and subtil piece So is the Devil and a Serpent Thou art extolled and admired of men So is Vanity Beloved of women But their own Lust and Lasciviousness a great deal more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All whatsoever thou boastest thy self in is but ludicrous and ridiculous contemptible dust and less than dust even nothing Why then dost thou glory in any thing God forbid that I should glory in any thing save in the cross What a Paradox is this More strange than not to boast at all For not to boast there being nothing worthy boasting of is but reasonable But to boast of that which is a shame and reproach among all men is uncouth and strangely admirable Crux crux inquam infaelici miseris The Cross was but the fate and doom of Thieves and Malefactors and as little glorious as the deserts that bring to it But it may be it was some fine Silver or Golden Crucifix A pretty toy for Children to glory in What was it The Cross of our Lord Iesus Christ Yet it is but a stumbling-block to the Iews and to the Greeks foolishness I but it is the Cross of Christ Whereby the World is crucified to him and he unto the World This is worse and worse a scandal also to the Christians themselves Sufficient for them it is that Christ bore his own Cross and the Cross bore him It was fitter one man should dye for the people What that we may securely live in sin God forbid He that will be my disciple let him take up his cross and follow me saith our blessed Saviour The death therefore of the Cross belongs to us as well as to him though we would fain avoid it This is true then truer than we would have it that a right Christian whose Pattern S. Paul is must be crucified to the World and the World to him be dead unto the World and the World dead to him But what is the World and what to be dead to it S. Iohn in his 1 Ep. Chap. 2. describes it from its parts Ver. 15 16. Love not the world neither the things that are in the world If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but of the world These then ought we to be dead to viz. The lust of the flesh i. e. all carnal concupiscence and unlawful desires of the Body all gluttony drunkenness and leachery To the lust of the eyes i. e. all covetousness and filthy avariciousness desiring to encroach and compass all that we see and pleasing our selves with looking upon what we have got already but making no good use of it to the glory of God or good of our Neighbour To the pride of life i.e. ambition stately and lordly living the praise and applause of men superiority and authority over others All these things we are to be dead to by the inward Cross by an holy and serious mortification of our corrupt Life But how shall a man be able to mortifie this corruption to kill these inordinate desires I will tell you an infallible way upon condition you will remember it By a constant denial of their Cravings Give a Beggar nothing at thy door and he will never visit thee Desire is starved by being unfulfill'd A man you know often loseth his appetite by staying very long for his Dinner Inordinate desire will hurt a man like an Ague if we pamper or satisfie it The Devil and the Sop will both down into our guts at once But thou mayst pine out both Desire and the Devil that lurks in it by a pertinacious Temperance or stopping thy self in thy outward actions Affect not vain glory in thy actions or words but modestly decline it and Pride will fall in thy Soul in good time thou shalt find Humility rise
we will take in a more full narration of it And Israel abode in Shittim and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab and they called the people unto the sacrifice of their Gods and Israel joined himself unto Baal-Peor Ver. 1 2 3. of that Chapter That which is here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sacrificia Deorum is in my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sacrificia mortuorum Which makes further for that I drove at before viz. That the Gods of the Heathen are mostwhat the Souls of dead men THUS I have dispatched the two former Parts of my task viz. the Explication and Confirmation of the truth of this Text so far as was needful III. The Inferences following are these First From those words They joined themselves to Baal-Peor we may observe That it is long of a mans self when he sins Thus Ecclesiasticus 15. 11 12. Say not thou that it is through the Lord that I fell away For thou oughtest not to do the thing that he hateth Say not thou that he hath caused me to err For he hath no need of the sinful man So Iam. 1. 13 14. Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God For God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth he any man But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed To say therefore that it is the all-swaying Providence of God that bore men to this or that evil action is to blaspheme the Sacred Name of God and contradict Reason and Scripture Or which seems more plausible to say the Devil ought us a spight is but to be gull'd by the Devil and to add a new errour to our former misdeed The Devil may suggest but not compel But to exalt the strength of the evil Spirit above the dominion and power of him that is the Prince of Spirits as tho' they were stronger than he is to cast God out of his Throne and to place Satan in his stead Surely God who hateth Sin with a perfect hatred will not let the Devil prevail against that Will in us that is conformable to his If we be against Sin God will aid us If we fall into Wickedness it is long of our selves Yea though the greatest of Wickednesses For they joined themselves to Baal-Peor c. Not forced or necessitated by the Devil against a good Will and sincere aversation of Sin for this is the Will of God and he will help