clear and spiritual discerning of God They did as it is storied of one of the Persian Kings enshrine themselves in a Temple of their own But what speak I of Heathen Philosophers Is there not the same unclean spirit of self-adoration to be found amongst many Christians yea and Teachers of Christianity too witness that whole brood those men who whilest they hang the grace of God upon mans free-will do rob him of his glory Some of these have impudently given a short but unsavoury answer to the Apostles questâ—on in 1 Cor. 4. 7. Who maketh you to differ from an other Ego me ipsum discerno I make my self to differ These men whilest they pretend to high attainments do discover a low and most ignoble spirit To fasten and feed upon any thing in the Creature is the part of a low and degenerate spirit on the other hand it is the greatest perfection of the Creature not to be its own not to be any thing in it self or any way distinct from the blessed God the father and fountain of light and grace Holy Paul is all along in a different strain as in 1 Cor. 15. 10. I yet not I but the grace of God which was with me I told you before what a fair and honourable character the Holy Ghost hath given of holy David a man after Gods own heart now you may also find a description of these men too in Scripture not much differing from the other in phrase but very much in sense it is the same that is given of the proud Prince of Tyrus Ezek. 28. 2. They set their heart as the heart of God But we if we do indeed partake of the Divine Nature shall not dare to take any part of the Divine Glory if we conform to Gods Image we shall not set up our own This self-glorying in the predominancy of it is utterly inconsistent with true Religion as Fire is with Water For Religion is nothing else but the shinings forth of God into the Soul the reflection of a beauty and glory which God hath put upon it Give all therefore unto God for whatsoever is kept back is sacrilegiously purloined from him Glory we in the fulness of God alone and in selfpenury and nothingness The whole of Religion is of God Do we see and discern the great things of God It is by that light that God hath set up in us according to that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 2. 11. The things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God That love whereby we love him he first shed abroad in our hearts If our Souls be beautiful it is with his brightness the beauty and glory of essential Holiness according to that of the Apostle Heb. 12. Partakers of his holiness If we be really and truly full we receive it of his fulness according to that of the Apostle Ephes 3. 19. filled with all the fulness of God In a word if we be in any God-like dispositions like unto him it is by his spreading of his image in us and over us By all which it appears to be a thing not only wicked and unwarrantable but utterly impossible for a godly Soul to exalt himself against God for grace to advance it self against divine glory for grace is nothing else but a communication of divine glory and God is then glorified when the Soul in holy and gracious dispositions becomes like unto him How is it possible that grace should be a shadow to obscure divine glory when it self is nothing else as it comes from God but a Beam of glory and as it is found in the Creature may properly be called a reflection of it To conclude then Be ye perswaded that a man hath so much of God as he hath of Humility and Self denial and Self-nothingness and no more He is so far of God as he loves Him honours Him imitates Hâ—m and lives to Him and no further 3. By this discovery of the Original of Religion we come to understand the Original of Sin and Wickedness And here according to the method wherein I spoke of the Original of Religion I might shew you how the original of Sin from without is of the Devil that first usher'd it into the World and ceaseth not to tempt men to it continually as also of men who are his instruments and that it does in a sense spring from many occasions without But these things are more improperly said to be the causes of Sin The inward cause is the corrupt heart of man that unclean spirit that devillish nature which is indeed the worst and most pernicious Devil in the world to Man It is an old saying Homo homini Daemon One Man is a Devil to another which though it be in some sense true yet it is more proper to say Homo sibi Daemon Man is a Devil to himself taking the spirit and principle of Apostacy that rebellious nature for the Devil which indeed doth best deserve that name But yet if we enquire more strictly into the original and nature of this Monster we shall best know what to say of it and how to describe it by what we have heard of Religion Sin then to speak properly is nothing else but a degeneration from a holy state an apostacy from a holy God Religion is a participation of God and sin is a stragling off from him Therefore it is wont to be defined by Negatives a departure from God a forsaking of him a living in the World without him c. The Souls falling off from God does describe the general nature of Sâ—n but then as it sinks into it self or settles upon the World and fastens upon the Creature or any thing therein so it becomes specified and is called Pride Covetousness Ambition and by many other names All Souls are the Off-spring of God were originally formed into his image and likeness and when they express the purity and holiness of the Divine Nature in being perfect as God is perfect then are they called the Children of God But those impure Spirits that do lapse and slide from God may be said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to implant themselves into a other stock by their own low and earthly lives and are no more owned for the Children of God but are of their father the Devil John 10. 44. By which you may understand the low and base original of Sin Nothing can be so vile as that which to speak properly is nothing else but a perfect falling off from glory it self By this you may also by the way take notice of the miserable condition of unholy Souls We need not call for Fire and Brimstone to paint out the wretched state of sinful Souls Sin it self is Hell and Death and Misery to the Soul as being a departure from Goodness and Holiness it self I mean from God in conjunction with whom the Happiness and Blessedness and Heaven of a Soul doth consist Avoid it therefore as you would avoid being miserable
