blessfull state of any Kingdom I will speak freely let it light where it will that principle that springs up into popular applause secular greatness worldly pomp and bravery flesh-pleasing or any kind of selfexaâ—tation which is manifold is really contradistinct from that Divine principle that Religious nature that springs up into everlasting life And certainly notwithstanding all the recrâ—minations and self-justifications which are on all hands used to shuffle of the guilt these governours must lay aside their fullen pride as well as the people their proud fullenness before the Church of God be healed in its breaches purged of Antichristianism or can probably arrive at any sound constitution or perfect stature But I suppose Religion will not have its full and desirable effect upon a Nation by healing the sickly heads of it except it be like the holy oyle powred upon the sacrificer's head which ran down also upon the skirts of his Psal 133. 2. garment Therefore Secondly It is indispensably requisite for the through healing and right constituting of any political body that the subjects therein be thus Divinely principled This will not fail to dispose them rightly towards their governâ—urs and towards one another 1. Towards their Governours There are many evil and perverse dispositions in subjects towards their Rulers all which Religion is the most excellent expedient to rectifie The first and fundamental distemper here seems to be a want of due Reverence toward these vicegerents of God upon earth which easily grows up into something positive and becomes a secret wishing of evil to them This fault as light as some esteem it was 2 Sam. 6. 16. Prov. 30. 16. 1 Joh. 3. 15. severely punished in Queen Michal who despised her Lord King David in her heart and her barren womb went down to its Sister the grave under great reproach And if an ordinary hatred be so fouly interpreted by the holy Apostle Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer surely disloyal and malignant dispositions towards governours must needs have a fouler face and we may say by a parity of reason whosoever hateth his Prince is a Rebel and a Regicide Now this distemper as fundamental and epidemical as it is the spirit of true Religion will heal and I think I may say that only For I know nothing in the world that hath nay I know that nothing in the world hath that Soveraignty and dominion over the dispositions and affections of the soul as this principle throughly ingrafted in the soul doth challenge to itself This alone can frame the heart of man into that beautifull temper and complexion of love and loyalty that he will not curse the King no not in his conscience no Eccles 10. 20. not though he were well assured that there were no winged â—eâ—â—enger to tell the matter An other distemper in Subjects respective to their Governours is Impatience of bearing a yoke Which is an evil so natural to the proud and imperious spirit of man that I believe it were safe to affirm that every irreligious subject could be well content to be a Prince however there may be many who utterly despairing of such event may with the Fox in the Fable profess they care not for it From this principle of pride and impatience of subjection I suspect it is that the rigid Chiliasts do so scornfully declaim against and so loudly decry the carnal ordinances of Magistracy and Ministry not that they do verily seek the advancement of Christs Kingdom which indeed every disorderly tumultuous proud impatient soul doth ipso facto deny and destroy but of themselves To whom one might justly apply the censure which Pharaoh injuriously paâ—â—es upon the children of Israel with a little alteration Ye are proud therefore ye say let Exod. 5. 17. us go and do Sacrifice to the Lord. This distemper the power of Religion would excellently heal by mortifying ambitious inclinations and quieting the impatient turbulencies of the fretfull and envious soul by fashioning the heart to a right humble frame and cheerful submission to every ordination of God You will see in this Treatise that a right Religious soul powerfully springing up into everlasting life hath no list nor leisure to attend to such poor attainments and sorry acquests as the Lording it over other men being feelingly acquainted with a life far more excellent than the most Princely and being overpowred with a supream and Soveraign good which charms all its inordinate ragings and laying hold upon all its faculties draws them forth by a pleasing violence unto a most zealous pursuit of itself A principle of humility makes men good subjects and they that are indeed probationers for another world may very well behave themselves with a noble disdain towards all the glories and preferments of this The last distemper that I shall name in Subjects toward their Governours is Diseontents about conceited misgovernment and mal-administration which commonly spring from an evil and finister interpretation of the Rulers actions and are attended with an evil and tumultuous zeal for relaxation Now this distemper as great as it is and destructive to the well-being of a body politick true Religion would heal both root and branch Were that noble part and branch of Christian Religion universal Charity rightly seated in the soul it would not suffer the Son of the bond-woman to inherit with it it would cast out those irefull jealousies sowre suspicions harsh surmises and imbittered thoughts which lodge in unhallowed minds and display itself in a most amicable sweetness and gentleness of disposition in fair glosses upon doubtfull actions friendly censures or none at all kind extenuations of greater faults and covering of lesser For this is the proper genius of this divine principle to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or very unbelieving of evil and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or easily entertaining of good reports gladly interpreting all things to a good meaning that will possibly admit of such construction or if you will in the Apostles phrase Charity is not easily provoked thinketh no 1 Cor. 13. 5. evil And as Charity doth put up this root of discontents so will faith allay and destroy those discontents themselves which are about misgovernment and ill administration This noble principle administers ease and satisfaction to the soul if she happen to be provoked For it will not suffer her long to stand gazing upon second causes but carries her up in a seasonable contemplation to the supream cause without whom no disorder could ever befall the world and there commands her to repose her self to wit in the bosome of infinite wisdome and grace waiting for a comfortable issue He may well be vext indeed that has so much reason as to observe the many monstrous disorders which are in the world and not so much faith as to eye the inscrutable providence of a benign and all-wise God who permitteth the same with respect to the most beautifull end and blessed order imaginable
indeed then neither nor can it be until he come to the measure of the stature of his Lord and be grown up into him in all things who is the head even Christ Ephes 4. 15. He delights and glories in God beholding his spices growing in his soul but that does not satisfie him except he may see them flowing out also Cant. 4. 16. He is neither barren nor unfruitful as the Apostle Peter speaks but that is not enough he desires to be fat and fruitful also as a watered Garden as the Prophet phraseth it even as the Garden of God The spirit lusteth against the flesh and struggles with it in the same womb of the soul as Jacob with Esau until he had cast him out The seed of God warreth continually against the seed of the Serpent raging and restless like Jehu shooting and stabbing and strangling all he meets with till none at all remain of the family of that Ahab who had formerly been his Master Oh how do's the godly and devout soul long to have Christ's victory carried on in it self to have Christ going on in him conquering and to conquer till at length the very last enemy be subdued that the Prince of Peace may ride triumphantly thorow all the Coasts and Regions of his heart and life and not so much as a Dog move his tongue against him â— This holy principle which is of God in the soul is actually industrious too it doth not fold the arms together hide its hand in its bosome faintly wishing to obtain a final conquest over its enemies but advances it self with a noble stoutness ness against lusts and passions even as the Sun glorieth against the darkness of the night until it have chased it all away The godly soul puts it self under the banner of Christ fights under the conduct of the Angel of God's presence and so marches up undauntedly against the children of Anak those earthly loves lusts sensual affections which are indeed taller and stronger than all other enemies that do encounter it in this wilderness state and the gracious God is not wanting to such endeavours he remembring his promise helpeth his servants even that promise Isa 49. 31. That they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength A true Israelitish soul impregnated with this noble and heroick principle is not like those slothful Israelites that were content with what they had got of the holy Land and either could not or cared not to enlarge their border Judg. 1. But he makes war upon the remainder of the Canaanites and is never at rest till be have with Sarah cast out the bond woman and her Son too You may see an emblem of such a soul in Moses holding up his hands all the day long till Amalek was quite discomfited Exo. 17. As oft as the floods of temptation springing from the Devil the world or the flesh do offer to come in upon him he opposeth them in the strength of Christ or if you will in the Prophets phrase Isa 59. 19. The Spirit of the Lord lifteth up a standard against them so that he is not carried down by them or at least not overwhelmed with them In the beginning of my discourse upon this head I hinted to you the reason why the godly soul continually studies conformity of God even because he is the perfect and absolute good and the soul reckons that its happiness consists only in being like unto him in partaking of a divine nature But I might also here take occasion speak of three things which I will but briefly name and so past on First A godly man reckons with himself that conformity to the image and nature of God is the most proper conversing with God in the world The great and indeed only imployment of an immortal soul is to converse with its Creator for this end it was made and made so capacious as we see it Now to partake of a divine nature to be indutd with a God-like disposition is most properly to converse with God this is a real powerful practical and feeling converse with him infinitely to be preferred before all notions professions performances or speculations Secondly A godly man reckons that the image of God is the glory and ornament of the soul it is the lustre and brightness and beauty of the soul as the soul is of the body Holiness is not only the duty but the highest honour and dignity that any created nature is capable of And therefore the godly soul who hath his senses exercised to discern good and evil pursues after it as after his sull and proper perfection Thirdly A godly man reckons that conformity to the divine image participation of the divine nature is the sureft and most comfortable evidence of divine love which is a matter of so great enquity in the world By growing up daily in Christ Jesus we are infallibly assured of our implantation into him The Spirit of God descending upon the soul in the impressions of meekness kindness uprightness which is a Dove-like disposition is a better and more desirable evidence of our Sonship and God's favour towards us than if we had the Spirit descending upon our heads in a Dove-like shape as it did upon our blessed Saviour These things may pass for a kind of reasons why the religious Christian above all things labours to become God-like to be formed more and more into a resemblance of the supreme good and to drink in divine perfections into the very inmost of his soul 2. The active and industrious nature of true Godliness or Religion manifests its self in a good man's continual care and study to do good to serve the interest of the holy and blessed God in the world A good man being mastered with the sense of the infinite goodness of God and the great end of his life cannot think it worth while to spend himself for any inferiour good or bestow his time and strength for any lower end than that it and therefore as it is the main happiness of his life to enjoy God so he makes it the main business of his life to serve him to be doing for him to lay out himself for him and to display and propagate his glory in the world And as he is ravished with the apprehensions of the supreme goodness which doth infinitely deserve and may justly challenge all that he can do or expend for him so he doth indeed really partake of the active and communicative nature of that blessed Being and himself becomes active and communicative too A godly soul sluggish and unactive is as if one should say a godly soul altogether unlike to God a pure contradiction I cannot dwell upon any of those particular desigus of serving the interest of God's glory which a good man is still driving on in the world Only this in general whether be pray or preach or read or celebrate Sabbaths or administer private reproof or instruction or indeed plow or sow eat or
and more properly than they that watch for the morning they may be said rather to be weary of the long and cold and troublesome night than properly covetous of the day but he out of a pure and spiritual sense of his estrangement from God longs to appear before him and be wrapt up in him Heal the Godly man of all his afflâ—ctioâ—s grievances adversities in the world that he may have nothing to trouble him nor put him to pain yet he is not quiet he is in pain because of the distance whereat he stands from God give him the whole world and all the glory of it yet he has not enough he still cryes and craves give give because he is not entirely swallowed up in God he openeth his month wide as the Psalmist speaks and all the Silver and Gold peace health liberty preâ—erment that you cast into it cannot fill it because they are not God he cannot look upon them as his chiefest good In a word A godly man doth not so much say in the sense either of sin or affliction Oh that one would give me the wings of a Dove that I may fly away and be at rest as in the sense of his dissimilitude to and distance from God Oh that one would give me the wings of an Eagle that I might fly away towards Heaven CHAP. V. An expostulation with Christians concerning their remiss and sluggish temper an essay to convince them of it by some considerations which are first The activity of worldly men secondly The restless appetites of the body thirdly The strong propensions of every creature towards its own centre An enquiry into the slothfulness and inactivity of Christian souls two things premised and so an answer is given to the enquiry in five particulars The grace of faith is vindicated from the slander of being meerly passive A short essay to awaken Christians unto a greater vigour and activity WE have seen in what respects Religion is an Active principle in the soul where it is seated give me leave to enlarge a little here for Conviction or Reprehension By this property of true Religion we shall be able to discover much that is false and counterseit in the world If Religion be no lazy languid sluggish passive thing but lift love the spirit of power and Freedom a fire burning a well of water springing up as we have sufficiently seen what shall we say then of that heavy sluggish spiritless kind of Religion that most men take up with Shall we call it a spirit of life with the Apostle and yet allow of a Religion that is cold and dead shall we call it a spirit of love and power with the same Apostle and yet allow of it though it be indifferent low and impotent or will such pass for currant with the wise and holy God it we should pass a favourable censure upon it And why should it ever pass with men if it will not for ever pass with God But indeed how can this inactivity and sluggishness pass for Religion amongst men who can think you are in pursuit of the infinite and supream good that sees you so slow in your motions towards it who can think that your treasure is in Heaven that sees your heart so far from thence The more any thing partakes of God and the nearer it comes to him who is the fountain of life and power and vertue the more active powerful and lively will it be We read of an Atheistical generation in Zeph. 1. 12. who fancied to themselves an idle and slothful God that minded not the affairs of the world at all saying the Lord will not do good neither will he do evil which was also the false and gross conceit of many of the Heathen as Cicero confesses of some of the Philosophers themselves qui Deum nihil habere negotii dicunt nihil exhibere alteri And indeed though it be not so blasphemous yet it is almost as absurd to fancy an idle Saint as an idle Deity Sure I am if it be not altogether impossible yet it is altogether a shamesull and deformed sight a holy soul in a lethargy a godly soul that is not in pursuit of God Moses indeed bids Israel stand still and see the salvation of the Lord but there is no such divinity in the holy Scriptures as this stand still and see the salvation of the soul though some have violently prest those words Exod. 14. 13. to serve under their slothful standard No no the Scripture speaks to us at another rate Phil. 2. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 work out your own salvation and indeed the spirit of God doth everywhere describe Religion by the activity industry vigour and quietness of it as I hinted in the very beginning of this discourse and could abundantly confirm and explain if there were need of it But that I may more powerfully convince and awaken the lazy and heavy spirit and temper of many professors I will briefly touch upon a few particulars which I will next propound to their serious consideration 1. The children of this world earthly and sensual men are not so slothful so lazy so indifferent in the pursuit of earthly and sensual objects You say you have laid up your treasure in Heaven we know they have laid up their treasure in the earth now who is it that behaves himself most suitably and seemly towards his treasure you or they you say you have a treasure in Heaven and are content to be able to say so but make no haste to be fully and seelingly possest of it to enjoy the benefit and sweetness of it But they rise up early and sit up late and either pine themselves or eat the bread of sorrow to obtain earthly and perishing inheritances they circuit the world travel farr sell all to purchase that part which is of so great price with them And when they have accomplisht it oh how do they set their heart upon it bind up their very souls in the same bags with their money and seale up their affections together with it yea and so they are not at rest neither but find a gnawing hunger upâ—n their hearts after more still to add house to house and land to land and one bagg to another the covetous miser is ready to sit down and wring his hands because he hath no more hands to scrape with the voluptuous Epicure is angry that he hath not the neck of a Crane the better to taste his dainties and ambitious Alexander when he domineeâ—s over the known world is ready to sit down and whine because there are no more worlds to conquer What Christian can choose but be ashamed of himself when he reads the description which Plautus the Comoedian makes of a covetous worldling under the person of Euclio how he hid his pot of Gold heeded it waâ—cht it visited it almost every hour would not go from it in the day could not sleep for it in the night suspected
IMMANVEL Or A discovery of TRUE RELIGION As it imports a living Principle in the minds of men grounded upon Christ's Discourse with the Samaritaness 1 Joh. 4. 14. Being the latter clause of The Voice Crying in a Wilderness Or a Continuation of the Angelical Life Mostly Composed at the same time By S. S. This is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those dayes saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts Jer. 31. 33. 〈◊〉 that believeth in me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living Water Joh. 7. 38. 〈◊〉 itatem Philosophi quaerunt Theologi inveniunt Religiosi Possident Comes Mirandul LONDON Printed Anno Dom. 1667. A Treating Preface TO THE READER AMongst the many stupendious spectacles that are wont to surprize and amuze inquisitive and considerative minds there seems to be nothing in the world of a sadder and more astonishing observation than the small progress and propagation of Christian Religion This I call a sad observation because Religion is a matter of the most weighty and necessary importance without which it is not possible for an immortal soul to be perfected and made happy I call it astonishing because Christian Religion hath in itself such advantages of recommending itself to the minds of men and contains in it such mighty engines to work them into an hearty complyance with it and to captivate their reason unto itself as no other Religion in the World can with any face pretend to I do earnestly and I suppose rationally and Scripturally hope that this veritas magna those sacred Oracles will yet much more prevail and that the founder of this most excellent Religion who was lift up upon the cross and is more exalted to his Throne will yet draw more men unto himself and this perhaps is all the millennium that we can warrantably look for But in the mean time it is too too evident that the Kingdom of Sathan doth more obtain in the World than the Gospel of Christ either in the Letter or power of it As to the former if we will receive the probable conjecture of learned enquirers we shall not find above one sixth part of the known World yet Christianized or giving so much as an external adoration to the Crucified Jesus As to the latter I will not be so bold as to make any Arithmetical conjectures but judge it more necessary and more becoming a charitable and Christian spirit to set down in secret and weep over that sad but true account given in the Gospel Few are chosen and again Mat. 20. 26 Mat. 7. 14. Few there be that find it being grieved after the example of my compassionate Redeemer for the hardness of their hearts and praying with Joah in another case The Lord make his people an hundred times so many more as they be It is besides my present purpose to enquire into the immedâ—ate causes of the non-propagation of the Gospel in the former sense only it is easie and obvious to guess that few will enter in by the way of the tree of life when the same is guarded with a flaming sword And it were reasonable to hope that if the minds of Christians were more purged from a selfish bitterness fierce animosity and arbitrary sowrness and possest with a more free generous benign compassionate condescending candid charitable and Christ-like spirit which would be indulgent toward such as are for the present under a less perfect dispensation as our Luk. 9. 49 50 54 55. Saviours was would not impose any thing harsh or unnecessary upon the sacred and inviolable Consciences of men but would allow and maintain that liberty to men which is just and natural to them in matters of Religion and no way forfeited by them then I say it might be reasonable to hope that the innate power and vertue of the Gospel would prove most victorious Judaisme Mahumetisme and Paganisme would melt away under its powerfull influences and Sathan himself fall down as lightning before it as naturally as the eye-lids of the morning do chase away the blackness of the night when once they are lift up upon the earth But my design is chiefly to examine the true and proper cause of the non-progress of the Gospel as to the power of it and its inefficaciousness upon the hearts and Consciences of those that do profess it And now in finding out the cause hereof I shall content my self to be wise on this side Heaven leaving that daring course of searching the decrees of God and riffing into the hidden rolls of eternity to them who can digest the uncomfortable notion of a self-willed arbitrarious and imperious Deity which I doubt is the most vulgar apprehension of God men measuring him most grosly and unhappily by a self-standard And as I dare not soar so high so neither will I adventure to stoop so low as to rake into particulars which are differently assigned according to the different humours and interests of them that do assign them each party in the world being â—o excellently favourable to itself as to be ready to say with David The earth and all the Psal 75. 3. inhabitants of it are dissolved I bear up the pillars of it ready to think that the very interest of Religion in the world is involved in them and their perswasions and dogmas and that the whole Church is undone if but an hair fall from their heads if they be in the least injured or abridged Which is a peece of very great fondness and indeed the more unpardonable in as much as it destroys the design of the Gospel in confining and limiting the holy one of Israel and making God as topical as he was when he dwelt no where upon earth but at the Temple in Jerusalem Waving these extreams therefore I conceive the true cause in general of the so little prevailing of true Religion in the hearts and lives of men is the false notion that men have of it placing it there where indeed it is not nor doth consist That this must needs be a cause of the not prevailing of the Gospel whereever it is found I suppose every body will grant and that it is almost every-where to be found will I doubt too evidently appear by that description of true Christian Religion which the most sacred Author of it the Lord Jesus Christ made to the poor Samaritaness which I have endeavoured briefly to explain according to the tâ—nour of the Gospel in this small Treatise which I first framed for private use in a season when it was most behovefull for me to understand the utmost secrets of my own soul and do the utmost service I was able towards the salvation of those that were under my roof expecting every day to render up my own or their souls into the arms of our most mercifull Redeemer and to be fully swallowed up into that eternal
and wickedness a gulf is fized and they that would pass from God to sin and the devil cannot not that there shall ever be in any a real and predominant desire so to pass as I suppose I have already proved but it denotes the impossibility of the thing It is equally impossible that a godly soul should fall from God and become an hater of him fall from his love and image and take upon him the image of the devil as it was for Lâ—zarus to quit Abrahams bosome for the flames of hell the case seems to be the same the former being the most reall Heaven and the latter the truest Hell True Religion is that holy fire which being once kindled in the soul from Heaven never goes out whereof the fire of the altar was but a faint and imperfect resemblance It is as true in this respect of good men as it is of wicked men in an other their fire never goes out And here now we are presented with another great difference between true and counterfeit Religion All counterfeit Religion will fade in time though never so specious and flourishing All dew will pass away though some lye much longer than other All land-floods will fail yea the flood of Noah at length dryed up though it were of many moneths duration But this well of water which our Saviour speaks of here will never utterly fail cold Adversity cannot freeze it up scorching prosperity cannot dry it up The upper springs of uncreated grace and goodness will evermore feed those nether springs of grace and holiness in the creature Though Heaven and earth pass away yet shall the seed of God remain he that hath begun a good work will certainly perform it Eph. 1. 6. Where the grace of God hath begotten a Divine principle and spirit of true Religion in a soul there is the central force even of Heaven itself still attracting and carrying the soul in its motions thitherward untill it have lodged it in the very bosome and heart of God If any principle lower than true Religion do actuate a man it will certainly waste and be exhausted though it may carry him swiftly in a rapid motion yet not in a steady though it may carry him high yet not quite through A meteor that is exhaled from the earth by a forreign force though it may mount high in appearance and brave it in a blaze enough to be envyed by the poor twinkling stars and to be admired by ordinary spectators yet its fate is to fall down and shamefully confess its base original That Religion which men put on only for a cloak wâ—ll wear out and drop into rags if it be not presently thrown by as a garment out of fashion You have read of the seeming righteousness of Jehu founded in ambition and cruelty the piety and devotion of Joash grounded upon a good and vertuous education the zeal of Soul for the worship of God and his fat Sacrifices growing upon a root of superstition as Samuel that man of God interprets it 1 Sam. 15. 22. and you have seen the shamefull issue of all these dissemblers and the stinking snuff in which all this candle-light Religion ended very much unlike to that sun-light lustre of true and genuine goodness which shineth more and more unto the perfect day according to that elegant description which the spirit of God makes of it in the writings of Solomon whose pen hath as much adorned this great truth as his life hath blotted it Prov. 4. 18. To this purpose I might fairly alleadge the frequent testimonies which the Holy Ghost in Scripture gives concerning such hypocritical and unprincipled professors that having no root they wither away in a scorching season that they are again entangled in the pollutions of the world and overcome that like dogs they turn to their own vomit again and like Sows wallow in the mire from which they had been washed 2 Pet. 2. 20 22. together with many others of the same nature as also the prophesies that are made concerning them that that which they seemed to have shall be taken away from them Luke 8. 18. that they shall proceed no further for their folly shall be manifest to all men 2 Tim. 3. 9. that evil men and seducers and of those self-seducers are the worst shall wax worse and worse 2 Tim. 3. 13. with other places of the like nature It were easie to record many histories of many men especially great men who have speedily I had almost said disdainfully thrown off that semblance of humility meekness self-denyal justice and faithfulness which they had put on for a vizard during their probationarship for preferment the better to accomplish their selfish designs and to be possest of some base ends of their own But yet I will not deny but that a hypocrite may maintain a fair conformity to and correspondence with the letter of the law of God he may continue fair and specious to the very end of his life yea perhaps may go to his grave undiscovered either to himself or any in the world besides I believe many men have lived and dyed Pharisees have never apostatized from that righteousness which they profest but have persevered in their formality and hypocrisie to the last But yet although that counterfeit righteousness and Religion may possibly not fade away yet nevertheless being of an earthly and selfish constitution it is transitory and fading and if it were soundly assaulted and battered with persecutions and temptations no doubt would actually vanish and disappear on the other hand the promise of God is pregnant and precious Isa 40. 31. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall walk and no faint Take encouragement from hence all ye that love the Lord go on in the strength of God Be the more lively by how much the more you are assured that this well of water shall spring up in you into everlasting life Make this good use of this comfortable doctrine will God indeed work in you both to will and to do why then so much the rather work out your own salvation according to the Apostle Phil. 2. 12. will the Lord God be with you will he not fail you nor forsake you till you have finished all your work why then Be strong and of good courage and do as good David inferrs and argues 1 Chron. 28. 20. Have you this hope this firm ground of hope in the promise and goodness of God why then purifie your selves as God is pure according to the Apostle 1 Joh. 3. 3. stop the mouths of those men that say the Doctrine of perseverance is prejudicial to godliness let them see and be forced to acknowledge it that the more a godly soul is assured of the infinite and unchangeable love and care of God towards him the more is he winged with love and zeal with speed mounting up thither daily where he longs to arrive They that understand the doctrine of perseverance
