J r^. A. j^' 
 
 
 OF TUE 
 
 Theological Seminary, 
 
 PRINCETON, N.J* 
 
 BR 121 .S49 1829 c.l • 
 Shaw, Samuel, 1635-1696. 
 Emmanuel; or, A discovery o> 
 true religion 
 
 ^ 
 
 
/ f 
 

 SELECT 
 CHRISTIAN AUTHORS, 
 
 WITH 
 
 INTRODUCTORY ESSAYS. 
 
 NO- 38. 
 
?>vkr::-^ 
 
 PUBl.lSHEn HY WILUAM COLLINS CILASOCW 
 
EMMANUEL: 
 
 OR, A 
 
 DISCOVERY OF TRUE RELIGION, 
 
 AS IT IMPORTS A 
 
 LIVING PRINCIPLE IN THE MINDS OF MEN. 
 
 AND ON 
 
 COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 SAMUEL SHAW, 
 
 LATE MINISTER OF LONG-WHATTON, LEICESTERSHIRE. 
 
 WITH 
 
 AN INTRODUCTOllY ESSAY, 
 
 BY 
 
 ROBERT GORDON, D. D. 
 
 MINISTER OF THE NEW NORTH CHURCH, EDINBURGH, 
 
 GLASGOW: 
 PRINTED FOR WILLIAM COLLINS; 
 
 WILLIAM WHYTE & CO. AND WILLIAM OLIPHANT, EDINBURGH 
 R. M. TIMS, AND WM. CURRY, JUN. & CO. DUBLIN; 
 G. B. WHITTAKER, AND HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO. LONDON. 
 
 1829. 
 
Priflf od by W. ColHns & Co. 
 
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 When, on a certain occasion, the Pharisees demand- 
 ed of our Lord, when the kingdom of God should 
 come? he answered them and said, " The kingdom 
 of God Cometh not with observation : neither shall 
 they say, lo, here ! or lo, there ! for behold the 
 kingdom of God is within you ;" and the same truth 
 is stated by the Apostle Paul, when he says, " The 
 kingdom of God is not meat and drink ; but righ- 
 teousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." 
 These statements were both originally made to par- 
 ticular persons, and with a reference to special cir- 
 cumstances; the former, to correct the mistaken views 
 of the Pharisees, who expected that the kingdom of 
 God was to commence with some striking interposi- 
 tion of divine power on behalf of the Jews, and to 
 consist in their being put in possession of great tem- 
 poral prosperity ; — the latter, to put an end to the 
 dissension which had arisen between the Jewish and 
 Gentile Christians at Rome, respecting certain ex- 
 ternal observances, which were adhered to by the one 
 class, and disregarded by the other. But, though 
 thus directed, in the first instance, against special 
 
VI 
 
 errors and misapprehensions, both statements contain 
 a truth, which it is always of importance to bear in 
 raind, and convey an admonition, which is but too 
 applicable to multitudes in every age. Though 
 none, who are in the slightest degree acquainted 
 with the Gospel, can entertain such expectations 
 concerninfT the kinfjdom of God, as were entertained 
 by the Jews, it will be found that the principle in 
 which their error originated is still a very prevalent 
 one ; and that, although it is accompanied with a pro- 
 fession of faith in the Gospel, it does, nevertheless, in 
 many cases, prevent the power of the Gospel from 
 being felt. That principle consists in conceiving of 
 the kingdom of God as of something external-^ 
 some dispensation, in the benefits of which all parti- 
 cipate who professedly acknowledge its authority, 
 and outwardly conform to its institutions ; just as 
 mankind participate in the advantages of that politi- 
 cal constitution, under which they live. 
 
 It is possible, that many, to whom this remark is 
 applicable, might not willingly avow such an opinion, 
 and that they may never have formed to themselves 
 a distinct conception of the subject : for it will be 
 found, that vague and indistinct apprehensions of 
 divine truth constitute the refucre in which multi- 
 tudes, who are familiar with the sound of that truth, 
 make their escape from the convictions which it 
 might awaken. But it cannot, we fear, be dis- 
 puted, that with many the idea which is attached to 
 the kingdom of God, as presently existing among 
 mankind, were that idea expressed in definite and 
 precise terms, would be found, in reality, to amount 
 to little more than what has now been stated; that 
 
vu 
 
 with regard to communities, this kingdom is supposed 
 to be established, wherever it is found that no other 
 than the Christian system of faith is professed, and 
 no other than Christian rites are observed ; and that 
 in the case of individuals, every one is regarded as 
 a subject of this kingdom, who pays to the institu- 
 tions of the Gospel that measure of external de- 
 ference and respect, which is required by the general 
 sentiments of the community around him. It is, 
 indeed, a very appalling thought, that a scheme of 
 divine wisdom and mercy, the execution of which 
 required that the Son of God should become incar- 
 nate, and suffer, and die; and the design of which 
 is to enthrone God in the love and affections of his 
 debased and alienated creatures, should be regarded 
 as if it had only been intended to give currency to a 
 certain system of speculative opinions, or to construct 
 the frame-work of certain external observances. Yet 
 such, in reality, is the place which is assigned to it, 
 in the estimation of those who have never distinctly 
 conceived of the kingdom of God, as the establish- 
 ment of a divine principle in the soul — the dominion 
 of divine love over the affections; and who do not 
 perceive that the seat of this dominion is the heart, 
 and the heart alone ; that wherever it is in reality 
 set up, it is just as complete in the case of a single 
 individual as in that of multitudes ; and that how- 
 ever generally the Gospel may be professed in any 
 community, or however rigorously its ordinances 
 may be observed, yet if there is not in that commu- 
 nity any one individual whose heart has been so sub- 
 jugated to a divine power, then the kingdom of God 
 is not there. But, lamentable as it is to reflect, 
 
Vlll 
 
 that the subject should ever be regarded in any 
 other light, it is nothing more than what we are 
 taught to expect. Our Lord himself declared, not 
 of the Jews, who openly rejected him, but of such as 
 should professedly acknowledge him, and wear all 
 the external badges of discipleship, that "many will 
 hereafter say to him. Lord, Lord, we have eaten and 
 drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our 
 streets ; but he will say to them, I never knew you;, 
 depart from me ye that work iniquity." In the re- 
 velation which he vouchsafed to make to his servant 
 John, respecting the spiritual condition of the 
 churches of Asia, he addressed the members of one 
 of these churches, as men Vv'ho had a name to live 
 and were dead ; and the Apostle Paul, in his writ- 
 ings, speaks of some who were ever learning, and 
 never able to come to the knowledge of the truth— 
 and of others, who had a form of godliness, but de- 
 nied the power thereof. But there is, perhaps, no 
 passage that does more emphatically express the 
 tendency of mankind to substitute the mere externals 
 of the Gospel, for the faith of the Gospel itself, 
 than that to which we adverted at the commence- 
 ment of these remarks, — where, in writing to those 
 whom the Apostle believed to be Christians, and 
 of whom he had before said, that " he thanked 
 God, through Jesus Christ, for them all, that their 
 faith was spoken of throughout the whole world," 
 he thought it necessary to remind them, that "the 
 kinfrdom of God is not meat and drink." 
 
 What the Apostle has thus said of the observ- 
 ances which had created a dissension between the 
 Jewish and Gentile Christians, is obviously appli- 
 
IX 
 
 cable to every thing else which mankind may be 
 found to substitute for what is represented in the 
 same passage as constituting the kingdom of God ; 
 and while his statement may thus be considered as 
 announcing the general truth, that this kingdom 
 consists not in external things, however important 
 these may be in their place ; it does at the same time 
 intimate, how prone mankind are to rest satisfied 
 with these — a truth which is confirmed alike by the 
 past history, and the present condition, of the pro- 
 fessedly Christian world. 
 
 In illustration of this remark, we may refer 
 to that system of error and superstition, which, 
 under the name of Christianity, did, for many 
 ages, exclude from the nations generally the light 
 of divine truth, and which still continues to en- 
 velop many of them in spiritual darkness. The 
 principle upon which that system was established 
 and maintained, was to identify the kingdom of 
 Christ with the exercise of secular power — to give 
 to that kingdom the form and character of a tem- 
 poral sovereignty — and to suspend the communica- 
 tion of its blessings, on the payment of the same kind 
 of submission that earthly governments are wont to re- 
 quire of their subjects. And that such a system should 
 not only succeed, but should, through many succes- 
 sive ages, continue steadily to advance — that, in spite 
 of the oppression and tyranny with which it asserted 
 its authority, and promoted its interests, it should, 
 nevertheless, secure the ready acquiescence of a vast 
 majority of every country into which it was intro- 
 duced, and that it should ultimately acquire a strength 
 and a stability which^ humanly speaking, rendered 
 
 A3 
 
its overtlirow altogether a hopeless thing, is a strik- 
 ing tcstimoriy how prone mankind are to place re- 
 ligion in any thing else rather than in the state of 
 the heart, and to acknowledtje the kin^jdom of God in 
 any form, provided it does not assert a supremacy over 
 the affections. It was, in fact, by availing them- 
 selves of this principle of human nature, that the 
 abettors of the popisli superstition were so successful 
 in establishing and perpetuating their spiritual domi- 
 nation. The deluded votaries of that system were 
 willing enough to acknowledge the authority of the 
 church ; because, however grievous might be the 
 servitude which she exacted, or however painful the 
 penances which she imposed, it was still but the ser- 
 vitude of an external conformity, which might at any 
 time, by a great effort, be discharged; and it was a 
 service, therefore, which, however burdensome in 
 itself, was far more agreeable to the corrupt prin- 
 ciples of human nature, than one which implied the 
 subjugation of every unholy passion, and every un- 
 sanctified desire, to the authority of Christ. The 
 whole system did, accordingly, proceed upon this prin- 
 ciple. The sinner was taught to believe — and to a 
 depraved heart, not absolutely insensible to the ap- 
 prehension of a future reckoning, it was a most 
 acceptable doctrine — that, by the endurance of some 
 bodily penance, the sacrifice of some portion of 
 worldly possessions, or the rigorous observance of 
 some outward religious rites, his sins would be for- 
 given him ; and that, if he would secure for himself 
 a higher place in the kingdom of heaven hereafter, 
 he had only to multiply these acts of mortification 
 and self-denial, and exceed his fellow-men in his 
 
XI 
 
 zealous support of the authority, and his liberal con- 
 tributions to the wealth, of what was denominated 
 the church. It was thus that provision was made 
 for pacifying a guilty conscience, while the convic- 
 tions that were suppressed had no influence in re- 
 straining the sinner from the future commission of 
 the same or still more atrocious offences ; and hopes 
 of heaven were awakened, while the means that were 
 employed to do so, instead of conveying any distinct 
 idea, or communicating any foretaste of its blessed- 
 ness, went directly to render the soul still more de- 
 based, and still more incapable of spiritual enjoy- 
 ment ; and we have, therefore, in the system of 
 Romish error and delusion, the testimony of a large 
 majority of the professedly Christian world, and that 
 through a long succession of ages, to the melancholy 
 fact, that the sinner is ready to embrace any scheme, 
 or betake himself to any subterfuge, whereby he may 
 evade the demand which God makes on his heart and 
 affections. 
 
 But testimonies to the same sad truth may be 
 found, we fear, in abundance, without referring to 
 the gross and palpable delusion, under which so large 
 a portion of mankind laboured, during the period 
 that superstition held the undisputed sway over what 
 was called the Christian world. From the circum- 
 stances in which we have been placed, and the improve- 
 ment which we have witnessed, both in the political 
 and moral condition of mankind — an improvement 
 which may be traced, either directly or indirectly, 
 to the influence of the truth — we are apt to regard 
 the state of the world, while under the domination of 
 spiritual tyranny, as an unnatural one, and are ready 
 
xii 
 
 to give way to astonishment, that mankind should, 
 for one moment, have submitted to such a domina- 
 tion. But, though it is no doubt true, that the 
 extremity of oppression to which the system was car- 
 ried, as it immediately affected the temporal comfort 
 and well-being of its subjects, was calculated to revolt 
 the common understanding and the common feelings 
 of mankind ; and, though in this respect it did no 
 doubt awaken much secret dissatisfaction, if it did 
 not call forth open resistance ; yet the strength of 
 the system, in so far as it was professedly of a spi- 
 ritual character, lay in the depraved hearts and alien- 
 ated affections of men ; and it found acceptance 
 with them, because it provided for quieting their 
 apprehensions of the consequences of guilt, while it 
 left them in the undisturbed possession of every in- 
 dulgence, by which they were daily becoming still 
 more guilty. And that this was really the strong- 
 hold of the delusion, is but too evident from what is 
 daily exemplified among ourselves ; for is it not true, 
 that even in those communities, where such a system 
 of spiritual oppression as we have just referred to, is 
 professedly held in detestation, and where no indi- 
 vidual would recognize another's claim to the autho- 
 rity of directing his conscience, or the power of 
 deciding on his future destiny ; there are, neverthe- 
 less, multitudes, who have just substituted the simple 
 forms of worship which characterize the reformed 
 churches, for the more laborious and diversified ritual 
 of the church of Rome, and who are virtually assign- 
 ing the same place, and attaching the same weight, to 
 these more scriptural modes of going about religious 
 exercises, which the others did to their system of 
 mortification and penance? 
 
Such, it is obvious, must be the case with every 
 mere formalist — to many of whom the religious duties, 
 which the practice of the community at large, the in- 
 fluence of early associations, or some faint and indis- 
 tinct impression of the truth itself constrains them to 
 engage in, are, in fact, little else than so many acts of 
 penance — a penance, perhaps, which is not very pain- 
 ful from their being reconciled to it by habit, and 
 which does not make a very large encroachment either 
 on their hours of business, or seasons of pleasure; but, 
 still, such as they would not submit to, were the com- 
 fort and the enjoyment which it yields them the only 
 advantage that they expect to derive from it. In 
 certain circumstances, indeed, they may not be con- 
 scious of making any effort, or submitting to any 
 sacrifice, in attending on the public exercises of 
 religious worship — nay, there may even be certain 
 circumstances connected with that service, which 
 enable them to spend the time that is devoted 
 to it, more agreeably than they could contrive to do 
 in any other way. But if, with all this, they are 
 receiving no serious or permanent impression from 
 the truths which are thus set before them ; if they 
 feel no anxiety, and make no effort to keep alive any 
 impression that may occasionally be made on them ; 
 if they return to their worldly pursuits, satisfied with 
 the reflection, that they have discharged a duty, 
 though there has been nothing more in that duty 
 than placing themselves, for a certain time, in cer- 
 tain circumstances ; and if any interest, which they 
 might feel while so employed, arose, not from the 
 value or the importance of the truth to which their 
 attention was directed, but from something altogether 
 
XIV 
 
 unconnected with the import of that truth ; then 
 what is it but to say, that they substitute the sound 
 of the Gospel for the Gospel itself, and the external 
 observance of its ordinances, for a cordial acceptance 
 •of its overtures ? Yet, we fear, there is no room to 
 doubt, that such is the amount of all that is implied 
 on the part of many, in the outward regard that is 
 paid to public ordinances ; and were their man- 
 ner of engaging in the more private exercises of re- 
 ligion fully unfolded, it would appear still more 
 clearly, that such exercises are more a penance than 
 a pleasure. It is possible that the same considera- 
 tions, which induce them to wait on the preaching 
 of the Word, may constrain them to observe the form 
 of private prayer, and reading the Scriptures ; nor 
 might they feel quite at ease, did they deliberately 
 omit to do so, without some reason that might ap- 
 pear to them a valid excuse. But such excuses 
 will not be of unfrequent occurrence ; and when they 
 do not occur, the duty will be gone about, rather as 
 a matter of necessity which cannot be safely omitted, 
 and to which, therefore, their own comfort requires 
 them to be reconciled, than as a matter of choice, 
 which it would be a sacrifice both of pleasure and of 
 profit to neglect. Till the task is gone through, 
 they will feel that there is something before them 
 which it would be a comfort to have done with ; 
 when they do engage in it, there will be no solem- 
 nity of feeling, or earnestness of desire, at all cor- 
 responding to the momentous truths which they read, 
 or the language of supplication to which they give 
 utterance ; and, when it is completed, they will be- 
 take themselves to their worldly concernsj more like 
 
XV 
 
 persons who have made their escape from some re- 
 straint, than like those who have received new com- 
 munications of strength, wherewith to encounter the 
 temptations, and submit to the trials of life. There 
 are many, we fear, who, with just such a form of 
 godliness as we have now described, contrive to live, 
 day after day, without any doubt or misgiving about 
 the question, whether or not they are Christians ; 
 and who even succeed, when any such misgiving is 
 awakened, in putting it down with the reflection, that 
 they have been most regular in the private duties of 
 religion, and most decorous in their observance of its 
 more public ordinances — that they have about them 
 all that is generally esteemed by others essential to 
 the Christian character — and that if, on some points, 
 they have, at times, been less careful and less } igor- 
 ous than they ought to have been, they are resolved, 
 that in future they will be more regular on these 
 points than they formerly were : and, if to tiiese 
 considerations, they can add the decencies of an un- 
 blemished life and reputation, they will be ready to 
 conclude, that they have nothing to fear. Nay, 
 there are not wanting instances, which go to prove, 
 that reflections like these constitute, with many, the 
 strength of their hopes in the immediate prospect of 
 death — or if, at such times, they do manifest a more 
 than usual anxiety about religious exercises, that it 
 is still on the same principle on which they formerly 
 observed them — a principle essentially the same as 
 that on which the deluded votaries of superstition 
 betook themselves for comfort, to the last religious 
 rites which their system had prescribed ; and what, 
 therefore, are such facts, but just melancholy 
 
XVI 
 
 proofs, tliat with many religion is still a mere system 
 of" external things, with which the heart and the af- 
 fections have nothing to do. 
 
 But the truth which we are endeavouring to 
 establish, may be exemplified in the character of 
 some, whose condition is in many respects apparently 
 far more hopeful, than that of the class of formalists 
 to whom we have just referred. It is possible that 
 an individual may be placed in such circumstances, 
 or led to form such connexions, as may awaken in 
 his mind some interest on the subject of Scripture 
 truth ; in the course of his inquiries, he may discover 
 a great deal in that truth to exercise his understand- 
 ing, and even in some measure to call forth his ad- 
 miration ; he may perceive, to a certain extent, the 
 order and beauty of the doctrines of Scripture, as 
 forming a connected system, and not a little too of 
 the adaptation of the whole scheme to the condition 
 of creatures who are in a state of guilt and alienation 
 from God ; and he may have acquired not only a 
 facility, but a desire of making that scheme the sub- 
 ject of converse,- or of discussion, among those with 
 whom he is accustomed to associate. Having thus 
 acquired a speculative acquaintance with the truths 
 of Scripture, he may manifest a decided predilection 
 for those exhibitions of the truth, in which it is fairly 
 and faithfully set forth, with a corresponding dislike 
 to every thing that would darken or perplex it — and 
 he may even show a great deal of zeal for the ad- 
 vancement and ultimate triumph of those sentiments 
 which he himself entertains. But, with all this, the 
 truth may never have obtained a permanent place in 
 his heart, or exercised any salutary influence on his 
 
XVll 
 
 affections. While he perceives the harmony that 
 subsists among the truths of Scripture, considered as 
 a connected system, and even its adaptation to the 
 circumstances of those for whom it is professedly 
 designed, the satisfaction which it yields him may 
 arise from the fitness of such a harmony, and such an 
 adaptation to awaken admiration, just as any beauti- 
 ful arrangement is calculated to please, while he is, 
 nevertheless, blind to it, as that, on his acceptance of 
 which his eternal well-being is suspended. In mani- 
 festing a decided preference for those works, or 
 those discourses in which the leading truths of the 
 Gospel are prominently exhibited, his gratification 
 may be altogether, or in a great measure, traced 
 to the accordance between such statements and 
 the views which he himself entertains, while the 
 truth itself engages but a small portion of his atten- 
 tion or regard. And, in like manner, with respect 
 to the zeal which he shows in the defence of these 
 views, and the anxiety which he feels for their ad" 
 vancement and final triumph, it may in reality be the 
 same kind of zeal which he would manifest in the 
 defence, or for the establishment, of his own favourite 
 opinions on any other subject — and pride, therefore, 
 may be at the foundation of all the interest which he 
 feels about the truth, and all the efforts which he 
 makes for its advancement. It is thus, that, with 
 one class, the same value may be put upon a system 
 of opinions, which, by another, is attached to certain 
 external observances, while both are alike strangers 
 to the operation of that divine principle, which con- 
 stitutes the kincrdom of God in the soul of man. 
 To the nature and the effects of this spiritual do- 
 
XVIU 
 
 minion, we shall have occasion immediately to advert. 
 But, whatever these may be, it is a very obvious and 
 a very important truth, that the kingdom of God 
 does not consist, either in mere opinions, however 
 sound, or in outward observances, however seriously 
 or regularly they may be gone about ; that the one 
 may be entertained, and the other practised, while 
 the heart remains as much estranged from God as 
 ever it was ; and that so long as this is the con- 
 dition of the sinner, he m^ist be the subject of some 
 other kingdom, than that which the Son of God 
 came to announce, and is exalted to establish. In 
 carrying into effect his gracious purpose of setting up 
 his kingdom in the world, he is pleased to employ 
 the preaching of the truth, even the proclamation of 
 a free remission through his blood; this truth makes 
 a direct and a most powerful appeal to the heart of 
 every sinner who hears it; and when, by the power 
 of the Holy Ghost, it does make its way to the 
 heart, and displaces the enmity against God, which 
 formerly had its abode there, the kingdom of Christ 
 in that individual begins to be set up. But so 
 long as the truth produces no such effect, it is ob- 
 vious that it has not done what it is its first object to 
 accomplish ; and whatever, therefore, sinners may 
 know about the Gospel, as a subject of opinion or 
 speculation, or whatever they may do in the way of 
 observing its institutions, they are virtually acting as 
 if the kinirdom of God were somethino; external — 
 they are deceiving themselves, with a name to live, 
 while they are ppiritually dead. 
 
 Now, in opposition to all such views of the king- 
 dom of God, as would make it to consist in external 
 
XIX 
 
 observances, our Lord has declared that this kingdom, 
 if it exist at all, " is within us ;" and the Apostle 
 has very clearly explained the import of this decla- 
 ration when he says, that " the kingdom of God is 
 righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy 
 Ghost." And, with regard to the term ' righteous- 
 ness,' as here used by the Apostle, its meaning is 
 determined by the general scope of the passage. 
 On many occasions it is employed to express the 
 ground of a sinner's justification in the sight of God, 
 even the obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ; and when so used it denotes something that 
 is not, and cannot be, inherent in the nature of be- 
 lievers : for though this righteousness is imputed to 
 them, and made available for their pardon and ac- 
 ceptance with God, still it is something which essen- 
 tially belongs to another. Such, however, cannot 
 be its meaning in the passage referred to. The 
 Apostle is speaking — not of the principle on which 
 sinners are received into divine favour, made the 
 subjects of the kingdom of God, and put in posses- 
 sion of its privileges and blessings — but of the na- 
 ture of that kingdom itself, as actually set up in 
 their hearts, exercising a supreme control over all 
 the moral principles of their nature, and making it- 
 self manifest by a corresponding life and conversation. 
 By the term ' righteousness,' then, we are here to 
 understand somethina existino- in believers them- 
 selves ; and if so, it can mean nothing else than the 
 conformity of their will to the will of God — the re- 
 establishment in their minds of the authority of that 
 law which requires them to love the Lord their God 
 
XX 
 
 with all their heart, and to love their neighbour as 
 themselves. 
 
 The Apostle, indeed, cannot be understood as 
 intimating, that in every case this law is at once re- 
 instated in the believer's heart in undisputed supre- 
 macy, and takes captive the affections without 
 reluctance or reserve ; for, alas ! the very occasion 
 on which he wrote the passage referred to, does itself 
 show that the case is far otherwise. But his decla- 
 ration, that " the kingdom of God is righteousness,'* 
 does assuredly imply, that where there is no turning 
 of the heart to God, no desire to be conformed to 
 his will, and nothing like the commencement of any 
 such conformity, there the kingdom of God is not 
 yet set up — that the very existence of this kingdom 
 lies in the subordination of the will to the divine law, 
 as holy, and reasonable, and right, and good — and 
 that the result of its full and final establishment, will 
 be the cheerful and unreserved acquiescence of the 
 heart in the will of God, as in all cases, and on every 
 point, infinitely the best. Such, it is obvious, is not 
 the natural condition of mankind, either as it regards 
 the state of their hearts, or as it relates to the tenor 
 of their conduct. The slightest acquaintance with 
 human nature, and the most superficial view of the 
 divine law, as revealed in the Scriptures, are suffi- 
 cient to show, that the one stands fearfully at variance 
 with the other; nor can sinners themselves, as often 
 as their attention is awakened to the subject, avoid 
 feeling conscious that it is so. To say nothing of 
 their proneness to forget God, and their unwilling- 
 ness to entertain solemn thoughts of the claim which 
 he has upon their love and gratitude, and which does 
 
XXI 
 
 itself involve in it all the guilt of apostacy and rebel- 
 lion, it is but too evident, that in the exercise of 
 their affections, and desires, and intellectual facul- 
 ties, there is the manifestation of an active hostility 
 to God; that they are naturally inclined to seek 
 happiness in pleasures and pursuits, which are not 
 only pervaded by a principle of ungodliness, inas- 
 much as they have no reference to the divine glory, 
 but are actually opposed to what he has expressly 
 revealed as his will ; that if the divine law is not 
 absolutely disregarded and set at nought, it is at least 
 dealt by as an unreasonable law, whose requirements, 
 where they cannot be evaded, must be so modified 
 and understood, as not to interfere with present en- 
 joyments ; that there is in the hearts of men such a 
 dissatisfaction with those events which defeat their 
 schemes, and disappoint their expectations, as amounts 
 to a direct resistance to the execution of the divine 
 will; and that there is thus in the unrenewed mind, 
 a continual conflict with the divine Mind, in the way 
 either of evading his authority, or opposing the exe- 
 cution of his purposes. 
 
 Nor is the state of the human heart less at 
 variance with that commandment of the divine 
 law, which requires mankind to love their neigh- 
 bours as themselves; for, in spite of all those pe- 
 culiar ties, by which individuals may be found 
 united to one another in the bond of friendship and 
 affection, it is undeniable, that there is in human 
 nature a principle of selfishness, that prompts men to 
 sacrifice the interest of others to their own ; that in 
 many cases where it does not actually appear, it 
 tvants only to be subjected to a fair trial, to be 
 
xxu 
 
 elicited and brought into action ; and that even in 
 those who are most highly distinguished for genero- 
 sity and benevolence, its existence is but too evident 
 from the irritation, the offences, and misapprehen- 
 sions, which are so frequently occurring in the ordi- 
 nary intercourse of life. And what, then, can be 
 the result of such a state of moral disorder, but 
 insecurity, disappointment, and vexation of spirit ? 
 It is no doubt true, that, through the forbearance 
 of God, mankind do not here reap to their full 
 extent the bitter fruits of this disorder; inasmuch, 
 as in many, perhaps a very large majority of cases, 
 ungodly men are permitted to succeed in their schemes 
 of worldly profit or pleasure; and even when they 
 are given practically to feel the hopelessness of the 
 controversy which they maintain vvith God, in hav- 
 ing their plans defeated, and their prospects blasted, 
 still these calamities are but an intimation of what his 
 retributive justice will do, not a retribution itself. 
 But, how utterly miserable should they be, and how 
 entirely bereft of every consolation and hope, were 
 their forgetfulness of God visited with a correspond- 
 ing abandonment on his part ; and were they made 
 to feel, at every point, where they stand opposed, in 
 heart and life, to his will, the desperate nature of that 
 opposition ? Were they for one hour given up to 
 such a state of desolation and helplessness, there 
 would be crowded into that hour more misery and 
 wretchedness than it is possible for us to estimate 
 or conceive of; and they would know, as a matter of 
 experience, that to say of intelligent creatures that 
 their hearts are not right with God, is to say 
 that they are necessarily unhappy. To render them 
 
XXlll 
 
 happy, therefore, it is necessary that this perversion 
 of their raoral nature be rectified ; inasmuch, as 
 without such a change of sentiment and feehng to- 
 wards God, there can be nothing hke the enjoyment 
 of fellowship with him ; and so far as this change has 
 taken place, to that extent the kingdom of God has 
 been established in the heart. Tliis righteousness, 
 it is true, does not constitute the ground upon which 
 sinners are received into the divine favour, nor are 
 we at all referring to the principle on which they are 
 so received; for, in point of fact, there will be no 
 approach towards an affectionate thought of God, or 
 a cheerful submission to his will, until they have seen 
 how their guilt may be forgiven, and have felt some- 
 thing of the constraining power of his love, for 
 whose sake forgiveness is granted. But it is at the 
 same time essential to their blessedness — nay, it 
 does in reality constitute the perfection of their na- 
 ture, to be brought into such a state of conformity 
 to the divine will, as that they shall regard the exe- 
 cution of that will with complacency and satisfaction 
 — that the very thought of its being supreme, shall 
 impart to them a feeling of security regarding the per- 
 manency, as well as the perfection of their happiness 
 — that they shall feel these desires and affections to 
 be in a state of unison with all that is holy, and righ- 
 teous, and beneficent, and good — and that nothing, 
 in which they are individually concerned, shall ever 
 awaken one suspicious or distrustful thought, regard- 
 ing the wisdom, and the love, and the faithfulness of 
 God's procedure towards them. From this state, 
 the Christian may have to lament that he is still at 
 a great distance. But, while his understanding can- 
 
XXIV 
 
 not fail to assent to the truth of what has now been 
 stated, respecting the necessity of his being brought 
 to it, he must be conscious also, from what he has 
 actually felt, that every step he advances towards it, 
 brings him nearer to the perfection of his happiness. 
 He cannot but know, on the one hand, that in the 
 submission of his will to the will of God, in a child- 
 like acquiescence in the divine appointments, in a firm 
 reliance on the divine faithfulness, and in the exer- 
 cise of affection and good will towards his fellow- 
 men, there is a satisfaction and an enjoyment, which 
 no mere worldly gratification will ever impart ; and 
 he must be conscious, on the other hand, that when 
 on any occasion he has been drawn into any thing for 
 which his heart condemns him, as a violation of the 
 law, which requires him so to feel and act towards 
 God and his neighbour, the frame of his mind, in so 
 far as it was peaceful and happy, has been disturbed 
 —that, even though he can look to the blood of 
 Christ, for the pardon of his offence, the conse- 
 quences of that offence, in throwing his heart and 
 affections into a state of disorder, are not immediately 
 rectified — and that, independent of the guilt which 
 he has contracted, an inroad has also been made upon 
 his happiness ; and the experience, therefore, of 
 every believer, furnishes a practical illustration of the 
 truth, that *'the kingdom of God is righteousness." 
 But the subject of these remarks is still farther il- 
 lustrated by the Apostle's statement, that " the king- 
 dom of God is peace." The term 'peace,' as ap- 
 plied to sinners, is frequently used in Scripture to 
 denote, either their reconciliation to God, or that 
 relief which accompanies their reconciliation, when the 
 
XXV 
 
 conscience is no longer under a depressing sense, 
 and a tormenting apprehension of unforgiven guilt. 
 Thus the birth of the Saviour was announced to the 
 shepherds of Bethlehem, as "peace on earth, and 
 good will towards men." Christ is represented as 
 reconciling sinners unto God, " having made peace 
 by the blood of his cross." And it is declared of 
 them who believe, that " being justified by faith, 
 they have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus 
 Christ." It is evident, indeed, from the whole tenor 
 of the New Testament, that a pacified conscience is 
 the first practical effect which accompanies the faith 
 of the gospel ; and it is equally evident, both from 
 Scripture, and from the constitution of human nature, 
 that till the soul that is conscious of guilt has received 
 and relied on God's own assurance of a free and full 
 remission, there can be no satisfaction or enjoy- 
 ment in realizing the divine presence; and tliat peace 
 of conscience therefore, arising from the divine tes- 
 timony concerning Christ, constitutes the commence- 
 ment of the believer's fellowship with God. When 
 the Apostle declares, then, that the kingdom of God is 
 peace, his statement necessarily implies, that wherever 
 this kingdom has been established, there the peace of 
 being reconciled to God has been felt, inasmuch as 
 without this, the sinner must either be living in igno- 
 rance and forgetfulness of God, or must be a prey 
 to the suspicion and fear which guilt awakens, and, 
 consequently, in a state that altogether disqualifies 
 him for finding any satisfaction and comfort in con- 
 templating the sovereignty of the divine will, and the 
 execution of the divine purposes. But though all 
 this must be understood as intimated in the Apostle's 
 
 B . » S8 
 
XXVI 
 
 declaration, it is evident, we think, that it implies a 
 great deal more. However valuable may be the 
 peace which the glad 'tidings of a free salvation bring 
 to the convicted and trembling sinner, and however 
 essential to the commencement and the future pro- 
 gress of the divine life in his soul, there is a peace 
 also, and that of a more elevated character, arising 
 out of holiness itself; and it is to this especially, we 
 conceive, that the Apostle here refers. He had al- 
 ready set forth the kingdom of God as consisting in 
 righteousness — in the restoration of the soul to a 
 state of conformity to the divine will — and the re- 
 establishment, over the affections, of the authority of 
 that law which requires mankind to love God with 
 all their heart, and their neighbour as themselves; 
 and when he proceeds, therefore, further to represent 
 this kingdom as consisting in peace, we canuDt avoid 
 concluding, that he refers to the state of mind in 
 which all the aifections are placed on their proper 
 objects, regulated by the eternal la\f of rectitude and 
 truth, and exercised with a reference to the will of 
 Him, who is acknowledged and felt to be infinitely 
 worthy of supreme love and regard, as contrasted 
 with that state of distraction and disquiet in which 
 the strength of these affections is expended on frivo- 
 lous, and sinful, and debasing objects, and when the 
 principle of selfishness is perpetually leading to dis- 
 appointment and vexation of spirit, by the very means 
 which it employs to obtain gratification. The cir- 
 cum.stanccs, too, in which the Apostle wrote, go to 
 confirm this interpretation ; for though he does as- 
 suredly speak of the kingdom of God as the estab- 
 lishment of a divine principle in the heart, yet he is 
 
XXVll 
 
 obviously. referring also to the manifestation of this 
 principle in the intercourse and fellowship of Chris- 
 tians with one another; and it can require no argu- 
 ment to show, that, in proportion as the peace of 
 which we are now speaking is established in the 
 hearts of individuals, it must promote peace, and 
 harmony, and love among Christians in their collec- 
 tive capacity. The Apostle in fact is just stating the 
 practical effect of that righteousness to which he had 
 previously referred as constituting the kingdom of 
 God in the soul ; and is virtually telling us that peace 
 is as necessarily the effect of such a state of the heart, 
 as distrust, and dissatisfaction, and perplexity are of 
 the opposite state. Nor is it difficult to see, that from 
 the very nature of things it must be so. So long 
 as a law is felt and regarded only as a mandate of 
 authority, however reasonable it may be in itself, or 
 however bitter may be the consequences of offending 
 against it, there may be no pleasure felt in yielding 
 an external obedience to it ; and it will accordingly 
 be found, that there is often a great deal of outward 
 respect paid to the letter of the divine command- 
 ments, while they who do so are utter strangers to 
 solid or permanent peace of mind — nay, subject to 
 all the insecurity, and fear, and disappointment, to 
 which mankind, in a state of alienation from God, are 
 every instant exposed. But the establishment of the 
 kingdom of God in the heart consists in rendering 
 the divine law a law of love, and in so far as it is felt 
 to be so, it is very obvious that there will be nothing 
 painful or constrained in the submission which is paid 
 to it — that the more extensively the influence of this 
 law operates, the farther is the believer removed from 
 
 B 2 
 
XXVlll 
 
 all that would disturb or distract him — and that 
 when its authority has been completely established, 
 in the entire subjugation of every desire and affec- 
 tion of the soul, his peace will also be placed beyond 
 the reach of every inroad. Nor would the conse- 
 quences of such a state of things be less palpable, as 
 it regards Christians collectively, than as it relates 
 to the experience of individuals; for were the law of 
 love in general and active operation in a community, 
 where would be the dissension, the animosities, and 
 the intemperance by which the peace even of Chris- 
 tian societies is often disturbed, and the advancement 
 of truth and righteousness retarded ? Such a state 
 indeed may never yet have been exemplified, nor do 
 we allege that it ever can be perfectly so in the pre- 
 sent life. But in as far as there is an. approach to 
 it, either in the case of individuals, or societies, to 
 that extent the kingdom of God has been established, 
 but no farther; and this kingdom will be perfected, 
 only when every individual of its subjects is brought 
 into entire subjection to the law of love ; and when it 
 will be as impossible for them to make any inroad on 
 the peace of one another, as it would be deliberately 
 to surrender their own. 
 
