the Physicians that of traduction Nay Galen tells in plain termes that the soul is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a meere temper or complexion the right tuning of the body which is not farre distant from the Fidlers opinion that Tully speaks of that would needs have the soul to be an harmony His soul that plaid him some lessons and his body danc'd to them And indeed some of the Physicians are as loath as he was ab arte sua discedere and therefore they do embody the soul as much as they can that their skill may extend to the happinesse and welfare of it as if they could feel the pulse of the soul and try experiments upon the spirits as if they could soften and compose the Paroxysme of the minde and cure all the Languors and distempers of the soul as if their drugs would work upon immaterial beings as if they could kill souls as fast as they can kill bodies as if the Candle of the Lord did depend upon these Prolongers as though the Lamp would go out unlesse they pour in some of their oile into it No doubt but there is a mutual communion and intercourse between this friendly and espowsed paire the soul and body no doubt but there is a loving sympathy and fellow-feeling of one anothers conditions but 't is not so strong and powerful as that they must both live and die together Yet I speak not this as though the maintaining of the souls traduction did necessarily prejudice the immortality of it for I know there are many learned Doctors amongst them and Seneca amongst the rest that are for the souls beginning in a way of generation and yet do detest and abominate the least thoughts of its corruption Nay some sacred writers contend for the souls traduction who yet never questioned the perpetuity of it not only the African father Tertullian but most of the Western Churches also and the opinion of Apollinaris and Nemesius that one spiritual being might propagate another I have not yet found sufficiently disprov'd though it be generally reprehended The truth is the original of all formes 't is in profundo 't is very latent and mysterious yet the Naturalists must needs acknowledge thus much that the matter and forme of every thing must have at least an incompleat being before generation for by that they do not receive any new absolute entity for then it would be a creation but the parts are only collected and disposed and united by a strict Gordian knot by an inward continuity So that in all such production the materia oritur ex materia forma ex forma generantis and thus formes are continued according to that degree of being which they had in the first Creation Now why there should not be such a traditio Lampadis in the souls of men will not easily be shewn the nobility and purity of the soul doth not at all hinder this for there is a proportionable eminency in the soul that doth produce it One soul prints another with the same stamp of immortality that it self had engraven upon it But if any question how an immaterial being can be conveighed in such a seminal way let him but shew us the manner by which 't is united to the body and we will as easily tell him how it entered into it Yet Hierome was so zealous against this that he pronounceth a present Anathema to all such as shall hold the soul to be ex traduce But Austin was a great deale more calme and pacate Nay indeed he was in this point 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a kinde of equipoise and neutrality and therefore with a gentle breath he did labour to fanne and coole the heat of Hieromes opinion and putting on all mildnesse and moderation plainly confesses Se neque legendo neque or ando neque ratiocinando invenire potuisse quomodo cum Creatione animarum peccatum originale defendatur It seems he could not solve all those difficulties which the Pelagians raised against original sin unlesse he held the traduction of the soul He could not perceive how the Candle should be so soyld if it were lighted only by a pure Sun-beame fetcht from heaven Yet that knot which so skilful and laborious a hand could not unty some others have easily cut asunder and indeed there is no such cogency and prevalency in that argument as can justly promise it self the victory For the Schoolmen that are strong assertors of the souls creation do satisfie all such doubts as these And the major part of modern writers do encline to this that these Lamps are lighted by God himself though some indeed do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and will determine nothing as the acute Pemble does among the rest in his little Tractate De Origine Formarum and so doth that learned Knight in his late discourse of the soul where he doth only drop one brief passage that countenances the souls traduction upon which he that pretends to answer him takes occasion to huddle up no lesse then twenty Arguments against it which sure he should by number and not by weight But that Oxford answerer of that Brutish Pamphlet of The Souls Mortality doth more solidly and deliberately handle the question yet being very vehement and intense for the souls Creation he slips into this error that the traduction of the soul is inconsistent with the immortality of it But it may be you had rather hear the votes and suffrages of those ancient heathen writers that had nothing to see by but the Candle of the Lord perhaps you would willingly know what their souls thought of themselves You 'll believe nature the universal mother if she tell you who is the father of spirits Wee 'll begin with Pythagoras and he tells you his minde freely and fully whilest he gives you that piece of leafe-gold in one of his Verses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aratus is in the very same streine and was honoured so farre as to be quoted by an Apostle for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if these seeme somewhat more generally not exactly pointing out at the soul the Caldy Oracle will speak more punctually 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Father of spirits by his thought and word by his commanding breath did kindle this Lamp of the soul for the quickening and illuminating of such a noble creature Zoroaster pouers it out more at large and does thus dilate and amplifie it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O soul saies he why do'st thou not aspire and mount up to the centre and light of glory to that fountain of beams and brightnesse from whence thou wert derived and sent down into the world cloath'd and apparell'd with such rich and sparkling indowments The consideration of this made the Divine Trismegist break into that pang of admiration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what womb saith he is fit to bear a soul who is fit to be the father of the soul what breast is able to nourish a
can spy them out The Vintage will be long we shall gather but a cin ster at a time and presse it in the Application A Christian may be assured of his Saâ—â—ation for Saint Peter would never exhort them to give diligence for an impossibility for that which could not be obtained We 'l move in this order and shew 1. What Assurance is 2. Arguments for Assurance 3. The manner how Christians are assur'd 4. The special times of assurance 5. Make Application I. And here first what Assurance is 'T is a reflex act of the soule by which a Christian clearly sees that he is for the present in the state of grace and so an heire apparent to glory or in the words of the text by which he knows his Calling and Election 'T is a reflex act and so 1. Assurance is situated in the soules most noble most closettâ—â— most private and most spiritual operation 1. Reflex acts are the most noble and most royal operations the most rational and judicious acts of a most intelligent Spirit Reason is now in its exaltation it sits upon the Throne and exercises a Judge-like power all the faculties of the soule must appear before its Tribunal and give up a strict account 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Pythagoreans were wont to pose and catechize themselves your inferiour sensitive creatures can go poring on upon a present object and blunder on in a direct way but are far enough from any reflex acts although some talk of reflexivenesse in sense too as to see that they see or the like but 't is but a fancy of their own Sensitive Creatures could never reach so high as a reflex act and indeed sensual men know not what belong unto it but the reasonable soul can retire into it self and take a view and survey of its own actings 2. It is the most secret and retir'd operation the soule withdrawes and bids the body farewel and even here becomes an anima separata it retires into its Closet and bolts its selfe up where none can peep in none can evesdrop it 3. The most refin'd and spiritual working of all this is most abstracted from matter The soul here does not commerce with outward drossy objects but looks upon it self fixes its eye upon its own face This is the most spiritual employment of the soule which does most strongly argue its immortality and shewes it to be a spark of Divinity How does the prime and fountain Being spend all Eternity but in looking upon his own transcendent and glorious Essence in viewing the bright Constellation of his Attributes seeing some shadowy and languishing Representations of himself in the glasse of the Creatures 'T is one of the chief works of a Christian to reflect upon himself Vita est in se reflexio as the grave Moralist Seneca speaks The Prodigal came to himself when he came to reflex acts so 1 King 8. 47. When they shall turne to their own hearts c. II. But yet this working of the soul is but weak and transient 't is fleeting and desultory it quickly vanishes which shewes a great disorder and irregularity in the Spirit that that which is the noblest and most proper operation that borders upon Divinity men are least ver'st in it How rare is it for men to reflect upon their own conditions to enter into an exact trial and examination of their own wayes Radius reflexus languet as the Opticks speak The beam begins to be weary and is ready to faint it gives a weak and languishing Representation 't is true of intellectual beames too radius reflexus languet O how quickly are men weary of serious thoughts and considerations They look upon them as melancholy interruptions turbida intervalla You had need of good arguments to perswade men to entertain a serious thought outward objects these divert the minde and take it off from its greatest work As a man that sees his natural face in a glasse as St. James speaks goes his way and presently forgets what manner of man he was The soule scarce knowes its own visage it looks abroad and is a stranger to it self Many a mans soule ha's scarce look't upon it self all his life-time III. It consists in a reflex act 1 Joh. 2. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so differs from faith it is one thing to believe another thing to know that I believe Our Divines go somewhat too far Calvin Perkins c. when they put all justifying faith in a full perswasion Ames sayes 't is when they deal with the Papists who put it in a bare assent but me thinks they should rather be more wary there lest they give the enemy too much advantage I rather think that being men eminently pious it was as they found it in their own soules but all are not so strong in Christ Assurance is the top and triumph of faith faith that 's our victory by which we overcome the world but assurance that 's our triumph by which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are more then Conquerours 'T is flos fidei the very lustre and eminency of faith Faith that 's the Root Assurance is the Top-branch the flourishing of faith faith with a glosse upon it Justifying faith that does not only dwell in the understanding in nudo assensu but requires an act of the will too which must embrace a promise indeed it calls for an act resulting from the whole soule which must receive Christ offered unto it but now assurance consists only in the minde and so there you have the difference between faith of Adherence and faith of Assurance The first is an act of the whole soule the latter is a work of the minde only it ariseth è sensu quodam spirituali whereby we know and perceive that we beleeve And when I say every beleever may be assur'd of his salvation I don't say that every beleever is assur'd of it No every one is to labour for it to give diligence as our Apostle speaks but every one ha's not yet obtained it Assurance is not of the Essence of a Christianâ— A man may be a true childe of God and certainly saved though he have not Assurance He can have little sweetnesse and comfort without it little joy and peace but yet he may be in a safe though in a sad condition 'T is requir'd to the bene esse not to the esse of a Believer 1. For the Promise is made to the direct act and not to the reflex Believe and thou shalt be saved that 's the voice of the Gospel Not know that thou dost believe Now there is many a weak Christian that ha's faith and yet does not know that he ha's it Faith like a grain of mustard-seed lies hid for a while but it ha's a vigorous and operative spirit and will work out in time and spread it self into goodly branches The least degree of faith if it be true brings salvation but it does not bring
comes with confidence to the Throne of grace Jer. 17. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Supplantativum Cor prae omnibus so Arias Montanus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inscrutahile desperabile so Hierome and our Translation desperately wicked 't is properly insaâ—abile Some think Paul alludes to this place and does explain it in Rom. 2. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Seventy reade the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translate it accordingly 1. Now as for the mind of the place I finde Expositors of great name and worth understanding it of the unregenerate heart of the heart of man that is in the state of corrupt nature of whom 't is said that All the imaginations of the thoughts of mans heart are altogether evil continually 2. The drift of the text is to shew the deceitfulnesse of mens hearts in respect of others for 't is brought in by way of Objection The Jewes they are cunning and subtile and can delude the Prophets and so think to evade the Curse No but I the Lord search the hearts I have a faire window an open prospect into the most reserved Spirit 't is as clear as Crystal to my eye 3. Yet 't is true that the most sincere heart is very deceitful the heart of a David of a man after Gods own heart is ful of windings and turnings and many deviations such secret passages as himself knowes not of For who hath known the errour of his wayes No man yet had such a piercing insight into his own soule as to be acquainted with every motion of it None can so anatomize his own Spirit that it shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so as every veine and nerve and muscle shall be obvious and apparent to his eye But what does this hinder but that the general frame and bent of the Spirit the byas and inclination of the soule may be clearly known The soule knowes which way its faculties stream with most vehemency Conscience cannot be brib'd 't will give in true judgement especially an illight'ned Conscience There 's none but if he search and examine his own soule in a strict and impartial manner may know whether he be sincere and cordial or no. There 's none but may know the general frame and temper of his Spirit 1 Cor. 2. 11. Who knowes the things of a man but the Spirit of a man that is in him The Testimony of Conscience is certain and infallible Many a wicked man by this is assur'd that for the present he is in a miserable and damnable condition he knowes certainly that as yet he is out of the Covenant and hence many times there are lightening flashes of terrour flie in his face the very sparks of hell compasse him about Does not thy Conscience often tell thee O prophane wretch that as yet thou art a childe of wrath and galloping to damnation with a full Cariere why then may not the heart of a Christian tell him as certainly that he is a childe of God by Adoption and an heire of Promise nay speak O Christian where e're thou art and speak aloud that we may heare thee does not thine own soule tell thee that thou art in a sure and happy condition so sure as nothing shall be able to separate thee from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Why are Christians so often enjoyn'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to try their own hearts to search their Spirits if that after all their diligence they can't tell what to think of them All uses of examination were vain and frivolous which yet are the very life and spirits of preaching And Ames tells us of a donum discretionis which Christians have by which they can discerne true grace from counterfeit There are certain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which they may distinguish them and judge of them in themselves though not in others certainly If all thus by the Testimony of Conscience may know their own frame of Spirit whether they be upright or no why then are not all true Christians assur'd of their salvation what have they not their consciences and hearts about them 1. Many are not sufficiently acquainted with their own Spirits they do not keep so strict a watch over themselves they are not verst in their own hearts they don't try and search their wayes they have riches and a treasure and do not know of it 2. It is in so great and weighty a matter Eternity does so amaze and swallow up the thoughts as that they are ready to tremble where they are certain and secure A man on the top of a tower knows that he is safe enough and yet when he looks down he is afraid of falling 3. Conscience sometimes gives a dark and cloudy testimony when 't is disquieted and charg'd with new guilt the soule can't so clearly reade its evidences And then it begins to question its condition It may be it has dealt hypocritically in some one particular and now it begins to question all its sincerity We do not say then that Conscience does alwayes give a clear and full Testimony but sometimes it does and that with absolute certainty 2. Now comes in the second witnesse and the great and supreme testimony of the Spirit himself witnessing with our Spirits that we are the Sons of God Rom. 8. 16. we render it the same Spirit but in the fountain it is the Spirit it self not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only the gifts and graces of the Spirit but the Spirit it self This Testimony seems to be coincident with the other for a man can't tell his own sincerity 't is the Spirit that must reveal a man to himself The soule can't see its own face unlesse the Spirit unmask it The Spirit is more present and conversant with the soul then the soul is with it self He does not only know our hearts but he is greater then our hearts and knowes all things We 'l easily grant that to the least motion in spirituals there is necessarily requir'd the concurrence of the Holy Ghost but withal we say that there 's a mighty difference between the working of the Spirit and the Testimony of the Spirit There 's a powerful and efficacious work of the Spirit when faith is wrought in the soul but yet there is not the Testimony of the Spirit for every believer has not presently the Seale set to him so that though the Testimony of our own spirit cannot be without the help and influence of the Spirit yet 't is clearly distinct from the Testimony of the Spirit for here the Spirit does enable the soul to see its graces by a present light by the soules light But when it comes with a Testimony then it brings a new light of its own and lends the soule some auxiliary Beames for the more clear and full revealing of it so that you see according to that plain text in the Romanes There
are two distinct Testimonies the Spirit witnessing with our spirits And St. John is most expresse Beloved if our hearts condemne us not then have we confidence towards God Now the Testimony of the Spirit is 1. A clear Testimony a full and satisfying light springs in upon the soule scatters all cloudes all doubts and questions 't is as evident as any demonstration 1 John 3. 2â— By this we know that he dwells in us by the Spirit which he hath given us Christ when he went to heaven he left the Comforter not only to the Church in general but to every particular soule that believes to print his love upon the soule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrysost If a Creature though never so glittering should tell men so there might still be some hesitancy I but the Spirit witnesses The secret and inward Testimony of the Spirit is as strong and efficacious nay more powerful then if 't were with an outward voice If an Angel from heaven were sent on purpose to a Christian by Christ himself Go tell him that I love him that I shed my blood for him c. 't were not so certain 2. A sure Testimony for 't is the witnesse of the Spirit who can neither deceive nor be deceived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sufficientissimum Testimonium as Cajetan 1 He can't deceive for he is Truth it self 2. He can't be deceived for he is all Eye Omniscience it self And he does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he dwells in the breast and bosome of God he is fully acquainted with the minde of God and he reveales it to the soule The Papists make the Spirits Testimony to bring but a conjectural certainty But the most renowned Perkins answers them 1. That 't is such a certainty as makes them Cry Abba Father not only think so and speak so but with all courage confidence intention of Spirit Cry Abba Father 2. It is opposed to the Spirit of bondage and therefore takes away doubtings and tremblings 3. The very end why the Holy Ghost comes to the soul is to make all sure and therefore is call'd a seal and an earnest God has given us the earnest of the Spirit and he will not lose his earnest Now he assures the soule 1. By a powerful Application of the promise for as faith does appropriate the Promise on our part so the Spirit applies it on Gods part As Satan that lying Spirit casts in doubts and feares and tremblings and working upon the remainder of corruption plots against the Peace and well-being of the soule so this holy Spirit by the comforting working upon that principle of grace which he himself hath planted in the heart of a Christian do's study and contrive the welfare of a Beleever And as the Spirit of bondage do's strongly apply wrath and the curse so this sweet Spirit of Adoption applyes grace and mercy The Spirit of bondage strikes terrour into the soul by a mighty Application of wrath this curse flames against thee this threatning is shot off against thee these vials of wrath are prepar'd for thy soul So the Spirit of Adoption do's set on strong and vigorous apprehensions of mercy this pearâ—e of price 't is to enrich thee these Evangelical cordials are to revive thee this balme in Gilead is prepar'd for thy soul The Spirit of Adoption speaks love and peace pardon and that by particular Application of the Promise to us As when the Promise of remission of sins and life everlasting by Christ is generally propounded in the Ministery of the Word the holy Ghost do's particularly apply it to the heart of such a one and do's seale up the Promise to the soul That when Faith sayes this Promise is mine this belongs to me the Spirit do's strongly apply it this is thine indeed and this do's belong to thee These are the secret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whisperings and breathings of the holy Spirit the secret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which it converses with the soul The Spirit of God has free and often entercourse with a beleeving spirit And this is far enough from any vain Enthusiasme any extraordinary Revelation 't is no imaginary thing but such as many a soul is acquainted with and has tasted of 2. By a bright irradiation beaming out upon the soul and clearing its evidences discovering its graces and shewing them to be true and genuine not only by giving the soul a spirit of discerning for that we referr'd to the former Testimony but the Spirit brings in its own light and makes those graces which were visible before more eminently conspicuous The spirit of a man was the Candle of the Lord as the wise man speaks which gave a weaker and dimmer light but yet such as was enough to manifest the Object I but now there are glorious Sun-beams come rushing in upon the spirit the Spirit shines in the soul with â—ealing under his wings The graces of the Spirit these flow like a pure and Crystalline stream and the light of the Spirit shines out upon them and gilds the water See a plain Text for this 1 Cor. 2. 12. We have received the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things which are freely given us of God Light sets a glosse upon all the world and this spiritual light gives a lustre and oriency to graces it puts a beauty upon them such as the soul is much taken with We have received an heavenly light that we may see heavenly things Now thou know'st thy Faith to be lively and thy Repentance to be sound thy Sorrow to be ingenuous and thy Obedience sincere thy Love to be unfeign'd and thy fear to be filial for the Spirit has set his seale to all thy graces and has acknowledg'd them for his own O but many have thought they have had the Spirit when they had it not and the Divel that foule spirit can transforme himself into an Angel of light But 1. One mans self-deceit do's not prejudice anothers certainty What if one man flatter himself in a false light and please himself in a meere shadow of Assurance must all men needs follow his example A man that is in a dream thinks himself awake when he is not I but I hope for all this a man that is awake may certainly know that he is so Many a traveller has thought himself in the right way when he has been out of it and yet this do's not hinder but that he that 's well acquainted with the road may know that he is in his way What if one man take Copper for Gold must all men do so too One mans folly and vanity does not at all hinder anothers Assurance 2. The Spirit comes with a convincing beam Light shews both it self and other things too the Sun by its glorious beams do's paraphrase and comment upon its own glittering Essence and the Spirit displayes himself to the soul and gives a full manifestation of his own
presence The soul knows the aspect of the Spirit better then we do the face of a friend The light of a presumptuous wretch is like a blazing Comet and do's but portend his ruine it carries a venomous and malignant influence in it and the light of an hypocrite is but a flash and coruscation very brief and transient A man may sooner take a glow-worme for the Sun then an experienc'd Christian can take a false delusion for the light of the Spirit 3. There is a twin light springing from the word and the Spirit Try the spirits To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this rule it is because there is no morning in them The Scripture was all endited by the Spirit and the Spirit cannot contradict himself You do but grieve the Spirit whoer'e you are that pretend to any Revelation that agrees not with the Word Nay the Spirit has reveal'd his whole minde in the Word and will give no other Revelation any otherwise then we have spoken of And whoever he is that rebells against the light of the Word he fhall never have the light of the Spirit Whil'st thou dost not follow the directing light of the Spirit thou shalt never have the quickening and cherishing beames of it And thus you have heard the double Testimony the Spirit witnessing with our spirit and now you must know that 1. The Testimony of Gods Spirit is alwayes accompanied with the Testimony of our own spirit and so that word Rom 8 is significant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is properly of one that do's only confirme what the other sayes But then 2. A man may have the testimony of his own spirit that has not the witnesse of Gods Spirit The Spirit as it breaths when it pleases so it shines when it pleases too Well then the question is whether the Christian who has but the single testimony of his own spirit may be assur'd of his salvation Mr. Perkin's propounds the case and resolves it thus If the testimony of the Spirit be wanting then the other testimony the sanctification of heart will suffice to assure us We know it sufficiently to be true and not painted fire if there be heat though there be no flame thus he And his meaning is as indeed the thing is that it is a true Assurance though not so bright an Assurance I may see a thing certainly by the light of a candle and yet I may see it more clearly by the light of the Sun And for my part I think that certainty do's not consist in puncto but may admit of a latitude and receive magìs and minús And the contrary principle do's delude many There 's an absolute and infallible certainty in faith and by this I know the creation of the World well but besides this I know it by reason and by unquestionable demonstration and I think this addes to my certainty So here though one testimony be enough for Assurance yet a double testimony makes it more glorious Certainty admits of degrees and a man may be more certain of a thing that he is already certain of Take two Christians both may be assur'd of their salvation and yet one may have a clearer assurance then the other has One may have a double testimony and another but a single Nay the same soul may have at one time a double testimony and at another but a single The light of the Spirit may and do's often withdraw it self and leave only the witnesse of our own spirit and yet then the soul has Assurance But yet the soul should aime at the highest Plerophory at the top of Assurance Then quench not the Spirit lest you put out your own joy grieve not so sweet an inhabitant that comes to comfort you give him no cause to withdraw his light Quest But what if the soul have not the witnesse of Gods Spirit nor of its own spirit neither What if it have no present light no certain evidence Answ There 's one way left yet have recourse to former Assurance Do'st thou certainly know and remember that once thou had'st a sweet serenity of soul that an inlight'ned consciscience upon good grounds did speak peace unto thee Did'st thou never see the light of the Spirit crowning thy soul with satisfying beames Art thou sure that once he did bear witnesse with thy spirit that thou wert the childe of God Why then be sure still that thou art in the same condition for there 's no totall falling from grace Thy light it may be is put out for the present Conscience do's not speak so friendly to thee as 't was wont And thou hast griev'd the Spirit and he has took it unkindely and has held off his-light for a while But now canst thou remember the dayes of old when the Rock pour'd out Oile unto thee when thy branch was green and flourishing Canst thou certainly recall thy former Assurance Canst tell the time when the Spirit did set his Seale unto thee and confirm'd all thine Evidences Well then lay down but perseverance for a ground and thou art still assur'd of thy salvation The Spirits testimony is of an eternall truth And heaven and earth shall sooner passe away then one beam of this light shall vanish though now it be not apparent to thy eye When the soul for the present is cloudy darke it may cherish it self with former Assurance Now that a soul may have no sensible Assurance for the present and yet may remember former Assurance is clear in that holy man David Psal 51. 12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit Davids joy was extinguisht and he would fain have it lighted againe Three things imply'd in the word Restore 1. That for the present it was taken away 2. That once he had it 3. He remembers that he had it and therefore prayes Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit that was the spring of Davids joy the testimony of the Spirit witnessing with his Spirit was that which did uphold and staffe up the soul Davids own spirit was now very unquiet and Gods Spirit did withdraw himself and now the best refreshment that David has is from former Assurance 'T is true there is some sadnesle and bitternesse in this consideration when a Christian shall think what he has lost O my soul was once a beautiful Temple full of fair windowes and goodly prospects and glorious light I could take a prospect of Canaan when I pleased but now I dwell in the tents of Kedar nothing but blacknesse and darknesse There is trouble and a sting in these thoughts but yet there is some honey and sweetnesse too Was I not once a friend of God and do's he use to forsake his friends Did he not once speak peace to thee and do's he use to recall his words Did not he shed his love in thy heart and is not his
not alwayes of the strongest and goodliest bodies none of the longest lives Sometimes the soul is so acute as that it cuts the sheath of the body asunder Sometimes the Lutanist scrues up the strings so high as that they crack immediately Many times the soul is in the full when the body 's in the wane That which we usually call a lightning before death some think 't is but the souls finding of its former liberty that 's now to be loosen'd from the body to be enlarged and set out of prison and that makes it so chearful To be sure there are at least strong and pregnant probabilities of the souls immortality to a natural eye to a Philosophical eye with common light And they that tell us of the souls Mortality we may very well question what manner of souls they have to be sure as the Psalmist speaks They are become like the beasts that perish Others are so far in love with the souls immortality that they would have every soul immortal sensitive and vegetative souls But it shall suffice us that the souls of men are so and this is the fourth excellency of the souls of men the excellencie of their Duration And this is the first head of Arguments by which you see the preciousnesse of a soul from the several excellencies of the soul it self 2. If you would know the worth and preciousnesse of a soul Consider what value and esteem they put upon it that are best acquainted with the worth of it This is one of the wisest and surest wayes to know the worth of a thing to consider how they prize it that best know it See then how they value souls that know them best I. God himself the Creatour of souls 1. The Father of spirits He must needs know the worth of souls for he made them and he weighs the spirits of men he has often put them into the ballance and he knows the worth and weight of them Now see how he esteems them He has laid out his thoughts from everlasting for the bringing in of some souls to himself He has pickt them out as his Jewels The counsels and contrivances of heaven have been spent upon them Now do you think that God would lay out his thoughts upon them from everlasting unlesse they were very precious II. Jesus Christ the great Purchaser of souls he bought them and so must needs know the worth of them It was no ordinary price that he paid for them neither You were not ransom'd with corruptible things c. Now do you think that Jesus Christ would have laid down his own life spent his own precious blood for them except they had been very precious There 's nothing that does speak the worth and excellency of a soul then what was laid down for them to redeem them And these words in the Text are the words of him that bought souls the words of Jesus Christ himself the great Redeemer of souls he tells you that one soul is more worth then a world III. The Angles they are Spirits themselves and so are more acquainted with the nature of Spirits then we are See how they esteem them 1. The Good Angels what care do they take for souls They are ministering Spirits for the good of souls They pitch their Tents about them they have charge of souls they rejoyce at the conversion of a soul Heaven is alwayes full of joy brimfull of joy but it runs over with fresh joy when a soul is brought in to a Saviour 2. The Evil Angels those great Plunderers of souls those black and damned Potentates of Hell the Devils these know the worth of souls too well For 1. What variety of temptations have they for the beguiling of a soul How many thousand hooks and baits for the catching of a soul How many designes and stratagems for the ruining of a soul what ambushes and underminings for the undoing of a soul how does he spread abroad his nets and fill the world with snares for the entangling of a soul what serpentine windings and workings what depths and methods of deceit what flatteries and insinuations and all for the deluding of a soul 2. How does he rage when a soul is pluckt out of his paw The whole legion of them is in an uproar and commotion when they have lost one of their prisoners they look upon it as a great losse 3. How does he envy Jesus Christ the saving of one soul How does he think souls too precious for him If all the powers of darknesse could hinder it there should not be one soul translated out of their kingdome 4. How does he glory and triumph in the conquest of souls If hell were capable of joy it would have it then when souls are captivated by this Prince of darknesse These are his spolia ampla the goodly trophy's and monuments of his victory 5. How many factours and agents does he imploy to bring in souls to his kingdome how many are serviceable and instrumentall to him and how does he go up and down like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour Do you think he would take so much pains about souls if they were not worth it 6. In his formal Contracts he does not stand long a cheapning he 'l give them what they 'l aske he knows he can't outbid himself A soul is worth more he knows then he has to give for it 7. How does this torment him that he is in a chaine and can do no more hurt to souls that there is an hook in this Leviathan that he is restrain'd and limited so as that he cannot have his will of souls So that by all this you see the evil Angels the Devils know the worth of souls too well And this is the second head of Arguments by which you see the preciousnesse of souls c. 3. Arg. Because other things are precious in reference to the soul The worth of the soul puts a lustre upon other things 1. Precious Faith why is that so precious because 't is for the saving of a precious soul 't is such a radical and essential Grace We beleeve to the saving of the soul 2. Precious Promises why are they so precious because they are for the welfare of a precious soul Cordials to revive a fainting soul balme for the healing of a wounded soul restauratives for the recovery of a languishing soul 3. Precious Ordinances Why but because God does here in especial manner display himself and reveal himself to souls He gilds them with his own glorious presence they are the wells of salvation out of which souls must quench their thirst 4. Precious Ministers why such a lustre upon that Calling more then upon others why they so honourable but because they are more immediately conversant about souls The converting of souls that 's the crowne of the Ministery You are my Crown and my Joy sayes Paul to his converted Philippians No wonder then if contempt be pour'd out upon the
they put it out but we 'l try whether it can be blown in again We shall reduce their several meanings to these three heads 1 Some would have it thus The Candle of the Lord â—s in the understanding of a man as if the words did run thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lucerna Domini in mente hominis that is God with his Candle discovers the very thoughts and intentions of men he searches into every corner of the heart he has lucernam in corde he spies out every Atome he perceives the first starting of a motion the first peeping out of a thought but this though it be very true yet is nothing to the purpose here 2 Some glosse upon the words thus the understanding of man when 't is enlightned with supernatural knowledge is then the Candle of the Lord but these do rather dictate to Solomon and tell him what they would have him say they do rather frame and fashion a Proverb to themselves then explain his meaning and these are they that are afraid to give natural light and natural reason their due But 3 I shall fully agree with them that take this for the proper and genuine meaning of the place that God hath breathed into all the sons of men Reasonable souls which may serve as so many Candles to enlighten and direct them in the searching out their Creatour in the discovering of other inferiour beings and themselves also and this is that which is here implyed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that same spiraculum vitae nay that same immortal breath that same rational breath quickened by God himself and flowing from him as a pure derivation from his own being and thus the Hebr. Doctors do still look upon this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that which does expresse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 animam rationis participem and as they observe it has a plain vicinity with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to be sure the being is derived from thence whether the word be or no. So then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it points out the supreme region the very top and flower of a reasonable soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does speak nothing but the dregs and bottome of it the inferiour and sensitive soul The Apostle Paul in his learned speech to the Athenians mentions them both and calls them very significantly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so some also take that other place of the Apostle in that accurate discourse of his to the Corinthians that which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that which he termes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though it be true also that sometimes they take the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a more generical sense for thus they tell us there are in man 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the vegetable soul a soul in the bud the very blossome and flower of life 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 anima bruti a soul looking out at the window of sense 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a soul sparkling and glittering with intellectuals a soul crowned with light and this is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now as for that other word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though sometimes the minde of man his intellectual part be exprâ—st by it yet the word in its own nature is a great deal more large and comprehensive and as it extends to some material beings so it reaches to all spirituals hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Angels both good and bad frequently come under this name but when 't is put for the minde and spirit of man yet I finde it very well differenced from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth properly import impetum animi motum mentis the vigour and energy of the soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Hebrew Doctors are pleased to tell us the several situations of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they say is in corde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in cerebro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in hepate Now though I know that some places in the New Testament which speak of soul and spirit meet with this interpretation that spirit there is the purest eminency the most refined part of the soul yet this is not at all prejudicial to what we now speak of for first they may take it for the regenerate part of the soul that which the Apostle cals the new creature or else 2 suppose it be spoke of the soul in its natural condition 't is worth the considering then whether it would not be better rendered by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here is rendered the spirit of a man but 3 grant that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be more answerable to it and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should have the worth and precedency of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which yet will scarce ever be shewn or explained yet this is very sure and unquestionable that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does very properly speak a reasonable soul and that the more peculiarly because when Moses speaks of that very moment when 't was created and breathed into man he calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Arab. interpreter keeps as close to the words as so vast a Dialect will give leave and stiles it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 halitus vitae And 't is soothworth the wond'ring at that that learned interpreter of Genesis who is so well verst in Rabbinical writings should yet expound that of the sensitive but they run as far into the other extreme that would understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a soul advanc'd above it self by supernatural principles and I think this sense will scarce be owned by any that can construe Hebrew So then these words are a brief commendation of natural Light of the Light of Reason For the farther clearing of which we must enquire 1 What Nature is 2 What the Law of Nature is 3 What the Light of Nature is CHAP. III. What Nature is THe words being to be understood of Lumen Naturale according to the mindes of the best and most interpreters it will be very needful to enquire what Nature is and here we will be sure not to speak one word for Nature which shall in the least measure tend to the eclipsing of Grace nay nothing but what shall make for the greater brightening and amplifying of the free Grace and distinguishing goodnesse of God in Christ and nothing but what an Augustin or a Bradwardin those great Patrons of Grace would willingly set their seals unto Well then as for Nature though it be not far from any one of us though it be so intimate to our very beings though it be printed and engraved upon our essences and not upon ours only but upon the whole