properly this corrupt principle hath in it the central force of death and Hell and is alwaies tumbling downward whereas this divine principle is alwaies climbing upward But they do both agree in this that they do both seek their own gratifications and study to acquire their respective perfections The everlasting and most glorious enjoyment of God is certainly most perfective of the soul and therefore is most properly and most deservingly said to be its Eternal Life according to that of our Saviour Joh. 17. 3. Now this Eternal Life is not a thing specifically different from Religion or the image of God or the divine life but indeed the greatest height and the most possible perfection of it self even as the Sun at noon-day is not a light really distinct from what is was in the first dawnings of the morning but a different degree and far more glorious state which seems to be the very similitude whereby the Spirit of God illustrateth the matter in hand Prov. 4. 18. Or as a man of perfect age is not a distinct species from a child but much more compleat and excellent in that species to which the Apostle refers treating of this subject 1 Cor. 13. 11. Man hath not two distinct kinds of happiness in the two distinct worlds that he is made to live in but one and the same thing is his blessedness in both which as I said before must needs be the enjoyment of God The translation made of the Text is very suitable to this notion for this divine principle is said to spring up not unto but into everlasting life q. d. it springs up till it be swallowed up into the perfect knowledge love and enjoyment of God Even as youth is swallowed up in manhood so this grace is swallowed up in glory and not so much abolished as indeed perfected By this phrase the genius of true Religion and the excellent temper of the true religious soul is most lively described This is the soul that being in some measure delivered from its unnatural bondage and freed from its unhappy confinement now spreads it self in God lifts up it self unto him stretches it self upon him is not content with a Heaven meerly to come but brings down Heaven into it self by carrying up it self unto and after the God of Heaven God is become great only great in the eye of such a Christian he is indeed become All things to him whilest this principle â—is rightly and actually predominant in him he knows no interest but to thrive and grow great in God no will but to serve the will and comply with the mind of God no end but to be united to God no business but to display and reflect the glory and perfections of God upon the Earth the main business of his life I say is to serve him the main ambition of his soul to be like unto him and his main happiness in this world to be united to him and in the world to come to be swallowed up in him in this world to know and love and rest and delight in and enjoy God more than all things and in the world to come to enjoy him more than so The gladsome growings up of the tender flowers unto the friendly Sun being once powerfully surpriz'd with his precious and benign influences and the chearful hast with which the sympathetick needle so amorously pursues the inchanting loadstone being once rightly toucht and affected with it do a little though but a little resemble and represent the motions of a spirit impregnated with this divine principle and strongly imprest with the image and stamp of God he puts in his hand by the hole of the door and the bowels of the espoused soul are presently moved yea melted for him Cant. 5. 4. He casts the skirt of his garment the mantle of his love and presently the converted soul leaves all to follow him Faith Hope and Love are knitting and springing graces and this Eternal Life is the end and perfection of them all not that any one of them I conceive shall be utterly incassated and abolished as some conclude concerning the two former though without good ground I think from the Apostles words 1 Cor. 13. 13. But Faith will be ripened into the most firm and undisturbed confidence affiance and acquiescence in God hope will be advanced into a more chearful powerful and confident expectation having for its object the perpetuation of the souls felicity and love will become much more loving and more clearly distinguishable from the imperfect longings and languishings of this present state when it shall flower up into pure delights and complacencies resting and glorying in the arms of its adequate satisfactory and eternal object The faith of the hypocrite and indeed his hope too is still springing up into self-preservation deliverance liberty a splendid and pompous state of the Church that is of his own party or some such thing as will gratifie the animal life and there iâ— terminates but the faith of the sincere and religious soul springs up into eternal life it knows no term but the salvation of the soul 1 Pet. 1. 9. As his hope knows no accomplishment but a state of god-like purity and perfection 1 Joh. 3. 3. The more natural man lives within himself within a circle of his own and cannot get out whether he eat or drink or pray or be zealous for the popular pulling down of the political Antichrist he is still in his own circle he is still sacrificing in all this to that great helluo the animal life as I have already made evident But the godly soul is disinterested of self and so is still contriving the advancement of a nobler life within it self and moving towards God as his supreme and all-sufficient good Give him all that the whole world can afford he cannot fix nor settle nor centre here God hath put into him a holy restless appetite after a higher good which he would rather be than what he is I know indeed that the soul that is thus divinely free may be hindered in its flight but it will deliver it self from the clog at length you may choak and damm up the streamings of this fountain perhaps but they will burst out again you may cast ashes upon this pure fire for a time but it will flame out again such a damp cannot arise no not from Hell it self as to extinguish it The Philistines I remember stopped the wells of water which Abraham had digged in Gerar and filled them with earth Gen. 26. 15. But this well of water which God diggeth in the holy and humble soul cannot be stopped neither by the Devil that King of Gerar that is of wandrings Job 1. 7. nor by any of his servants but it will find vent upward though you endeavour to fill it with earth which indeed is the likeliest to choak it for amor rerum terrenarum est viscus spiritualium pennarum though you cast dust and gravel of earthly
Jesus Christ hath implanted in it And if there be any other circumstance which cannot be reduced to one of these kinds I suppose it may be reckoned amongst the objects and gratifications of the animal life and not to make up any part of the godly man's Heaven or that Eternal Life which Religion springs up into For I do easily imagine that a fleshly fancy may verily be mightily ravisht with the desire of such a Heaven as is suitable to it and that a meer animal man may be as heartily desirous to be in such a Kingdom of God as he hath shaped out to himself as he is utterly unwilling that the true Kingdom of God such as the Apostle describes Rom. 14. 17. consisting in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost should be in him If our continual cry be after safety self-preservation liberty redemption and deliverance from those things only that oppress and grieve our fleshly interest and our thirstings principally terminated in Knowledge though it be of God himself freedom from condemnation power over Devils yea or any visible pomp glory or splendour though it be of never so aethereal and heavenly a nature what do we more than others what is all this more than may naturally spring up from the animal life and be ultimately resolved into carnal self Wherefore as a result from the whole discourse especially from this last part of it let me earnestly entreat all the professors of this holy Religion which the blessed Messiah Christ Jesus hath so dearly bought for the world and so clearly revealed in it not to value themselves by any thing which the power of natural self-love may exert or desire perform or expect nor by any thing below the image of God and the internal and transforming manifestations of Christ Jesus in them the perfection of which is eternal life in the most proper and true notion of it as you have heard I know that I have often suggested the same lesson in this short treatise but I know also that I can never inculcate it often enough nay the eloquence of Angels is not sufficient to imprint it upon the hearts of men Possibly it may startle some hypocritical professors and carnal-Gospellers God grant it may effectually and make the ears of many that hear it to tingle but yet I will proclaim it It is possible for a man to desire not only the things of this world which Sâ— James speaks of Jam. 4. 3. But even Heaven it self to consume it upon his lusts and he may as truly be making provision for the flesh to fulfil it in the lusts thereof in longing after a kind of self-salvation as in eating and drinking and rising up to play Certainly a true Christian spirit rightly â—nvigorated and actuated by this divine and potent principle Christian Religion cannot look upon Heaven as meerly future or as something perfectly distinct from him but he eyes it as life eternal life the perfection of the purest and divinest life communicable to a soul and is daily thirsting after it or rather as it is in the Text growing up into iâ— I know that Heaven is sometimes called a Rest in opposition to the dissatisfaction of the unâ—entred and unbelieving soul but in opposition to a sluggish inert and dormient rest it is here said to be life eternal life Let us shew our selves to be living Christians by springing up into the utmost consummation of life Let it appear that Christ Jesus the Prince of Life who was manifested on purpose to take away our sins 1 Joh. 3. 5. hath not only covered our shame and as it were embalmed our dead souls to keep them from putrefaction and stâ—â—wed them with the flowers of his merits to take away their noisome stink from the nostrils of his Father but hath truly advanced reâ—instated and made to flourish the souls that sin had so miserably degraded and deflowred Deliver your selves O immortal souls from all those unsuitable and unseemly cares studies and joys from all those low and particular ends and lusts which do not only pinch and straiten but even debase and debauch you Let it not be said that the King of Sodom made Abraham rich that your main delight happiness and contenâ—â—ent is derived from any prosperous plentiful peaceable pompous state any thing that may be called a self-accommodation either in the world that now is or that which is to come but from the righteousness of Faith and your vital union with the Father and the Son To whom in the unity of the spirit be honour and glory world without end Amen 1 John 1. 3. Our fâ—llowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ THese words do express the way of a Christians living and that kind of Converse whereby a good man is distinguished from all other men A good man is not differenced from other men by any thing without him any Church Priviledges which are common to hypocrites and sincere Christians any external visible performances in which the Disciples of the Pharisees may be more abundant and more specious than the Disciples of Christ Mat. 9. 14. much less by any corporal or temporal enjoyment or ornament strength beauty riches descent c. nor by any carnal relation though it were to Abraham as the Jews bragg'd of their Father Abraham Joh. 8. 33. but by something internal substantial by a relation to God The character of a good man must be fetcht from his correspondence to the chief good and the happiness of a soul must be judged of by its relation to life and love and blessedness it self Things external corporal temporal make some difference amongst men but it is but nominal and titular in comparison By these men are said to be rich or poor noble or ignoble but men are really and substantially differenced by the relation that they have to God by this they are good or bad Godly or wicked This is the most certain and proper note of a good man viz. communion with God In all other things he may be liâ—e other men but in this he differs from and excells them all This is a character proper quarto modo for it agrees to every good man to none but a good man and alwayes to him as we shall see hereafter The ground of my discourse then shall be this short and plain Proposition viz. A godly man hath communion with God In order to the more distinct handling hereof I must premise a few things briefly 1. That the gracious and loving God made nothing miserable of all that he had made There are no slaves born in his great house of the world He made all things out of himself and he hath no idea of evil in himself so that it was not possible that he should make any thing evil or miserable Every thing was good Gen. 1. and so in some sense happy He was free to make the world but making it he could not make it evil or
of God as the chiefest rule and therefore wicked men who pitch upon other objects and walk by other laws even the lusts and ordinances of their own flesh and fancy are properly strangers to God and miserable He is not properly said to know God who hath a notion of him formed in his head but he whose heart and will is molded into a conformity to God and a delight in him so that a wicked man though he know and believe and tremble as much as any of the Devils yet not loving nor delighting in him as his chiefest good not being conformed to his Image as the highest and purest perfection may be truly said to be estranged from God which is a state of hell and death and darkness This is the man who though not in words yet interpretatively and really saith unto God Depart from me I desire not the knowledge of thy wayes with them in Job 21. 14. These do really exempt themselves from the dominion of Christ and do really though not audibly say with them in the Gospel Luk. 19. 14. We will not have this man to reign over us However men pretend to and boast of their relation to and acquaintance with God certainly all that live a meer sensual life non-conformists to the image of God are truly said to be strangers to him and in a state of non-communion with him 1 Joh. 1. 6. 2 Cor. 6. 14. 2. The life of a true Christian is the most high and noble life in the world it exceeds the life of all other men even of the greatest of men The character that is here given of the godly man is the highest that can be given of any man or indeed of any creature It is the highest glory and excellency of the creature to partake of the life of God of the perfections of the Creator and such is the description that the spirit of God here makes of the godly man What an unreasonable and senseless reproach is that which this wicked world doth cast upon Religion calling it a low and despicable thing and upon Religious and godly men calling them low spirited puny people Can a man be better spirited than with the spirit of God Can any thing more truly ennoble a soul than a divine nature Can a man be raised any higher than unto Heaven it self So noble is the godly soul Prov. 15. 24. The way of life is above to the wise And consequently all wicked men lead a low life and are bound under chains of death and darkness The righteous man is of a high and divine original born of God born from above and therefore is more excellent than his neighbour than any of his neighbours even a King himself being judge Prov. 12. 26. What a hellish baseness is that sinful gallantry of spirit what a brutishness is that sensuality of living which the degenerate Sons of Adam do so much magnifie True goodness and excellency of spirit must be measured by the proportion that it bears to the supream good the infinite pattern of all perfection What excellent persons were those renowned Saints of old of whom the Apostle sayes that the world was not worthy Heb. 11. 38. however they were thought not worthy to live in the world What a noble and generous spirit of true Christian valour patience meekness contempt of the world and self-denyal was that which was to be seen in the blessed Apostles however they were esteemed as the filth and sweepings of the world the off-scouring of all things To which of the noble wise mighty men of the world as such did God ever say these as the men that have fellowship with me these are the men that lead a noble and divine life No no not many noble are called and when they are called they are made more noble than ever they were by birth or descent by places of preferment or command The life of every wicked man of what rank or size soever he be in the world is but a low life a life in most things common to the very beasts with him If the main of his business and delight be to eat and drink and work and sleep and enjoy sensual pleasures what doth he what enjoyeth he more than the beasts that perish But the life of the meanest soul that hath true and spiritual communion with God is a life common to him with the blessed Angels those sons of the morning the flower of the whole Creation That life which hath self for its centre must needs be a penurious and indeed a painfull life For how can the soul of man possibly feed to the full upon such spare diet such scant fare as it finds at home Nay indeed how can it choose but be in pain and torture whilest it stretcheth itself upon a self-sufficiency or creature-fulness which is not at all commensurate to it But the soul that rightly stretches and spends all its faculties upon the infinite and blessed God finds all its capacities filled up to the brim with that fountain of goodness and it self perfectly matcht with a suitable and satisfactory object This is the true and only nobleness of spirit when all the powers and faculties of this immortal soul are exalted and advanced into a true and vital sympathy and communion with the chiefest good formed according to his will conformed to his image And oh that wisdom might be more justified of her children Oh that the life of God did but clearly manifest it self and shine forth in the lives of them that call themselves godly Alas that ever God himself should suffer reproach by reason of the low-spiritedness and laziness of his servants For this cause is Religion evil spoken of The Lord awaken and ennoble us to express and shew forth the divine life with all power and vigour to live as high as the calling wherewith we are called and so roll away this reproach 3. The life of a Christian is not a heavy sluggish thing but active and vigorous as the phrase communion with God imports Religion is a communication of life and vigour from him who is life it self which makes the truly godlike soul to be quick and powerfull in its motions Every thing is by so much the swifter and stronger in its motions by how much the nearer it is to its centre as Philosophy tells us Certainly by how much the nearer any man is gotten to God who is the center of souls by so much the more do's he covet after more intimate communion with him and the more eagerly lay hold upon him Communion do's necessarily imply reaction or reflection the soul that receives of God and his fulness will certainly be emptying it self into him again Communion in the very force of the phrase implies a mutualness we cannot suppose a soul partaking of God but it must needs mutually render up it self to him again There can be no commerce nor correspondence without returns but what return can the godly soul make unto
life into which true Religion daily springs up and will at length infallibly conduct the Christian soul unto This work thus undertaken and in a great measure then carryed on I have since perfected and do here present to the perusal of my dear Countrey having made it publick for no private end but if it might be to serve the interest of Gods glory in the world which I do verily reckon that I shall do if by his blessing I may be instrumental to undeceive any soul mistaken in so high and concerning a matter as Religion is or any way to awaken and quicken any Religious soul not sufficiently ravisht with the unspeakable glory nor cheerfully enough springing up into the full fruition of Eternal life What a certain and undefeatable tendency true Religion hath towards the eternal happiness and salvation of mens souls will I hope evidently appear out of the body of this small Treatise But that 's not all though indeed that were enough to commend it to any rational soul that is any whit free and ingenuous and is not so perfectly debauched as to utterly from right reason For it is also the sincerest pollicy imaginable and the most unerring expedient in the world for the uniting and establishing of a divided and tottering Kingdom or Common-wealth To demonstrate which was the very design of this Preface It is well known Oh that it were but as well and effectually believed that godliness is profitable to all things and that it 1 Tom. 4. 8. hath the promises and blessings of the life that now is and of that which is to come that the right seeking of the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness hath no less than all things Mat. 6. 33. annext to it How unmeasurable is the body and bulk of that blessedness to which all the comforts of this life are to be as an Appendix to a volume But men are apt to shuffle off generals therefore I will descend to instances and shew in a few Particulars what a mighty influence Religion in the power of it would certainly have for the political happiness and flourishing state of a Nation Wherein I doubt not but to make it appear that not Religion as some slanderously report but indeed the wâ—nt of it is the immediate trouhler of every Nation and individual society yea and soul too according to that golden saying of the holy Apostle From whence come Jam. 4. 1. wars and fightings Come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members Here let me desire one thing of the Reader and that is to bear in his mind all along where he finds the word Religion that I have principally a respect to the description given of it in the Text and that I mean thereby a divine principle implanted in the soul springing up into everlasting life And now I should briefly touch those faults both in governours towards their subjects subjects towards their governours and towards each other which do destroy the peacefull state and the sound and happy constitution of a body politick And indeed I fear it will run upon some inconvenience if not confusion to wave this method But out of a pure desire to avoid whatever may be interpretable to ill will curiosity presumption or any other bad disposition and that it may appear to any ingenuous eye that I am more desirous to bind up than to rake into sores I will expresly shew how Religion would heale the distempers of any Nation without taking any more than an implicite notice of the distempers themselves First Then it is undoubtedly true that Religion deeply radicated in the nature of Princes and governours would most effectually qualifie them for the most happy way of reigning Every body knows well enough what an excellent Eucrasie and lovely constitution the Jewish polity was in under the influences of holy David wise Solomon devout Hezekiah zealous Josiah and others of the same spirit so that I need not spend my self in that enquiry and so consequently not upon that argument Now there are many wayes by which it is easie to conceive that Religion would rectifie and well temper the spirits of Princes This principle will verily constitute the most noble heroical and royal soul in as much as it will not suffer men to find any unhallowed satisfaction in a divine authority but will be springing up into a Godlike nature as their greatest and most perfective glory It will certainly correct and limit the over-eager affectation of unweildy greatness and unbounded Dominion by teaching them that the most honourable victory in the world is self-conquest and that the propagation of the image and Kingdom of God in their own souls is infinitely preferrible to the advancement or enlargement of any temporal jurisdiction The same holy principle being the most genuine off-spring of divine Love and Benignity will also polish their rough and over-severe natures instruct them in the most sweet and obliging methods of government by assimulating them to the nature of God 1 Cor. 7. 22. 2 Cor. 3. 17. who is infinitely abhorrent from all appearance of oppression and hath most admirably provided that his servants should not be slaves by making his service perfect freedome The pure and impartial nature of God cannot endure superstitious flatterers or hypocritical professors and the Princes of the Earth that are regenerate into his Image will also estimate men according to God I mean according to his example who loves nothing but the communications of himself and according Lâ—v. 2. 11. to their participation of his Image which is only amiable and advanceable in the world What God rejected in his fire-offerings Religion will teach Princes to disgust in the devotions as they call them of their Courtiers I mean not only the leaven of superstitious pride and dogged morosity but also the honey of mercenary prostrations and fawning adulations In a word this Religious principle which makes God its pattern and end springs from him and is alwayes springing up into him would soveraignty heal the distempers of ruling by humour self-interest and arbitrariness and teach men to seek the good of the publick before self-gratifications For so God rules the world who however some men slander him I dare say hath made nothing the duty of his creature but what is really the good of it neither doth he give his people Laws on purpose that he might shew his Soveraignty in making them or his justice in punishing the breach of them much less doth he give them any such statutes as which himself would as willingly they broke as kept so he might but the penalty What I have briefly said concerning political governours the judicious Reader may view over again and apply to the Ecclesiastical For I do verily reckon that if the hearts of these men were in that right Religious temper and holy order which I have been speaking of it would plentifully contribute towards the happy and