is the hand that pulls this wandring Bird into her own Ark from whence she was departed it settles the Soul upon its proper centre and quenches its burning thirst after happiness And for this reason it is called Water in Scripture as appears from Isa 58. 11. The Lord shall satisfie thy Soul in drought and of Isa 45. 3. I will pour Water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground compared with John 7. 37. Jesus stood and cried saying If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink Religion is a taste of infinite Goodness which quenches the Souls thirst after all other created and finite Good even as that taste which honest Nathaniel had of Christs Divinity took him off from the expectation of any Messiah to come and made him cry out presently Rabbi thou art the Son of God thou art the King of Israel Joh. 1. 49. And every religious Soul hath such a taste of God even in this life which though it do not perfectly fill him yet doth perfectly assure him where all fulness dwells But of this I shall have occasion to discourse more largely when I come to treat of the consequent of true Religion I proceed therefore to the second phrase whereby our Saviour describes the nature of true Religion It is a Well a Fountain in the Soul Shall be in him a Well of Water From which phrase to wave niceties I shall only observe That Religion is a Principle in the Souls of men The Water that Christ pours into the Soul is not like the Water that he pours upon our Streets that washes them and runs away but it becomes a cleansing Principle within the Soul it self every drop from God becomes a Fountain in man Not as if man had a kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in himself or were the first spring of his own motions towards God I find not any Will in the natural man so divinely free God hath indeed given this to his natural Son his only begotten Son to have life in himself Joh. 5. 26. but not to any of his adopted ones If you ask me concerning man in his natural capacity I am so far quickning power a principle of life in himself that I must needs assert the contrary with the Apostle That he iâ— dead in trespasses and sins Ephes 2. 1. so far from thinking that he hath in himself a Well of Water that I must call him with the Prophet Isa 44. thirsty and dry ground As for the Regenerate man I will not enter into that deep controversie concerning the co-operation of mans Will with the Spirit of God and its subordination to that in all gracious acts or what a kind of cause of them this renewed will of man may be safely called only I will affirm That Repenting and Believing are properly mans acts and yet they are performed by Gods power first Christ must give this Water ere it can be a Well of Water in the Soul Which is enough I suppose to clear me from siding with either of those parties whether those that ascribe to God that which he cannot do or those that ascribe to Free-will that which God alone can do But I fear nothing from these Controversies for that way wherein I shall discourse of this matter will nothing at all border upon them This then I affirm That Religion is a living Principle in the Souls of good men I cannot better describe the nature of Religion than to say it is a Nature for so does the Apostle speak or at least allows us to speak when he calls it a participation of a divine Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. noâ—hing but a Nature can partake of a Nature a mans Friend may partake of his Goodness and Kindness but his Child only partakes of his Nature He that begets begets a Nature and so doth he that begets again The Sun enlightens the World outwardly but it does not give a Sun like nature to the things so enlightened and the Rain doth moysten the Earth and refresh it inwardly but it does not beget the nature of Water in the Earth But this Water that I give says our Saviour becometh a Well of Water in the Soul Religion is not any thing without a Man hanging upon him or annext to him neither is it every something that is in a man as we shall see anon but it is a Divine Principle informing and actuating the Souls of good Men a living and lively Principle a free and flowing Principle a strong and lasting Principle an inward and spiritual Principle I must not speak of all these distinctly in this place for fear of interfering in my discourse When I say Religion is a Principle a vital Form acting the Soul and all the powers of it an inward nature c. Saith not the Scripture the same here a Well or Fountain of Water And elsewhere a new man the hidden man of the heart the inward man Ephes 4. 24 1 Pet. 3. 4. As the Soul is called an inward man respective to the Body 2 Cor. 4. 16. so Religion is called an inward man respective to the Soul it self Rom. 7. 22. It is a man within man The man that is truly alive to God hath in him not only inward parts for so a dead man hath but an inward man an inward Nature and Principle Again It is called a Root Job 19. 28. or if not there yet plainly in Mark 4. 17. Where temporary Professors are said to have no root in themselves And this is by the same propriety of speech whereby a wicked principle is called A Root of bitterness Heb. 12. 15. Again it is called a Seed the Seed of God 1 Joh. 3. 9. where this Seed of God is called an a biding or remaining principle In the first Creation God made the Trees of the earth having their seed in themselves Gen. 1. 11. and in the New Creation these trees of Righteousness of Gods planting are also made with seed in themselves though not of themselves it is said to be the Seed of God indeed but remaining in the godly Soul Again it is called a Treasure in opposition to an Alms or Annuity that lasteth but for a day or an year as a Well of Water in opposition to a Dish of Water and a Treasure of the heart in opposition to all outward and earthly treasures Matth. 12. 35. It is a treasure affording continual expences not exhausted yea encreased by expences wherein it exceeds all treasures in the World By the same propriety of Speech Sin is called a treasure too but it is an evil treasure as our Saviour speaks in that same place Do you not see what â— stock of wickedness sinful men have within themselves which although they have spent upon ever since they were born yet it is not impaired nay it is much augmented thereby And shall not the second Adam bestow something as certain and permanent upon his Off-spring as the first Adam conveyed to his
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
CHAP. II. True Religion described as to the nature of it by Water a Metaphor usual in the Scriptures First by reason of the cleansing vertue of it The defiling nature of Sin and the beauty of Holiness manifested Secondly by reason of the quenching vertue of it This briefly touch'd upon and the more full handling of it referred to its proper place The nature of Religion described by a Well of Water That it is a Principle in the Souls of Men proved by much Scripture An Examination of Religion by this test by which Examination are excluded all things that are meerly external external Reformations and Performances instanced in A godly man hath neither the whole of his business nor his motives lying without him In the same Examination many things internal found not to be Religion It is no sudden passion of the Mind no not though the same amount to an extasie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I Come now to speak of the Nature of True Religion which is here described by our blessed Lord by a well of Water First by Water secondly by a Well of both these but more briefly of the former 1. Pure Religion or Gospel-Grace is described by Water This is a comparison very familiar in holy Scriptures both of the Old Testament and the New By this similitude Gospel-Grace was typiâ—ied in the Ceremonial Law wherein both Persons and Things ceremonially unclean were commanded to be wash'd in Water as is abundantly to be seen in that administration Under this notion the same Grace is pray'd for by the Psalmist when he had defiled himself in the Bed of a Stranger Psal 51. 7. Wash me and I shall be whiter than Snow He had drunk Water out of a strange Cistern as his Son Solomon describâ—â— that unclean act Pro. 5. 