and tells us that the Stoicks hold the soul to be a certain blast hot and fiery or the vital spirit of the blood whereas at the most they did only choose that corporeal spirit as Vehiculum animae a Chariot for a more triumphant spirit to ride in the principal seate of the soul which they did so much extol and deifie 'T is abundantly clear that their Stoical Philosophy was more refined and clarified more sublime and extracted from matter then to resolve the quintessence of a rational nature into I know not what muddy and feculent spirit this they could not do if they would be faithful and constant to their own principles Nay they were so farre from thus vilifying the soul and detracting from it as that they were rather excessive and hyperbolical in praising it above the sphere of a creature Thus that known Stoick Epictetus calls the soul of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Seneca renders liber animus est Diis cognatus and Arrian in his Comment upon the forementioned Author doth thus diffuse and amplifie it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. There is connexion and coherence of souls with a Deity there are mutual touches and embraces between them they are some delibations and participations of himself thus that famous Emperour M. Antoninus that had tasted of the Stoical Philosophy styles the soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where at the first one would think he had meant it in an Averroistical sense but that he himself doth prevent the interpretation by telling you that he intends nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which therefore he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because that he knew the soul was separable from the body and Pythagoras long before him had called it by the same name in his golden verses But amongst all the rest Seneca is the most high and lofty in magnifying and very neer deifying of the soul for thus you may hear him speak Quid aliud vocas animum quà m Deum in humano corpore hospitantem That is What lesse title can you give the soul then that of a God condescending to dwell in an house of clay which is too neere that of the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God manifestested in the flesh Nor yet was this any unwary passage that slipt from Seneca's pen on the sudden but he will stand to it and repeat it for thus he saith again Ratio nil aliud est quà m in corpus humanum pars Divini spiritûs mersa Reason 't is somewhat of a Deity steept in a body From this last speech that learned and eminent writer of our own doth endeavour to evince that Seneca made God the Intellectus Agens of the soul whereas 't is very evident that this Philosopher only prosecuted that Stoical notion of the soul being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a branch of a Deity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yet notwithstanding all these strains of Stoical Philosophy do not sufficiently declare that they thought the soul to be of the very same essence with God himself but only that they perceived much similitude between the soul and a Deity many bright resemblances of God stampt upon it which is not only sound Philosophy but good Divinity too that the soul was made according to the image of its Creatour Thus they made it not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too even the breath of a Deity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stampt with the Seal of God himself as Philo speaks 'T was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Damascen calls it very agreeable to this of Solomon the Candle of the Lord. 'T is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Greg. Nyss has it the Poeme of God himself That whereas other creatures were as it were writ in Prose the souls of men were composed more harmoniously in more exact number and measure No wonder then that the Stoicks spying out such spiritual workmanship and embroydery in the soul of man did esteem it as an inferiour kinde of Deity a Bud and Blossome of Divinity as they meant by their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so likewise when they call the soul To 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they need intend no more then the Pythagoreans do by their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that divine vertue and efficacy which the soul has that makes it look so like its Creatour Thus the Pythagoreans were wont to call the higher region of the soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the lower 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not understanding by the first any particle of a Deity though it may be by the last they might understand the soul of a beast by vertue of their supposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But I meet with none that doth so punctually and accuratly determine this as Trismegistus does who speaks so exactly as if he had spyed out this difficulty and objection his words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The soul saies he was not framed and carv'd out of the essence of a Deity but it rather sprung from the dilatation and diffusion of his power and goodnesse as beams do from the Sun when it spreads forth its quickening and cherishing wings Yet when you hear the creatures often stiled beams of a Deity and drops of a Deity you must neither imagine that there is the least division or diminution or variation in the most immutable essence of God nor that the creature does partake the very essence of the Creatour but that it hath somewhat of his workmanship obvious and visible in it and according to the degree of its being doth give fainter or brighter resemblances of its Creatour As suppose an accurate Painter should bestow much of his skill in drawing a lively portraicture of himself you would not think such a picture a piece of his essence but you would look upon it only as the fruit and product of his skil and as a witty imitation of himself Now there is a far greater disproportion between God and any created being then between the face and the picture of it So that if you see any heavenly beauty any divine lineaments sparkling in the soul you may presently conclude that it was digitus Dei nay the hand of God that drew them there as the shadowy representations of his own most glorious being 'T is the greatest honour that a creature is capable of to be the picture of its Creatour You know the very formality of creation doth speak a being raised ex nihilo creation being the production of somthing out of the barren womb of nothing and if the creature must be ex nullo praeexistente then to be sure 't is not extracted out of the essence of God himself But the whole generality of the ancient Heathen Philosophers had a vaile upon their face here they had not a clear and open sight of the creation but only some obscure and imperfect notions about it which made them think that all corporeals were
though he don't prove it though he don't evince it Now men themselves look upon 't as a contempt and injury not to have their words taken and Reason it self dictates thus much that we are to believe such a one whom we have no reason to distrust for without some Faith there would be no commerce nor traffiking in the world there 's no trading wit hout some trusting A general and total incredulity would threaten a present and fatal dissolution to humane society Matters of fact are as certain in being and reality as demonstrations yet in appearance most of them can never be prov'd or evinc'd any other way then by meer testimony much historical knowledge many a truth has been lost and buried in unbelief when as many a falsity in the mean time has prov'd more fortunate and triumphant has past currantly through the world under the specious disguise of probability yet because no created being is infallible or authentical because the sons of men are so easily deceived themselves and are so apt and propense to deceive and impose upon others 't will be very lawful to move slowly and timerously warily and vigilantly in our assents to them for a sudden and precocious faith here is neither commendable nor durable But God being truth it self an Eternal Immutable truth his word being vehiculum veritatis and all Revelations flowing from him shining with the prints and signatures of certainty hence it is that his naked word is a demonstration and he that won't believe a God is worse then a Devil he is the blackest Infidel that was e're yet extant This sin is so unnatural as that none but an Atheist can be guilty of it for he that acknowledges a Deity and knows what he acknowledges sure he won't offer to make his God a liar That which might otherwise seem to some to be against Reason yet if it bring the seal of God in its forehead by this you may know that 't is not against Reason Abrahams slaying of his son may seem a most horrid and unnatural act against the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against the Candle of the Lord yet being commanded and authorized by God himself the Candle durst not oppose the Sun That pattern of faith the father of the faithful does not dispute and make Syllogismes against it he does not plead that 't is against common Notions that 't is against Demonstrations for he had said if he had said so but he doth dutifully obey the God of Nature that high and supreme Law-giver who by this call and voice of his did plainly and audibly proclaime that for Abraham to kill his son in these circumstances was not against the Law of Nature So that all the stresse and difficulty will be to know whether God reveals such a thing or no for here Reason corrupt reason I mean is wont to slip and evade and when it cannot frame a conceit adequate commensurate to some transcendent and superlative mysteries it would then fain cloud them and eclipse them that it may quench and avoid the dazling brightnesse of them It would faine make them stoop and condescend to its own capacity and therefore it puts some inferiour notion upon them When it cannot grasp what God saith it then presently questions whether God say so or no whether that be the minde of his Word Hence many may erre very deeply and dangerously yet will acknowledge the Scriptures they will own and honour them as the Word of God for they are not yet arriv'd to that full perfection of Errour as those lumps and dunghills of all Sects I mean that young and upstart generation of gross Anti-Scripturists that have a Powder-plot against the Gospel that would very compendiously behead all Christian Religion at one blow a device which old and ordinary Hereticks were never acquainted withall Though they be not come to such an height as this yet eitheir by their flat and frigid explicating they do endeavour to dispirit and evervate the Word of God or else in a more violent and injurious manner they do even ravish it and deflower the virginity of it or else in a more subtle and serpentine manner they seek to bend the rule and expound it to their purposes and advantages The letter of the word the vagina verbi that does not wound them that does not strike them and as for the edge they think they can draw that as they please they can blunt it as they list they can order it as they will But the Law of sound Reason and Nature does oppose such unworthy dealings as these are for men look upon 't very heinously to have their words misinterpreted to have their meaning wrested and violenc'd Can you think that the majesty of Heaven will allow or endure that a creature should study or busie it self in perverting his words in corrupting his meaning in blending it and mixing it with the crude imaginations of their own braine That Spirit which breath'd out the word at first and which convinces and satisfies the soul that 't is the word of God the very same Spirit is the Interpreter of it he is the Commentator upon it The text is his and the glosse is his and whosoever shall call this a private spirit must needs be a bold blasphemer a Jesuit an Atheist But they that know what the Spirit of God is will easily grant that the Spirit of God unsheaths his own sword that he polishes Evangelical Pearls that he anoints and consecrates the eye of the soul for the welcoming and entertaining of such precious objects 'T is true indeed that som explications are so impertinent and distorted as that a prophane and carnal eye may presently discerne that there was either some violence or deceit used in them as who cannot tell when any Author is extremely vext and wrong'd but if there be any such obscurity as may give just occasion of doubting and dissidence who then can be fitter to clear and unfold it then the Author himself nay who can explaine his minde certainly but he himself is it not thus in spirituals much rather When God scatters any twilight any darknesse there is it not by a more plentiful shedding abroad of his own beams such a knot as created understanding cannot unty the edge of the Spirit presently cuts asunder Nor yet is providence wanting in external means which by the goodnesse and power of God were annexed as sigilla verbi miracles I mean which are upon this account very suitably and proportionably subservient to Faith they being above natural power as revealed truths are above natural understanding The one's above the hand of nature as the other 's above the head of nature But Miracles though they be very potent yet they are not alwayes prevalent for there were many spectators of Christs Miracles which yet like so many Pharaohs were hardened by them and some of them that beheld them were no more moved by them then some of them
that he may staine the pride and glory of man that he may pose his intellectuals that God may maintaine in man great apprehensions of himself of his own incomprehensiblenesse of his own truth of his own revelations as that he may keep a creature in a posture of dependency so as to give up his understanding so as to be disposed and regulated by him And if a Cherubim be ambitious of stooping if Angelical understanding do so earnestly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 me thinks then the sons of men might fall down at the beautiful feet of Evangelical mysteries with that humble acknowledgment Non sum dignus solvere corrigiam â—ujus mysterii Only let thy Faith triumph here for it shall not triumph hereafter let it shine in time for it must vanish in eternity You see then that Reason is no enemy to Faith for all that has been said of Faith it has been fetcht out of Reason You see there are mutual embraces twixt the Law and the Gospel Nature and Grace may meet together Reason and Faith have kissed each other CHAP. XVII The light of Reason is a pleasant light 'T Is Lumen jucundum All light is pleasant 't is the very smile of Nature the glosse of the world the varnish of the Creation a bright paraphrase upon bodies Whether it discover it self in the modesty of a morning blush and open its fair and Virgin eye-lids in the dawning of the day or whether it dart out more vigorous and sprightful beams shining out in its noon-day glory whether it sport and twinckle in a Star or blaze and glare out in a Comet or frisk and dance in a Jewel or dissemble and play the Hypocrite in a gloworm or Epitomize and abbreviate it self in a spark or shew its zeale and the ruddinesse of its complexion in the yolk of the fire or grow more pale pining and consuming away in a Candle however 't is pleas'd to manifest it self it carries a commanding lustre in its face though sometimes indeed it be veil'd and shadowed sometimes 't is clouded and imprison'd sometimes 't is soyl'd and discolour'd Who will not salute so lovely a beauty with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 welcome thou first-borne of corporeal beings thou Lady and Queen of Sensitive beauties thou clarifier and refiner of the Chaos thou unspotted beauty of the Universe Let him be condemn'd to a perpetual night to a fatal disconsolate grave that is not enamour'd with thy brightnesse Is it not a pleasant thing to behold a Sun nay to behold but a Candle a deputed light a vicarious light the ape of a Sun-beame Yet there are some superstitious ones that are ready to adore it how devoutly do they complement with a Candle at the first approach how do they put off the hat to it as if with the Satyr they meant to kisse it You see how pleasant the light is to them Nay that learned Knight in his discourse of Bodies tells us of one totally blinde who yet knew when a candle came into the room only by the quickning reviving of his Spirits Yet this Corporeal light 't is but ashadow 't is but a black spot to set off the fairnes of intellectual brightnes How pleasant is it to behold an intellectual Sun Nay to behold but the Candle of the Lord How pleasant is this Lamp of Reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All the Motions and Operations of Nature are mix'd and season'd with sweetnesse Every Entity 't is sugared with some delight Every being 't is roll'd up in some pleasure How does the inanimate Being clasp and embrace its Centre and rest there as in the bosome of delight how flourishing is the pleasure of vegetatives Look but upon the beauty and pleasure of a flower Behold the Lilies of the Valleyes and the Roses of Sharon Solomon in all his Pleasure was not cloathed like one of these Go then to sensitive Creatures and there you meet with pleasures in a greater height and exaltation How are all the Individua amongst them maintained by acts of pleasure How are they all propagated by acts of pleasure Some of them are more merry and cheerful then the rest How pleasant and jocund is the Bird How musical is it How does it sing for joy did you never see the fish playing in its element did you never see it caught with a bait of pleasure does not Leviathan sport in the sea and dally with the waves If you look up higher to rational Beings to the sonnes of men you 'l finde there a more singular and pecular kinde of pleasure whilest they have both a taste of sensitive delight and a Participation of Intellectual The soul and body enjoying a chaste and conjugal love the pleasure of the soul is more vigorous and masculine that of the body more soft and effeminate The Nobler any Being is the purer pleasure it hath proportion'd to it Sensitive pleasure it hath more of dregs Intellectual pleasure it hath more of Quintessence If pleasure were to be measured by Corporeal senses the Brutes that are more exquisite in sense then men are would by vertue of that have a choicer portion of happinesse then men can arrive to and would make a better sect of Epicureans then men are ever like to do But therefore Nature hath very wisely provided that the pleasure of Reason should be above any pleasure of Sense as much and far more then the pleasure of a Bee is above the pleasure of the Swine Have you not seen a Bee make a trade of pleasure and like a little Epicure faring deliciously every day whilest it lies at the breast of a flower drawing and sucking out the purest sweetnesse and because 't will have variety of dishes and dainties it goes from flower to flower and feasts upon them all with a pure and spotlesse pleasure when as the Swine in the mean time tumbles and wallowes in the mire rolling it self in dirt and filthinesse An Intellectual Bee that deflowers most elegant Authors a learned Epicure that sups up more Orient pearles then ever Cleopatra did one that delights in the embraces of truth goodnes hath he not a more refin'd and clarified pleasure then a wanton Corinthian that courts Lais then a soft Sardanapalus spinning amongst his Courtizans then a plump Anacreon in singing dancing and quaffing lascivious playing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the elegant Moralist hath it and 't is as if he had said the delights of a studious and contemplative Athenian or of a couragious and active Lacedemonian is infinitely to be preferr'd before the pleasure of a delicate Sybarite or a a dissolved Persian The delight of a Philosopher does infinitely surpasse the pleasure of a Courtier The choicest pleasure is nothing but the Efflorescentia veri boni there can be no greater pleasure then of an understanding embracing a most clear truth and of a will complying with its fairest good this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greeks calls
touchstone of notions Whatsoever Proposition the minde does fully close with that is unquestionably true because the minde can't rest satisfi'd but with certainty And that which it gives but an hovering and imperfect assent to is but probably true Now though sometimes a falsity may come under the faire disguise of an apparent certainty yet this is also sure that the minde cannot so fully and sweetly acquiesce in an apparent certainty as in a real certainty As neither can the Will so fully close with an apparent good as with a real good for in realities there is a sure Entity at the bottom which is a just foundation for appearance whereas the other is a meer colour a surface a shadow And the more perfect any intellectual being is the more of certainty it has Our knowledge therefore here is but cloudy and enigmatical shadowy and in a glasse The nearer to God any being is the more it has of certainty And therefore the Angels and Spirits that see God face to face are satisfied with his image Truth then plucks off her veile pulls off her mask that the soule may salute her And this is the great Prerogative of that infinite and supream Being God himself that he has an independent and eternal certainty and beholds all beings and motions of beings past present and to come without the least shadow of variation And those things which pose created beings are more plain and obvious to his eye then first principles are to ours The very intimate formes of beings are naked and anatomiz'd before him He looks down upon the sons of men and sees them rolling and fluctuating tost and tumbl'd up and down in uncertainties sometimes even questioning him in his wayes and his dealings while as he rests in a full and absolute Omniscience And this is his great goodnesse that he allowes us Certainty in those things that concern our welfare and happinesse 3. In spirituals and eternals Assurance is very satisfactory Religion should be above syllogismes disputings Spiritual notions should have the seale of God in their foreheads they are not to be struck like sparks out of a flint but are to spring like light from the Sun they are to flow like streames from the Ocean And Principles of Religion must be built upon a rock upon the most sure and unquestionable grounds that can be Men that build for eternity had need to lay the foundation sure and they must build gold and precious stones upon the foundation that which has a solidity and a firme Certainty in it And if this were observ'd 1. You would not have such jarres and divisions in the Church You would not be so much troubled with the noise of Axes and Hammers Imposing things questionable as certain is agreeable to that spirit which allowes no other Assurance but this that their Church is the true Church 2. The mixing and blending of Religion with uncertainties is that which does emasculate and dispirit and endanger it 't is a dashing the wine with water 't is an adulterating the gold with drosse so as it won't endure the fiery triall 3. The taking up Religion upon uncertain grounds does put men upon an odious luke-warmnesse and neutrality for men can't be zealous for a thing they doubt of It puts them upon variablenesse and unconstancy upon the very brim of Apostasie and it may be plunges them into it Nay it strongly tends to Atheisme some do so long question which is the true Religion as that at length they resolve to have none at all 4. The leaving the successe of Religion uncertain do's damp and coole the spirits of men The learned Moralists amongst the Heathen could never content themselves with a faire probability only of summum bonum but did spin it out to an imaginary certainty The Stoicks would have a domestick Plerophory they must be unavoidably happy A meere certainty won't suffice them it must be condens'd into a necessity A wise man with them must irreversibly seale up himself to happinesse And so though he were in Phalaris his Bull he must glory and triumph and sing Halelujahs But the fairer Moralists were willing to depend more upon the bounty of heaven which yet they lookt upon as a sure and unquestionable thing nay they pleas'd themselves not only in a Plerophory but in a present possession For you know vertue with them was Praecox â—eatitudo as grace with us is glory not fully ripe And serenity of natural conscience was their hidden Manna their White Stone Thus were they fain to still their souls in some shadows and appearances of certainty This sweetned Socrates his Cicute and made him a cheerful Martyr for Philosophy And all wicked men that go on merrily and securely in their wayes do frame some imaginary certainty to themselves which it may be they found upon sure principles but falsly apply'd as this That God is merciful or the like All this I bring to shew that the soul do's catch at certainty and Assurance and will rest satisfi'd with nothing else For for men to apprehend themselves uncertain of happinesse what is it else but to be for the present miserable Nay would not some do you think choose rather to be certain of a tolerable misery then to be in continual suspence of happinesse And truly such men as have no Assurance of obtaining this great end of their being they are of all creatures most miserable The Foxes have holes and the birds of the aire have nests and shall not the sons of men have where to lay their heads Every being loves certainty How do Naturals combine together and unite their forces that they may secure themselves by an happy association Nature will have a Plerophory won't admit of a vacuum the least schisme and rupture would prove fatal and put it upon uncertainties Sir Francis Bacon spies this in those fallings down of water that threed and spin themselves into such slender â—tillicids that thus they may preserve their continuity and when they can reach no longer so then they fall in as plump and round a figure as they can And if every Being loves Assurance then surely such a noble Being as the soul of man cannot be satiated with a changeable good it can't fix it self upon a moveable centre Immortality is neer a kin to Immutability Besides if it were only this that the â—oul did doubt of happinesse it were a lighter burden but there is necessarily conjoyn'd with this a fear of extreamest misery Now for a soul to be perpetually hovering betwixt heaven and hell nay to have farre more ground to fear the one then to hope for the other and so to tremble at the very thoughts of eternity is not this a piece of the gnawing worme and must the soul live in this perpetual slavery Is there no redemption from it Did not Christ come to take away this sting among the rest Did not he come to draw thee to himself to quiet thee in his
The wings of the Cherubims are not weary with flying nor are the wheels of the soul weary with going the sparklings of the soul never vanish but every motion has immortality stampt upon it Spiritual Beings in all their motions are never weary nor out of breath But material Beings as they are dull and sluggish in their motion so they are faint and languishing The body that 's soon tyr'd And yet which is worth the observing only animate Beings are capable of wearinesse The Sun is not weary with shining but is alwayes ready like a Giant to run's race nor the fountain is not weary with flowing but the bird is presently weary with flying Only animate Beings are weary not by vertue of the soul but because the body can't keep peace with the soul Thus many times the string breaks when the Lutanist is not weary The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak The soul would fain be working when the body is not serviceable That which wearies the soul most is to be quencht in its motions to be dull'd by an earthy body by the interposition of that to be clouded to have its wings clipt so that 't was said of that noble Platonist Plotinus that he so liv'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was loath to be in the body as others were loath to be in prison as if he had cry'd out with the Apostle O who shall deliver me from this body of death And therefore the souls of just men made perfect that are set at full liberty they are never weary in their workings never weary of praising God never weary of singing Hallelujahs to him 3. Vast and comprehensive All beings they are within the souls Horizon What can't it graspe in its thought what can't it take in its eye It can take in the several drops of Being and it can take in much of the Ocean of Being I deny not but some men have such narrow and contracted souls as they can commerce with nothing but outward and drossy objects they can scarce have a wish thought minde only earthly things their Corne and their Wine and their Oile But this only shews their souls degenerated from their native perfection from their primitive glory For the soul of it self is more large and spacious and scornes to be bounded with material objects it self is a spirit and so it delights more in spirituals Nay it won't be bounded with reall objects it will set up Beings of its own Entia Rationis Reason's creatures such as the hand of Omnipotency never gave a reall Being to And then the desires of the soul how vast are these and comprehensive the soul can quickly open its mouth so wide as that the whole world can't fill it 4. Self-reflexive and independent upon the body And these indeed are the choicest and most precious workings of all the very flower and quintessence of an immortal soul When the soul shall sit judge upon its own actions when it shall become Speculum suiipsiâ—s view its own force bid the body farewell and even here become an Anima separata withdraw and retire it self to its Closet operations to its most reserv'd and Cabinet-counsels I could at large shew the excellency of these workings in several respects but that I must hasten 5. The workings of the soul are secret and undiscernable The creatures eye cannot pierce them Who knows the things of a man but the spirit of man that is in him The Devil can't tell the thoughts of men at most he has but a guesse and shrew'd conjecture unlesse they be such as are of his own casting in he has reason to know these for they are his own If men had â—enestrata pectora there were scarce any living in the world What mutual rage and envy and malice and heart-burnings would they then behold Yet lest men should abuse this priviledge and from hence take liberty to sin God often puts them in minde of this that he searches and sees the heart 't is his great prerogative and he is greater then the heart then the soul he knows all things This is the second particular the excellency of the souls Operations 3. The excellency of its Capacity Do but consider with your selves what a reasonable soul is capable of 'T is capable of the image of God The soul it has his superscription In the image of God made he him Now there 's little or nothing of Gods Image to be seen in the body for God is a Spirit and so stamps his Image upon the spirits of men And here indeed are some shadowings out of himself some faint and languishing representations of a Deity The soul 't is made in the Image of God and 't is capable of such stamps and impressions as God is pleas'd to put upon it 'T is endow'd with reason the apple of the souls eye 'T is capable of knowledge of learning of all the advancements and ennoblements of reason but what should I speak of these this will seem to some in the world no great matter as good be without them or it may be better in their fond esteem well then 't is capable of grace of glory sure they won't slight these too 'T is fit to be a companion of Angels to bear them company to all eternity Nay 't is capable of communion with God himself they are the friends of God The souls of men must make up a Church for him They are fit to be the Spouse of Christ 'T is the Apostles phrase That I might present you Virgin-souls unto Christ They are capable of such things as neither eye has seen nor ear heard nor e're enter'd into the heart of man to conceive the soul it self cannot conceive what great things a soul is capable of Though the workings of the soul were more vast and comprehensive then they are yet they can't reach them 4. The excellency of its Duration Do but think upon this a while how that it shall run a line parallel to all eternity The body indeed 't is soon resolv'd and crumbled into its first principles Dust thou art and to dust thou must returne But the soul returnes to God that gave it As it did not depend upon the body in some of its workings so neither does it depend upon it in its Being 'T is a very remarkable speech that of St John to Gaius I wish sayes he that thy body prosper even as thy soul prospers For most men in the world we might very well invert the wish we wish their souls prosper'd even as their bodies prosper But Saint John speaks it of a lively and vigorous Christian strong in the faith I wish thy body prosper even as thy soul prospers For many times you know in an aged and decay'd body you have a lively vigorous soul Old men are most famous for wisdome Nestor is for councel In a languishing and consum'd body you have many times a flourishing and well-complexion'd soul Men of the liveliest souls are
so neere the fountain of light and continually drink in the beams of glory that are exactly conformable to their Creatour in all his motions for the same end he furnished and beautified this lower part of the world with intellectual lamps that should shine forth to the praise and honour of his name which totally have their dependance upon him both for their being and for their perpetual continuation of them in their being 'T was he that lighted up these lamps at first 't is he that drops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the golden oile into them Look then a while but upon the parentage and original of the soul of Reason you 'll presently perceive that it was the Candle of the Lord. And if you have a minde to believe Plato he 'll tell you such a feigned story as this That there were a goodly company of Lamps a multitude of Candles a set number of souls lighted up altogether and afterwards sent into bodies as into so many dark Lanthorns This stock and treasure of souls was reserved and cabinetted in I know not what Starres perhaps that they might the better calculate their own incarnation the time when they were to descend into bodies and when they came there they presently sunk into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they slipt into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he tearms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the putting off of knowledge for a while the clouding and burying of many sparkling and twinkling notions till by a waking reminiscence as by a joyful resurrection they rise out of their graves again Plato it seems lookt upon the body as the blot of nature invented for the defacing of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or at the best as an impertinent tedious parenthesis that checkt and interrupted the soul in her former notions that eclipsed and obscured her ancient glory which sprung from his ignorance of the resurrection for had he but known what a glory the body was capable of he would have entertained more honourable thoughts of it Yet Origen was much taken with this Platonical notion it being indeed a pretty piece of Philosophy for him to pick allegories out of And though he do a little vary from Plato in a circumstance or two yet in recompence of that he gives you this addition and enlargment that according to the carriage behavior of these naked spirits before they were embodied there were prepared answerable mansions for them That such a soul as had walkt with God acceptably was put into a fairer prison was clothed with an amiable and elegant body But that soul which had displeased and provoked its Creator was put into a darker dungeon into a more obscure and uncomely body That Candle which had shined clearly was honoured with a golden Candlestick that which had soiled its light was condemned to a dark Lanthorne one would think by this that Origen had scarce read Genesis he doth in this so contradict the Sacred History of the Creation Nor is this the just product of Plato's opinion but 't is pregnant with much more folly he returns him his own with usury gives him this as the just 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and improvement of it Aquinas doth clash in pieces all these Platonical fictions in his two books Contra Gentiles yet upon this sinking and putrid foundation was built the tottering superstructure of connate Species For when Plato had laid down this Error for a maxime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the souls of men were long extant before they were born then that other phansie did presently step in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the soul was very speculative and contemplative before it was immerst in the body which made way for the next conceit that the soul brought many of its old notions along with it into the body many faithful attendants that would bear the soul company in her most withering condition when other more volatile and fugitive notions took wing to themselves and flew away many a precious pearl sunk to the bottome of Lethe but some reliques of notions floated upon the top of the waters and in the general Deluge of notions there was an Ark prepared for some select principles some precâ—pta Nouchidarum which were to increase and multiply and supply the wants of an intellectual world This makes the Platonists look upon the spirit of man as the Candle of the Lord for illuminating and irradiating of objects and darting more light upon them then it receives from them But Plato as he failed in corporeal vision whilest he thought that it was per extramissâ—onem radiorum So he did not ab errore suo recedere in his intellectual optioâ—â—but in the very same manner tells us that spiritual vision also is per emissionem radiorum And truly he might as well phansie such implanted Ideas such seeds of light in his external eye as such seminal principles in the eye of the minde Therefore Aristotle who did better clarifie both these kindes of visions pluckt these motes out of the sensitive eye and those beames out of the intellectual He did not antedate his own knowledge nor remember the several postures of his soul and the famous exploits of his minde before he was born but plainly profest that his understanding came naked into the world He shews you an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an abrasa tabula a virgin-soul espousing it self to the body in a most entire affectionate and conjugal union and by the blessing of heaven upon this loving paire he did not doubt of a Notional off-spring posterity this makes him set open the windows of sense to welcome and entertain the first dawnings the early glimmerings of morning-light Clarum mane fenestras intrat Angustas extendit lumine rimas Many sparks and appearances fly from variety of objects to the understanding The minde that catches them all and cherishes them and blows them and thus the Candle of knowledge is lighted As he could perceive no connate colours no pictures or portraictures in his external eye so neither could he finde any signatures in his minde till some outward objects had made some impression upon his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his soft and plyable understanding impartially prepared for every seal That this is the true method of knowledge he doth appeal to their own eyes to their own understandings do but analyse your own thoughts do but consult with your own breasts tell us whence it was that the light first sprang in upon you Had you such notions as these when you first peept into being at the first opening of the souls eye in the first exordium of infancy had you these connate Species in the cradle and were they rockt asleep with you or did you then meditate upon these principles Totum est majus parte Nihil potest esse non esse simul Ne're tell us that you wanted origanical dispositioÌ„s for you plainly have recourse to the sensitive powers and must needs subscribe to