Though faith abhors the blasphâ—my of laying blame upon God yet it so fixes the soul upon him and causes her so to eye his hand and end in all mal-administrations of men that she hath no leisure to fall out with men or quarrel with instruments These Discontents I said were frequently attended with an evil and seditious zeal for relaxation discovering itself in secret treacherous conspiracies and many times in boisterous and daring attempts These are at the first sight so directly contrary to the character given of Religious men viz. the Psal 35. 20. Gal. 5. 22 23. Col. 3. 12 13 14 15 16. quiet of the Land and the genius of Religion which is wholly made up of love peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faithfulness meekness temperance mercy kindness humbleness of mind forbearance forgiveness charity thankfulness wisdom that it is easie to conceive that Religion in the power of it would certainly heal this evil disease also There are many pretenders to Religion whose complaint is still concerning oppression and persecution their cry is all for liberty and deliverance but to make it the more passable and plausible they stile it the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ This pretence is so fair but withall so deceitfull that I count it worth my time to speak a little more liberally to it And here I do from the very bottom of my soul protest that I account the advancement of the glory of God and the Kingdom of Christ to be the most desirable thing in the World and that it is highly becoming the greatest spirits upon earth to employ the very utmost zeal and diligence to assist the accomplishment thereof yea so utterly do I abhor irreligion and Atheism that as the Apostle speaks in somewhat a like case I do verily Phil. 1. 18. rejoyce that Christ is professed though it be but pretended and that truth is owned though it be not owned in truth I will further add that the oppressing and obstructing of the external progress and propagation of the Gospel is hated of Christ and to be lamented of all true Christians Yea I will further allow men a due sensibleness of their personal oppressions and injuries and a natural warrantable desire to be redeemed from them And now having thus purged my self I entreat the Christian Reader patiently and without prejudice to suffer me to speak somewhat closely to this matter Yea I do verily assure my self that I shall be accepted or at least indulged by all free and ingenuous spirits who are rightly acquainted with the genius of Christian Religion and do preferr truth before interest And first For the complaint that is mostly concerning oppression and persecution certainly Religion if it did rightly prevail in our hearts would very much heal this distemper if not by a perfect silencing of these complaints yet surely by putting them into another tune I reckon that Religion quite silences these complaints when it engages the soul so entirely in serving the end of God in afflictions and in a right improvement of them for religious purposes that she list not to spend her self in fruitless murmurings and unchristian indignations As fire seizeth upon every thing that is combustible and makes it fewel for itself and a predominant humour in the body converts into its own substance whatever is convertible and makes it nourishment to itself so doubtless this spirit of burning this divine principle if it were rightly predominant in the soul would nourish itself by all things that lye in its way though they seem never so heterogeneous and hard to be digested and rather than want meat it would with Sampson fetch it out of the very eater himself But if Religion should not utterly silence these complainings by rendring the soul thus forgetful of the body and regardless of its smart in comparison of the happy advantage that may be made of it yet methinks it should draw the main stream of these tears into an other channel and put these complaints into an other tune It is very natural to the Religious soul to make God all things unto itself to lay to heart the interest of truth and holiness more than any particular interest of its own and to bewail the disservice done to God more than any self-incommodation Must not he needs be a good subject to his Prince who can more heartily mourn that Gods Laws are not kept than that he himself is kept under that can be more grieved that men are cruel than that they kill him that can be more troubled because there are oppressions in the world than because he himself is oppressed such subjects Religion alone can make As for the Cry that is made for liberty and deliverance I confess I do not easily apprehend what is more or more naturally desirable than true liberty yea I believe there are many devout and Religious souls that from a right noble and generous principle and out of a sincere respect to the Author and End of their creation are almost intemperately studiouâ— of it do prefer it above all prefermeâ—◠〈◊〉 hing that may be properly 〈◊〉 â—â—sual and would purchase it with any thing that they can possibly part with But yet that I may a little moderate if not quite stifle this cry I must freely profess that I do apprehend too much of sensuality generally in it because this liberty is commonly abstracted from the proper end of it and desired meerly as a naturally convenient good and not under a right religious consideration Self-love is the very heart and centre of the animal life and doubtless this natural principle is as truly covetous of self-preservation and freedom from all inconveniences grievances and confinements as any Religious principle can be And therefore I may well allude to our Saviours words and say If you love and desire Mat. 5. 47. deliverance only under the notion of a natural good what do you more than others Do not even Publicans the same But were this divine principle rightly exercising its Soveraignty in the soul it would value all things and all estates and conditions only as they have a tendency to the advancement and nourishment of itself With what an ordinary not to say disdainfull eye would the Religious soul look upon the fairest self-accommodations in the world and be ready to say within itself What is a meer abstract deliverance from afflictions worth Wherein is a naked freedom from afflictions to be accounted of Will this make me a blessed man Was not profane and impudent Ham delivered from the deluge of Water as well as his brethren Were not the filthy shameless daughters of Lot delivered from the deluge of Fire as well as their Father And yet we are so far from rising up and calling these people blessed that the heart of every chast and modest Christian is ready to rise against the very mention of their names when he remembers how both the one and the other though in a different sense
discovered their Fathers nakedness If we did really value our selves by our souls and our souls themselves by what they possess of the Image of God if we did rightly prefer the advancement of the Divine life before the gratification of the animal it is easie to conceive how we should prefer patience before prosperity faith in God before the favour of men spiritual purity before temporal pleasures or preferments humility before honour the denyal of our selves before the approbation of others the advancement of Gods image before the advancement of our own names an opportunity of exercising gracious dispositions before the exercising of any temporal power or secular authority and in a word the displaying of the beauty glory and perfections of God before health wealth liberty livelihood and life itself We should certainly be more indifferently affected towards any condition whether prosperity or adversity and not be so fond of the one nor weary of the other if we did verily value them only by the tendency that they had to further Religion and advance the life of Christ in our souls This would certainly make men more sincerely studious to reap Gods end in afflicting them and less longing to see the end of their afflictions And as for treacheries plottings invasions usurpations rebellions and that tumultuous zeal for Relaxation which this impatience of oppression and fondness of deliverance do so often grow up into I dare say there is nothing like Religion in the power of it for the effectual healing of them The true spirit of Religion is not so weary of oppression though it be by sinful men as it is abhorrent from deliverance if it be by sinfull means May 1 Cor. 3. 1. I not be allowed to allude to the Apostle and say whereas there is amongst you this zeal contention and faction are ye not carnal and walk as men Is not this the same which a meer natural man would do strive and struggle by right and by wrong to redeem himself from whatsoever is grievous and galling to the interest of the flesh Might it not be reasonably supposed that if Religion did but display itself aright in the powerfull actings of faith hope and humility it would quench this scalding zeal and calm these tempestuous motions of the soul and make men rather content to be delivered up to the adversary though the flesh should by him be destroyed so by the spirit might be saved and the divine life advanced in the way of the Lord. Oh how dear and precious are the possession and practice of faith patitnce humility and self-denyal to a godly soul in comparison of all the joyes and toyes treasures pleasures ease and honour of the world the safety and liberty of the flesh How much more then when these must be accomplished by wicked means and purchased at the rate of Gods displeasure And because the Kingdom of Christ is so often alleadged to defend and patronize these strange fervours and frenzies let me here briefly record to all that shall read these lines the way and method of Christ himself in propagating his own Kingdom It will not be denyed but that Christ was infinitely studious to promote his own Kingdom in the best and most proper sense But I no where read that he ever attempted it by force or fraud by violent opposition or crafty insinuation Nay he reckoned that his Kingdom was then truly promoted when these tumultuous impatient imperious proud lusts of men were mortified Nothing had been more easie with him considering his miraculous power infalsible Mat. 11. 29. wisdom and the mighty interest and party which he could by these have made for himself in the world than to have raised his own Kingdom upon the ruines of the Roman and to have quite shuffled Caesar out of the World but indeed nothing more impossible considering the perfect innocency and infinite Sacredness of his temper nor any thing more contradictious considering the proper notion of his Kingdom which he professes not be secular and so not be maintained by fighting But if you would John 18. 16. ver 37. know in what sense he was a King he himself seems to intimate it in his answer to Pilate Thou saist that I am a King to this end was I born that I should bear witness unto the truth So then it seems where ever there is truth and holiness predominant there is Christ really enthroned and actually triumphant Where Religion doth vitally inform animate and actuate mens souls it doth make them rightly to understand that the Kingdom of Christ is not the thriving of parties the strengthning of factions the advancement of any particular interest though it seem to be of never so Evangelical a complexion nor yet the proselyting of the World to the profession of Christianity or of the Christian World to the purer and more reformed profession of it though these latter would be a great external honour to the person of Christ but that it is most properly and happily propagated in the spirits of men and that where ever there is faith patience humility self denyal contempt of this world and pregnant hopes of a better pure obedience to God and sincere benignity to men here and there is the Kingdom of God Christ Regnant and the Gospel in the power and triumph of it And may not these things be and be most conspicuously in a persecuted condition of the Church That certainly was an high instance of the mighty power of the Divine life in our blessed Saviour which the Apostle Peter records of him who when he was reviled reviled not again 1 Pet. 2. 23. when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously The same divine principle dwelling plentifully in our souls would instruct us to the same behaviour according to the precept given by the same Apostle Not rendring evil 1. Pet. 3. 9. sor evil or railing for railing but contrariwise blessing c. How vainly do men dream that they serve the interest and advance the Kingdom of Christ by fierce and raging endeavours to cast off every yoke that galls them and kicking against every thorn that pricks them when indeed they serve the interest of the flesh and do under a fine cloak gratifie the meer animal life and Sacrifice to self-love which is as covetous of freedom from all retrenchments and confinements as Religion it self can be It is said indeed that when the Churches had rest they were edified and multiplyed but when they suffer according to the will of God they Acts 9. 31. 1 Pet. 4. 14. 2 Cor. 12. 19. are then glorified for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon them As the Apostle Paul professes of himself in that most noble and heroical passage of his to the Corinthians Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me Secondly Religion will not fail rightly to dispose the
hearts of subjects towards one another and that whether they be of the same way and judgement with themselves or different I dare not assert that it would make them all of the same way and mind neither do I believe it would yet I am confident it would do more towards this Catholick union than all the Laws and severities in the world can Mutual forbearance and forgiveness Christian kindness and discreet condescensions are the most warrantable and most effectual method for introducing uniformity and unanimity too which is much better into the Church of Christ But however Religion would certainly give a right disposition and teach men aright behaviour respective to each other whether friends or dissenters This principle would teach men to love their friends and accomplices only in the Lord as his members not as their own partizans Are not they strangely devoted to interest that will vindicate any thing in a partizan which they will declaim against in a dissenter And yet how is the sacred name of Christian friendship reproached every-where by reason of this partiality How much better did true Religion instruct the great Apostle to know no man after the flesh no 2. Cor. 5. 16. not Christ himself The same principle would not fail to cure the distempers of men respective to those that are of a different way and judgement from themselves whether of Pretestants towards Protestants or Protestants and Papists one towards another It would heal the distempered affections and behaviours of Protestants towards Protestants Were men throughly Baptized into the Spirit of Love and Wisdom which are so lively pourtrayed by the Apostles St. Paul and St. James that one might well be enamoured of the very description how certainly would all oppressions law-suits disputations about unprofitable and indeterminable points either be supprest or sanctified either not be or not be vexatious Not to speak of the oppression done by over-reaching stealing lying false-witness-bearing slanderous detrectations envious suggestions and malignant dissemination of doubtfull suspicions by which commonly poor men oppress the rich all which true Religion abhorrs There is a great oppression that goes uncontrolled in the World which is by the cruel engrossings and covetrous insatiable tradings of richer men What these are intentionally I will not say but that they are really and eventually as great oppressions as those inhumane depopulations and squeezing exactions which are so much inveighed against I doubt not But be they what they will or be they excused how they will I am confident that this Divine principle that powerfully springs up into everlasting life would mightily relieve the world in this respect in that it would moderate mens desires of corruptible riches forbid them to seek the things of this world any more or any otherwise than in consistency with and subserviency to their primary and most diligent seeking of the Kingdom of God it would make men seek the wealth of others even as their own and make private advantages stoop to the publick good I do verily believe that if there were none but good men in England there would be no poor men there Civil Laws may provide for the maintenance of the poor but the Law of Divine love a principle of Religion if it were universally obeyed would make men so nobly regardless of earthly accommodations that there would soon be room enough for all men to thrive into a sufficient stature and then being so grown they would covet no more In Law-suits if there were any men would seek the advancement of truth and not of their own cause and interest distinct from it And oh how excellently would it still the noise of axes and hammers about the Temple of God! It would take men off from vain speculations and much eagerness about unnecessary opinions by imploying them in more substantial and important studies The very being of Religion in the soul would indeed decide a world of controversies which the Schools have long laboured in vain to determine For I reckon that these Scholastical wars fitly called Polemicks like those civil dissensions spoken of by the Apostle Jam. 4. 1. James do for the most part spring from mens lusts that war in their members such as pride curiosity lasciviency of wit disobedience and unsubduedness of understanding and the like I have observed with great grief how the spirits of many men I had almost said sects of men run out wholly into disputes about Ceremonies pro and con about Church-Government about what is orthodox and what is heterodox about the true and the false Church which commonly they judge by something external and indeed separable from the essence of a true Church and hereabout is their zeal their conference and their very prayers themselves mostly bestowed Who can doubt but that Religion in the power of it would find men something else to do yea and if it could not perfectly determine these niceties yet it would much heal our dissentions about them and bring tears to quench the strange and unnatural heats that are amongst us and cause such dreadfull inflammations in our bowels But it may seem that there is such a fatal enmity and irreconcilable feud betwixt Papists and Protestants that nothing no not Religion it self can heal it And truly if we suppose that it is Religion that engages both parties in this enmity I think it will prove incurable But God forbid that this pure off-spring of Heaven should be so blaspheamed It is not Religion but indeed the want of it that begets this implacable animosity whatever is pretended Cruel Religion Bloody Religion Selfish Religion Envious and Revengeful Religion Who can choose but cry out of the blasphemy of this contradiction at the very first hearing Nay I dare affirm it without haesitation that the more Religious any Protestant or Papist is the more abhorrent he is from brutish savageness wicked Revenge and devilish Hatred The Church of Rome judges the Reformed Hereticks are not fit to live and why Not because they live not well but because they cannot think and believe as they do And is this the genuine product of true Religion Nothing less For a desire of ruling over mens Consciences and of subjecting the faith of others to themselves is certainly competible to a meer natural man nay to the Devil himself who is as lordly cruel and imperious as any other The Reformed Churches on the other hand are I doubt generally more offended at the Papists for their persecutions of them than for their real persecuting and Crucifying Christ afresh by their sins and so consequently do rather write and fight against them than either pitty or pray for them I hope there are as many well-spirited Christians in England at least proportionably as in any Church upon earth and yet I fear there are far more that could wish the Papists out of this world than that earnestly desire that they might be fitted for and so counted worthy of a better And doth
this spring from a Religious principle think ye or a selfish Doth it not agree well to the animal life and natural self to be tender of its own interest and concernments to wish well to its own safety to defend it self from violence May I not allude to our Saviours words and say If ye hate them that hate you Mat. 5. 46. how can that be accounted Religious Do not even the Publicans the same I doubt we know not sufficiently what spirit we should be of The power of Religion rightly prevailing in the soul would mold us into another kind of temper it would teach us as well to love and pitty and pray for Papists Mat. 5. 44. Rev. 19. 20 21. as to hate Popery I know the Prophesie indeed that the Beast and the false Prophet shall be cast alive into the lake burning with brimstone and the remnant shall be slain with the sword of him that sate upon the horse But in as much as that sword is said to proceed out of his mouth I would Eph. 6. 17. Hos. 6. 5. gladly interpret it of the word of God which kills men unto Salvation However let the interpretation of that Text and others of the like importance be what it will I reckon it very unsafe to turn all the Prophesies and threatnings of God into Prayers lest haply we should be found to contribute to the damning of mens souls Yea when all is 2 Thes 2. 12. said concerning the reprobating decrees of God and his essential inflexible punitive justice and all those Texts that seem to speak of Gods revenging himself with delight are interpreted to the utmost harshness of meaning that the cruel wit of man can invent yet it remains a sealed and to me a sweet truth I have no pleasure in the Ezek. 18. 32. chap. 33. 11. death of him that dyeth saith the Lord God and again As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked Wherefore to wave all those dreadfull glosses that do rather describe the bitter and revengefull ingeny of man that makes them than interpret the pure and perfect nature of God upon whom they are made let us attend to that beautiful character that is every where given of Religion which is Exod. 32. 32. Numb 11. 29. Rom. 92 3. Luke 19. 10. Acts 10. 38. Rom. 5. 6. our highest concernment in the person of Moses of Paul and of Christ Jesus himself the Author and exemplar of it who by his incarnation life and death abundantly demonstrated the infinite Benignity and compassionate ardours of his soul towards us when we were worse than Papists as being out of a possibility of salvation without him and let that mind be in us which was in him also Though it be not directly our Saviours meaning in my Text yet I believe it is reductâ—vely that this pure and divine principle Religion springs up into everlasting life not only our own but other mens also But however Religion is described sure I am it is most unnatural to the Religious soul that is regenerated into the pure spirit of piety pitty and universal charity to be of a cruel fierce revengeful damning disposition And therefore whatever are the Ranting and Wrathful strains of some mens Devotions I beseech the Reader to endeavour with me that Charity towards mens souls may go along in conjunction with zeal and piety towards God when we present our selves before the throne of his grace And so I am confident it will if we pray sincerely to this purpose viz. That God would cause the wickedness of the wicked to come to an end that he would consume the Antichrist but Convert the Papist and make the wonderers after the beast to become followers of the Lamb I doubt there are many that think they can never be too liberal in wishing ill to the Papists nay they count it a notable argument of a good Protestant I had almost said an evidence of grace to be very raging and invective against them Alas how miserably do we bewray our selves in so doing to be nothing less than what we pretend to by doing it For are not we our selves herein Antichristian whilest we complain of their cruelties our own souls in the very act boyling over with Revengefull and scalding affections If we do indeed abhor their cruelty because it is contrary to the holy precepts of the Gospel and the true Kingdom of Christ we ought to be as jealous at the same time lest any thing like unto it should be found in our selves otherwise are we not carnal For meer nature as I have often said will abhor any thing that is contrary to it self and will not willingly suffer its delicate interest to be toucht The Apostle tells us that no man speaking by the Spirit of Christ calleth Christ accursed 1 Cor 12. 3. But I doubt it is common to curse Antichrist and yet by a spirit that is Antichristian I mean carnal selfish cruel and uncharitable For there is a spiritual Antichrist or if you will in the Apostles phrase a Spirit of Antichrist as well as a political 1 John 4. 3. Antichrist and I doubt the former prevails most in the world though it be least discerned and bann'd Men do by Antichrist as they do by the Devil defie him in words but entertain him in their hearts run away from the appearance of him and in the mean time can be well enough content to be all that in very deed which the Devil and Antichrist is All this evidently appears to be for want of the true power and spirit of Religion which I commend for so great a healer even the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our distempers Perhaps no Papist will find in his heart to read this Epistle written by a Heretick yet possibly too some one or other may therefore I will adventure briefly to prescribe this same medicinal Divinity to them also though perhaps I might be excused upon another account all that which I have hitherto said to distempered Protestants being rightly enough mutatis mutandis applicable to them But moreover whereas they value their Church and the truth and rightness of it by its universality and prosperity the power of Religion would make men to value themselves and their adherents only by the divine impressions of piety and purity and to account such only worthy of the glorious title of Apostolical and children of God who are sincere followers of the Apostles wherein they were followers of Christ viz. in true holiness and righteousness Are they industrious and zealous for the Proselyting of the world and spreading of their interest far and near And are not all wicked men yea and the Devil himself so too The fairest and most flourishing state of a Church is nothing to God and so consequently not to a godly soul in comparison of those excellent divine beauties wherewith Religion adorneth the world But whereas the greatest
complaint and the most dreadfull charge which the Protestants bring against the Papists is their immanity and most unchristian cruelty exercised against all whom they can but make a shift to esteem Hereticks and they on the other hand alledge that the interest of Religion and the Catholick faith doth require it and that they do not so properly murder men as sacrâ—fice John 16. 2. them to the honour of God It will be proper to spend a little time at least to clear Religion of this blame that as wisdom is at all times justified of and in her children so she may be sometimes justified by them especially when the aspertions are so monstrous foul And indeed she hath sufficiently instructed us how to justifie her from all such imputations having so fairly pourtrayed Jam. 3. 14 15 16 17. her self by the pen of the Apostle James both negatively and affirmatively She is void of strise envyings bitterness and every evil work but she is pure peaceable gentle easie to be entreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie This is the proper description of heavenly wisdom or pure Religion And oh that all Christians would estimate themselves to be wise according to their consonancy and conformity thereunto Then I would easily believe that none would be Papists in practice whatever they might be in opinion What Sirs is the God of Christians become like unto a Devil that he should delight in cruelty and drink the blood of men Is the butchering of reasonable creatures that reasonable service which he requires Is the Rom. 12. 1. 2 Cor. 6. 15. living sacrifice of your own bodies turned into the dead sacrifice of other mens It was wont to be said What communion hath Christ with Belial And is the Prince of Peace now become very Sathan the author of enmity malignity confusion and every evil work Did he shed his blood for his enemies to teach us that goodly lesson of shedding the blood of ours Did he come to seek and to Luke 9. 56. save that which was lost to set us an example that we might seek to destroy and that only to repair our own losses Be it so that the Protestant Churches have apostatized from you this I hope is not a greater crime than the apostasie of mankind from God which yet he expiated not with the blood of the Apostates but with his own Religion was formerly a principle springing uâ— into eternal life How is the world changed that it should now be a principle springing up into Massacres and temporal death or is Religion now become a principle springing up into secular power worldly dominion temporal greatness and all manner of flâ—shly accommodations This was of old the description of sensuality and a heathenish genius Mat. â— 6. 32. For after all these things do the Gentiles seek Are there so many mighty engines in the Gospel to engage the hearts of men to believe profess and obey it And must they all now give place to Fire and Sword Are these the only Gospel-methods of winning men to the Catholick faith What are we wiser for Christ or more zealous than he himself was Did he forbid fire from heaven Luke 9. 55. and will you fetch it even from hell to consume dissenters Did he sheath the sword that was drawn in his own defence and set a dreadfull seal upon it too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 26. 52. all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword And will you adventure to draw it in a way of revenge and persecution and count it meritorious too as if you should therefore never perish because you take it Is it not written in your Bibles as well as ours that no murderer shall enter into the Gal. 5 21 1 Joâ— 3. 15 Kingdom of God And do you think by murders to propagate this Kingdom upon earth and have a more abundant entrance into it your selves hereafter Can hell dwell with Heaven shall bloody cruelty ever come to lodge in the bosome or lye down in the sacred arms of eternal love Be not deceived Sirs with a false Heaven but take this for an indubitable and self-evidencing Aphorism of truth No soul of man hath any more of Heaven no nor ever shall have than he â—e hath of God and of his pure placable patient benign and gracious nature And this is that everlasting life which a Religious principle is alwayes springing up into so that hereby it appears plainly that Religion in the power of it would heale these feaverish distempers also and so restore a most excellent constitution both personal and political It may seem possibly that I have toyl'd too much in these discoveries and happily my pains may prove ungrateful to many but may it please Almighty God that they may prove vindicative of Religion reâ—â—aurative of the sickly and lapsed Ecclesiastical or political state yea or medicinal and profitable to any single soul of man I shall venture to estimate it against an age of pains And if it should prove that by all this toyl I have caught nothing as the Luk. 5. 5. weary Disciples complained of old nevertheless being well assured that I have a word of God for my encouragement I will let down the Net once again and so finish these Epistolary pains with an earnest hortatory address to all that shall peruse them Let nothing satisfie your souls Christians let nothing administer rest or settlement to your hearts that is common to the natural man or competible to the meer animal life There are a great many high strains of zeal and seeming devotion by which many men judge themselves to be some great ones and concerning which they are ready to say These things are the great power of God which if they be well rifled into will be found to grow upon no better root than natural self and to spring from no higher principle than this animal life It is impossible for me to give an exact Catalogue of all these many of them I have occasionally recorded in the latter end of this ensuing Treatise to which yet many more might be added if I had a fair opportunity But at present let me in general commend to you this description made by our Saviour of true Religion as the Rule whereby I do earnestly entreat you faithfully to examine your selves your actions affections zeal confidence professions performances Let me speak freely All pomp of worship all speculative knowledge though never so Orthodox is as dear to the animal life as the divine and all external modells of devotion submiss confessions devout hymns pathetical prayers raptures of joy much zeal to reform indecencies in worship or superstitions a fierce raging against the political Antichrist do as well agree to a natural man as a spiritual and may be as fairly acted over to see to by a meer selfish carnal principle as by that which is truly divine When Diogenes