his own Will Nor led on by God for God will not beget to life that which he hates to see But the truth is God who is the God of Love and Freedom would have us to serve him out of a free Principle and so neither constrains us to good nor over-sways us to evil Secondly They joined themselves also to Baal-Peor The Calf in Horeb their envying and murmuring against Moses and Aaron their lusting after the flesh-pots of Egypt all these did not satisfie but as if these were a light matter they add Whoredom and Idolatry in this business of Baal-Peor Hence we may observe That the wickedness of a mans heart knows no bounds but his evil desires are enlarged like Hell Thirdly If we compare the greatness of this transgression with the great experience they had of the Power and Love of God to them who had done great things for them in Egypt wondrous works in the Land of Ham and fearful things by the Red Sea who had given them from Mount Sinai an express Law against Idolatry in Thunder and Lightning Clouds and Vapours of Smoke to the utter dismaying of them from Sin who had given them Manna in the Wilderness and fed them with Angels food who had guided them by two mighty Pillars a Cloudy Pillar by day and a Pillar of Fire to give light by night who had made them eye-witnesses of so many Miracles of his Almighty Arm That these People should so fouly Apostatize argues plainly an excessive weakness in the Children of Adam And the best Use we can make of it is this To be vigilant over our own wayes and merciful to our Brother when he slides Fourthly and Lastly We may gather also a kind of disability in all outward stays and props of our Souls in goodness all visible helps for Piety if something stronger within do not sustain us and keep us What more forcible outward means could have been used than Israel had experience of But all the terrour upon Mount Sinai and all that tempest and dread in giving of the Law all the Miracles that were wrought by the hand of Moses and the visible presence of God or his Angel all those passed out of their minds like a dream and vanished as a vision of the night all those failed them when the present object possessed their Eyes when the beauty of the Daughters of Moab had ensnared their Hearts and captivated their Souls to the commiting of folly The Young man in Macarius who in an high Rapture beheld glorious sights 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faces of Light and the shining Lustre of Heaven after fell into the filth of the Flesh and deplorable deformity of Life The best use we can make of this is Not to satisfie our selves with any outward or momentany Worships or Ceremonies as to rest in them but to seek an inward Principle of never failing Life Else so soon as we are departed the Church and that honour we do there to God we may be easily carried into the service of the Devil the committing any wickedness Whereas if we had the living Spring of Truth and Righteousness in us we should also have a perpetual sense of what is good or evil And as our Natural Life is tender of it self and perceives the least touch of harm that approacheth it so would that Spirit of Life and Truth be exceeding sensible of whatsoever is contrary to it or the Will of God which would always be very fresh and vivid in our Minds and Will But to attain to this Spirit of Life and Righteousness there is no way but Mortification a death to Sin and our own selves that the Life of God may alone rule in us Then shall not the Daughters of Moab inveigle us that is as Philo the Iew interpreteth it the false allurements of the bewitching Senses Nor shall we then worship Baal-Peor or partake of his Sacrifices that is according to the same Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We shall not dilate all the openings of our Bodies for receiving the influx or strong impressions the unwholesome vapours of this intoxicating World and the pleasures thereof and so drown our Souls in the bottom of Corruption For so he interpreteth the name of this Idol as if it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intimating his power to lye in all the openings of the Body or rather outward Skin through which the influences of this sensible World if they be not kept out by due vigilancy stream
the collection of Humane Reason which at the best and containing it self within its own more proper Bounds the representations of Nature is slippery enough and uncertain if it be promoted with urgency of Affection over-proportionated to the weight of Reason and Argument by how much it transgresseth this way by so much largely doth it partake of superstitious Phrenzy and Fanaticalness And that this heat is but mistaken zeal not divine Love of the Truth this one thing may be a shrowd sign That they hate a man commonly more for not being of their Sect than they love him for being a Christian. 2. The Second Branch of Love is Benevolence Which as it is nothing so precious as the former viz. Complacency so we may and should be the more prodigal thereof We may wish well to all men but can delight in none but such as be good The Purity therefore and perfection of Benevolence is that it shoots out before and lasts longer if need be than Complacency may do For God also loved us when there was nothing lovely in us And we are to be like-minded with God who is kindly affected to those who deserve it not And though there be a good rude Honesty in such a disposition that makes a man not able to be at all kindly affected to them that are debauched yet certainly we are obliged to a more high and Divine temper if that which is most perfect and most Divine doth oblige us as certainly it doth Object But then Anger and Hatred and such churlish Passions are useless nay sinful Sol. That follows not For