15. and now he calls out for Water from the Fountain of Grace to undefile him He now crys out for Water from the Fountain of Grace the blessed Messiah that sprung up into the world at Bethlehem and that with more earnestness than formerly we read that he wish'd for the Water of the Well of Bethlehem which is by the gate 2 Sam. 23. In the same phrase the same grace is promised by the Ministry of the Prophets who prophesied of the grace that should come unto us Thus we read of the fair and flourishing state of the Church Isa 58. 11. Thou shalt be like a watred Garden and like a spring of Water whose Waters fail not and of the fruitful state of the Gospel-Proselytes Joel 3. 18. All the Rivers of Judah shall flow with Waters and a fountain shall come forth of the House of the Lord and shall water the Valley of Shittim Which promises that they are understood of the grace of Sanctification the Prophet Ezekiel sheweth plainly Ezek. 36 25. I will sprinkle clean Water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your Idols will I cleanse you for ordinary elementary Water cannot cleanse men from Idols The Prophet Isaiah also puts it out of doubt whose Prophecy together with the interpretation of it we find both in one verse Isa 44. 3. I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground I will pour my Spirit upon thy Seed and my Blessing upon thine Off-spring By the same Ceremony the Gospel-Dispensation shadows out the same Mystery in the Sacrament of Baptism and by the same phrase our Saviour offers and promises the same Grace Joh. 7. 37. If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink and his Apostles after him who in allusion to Water call this Grace the washing of Regeneration Tit. 3. 5. To which I might adde 1 Pet. 3. 21. and many other Texts if it needed Now as the grace of God is compared to Fire because of its refining nature and consuming the dross and refuse of Lust in the Soul and to other things for other reasons so is it compared to Water especially for those two properties viz. Cleansing and quenching For observe this by the way that it is a very injurious thing to the holy Ghost to press the Metaphors which he useth in Scripture further than they do naturally freely serve Neither are we to stick in the letter of the Metaphor but to attend unto the scope of it If we tenaciously adhere to the phrase wanton wits will be ready to quarrel with absurdities and so unawares run into strange blasphemies They will cry out presently How can Fire wash when they read that of the Prophet Isa 4. 4. The Lord will wash away the filth of the Daughter of Sion by the Spirit of Burning But who art thou O man that wilt teach him to speak who formed the Tongue The Spirit of God intends the vertue and property of things when he names them and that we must mainly attend to First therefore by the phrase Water is the Cleansing nature of Religion commended to us It is the undefiling of the Soul which Sin and Wickedness hath polluted Sin is oft described in Scripture by filthiness loathsomness abomination uncleanness a spot a blemish a stain a pollution which indeed is a most proper description of it The spots of Leprosie and the scurff of the fowlest scurvy are beauty spots in comparison of it Job upon the Dunghil furnished cap-a-pe with scabs and boils was not half so loathsome as goodly Absalom in whose Body there was no blemish from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head but his Soul was stained with the sanguine spots of malice and revenge and festred with the loathsome Carbuncle and Tumour of Ambition Lazarus lying at the gates full of raw and running sores was a far more lovely object in the pure Eyes of God than dame Jezabel looking out at the window adorned with spots and paints If the best of a godly man that he hath of his own even his Righteousness be as a filthy rag Isa 64. 6. Whence shall we borrow a phrase soul enough to describe the worst of a wicked man even his wickedness I need say no more of it I can say no worse of it than to tell you it is something contrary to God who is the eternal Father of Light who is Beauty and Brightness and Glory it self or to give it you in the Apostle's phrase Rom. 3. 23. a falling short of the glory of God Which hath made me many times to wonder and almost ready to cry out with the Prophet Be astonished O ye Heavens at this when I have seen poor ignorant wicked and prophane Wretches passing by a person or a family visited with some loathsome Disease in a mixture of fear and disdain stopping their Noses and hastning away when their own Souls have been more vile than the dung upon the Earth spotted with Ignorance and Atheism swollen with the risings of Pride and Self-will and contempt of God and his holy Image This might well be a matter of wonder to any
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
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
to bribe Gods justice or engage mens charity to purchase favour with God or man or his own clamarous conscience but he prays because he wants and loves and believes he wants the fuller presence of that God whom he loves he loves the presence which he wants he believes that he that loves him will not suffer him to want any good thing that he prays for And therefore he do's not bind up himself severely and limit himself penuriously to a morning and evening Sacrifice and solemnity as unto certain rent-seasons wherein to pay a homage of dry devotion but his loving and longing Soul disdaining to be confin'd within Canâ—nical hours is frequently soaring in some heavenly raptures or other and sallying forth in holy ejaculations He is not content with some weak assays towards Heaven in set and formal Prayer once or twice a day but labours also to be all the day long sucking in those Divine influences and streams of grace by the mouth of faith which he beg'd in the morning by the tongue of prayer which hath made me sometimes to think it a proper speech to say the faith of Prayer as well as the prayer of faith for believing and hanging upon Divine grace doth really drink in what Prayer opens its mouth for and is in effect a powerful kind of praying in silence By believing we pray as well as in praying we do believe A truly godly man hath not his hands tyed up meerly by the force of a National Law no nor yet by the authority of the fourth commandment to keep one in seven a day of rest As he is not content with meer resting upon the Sabboth knowing that neither working nor ceasing from work doth of itself commend a Soul to God but doth press after intimacy with God in the duties of his worship so neither can he be content with one Sabboth in a week nor think himself absolved from holy and heavenly meditations any day in the week but labours to make every day a Sabboth as to the keeping of his heart up unto God in a holy frame and to find every day to be a Sabboth as to the communications of God unto his Soul Though the necessities of his body will not allow him it may be though indeed God hath granted this to some men to keep every day as a Sabboth of Rest yet the necessities of his Soul do call upon him to make every day as far as may be a Sabboth of communion with the blessed God If you speak of Fasting he keeps not Fasts meerly by vertue of a civil no nor a divine institution but from a principle of godly sorrow afflicts his â—oul for sio and daily endeavours more and more to be emptied of himself which is the most excellent Fasting in the world If you speak of Thansgiving he do's not give thanks by laws and ordinances but having in himself a law of thanksulness and an ordinance of love engraven upon and deeply radicated in his Soul delights to live unto God and to make his heart and life a living descant upon the goodness and love of God which is the most divine way of thank offering in the world it is the hallâ—lujah which the Angels sing continually In a word wherever God hath a tongue to command true godliness will find an hand to perform whatever yoke Christ Jesus shall put upon the Soul religion will enable to bear it yea and to count it easie too the mouth of Christ hath pronounâ—'d it easie Mat. 11. 