this that al knowledg comes flourishing in at these lattices Why else should not your Candle enlighten you before who was it that chained up and fettered your common notions Who was it that restrained and imprisoned your connate Idea's Me thinks the working of a Platonists soul should not at all depend on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and why had you no connate demonstrations as well as connate principles Let 's but see a catalogue of all these truths you brought with you into the world If you speak of the principles of the Laws of Nature you shall hear the Schoolmen determining Infans pro illo statu non obligatur lege naturali quia non habet usum Rationis libertatis And a more sacred Author saies as much Lex Naturae est lex intelligentiae quam tamen ignorat pueritia nescit infantia There 's some time to be allowed for the promulgation of Natures Law by the voice of Reason They must have some time to spell the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that was of Reasons writing The minde having such gradual and climbing accomplishments doth strongly evince that the true rise of knowledge is from the observing and comparing of objects and from thence exstracting the quintessence of some such principles as are worthy of all acceptation that have so much of certainty in them that they are neer to a Tautology and Identity for this first principles are These are the true and genuine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these are the props of Reasons contriving upon which you may see her leaning about which you may see her turning and spreading and enlarging her self That learned Knight in his discourse concerning the soul doth at large shew the manner how the minde thus goes a gathering of knowledge How like a Bee it goes from flower to flower from one entity to another how it sucks the purest and sweetest of all how it refuses all that is distasteful to it and makes a pleasant composition of the rest and thus prepares honey-combs for it self to feed on But if it were at all to be granted that the soul had many stamps and characters upon it that it had any implanted and ingraffed Species 't were chiefly to be granted that it hath the connate notion of a Deity that pure and infinitely refined entity abstracted from all appearance of matter But mark how the great Doctor of the Gentiles convinces them of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he doth not set them a searching their connate Species but bids them look into the glasse of the creatures O but might some Platinist say why he is all spirit and an invisible being what shall we finde of him amongst material objects yes saies the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the invisible things of God are made known by the things that do appear for a being indowed with such a soul as man is can easily in a discoursive way by such eminent steps of second causes ascend to some knowledge of a prime and supreme being which doth fully explain that he means by his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those clear dictates of Reason fetched from the several workings of the understanding that have sealed and printed such a truth upon the soul so that no other innate light but only the power and principle of knowing and reasoning is the Candle of the Lord. Yet there is a noble Author of our own that hath both his truth and his errour as he hath also writ about both who pleads much for his instinctus naturales so as that at the first dash you would think him a Platonical strain but if you attend more to what he sayes you will soon perceive that he prosecutes a farre different notion much to be preferred before the other phansy For he doth not make these instincts any connate Idea's and representations of things but tels us that they are powers and faculties of the soul the first-born faculties and beginning of the souls strength that are presently espoused to their Virgin-objects closing and complying with them long before discourse can reach them nay with such objects as discourse cannot reach at all in such a measure and perfection these instincts he styles Naturae dotes providentiae Divinae universalis idea typus optimus Some of these are to be found in the lowest inanimate beings which yet have no connate Species among them though they have powers and propension to their own welfare a blinde tendency and inclination to their own security for thus he speaks Instinctus ille Naturalis in quovis inarticulato licèt incauto elemento sapiens est ad conservationem propriam and such a noble being as man is must needs have it in a more sublime and eminent manner Therefore he tearms these instincts in man facultates noëticae facultates Deo analogae whereas those other inferiour faculties are esteem'd facultates analogae mundo his words being somewhat cloudy I shall thus paraphrase upon them The soul 't is made with a through light with a double window at one window it looks upon corporeals at the other it hath a fair prospect upon spirituals When it takes notice of the material world it looks out at the window of sense and views the putamina cortices rerum theoutward husks and shells of being but not at all pleas'd or contented with them those higher powers those purer faculties of the soul unclasp and disclose themselves and extend themselves for receiving some delight more precious and satisfactory being made in as harmonious proportion suitable to spiritual objects as the eye is to colours oâ— the care to sounds And as you know a corporeal eye is so fashioned and organiz'd that though it have no connate Species of the Sunne yet t is pleasant to behold it so the eye of the soul doth willingly open it self to look upon God per modum objecti aâ—d has all per receptionem from him fixing its eye upon so transcendent and beautiful an object and viewing all those streamings out of light those beamings out of eternal and universal notions that flow from him as the fountain of lights where they have dwelt from everlasting which now appear to it in time with a most powerful and enamouring ray to direct the soul to that happinesse it longed for and to guide and conduct it in all its operations If you ask when these highest faculties did first open and display themselves he tells you 'tis then when they were stimulated and excited by outward objects and it may be upon this account that when the soul can finde nothing there worthy one glance one cast of its eye impatient of such empty and shadowy sights it opens it self to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and warmes it self in those everlasting Sun-beams but when it comes down from the mount it puts on the veile of sense and so converses with material objects Yet I do not here positively lay down
made ex aliqua praejacente materia coexistent with the prime and supreme efficient and because they could not fetch spirituals out of materials nor yet conceive that they should be fetcht out of nothing this made them determine that they sprung out of the essence of God himself who as a voluntary fountain could bubble them forth when he pleased who as a father of lights could sparkle and kindle them when he thought best But that fiction of materia ab aeterno will do them no service at all for either 't was produced by God himself then it was created ex nihilo for God himself was a pure immaterial Spirit and therefore must make matter where none was before or else it was an Independent eternal being which makes it another Deity and that involves a flat repugnancy Therefore as corporeal and material beings were raised out of nothing by the infinite vigour and power of God himself so he can with the very same facility produce spiritual beings out of nothing too Can he not as well light this Lamp out of nothing as build the goodly fabrick of the world out of nothing Cannot a creating breath make a soul as well as a creating word make a world He that can create the shell of corporeals cannot he as well create the kernel of spirituals He that created a visible Sun cannot he as well create an invisible an intellectual spark You may hear Aquinas disputing against the Gentiles most fully and strongly demonstrating that God could not be either the materia or forma of any created being for it s not imaginable how the Creator himself should ingredi essentiam creaturae But his causality is by way of efficiency producing maintaining beings the best of creatures are but vasa figuli Now a vessel though a vessel of honour yet it is no piece of the Potters essence but only the subject of his power and will One and the same Seal may print all the Wax that 's possible yet there will not be the least mutation in the Seal but only in the Wax nor yet doth the Wax at all participate of the seals essence but only receives a stamp and signature made upon it So that the Seal was as entire and compleat before it had imprinted the Wax as it was afterwards and though all the signatures of the Wax were defaced and obliterated yet the Seal would be as perfect as before Thus God though he leaves prints of himself upon all the souls in the world nay upon all the beings in the world yet these impressions are not particles of himself nor do they make the least mutation in him only in the creature for he was as full and perfect before he had printed any one creature and if the whole impression of creatures were annihilated yet his essence were the same and he could print more when he pleased and as many as he pleased Yet all the entity goodnesse and reality that is to be found in the creature was totally derived from him and is transcendently treasured up in him as the print of the wax though it be really different from the print of the Seal yet that very stamp and signature had its being from the Seal 't was vertually and originally in the Seal and now gives some resemblance of it All created goodnesse was à Deo producta à Deo exemplata as the Schools speak though not very elegantly 'T is à Deo conservata in Deum ordinata yet all this while 't was nothing of the essence of a Deity and indeed it cannot have any of his essence unlesse it have all of it He that calls the creature a drop in such a sense may as well call it a fountain he that thus termes it a ray of Divinity may as well call it a Sun for there are no particles in essentials All essence 't is indivisible how much more the essence of God himself How fond is the fancy of a semi-Deity away with the Stoicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here if this be the meaning of them who ever heard of fragments in spirituals Dares therefore any absolutely deifie the soul or make it coëssential or coëqual with God himself Is not the soul a limited and restrained being short and imperfect in its operations a dependent and precarious being and are these things agreeable to a Deity Is not the soul naturally united to the body for the quickening and enforming of it and is that a condition fit for a Deity nay are not many souls guilty defiled miserable beings and are they all this while spangles of a Deity They must have very low and dishonourable thoughts of God that make any creature partner or sharer with him in his essence and they must have high and swelling thoughts of the creature How proud is that soul that aspires to be a God Is it not enough for a soul to approach unto his God to see his face to enjoy his presence to be like unto him to be knit unto him in love and affection Happinesse doth advance a creature to his just perfection but it doth not lift it above the sphere of its being A glorified being is still a subservient and finite being A soul when in its full brightnesse yet still is but the Candle of the Lord let it come as neer as it can yet it will be infinitely distant from him Heaven it doth not mix and blend essences together but keeps them all in their just beauty and proportions so that take a creature in what condition you will and 't is not the least particle of a Deity There 's another Errour but it 's scarce worth mentioning of some that would have the Candle of the Lord lighted up by Angels as if they had created the soul Nay the Carpocratians thought that all the rest of the world was created by them But as no secondary being could create it self so neither can it create any other being 'T was no Angelical breath but the breath of a Deity that gave life to the soul and 't was not made after the image of an Angel but of God himself Angels and souls both came from the same Almighty Father of spirits from the same glorious Father of lights who shewed the greatnesse of his power in raising such goodly beings not out of himself but out of nothing Whether ever since the first Creation the souls of men be lighted on the same manner immediately by God himself by that commanding and efficacious word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let there be light let there be an intellectual Lamp set up in such a creature or whether it be lighted by the parents whether one soul can light another whether one and the same soul may be lighted by two as a candle is lighted by two These are the several branches of that great question which hath been frequently vext and discussed but scarce ever quieted and determined The Divines favour the way of creation
his enim in Naturis nihil inest quod memoriae vim mentis cogitationis habeat quod preterita teneat futura praevideat complecti possit praesentia quae sola divina sunt nec evincetur unquam unde ad hominem venire possunt nisi à Deo singular is igitur quaedam est natur a atque vis animi sejuncta ab his usitatis notisque naturis it a quicquid est illud quod sentit quod serpit quod vult quod viget coeleste divinum est ob eam rem aeternum sit necesse est which I shall thus render 'T is in vain to look for the souls parentage upon earth for there is no mixing and blending of spirituals with corporeals the earth doth not contribute for the fixing and consolidating of them 't is no aëry puff will suffice for the swiftnesse and nimblenesse of their motion no drops of water will quench their thirst and longings they have a purer light and heat then could ever be fetcht from an elementary spark in those humble and sordid beings there 's nothing fit to represent much lesse to produce the clasping and retentive power of memory the masculine and vigorous working of the minde the refined and comprehensive vertue of those thoughts that can recall and look back to things past that can interpret and comment upon all present objects and with a Prophetical glance can spy out futurities and possibilities which are works not unworthy of a Deity nor can it e're be shewn that such rare priviledges should be communicated to humane nature any other way then by the immediate bounty and indulgence of heaven there being such singular and inimitable idioms in the minde of man as could neverbe extracted from those ordinary and vulgar entities Though a sensitive soul may creep upon the ground though it may roll and tumble it self in the dust yet an intellectual being scornes to look lower then heaven it self and though it be dated in time yet it means to live as long as eternity The Poets had veiled and mufled up the same opinion in their mythology whiles they tell us that Prometheus which is all one with providence did work and fashion the bodies of men out of clay but he was fain to steal fire from heaven for the quickening and enlivening them with souls which made the Prince of Poets sing Igneus est ollis vigor Coelestis origo and Ovid supplies him with a short verse Sedibus aetheris Spiritus ille venit How often do you meet with this in Homer that God is the Father of spirits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Father of Angelical beings and of the souls of men which Virgil renders hominum Sator atque deorum Yet all this while I know not whether you can I am sure I cannot sufficiently perceive that the generality of the Heathen did think that every soul was immediately created by God himself but only that at the first there was bestowed more then ordinary workmanship upon them which they knew principally by those generous motions which they found working in their own souls and partly by some reliques of Mosaical History that was scatter'd amongst them Thus then I have represented unto you as indifferently as I can the state of this great controversie and though I could easily tell you which part I do most easily encline to yet I shall rather refer it to your own thoughts with this intimation that a modest hesitancy may be very lawful here for if you will believe Gregory the Great he tells you it's a question which cannot be determined in this life However 't is enough for us that the spirit of a man either by vertue of its constant creation or by vertue of its first creation is the candle of the Lord. As the soul is the shadow of a Deity so reason also is a weak and faint resemblance of God himself whom therefore that learned Emperour M. Antoninus calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is God that plants reason 't is he that waters it 't is he that gives it an increase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 belongs to Christ himself in whom are hid the treasures of wisdome and knowledge Reason first danc'd and triumpht in those eternal Sun-beams in the thoughts of God himself who is the fountain and original of Reason And as his will is the rule of goodnesse so his understanding is the rule of Reason For God himself is a most knowing and intellectual being he is the first mover of entity and does determinatè tendere in aliquem â—inem which speaks an intelligent agent he does propound most choice designes and blessed ends to himself and is not that a work of Reason he does contrive and dispose and order means for accomplishing of them and doth not that require understanding He makes all beings instrumental and subordinate to him he moves all inferiour wheels in a regular manner he moves all the spheres of second causes in a harmonical way such blinde entities as want intellectual eyes he himself doth lead them and conduct them and to others he gives an eye for their guidance and direction Now he that hath fram'd an intellectual eye shall not he see he that hath cloathed the soul with light as with a garment shall not he much more be cloathed himself with a fuller and purer brightnesse In that which we esteem reason amongst men there are many clouds and blemishes many dark spots and wrinkles that are scattered and conquered by this more glorious light The soul 't is fain to climb up and ascend to knowledge by several steps and gradations but his understanding is all at the same height and eminency Mans reason is fain to spend time in knitting a proposition in spinning out a Syllogisme in weaving a demonstration but he is infinitely beyond and above these first draughts and rudiments of knowledge he sees all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the first opening of his eye from everlasting with one intellectual glance he pierceth into the whole depth of Entity into all the dimensions of being Mans understanding is fain to borrow a Species from the object which presents to the minde the picture and portraicture of it self and strikes the intellectual eye with a colour suitable and proportionable to it But the divine understanding never receives the least tincture from an object no species ab extra but views all things in the pure Crystal of his own essence he does not at all see himself in the glasse of the creatures as we see him but he sees creatures in the glasse of his own being how else should he see them from everlasting before they were extant before they were visible by any Species of their own God therefore doth primarily and principally look upon himself for he is nobilissimum intelligibile he cannot have a more beautiful and satisfying object to look upon then his own face 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
there cannot be causa prior primâ Yet this account may be given of his Will that bonum intellectum est fundamentum voliti so that as God does primarily intelligere seipsum so he does understand other things only per seipsum so likewise he does principally and necessarily velle seipsum and does will other things secondarily and out of choice propter seipsum And as God hath set all other beings a longing after the perfections and conservations of their own beings and has in a special manner stampt upon a rational nature an intellectual appetite of its own well-fare and happinesse so as that it cannot but propound an ultimate scope and end to it self and bend and direct all its desires for the hitting and attaining of it so he himself also sets up himself as the most adequate and amiable end of all his workings and motions and does bend the whole creation does shoot every being and order it to his own glory Now how rational is that Will of his that does chiefly fix it self upon the fairest good and wills other things only as they are subservient to it Deus vult bonitatem suam tanquam finem vult omnia alia tanquam media ad finem Out of the intense and vehement willing of himself he wills also some prints and resemblances of himself The beauty of his own face of his own goodnesse is so great as that he loves the very picture of it And because one picture cannot sufficiently expresse it therefore he gives such various and numerous representations of it As when men cannot expresse their minde in one word they are willing to rhetoricate and inlarge themselves into more God doth give many similitudes of himself for the greater explication of his own essence His essence in it self not being capable of augmentation or multiplications he loves to see some imitations and manifestations of it to make known his own power perfection in a way of causality Now the understanding of God being so vast and infinite and his will being so commensurate and proportion'd to it nay all one with it all those Decrees of his that are the Eternal product and results of his minde and will must needs be rational also For in them his understanding and will met together his truth and goodnesse kissed each other And though these Decrees of God must be resolved into his absolute supremacy and dominion yet that very sovereignty of his is founded upon so much reason and does act so wisely and intelligently as that no created understanding can justly question it but is bound obediently to adore it The prosecution and application of these Decrees 't is accompanied with the very same wisdome and reason for what 's Providence but oculus in sceptro a rational guiding and ruling all affairs in the world 't is ipsa ratio divina in summo principe constituta 't is ratio ordinandorum in finem that which in man is called prudence in God is called Providence the right tuning and regulating of all circumstances and making them to conspire contribute to his own end glory And if man could but rightly interpret and comment upon Providence what fresh discoveries what bright displayings of divine reason would they all continually meet withall what shinings and sparklings of divine wisdome are there in some remarkable providential passages You that are most acquainted with the wayes of God tell us if you did ever finde any thing unreasonable in them Enquire still more into his dealings and you 'll see more of reason in them Could you search deeper into the rich mine of his counsel you would still meet with more precious veines of wisdome The depths of his counsels what are they but the very profoundnesse of his reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And whensoever this secret counsel of his issues out and bubles forth it is in most rational manifestations His commands are all rational his word is the very pith and marrow of reason His Law is the quickening and wakening of mens reason his Gospel 't is the flowing out of his own reason 't is the quintessence of wisdome from above His spirit is a rational agent the motions of the holy Ghost are rational breath the revelations of the holy Ghost a rational light as rational as a demonstration the Apostle calls them so As when the Spirit of God over-powers the will it makes a willingnesse there where there was an absolute nolency an obstinate refusal before So when it over-powers the minde it makes it understand that which it did not which it could not understand before Spiritual irradiations stamp new light create new reason in the soul Nothing comes to man with the superscription of a Deity but that which hath upon it some signature of wisdome God himself is an intelligent worker in his dealing with all beings how much rather in his dealing with rational beings By all this you see that God himself is the Eternal spring and head of reason And that humane wisdome is but a created and an imperfect copy of his most perfect and original wisdome Now Philosophy could dictate thus much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God loves to see such a noble creature as man is to follow and imitate him in his reason Omnia intendunt assimilari Deo as the Schoolmen have it Now men cannot be more assimilated unto God then by moving as intelligent agents Does God himself work according to reason from eternity to eternity And has he made a creature in time whose very essence is reason Why then does it not open its eyes why does it not use its lamp and though it cannot discover all yet let it discern as much as it can Let it not act in the choicest points of religion out of blinde and implicit principles and huddle up its chiefest operations in I know not what confused and obscure and undigested manner This neither becomes sons of light nor works of light The more men exercise reason the more they resemble God himself who has but few creatures that can represent him in so bright an excellency as this only Angels and men and therefore he expects it the more from them And the more they exercise their own reason the more they will admire and adore his For none can admire reason but they that use some reason themselves And this may suffice for the first particular that The Candle of the Lord 't is lumen derivatum it was first lighted at a Sun-beam CHAP. XII The light of Reason is a Diminutive light THis Candle of the Lord 't is Lumen tenue diminutum A Lamp is no such dazling object A Candle has no such goodly light as that it should pride and glory in it 'T is but a brief and compendious flame shut up and imprison'd in a narrow compasse How farre distant is it from the beauty of a Starre How farre from the brightnesse of a Sun This
upon genuine Reason then in relying upon some spurious traditions for think but a while upon those infinite deceits and uncertainties that such Historical conveyances are liable and exposed to I alwayes except those sacred and heavenly volumes of Scripture that are strung together as so many pearls and make a bracelet for the Spouse to wear upon her hands continually These writings the providence of God hath deeply engaged it self to keep as the apples of his own eye And they do not borrow their certainty or validity from any Ecclesiastical or universal Tradition which is at the most but previous and preparatory but from those prints of Divinity in them and specially from the seal of the same Spirit that endited them and now assures the soul that they were Oracles breathed from God himself As for all other sacred Antiquity though I shall ever honour it as much as any either did or can do justly and with sobriety and shall alwayes reverence a gray-headed truth yet if Antiquity shall stand in competition with this Lamp of the Lord though genuine Antiquity would never offer to do it yet if it should it must not think much if we prefer Reason a daughter of Eternity before Antiquity which is the off-spring of time But had not the spirit of Antichristianisme by its early twinings and insinuations wound and wrought it self into most flourishing and primitive times into the bosome of a Virgin-Church and had it not offered violence to the works of some sacred writers by detracting and augmenting according to its several exigencies by feigning and adulterating by hiding and annihilating some of them as much as they could the ordinary tricks of Antichrist which he used alwayes more subtilly though of late more palpably had it not been for such devices as these Antiquity had come flowing to us in purer and fuller streams in more fair and kindly derivations and so might have run down more powerfully and victoriously then now it will But Antichrist hath endeavoured to be the Abaddon and the Apollyon of all sacred antiquities though the very reliques of those shining and burning lights that adorn'd the Church of God have splendor enough to scatter the darknesse of Popery that empty shadow of Religion that arises ob defectum Luminis yet Antiquity setting aside those that were peculiarly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was but the first dawning of light which was to shine out brighter and brighter till perfect day Let none therefore so superstitiously look back to former ages as to be angry with new opinions and displayings of light either in Reason or Religion Who dares oppose the goodnesse and wisdome of God if he shall enamour the world with the beauty of some pearls and jewels which in former times have been hid or trampled upon if he shall discover some more light upon earth as he hath let some new Stars be found in the heavens This you may be sure and confident of that 't is against the minde and meaning of Antiquity to stop the progresse of Religion and Reason But I know there are some will tell us of a visible tribunal of an infallible head of the Church borne to determine all controversies to regulate all men 't is a wonder they do not say Angels too Others more prudently and equally resolve the final judgement of Controversies into a general and oecumenical Councel but I shall speak to them all in the language of the Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and I shall explain it according to the minde of the learned Davenant in his discourse de indice ac norma fidei Cultûs Christiani God only is to rule his own Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judicio autoritativo by a determining and Legislative power Men that are fitted by God himself are to guide and direct it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judicio ministeriali in way of subserviency to him by an explication of his minde yet so as that every one may judge of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judicio privato practicae discretionis by acts of their own understanding illuminated by the Spirit of God for there are no representatives in intellectuals and spirituals Men may represent the bodies of others in Civil and Temporal affairs in the acts of a Kingdome and thus a bodily obedience is alwayes due to just authority but there is none can alwayes represent the minde and judgement of another in the vitals and inwards of Religion for I speak not of representations in outward order and discipline A general councel does and may produce judicium forense but still there is reserved to every single individuum judicium rationale for can you think that God will excuse any one from Error upon such an account as this such a Doctor told me thus such a piece of Antiquity enform'd me so such a general Councel determin'd me to this where was thine own Lamp all this while where was thy ratio illuminata guhernata secundùm normas bonae necessariae consequentiae rationali creaturae impressas Yet this must be gratefully acknowledged that these general Councels have been of publick influence of most admirable use and advantage to the Church of God though they are not of the very Essence of it for 't is well known that there were none of them till the dayes of Constantines But herein is the benefit of Councels that they are or ought to be a comparing and collecting of many Lights an uniting and concentricating of the judgements of many holy learned wise Christians with the Holy Ghost breathing amongst them though not alwayes so fully and powerfully as that they shall be sure to be priviledg'd from every Error but being all of them subject to frailty and fallibility and sometime the major part of them proving the pejor part there is none bound to give an extemporary assent to their votes and suffrages unlesse his minde also concurre with theirs That worthy Divine of our own whom I mentioned before speaks very fully and clearly to this Ad nudam praescriptionem aut determinationem alterius sine lumine privati judicii nemo est qui credere potest etiamsi cupiat maximé The most eminent Mirandula will give you the reason of it for saies he Nemo credit aliquid verum praecisè quia vult credere illud esse verum non est enim in potentia hominis facere aliquid apparere intellectui suo verum quando ipse voluerit But before there can be faith in any soul there must be cognitio propositionis credendae and there must be inclinatio intellectûs ad assentiendum huic propositioni revelatae cognitae Before you understand the termes of any proposition you can no more believe it then if it came to you in an unknown tongue A Parrat may repeat the Creed thus Corvos poëtas poëtridásque picas cantare credas Pegaseïum melos Though such at length may very safely conclude as that talkative bird is reported to
who only hear of them will not at all attend to them So that only the seal of the Spirit can make a firme impression upon the soul who writes his own word upon the soul with a conquering and triumphant Sun-beam that is impatient either of cloud or shadow Be open therefore ye everlasting doors and stand wide open ye intellectual gates that the spirit of grace and glory with the goodly train of his revealed truths may enter in There 's foundation for all this in a principle of nature for we must still put you in minde of the concord that is betwixt Faith and Reason Now this is the voice of Reason that God can and that none but God can assure you of his own mind for if he should reveal his minde by a creature there will still be some tremblings and waverings in the soul unlesse he does withal satisfie a soul that such a creature does communicate his minde truly and really as it is so that ultimately the certainty is resolv'd into the voice of God and not into the courtesie of a creature This holy Spirit of God creates in the soul a grace answerable to these transcendent objects you cannot but know the name of it 't is called Faith Super-naturalis forma fidet as Mirandula the younger stiles it which closes and complies with every word that drops from the voice or pen of a Deity and which facilitates the soul to assent to revealed truths So as that with a heavenly inclination with a delightful propension it moves to them as to a centre Reason cannot more delight in a common notion or a demonstration then Faith does in revealed truth As the Unity of a Godhead is demonstrable and clear to the eye of Reason so the Trinity of persons that is three glorious relations in one God is as certain to an eye of Faith 'T is as certain to this eye of Faith that Christ is truly God as it was visible to an eye both of Sense and Reason that he is truly man Faith spies out the resurrection of the body as Reason sees the immortality of the soul I know there are some Authors of great worth and learning that endeavour to maintain this Opinion that revealed truths though they could not be found by reason yet when they are once revealed that Reason can then evince them and demonstrate them But I much rather â—ncline to the determinations of Aquinas and multitudes of others that are of the same judgement that humane Reason when it has stretcht it self to the uttermost is not at all proportion'd to them but at the best can give only some faint illustrations some weak adumbrations of them They were never against Reason they were alwayes above Reason 'T will be employment enough and 't will be a noble employment too for Reason to redeeme and vindicate them from those thornes and difficulties with which some subtle ones have vext them and encompast them 'T will be honour enough for Reason to shew that Faith does not oppose Reason and this it may shew it must shew this for else 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that are within the inclosure of the Church will never rest satisfied nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pagans Mahumetans Jewes will ever be convinc'd God indeed may work upon them by immediate revelation but man can only prevaile upon them by Reason yet 't is not to be expected nor is it required that every weak and new-born Christian that gives reall assent and cordial entertainment to these mysterial truths should be able to deliver them from those seeming contradictions which some cunning adversaries may cast upon them There are some things demonstrable which to many seeme impossible how much more easily may there be some matters of faith which every one cannot free from all difficulties 'T is sufficient therefore for such that they so farre forth understand them as to be sure that they are not against Reason and that principally upon this account because they are sure God has revealed them And others that are of more advanced and elevated intellectuals may give such explications of them as may disentangle them from all repugnancy though they cannot display them in their full glory Nor must the multitude or strength and wit of opposers fright men out of their Faith and Religion Though the major part of the world do disesteeme and look upon them as meer contradictions yet this being the censure of moâ—â— unequal and incompetent judges is not at all prejudicial to their worth and excellency for to most of the world they were never revealed so much as in an external manner and to all others that refuse and reject them they were never powerfully revealed by the irradiations of the Holy Ghost So that one affirmative here is to be preferred before a whole heap of negatives the judgement of one wise enlighten'd experienc'd spiritualiz'd Christian is more to be attended to then the votes and suffrages of a thousand gainsayers because this is undeniable that God may give to one that Eye that Light that discerning power which he does deny to many others 'T is therefore a piece of excessive vanity and arrogancy in Socinus to limit and measure all Reason by his own Nor does this put any uncertainty in Reason but only a diversity in the improvings of it one Lamp differs from another in glory and withal it laies down an higher and nobler principle then Reason is for in things meerly natural every rational being is there a competent Judge in those things that are within the Sphere compasse of Reason the Reason of all men does agree and conspire so as that which implies an expresse and palpable contradiction cannot be own'd by any but in things above Nature and Reason a paucity here is a better argument then a plurality because Providence uses to opèn his Cabinets only for his Jewels God manifests these mysterious secrets only to a few friends his Spirit whispers to a few shines upon a few so that if any tell us that Evangelical mysteries imply a contradiction because they cannot apprehend them it is no more then for a blinde man confidently to determine that it involves a contradiction to say there is a Sun because he cannot see it Why should you not as well think that a greater part of the world lies in Error as that it lies in wickednesse is it not defective in the choisest intellectuals as well as in the noblest practicals Or can any perswade himself that a most eminent and refined part of mankinde and that which is very considerable a Virgin-company which kept it self untoucht from the pollutions of Antichrist upon mature deliberation for long continuance upon many debatings examinings discussings constantprayers unto God for the discovery of his minde should all this while embrace meere contradictions for the highest points of their Religion or can any conceive that these Evangelical Mysteries were invented and contriv'd and maintain'd by men Could the
supercilious and frowning authority but 't is the indulgent and vigilant eye of a father 't is the tender and affectionate care of a Creator One blossome of Providence hath more joy and pleasure in it then all thy Rose-buds Where is there more delight then in the serving of a God Look upon the Sacrifices what mirth and feastings are there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is not the abundance of wine nor the abundance of provision that makes the joy and pleasure there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it 's the presence of a propitious Deity accepting and blessing his worshippers that fills the heart with greater joy then an Epicure is capable of Never was there a Sect found out that did more oppose true pleasure then the Epicureans did they tell us that they take pleasure in honour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they look upon it as a lovely and delightful thing yet by these tenents and practices of theirs they quite staine and blot their honour so lose that piece of their pleasure which they pretend to They say if you 'l believe them that they take pleasure in friends when as yet they constitute friendship only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they must be boon companions that must drink and be merry together and run into the same excesse of riot Have not sensitive creatures as much friendship as this amounts to They tell us they love the continuation of pleasure why then do they deny the immortality of the soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is the voice of Epicurus and his swinish Sect There must be no eternity What are they afraid their pleasure should last too long or are they conscious as they may very well be that such impure pleasure is not at all durable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is the voice of the same impure mouth There is no repetition of life what 's he afraid of having his pleasures reiterated does he not expect a crown of Rose-buds the next spring or is he so weary as well he may be of his pleasure as that he will preferre a non-entity before it This sure was the minde and desire of that Epicurean Poet Lucretius though a Roman of very eminent parts which yet were much abated by a Philtrum that was given him a just punishment for him who put so much of his pleasure in a cup and this desperate slighter of Providence at length laid violent hands upon himself Are any of you enamour'd with such pleasure as this you see what 's at the bottome of an Epicures cup you see how impatient a rational being is of such unworthy delights and how soon 't is cloy'd with them You see the misery of an Epicure whose pleasure was only in this life and yet would not last out this life neither But all rational pleasure t is not of a span long but reaches to perpetuity That Moralist whom I have so often mentioned reckons up whole heaps of pleasure which spring from the continuation of the soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There saies he shall I have the pleasure of seeing all my friends again there I shall have the pleasure of more ennobled acts of Reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there shal I taste the so much long'd for sweetnesse of another world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The fear of future misery cannot more terrifie a guilty soul the fear of which 't is like made Epicurus put off all thoughts of another life as much as he could for else the fear of that would have been a worm in his Rose-bud of pleasure but the fear of that has not more horror and amazement in it then the hope of future happinesse has joy and delight annext to it Hoc habet animus Argumentum diviâ—itatis quâ—d eum divina delectant as that serious Moralist Seneca speaks most excellently The soul by the enjoyment of God comes neer the pleasure of God himself The Platonists tell us that Voluptatis Generatio fit ex infiniti finiti copulatione because the object of real pleasure must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An intellectual eye married to the Sun a naked will swimming and bathing it self in its fairest good the noblest affections leaping and dancing in the purest light this speaks the highest apex and eminency of noëtical pleasure yet this pleasure of heaven it self though by a most sacred and intimate connexion it be unseparably conjoyn'd with happinesse yet 't is not the very essence and formality of it but does rather flow from it by way of concomitancy and resultancy That which most opposes this pleasure is that prodigious and anomalous delight not worthy the name of delight or pleasure which damn'd spirits and souls degenerate farre below the pleasure of Epicurus that delight which these take in wickednesse in malice in pride in lies in hypocrisie all which speaks them the very excrements of Beelzebub the Prince of Devils But you that are genuine Athenians fill your selves with noëtical delights and envie not others their more vulgar Beotick pleasures envie not the ranknesse of their Garlick and Onions whilest you can feed and feast upon more Spiritual and Angelical dainties Envy not the wanton Sparrows nor the laseivious Goats as long as you can meet with a purer and chaster delight in the virginity of intellectual embraces Do you devoure with a golden Epicurisme the Arts and Sciences the spirits and extractions of Authors let not an Epicure take more pleasure in his garden then you can do in your studies you may gather flowers there you may gather fruit there Convince the world that the very pith and marrow of pleasure does not dwell in the surface of the body but in a deep and rational centre Let your triumphant reason trample upon sense and let no corporeal pleasures move you or tempt you but such as are justly and exactly subordinate to Reason you come to Athens as to a fountain of learned pleasure you come hither to snuff the Candle of the Lord that is within you that it may burn the clearer and the brighter You come to trim your Lamps and to pour fresh Oile into them yourvery work and employment is pleasure Happy Athenians if you knew your own happinesse Let him be condemn'd to perpetual folly and ignorance that does not prefer the pleasant light of the Candle of the Lord before all the Pageantry of sensitive objects before all the flaunting and Comical joy of the world Yet could I shew you a more excellent way for the pleasures of natural reason are but husks in comparison of those Gospel-delights those mysterious pleasures that lie hidin the bosome of a Christ those Rose-buds that were dy'd in the bloud of a Saviour who took himself the Thorns left you the roses We have only lookt upon the pleasure of a candle but there you have the Sun-shine of pleasure in its full glory CHAP. XVIII The light of Reason is an ascendent light 'T Is Lumen ascendens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
