subordination of the affections and passions to the Mind as it is inlightned and directed by the divine Laws and those of Reason This is the state of integrity in which we were first made and we lost it by the rebellion of our senses and inferiour powers which have usurpt the government of us ever since Here is the imperfection and corruption of our natures Now Religion designs to remove and cure these and to restore us to our first and happy state It s business is not to reform our looks and our language or to model our actions and gestures into a devout appearance not only to restrain the practice of open prophaneness and villany nor to comfort us with the assurance of Gods loving us we know not why But to cure our ill natures to govern our passions to moderate our desires to throw out pride and envy and all uncharitable surmisals with the other spiritual sorts of wickedness and thereby to make us like unto God in whom there is no shadow of sin or imperfection and so to render us fit objects of his delight and love So that whatever doth not tend to make us some way or other really better better in our selves and better in all Relations as fathers and children and husbands and wives and subjects and governours and neighbours and friends is not Religion It may be a form of Godliness but 't is nothing to the life and power And where we see not this effect of Religion let the professor of it be never so high and glorious in his profession we may yet conclude that either his Religion is not good or that he only pretends and really hath it not This I take to be a consideration of great moment and great certainty viz. That Christian Religion aims at the bettering and perfecting of our natures For the things it commands relate either to worship or vertue The instances of external worship are prayer and praise both which are high acts of gratitude and justice and they fit us for divine blessings and keep us under a sense of God and prepare us for union with him which is the highest perfection of which the creature is capable Thus the outward acts of worship tend to our happiness and the inward do infinitely the same They are Faith and Love and Fear Faith in God supports and râ—lieves us in all afflictions and distresses The love of him is a pleasure and solace to us in all losses and disappointments since he is an object most filling and satisfying and one that cannot be lost except we wilfully thrust him from us Fear of God hath no torment 'T is no slavish dread of his greatness and power but a reverence of his perfections and a lothness to offend him and this disposeth us also for the communications of his grace and love Ps. lxxxv 9 And this it doth by congruity and its own nature which is to be said likewise of the others So that they would make those happy that practise them whether they had been positively enjoyn'd or not And though no express rewards had been annext unto them There are other two acts of worship which Christianity requires which are instituted and positive and respect Christ our Lord They are the Sacraments Baptism and the Lords Supper both which are holy Rites of high signification and seals of an excellent Covenant between God and us assuring us of pardon of sins and all divine favours upon the conditions of our Faith and repentance and more firmly obliging us to holy obedience and dependance The only way in which we can be happy Whence we see briefly that all the parts of worship which Christianity binds upon us tend to our perfection and Felicity And all the vertues that it commands do the same both those that respect us in a personal and those others that relate to us as members of Societies Thus humility recommended Mat. v. 3 Meekness blest v. 5. purity v. 8 are vertues that accomplish our particular persons and make us happy in our selves For of Pride cometh Contention Prov. xiii 10 And a great part of our troubles arise from stomach and self-will all which humility cures And meekness also takes away the occasions of the numerous mischiefs we run into through the rage and disorder of our passions and 't is in it self a great beauty and ornament since it ariseth from the due order and government of our faculties Purity also which comprehends temperance of all sorts frees us from the tormenting importunity of those desires that drag us out of our selves and expose us to sin and folly and temptation and make us exceeding miserable besides which it is a perfection that renders us like unto God and the blest Spirits of the highest rank And Christian veâ—tues do not only accomplish and make us happy in our particular persons but in the more publique capacity also They dispose us to a quiet obedience to our governours without murmuring and complaining and thereby the publique peace is secured and all good things else in that But there are other vertues that Christianity enjoyns which have a more direct tendency to the happiness of others as Iustice Mat. vii 12 Charity 1 