 But there is still another principle which the 
 Apostle sets forth as constituting the kingdom of 
 God in the soul, namely, "joy in the Holy Ghost." 
 And while by this declaration he has established the 
 truth of the general proposition, that this kingdom 
 consists not in any system of external observances, 
 but in the state of the heart and affections ; he has 
 directed us also to the great agency by which the 
 transformation of the inner man, of which we have 
 
XXIX 
 
 been speaking, is in every case brought about. 
 Though it is in virtue of the obedience, and suffer- 
 ings, and death of the Lord Jesus Christ, that sin- 
 ners are reconciled unto God, and received into 
 favour; and though it is thus that God manifests 
 his righteousness in treating the ungodly as righ- 
 teous; yet the whole tenor of Scripture goes to 
 show, that this revelation of the divine character does 
 not actually operate with any efficacious influence 
 on sinners but through the agency of the Holy 
 Ghost — that if the claims of the divine law, and 
 the awful nature of its sanctions, do so convict them 
 of guilt, and so alarm them with apprehensions of 
 danger, as to prompt them to seek after a hiding 
 place from the storm, and a covert from the tempest, 
 it is because the Spirit of God has given power and 
 efficacy to the word, whereby it has become quick 
 and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword 
 — that if the preaching of the gospel leads them to 
 take refuge in the righteousness of the Redeemer, 
 it is because the same divine teacher has opened their 
 eyes to the security of that refuge, and subdued them 
 under an overwhelming sense of the love and mercy 
 which provided it — and that if they become partakers 
 of everlasting consolation and good hope through 
 grace, it is because he has made the efficacy of the 
 Redeemer's blood, and the riches of his grace, and 
 the faithfulness of his promises, to stand forth so 
 clearly revealed, and so distinctly realized to their 
 apprehension, as to furnish them with a solid ground 
 of confidence towards God. Believers feel assured 
 that all this is the effect of the immediate agency of 
 the Holy Spirit, because that effect is ascribed to 
 
XXX 
 
 him in Scripture, and because their own experience 
 bears testimony to the same truth ; inasmuch as they 
 know enough of the perverseness of their understand- 
 ing and the natural enmity of their minds against 
 Godj to be convinced, that, but for the enlighten- 
 ing, and convincing, and converting influences of the 
 Spirit, they should have remained for ever in a state 
 of alienation from God — terrified, it may be, by some 
 occasional misjjivino's of conscience, but altogether 
 unaffected by the manifestation of his love, and the 
 invitation of his mercy. Whatever, therefore, may 
 be the peace and joy which they have experienced in 
 believing — whatever may be the security and com- 
 fort which they have felt in approaching God, pour- 
 ing out their hearts before him, and unreservedly 
 committing their way to his direction — and whatever 
 enlargement of heart may have been brought to them, 
 while meditating on the unsearchable depth of the 
 love and mercy of Christ, it is to the immediate 
 agency of the Holy Spirit that they are indebted for 
 it all — knowing, as they do, that but for this agency, 
 the divine record which furnishes them 'matter for 
 holy meditation, and counsel to direct them in sea- 
 sons of perplexity, and exceeding great and precious 
 promises to sustain them in times of trial and tribu- 
 lation, would have been to them a sealed book. It 
 is indeed a very solemn thought, that they are the 
 subjects of a divine influence — that they are in im- 
 mediate contact with the Spirit of all holiness, and 
 purity, and truth — and that the wilful indulgence of 
 every unholy affection, and the commission of every 
 knovvn sin, is a deliberate act of resistance to the 
 Spirit's agency. But it is, at the same time, a very 
 
XXXI 
 
 animating thought, that they should thus be ad- 
 mitted to intimate fellowship with Him ; and, while 
 every step that they advance towards a conformity to 
 the divine image, furnishes a new ground of joy and 
 gratitude to him in whose strength they made it, the 
 fact, that it is the Spirit's work, forbids them to set 
 any limits to their advancement, short of the full 
 maturity of holiness, and the full measures of bless- 
 edness, of which their nature is capable. As often 
 as they betake themselves to prayer, meditation, 
 hearing the word, or any other spiritual exercise, 
 they are encouraged to hope and believe that then 
 they will be admitted to immediate fellowship with 
 the Holy Ghost — it is held out to them as a most 
 powerful motive to engage in such exercises, that he 
 will be ready to help their infirmities, to quicken 
 their desires after God, and to lead them ifrito all the 
 truth — and as often as they find in these exercises, 
 the consolation and refreshment which they sought 
 for, it is just an intimation to them that His gracious 
 influence was present ; and thus, every new accession 
 which is made to the light, and life, and spiritual 
 comfort of believers, is a practical illustration of the 
 truth, that the kingdom of God is joy in the Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 We are aware, that in these remarks we have 
 only hinted at the import of the language employed 
 by the Apostle ; and have exhibited, therefore, but 
 a very imperfect view of what it is that constitutes 
 the kingdom of God. But, for a very full and clear 
 exposition of the subject, we refer to the following 
 Treatise, which none, we think, can peruse with 
 attention without receiving from it very serious and 
 
xxxu 
 
 salutary impressions, and without being convinced 
 that the kingdom of God is a very different thing 
 indeed from a mere assent to certain matters of 
 opinion, and an outward conformity to certain ap- 
 pointed ordinances. We know few treatises, in- 
 deed, better fitted than Shaw's Emmanuel, to 
 awaken solemn reflection, and lead to deep heart- 
 searching, and self-examination. The formalist will 
 find it difficult to make his escape from the scrutiny 
 to which it subjects him, without being convinced 
 that all is not right with him ; and the believer will 
 hardly fail to discover from it, how far he still stands 
 from that perfection after which he is taught to 
 aspire. And if the kingdom of God be any thing 
 like what is set forth in this Treatise, then how far 
 are those persons from that kingdom, with whom it 
 has never been a question of deep and serious con- 
 cernment how their hearts stand affected towards 
 him ; who have never conceived of that kingdom as 
 of something within them — a power which subju- 
 gates all the desires and affections, and faculties of 
 the soul ; and who have not been made to understand, 
 that instead of providing for their well-being without 
 interfering with their natural propensities, the hap- 
 piness which it bestows on its subjects consists, in 
 detaching them from their dearest gratifications, and 
 qualifying them for the enjoyment of what to the 
 natural man is utterly distasteful. While such is 
 the delusion under which sinners are labouring, it is, 
 we fear, but too evident, that they have never con- 
 ceived aright either of the sinfulness or the misery of 
 their condition ; and have never been persuaded to 
 betake themselves to Him, whose blood alone can 
 
XXXlll 
 
 wash them from their guilt. But to say nothing of 
 the solemn consideration, that this guilt still stands 
 against them unforgiven, we would entreat them to 
 reflect, what kind of happiness it is that they expect 
 hereafter to enjoy. The respect which they show 
 for the letter of the law which God has revealed, 
 and the form of those religious ordinances which he 
 has appointed, is virtually a declaration on their part 
 that they cannot be akogether indifferent to his dis- 
 pleasure ; while, in resting contented, and at ease, 
 with this form of godUness, they do in reality ex- 
 press their hope, that this displeasure is, or will be, 
 turned away from them. Without inquiring, then, 
 into the foundation of this hope, and even admitting 
 that it is well founded, we would ask them, what it 
 is that they hope for ? Of righteousness and peace, 
 and joy in the Holy Ghost, as constituting the king- 
 dom of God, they are practically ignorant ; and they 
 must be conscious, that so far from longing to be in 
 possession of these, a state of mind so spiritual and 
 so holy, as the prevalence of such principles would 
 imply, stands directly opposed to all their natural 
 inclinations and desires, and is in reality altogether 
 offensive to them. And what, then, do they under- 
 stand by being admitted into the kingdom of heaven ^ 
 or what is it that they expect to enjoy there, if they 
 are admitted ? Even on the supposition that they 
 are ultimately put in possession of it, though in this 
 life they remain experimentally strangers to its 
 nature, still that kingdom, as it will hereafter exist, 
 must be what the Apostle has represented j and can 
 they really allege, that they hope then to be, what 
 they are now most unwilling to become ? It is im- 
 
 B 3 
 
XXXIV 
 
 possible to express the infatuation which such an idea 
 implies; but, supposing that they do avow such a hope, 
 and allege that they shall undergo such a change as 
 will qualify them for the enjoyment of what they hope 
 for, they cannot surely believe, that this change willbe 
 effected without any consent or concurrence of theirs, 
 or that they will be compelled to love, what in reality 
 they dislike. The whole tenor of Scripture goes 
 distinctly to show, that wherever this change takes 
 place, it is by the manifestation of the truth to the 
 conscience — even the precious truth, that God spared 
 not his own Son, but freely gave him up to the death 
 for sinners ; if to this truth they remain insensible, 
 there is no other consideration by which they can 
 ever be brought to entertain affectionate thoughts of 
 God, or to long for the enjoyment of his fellowship ; 
 and their hope, therefore, express it as they will, 
 does still involve the strange contradiction, of pro- 
 fessedly hoping for what they cannot think of but 
 with aversion and dislike. It is indeed a miserable 
 delusion to suppose, that the happiness of heaven 
 hereafter may be possessed and enjoyed without any 
 such change taking place here in the state of the 
 heart and affections as may adapt them to the nature 
 of that happiness ; or that it consists in any thing 
 else than the full and uninterrupted enjoyment of 
 that communion with God, which commences at the 
 moment of the sinner's conversion, and which it is 
 the great object of all the discipline of God's pro- 
 vidence, the methods of his grace, and the influences 
 of his Spirit, to sustain and perfect. Of this truth 
 the Christian cannot be ignorant, but he may require 
 
XXXV 
 
 to be put in remembrance of it ; and we would, 
 therefore, remind him, that the kingdom of God here 
 is essentially the same that it will be hereafter ; that 
 it began to be established in his heart from the mo- 
 ment that he experienced the constraining influence 
 of the love of Christ ; and that it approaches nearer 
 to its full establishment, just as he continues more 
 and more to abound in " righteousness, and peace, 
 and joy in the Holy Ghost." 
 
 R. G. 
 
 Edinburgh, January^ 1829. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Preface, ......... 43 
 
 CHAP. I. The original of true religion. All souls the off- 
 spring of God ; but godly souls yet more especially. God 
 the author of religion from without; God the author of it 
 from within, enlightening the faculty. Religion some- 
 thing of God in the soul. A discovery of religious men 
 by the affinity that they have to God. God alone to be 
 acknowledged in all holy accomplishments, . . .79 
 
 CHAP. II. True religion described by water i 1. By rea- 
 son of the cleansing virtue of it. 2. By reason of the 
 quenching virtue of it. The nature of religion described 
 by a well of water : That it is a principle in the souls of 
 men. An examination of religion by this test. A godly 
 man hath neither the whole of his business, nor his mo- 
 tives, lying without him. In the same examination, 
 many things internal found not to be religion, , . 100 
 
 CHAP. III. Containing the first property mentioned of 
 true religion, namely, The freeness and unconstrainedness 
 of it. This freedom considered as to its Author ; in which 
 is considered how far the command of God may be said 
 to act a godly soul. Secondly, considered as to its object. 
 Two cautionary concessions: 1. That some things with- 
 out the soul may be said to be motives. 2. That there 
 is a constraint lying upon the godly soul j which yet takes 
 not away its freedom, . . . . . . 122 
 
XXXviii CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 CHAP. IV. The active and vigorous nature of true religion 
 
 proved by many scriptural phrases of the most powerful 
 
 importance ; more particularly explained in three things ; 
 
 1. In the soul's continual care and study to be good. 
 
 2. In its care to do good. 3. In its powerful and inces- 
 sant longings after the most full enjoyment of God, . 143 
 
 CHAP. V. An expostulation with Christians concerning 
 their remiss and sluggish temper; an attempt to convince 
 them of it by some considerations ; which are, 1. The 
 activity of worldly men. 2. The restless appetites of tli« 
 body. 3. The strong propensions of every creature to- 
 wards its own centre : an inquiry into the slothfulness 
 and inactivity of Christian souls. The grace of faith 
 vindicated from the slander of being merely passive. A 
 short attempt to awaken Christians unto greater vigour 
 and activity, 166 
 
 CHAP. VI. That religion is a lasting and persevering 
 principle in the souls of men. The grounds of this per- 
 severance assigned; first, negatively, it doth not arise 
 from the absolute impossibility of losing of grace in the 
 creature, nor from the strength of man's free-will. Se- 
 condly, affirmatively, the grace of election cannot fail. 
 The grace of justification is neither suspended nor 
 violated : the covenant of grace is everlasting : the Me- 
 diator of this covenant lives for ever : the promises of it 
 immutable; the righteousness brought in by the Messiah 
 everlasting. An objection answered concerning a re- 
 generate man's willing his own apostacy. An objection 
 answered, drawn from the falls of saints in Scripture. A 
 discovery of counterfeit religion, and the shameful apos- 
 tacy of false professors. An encouragement to all holy 
 diligence, from the consideration of this doctrine, . 181 
 
 CHAP. VII. Religion considered in the consequent of not 
 thirsting: divine grace gives a solid satisfaction to the 
 soul. This aphorism confirmed by some Scriptures, and 
 largely explained in six propositions. First, that there is 
 a raging thirst in every soul of man, after some ultimate 
 
CONTENTS. XXxix 
 
 . „ ^ag€ 
 
 and satisfactory good. Second, that every natural man 
 
 thirsteth principally after happiness in the creature. Third, 
 that uo man can find that soul-filling satisfaction in 
 any creature enjoyment. Fourth, that grace takes not 
 away the soul's thirst after happiness. Fifth, that the 
 godly soul thirsteth no more after rest in any worldly 
 thing, but in God alone ; how far a godly man may be 
 said to thirst after the creature. Sixth, that in the enjoy- 
 ment of God the soul is at rest ; and this in a double 
 sense, namely, so as that it is perfectly matched with its 
 object. Secondly, so satisfied as to have joy and pleasure 
 in him. The chapter concludes with a passionate lamen- 
 tation over the levity and earthliness of Christian minds, 207 
 
 CHAP. VIII. The term or end of religion, eternal life, 
 considered in a double notion : First, as it signifies the 
 essential happiness of the soul. Second, as it takes in 
 many glorious appendixes. The noble and genuine breath- 
 ings of the godly soul after, and springing up into, the 
 former. The argument drawn from the example of Christ. 
 Moses and Paul moderated. It ends in a serious exhorta- 
 tion made to Christians, to live and love more spiritually, 
 more suitably to the nature of souls, redeemed souls, 
 resulting from the whole discourse, , . . 247 
 
 ON COMMUNION WITH GOD, . . . 263 
 
EMMANUEL. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Amongst the many stupendous spectacles tliat are 
 wont to surprise and amuse inquisitive minds, there 
 seems to be nothing in the world sadder and more 
 astonishing, than the small progress of the Christian 
 religion. This I call a sad observation, because 
 religion is a matter of the most weighty and neces- 
 sary importance, without which it is not possible for 
 an immortal soul to be perfected and made happy : 
 I call it astonishing, because the Christian religion 
 hath in itself such advantages of recommending itself 
 to the minds of men, and contains such mighty 
 engines to work them into a hearty compliance with 
 it, and to captivate their reason to itself, as no other 
 religion in the vvorld can with any face pretend to. 
 1 do earnestly, and I suppose rationally and scrip- 
 turally, hope that this great truth, those sacred oracles, 
 will yet more prevail ; and that the Founder of this 
 most excellent religion, who was lifted up upon the 
 cross, and is now exalted to his throne, will yet draw 
 more men unto himself: and tliis, perhaps, is all the 
 millennium that we can warrantably look for. But, 
 in the mean time, it is too too evident, that the 
 
44. 
 
 kingdom of Satan doth more obtain in the world, 
 than the gospel of Christ, either in the letter, or 
 power of it. As to the former, if we will receive 
 the probable conjecture of learned inquirers, we shall 
 not find above one sixth part of the known world 
 yet Christianized, or giving so much as an external 
 adoration to the crucified Jesus. As to the latter, 
 I will not be so bold as to make any arithmetical 
 conjectures, but judge it more becoming a charitable 
 and Christian spirit, to sit down in secret, and weep 
 over that sad but true account given in the gospel, 
 " Few are chosen ;" and again, " Few there be that 
 find it;" being grieved, after the example of my 
 compassionate Redeemer, " for the hardness of their 
 hearts," and praying with Joab, in another case, 
 " The Lord make his people an hundred times so 
 many more as they be !" It is not my present 
 purpose, to inquire into the immediate causes of the 
 non-propagation of the gospel in the former sense; 
 only it is easy to guess, that few will enter in by 
 the way of the tree of life, when it is guarded with 
 a flaming sword ! And it were reasonable to hope, 
 that if the minds of Christians were more purged 
 from a selfish bitterness, fierce animosity, and arbi- 
 trary sourness, and possessed with a more free, 
 generous, benign, compassionate, condescending, 
 candid, charitable, and Christ-like spirit, which 
 would be indulgent toward such as are, for the pre- 
 sent, under a less perfect dispensation, as our Savi- 
 our's was, would not impose any thing harsh or 
 unnecessary upon the sacred and inviolable con- 
 science of men, but would allow that liberty to men, 
 which is just and natural to them in matters of 
 
45 
 
 religion, and no way forfeited by them ; then, I say, 
 it might be reasonable to hope, that the innate power 
 and virtue of the gospel would prove most victorious; 
 Judaism, Mahomedanism, and Paganism, would 
 melt away under its powerful influences, and Satan 
 himself fail down as lightning before it, as naturally 
 as the eyelids of the morning, do chase away the 
 blackness of the night, when once they are lifted 
 upon the earth. But my design is chiefly to 
 examine the true and proper cause of the non-pro- 
 gress of the gospel, as to the power of it, and its 
 inefficaciousness upon the hearts and consciences of 
 those that do profess it. And now, in finding out 
 the cause hereof, I shall content myself to be wise 
 on this side heaven, leaving that prying course of 
 searching the decrees of God, and rifling into the 
 hidden rolls of eternity, to those who can digest the 
 uncomfortable notion of a self-willed, arbitrary, and 
 imperious deity ; which, I fear, is the most vulgar 
 apprehension of God, men measuring him most 
 grossly and unhappily by a self-standard. And as I 
 dare not soar so high, so neither will I adventure to 
 stoop so low, as to dive into particulars; which 
 are differently assigned, according to the different 
 humours and interests of those that do assign them; 
 each party in the world being so exceedingly favour- 
 able to itself, as to be ready to say, with David, 
 " The earth and all the inhabitants of it, are dis- 
 solved; I bear up the pillars of it;" ready to think 
 that the very interest of religion in the world is 
 involved in them and their persuasions and dogmas, 
 and that the whole church is undone, if but a hair 
 fall from their heads, if they be in the least injured 
 
46 
 
 or abridged; which is a piece of very great fondness, 
 and indeed the more unpardonable, in as much as it 
 destroys the design of the gospel, in confining and 
 liraitincp the Holy One of Israel, and making God 
 as topical, as he was, when he dwelt no where upon 
 earth, but at the temple in Jerusalem. 
 
 Waiving these extremes, therefore, I conceive the 
 true cause, in general, of the so little prevalence of 
 true religion in the hearts and lives of men, is, the 
 false notion that men have of it, placing it where 
 indeed it is not, nor doth consist. That this must 
 needs be a cause of the not prevailing of the gospel 
 wherever it is found, I suppose every body will 
 grant ; and that it is almost every where to be found, 
 will, I doubt, too evidently appear by that descrip- 
 tion of the true Christian religion, which the most 
 sacred author of it, the Lord Jesus Christ, made to 
 the poor Samaritaness; which I have endeavoured 
 briefly to explain, according to the tenor of the 
 gospel, in this small Treatise; which I first framed 
 for private use, in a season when it was most neces- 
 sary for me to understand the utmost secrets of my 
 own soul, and do the utmost service I was able 
 towards the salvation of those that were under my 
 roof; expecting every day to render up my own or 
 their souls into the arms of our most merciful 
 Redeemer, and to be fully swallowed* up into that 
 eternal life, into whicli true rehgion daily springs 
 up, and will, at length, infallibly conduct the Chris- 
 tian soul. This work, thus undertaken, and in a 
 great measure then carried on, I have since perfected, 
 and do here present to the perusal of my dear 
 country, having made it public for no private end ; 
 
47 
 
 but if it might serve the interest of God's glory in 
 the world; which I do verily reckon that I shall do, 
 if, by his blessing, I may be instrumental to unde- 
 ceive any soul, mistaken in so high and important a 
 matter as religion is, or any way to awaken and 
 quicken any religious soul not sufficiently ravished 
 with the unspeakable glory, nor cheerfully enough 
 springing up into the full fruition of eternal life. 
 
 What a certain and undefeatable tendency true 
 religion hath towards the eternal happiness and sal- 
 vation of men's souls, will, I hope, evidently appear 
 from this small Treatise : but that is not all (though 
 indeed that were enough to commend it to any 
 rational soul, that is any whit free and ingenuous, 
 and is not so perfectly debauched, as to apostatize 
 utterly from right reason ;) for it is also the sincerest 
 policy imaginable, and the most unerring expedient 
 in the world, for the uniting and establishing of a 
 divided and tottering kingdom : to demonstrate which 
 was the very design of this preface. It is vvell 
 known, O that it were but as well and eflPectually 
 believed ! that " godliness is profitable to all things," 
 and that it hath the promises and blessings of the 
 *' life that now is, and of that which is to come;" 
 that the right seeking of the kingdom of God, and 
 his righteousness, hath no less than all things 
 annexed to it. How immeasurable is that blessed- 
 ness, to which all the comforts of this life are to be 
 as an appendix to a volume ! But men are apt to 
 shuffle off" generals; therefore I will descend to 
 instances, and show, in a few particulars, what a 
 mighty influence religion, in the power of it, would 
 certainly have, on the political happiness and flourish- 
 
48 
 
 ing state of a nation. Wherein I hope to make 
 appear, that not religion, as some slanderously report, 
 but the want of it, is the immediate troubler of every 
 nation, and individual society; yea, and soul too; 
 according to that golden saying of the holy Apostle, 
 " From whence come wars and fightings? come they 
 not hence, even of your lusts that war in your 
 members?" Here let me desire one thing of the 
 reader, and that is, to bear in his mind all along, 
 where he finds the word Religion, that I have-princi- 
 pally a respect to the description given of it in the 
 text, and that I mean thereby ^' a divine principle 
 implanted in the soul, springing up into everlasting 
 life." 
 
 And now I should briefly touch those faults, 
 both in governors towards their subjects, subjects 
 towards their governors, and towards each other, 
 which destroy the peaceful state, and the sound and 
 happy constitution of a body-politic: and indeed I 
 fear it will produce some inconvenience, if not con- 
 fusion, to waive this method. But out of a pure 
 desire to avoid whatever may be interpretable to 
 ill-will, curiosity, presumption, or any other bad dis- 
 position, and that it may appear to any ingenuous 
 eye, that I am more desirous to unite us, than to 
 rake into sores, I will expressly show how religion 
 would heal the distempers of any nation, without 
 taking any more than an implicit notice of the dis- 
 tempers themselves. 
 
 First, then. It is undoubtedly true, that religion, 
 deeply radicated in the nature of princes and gover- 
 nors, would most effectually qualify them for the 
 most happy way of reigning. Every body knows 
 
49 
 
 well enough what an excellent euchrasy^ and lovely 
 constitution, the Jewish polity was in, under the in- 
 fluences of holy David, wise Solomon, devout Heze- 
 kiah, zealous Josiah, and others of the same spirit ; 
 so that I need not spend myself in that inquiry ; and 
 so, consequently, not upon that argument. Now, 
 there are many ways, by which it is easy to conceive 
 that religion would rectify and well-temper the spirits 
 of princes. 
 
 This principle will verily constitute the most 
 noble, heroical, and royal soul, in as much as it will 
 not suffer men to find any unhallowed satisfaction in 
 a divine authority, but will be springing up into a 
 God-like nature, as their greatest and most perfect 
 glory. It will certainly correct and limit the over- 
 eager affectation of unwieldy greatness and unbound- 
 ed dominion, by teaching them that the most hon- 
 ourable victory in the world is self-conquest, and 
 that the propagation of the image and kingdom of 
 God in their own souls is infinitely preferable to the 
 advancement or enlargement of any temporal juris- 
 diction. 
 
 The same holy principle, being the most genuine 
 offspring of divine love and benignity, will also polish 
 their rough and over- severe natures, instruct them 
 in the most sweet and obliging methods of govern- 
 ment; by assimilating them to the nature of God, 
 who is infinitely abliorrent to all appearance of op- 
 pression, and hath most admirably provided that his 
 servants should not be slaves, by making his service 
 perfect freedom. 
 
 The pure and impartial nature of God cannot 
 endure superstitious flatterers, or hypocritical profes- 
 
 C ^ 38 
 
50 
 
 sors : and the princes of the earth, that are regener- 
 ate into his image, will also estimate men according 
 to God ; I mean, according to his example, who 
 loves nothing but the communications of himself, 
 and according to their participation of his image, 
 which is only amiable in the world. What God 
 rejected in his fire- offerings, religion will teach 
 princes to despise in the devotions, as they call them, 
 of their courtiers; I mean, not only the leaven of 
 superstitious pride and dogged morosity, but also 
 the honey of mercenary prostrations and fawning 
 adulations. 
 
 In a word. This religious principle, which makes 
 God its pattern and end, springs from him, and is 
 always springing up into him, would sovereignly 
 heal the distempers of ruling by humour, self- 
 interest, and arbitrariness, and teach men to seek 
 the good of the public before self-gratifications. For 
 so God rules the world ; who, however some men 
 slander him, I dare say, hath made nothing the duty 
 of his creature, but what is really the good of it : 
 neither doth he give his people laws, on purpose that 
 he might show his sovereignty in making them, or 
 his justice in punishing the breach of them ; much 
 less doth he give them any such statutes, as himself 
 would as willingly they broke as kept, so he might 
 but exact the penalty. 
 
 What I have briefly said concerning political 
 governors, the judicious reader may view over again, 
 and apply to the ecclesiastical. For I do verily 
 reckon, that if the hearts of these men were in that 
 right religious temper and holy order which I have 
 been speaking of, it would plentifully contribute to- 
 
51 
 
 wards the happy and blissful state of any kingdom. 
 I will speak freely, let it light where it will, that 
 principle that springs up into popular applause, se- 
 cular greatness, worldly pomp and bravery, flesh- 
 pleasing, or any kind of self-exaltation, is really 
 contradistinct from that divine principle, that reli- 
 gious nature that springs up into everlasting life. 
 And certainly, notwithstanding all the recrimina- 
 tions and self-justifications which are, on all hands, 
 used to shuffle ofF the guilt, these governors must 
 lay aside their sullen pride, as well as the people 
 their proud sullenness, before the church of God be 
 healed in its breaches, purged of Antichristianism, 
 or can probably arrive at any sound constitution, or 
 perfect stature. 
 
 But I suppose religion will not have its full and 
 desirable effect upon a nation, by healing the sickly, 
 and heads of it ; except it be like the holy oil poured 
 upon the sacrificer's head, which ran down also upon 
 the skirts of his garments. Therefore, 
 
 Secondly, It is indispensably requisite, for the 
 thorough healing, and right constituting of any po- 
 litical body, that the subjects therein be thus di- 
 vinely principled. This will not fail to dispose 
 them rightly towards their governors, and towards 
 one another. 
 
 1. Towards their governors. There are many 
 evil and perverse dispositions in subjects towards 
 their rulers ; all which religion is the most excellent 
 expedient to rectify. 
 
 The first and fundamental distemper here, seems 
 to be a want of due reverence towards these vice- 
 gerents of God upon earth ; which easily grows up 
 
 c2 
 
52 
 
 into something positive, and becomes a secret wish- 
 ing of evil to them. This fault, as light as some 
 esteem it, was severely punished in queen Michal, 
 who despised her lord, king David, in her heart, and 
 her barren womb went down to its sister the grave, 
 under great reproach. And if an ordinary hatred 
 be so foully interpreted by the holy Apostle, " Who- 
 soever hateth his brother is a murderer ;" surely 
 disloyal and malignant dispositions towards governors 
 must needs have a fouler nature; and we may say, 
 by a parity of reason, " Whosoever hateth his prince 
 is a rebel and a regicide." Now, this distemper, as 
 fundamental and epidemical as it is, the spirit of true 
 religion, and I think I may say that only, will heal ; 
 for I know nothing in the world that hath, nay, I 
 know that nothincp in the world hath that sovereisrn- 
 ty and dominion over the dispositions, and affections 
 of the soul, as this principle, thoroughly ingrafted in 
 the soul, doth challenge to itself. This alone can 
 frame the heart of man into that beautiful temper 
 and complexion of love and loyalty, that he will not 
 curse the king, no, not in his conscience ; no, not 
 though he were well assured that there were no 
 winded messenger to tell the matter. 
 
 Another distemper in subjects, in respect to their 
 governors, is impatience of bearing a yoke ; which is 
 an evil so natural to the proud and imperious spirit 
 of man, that I believe it were safe to affirm, that 
 every irreligious subject could be well content to be 
 a prince ; however there be many, who, utterly 
 despairing of such an event, may, with the fox in 
 the fable, profess they care not for it. From this 
 principle of pride and impatience of subjection, I sus- 
 
53 
 
 pect it is that the rigid Chiliasts do so scornfully 
 declaim against, and so loudly decry, the carnal ordi- 
 nances of magistracy and ministry : not that they do 
 verily seek the advancement of Christ's kingdom, 
 (which indeed every disorderly, tumultuous, proud, 
 impatient soul doth, ipso facto ^ deny and destroy,) 
 but of themselves. To whom one might justly 
 apply the censure which Pharaoh injuriously passes 
 upon the children of Israel, with a little alteration, 
 " Ye are proud, therefore ye say, let us go and do 
 sacrifice to the Lord." This distemper the power 
 of religion would excellently heal, by mortifying am- 
 bitious inclinations, and quieting the impatient tur- 
 bulencies of the fretful and envious soul, by fashion- 
 inor the heart to a rifjht humble frame, and cheerful 
 submission to every ordination of God. You will 
 see, in this treatise, that a right religious soul, 
 powerfully springing up into everlasting life, hath no 
 desire nor leisure to attend to such poor attainments, 
 as the lording it over other men; being feelingly 
 acquainted with a life far more excellent than the 
 most princely, and being overpowered with a supreme 
 and sovereign good, which charms all its inordinate 
 ragings, and, laying hold upon all its faculties, draws 
 them forth, by a pleasing violence, unto a most zea- 
 lous pursuit of itself. A principle of humility makes 
 men good subjects ; and they that are indeed pro- 
 bationers for another world, may very well behave 
 themselves v/ith a noble disdain towards all the glo- 
 ries and preferments of this. 
 
 The last distemper that I shall name in subjects 
 toward their governors, is discontents about conceived 
 raisgovernment and mal-administration ; which com- 
 
54 
 
 monly spring from an evil and sinister interpretation 
 of the rulers' actions, and are attended with an evil 
 and tumultuous zeal for relaxation. Now this dis- 
 temper, as great as it is, and destructive to the well- 
 being of a body politic, true religion would heal both 
 root and branch. Were that noble part and branch 
 of the Christian religion, universal charity, rightly 
 seated in the soul, it would not suffer the son of the 
 bond-woman to inherit with it ; it would cast out 
 those jealousies, sour suspicions, harsh surmises, and 
 imbittered thoughts, which lodge in unhallowed 
 minds, and display itself in a most amicable sweet- 
 ness and gentleness of disposition, in fair glosses 
 upon doubtful actions, friendly censures, or none at 
 all, kind extenuations of greater faults, and covering 
 of lesser ; for this is the proper genius of this divine 
 principle, to be very unbelieving of evil, or easily 
 entertaining of good reports, gladly interpreting all 
 things to a good meaning that will possibly admit of 
 such construction ; or if you will, in the Apostle's 
 phrase, *' Charity is not easily provoked, thinketh no 
 evil." 
 
 And as charity doth cut up this root of discon- 
 tents, so will faith allay and destroy these discontents 
 themselves, which are about misgovernment, and ill- 
 administration. This noble principle administers ease 
 and satisfaction to the soul, if she happen to be pro- 
 voked : for it will not suffer her long to stand gazing 
 upon second causes; but carries her up in a season- 
 able contemplation to the Supreme Cause, without 
 whom no disorder could ever befall the world; and 
 there commands her to repose herself, in the bosom 
 of infinite wisdom and grace, waiting for a comfort- 
 
55 
 
 able issue. He may well be vexed indeed, tbat has 
 so much reason, as to observe the many monstrous 
 disorders which are in the world, and not so much 
 faith as to eye the inscrutable providence of a benign 
 and all-wise God, who permitteth the same with re- 
 spect to the most beautiful end and blessed order 
 imaginable. Though faith abhors the blasphemy of 
 laying blame upon God, yet it so fixes the soul upon 
 him, and causes her so to eye his hand and end in all 
 mal-administrations of men, that she hath no leisure 
 to fall out with men, or quarrel with instruments. 
 
 These discontents, I said, were frequently at- 
 tended with an evil and seditious zeal for relaxation, 
 discovering itself in secret treacherous conspiracies, 
 and many times in boisterous and daring attempts. 
 These are, at the first sight, so directly contrary to 
 the character given of religious men, viz. " the quiet 
 of the land," and the genius of religion, which is 
 wholly made up of *' love, peace, long-suffering, 
 gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, tem- 
 perance, mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, for- 
 bearance, forgiveness, charity, thankfulness, wis- 
 dom," that it is easy to conceive that religion, in 
 the power of it, would certainly heal this evil disease 
 also. There are many pretenders to religion, whose 
 complaint is still concerning oppression and persecu- 
 tion, their cry is all for liberty and deliverance : but, 
 to make it the more passable and plausible, they style 
 it the advancement of the kingdom of Christ. This 
 pretence is so fair, but withal so deceitful, that 
 I count it worth my while to speak a little more 
 liberally to it. And here I do, from the very bot- 
 tom of my soul, protest, that I account the advance- 
 
56 
 
 ment of the glory of God, and the khigdom of 
 Christ, to be the most desirable thing in the world ; 
 and that it is highly becoming the greatest spirits 
 upon earth to employ the very utmost zeal and dili- 
 gence to assist the accomplishment thereof; yea, so 
 utterly do I abhor irreligion and atheism, that, as 
 the Apostle speaks, in somewhat a like case, I do 
 verily rejoice that Christ is professed, though it be 
 but pretended, and that truth is owned, though it be 
 not owned in truth. I will further add, that the 
 oppressing and obstructing of the external progress 
 and propagation of the gospel is hated of Christ, and 
 to be lamented of all true Christians. Yea, I will 
 further allow men a due sensibility of their personal 
 oppressions and injuries, and a natural warrantable 
 desire to be redeemed from them. And now, hav- 
 ing thus purged myself, I entreat the Christian 
 reader patiently, and without prejudice, to suJfFer me 
 to speak somewhat" closely to this matter : yea, 1 do 
 verily assure myself, that I shall be accepted, or at 
 least indulged by all free and ingenuous spirits, who 
 are rightly acquainted with the genius of the Chris- 
 tian religion, and do prefer truth before interest. 
 
 And, first, for the chief complaint, concerning 
 oppression and persecution : certainly if religion did 
 rightly prevail in our hearts, it would very much heal 
 this distemper, if not by a perfect silencing of these 
 complaints, yet surely by putting them into another 
 temper. I reckon that religion quite silences these 
 complaints, when it engages the soul so entirely 
 in serving the end of God in afflictions, and in a 
 right improvement of them for religious purposes, 
 that she desires not to spend herself in fruitless 
 
57 
 
 murmurlngs and unchristian indignations. As fire 
 seizeth upon every thing that is combustible, and 
 makes it fuel for itself; and a predominant hu- 
 mour in the body converts into its own substance 
 whatever is convertible, and makes it nourishment to 
 itself; so, doubtless, this divine principle, if it were 
 rightly predominant in the soul, would nourish itself 
 by all things that lie in its way, though they seem 
 ever so heterogeneous and hard to be digested; 
 and rather than want meat, it would, with Samson, 
 fetch it out of the very eater himself. But if re- 
 ligion should not utterly silence these complainings, 
 by rendering the soul thus forgetful of the body, and 
 regardless of its smart, in comparison of the happy 
 advantage that may be made of it; yet, methinks, it 
 should draw the main stream of these tears into 
 another channel, and put these complaints into 
 another tune. It is very natural to the religious 
 soul to make God all things unto itself, to lay to 
 heart the interest of truth and holiness more than 
 any particular interest of its own; and to bewail the 
 disservice done to God more than any self-inconve- 
 nience. Must not he needs be a good subject to his 
 prince, who can more heartily mourn that God's laws 
 are not kept, than that he himself is kept under? 
 that can be more grieved that men are cruel, than 
 that they kill him; that can be more troubled be- 
 cause there are oppressions in the world, than because 
 he himself is oppressed ? Such subjects religion 
 alone can make. 
 
 As for the cry that is made for liberty and de- 
 liverance; I confess I do not easily apprehend what 
 is greater, or more naturally desirable than true 
 
 c3 
 
58 
 
 liberty : yea, I believe there are many devout and 
 religious souls, that, from aright, noble, and gener- 
 ous principle, and out of a sincere respect to the 
 Author and end of their creation, are almost intem- 
 perately studious of it, do prefer it above all prefer- 
 ments, or any thing that may be properly called 
 sensual, and would purchase it with any thing that 
 they can possibly part with. But yet, that I may a 
 little moderate, if not quite stifle this cry, I must 
 freely profess, tliat I do apprehend too much of sen- 
 suality generally in it ; because this liberty is com- 
 monly abstracted from the proper end of it, and 
 desired merely as a naturally convenient good, and 
 not under a right religious consideration. Self-love 
 is the very heart and centre of the animal life ; and, 
 doubtless, this natural principle is as truly covetous 
 of self-preservation and freedom from all inconveni- 
 ences, grievances, and confinements, as any religious 
 principle can be. And, therefore, I may well allude 
 to our Saviour's words, and say, '* If you love and 
 desire deliverance," only under the notion of a na- 
 tural good, " what do you more than others? Do 
 not even the publicans the same ?" But were this 
 divine principle rightly exercising its sovereignty in 
 the soul, it would A^alue all things, and all estates 
 and conditions, only as they have a tendency to the 
 advancement and nourishment of itself. With what 
 an ordinary, not to say disdainful eye, would the re- 
 ligious soul look upon the fairest self-accommoda- 
 tions in the world ; and be ready to say within itself. 
 What is a mere abstract deliverance from afflictions 
 worth? wherein is a naked freedom from afflictions 
 to be accounted of? will this make me a blessed 
 
59 
 
 man ? was not profane and impudent Ham delivered 
 from the deluge of water, as well as his brethren ? 
 were not the filthy, shameless daughters of Lot de- 
 livered from the deluge of fire, as well as their 
 father ? And yet we are so far from rising up and 
 calling these people blessed, that the heart of every 
 chaste and modest Christian is ready to rise against 
 the very mention of their names, when he remembers 
 how both the one and the other, though in a diflPer- 
 ent sense, discovered their father's nakedness. If 
 we did really value ourselves by our souls, and our 
 souls themselves by what they possess of the image 
 of God, if we did rightly prefer the advancement of 
 the divine life before the gratification of the animal, 
 it is easy to conceive how we should prefer patience 
 before prosperity, faith in God before the favour of 
 men, spiritual purity before temporal pleasures or 
 preferments, humiUty before honour, the denial of 
 ourselves before the approbation of others, the ad- 
 vancement of God's image before the advancement 
 of our own names, an opportunity of exercising 
 gracious dispositions before the exercising of any 
 temporal power or secular authority ; and, in a word, 
 the displaying of the beauty, glory, and perfections 
 of God before health, wealth, liberty, livelihood, 
 and life itself. , We should certainly be more 
 indifferently affected towards any condition, whether 
 prosperity or adversity, and not to be so fond of the 
 one, nor weary of the other, if we did verily value 
 them only by the tendency that they had to further 
 religion, and advance the life of Christ in our souls. 
 This would certainly make men more sincerely 
 studious to read God's end in afflicting them, and 
 long less to see the end of their afflictions. 
 