be in him a Well of Water springing up into everlasting Life THis Chapter contains an excellent profitable familiar discourse of the blessed Saviour of the World into whose Lips grace was poured Psal 45. 2. and he ceased not to pour it out again That which is said of the Wise Prov. 15. 7. is fully verified of Wisdom it self His Lips dispersed Knowledge A poor Woman of Samaria comes to draw Water and our Saviour takes occasion from the Water to instruct her in the great and excellent Doctrines of the Kingdom of Heaven Oh the admirable zeal for God and compassion for Sonls which dwelt in that Divine Breast And Oh the wonderful unsearchable Councels of an all-wise God! He ordains Saul's seeking of Asses to be the means of his finding a Kingdom upon Earth and this poor Woman's seeking of Water to be an occasion of her finding the way to the Kingdom of Heaven She comes to the Well of Jaceb and behold she meets with the God of Jacob there The Occasion Passages and Issue of this Discourse would each afford many good and profitable Observations But I think none more than this verse that I have pitch'd upon in which the mystery of Gospel-Grace is rarely unfolded and true Christian Religion is excellently described For so I understand our Saviour not as speaking of Faith or Knowledge or any other particular Grace but of Grace in general of the holy Spirit of God that is the Gifts and Graces of it of true Godliness or if you will of Christian Religion for that word I shall choose to retain throughout my Discourse as being most intelligible and comprehensive In which words we find true Christian Religion unfolded in the original nature properties consequent and end of it The original of it is found in those words I shall give him The nature of it is described by a Well of Water The properties of it will be found in the phrase of springing up The consequent of it that the man that is endued with it shall never thirst The end or perfection of it is everlasting Life Of all these by Gods assistance in this order First I begin with the Original of it as it seems meet I should for indeed it is first found in the words The Water that I shall give him And here the Proposition that I shall go upon must be That True Christion Religion is of a Divine Original All Souls are indeed the Off-spring of God Those Noble Faculties oâ— Vnderstanding and a Will free from constraint do more resemble the nature of God than all the World besides There is more of the glory beauty and brightness of God in a Soul than there is in the Sun it self The Apostle allows it as a proper speech spoken in common of all men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act 17. 28. God hath derived more lively prints of himself and his Divine Essence upon a rational Soul than he hath upon the whole Creation so that the Soul of man even as to its constitution doth declare and discover more of the rature of God than all the other things that he hath made whereof the Apostle speaks Rom. 1. 20. He that rightly converseth with his own Soul wâ—ll get more acquaintarce with God than they that gaze conâ—â—ually upon the material Heavens or traverse the dark and uâ—most corners of the Earth or go down unto the Sea in Ships the sâ—rious consideration of the little World will teach more of him than the great one could do So that I doubt not to take the Apostles words concerning the Word of God and apply them to the Nature of God Rom. 10. Say not in thy heart Who shall ascend into Heaven to bring a discovery of God from thence or who shall descend into the Deep to fetch it up from thence The Nature and Essence of God is nigh thee even in thine own Soul excellently displayed in the Constitution and Frame Powers and Faculties thereof God hath not made any Creaâ—uâ—e so capable of receiving and â—â—flecting his Image and Glory as Angels and Men Which hath made me often to say That the vilest Soul of Man is much more beautiful and honourable than the most excellent Body than the very Body of the Sun at noon day And by the way this may render Sâ—n odious and loaâ—h some because It hath defiled the fairest piece of Gods Workmanshâ—p in the World and blurâ—ed the clearest Copy which he had drawn of himself in the whole Creation But though all rational Souls be the Children of God yet all of them do not imiâ—ate their Father though their Constitution do express much of the Essence of God yet their Disposition doth express the Image of the Devil But godly Souls who are followers of God are indeed his dear Children Ephes 5. 1. Holy Souls who are endued with a divine and god like disposition and do work the workâ— of God these are most truly and properly his Off spring Mat. 5. 44 45. And in this respect God's Children are his workmanship created unto good Works Ephes 2. 10. Religion is of a Divine Original God is the Author and Father of it both from without and from within 1. God is the Author of it from without When Man had sallen from God by sin and so had lost his way and was become both unwilling and unable to return God was pleased to set up that glorious Light his own Son the Sun of Righteousness in the World that he might guide their feet into the way of peace who is therefore called A Light to lighten the Gentiles Luk. 2. 32. and compared to a Candle set upon a Candlestick Mark 4. 21. God of his infinite free grace and over-flowing goodness provided a Mediator in and by whom these Apostate Souls might be reconciled and re-united to himself and to as many as receive him to them he giveth power to become the Sons of God John 1. 12. Yet further It pleased God in his infinite Wisdom and Mercy to chalk out the way of Life and Peace in the holy Scriptures and therein to unlock the secrets of Salvation to succeeding generations Herein he hath plainly laid down the terms of the Covenant of Peace which was made in the Mediator and given Precepts and Promises for the direction and encouragement of as many as will enquire into the same These are the sacred Oracles which give clear and certain answers to all that do consult them about their future state Rom. 3. 2. Christ Jesus opened the way into the holiest of all and the Scriptures they come after and point it out unto us He purchased life and immortality and these bring it to light 2 Tim. 1. 10. And yet further That these might not be mistaken or perverted to mens destruction which were ordain'd for their salvation which sometimes doth come to pass 2 Pet. 3. 16. God hath been pleased to commit these Records into the hands of his Church and therein to his Ministers whom
he hath appointed called qualified instructed for the opening explaining interpreting applying of them so that they are called Scribes instructed unto the Kingdom of God and stewards of the Mysteries Stewards over the houshold of God to give unto every one his portion These Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors Teachers God hath given for the perfecting of the Saints for the edifying of the Body of Christ Ephes 4. 11 12. These things hath God done for us from without us he hath set up a light chalk'd out our way and appointed us Guides To which I might adde the many inticements and motives which we call Mercies or Comforts of this Life and the many affâ—ightments of Judgements and Afflictions which God hath added to the Promises Threatnings of his Word to bring us into the way of Life But all these are too little too weak of themselves to bring back a stragling Soul or to produce a living Principle of true Religion in it Therefore 2. God is the Author of Religion from within He doth not only reveal himself and his Son to the Soul but in it he doth not only make discoveries â—o it but lâ—vely impressions upon it he doth not only appoint and point out the way of Life but breathes in the breath of Life He hath not only provided a Saviour a Redeemer but he also draws the Soul unto him John 6. 44. He hath not only appointed Pastors and Teachers but he himself impregnates their Word and cloaths their Doctrine with his own Power using their Ministry as an Instrument whereby to teach so that the Children of God are said to be all taught of God John 6. 45. Ministers can only discover and as it were enlighten the Object but God enlightens the faculty he gives the seeing Eye and does actually enable it to discern Therefore the work of converting a Soul is still ascribed to God in Scripture he begets us again 1 Pet. 1. 3. he draws the Soul before it can run after him Cant. 1. 4. Christ apprehends the Soul lays powerful bold of it Phil. 3. 12. God gives a heart of flesh a new heart he causes men to walk in his statutes Ezek. 36. 26 27. He puts his Law into their inward parts and writes it in their hearts Jer. 31. 33. To which I might adde many more Quotations of the same value But yet methinks we are not come to a perfect discovery of Religions being the Off-spring of God in the minds of men For it is God who enlightneth the faculty as to the learning of all other things also he teacheth the Grammar and the Rhetorick as well as the Divinity he instructeth even the Husbandman to discretion in his affairs of Husbandry and teaches him to plow and sow and thresh c. Isa 28. 26. Not only the gift of Divine Knowledge but indeed every good gift cometh from the Father of Lights Jam. 1. 17. God doth from within give that capacity illumination of the faculty ingenuity whereby we comprehend the mysteries of Nature as well as of Grace John 1. 9. Therefore we may conceive of the Original of Religion in a more inward and spiritual manner still It is not so much given of God as it self is something of God in the Soul as the Soul is not so properly said to give as to be the Life of Man As the conjunction of the Soul with the Body is the Life of the Body so verily the Life of the Soul stands in its conjunction with God by a spiritual union of Will and Affections God doth not enlighten mens minds as the Sun enlightens the World by shining unto them and round about them but by shining into them by enlightning the faculty as I said before yea which seems to be somewhat more by shining in their hearts as the Apostle phraseth it 2 Cor. 4. 6. He sets up a Candle which is his own Light within the Soul so that the Soul sees God in his own Light and loves him with the Love that he hath shed abroad in it and Religion is no other than a reflection of that Divine Image Life and Light and Love which from God are stamped and imprinted upon the Souls of true Christians God is said to enlighten the Soul but it is not as the Sun enlightens you see so he draws the Soul too but not ab extra only as one man draweth another with a Cord as Jupiter in Homer draws men up to Heaven by a Chain and Mahomet his Disciples by a Lock of Hair but he draws the Soul as the Sun draws up Earthly Vapours by infusing its vertue and power into them or as the Loadstone draws the Iron by the powerful insinuations of his grace God doth not so much communicate himself to the Soul by way of Disâ—overy as by way of Impression as I said before and indeed not so much by impression neither as by a mystical and wonderful way of implantation Religion is not so much something from God as something of God in the Minds of good Men for so the Scripture allows us to speak It is therefore called his Image Col. 3. 10. and good men are said to live according to God in the Spirit 1 Pet. 4. 6. But as if that were not high enough it is not only called his Image but even a participation of his Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. something of Christ in the Soul an infant-Christ as one calls it alluding to the Apostle Gal. 4. 19. where the saving knowledge of Christ is called Christ himself Vntil Christ be formed in you True Religion is as it were God dwelling in the Soul and Christ dwelling in the Soul as the Apostles St. John and St. Paul do express it yea God himself is pleased thus to express his relation to the godly Soul â—sa 57. 15. I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a humble spirit And again 2 Cor. 6. 16. As God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them Pure Religion is a beam of the Father of Lights Lumen de Lumine it is a drop of that eternal Fountain of Goodness and Holiness the Breath of the Power of God a pure Influence flowing from the Glory of the Almighâ—y the Brightness of the everlasting Light the unspotted Mirrour of the power of God and the Image of his Goodness more beautiful than the Sun and above all the Orders of Stars being compared with the Light she is found before it as the Author of the Book of Wisdom speaks Chap. 7. What is spoken of the eâ—ernal Son of God Heb. 1. 3. may in a sense be truly affirmed of Religion in the abstract That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the effulgency or beaming forth of Divine Glory For there is more of the Divine Glory and Beauty shining forth in one godly Soul than in all things in the World beside The glorious Light of the Sun is but a dark
shadow of the Divine Light not to be compared with the Beauty of Holiness An immortal Soul doth more resemble the Divine Nature than any other created Being but Religion in the Soul is a thousand times more divine than the Soul it self The material World is indeed a darker Representation of Divine Wisdom Power and Goodness it is as it were the footsteps of God the immaterial World of Angels and Splrits does represent him more clearly and are the Face of God but Holiness in the Soul doth most nearly resemble him of all created Things one may call it the Beauty and Glory of his Face Every Creature partakes of God indeed he had no Copy but himself and his own Essence to frame the World by so that all these must needs carry some resemblance of their Maker But no Creature is capable of such communications of God as a rational immortal Spirit is and the highest that Angel or Spirit or any created Nature can be made capable of is to be holy as God is holy So then if the Poet may call the Soul and St. Paul allows him in it Divinoe particula aâ—ra sure one may rather speak at that rate of Religion which is the highest perfection that the Soul can attain to either in the World that now is or that which is to come One Soul any one Soul of man is worth all the World beside for glory and dignity but the lowest degree of true Holiness pure Religion Conformity to the Divine Nature and Will is more worth than a World of Souls and to be preferr'd before the Essence of Angels I have often admir'd three great Mysteries and Mercies God revealed in the Flesh God revealed in the Word and God revealed in the Soul This last is the Mystery of Godliness which I am speaking of but cannot fathom It is this that the Apostle says transcends the sight of our Eyes the capacity of our Ears and all the faculties of our Souls too 1 Cor. 2. 9. Eye hath not seen c. Christ Jesus formed in the Soul of man incarnate in a heart of Flesh is as great a Miracle and a greater Mercy than Christ formed in the Womb of a Virgin and incarnate in a humane Body There was once much glorying concerning Christ in the World the Hope of Israel but let us call out to the powers of Eternity and the Ages of the World to come to help us to celebrate and magnifie Christ in us the hope of Glory or if you will Christ in us the first fruits of Glory 1. This will then help us in our discoveries of that precious part Religion There is nothing in the world that men do generally more seek or less find no nation in the world but hath courted it in one way or other but alas how few that have obtained it At this day there are many claims laid to it all pretending a just title the men of Judab cry she is of Kin to us the men of Israel say we have ten parts in this Queen and we have more right in Religion than ye according as they contended of old about King David 2 Sam. 19 They say of Christ as it was foretold though perhaps not in the same as was foretold loe here he is and loe there he is which haâ—h made many say he is not at all or if I may go on in the same allusion they live by the rule that there follows they will not go forth to seek him any where Mighty strivings yea and wars there have been about the Prince of peace whose he should be And at this day no question more debated nor less decided than which is the Religious party in the Land Oh would to God men would dispute this controversie with works and not with words much less with blows Religion is of an eminent pedegree of a noble descent you may find her name in the Register of Heaven and look where God is there is she She carryes her name in her forehead the Divine disposition that she is of the Divine works which she worketh which no one else can work the same do bear witness which is she I am ready to say with the man that had been blind Joh. 9. 3. here in is a marvelous thing that ye know not Religion who she is and yet she is the mighty power of God opening the eyes changing the hearts and as it were deifying the souls of men Why do we not also go about enquiring which of those many stars is the Moon in the Firmament If ye ask of the Religions party I will point you to the blessed and eternal God and say As he is so are they in their capacity each one resembling the Children of a King or I will point out the Religions Christian by the same token as Christ himself was marked out to John the Baptist Joh. 1. 33. upon whom thou shalt see the spirit descending and remaining the same is he If ye enquire about the Children of God the Apostle shall describe them for you Ephes 5. 1. The followers of God are his dear Children That which is most nearly allyed to the nature and life of God that call Religion under whatsoever disguises or reproaches it may go in the world Examine the world by no lower a mark than that Character that is given of David 1 Sam. 13. 14. and the man that doth appear to be after Gods heart viz. comformable to his image complyant with his will and studious of his glory pitch upon him for that is that man under what name soever he goes of what party or faction soever he is And let no soul examine it self by any lower marks than this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 participation of the Divine nature conformity to the Divine Image Examine what alliance your soul hath to God whose is the image and superscription Religion is a divine accomplishment an efflux from God and may by its affiniâ—y to Heaven be discerned from a brat of Hell and darkness Therefore Christians if you will make a judgement of your state lay your hearts and lives to the rule the eternal goodness the uncreated purity and holiness and see whether you resemble that Copy For conformâ—ty to the image and will of God that is Religion and that God will own for his when all the counterfeits and shadows of it shall fly away and disappear for ever I fear it may be imputed as a great piece of vanity and idle curicâ—ty to many 〈◊〉 speculative Christians that they are very inquisitive prying into the hidden roâ—â—s of Gods decree the secrets of predestination to find out the causes and method of their vocation and salvation in the mean time they are not sollicitous for nor studious of the relation and resemblance that every religious soul bears unto God himself the heaven that is opened within the godly soul it self and the whole plot and mystery of salvationsalvation translated upon the heart of a true Christian There is
a vanity which I have observed in many pretenders to nobility and learning when men seek to demonstrate the one by their Coat of Arms and the Records of their family and the other by a gown or a title or their names standing in the Register of the university rather than by the accomplishments and behaviours of Gentlemen or Schollars A like vanity I doubt may be observed in many pretenders to religion some are searching Gods decretals to find their names written in the book of life when they should be studying to find Gods name written upon their hearts holiness to the Lord engraven upon their souls some are busie examining themselves by notes and marks without them when they should labour to find the marks and prints of God and his nature upon them some have their Religioâ— in their books and Authors which should be the Law of God unwritten in the Tables of the heart some glory in the bulk of their duties and in the multitude of their pompous performances and religious atchievments crying with Jehu come see here my zeal for the Lord whereas it were much more excellent if one could see their likeness to the Lord and the Characters of Divine beauty and holiness drawn upon their hearts and lives But we if we would judge rightly of our religious state must view our selves in God who is the Fountain of all goodness and holiness and the Rule of all perfection Value your selves by your souls and not by your bodies estates friends or any outward accomplishments as most men do But that is not enough if men rest there they may make an idoll of the fairest of Gods creatures even their own souls therefore value your souls themselves by what they have of God in them To study the blessed and glorious God in his word and to converse with him in his works is indeed an excellent and honourable employment but oh what a blessed study is it to view him in the communications of himself and the impressions of his grace upon our own souls All the thin and subtil speculations which the most raised Philosophers have of the essence and nature of God are a poor and low and beggarly employment and attainment in comparison of those blessed visions of God which a godly soul hath in it self when it finds it self partaker of a Divine Nature and liveing a Divine Life Oh labour to view God and his Divine perfections in your own souls in those copies and transcripts of them which his holy spirit draws upon the hearts of all godly men This is the most excellent discovery of God that any soul is capable of it is better and more desirable than that famous discovery that was made to Moses in the clift of the rock Exod. 34. Nay I should much either desire to see the reall impression of a God-like nature upon my own soul to see the Crucifying of my own pride and self-will the mortifying of the more sensual life and a Divine life springing up in my soul instead of it I would much rather desire to see my soul glorified in the image and beauty of God put upon it which is indeed a pledge yea and a part of Eternal glory than to have a vision from the Almighty or hear a voice witnessing from Heaven and saying Thou art my beloved Son in whom my soul is well pleased This that I am speaking of is a true foundation of Heaven it self in the soul a reall beginning of Happiness For Happiness Heaven it self is nothing else but a perfect conformity a cheerfull and eternal complyance of all the powers of the soul with the will of God so that as far as a godly soul is thus conformed to God and filled with his fulness so far is he glorified upon earth Sed heu quantum distamus ab illo 2. Let wisdom then be justified of her Children let the children of God those that are his genuine off-spring rise up and call him blessed in imiâ—ation of their Lord and Saviour that eldest son of God that first born amongst many brethren who rejoyced in spirit and said I thank thee Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast revealed these things Luk. 10. 21. or according to the style of the Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 1. 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again There is no greater contradiction in the world than a man pretending Religion and yet ascribing it to himself whereas pure Religion is purely of a Divine Original Besides Religion doth principally consist in the subduing of self-will in conformity to and complyance with the divine will in serving the interest of Gods glory in the world Then and not till then may a soul be truly called Religious when God becomes greatest of all to it and in it and the interest of God is so powerfully planted in it that no other interest no self-interest no creature-love no particular private end can grow by it no more than the Magicians could stand before Moses when he came in the power of God to work wonders So that Solomon saith of self-seeking Prov. 25. 27. For men to seek their own glory is not glory the like I may safely say upon that double ground that I have laid down self-Religion is not Religion How vainly and madly do men dream of their self religion carrying them to Heaven when Heaven it self is nothing else but the perfection of â—elf-denyal and Gods becoming all things to the Saints 1 Cor. 15. 28. Instead of advancing men towards Heaven there is nothing in the world that doth more directly make war against Heaven than that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Siracides calls it that proud and petulant spirit of self-will that rules in the children of disobedience So that when the Holy-Ghost would describe David one of the best men to the best advantage he describes him with opposition to self and self-will 1 Sam. 13. 14. a man after Gods own heart and again Acts 13. 36. he served the will of God in his generation There have been of old a great number of Philosophical men who being raised up above the speculation of their own souls which is the logical life unto a contemplation of a Deity and being purged by a lower kind of vertue and moral goodness from the pollutions that are in this world through lust did yet ultimately settle into themselves and their own self-love They were full indeed but it was not with the fulness of God as the Apostle speaks but with a self-sufficiency the leaven of self-love lying at the bottome did make them swell with pride and self-conceit Now these men though they were free from gross external enormities yet did not attain to a true knowledge of God nor any true Religion because they did set up themselves to be their own Idols and carry such an image of themselves continually before their eyes that they had no
man till he consider with himself that one part of these mens uncleanness is that very blindness which keeps them from discerning it I speak principally of the defilement of the Soul though indeed the same do pollute the whole Conversation Every action springing from such an unclean Heart thereby becomes filthy even as Moses his hand put into his bosome became leprous Exod. 4. or rather as one that is unclean by a dead body defileth all that he toucheth Hag. 2. 13. Now Religion is the cleansing of this unclean spirit and conversation so that though the Soul were formerly as filthy odious as Augeus his Stable when once those living Waters flow into it and thorow it from the pure Fountain of Grace and Holiness the Spirit of our God one may say of it as the Apostle of his Corinthians 1 Cor. 6. 11. Such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified c. The Soul that before was white as leprosie is now white as Wool Isa 1. 18. the Soul that before was like Moses his hand leprous as snow is now like David's Heart white as snow yea and whiter too Psal 51. 7. Oh what a beauty and glory is upon that godly Soul that shines with the image and brightness of God upon it Solomon in all his glory was not beautiful like such a Soul nay I dare say the splendor of the Sun in its greatest strength and altitude is a miserable glimmering if it be compared with the Day-Star of Religion that even in this Life arises in the heart or if you will in the Prophets stile the Sun of Righteousness which ariseth with healing in his wings upon them that fear the Name of God To speak without a Metaphor the godly Soul having entertained into its self the pure effluxes of Divine Light and Love breathes after nothing more than to see more familiarly and love more ardently its inclinations are pure and holy its motions spiritual and powerful its delights high and heavenly it may be said to rest in its love and yet it may be said that love will not suffer it to rest but is still carrying it out into a more intimate union with its beloved object What is said of the Oyntment of Christs Name Cant. 1. 3. is true of the Water of his Spirit it is poured forth therefore do the Virgins love him Religion begets a chaste and virgin-love in the Soul towards that blessed God that begot it it bathes it self in the Fountain that produc'd it and suns it self perpetually in the warm beams that first hatch'd it Religion issues from God himself and is ever issuing out towards God alone passionately breathing with the holy Psalmist Whom have I in Heaven but thee In Earth there is none that I desire beside thee The Soul that formerly may be said to have lain among the Pots by reason of its filthiness is now as the wings of a Dove covered with silver and her Feathers with yellow gold the Soul that formerly may be said to have sitten down by the flesh pots of Egypt in regard of its sensual and earthly Loves being redeemed by the almighty grace of God is upon its way to the holy Land hastning to a Country not earthly but heavenly Heb. 11. This pure Principle being put into the Soul puts it upon holy Studies indites holy Meditations directs it to high and noble ends and makes all its embraces to be pure and chaste labouring to compass God himself which before were adulterous idolatrous free for sin and self and the world to lodge and lie down in In a word this Off-spring of Heaven this Kings Daughter the godly Soul is all glorious within yea and outwardly too she is cloathed with wrought gold Psal 45. 13. Her faith within is more precious than gold 1 Pet. 1. 7. and her Conversation curiously made up of an Embroidery of good Works some of Pâ—ety some of Charity some of Sobriety but all of Purity shineth with more noble and excellent splendor than the high Priests Garments and Brest-plate spangled with such variety of precious Stones This precious Oyntment this holy Vnction as the Apostle calls it 1 John 2. 20. is as diffusive of it self and ten thousand times more fragrant than that of Aaron so much commended in Psal 133. that ran down from his head upon his beard and from thence upon the skirts of his garment Not my feet only but my hands and my head Lord said Peter John 13. Not well knowing what he said but the Soul that is truly sensible of the excellent purity which is caused by Divine Washings longs to have the whole man the whole Life also made partaker of it and cries Lord not my head only not my heart only but my hands and my feet also make me wholly pure as God is pure In a word then true Religion is the cleansing of the Soul and all the powers of it so that whereas Murderers sometimes lodged in it now Righteousness the Den of Thieves thievish Lusts and Loves and Interests and Ends which formerly stole away the Soul from God its right Owner is now become a Temple fit for the great King to dwell and live and reign in And the whole Conversation is turned from its wonted vanity worldliness and iniquity and is continually employed about things that are true honest just pure lovely and of good report Phil. 4. 8. 2. By the phrase Water the Quenching nature of Religion is commended to us God hath indued the immortal Soul with a restless appetite and raging thirst after some chief Good which the heart of every man is continually groping after and catching at though indeed few find it because they seek it where it is not to be found If we speak properly it is not gold or silver or popular applause which the covetous or ambitious mind doth ultimately aim at but some chief good happiness sufficiency and satisfaction in these things wherein they are more guilty of Blasphemy than Atheism for it is clear that they do not deny a supreme Good for that which men do chiefly and ultimately aim at is their God be it what it will but they do verily blaspheme the true God when they place their happiness there where it is not to be found and attribute that fulness and sufficiency to something else besides the living God Sin hath not destroyed the nature and capacity of the rational Soul but hath diverted the mind from its adequate object and hath sunk it into the Creature where it wanders hither and thither like a banished man from one Den and Cave to another but is secure no where A wicked man who is loosed from his centre by sin and departed from the Fountain of his Life flies low in his affections and flutters perpetually about the Earth and earthly Objects but can find no more rest for the foot of his Soul than Noah's Dove could find for the sole of her foot Now Religion