30. and the spirit of Christ makes it easie Let the commandment be what it will it will not le grievous 1 Joh. 5. 3. The same spirit doth in some measure dwell in every Christian which without measure dwelt in Christ who counted it his meat and drink to do the will of his Father Joh. 4. 34. 2. And more especially the true Christian is free from any constâ—aint as to the inward acts which he performeth Holy love to God is one principal Act of the gracioâ—s soul whereby it is carryed out freely and with an ardent lust towards the object that is truly and infinitely lovely and satisfâ—ctory and to the enjoyment of iâ— I know indeed that this springs from self indigency and is commanded by the soveraignty of the supream good the object that the Soul eyes but it is properly free from any constraint Love is an affection that cannot be excorted as sear is nor sorâ—â—d by any external power nor indeed internal neither the revenues of the King of Persia or the treasuâ—es oâ— Aegypt cannot commit a rape upon â—â— Heb. 11. 26. neither indeed can the soul it self raise and lay this spirit at pleasure which made the Poet complain of himself as if he were not sole Emperour at home Non amo te Sabidi nec possum dicere quare c. Though the outward bodily Acts of Religion are ordinarily forced yet this pure chast virgin-affection cannot be ravished it seems to be a kind of a peculiar in the soul though under the jurisdiction of the understanding By this property of it it is elegantly described by the spirit of God Cant. 8. 7. if a man would give all the substance of his house for love it would utterly be contemned It cannot be bought with money or money-worth cannot be purchased with gifts or arts and if any should offer to bribe it it would give him a sharp and scornful check in the language of Peter to Simon Thy money perish with thee love is no hireling no base born mercenary affection but noble free and generous Neither is it low-spirited and slavish as Fear is therefore when it comes to full age it will not suffer this Son of the Bond woman to divide the inheritance the dominions of the Soul with it when it comes to be perfect it casteth out fear sayes the Apostle 1 Joh. 4. 18. Neither indeed is it directly under the authority of any law whether humane or Divine it is not begotten by the influence of a divine law as a law but as holy just and good as we shall see more anon quis legem dat amantibus ipse Est sibi lex amor the Law of Love or if you will in the Apostles phrase the spirit of love and of power in opposition to the spirit of fear 2 Tim. 1. 7. doth more influence the godly man in his pursuit of God than any law without him this is as a wing to the Soul whereas outward commandments are but as guides in his way or at most but as spurs in his sides The same I may say of holy delight in God which is indeed the flower of love or love grown up to its full age and stature which hath no torment in it and consequently no force upon it Like unto which are holy confidence Faith and Hope ingenuous and natural Acts of the Religious Soul whereby it hastens into the Divine embraces as the Eagle hastneth to the prey swiftly and speedily
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
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
in the soul as a burning fire shut up in the bones which makes the soul weary with forbearing and so powerfull in longings that it cannot stay as the spirit of prophesie is described Jer. 20. it is more true of the spirit of God than of the spirit of Elihâ— the spirit within constraineth and even dresseth the soul so that it is ready to swoun and faint away for very vehemence of longing Sâ—e the amâ—rous spouse falling into one of these fainting fiâ—s Cant. 2. 5. and crying out mainly for some cordial from Heaven to keep up her sinking spirits Stay me with flaggons straw me with apples for I am sick of love Oh beautifull and blessed fight a soul working towards God gasping and longing and labouring after its proper happiness and perfection Well the sinking soul is relieved Christ Jesus reacheth forth his left hand to her head and his right hand embraceth her and now she recovers her hanging hands lift up themselves and the 〈◊〉 of her â—ading complex on 〈◊〉 restored now she sits down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit is sweet unto her taste See here the fairest sight on this side Heaven a soul resting and glorying and spreading itself in the arms of God growing up in him growing great in him growing full in his fulness and perfectly ravished with his pure love O my soul be not content to live by any lower instance did not our hearts burn within us said the two Disciples one to the other whilest he talked with us But the soul in which the sacred fire of love is powerfully kindled doth not only burn towards God whilest he is more familiarly present with it and as it were blows upon it but if he seem to withdraw from it it burns after him still my beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone I sought him I called him Cant. 5. 6. And if the fire begin to languish and seem as if it would go out the holy soul is startled presently and labours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaks to revive it and blow it up again calls upon itself to awake to arise and pursue to mend its pace and to speed its heavy and sluggish motions This divine active principle in the soul maintains a continual striving a holy strugling and streâ—ching forth of the soul towards God a bold and ardent contention after the supreâ—m good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Religien hath the strength of the Divinity in it its motions towards its object are quick and potent That elegant description which the Prophet makes of the wicked heart with some change may be brought livâ—â—ly to express this excellent temper of the godly soul it is like the working Sea which cannot â—est and although its waters do not cast up mire and dirt yet in a holy impatience they rise and swell and cast up a froth and some towards Heaven In a word that I may comprize many things in few expressions no man so ambitious as the humble none so covetous as the heavenly-minded none so voluptuous as the self-denying Religion gives a largeness and wideness to the soul which sin and self and the world had straightned and confined But his Ambition is only to be great in God his Covetousness is only to be filled with all the fulness of God and his voluptuousness is only to drink of the rivers of his pure pleasures He desires to taste the God whom he sees and to be satisfied with the God whom he tastes Oh now how are all the faculties of the soul awakened to attendance upon the Lord of life It hearkens for the sound of his feet coming the noise of his hands knocking at the door it stands upon its watch tower waiting for his appearing waiting more earnestly than they that watch for the morning and