60 
 
 And, as for treacheries, plottings, invasions, 
 usurpations, rebellions, and that tumultuous zeai for 
 relaxation, which this impatience of oppression, and 
 fondness of deliverance, do so often grow up into, I 
 dare say, there is nothing like religion, in the power 
 of it, for the effectual healing of them. The true 
 spirit of religion is not so weary of oppression, though 
 it be by sinful men, as it is abhorrent from deliver- 
 ance, if it be by sinful means. May I not be al- 
 lowed to allude to the Apostle, and say, whereas 
 there is amongst you this zeal, contention, and fac- 
 tion, " Are you not carnal, and walk as men ?" Is 
 not this the same which a mere natural man would 
 do, strive, and struggle, by right and by wrong, to 
 redeem himself from whatsoever is grievous and gall- 
 ing to the interest of the flesh ? Might it not be 
 reasonably supposed, that if religion did but display 
 itself aright in the powerful actings of faith, hope, 
 and humility, it would quench the hot zeal, and calm 
 these tempestuous motions of the soul, and make men 
 rather content to be delivered up to the adversary, 
 though the flesh should by him be destroyed, so be 
 the spirit might be saved, and the divine life ad- 
 vanced in the way of the Lord. Oh, how dear and 
 precious are the possession and practice of faith, pa- 
 tience, humility, and self-denial, to a godly soul, in 
 comparison of all the joys, and toys, treasures, plea- 
 sures, ease, and honour of the world, the safety and 
 liberty of the flesh ! How much more, then, when 
 these must be accomplished by wicked means, and 
 purchased at the rate of God's displeasure ! And 
 because the kingdom of Christ is so often alleged to 
 defend and patronise these strange fervours and 
 
61 
 
 frenzies, let me here briefly record to all that shall 
 read these lines, the way and method of Christ him- 
 self in propagating his own kingdom. It will not be 
 denied, but that Christ was infinitely studious to 
 promote his own kingdom, in the best and most pro- 
 per sense: but I no where read that he ever attempted 
 it by force or fraud, by violent opposition, or crafty 
 insinuation. Nay, he reckoned that his kingdom 
 was truly promoted, when these tumultuous, impa- 
 tient, imperious, proud lusts of men, were mortified. 
 Nothing had been more easy with him, considering 
 his miraculous power, infallible wisdom, and the 
 mighty interest and party which he could, by these, 
 have made for himself in the world, than to have 
 raised his own kingdom upon the ruins of the Roman, 
 and to have quite shuffled Cesar out of the world : 
 but, indeed, nothing more impossible, considering 
 the perfect innocency, and infinite sacredness of his 
 temper, nor any thing more contradictious, consider- 
 ing the proper notion of his kingdom, which he pro- 
 fesses not to be secular, and so not to be maintained 
 by fighting. But, if you would know in what sense 
 he was a king, he himself seems to intimate it in his 
 answer to Pilate, " Thou sayest that I am a king ; 
 to this end was I born, that I should bear witness 
 unto the truth." So then, it seems, wherever there 
 is truth and holiness predominant, there is Christ 
 really enthroned, and actually triumphant. Where 
 religion doth vitally inform, animate, and actuate 
 men's souls, it doth make them rightly to understand, 
 that the kingdom of Christ is not the thriving of 
 parties, the strengthening of factions, the advance- 
 ment of any particular interest, though it seem ta 
 
62 
 
 be of ever so evangelical a complexion; no, nor yet 
 the proselyting of the world to the profession of 
 Christianity, or of the Christian world to the purer 
 and more reformed profession of it, though these 
 latter would be a great external honour to the person 
 of Christ : but that it is most properly and happily 
 propagated in the spirits of men; and that wherever 
 there is faith, patience, humility, self-denial, con- 
 tempt of this world, and pregnant hopes of a better, 
 pure obedience to God, and sincere benignity to 
 men, here and there is the kingdom of God, Christ 
 reigning, and the gospel in the power and triumph of 
 it. And may not these things be, and be most con- 
 spicuously, in a persecuted condition of the church ? 
 That certainly was a high instance of the mighty 
 power of the divine life in our blessed Saviour, which 
 the Apostle Peter records of him, who, " when he 
 was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he 
 threatened not ; but committed himself to him that 
 judgeth righteously," The same divine principle, 
 dwelling plentifully in our souls, would instruct us 
 in the same behaviour, according to the precept given 
 by the same Apostle : ** Not rendering evil for evil, 
 or railing for railing; but contrariwise, blessing." 
 How vainly do men dream that they serve the in- 
 terest, and advance the kingdom of Christ, by fierce 
 and raging endeavours to cast off every yoke that 
 galls them, and kicking against every thorn that 
 pricks them, when indeed they serve the interest of 
 the flesh, and do, under a fine cloak, gratify the 
 mere animal life, and sacrifice to self-love, which is 
 as covetous of freedom from all retrenchments and 
 confinements as religion itself can be. It is said, in- 
 
63 
 
 deed, that when the churches had rest, they were 
 edified and multiplied; but when they suffer accord- 
 ing to the will of God, they are then glorified; for 
 " the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon them :" 
 as the Apostle Paul professes of himself in that most 
 noble and heroical passage of his to the Corinthians, 
 " Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my in- 
 firmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." 
 
 Secondly, Religion will not fail rightly to dispose 
 the hearts of subjects towards one another ; and that 
 whether they be of the same way and judgment 
 with themselves, or different. I dare not assert 
 that it would make them all of the same way and 
 mind ; neither do I believe it would : yet I am con- 
 fident it would do more towards this catholic union, 
 than all the laws and severities in the world can. 
 Mutual forbearance and forgiveness, Christian kind- 
 ness, and discreet condescensions, are the most war- 
 rantable, and most effectual method for introducing 
 uniformity, and unanimity too, which is much better, 
 into the church of Christ. But, however, religion 
 would certainly give a right disposition, and teach 
 men a right behaviour in respect to each other, 
 whether friends or dissenters. 
 
 This principle would teach men to love their 
 friends and accomplices only in the Lord, as his 
 members, not as their own partizans. Are not 
 they strangely devoted to interest, that will vindicate 
 any thing in a partizan, which they will declaim 
 against in a dissenter ? And yet, how is the sacred 
 name of Christian friendship reproached every where 
 by reason of this partiality ! How much better did 
 true religion instruct the great Apostle, " to know 
 no man after the flesh," no, not Christ himself. 
 
64 
 
 The same principle would not fail to cure the 
 distempers of men with respect to those that are of 
 a different way and judgment from themselves ; 
 whether of Protestants towards Protestants, or Pro- 
 testants and Papists one towards another. It would 
 heal the distempered aflPections and behaviours of 
 Protestants towards Protestants. Were men tho- 
 roughly baptized into the spirit of love and wisdom, 
 which are so lively portrayed by the apostles St. 
 Paul and St. James, that one might well be en- 
 amoured of the very description, how certainly would 
 all oppressions, lawsuits, disputations about unpro- 
 fitable and indeterminable points, either be suppressed 
 or sanctified, either not be, or not be vexatious. 
 Not to speak of the oppressions done by overreach- 
 ing, stealing, lying, false witness-bearing, slanderous 
 detractions, envious suggestions, and malignant dis- 
 semination of doubtful suspicions, by which commonly 
 poor men oppress the rich; all which true religion 
 abhors. There is a great oppression that goes un- 
 controlled in the world, which is, by the cruel en- 
 grossings, and covetous, insatiable tradings of richer 
 men. What these are intentionally, I will not say; 
 but that they are, really and eventually, as great op- 
 pressions as those inhuman depopulations, and squeez- 
 ing exactions, which are so much inveighed against, 
 I doubt not. But be they what they will, or be 
 they excused how they will, I am confident that this 
 divine principle, that powerfully springs up into 
 everlasting life, would mightily relieve the world in 
 this respect : in that it would moderate men's desires 
 of corruptible riches, forbid them to seek the things 
 of this world any more, or any otherwise, than in 
 
65 
 
 consistency with, and subserviency to, their primary 
 and most diligent seeking of the kingdom of God; 
 it would make men seek the wealth of others even as 
 their own, and make private advantages stoop to the 
 public good. I do verily believe, that if there were 
 none but good men in England, there would be no 
 poor men there. Civil laws may provide for the 
 maintenance of the poor; but the law of divine love, 
 a principle of religion, if it were universally obeyed, 
 would make men so nobly regardless of earthly 
 accommodations, that there would soon be room 
 enough for all men to grow into a sufficient stature; 
 and then, being so grown, they would covet no more. 
 
 In lawsuits, if there were any, men would seek 
 the advancement of truth, and not of their own 
 cause and interest distinct from it. 
 
 And O how excellently would it still the noi^e of 
 axes and hammers about the temple of God! It 
 would take men off from vain speculations, and 
 much eagerness about unnecessary opinions, by em- 
 ploying them in more substantial and important 
 studies. The very being of religion in the soul 
 would indeed decide a world of controversies, which 
 the schools have loner laboured in vain to determine. 
 For I reckon that these scholastical wars, fitly called 
 Polemics, like those civil dissensions spoken of by 
 the apostle James, do, for the most part, spring 
 from " men's lusts, that war in their members;" such 
 as pride, curiosity, lasciviency of wit, disobedience, 
 and unsubduedness of understanding, and the like. 
 I have observed, with great grief, how the spirits of 
 many men, I had almost said sects of men, run out 
 wholly into disputes about ceremonies, pro and cow, 
 
CO 
 
 about church-government, about what is orthodox, 
 and what is heterodox, about the true and the false 
 church, (which commonly they judge by something 
 external, and indeed separable from the essence of a 
 true church) ; and upon this is their zeal, their con- 
 ference, and their very prayers themselves, mostly 
 bestowed. Who can doubt but that religion, in the 
 power of it, would find men something else to do ? 
 yea, and if it could not perfectly determine these 
 niceties, yet it would much heal our dissensions 
 about them, and bring tears to quench the strange 
 and unnatural heats that are amongst us, and cause 
 such dreadful inflammations in our bowels. 
 
 But it may seem that there is such a fatal enmity 
 and irreconcilable feud betwixt Papists and Pro- 
 testants, that nothing, no, not religion itself, can 
 heal it. And truly, if we suppose that it is religion 
 that engages both parties in this enmity, I think it 
 will prove incurable ; but God forbid that this pure 
 offspring of heaven should be so blasphemed ! It is 
 not religion, but indeed the want of it, that begets 
 this implacable animosity, whatever is pretended. 
 Cruel religion, bloody religion, selfish religion, en- 
 vious and revengeful relifjion ! Who can choose 
 but cry out of the blasphemy of this contradiction at 
 the very first hearing ? Nay, I dare affirm it, with- 
 out hesitation, that the more religious any Protestant 
 or Papist is, the more abhorrent he is of brutish 
 savageness, wicked revenge, and devilish hatred. 
 The church of Home judges the reformed heretics 
 are not fit to live; and why? Not because they 
 live not well, but because they cannot think and be- 
 lieve as they do. And is this the genuine product 
 
67 
 
 of true religion ? Nothing less so. For a desire of 
 ruling over men's consciences, and of subjecting the 
 faith of others to themselves, is certainly compatible 
 to a mere natural man, nay, to the devil himself, 
 who is as lordly, cruel, and imperious as any other. 
 The reformed churches, on the other hand, are, I 
 fear, generally more offended at the Papists for their 
 persecutions of them, than for the real persecuting 
 and crucifying Christ afresh by their sins; and so, 
 consequently, do rather write and fight against them, 
 than either pity or pray for them. I hope there are 
 as many well-spirited Christians in England, at least 
 proportionably, as in any church upon earth ; and 
 yet I fear there are far more that could wish the 
 Papists out of this world, than that earnestly desire 
 that they may be fitted for, and so counted worthy 
 of, a better. And doth this spring from a religious 
 or a selfish principle, think ye ? Doth it not agree 
 well to the animal life, and natural self, to be tender 
 of its own interest and concerns, to wish well to its 
 own safety, to defend itself from violence ? May I 
 not allude to our Saviour's words, and say, " If ye 
 hate them that hate you, how can that be accounted 
 religious? Do not even the publicans the same?" 
 I doubt we know not sufficiently what spirit we should 
 be of. The power of religion, rightly prevailing in 
 the soul, would mould us into another kind of tem- 
 per ; it would teach us as well to love, and pity, and 
 pray for Papists, as to hate Popery. I know the 
 prophecy, indeed, that the beast and the false pro- 
 phet shall be cast alive into the lake burning with 
 brimstone, and the remnant shall be slain with the 
 sword of him that sat upon the horse: but, in as much 
 
68 
 
 as that sword is said to proceed ''out of his mouth," 
 I would gladly interpret it of the " word of God," 
 which kills men unto salvation. However, let the 
 interpretation of that text, and others of the like im- 
 portance, be what it will, I reckon it very unsafe to 
 turn all the prophecies and threatenings of God into 
 prayers, lest haply we should be found to contribute 
 to the damning of men^s souls. Yea, when all is said 
 concerning the reprobating decrees of God, and his 
 essential, inflexible, punitive justice, and all those 
 text.s that seem to speak of God's revenging himself 
 with delight, are interpreted to the utmost harshness 
 of meaning that the cruel wit of man can invent; yet 
 it remains a sealed, and to me a sweet truth, " I 
 have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith 
 the Lord God :" and again, " As I live, saith the 
 Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the 
 wicked." Wherefore, to waive all those dreadful 
 glosses, (that do rather describe the bitter and re- 
 vengeful ingenuity of man that makes them, than 
 interpret the pure and perfect nature of God, upon 
 whom they are made,) let us attend to that beautiful 
 character that is every where given of religion, which 
 is our highest concern, in the person of Moses, of 
 Paul, and of Christ Jesus himself, the Author and 
 Exemplar of it; who, by his incarnation, life, and 
 death, abundantly demonstrated the infinite benig- 
 nity, and compassionate ardours of his soul towards 
 us, when we were worse than Papists, as being out 
 of a possibility of salvation without him: and " let 
 that mind be in us, which was in him also." Though 
 it be not directly our Saviour's meaning in my text, 
 yet 1 believe it may be deduced, that this pure and 
 
69 
 
 divine principle, religion, springs up into everlasting 
 life, not only our own, but other men's also. But 
 however religion is described, sure I am, it is most 
 unnatural to the religious soul, that is regenerated 
 into the pure spirit of piety, pity, and universal cha- 
 rity, to be of a cruel, fierce, revengeful, damning 
 disposition. And therefore, whatever are the rant- 
 ing and wrathful strains of some men's devotions, I 
 beseech the reader to endeavour with me, that cha- 
 rity towards men's souls may go along in conjunction 
 with zeal and piety towards God, when we present 
 ourselves before the throne of his grace : and so, I 
 am confident, it will, if we pray sincerely to this 
 purpose, namely, " That God would cause the wick- 
 edness of the wicked to come to an end, that he 
 would consume the Antichrist, but convert Papists, 
 and make the wonderers after the beast to become 
 followers of the Lamb !" I doubt there are many 
 that think they can never be too liberal in wishing 
 ill to the Papists, nay, they count it a notable argu- 
 ment of a good Protestant, I had almost said, an 
 evidence of grace, to be very raging and invective 
 against them. Alas ! how miserably do we bewray 
 ourselves in so doing, to be nothing less than what 
 we pretend to by doing it ! For are not we our- 
 selves herein Antichristian, whilst we complain of 
 their cruelties, our own souls, in the very act, boil- 
 ing over with revengeful and burning affections? If 
 we do indeed abhor their cruelty, because it is con- 
 trary to the holy precepts of the gospel, and the true 
 kingdom of Christ, we ought to be as jealous, at the 
 same time, lest any thing like unto it should be found 
 in ourselves; otherwise, are we not carnal ? For mere 
 
70 
 
 nature, as I have often said, will abhor any thing 
 that is contrary to itself, and will not willingly suffer 
 its delicate interest to be touched. The Apostle 
 tells us, " that no man, speaking by the Spirit of 
 God, calleth Christ accursed;" but I doubt it is 
 common to curse Antichrist, and yet by a spirit that 
 is Antichristian, I mean carnal, selfish, cruel, and 
 uncharitable. For there is a spiritual Antichrist, 
 or, if you will, in the Apostle's phrase, a " spirit of 
 Antichrist," as well as a political Antichrist; and I 
 doubt the former prevails most in the world, though 
 it be the least discerned and abjured. Men do by An- 
 tichrist as they do by the devil — defy him in words, 
 but entertain him in their hearts; run away from the 
 appearance of him, and, in the mean time, can be 
 well enough content to be all that, in very deed, 
 which the devil and Antichrist is. All this evidently 
 appears to be for want of the true power and spirit 
 of religion, which I commend for so great a healer, 
 even, as the Greek signifies, of our distempers. 
 
 Perhaps no Papist will find in his heart to read 
 this epistle written by a heretic; yet possibly, too, 
 some one or other may : therefore I will adventure 
 briefly to prescribe this same medicinal divinity to 
 them also; though perhaps I might be excused upon 
 another account, all that which I have hitherto said 
 to distempered Protestants being rightly enough, 
 mutatis mutandis^ applicable to them. But more- 
 over, whereas they value their church, and the truth 
 and rightness of it, by its universality and prosperity ; 
 the power of religion would make men to value them- 
 selves, and their adherents, only by the divine im- 
 pressions of piety and purity, and to account such 
 
71 
 
 only worthy of the glorious title of apostolical and 
 children of God, who are sincere followers of the apos- 
 tles, wherein they were followers of Christ, namely, 
 in true holiness and righteousness. Are they indus- 
 trious and zealous for the proselyting of the world, 
 and spreading of their interest far and near ? And 
 are not all wicked men, yea, and the devil himself 
 so too ? The fairest and most flourishing state of 
 the church is nothing to God, and so, consequently, 
 not to a godly soul, in comparison of those excel- 
 lent divine beauties, wherewith religion adorneth the 
 world. But whereas the greatest complaint, and 
 the most dreadful charge, which the Protestants 
 bring against the Papists, is their fierceness and 
 most unchristian cruelty, exercised against all whom 
 they can but make a shift to esteem heretics ; and 
 they, on the other hand, allege, that the interest of 
 religion, and the catholic faith, doth require it, and 
 that they do not so properly murder men, as sacri- 
 fice them to the honour of God : it -will be proper 
 to spend a little time, at least, to clear religion of 
 this blame; that as wisdom is, at all times, justified 
 of her children, so she may be sometimes justified 
 by them, especially when the aspersions are so mon- 
 strously foul. And indeed she hath sufficiently in- 
 structed us how to justify her from all such imputa- 
 tions ; having so fairly portrayed herself by the pen 
 of the Apostle James, both negatively and affirma- 
 tively. She is void of " strife, envyings, bitterness, 
 and every evil work ;" but she is " pure, peaceable, 
 gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good 
 fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy." 
 This is the proper description of heavenly wisdom, 
 
7^ ' 
 
 or pure religion : and O that all Christians would 
 estircate themselves to be wise according to their 
 conformity thereunto ! Then I would easily be- 
 lieve, that none would be Papists in practice, what- 
 ever they might be in opinion. What, Sirs, is the 
 God of the Christians become like unto a devil, that 
 he should delight in cruelty, and drink .the blood of 
 men ? Is the butchering of reasonable creatures 
 that reasonable service which he requires? Is the 
 living sacrifice of your own bodies turned into the 
 dead sacrifice of other men's ? It was wont to be 
 said, " What communion hath Christ with Belial?" 
 And is the Prince of Peace now become very Satan, 
 the author of enmity, malignity, confusion, and every 
 €vil work ? Did he shed his blood for his enemies, 
 to teach us that goodly lesson of shedding the blood 
 of others ? Did he come " to seek and to save that 
 which was lost;" to set us an example, that we might 
 seek to destroy, and that only to repair our own 
 losses? Be it so, that the Protestant churches have 
 apostatized from you : this, I hope, is not a greater 
 crime than the apostacy of mankind from God, which 
 yet lie expiated, not with the blood of the apostates, 
 but with his own. Religion was formerly a princi- 
 ple springing up into eternal life : how is the world 
 changed, that it should now be a principle springing 
 up into massacres and temporal death ! or is religion 
 now become a principle springing up into secular 
 power, worldly dominion, temporal greatness, and 
 all manner of fleshly accommodations ? This was 
 of old the description of sensuality, and a heathenish 
 genius, " For after all these things do the Gentiles 
 jseek." Are there so many mighty engines in the 
 
73 
 
 gospel to engage the hearts of men to believe, pro- 
 fess, and obey it, and raust they all now give place 
 to fire and sword ? Are these the only gospel rae- 
 thods of winning men to the catholic faith? What! 
 are we wiser than Christ, or more zealous than he 
 himself was ? Did he forbid fire from heaven, and 
 will you fetch it even from hell to consume dissen- 
 ters ? Did he sheath his sword that was drawn in 
 his own defence, and set a dreadful seal upon it too, 
 '' All they that take the sword shall perish with the 
 sword :" and will you adventure to draw it in a way 
 of revenge and persecution, and count it meritorious 
 too, as if you should therefore never perish because 
 you take it ? Is it not written in your Bibles, as 
 well as ours, that "no murderer shall enter into the 
 kingdom of God ?" And do you think by murders 
 to propagate this kingdom upon earth, and have a 
 more abundant entrance into it yourselves hereafter? 
 Can hell dwell with heaven ? Shall bloody cruelty 
 ever come to lodge in the bosom, or lie down in the 
 sacred arms of eternal love? Be not deceived. Sirs, 
 with a false heaven; but take this for an indubitable 
 and self-evidencing aphorism of truth. No soul of 
 man hath any more of heaven, no nor ever shall 
 have, than he hath of God, and of his pure, placable, 
 patient, benign, and gracious nature. And this is 
 that everlasting life which a religious principle is 
 ahvays springing up into ; so that it hereby appears 
 plainly, that religion, in the power of it, would heal 
 these feverish distempers also, and so restore a most 
 excellent constitution, both personal and political. 
 It may possibly seem that I have toiled too much 
 
 D 38 
 
74 
 
 in these discoveries; and haply my pains may prove 
 ungrateful to many. But may it please Almighty 
 God that they may prove vindicative of religion, re- 
 storative of the sickly and lapsed ecclesiastical or 
 political state, yea, or medicinal and profitable to any 
 single soul of man, I shall venture to estimate it 
 against an age of pains. And if it should prove 
 that by all this toil I have "caught nothing," as the 
 weary disciples complained of old, nevertheless being 
 well assured, that I have a word of God for my en- 
 couragement, 1 will let down the net once again, 
 and so finish these epistolary pains with an earnest 
 hortatory address to all that shall peruse them. 
 
 Let nothing satisfy your souls, Christians, let 
 nothing administer rest or settlement to your hearts, 
 that is common to the natural man, or compatible to 
 the mere animal life. There are a great many high 
 strains of zeal and seeming devotion, by which many 
 men judge themselves to be some great ones, and 
 concerning which they are ready to say, These things 
 are the great power of God; which, if they be well 
 examined into, will be found to grow upon no better 
 root than natural self, and to spring from no higher 
 principle than this animal life. It is impossible for 
 me to give an exact catalogue of all these: many of 
 them I have occasionally recorded in the latter end 
 of the ensuing treatise; to which yet many more 
 mi"ht be added, if I had a fair opportunity. But, 
 at present, let me in general commend to you this 
 description made by our Saviour of true religion, as 
 the rule whereby I do earnestly entreat you faith- 
 fully to examine yourselves, your actions, affections, 
 
75 
 
 zeal, confidence, professions, performances. Let me 
 speak freely, all pomps of worship, all speculative 
 knowledge, though ever so orthodox, is as dear to 
 the animal life as the divine: and all external models 
 of devotion, submiss confessions, devout hymns, 
 pathetical prayers, raptures of joy, much zeal to re- 
 form indecencies in worship or superstitions, a fierce 
 raging against the political Antichrist, do as well 
 agree to a natural man as a spiritual, and may be 
 as fairly acted over, by a mere selfish carnal principle, 
 as by that which is truly divine. When Diogenes 
 trampled upon Plato's stately bed, saying, " I 
 trample on Plato's pride," it was answered him very 
 sharply, " He was prouder in treading upon it, than 
 Plato was in lying upon it." I doubt it may be 
 applied too truly to a great deal of that cynical and 
 scornful zeal, that is in the world at this day; men 
 declaim against the pride, and pomp, and grandeur 
 of Antichristian prelates, with a pride no whit inferior 
 to theirs whom they thus decry. However, it is 
 plain, that those things which are imitable by a 
 sensual heart, and indeed performable by the mere 
 magic of an exalted fancy, are not to be rested in 
 by a sincere Christian. Read over, therefore, I be- 
 seech you, the fruits of the Spirit, recorded by the 
 Apostle Paul, and the Apostle Peter, and estimate 
 yourselves by them. These things are utterly in- 
 compatible to the mere animal man: all the natural 
 men and devils in the world cannot be humble, meek, 
 self-denying, patient, charitable, lovers of God more 
 than of themselves, or of their enemies as themselves. 
 Would you judge rightly of the goodness of any 
 
 D 2 
 
70 
 
 opinion ? then value it by the tendency that is in it 
 to advance the life of God: particularly judge of the 
 Millenarian opinion, which begins to be so much 
 hugged in the world: concerning which I will only 
 say thus much at present, that, in the common no- 
 tion of it, as it promises a state of much ease, liberty, 
 power, prosperity, and freedom from all persecutions 
 and oppressions, it is as grateful to the fleshly palate, 
 and will be as gladly embraced by the mere animal 
 man, as by the greatest saint upon earth. And 
 therefore, supposing it to be true, yet I cannot but 
 wonder how it comes to administer so much satisfac- 
 tion, and afford such a marvellous relish, to minds 
 divinely principled, as many seem to taste in it. By 
 this same tendency, to advance the divine life in your 
 souls, judge also of all your enjoyments, riches, 
 honours, liberties, friends, health, children, &c. and 
 value them, if it be possible, only under this con- 
 sideration. But, to hasten to an end, J will endea- 
 vour to set on this general exhortation by two or 
 three weighty considerations. — First, it is utterly 
 impossible that any speculation, opinion, profession, 
 enjoyment, ornament, performance, or any other 
 thing, but the transformation of the mind into the 
 very image and nature of God, should ever be able 
 to perfect our souls, or commend us unto Godi 
 They cannot perfect our souls, as being most of 
 them exterior, and all of them inferior to it. They 
 cannot commend a man to God, who loves us, and 
 whom we so far know and love, as we partake of his 
 nature, and resemble him : this is the love of God, 
 this is the worship of God, and this is really the 
 
77 
 
 souls acquaintance with him, and nothing hut this. 
 Secondly, The advancement of" the divine life is that 
 which God mainly designs in the world. I need 
 instance but in two things: 1. The sending of his 
 own Son into the world for this very end and pur- 
 pose, " that he might take away our sins," says the 
 Apostle John; and again, " that he might destroy 
 the works of the devil;" and again, says the Apostle 
 Paul, " That he might redeem us from all iniquity, 
 and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of 
 good works." 2. It appears that this is the grand 
 design of God in the world, in as much as he doth 
 not deliver his faithful servants out of their afflictions 
 and tribulations : which he would not fail to do, did 
 he not intend them a greater good thereby, and 
 design to lead them on, and raise them, up to a 
 higher life. Now, what can more ennoble these 
 souls of ours, than to live upon the same design with 
 God himself? 
 
 And now, reader, I commend thee to the blessing 
 of God, in the perusal of this small tract, which I 
 have composed, and now exposed, under a sense of 
 that common obligation, that lies upon every person 
 to be active in his sphere for the interest of the 
 name and honour of God, and to render his life as 
 useful as he may : more particularly, under a sense 
 of my own deficiency in several accomplishments, 
 whereby others are better fitted to serve their gen- 
 eration : and especially under a sense of the peculiar 
 engagement that lieth upon me, to dedicate my life 
 entirely to his service, from whom I have so lately, 
 and that so signally, received the same afresh ; in 
 
78 
 
 imitation of whom, I hope thou wilt be indulgent 
 towards my infirmities. To whom I heartily com- 
 mend thee, and to the precious influences of his 
 eternal Spirit, and rest, 
 
 Thy Servant in his work, 
 
 And for his sake, 
 
 SAMUEL SHAW. 
 
.>>^^^''^''-^'^^-> 
 
 
 John iv. 14. 
 
 " But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall giv'e him 
 shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be 
 in him a well of water springing up into everlasting lite." 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The original of true religion. All souls the offspring of 
 God ; but godly souls yet more especially. God the 
 author of religion from without; God the author of it 
 from within^ enlightening the faculty. Religion some- 
 thing of God in the soul. A discovery of religious men 
 by the ciffinity that they have to God. God alone to be 
 acknowledged in all holy accomplishments. 
 
 This chapter contains an excellent, profitable, fami- 
 liar discourse of the blessed Saviour of the world, 
 into whose lips grace was poured, and he ceased not 
 to pour it out again. That which is said of the 
 wise, Prov. xv. 7. is fully verified of Wisdom itself, 
 his lips dispersed knowledge. A poor woman of 
 Samaria comes to draw water, and our Saviour takes 
 occasion, from the water, to instruct her in the great 
 and excellent doctrines of the kingdom of heaven. 
 O the admirable zeal for God, and compassion for 
 souls, which dwelt in that divine breast! and O the 
 
80 
 
 wonderful, unsearchable counsels of an all-wise God ! 
 He ordains Saul's seeking of asses to be the means 
 of his finding a kingdom upon earth ; and this poor 
 woman's seeking of water, to be an occasion of her 
 finding the way to the kingdom of heaven. She 
 comes to the well of Jacob, and, behold she meets with 
 the God of Jacob there. The occasion, instruction, 
 and issue of this discourse, would each afford many- 
 good and profitable observations : but I think none 
 more than this verse that I have pitched upon; in 
 which the mystery of gospel-grace is admirably un- 
 folded, and true Christian religion is excellently de- 
 scribed. For so I understand our Saviour, not as 
 speaking of faith, or knowledge, or any other parti- 
 cular grace, but of grace in general, of the Holy 
 Spirit of God; that is, the gifts and graces of it, of 
 true godliness; or, if you will, of the Christian reli- 
 gion ; for that word I shall choose to retain through- 
 out my discourse, as being most intelligible and com- 
 prehensive. 
 
 In which words we find the true Christian reli- 
 gion unfolded in the original, nature, properties, 
 consequent, and end of it. The original of it is 
 found in those words, " I shall give him ;" the na- 
 ture of it is described by a " well of water;" the 
 properties of it will be found in the phrase of 
 " springing up;" the consequent of it, that the man 
 that is endowed with it shall " never thirst;" the 
 end or perfection of it, is " everlasting life." Of 
 all these, by God's assistance, in this order. 
 
 First, 1 begin at the original of it, as it seems 
 meet I should; for indeed it is first found in the 
 words, — " The water that I shall give him." And 
 
81 
 
 here the proposition that I shall proceed upon must 
 be, " That the true Christian religion is of a divine 
 original." All souls are indeed the offspring of 
 God. Those noble faculties of understanding, and 
 a will free from constraint, do more resemble the 
 nature of God than all the world besides. There is 
 more of the glory, beauty, and brightness of God in 
 a soul, than there is in the sun itself. The Apostle 
 allows it as a proper speech spoken in common of all 
 men, " For we are also his offspring." God hath 
 impressed more lively prints of himself, and his di- 
 vine essence upon a rational soul, than he hath upon 
 the whole creation. So that the soul of man, even 
 as to its constitution, doth declare and discover more, 
 of the nature of God, than all the other things that 
 he hath made, whereof the Apostle speaks, Rom. 
 i. 20. He that rightly converseth with his own 
 soul, will get more acquaintance with God, than 
 they that gaze continually upon the material hea- 
 vens, or traverse the dark and utmost corners of the 
 earth, or go down into the sea in ships ; the serious 
 consideration of the little world will teach more of 
 him than the great one could do. So that I doubt 
 not to take the Apostle's words concerning the word 
 of God, and apply them to the nature of God : 
 " Say not in thy heart. Who shall ascend into 
 heaven," to bring a discovery of God from thence? 
 Or, " who shall- descend into the deep," to fetch it 
 up from thence? The nature and essence of God 
 is nigh thee, even in thine own soul, excellently dis- 
 played in the constitution and frame, powers and 
 faculties thereof. God hath not made any creature 
 so capable of receiving and reflecting his image and 
 
 D 3 
 
82 
 
 glory, as angels and men : which hath made me 
 often to say, " That the vilest soul of man is much 
 more beautiful and honourable than the most ex- 
 cellent body, than the very body of the sun at noon- 
 day." And, by the way, this may render sin odious 
 and loathsome; because it hath defiled the fairest 
 piece of God's workmanship in the world, and hath 
 defaced the clearest copy which he had drawn of 
 himself in the whole creation. 
 
 But thoui^h all rational souls be the children of 
 God, yet all of them do not imitate their Father ; 
 though their constitution do express much of the 
 essence of God, yet their disposition doth express 
 the image of the devil. But godly souls, who are 
 followers of God, are indeed his dear children. 
 Holy souls, who are endowed with a divine and 
 God-like disposition, and do work the works of God, 
 these are most truly and properly his offspring. 
 Matt. v. 44, 45. And, in this respect, God's chil- 
 dren are his " workmanship created unto good 
 works." Religion is of a divine original. God is 
 the Author and Father of it, both from without, and 
 from within. 
 
 1. God is the author of it from without. When 
 man had fallen from God by sin, and so had lost 
 his way, and was become both unwilling and unable 
 to return, God was pleased to set up that glorious 
 light, his own Son, " the Sun of righteousness," in 
 the world, that he might guide their feet into the 
 way of peace, who is therefore called, *' A light to 
 lighten the Gentiles," and is compared to a candle, 
 set upon a candlestick. God, of his infinite free 
 grace, and overflowing goodness, provided a Mediator, 
 
83 
 
 in and by whom these apostate souls might, be recon- 
 ciled, and re-united to himself. " And to as many 
 as receive him, to them he giveth power to become 
 the sons of God." 
 
 Yet further, it pleased God, in his infinite wis- 
 dom and mercy, to chalk out the way of life and 
 peace in the Holy Scriptures, and therein to unlock 
 the secrets of salvation to succeeding generations. 
 Herein he hath plainly laid down the terras of the 
 covenant of peace, which was made in the Mediator, 
 and given precepts and promises for the direction 
 and encouragement of as many as will inquire into 
 them. These are the sacred oracles which give 
 clear and certain answers to all that do consult them 
 about their future state, Rom. iii. 2. Christ Jesus 
 opened the way into the holiest of all, and the Scrip- 
 tures come after, and point it out to us: he pur- 
 chased life and immortality, and these bring it to 
 light. 
 
 And yet further, that these might not be mis- 
 taken, or perverted to men's destruction, which were 
 ordained for their salvation, which sometimes doth 
 come to pass, God hath been pleased to commit 
 these records into the hands of his church, and 
 therein to his ministers, whom he hath appointed, 
 called, qualified, instructed, for the opening, ex- 
 plaining, interpreting, and applying of them ; so 
 that they are called " scribes instructed unto the 
 kingdom of God, and stewards of the mysteries, 
 stewards over the household of God, to give unto 
 every one his portion." These Apostles, prophets, 
 evangelists, pastors, teachers, God hath given for 
 the perfecting of the saints, for the edifying of the 
 body of Christ. 
 
84 
 
 These things hath God done for us, from with- 
 out us; he hath set up a light, clialked out our way, 
 and appointed us guides. To which I might add 
 the many enticements and motives which we call 
 mercies or comforts of this life; and the many af- 
 frightments of judgments and afflictions which God 
 hath added to the promises and tiireatenings of his 
 word, to bring us into the way of life. But all 
 these are too little, too weak of themselves, to bring 
 back a straggling soul, or to produce a living prin- 
 ciple of true religion in it. Therefore, 
 
 2. God is the author of reHgion from within. 
 He doth not only reveal himself and his Son to the 
 soul, but in it ; he doth not only make discoveries 
 to it, but lively impressions upon it ; he doth not 
 only appoint, and point out the way of life, but 
 breathes in the breath of life. He hath not only 
 provided a Saviour, a Redeemer; but he also draws 
 the soul unto him. He hath not only appointed 
 pastors and teachers, but he himself impregnates 
 their word, and clothes their doctrine with his own 
 power, using their ministry as an instrument whereby 
 to teach;- so that the children of God are said to be 
 " all taught of God." Ministers can only discover, 
 and, as it were, enlighten the object; but God en- 
 lightens the faculty, he gives the seeing eye, and 
 does actually enable it to discern. Therefore, the 
 work of converting a soul is still ascribed to God in 
 Scripture; he begets us again, 1 Pet. i. 3. he draws 
 the soul, before it can run after him. Cant. i. 4<. 
 Christ apprehends the soul, lays powerful hold of it, 
 Phil. iii. 12. God gives a heart of flesh, a new heart; 
 be causes men to walk in his statutes, Ezok. xxxvi. 
 
85 
 
 26, 27. Fie puts his law into thoir inward parts, and 
 writes it in their hearts, Jer. xxxi. 33. To which I 
 might add many more quotations of the same import. 
 
 But yet, methinksj we are not come to a perfect 
 discovery of religion's being the offspring of God in 
 the minds of men'. For it is God who enhghteneth 
 the faculty as to the learning of all other things 
 also; he teacheth the grammar and the rhetoric, as 
 well as the divinity; he instructeth even the hus- 
 bandman to discretion in his affairs of husbandry, 
 and teaches him to plough, and sow, and thrash, &c. 
 Not only the gift of divine knowledge, but indeed 
 " every good gift cometh from the Father of lights." 
 God doth from within give that capacity, illumina- 
 tion of the faculty, ingenuity, whereby we compre- 
 hend the mysteries of nature, as well as of grace. 
 
