suppose we may fairly gloss upon S. Paul's Discourses which so much prefer Faith above Works We must not think in a Gyant-like pride to scale the walls of Heaven by our own Works and by force thereof to take the strong Fort of Blessedness and wrest the Crown of Glory out of God's hands whether he will or no. We must not think to commence a suit in Heaven for Happiness upon such a poor and weak plea as our own External compliance with the Old Law is We must not think to deal with God in the Method of Commutative Justice and to challenge Eternal life as the just Reward of our great Merits and the hire due to us for our labour and toil we have took in God's Vineyard No God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble it must be an humble and Self-denying address of a Soul dissolved into a deep and piercing sense of its own Nothingness and unprofitableness that can be capable of the Divine bounty he fills the hungry with good things but the rich he sends empty away They are the hungry and thirsty Souls alwaies gasping after the living springs of Divine grace as the parched ground in the desert doth for the dew of Heaven ready to drink them in by a constant dependance upon God Souls that by a living watchfull and diligent Faith spreading forth themselves in all obsequious reverence and love of him wait upon him as the Eyes of an handmaid wait on the hand of her Mistress These are they that he delights to satiate with his goodness Those that being master'd by a strong sense of their own indigency their pinching and pressing povertie and his All-sufficient fulness trust in him as an Almighty Saviour and in the most ardent manner pursue after that Perfection which his grace is leading them to those that cannot satisfie themselves in a bare performance of some External acts of righteousness or an External observance of a Law without them but with the most greedy and fervent ambition pursue after such an acquaintance with his Divine Spirit as may breath an inward life through all the powers of their Souls and beget in them a vital form and soul of Divine goodness These are the spiritual seed of faithful Abraham the sons of the Free-woman and heirs of the promises to whom all are made Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus These are they which shall abide in the house for ever when the sons of the Bond-woman those that are only Arabian proselytes shall be cast out CHAP. VII An Appendix to the foregoing Discourse How the whole business and Undertaking of Christ is eminently available both to give full relief and ease to our Minds and Hearts and also to encourage us to Godliness or a God-like righteousness briefly represented in sundry Particulars FOR the further illustration of some things especially in the latter part of this Discourse it may not be amiss in some Particulars which might easily be enlarged to shew How the Undertaking of Christ that Great Object of Faith is greatly advantageous and available to the giving full relief and ease to our Minds and Hearts and also to the encouraging us to Godliness or a true God-like righteousness In the General therefore we may consider That full and evident assurance is given hereby to the world That God doth indeed seek the saving of that which is lost and men are no longer to make any doubt or scruple of it Now what can we imagine more available to carry on a Designe of Godliness and to rouze dul and languid Souls to an effectual minding of their own Salvation then to have this News sounding in their Ears by men that at the first promulgation thereof durst tell them roundly in the Name of God that God required them every where to repent for that his Kingdome of grace was now apparent and that he was not only willing but it was his gracious designe to save recover lost Sinners who had forsaken his Goodness Particularly That the whole business of Christ is very advantageous for this purpose and highly accommodate thereto may appear thus We are fully assured that God hath this forementioned designe upon lost men because here is one viz. Christ that partakes every way of Humane Nature whom the Divinity magnifies it self in and carries through this world in Humane infirmities and Sufferings to Eternal glory a clear manifestation to the World that God had not cast off Humane Nature but had a real mind to exalt and dignifie it again The way into the Holy of holies or to Eternal happiness is laid as open as may be by Christ in his Doctrine Life and Death in all which we may see with open face what Humane Nature may attain to and how it may by Humility Self-denial and divine Love a Christ-like life rise up above all visible heavens into a state of Immortal glory and bliss Here is a manifestation of Love given enough to thaw all the iciness of mens hearts which self-Self-love had quite frozen up For here is One who in Humane Nature most heartily every where denying himself is ready to doe any thing for the good of Mankind and at last gives up his life for the same pupose and that according to the good will and pleasure of that Eternal love which so loved the World that he gave this beloved and his only-begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Whereas every Penitent Sinner carries a sense of Guilt upon his own Conscience is apt to shrink with cold chill fears of offended Majesty and to dread the thoughts of violated Justice He is assured that Christ hath laid down his life and thereby made propitiation atonement for sin That He hath laid down his life for the Redemption of him and so in Christ we have Redemption through his bloud even the forgiveness of sins Thus may the Hearts of all Penitents troubled at first with sense of their own guilt be quieted and fully establisht in a living Faith and Hope in an Eternal goodness seeing how their Sins are remitted through the bloud of Jesus that came to die for them and save them and through his bloud they may have free access unto God Seeing Sin and Guilt are apt continually to beget a jealousie of God's Majesty and Greatness from whom the Sinner finds himself at a vast distance he is made acquainted with a Mediator through whom he may address himself to God without this jealousie or doubting for that this Mediator likewise is one of Humane Nature that is highly beloved and accepted of God he having so highly pleased God by performing his Will in all things Certainly it is very decorous and much for the Ease of a Penitent's mind as it makes also for the disparagement of Sin that our Addresses to God should be through a Mediator The Platonists wisely observ'd that between the Pure Divinity and Impure Sinners as
can scarce be otherwise but that there should be an unknown love between such persons there being such a secret fascination in frequent converse and familiarity as entices a mans Soul and Heart out of himself Those Precepts which we imbibe from anothers mouth naturally call forth a strong affection to flow from us to him and he who inflames our Souls with love to God will certainly enkindle a subordinate love within us to himself The words of Wisdome smite an ingenuous Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as with a dart if I may use Greg. Thaumaturgus his expression concerning Origen's Discourses and cannot but wound it both with a love to Wisdom him that shoots those piercing arrows into its Heart They bind a tractable Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it werein indissoluble necessities so that it cannot but love those words kiss the mouth also from whence they flow unto it A teachable Mind will hang about a wise mans neck and thereby they come to cleave and cling as fast together as the Soul of Jonathan did unto the Soul of David So the aforesaid Gregory speaks of himself and Origen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. This David meaning Origen hath intangled and bound up my Soul in such necessary fetters of Love he hath so tyed and even knit me to him that if I would be disengaged I cannot quit my self No 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though we depart out of this world our love cannot die for I love him even as my own Soul and so my affection must remain for ever The words of the wise saith Solomon are as goads and as nails fastned by the Masters of the Assemblies Eccles. 12. 11. If a Master fix his Doctrine in his Scholars mind he nailes himself likewise with the same stroke quasi trabali clavo by a pin as strong as a beam to his Scholars heart They mingle Souls as they doe Notions and mutually pass into each other 2. We have here likewise the Sense which Elisha had of his great loss For these Words are Expressions of Sorrow and Lamentation as appears by the words following And he took hold of his own clothes and rent them in pieces and also from chap. 13. 14. where we find Joash weeping over this Elisha and saying these very words of my Text O my Father my Father the chariot of Israel and the Horsemen thereof And methinks I see Elisha himself here bedewing his cheeks with tears and hear these words sob'd and sighed out of his Heart having lost his dear Father one that took such special care of him whilst he was in the world Methinks I see his Heart rent as well as his Garments and there I see Elijah graven in letters as great as was his Love How could he look on himself and not lament to think that he had lost his Head how could he behold Israel unguarded and not throw off his own clothes as a token of his Sorrow It is said of Jehoiakim Jer. 22. 18. That they shall not lament for him saying Ah my Brother or ah my Sister they shall not lament for him saying Ah Lord or ah his Glory which both shews that this is a Form of speech to denote sorrow and that it is an Honour wicked men shall want that none shall bemoan their Departure But the Just shall be had in everlasting remembrance they shall die desired and those who can value them will not let them pass away in silence and with dry eyes No Tears are spent so well as for the want of God and a good Friend or a Good man especially such a one as i before described And indeed who can think of his gracious lipps his profitable and delightful converse his cordial love without a sigh and a tear without saying Ah my Father Ah his Glory No man will be sooner miss'd then such an one as he Ten thousand others may steal out of the world and no body scarce mind or inquire after them but let Elijah goe away and you shall have fifty men goe three days to seek him that if it be possible they may enjoy his company a while longer We find that Jesus himself wept for his friend Lazarus Joh. 11. 35. at which the Jews said Behold how he loved him Two Souls joined together in cordial love cannot part without a groan especially a Son and his Father a Scholar and his Master The Child cannot hold it self from crying when it wants the Breast that used to feed it nor can a Soul thirsty of knowledg but be pained when the Fountain is stop'd that used to quench it There are not so many of these men in the world but their loss will be as soon felt as the want of a stake in a rotten hedg or of a Buttress against a bowing wall He who knows one to have been a Light in the world and a Lamp unto him will surely be melancholy and sad when he sees that Light goe out and himself left in the dark without that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those chearful and beloved beams which used to shine upon him to illuminate and warm his Soul with a true knowledg and love of all real goodness 3. We may further take notice of the Honourable thoughts he had of Elijah of the Reverence Worship and Respect which he gave unto him For so we may look upon these Words as an Expression of the high Esteem he had of him and Regard he bare to him even after he was gone from this Earth and could do no more kindnesses for him Elisha who had been a minister to him when he was below and used to powre water upon his hands could not but have very reverend thoughts toward him now that the Angels came to wait upon him and in Flames of fire to carry him up above He could not but honour him as his Elder and Father as his Leader and Commander as the General of the Sons of the Prophets as the very Host and Army of Israel And indeed the Souls of those men that are as full of God as the name of Elijah is which includes Two if not Three of the Divine names in it cannot but draw our eyes toward them but then they so dazzle us with their lustre and brightness they strike us into such amazement at their Perfections that the weakness of mans nature hath been apt to give no less then Divine veneration to such persons It had not been lawful I know to have worshipped Elijah though he had been an Angel but yet methinks I see Elisha bowing down with some respect to the very Mantle which fel from his Master and taking it up as a precious Relique of so holy a man And I could very well pass some Civility upon the Gown in which this Holy man departed used for to walk out of the great honour which I bear to him There was so much of Divinity enshrined in this Excellent man's Soul that it made every thing about him
out of slavish Fear void of inward Life and Love and a Complacency in the Law of God of which temper our Author discourses at large For concerning such cheap and little strictnesses as these it may be enquired What doe you more then others Do not even Publicans and Pharisees the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what excellent and extraordinary thing doe you what hard or difficult thing do you perform such as may deserve to be thought a worthy Instance and real Manifestation of the Power of Godliness except such things are to be accounted hard or extraordinary which are common to the real and to the formal Christian and are performable by unregenerate and natural men and are no peculiar Characters of Regeneration No these and the like performances by which such Religionists would set off themselves are but poor and inconsiderable things if compared with the mighty acts and noble atchievements of the more excellent though less ostentatious Christians who through Faith in the Goodness and Power of God have been enabled to doe all things through Christ knowing both how to abound and how to be abased c. Phil. 4. enabled to overcome the World without them and the Love of the World within them enabled to overcome themselves and for a man to rule his own Spirit is a greater instance of power and valour then to take a City as Solomon judgeth Prov. 16. enabled to resist the powers of darkness and to quit themselves like men and good Souldiers of Jesus Christ giving many signal overthrows to those Lusts that war against their Souls and to the mightiest and strongest of them the Sons of Anak and by engaging in the hardest Services of this Spiritual warfare wherein the Pharisaick boasters dare not follow them they shew that there is a Spirit of power in them and that they can doe more then others These are some of the Exploits of strong and healthful Christians and for the encouraging of them in these Conflicts which shall end in glorious Conquests and joyous Triumphs the Author hath in the Tenth and last Discourse suggested what is worthy our Consideration But I must not forget that there remains something to be observed concerning some other Treatises and having been so large in the last Observation which was not unnecessary the world abounding ever having abounded with spiritual Pharisees I shall be shorter in the rest And now to proceed to the next which is of Atheism This Discourse being but Preparatory to the ensuing Tracts is short yet I would mind the Reader that what is more briefly handled here may be supplied and further clear'd out of the Fifth Discourse viz. Of the Existence and Nature of God of which if the former part seem more Speculative Subtile and Metaphysical yet the Latter and Greater part containing several Deductions and Inferences from the Consideration of the Divine Nature and Attributes is less obscure and more Practical as it clearly directs us to the best though not much observed way of glorifying God and being made happy and blessed by a Participation and Resemblance of him as it plainly directs a man to such Apprehensions of God as are apt and powerful to beget in him the Noblest and dearest Love to God the sweetest Delight and the most peaceful Confidence in him One thing more I would observe to the Reader concerning the Discourse Of Atheism and the same I would desire to be observed also concerning the next that large Treatise Of the Immortality of the Soul especially of the former part thereof and it is shortly this That the Author in these Treatises pursues his discourse with a particular reflexion on the Dogmata and Notions of Epicurus and his followers especially that great admirer of him Lucretius whose Principles are here particularly examined and refuted These were the men whose Opinions our Author had to combat with He lived not to see Atheism so closely and craftily insinuated nor lived he to see Sadduceism and Epicurism so boldly owned and industriously propagated as they have been of late by some who being heartily desirous That there were no God no Providence no Reward nor Punishment after this life take upon them to deride the Notion of Spirit or Incorporeal Substance the Existence of Separate Souls and the Life to come and by infusing into mens Minds Opinions contrary to these Fundamental Principles of Religion they have done that which manifestly tends to the overthrow of all Religion the destruction of Morality and Vertuous living the debauching of Mankind the consuming and eating out of any good Principle left in the Conscience which doth testifie for God and Goodness and against Sin and Wickedness and to the defacing and expunging of the Law written in mens hearts and so the holy Apostle judges of the Epicurean Notions and discourses a taste of which he gives in that passage 1 Cor. 15. Let us eat and drink for to morrow we die and then ther 's an End of all no other life or state and he expresseth his judgment concerning the evil and dangerousness of these doctrines and their teachers partly in a Verse out of Menander 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Evil communications corrupt good manners and in what he subjoins v. 34. besides many other passages in this Chapter in opposition to the doctrine of the Sadducees and Epicureans and to the same purpose he speaks in 2. Tim. 2. 16 17 18. concerning those that denied the Doctrine of the Resurrection or any Future State and the Life to come The sum and substance of the Apostles judgment concerning these Epicurean principles is plainly this That these Principles properly and powerfully tend to the corrupting of mens Minds and Lives to the advancement of Irreligion and Immorality in the world That they are no benigne Principles to Piety and a Good life 'T is true that some of the more wary and considerate modern Epicureans may express some care to live inoffensively and to keep out of danger and to maintain a reputation in the world as to their converse with others and herein they mind their worldly interests and the advantages of this present life the only life which they have in their eye they may also express a care in avoiding what is prejudicial to health and a long life in this world But all this is short of a true and noble Love of Goodness and if in these men there be any appearance of what is Good and praise-worthy they would have been really better if they had been of other Principles and had believed in their Hearts That there is a Providence a Future state and Life to come and had lived agreeably to the Truths of the Christian Philosophy which do more ennoble and accomplish and every way better a man then the Principles of the Epicurean Sect. But to return We have before observed That our Author in these Two Treatises pursued his design in opposition to the Master-Notions and chief Principles of Epicurus
THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL CHap. I. The First and main Principles of Religion viz. 1. That God is 2. That God is a rewarder of them that seek him Wherein is included the Great Article of the Immortality of the Soul These two Principles acknowledged by religious and serious persons in all Ages 3. That God communicates himself to mankind by Christ. The Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul discoursed of in the first place and why pag. 59. Chap. II. Some Considerations preparatory to the proof of the Souls Immortality pag. 63. Chap. III. The First Argument for the Immortality of the Soul That the Soul of man is not Corporeal The gross absurdities upon the Supposition that the Soul is a Complex of fluid Atomes or that it is made up by a fortuitous Concourse of Atomes which is Epicurus his Notion concerning Body The Principles and Dogmata of the Epicurean Philosophy in opposition to the Immateriall and Incorporeall nature of the Soul asserted by Lucretius but discovered to be false and insufficient That Motion cannot arise from Body or Matter Nor can the power of Sensation arise from Matter Much less can Reason That all Humane knowledge hath not its rise from Sense The proper function of Sense and that it is never deceived An Addition of Three Considerations for the enforcing of this first Argument and further clearing the Immateriality of the Soul That there is in man a Faculty which 1. controlls Sense and 2. collects and unites all the Perceptions of our several Senses 3. That Memory and Prevision are not explicable upon the supposition of Matter and Motion pag. 68. Chap. IV. The Second Argument for the Immortality of the Soul Actions either Automatical or Spontaneous That Spontaneous and Elicite Actions evidence the distinction of the Soul from the Body Lucretius his Evasion very slight and weak That the Liberty of the Will is inconsistent with the Epicurean principles That the Conflict of Reason against the Sensitive Appetite argues a Being in us superiour to Matter pag. 85. Chap. V. The Third Argument for the Immortality of the Soul That Mathematical Notions argue the Soul to be of a true Spiritual and Immaterial Nature pag. 93. Chap. VI. The Fourth Argument for the Immortality of the Soul That those clear and stable Ideas of Truth which are in Man's Mind evince an Immortal and Immaterial Substance residing in us distinct from the Body The Soul more knowable then the Body Some passages out of Plotinus and Proclus for the further confirming of this Argument pag. 96. Chap. VII What it is that beyond the Highest and most subtile Speculations whatsoever does clear and evidence to a Good man the Immortality of his Soul That True Goodness and Vertue begets the most raised Sense of this Immortality Plotinus his excellent Discourse to this purpose pag. 101. Chap. VIII An Appendix containing an Enquiry into the Sense and Opinion of Aristotle concerning the Immortality of the Soul That according to him the Rational Soul is separable from the Body and Immortal The true meaning of his Intellectus Agens and Patiens pag. 106. Chap. IX A main Difficulty concerning the Immortality of the Soul viz. The strong Sympathy of the Soul with the Body answered An Answer to another Enquiry viz. Under what account Impressions deriv'd from the Body do fall in Morality p. 112. DISCOURSE V. OF THE EXISTENCE NATURE OF GOD. CHap. I. That the Best way to know God is by an attentive reflexion upon our own Souls God more clearly and lively pictur'd upon the Souls of Men then upon any part of the Sensible World pag 123. Chap. II. How the Contemplation of our own Souls and a right Reflexion upon the Operations thereof may lead us into the knowledge of 1. The Divine Unity and Omniscience 2. God's Omnipotence 3. The Divine Love and Goodness 4. God's Eternity 5. His Omnipresence 6. The Divine Freedome and Liberty p. 126. Chap. III. How the Consideration of those restless motions of our Wills after some Supreme and Infinite Good leads us into the knowledge of a Deity pag. 135. Chap. IV. Deductions and Inferences from the Consideration of the Divine Nature and Attributes 1. That all Divine productions are the free Effluxes of Omnipotent Love and Goodness The true Notion of God's glory what it is Men very apt to mistake in this point God needs not the Happiness or Misery of his Creatures to make himself glorious by God does most glorifie himself by communicating himself we most glorifie God when we most partake of him and resemble him most pag. 140. Chap. V. A second Deduction 2. That all things are supported and govern'd by an Almighty Wisdome and Goodness An Answer to an Objection made against the Divine Providence from an unequal distribution of things here below Such quarrelling with Providence ariseth from a Paedanticall and Carnall notion of Good and Evil. pag. 144. Chap. VI. A third Deduction 3. That all true Happiness consists in a participation of God arising out of the assimilation and conformity of our Souls to him and That the most reall Misery ariseth out of the Apostasie of Souls from God No enjoyment of God without our being made like to him The Happiness and Misery of Man defin'd and stated with the Original and Foundation of both pag. 147. Chap. VII A fourth Deduction 4. The fourth Deduction acquaints us with the true Notion of the Divine Justice That the proper scope and design of it is to preserve Righteousness to promote encourage true Goodness That it does not primarily intend Punishment but only takes it up as a mean to prevent Transgression True Justice never supplants any that it self may appear glorious in their ruines How Divine Justice is most advanced pag. 151. Chap. VIII The fifth and last Deduction 5. That seeing there is such an Entercourse and Society as it were between God and Men therefore there is also some Law between them which is the Bond of all Communion The Primitive rules of God's Oeconomy in this world not the sole Results of an Absolute Will but the sacred Decrees of Reason and Goodness God could not design to make us Sinfull or Miserable Of the Law of Nature embosom'd in Man's Soul how it obliges man to love and obey God and to express a Godlike spirit and life in this world All Souls the Off-spring of God but Holy Souls manifest themselves to be and are more peculiarly the Children of God pag. 154. Chap. IX An Appendix concerning the Reason of Positive Laws pag. 158. Chap. X. The Conclusion of this Treatise concerning the Existence and Nature of God shewing how our Knowledge of God comes to be so imperfect in this State while we are here in this Terrestriall Body Two waies observed by Plotinus whereby This Body does prejudice the Soul in her Operations That the better Philosophers and more contemplative Jews did not deny the Existence of all kind of Body in the other state What
converse with them in a Sensual and Unspiritual manner Religion does spiritualize the Creation to Good men it teaches them to look at any Perfections or Excellencies in themselves and others not so much as Theirs or That others but as so many Beams flowing from One and the Same Fountain of Light to love them all in God and God in all the Universal Goodness in a Particular Being A Good man enjoys and delights in whatsoever Good he sees otherwhere as if it were his own he does not fondly love and esteem either himself or others The Divine temper and strain of the antient Philosophy pag. 429. Chap. IX The Seventh and last Property or Effect discovering the Excellency of Religion viz. That it raiseth the Minds of Good men to a due observance of and attendance upon Divine Providence and enables them to serve the Will of God and to acquiesce in it For a man to serve Providence and the Will of God entirely to work with God and to bring himself and all his actions into a Compliance with God's Will his Ends and Designs is an argument of the truest Nobleness of Spirit it is the most excellent and divine life and it is most for mans advantage How the Consideration of Divine Providence is the way to inward quietness and establishment of Spirit How wicked men carry themselves unbecomingly through their impatience and fretfulness under the disposals of Providence The beauty and harmony of the various Methods of Providence pag. 435. Chap. X. 4. The Excellencie of Religion in regard of its Progress as it is perpetually carrying on the Soul towards Perfection Every Nature hath its proper Centre which it hastens to Sin and Wickedness is within the attractive power of Hell and hastens thither Grace and Holiness is within the Central force of Heaven and moves thither 'T is not the Speculation of Heaven as a thing to come that satisfies the desires of Religious Souls but the reall Possession of it even in this life Men are apt to seek after Assurance of Heaven as a thing to come rather then after Heaven it self and the inward possession of it here How the Assurance of Heaven rises from the growth of Holiness and the powerfull Progress of Religion in our Souls That we are not hastily to believe that we are Christ's or that Christ is in us That the Works which Christ does in holy Souls testify of him and best evidence Christ's spiritual appearance in them pag. 439. Chap. XI 5. The Excellency of Religion in regard of its Term and End viz. Perfect Blessedness How unable we are in this state to comprehend and describe the Full and Perfect state of Happiness and Glory to come The more Godlike a Christian is the better may he understand that State Holiness and Happiness not two distinct things but two several Notions of one and the same thing Heaven cannot so well be defined by any thing without us as by something within us The great nearness and affinity between Sin and Hell The Conclusion of this Treatise containing a serious Exhortation to a diligent minding of Religion with a Discovery of the Vanity of those Pretenses which keep men off from minding Religion pag. 443. DISCOURSE X. OF A CHRISTIANS CONFLICTS with CONQUESTS over SATAN CHap. I. The Introduction Summarily treating of the perpetual Enmity between God the Principle of Good and the Principle of Evil the Devil as also between Whatsoever is from God and that which is from the Devil That Wicked men by destroying what there is from God within them and devesting themselves of all that which hath any alliance to God or true Goodness and transforming themselves into the Diabolical image fit themselves for correspondence and converse with the Devil The Fears and Horrors which infest both the Apostate Spirits and Wicked men The weakness of the Devil's kingdom Christ's success against it pag. 455. Chap. II. The First observable That the Devil is continually busie with us The Devil consider'd under a double notion 1. As an Apostate Spirit which fell from God The great danger of the Devils activity not only when he presents himself in some corporeal shape but when he is unseen and appears not The weakness and folly of those who are afraid of him only when he appears embodyed That the Good Spirit of God is active for the Good of Souls How regardless men are of the gentle motions of the Divine Spirit and how unwatchfull and secure under the Suggestions of the Evil Spirit How we may discover the Devil in his Stratagems and under his several disguises and appearances pag. 458. Chap. III. 2. Of the activity of the Devil considered as a Spirit of Apostasie and as a Degenerate nature in men That the Devil is not only the name of one Particular thing but a Nature The Difference between the Devil and Wicked men is rather the Difference of a Name then of Natures The Kingdom and Tyranny of the Devil and Hell is chiefly within in the Qualities and Dispositions of mens Minds Men are apt to quarrell with the Devil in the name and notion and defie him with their Tongues while they entertain him in their Hearts and comply with all that which the Devil is The vanity of their pretended Love to God and Hatred of the Devil That there is nothing Better then God himself for which we should love him and to love him for his own Beauty and Excellency is the best way of loving him That there is nothing worse then Sin it self for which we should hate it and to hate it for its own deformity is the truest way of hating it How Hell and Misery arises from within men Why Wicked men are so insensible of their Misery in this life pag. 462. Chap. IV. The Second Observable viz. The Warfare of a Christian life True Religion consists not in a mere passive capacity and sluggish kind of doing nothing nor in a melancholy sitting still or slothfull waiting c. but it consists in inward life and power vigour and activity A discovery of the dulness and erroneousness of that Hypothesis viz. That Good men are wholy Passive and unable at any time to move without some external impetus some impression and impulse from without upon them or That all Motions in Religion are from an External Principle Of the Quality and Nature of the true Spiritual Warfare and of the Manner and Method of it That it is transacted upon the inner Stage of mens Souls and managed without Noise or pompous Observation and without any hindrance or prejudice to the most peacefull sedate and composed temper of a religious Soul This further illustrated from the consideration of the false and pretended Zeal for God and his Kingdome against the Devil which though it be impetuous and makes a great noise and a fair shew in the world is yet both impotent and ineffectual pag. 469. Chap. V. The Third Observable viz. The Certainty of Success and victory
as the Architect of the world and we may adde as that which begets in us this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these strong passionate desires whereby all sorts of men even those that are rude and illiterate are first known to themselves and by that knowledge may know what diminutive poor and helpless things themselves are who can never satiate themselves from themselves and what an Excellent and Soveraign goodness there is above them which they ought to serve and cannot but serve it or some filthy idol in stead of it though this mental Idolatry be like that gross and external in this also that howsoever we attend it not and so are never the more blameless yet our worship of these images and pictures of Goodness rests not there it being some all-sufficient Good that as we observed before calls forth and commands our adorations CHAP. IV. Deductions and Inferences from the Consideration of the Divine Nature and Attributes 1. That all Divine productions are the free Effluxes of Omnipotent Love and Goodness The true Notion of God's glory what it is Men very apt to mistake in this point God needs not the Happiness or Misery of his Creatures to make himself glorious by God does most glorifie himself by communicating himself we most glorifie God when we most partake of him and resemble him most WE have seen how we may rise up to the understanding of the Deity by the contemplation of our own Souls and now it may seem worthy of the best attention of our Minds to consider some Deductions and Inferences which naturally flow from the true knowledge of the Divine Nature and Attributes And the First is this That all Divine productions or operations that terminate in something without Him are nothing else but the free Effluxes of his own Omnipotent Love and Goodness which alwaies moves along with them and never willingly departs from them When God made the world it was not out of a piece of Self-Interest as if he had had any design to advance himself or to enlarge his own stock of glory and happiness for what Beauty or Perfection can be in this whole Creation which was not before contained in himself as the free Fountain of all or what could he see out of himself that could adde any thing to his own stature which he found not already in himself He made not the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was not for any need or that he might gain some honour to himself from Men Archangels or Angels as the Tribute or Rent to be paid to him from his Creation as Clemens Alexandrinus observes out of Plato Though I know not how it comes about that some bring in God as it were casting about how he might erect a new Monopoly of glory to himself and so to serve this purpose made the World that he might have a stock of glory here going in it And I doubt we are wont sometimes to paint him forth too much in the likeness of corrupt and impotent men that by a fond ambition please themselves and feed their lustfull phansies with their own praises chanted out to them by their admirers and another while as much sport themselves and applaud their own Greatness to hear what hideous cries the Severity of their own Power can extort from those they have a mind to make miserable We all speak much of the Glory of God and entertain a common belief that that 's the onely End for which we were all made and I wish we were all more inwardly moved with a true and lively sense of it There can be nothing else that either God could propound to himself or that we ought if it be rightly understood But we must not think that God who is Infinite fulness would seek for any thing without himself he needs neither our Happiness nor our Misery to make himself more illustrious by but being full in himself it was his good pleasure to communicate of his own fulness for as Proclus hath well observ'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. How can he look without himself being he is a pure Mind alwaies encompass'd with its own glorious brightness But the good pleasure of his Will being fill'd with bounty and the power of a most gracious Deity proceeding from it liberally dispensed themselves and distributed those gifts of grace that might make all created Being the more to resemble that Archetypall Idea of themselves Accordingly Timaeus Locrus represents the Creatour of the World in the same strain that Moses did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 delighted as it were in himself to see that all things that he had made were good and some things exceeding good God himself being infinitely full and having enough and to spare is alwaies overflowing and Goodness and Love issue forth from him by way of redundancy When he made the World because there was nothing better then himself he shadowed forth himself therein and as far as might be was pleased to represent himself and manifest his own eternall glory and perfection in it When he is said to seek his own glory it is indeed nothing else but to ray and beam forth as it were his own lustre as R. Jehuda in his Book Cofri hath glanc'd at it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gloria haec scintilla est lucis divinae cedens in utilitatem populi ejus in terra ejus God does then most glorifie and exalt himself in the most triumphant way that may be ad extra or out of himself if I may so phrase it when he most of all communicates himself and when he erects such Monuments of his own Majesty wherein his own Love and Goodness may live and reign And we then most of all glorifie him when we partake most of him when our serious endeavours of a true assimilation to him and conformity to his Image declare that we think nothing Better then He is and are therefore most ambitious of being one with him by an Universall Resignation of our selves unto him This is his Glory in its lowest Humiliation while it beams forth out of himself and our Happiness in its Exaltation which Heaven never separates nor divides though Earth doth His Honour is His Love and Goodness in paraphrase spreading it self over all those that can or doe receive it and this he loves and cherishes wheresoever he finds it as something of himself therein Thus I should leave this particular but that being gone so far in it it may be worth the while to take notice of Three things wherein God most of all glories and takes the greatest complacency in reference to Creatures as they are laid down by Proclus l. 4. in Tim. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The First and chiefest is concurrent with his own internall vision of all things in that simple expedite and simultaneous comprehension of all things intelligible piercing through all their essences and viewing them all in himself he is delighted therein as