we may wish well to the man though we be angry or hate or grieve at his Vices Nay it s impossible to bear a sincere Good-will to any man that goes out of the way but that he should be angry or grieved at such a mans wicked courses and reprove him Benevolence is so far from excluding Anger and Rebuke that the want of this upon due occasions is an argument of the impureness or counterfeitness of the Affection at least in those men who hold it lawful or are upon any occasions brought into this Passion When a man sees God dishonoured and his Brother endangered by his vain ways Quis est tam ferreus ut teneat se He that can be still and smooth in such matters has some unwarrantable Complacence in his Friend they are not united in the bond of Vertue The Impurity of this part of Love is the well-wishing to others for our own sakes This is called Amor Concupiscentiae in contradiction to Amor Amicitiae as being indeed nothing akin but rather opposite thereunto He that loves a man thus is no more a Friend to him than a Country Farmer is a Friend to his Team of Horses his Cart or Plough I wish that most Polititians were not of this stamp to look upon all the World as the Rustick does upon his Horse Plough Sheep Dog c. as profitable and instrumental The World is so Epidemically corrupt herein that the whole Conversation or dealing of men even of them that would seem something more than ordinarily serious is not much better and more generous than the trade and commerce of Fairs and Markets They make choice of their Friends after the same rate they would seek out a purchase Profit and Pleasure share all the Societies of men betwixt them two He that is not instrumental to either of these ends is overlookt as a thing of no worth so that there is no room but for the skilful flatterer or the able purse And indeed none can love at a better rate that is not born of God who is Love it self and made the World and the whole Creature out of no such self-respects at all but for their Happiness or if for any thing in reference to himself for the delight that should arise to him from their being Happy Nor do I know that they are obliged to any thing but what is conducible to this end whatever unlearned Melancholly or rude Mistake may surmize to the contrary 3. The Third and last considerable in Love is Beneficence And 1. This should spread out as large as our Benevolence Humanity is to be extended so far as Mankind reacheth at least 2. Those who partake most of Vertue and the Divine Image should share the greatest part of our Favour 3. It must be devoid of all self-respects What a shameful thing is it That where that noble and generous title of a Friend is pretended there should be no other Love found at the bottom if the business be unravelled than such as he bears to the meanest utensil he has in his house WE pass on now to the Intension of our Love viz. Doct. III. That we are to love one another fervently And if we did make good the foregoing Precept of loving sincerely we might easily arrive to the doing of it fervently Quis enim celaverit ignem Indeed the most accurately well painted Flame that is gives no heat But true Fire without a miracle will betray it self in burning or warming at least Quest. But you will say We are uncertain of the due measure and degree of this fervency of our Affection Answ. The least degree that we can allow our Brotherly Affection is that it must be fervent Coldness here is Death and Luke-warmness an Abomination a thing to be spued out as being nauseating and distastful to all good men But when we are got to that due warmth and heat that we are really constituted in the Divine Life and Heavenly Love we are in a very good and safe and commendable condition though we have not reached all the degrees thereof for a little fire is as truly fire as a great deal And these degrees of Divine Love are it may be best proposed unto us in several Examples of Saints and Prophets which have gone before us carrying the Glorious Lamps of Divine Love in their hands to light us the way that we might follow them by a godly imitation Such were Abraham Ioseph Moses S. Paul c. This kindly Flame did so inact Abraham that in the very heat of the day at the door of his Tent he waited with as much earnestness for an opportunity to exercise that excellent Vertue of Hospitality as our greedy Inn-keepers at their Sign-posts expect a Traveller Nor does this generous Fire only melt him into all sweet behaviour and kindness unto Strangers but elsewhere we shall find it bravely to raise him to feats of Arms and hardy Enterprizes in behalf of his Captived Friends Gen. 14. And certainly no truer root of Valour and Bravery can be found than Hearty and Compassionate Love to those that be in affliction and oppressed Nor any cause that God is more engaged to prosper Nor does this Principle of holy fervency only express it self in bounty and indignation and just revenge but in Grief also whether mixt with joy or downright sadness Thus Ioseph fell upon his brother Benjamins