 Therefore, we may conceive of the original of re- 
 ligion in a more inward and spiritual manner still. 
 It is not so much given of God, as itself is some- 
 thing of God in the soul; as the soul is not so pro- 
 perly said to give, as to be the life of man. As the 
 conjunction of the soul with the body is the life of 
 the body; so verily the life of the soul stands in its 
 conjunction with God by a spiritual union of will and 
 affections. God doth not enlighten men's minds as 
 the sun enlightens the world, by shining unto them, 
 and round about them, but by shining into them; 
 by enlightening the faculty, as I said before; yea, 
 which seems to be somewhat more, by " shining in 
 their hearts," as the Apostle expresseth it. He sets 
 up a candle, which is his own light within the soul; 
 so that the soul sees God in his own light, and 
 loves him with the love that he hath shed abroad in 
 
86 
 
 it : and religion is no other than a reflection of that 
 divine image, life, and light, and love, which from 
 God are stamped and imprinted upon the souls of 
 true Christians. God is said to enlighten the soul, 
 but it is not as the sun enlightens, you see; so he 
 draws the soul too, but not from without only, as one 
 draweth another with a cord, as Jupiter in Homer 
 draws men up to heaven by a chain, and Mahomet 
 his disciples by a lock of hair; but he draws the 
 soul, as the sun draws up earthly vapours, by infus- 
 ing its virtue and power into them ; or, as the load- 
 stone draws the iron, by the powerful insinuations of 
 his grace. God doth not so much communicate him- 
 self to the soul by way of discovery, as by way of 
 impression, as I said before ; and indeed, not so 
 much by impression neither, as by a mystical and 
 wonderful way of implantation. Religion is not so 
 much something from God, as something of God 
 in the minds of good men; for so the Scripture al- 
 lows us to speak : it is therefore called his image. 
 Col. iii. 10. and good men are said to " live accor- 
 ding to God in the spirit:" but, as if that were not 
 high enough, it is not only called his image, but 
 even a participation of his divine nature, 2 Pet. i. 4. 
 something of Christ in the soul, an "infant Christ," 
 as one calls it, alluding to the Apostle, where the sav- 
 ing knowledge of Christ is called Christ himself, — 
 " until Christ be formed in you." True religion is, 
 as it were, God dwelling in the soul, and Christ 
 dwelling in the soul, as the Apostles St. John and 
 St. Paul do express it; yea, God himself is pleased 
 thus to express his relation to the godly soul: " I 
 dwell in the high and holy place, with hira also that 
 
87 
 
 is of an humble spirit ;" and again, " As God hath 
 said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them." Pure 
 religion is a beam of the Father of lights ; it is a 
 drop of that eternal fountain of goodness and holi- 
 ness ; the breath of the power of God ; a pure influ- 
 ence flowing from the glory of the Almighty ; the 
 brightness of the everlasting light; the unspotted 
 mirror of the power of God, and the image of his 
 goodness, more beautiful than the sun, and above 
 all the orders of stars; being compared with the 
 light, she is found before it, as the author of the 
 book of Wisdom speaks, chap. vii. What is spoken 
 of the eternal Son of God, Heb. i. 3. may, in a sense, 
 be truly affirmed of religion in the abstract, — that it 
 is the efFulgency, or beaming forth of divine glory; 
 for there is more of the divine glory and beauty 
 shining forth in one godly soul, than in all things in 
 the world beside : the glorious light of the sun is 
 but a dark shadow of the divine light, not to be 
 compared with the beauty of holiness. An immor- 
 tal soul doth more resemble the divine nature than 
 any other created being; but religion in the soul is 
 a thousand times more divine than the soul itself. 
 The material world is indeed a darker represen- 
 tation of divine wisdom, power, and goodness; it 
 is, as it were, the footsteps of God : the immaterial 
 world of angels and spirits does represent him more 
 clearly, and are the face of God; but holiness in the 
 soul doth most nearly resemble him of all created 
 things ; one may call it the beauty and glory of his 
 face. Every creature partakes of God indeed; he 
 had no copy but himself and his own essence to frame 
 the world by ; so that all these must needs carry 
 
88 
 
 some resemblance of their Maker. But no creature 
 is capable of such communications of God, as a ra- 
 tional immortal spirit is; and the highest that angel 
 or spirit, or any created nature, can be made capable 
 of, is to be " holy as God is holy." So then, if the 
 poet may call the soul, — and St. Paul allows him in 
 it, — " a particle of the divine breath ;" sure one may 
 rather speak at that rate of religion, which is the 
 highest perfection that the soul can attain to, either 
 in the world that now is, or that which is to come. 
 One soul, any one soul of man, is worth all the world 
 beside for glory and dignity ; but the lowest degree 
 of true holiness, pure religion, conformity to the 
 divine nature and will, is more worth than a world of 
 souls, and to be preferred before the essence of an- 
 gels. I have often admired three great mysteries 
 and mercies: God revealed in the flesh, God re- 
 vealed in the word, and God revealed in the soul. 
 This last is the mystery of godliness which I am 
 speaking of, but cannot fathom ; it is this that the 
 Apostle says transcends the sight of our eyes, the 
 capacity of our ears, and all the faculties of our souls 
 too, " Eye hath not seen," &c. Christ Jesus formed 
 in the soul of man, incarnate in a heart of flesh, is 
 as great a miracle, and a greater mercy, than Christ 
 formed in the womb of a virgin, and incarnate in a 
 human body. There was once much glorying con- 
 cerning Christ in the world, the hope of Israel; but 
 let us call out to the powers of eternity, and the 
 ages of the world to come, to help us to celebrate 
 and magnify " Christ in us, tiie hope of glory ;" or, 
 if you will, Christ in us the first fruits of glory. 
 1. This will then help us in our discoveries of 
 
89 
 
 that precious pearl. Religion. There is nothing in 
 the world that men do generally more seek, or less 
 find : no nation in the world but hath courted it one 
 way or other; but, alas, how few that have obtained 
 it ! At this day there are many claims laid to it, 
 all pretending a just title: the men of Judah cry, 
 She is of kin to us; the men of Israel sav. We have 
 ten parts in this queen, and we have more right in 
 religion than ye : according as they contended of 
 old about king David, 2 Sam. xix. They say of 
 Christ, as it was foretold, though perhaps not in the 
 same sense as was foretold, Lo, here he is, and lo, 
 there he is; which hath made many say, he is not at all: 
 or, if I may go on in the same allusion, they live bv 
 the rule that there follows, they will not go forth to 
 seek him any where. Mighty strivings, yea, and 
 wars, there have been about the Prince of peace, 
 whose he should be : and at this day no question 
 more debated, nor less decided, than. Which is the 
 religious party in the land ? Oh would to God, 
 men would dispute this controversy with works, and 
 not with words, much less with blows ! Religion is 
 of an eminent pedigree, of a noble descent; you may 
 find her name in the register of heaven, and look 
 where God is, there is she. She carries her name 
 in her forehead ; the divine disposition that she is 
 of, the divine works which she worketh, which no 
 one else can work, the same do bear witness which 
 is she. I am ready to say with the man that had 
 been blind, John ix. 3. herein is a marvellous thing, 
 that ye know not religion, who she is, and yet she 
 is the mighty power of God, opening the eyes, 
 changing the hearts, and, as it were, deifying the 
 
90 
 
 souls of men. Why do we not also go about in- 
 quiring which of those many stars is the moon in 
 the firmament ? If ye ask of the religious party, I 
 will point you to the blessed and eternal God, and 
 say, As he is, so are they, in their capacity, each 
 one resembling the children of a king ; or, I will 
 point out the religious Christian by the same token 
 as Christ himself was marked out to John the Bap- 
 tist, " Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descend- 
 ing and remaining, the same is he." If ye inquire 
 about the children of God, the Apostle shall de- 
 scribe them for you : The followers of God are his 
 dear children. That which is most nearly allied to 
 the nature and life of God, that call religion, under 
 whatsoever disguises or reproaches it may go in the 
 world. Examine the world by no lower a mark, 
 than that character that is given of David, 1 Sam. 
 xiii. 14. and the man that doth appear to be 
 after God's heart, namely, conformable to his 
 image, compliant with his will, and studious of 
 his glory, pitch upon him ; for that is that man, 
 under what name soever he goes, of what party 
 or faction soever he is. And let no soul exa- 
 mine itself by any lower marks than this, participa- 
 tion of the divine nature, conformity to the divine 
 image. Examine what alliance your soul hath to 
 God ; " whose is the image and superscription." 
 Religion is a divine accomplishment, an efflux from 
 God, and may, by its affinity to heaven, be discerned 
 from a brat of hell and darkness. Therefore, Chris- 
 tians, if you will make a judgment of your state, lay 
 your hearts and lives to the rule, the eternal good- 
 ness, the uncreated purity and holiness, and see 
 
91 
 
 whether you resemble that copy : for conformity to 
 the image and will of God, that is religion; and that 
 God will own for his, when all the counterfeits and 
 shadows of it will fly away, and disappear for ever. 
 I fear it may be imputed as a great piece of vanity 
 and idle curiosity to many counterfeit speculative 
 Christians, that they are very inquisitive, prying into 
 the hidden rolls of God's decree, the secrets of pre- 
 destination, to find out the causes and method of 
 their vocation and salvation ; in the mean time, they 
 are not solicitous for, nor studious of, the relation 
 and resemblance that every religious soul bears unto 
 God himself, the heaven that is opened within the 
 godly soul itself, and the whole mystery of salvation 
 transacted upon the heart of a true Christian. 
 There is a vanity which I have observed in many 
 pretenders to nobility and learning, when men seek 
 to demonstrate the one by their coat of arms, and 
 the records of their family, and the other by a gown 
 or a title, or their names standing in the register of 
 the university, rather than by the accomplishments 
 and behaviours of gentlemen or scholars. A like 
 vanity, I fear, may be observed in many pretenders 
 to religion : some are searching God's decretals, to 
 find their names written in the book of life, when 
 they should be studying to find God's name written 
 upon their hearts, " holiness to the Lord" engraven 
 upon their souls ; some are busy examining them- 
 selves by notes and marks without them; when they 
 should labour to find the marks and prints of God 
 and his nature upon them : some have their religion 
 in their books and authors, which should be the law 
 of God written in the tables of the heart; some 
 
92 
 
 glory in the bulk of their duties, and in the multi- 
 tude of their pompous performances, and religious 
 achievements, crying, with Jehu, " Come, see here 
 my zeal for the Lord ;" whereas it were much more 
 excellent, if one could see their likeness to the Lord, 
 and the characters of divine beauty and hoHness 
 drawn upon their hearts and lives. But we, if we 
 would judge rightly of our religious state, must view 
 ourselves in God, who is the fountain of all good- 
 ness and hohness, and the rule of all perfection. 
 Value yourselves by your souls, and not by your 
 bodies, estates, friends, or any outward accomplish- 
 ments, as most men do : but that is not enough ; if 
 men rest there, they make an idol of the fairest of 
 God's creatures, even their own souls; therefore, 
 value your souls themselves by what they have of 
 God in them. To study the blessed and glorious 
 God in his word, and to converse with him in his 
 works, is indeed an excellent and honourable em- 
 ployment ; but O what a blessed study is it to view 
 him in the communications of himself, and the im- 
 pressions of his grace upon our own souls ! All the 
 thin and subtile speculations which the most eminent 
 philosophers have of the essence and nature of God, 
 are a poor, and low, and beggarly employment and 
 attainment, in comparison of those blessed visions of 
 God which a godly soul hath in itself, when it finds 
 itself partaker of a divine nature, and living a divine 
 life. O labour to vievv God and his divine perfec- 
 tions in your own souls, in those copies and trans- 
 cripts of them which his Holy Spirit draws upon the 
 hearts of all godly men. This is the most excellent: 
 discovery of God that any soul is capable of: it is 
 
93 
 
 better and more desirable than that famous discovery 
 that was made to Moses in the cleft of the rock. 
 Nay, I should much rather desire to see the real 
 impression of a godlike nature upon my own soul, to 
 see the crucifying of my own pride and self-will, the 
 mortifying of the mere sensual life, and a divine life 
 springing up in my soul instead of it ; I would much 
 rather desire to see my soul glorified in the image 
 and beauty of God put upon it, which is indeed a 
 pledge, yea, and a part of eternal glory, than to have 
 a vision from the Almighty, or hear a voice wit- 
 nessing from heaven, and saying, " Thou art my 
 beloved Son, in whom my soul is well pleased." 
 This that 1 am speaking of is a true foundation of 
 heaven itself in the soul, a real beginning of happi- 
 ness : for happiness, heaven itself, is nothing else 
 but a perfect conformity, a cheerful and eternal com- 
 pliance of all the powers of the soul with the will of 
 God : so that, as far as a godly soul is thus con- 
 formed to God, and filled with his fulness, so far is 
 he glorified upon earth. 
 
 2. Let wisdom then be justified of her children; 
 let the children of God, those that are his genuine 
 offspring, rise up and call him blessed, in imitation 
 of their Lord and Saviour, that eldest Son of God, 
 that " first-born amongst many brethren," who re- 
 joiced in spirit, and said, " I thank thee, Father, 
 Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast revealed 
 these things," or, according to the style of the 
 Apostle Peter, " Blessed be the God and Father 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his 
 abundant mercy, hath begotten us again!" There 
 is no greater contradiction in the world, than a man 
 
94< 
 
 pretending religion, and yet ascribing it to himself; 
 whereas, pure religion is purely of a divine original: 
 besides, religion doth principally consist in the sub- 
 duing of self-will, in conformity to, and comphance 
 with, the divine will, in serving the interest of God's 
 glory in the world. Then, and not till then, may 
 a soul be truly called religious, when God becomes 
 greatest of all to it and in it, and the interest of God 
 is so powerfully planted in it, that no other interest, 
 no self-interest, no creature-love, no particular private 
 end, can grow by it, no more than the magicians 
 could stand before Moses, when he came in the 
 power of God to work wonders. So that what 
 Solomon saith of self-seeking, ** For men to seek 
 their own glory is not glory;" the like I may safely 
 say, upon that double ground that I have laid down, 
 self-religion, is not religion. How vainly, and 
 madlv, do men dream of their self-religion carrying 
 them to heaven : when heaven itself is nothing else 
 but the perfection of selt-denial, and God's becoming 
 all things to the saints, 1 Cor. xv. 28. Instead of 
 advancing men towards heaven, there is nothing in 
 the world that doth more directly make war against 
 heaven, than that proud and petulant spirit of self- 
 will, that rules in the children of disobedience. So 
 that when the Holy Ghost would describe David 
 one of the best men, to the best advantage, he de- 
 scribes him with opposition to self, and self-will, " a 
 man after God's own heart;" and again, " he served 
 the will of God in his generation." 
 
 There have been of old a great number of philo- 
 sophical men, who being raised up above the specu- 
 lation of their own souls, to a contemplation of a 
 
95 
 
 Deity; and being purged by a lower kind of virtue 
 and raoral goodness, from the pollutions that are in 
 this world through lust, did yet ultimately settle 
 into themselves, and their own self-love. They 
 were full indeed, but it was not with the " fulness 
 of God," as the Apostle speaks, but with a self- 
 sufficiency; the leaven of self-love lying at the bot- 
 tom did make them swell with pride and self-conceit. 
 Now these men, though they were free from gross 
 external enormities, yet did not attain to a true 
 knowledge of God, nor any true religion, because 
 they set up themselves to be their own idols, and 
 carried such an image of themselves continually 
 before their eyes, that they had no clear and spiri- 
 tual discernment of God. They did, as it is storied 
 of one of the Persian kings, enshrine themselves in 
 a temple of their own. But what speak I of Hea- 
 then philosophers? Is there not the same unclean 
 spirit of self-adoration to be found amongst many 
 Christians, yea, and teachers of Christianity too ? 
 witness that whole brood, those men, who, whilst 
 they hang the grace of God upon man's free-will, 
 do utterly rob him of his glory. Some of these 
 have impudently given a short, but unsavoury answer 
 to the Apostle's question, " Who maketh you to 
 differ from another?" I make myself to differ. 
 These men, whilst they pretend to high attainments, 
 discover alow and most ignoble spirit: to fasten and 
 feed upon any thing in the creature, is the part of a 
 low and degenerate spirit; on the other hand, it is 
 the greatest perfection of the creature, not to be its 
 own, not to be any thing in itself, or any way dis- 
 tinct from the blessed God, the Father and Fountain 
 
96 
 
 of light and grace. Holy Paul is all along in a 
 different strain, " I, yet not I, but the grace of God 
 which was with me." I told you before what a fair 
 and honourable character the Holy Ghost hath 
 given of holy David, a man after God's own heart; 
 now you may also find a description of these men, 
 too, in Scripture, not much differing from the other 
 in phrase, but very much in sense; it is the same 
 that is given of the proud prince of Tyrus, " They 
 set their heart as the heart of God." But we, if 
 we do indeed partake of the divine nature, shall not 
 dare to take any part of the divine glory; if we con- 
 form to God's image, we shall not set up our own. 
 This self-glorifying, in the predominancy of it, is 
 utterly inconsistent with true religion, as fire is with 
 water; for religion is nothing else but the shinings 
 forth of God into the soul, the reflection of a beauty 
 and glory which God hath put upon it. Give all 
 therefore unto God; for whatsoever is kept back, is 
 sacrilegiously purloined from him: glory we in the 
 fulness of God alone, and in self-penury and nothing- 
 ness. The whole of religion is of God. Do we 
 see and discern the great things of God? It is by 
 that light that God hath set up in us; according to 
 that of the Apostle, " The things of God knoweth 
 no man, but the Spirit of God." That love whereby 
 we love him, he first shed abroad in our hearts. If 
 our souls be beautiful, it is with his brightness, the 
 beauty and glory of essential holiness, according to 
 that of the Apostle, " Partakers of his holiness." 
 If we be really and truly full, we receive it of his 
 fulness, according to that of the Apostle, " Filled 
 with all the fulness of God." In a word, if we be 
 
97 
 
 in any godlike dispositions, like unto him, it is by 
 his spreading of his image in us, and over us. By 
 all this, it appears to be a thing not only wicked and 
 unwarrantable, but utterly impossible for a godly 
 soul to exalt himself against God, for grace to 
 advance itself against divine glory ; for grace is 
 nothing else but a communication of divine glory; 
 and God is then glorified, when the soul, in holy 
 and gracious dispositions, becomes like unto him. 
 How is it possible that grace should be a shadow to 
 obscure divine glory, when itself is nothing else, as 
 it comes from God, but a beam of glory? and as it 
 is found in the creature, may properly be called a 
 reflection of it. To conclude then, be ye persuaded, 
 that a man hath so much of God, as he hath of 
 humility, and self-denial, and self-nothingness, and 
 no more; he is so far of God, as he loves him, 
 honours him, imitates him, and lives to him, and no 
 further. 
 
 3. By this discovery of the original of religion, 
 we come to understand the original of sin and wick- 
 edness. And here, according to the method wherein 
 I spoke of the original of religion, I might show 
 you how the original of sin from without, is of the 
 devil, that first ushered it into the world, and ceaseth 
 not to tempt men to it continually; as also of men, 
 who are his instruments; and that it does, in a sense, 
 spring from many occasions without. But these 
 things are more improperly said to be the causes of 
 sin. The inward cause is the corrupt heart of man, 
 that unclean spirit, that devilish nature, which is 
 indeed the worst and most pernicious devil in the 
 world to man. It is an old saying, " One man is a 
 
 E 38 
 
98 
 
 devil to another;" which, though it be, in some 
 sense, true, yet it is more proper to say, " Man is 
 a devil to himself," taking the spirit and principle of 
 apostacy, that rebellious nature, for the devil, which 
 indeed doth best deserve that name. But yet, if 
 we inquire more strictly into the original and nature 
 of this monster, we shall best know what to say of 
 it, and how to describe it, by what we have heard 
 of religion. Sin, then, to speak properly, is nothing 
 else but a degeneration from a holy state, an apos- 
 tacy from a holy God. Religion is a participation 
 of God, and sin is a straggling off from him. There- 
 fore it is wont to be defined by negatives, a depar- 
 ture from God, a forsaking of him, a living in the 
 world without him, &c. The soul's falling off from 
 God, does describe the general nature of sin; but 
 then, as it sinks into itself, or settles upon the world, 
 and fastens upon the creature, or any thing therein; 
 so it becomes specified, and is called pride, cove- 
 tousness, ambition, and by many other names. All 
 souls are the offspring of God, were originally 
 formed in his image and likeness; and when they 
 express the purity and holiness of the divine nature, 
 in being perfect as God is perfect, they are then 
 called the children of God : but those impure spirits 
 that do lapse and slide from God, may be said, to 
 implant themselves into another stock, by their own 
 low and earthly lives, and are no more owned for 
 the children of God, but " are of their father the 
 devil." By which you may understand the low and 
 base original of sin : nothing can be so vile as that 
 which, to speak properly, is nothing else but a per- 
 fect falling off from glory itself. By this you may 
 
99 
 
 also, by the way, take notice of the miserable con- 
 dition of unholy souls. We need not call for fire 
 and brimstone to paint out the wretched state of sin- 
 ful souls. Sin itself is hell and death, and misery 
 to the soul, as being a departure from goodness and 
 holiness itself; I mean from God, in conjunction 
 with whom the happiness, and blessedness, and 
 heaven of a soul doth consist. Avoid it, therefore, 
 as you would avoid being miserable. 
 
 £2 
 
100 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 True religion described hy ivater : 1 . By remon of the 
 cleansing mrtiie of it. 2. By reason of the quenching 
 viiiue of it' The nature of religion described by a well 
 of water : That it is a principle in the souls of men. 
 An examination of religion by this test. A godly man 
 hath neither the whole of his business, nor his motives, 
 lying without him. In the same examination, many 
 things internal found not to be religion. 
 
 I COME now to speak of the nature of true reli- 
 gion, which is here described by our blessed Lord, 
 by a *' well of vvater :" 1. By water. 2. By a 
 well of water. I shall speak something of both 
 these, but more briefly of the former. 
 
 1. Pure religion, or gospel-grace, is described by 
 water. This is a comparison very familiar in the 
 Holy Scriptures, both of the Old Testament and the 
 New. By this similitude, gospel-grace was typified 
 in the ceremonial law, wherein both persons and 
 things, ceremonially unclean, were commanded to 
 be washed in water, as is abundantly to be seen in 
 that administration. Under this notion the same 
 grace is prayed for by the Psalmist, when he had 
 defiled himself in the bed of a stranger: "Wash 
 me, and I shall be whiter than snow." He had 
 drunk water out of a strange cistern, as his son Solo- 
 mon describes that unclean act, Prov. v. 15. and now 
 lie calls out for water from the fountain of grace, to 
 undefile him : he now cries out for water from the 
 fountain of grace, the blessed Messiah, that sprung 
 
101 
 
 up into the world at Bethlehem, and that \vith more 
 earnestness than formerly; we read that he wished 
 for the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by 
 the gate, 2 Sam. xxiii. In the same phrase the 
 same grace is promised by the ministry of the pro- 
 phets, who prophesied of the grace that should come 
 unto us. Thus we read of the fair and flourishing 
 state of the church, " Thou shalt be like a watered 
 garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters 
 fail not;" and of the fruitful state of the gospel 
 proselytes, " All the rivers of Judah shall flow with 
 waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house 
 of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim." 
 Which promises are understood of the grace of 
 sanctification, as the prophet Ezekiel showeth plainly, 
 " I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall 
 be clean ; from all your filthiness, and from all your 
 idols will I cleanse you :" for ordinary elementary 
 water cannot cleanse men from idols. The prophet 
 Isaiah also puts it out of doubt, whose prophecy, to- 
 gether with the interpretation of it, we find both in 
 one verse, " I will pour water upon him that is 
 thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground; I will pour 
 my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon 
 thine offspring." By the same ceremony, the gos- 
 pel dispensation shadows out the same mystery in 
 the sacrament of baptism ; and, by the same phrase, 
 our Saviour offers and promises the same grace, ''If 
 any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink :" 
 and his Apostles after him, who, in allusion to water, 
 call this grace the '' washing of regeneration," To 
 which I might add, 1 Pet. iii. 21. and many other 
 texts, if it needed. 
 
10^ 
 
 Now, as the grace of God is compared to fire, 
 because of its refining nature, and consuming the 
 dross and refuse of lust in the soul; and to other 
 things for other reasons : so it is compared to water, 
 especially for those two properties, namely, cleansing 
 and quenching : for observe this, by the way, that it is 
 a very injurious thing to the Holy Ghost, to press the 
 metaphors which he useth in Scripture, further than 
 they naturally and freely serve. Neither are we to 
 adhere to the letter of the metaphor, but to attend 
 to the scope of it. If we tenaciously adhere to the 
 phrase, wanton wits will be ready to quarrel with 
 absurdities, and so unawares run into strange blas- 
 phemies : they will cry out presently, How can fire 
 wash ? when they read that of the prophet, " The 
 Lord will wash away the filth of the daughter of 
 Zion, by the spirit of burning." But who art thou, 
 O man [ that wilt teach him to speak, who formed 
 the tongue? The Spirit of God intends the virtue 
 and property of things, when he names them ; and 
 that we must mainly attend to. 
 
 (1.) Therefore, by the phrase water^ is the cleans- 
 ing nature of religion commended to us : it is the 
 undefiling of the soul, which sin and wickedness 
 hath polluted: sin is often described in Scripture by 
 filthiness, loathsomeness, abomination, uncleanness, 
 a spot, a blemish, a stain, a pollution; which indeed 
 is a most proper description of it. The spots of 
 leprosy, and the scurf of the foulest scurvy, are 
 beauty-spots in comparison of it. Job upon the 
 dunghill, furnished cap-a-pee with scabs and boils, 
 was not half so loathsome as goodly Absalom, in 
 whose body " there was no blemish from the sole af 
 
103 
 
 his foot to the crown of his head ;" but his soul was 
 stained with the sanguine spots of mahce and re- 
 venge, and festered with the loathsome carbuncle 
 and tumour of ambition. Lazarus, lying at the 
 gates full of raw and running sores, was a far more 
 lovely object in the pure eyes of God, than dame 
 Jezebel, looking out at the window, adorned with 
 spots and paints. If the best of a godly man that 
 he hath of his own, even his righteousness, be as a 
 filthy rag, whence shall we borrow a phrase foul 
 enough to describe the worst of a wicked man, even 
 his wickedness ? I need say no more of it, I can 
 say no worse of it, than to tell you, it is something 
 contrary to God, who is the eternal Father of light, 
 who is beauty, and brightness, and glory itself; or, 
 to give it you in the Apostle's phrase, " A falling 
 short of the glory of God." Which hath made me 
 many times to wonder, and almost ready to cry out 
 with the prophet, " Be astonished, O ye heavens, at 
 this," when I have seen poor, ignorant, wicked, and 
 profane wretches, passing by a person, or a family, 
 visited with some loathsome disease, in a mixture of 
 fear and disdain, stopping their noses and hastening 
 away ; when their own souls have been more vile 
 than the dung upon the earth, spotted with igno- 
 rance and atheism, swollen with the risings of pride 
 and self-will, and contempt of God and his holy 
 image. This might well be a matter of wonder to 
 any man, till he consider with himself, that one part 
 of these men's uncleanness, is that very blindness 
 which keeps them from discerning it : I speak prin- 
 cipally of the defilement of the soul; though indeed 
 the same do pollute the whole conversation : every 
 
104. 
 
 action springing from such an unclean heart, thereby 
 becomes filthy ; even as Moses' hand, put into his 
 bosom, became leprous ; or rather as one that is 
 unclean by a dead body, defileth all that he toucheth, 
 Hag. ii. 13. 
 
 Now, religion is the cleansing of this unclean 
 spirit and conversation; so that, though the soul 
 were formerly as filthy and odious as Augeas' stable, 
 when once those living waters flow into it, and 
 through it, from the pure fountain of grace and holi- 
 ness, the Spirit of our God, one may say of it, as 
 the Apostle of his Corinthians, " Such were some 
 of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified," 
 &c. The soul that before was white as leprosy, is 
 now white as wool, Isa. i. 18. The soul that be- 
 fore was like Moses' hand, leprous as snow, is now 
 like David's heart, white as snow; yea, and whiter 
 too. O what a beauty and glory is upon that godly 
 soul, that shines with the image and brightness of 
 God upon it ! Solomon, in all his glory, was not 
 beautiful like such a soul: nay, I dare say, the splen- 
 dour of the sun, in its greatest strength and altitude, 
 is a miserable glimmering, if it be compared with the 
 day-star of religion, that even in this life arises in 
 the heart ; or, if you will, in the prophet's style, the 
 Sun of Righteousness, which ariseth with healing in 
 his wings, upon them that fear the name of God. 
 To speak without a metaphor, the godly soul, hav- 
 ing entertained in itself the pure effluxes of divine 
 light and love, breathes after nothing more than to 
 see more familiarly, and to love more ardently : its 
 inclinations are pure and holy ; its motions spiritual 
 and powerful ; its delights high and heavenly ; it 
 
105 
 
 may be said to rest in its love ; and yet it may be 
 said, that love will not suffer it to rest, but is still 
 carrying it out into a more intimate union with its 
 beloved object. What is said of the ointment of 
 Christ's name, is true of the water of his Spirit; it 
 is poured forth, " therefore do the virgins love him :" 
 religion begets a chaste and virgin love in the soul 
 towards that blessed God that begot it; it bathes 
 itself in the fountain that produced it; and suns it- 
 self perpetually in the warm beams that first hatched 
 it. Religion issues from God himself, and is ever 
 issuing out towards God alone, passionately breathing 
 with the holy Psalmist, " Whom have 1 in heaven 
 but thee ? In earth there is none that I desire be- 
 side thee !" The soul that formerly may be said to 
 have lain among the pots, by reason of its filthiness, 
 is now as the wings of a dove covered with silver, 
 and her feathers with yellow gold ; the soul that 
 formerly may be said to have sitten down by the 
 flesh-pots of Egypt, in regard of its sensual and 
 earthly loves, being redeemed by the almighty grace 
 of God, is upon its way to the holy land, hastening 
 to a country, not earthly but heavenly. This pure 
 principle being put into the soul, puts it upon holy 
 studies, indites holy meditations, directs it to high 
 and noble ends, and makes all its embraces to be 
 pure and chaste, labouring to compass God himself, 
 which before were adulterous and idolatrous, only 
 free for sin, and self, and the world, to lodge and 
 lie down in. In a word, this offspring of heaven, - 
 this King's daughter, the godly soul, " is all glorious 
 within :" yea, and outwardly too, she is clothed with 
 wrought gold. Her faith within is more precious 
 
 e3 
 
106 
 
 than gold, and her conversation curiously made up 
 of an embroidery of good works, some of piety, some 
 of charity, some of sobriety, but all of purity, shineth 
 with more noble and excellent splendour, than the 
 high priest's garments and breast-plate spangled with 
 such variety of precious stones. This precious oint- 
 ment, this holy unction, as the Apostle calls it, is as 
 diffusive of itself, and ten thousand times more fra- 
 grant, than that of Aaron, so much commended in 
 Psal. cxxxiii. that ran down from his head upon his 
 beard, and from thence upon the skirts of his garment. 
 " Not my feet only, but my hands and my head, 
 Lord," said Peter, not v/ell knowing what he said ; 
 but the soul that is truly sensible of the excellent 
 purity which is caused by divine washings, longs to 
 have the whole man, the whole life also, made par- 
 taker of it, and cries. Lord, not my head only, not 
 my heart only, but my hands and my feet also, make 
 me wholly pure, as God is pure. In a word, then, 
 true religion is the cleansing of the soul, and all the 
 powers of it; so that, whereas murderers sometimes 
 lodged in it, now righteousness ; the den of thieves, 
 thievish lusts and loves, and interests, and ends, 
 which formerly stole away the soul from God, its 
 right owner, is now become a temple fit for the great 
 King to dwell, and live^ and reign in : and the 
 whole conversation is turned from its wonted vanity, 
 worldHness, and iniquity, and is continually em- 
 ployed about things that are " true, honest, just, 
 pure, lovely, and of good report." 
 
 (2.) By the phrase water^ the quenching nature of 
 religion is commended to us. God hath endued the 
 immortal soul with, a restless appetite, and raging 
 
107 
 
 thirst after some chief good, which the heart of 
 every man is continually groping after, and catching 
 at, though indeed few find it, because they seek it 
 where it is not to be found. If we speak properly, 
 it is not gold, or silver, or popular applause, which 
 the covetous or ambitious mind doth ultimately aim 
 at, but some chief good, happiness, sufficiency, and 
 satisfaction in these things; wherein they ar6 more 
 guilty of blasphemy than atheism : for it is clear that 
 they do not deny a supreme good ; for that which 
 men chiefly and ultimately aim at, is their god, be it 
 what it will ; but they do verily blaspheme the true 
 God, when they place their happiness there where 
 it is not to be found, and attribute that fulness and 
 sufficiency to something else besides the living God. 
 Sin hath not destroyed the nature and capacity of 
 the rational soul, but hath diverted the mind frc»m 
 its adequate object, and hath sunk it into the crea- 
 ture, where it wanders hither and thither, like a 
 banished man, from one den and cave to another, 
 but is secure no where. A wicked man, who is 
 loosed from his centre by sin, and departed from 
 the fountain of his life, flies low in his affections, 
 and flutters perpetually about the earth, and earthly 
 objects, but can find no more rest for the foot of his 
 soul, than Noah's dove could find for the sole of 
 her foot. Now, religion is the hand that pulls this 
 wandering bird into her own ark from whence she 
 was departed ; it settles the soul upon its proper 
 centre, and quenches its burning thirst after happi- 
 ness. And for this reason it is called 'water' in 
 Scripture. " The Lord shall satisfy thy soul in 
 drought;" and " I will pour water upon him that is 
 
108 
 
 thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground ;" compared 
 with John vii. 37. " Jesus stood and cried, saying, 
 If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." 
 Reh({ion is a taste of infinite goodness, which 
 quenches the soul's thirst after all other created and 
 finite good ; even as that taste which honest Na- 
 thanael had of Christ's divinity, took him off from 
 the expectation of any Messiah to come, and made 
 him cry out presently, " Rabbi, thou art the Son of 
 God; thou art the King of Israel." And every re- 
 ligious soul hath such a taste of God, even in this 
 life, which, though it do not perfectly fill him, yet 
 doth perfectly assure him where all fulness dwells. 
 But of this I shall have occasion to discourse more 
 largely, when I come to treat of the consequents of 
 true religion. 
 
 2. I proceed, therefore, to the second phrase, 
 whereby our Saviour describes the nature of true 
 religion; it is a well, a fountain in the soul, " Shall 
 be in him a well of water." From which phrase, 
 to waive niceties, I shall only observe, 
 
 " That religion is a principle in the souls of 
 men." 
 
 The water that Christ pours into the soul is not 
 like the water he pours upon our streets, that washes 
 them, and runs away ; but it becomes a cleansing 
 principle within the soul itself; every drop from God 
 becomes a fountain in man; not as a man had a kind 
 of ccvro?^oj'/] in himself, or were the first spring of his 
 own motions towards God: I find not any will in 
 the natural man so divinely free. God hath indeed 
 given this to his natural Son, his only begotten Son, 
 to have '' life in himself," but not to any of his 
 
109 
 
 adopted ones. If you ask me concerning man in 
 his natural capacity, I am so far from thinking that 
 he hath a self-quickening power, a principle of life 
 in himself, that I must needs assert the contrary, 
 with the Apostle, that he is " dead in trespasses and 
 sins ;" so far from thinking that he hath in himself 
 a well of water, that I must call him, with the pro- 
 phet, " thirsty and dry ground." As for the re- 
 generate man, I will not enter into that deep con- 
 troversy concerning the co-operation of man's will 
 with the Spirit of God, and its subordination to that 
 in all gracious acts, or what a kind of cause of them 
 this renewed will of man may be safely called; only 
 1 will affirm, that repenting and believing are pro- 
 perly man's acts, and yet they are performed by 
 God's power; first, Christ must give this water ere 
 it can be a well of water in the soul; which is 
 enough, I suppose, to clear me from siding with 
 either of those parties, whether those that ascribe 
 to God that which he cannot do, or those that 
 ascribe to free-will that which God alone can do. 
 But I fear nothing from these controversies ; for 
 the way wherein I shall discourse of this matter, 
 will nothing at all border upon them. This, then, 
 I affirm, that religion is a living principle in the 
 souls of good men : 1 cannot better describe the 
 nature of religion, than to say it is a nature; for so 
 does the Apostle speak, or at least allows us to 
 speak, when he calls it a participation of a divine 
 nature. Nothing but a nature can partake of a 
 nature; a man's friend may partake of his goodness 
 and kindness, but his child only partakes of his na- 
 ture : he that begets, begets a nature; and so doth 
 
110 
 
 he that begets again. The sun enlightens the 
 world outwardly, but it does not give a sun-like 
 nature to the things so enlightened; and the rain 
 doth moisten the earth, and refresh it inwardly, but 
 it does not beget the nature of water in the earth : 
 *' But this water that I give," says our Saviour, 
 *' becometh a well of water in the soul." Religion 
 is not any thing without a man, hanging upon him, 
 or annexed to him ; neither is it every something 
 that is in a man, as we shall see anon; but it is a 
 divine principle, informing and actuating the souls 
 of good men, a living and lively principle, a free and 
 flowing principle, a strong and lasting principle, an 
 inward and spiritual principle. I must not speak of 
 all these distinctly in this place, for fear of inter- 
 fering in my discourse. When I say religion is a 
 principle, a vital form acting the soul, and all the 
 powers of it, an inward nature, &c. saith not the 
 Scripture the same here, a well or fountain of water? 
 And elsewhere, " a new man, the hidden man of 
 the heart, the inward man." As the soul is called 
 an inward man, respective to the body, 2 Cor. iv. 16. 
 so religion is called an inward man respective to the 
 soul itself, Rom. vii. 22. It is a man within man. 
 The man that is truly alive to God, hath in him 
 not only inward parts, for so a dead man hath, but 
 an inward man, an inward nature and principle. 
 Again, it is called a root. Job xix, 28. or, if not 
 there, yet plainly in Mark iv. 17. where temporary 
 professors are said to have no root in themselves. 
 And this it is, by the same propriety of speech, 
 whereby a wicked principle is called, " A root of 
 bitterness." Again, it is called a seed, the seed of 
 
Ill 
 
 God, 1 John iii. 9. where this seed of God is called 
 an abiding or remaining principle. In the first 
 creation, God made the trees of the earth, having 
 their seed in themselves, and in the new creation, 
 these trees of righteousness of God's planting, are 
 also made with seed in themselves, though not of 
 themselves. It is said to be the seed of God in- 
 deed, but remaining in the godly souL Again, it 
 is called a treasure, in opposition to an alms or 
 annuity, that lasteth but for a day or a year, as a 
 well of water, in opposition to a dish of water: and 
 a treasure of the heart, in opposition to all outward 
 and earthly treasures. It is a treasure affording^ 
 continual-expenses, not exhausted, yea, increased by 
 expenses; wherein it exceeds all treasures in the 
 world. By the same propriety of speech, sin is 
 called a treasure too, but it is an evil treasure, as 
 our Saviour speaks in that same place. Do you 
 not see what a stock of wickedness sinful men have 
 within themselves, which, although they have spent 
 upon ever since they were born, yet it is not im- 
 paired, nay, it is much augmented thereby : and 
 shall not the second Adam bestow something as cer- 
 tain and permanent upon his offspring, as the first 
 Adam conveyed to his posterity ? Though men 
 have something without them, to guide them in the 
 way of life, yet it is som« living principle within 
 them, that denominates them living men. The 
 Scripture will abundantly inform you which is the 
 true circumcision : " In whom also ye are circum- 
 cised with the circumcision made without hands, in 
 putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the 
 circumcision of Christ;" the true sacrifice to Godj. 
 
112 
 
 " The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit : a 
 broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not 
 despise." And indeed the law itself is not so much 
 to be considered as it was engraven in tables of 
 stone, as being written in the heart. The Jews 
 needed not have taken up their rest in the law, con- 
 sidered as an outward rule or precept; for they 
 knew, or might have known, that God requireth 
 '' truth in the inward parts," as one of themselves, 
 a prophet and a king of their own, acknowledgeth. 
 But I doubt many Christians are also sick of the 
 same disease, whilst they view the gospel as a his- 
 tory, and an external dispensation; whereas, the 
 Apostle, when he opposeth it to the law, seems alto- 
 gether to make it an internal thing, a vital form and 
 principle, seated in the minds and spirits of men, 
 2 Cor, iii. The law was an external rule or dis- 
 pensation, that could not give life, though it showed 
 the way to it ; but the gospel, in the most proper 
 notion of it, seems to be an internal impression from 
 God, a living principle, whereby the soul is enabled 
 to express a real conformity to God himself. If we 
 consider the gospel, in the history of it, and as a 
 piece of book-learning, it is as weak and impotent a 
 thing as the law was; and men may be as formal in 
 the profession of this, as they were of that, which 
 we see by daily sad experience. But if we consider 
 the gospel, as an efflux of life and power from God 
 himself upon the soul, producing life wherever it 
 comes, then we have a clear distinction between the 
 law and the gospel ; to which the Apostle seems to 
 refer, when he calls the Corinthians " the epistle of 
 Christ, not written with ink, nor in the tables of 
 
113 
 
 stone, but witli the Spirit of the living God, in 
 fleshly tables of the heart." According to which 
 notion of the law and gospel, I think we may, with 
 a learned man of our own, come to a good under- 
 standing of that controverted text, Jer. xxxi. 33. 
 quoted by the Apostle, Heb. x. 16. " This is the 
 covenant that 1 will make, 1 will put my law into 
 their minds," &c. The gospel doth not so much 
 consist in words as in virtue; a divine principle of 
 religion in the soul, is the best gospel : and so 
 Abraham and Moses, under the law, were truly gos- 
 pellers ; and, on the other hand, all carnal Christians 
 that converse with the gospel, only as a thing with- 
 out them, are as truly legal, and as far short of the 
 righteousness of God, as ever any of the Jews were. 
 
 Thus we see that religion is a principle in the 
 souls of good men^ — " Shall be in him a well of 
 water." 
 
 We shall now take notice of the difference be- 
 tween the true and all counterfeit religions. Reli- 
 gion is that pearl of great price, which few men are 
 possessed of, though all men pretend to it, Laodi- 
 cean-like, saying, they are rich, and need nothing, 
 when indeed they are poor, and have nothing. 
 This, then, shall be the test by which, at present, 
 we will a little try the counterfeit pearls. True 
 religion is an inward nature, an inward and abiding 
 principle in the minds of good men, " a well of 
 water." 
 
 (1.) Then, we must exclude all things that are 
 merely external; these are not it. Religion is not 
 something annexed to the soul from without, but a 
 new nature put into it. And here we shall glance 
 at two things. 
 
114 
 
 1st, A godly soul does not find the whole of his 
 business lying without him. Religion does not 
 consist in external reformations, though ever so 
 many and specious. A false and overly religion 
 may serve to tie men's hands, and reduce their out- 
 ward actions to a fair seemliness in the eyes of men : 
 but true religion's main dominion and power is over 
 the soul, and its business lies mostly in reforming 
 and purging the heart, with all the affections and 
 motions thereof. It is not a battering-ram coming 
 from without, and serving to beat down the out- 
 works of open and visible enormities of life; but 
 enters with a secret and sweet power into the soul 
 itself, and reduces it from its rebellious temper, and 
 persuades it willingly to surrender itself, and all that 
 is in it. Sin may be beaten out of the outward 
 conversation, and yet retire and hide itself in the 
 secret places of the soul, and there bear rule as per- 
 fectly by wicked loves and lusts, as ever it did by 
 profane and notorious practices. A man's hands 
 may be tied by some external cords cast upon them, 
 from visible revenge, and yet murderers may lodge 
 in the temple of his heart, as murderers lodged in 
 the temple of old ; men's tongues may be tied up 
 from the foul sin of giving fair words concerning 
 themselves; very shame may chastise them out of 
 proud boastings, and self-exaltings, when, in the 
 mean time, they swell in self-conceit, and are not 
 afraid to bear an unchaste and sinful love towards 
 their own perfections, and adore an image of self set 
 up in their hearts. What a fair outside the Pha- 
 risee had, himself will best describe ; for indeed it is 
 one of his properties to describe himself, Luke xviii. 
 