seeing how his own Glory can display and imitate it self in outward Matter 2. The second is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the aptness and capacity of those things which he hath made to receive a further influence of good ready to stream forth from himself into them 3. The last is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the sweet symmetry of his own forms with this capacity and as it were the harmonious conspiration and symphony of them when his own light pleasantly plaies upon those well-tuned instruments which he hath fitted to run the descants of his own Goodness upon And therefore it becomes us whom he hath endued with vitall power of action and in some sense a Self-moving life to stir up his good gifts within our selves and if we would have him take pleasure in us to prepare our own Souls more and more to receive of his Liberality 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that that stock which he is pleased to impart to us may not lie dead within us And this is the Application which he makes of this Particular CHAP. V. A second Deduction 2. That all things are supported and govern'd by an Almighty Wisdome and Goodness An Answer to an Objection made against the Divine Providence from an unequall distribution of things here below Such quarrelling with Providence ariseth from a Paedanticall and Carnall notion of Good and Evil. IN the next place we may by way of further Deduction gather That that Almighty Wisdome and Goodness which first made all things doth also perpetually conserve and govern them deriving themselves through the whole Fabrick and seating themselves in every Finite Essence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the same Philosopher expresseth it lest stragling falling off from the Deity they should become altogether disorderly relapsing and sliding back into their first Chaos As in all Motion there must be some First Mover from whence the beginning and perpetuation of all Motion is deduced so in Beings there must be some First Essence upon which all other must constantly depend And therefore the Pythagorean philosophy was wont to look upon these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they call this production of every thing that is not truly divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being alwaies in fieri For as no Finite thing can subsist by its own strength or take its place upon the stage of Space without the leave of an Almighty and Supreme power so neither can it remain here without licence and assistance from it The Deity indeed is the Centre of all finite Being and Entity it self which is Self-sufficient must of necessity be the Foundation and Basis of every one of these weak Essences which cannot bear up themselves by any Centrall power of their own as we may also be almost assured of from a sensible feeling of all the constant mutations and impotency which we find both in our selves and all other things And as God thus preserves all things so he is continually ordering disposing all things in the best way and providing so as may be best for them He did not make the World as a meer Exercise of his Almighty power or to trie his own strength and then throw it away from himself without any more minding of it for he is that Omnipresent Life that penetrates and runs through all things containing and holding all fast together within himself and therefore the antient Philosophy was wont rather to say that the World was in God then that God was in the World He did not look without himself to search for some solid foundation that might bear up this weighty building but indeed rear'd it up within him and spread his own Omnipotency under it and through it and being centrally in every part of it he governs it according to the prescript of his own unsearchable Wisedome and Goodness and orders all things for the best And this is one principall Orthodox point the Stoicks would have us to believe concerning Providence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that all things are here done in this World by the appointment of the Best Mind And now if any should quarrel with the unequall distribution of things here as if rather some blind Fortune had bestow'd her blessings carelesly till she had no more left and thereby made so many starvelings rather then some All-knowing Mind that deals forth its bounty in due proportions I should send them to Plutarch and Plotinus to have their Reasons fully satisfied in this point for we here deal with the Principles of Naturall light all these debates arising from nothing but Paedanticall and Carnall notions of Good and Evil as if it were so gallant a thing to be dealing with Crowns and Scepters to be bravely arrayed and wallow in that which is call'd the Wealth of this World God indeed never took any such notice of Good men as to make them all Rulers as the last of those forecited Authors tells us neither was it worth the while 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither is it fit for good men that partake of an higher life then the most Princely is to trouble themselves about lording ruling over other men as if such a splendid kind of nothing as this is were of so much worth It may be generally much better for us while we are so apt to magnifie court any Mundane beauty and glory as we are that Providence should disorder and deface these things that we might all be weaned from the love of them then that their lovely looks should so bewitch and enchant our Souls as to draw them off from Better things And I dare say that a sober mind that shall contemplate the state and temper of mens minds and the confused frame of this outward world will rather admire at the Infinite Wisdome of a gracious Providence in permitting and ordering that Ataxy which is in it then he would were it to be beheld in a more comely frame and order CHAP. VI. A third Deduction 3. That all true Happiness consists in a participation of God arising out of the assimilation and conformity of our Souls to him and That the most reall Misery ariseth out of the Apostasie of Souls from God No enjoyment of God without our being made like to Him The Happiness and Misery of Man defin'd and stated with the Originall and Foundation of both WE proceed now to another Deduction or Inference viz. That all True Happiness consists in a participation of God arising out of the assimilation and conformity of our Souls to him and the most reall Misery ariseth out of the Apostasie of Souls from God And so we are led to speak of the Rewards and Punishments of the Life to come Praemium and Poena 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Jewish Writers are wont to express them and it will not be any hard labour from what hath been said to find out the Originall and Nature of both of them and though perhaps we cannot dive into the bottome of them yet
Right and Equity by wholsome Laws and annexing Punishments as a mean to prevent transgression and not to manifest Severity The proper scope of Justice seems to be nothing else but the preserving and maintaining of that which is Just and Right the scope of that Justice which is in any Righteous Law is properly to provide for a righteous execution of that which is just and fit to be without intending punishment for to intend that properly and directly might rather seem Cruelty then Justice and therefore Justice takes not up Punishment but onely for a security of performance of Righteous Laws viz. either for the amendment of the person transgressing or a due example to others to keep them off from transgression For I would here suppose a Good and Righteous man who in some desolate place of the World should have the command of a 100 more and himself be Supreme under no command He prescribes Laws to this company makes it death for any one to take away another's life But now one proves a Murtherer kills one of his fellows afterwards repents heartily and is like to prove usefull among the rest of his fellows they all are so heartily affected one to another that there is no danger upon sparing this Penitent's life that any one of them should be encouraged to commit the like evil The Case being thus stated it will not seem difficult to conclude that the Justice of this Righteous and Good Commander would spare this poor Penitent for his Justice would have preserved that life which is lost and seeing there is nothing further that it can obtain in taking away this it will save this which may be saved for it affects not any blood and when it destroies it is out of necessity to take away a destructive person and to give example which in the Case stated falls not out Again Justice is the Justice of Goodness and so cannot delight to punish it aimes at nothing more then the maintaining and promoting the Laws of Goodness and hath alwaies some good end before it and therefore would never punish except some further good were in view True Justice never supplants any that it self might appear more glorious in their ruines for this would be to make Justice love something better then Righteousness and to advance and magnifie it self in something which is not it self but rather an aberration from it self and therefore God himself so earnestly contends with the Jews about the Equity of his own waies with frequent asseverations that his Justice is thirsty after no man's blood but rather that Sinners would repent turn from their evil waies and live And then Justice is most advanced when the contents of it are fulfill'd and though it does not and will not acquit the guilty without Repentance yet the design of it is to encourage Innocency and promote true Goodness CHAP. VIII The Fifth and last Deduction 5. That seeing there is such an Entercourse and Society as it were between God and Men therefore there is also some Law between them which is the Bond of all Communion The Primitive rules of God's Oeconomy in this world not the sole Results of an Absolute Will but the sacred Decrees of Reason and Goodness God could not design to make us Sinfull or Miserable Of the Law of Nature embosom'd in Man's Soul how it obliges man to love and obey God and to express a Godlike spirit and life in this world All Souls the Off-spring of God but Holy Souls manifest themselves to be and are more peculiarly the Children of God THE former Deduction leads me to another a-kin to it which shall be my last and it is that which Tully intimates in his De legibus viz. That seeing there is such an Entercourse and Society as it were between God and Men therefore there is also some Law between them which is the Bond of all Communion God himself from whom all Law takes its rise and emanation is not Exlex and without all Law nor in a sober sense above it Neither are the Primitive rules of his Oeconomy in this world the sole Results of an Absolute will but the Sacred Decrees of Reason and Goodness I cannot think God to be so unbounded in his Legislative power that he can make any thing Law both for his own Dispensations and our Observance that we may sometime imagine We cannot say indeed that God was absolutely determin'd from some Law within himself to make us but I think we may safely say when he had once determin'd to make us he could neither make us sinfull seeing he had no Idea nor shadow of Evil within himself nor lap us those dreadfull fates within our Natures or set them over us that might arcanâ inspiratione as some are pleas'd to phrase it secretly work our ruine and silently carry us on making use of our own naturall infirmity to eternall misery Neither could he design to make his creatures miserable that so he might shew himself Just. These are rather the by-waies of Cruell and Ambitious men that seek their own advantage in the mischiefs of other men and contrive their own Rise by their Ruines this is not Divine Justice but the Cruelty of degenerated men But as the Divinity could propound nothing to it self in the making of the World but the Communication of its own Love and Goodness so it can never swerve from the same Scope and End in the dispensation of it self to it Neither did God so boundlesly enlarge the appetite of Souls after some All-sufficient Good that so they might be the more unspeakably tortur'd in the missing of it but that they might more certainly return to the Originall of their Beings And such busie-working Essences as the Souls of men are could neither be made as dull and sensless of true Happiness as Stocks and Stones are neither could they contain the whole summe and perfection of it within themselves therefore they must also be inform'd with such Principles as might conduct them back again to Him from whom they first came God does not make Creatures for the meer sport of his Almighty arm to raise and ruine and toss up and down at meer pleasure No that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or good pleasure of that Will that made them is the same still it changes not though we may change and make our selves uncapable of partaking the blissfull fruits and effects of it And so we come to consider that Law embosom'd in the Souls of men which ties them again to their Creatour and this is called The Law of Nature which indeed is nothing else but a Paraphrase or Comment upon the Nature of God as it copies forth it self in the Soul of Man Because God is the First Mind and the First Good propagating an Imitation of himself in such Immortall Natures as the Souls of Men are therefore ought the Soul to renounce all mortall and mundane things and preserve its Affections chast and pure for God himself
to love him with a most Universall and Unbounded Love to trust in him and reverence him to converse with him in a free chearful manner as One in whom we live and move and have our Beings being perpetually encompassed by him and never moving out of him to resign all our Waies and Wills up to him with an equall and indifferent mind as knowing that he guides and governs all things in the Best way to sink our selves as low in Humility as we are in Self-nothingness And because all those scatter'd Raies of Beauty and Loveliness which we behold spread up and down all the World over are onely the Emanations of that inexhausted Light which is above therefore should we love them all in that and climb up alwaies by those Sun-beams unto the Eternall Father of Lights we should look upon him and take from him the pattern of our lives and alwaies eying of him should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as Hierocles speaks polish and shape our Souls into the clearest resemblance of him and in all our behaviour in this World that Great Temple of his deport our selves decently and reverently with that humility meekness and modesty that becomes his house We should endeavour more and more to be perfect as he is in all our dealing with men doing good shewing mercy and compassion advancing justice and righteousness being alwaies full of charity and good works and look upon our selves as having nothing to doe here but to display blazon the glory of our heavenly Father and frame our hearts and lives according to that Pattern which we behold in the Mount of a holy Contemplation of him Thus we should endeavour to preserve that Heavenly fire of the Divine Love and Goodness which issuing forth from God centres it self within us and is the Protoplastick virtue of our Beings alwaies alive and burning in the Temple of our Souls and to sacrifice our selves back again to him And when we fulfill this Royall Law arising out of the heart of Eternity then shall we here appear to be the Children of God when he thus lives in us as our Saviour speaks Matth. 5. And so we shall close up this Particular with that High privilege which Immortall Souls are invested with they are all the Off-spring of God for so S. Paul allows the Heathen Poet to call them they are all royally descended and have no Father but God himself being originally formed into his image and likeness and when they express the purity and holiness of the Divine Life in being perfect as God is perfect then they manifest themselves to be his Children Matth. 5. And in Matth. 7. Christ encourageth men to seek and pray for the Spirit which is the best gift that God can give to men because he is their Heavenly Father much more bountifull and tender to all helpless Souls that seek to him then any earthly parent whose Nature is degenerated from that primitive goodness can be to his children But those Apostate Spirits that know not to return to the Originall of their Beings but implant themselves into some other stock and seek to incorporate and unite themselves to another line by sin and wickedness cut themselves off from this divine priviledge and lose their own birth-right they doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if I may borrow that phrase and lapse into another nature All this was well express'd by Proclus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All Souls are the Children of God but all of them know not their God but such as know him and live like to him are called the Children of God CHAP. IX An APPENDIX concerning the Reason of Positive Laws BUT here as an Appendix to the two former Deductions it may be of good use to enquire into the Reason of such Laws as we call Positive which God hath in all times as is commonly suppos'd enjoyn'd obedience to which are not the Eternall dictates and Decretals of the Divine Nature communicating it self to Immortall Spirits but rather deduce their Originall from the free will and pleasure of God To solve this Difficulty that of S. Paul may seem a fit Medium who tells us The Law was added because of transgression though I doubt not but he means thereby the Morall Law as well as any other The true intent and scope of these Positive laws and it may be of such an externall promulgation of the Morall seems to be nothing else but this to secure the Eternall Law of Righteousness from transgression As the Jews say of their decreta sapientum that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an hedge to the Law so we may say of these Divine Decretals they were but cautionary and preventive of disobedience to that Higher Law and therefore Saint Paul tells us why the Morall Law was made such a Political business by an external promulgation c. 1 Tim. 1. 9. not so much because of righteous men in whom the Law of Nature lives who perform the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without any outward Law but it was given for the lawless and disobedient c. And therefore I doubt not but we may safely conclude that God gave not those Positive Laws meerly pro imperio if I may use that expression it was not meerly to manifest his Absolute Dominion Soveraignty as some think but for the good of those that were enjoyned to obey and this belief Moses endeavours almost throughout the whole Book of Deuteronomy to strengthen the Israelites in and therefore God was so ready upon all occasions to dispense with these Laws and requires the Jews to omit the observance of them when they might seem to justle with any other Law of Morall duty or Humane necessity as may be observ'd in many Instances in Scripture But for a more distinct unfolding of this point we may take notice of this difference in the notion of Good and Evil as we are to converse with them Some things are so absolutely and somethings are so onely relatively That which is absolutely good is every way Superiour to us and we ought alwaies to be commanded by it because we are made under it But that which is relatively good to us may sometime be commanded by us Eternall Truth and Righteousness are in themselves perfectly absolutely good and the more we conform our selves to them the better we are But those things that are onely good relatively and in order to us we may say of them that they are so much the better by how much the more they are conform'd to us I mean by how much the more they are accommodated and fitted to our estate and condition and may be fit means to help and promote us in our pursuit of some Higher good and such indeed is the matter of all Positive Laws and the Symbolicall or Rituall part of Religion And as we are made for the former viz. what is absolutely good to serve that so are these latter