Posterity Though men have something without them to guide them in the way of life yet it is some living principle within them that does denominate them living Men. The Scripture will abundantly inform you which is the true Circumcision Col. 2. 11. the true Sacrifice to God Psal 51. 17. And indâ—â—â—â—he Law it self is not so much to â—â—â—â—sidered as it was engraven in Tables of Stone as being written in the heart Jer. 31. 33. The Jews need not have taken up their rest in the Law considered as an outward Rule or Precept for they knew or might have known that God requireth truth in the inward parts as one of themselves a Prophet and King of their own acknowledgeth Psal 51. 6. But I doubt many Christians are also sick of the same Disease whilst they view the Gospel as an History and an external dispensation whereas the Apostle when he opposeth it to the Law seems altogether to make it an internal thing a vital form and principle seated in the minds and spirits of men 2 Cor. 3. The Law was an external Rule or Dispensation that could not give Life though it shewed the way to it Gal. 3. 21. but the Gospel in the most proper notion of it seems to be an internal impression from God a living principle whereby the Soul is enabled to express a real conformity to God himself If we consider the Gospel in the History of it and as a piece of Book-Learning it is as weak and impotent a thing as the Law was and men may be as overly and formal in the profession of this as they were of that which we see by daily sad experience But if we consider the Gospel as an efflux of Life and Power from God himself upon the Soul producing Life where-ever it comes then we have a clear distinction between the Law and the Gospel to which the Apostle seems to refer when he calls the Corinthians the Epistle of Christ not written with ink nor in Tables of Stone but with the Spirit of the living God in fleshly Tables of the Heart 2 Cor. 3 3. According to which notion of the Law and Gospel I think we may with a learned man of our own come to a good understanding of that tormented Text Jer. 30. 31. quoted by the Apostle Heb. 10. 8. This is the Covenant that I will make I will put my Law into their minds c. The Gospel doth not so much consist in verbis as in virtute a Divine Principle of Religion in the Soul is the best Gospel And so Abraham and Moses under the Law were truly Gospellers and on the other hand All carnal Christians that converse with the Gospel only as a thing without them are as truly legal and as far short of the Righteousness of God as ever any of the Jews were Thus we see that Religion is a Principle in the Souls of good Men. Shall be in him a Well of Water We shall here now take notice of the difference between the true and all counterfeit Religions Religion is that pearl of great price which few men are possessed of though all men pretend to it Laodicean-like saying they are rich and need nothing when indeed they are poor and have nothing This then shall be the test by which at present we will a little try the counterfeit pearls True Religion is an inward nature an inward and abiding principle in the minds of good men a well of water 1. Then we must exclude all things that are meerly external these are not it Religion is not something annex'd to the soul ab extra but a new nature put into it And here we shall glance at two things 1. A godly soul does not find the whole of his soul lying without him Religion does not consist in external reformations though never so many and specious A false and overly Religion may serve to tie mens hands and reduce their outward actions to a fair seemliness in the eyes of men but true Religion 's main dominion and power is over the soul and its business lies mostly in reforming and purging the heart with all the affections and motions thereof It is not a battering Ram coming from without and serving to beat down the out-works of open and visible enormities of life but enters with a secret and sweet power into the soul it self and reduces it from its rebellious temper and perswades it willingly to surrender it self and all that is in it Sin may be beaten out of the outward conversation and yet retire and hide it self in the secret places of the soul and there bear rule as perfectly by wicked loves and lusts as ever it did by prophane and notorious practices A man's hands may be tied by some external cords cast upon them from visible revenge and yet murders may lodge in the temple of his heart as murderers lodged in the Temple of old mens tongues may be tied up from the foul sin of giving fair words concerning themselves very shame may chastize them out of proud boastings and self-exaltings when in the mean time they swell in self-conceit and are not afraid to bear an unchaste and sinful love towards their own perfections and adore an image of self set up in their hearts What a fair out-side the Pharisee had himself will best describe for indeed it is one of his properties to describe himself Luke 18. 11. God I thank thee that I am not c. but if you will have a draught of his inside you may best take it from our Saviour Matth. 23. Neither doth Religion consist in external performances though never so many and seemingly spiritual Many professors of Christianity I doubt sink all their Religion into a constant course of duties and a model of performances being more strangers to the life and strength and sweetness of true Religion Those things are needful and useful and helpful yea and honourable because they have a relation and some tendency to God but they are apt to become snares and idols to superstitious minds who conceit that God is some way gratified by these and so they take up their rest in them That Religion that only varnishes and beautifies the outside tunes the Tongue to Prayer and Conference instructs and extends the Hands to Diligence and Almesdeeds that awes the Conversation into some external Righteousness oâ— Devotion is here excluded as also by the Apostle 1 Cor. 13. Much less can that pass for Religion that spends it self about Forms and Opinions and Parties and many disputable points which we have seen so much of in our own Generation The Religion that runs upon modes and turns upon interests as a door turns upon its hinges is a poor narrow scant thing and may easily view it self at once all together from first to last Men may be as far from the Kingdom of Heaven in their more spiritual Forms and Orthodox Opinions as they were in their more carnal and erroneous if they take up
their rest in them Neither is it the pursuing of any interest that will denominate them religious but the grand interest of their Souls 2. A godly Soul in his more inward and spiritual acts hath not his motive without him For a man may be somewhat more inward in his motions and yet as outward in his motives as the former Religions acts and gracious motions are not originally and primarily caused by some weights hung upon the Soul either by God or men neither by the worldly Blessings which God gives nor the heavy afflictions which he sends The Wings by which the godly Soul flies out towards God are not waxt to him as the Poets feign Icarus's to have been but they grow out of himself as the wings of an Eagle that flies swiftly towards Heaven On the other side a Soul may be press down unto humiliation under the heavy weight of Gods Judgements that has no mind to stoop no self-denying or self-debasing disposition in it Thus you may see Jehu flying upon the Wings of Ambition and Revenge born up by successes in his Government and his Predecessor Ahab bowing down mournfully under an heavy Sentence The Laws and Penalties and Encouragements and Observations of men do sometimes put a weight upon the Soul too but they beget a more sluggish uneven and unkindly motion in it You may expect that under this head I should speak something of Heaven and Hell and truly so I may very pertinently for I think they do belong to this place If you take Heaven properly for a sull and glorious union to God and fruition of him and Hell for an eternal separation and stragling from the Divinity and suppose that the love of God and the fear of living without him be well drunk into the Soul then verily these are pure and religious Principles But if we view them as things meerly without us and reserved for us and under those common carnal notions of delectableness and dreadfulness they are no higher nor better motives to us than the carnal Jews had in the Wilderness when they turned their Backs upon Egypt where they had been in bondage and set their Faces towards Canaan where they hoped to find Milk and Honey Peace Plenty and Liberty A Soul is not carried to Heaven as a Body is carried to the Grave upon mens Shoulders it is not born up by Props whether humane or divine nor carried to God in a Charior as a man is carried to see his Friend The holy fire of ardenâ— Love wherein the Soul of Elijah had been long carried up towards God was something more excellent and indeed more desirable than the Fiery Chariot by which his Body and Soul were translated together Religion is a spring of motion which God hath put into the Soul it self And aâ— all things that are external whether actions or motives are excluded in this Examination which we make of Religion So neither 2. Must we allow of every thing that is internal to be Religion And therefore 1. It is not a fit a start a sudden passion of the mind caused by the power and strength of some present Conviction in the Soul which in a hot mood will needs make out after God in all haste This may fitly be compared to the rash and rude motion of the Host of Israel who being chidden for their slothfulness over night rose up early in the morning and gat them up into the top of the Mountain saying Lo we be here and will go up unto the place which the Lord hath promised for we have sinned Numb 14. 40. And indeed it â—ares with these men oftentimes as it did with those both as to the undertaking and as to the success their motion is as sinful as their station and their success is answerable they are driven back and discomfited in their enterprize Nay though this passion might arise so high as to be called an extasie or a rapture yet it deserves not the name of Religion For Religion is as one speaks elegantly like the natural heaâ— that is radicated in the hearts of living Creatures which hath the dominion of the whole body and sends forth warm Blood and Spirits and vital nourishment into every part and Member it regulateâ— and orders the motions of it in a due and even manner But these extatical Soulâ— though they may blaze like a Comet and swell like a torrent or land-flood for a time and shoot forth fresh and high for a little season are soon extinguished emptied and dried up because they have not a Principle a stock to spend upon or as our Saviour speaks no root in themselves These mens motions and actions bear no more proportion to Religion than a Land-flood that swells high and runs swiftly but it is only during the rain or in the Scripture-phrase no more than a morning-dew that soon passes away Hos 6. 4. is like a Well or Fountain of Water 2. If Religion be a Principle a new Nature in the Soul then it is not a meeâ— Mechanismâ— â— piece of Art Art imitates Nature nothing more ordinary I doubt than for Religion it self that new Nature to go into an Art I need not tell you how all the external acts and shootings forth of Religion may be dissembled and imitated by Art and be acted over by a mimical apish Pharisâ—â— who finds nothing at all of the gentle and mighty heaâ— not the divine and noble life of it in his own Soul whereby he may fairly deceive the creduâ—ous World as I have partly hinted already But it is possible I wish it be not common for men that are somewhat more convinced enlightened and affected to imitate the very power and spirit of Religion and to deceive themselves too as if they possest some true living Principle and herein they exceed the most exquisite Painters Now this may be done by the power of a quick and raised Fancy men hearing such glorious things spoken of Heaven the City of the great King the New Jerusalem may be carried out by the power of self-Love to wish themselves there being mightily taken with a conceit of the place But how shall they come at it Why they have seen in Books and heard in discourses of certain signs of Grace and evidences of Salvation and now they set their fancies on work to find or make some such things in themselves Fancy is well acquainted with the several Affections of Love Fear Joy Grief which are in the Soul and having a great command over the animal Spirits it can send them forth to raise up these Affections even almost when it listeth and when it hath raised them it is but putting to some thoughts of God and Heaven and then these look like a handsome platform of true Religion drawn in the Soul which they presently view and fall in love with and think they do even taste of the powers of the world to come when indeed it is nothing but a self-fulness and sufficiency
that they feed upon Now you may know this artificial Religion by this These men can vary it alter it enlarge it straiten it and new mold it at pleasure according to what they see in others or according to what themselves like best one while acting over the Joy and Confidence of some Christians anon the Humiliation and Brokenness of others But this fanciful Religion proceeding indeed from nothing but low and carnal conceits of God and Heaven is of a flitting and vanishing nature But true Christians are genâ—â—y yet powerfully moved by the natural force of true Goodness and the beauty of God and do move on stedily and constantly in their way to him and pursuit of him The Spirit of Regeneration in good men spreads it self upon the understanding and sweetly derives it self through the will and affections which makes true Religion to be a consistent and thriving principle in the Soul as not being acted upon the stage of imagination but upon the highest powers of the Soul it self and may be discerned by the evenness of its motions and the immortality of its nature for a good man though indeed he cannot go on alwayes with like speed and cheerfulness in his way yet is not willing at any time to be quite out of it By this same nature of true Religion you may examine all those spurious and counterfeit Religions that spring from a natural belief of a Deity from convictions observations fleshly and low apprehensions of Heaven book-learning and the precepts of men as the Prophet calls them and the rest which are seated in the fancie and swim in the brain whose effect is but to gild the outward man or at best but to move the soul by an external force in an unnâ—tural inconstant and transient manner In a word All these pretenders to Religion may seem to have water but they have no well as there are others deep men principled indeed with learning policy ingenuity c. but not with true goodness whom the Apostle calls Wells but without Water 2 Pet. 2. 7. But the truly godly and Godlike soul hath in it self a principle of pure Religion The water that I shall give him shall be a well of water springing up into Eternal Life CHAP. III. Containing the first property mentioned of true Religion viz. The Freeness and unconstrainedness of it This discovered in several outward Acts of morality and worship as also in the more inward Acts of the Soul This Freedom considered as to its Author in which is considered how far the command of God may be said to act a godly soul Secondly considered as to its object Two cautionary concessions First that some things without the soul may be said to be motives how far afflictions and temporal prosperity may be said to be so Secondly That there is a constraint lying upon the godly soul which yet takes not away its freedom An enquiry into forc't devotion and first into the causes of it viz. Men themselves and that upon a threefold account other men or the providences of God Secondly into the properties of it proving that it is for the most part dry and spiritless needy and penurious uneven and not permanent I proceed now from the nature of Religion to speak of the proâ—erties of it as many of them as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ed under this phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 springing up into everlasting life Not to squeeze the phrase any further than it will naturally afford discourse I shall only take notice of these three properties of true religion contained in the word springing up viz. the Freeness Activity and permanency or perseverance of it The first proselyte of it coucht under this phrase is that is is Free and unconstrained Religion is a principle and it flows and acts freely in the soul after the manner of a fountain and in the day of its mighty power makes the people a willing people Psal 110. 3. and the soul in whom it is truly seated to become a freewill offering unto God Alexander the great subdued the World with force of arms and made men rather his tributaries and servants than his lovers and friends But the great God the King of souls obtains an amicable conquest over the hearts of his elect and over-powers them in such a manner that they love to be his servants and do willingly and readily obey him without dissimulation or constraint without mercinariness or morosity In which they are unlike to the subjects of the Kingdoms of this world who are kept in their duties by fear and force not from a pure kindness and benevolence of mind to whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the present yoke is alwayes grievous Hence it is that the propagation of this people is called their flowing unto the Lord Isa 2. 2. the mountain of the Lords house shall be established and all nations shall flow unto it and again Jer. 31. 12. they shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord. And the disposition of this people is described to be a hearty and willing frame Eph. 6. 6 7. and elsewhere often Now this willingness or freeness of godly souls might be explained and confirmed by the consideration both of their outward and inward acts 1. As to the outward acts of service which the true Christian doth perform he is freely carryed out towards them without any constraint or force If he keep himself from the evils of the place and age and company wherein he lives and converses it is not by a restraint which is upon him meerly from without him but by a principle of holy temperance planted in his soul it is the seed of God abiding in him that preserves him from the commission of sin 1 Joh. 3. 9. He is not kept back from sin as a horse by a bridle but by an inward and spiritual change made in his nature On the other hand if he imploy himself in any external acts of moral or instituted duty he do's it freely not as of necessity or by constraint If you speak of acts of charity the godly man gives from a principle of love to God and kindness to his brother and so cheerfully not grudgingly or of necessity 2 Cor. 9. 7. An almes may be wrung out of a Miser but it proceeds from the liberal soul as a stream from its fountain therefore he is called a deviser of liberal things and one that standeth upon liberalities as those last words of Isa 32. 8. are rendred by the Dutch translators If you speak of righteousness oâ— temperance he is not overruled by power or compelled by Laws but indeed acted by the power of that law which is written and engraven upon his mind If you speak of acts of worship whether moral or instituted in all these he is also free as to any constraint Prayer is not his task or a piece of penance but it is the natural cry of the new born soul neither do's he take it up as a piece of policy
and not by force and constraint as a fool to the correction of the stocks or a bear to the stake These are all genuine off-springs of holy religion in the Soul and they are utterly uncapable of force Violence is contrary to the nature of them for to use the Apostles words with the change of one word Hope that is forc'd is not hope Now a little further to explain this excellent property of true Religion we may a little consider the Author and the object of it The author of this noble and Free principle is God himself who hath made it a partaker of his own nature who is the Free agent himself is the fountain of his own Acts. The uncreated life and liberty hath given this priviledge to the religious Soul in some sense to have life and liberty in it self and a dominion over its own Acts. I do not know that any created Being in the world hath more of divinity in it than the Soul of man qua nihil homini dedit Deus ipse divinius as Tully speaks nor that any thing in the Soul doth more resemble the Divine essence than the noble Freedom that the soul hath in itself which freedom is never so divine and generous as when it is objected upon God himself This excellent freedom is something of God in the Soul of man and therefore may justly claim the Free spirit for its author Psal 51. 12. 2. Cor. 3. 17. or the Son of God for its original according to that in Joh. 8. 36. If the Son shall make you free then shall ye be free indeed But here it may be demanded whether the command of God do not act the godly soul and set it upon its holy motions I confess indeed that the command of God is much eyed by a godly man and is of great weight with him and do's in some sense lay a constraint upon him but yet I think not so much the authority of the Law as the reasonableness and goodness of it do's prevail principally with him The Religious Soul do's not so much eye the Law under the notion of a command as under the notion of holy just and good as the Apostle speaks and so embraces it chooses it and longs to be perfectly conformable to it I do nor think it so proper to say that a good man loves God and all righteousness and holiness and religious duties by vertue of a command to do so as by vertue of a new nature that God hath put into him which doth instruct and prompt him so to do A religious Soul being reconciled to the nature of God do's embrace all his Laws by vertue of the equitableness and perfection that he sees in them not because they are commanded but because they are in themselves to be desired as David speaks Psal 19. 10. In which Psalm the holy man gives us a full account why he did so love and esteem the laws and commandments of God viz. because they are perfect right pure clean true sweet and lovely as you will find v. 7 8 9 10. To love the Lord our God with all our heart and strength and mind is not only a duty by vertue of that first and great commandment that doth require it but indeed the highest priviledge honour and happiness of the Soul To this purpose may that profession of the Psalmists be applyed Psal 119. 173. I have chosen thy precepts and ver 30. I have chosen the way of truth Choosing is an act of judgement and understanding and respects the quality of the thing more than the authority of the command David did not stumble into the way of truth accidentally by vertue of his education or acquaintance or the like circumstance nor was he whipt or driven into it by the meer severity of a law without him but he chose the way of truth as that which was indeed most eligible pleasant and desireable What our blessed Saviour sayes concerning himself is also true of every true Christian in his measure he makes it his meat and drink to do the will of God Now we know that men do not eat and drink because Physitians prescribe it as a means to preserve life but the sensual appetite is carryed out towards food because it is good sweet suitable so is the spiritual appetite carryed out towards spiritual food not so much by the force of an external precept as by the attractive power of that higher good which it finds suitable and sufficient for it As for the object of this Free and generous spirit of Religion it is no other than God himself principally and ultimately and other things only as they are subservient to the enjoyment of him God as the supream good able to fill and perfectly satisfie all the wants and indigencies of the soul and so to make it wholly and eternally happy is the proper object of the Souls most free and chearful motions The Soul eyes God as the perfect and absolute good and God in Christ as a feasable and attainable good and so finds every way enough in this object to encourage it to pursue after him and throw it self upon him Religion fixes upon God as upon its own centre as upon its proper and adequate object it views God as the Infinite and absolute good and so is drawn to him without any external force The Godly Soul is overpowred indeed but it is only with the infinite goodness of God which exercises its Soveraignty over all the faculties of the Soul which over-powring is so far from straitning or pinching it that it makes it truly free and generous in its motions Religion wings the Soul and makes it take a flight freely and swiftly towards God and eternal life it is of God and by a sympathy that it hath with him it carryes the Soul out after him and into conjunction with him In a word the godly Soul being loosned from self-love emptyed of self-fulness beaten out of all self-satisfaction and delivered from all self-confining lusts wills interests and ends and being mightily overcome with a sense of a higher and more excellent good goes after that freely centres upon it firmly grasps after it continually and had rather be that than what itself is as seeing that the nature of that supream good is infiâ—itely more excellent and desirable than its own Thus have I briefly explain'd and confirmed the Freeness of this principle in the truly godly Soul I would now make some little improvement of it but that it seems needful I should here interweave a cautionary concession or two First It must be granted that somethings without the Soul may be motives in our common sense and encouragements to the Soul to quicken and â—asten and strengthen it in its religious acts Though grace be an internal principle and most free from any constraint yet it may be excited or stirred up as the Apostle speaks 2 Tâ—m 1. 6. by such means as God hath appointed hereunto as prayer