Cor. 13. Loyalty Rom. xiii and all other publique vertues may I think be comprehended under these Where there is no Iustice every man preys upon another and no mans property is safe Where Charity is wanting Jealousies hatreds envyings back-bitings and cruelties abound which render the world deplorably unhappy Where there is not Loyalty and conscionable submission to Governours the publique is upon every occasion of commotion involv'd in infinite miseries and disasters So that all the precepts of our Religion are in their own nature proper instruments to make us happy and they had been methods of Felicity to be chosen by all reasonable creatures though they had never been required by so great and so sacred an Authority These things I have said because I could not choose but take this occasion to recommend the excellency and reasonableness of our Religion And I have done it but only in brief hints because it ariseth but upon a Corollary from my main subject and from this I infer SECT III. III THat Christianity is the height and perfection of morality They both tend to the real bettering and accomplishment of humane nature But the rules and measures of moral Philosophy were weak and imperfect till Christ Iesus came He confirmed and enforced all those precepts of vertue that were written upon our hearts and cleared them from many corruptions that were grown upon them through ignorance and vice the glosses of the Iews and false conceits of the Gentiles and he inforced them anew by his Authority and the knowledg he gave of divine aids and greater rewards and punishments then were understood before yea he inlarged it in some instances such as loving enemies and forgiving injuries Thus Christ Iesus taught morality viz. the way of living like men And the
God and delights greatly in hearing and pious Discourse and will suffer all things for what he calls his conscience yet he is not to be concluded a Saint from hence because the meer Animal Religion may put it self forth in all these expressions And though this Professor be a bad man proud and covetous malicious and censorious sacrilegious and Rebellious yet we cannot thence be assured that he is an Hypocrite in one sense viz. such an one as fâ—igns all that he pretends But we may believe that he is really so affected with Hearing and Praying and devout Company as he makes shew and yet for all this not alter our opinion of his being an evil man since the Animal Religion will go as far as the things in which he glories There is nothing whereby the common people are drawn more easily into the ways of Sects and Separations then by the observation of the zeal and devotion of those of the factions These they take to be Religion and the great matters of Godliness and those the religious and only godly people And so first they conceive a great opinion of them and then follow them whithersoever they lead For the generality of men are tempted into Schism and Parties not so much by the arguments of Fanaticks as by the opinion of their Godliness which opinion is grounded upon those things which may arise from the meer Animal Religion and very commonly do so This they understand not and by this ignorance are betrayed into the snare of Separation to the disturbance of the Peace of the Church and their own great hurt and inconvenience Whereas could they be made to know and consider that complexion and natural passions may bring forth all these fruits they might be secured by this means against the tempting imposture and learn that Meekness and Patience Affability and Charity Iustice and a Peaceable humble temper are better arguments of Saintship than all these Thus a great mischief might be prevented and there is another also that might be remedied by the same Observation The inconvenience is this While the enemies of Factions object Hypocrisie to them affirming that all they do and say is meer personating and pretence they confirm and setle those people in their way for many of them know that they are in earnest and consequently that their opposers are mistaken in their judgments concerning them by which they are better establisht in their own good opinion and hardned against conviction whereas did they consider such things as I have suggested about the Animal Religion and grant to them that they may be serious believe themselves infinitely and feel all those Warmths which they pretend and yet be evil men and far enough from being godly Did they shew them that all their zeal and Devotion and more and greater than theirs may arise from a principle that hath nothing Divine and supernatural in it They would thereby strike them in the right vein and bring them down from the high perch whereon by their false marks they had placed themselves and thereby disabuse them and prevent the abuse of others SECT VI. VI. WE see how we may know our state whether it be that of Grace and Life or the other sad one of Unregeneracy and Death The state of Grace is a motion towards the