freed from minding any other For if God had declared which Precepts himself had most valued and settled the greatest revenue of happiness upon then other Precepts would have been less minded and any one that should have busied himself in a Precept of a lower nature would presently have left that when opportunity should have been offered of performing a higher And hence we have also another Talmudical Canon for the performing of Precepts of the same nature with the former quoted by our foresaid Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not lawfull to skip over Precepts that is as he expounds it When a man is about to observe one Precept he may not skip over and relinquish that that so he might apply himself to the observation of another And thus as the performance of any Precept hath a certain Reward annex'd to it so the Measure of the Reward they suppose to be encreased according to the Number of those Precepts which they observe as it is defined by R. Tarphon in the foresaid Mishnah c. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If thou hast been much in the study of the Law thou shalt be rewarded much For faithfull is thy Lord Master who will render to thee a Reward proportionable to thy Work And a little before we have the same thing in the words of another of their Masters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Qui multiplicat legem multiplicat vitam And lest they should not yet be liberal enough of God's cost they are also pleased to distribute Rewards to any Israelite that shall abstain from the breach of a Precept for so we find it in the Mishnah l. Kiddushin Whosoever keeps himself from the breach of a Precept 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall receive the Reward as if he had kept the Precept But this which hath been said concerning the performance of any one Precept must be understood with this Caution That the performance of such a Precept be a continued thing so as that it may compound and collect the performance of many good works into it self otherwise the single performance of any one Precept is only available according to the sense of the Talmudical Masters to cast the scale when a mans Good works and Evil works equally balance one another as Maimonides telleth us in his Comment upon the forenamed Mishnah l. Kidd cap. 1. Sect. 10. where the words of the Jewish Doctors are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that observes any one Precept it shall be well with him and his days shall be prolonged and he shall possess the Earth But he that observes not any one Precept it shall not be well with him nor shall his days be prolonged nor shall he inherit the Earth Which words are thus expounded by Maimonides He that observes any one Precept c. that is so as that by the addition of this work to his other good works his good works over-weigh his evil works and his merits preponderate his demerits For the better understanding whereof we must know That the Jewish Doctors are wont to distinguish of Three sorts of Men which are thus ranked by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men perfectly righteous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men perfectly wicked and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a middle sort of men betwixt them Those they are wont to call perfectly righteous who had no transgression or demerits that might be counted fit to be put into the balance against their Merits and those they call'd simply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 righteous whose Merits outweighed their demerits Whereas on the other side the perfectly wicked in their sense were such as had no Merits at all and those simply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wicked whose demerits made the weightiest scale And the Middle sort were such as their good deeds and evil deeds equally balanced one another Of this First sort of Men viz. the perfectly righteous they supposed there might be many and such the Pharisees seem to have been in their own esteem in our Saviours time And according to this Notion our Saviour may seem to have shaped his answer to that Young man in the Gospel who asked him What shall I doe to inherit eternal life To which our Saviour answers Keep the Commandements which our Saviour propounds to him in so great a latitude as thereby to take him off from his self-conceit and that he might be convinced upon reflexion on himself that he had fallen short of Eternal life in failing of a due performance of the Divine law But he insisting upon his own Merit in this respect enquires of our Saviour whether there be yet any thing wanting to make him a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one perfectly righteous To this our Saviour replies If thou wilt be perfect go and sell that thou hast c. The meaning of which Reply may as I conceive be this to convince him of his imperfect Obedience to and compliance with the law of God from his over-eager love of this world But secondly for the Medii or those that were in the middle rank of men the Jewish Doctors had divers Rules as 1. In case a mans Evil works and Good were equal the addition of one either way might determine them to Eternal life or misery 2. That in case a mans Evil works should preponderate and weigh down his Good yet he may cast the scale by Repentance if he will or in the other world by chastisements and punishments he may make expiation for them These the like ways they have found out lest any of their fraternity should miscarry To all which we must take in this Caution which they are pleased to deliver to us viz. That Mens Works have their different weight some Good works being so weighty that they may weigh in the balance against many Evil works and vice versâ All which we shall find largely set down by R. Albo l. de fundament is fidei and partly by R. Saadia but especially by Maimonides in his Treatise of Repentance chap. 3. who also tells us of other Expedients provided by their Law for the securing of Merit and Happiness which I shall not here mention And indeed in fine they have found out so many artifices to entail a Legal righteousness and Eternal happiness upon all the Israelites that if it be possible none might be left out of Heaven as may partly appear by that Question captiously proposed to our Saviour Master are there few that shall be saved whereby they expected to ensnare him they themselves holding a General Salvation of all the Jews by virtue of the Law however their wickedness might abound Which we find expresly set down by Maimonides in the fore-named place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All wicked ones whose Evil deeds exceed their Good deeds shall be judged according to the Measure of their Evil deeds so exceeding and afterwards they shall have a portion in the World to come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that all Israelites have a
Israelites became shining and clear without any defilement and their Bodies did shine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the brightness of the Firmament And then thus concludeth all When the Israelites received the Law upon Mount Sinai 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the world was then perfum'd with a most aromatick smell and Heaven and Earth were established and the Holy Blessed One was known above and below and he ascended in his glory above all things By all which Mystical and Allegorical Expressions our Author seems to aim at this main Scope viz. To set forth the Law as that which of it self was sufficient without any other Dispensation from God for the perfecting of those to whom it was dispensed and to make them Comprehensours of all Righteousness here and Glory hereafter Which they are wont to set forth in that transcendent state of Perfection which the Israelites were in at the receiving of the Law whence it hath been an ancient Maxime amongst them In Statione montis Sinai Israelitae erant sicut Angeli ministerii And thus we have endeavoured to make good that which we first propounded namely to shew That the grand Opinion of the Jews concerning the way to Life and Happiness was this viz. That the Law of God externally dispensed and only furnished out to them in Tables of Stone and a Parchment-roll conjoined with the power of their own Free-will was sufficient both to procure them acceptance with God and to acquire Merit enough to carry them with spread sails into the Harbour of Eternal rest and blessedness So that by this time we may see that those Disputes which S. Paul and other Apostles maintain against the Jews touching the Law and Faith were not merely about that one Question Whether Justification formally and precisely respects Faith alone but were of a much greater latitude CHAP. IV. The Second Enquiry Concerning the Evangelical Righteousness or the Righteousness of Faith and the true difference between the Law and the Gospel the Old and the New Covenant as it is laid down by the Apostle Paul A more General Answer to this enquiry together with a General observation of the Apostle's main End in opposing Faith to the Works of the Law viz. To beat down the Jewish proud conceit of Merit A more particular and Distinct answer to the Enquiry viz. That the Law or Old Covenant is considered only as an External administration a dead thing in it self a Dispensation consisting in an Outward and Written Law of Precepts But the Gospel or New Covenant is an Internal thing a Vital Form and Principle of Righteousness in the Souls of men an Inward manifestation of Divine life and a living Impression upon the Minds and Spirits of Men. This proved from several Testimonies of Scripture HAving done with the First Enquiry we now come to the Second which was this What the Evangelical Righteousness or the Righteousness of Faith is which the Apostle sets up against that of the Law and in what Notion the Law is considered by the Apostle Which in summe was this viz. That the Law was the Ministery of death and in it self an External and Liveless thing neither could it procure or beget that Divine life and spiritual Form of Godliness in the Souls of men which God expects from all the heirs of Glory nor that Glory which is only consequent upon a true Divine life Whereas on the other side the Gospel is set forth as a mighty Efflux and Emanation of life and spirit freely issuing forth from an Omnipotent source of Grace and Love as that true God-like vital influence whereby the Divinity derives it self into the Souls of men enlivening and transforming them into its own likeness and strongly imprinting upon them a Copy of its own Beauty and Goodness Like the Spermatical virtue of the Heavens which spreads it self freely upon this Lower world and subtily insinuating it self into this benummed feeble earthly Matter begets life and motion in it Briefly It is that whereby God comes to dwell in us and we in him But that we may the more distinctly unfold the Difference between That Righteousness which is of the Law That which is of Faith so the better shew how the Apostle undermines that fabrick of Happiness which the Jews had built up for themselves we shall observe First in general That the main thing which the Apostle endeavours to beat down was that proud and arrogant conceit which they had of Merit and to advance against it the notion of the Divine grace and bounty as the only Fountain of all Righteousness and Happiness For indeed that which all those Jewish notions which we have before taken notice of aim principally at was the advancing of the weakened Powers of Nature into such an height of Perfection as might render them capable of Meriting at Gods hands and that Perfection which they speak so much of as is clear from what hath been said was nothing else but a mere sublimation of their own Natural Powers and Principles performed by the strength of their own Fancies And therefore these Contractors with Heaven were so pleased to look upon Eternal life as a fair Purchase which they might make for themselves at their own charge as if the spring and rise of all were in themselves their eyes were so much dazled with those foolish fires of Merit and Reward kindled in their own Fancies that they could not see that light of Divine grace and bounty which shone about them And this Fastus and swelling pride of theirs if I mistake not is that which S. Paul principally endeavours to chastise in advancing Faith so much as he doth in opposition to the works of the Law For which purpose he spends the First and Second Chapters of this Epistle to the Romans in drawing up a charge of such a nature both against Gentiles and Jews but principally against the Jews who were the grand Justitiaries that might make them bethink themselves of imploring Mercy and of laying aside all plea of Law and Justice and so chap. 3. 27. he shuts up all with a severe check to such presumptuous arrogance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where then is boasting This seems then to be the main End which S. Paul every where aims at in opposing Faith to the works of the Law namely to establish the Foundation of Righteousness and Happiness upon the Free mercy and grace of God the glorifying and magnifying of which in the real manifestations of it he holds forth upon all occasions as the designe plot of the Gospel-administration seeing it is impossible for men by any Works which they can perform to satisfie God's Justice for those Sins which they have committed against him or truly to comply with his Divine will without his Divine assistance So that the Method of reconciling men to God and reducing of straying Souls back again to him was to be attributed wholy to another Original then that which the Jews imagined But Secondly That
of sinners insatiably greedy after their prey never satisfied till they have devoured the Souls of men Lest we should by such dreadful apprehensions be driven from God we are told of the Bloud of sprinkling that speaks better things for us of a mighty Favourite solliciting our Cause with perpetual intercessions in the Court of heaven of a new and living way to the Throne of grace and to the Holy of holies which our Saviour hath consecrated through his flesh We are told of a great and mighty Saviour able to save to the utmost all that come to God by him We heare of the most compassionate and tender Promises that may be from the Truth it self that Whosoever comes to him he will in no wise cast out that They that believe on him out of them should flow streams of living water We hear of the most gracious invitations that Heaven can make to all weary and heavy-laden sinners to come to Christ that they may find rest The great Secrets of Heaven and the Arcana of Divine Counsells are revealed whereby we are acquainted that Glory to God in the highest Peace on earth Good will towards men are sweetly joined together in Heavens harmony and happily combin'd together in the composure of it's Ditties That the Glory of the Deity and Salvation of men are not allaied by their union one with another but both exalted together in the most transcendent way that Divine love and bounty are the supreme rulers in Heaven and Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is no such thing as sowre Despight and Envy lodged in the bosome of that ever-blessed Being above whose name is LOVE and all whose Dispensations to the Sons of men are but the dispreadings and distended radiations of his Love as freely flowing forth from it through the whole orbe and sphear of its creation as the bright light from the Sun in the firmament of whose benign influences we are then only deprived when we hide and withdraw our selves from them We are taught that the mild and gentle breathings of the Divine Spirit are moving up and down in the World to produce life and to revive and quicken the Souls of men into a feeling sense of a blessed Immortality This is that mighty Spirit that will if we comply with it teach us all things even the hidden things of God mortifie all the lusts of rebellious Flesh and seal us up to the day of redemption We are taught that with all holy boldness we may in all places lift up holy hands to God without wrath or doubting without any sowre thoughts of God or fretfull jealousies or harsh surmises We can never distrust enough in our selves nor ever trust too much in God This is the great Plerophory and that full Confidence which the Gospel every where seems to promote and should I run through all the Arguments and Solicitations that are there laid down to provoke us to an entertainment hereof I should then run quite through it from one end to another it containing almost nothing else in the whole Complex and Body of it but strong and forcible Motives to all Ingenuous addresses to God and the most effectual Encouragement that may be to all chearfull dependance on him and confident expectation of all assistance from him to carry on our poor endeavours to the atchievment of Blessedness and that in the most plain and simple way that may be sine fraude fuco without any double mind or mental reservation Heaven is not acquainted so feelingly with our wicked arts and devices But it is very strange that where God writes Life so plainly in fair Capital letters we are so often apt to read Death that when he tells us over and over that Hell destruction arise from our selves that they are the workmanship of our own hands we will needs understand their Pedegree to be from Heaven and that they were conceived in the Womb of Life and Blessedness No but the Gospel tells us we are not come to Mounts of burning nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest c. Hebr. 12. v. 18. Certainly a lively Faith in this Love of God and a sober converse with his Goodness by a cordial entertainment and through perswasion of it would warm and chafe our benummed Minds and thaw our Hearts frozen with self-Self-love it would make us melt and dissolve out of all Self-consistencie and by a free and noble Sympathie with the Divine love to yield up our selves to it and dilate and spread our selves more fully in it This would banish away all Atheisme and ireful slavish Superstition it would cast down every high thought and proud imagination that swells within us and exalts it self against this soveraign Deity it would free us from all those poor sorry pinching and particular Loves that here inthrall the Souls of men to Vanity and Baseness it would lead us into the true liberty of the sons of God filling our Hearts once enlarged with the sense of it with a more generous and universal love as unlimited and unbounded as true Goodness it self is Thus Moses-like conversing with God in the Mount and there beholding his glory shining thus out upon us in the face of Christ we should be deriving a Copy of that Eternal beauty upon our own Souls and our thirstie and hungry spirits would be perpetually sucking in a true participation and image of his glory A true divine Love would wing our Souls and make them take their flight swiftly towards Heaven and Immortality Could we once be throughly possess'd and mastered with a full confidence of the Divine love and God's readiness to assist such feeble languishing creatures as we are in our assays after Heaven and Blessedness we should then finding our selves borne up by an Eternal and Almighty strength dare to adventure courageously and confidently upon the highest designes of Happiness to assail the kingdome of heaven with a holy gallantry and violence to pursue a course of well-doing without weariness knowing that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord and that we shall receive our Reward if we faint not We should work out our salvation in the most industrious manner trusting in God as one ready to instill strength and power into all the vital faculties of our Souls We should press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus that we may apprehend that for which also we are apprehended of Christ Jesus If we suffer not our selves to be robb'd of this Confidence and Hope in God as ready to accomplish the desires of those that seek after him we may then walk on strongly in the way to Heaven and not be weary we may run and not faint And the more the Souls of men grow in this blissfull perswasion the more they shall mount up like Eagles into a clear Heaven finding themselvs rising higher and higher above all those filthy mists those clouds and tempests of a slavish Fear
〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to which this Quère of his seems to refer as if he had said Having kept all God's commandements sure my Good deeds cannot only over-ballance my Evil no but they rather fill both the scales of the Divine ballance I have no Evil deeds to weigh against them what therefore can I want of the end and scope of the Divine Law which is to make men perfect seeing I have guided my whole life from my youth up by the Precepts of it To which our Saviour replies If thou wilt be perfect go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come and follow me Which words I can neither think to be spoken as Consilium perfectionis in the Papal sense nor yet only as a particular and special Precept but rather by way of Conviction So that the full sense and importance of our Saviours speech seems to be this viz. A mere Conformity of the Outward man to the Law of God is not sufficient to bring a man to Eternal life but the Inward man also must deeply receive in the stamp and impression of the Divine Law so as to be made like to God True Perfection is not consistent with any Terrene loves or Worldly affections This Mundane life and spirit which acts so strongly and impetuously in this lower world must be crucified The Soul must be wholly dissolved from this Earthy body which it is so deeply immerst in while it endeavours to enlarge its sorry Tabernacle upon this material Globe and by a holy abstraction from all things that pinion it to Mortality withdraw it self and retire into a Divine solitude If thou therefore wert in a state of Perfection thou wouldest be able at the first call from God to resigne up all Interest here below to quitt all claim and to dispose of thy self and all worldly enjoyments according to his pleasure without any reluctancy and come and follow me And this I think was the true Scope of our Saviours answer which proved a real Demonstration as it appears in the sequel of the Story that this confident Pharisee had not yet attained to those mortified affections which are requisite in all the Candidates of true Blessedness but only cheated his own Soul with a bare External appearance of Religion which was not truly seated in his Heart and I doubt not but many are ready upon as slight Grounds and with as much confidence to take up his Quere What lack I yet We shall therefore in the first place according to what we promised inquire into some of those false Pretences which men are apt to make to Happiness and shew in four Particulars how Religion is mistaken CHAP. II. An Account of mens Mistakes about Religion in 4 Particulars 1. A Partial obedience to some Particular Precepts The False Spirit of Religion spends it self in some Particulars is confin'd is overswayed by some prevailing Lust. Men of this spirit may by some Book-skill and a zeal about the Externals of Religion loose the sense of their own Guiltiness and of their deficiencies in the Essentials of Godliness and fansy themselves nearly related to God Where the true Spirit of Religion is it informs and actuates the whole man it will not be confin'd but will be absolute within us and not suffer any corrupt Interest to grow by it THE First is A Partial obedience to some Particular Precepts of Gods law That arrogant Pharisee that could lift up a bold face to heaven and thank God he was no Extortioner nor unjust nor guilty of any Publican-sins found it easie to perswade himself that God justified him as much as he did himself It was a vulgar Rule given by the Jewish Doctors which I fear too many live by That men should single out some one Commandement out of Gods law and therein especially exercise themselves that so they might make God their friend by that lest in others they should too much displease him Thus men are content 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to pay God their Decimae and Septimae of their lives too if need be so that they may without fear of sacriledge or purloining as they suppose from him enjoy all the rest to themselves But they are not willing to consecrate their whole lives to him they are afraid lest Religion should incroach too much upon them and too busily invade their own rights and liberties as their Selfish Spirit calls them There are such that it may be think themselves willing that God should have his due so be it he will also let them enjoy their own without any lett or molestation but they are very jealous lest he should incroach too much upon them and are carefull to maintain a Meum and Tuum with Heaven it self and to set bounds to God's prerogative over them lest it should swell too much and grow too mighty for them to maintain their own Priviledges under it They would fain understand themselves to be free-born under the dominion of God himself and therefore ought not to be compelled to yield obedience to any such laws of his as their own private seditious Lusts and Passions will not suffer them to give their consent unto There be such who perswade themselves they are well-affected to God and willing to obey his Commandements but yet think they must not be uncivil to the World nor so base and cowardly as not to maintain their own credit and reputation with a due revenge upon those that seem to impair it or so much forget themselves as not to comply with the guise and fashion of this world so far as it may make for their own emolument or preferment Such as these that are no fast friends to Religion can easily find some Postern-dore to slip out by into this World and while they either doe some constant homage to Heaven in the exercise and performance of some Duties of Religion or abstain from such Vices as the common opinions of men brand with infamie or can fansie themselves to be marked out with some of those Characters which they have learned from Books or Pulpit-discourses to be the Notes of God's Children and justified persons they grow big with Self-conceit and can easily find out some handsome piece of Sophistry and cunning Topick to delude themselves by in indulging some beloved Lust or other They can sometimes beat down the price of other mens religion to inhance the value of their own or it may be by a burning and fiery zeal against the Opinions and deportments of others that are not of their own Sect they may loose the sense of all their own guiltiness The Disciples themselves had almost forgotten the mild and gentle Spirit of Religion in an over-hasty heat calling for Fire down from heaven upon those whom they deemed their Master's enemies Sometimes a Partial spirit in Religion that spends it self only in some Particulars mistakes the fair complexions of Good nature for the
true face of Vertue and a good Bodily temperament will serve it as a flattering glass to bestow beauty upon a deformed and mis-shapen Mind that it may seem vertuous But it is not a true Spirit of Religion whatsoever those wanton wits may call it that is thus Particular and confin'd No that is of a subtile and working nature it will be searching through the whole man and leave nothing uninformed by it self as it is with the Soul that runs through all the portions of Matter and every member of the Body Sin and Grace cannot lodge together they cannot divide and share out between them two several Dominions in one Soul What is commonly said of Truth in general we may say more especially of true Goodness magna est praevalebit it will lodge in the Souls of men like that mighty though gentle Heat which is entertained in the Heart that alwaies dispenseth warm Bloud and Spirits to all the members in the Body it will not suffer any other Interest to grow by it it will be so absolute as to swallow up all our carnal freedom and crush down all our fleshly liberty as Moses his Serpent did eate up all the Serpents of the Egyptian Magicians so will it devour all that viperous brood of iniquity which our Magical Self-will by her witchcraft and enchantments begets within us like a strong and vehement Flame within us it will not only singe the hair or scorch and blister the skin but it will go on to consume this whole Body of death it is compared by our Saviour to Leaven that will ferment the whole mass in which it is wrap'd up it will enter into us like the Refiner's fire and the Fuller's Soape like the Angel of God's presence that he promised to send along with the Israelites in their journy to Canaan it will not pardon our iniquities nor indulge any darling lust whatsoever it will narrowly pry into all our actions and be spying out all those back-waies and dores whereby Sin and Vice may enter That Religion that runs out only in Particularities and is overswayed by the prevailing power of any Lust is but only a dead carkass and not indeed that true living Religion which comes from Heaven and which will not suffer it self to be confin'd that will not indent with us or article upon our tearms and conditions but Sampson like will break all those bonds which our fleshly and harlot-like wills would tie it with and become every way absolute within us And so I pass to the Second thing wherein men are apt to delude themselves in taking an Estimate of their own Religion viz. CHAP. III. The Second Mistake about Religion viz. A meer complyance of the Outward man with the Law of God True Religion seats it self in the Centre of mens Souls and first brings the Inward man into Obedience to the Law of God the Superficial Religion intermeddles chiefly with the Circumference and Outside of men or rests in an outward abstaining from some Sins Of Speculative and the most close and Spiritual wickedness within How apt men are to sink all Religion into Opinions and External Forms A Mere compliance of the Outward man with the Law of God There is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Philosophy hath acknowledged as well as our Christian Divinity and when Religion seats it self in the Centre of mens Souls it acts there most strongly upon the Vital powers of it and first brings the Inward man into a true and chearfull obedience to the law of God before all the seditious and rebellious motives of the External or Animal man be quite subdued But a Superficial Religion many times intermeddles only with the Circumference and Outside of men it only lodges in the suburbs and storms the out-works but enters not the main Fort of mens Souls which is strongly defended by inward Pride Self-will particular and mundane Loves fretting and self-consuming Envy Popularity and Vain-glory and such other Mental vices that when they are beaten out of the visible behaviours and conversations of men by Divine threats or promises which may be too potent to be controll'd retreat and secure themselves here as in a strong Castle There may be many who dare not pursue Revenge and yet are not willing to forgive injuries who dare not murther their enemy that yet cannot love him who dare not seek for preferment by Bribery who yet are not mortified to these and many other mundane and base-born affections they are not willing that the Divine prerogative should extend it self beyond the Outward man and that Religion should be too busie with their Inward thoughts and passions if they may not by proud boasting set off their own sorry commodities upon the publick stage and there read out their own Panegyricks yet they will inwardly applaud themselves and commit wanton dalliance with their own Parts and Perfections and not feeling the mighty power of any Higher good they will endeavour to preserve an unhallowed Autaesthesie and feeling sense of themselves and by a sullen melancholy Stoicisme when Religion would deprive and bereave them of the sinfull glory and pleasures of this Outward world they then retire and shrink themselves up into a Centre of their own they collect and contract themselves into themselves Thus when this low life of mens Souls is chased out of the External vices and vanities of this World by the chastisements of their own Consciences or many times by bodily oppressions it presently retires into it self and by a Self-feeling begins more to grasp and dearly embrace it self When these External loves begin to be starved and cooled yet men may then fall into love with and courting of themselves by Arrogancy Self-confidence and dependence Self-applause and gratulations Admiration of their own perfections and so feed that dying life of theirs with this Speculative wantonness that it may as strongly express it self within them as before it did without themselves Men may by inward braving of themselves sacrilegiously steal God's glory from him and erect a Self-supremacy within exerting it self in Self-will and particular loves and so become Corrivals with God for the Crown of Blessedness and Self-sufficiency as I doubt many of the Stoicks endeavoured with a Giant-like ambition to doe But alas I doubt we generally arrive not to this pitch of Religion to deny the world and all the pomp and glory of this largely-extended train of Vanity but we easily content our selves with some External forms of Religion We are too apt to look at a garish dress and attire of Religion or to be enamoured rather with some more specious and seemingly-spiritual Forms then with the true Spirit Power of Godliness Religion it self We are more taken commonly with the several new fashions that the luxuriant Fancies of men are apt to contrive for it then with the real power and simplicity thereof and while we think our selves to be growing in our
mangling of the Words or running out into any Critical curiosities about them I shall from these Words take occasion to set forth The Nobleness and Generous Spirit of True Religion which I suppose to be meant here by The way of life The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here rendred above may signifie that which is divine and heavenly high and excellent as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does in the New Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 3. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Col. 3. 2. S. Austin supposeth the things of Religion to be meant by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 superna for this reason quòd merito excellentiae longè superant res terrenas And in this sense I shall consider it my purpose being from hence to discourse of the Excellent and Noble spirit of true Religion whether it be taken in abstracto as it is in it self or in concreto as it becomes an inward Form and Soul to the Minds and Spirits of Good men and this in opposition to that low and base-born spirit of Irreligion which is perpetually sinking from God till it couches to the very Centre of misery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the lowermost Hell In discoursing upon this Argument I shall observe this Method viz. I shall consider the Excellency and Nobleness of True Religion 1. In its Rise and Original 2. In its Nature and Essence 3. In its Properties and Operations 4. In its Progress 5. In its Term and End CHAP. I. 1. The Nobleness of Religion in regard of its Original and Fountain it comes from Heaven and moves towards Heaven again God the First Excellency and Primitive Perfection All Perfections and Excellencies in any kind are to be measured by their approach to and Participation of the First Perfection Religion the greatest Participation of God none capable of this Divine Communication but the Highest of created Beings and consequently Religion is the greatest Excellency A twofold Fountain in God whence Religion flowes viz. 1. His Nature 2. His Will Of Truth Natural and Revealed Of an Outward and Inward Revelation of God's Will WE begin with the First viz. True Religion is a Noble thing in its Rise and Original and in regard of its Descent True Religion derives its pedigree from Heaven is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it comes from Heaven and constantly moves toward Heaven again it 's a Beam from God as every good and perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning as S. James speaks God is the First Truth and Primitive Goodness True Religion is a vigorous Efflux and Emanation of Both upon the Spirits of men and therefore is called a participation of the divine Nature Indeed God hath copyed out himself in all created Being having no other Pattern to frame any thing by but his own Essence so that all created Being is umbratilis similitudo entis increati and is by some stamp or other of God upon it at least remotely allied to him But True Religion is such a Communication of the Divinity as none but the Highest of created Beings are capable of On the other side Sin and Wickedness is of the basest and lowest Original as being nothing else but a perfect degeneration from God and those Eternal Rules of Goodness which are derived from him Religion is an Heaven-born thing the Seed of God in the Spirits of men whereby they are formed to a similitude likeness of himself A true Christian is every way of a most noble Extraction of an heavenly and divine pedigree being born 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from above as it is express'd Joh. 3. The line of all earthly Nobility if it were followed to the beginning would lead to Adam where all the lines of descent meet in One and the Root of all Extractions would be found planted in nothing else but Adamah red Earth But a Christian derives his line from Christ who is the Only-begotten Son of God the shining forth of his glory and the Character of his person as he is stiled Heb. 1. We may truly say of Christ and Christians as Zebah and Zalmunna said of Gideon's brethren As he is so are they according to their capacity each one resembling the children of a king Titles of Worldly honour in Heavens heraldry are but only Tituli nominales but Titles of Divine dignity signify some Real thing some Real and Divine Communications to the Spirits and Minds of men All Perfections and Excellencies in any kind are to be measured by their approach to that Primitive Perfection of all God himself and therefore Participation of the Divine nature cannot but entitle a Christian to the highest degree of dignity Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God 1 Jo. 3. 1. Thus much for a more general discovery of the Nobleness of Religion as to its Fountain and Original We may further and more particularly take notice of this in reference to that Twofold fountain in God from whence all true Religion flows and issues forth viz. 1. His Immutable Nature 2. His Will 1. The Immutable Nature of God From thence arise all those Eternal Rules of Truth and Goodness which are the Foundation of all Religion and which God at the first Creation folded up in the Soul of man These we may call the Truths of Natural inscription understanding hereby either those Fundamental principles of Truth which Reason by a naked intuition may behold in God or those necessary Corollaries and Deductions that may be drawn from thence I cannot think it so proper to say That God ought infinitely to be loved because he commands it as because he is indeed an Infinite and Unchangeable Goodness God hath stamp'd a Copy of his own Archetypal Loveliness upon the Soul that man by reflecting into himself might behold there the glory of God intra se videre Deum see within his Soul all those Ideas of Truth which concern the Nature and Essence of God by reason of its own resemblance of God and so beget within himself the most free and generous motions of Love to God Reason in man being Lumen de Lumine a Light flowing from the Fountain and Father of Lights and being as Tully phraseth it participata similitudo Rationis aternae as the Law of Nature the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Law written in mans Heart is participatio Legis aternae in Rationali creatura it was to enable Man to work out of himself all those Notions of God which are the true Ground-work of Love and Obedience to God and conformity to him and in modling the inward man into the greatest conformity to the Nature of God was the Perfection and Efficacy of the Religion of Nature But since Mans fall from God the inward virtue and vigour of Reason is much abated the Soul having suffered a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