meditation reading administration of our callings as the Apostle intimates in the body of that forequoted Epistle But perhaps there will a question arise concerning some other things which may seem to lay a constraint upon the spirits of men I deny not but that the seemingly religious motions of many men are meerly violent and their devotion is purely forc'd as we shall see by and by but I affirm and I think have confirmed it that true and sincere Religion is perfectly free and unconstrain'd This being premised now if you ask me what I think of afflictions I confess God doth ordinarily use them as means to make good men better and it may be sometimes to make bad men good these may be as weights to hasten and speed the Souls motions towards God but they do not principally beget such motions If you ask me of temporal prosperity commonly called mercies and blessings of promises and Rewards propounded I confess they may be as oyle to the wheels and ought to quicken and encourage to the study of true and powerful godliness but they are not the spring of the souls motions they ought to be unto us as dew upon the grass to refresh and fructifie the Soul but it is the root which properly gives life and growth Secondly It may be granted that there is a kind of constraint and necessity lying upon the godly Soul in its holy and most excellent motions according to that of the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 14. The love of Christ constraineth us and again 1 Cor. 9. 16. Necessity is laid upon me to preach the Gospel But yet it holds good that grace is a most free principle in the Soul and that where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty For the constraint that the Apostle speaks of is not opposed to freedom of Soul but to not acting Now although the Soul so principled and spirited cannot but act yet it acts freely Those things that are according to nature though they be done necessarily yet are they done with the greatest freedom imaginable The water flows and the fire burns necessarily yet freely Religion is a new nature in the soul and the religious Soul being toucht effectually wiâ—h the sense and imprest with the influences of divine goodness fulness and perfection is carryed indeed necessarily towards God as its proper centre and yet its motions are pure free generous and with the greatest delight and pleasure conceivable The necessity that lay upon Paul to preach the Gospel is not to be understood of any external violence that was done to him much less of â—odily necessity by reason of which many men serve their own bellyes in that great function more than the Lord Jesus for though he preacht the Gospel necessarily yet did he preach freely and willingly as he oft professeth The godly Soul cannot but love God as his chiefest good yet he delights in this necessity under which he lyeth and is exceeding glad that he finds his heart framed and enlarged to love him I say enlarged because God is such an object as do's not contract and pinch and straiten the soul as all created object do but ennoble ampliate and enlarge it The sinful soul the more it lets out and lays out and spends itself upon the creature the more it is straitned and contracted and the native freedom of it is enslaved debased and destroyed but grace do's establish and ennoble the freedom of the Soul and restore it to iâ—s primitive perfection so that a godly soul is never more large more at rest more at I berty thâ—â— when it finds itself delivered from all self confining creature-loves and lusts and under the most powerful influences and constraint of infinite love and goodness By this that hath been said of the free and generous spirit of true Religion we may learn what to think of the forc'd devotion of many prest Souldiers of Christ in his Church militant that there is a vast difference and distance between the prest and the imprest Christian Though indeed the freedom of the will cannot be destroyed yet in opposition to a principle many mens devotion may be said to be wrung out of them and their obedience may be said to be constraiâ—ed I shall explain it briefly in two or three particulars 1. Men force themselves many times to some things in Religion that are besides yea and against their nature and genius I need not instance in an overly conformity to the letter of the law and some external duties which they force themselves to perform as to hear pray give almes or the like in all which the violent and unnatural obedience of a pharisee may be more popular and specious than the true and genuine obedience of a free-born disciple of Jesus Christ If going on hunting and catching of Venison might denominate a good and dutiful Son Esau may indeed be as acceptable to his father as Jacob but God is not such a father as Isaac whose affections were bribed with fat morsels he feeds not upon the pains of his children nor drink the sweat of their browâ— I doubt not but that an unprincipled Christian that hath the heart of a slave may also force himself to imitate the more spiritual part of Religion and as it were to act over the very temper and disposition of a son of God Therefore we read of a semblance of joy and zeal which was found in some whom yet our Saviour reckons no better than stony ground Mark 4. 16. and of great exâ—asies in some whom yet the Apostle supposes may come to nothing Heb. 6. 5. and what appearance of the most excellent and divine graces of patience and contempt of the world many of the sowrer sort of Monastical Papists and our mâ—ngrel breed of Papists the Quakers do make at this day all men know nay some of these last sort do seem to themselves I believe to act over the temper and experiences of the chiefest Apostles rejoycing with Peter and the rest that they are counted worthy to suffer shame Act. 5. 41. and keeping a catalogue of their stripes with Paul 2 Cor. 11. 24. and in these things I am confident to use the Apostles words that they think themselves not a whit behind the very chiefest Apostles nay they are not ashamed to lay claim to that grace of graces self-denyal which they have forced themselves to act over so artificially that even a wise man might almost be deceived into a favourable opinion of them but that we know that whilest they profess it they destroy it for it is contrary to the nature of self-denyal to magnifie and boast itself And indeed it is very evident to a wise observer that these men by a pretence of voluntary humility and counterfeit self-denyal do in truth endeavour most of all to establish their own righteousness and erect an idol of self-supremacy in themselves and do really fall in love with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or self-sufficiency
instead of the infinite fulness of God Now there seem to be three things in a formal hypocrite that do especially force a kind of devotion and shew of religion from him viz. Conscience of guilt self-love and False apprehensions of God First There is in all men a natural conscience of guilt arising from that imperfect and glimmering light that they have of God and of their duty towards him which though it be in some men more quick and stinging in others more remiss and languid yet I think is not utterly choaked and extinguished no not in the worst and most disâ—olâ—â—e men but that it doth sometimes beget a bitter sadness in the midst of their sweetest merriments and doth disturb their most supine and secure rest by fastning its stings in their very souls at some time or other and filling them with agonies and anguish and haunting them with dreadful apparitions which they cannot be perfectly rid of no more than they can run away from themselves This foundation of hell is laid in the bowels of sin itself as a preface to eternal horrour Now although some more profligate and desperate wretches do â—uriously bluster through these briars yet others are so cought in them that they cannot escape these pangs and throws except they make a composition and enter into terms to live more honestly or at least less scandalously In which undertaking they are carryed on in the next place by the power of self-love or a natural desire of self-preservation For the worst of men hath so much Reason left him that he could wish that himself were happy though he have not so much light as to discover nor so much true freedom of will as to choose the right way of happiness Conscience having discovered the certain reward and wages of sin self-love will easily prompt men to do something or other to escape it But now what shall they do why Religion is the only expedient that can be found out and therefore they begin to think how they may become friends with God they will up and be doing But how come they to run into so great mistake about religion why their false and gross apprehensions of God do drive them from him in the way of superstition and â—ypocrisie instead of leading them in the way of sincere love and self-resignation to him Self being the great Diana of every natural man and the only standard by which he measures all things he knows not how to judge of God himself but by this and so he comes to fancy God in a dreadful manner as an austere passionate surly revengeful Majesty and so something must be done to appease him but yet he fancies this angry Deity to be of an impotent mercenaâ—y temper like himself and not hard to be appeaâ—ed neither and so imagines that some cheap services specious oblations external courtesies will engage him and make him a friend a sheep or a goat or a bullock under the old Testament a prayer or a Sacrament or an Almes under the new For it is reconciliation to an angry God that he aims at not union with a good God he seeks to be reconciled to God not united to him though indeed these two can never be divided Thus we see how a man void of the life and spirit of Religion yet forces himself to do God a kind of worship and pay him a kind of homage 2. Sometimes men may be said in a sense to be forced by other men to put on a vizard of holiness a dress of Religion And this constraint men may lay upon men by their tongues hands and eyes By their tongues in the business of education often and ardent exhortation and inculcation of things divine and heavenly and thus an unjust like the unjust Judge in the Gospel though he fear not God sincerely yet may be overcome by the importunity of his father friend minister tutor to do some righteous acts This seems to have been the case of Joash King of Judah the spring head of whose religion was no higher than the instructions of his tutor and guardian Jehojada the high-priest 2 King 12. 2. By their hands that is either by the enacting and executing of penal laws upon them or by the holy example which they continually â—et before them exempla trahunt By their eyes that is by continual observing and watching their behaviour when many eyes are upon men they must do something to satisfie expectations of others and purchase a reputation to themselves It may be said that sometimes God doth lay an external force upon men as particularly by his severe judgements or threatnings of judgements awakening them humbling them and constrâ—ining them to some kind of worship and religion Such a forc'd devotion as this was the humillation of Ahaâ— 1 King 21. and the supplication of Saul 1 Sam. 13. 11 12. For God himself acting upon men only from without them is far from producing a living principle of free and noble Religion in the Soul Now the better to discern this forc'd and violent Religion I will briefly describe it by three or four of its properties with which I will shut up this point 1. This forc'd Religion is for the most part dry and spiritless I know indeed thaâ— Fancy may be screw'd up to a high pitch of joy and frolickness so as to raise the mind into a kind of a rapture as I have formerly hinted in my discâ—orse upon these words A meer artificial and counterâ—â—it Christian may be so strongly acted by imagination and the power of self love that he may seem to himself to be fuller of God than the sober and constant soul You may see how the hypocritical phatisâ—â—â— swâ—llâ—â— with â—â—â—conceit gloryed over the poor man that had been blind but now saw more than all they Joh. 9. 34. Thou wast altogether born in sin and dost thou teach us and indeed over the whole people Joh. 7. 49. This people that knoweth not the law is cursed A counterfeit Christian may rise high as a Meteor and blaze much as a Comet which is yet drawn up by meer force from the surface of the earth or water And as to the external and visible acts and duties of Religion which depend much upon the temper and constitution of the body it may easily be conceived and accounted how the mimical and mechanical Christian may rise higher in these and be more zealous watchful and cheerful than many truly religious and godly men as having greater power and quickness of fancy and a greater number of animal spirits upon which the motions and actions of the body do mainly depend The animal spirits may so nimbly serve the soul in these corporal acts that the whole transaction may be a fair imitation of the motions of the divine spirit and one would verily think there were a gracious principle in the soul itself This seems to be notably exemplified in capâ—ain Jehu whose religious actions as he would fain have them
to be esteemed 2 Kin. â—0 16. were indeed rather Fury than Zeal and proceeded more from his own fiery spirits than from that spirit of Fire or spirit of burning which is of God Isa 4. 4. But commonly this forc'd devotion is jejune and dry void of zeal and warmth drives on heavily in pursuit of the God of Israel as Pharaoh did in pursuit of the Israel of God when his Chariot wheels were taken off Exod. 14. Gods drawing the Soul from within as a principle doth indeed cause that soul to run after him Cant. 1. 4. but you know the motion of those things that are drawn by exâ—ernal force is commonly heavy slow and languid 2. This forc'd Relâ—gion is penurious and needy Something the slavish spirited Christian must do to appease an angry God or to allay a storming conscience as I hâ—nâ—ed before but it shall be as little as may be He is ready to gâ—ndge God so much of his time and strength and to find fault that Sabbaths come so thick and last so long and that duties are to be performed sâ— often so he is described by the Prophet Amoâ— 8. 5. When will the Sabbath be past and the new Moon gone But yet I will not deny but that this kind of Religion may be very liberal and expensive too and run out much into the branches of external duties as is the manner of many trees that bear no fâ—uit for so did the base spirit of the Pharisees whose often fasting and long praying is recorded by our Saviour in the Gospel but not with approbation Therefore these are not the things by which you must take measure and make estimate of your Religion But in the great things of the Law in the grand duties of mortification self denyal and resignation here this forc'd Religion is alwayes very stingy and penurious In the duties that do nearly touch upon their beloved lâ—sts they will be as strict with God as may be they will break with him for a small matter God must have no more than his due as they blasphemously phrase it in their hearts with the slothful servant in the Gospel Lo there thou hast that is thine self and the world sure may be allowed the rest They will not part with all for Christ Matth. 19. 22. is it not a little one let me escape thither and take up my abode there said Lot Gen. 19. They will not give up themselves eâ—tirely unto God the Lord pardon me in this one thing cryes Naaman so they in this or that let God hold me excused The slavish spirited Christian is never more shrunk up within himself than when he is to converse with God indeed But the Godly soul is never freer larger gladder than when he doth most intimately and familiarly converse with God The Soul that is Free as to liberty is free also as to liberality and expences and thatnot only in external but internal and spiritual obedience and complyance with the will of God he gives himself wholly up to God knows no interest of his own keeps no reserve for himself or for the Creature 3. This forc'd Religion is uneven as depending upon inconstant causes As land-floods that have no spring within themselves vary their motions are swift and slow high and low according as they are supplyed with rain even so these mens motions in Religion depending upon Fancy for the most part than which nothing is more fickle and flitting have no constancy nor consistency in them I know indeed that the spirits of the best men cannot alwayes keep one pace nor their lives be alwayes of one piece but yet they are never willingly quite out of the call or compass of Religion But this I also toucht upon formerly Therefore 4. The forc'd Religion is not permanent The Meteors I will down again and be choakt in the earth whence they arose Take away the weight and the motion ceases take away 〈◊〉 and Joash â—lands 〈◊〉 yeâ—â— runs backwards But this I shall speak more unto when I come to speak of the last property of Religion viz. its performance CHAP. IV. The active and vigorous nature of true Religion proved by many Scriptural phrases of the most powerful importance more particularly explained in three things First In the Soulâ— continual care and study to be good Secondly In its care to do good Thirdly In its powerful and incessant longings after the most full enjoyment of God In all which the causes and reasons of the same are either more obsâ—urely intimated or openly assigned I Come now to the Second property of true Religion which is to be found in this phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 springing up or leaping up wherein the Activity and vigorousuass of it is described Religion though it be compared to water yet is no standing pool of water but a well of water springing up And here the proposition that I shall go upon is that True Religion is active and vigorous It is no lazy and languid thing but full of life and power so I find it every where described in Scripture by things that are most active lively vigorous operative spreading powerful and sometimes even by motion it self As sin is in Scripture described by death and darkness which are a cessation and privation of life and light and motion so Religion is described by life which is active and vigorous by an Angelical life which is spiritual and powerful yea a divine life Ephes 4. 18. which is as I may say most lively and vivacious Christ liveth in me Gal. 2. 20. and the production of this new nature in the Soul is called a quickning Ephes 2. 1. and the reception of it a passing from death unto life Joâ— 5. 24. Again as sin and wickedness is described by flesh which is sluggish and unactive so this holy principle in the soul is called spirit Gal. 5. 17. the spirit lusâ—eth against the flesh yea the spirit of power 2 Tim. 1. 6. and the spirit of life Rom. 8. 2. the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death How can the power and activity of any principle be more commended than by saying it is life and the spirit of life and the law of the spirit of life in the soul which hath made me sometimes to apply those words of the Prophet as a description of every godly soul Mic. 3. 8. I am full of power and might by the spirit of the Lord. Yea further the holy Apostle seems to describe a godly principle in the soul by activity and motion itself Phil. 3. 12 13 14. where he gives this excellent character of himself and this lively description of his religious disposition as if it were nothing else but activity and fervour I follow after that I may apprehend I forget those things that are behind and reach forth unto those things that are before I press towards the mark c. It were too much
to comment upon those pâ—â—aâ—â—s of like importance labouring seeking striving fighting running â—â—â—stâ—ing panting longing hâ—ngring thirsting watching and many others which the Holy Ghost makes usâ— of up and down the Scriptures to express the active industriouâ— vigorous dâ—â—geâ—t and powerfull nature of this divine principle which God hath put into the souls of his elect The streams of divine grace which flow forth from the throne of God and of the Lamb into the souls of men do not cleanse them and so pass away like some violent Land-Flood that washes the fields and meadows and so leaves them to contract as much filth as ever but the same become a well of water continually springing up boâ—ling and bâ—bling and working in the soul and sending out fresh rivers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as our Saviour calls them Joh. 7. 38. Out of his billy shall flow rivers of living water But more particularly to unfold the Active nature of this divine principle in the soul we shall consider it in these three particulars viz. as it is stâ—ll conforming to God Doing for him and longing after him 1. The Active and sprightly nature of true godliness or Religion planted by God in the soul appears and shews itself in a continued carâ— and study to be good to conform more and more to the nature of the blâ—ssed God the glorious patterâ—â— of all perfection The nature of God being infinitely and absolutely perfect is the only rule of perfection to the creature If we speak of Goodness our Saviour tells us that God alone is good Luke 18. 19. of wisdom the Apostle tells us that God is only wise 1 Tim. 1. 17. of power he is omnipotent Rev. 19. 6. of mercy and kindness he is love itself 1 Joh. 4 8. men are only good by way of participation from God and in a way of assimilation to him so that though good men may be imitated and followed yet it must be with a quatinus with this limitation as far forth as they are followers of God the great Apostle durst not press his example any further 1 Cor. 11. 1. Be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ But the nature of God being infinitely and absolutely perfect is to be â—yed and imitated singly entirely universally in all things wherein the creature is capable of following him and becoming like unto him So Christians are required to look up unto the Father of lights the fountain of all perfections and to take from him the pattern of their dispositions and conversations to eye him continually and eying him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to derive an image of him not into their eye as we do by sensible objects but into their souls to polish and frame them into the most clear and lively resemblances of him that is in the language of the Scripture to be perfect as their heavenly father is perfect Maâ— 5 44. 45 48. to be holy as God is holy 1 Per. 1. 16. And thus the genuine children of God are described by the Holy Ghost Ephes 5. 1. they are followers of God This is the shortest but the surest and clearest mark that can be given of a good man a follower of God They are not owned for the children of God who are created by him nor they who have a notional knowledge of him who profess him or exhibit some externall worship and service to him in the world but they that imitate him the true children of Abraham were not those that were descended from him or boasted of him but they that did the works of Abraham Joh. 8. 39. eveâ— so are they only the off-spring of Heaven the true and dear children of â—he living God who are followers of him be ye followers of God â—â— dear Children A godly soul having its eyes opened to behold the infinite beauty purity and perfect on of that good God whose nature is the very Fountain and must needs then be the Rule of all goodness presently comes to undervalue all created excellencies both in it self and all the world besides as to any satisfaction that is to be had in them or any perfection 〈◊〉 can be acquired by them and 〈◊〉 endure to take up with any 〈◊〉 â—od or live by any lower râ—lâ— than God himself A godly man having the unclean and rebellious spirit cast out and being once reconciled to the nature of God is daily labouring to be more intimately united thereunto and to be all that which God is as far as he is capable the nature of God being infinitely more pure and perfect and more desirable than his own Religion is a particâ—pation of life from him who is life itself and so must needs be an active principle spreading it self in the soul and causing the soul to spread it self in God And therefore the Kingdom of Heaven which in many places of the Gospel I take to be nothing else but this divine principle in the soul which is both the â—â—â—est Heaven and most properly a Kingdom for thereby God doth most powerfully reign and exercise his Soveraignty and most excellently display and manifest his glory in the world is compared to seed sown in good ground which both spâ—ingeth up into a blade and bringeth forth fruit to Mustard-seed which spâ—â—â—deth iâ—s self and groweth great so that the birds of the air may lodge in the branches thereof to Leaven spreading it self thorow the whole quantity of meal and leavening the whole and all the parts of it Mâ—tth 13. By a like similitude the path of the just is compared to a shining light whose glory â—ustre encreaseth continually shining more and more unto the perfect day Prov. 4. 18. which continuall growing up of the holy soul into God is excellently described by the Apostle in an elegant metaphor 2 Cor. 3. 18. We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory that is from one resemblance of divine glory to another The gracious soul noâ— being contented with its present aâ—tainments and having in its eye a perfect and absolute good forgets that which is behind and labours prays strives and studies to get the perfections of God more clearly copâ—ed out upon it self and it self as much as may be swalâ—owed up in the divinâ—â—y I coveâ—s earnestly these best thâ—â—gs â—o be pâ—râ—â—ctâ—d â—â— grace and holiness to have divine characters more fair and legible divine impressionâ— more deep and lively divine life more strong and powerful and the communicable Image of the blessed God spread quite over it and through it A godly soul is not content to receive of Christ's fulness but labours to be filled with the fulness with all the fulness of God he rejoyces indeed that he hath received of Christ grace for grace as a child hath limb for limb with his Father but this his joy is not fulfilled except he find himself adding daily some cubits to his Infant-stature nor
every body that so much as lookt towards it and by all means kept it even as his life For where is the like eager and ardent disposition to be found in a Christian towards God himself Tell me is it possible for a man that vehemently loves a Virgin to be content all his life long to Court her at a distance and not care whether ever he do actually enjoy her or no or must not such an one necessarily pursue a matrimonial and most intimate union with her let us now confess the truth and every one judge himself 2. This dull and earthly body is not so indifferently affected towards meat and drink and rest and the things that do serve its necessities and gratifie its temper Hunger will break down stone walls and thirst will give away a kingdom for a cup of water sickness will not be eased by good words nor will a drowsie brain be bribed by any entertainments of company or recreation no no the necessities of the body must and will be relieved with food and physick and sleep the restless and raging appetite will never cease calling and crying to the soul for supplies till it arise and give them Behold O my Soul consider the mighty and incessant appetites and tendencies of the body after sensual objects after its suitable good and proper perfection and be ashamed of thy more remiss and sluggish inclinations towards the highest good a God-like perfection 3. No creature in the whole world is so languid slow and indifferent in its motions towards its proper rest and centre How easie were it to call Heaven and earth to witness the free pleasant cheerfull eager addresses of every creature according to its kind towards its own centre and happiness The Sun in the Firmament rejoyces to run its race and will not stand still one moment except it be miraculously overpowred by the command of God himself the rivers seem to be in pain till by a continued flowing they have accomplisht to themselves a kind of perfection and be swallowed up in the bosome of the Ocean except they be benummed with cold or otherwise overmastered and retarded by forraign violence I need not instance in sensitives and vegetatives all which you know with a natural vigour and activity do grow up daily towards a perfect state and stature Were it not a strange and monstrous sight to see a stone setling in the ayre and not working towards its centre such a spectacle is a godly soul setling upon earth and not endeavouring a nearer and more intimate union with its God Wherefore Christians either cease to pretend that you have chosen God for your portion centre happiness or else arise and cease not â—o pursue and accomplish the closest union and the most familiar conjunction with him that your souls are capable of otherwise I call Heaven and Earth to witness against you this day and the day is comming when you will be put to shame by the whole creation Doth every even the meanest creature of God pursue its end and perfection and proper happiness with ardent and vehement longings and shall a soul the noblest of all creatures stand folding up itself in itself or choaking up its wide and divine capacity with dust and dirt shall a godly soul the noblest of all souls hang the wings suspend its motions towards the supream good or so much as once offer to faint and languish in iâ—s enterprizes for eternal life Tell it not at Athens publish it not at Rome lest the Heathen Philosophers deride and hiss us out of the world But you will ask me when a Christian may be said to be sluggish and unactive and who these lazy souls are I will premise two things and then give you a brief account of them First When I speak of a sluggish and spiritless Religion I do not speak as the hot-spirited Anabaptists or Chiliasts who being themselves acted by a strange fervour of mind miscalled zeal are wont to declaim against all men as cold and benummed in their spirits who do not call for fire from Heaven to consume all dissenters under the notion of Antichristian who are not afraid to reproach the divine holy gentle yet generous spirit of Religion calling it weak womanish cowardly low cold and I know not what These men I believe so far as I can guess at their spirit if they had lived in the dayes of our Saviour and had beheld that gentle meek humble peaceable and pacate spirit which did infinitely shine forth in him would have gone nigh to have reproved him for not carrying on his own Kingdom with sufficient vigour and activity if not have judged Christ himself to be much Antichristian I hope you see nothing in all my discoveries of the Active spirit of Religion that savours of such a fiery spirit as this is Secondly when I do so highly commend the Active spirit of true Religion and the vigorous temper of truly Religious souls I would not be understood as if I thought all such souls were alike swift or that any such soul did alwayes move with like swiftness and keep a like pace towards God I know that there are different sizes of Active souls yea and different degrees of Activity in the same soul as may be seen Cant. 5. 3. compared with the sixth verse of the same chapter and in many other places of Scripture But yet that none may flatter and deceive themselves with an opinion of their being what indeed they are not I will briefly discover the sluggishness and inactivity of Christians in a few particulars I pray take it not ill though the greatest part of Christians be found guilty for that is no other than what Christ himself hath prophesied 1. The Active spirit of Religion in the soul will not suffer men to take up their rest in a constant course of external performances and they are but slothful souls that do place their Religion in any thing without them By external performances I mean not only open and publick and solemn services but even the most private and secret performances that are in and by the body and ab extra to the soul It is not possible that a soul should be happy in any thing that is extrinsecal to itself no not in God himself if we consider him only as something without the soul The devil himself knows and sees much of God without him but having no communications of a divine nature or life being perfectly estranged from the life of God he remains perfectly miserable I doubt it is a common deceit in the world men toyle and labour in bodily acts of worship and Religion in a slavish and mercinary manner and think with those labourers in the parable that at the end they must needs receive great wages and much thanks because they have born the heat and burden of the day Alas that ever men should so grosly mistake the nature of Religion as to sink it into a few bodily