recovery of the Divine Image and a perfect victory over our selves and all corrupt inclinations and affections The state of Unregeneracy and Death is the continuance under the power and prevalency of sense passion and evil habits When 't is a question to our selves in which of these states we are It must be supposed that we are arrived to something of Religion For the grosly wicked cannot but know what their condition is And the way I would propose to those others who are yet uncertain is this viz. To take notice Whether they really design and make any progress in Goodness Every motion indeed cannot be felt or perceived but if we go on though never so insensibly time will shew that we are grown If we consider what are our particular defects and studiously apply proper instruments to remove them if we find success in those indeavours and that we are better this year than we were the former That our Passions are better governed and our inordinate affections more restrained and our evil habits and inclinations less powerful with us 't is an infallible sign that we live and are in a state of Grace that we shall at last arrive to a perfect man in Christ Iesus Eph. iv 13 and shall attain if we faint not 2 Cor. iv 1 whereas on the other hand If we come to some hopeful pitch and stand still there If sin and temptation be as powerful with us now as they were a year ago and our inclinations and passions just at the same pass we are in a bad state and dead While the Plant grows it lives and may become a great tree though at present it be but small whereas that whose stature is bigger and more promising if it proceeds not decaies and comes to nothing Though we are imperfect if we are striving and going towards perfection God overlooks our Infirmities and pardons them for Christ's sake This is our sincerity and an effect of true Faith But if on the other hand we think our selves well and do not always attempt forwards our state is bad and our sins will be imputed Be our pretences what they will our Faith is not sincere and will not stead us When we get to a certain pitch in Religion and make that our state 't is an argument that our Religion was meerly Animal and but a mode of complexion self love and natural fear When we overcome some sins and are willing to spare and cherish others 't is a sign that we are not sincere in our attempts upon any and that what we have done was not performed upon good and divine motives Sincerity is discovered by growth and this is the surest mark that I know of Tryal So that we have no reason to presume though as we think we have gone a great way if we go not on Nor on the other side have we any to despair though our present attainments are but small if we are proceeding The buds and tenderest blossoms of Divine Grace are acceptable to God when the fairest leaves of the meer Animal Religion are nothing in his estimate This is a great advantage we have from the Gospel that imperfection will be accepted where there is sincerity whereas according to the measures of exact and rigorous Justice no man could be made happy in the high degree of glory but he that was perfect and whose victories were absolute SECT VII VII IT may be collected from our Discourse wherein the Power of Godliness consists viz. In a progress towards perfection and an intire victory over all the evils of our Natures The Forms of Godliness are not only in the ceremonies of Worship and external actions of
first by pleasure and vanity in our young and inconsiderate years while we were led by the directions of sense These by frequent acts grow at last into habits which though in their beginning they were tender as a plant and easie to have been crusht or blasted yet time and use hardens them into the firmness of an Oak that braves the weather and can endure the stroak of the Axe and a strong arm Now to destroy and root up these obstinate customary evils is another part of our work And Religion teacheth us to put off concerning the old conversation the old man Ephes. iv 22 and to receive new impressions and inclinations to be renewed in the spirit of our minds v. 23 and to put on the new man v. 24 To make us new hearts Ezek. xviii 31 and to walk in newness of life Rom. vi 4 This we are to do and this we may well suppose to be hard work the Scripture compares it to the changing the skin of the Aethiopian and the spots of the Leopard Jer. xiii 23 and elsewhere Hoâ— can they do good that are accustomeâ— to do evil Jer. xiii 23 'T is hard no doubt and this is another difficulty in Religion V. The power that Examplâ— hath over us makes the way of Religion difficult Example is more prevalent than precept for man is a creature given much to imitation and we are very apt to follow what we seâ— others do rather than what we ought to do our selves And now the Apostle hath told us That the whole world lies in wickedness 1 Joh. v. 19 and we sadly find it we cannot look out of doors but we see vanity and folly sâ—nsuality