rejoyces to meet him at his coming and having met him runs into his arms kisses him holds him and will not let him goe but brings him into the house and entertains him in the guest-chamber The soul complains that itself is not large enough that there is not room enough to entertain so glorious a guest no not though it have given him all the room that it hath It entertains him with the widest arms and the sweetest smiles and if he depart and withdraw fetches him again with the deepest groans Return Return O Prince of Peace and make me an everlasting habitation of righteousness unto thy self It will not be amiss here briefly to touch upon the Reason of the godly souls so ardent pantings after God And here I might shew first negatively that it springs not from any carnal ambition of being better and higher than others not from any â—arnal hope of impunity and safety nor meerly from the bitter sense of pressing and tormenting afflictions in this life But I shall rather insist upon it affirmatively These earnest breathings 〈◊〉 God spring from the feeling apprehensions of self-indigency and insufficiency and â—â—e powerful sense of divine goodness and fulness they are begotten of the divine Bounty and self sufficiency manifesting itself to the spirits of men and conceived and brought forth by a deep sense of selfpoverty one might almost apply the Apostles words to this purpose we receive the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in him I shall not discourse upon these two heads disjunctly but frame them into one notion and so you may take it thus these holy longings of the godly soul after God do arise from the sense of its distance from God To be so far distant from God who is life and love itself and the proper and full happiness of the soul is grievous to the soul that is rightly affected towards him and hence it is that the soul cannot be at rest but still longs to be more intimately joyned to him and more perfectly filled with him and the clearer the souls apprehensions are of its object and the deeper its sense is of its own unlikeness to him and distance from him the more strong and impatient are its breathings insomuch that not only fear as the Apostle speaks but even love itself sometimes seems to itself to have a kind of agony and torment in itself which made the spouse cry she was sick of love that is sick of every thing that kept her from her love sick of that distance at which she stood from her beloved Lord. The godly soul being ravisht with the infinite sweetness and goodness of God longs to be that rather than what itself iâ— and beholding how it is estranged from him by many sensual loves selfish passions corporal clogs and distractions bewails its distance and cryes out within itself Oh when shall I come and appear before God! Oh when will God come and appear gloriously to me and in me who will deliver me from this body of death Oh that mortality were swallowed up of life Davids soul did wait for God as earnestly
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
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
Covenent-holiness and ouâ—wâ—rd communion God doth many times disinherit and reject them that were so his people but as to true godliness participation of the divine image internal and spiritual communion we may confidently say with the Apostle to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 1. 9. God is faithfull by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord or with the â—ame Apostle to the Thessalonians I Thes 5. 24. faithfull is he that calleth you who also will do it Do what why that which he was speaking of and praying for in ver 23. v z preserve spirit and soul and body blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ I conclude then that Grace in the Creaâ—ure is a particâ—pation of him who is essential and perfect grace and goodness a communication made by him of his holy nature which becomes a living principle in the souls of men a â—ountain sending forth a continued 〈◊〉 of holy dispositions and affections without intercision or cessation Though these streams run sometimes higher sometimes lâ—wer sometimes swiâ—â—er sometimes slower yet they are never wholly dryed up as the brooks of Tema were For where God hath once opened a fountain in the soul he feeds it 〈◊〉 supplyes from himself as a 〈◊〉 itself would dry up if it 〈◊〉 not nourished by the supplyes oâ— subterraneous waters The perseverance of grace depends purely upon the supports and supplyes of uncreaâ—â—d essential life and goodness But how do we know that God will certainly afford these supplies We build upon his goodness and love in Christ towards his elect which is infinite and unspeakable and upon his faithfulness in accomplishing his promise viz. that be will never leave nor sorsake them Heb. 13. 5. that he will keep them by his power unto salvation 1 Pâ—â— 1. 5. They that are of the number of Gods holy and chosen ones shall no doubt continue of that number according to that in 1 Joâ— 2. 19. they that are truly in Christ shall abide in him 1 Joh. 2. 27. the seed of God remaineth in the godly and they cannot sin because they are born of God 1 Joh. 3. 9. he that is begotten of God keepeth himself and that wicked one toucheth him not 1 Joh. 5. 18. What can be more express and ample than that consolatory promise of our Lord made to his poor frail sheep Joh. 10. 28. I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any one pluck them out of my hand But some one may say perhaps what if man will apostatize what if the saints themselves will forsake God will he not then say of them as the Apostle of the unbelieving husband If they will depart let them depart Will not God forsake them that forsake him Answ Yes God will forsake them that forsake him But they never shall forsake him They being rightly renewed after the image of God and perfectly overpowered by his grace shall never will any such departure I will betroth thee unto me for ever Hos 2. 19. It is certain saith Dr. Arrowsmith that God will condemn all impenitent sinners but it is as certain that all justified and regenerate sinners shall repent semper fit procurante spiritu It seems unreasonable to demand what if man himself will apostatize seeing he is by the grace of God so renewed in his will and put into such a condition that he cannot will any such thing God doth not give unto his Saints saith Austin only such help without which they could not persevere if they would which was that which he gave Adam but he also worketh in them the will that because they shall not persevere except they both can and will his bountifull grace bestoweth upon them both the can and the will For their will is so enflamed by the spirit of God that they therefore can because they so will they therefore so will because God worketh in them to Will Neither is it any disparagement or injury to the freedom of mans will that it should be overpowered by divine grace and determined only to that which is good The indiâ—â—erency and flâ—ctuation of the will of man is indeed the imperfection of it and the more God reveals himself to the soul as the chiefest good the more this indifferency of the will is destroyed and the faculty is determined not by being constrained but indeed perfected Oh unhappy liberty for a soul to be indifferently affected towards its own happiness and to be free to choose its own misery The noblest freedom in the world is when a soul being