to this purpose Vid. lib. 5. and lib. 6. And this Philosopher attempts by many wayes and Arguments to keep us in this so pleasant temper of Spirit to all men good and bad friends and foes viz. 1. A settled perswasion that all those things which the Stoicks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are so indeed not truly good or bad in themselves there being nothing truly good but what is in our own power such are the voluntary motions of our Mind or Soul Thus he And indeed a very little observation will make this good to us That an eager and sharp desire of outward things Riches Honour and Corporeal Pleasure whose maintenance is from the outward Creature that this is the main if not only Cause of all Dissention amongst the Sons of men So that I think Envy it self is not moved at the Vertuous Accomplishments of any but merely at the effects thereof viz. the Admiration and Glory they get amongst the People Therefore the best way to be friends with all the World is not to desire the things of this World but to reckon them as nothing to the purpose and so shall we assuredly provoke very few against us and be provoked by none 2. Consider Socrates's Maxime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Christ said Father forgive them they know not what they do This is true in injuries done to our selves but the Stoick would drive it to an universality 3. That thou thy self transgressest in many things c. 4. Mans Life is but for a moment of time 5. Consider how many things may and do often follow upon such fits of Anger and Grief far more grievous in themselves than those things we are grieved for and angry 6. The Meekness is a thing unconquerable if it be true and natural 7. It is a mad mans part to look there should be no wicked men in the World because it is impossible c. Thus he But observe that in all these attempts for a continued Meekness and Benignity towards all men whatsoever the ease and quiet of the Philosophers Mind is rather aimed at than any thing else And that it is not so much an Vniversal Love to all men as an universal fencing of himself against the provocations of all whatsoever may at any time chance to assault and shake that firmness and stillness of Temper he proposes to himself being loth to be so obnoxious to any man that it should be in his power to plough up in uneven furrows the settled Planities of his smoothed mind Object But here it will be Objected That unless we endeavour after and at some time reach that Stoical state of the Mind it will be impossible to hold out perpetually in that mild and even tenour of Love to all men For some men are so habitually evil that nothing is tolerable much less lovely in them So that when we light on such some other Affection will be drawn out And for those of the better sort They are sometimes so unlike themselves that it cannot be that the same Affection should be continued to them How then is it That we are to love continually Sol. To this I answer three wayes First We are to love all men i. e. all manner of men of what Religion Sect or Nation soever so be that God has manifested his Graces in them any way And then that this Love should continue as long as the deserts of them that are loved And this takes away all partiality in Love Or Secondly We are to love all men and alwayes amore Benevolentiae though not Complacentiae And thus all particularity or peculiarity will be taken away or swallowed up All men whatsoever being objects capable of this Love We may wish those to be good that are notoriously evil and endeavour too to make them so which are real fruits of Love Or we may pitty them that they are not so already it being so great a Misery for them to be otherwise which is a Symptome of Love if not a genuine Notion thereof nay the very Act of Love only under another modification Which minds me of a Third way of Answer which I cannot so well make out without giving first some settled Notion or Definition of the Nature of Love The general Description whereof let be this Love is an Affection or Passion of the Mind conversant about Divine Beauty and Perfection introducible into the Souls or Persons of the Sons of men And I say Conversant about Divine Perfection and Beauty communicable to the Sons of men to distinguish it from what Love soever else For that Love that ariseth from Interest is but such as a man would bear to his Saddle-horse that carries him safely and easily And that Pitty we bear to calamitous men in Sickness Death or great distress without reference to what we have mention'd in our definition is but the same we may be haply moved with toward a dying beast or a bemoaning and whining dog That Love therefore that like the Vestal Fire is never to go out but alwayes to burn and shine in our hearts is the motion of our Mind one way or other taken up about the Divine Beauty communicable to man And thus I have at large as if I should define Colour in general described the Nature of Love But as Colour is not at all but in its several kinds and distinctions viz. either White or Red or Yellow or Green c. or some other particular kind So this Love is not any Passion at all indeed nothing at all but in its several kinds such as are Hope Fear Ioy Anger Sorrow c. For the very root or matter of all these is Love yea of Hatred it self if we look to the bottom of this Mystery As the Wax takes all shapes and yet is Wax still at the bottom The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 still is Wax So the Soul transported in so many several Passions of Ioy Fear Hope Sorrow Anger and the like has for its general ground-work of all this Love which if it were taken away those various superstructures would suddenly fall For he that loves nothing how can he fear any thing or hope or joy or hate any thing For how can he hate when there is nothing to injure or cross him in what he loves he loving nothing Or yet to make a more fit representation Love is that to the Soul that the Light is to the Sun For Light being simple in it self and uniform is yet the Basis or ground of much variety in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Nature Light being in it self one according as it lights on various surfaces of things returns modifyed into this or that colour If it fall upon Grass it becomes green if upon the Piony-flower red on the Marigold yellow from the Swans back it is reflected white and so according to the variety of the surfaces of Bodies which occur there is a change of light into some particular