and forgetfulness of Godâ— Pride and Covetousness Injustice and Intemperance and all other kinds of evils These we meet with every where in publick companies and private conversations in the high wayes and in the corners of the streets The sum is Example is very powerful and examples of Vice are always in our eyes we are apt to be reconciled to that which every one doth and to do like it we love the trodden path and care not to walk in the way which is gone in but by a few This is our condition and our work in Religion is to overcome the strong biass of corrupt example to strive against the stream to learn to be good though few are so and not to follow a multitude to do evil Exod. xxiii 2 This is our businesâ— and this is very difficult SECT VI. VI. THE last difficulty I shaâ—â— mention ariseth froâ— Worldly interest and engagement â— We have many necessities to servâ— both in our Persons and our Famâ—â—lies Nature excluded us naked inâ—â— the World without cloathing fâ—â— warmth or armature for defence anâ— food is not provided to our handâ— as it is for the Beasts nor do oâ—â— houses grow for our habitation anâ— comfortable abode Nothing is prâ—â—pared for our use without our iâ—â—dustry and endeavours So that 〈◊〉 the necessity of this state we are eâ—â—gaged in worldly affairs These Nâ—â—ture requires us to mind and Reliâ—â—ion permits it And nothing can â—e done without our care and care would be very troublesome if there were not some love to the objects we exercise our cares upon Hence it is that some cares about the things of this world and love to them is allowed us and we are commanded to continue in the Callâ—ng wherein God hath set us 1 Cor. â—ii 20 and are warned that we be not slothful in business Rom. xii 11 We may take some delight also in the Creatures that God gives us and lâ—ve them in their degree For the Animal life may have its moderate qualifications God made all things that they might enjoy their Being And now notwithstanding all this Religion commands us to set our affections upon things above Col. iii. 2 not to love the World 1 Joh. ii 15 to be careful for nothing Phil. iv 6 to take no thought foâ— to morrow Mat. vi 34 The meaning of which expressions is That wâ— should love God and heavenly thingâ— in the chief and first place and avoiâ— the immoderate degree of Worldly lovâ— and cares This is our duty anâ— 't is very difficult For by reason oâ— the hurry of business and those passions that earthly engagements excite we consider not things as we should and so many times perceive not the bounds of our permissions and the beginnings of our restraints where the allowed measure ends and the forbidden degree commenceth what is the difference between that care that is a duty and that which is a sin Providence and Carking and between that love of the World which is necessary and lawful and that which is extravagant and inordinate I say by reason of the hurry we are in amidst business and worldly delights we many times perceive not our bounds and so slide easily into earthly-mindedness and anxiety And it is hard for us who are engaged so much in the World and who need it so much who converse so much with it and about it and whose time and endeavours are so unavoidably taken up by it I say 't is hard for us in such circumstances to be crucified to the World Gal. vi 14 and to all inordinate affections to it to live above it and to settle our chief delights and cares on things at great distance from us which are unsutable to our corrupt appetites and contrary to the most relishing injoyments of flesh which sense never saw nor felt and which the imagination it self could neveâ— grasp This no doubt is hard exercise and this must be done in the way of Religion and on this account also it is very difficult Thus of the FIRST Proposition That there are great difficulties in Religion I come now to the SECOND CHAP. II. That the Difficulties may be overcome The Instruments whereby it may be done viz. Faith Prayer and active endeavour They are particularly consider'd The Method of endeavour proposed in plain and practicable Rules Some Qualifications of those Rules SECT I. II. THAT those Difficulties may be overcome striving which imports both the Encouragement and the Means That THEY MAY BE VANâ—QUISHT and HOW I. That the Difficulties maâ— be subdued is clearly enough imâ—plyed in the Precept We shoulâ— not have been commanded to strivâ— if it had been impossible to overcomâ— God doth not put his Creature upon fruitless undertakings Hâ— never requires us to do any thinâ— in order to that which is not 〈◊〉 be attained Therefore when he waâ— resolved not to be intreated for thaâ— stubborn and Rebellious Nationâ— He would not have the Prophâ—â— pray for them Ier. vii 16 Pray 〈◊〉 for this people for I will not heâ—â—â— thee He would not be petitionâ— for that which he was determine not to grant He puts not hâ—â— Creatures upon any vain expectâ—â—tions and endeavours nor would he have them deceive themselves by fond dependences When one made this Profession to our Saviour