can there be much fault found with Apollo but yet none pleases me so well as Cephas O how doth he explaine the Oracles of God and unriddle the mysteries of salvation O how doth he stoop to the lowest capacity and feed us with the sincere milk of the word that we may grow thereby how doth he come with line upon line drop upon drop precept upon precept here a little and there a little O how doth he unvaile and â—nmaske heavenly truths so as each eye may see their beauty and every soul become enamoured with them What a lustre doth he set upon the pearle of price so as one would willingly part with all they have for the purchasing of it Let others follow Paul and admire Apollo I am sure I profit by none so much as by Peter I am of Cephas You see here the Corinthians vanity and in it our propensity to glory in men and that because we are carnal which brings us to the Apostles censure painted with a stinging interrogation Are ye not carnal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nonne homines estis So the vulgar Latine it seems that makes it equivalent to be men and to be carnal indeed there 's but little difference Paul himselfe calls it in the former verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nonne corporejestis So the Syriack hath it as 't is usually translated Don't you seem to be all body to have nothing of a soul in you nothing of a more refined part whilst you thus judge only according to outward appearance and so I suppose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a degree below 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and yet he savours not the things of God But the force of the Original there reaches further even to this Nonne cadaverosi estis as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence it springs plainly shews Carnal men they are dead in trespasses and sinnes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Lucian calls old men though they esteem it their only life as he sings Vivamus mâ—a Lesbia But here 't is to be took in a more candid sense for the Apostle speaks to such as were regenerate and in the state of grace to such as were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he himself calls them babes in Christ so that here 't is meant either first have not you such grosse apprehensions as carnal men use to have or else secondly are not ye carnal in this and thus the most refin'd and spiritualiz'd Christian is grosse and carnal in part In the best soul there are schismes and divisions even here and there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Moralist Every one has a double self an Antagonist within himself We use to call a friend Alter ego but here the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the greatest enemy This Plato means when he tells us of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is like they reach't no further then the rebellion of the sensitive soul against the rational the strugling of reason with appetite But we know of a nearer and so a sharper conflict between the flesh and the Spirit in the regenerate the fight 's described at large by our Apostle in the seventh to the Romans and this is that which a Christian so much groanes under as Porphyrâ— saies of Plotinus that he so lived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we finde it true in St. Paul when he cries out O who 'le deliver me from this body of death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But I shall let this passe as not being formally in the text but only virtually there and by just consequence might be deduc't from it as many the like observations also might and wee 'l look upon the several aggravations in these words Are ye not carnal first You that for time and meanes might have been spiritual 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he in the Greek Epigram calls out to Lycurgus that cut down so many vines because they brought forth too much fruit the bloud of the grapes which he thought too generous he speaks to him that he would be pleased to cut down his because it brought forth none at all What could they have done more to yours then they have done and when they looked for grapes do you bring forth wilde grapes full of sowrenesse and bitternesse nothing but strife and contention is this the fruit of Paul's planting and Apollo's watering Nay how can they gather grapes of thornes or figs of thistles You that have drunk in the raine which so often fell upon you do you now bring forth nothing but briers and thornes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or else you may look for the terrible curse upon the fig-tree Never fruit grow on thee more Is this your best improvement of your so many precious and golden opportunities have you thus learned Christ has the bright Sun-shine of the Gospel beamed out so strongly and gloriously upon you and can't it so much as warme your affections while you thus neglect and abuse the meanes of grace aro you not carnal 2. You that would seem to be spiritual are ye not carnal What 's become of your fair shews and promising out sides and specious professions are they vanish't into this nothing or worse then nothing are our budding hopes so soon blasted and do your forward resolutions so quickly languish You that would have counted it an injury not to be thought Christians and members of the Church what do you mean to teare and rend the body in pieces You that would have been lookt upon as living stones fit to build God an house an habitation for the God of Jacob do you now go about to demolish so faire a structure and to bring into the temple the noise of axes and hammers You that would have been thought sharers in the communion of Saints and to have had a chief part in that Spiritual consort do you now put all out of tune by your strifes and dissensions while you shew no better fruits then these what ever you seem to be are ye not carnal 3. Some of you that are truly spiritual yet here in this are ye not carnal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who has bewitcht you O Corinthians that having begun in the Spirit you should end in the flesh You that are reconciled to a God of peace and redeemed by a Saviour that breath'd out nothing but love You that are sanctifi'd and seal'd by a Spirit of unity and have imbraced a Gospel of peace in all meeknesse and subjection of minde laying down your weapons of defiance why do yo now resist the goodnesse of so gracious a God and kick against the bowels of so sweet a Saviour why do you grieve the holy Spirit and disgrace the Gospel as if that taught you to be contentious nay you that know that 't was the hand of omnipotency that pluckt you out of the jawes of hell and destruction and how 't was not in the power of man or angel to unfetter you of the least corruption you
Apollo and these fishers of men they came not with their silken line and their golden hooke with the inticing words of mans wisdome as they do that go about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no they lay down the naked simplicity of the Gospel Paul doth but plant and Apollos doth but water and God is pleased by so weak means in so plain a way to bring about his own glorious ends Ipsum coelum stultitiâ pâ—timus in a better sense then e're the Poet meant it even by this foolishnesse of Preaching Why then do you gaze on Paul and glory in Apollos as if 't were Pauls great parts that raised the Gospel and Apollos eloquence that set it off What 's this but to oppose the Almighty and to counterplot wisdome it self God took this as a main way for the advancing of his glory and you make 't as much as in you lyes wholly derogatory from it and judge you whether this be to be carnal or no. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name be given the glory 2. It is carnal as it takes from the word of God from its innate strength and excellency from its divine Majesty and Royalty 1. From its strength and excellency The Gospel shines with its own beams and need not borrow light from Paul nor lustre from Apollo When God hath once writ with his own finger upon the Tables of stone they need then no humane polishing and the Gospel is very gloriously cloathed with such ornaments as Christ hath put upon it The Image of God stamp'd upon the word and this superscription is that which hath made it so currant and all other writings to be but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in comparison of it And in the plain preaching of the word what a force and energy goes along with it This is the voice of the Lord so powerful that brings down the loftiest Cedars in Lebanon and crusheth the strongest Oakes in Bashan Mans eloquence doth but weaken and soften the voice and whilest 't would make it more pleasant makes it lesse powerful That which Plutarch tells us of the Spartans who for brevity were wont to speak as 't were in characters and sentences in puncto and for the weightinesse of speech they spake in the lumpe and massy sentences he sayes of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 t is true here Verbum Dei est sine cortice 't is all pith and strength 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he there goes on it is edg'd into efficacy God himself hath been pleased to whet his sword and as the Lacedemonian when he was asked whether his sword was sharp or no replyed that 't was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sharper then a calumny 'T is like his sword was not so sharp as his expression but to be sure this two-edged sword as 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it can pierce through all oppositions cut asunder the contradictions of men the most Gordian knots the most nodosum ingenium as he calls Tiberius but then the quickening power of the Spirit must go along with it as that famous Captain when he had lost his sword he told his enemies 't was not so much the sword as the arme unlesse the arme of the Lord be reveal'd there 's none will beleeve our report unlesse this formative vertue go along with it instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it becomes but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Apostle in the second Chapter of this Epistle tells us of a demonstration of the Spirit Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he hath it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the native glosse of truth which clearly shewes it and presently convinceth a man there 's no disputing against a domonstration The word that evidences it self and the Ministers they may strongly perswade but unlesse the Spirit demonstrate the soul hath never compleat satisfaction and the Spirit that may save extraordinarily without the Word but the Word can't possibly save without the Spirit But if this accompany it O then there is a glorious Twinlight springing from them both and irradiating the soul with powerfull and enlivening beams arising with healing under its wings O then the sword of the Lord and of Gideon conquer most victoriously and then there 's none able to withstand it though like Mars himself he be tunicâ tectus adamantinâ and though this be in the hand of the weakest messenger he that will resist it must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and such a one hath no great hope of victory but he must fall down with Saint Pauls Idiot and cry out Surely God is in you of a truth Why then do ye attribute all to Paul and ascribe the glory to Apollo as if the word were a dead letter till quicken'd by Paul and an empty breath unlesse animated by Apollo as if Paul did not only plant but blesse and Apollo not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Et Deus interim nihil faceret He stood as a spectator all the while when as indeed Paul is but at the best Echo Domini he reflects the sound of the Gospel the Echo that never speaks till it be spoken to What I have received from the Lord that deliver I unto you and not as that doth dimidiata verba no he acquaints you with the whole will and counsel of God And Apollo is but as Aristole calls a servant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is Cythara Dei strung and tun'd by him touch't by his Spirit and then making a most sweet and gracefull melody Paul may spend his strength in vaine and Apollo may stretch out his hand all the day long to a gainsaying and disobedient people Peter himself may toyle all night and catch nothing Men of most rare accomplishments and of indefatigable industry may spend all their dayes and not save a soul and others of far weaker abilities may adde daily to the Church such as shall be saved God by his secret judgement may blast the labours of the one because men glory too much in them and by his goodnesse he may give increase to the other because he hath more glory by them This we are sure 't is the same word preach't by Paul and by other his fellow-labourers and the Spirit breatheth when it pleases and blowes where it lists And though these here had some more plausible excuse for their siding with Paul and glorying in Apollo as men furnisht with extraordinary gifts and the blessing of the Spirit in those primitive times accompanying their labours in a more thankful manner yet you hear the Apostles sharp reproof of them even for this are ye not carnal But then 2. As it takes from the Majesty of the Word Is it fit that the word of God should stoop to mans fancy Why here 's Paul and Apollo men of admirable endowments and of most exact holinesse preaching the same Gospel and yet 't is
embrac't by some when coming from one and neglected when publisht by another It is the same truth but not in the same dresse It is a signe they never receiv'd the love of the truth plain truth won't please them it must be set out in such attire as may best satisfie their eye though sometimes not becoming the purity of so chast a Virgin This Lumen siccum as he speaks doth parch and offend many mens soft natures And though no doubt but Paul and Apollo deny their own excellencies and become wholly subservient to the Gospel yet even in them they finde somewhat to preferre one before the other And unlesse the word of God were as the Jewes tell us of the Manna though very fabulously yet we have the same in the Apocrypha in the 16th of Wisdome that whatsoever Character or Idea of taste a man shap't to himself in his fancy when he was eating the Manna as most pleasant and delightful to him it serv'd to the appetite of the eater and was temper'd to every ones liking unlesse the word of God had so many severall relishes agreeable to every ones liking Even this though Angels food shall be loathed and nauseated and surely this argues a carnal Spirit Must the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bow to you and the Gospel of the Kingdome become so basely serviceable as to do homage to your lusts Must that word which should search the Conscience tickle the fancy and feed a worme of curiosity that never dies What are these but as Plutarch calls inquisitive delatours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or in the Apostles phrase men of itching cares that catch more after an elegancy then after a promise and are better pleas'd with a criticisme then with a practical truth You know whose speech 't was Pruritus disputandi est Ecclesiae scabies Wee 'l mould it a little to our purpuse pruritus aurium est animae scabies 'T is carnal as it takes from the word of God from the strength of it from the majesty of it 3. Whâ—ch is the maine Argument urged by our Apostle as it breeds ruptures in the Church schismes and divisions which First Hinder the communion of Saints For all communion flowes from union and division takes that away Some go about to make unity the very forme of being to be sure it tends much to the well-being of the Church Oh how happy and pleasant a thing it is to see the Churches children spreading themselves like Olive-branches round about her table in a peaceable and flourishing manner But when they shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he speaks think that the brightnesse of their Brethrens condition doth but obscure and shadow theirs and thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he most elegantly if there be the least ansa or occasion of strife Passion presently hooks it in and is too apprehensive When one shall say I am of Calvin and another I am of Luther when as they might both meet in the Name of Christian nay when by most ridiculous dissension for we have heard of such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when one shall say I am of Martin and another I am of Luther whereas they did but divide Martin Luther for they were both of his Religion what must this needs bring but a deformity and confusion upon the face of the Church a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enough to make up a Chaos Secondly These Schismes and Divisions they stop the progresse of the Gospel If Christians would but take the Moralists counsell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to spend and derive their malice some other way as civil warres are often quench't by setting upon some common enemy this was alwayes the Cretians custome and from thence 't was called Syncretismus If we could hear of some happy Synchristianismus when the hearts and tongues and pens of all them that professe the same faith in sincerity would agree amongst themselves and wholly oppose the main adversary If we had not such narrow and contracted souls if God would be pleased to give us a larger heart so as every one would become a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wholly let go his private aimes and study the publick good what might not united forces do How quickly would all difficulties vanish every mountain become a plain the seven hills amongst the rest And the goodly fabrick of the Church would go up with the shoutings and acclamations of Grace Grace and quickly be at the top of its spiritual glory O how should every one with the consideration of so happy a time have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Eunapius speaks most elegantly a sweet Chorus of well tun'd affections and a spirit tripudiating for joy as Abraham did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he foresaw Christs day though that were afar off and this neer at hand Thirdly Schismes and Divisions give great advantage to the enemies and set up the kingdome of Satan the Prince of the Aire The Church thus becomes militant against her self and the enemy becomes triumphant The devil danceth at discord and as St Chrysostome observes when he heard that so goodly and populous a City as this of Corinth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was like to entertain the Gospel he knew no better way to hinder the successe of it then by presently planting a spirit of discord amongst them as well knowing that a Kingdome divided against it self could not long stand And all his agents that are subordinate to him nihil spei nisi per discordias â—abent as Tacitus saith notably of some in his time and as he of others they do per abrupta inclarescere sed in nullum Reipublicae commodum We might learn more wisdome of them that are wiser in their generation then the children of light what a strict union and confederacy have they among themselves as that in Job is usually allegorized These seales of the Leviathan are shut together as with a close seal in respect of their secrecy and combinings and if they chance to be at variance and jarre amongst themselves they have a sure way of meeting and reconciliation by a joynt opposing of the Church But then as it gives this generall advantage so more specially as it is the Original of all errors and the inlet of all heresies When men by a strange 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall set up some one as an oracle and perpetual Dictatour in Divinity If such a one broach an errour O how greedily do they drink it as if 't were pure Nectar some saving truth when at the best it is but the poyson of aspes a deadly and desperate errour The devil thus serves them as Agrippina did Claudius he mingles poyson in their delicate meat and they fall to 't with an appetite As that great Schollar hath well observed they were alwayes learned men which have been haereticorum Coryphaei So withall they have been such as by some deceitful carriages have won the hearts and esteem of men and thus could
were done already in respect of Eternity all things being equally present to that 3. This takes away all method and order of prosecution for the end is alwayes in intention before the means God first resolves to save Jacob and then provides means accordingly 4. It quite demolisheth the goodly and faire structure of grace no discriminating grace 't is no longer for his own sake but for your sakes now A man now makes himself to differ free will must be set on the throne 't is a Roman and must not be bound and free grace must lye at the footstool and be trampled on as they please But all they that know what grace is and have had any gracious impressions upon their own spirits will easily tell you who 't was that made them differ even he who chose them not because they were any better then others but he chose them and so would be sure to make them better and if they be lovely it is with the comlinesse which he hath put upon them Grace is free if you look to the fountaine of it the primitive goodnesse of God in election bubling out from all Eternity Secondly If you look to the severall streamings out of the fountaine you must admire the riches of free grace For 1. Gods giving of his only Sonne and founding and eternal Covenant of love and peace in him the richest and preciousest stream that ever flow'd to the sons of men Now if there were an assembly of those bright and intelligent creatures gathered together the most glorious Cherubims and glittering Seraphims and if this mystery which they now pry into were fully unseal'd and explain'd unto them O how would they stand gazing upon the riches of free grace how would they think eternity it self too short for the admiring of it and what could they resolve it into but meere love God so lov'd the world so freely so fully so unconceiveably that he gave his only Sonne c. What was there in thee to draw a Saviour down from heaven was there such an attractive and magnetical vertue in an undone and bankrupted creature How didst thou perswade him to disrobe himself of light as of a garment to cloud and eclipse the lustre of his Divinity by the interposition of a pale mortall body What was it that mov'd him to take upon him the seed of Abraham and not the nature of Angels to let passe those faire and eminent beings and to advance a poor crauling worme Out of what Topicks didst thou fetch an argument that prevail'd with him to espouse thee to himself in mercy and truth and so to love thee as to dye for thee I know they thoughts are swallowed up with the consideration of so boundlesse and bottomlesse a love and desire some time for astonishment 2. What should I tell you of those free expressions and manifestations of this his love those fresh eruptions and ebullitions of it in the Gospel I mean those precious promises that are so many several sproutings and branchings out of the Covenant The Gospel's like a sweet and precious honey-combe these are the severall droppings of it that flow freely from it Indeed the whole Gospel like the midst of Solomons bed in the Canticles is pav'd with love 3. Think upon those free offers of grace and tenders of reconciliation how he woes you to receive mercy how he beseeches you to be happy how he intreats you to be sav'd to accept of him and of heaven of grace and of glory So that if you looke to the streamings out of the fountaine you see they all carry with them the riches of grace Thirdly Consider the severall conveighances of it how God diffuses this his goodnesse to thy soul and thou shalt see how thou hast liv'd upon the expences of free grace all thy dayes And for this observe how he tun'd all circumstances in a sweet and harmonious way so as they did all sweetly agree and consort in thy happinesse and how all providentiall passages did joyn for thee and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 work together for thy good As 1. 'T was out of the riches of free grace that he planted thee in a place of light when he shut up and imprison'd the rest of the world in palpable darknesse The Gospel shines out but upon a little spot of ground which God hath enclos'd for himself and stiles it his Garden Paul plants it and Apollos waters it and he himself gives it an increase The rest of the world lyes like a barren and desolate wildernesse the word of the Gospel never dropt upon it nothing but briers and thornes fit for the fire Now how fell thy lot in so faire a ground and who is it that gives thee so goodly an heritage Who is it that shines thus upon thy Tabernacle and fixes it in a land that flowes with milke and honey Give a reason if thou canst why thou wert not plac't in some obscure corner of America and left only to the weak and glimmering light of nature Prethee tell me who that was that open'd for thee so many wells of salvation and feasted thee with all those spirituall dainties and delicacies that are disht out in variety of Ordinances I would fain know who that was that crush't the honey-combe on purpose that it might drop upon thy soul Prethee tell me if thou can'st who that was that bespoke a place for thee in the Church among the assembly of the Saints Hath God dealt so with every Nation or have the Heathen knowledge of this Law Ascribe this then to free grace 2. That salvation should wait upon thee so long and when thou hadst repuls't so many rich offers of grace and mercie that still it should be importunate with thee If mercy had knock't once or twice nay according to the rule Si ter pulsanti c. if it had then bid thy soul farewell thou hadst dropt into hell irrecoverably How many years hath free grace stood at the door and begg'd for some admission and thou hast not so much as bid it welcome Free grace followes thee and pursues thee and will not let thee go till thou hast a blessing Would any friend have given thee so many invitations after thou hast rejected them Are there not many of the damned that must lye roaring there to all eternity that never tasted of so much goodnesse and long-sufferance as thou hast done O why wert not thou sent thither amongst the rest that that Spirit which thou hast so much griev'd and so often vext should still breath upon thee and follow thee with secret whisperings and gentle solicitations to entice and allure thee to goodnesse what canst thou call this but free grace 3. Consider in what state thou wert all the while and Enemy a Rebell studying how to be damn'd galloping to hell and destruction with full careere a scholars pace who was 't now that stopt thee in thy course who bridl'd in the proud waves and said Hither
ye shall go and no further Saul when he is breathing out of slaughters and making havock of the Church even then he becomes a Paul When the soul is even ripe for judgement then mercy shines out upon it And that which would seeme the most reasonable time for vengeance is made a blessed opportunity of shewing mercy 4. Consider the efficacious and overpowering work of grace he must force thee to be happy and necessitate thee to salvation and compell thee to come in It is not enough to provide the meanes but he must strongly apply them unlesse the arme of the Lord be reveal'd there 's none will beleeve our report It may be thou cam'st occasionally to hear a Sermon well God hath the two-edged sword in his own hand he brandish't the glittering sword he fought against thee he wounded thee and frighted thee out of thy sinnes Well thou wentest away with groans and sighes and teares like a Hart stuck with an arrow panting and breathing and faine would'st have some refreshment Ere long he met with a faithful Messenger and sent thee some balme from Gilead he began to let in some of his love to thy soul and to cheere thee with Gospel-cordials and were not they all bought with the riches of free grace Or it may be thou cam'st into a Church with a minde to smile at Religion to laugh at Goodnesse to mock at Piety or else to guesse the best thou cam'st for flowers and not for fruit to crop an Elegancy to take acquaintance of a Notion or a fine expression as he once to hear an eloquent Ambrose Thou cam'st for a bait but met'st with an hook and 't was happy for thee that thou wert so caught Thou thought'st only to see the flourishing of the sword but thou felt'st the edge of it and 't was well for thee that thou wert so wounded 5. Remember the manner how he thus wrought upon thee it may be 't was with softer and gentler impressions in a winning in a melting way he drew thee with the cords of a man and sweetly dissolv'd thy stony heart 'T is true the Law had its work and strook thee with the flaming edge of a curse but the Gospel presently brought oile and powr'd it into the wounded spirit The love of Christ was the powerful Suada Heavens Rhetorick there was Demosthenes his double Deity in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it constrain'd thee to obedience And was it not mercy to be dealt withal in so milde a way Well but what if thou wert a more knotty and obdurate piece and 't was not a little matter would tame thy unruly spirit God came in a more victorious and triumphant manner and led captivity captive when he gave gifts unto thy soul He was fain to batter down strong holds and bring to the ground towering imaginations Thou had'st a rocky and flinty spirit and was not his word an hammer did not he take it into his own hand he smote the stony rock indeed so as the waters gushed out Well and had he no bowels all the while was it not abundance of mercy to take pains with such an obstinate sinner Referre it you to what you will we 'le put it under the head of free grace 6. Think upon those mountains of opposition that were beaten down when this goodly fabrick of the Temple went up with the shoutings and acclamations of free grace The strong man was dispossest all the plots and stratagems of Satan were frustrated God crush't his designes and blasted his enterprises and broke his snares and rescu'd thee out of the paw of the Lion 'T was much love and grace to set a silly bird out of the snare to ransome a poor captive to break the chaine and beat off the irons to disentangle a soul and set it at liberty And then he arm'd thee against the disgraces and frownes of the world and fortifi'd thee against the smiles and blandishments of the world and carried thee against the potent stream of examples which all ran another way free grace hid thy soul under the shadow of its wings 7. Hast thou not fresh supplies of free grace flowing in continually upon thy soul and maintaining it to all eternity If God in this new creation had given thee as he did at the first a stock of grace and left it to thine own improvement thou would'st have spent it immediately Thou hast somewhat of free grace every moment of thy spiritual being God feeds and preserves the humidum radicale of the soul or else 't would quickly waste away He sends thee in rich influences and Auxiliary forces and keeps thee by his mighty power through faith unto salvation And this is no small work of grace Conservatio you know 't is continuata creatio 8. Compare thy self with those that have had none of all this kindnesse shown unto them such as God hath left to themselves in the severity of his justice and this will set a goodly glosse upon free grace 1. Many of them are such as have improv'd their present strength far better Many Heathens have liv'd more accurately and exactly then some Christians in their unregenerate condition and yet one out of all ordinary possibility of salvation and the others efficaciously called He may do with his own what he will and he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy Thus Publicans are before Pharisees and swelling Justitiaries that free grace may be more apparent and conspicuous 2. Some have desired more strength and in their way pray'd for it too and it may be have had the prayers of others too and yet have gone without it but thou hast not call'd upon me O Jacob I was found of thee when thou sought'st me not 3. He past by men of most admirable endowments most rare accomplishments that in all probability would have done him a great deal more honourable service then thou art like to do Would not an Aristotle have made a glorious convert and fill'd the world as full of Divinity as he did of Philosophy but God passeth by these stately Cedars of Lebanon and chooseth a few contemptible Shrubs and this is the good will of him that dwelt in the bush he hath chosen the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the meere non-entia of the world to bring to naught the things that are So that if thou look to the fountaine or the streames or the conveiances you meet with nothing but free grace Fourthly I might draw an head of arguments à Minori ad Majus common and restraining grace is free grace how much more justifying and saving grace that one is not so bad as another is meere grace c. This truth is full of Use Richly laden with fruit if we had time to gather it I 'le but point at it Vse Let none dare to abuse the grace of God to still malignant and venomous consequences out of so sweet and flowery a truth Câ—m gratia Dei sit mellea ne comedas
eam totam There 's none but love to hear of free grace O this is a soft and downy Doctrine a silken Truth O 't is a gentle breath that fans the soul and gives it sweet refreshment O 't is a pleasant thing to sit under the shadow of free grace and see Gods goodnesse streaming out before thee But take heed who e're thou art of turning this grace of God into wantonnesse and know that 't is free grace in another sense too God may take 't away when he pleaseth thou know'st not which is the last offer Believe it he that neglects this very present offer venters eternity And know withall that as there are more liberal aspersions of grace in time of the Gospel so there are larger viols of wrath too Vineger you know 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 filius vini and the sweetest wine degenerates into the sharpest vineger Grace abus'd turnes to fury What to sin against God because he is good therefore to offend him because he is merciful to multiply iniquities because he blots them out for his own sake To kick against bowels of mercy and to rebel against the golden Scepter when 't is stretcht out and motions of reconciliation propounded truely this will be the very sting of hell the Emphasis of damnation this will heat the furnace seven times hotter 't will teach the worme that never dies to gnaw more cruelly and put new stings into the eternal scorpions 't will prepare flaming ingredients for the cup of wrath and fill it up to the very brim O how fain would'st thou then change places in hell with a Turke or an Infidel and be ambitious of ordinary damnation But truely there is no stronger argument against sin to an ingenuous spirit then free grace Because God is so prone to pardon therefore the soul is so loath to displease THE Childs Return PROV 23. 26. My Son give me thine heart THere have been such noble and generous spirits in some of the people of God as that they have been frequent in such enquiries as these What shall we render the Lord for all his mercies And what shall we returne him for all his goodnesse And he in the Prophet Micah though he be of a different temper from these yet he seemeth to be very solicitous and desirous to know what he should bring unto the Lord. For thus you may hear him speak in the 6th of Micah Wherewithall sayes he shall I appear before the Lord Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams c. No saith the Prophet He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but that thou should'st do justly c. He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but that thou should'st give him thine heart and that thou should'st love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength And therefore he here askes it of thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My Sonne give me thine heart These words are spoken by Solomon but not in his own Name It had been too much for Solomon to have askt it for himself It doth not become the mouth of any Creature to ask the heart to it self But Solomon speaks it in the name of Wisdome and so in the name of God himself the eternal fountain of Wisdome It is he that calls unto the sons of men and bids them to give him their hearts And though I know that the Hebrew Idiom sometimes by giving the heart doth imply no more then the serious consideration and pondering of a thing the laying it to heart as we use to speak yet I shall take the words here in a fuller sense as the heart in a special manner is due unto God Now as in Proverbial speeches there useth to be so it is here There is abundance of rich variety a great deal of Treasure lockt up in a few words we will open some of them to you And I. For the Relation My Sonne Five things are very considerable 1. He speaks here to a Son and to not a Stranger No wonder that Strangers give not the heart unto God no wonder that a Pagan gives not the heart unto God Such as are aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and Strangers to the Covenant of grace Such as are at a great distance from him nay that live without God in the World such as lye like the dry heath and the barren wildernesse the word of the Kingdome never dropt upon them but thou art a Sonne in neer relation to him He reveales his minde to thee he manifests and displayes himself to thee he makes his goodnesse passe before thee Thou hast the continual droppings of the word upon thee his Prophets are sent to thee earely and late thou hast the happy Sun-shine of his presence with thee enough to warme and soften a stony heart and out of such stones to raise up children unto Abraham Though an Indian though an American do not give the heart unto God yet a Christian should Though a Stranger do not give him the heart yet a Son should 2. A Son and not an Enemy God doth not expect the hearts of Enemies such as are in open hostility and opposition against him such as are said to be haters of him and hated by him such as bid him depart from them for they not desire the knowledge of his wayes he doth not look for the hearts of these He doth indeed many times turne the heart of an Enemie meet the heart of a Saul while he is breathing out slaughters against the Church but whil'st he is in a state of enmity he doth not look for the heart from them Nay if an Enemy could give the heart unto God it would not be accepted by him He will not accept of a Traitors heart But thou art reconciled to him so far from being an Enemy as that thou art a Son Thow hast all expressions of love from him and thine heart it is expected by him and it will be accepted of him Though an Enemy do not give the heart unto God yet a Son should 3. A Sonne and not a Slave A Slave doth a great deal of work and drudgery more work then a Sonne but he doth not give the heart all the while He workes out of fear he looks upon it as a task as a burden he watches an opportunity for shaking off the yoke But now Religion doth not come thus to enslave men but to enlarge them to ennoble them it comes to beat off the chaines and fetters to beat open the Prison doors it brings a perpetual Jubilee a perpetual Triumph along with it Religion it floweth out of filial principles My Son hear my words and My Sonne give me thine heart If the Son make you free why then you are free indeed and if you be free like Sons why then you are free indeed The Gospel brings with
the vanity of those ignorant ones who thank God though they cannot expresse themselves yet their hearts are as good as the best though there be not one beam of light in nor one spark of love in them whereas a good heart never wanted for some real expression He in the Comaedian was very deservedly laught at who would seem to be angry but could expresse it no otherwise then by saying Irascor whereas true anger would soon have shewne it self in its proper colours in its sudden and extemporary sparklings in its vehement and furious flamings They that can shew a good heart no otherwise then by saying they have a good one they do even desire us not to believe them They that offered up sacrifices were wont to judge of them most according to the inwards and God doth thus judge of performances For 1. The least performances if the heart accompany them are accepted by him That Persian Monarch was famous for accepting a little water from the hand of a loving Subject And doth not Christ accept of the same He that shall give a cup of cold water to a Disciple in the name of a Disciple shall not lose his reward What though thou canst not bring such costly sacrifices thou canst not offer up Hecatombs Well then bring thy Turtle-Doves and young Pigeons and these shall be accepted by him Thou hast no Gold nor Jewels thou canst not bring any Silk and Purple to the Tabernacle yet bring thy Goats haire and Bad gers skins and these shall be welcome to him Thou canst not bring Cedars to the Temple thou canst not polish and carve and guild the Temple Well but canst thou be any way serviceable to it even that shall be rewarded by him A few broken sighs if they arise from a broken heart are very potent and Rhetorical A few teares if they flow from this fountain are presently botled up he puts your teares in his Bottle 2. God accepts of your intentions if they flow from a pure heart though they be blasted in the bud though they be crusht in Ovo though they never come to the birth In magnis voluisse sat est It was in Davids heart to build a Temple that 's enough The Schoolmen do very well determine that Tota bonitas moralis malitia est in Voluntate God judgeth of the souls complexion by those inward productions though men judge only by outward expressions That two-edged sword of God doth thus pierce to the marrow to the very intentions of the heart The Law of God it reacheth intentions as our Saviour in those heavenly Sermons of his upon the Mount doth Spiritualize it and parapbrase upon it And God doth in especial manner punish naked intentions because men cannot punish them The venome of the seed of the Serpent doth most shew it self in intentions God restrains the outward acts for his people sake But the strength of sin is most vigorous in its first eruptions and ebullitions and so the strength of goodnesse too 3. When the heart is entire Though there be obliquities and irregularities yet they are past by and not so much attended to No doubt but Abrahams faith staggered when he was put to an equivocation and we cannot easily excuse Jacobs supplantings and Rebekka's deceits and Rahabs dissemblings and the piaefraudes of the Fathers There was so much frailty and imperfection in all these as did plainly spot and blemish them and yet the heart being right God accepts of that and covers the rest with his pardoning love 4. Hence it is that God looks not to the outward lump and heap of performances but looks to the manner of them and the Spirit from whence they come This might spare many a Papist his beads which he thinks so necessary for the numbring of his prayers The glimmering light of Nature taught the Heathen thus much that the gods did not expect any benefit from them but only a grateful acknowledgment And this is the reason they give why they consecrated to their gods barren trees which indeed were green and flourishing but brought forth no fruit at all as the Laurell to Apollo the Ivy to Bacchus the Mirtle to Venus the Oake to Jupiter the Pine to Neptune the Poplur to Hercules and so in many of the rest And they will tell you that the gods did not look for any fruit from their worshippers but lookt for homage and obedience and thankfulnesse And it is that which ingenuity teacheth men not to look to the quantity and value of a gift but to respect the affection of him that gives it Away then with those vaine ones that think to bribe Heaven with their gifts and to stop the mouth of Justice with their performances All duties and performances they are but to comment and paraphrase upon the heart In prayer God expects a flaming heart in hearing of the Word he looks for a melted heart in fasting rend your hearts and not your clothes in thansgiving he listens to hear whether ye make melody in your hearts Religion it doth spiritualize performances and doth shell them and take the kernel it doth extract the spirits and quitessence of them 5. Hence it is that without this the most pompous performances are scorned and rejected A sacrifice without an heart is an abomination to him I hate your burnt-offerings my soul nauseates your solemne assemblies Odi Danaos dona ferentes Bring me no more vain oblations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A corrupt heart it soiles every Ordinance it stains and discolours every Duty it envenoms every mercy If such a one pray 't is esteemed houling if he mourne 't is hanging down the head like a bul-rush if he sacrifice 't is cutting off a dogs neck if he rejoyce 't is but a blaze a crackling of thornes under the pot 6. In Heaven when outward performances shall vanish yet then God shall have thine heart and thou shalt have his face thy well-beloved shall be thine and thou shalt be his When Preaching shall cease and Prayer shall cease when Sacraments shall disappear yet then thy naked heart shall be offered unto God it shall twine about the chiefest good and by a neer and immediate union shall enjoy it for ever III. The Heart is to be given unto God because thou hast promised it him Remember that Primitive and Original vow in Baptisme God then may take possession of the heart if he please for he hath the key of all hearts he hath the key of an Infants heart and can open it if he please But however there is an engagement upon thee by this to give him thine heart And sure there are few but sometime or other have given him severall other promises of their hearts Did'st thou never offer thine heart unto him in a storme in a judgement in a sicknesse Well then withall remember that God takes no pleasure in fools that make vowes and break them His promises to thee are sure why should thine be deceitful IV.