115 
 
 " God, I thank thee, that I am not,'* &c. But, if you 
 will have a draught of his inside, you may best take 
 it from our Saviour, Matth. xxiii. Neither doth re- 
 ligion consist in external performances, though ever 
 so many, and seemingly spiritual. Many professors 
 of Christianity, I doubt, sink all their religion into 
 a constant course of duties, and a model of perfor- 
 mances, being mere strangers to the life, and 
 strength, and sweetness of true religion. Those 
 things are needful, and useful, and helpful, yea, and 
 honourable, because they have a relation and some 
 tendency to God; but they are apt to become snares 
 and idols to superstitious minds, who conceive that 
 God is some way gratified by these; and so they 
 take up their rest in them. That religion, that 
 only varnishes and beautifies the outside, tunes the 
 tongue to prayer and conference, instructs and ex- 
 tends the hands to diligence and alms-deeds, that 
 awes the conversation into some external righteous- 
 ness or devotion, is here excluded, as also by the 
 Apostle, ] Cor. xiii. Much less can that pass for 
 religion, that spends itself about forms, and opinions, 
 and parties, and many disputable points, which we 
 have seen so much of in our own generation. The 
 religion that runs upon modes, and turns upon in- 
 terests, as a door turns upon its hinges, is a poor, 
 narrow, scanty thing, and may easily view itself at 
 once, altogether from first to last. Men may be 
 as far from the kingdom of heaven in their more 
 spiritual forms, and orthodox opinions, as they were 
 in their more carnal and erroneous ones, if they take 
 up their rest in them ; neither is it the pursuing of 
 any interest that will denominate them religious^ but 
 the grand interest of their souls. 
 
116 
 
 Sd, A godly soul, in his more inward and spiri- 
 tual acts, hath not his motive without him : for a 
 man may be somewhat inward in his motions, and 
 yet as outward in his motives as the former. Reli- 
 gious acts, and gracious motions, are not originally 
 and primarily caused by some weights hung upon 
 the soul, either by God or men, neither by the 
 worldly blessings which God gives, nor the heavy 
 afflictions which he sends. The wings, by which 
 the godly soul flies out towards God, are not waxed 
 to him, as the poets feign Icarus's to have been ; 
 but they grow out of himself, as the wings of an 
 eagle that flies swiftly towards heaven : on the other 
 hand, a soul may be pressed down into humiliation, 
 under the heavy weight of God's judgments, that 
 has no mind to stoop, no self-denying or self-debas- 
 ing disposition in it. Thus you may see Jehu 
 flying upon the wings of ambition and revenge, borne 
 up by successes in his government; and his prede- 
 cessor Ahab bowing down mournfully under a heavy 
 sentence. The laws, and penalties, and encourage- 
 ments, and observations of men, do sometimes put 
 a weight upon the soul too, but they beget a more 
 sluggish, uneven, and unkindly motion in it. You 
 may expect, that under this head I should speak 
 something of heaven and hell; and truly so 1 may 
 pertinently, for I think they do belong to this place. 
 If you take heaven, properly, for a full and glorious 
 union to God, and fruition of him, and hell for an 
 eternal separation and straggling from the divinity; 
 and suppose that the love of God, and the fear of 
 Jiving without him, be well drunk into the soul, 
 then, verily, these are pure and religious principles : 
 
117 
 
 but if we view them as things merely without us, 
 and reserved for us, and under those common, carnal 
 notions of delectableness and dreadfuhiess, they are 
 no higher nor better motives to us, than the carnal 
 Jews had in the wilderness, when they turned their 
 back upon Egypt, where they had been in bondage, 
 and set their faces towards Canaan, where they 
 hoped to find milk and honey, peace, plenty, and 
 liberty. A soul is not carried to heaven, as a body 
 is carried to the grave, upon men's shoulders ; it is 
 not borne up by props, whether human or divine; 
 nor carried to God in a chariot, as a man is carried 
 to see his friend; the holy fire of ardent love, 
 wherein the soul of Elijah had been long carried up 
 towards God, was something more excellent, and 
 indeed more desirable, than the fiery chariot by 
 which his body and soul were translated together. 
 Religion is a spring of motion which God hath put 
 into the soul itself. 
 
 And as all things that are external, whether ac- 
 tions or motives, are excluded in this examination, 
 which we make of religion ; so neither, 
 
 (2.) Must we allovv of every thing that is internal, 
 to be religion. And, therefore. 
 
 First, It is not a fit, a start, a sudden passion of 
 the mind, caused by the power and strength of some 
 present conviction in the soul, which, in a hot mood, 
 will needs go out after God in all haste. This may 
 fitly be compared to the rash and rude motion of the 
 host of Israel, who, being chidden for their slothful- 
 ness over night, rose up early in the morning, and 
 gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, 
 " Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place 
 
118 
 
 which the Lord hath promised : for we have sinned." 
 And, indeed, it fares with these men oftentimes as it 
 did with those, both as to the undertaking, and as to 
 the success ; their motion is as sinful as their sta- 
 tion ; and their success is answerable, they are driven 
 back and discomfited in their enterprise. Nay, 
 though this passion might arise so high, as to be 
 called an ecstacy or a rapture, yet it deserves not the 
 name of religion: " For religion is," as one speaks 
 elegantly, "like the natural heat that is radicated in 
 the hearts of living creatures, which hath the domi- 
 nion of the whole body, and sends forth warm blood 
 and spirits, and vital nourishment into every part and 
 member ; it regulates and orders the motions of it in 
 a due and even manner." But these ecstatical souls, 
 though they may blaze like a comet, and swell like 
 a torrent or land-flood for a time, and shoot forth 
 fresh and high for a little season, are soon extin- 
 guished, emptied, and dried up, because they have 
 not a principle, a stock to spend upon, or, as our 
 Saviour speaks, no root in themselves. These men's 
 motions and actions bear no more proportion to re- 
 ligion, than a land-flood, that swells high and runs 
 swiftly, but it is only during the rain ; or, in the 
 Scripture phrase, no more than a morning dew, that 
 soon passes away, is like a well or fountain of water. 
 Second, If religion be a principle, a new nature in 
 the soul, then it is not a mere mechanism, a piece of 
 art. Art imitates nature; nothing more ordinary, 
 I fear, than for religion itself, that new nature, to 
 go into an art. I need not tell you how all the ex- 
 ternal acts and shootings forth of religion, may be 
 tlissembled and imitated by art, and be acted over by 
 
119 
 
 a mimical, apish Pharisee, who finds nothing at all 
 of tlie gentle and mighty heat, nor the divine and 
 noble life of it in his own soul, whereby he may 
 fairly deceive the credulous world, as I have partly 
 hinted already. But it is possible, I wish it be not 
 common, for men that are somewhat more convinced, 
 enlightened, and affected, to imitate the very power 
 and spirit of religion, and to deceive themselves too, 
 as if they possessed some true living principle ; and 
 herein they exceed the most exquisite painters. 
 Now, this may be done by the power of a quick and 
 raised fancy; men hearing such glorious things 
 spoken of heaven, the city of the great King, the 
 new Jerusalem, may be carried out by the power of 
 self-love, to wish themselves there, being mightily 
 taken with a conceit of the place. But how shall 
 they come at it ? Why, they have seen in bboks, 
 and heard in discourses, of certain signs of grace, 
 and evidences of salvation ; and now they set their 
 fancies on work, to find or make some such things in 
 themselves. Fancy is well acquainted with the 
 several affections of love, fear, joy, grief, which are 
 in the soul, and having a great command over the 
 animal spirits, it can send them forth to raise up 
 these affections, even almost when it listeth ; and 
 when it hath raised them, it is but putting to some 
 thoughts of God and heaven, and then these look 
 like a handsome platform of true religion drawn in 
 the soul, which they presently view, and fall in love 
 with, and think they do even taste of the powers of 
 the world to come, when indeed it is nothing but a 
 self-fulness and sufficiency that they feed upon. 
 Now, you may know this artificial religion by this ; 
 
these men can vary it, alter it, enlarge it, straiten it, 
 and new-mould it at pleasure, according to what 
 they see in others, or according to what themselves 
 like best; one while acting over the joy and confi- 
 dence Of some Christians, anon the humiliation and 
 brokenness of others. But this fanciful religion, 
 proceeding indeed from nothing but low and carnal 
 conceits of God and heaven, is of a flitting and 
 vanishing nature. But true Christians are gently, 
 yet powerfully, moved by the natural force of true 
 goodness, and the beauty of God, and do move on 
 steadily and constantly in their way to him, and pur- 
 suit of him. The spirit of regeneration in good 
 men spreads itself upon the understanding, and sweet- 
 ly insinuates itself through the will and affections, 
 which makes true religion to be a consistent and 
 thriving principle in the soul, as not being acted 
 upon the stage of imagination, but upon the highest 
 powers of the soul itself, and may be discerned by 
 the evenness of its motions, and the immortality of 
 its nature ; for a good man, though indeed he can- 
 not go on always with like speed and cheerfulness in 
 his way, yet he is not willing at any time to be quite 
 out of it. 
 
 By this same nature of true religion you may ex- 
 amine all those spurious and counterfeit religions, 
 that spring from a natural belief of a Deity, from 
 convictions, observations, fleshly and low apprehen- 
 sions of heaven, book-learning, and the precepts of 
 men, as the prophet calls them, and the rest, which 
 are seated in the fancy, and swim in the brain ; 
 whose effect is but to gild the outward man, or, at 
 best, but to move the soul by an external force, in 
 
121 
 
 an unnatural, inconstant, and transient manner. In 
 a word, all these pretenders to religion may seem to 
 have water, but they have no well ; as there are 
 others, deep men, principled indeed with learning, 
 policy, ingenuity, &c. but not with true goodness, 
 whom the Apostle calls " wells," but *' without wa- 
 ter." But the truly godly, and godlike soul, hath 
 in itself a principle of pure religion. — " The water 
 that I shall give him, shall be a well of water 
 springing up into eternal life." 
 
 38 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 Containing the Jirst 'propertij mentioned of true religion y 
 namely y Thefreenessandunconstrainednessofit. This 
 freedom considered ai to its Author ; in tvhich is con- 
 sidered hotv far the comvumd of God may be said to 
 act a godly soid. Secondly, Considered as to its object. 
 Tivo cautionary concessions : 1. Th.at some things zvith- 
 oiit the sold may be said to be motives. 2. That there 
 is a constraint lying upon the godly soul ; xvhich yet 
 takes not atvay its freedom. 
 
 I PROCEED now, from the nature of religion, to 
 speak of the properties or it, as many of them as are 
 couched under this phrase, " springing up into ever- 
 lasting life.'* Not to press the phrase any further 
 than it will naturally afford discourse, Ish.all only take 
 notice of these three properties of true religion, con- 
 tained in the Word, "springing up," namely, the free- 
 ness, activity, and permanency, or perseverance of it. 
 
 The first property of it, couched under this phrase, 
 is, that it is free and unconstrained. Religion is a 
 principle, and it flows and acts freely in the soul, 
 after the manner of a fountain ; and, in the day of 
 its mighty power, makes the people a willing people, 
 and the soul, in whom it is truly seated, to become 
 a free-will offering unto God. Alexander the Great 
 subdued the world with force of arms, and made men 
 rather his tributaries and servants, than his lovers 
 and friends : but the great God, the king of souls, 
 obtains an amicable conquest over the hearts of his 
 elect, and overpowers them in such a manner, that 
 
123 
 
 they love to be his servants, and do wilHngly and 
 readily obey him, without dissimulation or constraint, 
 without mercenariness or morosity : in which they 
 are unlike to the subjects of the kingdoms of the 
 world, who are kept in their duties by fear and 
 force, not from a pure kindness and benevolence of 
 mind, to whom the present yoke is always grievous. 
 Hence it is that the propagation of this people is 
 called their flowing unto the Lord, " The mountain 
 of the Lord's house shall be established, and all na- 
 tions shall flow unto it;" and, again, " They shall 
 flow together to the goodness of the Lord," And 
 the disposition of this people is described to be a 
 hearty and willing frame, Eph. vi. 6, 7. and else- 
 where. Now, this willingness or freeness of godly 
 souls might be explained and confirmed by the con- 
 sideration both of their outward and inward acts. 
 
 L As to the outward acts of service which the 
 true Christian performs, he is freely carried out to- 
 wards them, without any constraint or force. If he 
 keep himself from the evils of the place, and age, 
 and company, wherein he lives and converses, it is 
 not by a restraint, which is upon him merely from 
 without him, but by a principle of holy temperance 
 planted in his soul : it is the seed of God abiding in 
 him, that preserves him from the commission of sin. 
 He is not kept back from sin as a horse by a bridle, 
 but by an inward and spiritual change made in his 
 nature. On the other hand, if he employ himself 
 in any external acts of moral or instituted duty, he 
 does it freely, not as of necessity, or by constraint. 
 If you speak of acts of charity, the godly man gives 
 from a principle of love to God, and kindness to his 
 
 F 2 
 
124 
 
 brother; and so cheerfully, "not grudgingly, or of 
 necessity." An alms may be wrung out of a miser, 
 but it proceeds from the liberal soul, as a stream 
 from its fountain : therefore he is called a deviser of 
 liberal things, and one that standeth upon liberali- 
 ties, as those last words of Isa. xxxii. 8. are rendered 
 by the Dutch translators. If you speak of righte- 
 ousness or temperance, he is not overruled by power, 
 or compelled by laws, but indeed actuated by the 
 power of that law which is written and engraven 
 upon his mind. If you speak of acts of worship, 
 whether moral or instituted, in all these he is also 
 free, as to any constraint. Prayer is not his task, 
 or a piece of penance, but it is the natural cry of the 
 new-born soul ; neither does he take it up as a piece 
 of policy, to bribe God's justice, or engage men's 
 charity, to purchase favour with God or man, or his 
 own clamorous conscience : but he prays, because he 
 wants, and loves, and believes ; he wants the fuller 
 presence of that God whom he loves ; he loves the 
 presence which he wants ; he believes that He that 
 loves him, will not suffer him to want any good thing 
 that he prays for. And therefore he does not bind 
 up himself severely, and limit himself penuriously to 
 a mornuig and evening sacrifice and solemnity, as to 
 certain rent-seasons, wherein to pay a homage of 
 dry devotion ; but his loving and longing soul, dis- 
 daining to be confined within canonical hours, is fre- 
 quently soaring in some heavenly raptures or other, 
 and sallying forth in holy ejaculations : he is not 
 content vvith some weak essays towards heaven, in 
 set and formal prayer, once or twice a-day, but 
 labours also to be all the day long drawing in those 
 
125 
 
 divine influences, and streams of grace, by the mouth 
 of faith, which he begged in the morning by the 
 tongue of prayer ; which hath made me sometimes 
 think it a proper speech to say, the faith of prayer, 
 as well as the prayer of faith; for believing, and 
 hanging upon divine grace, doth really drink in what 
 prayer opens its mouth for, and is, in effect, a power- 
 ful kind of praying in silence : by believing we pray, 
 as well as in praying we do believe. A truly godly 
 man hath not his hands tied up merely by the force 
 of a national law, no, nor yet by the authority of the 
 fourth commandment, to keep one in seven a day of 
 rest ; as he is not content with mere resting upon 
 the Sabbath, knowing that neither working, nor 
 ceasing from work, doth of itself commend a soul to 
 God, but doth press after intimacy with God in the 
 duties of his worship ; so neither can he be content 
 with one Sabbath in a week, nor think himself ab- 
 solved from holy and heavenly meditations any day 
 in the week ; but labours to make every day a Sab- 
 bath, as to the keeping of his heart up unto God in 
 a holy frame, and to find every day to be a Sabbath, 
 as to the communications of God unto his soul : 
 though the necessities of his body will not allow him, 
 it may be, though indeed God hath granted this to 
 some men, to keep every day as a Sabbath of rest ; 
 yet the necessities of his soul do call upon him, to 
 make every day, as far as may be, a Sabbath of 
 communion with the blessed God. If you speak of 
 fasting, he keeps not fasts merely by virtue of a 
 civil, no, nor a divine institution; but, from a principle 
 of godly sorrow, afflicts his soul for sin, and daily 
 endeavours more and more to be emptied of himself. 
 
U6 
 
 which is the most excellent fasting in the world. If 
 you speak of thanksgiving, he does not give thanks 
 by laws and ordinances, but having in himself a law 
 of tuaukfulness, and an ordinance of love engraven 
 upon, and deeply radicated in his soul, delights to 
 live unto God, and to make his heart and life a liv- 
 ing descant upon the goodness and love of God ; 
 which is the most divine way of thank-offering in 
 the world ; it is the hallelujah which the angels 
 sing continually. In a word, wherever God hath 
 a tongue to command, true godliness will find a 
 hand to perform ; whatever yoke Jesus Christ 
 shall put upon the soul, religion will enable to bear 
 it, yea, and to count it easy too ; the mouth of 
 Christ hath pronounced it easy, and the Spirit of 
 Christ makes it easy. Let the commandment be 
 what it will, it will not be grievous. The same spirit 
 doth, in some measure, dwell in every Christian, 
 which, without measure, dwelt in Christ, who counted 
 it " his meat and drink to do the will of his Father." 
 2. And more especially, the true Christian is free 
 from any constraint as to the inward acts which he 
 performeth. Holy love to God is one principal act 
 of the gracious soul, whereby it is carried out freely, 
 and with an ardent love towards the object that is 
 truly and infinitely lovely and satisfactory, and to the 
 enjoyment of it. I know, indeed, that this springs 
 from self-indigency, and is commanded by the sove- 
 reignty of the supreme good, the object that the soul 
 eyes : but it is properly free from any constraint. 
 JLove is an affection, that cannot be extorted as fear 
 is ; nor forced by any external power, nor indeed 
 internal neither : the revenues of the king of Per- 
 
127 
 
 sia, or the treasures of Egypt, cannot commit a rape 
 upon it; neither, indeed, can the soul itself raise and 
 lay this spirit at pleasure. 
 
 Though the outward bodily acts of religion are 
 ordinarily forced, yet this pure, chaste, virgin affec- 
 tion cannot be ravished ; it seems to be a kind of a 
 peculiar in the soul, though under the jurisdiction of 
 the understanding. By this property of it, it is 
 elegantly described by the Spirit of God : *' If a man 
 would give all the substance of his house for love, it 
 would utterly be contemned." It cannot be bought 
 with money, or money-worth, cannot be purchased 
 with gifts or arts ; and if any should offer to bribe 
 it, it would give him a sharp and scornful check, 
 in the language of Peter to Simon, " Thy money 
 perish with thee;" love is no hireling, no base- 
 born, mercenary alrection, but noble, free, and 
 generous. Neither is it lovv-spirited and slavish as 
 fear is : therefore, when it comes to full age, it will 
 not suffer this son of the bondwoman to divide the 
 inheritance, the dominions of the soul, with it ; 
 when it comes to be " perfect, it casteth out fear," 
 says the Apostle. Neither, indeed, is it directly 
 under the authority of any law, whether human or 
 divine : it is not begotten by the influence of a di- 
 vine law, as a law, but as holy, just, and good, as 
 we shall see anon : qiiis legem dat amantihus ? ipse 
 est sibi lex amor : the law of love ; or, if you will, 
 in the Apostle's phrase, "the spirit of love, and of 
 power," in opposition to the spirit of fear, doth more 
 influence the godly man in his pursuit of God than 
 any law without him : this is as a wing to the soul ; 
 whereas outward commandments are but as guides in 
 his way ; or, at most, but as spurs in his sides. 
 
128 
 
 The same I may say of holy delight in God, 
 which is indeed the flower of love, or love grown up 
 to its full age and stature, which hath no torment in 
 it, and consequently no force upon it. Like unto 
 which are holy confidence, faith and hope, ingenu- 
 ous and natural acts of the religious soul, whereby it 
 hastens into the divine embraces, "as the eagle 
 hasteneth to the prey," swiftly and speedily, and not 
 by force and constraint, " as a fool to the correction 
 of the stocks," or a bear to the stake. These are 
 all genuine offsprings of holy religion in the soul, 
 and they are utterly incapable of force; violence is 
 contrary to the nature of them ; for, to use the 
 Apostle's words, with the change of one word, 
 " Hope that is forced, is not hope." 
 
 Now, a little farther to explain this excellent pro- 
 perty of true religion, we may a little consider the 
 author, and the object of it. 
 
 The author of this noble and free principle is 
 
 God himself, who hath made it a partaker of his 
 
 own nature, who is the free agent ; himself is the 
 
 fountain of his own acts. The uncreated life and 
 
 liberty hath given this privilege to the religious soul, 
 
 in some sense, to have life and liberty in itself, and 
 
 a dominion over its own acts. I do not know that 
 
 any created being in the world hath more of divinity 
 
 in it than the soul of man, qua nihil Jiomini dedit 
 
 Deus ipse diviniiis^ as Tully speaks ; nor that any 
 
 thino- in the soul doth more resemble the divine es- 
 o 
 
 sence, than the noble freedom that the soul hath in 
 itself; which freedom is never so divine and gener- 
 ous, as when it is placed upon God himself. This 
 excellent freedom is something of God in the soul of 
 
129 
 
 man, and therefore may justly claim the free Spirit 
 for its author, Psal. li. 12. 2 Cor. iii. IT. or the 
 Son of God for its oricrinal, accordinop to that in John 
 viii. 36. " If the Son shall make you free, then shall 
 ye be free indeed." 
 
 But here it may be demanded, whether the com- 
 mand of God doth not move the godly soul, and set 
 it upon its holy motions? I confess indeed that the 
 command of God is much eyed by a godly man, and 
 is of great weight with him, and does in some sense 
 lay a constraint upon him ; but yet I think not so 
 much the authority of the law, as the reasonableness 
 and goodness of it, does prevail principally with him. 
 The religious soul does not so much eye the law 
 under the notion of a command, as under the notion 
 of holy, just and good, as the Apostle speaks, and 
 so embraces it, chooses it, and longs to be perfectly 
 conformable to it. 1 do not think it so proper to 
 say that a good man loves God, and all righteous- 
 ness and holiness, and religious duties, by virtue of 
 a command to do so, as by virtue of a new nature 
 that God hath put into him, which doth instruct 
 and prompt him so to do. A religious soul being 
 reconciled to the nature of God, embraces all his 
 laws by virtue of the equitableness and perfection 
 that he sees in them; not because they are com- 
 manded, but because they are in themselves to be 
 desired, as David speaks : " More to be desired 
 are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter 
 also than honey, and the honey-comb." In which 
 Psalm the holy man gives us a full account why he 
 did so love and esteem the laws and commandments 
 of God, namely, because they are perfect, right, 
 
 f3 
 
130 
 
 pure, clean, true, sweet, and lovely. To love the 
 Lord our God with all our heart, and strength, and 
 mind, is not only a duty, by virtue of that first 
 and great commandment that doth require it; but 
 indeed the highest privilege, honour, and happiness 
 of the soul. To this purpose may that profession 
 of the Psalmist's be applied, *' I have chosen thy 
 precepts;" . and " I have chosen the way of truth." 
 Choosing is an act of judgment and understanding, 
 and respects the quality of the thing, more than the 
 authority of the command. David did not stumble 
 into the way of truth accidentally, by virtue of his 
 education, or acquaintance, or the like circumstance; 
 nor was he whipped or driven into it by the mere 
 severity of a law without him; but he chose the way 
 of truth, as that which was indeed most eligible, 
 pleasant, and desirable. What our blessed Saviour 
 says concerning himself, is also true of every Chris- 
 tian in his measure; he makes it his meat and drink 
 to do tlie will of God. Now, we know that men 
 do not eat and drink, because physicians prescribe it 
 as a means to preserve life; but the sensual appetite 
 is carried out towards food, because it is good, sweet, 
 suitable: so is the spiritual appetite carried out to- 
 wards spiritual food, not so much by the force of an 
 external precept, as by the attractive power of that 
 higher i)[oad which it finds suitable and sufficient for 
 it. As for the object of this free and generous 
 spirit of religion, it is no other than God himself 
 principally and ultimately, and other things only, as 
 they are subservient to the enjoyment of him. God, 
 as the supreme good, able to fill, and perfectly satisfy 
 all the wants and indigencies of the soul, and so to 
 
131 
 
 make it wholly and eternally happy, is the proper 
 object of the soul's most free and cheerful motions. 
 The soul eyes God as the perfect and absolute good, 
 and God in Christ as a feasible and attainable good, 
 and so finds every way enough in this object, to en- 
 courage it to pursue after him, and throw himself 
 upon him. ReHgion fixes upon God, as upon its 
 own centre, as upon its proper and adequate object; 
 it views God as the infinite and absolute good, and 
 so is drawn to him without any external force. The 
 godly soul is overpowered indeed, but it is only with 
 the infinite goodness of God, which exercises its 
 sovereignty over all the faculties of the soul ; which 
 overpowering is so far from straitening or pinching it, 
 that it makes it truly free and generous-in its motions. 
 Religion wings the soul, and makes it take a flight 
 freely and swiftly towards God and eternal life : it 
 is of God, and by a sympathy that it hath with him, 
 it carries the soul out after him, and into conjunc- 
 tion with him. In a word, the godly soul being 
 loosed from self-love, emptied of self-fulness, beaten 
 out of all self-satisfaction, and delivered from all 
 self-confining lusts, wills, interests, and ends, and 
 being mightily overcome with a sense of a higher 
 and more excellent good, goes after that freely, 
 centres upon it firmly, grasps after it continually, 
 and had rather be that, than what itself is, as seeing 
 that the nature of that supreme good is infinitely 
 more excellent and desirable than its own. 
 
 Thus have I briefly explained and confirmed the 
 freeness of this principle in the truly godly soul: I 
 would now make some little improvement of it, but 
 that it seems needful I should here interweave a 
 cautionary concession or two. 
 
13^ 
 
 1. It must be granted, that some things without 
 the soul may be motives, in our common sense, and 
 encouragements to the soul to quicken, and hasten, 
 and strengthen it in its rehgious acts. Though 
 grace be an internal principle, and most free from 
 any constraint, yet it may be excited, or stirred up, 
 as the Apostle speaks, 2 Tim. i. 6. by such means 
 as God hath appointed hereunto, as prayer, medita- 
 tion, reading, administration of our callings, as the 
 Apostle intimates in the body of that fore-quoted 
 epistle. But perhaps there will a question arise 
 concerning some other things, which may seem to 
 lay a constraint upon the spirits of men. I deny 
 not but that the seemingly religious motions of many 
 men are merely violent, and their devotion is purely 
 forced as we shall see by and by: but I affirm, and 
 I think have confirmed it, that true and sincere re- 
 ligion is perfectly free and unconstrained. This 
 being premised, now, if you ask me, what I think 
 of afflictions; I confess God doth ordinarily use them 
 as means to make good men better, and it may be 
 sometimes to make bad men good : these may be as 
 weights to hasten and speed the soul's motions to- 
 wards God, but they do not principally beget such 
 motions. If you ask me of temporal prosperity, 
 commonly called mercies and blessings, of promises 
 and rewards propounded ; I confess they may be as 
 oil to the wheels, and ought to quicken and encourage 
 to the study of true and powerful godliness; but they 
 are not the spring of the soul's motions; they ought 
 to be unto us, as dew upon the grass, to refresh and 
 fructify the soul; but it is the root which properly 
 gives life and growth. 
 
133 
 
 2. It may be granted, that there is a kind of 
 constraint and necessity lying upon the godly soul, 
 in its holy and most excellent motions ; according to 
 that of the Apostle, " The love of Christ constrain- 
 eth us ;" and again, " Necessity is laid upon me to 
 preach the gospel.'^ But yet it holds good, that 
 grace is a most free principle in the soul, and that 
 where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 
 For the constraint that the Apostle speaks of is not 
 opposed to freedom of soul, but to not acting; now, 
 although the soul, so principled and spirited, cannot 
 but act, yet it acts freely. Those things that are 
 according to nature, though they be done necessari- 
 ly, yet are they done with the greatest freedom 
 imaginable. The water flows, and the fire burns 
 necessarily, yet freely. Religion is a new nature 
 in the soul ; and the religious soul being touched 
 effectually with the sense, and impressed with the 
 influences of divine goodness, fulness, and perfection, 
 is carried indeed necessarily towards God, as its pro- 
 per centre, and yet its motions are pure, free, gener- 
 ous, and with the greatest delight and pleasure con- 
 ceivable. The necessity that lay upon Paul to 
 preach the gospel, is not to be understood of any 
 external violence that was done to him, much less of 
 bodily necessity, by reason of which many men serve 
 their own bellies in that great function, more than 
 the Lord Jesus ; for though he preached the gospel 
 necessarily, yet did he preach freely and willingly, as 
 he oft professeth. The godly soul cannot but love 
 God as his chiefest good, yet he delights in this ne- 
 cessity, under which he lieth, and is exceeding glad 
 that he finds his heart framed and enlarged to love 
 
134 
 
 him. I say enlarged, because God is such an ob- 
 ject, as does not contract, and pinch, and straiten the 
 soul, as all created objects do, but ennoble, ampliate, 
 and enlarge it. The sinful soul, the more it lets out, 
 and lays out, and spends itselfupon the creature, the 
 more it is straitened and contracted, and the native 
 freedom of it is enslaved, debased, and destroyed : 
 but grace does establish and ennoble the freedom of 
 the soul, and restore it to its primitive perfection : so 
 that a godly soul is never more large, more at rest, 
 more at liberty, than when it finds itself delivered 
 from all self-confining creature-loves and lusts, and 
 under the most powerful influences and constraint of 
 infinite love and goodness. 
 
 By this that hath been said of the free and gener- 
 ous spirit of true religion, we may learn what to 
 think of the forced devotion of many pressed soldiers 
 of Christ in his church militant ; that there is a vast 
 difference and distance between the pressed, and the 
 impressed Christian. Though indeed the freedom 
 of the will cannot be destroyed, yet, in opposition 
 to a principle, many men's devotion may be said to 
 be wrung out of them, and their obedience may be 
 said to be constrained. I shall explain it briefly in 
 two or three particulars. 
 
 1. Men force themselves, many times, to some 
 things in religion, that are besides, yea, and against, 
 their nature and genius. I need not instance in an 
 overly conformity to the letter of the law, and some 
 external duties which they force themselves to per- 
 form, as to hear, pray, to give alms, or the like : in 
 all which the violent and unnatural obedience of the 
 Pharisee may be more popular and specious, than 
 
135 
 
 the true and genuine obedience of a free-born dis- 
 ciple of Jesus Christ. If going on hunting, and 
 catching of venison Piigbt denominate a good and 
 dutiful son, Esau may indeed be as acceptable to his 
 father as Jacob ; but God is not such a father as 
 Isaac, whose affections were bribed with fat morsels, 
 he feeds not upon the pains of his children, nor 
 drinks the sweat of their brows. I doubt not but 
 that an unprincipled Christian, that hath the heart 
 of a slave, may also force himself to imitate the more 
 spiritual part of religion, and, as it were, to act over 
 the very temper and disposition of a son of God. 
 Therefore we read of a semblance of joy and zeal, 
 which was found in some, whom yet our Saviour 
 reckons no better than " stony ground ;" and of 
 great ecstacies in some, whom yet the Apostle sup- 
 poses may come to nothing, Heb. vi. and what ap- 
 pearance of the most excellent and divine graces of 
 patience, and contempt of the world, many of the 
 sourer sort of monastical Papists, and our mongrel 
 breed of Papists, the Quakers, do make at this day, 
 all men know : nay, some of these last sort do seem 
 to themselves, I believe, to act over the temper and 
 experiences of the chiefest Apostles, rejoicing with 
 Peter, and the rest, that they are " counted worthy 
 to suffer shame," and keeping a catalogue of their 
 stripes with Paul ; and in these things, I am confi- 
 dent, to use the Apostle's words, that they think 
 themselves " not a whit behind the very chiefest 
 Apostles :" nay, they are not ashamed to lay claim 
 to that grace of graces, self-denial, which they have 
 forced themselves to act over so artificially, that even 
 a wise man might almost be deceived into a favour- 
 
136 
 
 able opinion of them, but that we know that whilst 
 they profess it, they destroy it ; for it is contrary to 
 the nature of self-denial, to magnify and boast itself: 
 and indeed it is very evident to a wise observer, that 
 these men, by a pretence of voluntary humility, and 
 counterfeit self-denial, do, in truth, endeavour most 
 of all to establish, their own righteousness, and erect 
 an idol of self-supremacy in themselves, and do really 
 fall in love with an avrapzsioc^ or self-sufficiency, in- 
 stead of the infinite fulness of God. 
 
 Now, there seem to be three things in a formal 
 hypocrite, that do especially force a kind of devotion, 
 and" show of religion from him, namely, conscience 
 of guilt, self-love, and false apprehensions of God. 
 First, There is in all men a natural conscience of 
 guilt, arising from that imperfect and glimmering 
 light they have of God, and of their duty towards 
 him ; which, though it be in some men more quick 
 and stinging, in others more remiss and languid, yea, 
 I think, is not utterly choked and extinguished, no, 
 not in the worst and most dissolute men, but that it 
 sometimes begets a bitter sadness in the midst of 
 their sweetest merriments, and disturbs their most 
 supine and secure rest, by fastening its stings in their 
 very souls at some time or other, and filling them 
 with agonies and anguish, and haunting them with 
 dreadful apparitions, which they cannot be perfectly 
 rid of, no more than they can run away from them- 
 selves. This foundation of hell is laid in the bowels 
 of sin itself, as a preface of eternal horror. Now, 
 although some more profligate and desperate wretches 
 do furiously bluster through these briars, yet others 
 are so caught in them, that they cannot escape these 
 
137 
 
 pangs and throes, except they make a composition, 
 and enter into terms to live more honestly, or, at 
 least, less scandalously. In which undertaking, 
 they are carried on, in the next place, by the power 
 of self-love, or a natural desire of self-preservation : 
 for the worst of men hath so much reason left him, 
 that he could wish that himself were happy, though 
 he have not so much light as to discover, nor so 
 much true freedom of will as to choose, the right 
 way of happiness. Conscience having discovered 
 the certain reward and wages of sin, self-love will 
 easily prompt men to do something or other to 
 escape it. But now, what shall they do ? why, re- 
 ligion is the only expedient that can be found out; 
 and therefore they begin to think how they may be- 
 come friends with God ; they will up and be doing. 
 But how come they to run into so great a mistake 
 about religion ? why, their false and gross appre- 
 hensions of God drive them from him, in the 
 way of superstition and hypocrisy, instead of leading 
 them in the way of sincere love, and self-resignation 
 to him. Self being the great Diana of every na- 
 tural man, and the only standard by which he mea- 
 sures all things, he knows not how to judge of God 
 himself, but by this; and so he comes to fancy God 
 in a dreadful manner, as an austere, passionate, 
 surly, revengeful majesty ; and so something must 
 be done to appease him : but yet he fancies this 
 angry deity to be of an impotent, mercenary temper 
 like himself, and not hard to be appeased neither ; 
 and so imagines that some cheap services, specious 
 oblations, external courtesies, will engage him, and 
 make him a friend ; a sheep, or a goat, or a bullock. 
 
138 
 
 under the Old Testament ; a prayer, or a sacrament, 
 or an alms, under the New : for it is reconcihation 
 to an angry God that he aims at, not union with a 
 good God ; he seeks to be reconciled to God, not 
 united to him, though indeed these two can never 
 be divided. Thus we see how a man, void of the 
 life and spirit of religion, yet forces himself to do 
 God a kind of worship, and pay him a kind of 
 homage. 
 
 2. Sometimes men may be said, in a sense, to be 
 forced by other men to put on a vizard of holiness, 
 , a ilress of religion. And this constraint men may lay 
 upon men by their tongues, hands, and eyes. By 
 their tongue^,, in the business of education, often 
 and ardent exliortation and inculcation of things di- 
 vine and heavenly : and thus an unjust man, like the 
 unjust judge in the gospel, though he fear not God 
 sincerely, yet may be overcome by the importunity 
 of his father, friend, minister, tutor, to do some 
 righteous acts. This seems to have been the case 
 of Jehoash, king of Judah, the spring-head of whose 
 religion was no higher than the instructions of 
 his tutor and guardian Jehoiada, the high-priest, 
 2 Kings xii. 2. By their hands ; that is, either by 
 the enacting and executing of penal laws upon them, 
 or by the holy example which they continually set 
 before them. By their eyes ; that is, by continual 
 observing and watching their behaviour ; when many 
 eyes are upon men, they must do something to satis- 
 fy expectations of others, and purchase a reputation 
 to themselves. It may be said that sometimes God 
 doth lay an external force upon men ; as particularly 
 by his severe judgments, or threatenings of judg- 
 
139 
 
 ments awakening them, humbling them, and con- 
 straining them to some kind of worship and religion. 
 Such a forced devotion as this was the humiliation of 
 Ahab, I Kings xxi. and the supplication of Saul, 1 
 Sara. xiii. 11, 12. For God himself acting uponm.en, 
 only from without them, is far from producing a liv- 
 ing principle of free and noble religion in the soul. 
 Now, the better to discern this forced and violent 
 religion, 1 will briefly describe it by three or four of 
 its properties, with wliich I will shut up this point. 
 
 1. This forced religion is, for the most part, dry 
 and spiritless. I know, indeed, that fancy may be 
 screwed up to ahigh pitch of joy and frolicksomeness, 
 so as to raise the mind into a kind of rapture, as I have 
 formerly hinted in my discourse upon these words. 
 A mere artificial and counterfeit Christian may be so 
 strongly acted by imagination, and the power of self- 
 love, that he may seem to himself to be fuller of 
 God than the sober and constant soul. You may see 
 how the hypocritical Pharisees, swollen with self- 
 conceit, gloried over the poor man that had been 
 blind, but now saw more than all they : " Thou 
 wast altogether born in sin, and dost thou teach us?" 
 And, indeed, over the whole people : " This people 
 that knoweth not the law is cursed." A counterfeit 
 Christian may rise high as a meteor, and blaze much 
 as a comet, which is yet drawn up, by mere force, 
 from the surface of the earth or water. And as to 
 the external and visible acts and duties of religion, 
 which depend much upon the temper and constitution 
 of the body, it may easily be conceived and ac- 
 counted, how the mimical and mechanical Christian 
 may rise higher than these, and be more zealous. 
 
140 
 
 watchful, and cheerful, than many truly religious and 
 godly men, as having greater power and quickness of 
 fancy, and a greater number of animal spirits, upon 
 which the motions and actions of the body do mainly 
 depend. The animal spirits may so nimbly serve 
 the soul in these corporal acts, that the whole trans- 
 action may be a fair imitation of the motions of the 
 divine Spirit, and one would verily think there were a 
 gracious principle in the soul itself. This seems to be 
 notably exemplified in Captain Jehu, whose religious 
 actions, as he would fain have them to be esteemed, 
 2 Kings X. 16. were indeed rather fury than zeal, 
 and proceeded more from his own fiery spirits, than 
 from that spirit of fire, or spirit of burning, which is of 
 God, Isa. iv. 4. But commonly this forced devotion 
 is jejune and dry, void of zeal and warmth, drives on 
 heavily in pursuit of the God of Israel, as Pharaoh 
 did in pursuit of the Israel of God, when his chariot- 
 wheels were taken off. God's drawing the soul from 
 within, as a principle, doth indeed cause that soul to 
 run after him; but you know the motion of those 
 things that are drawn by external force is commonly 
 »heavy, slow, and languid. 
 