To be Meek Mat. xi 29 and Patient Jam. v. 8 and Humble 1 Pet. v. 7 and Iust Mat. vii 12 and Charitable Heb. xiii 16 and Holy as be that called us is holy 1 Pet. i. 15 And he hath promised to save upon no other terms For all these are included in Faith when 't is taken in the justifying sense and this is the way of Happiness If we walk not in this but in the paths of our own choosing our relying upon Christ is a mockery and will deceive us We may indeed be confident and we ought that he will save all those that so believe as to obey him but may not trust that he will save us except we are some of those To rely upon Christ for our salvation must follow our sincere and obedient striving and not go before it The mistake of this is exceeding dangerous and I doubt hath been fatal to many The sum is To rely on Christ without a resolute and steady endeavour to overcome every sin and temptation will gain us nothing in the end but shame and disappointment For 't is not every one that saith unto him Lord Lord shall enter into heaven but he that doth the will of his Father which is in heaven Mat. vii 21 The foolish Virgins relyed upon him and expected he should open to them Lord Lord open to us Mat. xxv 11 but he kept them out and would not know them v. 11. Thus of the First imperfect Mark of Godliness A man may upon the account of meer Nature arrive to all the mentioned degrees of Faith and yet if his endeavours in the practice of Christian virtues be not sutable he will certainly come short at last SECT III. II. A Man may be very devout and given much to Prayer be very frequent and earnest in it may have the gift of expâ—essing himself fluently without the help of Form or Meditation yea he may be so intent and taken up in these exeâ—cises that he may as it were be ravish't out of himself by the fervours of his spirit so that he really kindles very high affections as well in others as in himself And yet if he rests in this and such like things as Religion and reckons that he is accepted of God for it if he allow himself in any unmortified lusts and think to compound for them by his Prayers he is an evil man notwithstanding and one of those seekers that shall not be able to enter The Pharisees we know were much given to Prayer They were long in those devotions and very earnest in them often repeating the same expressions out of vehemence Ignatius Loyola founder of the Jesuites was a man almost ecstatical in his Prayers and Hacket the Blasphemer executed in the days of Queen Elizabeth was a person of Seraphical Devotion and would pray those that heard him even into transports Basilides the cruel Duke of Mosco is said to have his hands almost continually lifted up in Prayer except when they were imployed in some barbarous and bloody Execution And we have known and felt one not much unlike him There are infinite instances in our dayes of this dangerous sort of evil men And we may learn hence that the greatest gift of Prayer and earnestness and frequency in it is no good mark of Godliness except it be attended with sincere constant and virtuous endeavours For some men have a natural spice of Devotion in a Religious Melancholy which is their temper and such have commonly strong Imaginaâ—ions and zealous affections which when they are heated flame forth into great heights and expressions of devotion The warm phancy furnisheth words and matter readily and unexpectedly which many times begets in the man a conceit that he is inspired and that his Prayers are the breathings of the Holy Ghost or at least that he is extraordinarily assisted by it which belief kindles his affections yet more and he is carried beyond himself even into the third heavens and suburbs of glory as he fancies and so he makes no doubt but that he is a Saint of the first rank and special favorite of Heaven when all this while he may be really a bad man full of Envy and Malice Pride and Covetousness Scorn and ill Nature contempt of his Betters and disobedience to his Governors And while it is so notwithstanding those glorious things he is no further than the Pharisee Hearty and humble desire though imperfectly exprest and without this pomp and those wonders is far more acceptable to God who delights not in the exercises of meer Nature Psal. cxlvii 10 but is well pleased with the expressions of Grace in those that fear him So that a sincere and lowly-minded Christian that talks of no immediate incomes or communications and perhaps durst not out of reverence trust to his own present conceptions in a work so solemn but useth the help of some pious form of words sutable to his desires and wants who is duly sensible of his sins and the necessity of overcoming them and is truly and earnestly desirous of the Divine aids in order to it such a one as this Prays by the Spirit and will be assisted by it while the other doth all by meer Nature and imitation and