delivered from its hesitancies and healed of its indifferencies is carryed like a ship with spread sales and powerfull winds in a most speedy cheerful and steady course into its own harbour into the arms and embraces of its own object The grace of God doth never so overpower the will of man as to reduce it to a condition of slavery so as that man should not have a proper dominion over his own acts but I think we do generally conclude that in the world to come in the future state the wills of all glorified Saints shall be so advanced and perfected in their freedome as not in the least to verge towards any thing that is evil but shall in the most gladsome and steady manner be eternally carryed towards their full and glorious object which the glorified understanding shall then represent in a most true clear and ample manner And this we take to be the souls truest liberty in the highest elevation of it Now although it be not altogether thus with us in this present world for by reason of the weakness and muddiness of our understandings which do here represent God unto us so faintly and disadvantagiously it comes to pass that the will cannot so freely and fervently with so ardent and generous motions pursue its excellent object as it shall do hereafter yet I believe that the more God reveals himself to any soul the more the fluctuations and aequilibriousness of it are healed and a true liberty of will encreased and that he doth so far reveal himself to every truly godly soul as to establâ—sh this noble freedome in him in such a degree as will keep him from willing a final departure from him and carry him certainly how remisly and faintly soever towards the supream and soveraign good till he come to be perfectly swallowed up in it A will thus truly and divinely free thought it be not the proper efficient cause yet certainly is an inseparable concomitant of final perseverance So then the more God communicateth himself to any soul the more powerfully it willeth a nearer conjunction with him and no soul I conceive to whom God communicateth himself savingly can at any time will an utter separation from him As for the foulest falls of Scripture-saints that are any where recorded I know not what more can rationally be inferred from them but that grace in the creature admits of ebbs and
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
but out of each Testament of the holy Scriptures one text thereunto I think it cannot reasonably be doubted but that the Prophesie and promise made in Isa 49. 10. is to be performed unto believers in this present life for so must the foregoing verses necessarily be understood and there we have the doctrine expresly asserted They shall not hunger nor thirst c. for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them even by the springs of water shall he guide them To which those words of our Saviour are parallel Joh. 6. 35. he that believeth on me shall never thirst which doctrine of his is yet amplified and enlarged in Joh. 7. 38. he that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water What greater security from thirst can be desired than that one should be led by springs of water yes one may be led by the springs of water and yet not be suffered to drink of them well therefore to put all out of fear the godly soul shall contain within himself a spring of water he shall have rivers of living waters in himself and for his fuller security these rivers shall be ever flowing too It shall suffice at present thus briefly to have establisht this conclusion And now having lapt up the meaning of the words in this short position I shall endeavour to unfold it in these six following propositions 1. There is a raging thirst in every soul of man after some ultimate and satisfactory good The God of nature hath implanted in every created nature a secret but powerful tendency towards a centre which dictates arising out of the very constitution of it it cannot disobey untill it cease so be such and utterly apostatize from the state of its Creation And the nobles any Being is the more excellent is the object assigned unto it and the more strong and potent and uncontrollable are its raptures and motions thereunto Wherefore the soul of man must needs also have its own proper centre which must be something superiour to and more excellent than itself able to fill up all its indigencies to match all its capacities to master all its cravings and give a plenary and perfect satisfaction which therefore can be no other than uncreated goodness even God himself It was not possible that God should make man of such faculties and those of that capaciousness as we see them and appoint any thing below himself to be his ultimate happiness Now although it be sadly true that the faculties of this soul are miserably maimed depraved benighted distorted yet I do not see that the soul is utterly unnatured by sin so as that any other thing should be obtruded upon it for its centre and happiness than the same infinite good that was from the beginning such or so as that its main and cardinal motions should be ultimately directed to any other than its natural and primitive object The natural understanding hath not indeed any clear or distinct sight of this blessed object but yet it retains a darker and more general apprehension of him and may be said even in all its pursuits of other things to be still groping in the dark after him neither is it without some secret and latent sense of God that the will of man chooseth or embraceth any thing for good The Apostle sticks not to affirm that the idolatrous Athenians themselves did worship God Act. 17. 23. though at that time indeed they knew not what they worshiped their worship was secretly and implicitly directed unto God and did ultimately resolve itself into him though they were not aware of it whom ye ignorantly worship Him declare I unto you now that he declared God unto them appears abundantly by the following verses what he sayes in point of worship the same methinks I may say in point of love trust delight dependance and apply it to all sorts of Idolaters as well as image-worshipers and affirm that the covetous idolater even when he most fondly huggs his bags and most firmly confideth in his riches doth ignorantly love and trust in God the proud idolater in the highest acts of self-seeking and self-pleasing doth ignorantly admire and adore God the ambitious idolater even in the hottest chase of secular glory and popular applause doth ignorantly pursue and advance God For that Rest Contentment peace happiness satisfaction which these mistaken souls do aim at what is it other than God though they attribute it to something else which cannot afford it and so commit a real blasphemy For they that do in their hearts and course of their lives ascribe a Filling and saisfying vertue to riches pleasures or honours do as truly though not so loudly blaspheme as they who cryed out concerning the Calf of Gold Exod. 32. 4. These be thy Gods O Israel c. And in this sense that I have been speaking one may safely affirm that the most profest Atheist in the world doth secretly pursue the God whom he openly denies whilest his will is catching at that which his judgement renounceth and he allows that piety in his lusts which he will not own in Heaven The Hypocrite professes to know God but in works denies him on the other hand the Atheist though in words he deny God yet in his works he professeth him so natural and necessary it is for all men to acknowledge a Deity though some are so brutish and besotted as to confine him to their own bellies of whom the Apostle speaks Phil. 3. 