garden of God Happy Pindar If instead of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he had thought of these water-brooks and he might have hop't for a better Crown then either he or any of his worthies were like to obtain if he could have reach't this heavenly tune set by so holy a Lyrick the sweet singer of Israel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as the Septuagint render the words And yet their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speaks not loud enough to expresse the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie a strong and earnest desire and though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may intimate a desire upon a desire which by reduplication must needs be stronger and granting that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do still adde to the vehemency of it yet the word in the Original is more appropriated to the panting hart and may seem to be borrow'd from that very noise which it makes in its braying after the water-brooks and the Latin glocitat is answerable unto it Now as for the hart alas 't is but a melancholy timerous creature at the best a panting creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You know who 't was upbraided it to Agamemnon Thou hast an impudent eye and a panting heart and no more usual Periphrasis of a coward then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But that which the text chiefly aimes at is the drynesse of temper in the Hart which at some times of the year in Autumn chiefly as Aristotle notes in his Historistia Animalium is very excessive especiall in those hot and dry Countreys and being usually in the desert doth more discover it selfe by reason of the scarcity of waters there To let that alone which yet divers tel us of its drawingup devouring of serpents and how that when 't is enflam'd with the venom of them it then breaks out into those strong anhelations violent breathings after the streams of water and when it hath satisfied it self with them it then casts off all that was burthensom in the body before and thus renews its age again Epiph adds that if within the space of three houres it can't quench its thirst it presently dies but if it satisfie it selfe with the streames of water it usually lives fifty yeares longer 'T is likely here in the text 't is meant of the Harts panting when 't is chased by the hunter and yet not as some understand when that after its many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it can finde no place of safety it then pants after the water-brooks as the only place of refuge but rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle briefly for the quenching of its thirst as the following words clearly intimate My soul is athirst c. Haeret lateri lethalis arundo the arrows of the pursuer stick fast in it the venom thereof drinks up its spirits Why now water-brooks can hardly quench its thirst with Behemoth in Job it can drink up rivers and sup up the Ocean at a draught there 's a combustion in its bowels nothing but fire fire nature's on fire and would fain be quencht and those little reliques of strength that it has it spends in panting after the streames of water Thus does the Hart pant after the water-brooks and thus did Davids soul thus does every devout soul pant after the living God and thus ardently Religion is no matter of indifferency as vain man would imagine It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he said of love It requires the very flower and vigour of the spirit the strength and sinews of the soul the prime and top of affections It is no empty wish nor languishing endeavour no still-born prayer nor abortive resolution will serve the turne He that 's but almost a Christian shall but almost be saved and that will be the very Emphasis of damnation to have been within a step to heaven But there is a grace a panting grace we know the name of it and that 's all 't is call'd zeal a flaming edge of affection and the ruddy complexion of the soul which argues it sound and shews it lovely This is that that makes a Christian an holy sparke a sonne of the coal even of the burning coal that was fetcht from the Altar Nay we need not go so low as this a zealous Christian is an incarnate Seraphim what should I say more he 's just of his Saviours complexion white and ruddy the fairest of ten thousand This was that that set a lustre upon those shining Rubies that adorn'd the Noble Army of Martyres purpuratus martyâ—um exercituâ— And indeed they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a better sense then e're it was meant of Antipater 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is true indeed their soul was a thirst even for the living God they enter'd into heaven panting and there they rest themselves to all eternity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There remaines therefore a rest a sabbatism unto the people of God And yet there are a generation in the world that are all for a competency in goodnesse and are afeard of too much holinesse Mediocrity even here is golden a Laodicean temper shall go under the name of moderation and a reeling neutrality shall be stil'd prudence and discretion what needs this breathing and panting this forwardnesse and eagernesse this vehemency and violence in the way of Religion quorsum haec perditio And they look upon such expressions of affection as this in the text as upon strong Hyperbole's or pretty Rhetorical flourishes Ieremy surely was strangely melancholy when he wisht his head a fountain that he might weep day and night and 't was meer fondnesse in the Spouse in the Canticles to be sick of love Thus do's the serpent hisse at the wayes of godlinesse and thus do's the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 argue But go vain man look upon the panting hart wonder why it breaths so strongly after the streames of water bid it pant moderately after the water-brooks and when thy empty breath can abate its fervency then and not till then nay hardly then wonder at the strength of a Christians desire after communion with his God for as the Hart pants after the water-brooks so panteth his soul after his God so strongly 2. So panteth my soul after thee O God! so unsatisfiably And that in a double sense 1. 'T is satisfied with nothing else 2. 'T is not satisfied with a little of this 1. Nothing can still the weary and thirsty Hart but the streams of water and nothing can content the panting soul but the fruition of his God God never rested till he made man and man never rests till he enjoyes his God He ha's a soul within him of a vast capacity and nothing can fill it to the brim but he that 's fulnesse it selfe Desire is hiatus voluntatis and such as nothing but happinesse can fill it that indeed is as he sayes Mors desiderii silentium
appetitûs claustrum cupiditatis modestia ambitionis quoddam satis Nature hath taught us all to pant after a summum bonum And 't is the voice put into every ones mouth Who will shew us any good indeed 't is the errand for which we are sent into the world to finde out happinesse and yet we seek it so as if we were loath to finde it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As Lucian followes the metaphor most elegantly And happinesse may well have that inscription which Plutarch tells us was upon the temple of Isis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We knock at every creatures door but there 's nothing within no filling entertainment for the soul no creature can bid it welcome Would you know what they all amount to if you 'l beleeve Solomons reckoning the very summa totalis is vanity of vanities all is vanity and vexation of spirit Vexation is the very quintessence of the creature and all that can possibly be extracted out of it Now if vanity can satisfie or if vexation can give content if you can gather grapes of thornes or figs of thistles go on then to dote upon the creatures and to be enamour'd with a shadow of perishing beauty The Prophet Esay tells us that all the creatures they are but as the drop of a bucket when the water 's empty'd out of a bucket perhaps there 's a drop stayes sâ—ill behinde a weak drop which recollecting all its forces yet has not strength enough to fall And will such a drop think you satisfie a panting heart The creatures are weigh'd in the ballance of the sanctuary and they are found to be lighter then the dust of the ballance and this will enflame the thirst rather then quench it To speak in the Epigrammatists language they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meer nothing And surely man 's the vainest of all the rest the index of all the volumes of vanity that by sinne has subjected the creatures unto the bondage under which they groan and waite to be delivered and yet dreames of distilling I know not what felicity out of them so that me thinks 't was a notable expression of him that styl'd the Orators very ambitious of empty applause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we may surely translate it thrice miserable And 't is one of the Encomiums that Eunapius gave of Longinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as for that supposed being and excellency which we fancy in the creatures 't is really to be found after a farre more pure and eminent manner in God himselfe The load-stone can't draw the iron when the diamond's in presence and shall earthly vanities draw the soul when the pearle of price is in presence Dulciùs ex ipso fonte bibuntur aquae Surely that 's no panting soul that forsakes the fountaine of living waters and digs to it selfe broken and empty cisterns that will hold no water The Hart pants unsatisfiably after the water brooks and the soul as unsatisfiably after communion with its God 't is satisfied with nothing else But 2 'T is not satisfied with a little of this not a drop nor a taste will suffice the thirsty heart it does not come like Canis ad Nilum a lap and away a drop can no more quench its thirst then it could cool Dives his tongue though indeed he begg'd for no more That short sweetnesse and briefe refreshment which is shut up in a drop does but bespeake a stronger panting after somewhat more full and satisfactory and 't is true if ever of the waters of life Quò plus sunt potae plus sitiuntuâ— aquae Bonum as 't is sui diffusiâ—um in respect of others so 't is sui multiplicativum even in that subject where it is when it has once engratiated it selfe with the soul and wonne upon its affections when the soul begins to eye the beauty of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When the understanding once sees it O how sweetly how presently does the will embrace it and it becomes the welbeloved of the soul O how does it enlarge it selfe for the entertainment of it And how does it delight to expatiate in so choise a happinesse He that has tasted but a little of Gods goodnesse thinks he never has enough of it to be sure he can never have too much there 's no feare of surfetting upon happinesse 'T is true the least glimpse of Gods favourable presence is enough to support and cherish the soul but 't is not enough to satisfie the soul O how pleasant is it to see Christ flourishing through the lattices and yet the spouse will never leave longing till she see him face to face There 's sweetnesse indeed in a cluster of Canaan but yet such as sets the teeth on edge for more The thirsty hart pants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Christian after fulnesse of communion with his God Dulcissimo Deo totus immergicupit inviscerari as Carthusian speakes So panteth my soul after thee O God! so unsatisfiably But 3 So pantâ—th my soul after thee O God! so uncessantly until it be satisfied The thirsty hart never leaves panting while it has any being delay here does but whet desire and give it time for stronger forces And what else is a Christians whole life but a continued anhelation after his God and though this may seem very wearisome and tedious to be alwayes a panting yet the Christians soul findes far more incomparable sweetnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 solid and massy joy beaten joy like beaten gold so much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports he findes more of this in the very panting after his God then any worldling can when with the greatest complacency he takes his fill of his choisest delights and when he enjoys the smiles and blandishment of fortune his so much adored Deity And this is that which notably differencies a Christian from an hypocrite Will an hypocrite pray alwayes sayes Job or will he pant alwayes no he keeps the rule Si ter pulsanti by no means knock at heaven too often What nothing but breathing after the water-brooks better take up some muddy contentment by the way and see if that will quench his thirst Indeed he ne're tasted the sweetnesse of the fountaine no wonder that he so easily parts with it His strongest panting was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Moralist sayes of passion fraus inflammata the motion was meerly violent and therefore not likely to last long Me thinks the Greek Epigram speaks to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The painters eye steales a little beauty from the face and perhaps his hand makes restitution restoring it again in the picture and this is all you can look for of him nay 't is well if he performe so much As for the expression of vitals or the representation of essentials 't is ultra penecillum so that he must let this alone for ever The most accomplish't
hypocrite the cunning'st painter of Religion that sets it out in the finest and freshest colours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he does but steal a forme of godlinesse the Apostle has some such phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He can't reach to the vitals of Religion nor expresse the essentials of holinesse sincerity can't be painted they deny the power of it And 't is just with God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they can't expresse the life of a Christian so they should not taste the joy of a Christian no stranger entermeddles with his joy As no man can paint the essence of a thing so no man can paint the sweetnesse of a thing Whoever could paint the sweetnesse of the honey-combe The joyes of an hypocrite as they are groundlesse and imaginary so like his services they are vanishing and transitory But a Christian as he 's alwayes breathing after his God so he 's alwayes drawing sweetnesse from him And here 't were easie to shew how in every condition the soul breaths after its God when it sees the vanity of the most flourishing condition it pants after fulnesse in its God when it sees the vexation of a cloudy condition it pants after contentment only to be found in its God But I shall instance only in these two as having some neerer acquaintance with the text the strong pantings of a tempted soul and the secret pantings of a languishing and a deserted soul And 1. In temptations the soul pants after its God They that are skill'd in those termes tell us that an Hart is properly a stagge which has escap't a King in hunting And there are some such Christians that have escap't the Prince of the aire that Nimrod the mighty hunter and all his fiery darts God he has set his bowe in the clouds as a token of peace and reconciliation the rain-bowe the lace of Peaces coat And the devil he must set his bowe in the clouds too in the troubled and cloudy spirit and there are arrows in the hand of the mighty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And how shall the soul escape these fiery darts but by panting after its God as the only place of refuge a strong Tower and a rock of defence and by breathing after Heaven as a place where 't is sure to be free from them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he said in the Comedy A crowned Christian is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Satans fiery darts can by no means reach Heaven And thus the soul pants Arise O Lord and save me O my God from the mouth of the Lion that 's ready to devour me lest he teare my soul and rent it to pieces while there is none to deliver Lo the enemy has bent his bowe and made ready his arrow upon the string that he may secretly shoot at the upright in heart But compasse me O God with thy favour as with a shield keep me as the apple of thine eye and hide me under the covert of thy wings Deliver me from my strong enemy and from him that hateth me for he is too strong for me O send me help from thy Sanctuary and strengthen me out of Sion And thus when with a sure recumbency it leanes upon its God it has leasure then with an holy triumph to out-brave the enemy And as for thee that would'st make a partition between me and my God see if thou can'st teare me from the bleeding wounds of my dying Saviour rend me if thou know'st how from the bowels the tenderest bowels of Gods dearest compassions see if the gates of hell can prevaile against the rock of eternity If thou O God be with us if the God of Jacob be our refuge we will not feare what all the powers of darknesse can do against us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We are more then conquerours These are the strong pantings of a tempted soule 2ly In desertions even then the soule pants after its God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when the soul is ready to perish in the dark it pants after the water brooks and can meet with nothing but waters of Marah and Meribah God dips his pen in gall and writes bitter things against it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the soule is athirst and like its Saviour it can have nothing but gall and vineger to drink yet still it pants after its God 'T is under a cloud indeed but even these clouds shall drop fatnesse they shall drop upon the dwellings of the wildernesse and the barren soule shall rejoyce like John the Baptist it feeds upon honey in the desert not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wilde honey such as is the worldling's joy but honey out of the rock upon the tip of the rod like Jonathans to open the eye and to refresh the heart A soule in a desertion is as it were a soule in a Consumption and one only taste of Gods sweetest love in Jesus Christ is a sure Restaurative for such a languishing soule Now in the greatest Eclipse of Gods favour in the total Eclipse when there is not so much as a secret light yet there 's a strong influence nay stronger then at another time for his strength is proportion'd to our weaknesse And they are Pauls own words When I am weak then I am strong And even now there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Homer calls those sparkles that seem'd to be buried in the ashes and a Christian in time may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nay there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too Light is sowen to the righteous there 's a door of Hope open'd in the valley of Achâ—r and now the soul pants after God as a Father of mercies and a God of Consolations A God of Consolation what higher what sweeter strain All the balme of Gilead seems to be wrapt up in this expression A God of Consolation that 's one who in the strangest exigences and greatest repugnances when comforts faile can create new comforts for that 's to be a God of Consolation Creation is his properly can raise them out of the barren wombe of nothing for that 's Creation can do it with a word for Omnipotency useth to put it self to no greater expences Imperatoria brevitas the very commanding word let there be light in such a soule is enough to make it more glorious then the Empyrean heaven And now the soule pants thus as you may heare David panting almost in every Psalme How long wilt thou forget me O Lord for ever And how long wilt thou hide thy face from me Hath the Lord forgotten to be gracious And hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies Is the hand of Omnipotency abbreviated that it cannot help and his arme shorten'd that it cannot save Or is his mercy clean gone for ever and does his promise faile for evermore Weeping hath endured for a night why comes not joy in the morning When wilt thou satisfie the longing soule and fill the thirsty with thy goodnesse when wilt thou lead me
wont to be sung at those solemn times when Baptisme was publickly celebrated 3. As for the Sacrament of the Lords Supper why there are mellita flumina streaming brooks of butter and honey as Job speaks and O how welcome is the panting soule hither God ha's sent a messenger to invite him O! every one that thirsteth let him come and drink freely Drink yea drink abundantly O beloved 'T is most true here that which Trismegistus feign'd God sets a great Cup full of Celestial liquor with this Proclamation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Up soul and drench thy self in this Cup of the Spirit Calix ebrius est as the force of the Original is in Psal 23. we render it The Cup overflows Here if ever the soule is comforted with flagons and Christs love is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sweeter then wine 4. What should I tell you nay how can I tell you the strong pantings of the soule in Prayer The Apostle calls them Rom. 8. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 groanes unutterable when the soul becomes as the Syriack Idiom calls the thuribulum domus aromatum breathing up sweet odours unto the Throne of grace and Heaven it self is thus perfum'd Domus orationis is Domus aromatum In all these you see how the soule breathes after Communion with its God mediate Communion with him here But 2dly it pants after immediate Communion with him in glory and the following words will well bear this sense though not so properly and genuine O when shall I appear before the face of God in glory Thus Paul pants I desire to be dissolv'd and to be with Christ Thus the soules pant in the Revelation Come Lord Jesus come quickly Hîc pitissamus illic deglutiemur Here we sip of the water of life but there we shall drink it up though there be eternity to the bottome Here we are sons of hope and that 's a panting grace Spes indeed is aurora gaudii matutina laetitia early joy but when grace shall be ripen'd into glory then hope shall be swallowed up in fruition And thus we as 't is in 2 Cor. 3. 18. with open face 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You see that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here denotes a clear vision whereas quite contrary in 1 Cor. 13. to see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we see in a glasse darkly A learned Critick hath well observed that the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 includes both for it signifies vision and speculation we clearly beholding the glory of God are chang'd into the same image from glory to glory that 's either from his glory we become glorious or else 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that 's from grace to glory for grace is glory in the bud as glory is grace at the full Surely glory is nothing else but a bright Constellation of graces and happinesse nothing but the Quintessence of holinesse And now the soule by an holy gradation ascends higher from those first-fruits and earnest-penies of joy here to the consideration of the fulnesse of glory which it expects hereafter ð„ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ð„ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ð„ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ð„ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ð„ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Lyrick straines sweetly when the soule shall be unsheath'd from the body that I mayallude to the Chaldee Idiom how gloriously shall it then glister or to speak in Plutarchs expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when the soule shall be unclouded from the body in what brightnesse shall it then appear what did Davids soule his panting soule here leap for joy when he remembred thee O Sioâ— O how triumphantly then does his glorified soule now sing in the new Jerusalem Did his soule sing so sweetly in a cage of clay what melody think you does it now make being let loose to all eternity Is there such deliciousnesse in a Cluster of grapes cut down in the brook Eâ—hcol what look you for in the Vintage of Canaan the Land of Promise Is but a Prospect of that holy land upon the top of Mount Pisgah so pleasant and delightful surely then their lot is fallen to them in a fair ground and they have a goodly heritage that enjoy the sweetnesse of that land that flowes with milk and honey Ha's but a glimpse of Gods favourable countenance such a powerful such a satisfying influence upon the soul O think if you can how it shall be ravish'd with the fulnesse of the Beatifical Vision when the clarifi'd soul shall drink in the beames of glory and be fill'd with joy to the very brim When the panting soule shall rest it self in the bosome of a Saviour and fix his eye upon the brightnesse of his Majesty to all eternity nay when eternity shall seem too short for the beholding and admiring of such transcendent excellencies and for the solemnizing of those heavenly Nuptials between Christ and his most beloved Spouse where all the powers of heaven shall dance for joy while a Consort of Seraphims sing an Epithalamium Beloved sayes the Apostle now are ye the sons of God but it appears not as yet what ye shall be This choice Prerogative of adoption does but shadow out your future glory for it appeares not as yet what ye shall be Now ye are sons but in your minority sons but yet insulted over by servants Now ye are sons but then ye shall be heires heires of glory and co-heires with Christ Now you see in a glasse darkly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a riddle and that book which is call'd the Revelation is most vail'd with obscurity but then you shall see face to face 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as God promises to manifest to Moses And some think that this place of the Apostle alludes to those very words taken out of Numb 12. 6. The riddle of summum bonum that hath pos'd so many shall then be explicated happinesse shall be unmask'd the book shall be unseal'd the white stone shall sparkle most oriently you shall behold with open face the glory of God you shall know as you are known not as if a finite creature could comprehend an infinite essence as some of the Schoolmen seem fondly to imagine but the words will easily bear a double Hebraisme You shall know as you are known that is either you shall know as you are approved or else you shall know as you are known that is you shall know as you are made to know 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayes Beza 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayes Heinsius for indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the same with the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and if it be rendered Hellenistically he tells us the words will run thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall know so as God is pleased to be known by me to manifest himself unto me O let every pious Panting Soul with its apprehensions rais'd and its affections advanc'â— wait and long
foot-steps of this in Nature some obscure representations of this truth there The Sun it do's not monopolize its beams and engrosse its light but scatters them abroad gilds the whole world with them it shines more for others then it self it is a publick light Look on a fountaine it do's not binde in its streams seale up it self and enclose its waters but spends it self with a continual bubbling forth it streams forth in a fluent liberal and communicative manner it is a publick spring Nay natural bodies will part with their own properties leave their motions nay crosse their own inclinations for a general good The Aire a light and nimble body that mounts upwards and do's naturally ascend yet for an universal good rather then there shall be a breach and rupture in nature a vacuum it will descend for the stopping of that hiatus In the body of man the inferiour members will venter themselves for the good of the whole The hand will be cut off and lose its own being rather then the head shall be endanger'd you see some shadowes of this truth in Nature 3. And the weak and glimmering light of Nature shews thus much that a man is not borne for himself alone he is a sociable â—reature and sent into the world for the good of others The â—oice of an Heathen A mans countrey and his friend and others challenge great part of him It is a miserable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make his own self the centre of all his actions 4. Consider that every mans private welfare is included in the publick The welfare of Meroz depended upon Israels safety what would have become of Meroz if the rest of their fellow-brethren had perisht So that it was a part of great folly in Meroz not to come out to the help of Israel When the disease seazes upon a vitall part as the head or the heart or the like so as to endanger the whole then every member is in danger though for the present they may be free from paine The well-being of every private man depends on the publick good A single drop is soon dry'd up and consum'd I but a drop in the Ocean when 't is united to a multitude of other drops 't is there more safe and a drop by it self is weak and can make no resistance I but a drop in the Ocean is terrible Men have a more safe and a more honourable being as joyn'd to the whole then taken single by themselves A single drop can do nothing but a multitude of drops joyn'd together will make a stream and carry all before them A single beame is obscure but in the Sun the centre of rayes meeting in the publick point they are glorious And these arguments may prevaile with you as men living in common society but then as Christians I. Consider that Gods children have been alwayes of this disposition of publick spirits seeking the glory of God and the good of Sion Exod. 32. 32. If not blot me I pray thee out of thy Book Moses out of a pang of vehement zeale would part with his own happinesse rather then Israel should perish If it would make more for the glory of God he would be content to be damn'd or at least to have the beams of Gods favourable presence withdrawn from him Rom. 9. 3. I could wish that my self were accursed from Christ or separated for my brethren my kinsmen according to the flesh for the Jews Israelites which is meant of the poena damni I could be content to have the face of Christ hid from me for my brethrens sake as Gods face was once hid from Christ upon the Crosse My God my God why hast thou forsaken me A most strong affection and zeale for the publick good Paul knew what the face of Christ was how glorious a sight it was to see God face to face And he knew what answer God had given to Moses too Him that sinnes him will I blot out of my Book And yet out of a most ardent desire of the salvation of the Jews he will part with the face of Christ so they may be saved here were publick spirits indeed What should I tell you of Vriah that famous Souldier his brave and heroical resolution how he would take no complacency in outward things and marke his reason 2 Sam 11. 11. The Arke and Israel and Judah abide in tents and my Lord Joab and the servants of my Lord are encamped in the open fields as if he should say What shall the Arke be in danger and shall Vriah be secure Or shall my Lord Joab be more forward then I am in Israels cause As thou livest and as thy soul liveth I will not do this thing He raps out an Oath like a Souldier which he might have well spar'd but yet he shews a most generous and publick spirit And this was no small aggravation of Davids sin 137. Psalme See how the Psalmist and the rest of Gods people behave themselves By the rivers of Babylon we sate down and wept when we remembred thee O Sion We hanged our Harpes upon the Willows in the midst thereof If I forget thee Jerusalem let my right hand forget her cunning David had a most delicate touch upon the Harpe a soft and silken touch He could still Saul's evil spirit with his Musick but if I forget thee Jerusalem let my right hand forget her cunning And when did Jeremy make his Lamentation that whole book of mourning but when the glory of Sion was laid in the dust when Ierusalem the Lady of Nations was made desolate Gods people have been alwayes of publick spirits and have sympathiz'd with the Church II. That you may follow so good example think whose cause it is The cause of Israel is the cause of God To the help of the Lord c. Can you have a better cause The good of the Church and the glory of God are knit together by an act of Gods gracious will So that he that seeks the good of the Church do's in the same act seek the glory of God And he that helps not Israel comes not out to the help of the Lord. Now you are bound to maintaine the cause of God and to help the Lord. 1. By many and severall engagements As creatures at his beck he has a sovereignty and dominion over you Not to obey the great God is to deny his supremacy You are bound in a way of thankfulnesse to stand for him and his cause by those sweet mercies those precious pledges of his love which he every moment heaps upon you by those many blessings that come swimming to you in the blood of a Saviour 2. By many Promises Vowes Protestations Your first and Originall vow in Baptisme obliges you to maintaine the cause of God and of his Church against all the enemies thereof And you have often repeated this Vow and seal'd it again in the Lords Supper for you know that 's a sealing up of
pray against them to have them restrain'd and subdu'd Many a weak and aged and sickly one unfit for warre and yet powerful in prayer And these weapons of our warfare they are not carnal but mighty You can't encounter an enemy I but you may thus wrastle with the Almighty You can't batter down a strong hold but yet ye can besiege the throne of grace with concentred abilities You are not fit to be set in a Watch-tower to spy out the approach of an enemie but yet you may watch unto prayer And this is a great advantage that Christians have over their enemies The enemy knows not how to pray they know how to curse and swear and blaspheme the name of God but they know not how to pray Or if they do pray and tell their prayers with their beads that they may know the number of them yet their prayer is turn'd into fin The prayer of the wicked is an abomination Let them cry aloud to their Idols and see if they will hear them they can't look that God should hear them For If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear my prayer O then let Christians know their own happinesse and make use of this spirituall weapon of prayer that opposes the enemy more then all other weapons whatsoever Let them brandish the glittering sword c. And this is the chief use you are to make of all the news you hear to know how to order your prayers accordingly No question more ordinary in mens mouth then what news And I finde no fault with the question it is good and fitting But news are not to be enquired after only for the satisfying of mens mindes and curiosity as the Athenians spent all their time in enquiring for some news But this is the main end of it to know how to send up your prayers for the good of the Church and your praises for such mercies as God bestowes upon it All news heard by a publick spirit will stir up prayer or thanksgiving This is the use you are to make of news if sad news of the Churches misery and desolation then send up more fervent prayer that God would repaire the breaches of it and settle it in a flourishing condition if welcome news then praise God for his free goodnesse and desire him to perfect the great work which he has begun This is one special means to promote the publick good the prayer of the righteous And God alwayes when he intends any great mercy he poures upon his people a spirit of prayer he stirres up their hearts in this way he opens their mouth wide before he fills it 2. Self-Reformation This has great influence upon the publick good And how can you expect a publick and glorious Reformation unlesse first you reforme in private Look upon the grievances of your own soul hearken unto those many petitions that are put up to you by the Ministers who beseech you to be reconcil'd unto God Every sin addes to wrath it provokes God pulls down his judgements and ripens a Nation for destruction and has a malignant and venemous influence upon the whole So then the turning from sin and reforming your wayes is the means to divert judgements to bring down mercies and bring down publick good If there were more private Reformations in mens spirits there is no doubt but God would blesse the publick Reformation Sinne puts more rubs in the way then any enemy or opposer whatsoever This is the great Mountain that hinders the going up of the Temple if this one were but took away all other would quickly become a plain They are very injurious to the publick good that go on in a course of sinning against so gracious a God that do's such great things for us One sinner destroyes much good as the wise man speaks 3. Vnited spirits and a sweet harmony of Affections graciously consorting together would help forward the cause of Israel Jarres and dissensions amongst Christians themselves sound very harshly For the divisions of Reuben there were great thoughts of heart What is there can give greater advantage to an enemy then to see Israelites fall out amongst themselves You may learn more wisdome of them that are wiser in their generation then the children of light what a strait union and confederacy have they among themselves Gebal and Ammon and Ama'ek the Philistines with them that dwell at Tyre These scales of Leviathan as that in Job is usually allegoriz'd are shut together as with a close seale And if they should be at variance and discord among themselves yet they have a sure way of reconciliation by a joynt opposition of the godly Ephraim against Manesseh and Manasseh against Ephraim both against Judah Herod and Pilate made friends in crucifying Christ If wicked men can agree in opposing of goodnesse why should not Christians in helping forward goodnesse All ye that come out to the help of the Lord to the help of the Lord against the Mighty come with united hearts and agreeing spirits Why should there be strife between you seeing you are Brethren And then consider What will not united forces do when you shall joyn to the work of the Lord with one consent with one shoulder What is it that this union won't bring to passe It will strike terrour to the Churches enemies and strengthen the hearts of friends It will mightily promote the publick goood and tend to the glory of Ierusalem If men would but lay out themselves and their several gifts and abilities in one general aime for the advantage of their Master and good of their fellow-servants what glorious times should we then see This is one clause in the Protestation to stand for the union of the three Kingdomes 4. I might adde that with outward aide too you are bound to promote the publick good with liberal contribution to relieve the necessity of the Christians as the Church of Macedonia gave above her abilities And also such as by authority shall be sent forth against the Popish-Rebells they are to fight with courage and alacrity for 't is for the cause of God They come out to the help of the Lord to the help of the Lord against the Mighty And now for a word of Application It is for the just reproof of most men that minde not at all the publick good How do they think to avoide the curse of Meroz seeing they come not out to the help of the Lord c. There is a principle of corrupt self-love in men that makes them of narrow and contracted spirits All their aimes are for themselves and their own ends they do not minde the good of the Church If they hear but of a worldy losse some ship cast away and their estate be weaken'd this will pierce and affect their spirits 't will sad and darken their joy But they can hear of ruines of the Church the breaches of Sion that the Church has many rollings and commotions and