without any inward disturbance and resistance from any controlling Lusts to exercise it self and act with the greatest complacency in the most full and ample manner upon that First Universal and Unbounded Essence which is God himself The most generous Freedom can never be took in its full and just dimensions and proportion but then when all the Powers of the Soul exercise and spend themselves in the most large and ample manner upon the Infinite and Essential Goodness as upon their own most proper Object If we should ask a Good man when he finds himself best at ease when he finds himself most free his answer would be When he is under the most powerfull constraints of divine Love There are a sort of Mechanical Christians in the world that not finding Religion acting like a living form within them satisfie themselves only to make an Art of it and rather inform and actuate it then are informed by it and setting it such bounds and limits as may not exceed the short and scant measures of their own home born Principles then they endeavour to fit the Notions of their own Minds as so many Examples to it and it being a Circle of their own making they can either ampliateor contract it accordingly as they can force their own Minds and Dispositions to agree and suit with it But true Religion indeed is no Art but an inward Nature that conteins all the laws and measures of its motion within it self A Good man finds not his Religion without him but as a living Principle within him and all his Faculties are still endeavouring to unite themselves more and more in the nearest intimacy with it as with their proper Perfection There is that amiableness in Religion that strong Sympathy between the Soul and it that it needs carry no Testimonials or Commendations along with it If it could be supposed that God should plant a Religion in the Soul that had no affinity or alliance with it it would grow there but as a strange slip But God when he gives his Laws to men does not by virtue of his Absolute dominion dictate any thing at randome and in such an arbitrarious way as some imagine but he measures all by his own Eternal Goodness Had God himself been any thing else then the First and Greatest Good of man then to have loved him with the full strength of all our Faculties should not have been the First and Greatest Commandment as our Saviour tells us it is Some are apt to look upon God as some Peevish and Self-will'd thing because themselves are such and seeing that their own Absolute and naked Wills are for the most part the Rules of all their actions and the impositions which they lay upon others they think that Heaven's Monarchy is such an arbitrary thing too as being govern'd by nothing else but by an Almighty Absolute Will But the Soul that is acquainted most intimately with the Divine Will would more certainly resolve us That God's Unchangeable Goodness which makes the Divinity an Uniform thing and to settle together upon its own Centre as I may speak with reverence is also the Unchangeable Rule of his Will neither can he any more swerve from it then he can swerve from himself Nor does he charge any Duty upon man without consulting first of all with his Goodness which being the Original and adequate Object of a Good man's Will and affections it must needs be that all the issues and effluxes of it be entertain'd with an answerable complacency chearfulness This is the hinge upon which all true Religion turns the proper Centre about which it moves which taking a fast sure hold of an innate and correspondent Principle in the Soul of man raiseth it up above the confines of Mortality and in the day of its mighty power makes it become a free-will-Offering unto God CHAP. IV. The Second Property discovering the Nobleness of Relion viz. That it restores man to a just power and dominion over himself enables him to overcome his Self-will and Passions Of Self-will and the many Evils that flow from it That Religion does nowhere discover its power and prowess so much as in subduing this dangerous and potent Enemy The Highest and Noblest Victories are those over our Self-will and Passions Of Self-denial and the having power over our Wills the Happiness and the Privileges of such a State How that Magnanimity and Puissance which Religion begets in Holy Souls differs from and excells that Gallantry and Puissance which the great Nimrods of this world boast of THE Second Property or Effect of Religion whereby it discovers its own Nobleness and it is somewhat a-kin to the former Particular and will help further to illustrate and enforce it is this That it restores a Good man to a just power and dominion over himself and his own Will enables him to overcome himself his own Self-will and Passions and to command himself all his Powers for God 'T is only Religion that restores that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Stoical Philosophy so impotently pretended to it is this only that enthrones man 's deposed Reason and establisheth within him a just Empire over all those blind Powers and Passions which so impetuously rend a man from the possession and enjoiment of himself Those turbulent and unruly uncertain and unconstant Motions of Passion and Self-will that dwell in degenerate Minds divide them perpetually from themselves and are alwaies molding several factions and tumultuous combinations within them against the dominion of Reason And the only way to unite man firmly to himself is by uniting him to God and establishing in him a firm amity and agreement with the First and Primitive Being There is nothing in the World so boisterous as a man 's own Self-will which is never guided by any fixt or steddy Rules but is perpetually hurried to and fro by a blind and furious impetus of Pride and Passions issuing from within it self This is the true source and Spring of all that Envy Malice Bitterness of Spirit Male-contentedness and Impatiency of all those black and dark Passions those inordinate desires and lusts that reign in the hearts and lives of wicked men A man 's own Self-will throws him out of all true enjoyment of his own Being therefore it was our Saviours counsell to his disciples In patience possess your Souls We may say of that Self-will which is lodg'd in the heart of a wicked man as the Jews speak of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 figmentum malum so often mention'd in their Writings that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Prince of death and darkness which is at continual enmity with Heaven and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the filthiness and poison of the Serpent This is the Seed of the Evil Spirit which is perpetually at enmity with the Seed of God and the Heaven-born Nature It 's design and scope is with a Giant-like pride to climb up into the Throne of
contentment without it self and so it wanders up and down from one creature to another and thus becomes distracted by a multiplicity of Objects And while it cannot find some One and Onely object upon which as being perfectly adequate to its capacities it may wholly bestow it self while it is tossed with restless and vehement motions of Desire and Love through a world of painted beauties false glozing Excellencies courting all but matching nowhere violently hurried every whither but finding nowhere objectum par amori while it converseth onely with these pinching Particularities here below and is not yet acquainted with the Universal Goodness it is certainly far from true Rest and Satisfaction from a fixt composed temper of spirit but being distracted by multiplicity of Objects and Ends there can never be any firm and stable peace or friendship at home amongst all its Powers and Faculties nor can there be a firm amity and friendship abroad betwixt wicked men themselves as Aristotle in his Ethicks does conclude because all Vice is so Multiform and inconsistent a thing and so there can be no true concatenation of Affections and Ends between them Whereas in all Good men Vertue and Goodness is one Form and Soul to them all that unites them together and there is the One Simple and Uniform Good that guides and governs them all They are not as a Ship tossed in the tumultuous Ocean of this world without any Compass at all to stear by but they direct their course by the certain guidance of the One Last End as the true Pole-starr of all their motion But while the Soul lies benighted in a thick Ignorance as it is with wicked men and beholds not some Stable and Eternal Good to move toward though it may by the strength of that Principle of Activeness within it self spend it self perpetually with swift and giddy motions yet it will be always contesting with secret disturbances and cannot act but with many reluctancies as not finding an object equall to the force and strength of its vast affections to act upon By what hath been said may appear the vast difference between the ways of Sin and of Holinesse Inward distractions and disturbances tribulation and anguish upon every Soul that doth evil But to every man that worketh good glory honour and peace inward composednesse and tranquillity of spirit pure and divine joys farr excelling all sensual pleasures in a word true Contentment of spirit and full satisfaction in God whom the pious Soul loves above all things and longs still after a nearer enjoyment of him I shall conclude this Particular with what Plotinus concludes his Book That the life of holy and divine men is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a life not touch't with these vanishing delights of Time but a flight of the Soul alone to God alone CHAP. VII The Fifth Property or Effect discovering the Excellency of Religion viz. That it advanceth the Soul to an holy boldness and humble familiarity with God and to a comfortable confidence concerning the Love of God toward it and its own Salvation Fearfulness Consternation of Mind and frightfull passions are consequent upon Sin and Guilt These together with the most dismall deportments of Trembling and Amazement are agreeable to the nature of the Devil who delights to be serv'd in this manner by his worshippers Love Joy and Hope are most agreeable to the nature of God and most pleasing to him The Right apprehensions of God are such as are apt to beget Love to God Delight and Confidence in him A true Christian is more for a solid and well-grounded Peace then for high raptures and feelings of joy How a Christian should endeavour the Assurance of his Salvation That he should not importunately expect or desire some Extraordinary manifestations of God to him but rather look after the manifestation of the life of God within him the foundation or beginning of Heaven and Salvation in his own Soul That Self-resignation and the subduing of our own Wills are greatly available to obtain Assurance The vanity and absurdity of that Opinion viz. That in a perfect resignation of our Wills to God's will a man should be content with his own Damnation and to be the subject of Eternal wrath in Hell if it should so please God THe Fifth Property or Effect whereby True Religion discovers its own Nobleness and Excellency is this That it advanceth the Soul to an holy boldness and humble familiarity with God as also to a well-grounded Hope and comfortable Confidence concerning the Love of God toward it and its own Salvation The truly religious Soul maintains an humble and sweet familiarity with God and with great alacrity of spirit without any Consternation and Servility of spirit is enabled to look upon the Glory and Majesty of the most High But Sin and Wickedness is pregnant with fearfulness and horrour That Trembling and Consternation of Mind which possesses wicked men is nothing else but a brat of darkness an Empusa begotten in corrupt and irreligious Hearts While men walk in darkness and are of the night as the Apostle speaks then it is onely that they are vext with those ugly and gastly Mormos that terrify and torment them But when once the Day breaks and true Religion opens her self upon the Soul like the Eye-lids of the Morning then all those shadows and frightfull Apparitions flee away As all Light and Love and Joy descend from above from the Father of lights so all Darkness and Fearfulness Despair are from below they arise from corrupt and earthly minds are like those gross Vapors arising from this Earthly globe that not being able to get up towards heaven spread themselves about the circumference of that Body where they were first begotten infesting it with darkness and generating into Thunder and Lightning Clouds and Tempests But the higher a Christian ascends 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above this dark dungeon of the Body the more that Religion prevails within him the more then shall he find himself as it were in a clear heaven in a Region that is calm and serene and the more will those black and dark affections of Fear and Despair vanish away and those clear and bright affections of Love and Joy and Hope break forth in their strength and lustre The Devil who is the Prince of darkness and the great Tyrant delights to be served with gastly affections and the most dismal deportments of trembling and astonishment as having nothing at all of amiableness or excellency in him to commend himself to his worshippers Slavery and servility that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Longinus truly calls it is the badge and livery of the Devil's religion hence those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Heathens perform'd with much trembling and horror But God who is the supreme Goodness and Essentiall both Love and Loveliness takes most pleasure in those sweet and delightfull affections of the Soul viz. Love Joy and Hope which are most
correspondent to his own nature The ancient superstition of the Heathens was always very nice and curious in honouring every one of their Gods with Sacrifices and Rites most agreeable to their natures I am sure there is no Incense no offering we can present God with is so sweet so acceptable to him as our Love and Delight and Confidence in him and when he comes into the Souls of men he makes these his Throne his place of rest as finding the greatest agreeableness therein to his own Essence A Good man that finds himself made partaker of the Divine nature and transform'd into the image of God infinitely takes pleasure in God as being altogether Lovely according to that in Cant. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Totus ipse est desideria and his Meditation of God is sweet unto him Ps. 104. S. John that lay in the bosome of Christ who came from the bosome of the Father and perfectly understood his Eternal Essence hath given us the fullest description that he could make of him when he tells us that God is Love and he that dwells in God dwells in love and reposing himself in the bosome of an Almighty Goodness where he finds nothing but Love and Loveliness he now displays all the strength and beauty of those his choiest and most precious affections of Love and Joy and Confidence his Soul is now at ease and rests in peace neither is there any thing to make afraid He is got beyond all those powers of darknesse which give such continual alarms in this lower world and are always troubling the Earth He is got above all fears and despairs he is in a bright clear region above Clouds and Tempests infra se despicit nubes There is no frightful terribleness in the supreme Majesty That men apprehend God at any time in such a dismayed manner it must not at all be made an argument of his nature but of our sinfulness and weakness The Sun in the heavens always was and will be a Globe of Light and brightness howsoever a purblind Eye is rather dazled then enlightned by it There is an Inward sense in Mans Soul which were it once awaken'd and excited with an inward tast and relish of the Divinity could better define God to him then all the world else It is the sincere Christian that so tasts and sees how good and sweet the Lord is as none else does The God of hope fills him with all joy and peace in believing so that he abounds in hope as the Apostle speaks Rom. 15. He quietly reposes himself in God his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord he is more for a solid peace and setled calme of spirit then for high Raptures and feelings of Joy or Extraordinary Manifestations of God to him he does not passionately desire nor importunately expect such things he rather looks after the Manifestations of the Goodness and Power of God within him in subduing all in his Soul that is unlike and contrary to God and forming him into his image and likeness Though I think it worthy of a Christian to endeavour the Assurance of his own Salvation yet perhaps it might be the safest way to moderate his curiosity of prying into God's Book of life and to stay a while untill he sees himself within the confines of Salvation it self Should a man hear a Voice from Heaven or see a Vision from the Almighty to testify unto him the Love of God towards him yet methinks it were more desireable to find a Revelation of all from within arising up from the Bottome and Centre of a mans own Soul in the Reall and Internal impressions of a Godlike nature upon his own spirit and thus to find the Foundation and Beginning of Heaven and Happiness within himself it were more desirable to see the crucifying of our own Will the mortifying of the mere Animal life and to see a Divine life rising up in the room of it as a sure Pledge and Inchoation of Immortality and Happiness the very Essence of which consists in a perfect conformity and chearfull complyance of all the Powers of our Souls with the Will of God The best way of gaining a well-grounded assurance of the Divine love is this for a man to overcome himself and his own Will To him that overcomes shall be given that white stone and in it the new name written which no man knoweth but he that receives it He that beholds the Sun of righteousness arising upon the Horizon of his Soul with healing in its wings and chasing away all that misty darkness of his own Self-will and Passions such a one desires not now the Starr-light to know whether it be Day or not nor cares he to pry into Heaven's secrets and to search into the hidden rolles of Eternity there to see the whole plot of his Salvation for he views it transacted upon the inward stage of his own Soul and reflecting upon himself he may behold a Heaven opened from within and a Throne set up in his Soul and an Almighty Saviour sitting upon it and reigning within him he now finds the Kingdome of Heaven within him and sees that it is not a thing merely reserved for him without him being already made partaker of the sweetnesse and efficacy of it What the Jewes say of the Spirit of Prophesy may not unfitly be applyed to the Holy Ghost the true Comforter dwelling in the minds of good men as a sure Earnest of their Eternal inheritance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Spirit resides not but upon a man of Fortitude one that gives proof of this Fortitude in subduing his own Self-will and his Affections We read of Elisha that he was fain to call for a Musical instrument and one to play before him to allay the heat of his Passions before he could converse with the Prophetical Spirit The Hely Spirit is too pure and gentle a thing to dwell in a Mind muddied and disturb'd by those impure dreggs those thick fogs and mists that arise from our Self-will and Passions our prevailing over these is the best way to cherish the Holy Spirit by which we may be sealed unto the day of redemption To conclude this Particular It is a venturous and rugged guess and conceit which some men have That in a perfect resignation of our Wills to the Divine will a man should be content with his own Damnation and to be the Subject of Eternal Wrath in Hell if it should so please God Which is as impossible as it is for him that infinitely thirsts after a true Participation of the Divine Nature and most earnestly endeavours a most inward Union with God in Spirit by a denial of himself and his own will to swell up in Self-love Pride and Arrogancy against God the one whereof is the most substantial Heaven the other the most real Hell whereas indeed by conquering our selves we are translated from Death to Life and the kingdom of God and Heaven is