acts and carcase-services and to think it is nothing else but a running the round of duties and ordinances and a keeping up a constant set and course of actions such an external legal righteousness the Apostle Paul after his conversion could not take up with but counted it all loss and dung in comparison of that Godlike righteousness which was now brought into his soul that inward and spiritual conformity to Christ which was now wrought in him Phil. 3. 9 10. I know indeed that men will be loth to confess that they place their Religion in any thing without them but I pray consider seriously wherein you excell other men save only in praying or hearing now and then or some other outward acts and judge your selves by your nature and not by your actions 2. The Active spirit of Religion where it is in the soul will not suffer men to take up their rest in a meer pardon of sin and they are but slothfull souls that could be so satisfied Blessed is the man indeed whose inquities are pardoned Psal 32 1 2. but if we could suppose a soul to be acquitted of the guilt of all sin and yet to lie bound under the dominion of lusts and passions and to live without God in the world he were yet far from true blessedness A reall hell and misery will arise out of the very bowels of sin and wickedness though there should be no reserve of fire and brimstone in the world to come It is utterly impossible that a Soul should be happy out of God though it had the greatest security imaginable that it should never suffer any thing from him The highest care and ambition indeed of a slavish and mercenary spirit is to be secured from the wrath and vengeance of God but the breathings of the ingenuous and holy soul are after a divine life and Godlike perfections This right gracious tempe you may see in David Psal 51. 9 10 11 12. which is also the temper of every truly Religious soul 3. The Active spirit of Religion where it is in the soul will not suffer men to take up their rest in meer innâ—cency freedom from sin and they are slothful souls that could count it happiness enough to be harmless I doubt men are much mistaken about holiness it is more than meer innocency or freedom from the guilt or power of sin it is not a negative thing there is something active noble divine powerfull in true Religion A soul that rightly understands its own penury and self-insufficiency and the emptiness and meanness of all creature-good cannot possibly take up its rest or place its happiness in any thing but in a real participation of God himself and therefore is continually making out towards that God from whom it came and is labouring to unite itself more and more unto him Let a low-spirited fleshly minded Pharisee take up with a negative holiness and happiness as he doth Luke 18. 11. God I thank thee that I am not so and so a noble and high-spirited Christian cannot take up his rest in any negation or freedom from sin Every godly soul is not so learned indeed as to be able to describe the nature and proper perfection of a soul and to tell you how the happiness of a soul consists not in quiete but in actu vigore not in cessation and rest as the happiness of a stone doth but in life and power and vigour as the happiness of God himself doth But yet the spirit of true Religion is so excellent and powerfull in every godly soul that it is still carrying it to the fuller enjoyment of an higher good and the soul doth find and feel within itself though it cannot discourse Philosophically of these things that though it were free from all disturbance of sin and affliction in the world yet still it wants some supream and possible good to make it compleatly happy and so bends all its power thiâ— herward This is the description which you will everywhere find made in Scripture of the true spirit of holiness which hath alwayes something positive and divine in it as Isâ— 1. 16 17. cease to do evil learn to do well and Ephes 4. 22 24. Put off the old man put on that new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness And accordingly a truly godly soul to use the Apostles words though he know nothing by himself yet doth not thereby count himself happy 4. The Active spirit of true Religion whâ—re it is in the Soul will not suffer men to take up their rest in some measures of grace received and so far as the soul doth so it is sluggish and less Active than it ought to be This indeed oft times comes to pass when the soul is under some distemper of proud selfishness earthly-mindedness or the like or is less apprehensive of its object and happiness as it seems to have been the case of the spouse Cant. 5. 3. Some such fainting fits languishings suâ—ferings in sensibleness must be allowed to be in the Godly soul during its imprisoned and imperfect state But we must not judge our selves by any present distempers or infirmities The nature of Religion when it acts the soul rightly and powerfully is to carry it after a more lively resemblance of God which is the most proper and excellent enjoyment of him A mind rightly and actually sound is most sick of love and the nature of love is not to know when it is near enough to its object but still to long after the most perfect conjunction with it This well of water if it be not violently obstructed for a time is ever springing up till it be swallowed up in the Ocean of divine love and grace The soul that is rightly acquainted with itself and its God sees something still wanting in itself and to be enjoyed in him which makes it that it cannot be at rest but is still springing up into him till it come to the measure of the stature of the fulness of its Lord. In this holy loving longing striving active temper we find the great Apostle Phil. 3. 12 13 14. And by how much the more of divine grace any soul hath drunk in the more thirsty is it after much more 5. The Active spirit of true Religion where it is powerfully seated in the minds of men will not suffer them to settle into a love of this animal life nor indeed suffer them to be content to live for ever in such a kind of body as this and that soul is in a degree lazy and slothful that doth not desire to depart and be with his Lord. The godly soul eying God as his perfect and full happiness and finding that his being in the body doth separate him from God keep him in a poor and imperfect state and hinders his blissfull communion with the highest good groans within itself that mortality were swallowed up of life with the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 4. I
know not how much but I think he hath not very much of God neither fight of him nor love of him that could be content to abide for ever in this imperfect mixed low state and never be perfected in the full enjoyment of him And it seems that they in whom the love of God is rightly predominant potent flourishing do also look earnestly for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life Jude 2. without doubt they ought to do 2 Pe◠3. 12. What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God! Let this suffice by way of general Reprehension 2. More particularly the consideration of the Active nature of true Religion may well serve to correct a mistake about that noble grace of faith How dishonourably do some speak of this excellent and powerfull grace when they make it to be a slothfull passive thing an idle kind of waiting or a Melancholick sitting still which indeed and in truth is Life and power Be not mistaken in so high and eminent a grace True faith doth not only accept the imputed righteousness of Christ for justification but by a lively dependance upon God drinks in divine influences and eagerly sucks in grace and vertue and life from the fountain of grace for its more perfect sanctification And for this cause I think a purifying vertue is ascribed to it Act. 15. 9. Faith is not a lazy languid thing content to wait for salvation till the world to come but it is even now gasping after it and accomplishing it too in a way of mortification self-denyall and growing up in God it is not content to be a candidate waiting for life and happiness but is actually drawing down Heaven into the soul attracting God to itself sucking in participations of divine grace and image into the soul Its motto is that of the famous painter nulla dies sine lineâ it longs to find some divine lineament some line of Gods image drawn upon the soul daily Faith is a giving grace as well as receiving it gives up the whole soul to God and is troubled that it can give him no more it binds over the soul afresh to God every day and is troubled that it can bind it no faster nor closer to him The believing soul is wearyed because of muderers murdering loves lusts cares earthly pleasures and calls mightily upon Christ to come and take vengeance upon them it is wearyed because of those robbers that are daily stealing away precious time and affections from God which are due unto him and calls upon Christ to come and scourge these thieves these buyers and sellers out of his own Temple In a word the godly soul is Active and faith is the very life and Action of the soul itself Lastly Let me exhort all Christians from hence to be zealous to be fervent in spirit serving the Lord and longing after him Stir up the grace of God that is in you Quench not i. e. blow up enflame the spirit of God in you Awake Christian soul out of thy Lethargy and rejoyce as the Sun to run the race that is set before thee and as a mighty man refreshed with Wine to fight thy spiritual battels against the armies of uncircumcised prophane and earthly concupiscences love and passions Eye God as your centre the enjoyment of him as the Happiness and full conformity to him as the perfection of your souls and then say Awake Arise O my Soul and hide not thy hand in thy bosome but throw thy self into the very heart and bosome of God lay hold upon eternal life Again observe how all things in the world pursue their several perfections with unwearied and impatient longings and say come my soul and do thou likewise Converse not with God so much under the notion of a Law giver but as with love itself nor with his commands as having authority in them but as having goodness and life and sweetness in them Again consider your poverty as creatures and how utterly impossible it is for you to be happy in your selves and say Arise O my soul from off this weak and tottering foundation and build thy self up in God cease pinching thy self within the straits of self-sufficiencies and come stretch thy self upon infinite Goodness and Fulness Again pore not upon your attainments do not sit brooding upon your present accomplishments but forget the things that are behind and say Awake O my soul there is yet infinitely much more in God pursue after him for it till thou have gotten as much as a created Being is capable to receive of the divine nature In a word take heed you live not by the lowest examples which thing keeps many in a dwindling state all their dayes but by the highest Read over the Spouse her temper sick of Love Davids temper waiting for God more than they that watch for the morning breaking in heart for the longing that he had to the Lord and say Arise O my Soul and live as high as the highest it is no fault to desire to be as Good as holy as happy as an Angel of God And thus O my soul open thy mouth wide and God hath promised to fill thee CHAP. VI. That Religion is a lasting and persevering principle in the soules of men proved by several Scriptures The grounds of this perseverance assigned first negatively It doth not arise from the absolute inamissability of grace in the creature nor from the strength of mans Free-will Secondly Affirmatively the grace of election cannot fail The grace of Justification is neither suspended nor violated The Covenant of grace is everlasting The Mediator of this Covenant lives for ever The promises of it immutable The righteousness brought in by the Messiab everlasting An objection answered concerning a regenerate mans willing his own apostasie An Objection answered drawn from the falls of Saints in Scripture as also from those Scriptures that seem to imply a mans falling away A discovery of counterfeit Religion and the shamefull apostasie of false professors An encouragement to all holy diligence from the consideration of this doctrine the rather that we may stop the mouths of those that falsly affirm that the same is prejudicial to true godliness I Come now to the third property of true Religion contained in these words and that is the perseverance of it And here the foundation of my following discourse shall be this proposition True Religion is a lasting and persevering principle in the Souls of good men It is said of the hypocritical Jews that their goodness was as the early dew that soon passeth away Hos 6. 4. But that principle of true goodness which God planteth in the souls of his people is compared to a well of water evermore sending forth fresh streams and incessantly springing up towards God himself our Saviour compares hypocritical professors to seed sown upon stony ground that springs up
do also understand that they must accomplish it in a way of dutifull diligence and watchfull willingness and if any grow prophane and licentious and apostatize from the way of righteousness which they have known it is an evident argument to them that they are no Saints and then what will the doctrine of the perseverance of Saints avail them CHAP. VII Religion considered in the consequent of Not thirsting the phrase explained two wayes both resulting into the same general truth viz. that divine grace gives a solid satisfaction to the soul This Aphorisme confirmed by some Scriptures and largely explained in six propositions The first that there is a raging thirst in every soul of man after some ultimate and satisfactory good The second that every natural man thirsteth principally after happiness in the creature The third that no man can find that soul-filling satisfaction in any creature enjoyment which every natural man principally seeketh therein this prosecuted in two particulars The fourth that grace takes not away the souls thirst after happiness but much enflames it the reason assigned The fifth that the godly soul thirsteth no more after Rest in any worldly thing but in God alone this prosecuted in both the branches of it in the former more largely where enquiry is made how far a godly man may be said to thirst after the creature and answered in four particulars the latter briefly toucht upon The sixth that in the enjoyment of God the soul is at Rest and this in a double sense viz. so as that it is perfectly matcht with its object two things noted for the clearing of this Secondly so satisfied as to have joy and pleasure in him a double account given of that joy The chapter expires in a passionate lamentation taken up over the levity and earthliness of Christian minds John 4. 14. Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst c. HItherto we have taken a view of true Religion as it stands described in this pregnant text by its original nature and properties we are now to consider it in the certain and genuine consequent of it and that is in one word Affirmatively satisfaction or if you will negatively not thirsting for so it is in our Saviours phrase whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst Whilest I address my self to the explication of this phrase I suppose I need not be so exact and curious as to tell you in order with a certain kind of Scholastical gravity first what is nor and then what is meant by it For I presume no body will dream of a corporeal or gross kind of thirsting to be meant here Grace doth no more quench the thirst of the body than elementary water can relieve the panting of the soul Nay he himself was subject to this gross kind of thirst who gave to others the water whereof if they drank they should never thirst more If it be understood of a spiritual thirst yet I suppose I need not to tell you neither that then it must not be understood absolutely For it cannot possibly be that the thirst of a Soul should be perfectly allayed till all its faculties be filled up to the brim of their respective capacities which will never be untill it be swallowed up in the infinite and unbounded Ocean of the supream good But I conceive we may fairly come to the meaning of this phrase never thirst either by adding or distinguishing First Then let us supply the sentence thus whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst after any other water There is no worldly liquor can be so accommodated or attempered to the Palate as to give it an universal satisfaction so as that a man should be perfectly mortified to all variety But this Heavenly water which our Saviour treats of here is so fitted to the Palate of spirits and brings such satisfaction along with it that the soul that is made to drink of it do's supercede its chase of all other delights counts all other waters but a filthy and stinking puddle thirsts no more after any other thing neither through necessity nor for variety The more the soul drinks of this water indeed the more it thirsteth after fuller measures and larger potions of the same and do's not only suck in divine vertue and influences but even longs to be itself suckt up in the divinity as we shall see further in the procedure of this discourse But its thirst after all created good all the waters of the Cistern are hereby extinguished or at least mastered and mortified Or Secondly By distinguishing upon thirst the sense of the phrase will be clearly this whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never be at a loss more never be to seek any more never be uncertain or unsatisfied as to his main happiness or supream object be shall not rove and range up and down the world in an unfixedness and suspense any more shall not run up and down to seek satisfaction and rest any more From an internal unsatisfiedness of the body spring violent and restless motions and runnings up and down by which thirst is contracted so that by a Metonymy thirst comes to be used for unsatisfiedness which is the remote cause of it and by a metaphor the same phrase comes to be applyed to the soul I suppose I am warranted by the sacred style thus to interpret especially by the use and explication of the phrase in Jer. 2. 25. where the Prophet intimates that by thirst is to be meant a restless and discontented running up and down to seek satisfaction withhold thy foot from being unshod and thy throat from thirst which two phrases are of the same importance and signifie no more than cease from gadding after your Idols and that this is the meaning of that thirsting appears by the answer that the wilfull and desperate people make in the sequel of the verse For instead of saying no but we will thirst they cry no but after them will I goe To thirst then is in an unsatisfiedness and spiritual disquiet to range up and down seeking something wherein ultimately to acquiesce And in this sense it is most true what our Lord here pronounceth that whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst Of which thirst that famous Proclamation of our Saviours is to be understood Joh. 7. 37. If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink in which place also we must necessrily understand what is here exprest that then he shall never thirst more It matters not much by which of these two wayes we explain the phrase here of not thirsting for according to either of them it will result into this theological maxime viz. that Divine grace or true Christian Religion gives a real and solid satisfaction to the soul that is principled with it This will appear plain though we apply
withered the choicest flowers in natures Garden that they have now no more form nor comeliness beauty or fragrancy as to deserve to be desired she hath tasted the pure and perfect sweetness of the fountain which hath so imbittered all cistern-waters that she finds no more thirstings in her self after them which is chat which our Saviour promiseth here shall never christ A godly soul cannot posfibly be put off with any thing short of God give him his God or he dies Give him never so much fair usage in the world never so much of earthly accommodations they are not accommodated to his wants and thirsts if they have not that God in them out of whom all worldly pleasures are even irksome and unpleasant and all fleshly case is tedious and painsul Creature-employments are but a weatisome Crudgery to a soul that is acquainted with the work of Angels and creature-enjoyments in themselves considered are very insignificant if not burdensome to a mind that is feelingly possest of the chiefest good But here it will be seasonable to take into consideration a grand enquiry viz. whether a godly man may not be said in some sense to desire the creature and how far such a person may be said to thirst after it This I shall speak to as briefly and yet as clearly as I can in these four following particulars 1. All godly souls are not equally mortified to worldly loves nor equally zealous and importunate lovers of God This is so evident de facto that I need not insist upon it Abraham seems to have been as much higher and nobler in spirit than his Brother Lot as Lot was more excellent than one of the ordinary Sons of Adam I had almost said than one of the Sodomites amongst whom he dwelled The one leaves all the pleasant and plentiful accommodations of his native Country at the very first call going out not knowing whither he went only relying upon the gracious guidance of him whom he followed he seems to reckon all soils alike for his sojourning and the whole habitable world as his own City and home as appears by his readâ—ness to break up house and quit his present habitation rather than interfere with the conveniences of his Nephew Gen. 13. 9. The other preferred a fruitful soil before a faithful society and so in some sense his body before his soul and yet as if it had not been enough to make so unadvised a choice he rests in it too yea though he was so severely reproved by the captivity that befell him there whereby he was not so much call'd as indeed carried away thence yet this will not loosen him from his earthly conveniences but he returns to Sodom and from thence he will not part till he be fired out nay and then also it is with much lingring and loathness Gen. 19. 16. It is evident I say de facto both from this and many other instances which I purposely omit that it is so that all godly souls are not equally careless of these earthly things not carried out with equal ardour and intemperance as I may call it towards the supreme and most glorious object of which I can assign no fitter reason than this because they are not all equally godly For 2. So far as grace prevails and Religion in the power of is acteth the soul in which it is planted so far earthly loves decay and wither For these two cannot stand together mutuo se pellunt the love of the world is inconsistent with the love of God 1 Joh. 1. 15. If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him So far as any soul is sanctified so far is it mortified also to all creature-enjoyments to all things that are only fuel for the animal life honour ease victory plenty liberty relations recreations all the entertainments and delights in this lower life yea and this very life it self Earthly and heavenly loves are to each other as the two ends of a pair of ballances save that they are never found equally poizing as the one rises the other falls just so much advantage as this gets that loses The more the sensual and self-central life thrives and prospers and the creature is exalted the more Religion and the divine life fainteth and flogeth in the soul And so certainly on the other hand the more divine grace prevails and the divine life flourisheth in the soul the more all earthly objects wither away and lose their beauty and the soul cooleth and languisheth as to its love and desire of them So far as a regenerate soul is unregenerate so far she will be bufling after other Lovers which regeneration will not I conceive be throughly perfected and therefore these lustings not utterly extinguished till this mortal put on immortality or as the Apostle speaks elsewhere till mortality be swallowed up of life 3. For the preventing of rash and uncharitable judging I do affirm that divine and holy souls are oft mistaken by them that behold their ordinary converse and actions in the body They are thought sometimes to take pleasure in the creature and to gratifie the flesh when indeed it is no such matter but they take pleasure in the stamp of God or the evidence of his fatherly love which they contemplate therein and do perhaps most of all serve a spiritual end and an eternal design in those very actions which others may think are calculated for the gratification of the animal life and the service of the flesh Let not the purblind world nor the self-befriending hypocrite be judge and it will appear that the truly godly soul counts nothing savoury to it self but what represents teaches exhibits something of God nothing pleasant but what hath a tendency to him Such a soul doth not feel himself in his highest raptures doth not tast himself in his noblest accomplishments doth not seek himself in his most excellent performances be nor mistaken he doth not so much thirst after long life riches friends liberties as indeed after God in them all these all signifie nothing to him if they bring him not nearer to his God and conduce to his real and spiritual happiness Yea possibly in his most suspicable actions and those that seem most alien from Religion and most designed to please the flesh he may be highly spiritual and pure So was our blessed Saviour we know even in his conversing with scandalous sinners eating and drinking with Publicans and notorious oâ—fenders however he was traduced by a proud and hypocritical generation and so I doubt not is many a good Christian according to his measure pure as Christ was pure When a painted Hypocrite who can guess aâ— the temper of others no other way but by what he finds in himself and by what he should be and do if he were under the same circumstances comes to be Judge of the actions or disposition of one who is transformed into the Image of the divine freedom and benignity
whom she had so long straggled by sin and wickedness For the God of hope filleth the godly soul with all peace and joy in believing Rom. 15. 13. Christ doth on purpose speak words to the hearts of his Disciples that their joy may be full Joh. 15. 11. But whether the most benign and gracious Father of spirits doth immediately from himself inspire the holy soul with divine joys and pleasures kindled as I may say with nothing but his own breath or whether he bring them to his holy Mountain and into his house of prayer and by that or any other the like means make them joyful and of glad heart as in the day of a solemn festival as he hath promised to do Isa 56. 7. and Isa 25. 6. However it be I say sure it is that he frequently puts a gladness into their hearts beyond that of the Harvest or the Vintage Psal 4. 7. and makes them to rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1. 8. Having now unfolded the meaning of the gracious soul 's nor thirsting any more I should pass to the last thing contained in the Text but finding my self opprest in my spirit by the consideration of this necessary consequent of true Religion when I compare the temper of Christians with it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I must crave leave to stay a little and breathe And what shall I breath but a sad and bitter complaint over that low earthly selfish greedy spirit which actuateth the world at this day yea and the generality of Professors of that sacred Religion which we call Christianity Alas what a company of thieves and murderers I mean base and sensual loves and lusts lodge in those very souls who would be taken for Temples consecrated to the name and honour and inhabitation of the eternal God the spirit of Truth and Holiness Oh what pitty is it that the precious souls of men yea and of Christians the best of men that are all capable of so glorious liberty so high and honourable a happiness should be bound down under such vile and sordid lusts feeding upon dust and gravel to whom the hidden Mannah is freely offered and God himself is ready to become a banquet And oh what a shame is it for those who profess themselves children of God Disciples of the most holy Jesus and Heirs of his pure and undefiled Kingdom of Heaven for these I say willingly and greedily to roll themselves in filthy and bruitish sensualities to set up that on high in their souls which was made to be under their bodies and so to love and live as if they studied to have no affinity at all but would be as unlike as they could to that God and Redeemer and unfit for that inheritance How often shall it be protested to the Christian world by men of the greatest devotion and seriousness that it is utterly mad and perfectly vain to dream of entring into the Kingdom of Heaven hereafter except the Kingdom of Heaven enter into our souls during their union with these bodies How long shall the Son of God who came into the world on purpose to be the most glorious example of true and divine purity exact and perfect self-denial and mortification how long shall he lye by in his word as an antiquated pattern only cut out for the Apostolical ages of the world and only suited to some few morose and melancholick men Is it not a monstrous spectacle and to be hist out of the world with the greatest indignation a covetous voluptuous ambitious sensual Saint With what face can we pretend to true Religion or a feeling acquaintance with God and the things of his personall service and Kingdome whilest the continual bleatings and lowings of our souls after created good do bewray us so manifestly and proclaim before all the world that the beast the brutish life is still powerful in us If ye seek me saith Christ to his followers as well as he did once to his persecutors then let these go let go the hold of these earthly objects let vanish these worldly joys and toys with-hold your throat from thirst and your feet from being unshod and come follow me only and ye shall have treasure in Heaven for he that will not deny all for me is not worthy of me But O curvae in terras animae c. Ah sad and dreadful fall that hath so miserably crampt this royal off-spring and made the Kings Son to be a same Mephibosheth Ah dolesul Apostasie How are the Sons of the morning become Brats of darkness and the heirs of Heaven vassals and drudges to earth How is the Kings Daughter unequally yoaked with a churlish Nabal that continually checketh her with more divine and generous motions How unhappily art thou matcht O my soul And yet alas I see it is too properly a marriage for thou hast clean forgotten thine own people and thy Fathers house Take up oh take up a lamentation thou Virgin Daughter of the God of Zion Sometimes indeed a Virgin but now alas no longer a Virgin but miserably married to an unworthy mate that can never be able to match thy faculties nor maintain thee according to the grandeur of thy birth or the necessary pomp of thy expences and way of living nay thou art become not only a miserable wife but in so being thou art also a wicked adulteress prostituting thy self to the very vilest of thy lawful Husbands servants if thou be not incestuous it is no thank to thee there being nothing in this world so near of kin to thee as to make way for incest Return return O Shulamite return return put away thine adulteries from between thy breasts and so shall the King yet again greatly desire thy beauty for so he hath promised Jer. 3. 21. that when there shall be a voice heard upon the high places weeping and supplications of the children of Israel because they have perverted their way and forgotten the Lord their God and the backsliding children shall return that then he will heal their backslidings CHAP. VIII The term or end of Religion eternal life considered in a double notion First as it signifies the essential happiness of the soul The second as it takes in many glorious appendices The former more fully described the latter more briefly The noble and genuine breathings of the godly soul after and springing up into the former in what sense she may be said to desire the latter The argument drawn from the example of Christ Moses and Paul moderated A general answer given to the Quaery It ends in a serious exhortation made to Christians to live and love more spiritually more suitably to the nature of souls redeemed souls resulting from the whole discourse I Am now come to the last thing whereby this most noble principle is described viz. the Term or End of it and that is said here in the Text to be Everlasting Life This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or