not be wrought upon not be much mov'd with it Men are more affected with their own private good then with the publick and more mov'd with private miseries then publick If they themselves be in the least danger or some of their neer friends then you shall have mourning and sighing and lamentation But if the Church lye a bleeding the Saints those precious ones be kill'd all the day long and accounted as sheep for the slaughter they can be merry enough for all this How many are there that have not shed a teare for Ireland That have not spent a sigh for them nor put up a prayer for them God he has a Bottle for your teares and he knows how many you have put into it I am sure it will hold a great many more then you have shed I speak not so much for outward weeping there 's many perhaps can't shed a tear upon any occasion But I call for a spirit of mourning a sympathizing spirit a spirit took up with the publick good as its best employment O how many are there that this bitter curse of Meroz will fall heavy upon And upon your dayes of humiliation be sure to humble your selves for this your want of a publick spirit your not praying for the peace of Ierusalem How do you know but that if you had sent up more prayers to heaven God might have free'd the distressed Christians by this time As they are guilty of the Christians blood in an high degree that shed it in a most inhumane manner so I know not how they can excuse themselves from some guilt of it that do not help them by prayers and endeavours as much as in them lyes 2. It is against all such as are in a kinde of indifferency and neutrality they neither are for one nor other What is this but the very same case with Meroz Meroz did not fight against Israel it did not fight for the Canaanites no but it did not come out to the help of Israel and therefore it has this bitter curse Vain men that think to content themselves with this that they do not hurt but every man that do's not good do's hurt he most do either one or other the soul is not idle it is either doing good or evil Suppose that a man did no hurt yet this is not enough unlesse he do s good too for there are sins of Omission as well as of Commission Not doing of publick good is a publick hurt 3. By way of Gradation à majori ad majus If there be such a bitter curse upon Meroz for their negligence and remissenesse in duty for not coming out against the Mighty what severe judgments and dregs of wrath shall be pour'd out upon all them that come out against the Lord that are against the publick good that wish ill to Sion that would fain see her in the dust that hate and persecute Christians that oppose the power of Religion and the life of the Gospel that are in the very gall of bitternesse All the curses that are written and not written shall flame against them and the vials of Gods fiercest wrath shall be emptyed upon them Meroz's curse is bitter but in respect of theirs sweet and easie Blesse God for men of publick spirits for Zerubbabels and Jehoshuah's such as are building God a Temple Pray God to encrease the number of publick spirits such as may come out to the help of the Lord. As there 's a great and bitter curse lay'd upon Meroz for being negligent in the cause of God so there are choice and eminent blessings for such as are forward and active in it God will abundantly recompence all the labour of love which any shall shew for his name Their labour shall not be in vaine in the Lord. THE White Stone OR A Learned and Choice TREATISE OF Assurance Very useful for all but especially weak BELIEVERS 2 PET. 1. 10. Wherefore the rather Brethren give diligence to make your Calling and Election sure ASsurance of salvation is a truth of great and precious consequence of sweet and comfortable influence into the whole life of a Christian A truth which has scarce had liberty to unmask and shew it self in former times and so has seldome or never been fully treated of A truth which could never be more welcome and seasonable then in times of danger and uncertainty when all other things are in a doubtful and wavering condition then to make our calling and election sure to set up a spiritual Militia and to put the soul in a posture of defence in such an heavenly preparation as it may be fit to meet with all conditions He shall not be afraid of evil tidings his heart is fixed trusting in God He is just like the Philosophers good man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 four-square that cast him where you will like a Dy he falls alwayes sure and square He 's built upon the same foundation that the whole Church of God is He 's built upon a Rock and though the Waves dash and the windes rise though the storme encrease and the floods beat in yet the house stands the foundation 's sure 't is built upon a Rock and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it I 'le make him a pillar in the Temple of my God as Christ promises to the Church of Philadelphia even like one of those Pillars in Solomons Temple The name of the one was Jachin and of the other Booz nothing but stability and strength as the words imply Christian Assurance fortifies the soul and prepares it against all conditions Now as for the drift of our Apostle in this chapter 't was to perswade the Christian Churches of â—onous Gaâ—atia Cappadocia Asia Bithynia to whom he wrote that they would be fruitful and abundant in the graces of God that they would grow in grace and adde grace to grace and so to increase in them all till they came to a full and perfecâ— stature in Christ For â—e that lacks these saith the Apostle is blinde and cannot see afarrâ— off he is poreblinde and cannot see so farre as heaven and heavenly things And theu he is forgetful too of the very first principles and rudiments of Grace he forgets that he was purg'd from his former sins in the Lavour of Regeneration in Baptisme when he first enter'd into Covenant with God Wherefore do â—e rather give diligence to make your calling c. You that have a spiritual eye and an enlight'ned soul and can disceâ—ne the things of God and you that are mindful of the Covenant made with him do you brethren give c. for this if any thing will make you fruitful in the works of Grace for by these you must maintain your Assurance these are the fruits and evidences of your solvation the fruits of the Spirit and the first fruits of eternal life Christians that make their Calling and Election sure will and must be fruitful in good works The Papists
interpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this verse and Beza saies indeed that he found it in two ancient copies but though it be left out in the letter yet we enclude it in the sense good reason to leave it out in the text because all the Greek copies do two only excepted but yet we take it in in the interpretation and freely acknowledge that no Christian can be assur'd of his salvation who is not fruitful and abundant in good works as Fulke and Carthwright do very well satisfie the Rhemists Translation In the words you have 1 An usual compellation Brethrer 2. An Apostolical exhortation and that to a double duty one subordinate to another The 1. and principal in intention to make your calling and election sure The 2. which is a meanes to the former to give diligence And if you look upon the first again you shall finde in it 1. A propriety your calling and election 2. A method and order first your calling and then your election As for two of the particulars we 'l but point at them because they are not so properly intended in the words For The compellation is frequent and obvious in every Epistle and shews 1. An Apostolical Suaâ—a by which they were wont to winde and insinuate themselves into the affections of the people to engâ—atiate themselves with them for affection does strongly engage the judgement And all Rhetorick is little enough to win hearts and prevail upon some mens spirits 2. An Apostolical meeknesse Peter a Star of the first magnitude yet calls the lesser Sporades his brethren A glorious and eminent Christian a tall Cedar in Lebanon yet acknowledges the meanest and lowest Christians his brethren He learnt this of his Lord and Master who was not ashamed to call them brethren And shall the disciple be above his Lord 'T were well if the Pope who will needs be Saint Peters successor would follow him in this And who art thou O prophane Ismael that scoff'st at the children of the promise under this very name and notion of brethren And then as for the propriety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your calling and election 1. None can be assur'd of another mans salvation unlesse it be of such whom the Scripture tells us were in the state of Grace whose sincerity is made famous to all the world to whom the Spirit has set its broad seal and given them a publike Testimony that they were within the Covenant for others we know in general that there are a select and peculiar company whom God has chosen out as his jewels but we cannot say certainly and infallibly of such a particular person of any Individuum that he is a chosen vessel Of some 't is evident and apparent that for the present they are not in the state of Grace we are sure that as yet they are not efficaciously call'd but we know not whether they be chosen for others we have great hopes and an high degree of probability that they are truly born again but yet we have no absolute certainty for Hypocrisie will go so farre as that the best Criticks may be deceived And a man can never tell certainly another mans sincerity unlesse he could supply the place of Conscience An Hypocrite may spin so fair a thred as that it may deceive his own eye he may admire the cobweb and not know himself to be the Spider how much more easie may he deceive a stander by And as for any extraordinary spirit of discerning I know no ground for it nor any promise of it in the Scriptures You 'l say this takes much from the communion of Saints and from the sweetnesse of Christian society if we cannot tell who are true members of the Mystical body fellow-brethren and fellow-heirs of the same promise 1. Though we cannot tell absolutely and infallibly yet we may know very probably we know there are such a peculiar people a chosen generation a Royal Priest-hood and we know that such and such are the likeliest in the world to be of this number so as we have no reason to distrust them 2. We must commend much of this to Gods providence who very seldome suffers Hypocrites to go undetected he that is the great searcher of hearts will be sure to meet with them he hates a rotten heart and will be sure to make it odious 3. 'T is fitting that this and many other priviledges should be reserv'd for heaven that so we may long after that the more There shall be a pure and unmixt communion the perfect beauty of holinesse Nothing shall enter there that makes a lie nothing of Hypocrisie but glorious Angels and glorifi'd Saints sunning themselves in the presence of God shall keep company together to all eternity 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christians are chiefly to look to their own calling and election They are indeed bound to promote the good of others and to look upon their lives with such Rules as Christianity allows but they must be sure to dwell at home and be acquainted with their own breasts to make their own calling and election sure for they cannot be sure of another mans condition so as they may be of their own And thus we have dispatch't those two particulars which lay more collateral in the words and were not directly intended in them We now come to the very minde and drift of the Text which branches it self into these four propositions that will fully explain the nature of Assurance though we keep within the bounds of the Text It streams into these four particulars 1. A Christian may be assur'd of his salvation 2. Assurance of salvation requires all diligence 3. Assurance of salvation deserves all diligence both imply'd in Give diligence 4. The way to make our Election sure is first to make our calling sure And now you may look upon the Text as on a pleasant Vine situated in a fruitful place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. in the horn of the Son of Oile or fatnesse as the Prophet speaks you may sit under the shadow of it and its fruit will be sweet unto you For you see how it has spread it self into spacious and goodly branches such as are all laden with fair and swelling clusters clusters of Canaan that are ripen'd with those heavenly Sun-beams that shine out upon them and richly fill'd with all spiritual sweetnesse And this fruit of the Vine will chear the heart of man to all eternity As for us we 'll be sure to prune off all such sproutings and luxuriancies of style as may any way steal from the sap and strength of so great a truth in hand as the Hebrews call those sproutings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. little Epicures alwayes feasting upon the sweetnesse of the tree and putting the root to continual expences we 'll prune off all these And if there be any clusters lie lurking under the leaves truth 's not so obvious to every eye we 'll if we
streams but yet I may die with thirst there are spiritual dainties and precious delicacies but I am not sure to have one taste of them many a promise looks with a pleasant and propitious eye but 't is not fixt upon my soul so that take away a Christians interest and propriety in a promise and what becomes of his consolation God has given his word his oath his seal his earnest and all to this very end that a poor Christian may be assur'd of his salvation that he might have strong and vigorous consolation so that to deny him this is to annihilate the word of God to frustrate the oath of God to evacuate the seal of God and as much as in them lies to make him lose his earnest and to leave the soul in an intricate and perplext condition 4. From the nature of Christian hope There 's a vast difference between the Moralists hope and that which is the Theological grace and yet this is scarce took notice of they require these three ingredients into the object of hope that it must be 1 bonum 2. futurum 3. incertum but Christian hope is certain infallible it looks upon good as to come and as certain to come indeed 't is nothing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Clem. Alexand. elegantly blood running in the veins of Faith if hope expire Faith will presently bleed to death That good which Faith sees Hope waits for Faith eyes it as present but yet at a distance and Hope tarries for it till it come Christian hope is nothing but a waiting and expectation of a certain good you have a pregnant text for this in Hebr. 6. 19. Which Hope we have as an Anchor of the soul both sure and stedfast Hope were but a poor Anchor if it should leave the soul to the courtesie of a wave to the clemency of a Rock to the disposing of a storme Hope were but a weak Anchor if it should let the soul be lost with uncertainties if it should leave it in danger of shipwrack I but this Anchor is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it pierces within the vaile it will be sure to have fast hold 't will fix upon heaven it self upon the sanctum sanctorum See another Rom. 5. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now that 's a poore glory to triumph in uncertainties to triumph before the victory little cause of joy and exultation till the soul be provided for eternity I can tell you the very possibility of being damn'd is enough to extinguish joy so that till the soul come to be in a safe condition safe for all eternity and till it know it self to be in this safe condition 't is so farre from being joyful as that it cannot tell how to be quiet A probable hope will bear up and support the soul a door of hope in the valley of Achor but it will not quiet and satisfie the soul The least dawning of hope in the initials of grace does mightily cherish and encourage the soul O how pleasant are the eye lids of the morning how welcome is the day-break after a dark and disconsolate night Nay the very possibility of being sav'd was that which first drew us all to look after heaven the very consideration that there was Balme in Gâ—lead But the weary soul will ne're rest here the Dove will ne're take this for an Ark No the beams of Gods love will shine out stronger and brighter upon the soul and ripen his hope into assurance Christian hope when 't is in its full vigour is all one with assurance Rom. 5. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but if hope could be frustated it then might make asham'd disappointment would cause a blush hope differr'd will make the heart sick and uncertain hope will scarce make the soul well a Christians hope is not like that of Pandora which may flie out of the box and bid the soul farewel no 't will ne're vanish till it be swallow'd up in fruition The hope of the Hypocrite 't is as his righteousnesse like the morning-dew but the hope of a Christian 't is like the morning-light the least beam of it shall commence into a compleat Sun-shine 't is Aurora gaâ—dii and it shall shine out brighter and brighter till perfect day We shall further clear this truth if you consider the manner how Christians are assur'd of their salvation the third thing we propounded 1. By the graces of God which are in them those precious seeds of immortality and the Prints of the Spirit by which they are sealed to the day of Redemption Grace is the Spirits stamp by which it marks the soul for its own The first-fruits of the Spirit the least grace if true and sincere is sufficient to salvation and therefore the sense of the least grace is sufficient to Assurance But how shall the soule know that it has these graces in truth and not in shadow and colour only how shall it be certain that these are not counterfeit and painted There might be given many signes and characters of true grace that it must flow from a principle of sincerity from a principle of love that it must be conformable to the grace of Christ But all this will not satisfie for the soule will still question how shall I know that my graces are such so then that which we must ultimately resolve it into is that in Rom. 8. 16. For in the mouth of two or three witnesses every thing shall be established Now we have here two witnesses omni exceptione majores we have a double Testimony a twin-Testimony The same Spirit beareth witnesse with our Spirits that we are the Sons of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he confirmes what the other sayes both the witnesses do fully agree and make up one entire testimony the soul may say here as Paul Rom. 9. 1. I speak the truth I lie not my Conscience bearing me witnesse by the Holy Ghost The whole work of Assurance is summ'd up in this Practical Syllogism Whosoever beleeves shall be saved but I beleeve and so shall certainly be saved The Assumption is put out of doubt 1. Conscience comes in with a full testimony And if natural Conscience be a thousand witnesses then sure an enlight'ned and sanctifi'd Conscience can be no lesse then ten thousand 1 John 3. 10. He that beleeves has a witnesse in himself a Certificate in his own breast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for as the same Apostle 1 John 3. 2. Beloved if our heart condemn us not then have we confidence towards God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here is the same with Conscience for the Hebrewes have no other word for Conscience but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So then if our heart acquit us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have as much liberty as we can desire It feares not now the edge of the law nor the fiery darts of Satan it doth not stagger with sense of its own weaknesse and unworthinesse but
love immortall Did not his Spirit seale up thy soul and is not the print of that seale indelible Speak did not he once shew thee thy name written with his own had in the Book of Life and do's he use to blot out what he has written Do'st not thou remember did not he smile upon thee in such and such an Ordinance and are his smiles deceitful O no! rest satisfy'd O Christian soul and quiet thy self in those rich expressions of his Love which he has formerly bestow'd upon thee O quesion not his goodnesse but prepare thy self for receiving of it The streams are dry'd up but yet the fountaine's full thou hast had some tastes of it though now thou art dry and thirsty and thou shalt have in time fresh bubblings up of his grace towards thee in the interim take this for a cordial Those former drops which thou hast tasted of it will cherish thy soul to all eternity The least drop of grace shall never be exhausted the least spark of true joy shall never be extinguisht all the floods that the Dragon can vomit out of his mouth shall never be able to quench it But then 4. Put the case thus that there be no Sun-light nor Starre-light nor reliques of former light neither the testimony of Gods Spirit nor of our own spirits nor any recalling of former assurance what must the soul do now Now look to the dawning of the day to the first Crepusculum look now to the initials of grace to the preface of Sanctification Thou canst not it may be shew any faire and lively pourtraâ—cture I but hast thou the first draughts and rudiments of holinesse Thou hast not any goodly and delicious clusters of Canaan O but see if the tender grape do bud There are not any ripe fruits of the Spirit but yet are there some blossomings of holinesse They graces don't flow out in fo full and faire a stream but canst thou see any bubblings up of goodnesse in thee Thou hast not yet the strength of a well grown Christian well but is there the vagitus of an Infant Look now to the souls prizing of a Christ to the whimperings after the breast to the breathings and longings after its Beloved thoughts upon him desires for him endeavours after him there 's much comfort and sweetnesse in these I and some kinde of Assurance For 1. Be sure that God that has begun this great work in thee will never give over till it be full and compleat he do's not use to leave his work imperfest The least tendency to goodness is cherished by him The very first motion 't is of his own planting and it shall lack for no watering and he himself will give it an increase 2. The least seed of grace as 't is choice and precious so 't is very vigorous and operative it will never leave working till Christ be formed in thee Who hath dâ—spised the day of small things Thy spark may spread it self into a flame and thy tender bud may flourish and bring forth much fruit He that is richest in grace began with as little a stock He that is now a tall Cedar was once a tender plant Improve but present strength and God will send thee in fresh supplies Auxiliary forces and thou shalt walk from strength to strength till thou appearest before God in glory Thy light shall shine out brighter and brighter till perfect day Donec stabiliatur dies according to the Syriac till thou com'st to a firme and well establisht Assurance The least peeping out of light the least dawning of the day is pleasant and comfortable 5. If thou canst not spy out any grace in they self borrow light of another Lay open thy soul to an Interpreter one of a thousand he may explain they condition and paraphraze upon thy soul better then thou thy self canst This Interpreter one of a thousand may more exactly analyse thy condition and shew the context and coherence of it 'T is the speech of Elihu Job 33. 23. There meets him a messenger an Interpreter one among a thousand to shew unto him his uprightnesse Hee 'l shew thee here 's grace and there 's grace here 's a true pearle and there 's a spark though in ashes and there 's an evidence A discerning and experienc'd Christian may shew thee cause of joy when thou canst finde none thy self 'T is no shame to borrow light especially spiritual light 6. One step further What if after all this there be not the least glimmering of light nothing of a spark nothing of a beam a totall eclipâ—e all clouds and blacknesse and darknesse and the very valley of the shadow of death yet even here will we fear none ill 1. When reflex acts are wanting be sure to multiply direct acts when there is no certainty of Evidence yet even then have a certainty of Adherence and Recumbency Now grasp a Promise take fast hold of that precious offer rolle thy self upon the free grace of a God in Christ lay all the stresse of thy salvation upon it with a gallant and heroical resolution If I perish I perish Thus Job Though he kill me yet will I trust in him Thus our Saviour My God my god why hast thou forsaken me And this must needs be a strong act of faith even then to rely upon God when he seems thine enemy to trust in an angry and displeased God and when he frowns on thee yet then to lean upon him Like men ready to be drown'd be sure to take fast hold cast Anchor though in the dark 2. Study self-denyal and though thou long and breath after Assurance yet resigne up thy self wholly to his will and be content to want Assurance if he see it best for thee Take heed of murmuring in the wildernesse in the saddest and most deserted condition Throw thy self at his feet with this resolution O my God I 'le blesse thee for those eternal treasures of sweetnesse that are in thy self though I should never taste of them I 'le blesse thee for those smiles of thy face which thou bestowest upon others though thou wilt not cast one gracious look upon my soule I 'le blesse thee for those rich offers of grace thou makest unto me though I have not a heart to lay hold of them 3. Put thy soul into a waiting posture and stay till he please to display some of himself unto thee and make some of his goodnesse passe before thee One beam of his countenance one gracious smile one propitious glance of his eye the least crumb of the hidden Manna 't is worth waiting for all thy life-time And when I speak of waiting I mean not that the soul should stand still and do nothing no this were against the Text Give diligence c. improve all present strength waite upon him in prayer beg one glimpse of him be earnest for a taste for a relish of the hidden Manna and wait upon him in his Ordinances here the Spirit
breaths here Manna's rain'd down here God shews his face here 's the sealing place the Spirit confirmes the word and prints it upon thy soul Thus waite upon him in his own way I and waite upon him in his own time too don't think time tedious He that beleeves makes not haste which St. Paul renders He that beleeves is not ashamed as if to make haste and be asham'd were all one God will wonderfully prepare the soule that he means to fill with his love Assurance is too precious a thing to be pour'd into every spirit He won't put new wine into old bottles God is all this while making thee more capable of his love and though for the present thou hast no Assurance yet thus trusting and waiting upon him thou art in a great tendency to it And put the worst that can be imagin'd that thou should'st dye under a cloud yet thy condition were safe and thou shalt come then to a full Assurance nay to a full possession of thine inheritance and thou shalt see the glorious Sunne-shine of the face of God a beam of which thou did'st so much long for here We come now to the fourth particular those special Sealing times when Christians have their Assurance and Plerophory 1. Many times at their first conversion God do's then seale up the work of grace in the soul When the Spirit of Bondage has past upon the soul and by a strong conviction has apply'd particularly guilt and wrath unto it the fatal sentence is pronounc't and the soul is fill'd with the scorching pre-apprehensions of hell and damnation and trembles at the very thought of eternity Now for the Gospel to bring thee wellcome newes of a pardon and for the Spirit of Adoption to apply grace and mercy unto the soul for the prison-doores to be broken open and a poor captive set at liberty to have all the chaines and fetters beaten off and to be brought into a marvellous light to have all the balme of Gilead pour'd into him Evangelical fruitions and cordials prepar'd for him and which is the very extraction and quintessence of all the love of a Saviour shed into his heart What strong impressions of joy think you must there be in such a soul What precious infusions of spiritual sweetnesse What secret springings and elevations of Spirit What triumphs what Jubilee's what love-raptures I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine I must appeal to your breasts that have found this great and heavenly work wrought upon your soul 't is you only that have tasted the joy of the holy Ghost that is glorious and unspeakable And do you tell us had not ye then the first relish of the hidden Manna was not it very sweet and delicious hadst not thou then the first glimpse of the White Stone and was not it very bright and orient hadst not thou then the Spouse kisse and was not it precious and more worth then a world didst not thou tâ—â—n first hear the soft language and whisperings of the Spirit and was not his voice lovely and pleasant I know your souls dance within you with the very recalling of so happy and golden a time and you pant and breath after more of this communion with a Saviour and truly he deserves an Anathema that do's not preferre the very possibility of having of it before all the world Hosea 11. 1. When Israel was a childe then I lov'd him I taught Ephraim also to go taking them by their armes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I taught him to foot it on the wayes of Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I drew them with the cords of a man all gentle and perswasive sollicitations with bands of love I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws and I laid meat unto them The yoke of bondage the soul was under God freed the soul brought him to an easie pleasant yoke to an Evangelical yoke God has a speciall care of tender plants when Israel was a tender vine O then he fenc'd it and hedg'd it and shone out upon it c. Now Christ is thus pleas'd to reveal his love to unbosome himself unto the souls of young Converts for their greater incouragement in the wayes of grace At the first step to heaven he gives them a viaticum If after the soul had been steept in legall humiliation and possest with feares and terrours and amazements compass't with clouds and now at last it has been drawn by a mighty work to receive a Saviour If after all this it should have no Sun-shine 't would droop and languish and be ready to pine away 't would be very unfit and unserviceable the wheels of the soul would move heavily God therefore oiles the wheels poures the Oile of gladnesse into the soul And now it moves like the chariots of Aminadab with a nimble spontaneity Christ begins to flourish through the Lettices le ts in some of his love into the soul I and gives it a sense of this love too and this constrains it to obedience and sets the soul a longing for more of this love and for more sense of this love and so it will never leave longing till it have a full fruition of it in heaven This is Gods method this is the usuall progresse of grace in the soul And hence you may see why young Converts are usually so active in the wayes of Religion so forward and vehement O they have fresh apprehensions of the love of a Saviour with an eminent alteration he has wrought in them how they are rais'd from death to life O they can tell you long stories of his goodnesse what great things he hath done for their soul So that their affections are rais'd there 's a flush of joy the soul runs over and knows no banks no bounds Thus God does many times seal up the work of grace in the soul and gives a satisfying light at the first conversion but yet I cannot say that this is alwayes so for there are diversities of workings and grace sometimes wrought in the soul after a more still and undiscernable manner as we shall have occasion to speak more hereafter 2. Sacrament-times are sealing times I speak of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper for as for those secret breathings of the Spirit upon Infants in that other Sacrament of Baptisme they are altogether unsearchable and past finding out Now in the Lords Supper you have the New Covenant seal'd up unto the soul the soul has not only his graces increased but they are printed clearer that seale of the Spirits does print a Christians evidences with a clearer stamp You have plaine and visible representations of the love of a Saviour and you have the sense of this love pour'd out into you A Christian feeds not only upon Sacramental bread but upon hidden Manna too and has tastes of that love that is sweeter then wine Here 's a feast of fat things The soul is satisfied as with marrow
both are imply'd in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there then comes a messenger of Satan to buffet him he must be put in minde of himself by a thorne in the flesh and that lest he should be exalted above measure with abundance of Revelations A creature can't 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little thing will puffe up a bubble a small happinesse will swell up the sons of men Pride as it twines about the choicest graces so it devoures the sweetest comforts But yet there is nothing tends more to soule-abasement and self-examination then the beholding of Gods face then the seeing of his glory this will make the soul abhorre it self in dust and ashes The more God reveals himself unto the soul the more will the soul see that huge disproportion that is between it self and a Deity There 's none here below that ever saw more of Gods face then Moses and Paul had done and there were none that ever had lower apprehensions of themselves They knew well enough what the Sun-shine of his presence was what a glorious sight it was to behold his face and yet they had rather part with this then he should part with his glory They are like men amaz'd with the vastnesse and spaciousnesse of the Ocean and make nothing of a little inconsiderable drop of Being They that know not these treasures of love and sweetnesse those heaps of excellencies that are stor'd up in God these are the grand admirers of themselves But when the soul comes to have a prospect of heaven and fixes its eye upon an object of the first magnitude the creature disappears self vanishes and loses it self in the fulnesse of God And if God do assure thee of this his love thou canst not but wonder at the greatnesse of his goodnesse especially when thou shalt recollect thy self and think upon thine own unworthinesse Thou that didst not deserve a beam of his face what does he give thee a full Sun-shine Thou that could'st not look for the least taste of his love what does he give thee a whole cluster of Canaan Thou that didst not deserve the least crumb of the hidden Mannah does he fill thee an Omer full of it Nay yet higher Thou that didst deserve a brand from his Justice does he give thee a seal of his love he might have given thee gall and vineger to drink and does he flow in upon thee with milk and honey he might have given thee the first flashes of hell and does he give thee the first-fruits of heaven what could'st thou have look't for but an eternal frown and dost thou meet with so gracious a smile O then fall down and adore his goodnesse and let all that is within thee blesse his holy name Tell me now is there any ground for pride in such a soul Does not Assurance bespeak humility and speak a meet dependance 2. Times of Assurance they should be times of trampling upon the creature and scorning of things below Dost thou now take care for corne and wine and oile when God lifts up the light of his countenance upon thee is this same Angels food this same hidden Mannah is it too light meat for thee Now thou art within the land of Promise feeding upon the grapes and pomegranates of the land dost thou now long for the garlick and onions of Egypt Now thou art within thy fathers house and the fatted Calfe is slaine wilt thou now still feed upon husks Art thou cloth'd with the Sun and canst not thou trample the Moon under thy feet O let them scramble for the world that have nothing else to live on Pray give room to the green Bay-trees to spread themselves abroad but don't thou lose thy fatnesse and sweetnesse to rule over these Art thou sure of heaven and would'st thou fix thy Tabernacle upon earth Is it good for thee to be here or would'st have any more then the light of Gods countenance is it not enough that thou art sure of happinesse is not a fountain enough for thee why wilt thou drink in muddy streames and thou that art fill'd with the love of a Saviour canst thou tell how to spend a thought upon the world is not there more beauty in a Christ then in the Creature is not he the fairest of ten thousand Away then with adulterous glances for why should'st thou embrace the bosome of a stranger 3. Times of Assurance they should be times of watchfulnesse and more accurate walking with God To sin against revealed love is a deep and killing aggravation To sin against light is too too much but to sin against love is a great deal more this height'ned Solomons idolatry 1 Kings 11. 9. that he turn'd from the God of Israel which had appeared to him twice What wilt thou with Jeshurun wax fat and kick and kick against bowels too To provoke God in a wildernesse is not so much as to provoke him in a Paradise What could he have done more for thee then he has done and what couldst thou have done more against him then thou hast done and wilt thou still requite him thus wilt thou provoke him with Mannah in thy mouth Does he give thee the sweet clusters of the land and dost thou return him wilde grapes that which is the strongest engagement to obedience dost thou make it an encouragement to sin art thou so willing to dash thy joy to lose thy peace And O how will it please the powers of darknesse to see thee abuse a beam The devil has several designes against the welfare of a soul First if it were possible he would keep thee from having any grace at all But secondly if he can't do that he would keep thee from strength of grace from growth in grace he would break the bruised reed and he would quench the smoaking flax But then if he can't prevaile here neither then in the third place he would keep thee from sense of grace in a sad and cloudy condition he envies thee one beam one smile one glance of his eye But then if the riches of Gods goodnesse do so run over as that he will give thee a sense of his love then fourthly in the last place he would have thee abuse his grace and turn it into wantonnesse But when God has planted thee in so happy a Paradise don't thou listen to the whisperings of the Serpent Thou that art seal'd by the Holy Spirit don't attend to a lying spirit The devil that great plunderer of soules would faine rob thee of thy Jewels of thy joy and peace and happinesse but do thou hide them in a Christ in the wounds of a Saviour and take heed of blotting thine Evidences thou that art a Childe of light be not rul'd by a Prince of darknesse If God give thee a sense of his love walk more stedfastly walk more accurately with thy God 4. Times of Assurance they should be times of inviting and encouraging others in the wayes of grace Thus the Psalmist when his