and suck a Divine Sweetness out of every flower There is a Twofold meaning in every Creature as the Jews speak of their Law a Literal and a Mystical and the one is but the ground of the other and as they say of divers pieces of their Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so a Good man sayes of every thing that his Senses offer to him it speaks to his lower part but it points out something above to his Mind and Spirit It is the drowsie and muddy spirit of Superstition which being lull'd asleep in the lap of worldly delights is fain to set some Idol at its elbow something that may jogg it and put it in mind of God Whereas true Religion never finds it self out of the Infinite Sphere of the Divinity and whereever it finds Beauty Harmony Goodness Love Ingenuity Wisdome Holiness Justice and the like it is ready to say Here and There is God wheresoever any such Perfections shine out an holy Mind climbs up by these Sun-beams and raises up it self to God And seeing God hath never thrown the World from himself but runs through all created Essence containing the Archetypal Ideas of all things in himself and from thence deriving and imparting several prints of Beauty and Excellency all the world over a Soul that is truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God-like a Mind that is enlightned from the same Fountain and hath its inward Senses affected with the sweet relishes of Divine Goodness cannot but every where behold it self in the midst of that Glorious Unbounded Being who is indivisibly every where A Good man finds every place he treads upon Holy ground to him the World is God's Temple he is ready to say with Jacob Gen. 28. How dreadfull is this place this is none other but the House of God To conclude It was a degenerous and unworthy Spirit in that Philosophy which first separated and made such distances between Metaphysical Truths the Truths of Nature whereas the First and most antient Wisdome amongst the Heathens was indeed a Philosophical Divinity or a Divine Philosophy which continued for divers ages but as men grew worse their queazy stomachs began to loath it which made the truly-wise Socrates complain of the Sophisters of that Age which began now to corrupt and debase it whereas heretofore the Spirit of Philosophy was more generous and divine and did more purifie and ennoble the Souls of men commending Intellectual things to them and taking them off from settling upon Sensible and Material things here below and still exciting them to endeavour after the nearest resemblance of God the Supreme Goodness and Loveliness and an intimate Conjunction with him which according to the strain of that Philosophy was the true Happiness of Immortal Souls CHAP. IX The Seventh and last Property or Effect discovering the Excellency of Religion viz. That it raiseth the Minds of Good men to a due observance of and attendance upon Divine Providence and enables them to serve the Will of God and to acquiesce in it For a man to serve Providence and the Will of God entirely to work with God and to bring himself and all his actions into a Compliance with God's Will his Ends and Designs is an argument of the truest Nobleness of Spirit it is the most excellent and divine life and it is most for mans advantage How the Consideration of Divine Providence is the way to inward quietness and establishment of Spirit How wicked men carry themselves unbecomingly through their impatience and fretfulness under the disposals of Providence The beauty and harmony of the various Methods of Providence THE Seventh and last Property or Effect wherein True Religion expresseth its own Nobleness and Excellency is this That it raiseth the Minds of Good men to a due observance of and attendance upon Divine Providence and enables them to serve the Will of God and to acquiesce in it Wheresoever God hath a Tongue to speak there they have Eares to hear and being attentive to God in the soft and still motions of Providence they are ready to obey his call and to say with Esay Behold here am I send me They endeavour to copy forth that Lesson which Christ hath set Christians seriously considering how that they came into this world by God's appointment not to doe their own Wills but the Will of him that sent them As this Consideration quiets the Spirit of a Good man who is no idle Spectator of Providence and keeps him in a calm and sober temper in the midst of all Storms and Tempests so it makes him most freely to engage himself in the service of Providence without any inward reluctancy or disturbance He cannot be content that Providence should serve it self of him as it doth even of those things that understand it least but it is his holy ambition to serve it 'T is nothing else but Hellish pride and Self-love that makes men serve themselves and so set up themselves as Idols against God But it is indeed an argument of true Nobleness of Spirit for a man to view himself not in the narrow Point of his own Being but in the unbounded Essence of the First Cause so as to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to live only as an Instrument in the hands of God who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will Optarem id me esse Deo quod est mihi manus mea was the expression of an holy Soul To a Good man to serve the Will of God it is in the truest and best sense to serve himself who knows himself to be nothing without or in opposition to God Quò minùs quid sibi arrogat homo eò evadit nobilior clarior divinior This is the most divine life that can be for a man to act in the world upon Eternal designes and to be so wholy devoted to the Will of God as to serve it most faithfully and entirely This indeed bestows a kind of Immortality upon these flitting and Transient acts of ours which in themselves are but the Off-spring of a moment A Pillar or Verse is a poor sorry Monument of any Exploit which yet may well enough become the highest of the worlds bravery But Good men while they work with God and endeavour to bring themselves and all their actions to a unity with God his Ends and Designs enroll themselves in Eternity This is the proper Character of holy Souls Their Wills are so fully resolv'd into the Divine Will that they in all things subscribe to it without any murmurings or debates they rest well satisfied with and take complacency in any passages of Divine dispensation * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being ordered and disposed by a Mind and Wisedome above according to the highest rules of Goodness The best way for a man rightly to enjoy himself is to maintain an universal ready and chearfull complyance with the Divine and Uncreated Will in all things as knowing that nothing can issue and
flow forth from the fountain of Goodness but that which is good and therefore a Good man is never offended with any piece of Divine dispensation nor hath he any reluctancy against that Will that dictates and determines all things by an Eternal rule of Goodness as knowing That there is an unbounded and Almighty Love that without any disdain or envy freely communicates it self to every thing he made that feeds even the young Ravens that call upon him that makes his Sun to shine and his Rain to fall both upon the just and unjust that always enfolds those in his everlasting armes who are made partakers of his own Image perpetually nourishing and cherishing them with the fresh and vital influences of his Grace as knowing also That there is an All-seeing Eye an unbounded Mind and Understanding that derives it self through the whole Universe and sitting in all the wheels of motion guides them all and powerfully governs the most excentrical motions of Creatures and carries them all most harmoniously in their several orbes to one Last End Who then shall give Law to God Where is the wise where is the scribe where is the disputer of this world Where is he that would climb up into that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Consistory in heaven and sitting in consultation with the Almighty instruct the Infinite and Incomprehensible Wisedome Shall vain man be wiser then his maker This is the hellish temper of wicked men they examine and judge of all things by the line and measure of their own Self-will their own Opinions and Designes and measuring all things by a crooked rule they think nothing to be straight and therefore they fall out with God and with restless impatience fret and vex themselves and this fretfulness and impatiency in wicked men argues a breach in the just and due constitution of their Minds and Spirits But a Good man whose Soul is restored to that frame and constitution it should be in has better apprehensions of the ways and works of God and is better affected under the various disposalls of Providence Indeed to a superficial observer of Divine Providence many things there are that seem to be nothing else but Digressions from the main End of all and to come to pass by a fortuitous concourse of Circumstances that come in so abruptly and without any concatenation or dependance one upon another as if they were without any Mind or Understanding to guide them But a wise man that looks from the Beginning to the End of things beholds them all in their due place and method acting that part which the Supreme Mind and Wisedome that governs all things hath appointed them and to carry on one and the same Eternal designe while they move according to their own proper inclinations and measures and aime at their own particular Ends. It were not worth the while to live in a world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 devoid of God and Providence as it was well observ'd by the Stolck And to be subservient unto Providence is the holy ambition and great endeavour of a Good man who is so perfectly overpower'd with the love of the Universal and Infinite Goodness that he would not serve any Particular Good whatsoever no not himself so as to set up in the world and trade for himself as the men of this world doe who are lovers of their own selves and lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God CHAP. X. 4. The Excellency of Religion in regard of its Progress as it is perpetually carrying on the Soul towards Perfection Every Nature hath its proper Centre which it hastens to Sin and Wickedness is within the attractive power of Hell and hastens thither Grace and Holiness is within the Central force of Heaven and moves thither 'T is not the Speculation of Heaven as a thing to come that satisfyes the desires of Religious Souls but the reall Possession of it even in this life Men are apt to seek after Assurance of Heaven as a thing to come rather then after Heaven it self and the inward possession of it here How the Assurance of Heaven rises from the growth of Holinesse and the powerful Progresse of Religion in our Souls That we are not hastily to believe that we are Christ's or that Christ is in us That the Works which Christ does in holy Souls testify of him and best evidence Christ's spiritual appearance in them WE have consider'd the Excellency of True Religion 1. in regard of its Descent and Original 2. in regard of its Nature 3. in regard of its Properties and Effects We proceed now to a Fourth Particular and shall shew That Religion is a generous and noble thing in regard of its Progresse it is perpetually carrying on that Mind in which it is once seated toward Perfection Though the First appearance of it upon the Souls of good men may be but as the Wings of the Morning spreading themselves upon the Mountains yet it is still rising higher and higher upon them chasing away all the filthy mists and vapours of Sin and Wickedness before it till it arrives to its Meridian altitude There is the strength and force of the Divinity in it and though when it first enters into the Minds of men it may seem to be sowen in weakness yet it will raise it self in power As Christ was in his Bodily appearance he was still increasing in wisedome and knowledge and favour with God and man untill he was perfected in glory so is he also in his Spiritual appearance in the Souls of men and accordingly the New Testament does more then once distinguish of Christ in his several ages and degrees of growth in the Souls of all true Christians Good men are always walking on from strength to strength till at last they see God in Zion Religion though it hath its infancy yet it hath no old age while it is in its Minority it is always in motu but when it comes to its Maturity and full age it will always be in quiete it is then always the same and its years fail not but it shall endure for ever Holy and religious Souls being once toucht with an inward sense of Divine Beauty and Goodness by a strong impress upon them are moved swiftly after God and as the Apostle expresses himself forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before they presse toward the Mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus that so they may attain to the resurrection of the dead Where a Spirit of Religion is there is the Central force of Heaven it self quickening and enlivening those that are informed by it in their motions toward Heaven As on the other side all unhallowed and defiled minds are within the attractive power of Hell are continually hastening their course thither being strongly pressed down by the weight of their Wickedness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plutarch hath
It were perhaps a vain curiosity to inquire whether the number of Evil spirits exceed the number of Men but this is too too certain that we never want the secret and latent attendance of them The Devil is not onely a word or a name made to affright and scare timorous men with neither are we then onely in danger of him when he presents himself to us in some Corporeal form it is nothing else but a superstitious weakness to be afraid of him onely then when he appears embodyed and to neglect that unseen and insensible influence which his continual converse with us as an unbodyed spirit may have upon us Those Evil spirits are not yet cast out of the world into outer darkness though it be prepared for them the bottomless pit hath not yet shut its mouth upon them They fell from God not so much by a Local descent as by a Mental apostasy and dissimilitude to God and they are now in libera custodia having all this habitable world for their Rendezvous and are stiled by the Apostle Spiritual wickednesses in high places Wheresoever there are any in a disposition to sin against God wheresoever there are any capable of a Temptation or Diabolical impression here and there are they A man needs not dig into the chambers of death or search among the shadows of darknesse to find them he needs not goe down into hell to seek them or use any Magical charms to raise them up from thence No those wicked and impure spirits are always wandring up and down amongst us seeking whom they may devour As there is a Good Spirit conversant in the world inviting and alluring men to Vertue and Goodness so there is an Evil spirit perpetually tempting and inticeing men to Sin and Vice Uncloathed and unbodyed natures may converse with us by secret illapses while we are not aware of them I doubt not but there are many more Divine impressions made upon the Minds of men both Good and Bad from the Good Spirit of God then are ordinarily observed there are many soft and silent impulses gentle motions like our Saviour's putting in his hand by the hole of the door as it is in the Canticles solliciting and exciting men to Religion and Holiness which they many times regard not and take little notice of There are such secret messages often brought from Heaven to the Souls of men by an unknown and unseen hand as the Psalmist speaks Once yea twice have I heard it that power belongeth unto God And as there are such divine irradiations sliding into the Souls of men from God so there are no question many frequent suggestions to the Fancies and Imaginations of men arising from the Evil Spirit and a watchfull observer of his own heart and life shall often hear the voice of Wisdome the voice of Folly speaking to him he that hath his eyes opened may see both the visions of God falling upon him and discern the false and foolish fires of Satan that would draw away his mind from God This is our unhappiness that the Devil is so near us and we see him not he is conversant with us and yet we are not aware of him Those are the most desperate designs likeliest to take effect that are carried on by an unseen and unappearing enemy and if we will provide our selves against the Devil who never misseth any opportunity that lies in his way to tempt us nor is ever failing in any plot we must then have our Senses exercised to discern both good and evil we must get our Minds awakened with clear and evident Principles of Light we must get our Judgments and Consciences well informed with sober and practical Truth such as tends to make us most like to God and to reconcile our natures more perfectly to Divine goodness Then shall we know and discover that Apostate Spirit in all his Stratagems whereby he seeks to bereave us of our happiness we shall know him as well when he cloaths himself like an Angel of light as when he appears in his own nakedness and deformity It is observed by some That God never suffered the Devil to assume any humane shape but with some Character whereby his Body might be distinguished from the true Body of a man and surely the Devil cannot so exactly counterfeit an Angel of light but that by a discerning mind he may be distinguished from him as they say a Beggar can never act a Prince so cunningly but that his behaviour sometime sliding into the course way and principles of his Education will betray the meannesse of his pedigree to one of a true noble extraction A bare Imitation will always fall short of the Copy from whence it is taken and though Sin and Errour may take up the mantle of Truth and cloath themselves with it yet he that is inwardly acquainted with Truth and an ingenuous lover and pursuer of it will be able to find out the Imposture he will be able to see through the vail into the naked deformity of them CHAP. III. 2. Of the activity of the Devil consider'd as a Spirit of Apostasy and as a Degenerate nature in men That the Devil is not onely the name of one Particular thing but a Nature The Difference between the Devil and Wicked men is rather the Difference of a Name then of Natures The Kingdome and Tyranny of the Devil and Hell is chiefly within in the Qualities and Dispositions of mens Minds Men are apt to quarrell with the Devil in the name and notion and defy him with their Tongues while they entertain him in their Hearts and comply with all that which the Devil is The vanity of their pretended Love to God and Hatred of the Devil That there is nothing Better then God himself for which we should love him and to love him for his own Beauty and Excellency is the best way of loving him That there is nothing worse then Sin it self for which we should hate it and to hate it for its own deformity is the truest way of hating it How Hell and Misery arises from within men Why Wicked men are so insensible of their Misery in this life 2. WHen we say The Devil is continually busy with us I mean not onely some Apostate spirit as one particular Being but that spirit of Apostasy which is lodged in all mens natures and this may seem particularly to be aimed at in this place if we observe the context as the Scripture speaks of Christ not onely as a Particular person but as a Divine Principle in holy Souls Indeed the Devil is not onely the name of one particular thing but a nature He is not so much one particular Being designed to torment Wicked men in the world to come as a hellish and diabolical nature seated in the minds of men He is not onely one Apostate Spirit fallen down from heaven out of the lap of Blessedness but also a Spirit of Apostasy a