shall not have those spiritual aids which he never heartily desires nor intends to use This I think I may truly and safely say But for the Controversie between Forms and Conceived Prayers which of them is absolutely best I determine nothing of it here And indeed I suppose that in their own nature they are alike indifferent and are more or less accepted as they partake more or less of the Spirit of Prayer viz. of Faith Humility and holy desire of the good thing we pray for and a man may have these that prays by a Form and he may want them that takes the other way and thinks himself in a dispensation much above it So that my business is not to set up one of these ways of Devotion against the other but to shew that the heights and vehemencies of many warm people in their unpremeditated Prayers have nothing in them supernatural or Divine and consequently of themselves they are no marks of Godliness which I hope no one thinks I speak to discredit those pious ardours that are felt by really devout souls when a vigorous sense of God and Divine things doth even sometimes transport them Far be it from me to design any thing so impious My aim is only to note that there are complexional heats raised many times by fancy and self-admiration that look like these in persons who really have little of God in them and we should take care that we are not deceived by them Thus far also those may go that notwithstanding shall not enter I add SECT IV. III. A Man may endeavour some things likewise and so strive in the last sense and yet for want of some of the mentioned Qualifications his work may miscarry and himself with it 1.
earnestly of the love of Christ and express a mighty love to his name yet this may be too without any real conformity unto him in his Life and Laws The Jews spoke much of Moses in him they believed and in him they trusted Iohn v. 45 His name was a sweet sound to their ears and 't was very pleasant upon their tongues and yet they hated the Spirit of Moses and had no love to those Laws of his which condemned their wicked actions And we may see how many of those love Christ that speak often and affectionately of him by observing how they keep his Commandments John xiv 15 especially those of meekness mercy and universal love Thus imperfect strivers may imploy themselves in the external offices of Religion I have instanced only in Three the like may be said of the rest And to this I add That they may not only exercise themselves in the outward matters of duty but may arrive to some things that are accounted greater heights and are really more and spiritual and refined To instance SECT V. I. THey may have some love to God Goodness and good men The Soul naturally loves beauty and perfection and all mankind apprehend God to be of all Beings the most beautiful and perfect and therefore must needs have an intellectual love for him The reason that that love takes no hold of the passions in wicked men is partly because they are diverted from the thoughts of Him by the objects of sense but chiefly because they consider him as their enemy and therefore can have no complacency or delight in him who they think hath nothing but thoughts of enmity and displeasure against them But if once they come to be perswaded as many times by such false marks as I have recited they are that God is their Father and peculiar Friend that they are his chosen and his darlings whom he loved from eternity and to whom he hath given his Son and his Spirit and will give Himself in a way of the fullest enjoyment Then the Love that before was only an esteem in the understanding doth kindle in the affections by the help of the conceit of Gods loving them so dearly and the passion thus heated runs out even into seraphick and rapturous Devotions while yet all this is but meer animal love excited chieâ—ly by the love of our selves not of the Divine Perfections And it commonly goes no further then to earnest expressions of extraordinary love to God in our Prayers and Discourses while it appears not in any singular obedience to his Laws or generous and universal love to mankind which are the ways whereby the true Divine Love is exprest for This is the love of God that we keep his Commandments saith the Apostle 1 Iohn v. 3 And as to the other thus If we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us 1 John iv 12 And on the contrary If a man say I love God and hateth his brother he is a lyar John iv 20 Charity then and universal obedience are the true arguments and expressions of our love to God and these suppose a victory over corrupt inclinations and self-will But the other love which ariseth from the conceit of our special dearness to God upon insufficient grounds that goes no further then to some suavities and pleasant fancies within our selves and some passionate complements of the Image we have set up in our imaginations This Love will consist with Hatred and contempt of all that are not like our selves yea and it will