Cup overflowes he calls others to taste of it O taste and see how gracious God is that ye may trust in him Thou mayest now bring a good report upon the land of Canaan thou mayest shew them the goodly fruits of the land that were cut down at the brook Eshcol Men look upon Religion as a rigid and austere thing that comes to rob them of their joy they must never have a smile more they must never have a Summers day after it but thou canst tell them of the sweetnesse and deliciousnesse that is in the wayes of grace thou canst assure them that all the wayes of wisdome are pleasantnesse thou canst satisfie them that grace does not mean to take away their joy but only to refine it that it does not mean to put out the light but only to snuffe it that it may burn brighter and clearer There 's no such joy to be found in the wayes of sin there 's no such joy to be extracted from the Creature no the sweetest and purest honey 't is suck'd from a flower of Paradise Spiritual joy 't is the most clarifi'd joy I and 't is solid and massy joy beaten joy like beaten gold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I and 't is lasting and durable joy All the Creatures make but a blaze but the least spark of this 't is immortal Can there be a sweeter Sabbatisme of Spirit can there be a happier composednesse of soul then to be provided for eternity to be sure of heaven of happinesse and glory to have the revealing of Gods love the displaying of himself the beamings out of his face is not the least appearance of his love more worth then a world are not the gleanings of spirituals better then the vintage of temporals Me thinks an assur'd Christian like a Caleb or a Joshua should be able and ready to confute all the false intelligence of the Spies and to answer the weak objections that they bring against the land of Promise Awake O sluggard and arise there is no Lion in the way or if it be it has honey in it There are no sons of Anak or if there be before Israel even these mountaines shall become a Plain 5. Times of Assurance they should be times of store 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now treasure up beames heap up light store up hidden Mannah To be sure this Mannah won't breed wormes Then thou mayest confidently applaud thy self Soul take thine ease thou hast goods laid up for many yeares Happy thou if this night thy soul be taken from thee Storing up of former evidences is a good provision against a cloudy day 6. Times of Assurance should be times of breathing after full possession The espoused soule should long for the Nuptials for the full consummation of its joy and by a heavenly gradation it should ascend in its thoughts Is there such sweetnesse in one cluster of Canaan what shall there be in the full vintage is there such pleasantnesse in a prospect of the land upon the top of Mount Pisgah what happinesse shall there be in enjoyment of the land is there such glory in a beam of Gods face what shall there be in an eternal Sun-shine is there such a sparkling lustre in the white Stone what then shall there be in all those pearles that garnish the soundations and make up the gates of the New Jerusalem is there so much in the preface of glory what shall there be in the inlargements and amplifications of it is there so much in the Aenigma what is there in the explication can you see so much beauty in happinesse when her Mask is on how glorious then will she appear when she is unveil'd does the soul sing so sweetly in a Cage of clay what melody think you shall it then make when 't is let loose to all Eternity We now come to winde up all in a word of Application Now the more pure and delicious a truth is the more do the men of the world disrelish it the more bright and shining it is the more offensive to their eyes The more orient the Pearle the more do they trample upon it Evangelical discoveries meet with the fiercest oppositions The Serpent will be sure to winde into Paradise and the seed of the Serpent ever knew how to still venemous and malignant consequences out of sweet and flowery truthes 'T is the devils work to imprison all truth but the nobler and more precious truthes must be sure to be put in the lowest and darkest dungeons As here now Assurance of salvation 't is the very Crown and joy of a Christian the Flos lactis the Cream of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to nourish soules 't is the budding and blossoming of happinesse the antedating of heaven the Prepossession of glory 't is the very Pinacle of the Temple the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how fain would he throw Christians from thence how would he blast glory in the bud how faine would he pull down the suburbs of the New Jerusalem how would he stop all the fresh springs that are in these how would he seal up the luscious influences of the Pleiades how fain would he Lycurgus-like cut up all the vines of Canaan that no Spy might ever bring one Cluster of the Land of Promise He himself must feed upon nothing but dust and how does he envy them their hidden Mannah That Son of the morning is now bound in chaines of darknesse and how does he envy them their light and liberty how faine would he cloud and eclipse their Sun and stop it in its race nay set it ten degrees backward How does he envy them one beam of Gods face a grape of Canaan one smile one glance of Gods eye Now he could finde out no fitter instrument to rob Christians of their joy then Antichrist that grand enemy of the Church that spiritual Nero that Tyrant of soules that vice Beelzebub that Prince of darknesse that rules in the children of disobedience He rules them and yet they are children of disobedience for all that This Bestian Empire for so 't is still'd in the Revelation delights only in sensuals and strikes at spirituals It strikes at the vitals of Religion at the power and essence of godlinesse Here are the men that must cry down Assurance under the names of presumption security an heap of Enthusiasmes as if this hidden Mannah would breed all these wormes If men do but dip in the honey-combe and take some of these voluntary drops that sweat from it freely of their own accord as Saul told Jonathan they must certainly die for it O this were a way to open their eyes as it did Jonathant They are loth to let men taste and see how gracious God is lest they might trust in him There are therefore two things which I shall here endeavour by way of Application First to give you a brief discovery of those grounds that necessitate the adversaries of this truth to deny Assurance
Secondly to take off that vain and frivolous cavil that assurance is a Principle of Libertinisme and that if men be once assur'd of their salvation they may then do what they list And first for the grounds that make them deny Assurance And though I might here shew at large that all Popery the Quintessence of it is extracted out of guesses and conjectures their whole Religion is but a bundle of uncertainties a rude heap of contingencies built upon the thoughts of others upon the intentions of a Priest yet I shall let that passe now and give you these foure considerations that prevaile with them to deny Assurance 1. They lay too much stresse upon good works Now Assurance is too goodly a structure to be built upon such a foundation They part stakes between grace and merit and so leave the soul in a tottering condition There is so much pride bound up in the Spirits of men as that they are loth to depend upon another for their happinesse they would have an innate and domestick happinesse within themselves But alas self-bottomings are weak and uncertain and they that build upon their own good meanings and their good wishes and good resolutions upon their good endeavours and goodworks when they have done all they have built but the house of the Spider These that spin salvation out of their own bowels their hope 't is but as a Spiders web And there are many that neither thus spin nor toile and yet I say unto you that a Pharisee in all his glory is not cloth'd like one of these If men do but enquire and look a little to the ebbings and flowings of their own spirits to the waxing and waining of their own performances surely they will presently acknowledge that they can't fetch a Plerophory out of these Believe it the soul can't anchor upon a wave or upon its own fluctuating motions So that 't is a piece of ingenuity in them to tell men that whilest they build upon the sand they can have no great security that their house will last long they may safely say of the Spider that it can have no certainty that its house shall stand Whilest they lean upon a reed wee 'l allow them to question whether it won't break or no nay if they please they may very well question whether it won't pierce them thorough They can be sure of nothing unlesse they be sure of ruine Assurance cannot be founded in a bubble in a creature for the very essence of a creature is doubtful and wavering it must be built upon an immutable Entity upon the free love of God in Christ upon his royal word and oath the sure expressions of his minde and love upon the witnesse of the Holy Ghost the seal of God himself Here the soul may rest and lean and quiet it self for with God there is no variablenesse nor shadow of turning The creature is all shadow and vanity 't is filia noctis like Jonah's gourd man may sit under its shadow for a while but it soon decayes and dies All its certainty is in dependance upon its God A creature if like a single drop left to it self it spends and wastes it self presently but if like a drop in the fountain and Ocean of Being it has abundance of security No safety to the soul but in the armes of a Christ in the embraces of a Saviour No rest to a Dove-like spirit but in the Ark of the Govenant and there 's the pot of hidden Mannah You know that dying Bellarmine was faine to acknowledge that the nearest way to Assurance was only to rest upon the free grace of God in Christ And they that cry down duties so much if they would mean no more then this that men must not trust in them nor make Christs of them nor Saviours of them as they use to express it wee 'l easily grant them this if they 'l be content with it 2. They take away that clasping and closing power of faith it self by which it should sweetly and strongly embrace its own object They would have the soul embrace clouds and dwell in generals they resolve all the sweetnesse and preciousnesse of the Gospel either into this Universal Whosoever believes shall be saved or else which is all one into this Conditional If thou beleevest thou shalt be saved Now this is so farre from assurance as that the Devils themselves do thus believe and yet tremble The thirsty soul may know that there is a fountaine but it must not presume to know that ever it shall taste of it The wounded soul with them may take notice that there is balme in Gilead but it must only give a guesse that it shall be heal'd They won't allow the soul to break the shell of a Promise so as to come to the kernell They silence Faith when it would speak in its own Idiom My Lord and my God O what miserable comforters are these How can they ever speak one word upon the wheels one seasonable word to a wearie soul when as all they can reach to by their own acknowledgement is to leave the soul hovering betwixt heaven and hell And as they say in matter of Reproof Generalia non pungunt so 't is as true in matter of Comfort Generalia non mulcent Yet to see how abundantly unreasonable these men are for in the matter of their Church there they require a particular appropriating faith a Monopolizing faith that the Church of Rome is the only true visible Church and this is no presumption with them Thus they can embrace a dull Errour and let go a precious Truth But the true Church of Christ as 't is it self built upon a Rock so every Member of the Church has the same security And the soul with a Spouse-like affection do's not only conjecture who is her Well-beloved but is in his very armes and breaks out into that expression of love and union I am my well-beloved's and my well-beloved is mine But how strangely do's their conjectural certainty take away the sweetness of such Relations Christians with them must only conjecture that they are the Sons of God the Spouse must only guesse at her beloved husband the sheep must hope that this is the Shepherds voice O how do they emasculate and enervate Religion how do they dispirit it and cut the very sinews of the power of godlinesse But all you that would finde rest to your souls must know that you can never apply a Christ too much that you can never appropriate a Saviour enough that whole happinesse is in union with him 3. They deny perseverance and so long may very well deny Assurance And yet the Arminians have an Art of reconciling Assurance and Non-perseverance They allow men a little brief Assurance for one moment a breve fulgur a little corruscation of joy that only shews it self that it may vanish and disappear The summe of their meaning amounts to thus much For that moment that thou
art in the state of grace thou may'st be sure on 't but thou canst not be sure that the next moment thou shalt be in the state of grace As if a Christian were only a Ball of fortune to be tost up and down at her pleasure And indeed they make grace as voluble and uncertaine as ever the Heathen did fortune And if they would speak out grace with them is â—es vitrea quae dum splendet frangitur And vasa gloriae with them are little better then vasa fictilia they can dash them in pieces like a Potters vessel And then make no more of it then Epictetus at the breaking of a pitcher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is but a usual thing Hodie vidi fragilem frangi Vain men that think the grace of God as mutable and unconstant as they themselves are that can remove men from heaven to hell as often as they please that with a daring Pen can blot names out of the book of Life and reverse the seale of heaven when they list This must needs strike at the root of Assurance and leave the soul in such sad doubts as these 'T is true I am now feeding upon the milk and honey of the land of Canaan but I may returne to the wildernesse again to the bondage of Egypt again 'T is true I am now a Temple of the holy Ghost but how soon may I become a prison a dungeon the receptacle of every unclean spirit What though I be now a vessel of honour how soon may I become a vessel of wrath and though I be for the present in the loving hand of a Saviour yet I may be to morrow in the unmerciful paw of the Lion Pray tell us now has the soul any great security all this while are the friends of God no surer of his love then thus 'T is happy for Christians that 't is not in the power of these men no nor of all the powers of darknesse to put a period to their joy no not to put the least comma or interruption to it No they may assoon dethrone the Majesty of heaven it self they may assoon pluck the Crown from his head and wrest the golden Scepter out of his hand nay they may assoon pluck out the Apple of his eye they may assoon annihilate a Deity as pull thee out of his hands as rob him of one of his Jewels Thou art kept by the mighty power of God through faith unto salvation We can't close up this better then with that heavenly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those triumphant expressions of the Apostle Paul For I am perswaded that neither life nor death nor Angels nor Principalities nor powers nor height nor depth c. 4. They never had any Assurance themselves and so they would willingly deny it to others There is so much pride and envy in the spirits of men as that they are very loth that others should have more happinesse or be more sensible of happinesse then themselves They do here Calamum in Corde tingere they tell you what they finde in their own hearts nothing but conjectures and shiverings and tremblings nothing but slavish doubts and feares But the voice of Assurance 't is a still voice the Spirit speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That soul only hears it to which it speaks The sparklings of the White Stone are secret and undiscernable to a carnal eye No man knows it but he that has it 'T is Manna 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the visible and obvious Manna that was rain'd down by the tents of the Israelites but that that was reserv'd and laid up in Vrna aurea Spiritual tastes and relishes spiritual experiences they are wholly unexpressible they are altogether unimitable There are two things which the most refined and accomplisht Hypocrite can't possibly reach unto 1. He can't expresse the life and power of a Christian 2. He can't expresse the joy of a Christian As no man can paint the Being of a thing so no man can paint the sweetnesse of a thing Who ever could paint the sweetnesse of the Honey-combe the sweetnesse of a cluster of Canaan the fragrancy of the Rose of Sharon the sweet voice of a Lute 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Painters eye steals a little beauty from the face and perhaps his hand makes restitution restoring it again in the picture and that 's all you can expect of him nay 't is well if he performe so much As for the expression of vitals or the representation of essentials 't is Vltra Penecillum so that he must let this alone for ever Beleeve it Sincerity can't be painted The joy of the holy Ghost can't be painted 'T is easier painting of faces then of hearts Men in an unregenerate condition can't know what Assurance is till their hearts be changed or unlesse they could read the hearts of Gods people Men will deny the most certain and unquestionable things if they themselves have no experience of them Upon this account many a fool has said in his heart There is no God because he had no communion with him he did not attend upon him Thus others deny that there is any such sweetnesse in the wayes of God because they were never acquainted with them In Musick what though there be never such variety of graces such inarticulate elegancies such soft and silken touches such quick stings and pleasant relishes such musicall amplifications and flourishes such nimble transitions and delicious closes you 'l scarce convince a deaf man of all this till you can give him his hearing Or suppose a blinde man should obstinately deny that there were a Sun truly I can't tell how you could well convince him unlesse you could give him an eye or else perswade him that he is defective in somewhat which others have To speak of Assurance and the voice of the Spirit to some is but to speak Riddles and Paradoxes Here I have told you much of Light and Beams and Glory I had as good told some of you of clouds and shadows and darknesse I have spoke much to you of the fruits and clusters of Canaan had I not as good have set before some of you briars and thornes would you not have had as much sweetnesse in them I ner'e promis'd to shew you the Manna for I told you 't was hidden yet we have told you the things which we have seen and known and what we have tasted of the Word of Life and that which I doubt not but many of you can set your seales unto We come now to take off that vaine and frivolous Cavil that Assurance is a principle of Libertinisme that the Apples which the Spouse longs for in the Canticles will breed too much winde that hidden Manna will breed wormes that those flaggons full of wine which the Spouse would so faine be comforted withall will fume up too much into the head O say they if men be once assur'd of their salvation they may
then do what they list But 1. God won't put now wine into old bottles God never prints his love upon the heart till the heart be renew'd and prepar'd with Evangelical meltings and the same Seale that prints his love prints his Image too A flinty heart won't take the seale of the Spirit The sparkling White Stone is never given till the heart of stone be taken away The new name is not given till the new creature be fram'd God will not distill one silver drop of such precious sweetness upon the soul till it be enclos'd for his own garden And though the outward Sun-shine with liberal and undistinguishing beams shines both upon the good and the bad upon the Rose and Nettle yet the light of Gods countenance beams out only upon the Apples of his own eye the Sun-shine of his gracious presence gilds only the vessels of Honour and puts a lustre upon none but his own Jewels And though the pourings forth of ordinary goodnesse fall upon a wildernesse sometimes as well as on a Paradise yet these more choise and luscious influences of heaven slide only into the hearts of Gods peculiar ones Beleeve it thy soul must first become an Arke of the Covenant before thou shalt ever have a Pot of hidden Manna in it 'T is true that if God should thus display his goodnesse and seal up his love to the soul whil'st it were still in an unregenerate condition whil'st it did still hanker after its lusts and corruptions 't would then indeed sport it self more securely in this Sun-shine of mercy and turne this grace of God into wantoâ—nesse Thus men of sordid and ignoble spirits will trespasse more upon a friend then upon an enemy an injury will keep them in better order then a courtesie Thus nettles will sting most violently when they are handled most gently Thus the wretched Indians adore the Devil because he is their enemy and neglect the Majesty of heaven because 't is so propitious When God shines out upon ungrateful dunghils they returne him nothing but venomous and malignant evaporations We 'l easily acknowledge that if these men should have the White Stone they would trample upon it For you see how they deal with ordinary mercy which the bounty of heaven heaps upon their heads There are such Pleonasms of love in God such runnings over of goodnesse as that much falls upon these God breaks the box of common mercies and fills the whole world with the savour of it But what tribute and Revenues of glory has he from them for all this Why they violate his Lawes and profane his Name and fight against him with his own weapons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with his most precious mercies gifts and parts and all they have shall oppose him that gave them Of their Jewels they make a golden Calfe Do you think now that God will trust these with his more speciall mercies with his viscera and tender mercies He try'd the vessel with water and 'twont hold that Do you think he will poure wine into it No God reveals his love to none but to his friends he sets his Seale to none but to such whom he sets as a Seale upon his heart and on his arme such as have an happy conformity to him and a full complyance with him such as have the same interests and the same glorious ends with himself such as delight in his Law and feed upon his precepts as upon an honey-combe Do you think he mayn't trust these with his minde such as have a plain antipathy against sin against the very picture and appearance of sin such as preferre Hell it self before it such as loath it even as himself loaths it men that are ready to pluck out their right eyes for him to cut off their right hands for him Do you think he mayn't manifest his love to these What sayes the Apostle John He that is borne of God cannot sin 't is a plain impossibility that he should so far put off his filial affection as to make it his work to displease him much lesse can he take so strong an advantage of his goodnesse as therefore to provoke him because he knows that God loves him These men only tell us what they would do if they had Assurance but truly they are not like to have it till their hearts be chang'd and then they 'l be of another minde 2. Love is a sweeter and surer and stronger principle of obedience then feare So that God did infatuate the counsel of that Achitophel Machiavel I mean when he still'd that venom into the hearts of Princes that they had better rule their Subjects with a Rod of iron then with a Scepter of gold that they had better enslave them by feare then engage them by love The truth is he had given them such Rules that he knew if they follow'd them they could not possibly be lov'd and therefore he would faine perswade them that 't is better to be fear'd And though this may seem to adde some sparklings to Majesty and to brighten the Crown of Sovereignty yet it leaves it farre more tottering more unfixt and unsettled upon their heads There is such a virulency mixt with fear such a tincture of hatred in it both these affections are much of a colour sad and pale And therefore that Tyrant was so wise yet as to expect hatred Oderint dum metuant sayes he he knew whilest they fear'd him that they would hate him And then there is a reluctancy and Aversation in fear And those workings upon the soul that come only from terrours they usually prove Abortive And what though a body be pull'd and hal'd and scar'd into obedience the soul is not conquer'd with all this A slave do's but watch an opportunity for shaking off the yoke And then there is a depressing and disenabling power in fear it contracts and freezes up the motions of the soul it clips the wings it takes off the wheels it unbends the bowe Trembling and Paralytick motions are weak and languishing Indeed fear 't is nothing but Praecox tristitia a crude and indigested kinde of sorrow and 't is the sowrer because it is not ripe And therefore God himself that is a most absolute Monarch and has a boundlesse and infinite supremacy over all things yet has far more glory from them that love him and only passive obedience from them that fear him Indeed he never goes about to rule any by fear but those that have first trampl'd upon Love and are no longer Subjects but profest Rebells 'T is love that glews and fastens the whole Creation together Those seeds of love which God himself who is love has scatter'd amongst Beings those sparks of love which God himself who is love has kindled amongst Beings and those indeleble prints of love which God himself who is love has stampt upon Beings maintain the whole fabrick of the world in its just beauty and proportion The harmonious composure of Beings
the tuning of the several strings makes them sound out his praise more melodiously O how comely is it to see the sweet context and coherence of Beings the loving connexion and concatenation of causes one being espous'd to another in faithfulnesse and truth the mutual claspings and twinings the due benevolence of entities Behold how goodly a thing it is and pleasant to behold Beings like Brethren to dwell together in unity It calls to minde those precious drops of love that fall from the head of the first Being and fell down upon the skirts of inferiour entities And is not there as much of this love to be seen in the new Creation in the work of grace in the soul Is not the foundation of the second Temple laid in love is not the top and pinacle of it set up by a hand of love Are not the polishings and carvings of it the works and expressions of love the witty inventions of love Is not the structure maintain'd and repair'd at the constant expences of love Is it not inhabited by a Prince of love one more loving then Solomon is there nay what is the whole Gospel else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a cluster of Redemption as some render it what is it else but a bundle of love The Law that was an hammer to break hearts I but the Gospel that 's a key to open hearts And truly all the terrours of Mount Sina the thunder-claps and the lightning flashes the earth-quakes and the smoaking of the Mountain and the voice of the Trumpet have not so much power and prevalency in them as one still drop that falls from Mount Sion You are now come to the Mount of Olives a Mount of Peace and sweetnesse a Mount that drops fatnesse and in this Mount will Christ be seen And he comes to restore all things to their Primitive love he restores the powers and faculties of the soul to their first and original concord he knits his gifts and graces in the bond of love he comes to reconcile Beings to make antipathies kisse each other The Wolfe and the Lambe must be at peace the Leopard and the Kid must lye down together The whole Gospel like the midst of Solomons bed in the Canticles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is pav'd with Love Now sure you can't question whether this be the more prevailing way For O think but a while what a potent oratory there is in love what a wellcome tyrannie what a silken bondage what a downy and soft necessity Glorious things are spoken of thee thou Lady and Queen of Affections thou art the first-borne of the soul and the beginning of its strength Who would not be captivated by so sweet a Conquerour Who would not be melâ—ed in so delicate a flame What heart would not entertain so pleasant an arrow The Psalmist was struck through with one of thy darts when he panted so after the streams of water The Apostle Paul had another of thy arrowes sticking fast in him when he cryed out The love of Christ constrains me Vulnus â—lit venis Sâ—cro carpitur igni Beleeve it the strongest arguments are fetcht out of Loves Topicks We need not use many perswasions to such a soul it has a fountain of Rhetorick within There is a present expansion and amplification of spirit for the wellcomming of so happy an object O how will such a soul twine about a Precept suck sweetnesse out of a Command catch at an opportunity long for a Duty How do's it go like a Bee from flower to flower from Duty to Duty from Ordinance to Ordinance and extract the very spirits and quintessence of all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 crop the very tops of all There will be in such a soul the constant returnings and reboundings of love 'T will retort the beams of heaven 't will send back the stream of its affection into the Ocean So that now as the soul is assur'd of the love of God so God also has a most absolute certainty that the soul will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And thus is compleated the sweet and perfect circle of Love Now there cannot be a more strong and a more mutual security then that which is thus founded And therefore nature chooses to maintain her self by these impressions We see this plainly in filial and conjugal relations where the sweetest and surest obedience flowes from principles of love And where is there more certainty then amongst friends where there is a borrowing and lending of souls a mutual exchange and transmigration of souls Now you know all these Relations are clarifi'd and refin'd in grace you are the friends of God nay you are the Sons of God you are the Spouse of Christ And the Apostle John that speaks so much of Assurance and tells you that a Christian can't sin consider but a while who he was Why he was the Beloved Disciple he that lay in the bosome of love and breathed out nothing but pure love I and his reason 't is founded in a relation of love He cannot sin because he is borne of God He resolves it into the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that same impression of love that abides in him 3. Consult a while with your own experience and observation and then tell us whether ever you knew any to walk more accurately with their God then such as were assur'd of his love If you look up to heaven there you see glorious Angels and glorifi'd Saints that have not only a full Assurance but a full possession of the love of their God that are no longer taking a prospect of Canaan but are now feeding upon the fruits and clusters of the land of Promise that have not only some scatter'd and broken beams of glory but a constant and an eternal Sun-shine And O how do they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They have not only as we here below some drops and sprinklings of happinesse but they are at the very Fountain and have fresh bubblings of joy full streamings out of sweetnesse and can swim in the rivers of pleasure Surely these men will allow the Angels somewhat more then only to conjecture that they are happy What must glorifi'd Saints still dispute about their Summum Bonum lest they be too secure and must Angels only be of opinion that they are in heaven must they only guesse at the face of God What will they clip the wings of the Cherubims too Where has God more cheerful obedience then from these How joyfully do these ministering Spirits runne about their glorious errands How do's he bid one Go and he goes and another Come and he comes And that which sets a faire glosse upon happinesse it self is this that they are out of all possibility of displeasing their God And so they are held forth as patternes of obedience Thy will be done in earth as 't is in heaven Well but then if they tell us that there is more danger of
fraile men that dwell in houses of clay and carry the body of death about with them 1. We must bid them entertain honourable thoughts of the Excellent ones of the Earth for though it be true that they are not yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet God has made them little lower then the Angels and he has crown'd them with glory and honour They walk with little coronets upon their heads Though the most massy and brightest crown be reserv'd for a day of Inauguration They now feed upon Angels food God steeps them in his own nature and in his own love he gradually prepares them for heaven They are Inceptours in happinesse they are Probationers for glory 2. What though there be some unworthy dealings with their God yet these flow only from those reliques of slavish principles that remain in them some fragments of the old Leaven that was not throughly purged out And not by vertue of a Gospel-Plerophory What do's the knowing that they are Sons of light do's this dispose them to works of darknesse Do's the knowing that they are the Spouse of Christ do's this bespeak adulterous glances 'T is true the Sons of God may provoke him but must they therefore needs do it under this very notion because they know they are his Sons nay must they do it the more for this This were the extreamest malice that were imaginable more malice then the devils themselves are capable of What bold blasphemy then is this against the Sons of God and against the sealing Spirit I and it envolves a flat contradiction too it puts an esse and a non esse simul because they know they are friends therefore they 'l deal like enemies and because they know they 'r Sons therefore they 'l deal like slaves O what fine repugnancies are these Thus would they not only veile and cloud but also spot and deface so beautiful a Truth but that it shines out with such victorious and triumphant beams But if any can yet doubt whether Assurance do advance obedience let them but a while compare men assur'd of their salvation 1. With others in the state of grace that want Assurance or with themselves when once without it And then let them tell us whether they don't differ as much as a bruised Reed and a stately Cedar in Lebanon The doubting Christian do's but smoake when the assured Christian flames What faintings and shiverings and paleness in the one what vigour and liveliness what a ruddy complexion of soul in the other How is the one left to the pleasure of a wave when as the other lies safe at Anchor The one can scarce lift up his weak and trembling hands in prayer when the other is wrestling with Omnipotency The one comes behinde and touches the hem of his Saviours garments when as the other is in his very armes and embraces The one dares scarce touch a Promise scarce cast an eye upon a Promise when as the other claimes it and grasps it and appropriates it The performances of the one are green and crude and unconcocted the others are ripen'd and mellow'd with a stronger Sun-beam of Love The one like a Lute with his strings loose and languishing the other is tun'd up to its just height of affection The one like a Bowe bent sends forth his arrows very vigorously the other do's but drop them and let them fall How do's Satan wound the one with many a fiery dart that the other quenches How do's the one fear the roaring of the Lion which the other tramples under his feet 2. If you should compare them with men in an unregenerate condition O what a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what a vaste gulfe is there between them Sure you don't question whether God has more service from Israelites that feed upon hidden Manna or from Egyptians that feed upon Garlick and Onions Men that are under the damning and domineering power of lusts and are only kept a little in awe by some thundrings from Mount Sinai Though they spend a few sighs sometimes and drop a few teares sometimes yet when they are thus washt how soon do they returne to their wallowing in the mire The chaining of a Wolfe do's that meeken and soften him or the putting a hook into Leviathan do's that transforme him Though wicked men by feares and terrours have their bounds set them like the Sea which they cannot passe Yet they are still like the raging Sea they swell and foame and cast out their mire and dirt And who more wicked then they that are desperate Those black and damned Potentates of hell because they are out of all possibility of mercy how do they act ad extremum virium in all expressions of malice and wickednesse And therefore God out of his infinite goodness though he do's usually seal men up to life and happinesse and lets them make their Calling and Election sure yet he do's scarce ever or very rarely so seal men up to ruine so as to let them know certainly that they are Reprobates for this would make them desperate there would be no living with them in the world Or if he do's shew them this he do's withall let them run into some act of violence that presently frees the world from them That hope which wicked men have of being sav'd though it be groundlesse yet it keeps them within their bounds and compasse Though it be but like the Spiders web yet the very spinning of that web keeps them in the mean while from a full expression of their venome And that same shadow of obedience which God has from Hypocrites 't is founded in some shadow of hope that they please themselves in and when this hope of their own framing vanishes and deceives them then they back-slide and apostatize 4. Are there not other judgements enough to waken them out of a sinful security are there not Rods are there not Scorpions is there nothing but present disinheriting Sure you cannot but remember that famous place where God speaks to David and points at Solomon Psal 89. 32 33. If his children break my statutes c. God will make his own people know that 't is a bitter thing to depart from him and to forsake their first love Nay this is most certain that wicked men themselves are not capable of such severe temporal judgements as the Sons of God are That which is here done to the green tree cannot be done to the dry For 1. They may fall from Assurance Though they can't lose the seed and the root of grace yet they may lose the flourishing and fragrancy of it Though the foundation of God remaine sure yet they may fall from their top and eminency Though they be built upon a Rock yet they may be dasht with waves Though the Seale of God be of an eternal efficacy yet they may deface the Print and sculpture of it so as that it may not be visible to their eye Now what a sad alteration will this