 2. This forced religion is penurious and needy. 
 Something the slavish-spirited Christian must do, to 
 appease an angry God, or to allay a storming con- 
 science, as I hinted before ; but it shall be as little 
 as may be. He is ready to grudge God so much 
 of his time and strength, and find fault that Sabbaths 
 come so thick, and last so long, and that duties are 
 to be performed so often; so he is described by the 
 prophet; " When will the Sabbath be past, and the 
 new moon gone ?" But yet I will not deny, but 
 
141 
 
 that this kind of religion may be very liberal and 
 expensive too, and run out much into the branches 
 of external duties, as is the manner of many trees 
 that bear no fruit; for so did the base spirit of the 
 Pharisees, whose often fasting, and long praying, is 
 recorded by our Saviour in the gospel, but not with 
 approbation. Therefore, these are not the things 
 by which you must take measure, and make estimate 
 of your religion. But in the great things of the 
 law, in the grand duties of mortification, self-denial, 
 and resignation; here this forced religion is always 
 very stingy and penurious. In the duties that do 
 nearly touch upon their beloved lusts, they will be as 
 strict with God as may be ; they will break with him 
 for a small matter. God must have no more than 
 his due, as they blasphemously phrase it in their 
 hearts; with the slothful servant in the gospel, 
 " Lo, there thou hast that is thine ;" self and the 
 world sure may be allowed the rest. They will not 
 part with all for Christ. Is it not a little one ? let 
 me escape thither, and take up my abode there, said 
 Lot, Gen. xix. They will not give up themselves 
 entirely unto God : " The Lord pardon me in this 
 one thing," cries Naaman; so they, in this or that, 
 let God hold me excused. The slavish-spirited 
 Christian is never more shrunk up within himself, 
 than when he is to converse with God indeed : but 
 the godly soul is never freer, larger, gladder, than 
 when he doth most intimately and familiarly converse 
 with God. The soul that is free as to liberty, is 
 free also as to liberality and expenses; and that not 
 only in external, but internal and spiritual obedience, 
 and compliance with the will of God: he gives him- 
 
14^ 
 
 self wholly up to God, knows no interest of his own, 
 keeps no reserve for himself, or for the creature. 
 
 3. This forced religion is uneven, as depending 
 upon inconstant causes. As land-floods, that have 
 no spring within themselves, vary their motions, — 
 are swift and slow, high and low, according as they 
 are supplied with rain, — even so these men's mo- 
 tions in religion, depending upon fancy for the most 
 part, than which nothing is more fickle and flitting, 
 have no constancy nor consistency in them. I know, 
 indeed, that the spirits of the best men cannot al- 
 ways keep one pace, nor their lives be always of one 
 piece; but yet they are never willingly quite out of 
 the call or compass of religion. But this I also 
 touched upon formerly. Therefore, 
 
 4. This forced religion is not permanent. The 
 meteors will down again, and be choked in the 
 earth, whence they arose. Take away the weight, 
 and the motion ceases ; take away Jehoiada, and 
 Jehoash stands still, yea, runs backward. But this 
 I shall speak more to, when I come to speak of the 
 last property of religion, — namely, its perseverance. 
 
143 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The active and vigorous jiature of true religioji proved by 
 many scriptural phrases of the most povoerful impor- 
 tance ; more 'particularly explained in three things ; 
 
 1. In the souVs continual care and study to be good. 
 
 2. In its care to do good. 3. In its powerful and in- 
 cessant longings after the most full enjoyment of God. 
 
 I COME now to the second property of true religion, 
 which is to be found in this phrase, " springing up,'* 
 or leaping up; wherein the activity and vigorousness 
 of it is described. Rehgion, though it be compared 
 to water, yet is no standing pool of water, but a 
 " well of water springing up." And here the pro- 
 position that I shall establish, is, " That true religion 
 is active and vigorous." It is no lazy and languid 
 thing, but full of life and power: so I find it every 
 where described in Scripture, by things that are 
 most active, lively, vigorous, operative, spreading, 
 powerful, and sometimes even by motion itself. As 
 sin is, in Scripture, described by death and darkness, 
 which are a cessation and privation of life, and light, 
 and motion ; so religion is described by life, which 
 is active and vigorous ; by an angelical life, which is 
 spiritual and powerful ; yea a divine life, which is, 
 as I may say, most lively and vivacious. *' Christ 
 liveth in me," and the production of this new nature 
 in the soul is called a quickening, " And you hath 
 he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;" 
 and the reception of it, a " passing from death unto 
 life." Again, as sin and wickedness is described by 
 
144 
 
 Jlesh^ which is sluggish and inactive, so this holy 
 principle in the soul is called spirit — " The Spirit 
 lusteth against the flesh ;" yea, ** the Spirit of 
 power," and the *' Spirit of life," — "the law of the 
 Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free 
 from the law of sin and death." How can the 
 power and activity of any principle be more com- 
 mended than by saying it is life, and the Spirit of 
 life, and the law of the Spirit of life in the soul ? 
 which hath made me sometimes to apply those words 
 of the prophet, as a description of every godly soul, 
 " I am full of power and might by the Spirit of the 
 Lord." 
 
 Yea, further, the holy Apostle seems to describe 
 a godly principle in the soul by activity and motion 
 itself, where he gives this excellent character of 
 himself, and this lively description of his religious 
 disposition, as if it were nothing else but activity 
 and fervour; " I follow after, that I may apprehend; 
 1 forget those things that are behind, and reach 
 forth unto those things that are before ; I press to- 
 wards the mark," &c. It were too much to com- 
 ment upon those phrases of like importance, labour- 
 ing, seeking, striving, fighting, running, wrestling, 
 panting, longing, hungering, thirsting, watching, and 
 many others, which the Holy Ghost makes use of, 
 in the Scriptures, to express the active, industrious, 
 vigorous, diligent, and powerful nature of this divine 
 principle, which God hath put into the souls of his 
 elect. The streams of divine grace, which flow 
 forth from the throne of God, and of the Lamb, 
 into tile souls of men, do not cleanse them, and so 
 pass away, like some violent land-flood, that washes 
 
145 
 
 the fields and meadows, and so leaves them to con- 
 tract as much filth as ever : but the same becomes 
 a "well of water," continually springing up, boiling, 
 and bubbling, and working in the soul, and sending 
 out fresh rivers, as our Saviour calls them : " Out of 
 his belly shall flow rivers of living water." 
 
 But, more particularly, to unfold the active nature 
 of this divine principle in the soul, we shall consider 
 it in these three particulars, namely, as it is still con- 
 forming to God, doing for him, and longing after 
 him. 
 
 1. The active and sprightly nature of true god- 
 liness, or religion planted by God in the soul, shows 
 itself, in a continued care and study to be good, to 
 conform more and more to the nature of the blessed 
 God, the glorious pattern of all perfection. The 
 nature of God being infinitely and absolutely per- 
 fect, is the only rule of perfection to the creature. 
 If we speak of goodness, our Saviour tells us, that 
 God alone is good, Luke xviii. 19. of wisdom, the 
 Apostle tells us, that God is only wise, 1 Tim. i. 17. 
 of power, he is omnipotent, Rev. xix. 6. of mercy 
 and kindness, he is love itself, 1 John iv. 8. Men 
 are only good by way of participation from God, 
 and in a way of assimilation to him : so that, though 
 good men may be imitated, and followed, yet it must 
 be with this limitation, as far as they are followers 
 of God : the great Apostle durst not press his ex- 
 ample any further, " Be ye followers of me, even as 
 I also am of Christ." But the nature of God being 
 infinitely and absolutely perfect, is to be eyed and 
 imitated singly, entirely, universally, in all things 
 wherein the creature is capable of following him, and 
 
 G 28 
 
146 
 
 becoming like unto him. So Christians are required 
 to look up unto the Father of lights, the fountain 
 of all perfections, and to take from him the pattern 
 of their dispositions and conversations, to eye him 
 continually} and, eyeing him, to derive an image of 
 him, not into their eye, as we do by sensible objects, 
 but into their souls, to polish and frame them into 
 the most clear and lively resemblances of him ; that 
 is, in the language of Scripture, ta be " perfect, as 
 their heavenly Father is perfect," to be " holy as 
 God is holy." And thus the genuine children O'f 
 God are described by the Holy Ghost, they are 
 " followers of God." This is the shortest, but the 
 surest and clearest mark that can be given of a good 
 man, "a follower of God." They are not owned for 
 the children of God, who are created by him, nor 
 they who have a notional knowledge of him, who 
 profess him, or exhibit some external worship and 
 service to him in the world, but they that imitate 
 him : the true children of Abraham were not those 
 that were descended from him, or boasted of him, 
 but they that did the works of Abraham, John viii. 
 39. even so are they only the offspring of heaven, 
 the true and dear children of the living God, who 
 are followers of him ; " be ye followers of God as 
 dear children." A godly soul having its eyes opened, 
 to behold the infinite beauty, purity, and perfection, 
 of that good God, whose nature is the very fountain, 
 and must, therefore, be the rule of all goodness, pre- 
 sently comes to undervalue all created excellencies, 
 both in itself, and all the world besides, as to any 
 satisfaction that is to be had in them, or any perfec- 
 tion that can be acquired by them, and cannot emlure 
 
147 
 
 to take up with any lower good, or live by any lower 
 rule than God himself. A godly man, having the 
 unclean and rebellious spirit cast out, and being once 
 reconciled to the nature of God, is daily labouring 
 to be more intimately united thereunto, and to be all 
 that God is, as far as he is capable, — the nature of 
 God being infinitely more pure and perfect, and 
 more desirable than his own. ReJigion is a parti- 
 cipation of life from him, who is life itself, and so 
 must needs be an active principle, spreading itself in 
 the soul, and causing the soul to spread itself in 
 God: and, therefore, the kingdom of heaven, which, 
 in many places of the gospel, I take to be nothing 
 else but this divine principle in the soul, which is 
 both the truest heaven, and most properly a kingdom 
 (for thereby God doth most powerfully reign and 
 exercise his sovereignty, and most excellently display 
 and manifest his glory in the world) is compared to 
 " seed sown in good ground," which both springeth 
 up into a blade, and bringeth forth fruit ; to mustard- 
 seed, which spreadeth itself, and groweth great, so 
 that the birds of the air may lodge in the branches 
 thereof; to leaven, spreading itself through the 
 whole quantity of meal, and leavening the whole, and 
 all the parts of it. By a like similitude, the path 
 of the just is compared to a shining light, whose 
 glory and lustre increaseth continually, " shining 
 more and more unto the perfect day;" which con- 
 tinual growing up of the holy soul into God, is ex- 
 cellently described by the Apostle, in an elegant 
 metaphor, " We all, with open face, beholding as 
 in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into 
 the same image, from glory to glory;" that is, from 
 
 G 2 
 
148 
 
 one resemblance of divine glory to another. The 
 gracious soul not being contented with its present 
 attainments, and having in its eye a perfect and abso- 
 lute good, forgets that which is behind, and labours, 
 prays, strives, and studies, to get the perfections of 
 God more clearly copied out upon itself, and itself, 
 as much as may be, swallowed up in the Divinity. 
 It covets earnestly these best things, to be perfected 
 in grace and holiness, to have divine characters more 
 fair and legible, divine impressions more deep and 
 lively, divine life more strong and powerful, and the 
 communicable image of the blessed God spread quite 
 over it, and through it. A godly soul is not con- 
 tent to receive of Christ's fulness, but labours to be 
 filled with the fulness, with all the fulness of God; 
 he rejoices, indeed, that he hath received of Christ 
 grace for grace, as a child hath limb for limb with 
 his father; but this his joy is not fulfilled, except 
 he find himself adding daily some cubits to his infant- 
 stature ; nor indeed then neither, nor can it be, until 
 lie come to the measure of the stature of his Lord, 
 and be grown up unto him in all things, who is the 
 head, even Christ. He delights and glories in God, 
 beholding his spices growing in his soul; but that 
 does not satisfy him, except he may see them flowing 
 out also. He is neither barren nor unfruitful, as 
 the Apostle Peter speaks ; but that is not enough, 
 he desires to be fat and fruitful also, as a watered 
 garden, as the Prophet expresseth it, even as the 
 garden of God. The Spirit lusteth against the 
 flesh, and struggles with it in the same womb of the 
 soul, as Jacob with Esau, until he had cast him 
 out. The seed of God warreth continually against 
 
149 
 
 the seed of the serpent, raging and restless, like 
 Jehu, shooting, and stabbing, and strangHng all he 
 meets with, till none at all remain of the family of 
 that Ahab, who had formerly been his master. Oh 
 how does the godly and devout soul long to have 
 Christ's victory carried on in itself, to have Christ 
 going on in him conquering and to conquer, till at 
 length the very last enemy be subdued ; that the 
 Prince of peace may ride triumphantly through all 
 the coasts and regions of his heart and life, and not 
 so much as a dog move his tongue against him ! 
 This holy principle which is of God in the soul, is 
 actually industrious too; it doth not fold the arras 
 together, hide its hand in its bosom, faintly wishing 
 to obtain a final conquest over its enemies, but ad- 
 vances itself with a noble stoutness against lusts and 
 passions, even as the sun glorieth against the dark- 
 ness of the night, until it hath chased it all away. 
 The godly soul puts itself under the banner of Christ, 
 fights under the conduct of the angel of God's pre- 
 sence, and so marches up undauntedly against the 
 children of Anak, those earthly loves, lusts, sensual 
 affections, which are indeed taller and stronger than 
 all other enemies that encounter it in this wilderness 
 state : and the gracious God is not wanting to such 
 endeavours, he " remembering his promise, helpeth 
 his servants," even that promise, that " they that 
 wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength." A 
 true Israelitish soul, impregnated with this noble and 
 heroic principle, is not like those slothful Israelites, 
 that were content with what they had got of the 
 holy land, and either could not, or cared not to en- 
 large their border. But he makes war upon the 
 
150 
 
 remainder of the Canaanites, and is never at rest till 
 he have, with Sarah, cast out the bond-woman and 
 her son too. You may see an emblem of such a 
 soul in Moses holding up his hands all the day 
 long, till Amalek was quite discomfited, Exod. xvii. 
 As oft as the floods of temptation, springing from 
 the devil, the world, or the flesh, do offer to come 
 in upon him, he opposeth them in the strength of 
 Christ ; or, if you will, in the prophet's phrase, 
 " The Spirit of the Lord lifteth up a standard 
 against them ;" so that he is not carried down by 
 them, or, at least, not overwhelmed with them. In 
 the beginning of my discourse upon this head, I 
 hinted to you the reason why the godly soul con- 
 tinually studies conformity to God, even because he 
 is the perfect and absolute good, and the soul reckons 
 that its happiness consists only in being like unto 
 him, in partaking of a divine nature. But I might 
 also here take occasion to speak of three things, 
 which I will but briefly name, and so pass on. 
 
 1st, A godly man reckons with himself, that con- 
 formity to the image and nature of God, is the most 
 proper conversing with God in the world. The 
 great, and indeed only employment of an immortal 
 soul, is to converse with its Creator; for this end it 
 was made, and made so capacious as we see it: now, 
 to partake of a divine nature, to be endued with a 
 God-like disposition, is most properly to converse 
 with God; this is a real, powerful, practical, and 
 feeling converse with him, infinitely to be preferred 
 before all notions, professions, performances, or spe- 
 culations. 
 
 2dly, A godly man reckons that the image of 
 
151 
 
 God is the glory and ornament of the soul; it is the 
 lustre, and brightness, and beauty of the soul, as 
 the soul is of the body. Holiness is not only the 
 duty, but the highest honour and dignity that any 
 created nature is capable of: and, therefore, the 
 godly soul, who hath his senses exercised to discern 
 good and evii, pursues after it, as after his full and 
 proper perfection. 
 
 3dly, A godly man reckons, that conformity to 
 the divine image, participation of the divine nature, 
 is the surest and most comfortable evidence of di- 
 vine love, which is a matter of so great inquiry in 
 the world. By growing up daily in Christ Jesus, 
 we are infallibly assured of our implantation into 
 him. The Spirit of God descending upon the soul 
 in the impressions of meekness, kindness, upright- 
 ness, which is a dove-like disposition, is a better, 
 and more desirable evidence of our sonship, and 
 God's favour towards us, than if we had the Spirit 
 descending upon our heads in a dove-like shape, as 
 it did upon our blessed Saviour. These are the 
 reasons, why the religious Christian, above all 
 things, labours to become God-like, to be formed 
 more and more into a resemblance of the supreme 
 good, and to drink in divine perfections into the 
 very inmost of his soul. 
 
 2. The active and industrious nature of true god- 
 liness, or religion, manifests itself in a good man's 
 continual care and study to do good, to serve the 
 interest of the holy and blessed God in the world. 
 A good man being mastered with the sense of the 
 infinite goodness of God, and the great end of his 
 life, cannot think it worth while to spend himself for 
 
152 
 
 any inferior good, or bestow his time and strength 
 for any lower end than that is; and, therefore, as it 
 is the main happiness of his life to enjoy God, so 
 he makes it the main business of his life to serve 
 him, — to be doing for him, to lay out himself for 
 him, and to display and propagate his glory in the 
 world. And, as he is ravished with the apprehen- 
 sions of the supreme goodness, which doth infi- 
 nitely deserve, and may justly challenge, all that he 
 can do or expend for him, so he doth indeed really 
 partake of the active and communicative nature of 
 that blessed being, and himself becomes active and 
 communicative too : a godly soul sluggish and inac- 
 tive, is as if one should say, a godly soul altogether 
 unlike to God ; a pure contradiction. I cannot 
 dwell upon any of those particular designs of serving 
 the interest of God's glory, which a good man is 
 still driving on in the world : only this, in general, 
 whether he pray, or preach, or read, or celebrate 
 Sabbaths, or administer private reproof or instruction, 
 or indeed plough or sow, eat or drink, all this while 
 he lives not to himself, but serves a higher interest 
 than that of the flesh, and a higher good than him- 
 self, or any created being. A true Christian acti- 
 vity doth not only appear in those things which we 
 call duties of worship, or religious performances, but 
 in the whole frame of the heart contriving, and the 
 conversation expressing and unfolding, the glory of 
 God. A holy, serious, heavenly, humble, sober, 
 righteous, and self-denying course of life, does most 
 excellently express the divine glory, by imitating 
 the nature of God, and most effectually calls all men 
 to the imitation of it; according as our Saviour hath 
 
153 
 
 nakedly stated the case : " Hereby is my Father 
 glorified, that ye bring forth much fruit." By which 
 fruits are not to be understood only preaching, pray- 
 ing, conference, which are indeed high and excellent 
 duties; but also righteousness, temperance, self- 
 denial, which things are pure reflections of the di- 
 vine image, and a real glorifying of God's name and 
 perfections. A good Christian cannot be content 
 to be happy alone, to be still drawing down hea- 
 ven into his own soul ; but he endeavours also, by 
 prayer, counsel, and holy example, to draw up the 
 souls of other men heaven-ward. This God wit- 
 nesseth of Abraham : " I know him, that he will 
 command his children, and his household after him, 
 and they shall keep the way of the Lord;" and 
 this Moses doth excellently witness of himself in 
 that holy rapture of his, " Would God that all the 
 Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord 
 would put his Spirit upon them!" By such ex- 
 amples as these a good man desires to live, yea, by 
 higher precedents than either Abraham or Moses, 
 even by the example of the Father and of the Son. 
 He admires, and strives to imitate, that character 
 which is given of God himself, " Thou art good, 
 and dost good;" and that which is given of Christ 
 Jesus, the Lord of life, who " went about doing 
 good;" who also witnessed elsewhere concerning 
 himself, that he came not into the world to do his 
 own will, nor seek his own glory, but the will and 
 glory of him that sent him: and, again, " Wist ye 
 not that I must be about my Father's business?" 
 Oh how happy would the godly soul count itself, if 
 it could but live and converse in the world in the 
 
 g3 
 
154 
 
 same manner, and with the same devout, fervent, 
 exalted spirit, as Christ Jesus did, whose meat and 
 drink it was, still to be doing the will, and advancing 
 the glory, of his Father ! But, alas! the poor soul 
 finds itself insnared by passions, and selfish affections 
 from within, clogged with an unwieldy body, and 
 distracted with secular affairs from without, that it 
 cannot rise so nimbly, run so swiftly, nor serve the 
 infinite and glorious God so cheerfully, nor liberally, 
 as it would; and, therefore, the poor prisoner sighs 
 within itself, and wishes that it might escape : but 
 finding a certain time determined upon it in the 
 body, which it must be content to live out, it looks 
 up, and is ready to envy the angels of God, because 
 it cannot live as they do, who are always upon God's 
 errand, and almost thinks much that itself is not a 
 ministering spirit, serving the pure and perfect will 
 of the supreme good, without grudging or ceasing. 
 The godly soul, under these powerful apprehensions 
 of the nature of God, the example of Christ, and 
 the honourable office of the holy angels, is ready to 
 grudge the body that attendance that it calls for, 
 and those offices which it is forced to perform to it ; 
 as judging them impertinent to its main happhiess, 
 and most excellent employment. It is ready to envy 
 that more cheerful and willing service, which it finds 
 from the heavy and drossy body with which it is 
 united, and to cry out. Oh that I were that to my 
 God, which my body, my eyes, hands, and feet, are 
 to me! for I say to one of these. Go, and he goeth ; 
 and to another. Do this, and he doth it. In a 
 word, a good man being acquainted feelingly with 
 the highest good, eyeing diligently the great end of 
 
155 
 
 his coming into the world, and his short time of 
 being in it, serves the eternal and blessed God, lives 
 upon eternal designs, and, by consecrating all his 
 actions unto God, gives a kind of immortality to 
 them, which are in themselves flitting and transient : 
 he counts it a reproach to any man, much more to a 
 godly man, to do any thing insignificantly, much 
 more to live impertinently; and he reckons all things 
 that have not a tendency to the highest good, and 
 a subserviency to the great and last end, to be im- 
 pertinencies, yea, and absurdities in an immortal 
 soul, which should continually be " springing up 
 into everlasting life." 
 
 3. The active and vigorous nature of true religion, 
 manifests itself in those powerful and incessant long- 
 ings after God, with which it fills that soul in which 
 it is planted. This I superadd to the two former, 
 because the godly man, though he be formed into 
 some likeness to God, yet desires to be more like 
 him ; and though he be somewhat serviceable to him, 
 yet desires to be more instrumental to his will : 
 though he be good, yet he desires to be better ; and 
 though he do good, yet he desires to do better, or 
 or at least more. And, indeed, I reckon that these 
 sincere and holy hungerings after God, which I am 
 going to speak of, are one of the best signs that I 
 know in the world of spiritual health, and the best 
 criterion of a true Christian : for, in this low and 
 animal state, we are better acquainted with lovings 
 and languishings, than with fruition or satisfaction ; 
 and the best enjoyment that we have of God in this 
 world, is but scant and short, indeed but a kind of 
 longing to enjoy him. Love is certainly a high and 
 
156 
 
 noble affection ; but alas ! our love, whilst we are 
 here in the body, is in its nonage, in its weak and 
 sickly state, rather a longing, than a loving; much 
 unlike to what it will be, when it shall be grown up 
 unto its perfect stature in glory. But this sickly 
 kind of languishing affection, is a certain symptom of 
 a healthful constitution ; or, as the Apostle calls it, 
 of " the spirit of a sound mind." Godly souls are 
 thirsty souls, always gasping after the living springs 
 of divine grace, even as the parched desert gapeth 
 for the dew of heaven, the early and the latter rain. 
 One would wonder what kind of magic there was in 
 Elijah's mantle, that the very casting of it upon 
 Elisha should make him leave oxen and plough, yea, 
 father and mother, and all, to run after a stranger: 
 Elijah himself seems to wonder at it, " What have 
 I done to thee?" Oh, but what a mighty charm 
 is there in divine love ! which, when it is once shed 
 abroad in the soul, makes the soul to spread itself 
 in it, and to it, as the heliotrope attending the mo- 
 tions of the sun, and turning itself every way to- 
 wards it, welcoming its warm and refreshing beams. 
 Elijah passing by Elisha as he was at plough, and 
 catching him with his mantle, is but a scant resem- 
 blance of the blessed God passing by a carnal mind, 
 and wrapping it in the mantle of his love, and thereby 
 Causing it to run, yea, to fly swiftly after him. If 
 divine grace do but once touch the soul, the soul 
 presently sticks to it, as the needle to the loadstone. 
 They that heard Christ Jesus chiding the winds and 
 the waves, cried out, " What manner of man is this, 
 that even the winds and the sea obey him ?" but if 
 one had been present when he called James and 
 
157 
 
 John from their nets, Matthew from the custom- 
 house, and Zaccheus from the tree, and by calling 
 made them willing to come, would have cried out, 
 sure, what manner of God is this ! that, by his bare 
 word, makes poor men leave their trades and liveli- 
 hood, and rich men their gainful exactions, usuries, 
 oppressions, to follow him ; and shows them no rea- 
 son why. What a mighty virtue is there in the 
 ointment of Christ's name, that as soon as it is 
 poured out, the virgins fall in love with him ? 
 Micah cried out, when he was in pursuit of his gods, 
 and should they ask him what ailed him ? And will 
 ye wonder that a holy soul, in pursuit of the holy 
 God, should be in earnest ; that he should run, and 
 cry as he runs ? as I have seen a fond child whom 
 the father or mother have endeavoured to leave be- 
 hind them. God breathing into the soul, makes the 
 soul breathe after him, and in a mixture of holy dis- 
 dain and anger, to thurst away from itself all dis- 
 tracting companions, occasions, and concerns, saying, 
 with Ephraim to her idols, " Get ye hence." The 
 soul thus inspired is so far from prostituting itself to 
 any earthly, sensual, selfish lusts and loves, that it 
 cannot brook any thing that would weaken it in the 
 prosecution of the highest good; it is impatient of 
 every thing that would either stop or slacken its mo- 
 tions after God. The godly man desires still to be 
 doing something for God indeed; but if the case so 
 fall out, that he cannot spend his life for God as he 
 desires, yet he will be spending his soul upon him : 
 though he cannot perpetually abide upon the knee of 
 prayer, yet he would be continually upon the wing 
 of faith and love : when his tongue cleaves to the 
 
158 
 
 roof of his mouth, that he cannot speak for God, yet 
 his soul shall cleave unto him, and complain because 
 it can speak no longer. For faith and love are 
 knitting graces, and do long to make the soul as 
 much one with their object, as is possible for the 
 creature to be with its Creator, Religion puts a 
 restless appetite into the soul after a higher good, 
 and makes it throw itself into his arms, and wind itself 
 into his embraces, longing to be in a more intimate 
 conjunction with him, or rather entirely wrapped 
 up in him : itself is an unsatiable and covetous prin- 
 ciple in the soul, much like to the daughter of the 
 horse-leech, crying continually, " Give, give:" what 
 the prophet speaks rhetorically of hell, is also true 
 concerning this offspring of heaven, in the soul, " it 
 enlargeth itself, and openeth its mouth without mea- 
 sure." The spirit of true godliness seems to be al- 
 together such, that it cannot rest in any measures 
 of grace, or be fully contented with any of its attain- 
 ments in this life; but ardently longs to receive the 
 more plentiful communications of love, the more 
 deep and legible impressions of grace, the more clear 
 and ample experiences of divine assistance, the more 
 sensible evidences of divine favour, the more power- 
 ful and ravishing illapses and incomes of divine con- 
 solation into itself; "let him kiss me with the kisses 
 of his mouth." Such is the spirit of true godliness, 
 that the weakest that is endued with it, longs to be 
 as David, and the Davids to be as God, as the angel 
 of the Lord, according to that promise, *' In that 
 day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jeru- 
 salem; and he that is feeble among them at that day 
 shall be as David ; and the house of David shall be 
 
1.59 
 
 as God, as the angel of the Lord before them.*' 
 The godly soul that is in his right senses, under the 
 powerful apprehensions of the loveliness of God, and 
 the beauty of holiness, cannot be content to live by 
 any lower instance than that of David, whose soul 
 even broke for the longing that it had unto the Lord ; 
 or that of the spouse, who was even '* sick of love." 
 You have read of the mother of Sisera, lookino- out 
 at the window, waiting for his coming, and crying 
 through the lattice, " Why is his chariot so long in 
 coming ; why tarry the wheels of his chariot ?" But 
 this is not to be compared to the earnest expectation 
 of the creature, the new creature, waiting for the 
 manifestation of God ; which the Apostle elegantly 
 expresseth, and yet seems to labour for words, as if 
 he could not sufficiently express it neither, Rom. 
 viii. 23. You have read of the Israelites marching 
 up towards the promised land, and murmuring that 
 they were held so long in the wilderness : but the 
 true Israelitish soul makes more haste with less dis- 
 content, marches as under the conduct of the Angel 
 of God's presence, and longs to arrive at its rest; 
 but, alas ! it is held in the wilderness too; and there- 
 fore cannot be fully quiet in itself, but sends forth 
 spies to view the land, the scouts of faith and hope, 
 like Caleb and Joshua, those men of another spirit; 
 and these go and walk through the holy land, and 
 return home to the soul, and come back, not as 
 Noah's dove, with an olive leaf in her mouth, but 
 with some clusters in their hands, they bring the 
 soul a taste of the good things of the kingdom, of 
 the glories of her eternal state; yea, the soul itself 
 marches up to possess the land, goes out, with the 
 
160 
 
 spouse in the Canticles, to meet the Lord, to seek 
 him whom her soul lovetb. Religion is a sacred 
 fire, kept burning in the temple of the soul con- 
 tinually, which being once kindled from heaven, 
 never goes out, but burns up heaven-wards, as the 
 nature of fire is. This fire is kept alive in the soul 
 to all eternity, though sometimes, through the ashes 
 of earthly cares and concerns cast into it, or the sun 
 of earthly prosperity shining upon it, it may some- 
 times burn more dimly, and seem almost as if it 
 were quite smothered; this fire is for sacrifice too, 
 though sacrifice be not always offered upon it; the 
 same fire of faith and love, which offered up the 
 morning sacrifice, is kept alive all the day long, and 
 is ready to kindle the evening sacrifice too, when 
 the appointed time of it shall come. In this chariot 
 of fire it is, that the soul is continually carried out 
 towards God, and accomplisheth a kind of glorifica- 
 tion daily; and when it finds itself firmly seated, 
 and swiftly carried herein, it no longer envies the 
 translation of Elias. The spirit of sanctification is 
 in the soul, as a burning fire shut up in the bones, 
 which makes the soul weary with forbearing, and so 
 powerful in longings, that it cannot stay: as the 
 spirit of prophecy is described, Jer. xx. it is more 
 true of the Spirit of God than of the spirit of Elihu, 
 the spirit within constraineth, and even presseth, 
 the soul, so that it is ready to swoon and faint away 
 for very vehemence of longing. See the amorous 
 spouse falling into one of these fainting fits, and 
 crying out mainly for some cordial from heaven to 
 keep up her sinking spirits, " Stay me with flagons, 
 comfort me with apples ; for I am sick of love." Ob 
 
161 
 
 beautiful and blessed sight, a soul working towards 
 God, gasping, and longing, and labouring, after its 
 proper happiness and perfection ! Well, the sink- 
 ing soul is relieved ; Christ Jesus reacheth forth his 
 left hand to her head, and his right hand embraceth 
 her; and now she recovers, her hanging hands lift 
 up themselves, and the beauties of her fading com- 
 plexion are restored; now she sits down " under his 
 shadow with great delight, and his fruit is sweet 
 unto her taste." See here the fairest sight on this 
 side heaven ; a soul resting, and glorying, and 
 spreading itself in the arms of God, growing up in 
 him, growing great in him, growing full in his ful- 
 ness, and perfectly ravished with his pure love ! O 
 my soul, be not content to live by any lower instance? 
 " Did not our hearts burn within us," said the two 
 disciples one to the other, " whilst he talked with 
 us?" But the soul in which the sacred fire of love 
 is powerfully kindled, doth not only burn towards 
 God, whilst he is more familiarly present with it, 
 and, as it were, blows upon it; but if he seem to 
 withdraw from it, it burns after him still: " My 
 Beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone ; I 
 sought him ; I called him." And if the firebegin to 
 languish, and seem as if it would go out, the holy 
 soul is startled presently, and labours, as the Apostle 
 speaks, to revive it, and blow it up again; calls upon 
 itself to awake, to arise and pursue, to mend its pace, 
 and to speed its heavy and sluggish motions. This 
 divine active principle in the soul maintains a conti- 
 nual striving, a holy struggling, and stretching forth 
 of the soul towards God, a bold and ardent conten- 
 tion after the supreme good ; religion hath the 
 
162 
 
 strength of the Divinity in it, its motions towards its 
 object are quick and potent. Tiiat elegant description 
 which the prophet makes of the wicked heart, with 
 some change, may be brought to express this excellent 
 temper of the godly soul ; it is like the working sea j 
 which cannot rest ; and although its waters do not 
 cast up mire and dirt, yet, in a holy impatience, 
 they rise and swell, and cast up a froth and foam 
 towards heaven. In a word, that I may comprise 
 many things in few expressions, no man so ambi- 
 tious as the humble, none so covetous as the hea- 
 venly-minded, none so voluptuous as the self-deny- 
 ing. Religion gives a largeness and wideness to 
 the soul, which sin, and self, and the world, had 
 straitened and confined; but his ambition is only to 
 be great in God, his covetousness is only to be filled 
 with all the fulness of God, and his voluptuousness 
 is only to drink of the rivers of his pure pleasures: 
 he desires to taste the God whom he sees, and to 
 be satisfied with the God whom he tastes. Oh 
 now, how are all the faculties of the soul awakened 
 to attendance upon the Lord of life ! It hearkens 
 for the sound of his feet coming, the noise of his 
 hands knocking at the door; it stands upon its 
 watch-tower, waiting for his appearing, waiting 
 more earnestly than they that watch for the morn- 
 ing, and rejoices to meet him at his coming ; and 
 having met him, runs into his arms, kisses him, 
 holds him, and will not let him go, but brings him 
 into the house, and entertains him in the guest- 
 chamber; the soul complains that itself is not large 
 enough, that there is not room enough to entertain 
 so glorious a guest, no, not though it have given 
 
163 
 
 him all the room that it hath ; it entertains him with 
 the widest arms, and the sweetest smiles ; and if he 
 depart and withdraw, fetches him again with the 
 deepest groans, Return, return, O Prince of peace, 
 and make me an everlasting habitation of rifjhteous- 
 iiess unto thyself! 
 
 It will not be amiss here briefly to touch upon 
 the reason of the godly soul's so ardent pantings 
 after God. And here I might show first, negatively, 
 that it springs not from any carnal ambition of being 
 better and higher than others, not from any carnal 
 hope of impunity and safety, nor merely from the 
 bitter sense of pressing and tormenting afflictions in 
 this life. But I shall rather insist upon it affirma- 
 tively. These earnest breathings after God spring 
 from the feeling apprehensions of self-indigency and 
 insufficiency, and the powerful sense of divine good- 
 ness and fulness ; they are begotten of the divine 
 bounty and self-sufficiency, manifesting itself to the 
 spirits of men, and conceived and brought forth by 
 a deep sense of self-poverty. One might almost apply 
 the Apostle's words to this purpose, *' We receive 
 the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should 
 not trust in ourselves, bijt in him." I shall not dis- 
 course upon these two heads disjunctly, but frame 
 them into one notion, and so you may take it thus; 
 these holy longings of the godly soul after God, do 
 arise from the sense of its distance from God. To 
 be so far distant from God, who is life and love itself, 
 and the proper and full happiness of the soul, is 
 grievous to the soul that is rightly affected towards 
 him : and hence it is that the soul cannot be at rest, 
 but still longs to be more intimately joined to him, 
 
164 
 
 and more perfectly filled with him : and the clearer 
 the soul's apprehensions are of its object, and the 
 deeper its sense is of its own unlikeness to him, and 
 distance from him, the more strong and impatient 
 are its breathings; insomuch that not only fear, as 
 the Apostle speaks, but even love itself sometimes 
 seems to itself to have a kind of agony and torment 
 in itself; which made the spouse cry, she was sick 
 of love, that is, sick of every thing that kept her 
 from her love, sick of that distance at which she 
 stood from her beloved Lord. The godly soul 
 being ravished with the infinite sweetness and good- 
 ness of God, longs to be that rather than what itself 
 is ; and beholding how it is estranged from him, by 
 many sensual loves, selfish passions, corporeal clogs 
 and distractions, bewails its distance, and cries out 
 within itself, " Oh when shall I come and appear 
 before God !" Oh when will God come and appear 
 gloriously to me and in me ! " Who will deliver 
 me from this body of death !" Oh that mortality 
 were swallowed up of life ! David's soul did wait 
 for God as earnestly, and more properly, than they 
 that watch for the morning; they may be said rather 
 to be weary of the long and cold and troublesome 
 night, than properly covetous of the day; but he, 
 out of a pure and spiritual sense of his estrangement 
 from God, longs to appear before him, and be 
 wrapped up in him. Heal the godly man of all his 
 afflictions, grievances, adversities in the world, that 
 he may have nothing to trouble him, nor put him to 
 pain; yet he is not quiet, he is in pain because of the 
 distance at which he stands from God : give him the 
 whole world, and all the glory of it, yet he has not 
 
165 
 
 enough ; he still cries, and craves, " Give, give," 
 because he is not entirely swallowed up in God : he 
 openeth his mouth wide, as the Psalmist speaks, and 
 all the silver and gold, peace, health, liberty, pre- 
 ferment, that you cast into it, cannot fill it; because 
 they are not God, he cannot look upon them as his 
 chiefest good. In a word, a godly man doth not so 
 much say, in the sense either of sin or affliction, 
 " Oh that one would give me the wings of a dove, 
 that I might fly away and be at rest !" as in the 
 sense of his dissimilitude to, and distance from God, 
 Oh tbat one would give me the wings of an angel, 
 that I might fly away towards heaven ! 
 
166 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 An expostulation ujith Christians concerning their remiss 
 and sluggish tetriper ; an attempt to convince them of it 
 hy some considerations ; ivhich arcy 1. The activity of 
 iwrldly men. 2. The restless appetites of the body. 
 3. The strong jjropensio?is of every creature tovoai'ds 
 its own centr'C : an inquiry into the slothfidness and 
 inactivity of Christian souls. The grace of faith vin- 
 dicated from the slander of being merely jxissive. A 
 short attempt to aixaken Christians unto greater vigour 
 and activity. 
 
 We have seen in what respects religion is an 
 active principle in the soul where it is seated; give 
 me leave to enlarge a little here for conviction or 
 reprehension. By this property of true religion we 
 shall be able to discover much that is false and 
 counterfeit in the world. If religion be no lazy, 
 languid, sluggish, passive thing, but life, love, the 
 spirit of power and freedom, a fire burning, a well 
 of water springing up, as we have sufficiently seen, 
 what shall we say then of that heavy, sluggish, 
 spiritless kind of religion that most men take up 
 with ? Shall we call it a spirit of life, with the 
 Apostle ; and yet allow of a religion that is cold and 
 dead ? Shall we call it a spirit of love and power, 
 with the same Apostle; and yet allow of it, though 
 it be indifferent, low, and impotent? Or will such 
 pass for current with the wise and holy God, if 
 we should pass a favourable censure upon it? And 
 why should it ever pass with men, if it will not for- 
 
167 
 
 ever pass with God? But, indeed, how can this 
 inactivity and sluggishness pass for religion amongst 
 men? Who can think you are in pursuit of the 
 infinite and supreme good, that sees you so slow in 
 your motions towards it? Who can think that 
 your treasure is in heaven, that sees your heart so 
 far from thence? The more any thing partakes of 
 God, and the nearer it comes to liim who is the 
 fountain of hfe, and power, and virtue, the more 
 active, powerful, and lively will it be. We read of 
 an atheistical generation in Zeph. i. 12. who fancied 
 to themselves an idle and slothful God, that minded 
 not the affairs of the world at all, saying, " The 
 Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil ;'* 
 which was also the false and gross conceit of many 
 of the heathen, as Cicero confesses of some of the 
 philosophers themselves, " who maintain that God 
 has no power in himself, and can impart no power 
 to any other:" and, indeed, though it be not so 
 blasphemous, yet it is almost as absurd, to fancy 
 an idle saint, as an idle deity. Sure I am, if 
 it be not altogether impossible, yet it is altogether 
 a shameful and deformed sight; a holy soul in a 
 lethargy, a godly soul that is not in pursuit of God, 
 Moses indeed bids Israel " stand still, and see the 
 salvation of the Lord;" but there is no such divinity 
 in the Holy Scriptures as this, 'stand still and see 
 the salvation of the soul,' though some have violently 
 pressed those words, Exod. xiv. 13. to serve under 
 their slothful standard: no, no, the Scripture speaks 
 to us in another manner — " work out your own sal- 
 vation :" and, indeed, the Spirit of God doth every 
 where describe religion by the activity, industry. 
 