produce it those poisonous fruits and vile affections may be incouraged and cherish'd under it So that there may be some love to God in evil men But while self-love is the only motive and the more prevalent passion it signifieth nothing to their advantage And as the imperfect striver may have some love to God so he may to piety and vertue every man loves these in Idea The vilest sinner takes part in his affections with the vertuous and religious when he seeth them described in History or Romance and hath a detestation for those who are character'd as impious and immoral Vertue is a great Beauty and the mind is taken with it while 't is consider'd at a distance and our corrupt interests and sensual affections are not concern'd 'T is These that recommend sin to our love and choice while the mind stands on the side of vertue with that we serve the Law of God but with the flesh the law of sin Rom. vii 25 So that most wicked men that are not degenerated into meer Brutes have this mental and intellectual love to goodness That is they approve and like it in their minds and would practise it also were it not for the prevalent biass of flesh and sense And hence it will follow likewise That the same may approve and respect good men They may reverence and love them for their Charity Humility Iustice and Temperance though themselves are persons of the contrary Character yet they may have a great and ardent affâ—ction for those that are eminently pious and devout though they are very irreligious themselves The conscience of vertue and of the excellency of Religion may produce this in the meer natural man who is under the dominion of vile inclinations and affections and therefore this is no good mark of godliness neither Our love to God and goodness will not stead us except it be prevalent And as the love described may be natural and a meer animal man may arrive unto it So II. He may to an extraordinary zeal for the same things that are the objects of his love Hot tempers are eager where they take either kindness or displeasure The natural man that hath an animal love to Religion may be violent in speaking and acting for things appertaining to it If his temper be devotional and passionate he becomes a mighty zealot and fills all places with the fame of his godliness His natural fire moves this way and makes a mighty blaze Ahab was very zealous and 't is like 't was not only his own interest that made him so 2 Kings x. 16 The Pharisâ—es were zealous people and certainly their zeal was not always personated and put on but real Though they were Hypocrites yet they were such as in many things deceived themselves as well as others They were zealous for their Traditions and they believ'd 't was their duty to be so St. Paul while a persecutor was zealous against the Disciples and he thought he ought to do many things against that name And our Saviour foretells that those zealous murderers that should kill his Saints should think They did God good service in it John xvi 2 So that all the zeal of the natural man is not feigning and acting of a part nor hath it always evil objects The Pharisees were zealous against the wickedness of the Publicans and Sinners Zeal then and that in earnest for Religion may be in
bad men But then this is to be noted that 't is commonly about opinions or external rites and usages and such matters as appertain to first Table Duties while usually the same men are very cold in reference to the Duties of the Second And when zeal is partial and spent about the little things that tend not to the overcoming the difficulties of our way or the perfecting of humane nature 't is a meer animal fervour and no Divine Fire And the natural man the seeker that shall not enter may grow up to another height that looks gloriously and seems to speak mighty things As III. He may have great comforts in religious meditations and that even to rapturous excesses He may take these for sweet communion with God and the joys of the Holy Ghost and the earnest of Glory and be lifted up on high by them and inabled to speak in wonderful ravishing strains and yet notwithstanding be an evil man and in the state of such as shall be shut out For this we may observe That those whose complexion inclines them to devotion are commonly much under the power of melancholy and they that are so are mostly very various in their tempers sometimes merry and pleasant to excess and then plung'd as deep into the other extreme of sadness and dejection one while the sweet humours enliven the imagination and present it with all things that are pleasant and agreeable And then the black blood succeeds which begets clouds and darkness and fills the fancy with things frightful and uncomfortable And there are very few but feel such varieties in a degree in themselvesâ— Now while the sweet blood and â—â—â—mours prevail the person whose complexion inclines him to Religion and who hath arrived to the degrees newly discours'd of though a meer natural