and Love Secondly Of the Sense he felt of his loss Thirdly Of that Honour which he gave him or that Respect and Regard which he had unto him I shall speak a little of all these and then parallel our Case as well as I can to Both. 1. Observe Elijah's Eminency Superiority Dignity and Worth which is both signified in the word Father and also in the other Expressions the Chariot and Horsemen of Israel The Talmudists say of the word Abba which is near of kin as can be to this in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abba is a word of honour and glory even as Rabbi whence the Latine Abbas and our English Abbot have been derived to denote the greatest person in a Society And therefore whom he here calls Father is called verse 3 and 5. Master or Lord Know'st thou not that Jehovah will take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy Lord or Master from thee today Elijah was the Head in the Body of the Prophets the Dux gregis a main leading man among the rest And this was by reason of his Wisdome Experience and gray-headed Understanding expressed in the word Father He was a Sage and grave person such an Head as was full of Prudence Skill Advice wherein were molded many sober and wise Resolutions many weighty and mature Determinations profound and deep Notions holy and pious Counsels for the teaching of rawer and greener heads He was one that did imitate God the Father of all and in some sort represent him here below being an Oracle among men And such Instruments God hath alwaies in the world Men of greater height and stature then others whom he sets up as torches on an hill to give light to all the Regions round about Men of publick and universal influence like the Sun it self which illuminates all and is not sparing of its beams Men whose Souls come into the world as the Chaldee Oracle speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clothed with a great deal of Mind more impregnated then others with Divine notions and having more teeming Wombs to inrich the world with the fruit of them Men of wide and capacious Souls that can grasp much and of inlarged open Hearts to give forth that freely unto men which the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Fatherly Mind as the same Oracle calls God hath given unto them that so in some sort they may become Fathers in the world in subordination to God The Sun of Righteousness Jesus Christ is described with seven stars in his right hand Revelat. 1. which were the Angels of the Churches Men its like who were adorn'd and beautified with more then ordinary brightness of Mind and Understanding and did sparkle with more then common heat of Love and Piety and did shine as Lights in the world in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation Elijah was such an one and so was the other Elias John the Baptist a burning and a shining light and so also shall we find our Father that is deceased to have been 2. Take notice of the Care which Elijah took of Elisha and that first as a Master of his Scholar and secondly as a Father of his Son or if you will have both in one as a Fatherly Master Elisha calls him by this name of Father because he was his Scholar and they used commonly to give this title to their Masters or Teachers whence Pirke Avoth among the Jews Capitula Patrum is a Book that contains the wise Sayings Apophthegms of their Doctors And so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the New Testament that which is received by Tradition from their Fathers signifies nothing else but what their Doctors and learned men in the Law delivered to them and therefore they are sometimes called the Traditions of the Elders Jubal is called the Father of such as handle the Harp Gen. 4. 21. which signifies the same with that which is said of his Brother verse 22. He was an Instructer of artificers in brass and Iron And hence Solomon saith so often My Son hear the instruction of a Father So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my Father my Father in the Text is nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my Master my Master Elijah taught and instructed him out of the Law but with such a care and Fatherly affection that Elisha was truly his Son as well as his Scholar one whom he loved and tendered whom he wrap'd as a child in his Mantle when he was following the plough whom he begot into another shape and made another man in whose heart he sowed the seeds of true righteousness and godliness that he might doe more good in the world For what God doth by Men that they many times are said to doe Hence the Apostles call Christians their little children and dear children whom they had travailed in birth withall till Christ was formed in them They lay in the Apostles wombs they brought them forth Christians and so were truly their Spiritual Fathers And we may still see such noble Souls which God continues amongst men whose mouths as Solomon saies are as a well of life whose lips feed many and whose tongues are as choice Silver Men that are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 common Fathers and will embrace every body as a Son so they be but willing to be taught that have the whole World for their School and are instilling wholesom notions and rectified apprehensions into mens Minds and implanting the Truth which is after Godliness in their hearts Men that in all meekness tenderness and Fatherly affection reprove those that oppose themselves that endeavour to bring them into their wombs that if it be possible they may beget the life of God and of his Son Christ in their Souls Men who cherish and foster the least gasping panting life that is in any Soul who endeavour to free this life from any obstructions that dull and oppress it and so in every sense prove themselves to be the true Fathers of the Church Common Fathers as before I expressed it neither bound up in themselves nor addicted to any particular Sect but minding the good of all Who think that they were not born for themselves nor to be linked to this or that Body or party of men but are to be perfect as their heavenly Father is perfect who doth good to all even to the evil and unthankful A 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or natural affection there is in them which makes them think that every mans childe is their own and if they could hatch any heavenly life in them they would willingly cover them under their wings Such a person was S. Paul who went through fire and water had a pilgrimage through this world upon nothing but briers and thorns out of his great love that he bare to men The care of all the Churches lay upon him and no man could be weak but he was weak also no man was offended but
he burned it put him in a kind of fever and all this was easie to him because he had the bowels of a Father Such another was S. John who hath every where in his mouth My little children A good old Father he was who breathed forth nothing but Love to man And it need be no offence if I add there was a Socrates in Athens who had so much of this kind of Spirit in him that he stiled himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Servant of love and professed that he knew nothing but how to love He would often acknowledge himself to be an Ignoramus in all those things whereinto their wise men used to enquire and that he could say nothing in those Controversies that were agitated about the Gods and such like as Max. Tyrius expresly tells us but he durst not deny himself to have skill in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Art of love wherein he was continually busied and imploied instructing of their Youth amending of their Manners and making them truely vertuous which thing the ungrateful wretches of the City called corrupting of their children And truly it is very often the Lot of these Fathers which I am speaking of who nourish up Youth in true piety and vertue to be esteemed by many the corrupters of the fountain Pestes rather then Patres of the places where they live But they fare no worse then Elijah did who was accounted the Troubler of Israel though he was the Chariot and Horsemen thereof a man so useful that they could not tell how to want him though they knew not how to value him And that is the third thing to which I am to proceed Only let me intreat you that you would think within yourselves in my passage Such an one was the party deceased 3. We have here observable the Usefulness of Elijah he was not only a Father but the Chariot and Horsemen of Israel the Security and Safeguard of the place where he was He calls him by this name in an allusion to the Chariot wherein he was fetched to heaven and would express by this form of speech the good service he did for Israel He was in stead of an Army to them like David worth ten thousand of the people He alone was able to fight with all their enemies and by his force to break all their Legions in pieces And indeed all Good men especially men of extraordinary Wisdome and Godliness such as I have been speaking of are the Guard and Defence of the towns where they reside yea of the Country whereof they are Members They are the Tutelar Angels of a Nation men that can doe more by their prayers and tears their vertuous and holy actions then an host of men wherein none is of less valour then Samson or the fam'd Hercules and Achilles How had it been with Israel had it not been for Moses the meekest man on earth and yet terrible as an army with banners And in what a case had Samaria often been if it had not been for this Elisha the son of Elijah who was encompassed about with Chariots and horses of fire to fight at his command What if I say of such men in the Platonists phrase That they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Keepers of the world that preserve it from being made like to Sodom and Gomorrah And if there had been but Ten of these holy Champions there they had shielded their heads from the arrows of the Almighty and kept the showers of fire and brimstone from raining upon them Good men are the Life-guard of the World next to God and good Angels they are the Walls and Bulwarks of a nation for by their strength they have power with God as it is said of Jacob. And so the Chaldee Paraphrast reads these words of my Text Thou wast better to Israel by thy prayers then Chariot and Horsemen They are the Glory of the world and without them it would be but a rude rabble a Beast with many heads and no brains a mere Chaos and Confusion And it is by reason of them that it doth not run into such disorder as a company of Children would doe without their Father or as a multitude of mad Souldiers without their skilful Leader and Commander And so I have briefly set before you what Elijah was what those who are Eminent for Godliness are what every good man ought in some measure to be and what you shall shortly hear our deceased Father was in an high degree Men of worth and great renown 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a good sense men of Name men that may be taken notice of in the world that shine by their Wisdome Justice and Goodness that chear the world by their Love and Fatherly care of all that heartily endeavour to doe good and would not for a world see men perish if they can help it in a word men that are as the Soul of the world without whom it would be a stinking and unsufferable place 2. Now let us look a while upon Elisha and see what he thought of such a man And 1. We meet with his great Affections expressed in the very Form of the Words My Father my Father Methinks I feel within my self with what pure dear and ardent love he spake these words what a glowing fire there was in his breast when he thought of his spiritual Father He burnt in love to him as if some spark had fallen from Elijah's fiery Chariot into his Heart He was all in a desire as if the Angels that fetcht his Father had lent him a waft of their wings whereby he strove to fly with him to Heaven There is not a child that can cry more after the breasts that give it suck and the arms of her that carried it in her wombe then he calls and cries after his Father O my Father my Father where shall I find my Father what will become of me without my Father A tender love and kindness there is to be in our Hearts to all men of what nature or nation soever no man ought to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lover of himself but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lover of mankind Yet a more singular cleaving of Souls there should be to those that are good but the most unspeakable and greatest adhaesion and union to those by whom we have profited in Wisdome and Godliness and whose lips have dropped the words of life into our Minds For as Solomon hath it There is Gold and a multitude of rubies but the lips of knowledge are a pretious Jewel We should stand affected to them as the Galatians to S. Paul who would have pull'd out their very eyes and given them unto him They ought to be to us oculis chariores as the ordinary phrase is dearer then our eyes by which speech God expresses his extraordinary love to his people Israel saying that he kept them as the apple of his eye And indeed it
these Three our Respect Affection and Sense of our loss His name is most worthy to be had in a more especial remembrance and highly deserves to be rank'd among our Benefactors he having indowed our Library with all the Books that he had and we wanted and I have reason to believe that if he had not been so suddenly surprised by those forgetful Lethargick fits he intended to bestow more upon us then his Books which yet were both many and choise ones being above six hundred for number and many of them large and costly and for the matter of them many Hebrew Books besides some Arabick many Mathematick Books many Books of History both Ancient and Modern as also of Philosophy and Philology both Sacred and Profane And whensoever we commemorate his Love unto us let it be with some Encomium let us mourn quòd talem amiserimus that we are deprived of such a person but let us rejoice and give thanks to God quòd talem habuerimus that we ever had such an one who hath done us so much good they are the words of S. Hierom to Nepotian with a little alteration But let me tell you in conclusion of all that herein would be shown our greatest Love and Affection which we bare to him this would be the greatest Honour of him if we would but express his life in ours that others might say when they behold us There walks at least a shadow of Mr. Smith And O that I might beg with Elisha a double portion among those that I desire should share in the gifts and graces of this Elijah This is the highest of my ambition that many might but possess the riches that lodg'd in this one They disgrace their Master who have not skill in that which they say he professed but they who tread in his steps and excell in his Art shine back again upon him from whom first they received their light Let me seriously therefore exhort every one of us to imitate this Master in Israel Imitate him in his Industry if not in his Learning shake off all laziness and sloth do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 embody and enervate your Souls by Idleness and base neglect do not emasculate them and turn them into flesh by drowsiness or vain pleasures Imitate his Temperance his Patience his Fortitude his Candour and Ingenuity his Holiness and Righteousness his Faith and Love his Charity and Humility his Self-denial and true Self-resignation to the will of God in a word all those Christian Vertues which lived in him let them live in us for ever Let us die to the world as he did before we die let us separate our Souls from our Bodies and all bodily things before the time of our departure and separation come Let us take an especial heed lest we doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as most men doe lest we suffer this lower and earthly world lest we be drawn forcibly into its embraces and so held from rising aloft but let us turn up our Minds continually to Heaven and earnestly desire pati Deum to suffer God to be mightily and strongly attracted by him from all Earthy and Sensible delights to an admiration and love of his Everlasting Beauty and Goodness Let us labour to be so well acquainted with Him and all things of the Higher world and so much disingaged in our Affections from this and all that is in it that when we come to go out of this world we may never look back and say O what goodly things do I leave what a brave world am I snatched from would I might but live a little longer there Let us get our Hearts so crucified to the world that it may be an easie thing to us to shake hands with and bid a farwell to our Friends the dearest things we have our Lands Houses Goods and whatsoever is valuable in our eyes Let us use the world as though we used it not let us dye daily as our dear Friend did and so it was easie to him to dye at last Dye did I say shall I use that word or rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is flown away as Nazianzen speaks his Soul hath got loose and now feels her wings or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath changed his habitation he is gone into the other world as Abraam went out of Ur into Canaan or as the same Father saies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath taken his journey into another countrie a little before his Body He hath left his Body behind him awhile to take a sleep in the dust when it awakes at the Resurrection it shall follow also to the same place Then shall it be made a Spiritual body then shall it have wings given to it also and be lovingly married again to the Soul never any more to suffer any separation And at that time we shall all meet with our dear Father and Friend again who now are here remaining crying out O my Father my father c. Then shall all tears be wiped away from our eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain Then we shall not need such a Light as he was for there is no night there and they need no candle neither light of the Sun for the Lord God giveth them light and they shall reign for ever and ever Amen Of this Edition Of the Author * Act. 7. 22. * Num. 12. 3. * Heb. 11. 24 c. * Rom. 4. Heb. 11. Jam. 2. * De Verbis Resipuit Noe. * Num. 12. 8. * Exod. 33. 11. * Ephes. 6. 6 7. * Rom. 5. 7. * Ephes. 6. Mat. ch 5 6 7. * Act. 26. 29. * Rom. 2 29. * Rom. 2. 29. * Luk. 16. 15. * Acts 7. 21 22. * Hebr. 11. * Psal. 16. Of the Discourses Page 347. Matth. 23. * Heb. 5. Rom. 8. Col. 3. 2 Tim. 3. * Titus 3. 3. Gal. 4. * This was of old confess'd and boasted of by Lucretius more then once in his Poems * Matthew 17. See also Acts 3. 22. Deut. 18. 15. 1 Tim. 1. * Page 280. 1 Kings 4. 29. * Psal. 51. 12. * 1 Cor. â—4 3 9. Matthew 23. 1 Thess. 5. * Ch. 4. 13. Ver. 8 9. Plotin En. 1. l. 6. â— Pet. â— * Eth. Nicom l. 1. 1. 2. 3. 4. * For so that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must here signifie if indeed it be not corrupted and to be read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word which some other Lexicographers use in this case * as Lusian in his De Sacrificiis speaks too truly though it may be too profanely * Lib. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Satyr 6. Lib. 1. Lib. 5. * Lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sic Edit Complut * Cap. 38. * Chap. 23. 8. Psal. 4. 7. * Lucret. lib. 3. * Lib. 1. Lib. â— * Lib. 4. de placitis Philosophorum * Enn. 4. l.