19. Whose God is their belly I say natural for it is not only some few men of better education and more contemplative complexions that hunt after this invisible and satisfying good but indeed â—he most vulgar souls retaining still the nature of souls are perpetually catching at an ultimate happiness and satisfaction and are secretly stung and tormented with the want of it Certainly the motions of a soul are more strong and weighty than we are ordinarily aware of and I think one may safely conclude that if there were no latent sense or natural science of God the poor man could not spend the powers of his soul so intensely for the purchasing a little food and raiment for the body nor the covetous man so insatiably thirst after houses and land and a larger heap of refined earth Did they not secretly imagine I mean some Contentment Happiness or satisfaction were to be drunk in together with these acquirements they would seem to be but dry and insipid morsels to a soul which ultimate happiness and satisfaction as I said before can be no other than God himself whom these mistaken souls do ignorantly adore and feel for in the dark Neither let any one think that this ignorant and unwary pursuit of God can pass for Religion or be acceptable in the sight of God for as it is impossible that ever any man should stumble into a happy state without foresight and free choice and be in it
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
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
miserable Every thing is the product of Almighty love and goodness 2. The happiness of every creature consists in its acting agreeably to that nature that God gave it and those ends which he propounded to it and suitably to those laws which he gave them which laws were contrived with the greatest suitableness to those natures and subserviency to those ends Every creature is in its kind happy whilest it acts agreeably to that nature which the wise creator implanted in it as the Sun runs its race without ceasing and rejoyces so to do and is in some sense happy in so doing Departing from that nature it becomes miserable as the earth bringing forth briers and thorns instead of those good fruits which it was appointed to bring forth is said to be cursed Gen. 3. 17 18. 3. The happiness of the creature is higher or lower greater or lesser according as it comes nearer to God or is further off from him according as it receives more or less from him according to what communion it hath with him The life and happiness of the Sun is much lower than that of a man because it cannot enjoy such high and excellent communications from or communion with God as man doth 4. There can be no communion without likeness The Sun shines upon a stone wall as well as upon man but a stone wall ha's no communion with the Sun because it hath no eyes to see the light of it as man hath nor can receive the benign influences of its heat as the herbs do A log of wood lyeth in the water as well as the Fish but it hath no communion with the water nor receives no advantage by it as the Fish doth God is present according to his infinite essence with the Devils as well as with the Angels but they have no likeness in nature to him and so no communion with him as these have 5. God bath given a more large and excellent capacity to man than to any other of his creatures upon earth God hath endued man with reason and so made him capable of a higher life and a more excellent communion with his Maker than all the rest The rational soul of all sublunary creatures is only capable to know love serve enjoy imitate God and so to have a glorious communion with him The Sun in all its glory and brightness is not so excellent a Being as any soul of man upon this account And although man by his fall lost his actual communion with God yet be is a reasonable creature still he hath not lost his capacity of receiving influences from him and enjoying communion with him The world when it is at the darkest is yet capable of being enlightned 6. When the nature of man is by divine grace healed of its distemperedness and restored to its former rectitude to act suitably to the end for which it was made and to spend it self upon its proper object then 〈◊〉 to have a right communion with God and to be happy All ratioâ—â—â— souls are capable of holding communion with God but all do not hold communion with him but they that express the purity and holiness of the divine life that know God and live like him these are hiâ— children Mat. 5. 15. and those only do rightly and really converse with him when the spirit of God informs these rational souls and derives the strength of a divine life through them and stamps the lively impressions of Divine perfections upon them rendring our hearts will and wayes conformable to that glorious pattern that infinite good then do we enjoy a proper communion with him and are truly blessed though we are not compleatly blessed till this conformity be perfected according to what those souls are or may be capable of This is the true and proper notion of mans communion with God and relation to him which we cannot fully describe till we do more fully enjoy That soul that truly lives and feeds upon God do's taste more than it can tell and yet it can tell this that this is the most high excellent noble glorious life in the whole world This communion as also the intimateness and closeness of it are described variously in the Holy Scriptures by the similitude of members being in the body 1 Cor. 12. 27. Of branches being in the Vine Joh. 15. 1 2. By being formed according to Gods image Rom. 8. 29. Changed into his image 2 Cor. 3. 18. By Gods dwelling in the soul and the soul in him 1 Joh. 4. 16. By Christs being formed in the soul Gal. 4. 19 By the souls having Christ 1 Joh. 5. 12. By Christs supping with the soul and the soul with him Rev. 3. 20. Because nothing is more our own nor more one with us than that which we eat and drink being incorporated into us therefore is this spiritual communion between God and the godly soul oft-times in Scripture described by our eating and drinking with him Thus God was pleased to allow his people under the law when they had offered up a part of their Beasts in Sacrifice to him to sit down and feast upon the rest as a token of that familiarity and oneness that was between him and them By the like action our Saviour shadowed out the same mysterie when in the Sacrament of his supper he appointed them to sit down and eat and drink with him to intimate their feeding upon him and most close communion with him yea the state of glory which is the most perfect communion with God is thus shadowed out too Mat. 8. 11. Rev. 19. 9. And which is worth noting I think the Sacramental eating and drinking hath some reference to that most intimate communion of the Saints with God in glory our Saviour himself seems to imply as much in that speech of his Luk. 22. 30. That ye may eat and drink at my Table in my Kingdom In which words he seems plainly to allude to the Sacramental eating and drinking which he had a little before instituted viz. ver 19. Which makes some to believe that that gesture is to be retained in that ordinance which is most proper and usual to express familiarity and communion and to take away that gesture is to destroy one great end of our Saviour in appointing this Supper which was to represent that familiar communion which is between himself and every believing soul I will not here examine the validity of their argument which possibly if prest home might introduce a rudeness into the worship of God under pretence of familiarity but it seems very plain that the nature of that ordinance doth shadow out the intimate communion between God and a godly soul I have already in part prevented my self and shewed you wherein the souls communion with God consists But yet to give you a more distinct knowledge of this great mysterie I shall unfold it in these three following particulars 1. A godly soul hath communion with God in his Attributes When the