168 
 
 vigour, and quietness of it, as I hinted in the very 
 beginning of this discourse, and could abundantly 
 confirm and explain, if there were need of it. 
 
 But that I may more powerfully convince and 
 awaken the lazy and heavy spirit and temper of 
 many professors, I will briefly touch upon a few 
 particulars, which I will next propound to their 
 serious consideration. 
 
 1. The children of this world, earthly and sensual 
 men, are not so slothful, so lazy, so indifferent in 
 the pursuit of earthly and sensual objects. You 
 say you have laid up your treasure in heaven; we 
 know they have laid up their treasure in the earth : 
 now, who is it that behaves himself more suitably 
 and seemly towards his treasure? You or they? 
 You say you have a treasure in heaven, and are 
 content to be able to say so, but make no haste to 
 be fully and feelingly possessed of it, to enjoy the 
 benefit and sweetness of it. But they " rise up 
 early and sit up late," and either pine themselves, 
 or eat the bread of sorrow, to obtain earthly and 
 perishing inheritances ; they compass the world, 
 travel far, sell all to purchase that part which is of 
 so great price with them : and when they have 
 accomplished it. Oh how do they set their heart 
 upon it, bind up their souls in the same bags with 
 their money, and seal up their affections together 
 with it: yea, and they are not at rest neither, but 
 find a gnawing hunger upon their hearts after more 
 still, to add house to house, and land to land, and 
 one bag to another; — the covetous miser is ready to 
 sit down and wring his hands, because he hath no 
 more hands to scrape with; the voluptuous epicure 
 
169 
 
 is angry that he hath not the neck of a crane the 
 better to taste his dainties; and ambitious Alexander, 
 when he domineer's over the known world, is ready 
 to sit down and whine, because there are no more 
 worlds to conquer. What Christian but must be 
 ashamed of himself, when he reads the description 
 which Plautus, the comedian, makes of a covetous 
 worldling, under the person of Euclio, how he hid 
 his pot of gold, heeded it, watched it, visited it 
 almost every hour, would not go from it in the day, 
 could not sleep for it in the night, suspected every 
 body that so much as looked towards it, and by all 
 means kept it even as his life ? For where is the 
 like eager and ardent disposition to be found in a 
 Christian towards God himself? Tell me, is it 
 possible for a man that vehemently loves a virgin, 
 to be content all his life long to court her at a dis- 
 tance, and not care whether ever he do actually 
 enjoy her or not? Or must not such a one neces- 
 sarily pursue a matrimonial and most intimate union 
 with her ? Let us now confess the truth, and every 
 one judge himself. 
 
 2. This dull and earthly body, is not so indiffer- 
 ently affected towards meat and drink, and rest, and 
 the things that serve its necessities, and gratify its 
 temper. Hunger will break down stone walls, and 
 thirst will give away a kingdom for a cup of water; 
 sickness will not be eased by good words, nor will a 
 drowsy brain be bribed by any entertainments of 
 company or recreation: no, no, the necessities of the 
 body must and will be relieved with food, and physic, 
 and sleep; the restless and raging appetite will never 
 cease calling and crying to the soul for supplies till 
 
 H 38 
 
170 
 
 it arise and give them. Behold, O my soul ! con- 
 sider the mighty and incessant appetites and tenden- 
 cies of the body after sensual objects, after its suit- 
 able good and proper perfection, and be ashamed of 
 thy more remiss and sluggish inclinations towards 
 the highest good, a God-like perfection? 
 
 3. No creature in the whole world is so languid, 
 slow, and indifferent, in its motions towards its proper 
 rest and centre. How easy were it to call heaven 
 and earth to witness the free, pleasant, cheerful, 
 eager addresses of every creature according to its 
 kind, towards its own centre and happiness ? The 
 sun in the firmament rejoices to run its race, and will 
 not stand still one moment, except it be miraculously 
 overpowered by the command of God himself; the 
 rivers seem to be in pain, till by a continued flowing, 
 they have accomplished to themselves a kind of per- 
 fection, and be swallowed up in the bosom of the 
 ocean, except they be benumbed with cold, or other- 
 wise over-mastered and retarded by foreign violence. 
 I need not instance in sensitives and vegetatives; all 
 which, you know, with a natural vigour and activity, 
 grow up daily towards a perfect state and stature. 
 Were it not a strange and monstrous sight, to see a 
 stone settling in the air, and not working towards its 
 centre? Such a spectacle is a godly soul settling 
 upon earth, and not endeavouring a nearer and more 
 intimate union with its God. Wherefore, Chris- 
 tians, either cease to pretend that you have chosen 
 God for your portion, centre, happiness, or else arise 
 and cease not to pursue and accomplish the closest 
 union and the most familiar conjunction with him 
 that your souls are capable of: otherwise I call heaven 
 
171 
 
 and earth to witness against you this day: and the 
 day is coming, when you will be put to shame by the 
 whole creation. Doth every, even the meanest 
 creature of God, pursue its end and perfection, and 
 proper happiness, with ardent and vehement longings ; 
 and shall a soul, the noblest of all creatures, stand 
 folding up itself in itself, or choking up its wide and 
 divine capacity with dust and dirt? Shall a godly 
 soul, the noblest of all souls, hang the wings, sus- 
 pend its motions towards the supreme good, or so 
 much as once offer to faint and languish in its enter- 
 prizes for eternal life? Tell it not at Athens, publish 
 it not at Rome, lest the heathen philosophers deride, 
 and hiss us out of the world. 
 
 But you will ask me, when a Christian may be 
 said to be sluggish and inactive? and who these lazy 
 souls are? I will premise two things, and then wive 
 you a brief account of them. 1. When I speak of 
 a sluggish and spiritless religion, I do not speak as 
 the hot-spirited Anabaptists or Chiliasts, who being 
 themselves acted by a strange fervour of mind, mis- 
 called zeal, are wont to declaim against all men as 
 cold and benumbed in their spirits, who do not call 
 for fire from heaven to consume all dissenters, under 
 the notion of Antichristian; who are not afraid to 
 reproach the divine, holy, gentle, yet generous spirit 
 of religion, calling it weak, womanish, cowardly, low, 
 cold, and I know not what. These men, I believe, 
 so far as I can guess at their spirit, if they had lived 
 in the days of our Saviour, and had beheld that 
 gentle, meek, humble, peaceable spirit, which did 
 infinitely shine forth in him, would have gone nigh 
 to have reproved him for not carrying on his own 
 
 H 2 
 
172 
 
 kingdom with sufficient vigour and activity; if not 
 have judged Christ himself to be much Antichris- 
 tian. I hope you see nothing, in all my discoveries 
 of the active spirit of religion, that savours of such a 
 fiery spirit as this. 2. When I do so highly com- 
 mend the active spirit of true religion, and the vigor- 
 ous temper of truly religious souls, I would not be 
 understood, as if I thought all such souls were alike 
 bwift, or that any such soul did always move with 
 like svvifiaiess, and keep a like pace towards God. 
 I know that there are different degrees of active 
 souls, yea, and different degrees of activity in the 
 same soul, as may be seen. Cant. v. 3. compared with 
 the sixth verse of the same chapter, and in many 
 other places of Scripture. 
 
 But yet, that none may flatter and deceive them- 
 selves with an opinion of their being what indeed 
 they are not, I will briefly discover the sluggishness 
 and inactivity of Christians in a few particulars. I 
 pray take it not ill though the greater part of Chris- 
 tians be found guilty; for that is no other than what 
 Christ himself hath prophesied. 
 
 1. The active spirit of religion in the soul will 
 not suffer men to take up their rest in a constant 
 course of external performances ; and they are but 
 slothful souls that place their religion in any thing 
 without them. By external performances, I mean 
 not only open, and public, and solemn services, but 
 even the most private, and secret performances that 
 are in and by the body, and without the soul. It 
 is not possible that a soul should be happy in any 
 thing that is extrhisical to itself, no not in God him- 
 self, if we consider him only as something without 
 
173 
 
 the soul : the devil himself knows and sees much of 
 God without him ; but, having no communications 
 of a divine nature or life, being perfectly estranged 
 from the liie of God, he remains perfectly miserable. 
 I doubt it is a common deceit in the world; men toil 
 and labour in bodily acts of worship and religion in 
 a slavish and mercenary manner, and think, with 
 those labourers in the parable, that, at the end, they 
 must needs receive great wages, and much thanks, 
 because they have borne the heat and burden of the 
 day. Alas! that ever men should so grossly mistake 
 the nature of religion, as to sink it into a few bodily 
 acts and carcase-services, and to think it is nothing 
 else but a running the round of duties and ordi« 
 nances, and a keeping up a constant set and course 
 of actions ! Such an external legal righteousness the 
 Apostle Paul, after his conversion, could not take 
 up with, but counted it all loss and dung in com- 
 parison of that God-like righteousness which v;as 
 now brought into his soul, that inward and spiritual 
 conformity to Christ, which was now wrought in 
 him : " That I may be found in Christ, not having 
 mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that 
 which is through the faith of Christ, the righteous- 
 ness which is of God by faith; that I may know 
 him, and the power of his resurrection; and the fellow- 
 ship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto 
 his death." I know indeed that men will be loath 
 to confess that they place their religion in any thing 
 without them; but, I pray, consider seriously where- 
 in you excel other men, save only in praying, or 
 hearing now and then, or some other outward acts, 
 and judge yourselves by your nature, and not by 
 your actions. 
 
174 
 
 2. The active spirit of religion, where it is in the 
 soul, will not suffer men to take up their rest in a 
 mere pardon of sin ; and they are but slothful souls 
 that could be so satisfied. Blessed is the man in- 
 deed " whose iniquities are pardoned." But if we 
 could suppose a soul to be acquitted of the guilt of 
 all sin, and yet to lie bound under the dominion of 
 lusts and passions, and to live without God in the 
 world, he were yet far from true blessedness. A 
 real hell and misery will arise out of the very bowels 
 of sin and wickedness, though there should be no 
 reserve of fire and brimstone in the world to come. 
 It is utterly impossible that a soul should be happy 
 out of God, though it had the greatest security 
 imaginable that it should never suffer any thing from 
 him. The highest care and ambition indeed of a 
 slavish and mercenary spirit, is to be secured from 
 the wrath and vengeance of God, but the breathings 
 of the ingenuous and holy soul are after a divine life, 
 and God-like perfections. This right gracious tem- 
 per you may see in David, which is also the temper 
 of every truly religious soul : " Hide thy face from 
 my ains, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in 
 me a clean heart, O God ; and renew a right spirit 
 within me. Cast me not away from thy presence ; 
 and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore 
 unto me the joy of thy salvation ; and uphold me 
 with thy free spirit." 
 
 3. The active spirit of religion, where it is in the 
 soul, will not suffer men to take up their rest in mere 
 innocency, freedom from sin ; and they are slothful 
 souls that could count it happiness enough to be 
 harmless. I doubt men are much mistaken about 
 
175 
 
 holiness ; it is more than mere innocency, or free- 
 dom from the guilt or power of sin, it is not a nega- 
 tive thing ; there is something active, noble, divine, 
 powerful, in true religion. A soul that rightly 
 understands its own penury and self-insufficiency, 
 and the emptiness and meanness of all creature- 
 good, cannot possibly take up its rest, or place its 
 happiness in any thing but in a real participation of 
 God himself; and therefore is continually making 
 out towards that God from whom it came, and is 
 labouring to unite itself more and more unto him. 
 Let a low-spirited, fleshly-minded Pharisee take up 
 with a negative holiness and happiness, as he doth, 
 " God, I thank thee, that I am not" so and so ; a 
 noble and high-spirited Christian cannot take up his 
 rest in any negation or freedom from sin. Every godly 
 soul is not so learned, indeed, as to be able to de- 
 scribe the nature and proper perfection of a soul, 
 and to tell you how the happiness of a soul consists, 
 not in cessation and rest, as the happiness of a stone 
 doth, but in life, and power, and vigour, as the hap- 
 piness of God himself doth : but yet the spirit of 
 true religion is so excellent and powerful in every 
 godly soul, that it is still carrying it to the fuller en- 
 joyment of a higher good; and the soul doth find 
 and feel within itself, though it cannot discourse 
 philosophically of these things, that though it were 
 free from all disturbance of sin and affliction in the 
 world, yet still it wants some supreme and possible 
 good to make it completely happy, and so bends all 
 its power thitherward. This is the description 
 which you will every where find made in Scripture of 
 the true spirit of holiness, which hath always some- 
 
176 
 
 thing positive and divine in it, as ** Cease to do evil, 
 learn to do well ;" and " Put ofF the old man — put 
 on that new man, which after God is created in righ- 
 teousness and true holiness." And, accordingly, a 
 truly godly soul, to use the Apostle's words, though 
 he know nothing by himself, yet doth not thereby 
 count himself happy. 
 
 4. The active spirit of true religion, where it is 
 in the soul, will not suffer men to take up their rest 
 in some measures of grace received ; and so far as 
 the soul doth so, it is sluggish and less active than it 
 ought to be. This, indeed, ofttimes comes to pass, 
 when the soul is under some distemper of proud self- 
 ishness, earthly-mindedness, or the like ; or is less 
 apprehensive of its object and happiness ; as it seems 
 to have been the case of the spouse, "I have put off 
 my coat ; how shall I put it on ? I have washed my 
 feet; how shall I defile them ?" Some such faint- 
 ing fits, languishings, surfeitings, insensibleness, 
 must be allowed to be in the godly soul during its 
 imprisoned and imperfect state : but we must not 
 judge ourselves by any present distempers, or infirmi- 
 ties. The nature of religion, when it acts the soul 
 rightly and powerfully, is to carry after it a more 
 lively resemblance of God, which is the most proper 
 and excellent enjoyment of him. A mind rightly 
 and actually sound is most sick of love ; and the na- 
 ture of love is, not to know when it is near enough 
 to its object, but still to long after the most perfect 
 conjunction with it. This well of water, if it be not 
 violently obstructed for a time, is ever springing up 
 till it be swallowed up in the ocean of divine love 
 and grace. The soul that is rightly acquainted with 
 
177 
 
 itself and its God, sees something still wanting in 
 itself, and to be enjoyed in him, which makes it 
 that it cannot be at rest, but is still springing up 
 into him, till it come to the measure of the stature 
 of the fulness of its Lord. In this holy, loving, 
 longing, striving, active temper, we find the great 
 Apostle : " Not as though I had already attained, 
 either were already perfect ; but I follow after, if 
 that I may apprehend that for which also I am ap- 
 prehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not 
 myself to have apprehended : but this one thing I 
 do, forgetting those things which are behind, and 
 reaching forth unto those things which are before, 
 I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high 
 calling of God in Christ Jesus." And by how 
 much the more of divine grace any soul hath drunk 
 in, the more thirsty is it after much more. 
 
 5. The active spirit of true religion, where it is 
 powerfully seated in the minds of men, will not suf- 
 fer them to settle into a love of this animal life, nor 
 indeed suffer them to be content to live for ever in 
 such a kind of body as this; and that soul is in a 
 degree lazy and slothful, that doth not desire to de- 
 part and be with his Lord. The godly soul eyeing 
 God as his perfect and full happiness, and finding 
 that his being in the body doth separate him from 
 God, keeps him in a poor and imperfect state, and 
 hinders his blissful communion with the highest 
 good, groans within itself, with the Apostle, that 
 " mortality were swallowed up of life." I know not 
 how much, but I think he hath not very much of 
 God, neither sight of him, nor love of him, that 
 could be content to abide for ever in this imperfect, 
 
 H 3 
 
178 » 
 
 mixed, low state, and never be perfected in the full 
 enjoyment of him. And it seems, that they in 
 whom the love of God is rightly predominant, po- 
 tent, flourishing, do also look earnestly " for the 
 mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life," as 
 without doubt they ought to do: " What manner of 
 persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and 
 godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming 
 of the day of God !" 
 
 Let this sufBce by way of general reprehension. 
 
 2. More particularly, the consideration of the 
 active nature of true religion may well serve to cor- 
 rect a mistake about that noble jrrace of faith. How 
 dishonourably do some speak of this excellent and 
 powerful grace, when they make it to be a slothful, 
 passive thing, an idle kind of waiting, or a melan- 
 cholic sitting still; where, in deed and in truth, it is 
 life and power. Be not mistaken in so high and 
 eminent a grace : true faith doth not only accept the 
 imputed righteousness of Christ for justification, but 
 by a lively dependence upon God, drinks in divine 
 influences, and eagerly draws in grace, and virtue, 
 and life, from the fountain of grace, for its more 
 perfect sanctification : and for this cause, I think, a 
 purifying virtue is ascribed to it, Acts xv. 9. Faith 
 is not a lazy, languid thing, content to wait for sal- 
 vation till the world to come ; but it is even now 
 gasping after it, and accomplishing it too in a way of 
 mortification, self-denial, and growing up in God : it 
 is not content to be a candidate waiting for life and 
 happiness, but is actually drawing down heaven into 
 the soul, attracting God to itself, sucking in partici- 
 pations of divine grace and image into the soul : its 
 
179 
 
 motto is that of the famous painter, " No day with- 
 out a line :" it longs to find some divine lineament, 
 some line of God's image drawn upon the soul daily. 
 Faith is a giving grace, as well as receiving ; it gives 
 up the whole soul to God, and is troubled that it can 
 give him no more; it binds over the soul afresh to 
 God every day, and is troubled that it can bind it no 
 faster, nor closer to him. The believing soul is 
 wearied because of murderers, murdering loves, lusts, 
 cares, earthly pleasures, and calls mightily upon 
 Christ, to come and take vengeance upon them : it 
 is wearied because of those robbers that are daily 
 stealing away precious time and affections from God, 
 which are due unto him, and calls upon Christ, to 
 come and scourge these thieves, these buyers and 
 sellers out of his own temple. In a word, the godly 
 soul is active, and faith is the very life and action of 
 the soul itself. 
 
 Lastly, Let me exhort all Christians from hence 
 to be zealous, to be fervent in spirit, serving the 
 Lord, and longing after him : " Stir up the grace of 
 God that is in you :" quench not, that is, blow up, 
 inflame the Spirit of God in you. Awake, Chris- 
 tian soul, out of thy lethargy, and rejoice, as the sun, 
 to run the race that is set before thee, and, as a 
 mighty man refreshed with wine, to fight thy spirit- 
 ual battles against the armies of uncircumcised, pro- 
 fane, and earthly concupiscences, love, and passions. 
 Eye God as your centre, the enjoyment of him as 
 the happiness, and full conformity to him as the per- 
 fection, of your souls; and then say. Awake, arise, 
 O my soul, and hide not thy hand in thy bosom, 
 but throw thyself into the very heart and bosom of 
 
180 
 
 God: lay hold upon eternal life. Again, observe 
 how all things in the world pursue their several per- 
 fections with unwearied and impatient longings, and 
 say. Come, my soul, and do thou likewise. Con- 
 verse not with God, so much under the notion of a 
 lawgiver, but as with love itself; nor with his com- 
 mands, as having authority in them, but as ha^^n^ 
 goodness, and life, and sweetness in them. Again, 
 consider your poverty as creatures, and how utterly 
 impossible it is for you to be happy in yourselves, 
 and say. Arise, O my soul, from off this weak and 
 tottering foundation, and build thyself upon God ; 
 cease pinchinor thvself within the straits of self-suffi- 
 ciencies, and come, stretch thyself upon infinite 
 goodness and fulness. Again, pore not upon your 
 attainments : do not sit brooding upon your present 
 accomplishments, but forget the things that are be- 
 hind, and say. Awake, O my soul ; there is yet 
 infinitely much more in God: pursue after him for 
 it, till tbiOu hast gotten as much as a created being is 
 capable to receive of the divine nature. In a word, 
 take heed you live not by the lowest examples, 
 (which thing keeps many in a dwindling state all 
 their days) but by the highest : read over the spouse's 
 temper, ** sick of love ;" David's temper, ** waiting 
 for God more than thev that watch for the morning — 
 breaking in heart for the longing that he had to the 
 Lord," and say. Arise, O mv soul, and live as high 
 as the highest ; it is no fault to desire to be as good, 
 as holy, as happy as an angel of God. " And thus, 
 O my tioul, open thy mouth wide, and God hath pro- 
 mised to fill thee I" 
 
181 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 I'hat rdi'^ion is a lasting and persecering principle in the 
 souls of men. The grounds of thi^s perseverance as- 
 si'yned ; Jirst, negatively, it doth not arise from the 
 absolute impossibility of losing of grace la the creature, 
 nor from the strength of mansfree-vcilL Secondly, af- 
 
 Jimiatively, the grace of election cannot fail. The 
 grace of jir^t if cation is neither suspended nor violated : 
 the covenant of grace is everlasting : the Mediator of 
 this covenant lives for ever: the promises of it immu- 
 table ; the righteousness brought in by the Messiah ever- 
 lasting. An objection answered concerning a regenerate 
 mans veil ling his oven apostacy. An objection an- 
 svcered, draivnfrom the falls of saints in Scripture. A 
 
 ■ discovery of counterfeit religion, and the shameful apos- 
 tacy of false professors. An encouragement to all holy 
 diligence, from the consider atian of this doctrine. 
 
 I COME now to the thiid property of true religion 
 contained in these words, and that is, the perseverance 
 of it. And here the foundation of my following 
 discourse shall be this proposition, 
 
 " True religion is a lasting and persevering prin- 
 ciple in the souls of good men." It is said of the 
 hypocritical Jews, that their goodness was as the 
 " early dew, that soon passes away." But that prin- 
 ciple of goodness which God planteth in the souls of 
 his people, is compared to a well of water, evermore 
 sending forth fresh streams, and incessantly spring- 
 ing up towards God himself. Our Saviour compares 
 hypocritical professors to *'seed sown upon stony 
 
18^ 
 
 ground," that springs up indeed, but soon withers 
 away, but this well of water, which is in the sincere 
 godly soul, springs up into everlasting life ; it 
 springs and is never dried up ; " it is a spring of 
 water, whose waters fail not," or lies not, as it is 
 expressed by the Prophet, Isa. Iviii. 11. or if you 
 look upon it under the metaphor of oil, as it is some- 
 times expressed in Scripture, then it is truly that oil 
 that faileth not, whereof the widow of Sarepta's 
 cruise of oil was but a scant resemblance. Amongst 
 other texts which the learned Dr. Arrowsmith 
 brings to prove the infallibility of the perseverance 
 of saints, this saying of our Saviour's, which is the 
 subject of my whole discourse, is one ; who also 
 quoteth Theophylact for the same opinion, namely, 
 the perseverance of this principle, yea, and some- 
 what more, even the growth and multiplication of it. 
 To the same purpose the same excellent author 
 quoteth John x. 27, 28. "My sheep hear my voice, 
 and I know them, and they follow me : and I give 
 unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, 
 neither shall any pluck them out of my hand." 
 In which words our Saviour strongly asserteth the 
 certain glorification of his elect, by using a verb of 
 the present tense, " I give unto them eternal life;" 
 he will as certainly give it them, as if they had it 
 already; except the words do imply that they have 
 it already, namely, the beginnings of it, even in this 
 life : and if so, then the words do yet more strongly 
 assert the doctrine of perseverance ; for how can that 
 life be called eternal, which maybe ended ? In the 
 same words, he seemeth purposely to prevent fears, 
 and before-hand to answer objections, by securing 
 
183 
 
 them both from internal and external enemies ; " they 
 shall never perish," namely, of their own accord ; 
 " neither shall any pluck them out of my hand :" for 
 the word in the original is such as doth secure them 
 from the power of devils as well as men ; and what is 
 said of the church in general, is also certain con- 
 cerning every true member of it in particular ; " the 
 gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Christ 
 hath not only chosen and ordained his people that 
 they should be holy, but also that they should per- 
 severe in holiness ; not only that they should bring 
 forth good fruits, but that their "fruits should re- 
 main." Hence they are said to be " born again of 
 incorruptible seed, which liveth and abideth for ever." 
 And he that is born of God, is said to have the seed 
 of God in him, and remaining in him, and so remain- 
 ing in him as that he shall never again commit sin, 
 that is, shall not become any more ungodly, 1 John 
 iii. 9. To all which may be added that strong and 
 strengthening text, " I am persuaded that neither 
 death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor 
 powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor 
 height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be 
 able to separate us from the love of God which is in 
 Christ Jesus our Lord:" which one text doth ex- 
 cellently assert both those high and comfortable doc- 
 trines of assurance and perseverance; and they are 
 worthy to be honoured in the church of God, who 
 have vindicated it from the corrupt glosses and cavils 
 of the Papists, who have endeavoured to rob Chris- 
 tians of the sweetness which may be drawn out of 
 that pregnant honey-comb. In a word, let the holy 
 Psalmist's experience of the supporting virtue of 
 
184 
 
 this doctrine shut up the proof of it at present, who 
 found himself wonderfully comforted by it after all 
 his fears and falls, where he sings of the loving- 
 kindness of the Lord in time past ; " Thou hast 
 holden me by my right hand ;" and, at present, " I 
 am continually with thee;" that is, thou art conti- 
 nually with me ; and, with the like courage and 
 confidence, he speaks of all time to come, " Thou 
 shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterwards re- 
 ceive me to glory." Now, although the doctrine of 
 the perseverance of saints be thus fully and clearly 
 laid down in Scripture, yet it is easy to err, in giving 
 an account of it, and of the grounds of it. And, 
 therefore, I shall proceed to the grounds of it, which . 
 I shall briefly lay down negatively and affirmatively. 
 First, negatively. 
 
 1. The certain perseverance of the saints in a 
 state of grace, doth not arise from the absolute im- 
 possibility of losing of grace in the creature: it is 
 one thing to affirm, that grace shall not be lost, and 
 another thing to affirm, that it is absolutely unlose- 
 able. God hath told us, that the world shall no 
 more be drowned, but who will say for all that, that 
 it is not in itself capable of drowning ? Whilst we 
 think to honour God by asserting the permanency 
 of grace, we must take heed lest we make a god of 
 grace, and so dishonour him. Grace, as it is in 
 God, in the fountain, which divines sometimes call 
 active grace, is eternal and unchangeable, not sub- 
 ject to any defection or alteration. There is no 
 time, or place, or case, wherein the love and good- 
 ness of God faileth towards his elect. It is one and 
 the same in God towards his people, even when they 
 
185 
 
 are under the greatest desertions, and have no sense 
 at all of it. We must not say the sun is grown 
 dark, as oft as a dark cloud interposeth between it 
 and our sight. Yea, however, it be most certain, 
 that the pure and holy God hateth sin even in his 
 elect, yet it is also certain, that the good and gra- 
 cious God loveth the persons of his saints, even at 
 what time they sin : " For the love of God towards 
 the regenerate," saith Davenant, " is not founded 
 upon their perfect purity and holiness, but upon 
 Christ Jesus the Mediator, who hath transferred 
 their sins upon himself, and so hath redeemed them 
 from the wrath of God." The love and kindness of 
 God towards his people is absolutely unchange- 
 able and everlasting. But grace in the creature, 
 itself being a creature, is not simply and absolutely 
 unchangeable or unloseable : there is a possibility of 
 losing inherent grace, if it be considered in itself; 
 yea, and it would actually be lost and perish, but 
 that God upholdeth his people with one hand, whilst 
 he exerciseth them with the other. Though, with 
 all my might, I desire to maintain the perseverance 
 of the saints, yet I dare not, as the manner of some 
 is, ground it upon the firmness and rootedness of 
 faith in man, but upon the goodness and faithfulness 
 of God, which is such towards his elect, that he will 
 " keep them by his mighty power through faith unto 
 salvation," as the Apostle expresseth it. 
 
 2. It doth not arise from the strength of man's 
 free-will, as if he were, of himself, able to keep him- 
 self for ever in a state of grace, when God had once 
 put him into it. The saints, indeed, shall for ever 
 will their own perseverance, as we shall see after- 
 
186 
 
 wards; but it is God that worketh in them even this 
 will. Man's own free-will, or self-sufficiency, is so 
 far from being the ground of his perseverance in 
 grace and holiness, that I do believe nothing in 
 the world is more directly contrary to grace, than 
 habitual and predominant self-confidence; and, even 
 in the saints themselves, there is nothing that tends 
 more towards their apostacy, than this self-conceit 
 and confidence of their own strength, as something 
 distinct from God, though the same be not habitual 
 and predominant; for they themselves are many 
 times sadly weakened and set back by that means, 
 and suffer many lamentable spiritual decays. This 
 seems to have sometimes been the case of Hezekiah, 
 and of David too, and had like to have been the case 
 of Paul, when he had so much abounded in revela- 
 tions, 2 Cor. xii. 7. Sure it is, that nothing doth 
 more estrange the hearts of God's people from him, 
 nor bind up the influences of divine grace and fa- 
 vour from them, than this security, confidence in the 
 strength of their own wills, and vain opinion of self- 
 sufficiency, which thing the ead experience of holy 
 Christians doth attest: not only the apostles James 
 and Peter, but indeed all the true disciples of Christ 
 in the world, agree to that proverb, ** God resisteth 
 the proud, but giveth grace to the humble." In a 
 word, though " to do justly, and to love mercy," 
 have indeed much of religion in them, yet unto per- 
 severance, it is also required that a man deny him- 
 self and the sufficiency of his own free-will; and, in 
 the prophet's expression, " walk humbly with his 
 God." You know whose boast it was, " Though 
 all men shall be offisnded because of thee, yet will I 
 
187 
 
 never be offended;" and again, " Though I should 
 die with thee, yet will I not deny thee;" and what 
 was the lamentable consequence of this self-con- 
 fidence, you know likewise. Wherefore, let him 
 that standeth by his own strength, take heed lest he 
 fall. 
 
 I proceed now to speak something affirmatively 
 concerning the grounds of the saints' perseverance 
 in a state of grace. I have already showed you that 
 active grace is absolutely of an immutable nature; 
 and although passive grace be not so, yet it shall not 
 be totally and finally lost. For, 
 
 1. The grace of election cannot fail. When I 
 think of that uncertain, conditional, mutable decree 
 of saving men, v/hich some ascribe to God, who is 
 infinite and eternal wisdom and oneness, methinks I 
 may, with great reason, apply the Apostle's words, 
 sp6ken concerning himself, and say, when God is 
 thus graciously minded to elect his people to eternal 
 life, " Doth he use lightness ; or the things that he 
 purposeth, doth he purpose according to the flesh," 
 after the manner of men, who are unsteady and 
 wavering in their determinations? Is there with 
 him " Yea, yea, and nay, nay?" What doth the 
 Apostle mean by those words, " The foundation of 
 God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord 
 knoweth them that are his?" The Apostle, in the 
 foregoing verse, having related the apostacy of Hy- 
 meneus and Philetus, and the overthrow of some 
 men's faith by their means, immediately subjoins 
 this comfortable doctrine of the steadfastness and 
 firmness of God's decrees of election, to prevent the 
 offence which the saints might take against the falls 
 
188 
 
 of others, and to relieve them against the fears that 
 they might possibly conceive concerning their own 
 perseverance; q. d. let no one be offended, as if the 
 salvation of the elect were uncertain. It appears that 
 these men were none of God's elect, because they j| 
 are seduced, and the faith that they had is over- 
 thrown. And as for your part who are elected, fear 
 not lest ye also should apostatise; it is not possible 
 to deceive the elect in the necessary and fundamen- 
 tal truths of the gospel: fear not lest ye also should 
 be drawn away by the error of the wicked unto per- 
 dition; " for the foundation of God standeth sure," 
 &c. In which sentence, says Dr. Arrowsmith, al- 
 most every word breathes firmness and performance : 
 nothing is more sure in a building than the founda- 
 tion ; that you may not doubt of that, it is also called 
 sure, or steady. This sure foundation is said to 
 stand, that is, say the Dutch annotators, abideth 
 steadfast and certain ; for it is the foundation, not of 
 man's laying, but of God, with whom there is " no 
 variableness nor shadow of change." Yea, further, 
 this foundation is said to be sealed : now, what is 
 accounted more firm and sure than those things which 
 are sealed with a seal, especially such a seal as thisj 
 '* The Lord knoweth who are his ?" Though the 
 wisest of men are oft deceived in their opinions, yet 
 the knowledge of God is infinitely infallible. Ac- 
 cording to that of Austin, " If any of the elect 
 perish, God is deceived: but God is not deceived; 
 therefore, none of the elect can perish, for the Lord 
 knoweth who are his." When Samuel, indeed, 
 went to separate one of the sons of Jesse from the 
 rest of his brethren to be king over Israel, he first 
 
189 
 
 pitched upon Eliab, and afterwards rejected him; 
 but God is guilty of no such inconstancy in that, 
 eternal election which he makes of men to be kings 
 and priests unto himself. Those several acts of 
 divine grace mentioned, Rom. viii. 29, 30. though 
 they be many links, yet run one into another, 
 and all, from first to last, make up but one chain; 
 concerning which divine and mysterious concatena- 
 tion, one may boldly use that peremptory prohibition 
 which our Lord useth concerning a less indissoluble 
 conjunction, " What God hath joined together, let 
 no man put asunder.'' 
 
 2. The grace of justification is neither suspended 
 nor violated ; it admits neither of intercision nor 
 rescision, neither of pause nor period. There is 
 nothing between justification and glorification in the 
 Apostle's sentence, but the copulative and^ Rom. viii. 
 30. there is nothing between a justified soul and 
 glory, but a mere passage into it. May we be al- 
 lowed to triumph with the holy Apostle in the same 
 chapter, " Who shall bring an accusation against 
 God's elect ? It is God that justifieth." But 
 what though you be at present justified, may some 
 say, Is there not a possibility of being unjustified 
 again ? May not the righteousness of the righteous 
 be taken from him ? may you not be condemned 
 hereafter ? But " who is he that shall condemn us ? 
 It is Christ that died." As if the Apostle had said. 
 The love of God towards his justified ones is not 
 grounded upon their purity, loveliness, or perfection, 
 but it is founded upon their Redeemer; which Re- 
 deemer hath done enough, both to bring them into 
 a justified state, and to keep them in it for ever. It 
 
190 
 
 is Christ that died to free thera from sin; it is Christ 
 that is risen again for their justification ; " who is 
 at the right hand of God," to deliver them from all 
 their enemies, that maketh intercession for them, for 
 their perseverance. God loves nothing but the com- 
 munications of himself. So far as anything partakes 
 of the divine image, so far it partakes of divine fa- 
 vour and complacency; so that, whilst a good man 
 bears a resemblance to God, so long he shall be ac- 
 cepted of him, and embraced in the arms of his love; 
 and that shall be for ever, as we shall see under the 
 next head. Until you have blotted out all the 
 image and superscription of God out of a godly 
 soul; until you have razed out all the stamps and 
 impressions of goodness; in a word, until you have 
 rendered him wicked and ungodly, you cannot aban- 
 don him from the embraces of God: which thing 
 men and devils shall never be able to do, as I have 
 partly showed already, and shall yet show more at 
 large. 
 
 It is true, indeed, that Adam fell from a just 
 state, though not from a justified state; for that 
 supposes sin formerly committed. But this is no 
 great wonder; for he had his righteousness in him- 
 self, and his happiness in his own keeping: but the 
 condition of believers is now more safe and firm, as 
 depending not upon any created power or will, but 
 upon the infinite and effectual help and strength of a 
 Mediator, which will never fail. 
 
 3. The covenant of grace is everlasting. It hath 
 pleased God to enter into a covenant of grace and 
 peace with every believing soul; which, I suppose, 
 I need not go about to prove, all Christians acknow- 
 
191 
 
 ledging it, though they do not all agree in one no- 
 tion of it. Now, this covenant, wherein God en- 
 gages himself to be their God (for that is the sum- 
 mary contents of it on his part) is expressly called 
 by the Apostle, " the everlasting covenant." And 
 again, Jer. xxxii. 40. " I will make an everlasting 
 covenant with them ;" which covenant, and the ever- 
 lastingness of it, are fully explained in the following 
 words, *' I will not turn away from them to do them 
 good;" the inviolable nature of this covenant is also 
 expressly asserted in that famous place, Jer. xxxi. 
 31, 32. " I will make a new covenant with the 
 house of Israel, not according to the covenant that 
 I made with their fathers, (which my covenant they 
 brake ;") as if he had said, I will make a covenant 
 that shall not be subject to breaches. In the former 
 covenant with their fathers, I gave them laws to 
 keep, which they kept not; but, in the new cove- 
 nant, I will give them also a heart to keep my laws; 
 it is not possible that covenant should be broken, 
 one principal part of which is a heart both able and 
 willing to keep it. The similitudes which God 
 useth in the 35th, 36th, and 37th verses of that same 
 chapter, do also further confirm and illustrate this 
 doctrine of the everlastingness of this covenant of 
 grace. 
 
 Under this head let me glance at three things. 
 
 1. The Mediator of this covenant lives for ever, 
 and lives to make intercession for believers, and 
 from this the Apostle argues, that they shall be 
 saved to the uttermost, or evermore, as the margin 
 reads it. From this, also, the Apostle argues the 
 unchangeable state of believers, as we observed be- 
 
192 
 
 fore, out of Rom. viii. 34. Christ Jesus is always 
 heard and accepted of the Father, in all the requests 
 that he maketh to Iiim, according to that in John xi, 
 41, 42. ** Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, 
 I thank thee that thou hast heard me ; and I know 
 that thou hearest me always." If these things be 
 so, then the perseverance of the saints is built upon 
 a most certain foundation, is secured against the 
 very gates of hell ; for Christ hath prayed for them 
 that they may be where he is, and, in the meantime, 
 that they may be kept " from the evil," and that 
 their " faith fail not." 
 
 The promises of this covenant are immutable, 
 " they are in Christ Jesus yea and amen ;" as if 
 one should say in Latin, Cerlo ccrtiora, ' perfectly 
 sure and certain.' God, who is truth itself, will not, 
 cannot be unto his people as a liar, or " as waters 
 that fail," as the prophet's phrase is; the infinite 
 fountain of grace and truth cannot possibly become 
 like one of the brooks which Job speaks of, which 
 seem to be full of water, and are so at a certain 
 winter season ; but when the poor scorched Arabian 
 comes to look for water in summer, he goes away 
 ashamed, because they are now vanished, they are 
 consumed out of their place. Now, the promise is 
 concerning not only grace, but the final perseverance 
 of it : if he promise pardoning grace, it is in these 
 full and satisfying expressions, " I will remember 
 their sin (any one of their sins) no more." If he 
 promise purging and purifying grace, it is in the like 
 amplitude of phrase, " that they may fear me for 
 ever;" and, again, "they shall not depart from me," 
 with many other places of like importance. 
 