be Thou must not look for any more stroakings for any more smiles for love-glances any more Thou must bid thy fountaines of joy farewell Thou must not look to see thy Spouse flourishing through the Lattices any more Thou must expect clouds and shadows and veils and curtaines and walls of separation The fig-tree of Canaan shall not blossome and there shall be no fruit in the Vines and the labour of the Olive shall faile Thou must passe many a day without one Sun-beam God will seal up his sweetest influences he will shut up the windows of heaven and stop the bottles of heaven he will rain down no more Manna upon thee Go to thy husks and see if they I feed thee Nay 2 They may not only fall from Assurance but even in a total desertion look upon God as an enemy and instead of a filial Plerophory may come to afearful expectation of the fiercest wrath of God Now this I say is more judgement then wicked men are capable of here in this respect that they never had his love once revealed to them Whereas these are thrown down from the very pinacle of the Temple And God do's not only eclipse the lustre of their former joy but dips his Pen in gall and writes bitter things against them He was wont to shoot nothing but the fiery darts of Love I but now his envenom'd arrowes stick fast in them They did once furfet of the Grapes and Clusters of Canaan but now he hedges them in with briers and thornes They were wont to taste of a cup of sweetnesse a cup of love but he has now prepar'd for them a cup of trembling and astonishment They had once a Spring-time a budding a blossoming-time the dew of heaven dropt on them the beams of heaven visited them But now comes a sad and disconsolate Autumne a fading and withering time Their glosse and greennesse is gone Heaven reveales it self in thunderings and lightning flashes against them so as they shall even envy green Bay-trees then men of the world that are free from all this Now is not this enough to keep a soul in awe The Psalmist was very neer this which we speak of He often tells you that his joy was put out that his peace was gone that he was even ground to powder that he was banisht from the face of his God that he was excommunicated from that happy and heavenly intercourse with God which once he had These are frequent complaints And yet he was one 1. Of a pleasant and cheerful Temper The Scripture paints him out as one of a Sanguine complexion the men of the world would have said he had been melancholy else He was one that was like a green Olive-tree in the house of his God a most flourishing and fruitful Christian As if he had been one of the Church triumphant he was alwayes singing fresh Hallelujahs He had a soft and delicate touch upon the Harpe he could still Sauls evil spirit with his musick I but he could not thus tune and compose his own troubled and distemper'd spirit He was faine now to hang his Harpe upon the willows and the voice of his Lute was turn'd into sighing And if he do's sing sometimes with a thorne at his breast 't is some penitential Psalme or other 2. And yet all this while he was a King upon the Throne he wanted not the pomp and bravery of the world I but a Scepter won't conquer fears and a Crown of gold will not cure an aking head much lesse an aking heart The smiles of the world they brought him to all this and therefore he can't take much complacency in them And then for when he do's so often envy the men of the world and is ready to stumble at the prosperity of the wicked it was not so much for the outward things of the world which they enjoy'd for those he had himself too in a plentiful measure but it was for the quietnesse of their spirits they were calme and serene if compared with him not in such fears and doubts as he now was they had not such conflicts and Paroxysmes and tumultuations of soul as he now had And yet he was one that once had the face of God shining out upon him And therefore he desires him to restore the joy of his salvation Lucem redde abes jam nimiùm diu Instar veris enim vultus uâ—i tuus affulsito populo gratior it dies soles meliâ—s nitent as he once spake to Augustus So that you see here are wayes enough to keep men from a carnall security And thus we have took off that bold calumny so as we hope that Nihil adhaerebit Having laid open at large the nature of Assurance we now come to handle briefly the second observation And that is Christian Assurance requires and calls for diligence Sure I need not tell you that the most precious things are Cabinetted and lockt up under difficulties If you look to Nature you see how she reserves her Jewels in secret repositories she sets them in her own bosome and enhances their price by rarity There is indeed a veine for silver as Job speaks but Nature is not so profuse to open it to let it run waste and exhaust her self she hides her treasures and puts them out of the reach of an ordinary Plunderer Or if you look to Arts There are indeed some things which float at the top 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that are but initiated into them are presently acquainted with them Hence some beginners when they have but tasted these think they have a present kinde of Omniscience O but stay a while there are most mysterious things which lurke at the bottome and require a profounder search they must dive deep before they fetch up these Pearls Thus 't is in Languages the choicest elegancies many times are coucht in Idioms those arcana linguarum you may see them like so many Pearls glittering amongst the rubbish of the Tower of Babel Thus 't is in civil affairs some things are visible and obvious to a vulgar eye the rude heap and masse of people can take notice of them some wheels move so plainly as that they can see them I but there are more secret springs of motion more intimate contrivances politick riddles which they onely can read that are à secretioribus Every designe must not have a window in it 't is comely sometimes to see Moses with a Veile upon his face And thus 't is in the wise Oeconomy and dispensation of the Gospel 'T is true the whole Gospel is pregnant with heavenly mysteries 'T is like that heavenly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the milky way which the wise ones of the world take for a Meteor only a brief 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I but those that are enlightened from above know that 't is made up ex flore lucis 't is compounded of Stars lesse discernable and even here one Star differs from another in glory
There are Mysteria primae magnitudinis such transcendent and dazling mysteries as that the Eagle must be faine to shut her eye and the Seraphim must be glad to wink And there are not only intellectual but practical depths in the way of Religion And Christian Plerophory is one of these For a soul to be fill'd with the breathings of the Spirit And to move with full sail in the Ocean of Gods love And when it pleases to lie safe at Anchor I and to be sure of comming safe to the haven certainly the soul must needs cry out all the while 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O the depth of the goodnesse and love of God! how mysterious are his wayes how are his mercies past finding out 1. Now for a Christian to arrive to so full a sense of Gods love hic labor hoc opus est It requires diligence For 1. There are but few that have any right and interest in the love of God in Christ at all 2. Of those few that have a share and portion in his love yet all of them have not assurance of his love There are but few that enter into the Temple I but there is only some Aaron that enters into the sanctum sanctorum and casts his Anchor within the Veile And First there are but few upon whom God bestoweth his love 'T was alwayes a principle in Morality that sweet and intimate friendship cannot be extended to many Friends usually go by paires Now God though he be of vast and boundlesse love and has love enough to satisfie a multitude of worlds yet he has chose â—o concentricate it all in a few pickt out of the world that he might thus engage them the more to himself His large and precious love is kept for his only Spouse Secondly of those few whom he loves some are not assur'd of his love He lov'd them all from everlasting yet none of them could be then assur'd of his love A non-entity cannot reach to a Plerophory Well but when they peept out of their first nothing truly they were not any rare objects of love much lesse could they then be assur'd of the love of their God when they were in a state of enmity and opposition and the children of wrath as well as others Well but when he put them into a state of love and made them lovely with that beauty and comelinesse with those jewels and bracelets which he had put upon them when he lov'd them as his new creatures as his vessels of honour that were now cast into their just mold and fashion When he lov'd them as his new-born sons yet these babes in Christ could not presently cry Abba Father They were his Epistle written in a fair and goodly character dated from eternity folded up and kept secret at length sent into the world the superscription was writ in time in Vocation Well but all this while they were not seal'd till the spirit comes and stamps a clear impression of Gods love upon their soft'ned and melted spirits 'T is true they were seal'd as soone as they were written in Gods eternal Decree but they were not visibly seal'd till now Now what pantings and breathings What longings and entreaties What preparations were there in the soul before it could obtaine this Secondly it requires diligence to keep assurance O take heed of wasting and crumbling away thy hidden Manna God may break the staffe of bread and what will thy weary soul do then Take heed of losing the White Stone take heed of forgetting thy new name O maintain the Oile of gladnesse in the Cruse Thou that art a Vine of Canaan laden with generous fruit would'st thou willingly part with thy sweetnesse and fruifulnesse Thou that art a green Olive-tree flourishing in the house of thy God would'st thou be content to part with thy fatnesse and pleasantnesse Thou wert wont to stay and Anchor thy soul upon thy God And would'st thou now be left to the courtesie of a wave What Art thou in love with the Tents of Kedar They are black indeed And do'st thou think them comely too Art thou weary of the Sun-shine And would'st thou coole thy self in the shade Do'st thou begin to loath thy hidden Manna and would'st thou returne to the Garlick and Onions of Egypt Art thou cloy'd with the clusters of Canaan and do'st thou nauseate the Honey-comb O remember thou did st not so soone obtaine assurance and wilt thou so soone lose it Thirdly give diligence to recover assurance if lost O when will the winter be past when will the raine be over and gone that the flowers may appear and the time of singing may come That the Vines of Canaan may flourish again that the tender Grapes may appear Awake O South-winde and with thy gentle breathings blow upon the Garden that the Spices thereof may flow out Never leave till thou find'st thy Spouse again thou that art sick of love Tell him that thou long'st for a cluster of Canaan That thou art even famish'd for want of hidden Manna Desire a new edition of his love with all the enlargements of affections Lay thine heart before him and desire new stamps impressions tel him that though thou hast lost the print yet he has not lost the Seal Tell him that thou wilt now prize his love more then thou ever did'st or could'st do before Give him no rest till he give thy soul rest and fill it with himself Surely thou would'st not willingly set in a cloud thou would'st not go out of the world with thine Evidences blotted and blurr'd Surely thou would'st not willingly be tost and dasht with waves in sight of the haven Had'st thou not rather go to thy grave in peace O desire himto shine out upon thee a little before thou goest hence and be nomore seene 2. Now surely we need not tell you why Assurance does thus require diligence For 1. You know the hearts deceitfulnesse how it loves to please it self in a shadow in a painted joy to flatter it self into an imaginary happinesse Most men in the world are so confident of heaven as if they had been borne heirs apparent to the Crown of glory as if this new name had been given them at their baptism or as if they had been born with hidden Manna in their mouths They never knew what a question or a scruple was nay they wonder that others trouble themselves with them as for them they have a connate kinde of Plerophory These fabri fortunae suae have a key to heaven of their own making and can go to it when they please These crown themselves with their own sparks and think them more glittering and precious then the White Stone As if they were Custodes sigilli they can â—eale themselves to the day of redemption when they please Thus do vaine men cheat their own souls when as 't were their wiser way rather to commune with their own spirits to criticize upon their own hearts to see what
a false print they are of what false glosses there be what variae lectiones what corruptions and degenerations from the Original whether there be any spiritual Idioms what are the genuine works of the Spirit what are spurious and supposititious 2. Give diligence because thou hast a diligent enemy that would so faine quench thy joy and keep it from flaming into Assurance He envied the graine of Mustard-seed when 't was first sown how then does it vex him to see it now spread into such goodly branches that the soul can build its nest there He envied thee the first blushes of the day the buddings of the Rosie morning that those fair and Virgin eye-lids should open and glance their light upon thee how then is he scorch't with thy fuller Sun-shine How do his eyes water at thy noon-day brightnesse He that would have broke thee when thou wert a bruised Reed how would he triumph in thy fall now thou art a stately Cedar If he could he would have dispirited and took off the vigour of that immortal seed by which thou wert born again He would fain have spit his venome into that sincere milk which fed thy infant-soul how then does he envie thee those flagons of wine with which thou art now quickened and enflam'd He would fain have hindered the foundation of the second Temple and now he would fain demolish the structure and down with it even to the ground That son of the morning fell himself not only from a compleat Assurance but from a possession of glory and that into the most extreme darknesse that was imaginable into a total impossibility of ever being happy and now he would very faine as much as he can envolve others in the same condition But certainly it does adde much of hell to him in that he perceives that the sons of God are now fixt in an immutable condition whereas he was left in so voluble a state so that now all that he can possibly do is this to damp their joy for the present to raise clouds and stormes and tempests And in this that Prince of the aire does his endeavour to the utmost And yet Christians may frustrate him here too and by a strong and clasping hand of faith may lay such fast hold of a God in Christ as that they may even make the Devill give over and to all his former may adde this new despair of ever eclipsing their glory and may send him away as weary as he would be if he should go about to interrupt the joy of a glorifi'd Saint or of one of those Angels that still dwel in glory So that the more frequent his Alarms are the more should Christians stand upon their watch the more should they fortifie themselves and look to their spiritual Panoply they should flie to the name of the Lord which is a strong Tower 3. Give diligence because 't is in a matter of so great consequence and to be deceived here will prove the most stinging aggravation of misery that can be The house that was built upon the sand great was the fall of it There is a counterfeit Plerophory a blazing kinde of Assurance a bragging kinde of confidence you know the name of it 't is called Presumption that great devourer of souls that uses to slay its ten thousands 'T is so farre from being an Anchor as that 't is but a swelling and impostumated wave which tosses up the soul a while that it may sink the deeper And can there be a greater Emphasis of misery then this Thou took'st it for granted that thou wert in the ready way to heaven and now thou art dropping into hell irrecoverably Thou expected'st no lesse then a crown of glory but canst finde nothing but chaines of darknesse and a gnawing worme How golden was thy dream of happinesse did'st thou not fancy the light and beams of heaven ripening the fruits of Canaan for thee did'st not thou think thy self upon the top of Mount Pisgah refresht with soft and delicate breathings taking a full prospect of the beatifull land of Promise Nay did'st not thou think that some of the milk and honey of the land flow'd into thy mouth That thou wert plucking off green Apples from the trees Nay that thou had'st the very tastes and relishes of the Olives and Figs and Pome-granates and Grapes in thy mouth But behold thou wak'st and art in a Wildernesse amongst Briers and thornes amongst fiery Serpents in a dry and thirsty land where no sweetnesse is Thou took'st that for the whispering of the Spirit which was but the hissing of the Serpent Thou thought'st thy self in the very Suburbs of the new Jerusalem in the Temple in the sanctum sanctorum when as thou wert all this while but in an Egypt in a Babylon in a Prison in a Dungeon Thou did'st exalt thy self like the Eagle and build thy nest in the Stars But with what indignation wert thou swept from thence How thou art fallen O Lucifer son of the morning 3. Consider what kinde of diligence is required And 1. Be diligent in self-reflexion A clean heart chews the cud and ruminates upon its own actions Give thy heart frequent visits and see whether it keeps that print which the sealing Spirit stampt upon it read over thine Evidences if there be the least blot wash it out Try thy graces by a Scripture-Sun-beam Hast thou within a continual feast Why then do'st not thou envite thy thoughts thither that they may be satisfi'd as with marrow and fatnesse Why do'st not thou compel them to come in Let them drink sweetnesse out of their own fountain let them blesse the womb that bare them and the breasts that gave them suck Let them be afraid of entring into their hearts that have no quietnesse within unlesse like the Leviathan they can sport themselves in a raging sea that foams out mire and dirt But thou canst steep and bathe thy thoughts in a calme and composed spirit Why do'st not thou listen to thine own musick Why do'st not thou glance upon thine own beauty Assurance consists in a â—eflex act and by such workings 't is maintain'd iisdem alitur quibus gignitur 2. Be diligent in Prayer Beleeve it assurance does not come with those weak wishes and velleities that are so frequent in the mouths of many O that we were sure of heaven of happinesse O that our souls were well provided for O that we knew what should become of them to eternity Truly these are but gaping and yawning desires as if hidden Manna would drop into their mouths This great blessing requires a wrestling prayer The White Stone is given to none but a Conquerour The Spirit won't set his seal to a faint and languishing velleity An Echo won't answer a whisperer a weak voice is not worth a rebound The truth is there is a great deal of Vicinity and friendship nay I think I might say Consanguinity between Assurance and Prayer Prayer should be Plerophoria quaedam
of the soul For whatsoever is first in Being may first be known Entity being the root and just foundation of intelligibility And yet sometimes secondary and junior Entity is faine to prepare the way like a John Baptist for one that comes after it and yet was in worth and being before it Thus sometimes the causes of things lurke and lie coucht they hide their heads only a little flourish out at the Lattesses peeping out of an effect or two Thus the Text may be in Hebrew when the Commentary is in Latine many may understand the one that cannot read the other Election it is the Original Vocation 't is the interlineary glosse for the help of weak beginners If God should let thee see into Election before Vocation it were the only way to frustrate and disappoint his own decree For if God should shew thee thy name in the book of Life before thy heart were changed and renewed what would this but make thee sinne more securely and turne his grace into wantonnesse Whereas the wisdome of God never determines the end but it also determines the means and as the end is alwayes glorious so also are the means powerfull and efficacious Now thou canst not more clearly demonstrate that thou art in a good tendency and proximity to the end then by a thanfull use and seasonable application of the means And what do they do but lay a snare for their own soules that catch and entangle themselves with such a desperate fallacy as this is If we be elected we shall be unquestionably saved and if we be not elected we shall be unavoidably damned and therefore we may do what we list O what a bold and blasphemous inference is this What is this else but to distill the rankest poison out of the richest and most sovereigne cordial To kindle Hell out of a sparke of Heavenly truth which if it were blown up gently by the Spirit that breathed it and kept within its just bounds 't would only cheere quicken and enliven the soul Because thou dost not as yet know whether thou art a vessell of honour wilt thou therefore presently dash thy self in pieces because thou dost not for the present certainly know that thou shalt come safe to the Haven wilt thou therefore court the waves rush upon a Rock and make Shipwrack of faith and a good conscience would'st thou do thus in temporals Why thou dost not know how long thou shalt live the number of thy dayes is certainly fixt and thy time is an appointed and determined time wilt thou therefore refuse to leane upon the staffe of bread Wilt thou not repaire thine earthly and decaying tabernacle Wilt thou not maintaine the oile in the cruze that Balsamum radicâ—le with such fresh supplies as are afforded to thee Wilt thou break thy glasse in pieces because thou canst not tell how long it will run Is it not a mercy that God vouchsafes thee the means Why should'st thou distrust of obtaining the end more then any other There is not a curtaine that hides Election more from thee then from any other 't is equally hid to all till it shine forth upon some in the use of means till the curtaine be drawne and then it will equally shine out upon thee if thou usest the same meanes If all should argue as thou do'st there would none be saved if all men because Election is absolute and uncertaine should resolve to live as they list who would then set his face towards Canaan where would God have any glory in the world What would become of his great Name but he will root out such an unsavoury principle as this is out of the hearts of all that love him and that truth which is made a fat all stumbling block to some shall prove a solid foundation of joy and sweetnesse unto them The very possibility of Election should banish all such thoughts as these Who can tell but God may have been gracious unto thee and have fixt an eye of love upon thee Oh then breath after him pant and long for him desire him to expresse his minde to thee to communicate his love to thee Besides though thou dost not know Election will meere love do nothing Though thy God did not intend to glorifie thee yet thou should'st intend to glorifie him Though he do's not chuse thee for his servant yet thou should'st chuse him for thy Lord. There is worth in him though there be none in thee Resolve that into what condition soever he throw thee though into hell it self that there thou wilt love him and there thou wilt praise him and long for him that there thou wilt adore and honour him and wilt grieve only for this that thou canst honour him no more that thou wilt admire his goodnesse to others his justice to thee I and his goodnesse to thee too that layes lesse upon thee then thou deservest Such thoughts as these would make hell it self lightsome VI. As Election is secret and mysterious so Vocation may be easily known That Astrologer was deservedly laught at that was so intensely gazing upon the Starres so admiring their twinkling beauties as that unawares he tumbled into the water whereas before if he had but been pleased to look so low as the water he might have seen the starres there represented in that crystall glasse Such as will needs be prying into the starres that will ascend up into heaven and gaze upon Election they do but dazle their eyes and sometimes by this are overwhelmed in the depths of Satan whereas they might easily see the starres in the water they might see Election in Sanctification in Regeneration Now Vocation does plainly and easily appear by that great and eminent alteration which it brings along with it It is a powerful Call 't is an audible and quickening voice the voice of the first trumpet that awakens men out of the graves and makes them happy by having their part in the first Resurrection great and sudden alterations they are very discernable Now here 's a most notorious and signal change made Old things are past away and all things are become new here 's a change from death to life from darknesse to light and what more discernable then this A living man may know that he is alive and that without any further proofe or demonstration whatever the Scepticks old or new would perswade us to the contrary Will you not allow a man to be certaine that he lives till a jury of life and death hath past upon him Could not the blinde man in the Gospel think you perceive when his eyes were opened could he not easily tell that now he could see and discerne variety of Objects or must he only conjecture that he sees and guesse at a Sun-beame must he still at noon-day go groping in uncertainties And is there not an easie and sure difference between those thick veiles and shadows of the night between those dark and Ethiopick looks and the virgin
with all things here below if he should call for them they must be content to trample upon all relations for the love of a Saviour if they stand in competition with Christ they must be ready to lay all creatures and creature-comforts at his feet Now because this might seem somewhat an hard task and not so easie and Evangelical a yoke as he had promised them In these words he begins to sweeten his commands and to shew the reasonablenesse and equity of this that he requires of them You may well part with other things for this will be a means to save your soul Now says he if you could graspe the whole world and if you had it all in possession and should lay it down all only for the winning of a soul you would have no great cause to complain Whereas if you could embrace the present world and could gain it all nay if there were more worlds for you to enjoy and if you could have them all only for the losse of a soul you would have no great purchase of it What is a man profited There 's a plain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the words more is meant then is spoken You would be so far from having any profit as that you would have the greatest losse that is imaginable the greatest dammage and detriment that such a creature is capable of You would have changed Gold for Drosse and Pearles for pebbles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now our Saviour in these words does as it were take a paire of ballances in his hand the ballance of the Sanctuary and he puts the whole world in one scale and the soul of man in the other This little sparkle of Divinity in one scale and the great Globe of the world in the other And the soul of man this spiritual being this heavenly sparkle it does mightily out-weigh the great Globe of the world the vast bulk of water the huge fabrick of the Creation The world 't is weighed in the ballance and 't is found too light In the words you have these two things very considerable 1. That absolute worth and preciousnesse that is in the souls of men which is strongly imply'd and envolv'd in the words D. The souls of men are exceeding precious 2. A comparative preciousnesse which is most directly and expressely laid down in this in respect of the whole world besides D. One soul 't is more worth then a world For the first The souls of men are very precious The preciousnesse of the souls of men will easily appear from these four several heads of Arguments For though all men or most men that know what a soul is will easily grant that their souls are precious enough yet they don't attend to those several respects in which they are thus precious much lesse do they take notice of those several results and consequences that flow from it Now this absolute preciousnesse and worth of a soul does thus shew it self 1. From the several Excellencies of the soul it self There is a fourfold excellency in the souls of men which speaks them choise and precious 1. The excellency of their Original they are of a noble descent they came from the Father of spirits from the Father of lights God lights up souls in the world they bubble forth from that fountain of spirits that spiritual Essence They are the breast of a Deity God breath'd into a man a living soul They are a beam of the glorious Sun God beam'd into man a glittering soul The body indeed 't was rais'd out of the dust we dwell in houses of clay whose foundations are in the dust But the soul 't was of an higher and Nobler Original Yet there is a great deal of cost bestow'd upon the body much Embroydery and Needle-work in that I am admirably made I am curiously wrought I am wrought with a Needle sayes the Psalmist Acupictus sum he speaks it in respect of the choise and elegant composure of mans body much needle-work in that and then that 's but the sheath of the soul the casket for the Jewel to lye in The soul 't is like the Queens daughter in the 45. Plasme Her clothing is of needle-work and she is all glorious within Now all the workmanship that is bestow'd upon the body is only that it may be serviceable to the soul that the soul may Benè habitare that it may be a fit Tabernacle for the soul to dwell in that the soul may say 'T is good for me to be here The body 't was rais'd out of the dust but the soul sprang from heaven 't was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a bud of Eternity And truely that the souls of men should now be extraduce it does somewhat degrade them from that height of excellency that belongs to them I know that question 's full of briers and thornes but yet we may very well say thus much that some Scripture-passages favour and countenance this most that God still breaths into men living souls that they flow immediately from him in a way of Creation and that the soul and body do still differ in their Original That 's the first the excellency of the souls Original 2. The excellency of its Operations Do but look upon the several workings of the soul Consider the several layings out of the soul and you 'l see they have worth in them Do but view the wheels and motions of the soul the several faculties and employments of them and you 'l see they are all choice and precious What should I tell you of the Understanding crown'd with Beams compast and surrounded with Light of the Will sitting like a Queen upon her Throne and swaying the Scepter of Liberty in her hand with all the affections waiting and attending upon her There 's a five-fold excellency in the workings of the souls of men 1. The workings of the soul are quick and nimble Material Beings move heavily Matter clogs them and dulls their motion They go like the Chariots of Pharaoh in the Red-sea but spiritual Beings they move freely and presently like the Chariots of Amminadab they run with a cheerfull spontaneity What quicker then a Thought what nimbler then the twinkling of an intellectual Eye 'T is true there is a weaknesse and irregularity in the souls motions when its best workings are too flitting and desultory too gliding and transient but take the soul as 't is regular and orderly in its motions and then the freenesse and presentnesse of its working 't is the high priviledge of a spiritual Being For God that is a pure Spirit is Omni-present in his motions And the Angels that are ministering Spirits make haste of those glorious errands they are sent about The wings of the Cherubims flye very swiftly And the souls of men that are next in motion as they are next in Being they do the will of God on earth as 't is done in heaven with such freenesse and alacrity 2. They are vigorous and indefatigable
Ministery if once they come to neglect souls if Cura Animarum be made but a slight businesse But they that convert souls to righteousnesse sayes the Prophet Daniel they shall shine as the starres in the firmament they shall have a more bright and massy Crown answerable to a greater degree of service 4. Arg. If you would still see more clearly the worth and preciousnes of souls do but consider the variety of Gospel-dispensations in respect of souls 1. Those many invitations that are made to souls to come into Christ that sweet Rhetorick those strong motives those powerfull perswasions those precious wooings and beseechings of them We beseech you by the mercies of Christ by the bowels of a Saviour we beseech you as if God himself should beseech you to be reconcil'd unto him Do you think there would be so much wooing and beseeching if they were not very precious Do you think the Spirit himself would so intreat do you think the Holy Ghost would be so importunate with them else Nay these souls are so precious as that he will have some for himself he will take no denial no refusal Go and compell them to come in 2. Consider those sad Lamentations that are made when souls will trample upon their own mercy as Christ speaks to Jerusalem in that passionate strain and dips his words in teares O Jerusalem Jerusalem c. This great lamenting shews that 't is the losse of a precious thing 3. Know that the World is kept up for this very end for the bringing in of some souls for a Saviour Do you think that God is at this vast cost and expence in maintaining this vast fabrick of the Creation only for men that oppose him and provoke him and violate his Lawes No 't is for the gathering of his Jewels for the binding up some precious souls in the bundle of Life If 't were not for this the very pillars and foundations of the world would crack asunder 4. Think upon the great Preparation that is made for the entertainment of souls how that Christ is gone to prepare a place for them What treasures of love and sweetnesse what heaps of joy are stor'd up for them what a weight of Glory what Crowns what Thrones what glorious and unexpressible and unconceiveable Priviledges shall they then enjoy Thus by all these several Arguments you have seen the worth and preciousnesse of souls Vse 1. And now when we consider the worth of them we might even take up this sad lamentation How is the gold become drosse how is the most fine gold chang'd The precious souls of men that were purer then Snow ruddier then Rubies more polisht then Saphirs in their first Original now their visage 't is blacker then a coal How are they become the reproach of him that made them the body's slaves the devils captives the scorn of every lust and temptation Nay you might even melt and dissolve into tears under this sad and serious consideration that so few of these precious souls shall be saved that there are so many of them that drop into hell irrecoverably And though there be a generation of men in the world that will never go over this narrow Bridge unlesse they put on Spectacles that so they may tumble in more Artificially men that lay down such large and reaching principles of so vast a latitude as that they scarce make it possible for any to be damn'd men that widen the narrow gate in their own apprehensions yet God has reveal'd his minde expressely and 't is the constant voice of the Gospel it self that there are but few of these precious souls that be sav'd And which is more that as for men of the rarest and most admirable endowments of the choicest accomplishments men of most orient and glittering souls there are fewer of these then of others Not many wise c. And yet all this comes not about because of any want of Gospel-provision not but that there is Balm enough in Gilead Oile enough in that horn of salvation not but that there are abundance of bowels in God which yearn towards the precious souls that he has made but because men refuse his goodnesse and abuse his mercy imprison his truth and shut it up in unrighteousnesse Now when men are told of the worth of their souls when they are put in minde of their preciousnesse again and again when they have all means for the welfare of their soul and when they are directed in the wayes that tend to the saving of the soul when they are convinc'd that such and such lusts fight against their souls and when they know that the present season of grace is all they are sure of for the welfare of their soul If they shall stubbornly refuse their own mercy and wilfully and violently rush into their own ruine though their souls were ten thousand times more precious then they are yet they perish deservedly Vse 2. Me thinks therefore at length men should come to such thoughts as these 'T is time now to provide for our own souls 'T is time now to build for Eternity Tanquam semper victuri If he that does not provide for his own house is worse then an Infidel then surely he that does not provide for his own soul is little better Yet how many are there in the world that live so as if they had no souls to save Many that take no notice of their own souls These are spiritual Beings and run not into their outward senses and so they never minde them These mens souls are so dark as they cannot see themselves Others that do take some little acquaintance with their own spirits yet how do they leave them in a rolling and fluctuating condition how do they venture Eternity upon what strange uncertainties do they leave a precious soul as he that was ready to die said He should know by and by whether the soul were immortall or no that was all he made of it Or as that other that complemented with his soul in that sporting language Animula vagula blandula Quae tandem abitura es in loca And yet 't is an impression engraven upon every Being with a Pen of Iron and with the point of a Diamond Nay 't is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stampt upon every Being by the finger of God himself that it should look to its own preservation to the maintaining of it self so that 't is matter of amazement astonishment that the souls of men being such precious Beings should look to their own welfare no more And it can be resolv'd into nothing else but into that same first and grand Apostasie from their God the fountain of their life and happinesse When they lost their God they lost themselves and when they fell off from him they Apostatiz'd from their own Essence And now they minde the body and take care for things here below and neglect themselves If there be any that can repair the ruins of Nature