of prayer Faith can pray without words but the most elegant words the phrase of Angels is not worthy to be called prayer without faith I speak not so much of faith inditing a prayer or giving life to it as of its being vertually prayer if not something more for indeed faith is a real bringing down of that God and sucking in of those influences into the soul which prayer only looks up for Communion with God is a continual fast it is that spiritual and most excellent way of fasting whereby the soul emptying it self of it self and all self-fullness self-sufficiency self-confidence receives of the fulness of God alone and is filled therewith A soul communing rightly with God is a soul emptied of and as it were fasting from it self which is the most excellent way of fasting It is a continual thanksgiving and indeed the best way of thanksgiving in the world To render up our selves to God purely and entirely to reflect the glory of God in an holy and godlike temper is a real and living thank-offering This is that Hallelujah so much spoke of which the Angels and Saints in glory do sing perpetually what other adjunct of it there may be I will not here dispute This communion of hearts and wills is a constant and most excellent celebration of Sacraments The Soul that is really Baptized into the spirit of the Lord Jesus and feeds upon God and is one with him keeps a continual Sacrament without which the Sacramental eating and drinking is but a jejune and dry devotion In a word it is not possible for any thing that is extrinsecal to the soul to make it happy but the soul that is advanced into the noble state of communion with God is made partaker of a new nature and is truly happy Nay further I will add that this communion with God is not only better than all duties and ordinances but even better than all revelations evidences discoveries that can be made or given to the soul ab extra all that are from without a manifestation of God i. e. of a divine life in the soul is much better than such a manifestation as Moses had of his glory in the cleft of the Rock Exod. 34. Many think oh if they might but be assured of the love of God of the pardon of fin of an interest in Christ they should be happy why I will tell you if you had a voice from Heaven saying that ye were the beloved Children of God as Christ had an Angel sent from God to tell you that ye were beloved and highly favoured of God as his Mother Mary had yet were communion with God to be preferred before these For these things could not make a soul happy without real communion with God but communion with God can and doth make a soul happy without these And to this purpose I suppose I may apply that famous speech of our Saviour's by way of allusion It is more blessed to give than to receive to give up ones self ones heart will interests and affections to God than to receive any external discoveries and manifestations from him Why do we so earnestly seek after signs from without us of Gods presence with us as if there were any thing better or more desirable to the soul than Emanuel God with us or as the Apostle speaks Christ in us the hope of glory He that desires any other evidence of grace but more grace dos not only light up a candle to see the Sun by but indeed he acts like one that thinks there is something better than God himself though I do not say that all do think so who are covetous of such manifestations But this I will say and you may do well to chew upon it that holy longings after a true and spiritual communion with God do certainly spring from a divine principle in the soul whereas a thirst after assurance of Gods love and reconciliation of our persons with him may be only the fruit of self-love and interest Let me dye the death of the Righteous you know whose wish it was 7. Though communion with God do concern the whole soul and all the faculties affections and motions of it it is Gods spreading his influences and exercising his Soveraignty over all the powers of the soul and their mutual spending of themselves upon him and conforming to him yet the great Acts of the soul whereby it chiefly holds communion with God are loving and Believing Love is the joyning and knitting of the soul to God Faith is the souls labouring after more intimate conjunction with him a sucking in influences from him and participations of him into the Soul We may say that faith fetches in supplies from Heaven and Love enjoyes them faith sucks in sweetness and vertue from Christ and love feeds upon it Certainly these two eminent graces grow and live and thrive together and are inseparable companions It is somewhat difficult to distinguish them or to assign to each his proper place and work in the soul they seem mutually to act and to be mutually acted by each other perhaps the Apostle might have respect to this mystery when he speaks so doubtfully Gal. 5. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which words may be translated either Faith acting by love or faith acted by love We know indeed that in the state of perfect communion which we call glory love shall abide and flourish more abundantly and there shall be no room for faith there not as to the principal act of it but whether hath the greater part in maintaining our communion with God in this world is not easie nor indeed needfull to determine The godly soul is the most proper Temple wherein God dwelleth according to that 2 Cor. 6. 16. Ye are the Temple of the living God Faith and Love are the Jachin and Boaz the two great Pillars which keep up the Soul as a Temple take away these and it remains a soul indeed but the soul dos not remain a Temple to the Lord. In a word these two are the souls principal handmaids which she useth about this blessed guest Faith goes out and brings him in and Love entertains him by faith she finds him whom she seeks and by love she kisses him whom she finds as the spouse is described Cant. 8. 1. 8. The communion that is between God and the godly Soul is altogether different from that communion that is between creatures Here I might shew you how it exceeds and excells that in many respects but I shall not insist upon any of those particulars nor indeed upon any of those many differences that are between them save only upon this one The communion that is between creature and creature is perfect in its kind and so consequently gives mutual satisfaction I mean it terminates the expectations so that nothing remains to be enjoyed in them more than what is enjoyed The creature is shallow and soon fathomed we soon come to the bottom of it A
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
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