man is full of inward delight and satisfaction and fancies at this turn that he is much in the favour of God and a sure heir of the Kingdom of Glory which must needs excite in him many luscious and pleasant thoughts and these further warm his imagination which by new and taking suggestions still raiseth the affections more and so the man is as it were transported beyond himself and speaks like one dropt from the clouds His tongue flows with Light and Glories and Communion and Revelations and Incomes and then believes that the Holy Ghost is the Author of all this and that God is in him of a truth in a special way of Manifestation and vouchsafement This is one of the greatest Heights of the Animal Religion and many times it proceeds from nothing more Divine For when melancholick vapours prevail again the imagination is overcast and the fancy possest by dismal and uncomfortable thoughts and the man whose head was but just before among the Clouds is now groveling in the Dust. He thinks all is lost and his condition miserable He is a cast-away and undone when in the mean while as to Divine favour he is just where he was before or rather in a better state since 't is better to be humbled with reason then to be lifted up without it Such effects as these do meer natural passions and imaginations produce when they are tinctured and heightned by religious melancholy To deny ones self and to overcome ones passions and to live in a course of a sober vertue is much more Divine then all this 'T is true indeed and I am far from denying it that holy men feel those joys and communications of the Divine Spirit which are no fancies and the Scripture calls them great peace Ps. cxix 165 and joy in believing Rom. xv 13 and the peace of God that passeth all understanding Phil. iv 7 But then these Divine vouchsafements are not rapturous or â—cstatical They are no sudden flashes that are gone in a moment leaving the soul in the regions of sorrow and despair but sober lasting comforts that are the rewards and results of vertue the rejoycings of a good conscience 2 Cor. i. 12 and the manifestations of God to those rare souls who have overcome the evils of their natures and the difficulties of the way or are vigorously pressing on towards this mark Phil. iii. 14 But for such as have only the forms of godliness I have mentioned while the evil inclinations and habits are indulged whatever they pretend all the sweets they talk of are but the imagery of dreams and the pleasant delusions of their fancies SECT VI. THus I have shewn how far the meer Animal Religion may go in imperfect striving And now I must expect to hear 1. That this is very severe uncomfortable Doctrine and if one that shall eventually be shut out may do all this what shall become of the generality of Religious men that never do so much And if all this be short what will be available who then shall be saved To which I Answer That we are not to make the measures of Religion and Happiness our selves but to take those that Christ Jesus hath made for us And he hath told us That except our Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees we shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of heaven Mat. v. 20 Now the Scribes and Phaâ—isees did things in the way of Religion that were equal to all the particulars I have mentioned yea they went beyond marry of our glorious Professors who yet think themselves in an high form of Godliness They believed their Religion firmly and Prayed frequently and fervently and Fasted severely They were â—xact and exceeding strict in the observatiâ—n of their Sabbaths and hated scandalous and gross sins and were very punctual in all the duties of outward Worship and in many things supererrogated and went beyond what was commanded Such zealous people were They and They separated from the conversations and customs of othâ—r Iews upon the account of their supposed greater Holiness and Purity These were heights to which the Pharisees arrived and a good Christian must exceed all this And he that lives in a sober course of Piety and Vertue of self Government and humble submission to God of obedience to his Superiors and Charity to his Neighbours He doth really exceed it and shall enter when the other shall be shut out So that when our Saviour saith that the Pharisaick Righteousness must be exceeded the meaning is not That a greater degree of every thing the Pharisees did is necessary but we must do that whith in the nature and kind of it is better and more acceptable to God viz. That whereas they placed their Religion in strict Fastings and nice observations of Festivals in lowd and earnest Prayers and zeal to get Proselites we should place ours in sincere subjections of our wills to the will of God in imitation of the life of Christ and obedience of his Laws in amending the faults of our natures and lives in subduing our passions and casting out the habits of evil These are much beyond the Religion of the Phanatick