highest pitch of perfection unto which the New Creature is continually growing up which the Apostle Paul hath exprest with as much grand eloquence as words are able to magnifie if calling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ This is that unbounded Ocean which this living fountain by so many incessantissues and unwearied streamings perpetually endeavours to empty it self into or rather to embosom it self in Now what this is we must confess with the Apostle John and indeed we have more reason to make such a confession than he had that it doth not yet appear viz. neither fully nor distinctly But yet since I am thus cast upon the contemplation of it it will be a pertinent piece of pleasure a little to enquire into it and though it surpass the power and skill of all created comprehensions to take the just dimensions and faithfully give in the height and depth and length and breadth of it yet we may essay to walk about this heavenly Jerusalem as the Psalmist speaks of the earthly and tell the Towers thereof mark her Walls consider her Palaces that we may tell it to the generation following First Then we will consider Eternal Life in the most proper notion of it as it implies the essential happiness of the soul and so it is no other than the souls pure perfect and establisht state By a state I do designedly disparage that grosser notion of a place as that which scarce deserves to enter into the description of such a glory or at best will obtain but a very low room there By purity I do purposely explode that carnal ease rest immunity affluence of senfual delights accommodated only to the animal life which last the Mahumetans and the former too many profest Christians and the Jews almost generally do dream of and judge Heaven to be By perfection I do distinguish it from the best state which the best men upon earth can possibly be in So then I take Eternal Life in the primary and most proper notion of it to be full and perfect and everlasting enjoyment of God communion with him and a most blissful conformity of all the powers and faculties of the soul to that eternal goodness truth and love as far as it is or may become capable of the communications of the divinity This life was at the highest rate imaginable purchased by our ever blessed Lord and Saviour in the daies of his flesh and here in the Text promised to every believing soul Now in as much as we are ignorant both of the present capacity of our own faculties how large they are and much more ignorant how much more large and ample they may be made on purpose to receive the more rich and plentiful communications of the divine life and image therefore can we not comprehend neither the transcendent life happiness and glory nor that degree of sanctity and blessedness which the believing soul may be advanced unto in another world The Popish Schoolmen do nicely dispute about the sight of God and the love of God to wit in whether of these the formal blessedness of the soul consisteth ill separating those whom God hath so firmly joyned together as if it were possible that either a blind love or a jejune and unaffectionate speculation could render a soul entirely happy But it is much safer to say that the happiness and eternal life of the soul standeth in the possession or fruition of God and this doth necessarily import the proper perfection of every faculty Nothing can be the formal happiness of a spirit that is either iuferiour or extrinsecal to it it must be something divine and that wrought into the very nature and temper of it I doubt not to affirm that if the soul of man were possibly advanced so as to receive adoration or divine power yet if it were in the mean time void of divine dispositions and a god-like nature it were far from being glorified and made happy as to its capacity What health is to the body that is holiness to the soul which happily the Apostle alludes to when he speaks of the spirit of a sound mind 2 Tim. 1. 7. Secondly There is another notion of Eternal Life which some contend for by which they mean not barely the essential happiness of the soul but that with the addition of many suitable and glorious circumstances the essential happiness of the soul as it is attended with the appendixes of a glorified body the beholding of Christ the amicable society of Angels freedom from temptations the knowledge of the secrets of nature and providence and some such like To which may be also added though of a lower degree open absolution or a visible deliverance of the Saints out of the overthrow of the wicked at the conflagration of the world power over Devils eminence of place enjoyment of friends and some other like Now let us briefly consider what tendencies there are in the religious soul towards each of these And here I must crave leave to speak joyntly both of the End and of the Motion thereunto though it may be thought that the former only falls fairly under our present consideration First Then I suppose that Eternal Life in the first sense of it is intended here to wit the essential happiness of the soul or its perfect and everlasting enjoyment of God For the description is here made of Religion it self in the abstract or that principle of divine life which Christ Jesus implanteth in the soul and being so considered it is hard to conceive how that should spring up into any of these appendant circumstances or into any thing but the completion and perfection of it self though the religious soul taken in the concrete possibly may And indeed though we should allow which we shall take into consideration under the next head that many of those high scriptural phrases which are brought to describe the future condition of believing souls do principally respect the appendixes of its essential happiness as a Kingdom a house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens an inheritance reserved a place prepared and the like yet it seems very unnatural to interpret this phrase Life and Eternal Life any otherwise than of that which I call the essential happiness of the soul But if we interpret it of this the sense is very fair and easie thus this principle of divine life is continually endeavouring to grow up to its just altitude to advance it self unto a triumphant state even as all other principles of life do naturally tend towards a final accomplishment and ultimate perfection Carnal self or the animal life may be indeed said to be a well of water too poysonous water but that springs up into a sensual life popular applause self-accommodations or if you will in the Apostles phrase into the fulfilment of the lusts of the flesh This I speak only by way of illustratory opposition for to speak more
pleasures profits or preferments into it yet it is a well of living water and will work its passage out The hungrings of the godly soul are not cannot be satisfied till it come to feed upon the hidden Manna nor its thirstings quenched till it come to be swallowed up in the unbounded Ocean of life and love But I see I cannot divide springing up from Eternal Life nor pursue the term of Religion but I must also take in the motion of the Religious soul whereby he pursues it which I have already handled in my discourse therefore I will quit this head and take a short view of the second The secondary and more improper notion of Eternal Life I told you was that which takes in the circumstances or appendices of it And here we must needs allow that the holy Scriptures do openly avonch some of these circumstances as those especially of the first rank that I named of some of which it seems to make great account and possibly the Scripture may some where or other imply all the rest even those of the inferiour rank Again we will allow that many of those phrases which the Scripture uses to describe the blessed state of the other world do principally respect these appendices of the souls essential happiness Such perhaps are the Crown of Righteousness mentioned by the Apostle 1 Tim. 4. 8. The price of the high Calling mentioned by the same Apostle Phil. 3. 14. The House which is from Heaven spoken of 2 Cor. 6. 2. A Kingdom an incorruptible Inheritance a place prepared Mansions a reward praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1. 7. And that glory honour and peace spoken of by the Apostle Paul Rom. 2. 10. These are all Scripture descriptions of the other state and I suppose we may grant them to have a peculiar reference to this secondary and preter-essential happiness of the soul Though I know not any necessity there is to be so liberal in our concessions for it may be fairly said concerning all or most of them that the design of these phrases is not so much to establish this less proper notion or to point ouâ— to the circumstances of the glorified state as to insinuate how much more ample and glorious that state shall be than this in which we now are as a prize is looked upon as somewhat more excellent than what is done or expended to acquire it it must needs be so esteemed by runners and wrestlers a Kingdom is a more glorious state than that of subjection and an Inheritance is incomparably more ample than the pension that is allowed the heir in his minority But these things being conceded it doth not appear how far or under what notion the religious soul as such doth spring up into these additional glories and thirst after them I know there are many that speak very highly of these appendices and allow the godly soul a very high and irrespective valuation of them And this they do principally infer from the examples of Christ himself as also of Moses and Paul Give me leave therefore to suggest something not to enervate but to moderate the Argument drawn from these persons and after that I shall briefly lay down what I conceive to be most Scriptural and rational in this matter First As for the example of Christ it seems to make not much for them in this matter For however the Text is very plain that for the joy that was set before him he endured the cross and this joy seems plainly to be his session at the right hand of God Heb. 12. 2. Yet if by this joy we understand a more full and glorious possession of God and a more excellent exaltation of his humane nature to a more free fruition of the divine then it cannot be applied to any thing but the springing up of the gracious soul into its essential happiness which I have already contended for as being the proper genius of such a soul or if by this Joy and Throne we understand the power that Christ foresaw he should be vested with of leading captivity captive trampling under feet the powers of hell and darkness and procuring gifts for men which seems to me to be most likely then it belongs not at all to men neither can this example be drawn into imitation As for the instance of Moses who is said to have had respect to the recompence of the reward Heb. 11. 26. It is not yet granted that that recompence of reward relates principally to these appendants of the souls essential happiness neither can it I suppose be evinced But though I should also allow that which I encline to do yet all that can be inferred from it is but a respect that Moses had as our Translation well renders it or some account which he in his sufferings made of this recompence which was a very warrantable contemplation The Apostle Paul indeed doth openly profess that he looked for and desired the coming of Christ from Heaven upon the account of that glorious body which he would then cloath him with Phil. 3. 20 21. And so he might sure and yet not desire it principally and primarily but secondarily and with reference And this leads me to the general answer that I was preparing to give which is this Some of these circumstances which I named especially that of the glorified body may be reduced to the essential happiness of the soul or included in it so as that the soul could not otherwise be perfectly happy It is the vote of all Divines I think that a Christian is not compleatly happy till he consist of a soul and body both glorified And indeed considering the dear affection and essential aptitude that God hath planted in the humane soul for a body we cannot well conceive how she should be perfectly happy without one And this earthly body is alas an unequal yoak fellow in which she is half stifled and rather buried than conveniently lodg'd so that it seems necessary even to her essential happiness that she should have some more heavenly and glorious body wherein she may commodiously and pleasantly exert her innate powers and whereby she may express her self in a spiritual and noble manner suitable to her own natural dignity and vigour and to her infinitely-amiable and most beloved object Concerning the rest of the circumstances which cannot be thus reduced I conceive that such of them as are necessary to the essential happiness of the soul by way of subserviency may be eyed and desired and thirsted after secondarily and with reference as I said before that is under this notion only as they are subservient to that essential blessedness I confess I do not understand under what other notion a religious soul can lift up it self unto them I mean not so far forth as it is holy and religious and acts suitably to that divine principle which the Father of Spirits or rather the Father of our Lord
God why it renders up its whole self unto him Faith is a giving grace as well as a receiving it gives up the soul back to Christ as well as take Christ into the soul it sucks in strength and grace from God and reciprocally spends the same and the whole powers of the soul upon him The happiness of a godly soul doth not consist in cessation and rest the soul it self being a powerful and Active Being the happiness of it the very rest of it must also be active and vigorous Where there is communion there must needs be quick and lively returns reciprocations reflections and correspondencies the drawings of God are answered with the souls running Cant. 1. 41. The motion of Christs fingers begets a motion in the Christians soul Cant. 5. 4. My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door and my bowels were moved for him These are the divine and harmoneous responses which are made and maintained in the godly soul the Temple of the living God Oh shake of that lazy and drowsie spirit which hath so benummed many in this cold and stupid age of the world work out your Salvation with all care and diligence If your Religion be nothing but a spiritual kind of sleep youâ— Heaven will prove to be nothing but a pleasant kind of dream Communion with God speaks something divine active vigorous The life of a Christian doth not consist only in cessation from evil reformation of sin or dying thereunto Mortification is but one part of Regeneration It is the conceit and I doubt the deceit of many nominal Christians that if they can but keep up an indifferent even spirit and conversation free from gross and scandalous sins from day to day they are happy enough their utmost ambition is to be innocent and harmless This indeed is necessary and praise worthy but surely the happiness of a soul lyes higher Thus happy are all the Creatures that keep in the station and keep up the order prescribed them of God Thus happy is the Sun in the Firmament running his race continually and never departing from the office which is assigned to it But the soul of man is capable of a higher kind of happiness viz. communion with God which is when the faculties thereof being awakened refined and acted by the spirit of God do reciprocally act and spend themselves upon him longing to be perfectly swallowed up in him and to be all that which God himself is as far as the Creature is capable to drink in the perfections of the Creator and become one with his Maker This is that truly noble and divine life which is here called communion with God which the high-spirited and generous soul labours yet more and more to be growing up into and perfected in Keep your selves with David from your iniquities it is something to be freed from the guilt and power of sin but there is somewhat higher than this a more excellent attainment a more divine accomplishment go on therefore with the same David and aspire after this pure and blissful state this Heaven upon earth waiting for the more ample and glorious manifestations of God to you and in you more than they that watch for the morning as he did Psal 130. 6. This inference was only of instruction but the sweetness and needfulness of the subject almost prevails with me to turn it into an earnest exhortation but that I would not prevent my self Therefore I proceed to the next way of improving this doctrine which shall be by way of conviction or Reprehension 1. Our fellowship is It reproves them that can take up with a shall be a Heaven to come I am now speaking not to the worst of men whose very souls are swallowed up in sensual enjoyments and imprisoned in their senses For these men either think of no Heaven at all or else they place their Heaven and happiness in the enjoyment of themselves or of the creature Nor yet do I speak to those men who being perswaded of a future state do indeed wish for a Heaven to come but then it is a poor kind of low and earthly Heaven consisting in case rest safety freedom from troubles or torments which is the best happiness which most men understand the highest Heaven that any carnal mind can see or soar up to But I am speaking to a better and finer sort of souls than these that are verily possest with a sense of a pure and spiritual Heaven in the world to come yea they are so over-powered with the foresight of it as that they do earnestly expect and wish for it yea the hopes of it do sustain and strengthen their hearts under the manifold temptations and persecutions of this present world they are so verily perswaded of the truth of it and of their own title to it too that they are content to abide this long and disconsolate night of dimness and anguish and frightfulness meerly in expectation of the dawning of that day that clear and bright day of their glorious and everlasting Redemption And herein I am far from blaming them nay I must needs commend their magnanimous faith and self-denyal But in the mean time they dwell too much upon Heaven as a future state and comfort themselves only in a happiness to come not longing and labouring to find a Heaven opened within themselves a beginning of eternal bliss brought into themselves they are too well content with a certain reversion and do not eagerly enough endeavour a present possession to be actually enstated in so much of the inheritance of souls as may fall to their share even in this lower world This slothful temper and inactivity I do condemn wherever it is found yea though it be in my own soul Every thing in the world by a natural principle thirsts after its proper rest and a happiness suitable to the nature of it no creature can be content though it may be constrained to be at a distance from its centre but is still carryed out towards its own perfection And why then should a godly soul who is Gods only new creature in the world be content with a state of imperfections why should not he as eagerly coveâ— and as earnestly pursue the most intimate and close communion and conjunction with his God as they do with their respective centers Can any earthly sensual man be content with an inheritance in reversion so as to suspend his minding and following of the world till hereafter Can any ambitious spirit who places his main happiness and contentment in popular estimation and worldly greatness be content to stand gazing at preferments will he be willing to sit still and wait till this drop into his mouth No no there is a raging thirst in the soul which will not suffer it to be at rest but is still awakening and provoking all the powers of the whole man till they arise and fetch in water to quench it And therefore we read of men
that all men in the world do live in God Act. 17. 28. yet it is also true that most men as the same Apostle speaks elsewhere do live without God in the world have their hearts staked down to one creature or other and so fall short of this honourable character which the Apostle here gives of godly men our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ And now I shall wrap up the remainder of this Discourse in an humble request and earnest expostulation Reckon not upon any happiness below this communion There are many things which a Christian may take to be comforts but only one this one that he ought to take to be the Happiness of his life I design not to speak any thing to the prejudice of natural or civil ornaments or accomplishments much less to the dispaâ—â—gement of any of those endowments or employments which are in a sense spiritual commonly called gifts and duties But I must confess it is one of the great wonders of the world to me to see such a noble and intelligent Being as the soul of man is attending to and pursuing after things either extrinsecal or inferiour to it self in the mean time carelesly forgetting or wilfully rejecting its main happiness principal end and proper perfection As for those sensual persons those meer Animals whose souls are incarnate in their senses and seem to perform no higher office in the world than the souls of beasts that is to carry about their bodies who value themselves by their bodies or which is baser by the apparel that cloaths them or the estates that feed them I shall not now trouble my self about them but leave them to be chastised by Seneca or Plutarch or indeed any ordinary Philosopher I shall rather apply my self a little to a sort of higher spirited people whom by a 〈◊〉 dâ—-scension of charity we call Christians who valuing themselves by external professions priviledges performances may indeed be said to be somewhat more scrupulous and curious but no less mistaken than the former for if the grosser sort of sensualists do deny and professedly abjure their own reasons and the finer sort of hypocrites do more cunningly bribe theirs each method amounts to no more than a cheat and both parties will be alike miserable save that the latter will be somewhat more tormented in â—issing of a happiness which he lâ—â—k'd and hop'd for It is not proper to my pâ—esent discourse to speak so highly and honourably of these externals of Christianity nor to press unto them so zealously as I do at all times when I have occasion for I do verily value all ordinances of Christ and duties of Gods worship at a high rate nay I know not any serious and truly godly soul in the world but is of this same profession with me But I must confess I think it is one of the greatest and most pernicious cheats in the world for men to feed upon the dish instead of the meat to place their happiness in those things which God hath only appointed to be means to convey it This was the great destruction of the Jewish Church by this they perished Thus they are every where described in Scripture as a people resting in their priviledges and performances boasting of their Sacrifices and Temple-service they made account of a strange kind of flesh-pleasing Heaven something distinct from them and reserved for them to be given them by way of reward for the righteousness which themselves had wrought by the power of their own free-will which freewill they say is an effect of mans fall but they make it a cause of mans rise for now he can purchase and merit a happiness which happiness is also more illustrious than that given of meer grace which righteousness if we look either into their own writings or Gods writings concerning them we shall find was nothing else but a strict observance of the precepts of the law according to the letter and external dispensation of it Such a low and legal spirit was generally found amongst the Jews I wish the greatest part of us who are in profession and name evangelical be not found as truly legal in spirit and temper as they were If we cry the Gospel of Christ the Gospel of Christ with the same spirit as they cryed the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord our confidence will as surely betray us into a final misery as theirs did True indeed Prayers Sacraments Sermons are somewhat finer words than the old obsolete ones the Law Sacrifices Ceremonies but alas they are but words at least they are not Gods no more fit to terminate our devotions and affections than these I beseech you therefore Christians be not mistaken in this matter True Christianity is not a notion but a nature that is not Religion which is lapt up in Books or laid up in mens brains but it is laid in the very constitution of the soul a new principle implanted by God in the highest powers of the soul refining and spiritualizing all the faculties thereof and rendring them as like to God himself as such a creature can resemble its Creator It is a truth as clear as the Sun is clear that nothing can make a Soul truly happy but what is wrought into the nature of it and that must be somewhat more excellent than it self and that can be nothing less than something divine even the image of the blessed God If you be Christians in deed and in truth value all the ordinances of God and the duties of Christian Religion but value not your selves by these your happiness by these Attend upon them all for the maintaining and encreasing of real fellowship with God for though these be not it yet they aâ—â— the way wherein it pleases God 〈◊〉 give it drink the sincere 〈…〉 the Word but let it be only 〈…〉 holy design of growing thereby of growing up into God and a divine life Away with those low and base thoughts of happiness the happiness of a soul is a high and excellent indeed a divine thing it is in some sense common to God and the soul God is happy in himself alone and the soul can only be happy in him What contentment what real happiness Christian can the rising of thy party in the world or the rising of thy name in the countrey bring thee if in the mean time thou thy self harbourest any carnal will self-interest that doth rise up in opposition to the pure and perfect will and nature of God How art thou happy in thy prayers if thou cast sin out at thy mouth and in the mean time a fountain of iniquity be springing up in thy heart What avails it towards a state of perfection to be of the most orthodox opinions the honestest society the fâ—irest profession the most popular and sanctimonious form or the most plansible performances either the soul being in the mean time alienated from the life of God and feeding upon some earthly trash or other which destroyes the native powers and vigour of it and keeps it under a perpetual languor even just so much as a silken stocken upon a gouty leg or a Princely Diadem upon an aking head avails towards a state of ease and foundness and â—uâ—rasie of body Let nothing limit year ambition but a state of god-like perfection let nothing set bounds to your loving and longing souls but a real fruition of God himself nay let not that bound them neither but the more you enjoy see and caste the more let your love be strengthened after the manner of fire which the more it is fed the more hungry and devouring it growes In a word let nothing satisfie you lower than the highest character that can be given of mortal maâ— to be men after Gods own heart to have God dwelling in you to be filled with his fulness to have this real and excellent Communion with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ To whom be all honour praise and glory for ever and ever FINIS