193 
 
 3, The righteousness brought in by this Media- 
 tor is " an everlasting righteousness," as it is ex- 
 pressly called, Dan. ix. 24. by which I do not un- 
 derstand the righteousness of justification, (which 
 was always one and the same, and there was never 
 any righteousness of that kind temporary or fading) 
 but the righteousness of real internal sanctification, 
 in opposition to that positive and temporary righte- 
 ousness, which depended upon the pleasure of God 
 that did prescribe it. This righteousness brought 
 in and advanced by Christ, (who, in a powerful and 
 vital vvay, dispenseth the same by his Holy Spirit 
 unto the minds and souls of men,) is not only true 
 and inward, in opposition to the Pharisaical, which 
 was an external conformity only, but it is of an ever- 
 lasting and unchangeable nature, as being grounded 
 upon, and indeed conform.able to eternal and un- 
 changeable truth, in opposition to that temporary 
 kind of righteousness which was grounded upon 
 positive laws, and the arbitrary commands of God, 
 if I may so call them. This eternal righteousness 
 is by Christ Jesus, the Prince of life, put into the 
 very souls of men, and, being a plant of his planting, 
 shall never be plucked up. We read, indeed, in 
 the prophet Ezekiel, that the glory of God de- 
 parted out of the temple made with hands; but this 
 glory of God, his image, shall never depart out of 
 the living temple, the souls of good men, having 
 once powerfully displayed itself there. And there- 
 fore God is said to dwell in the souls of his people, 
 in opposition to a wayfaring man, " who turneth in to 
 tarry for a night." God indeed hath promised, that 
 it shall be said to them that were not his people^ 
 
 I 38 
 
19 i 
 
 " Ye are the sons of the livinfj God," but never on 
 the contrary; he hath no where threatened them that 
 are the sons of the living God, that it shall at any 
 time be said to them, ye are not my people. True 
 indeed, as to external profession, church-member- 
 ship, mere covenant holiness, and outward com- 
 munion, God doth many times disinherit and reject 
 them that were so his people : but, as to true £;odli- 
 ness, participation of the divine image, internal and 
 spiritual communion, we may confidently sa}^, with 
 the Apostle to the Corintliians, " God is faithful, 
 by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his 
 Son Jesus Christ our Lord ;" or, with the same 
 Apostle to the Thessalonians, " Faithful is he that 
 calleth you, who also will do it." Do what? why, 
 that which he was speaking of, and praying for, 
 namely, " Preserve spirit, and soul, and body, blame- 
 less unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ," 
 
 I conclude then, that grace in the creature is a 
 participation of him who is essential and perfect grace 
 and goodness ; a communication made by him of his 
 holy nature, which becomes a living principle in the 
 souls of men; a fountain sending forth a continued 
 stream of holy dispositions and affections without in- 
 tercision or cessation: though these streams run some- 
 times higher, sometimes lower, sometimes swifter, 
 sometimes slower, yet they are never v/holly dried 
 up as the brooks of Tema were. For, where God 
 hath once opened a fountain in the soul, he feeds it 
 with fresh supplies from himself, as a fountain itself 
 would dry up, if it were not nourished by the sup- 
 plies of subterraneous waters. The perseverance 
 of grace depends purely upon the supports and sup- 
 
195 
 
 plies of uncreated essential life and goodness. But 
 how do we know that God will certainly afford these 
 supplies? We build upon his goodness and love in 
 Christ towards his elect, which is infinite and un- 
 speakable ; and upon his faithfulness in accomplish- 
 ing his promise, namely, that *' he will never leave 
 nor forsake them," that " he will keep them by his 
 power unto salvation." They that are of the number 
 of God's holy and chosen ones, shall, no doubt, con- 
 tinue of that number according to that in 1 John ii. 
 19. They that are truly in Christ shall abide in him. 
 The seed of God remainetli in the godly, and they 
 cannot sin, because they are born of God. " He 
 that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that 
 wicked one toucheth hira not." What can be more 
 express and ample than that consolatory promise of 
 our Lord, made to his poor frail sheep, " I give unto 
 them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither 
 shall any pluck them out of my hand." 
 
 But some one may say, perhaps, what if man will 
 apostatize? What if the saints themselves will 
 forsake God? Will he not then say of them as the 
 Apostle of the unbelieving husband, *• If they will 
 depart, let them depart ?" Will not God forsake 
 them that forsake him ? 
 
 Ans. Yes, God will forsake them that forsake 
 him; but they never shall forsake him: they being 
 rightly renewed after the image of God, and per- 
 fectly overpowered by his grace, shall never will any 
 such departure: " I will betroth thee unto me for 
 ever." '* It is certain," says Dr. Arrowsmith, " that 
 God will condemn all impenitent sinners; but it is as 
 certain that all justified and regenerate sinners shall 
 
 1 2 
 
196 
 
 repent ; — this always occurs through the influence of 
 the Spirit." It seeras unreasonable to demand, what 
 if man himself will apostatize? seeing he is, by the 
 grace of God, so renewed in his will, and put into 
 such a condition, that he cannot will any such thing. ■ 
 *' God doth not give unto his saints," saith Austin, 
 " only such help, without which they could not per- 
 severe if they would (which w^as that which he gave 
 Adam:) but he also worketh in them the will: that 
 because they shall not persevere except they both 
 can and will, his bountiful grace bestoweth upon 
 them both the can and the will: for their will is so 
 inflamed by the Spirit of God, that they therefore 
 can, because they so will, they therefore so will, be- 
 cause God worketh in them to will." Neither is it 
 any disparagement or injury to the freedom of man's 
 will, that it should be overpowered by divine grace, 
 and determined only to that which is good. Tiie 
 indifFerency and fluctuation of the will of man is in- 
 deed the imperfection of it; and the more God re- 
 veals himself to the soul, as the chiefest good, the 
 more this indifferency of the will is destroyed, and 
 the faculty is determined; not by being constrained, 
 but indeed perfected. Oh unhnppy liberty, for a 
 soul to be indifferently affected towards its own hap- 
 piness, and to be free to choose its own misery ! 
 The noblest freedom in the world is, when a soul, 
 being delivered from its hesitancies, and healed of 
 its indifferences, is carried like a ship, with spread 
 sails and powerful winds, in a most speedy, cheerful, 
 and steady course into its own harbour, into the 
 arms and embraces of its own object. The grace of 
 God doth never so overpower the will of man, as to 
 
reduce it to a condition of slavery, so as that man 
 should not have a proper dominion over his own 
 acts; but I think we do generally conclude, that, in 
 the world to come, in the future state, the wills of 
 all glorified saints shall be so advanced and perfected 
 in their freedom, as not in the least to verge towards 
 any thing that is evil, but shall in the most gladsome 
 and steady manner be eternally carried towards their 
 full and glorious object, which the glorified under- 
 standing shall then represent in a most true, clear, 
 and ample manner; and this we take to be the soul's 
 truest liberty in the highest elevation of it. Now, 
 although it be not altogether thus wijh us in this 
 present world, (for by reason of the weakness and 
 rauddiness of our understandings, which do here re- 
 present God to us so faintly and disadvantageously, 
 it comes to pass that the will cannot so freely and 
 fervently, with so ardent and generous motions, pur- 
 sue its excellent object, as it shall do hereafter,) yet 
 1 believe that the more God reveals himself to any 
 soul, the more the fluctuations and equilibriousness 
 of it are healed, and a true liberty of will increased; 
 and that he doth so far reveal himself to every truly 
 godly soul, as to establish this noble freedom in him, 
 in such a degree as will keep him from willing a 
 final departure frorh him, and carry him certainly, 
 (how remissly and faintly soever) towards the supreme 
 and sovereign good, till he come to be perfectly 
 swallowed up in it. A will thus truly and divinely 
 free, though it be not the proper efficient cause, yet 
 certainly is an inseparable concomitant of final per- 
 severance. So then, the more God communicateth 
 himself to any soul, the more powerfully it willeth a 
 
198 
 
 nearer conjunction with him; and no soul, I conceive, 
 to whom God communicateth himself savingly, can 
 at any time will an utter separation from him. 
 
 As for the foulest falls of Scripture saints, that 
 are any where recorded, I know not what more can 
 rationally be inferred from them, but that grace in 
 the creature admits of ebbs and flows, is subject to 
 augmentations and diminutions; which I know no 
 sober person that denies. But, I think, the history 
 of their lapses, if we take it altogether, hath a very 
 favourable aspect upon the doctrine of perseverance ; 
 yea, for aught I know, one great design of God, in 
 penning those relations, might be to confirm this 
 very doctrine, by giving us so express and ample an 
 account of their repentance and recovery, that we 
 are indeed to believe they were strengthened by 
 their falls, so far were their falls from proving mortal 
 to them. One would think, that if ever the habits of 
 grace should be utterly suffocated and extinct, if ever 
 they should languish even unto death, it should be 
 under the power of such contrary acts as David and 
 Peter committed ; and especially Solomon, whose 
 acts, for aught I can see, were as foul, and also often 
 repeated, which is the likeliest thing that I know to 
 destroy gracious habits. I know there are instances 
 given of good Jehoash, Hymeneus, Alexander, De- 
 mas, utterly falling from that gracious state, wherein 
 sometimes they had been ; but it did never yet ap- 
 pear to me beyond contradiction, that ever they 
 were any of them in such a state. Jehoash is put 
 amongst the number of hypocrites, by some that 
 have examined his story; and, for aught that can 
 evidently appear to the contrary, Demas might be 
 
199 
 
 no better. Most is pleaded for Hymeneus and 
 Alexander, who put away a good conscience, and 
 made shipwreck of faith, 1 Tim. i. 19.. But it 
 does not yet appear, that the faith which they made 
 shipwreck of was any more than the profession or 
 doctrine of the true faith; yea, rather, it doth appear 
 that it was no more. Neither does it at all appear 
 that they ever liad that good conscience, which they 
 are said, in our translation, to have put away, which 
 may as fitly be rendered rejected; for that we find 
 to be the most common use of the Greek word 
 aTTco^Zu — to reject, repel, or thrust away from one. 
 I am not confident that this apostacy of theirs was 
 total neither, supposing it to be an apostacy; for 
 however their faith was shipwrecked, possibly some 
 plank or other of it might be left. And who dare 
 say that it was final? The Apostle doth not, that 
 I perceive, give them up for lost, but executes dis- 
 cipline upon them, as it seems, for their recovery, of 
 which one might think, by the following words, that 
 he had some hopes, — '' that they may learn not to 
 blaspheme." In short, then, as to. these two men, I 
 conceive, that good conscience which they put away 
 they never had, and the faith which they had was 
 not that good faith. And, as to the other two that 
 were named, and indeed as to all other instances of 
 the like nature, I suppose we may give this general 
 answer; that either they did but seem to stand, or 
 they did but seem to fall : the former, perhaps, was 
 the case of Jehoash, the latter of Deraas. When- 
 ever you observe, therefore, the backslidings of any 
 seeming Christians, take heed of concluding rashly 
 against the perseverance of saints; but rather infer 
 
200 
 
 with the holy Apostle, " Tliey went out from us, 
 but they were not of us ; for if tliey had been of us, 
 lliey would no doubt have continued with us :" which 
 words, if they be meant only of a communion in doc- 
 trine and profession, so as to conclude against the 
 separation of such as are indeed in such a commu- 
 nion, then we may argue the more strongly, from the 
 less to the greater, against the final apostacy of any 
 that are in a higher and more excellent communion. 
 As for those texts of Scripture that seem to sup- 
 pose a man's falling away from grace, and turning 
 from righteousness, I conceive a fair answer may be 
 given to them, by the distinguishing of righteous- 
 ness; and so it may be granted, that many men have 
 turned away from, and utterly made shipwreck of, 
 their legal righteousness, consisting in an external 
 conformity to the letter of the precepts of the law, 
 void of the supernatural and divine principle : it is 
 indeed the common lot of these men that spring up 
 thus fairly, and yet have no root, to wither away. 
 And yet, on the other hand, it abides an everlasting 
 maxim of truth, " Whosoever is born of God doth 
 not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and 
 he cannot sin, because he is born of God." If there 
 be any texts that seem to speak of apostatizing from 
 an evanfjelical riohteousncss, a ricrhteousness of faith, 
 and so cannot well be solved by this distinction, as 
 that in Heb. x. 38. and some others; it must be 
 considered that suppositions are made of things im- 
 possible as well as possible, yea, and that even in the 
 Scriptures themselves, as some have observed from 
 Gal. i. 8. 1 Cor. xv. 14. which texts do not at all 
 imply what they suppose. I know, indeed, that 
 
201 
 
 eternal salvation is ordinarily entailed upon perse- 
 verance, and so is promised to us in Scripture, as it 
 were conditionally : " If ye continue in my word, 
 then are ye my disciples indeed." " You hath he 
 reconciled in the body of his flesh, through death, 
 to present you holy, and unblamable, and unre- 
 provable in his sight ; if ye continue in the faith, 
 and be not moved away from the hope of the gos- 
 pel," &c. To the same purpose are those words : 
 " He that endureth to the end, the same shall be 
 saved ;" and, " He that overcoraeth, and keepeth 
 my words unto the end, to him will I give," &c. 
 Ail which do strongly imply, that there is no salva- 
 tion but in a way of perseverance; and the words 
 being laid down thus conditionally, especially the 
 words first quoted, are indeed cautionary and quick- 
 ening to the dull and sluggish minds of men, but do 
 not necessarily imply any uncertainty or doubtfulness 
 in the thing itself, no more than those words of the 
 Apostle Peter, 1 Peter i. 10. compared with the 
 latter end of the twelfth verse, where he doth affirm 
 them to be established in the truth, and yet, at the 
 same time, doth speak to them by way of caution 
 and encouragement. There are many texts that 
 seem to suppose the apostacy of men in a state of re- 
 generation, but not one that doth assert it, that ever 
 1 could yet find; but they are almost without num- 
 ber, that, to my apprehension, do more than seem 
 to assert the contrary, namely, their final persever- 
 ance : of which perseverance we have also, through 
 the goodness of God, thousands of instances ; but 
 no man could ever yet produce one instance of the 
 contrary, but by mere conjecture ; which conjectures, 
 
 I 3 
 
202 
 
 let them tliat make them, see that they neither be 
 overcharitable towards men, or uncharitable towards 
 God. Wherefore I do conclude, that what is said 
 concerning heaven and hell in the parable, as to one 
 branch of it, is true of grace and wickedness ; a gulf 
 is fixed, and they that would pass from God to sin 
 and the devil cannot: not that there shall ever be in 
 any a real and predominant desire so to pass, as I 
 suppose 1 have already proved ; but it denotes the 
 impossibility of the thing. It is equally impossible 
 that a ffocUv soul should fall from God, and become a 
 hater of him, fall from his love and image, and take 
 upon him the image of the devil, as it was for La- 
 zarus to quit Abraham's bosom for the flames of 
 hell. The case seems to be the same, the former 
 being the most real heaven, and the latter the truest 
 hell. True religion is that holy fire, which, being 
 once kindled in the soul from heaven, never goes out; 
 whereof the fire of the altar was but a faint and im- 
 perfect resemblance ; it is as true, in this respect, 
 of good men, as it is of wicked men in another, 
 " their fire never goes out." 
 
 x\nd here, now, we are presented with another 
 great difference between true and counterfeit religion. 
 All counterfeit religion will fade in time, though 
 ever so specious and flourishing ; all dew will pass 
 away, though some lie much longer than other; all 
 land- floods will fail ; yea, the flood of Noah at length 
 dried up, though it were of many months' duration. 
 But this well of water, which our Saviour speaks of 
 here, will never utterly fail ; cold adversity cannot 
 freeze it up ; scorching prosperity cannot dry it up; 
 the upper springs of uncreated grace and goodness 
 
203 
 
 will evermore feed those nether springs of grace and 
 holiness in the creature. Though heaven and earth 
 pass away, yet shall the seed of God remain, " Fie 
 that hath begun a good work will certainly perform 
 it." Where the ijrace of God hath beo-otten a di- 
 vine principle and spirit of true reHgion in a soul, 
 there is the central force even of heaven itself, still 
 attracting, and carrying the soul in its motions 
 thitherward, until it have lodged it in the very bo- 
 som and heart of God. If any principle lower than 
 true religion do actuate a man, it v/ill certainly waste 
 and be exhausted; though it may carry him swiftly 
 in a rapid motion, yet not in a steady ; though it 
 may carry him high, yet not quite through. A me- 
 teor that is exhaled from the earth by a foreign 
 force, though it may mount high in appearance, and 
 brave it in a blaze, enough to be envied by the poor 
 twinkling stars, and to be admired by ordinary 
 spectators, yet its fate is to fall down, and shamefuly 
 confess its base oritrinal. That reliijfion which men 
 put on only for a cloak, will wear out and drop into 
 rags, if it be not presently thrown by as a garment 
 of fashion. You have read of the seemiufj ri^hte- 
 ousness of Jehu, founded in ambition and cruelty, 
 the piety and devotion of Jehoash, grounded upon a 
 good and virtuous education, the zeal of Saul for the 
 worship of God, and his fat sacrifices, growing upon 
 a root of superstition, as Samuel, that man of God, 
 interprets it, 1 Sam. xv. 22. and you have seen the 
 shameful issue of all these dissemblers, and the stink- 
 ing snufF in which all this candle-light religion ended, 
 very much unlike to that sun-light lustre of true and 
 genuine goodness, ''' which shineth more and more 
 
unto the perfect day," according to that elegant de- 
 scription which the Spirit of God makes of it in the 
 writings of Solomon, whose pen hath as mnch 
 adorned this great truth as his life hath hlotted it: 
 "But the path of the just is as the shining light, 
 that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." 
 To this purpose I might fairly allege the frequent 
 testimonies which the Holy Ghost in Scripture gives 
 concerning such hypocritical and unprincipled pro- 
 fessors ; that, having no root, they wither away in a 
 scorcliing season, that they are again entangled in 
 the pollutions of the world, and overcome, that, like 
 dogs, they turn to their own vomit again, and, like 
 sows, wallow in the mire from which they had heen 
 washed, together with many others of the same na- 
 ture : as also the prophecies that are made concern- 
 ing them, that that which they seemed to have shall 
 be taken away from them, that they shall proceed no 
 further; "for their folly shall be manifest unto all 
 men," that "evil men and seducers," and of those, 
 self-seducers are the worst, " shall wax worse and 
 worse," vvith other places of the like nature. It,were 
 easy to record many histories of many men, espe- 
 cially great men, who have speedily, I had almost 
 said, disdainfully, thrown off that semblance of hu- 
 mility, meekness, self-denial, justice, and faithful- 
 ness, which they had put on, for a vizard, during 
 their probationaryship for preferment, the better to 
 accomplish their selfish designs, and to be possessed 
 of some base ends of their own. Bat yet I will not 
 deny, but tiiat a hypocrite may maintain a fair con- 
 formity to, and correspondence with, the letter of the 
 law of God; he may continue fair and specious to 
 
205 
 
 tlie very end of his life; yea, perhaps, may go to his 
 grave undiscovered either to himself, or any in the 
 world besides. I believe many men have lived and 
 died Pharisees, have never apostatized from that 
 righteousness which they professed, but have perse- 
 vered in their formality and hypocrisy to the last. 
 But yet, although that counterfeit righteousness and 
 religion may possibly not fade away, yet, neverthe- 
 less, being of an eartlily and selfish constitution, it 
 is transitory and fading; and, if it were soundly as- 
 saulted and battered with persecutions and tempta- 
 tions, no doubt, would actually vanish and disappear ; 
 on the other hand, the promise of God is pregnant 
 and precious, " They that wait upon the Lord shall 
 renew their strength; they shall walk and not faint." 
 Take encouragement from hence, all ye that love 
 the Lord ; go on in the strength of God ; be the 
 more lively, by hovv much the more you are assured 
 that this well of water shall spring up in you into 
 everlasting life. Make this good use of this com- 
 fortable doctrine : will God, indeed, work in you 
 "Jt)oth to will and to do?" why, then, so much the 
 rather " work out your own salvation," according to 
 the Apostle. " Will the Lord God be Vv'ith you ? 
 will he not fail you nor forsake you till you have 
 finished all your work?" why then, " be strong, and 
 of good courage, and do," as good David infers and 
 argues. Have you this hope, this firm ground of 
 hope, in the promise and goodness of God ? why 
 then, " purify yourselves as God is pure," according 
 to the Apostle. Stop the mouths of those men that 
 say the doctrine of perseverance is prejudicial to god- 
 liness; let them see, and be forced to acknowledge 
 
206 
 
 it, that the more a godly soul is assured of the in- 
 finite and unchangeable love and care of God towards 
 him, the more he is winged with love and zeal, with 
 speed mounting up thither daily, vyhere he longs to 
 arrive. They that understand the doctrine of per- 
 severance, do also understand that they must accom- 
 plish it in a way of dutiful diligence, and watchful 
 willingness ; and if any grow prof.ine and licentious, 
 and apostatize from the way of righteousness which 
 they have known, it is an evident argument to them 
 that they are no saints, and then what will the doc- 
 trine of the perseverance of saints avail them ? 
 
207 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Religion considered in the cojisequent of not tliirsting : 
 divine grace gives a solid satisfaction to the soul. This 
 aphorism conjirmed by some Scriptures, and largely ex- 
 plained in six propositions. First, that there is a raging 
 thirst in every soul of man, after some idtimate and satis- 
 factory good. Second, that every natural man tkirsteth 
 principcdly after happiness in the creature. Third, that 
 no man canjind that soul-filing satisfaction in any crea- 
 ture enjoyment. Fourth, that grace takes not aximy the 
 souVs thirst after happiness. Fifth, that the godly soid 
 thirsteth no more after rest in any u^orldly thing, but in 
 God (done ; hoivfar a godly 7nan may be said to thirst 
 after the creature. Sixth, that in the enjoyment of God 
 the soul is at rest ; and this in a double sense, namely, 
 so as that it is perfectly matched imth its object. Se- 
 condly, so satifed as to have joy and pleasure in him. 
 The chapter concludes with a passionate lamentation over 
 the levity and earthliness of Christian minds. 
 
 Hitherto we have taken a view of true religion, 
 as it stands described in this pregnant text, by its 
 original, nature, and properties : we are now to con- 
 sider it in the certain and genuine consequent of it; 
 and that is, in one word, affirmatively, satisfaction • 
 or, if you will, negatively, not thirsting: for so it is, 
 in our Saviour's phrase, " Whosoever drinketh of 
 the water that I shall give him shall never thirst." 
 
 Whilst I address myself to the explication of this 
 phrascy I suppose I need not be so exact and curious 
 as to tell you in order, with a certain kind of scho- 
 
208 
 
 lastlcal gravity, first, what is not; and then, what is 
 meant by it: for I presume no body will dream of 
 a corporeal or gross kind of thirsting to be meant 
 here. Grace doth no more quench the thirst of the 
 body, than elementary water can relieve the panting 
 of the soul. Nay, he himself was subject to this 
 gross kind of thirst, who gave to others the water, 
 whereof, if they drank, they should never thirst 
 more. If it be understood of a spiritual thirst, yet 
 I suppose I need not to tell you, that then it must 
 not be understood absolutely : for it cannot possibly 
 be, that the thirst of a soul should be perfectly al- 
 layed, till all its faculties be filled up to the brim of 
 their respective capacities, which will never be, until 
 it be swallowed up in the infinite and unbounded 
 ocean of the supreme good. 
 
 But I conceive we may fairly come to the mean- 
 ing of this phrase, " never thirst," neither by adding 
 or distinguishing. 
 
 1. Then, let us supply the sentence thus, " Who- 
 soever drinketh of the water that I shall give him 
 shall never thirst after any other water." There is 
 no worldly liquor can be so accommodated or attem- 
 pered to the palate, as to give it a universal satis- 
 faction, as that a man should be perfectly mortified 
 to all variety : but this heavenly water, which our 
 Saviour treats of here, is so fitted to the palate of 
 spirits, and brings such satisfaction along with it, 
 that the soul that is made to drink of it does sus- 
 pend its chase of all other delights, counts all other 
 waters but a filthy puddle, thirsts no more after any 
 other thing, neither through necessity nor for variety. 
 The more indeed the soul drinks of this water, the 
 
209 
 
 more it tbirsteth after fuller measures, and larger 
 portions of the same; and does not only draw in 
 divine virtue and influences, but even longs to be . 
 itself swallowed up in the Divinity, as we shall see 
 further in the procedure of this discourse: but its 
 thirst after all created good, all the waters of the 
 cistern are hereby extinixuished, or at least mastered 
 and mortified. Or, 
 
 2. By distinguishing upon thirst, the sense of the 
 phrase will be clearly this : " Whosoever drinketh of 
 the water that I shall give him," shall never be at a 
 loss more, never be to seek any more, never be un- 
 certain or unsatisfied as to his main happiness or 
 supreme object; he shall not rove and range up and 
 down the world in an unfixedness and suspense any 
 more; shall not run up and down to seek satisfaction 
 and rest any more. From an internal unsatisfied- 
 ness of the body, spring violent and restless motions 
 and runnings up and down, by which thirst is con- 
 tracted; so that, by a metonymy, thirst comes to be 
 used for unsatisfiedness, which is the remote cause 
 of it; and, by a metaphor, the same phrase comes 
 to be applied to the soul. I suppose I am warranted, 
 by the sacred style, thus to interpret, especially by 
 the use and explication of the phrase in Jer. ii. 25. 
 where the prophet intimates, that by thirst is to be 
 meant a restless and discontented running up and 
 down to seek satisfaction, " Withhold thy foot from 
 being unshod, and thy throat from thirst;" which 
 two phrases are of the same importance, and signify 
 no more, than cease from gadding after your idols; 
 and that this is the meaning of that thirsting, ap- 
 pears by the answer that the wilful and desperate 
 
210 
 
 people make in the sequel of the verse : for, ijistead 
 of saying, No, but we will thirst, they cry, " No, 
 but after them will I go." To thirst, then, is, in 
 an unsatisfiedness and spiritual disquiet, to range up 
 and down, seeking something wherein ultimately to 
 acquiesce. And, in this sense, it is most true what 
 our Lord here pronounceth, that " whosoever drink- 
 eth of the water that I shall give him shall never 
 thirst." Of which thirst that famous proclamation 
 of our Saviour's is to be understood, " If any man 
 thirst let him come unto me and drink;" in which 
 place also we must necessarily understand what is 
 here expressed, that then he shall never thirst more. 
 
 It matters not much by which of these two ways 
 we explain the phrase here of " not thirsting;" for, 
 according to either of them, it will result in this theo- 
 logical maxim, namely. That 
 
 " Divine grace, or the true Christian religion, 
 gives a real and solid satisfaction to the soul that is 
 principled with it." This will appear plain, though 
 we apply but out of each Testament of the Holy 
 Scriptures one text thereunto. I think it cannot 
 reasonably be doubted, but that the prophecy and 
 promise made in Isa. xlix. 10. is to be performed to 
 believers in this present life; for so must the fore- 
 going verses necessarily be understood; and there 
 we have the doctrine expressly asserted, " They 
 shall not hunger nor thirst, &c. for he that hath 
 mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs 
 of water shall he guide them." To which those 
 words of our Saviour are parallel, " He that be- 
 lieveth on me shall never thirst :" which doctrine of 
 his is yet amplified and enlarged in John vii, 38. 
 
211 
 
 " He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath 
 said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of Hving water." 
 What greater security from thirst can be desired, 
 than that one should be led by springs of water? 
 Yes, one may be led by the springs of water, and 
 vet not be suffered to drink of them : well, there- 
 fore, to put all out of fear, the godly soul shall con- 
 tain vvithin himself a spring of water; he shall have 
 rivers of living waters in himself; and, for his fuller 
 security, these rivers shall be ever flowing too. It 
 shall sufiice at present, thus briefly to have estab- 
 lished this conclusion. And now, having lapt up 
 the meaning of the words in this short position, I 
 shall endeavour to unfold it in these six following 
 propositions : — 
 
 1. " There is a raging thirst in every soul of man 
 after some ultimate and satisfactory good." The 
 God of nature hath implanted in every created nature 
 a secret but powerful tendency towards a centre, the 
 dictates of which, arising out of the very constitution 
 of it, it cannot disobey, until it cease to be such, and 
 utterly apostatize from the state of its creation. And 
 the nobler any being is, the more excellent is the 
 object assigned to it, and the more strong and po- 
 tent, and uncontrollable are its raptures and motions 
 thereunto. Wherefore, the soul of man must needs 
 also have its own proper centre, which must be some- 
 thing superior to, and more excellent than itself, 
 able to fill up all its indigencies, to match all its capa- 
 cities, to master all its cravings, and give a plenary, 
 and perfect satisfaction : which therefore can be no 
 other than the uncreated goodness, even God him- 
 self. It was not possible that God should make 
 
212 
 
 man of such faculties, and of that capaciousness as 
 we see thera, and appoint any thing below himself, 
 to be his ultimate happiness. Now, although it be 
 sadly true, that the faculties of the soul are miser- 
 ably maimed, depraved, beniijlited, distorted; yet I 
 do not see that the soul is utterly changed in its 
 nature by sin, so as that any other thing should be 
 obtruded upon it for its cent.e and happiness, than 
 tlie same infinite good that was such from the be- 
 ginning, or so as that its main and cardinal motions 
 should be ultimately directed to any other than its 
 natural and primitive object. The natural under- 
 standing hath not, indeed, any clear or distinct sight 
 of this blessed object; but yet it retains a darker 
 and more general apprehension of him, and may be 
 said, even in all its pursuits of other things, to be 
 still groping in the dark after him : neither is it 
 without some secret and latent sense of God, that 
 the will of man cliooseth or embraceth any thing for 
 good. The Apostle hesitates not to afBrm, that the 
 idolatrous Athenians themselves did worship God, 
 though at that time, indeed, they knew not what 
 they worshipped : their worship was secretly and im- 
 plicitly directed to God, and did ultimately resolve 
 itself into him, though they were not aware of it,— 
 " whom ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto 
 you." Now, that he declared God to them, appears 
 abundantly by the following verses ; what he says in 
 point of worship, the same, methinks, I may say in 
 point of love, trust, delight, dependence, and apply 
 it to all sorts of idolaters, as well as image-worship- 
 pers, and affirm that the covetous idolater, even when 
 he most fondly hugs his bags, and most firmly con- 
 
213 
 
 fideth in his riches, doth ignorantly love and trust 
 in God; the proud idolater, in the highest acts of 
 self-seeking, and self-pleasing, doth ignorantly ad- 
 mire and adore God ; the amhitious idolater, even 
 in the hottest chase of secular glory, and popular 
 applause, doth ignorantly pursue, and advance God. 
 For that rest, contentment, peace, happiness, satis- 
 faction, which these mistaken souls do aim at, what 
 is it other than God, though they attribute it to 
 something else which cannot afford it, and so commit 
 a real blasphemy : for they that do in their hearts, 
 and course of their lives, ascribe a filling and satisfy- 
 ing virtue to riches, pleasures, or honours, do as 
 truly, though not so loudly, blaspheme, as they who 
 cried out concerning the calf of gold, Exod. xxxii. 4. 
 " These be thy gods, O Israel !" And in this sense 
 that I have been speaking, one may safely affirm, 
 that the most professed Atheist in the world doth 
 secretly pursue the God whom he openly denies, 
 whilst his will is catching at that which his judg- 
 ment renounceth, and he allows that Deity in his 
 lusts vvhich he will not own in heaven. The hypo- 
 crite professes to know God, but in works denies 
 him ; on the other hand, the Atheist, though in 
 words he deny God, yet in his works he professeth 
 him : so natural and necessary it is for all men to 
 acknowledge a Deity, though some are so brutish 
 and besotted, as to confine him to their own bellies ; 
 of whom the Apostle speaks, " Whose god is their 
 belly." I say natural ; for it is not only some few 
 men of better education, and more contemplative 
 complexions, that hunt after this invisible and satis- 
 fying good ; but indeed the most vulgar souls, re- 
 
214 
 
 taining still the nature of souls, are perpetually 
 catching at an ultimate happiness and satisfaction, 
 and are secretly stung and tormented with the vvant 
 of it. Certainly the motions of a soul are more 
 strong and weighty than we are ordinarily aware of; 
 and, 1 think, one may safely conclude, that if there 
 were no latent sense, or natural science of God, the 
 poor man could not spend the powers of his soul so 
 intensely for the purchasing a little food and raiment 
 for the body, nor the covetous man so insatiably 
 thirst after houses and land, and a larger heap of 
 refined earth; did they not secretly imagine, I mean, 
 some contentment, happiness, or satisfaction, were 
 to be drunk in together with these acquirements, 
 they would seem to be but dry and insipid morsels 
 to a soul ; which ultimate happiness and satisfaction, 
 as I said before, can be no other than God himself, 
 whom these mistaken souls do ignorantly adore, and 
 feel for in the dark. Neither let any one think that 
 this ignorant and unwary pursuit of God can pass 
 for religion, or be acceptable in the sight of God ; 
 for, as it is impossible that ever any man should 
 stumble into a happy state, without foresight and 
 free choice, and be in it without any kind of sense 
 or feeling of it, so neither can God accept the bUnd 
 for sacrifice, or be pleased with any thing less than 
 reasonable service from a reasonable creature. As 
 the Athenians, worshipping God by altars and images, 
 are counted superstitious, not devout, so the whole 
 generation of gross and sensual souls admiring, lov- 
 ing, and ignorantly coveting after God in the pic- 
 tures and images of true goodness, are, indeed, truly 
 blasphemers and idolaters, but religious they cannot 
 
215 
 
 be. We cannot excuse them from idolatry, who 
 direct their worship purposely to the true God, by 
 or through imafres ; much less can we be favourable 
 to those who bestow their love, joy, confidence, and 
 delight, ignorantly upon the supreme and self-suffi- 
 cient good, by or through any created good, in which 
 they, as far as they understand, do terminate their 
 devotion. I do not say that all souls have a distinct 
 discovery of the good they aim at, it is evident they 
 have not; but yet the will of every man is secretly 
 in chase of some ultimate end and happiness, and, 
 indeed, in its eager tendencies outflies the under- 
 standing. All which mystery seems to be wrapped 
 up in that short but pithy inquiry, which, if it were 
 a little otherwise modified, would be an excellent de- 
 scription of the natural soul, " Many say, who will 
 show us any good ?" The nature of the object is 
 set out in the word "good," the eagerness of the 
 motion, in the form of the question, " who will show 
 us ?" and the ignorance of the mover appears in the 
 indeterminateness of this object, which is v/ell ex- 
 plained by the supply of the word any ; " who will 
 show us any good ?" And, tliat this is the cry of 
 every rational soul, is insinuated by the word many -, 
 which mani/ is also, in metre, multiplied into the 
 greater sort, and must indeed, necessarily, be ex- 
 tended unto all. 
 
 2. " Every natural man thirsteth principally after 
 happiness and satisfaction in tlie creature." The 
 fall of the soul consisteth in its sinkino; itself into 
 the animal life, and the business of every unrenewed 
 soul is in one kind or other still to gratify the same 
 life ; for although, as I have shown, God is in the 
 
216 
 
 bottom of these men's cares, and loves, and desires, 
 and implicitly in all their thirstings, yet I may well 
 say of them, as God says of the Assyrian monarch, 
 at what time he executed his pleasu-re in correcting 
 his people Israel, *' Howbeit he meaneth not so, 
 neither doth his heart think so :" God is not in all 
 their thoughts, whilst they pursue that in the crea- 
 ture, which really none but God alone can be unto 
 them. They do ultimately direct, as to their inten- 
 tion, all their cares, and covetings, and thirstings, to 
 some created object; all which are calculated for the 
 animal life, the gratifying and accomplishing their 
 own base lusts. This is very apparent in the ido- 
 latry of the Pagans, whose lusts gave being to their 
 gods; and so their deities were as many as their 
 concupiscences and filthy passions : to sacrifice to 
 their own revenue and sensualitv, under the names 
 of Mars, Bacchus, and Venus, what was it else, but 
 to proclaim to all the world, that they took the high- 
 est contentment and satisfaction in the fulfiilinor of 
 such kind of lusts ? this was to them their god or 
 supreme felicity. The case is the same, though 
 not so expressly and professedly, with all carnal 
 Christians, who, although they profess the true God, 
 yet, in truth, make him only a pander to their own 
 lusts and base ends; though they name the name of 
 Christ, yet, in very deed, deify their own passions, 
 and sacrifice to the gratification of their animal 
 powers. The Psalmist, as we have seen, deter- 
 mines the main end of all men to be " good," Psal. 
 iv. 6. but, lest any man should be deceived in them, 
 he presently tells us where this good was placed, 
 ver. 7. namely, "in corn and wine;" by which we 
 
217 
 
 must understand the animal life, and whatsoever ad- 
 ministers to the delight thereof. And certainly this 
 will go far; for not only meats and drinks, sensual 
 pleasures, gorgeous apparel, sumptuous buildings, 
 splendid descent, honourable preferments, popular 
 applause, inordinate recreations, and an unwieldy 
 bulk of earthly riches; but also orthodox opinions, 
 philosophical, political, yea, and scholastical learning, 
 fair professions, much pompous worship, yea, and 
 worship industriously void of pomp, specious per- 
 formances ; to which we may add, the most seemly 
 exercises of undaunted valour, unshaken constancy, 
 unbribed justice, uninterrupted temperance, unspot- 
 ted chastity, and unlimited charity, if much giving 
 may deserve so sacred a name ; even all these, and 
 as many more, may serve only as fuel for the rapa- 
 cious fire of lust and self-love, to maintain and keep 
 alive the mere animal, or, at most, logical life, and 
 are ordinarily designed as sacrifices to that which we 
 significantly call self, in contradistinction from God. 
 I need not here declaim against covetous, luxurious, 
 ambitious souls, the Apostle having so expressly pre- 
 vented me by his plain and punctual arraignment of 
 such men. Col. iii. 5. Phil. iii. 19. where he charges 
 them with placing a deity in their bags and bellies : 
 otherwise I durst appeal to all the world, that are 
 not parties, yea, to the parties themselves, whether 
 it be God, or themselves, that these persons do in- 
 tend to serve, and please, and gratify; whether it be 
 a real assimilation to God, and the true honour of 
 his name, or some lust or humour of self-pleasing, 
 self-advancing, and self-enjoying, that they sacrifice 
 their cares and pains, and the main thirstings of their 
 
 K 38 
 
218 
 
 souls to. I am confident it will be easily acknow- 
 ledged, that the covetous, voluptuous, and ambitious, 
 do sacrifice all they are, and do, to the latter ; but, 
 alas ! it is not yet agreed among men who are such ; 
 the hypothesis is granted, but the thesis is disputed ; 
 and, indeed, this is no wonder neither ; for it is as 
 natural for the animal self-life to shift off guilt as it 
 is to contract it ; and the pride of the natural man 
 is no less conspicuous in his wrongful endeavours to 
 seem innocent of what he is indeed guilty, than his 
 covetousness and voluptuousness is apparent in the 
 matter wherein his guilt consisteth. It is not only 
 these, and some few of the grossest and profanest 
 sort of souls, that are guilty in this kind which I 
 have been describing, though they, indeed, are grossly 
 and most visibly guilty; but verily the whole gene- 
 ration of mere animal men, who have no principle of 
 divine life implanted in them, do spend all their days, 
 bestow all their pains, and enjoy all their comforts, 
 in a real strain of blasphemy, from first to last. 
 What a blasphemous kind of philosophy was that 
 which professedly placed the supreme good and chief- 
 est happiness of man in the fruition of pleasures? 
 And, indeed, all those kinds of philosophy, which 
 placed it elsewhere, in things below God himself, 
 and the enjoyment of him, were no less profane, 
 though they may seem somewhat less beastly: for 
 whether the Epicureans idolized their own senses, 
 or the more exalted Stoics deified their own faculty, 
 placing their main contentment in their self-suffi- 
 ciency, and the perpetual serenity and tranquillity of 
 their own minds, it is too apparent that both the one 
 and the other still moved within the narrow and low 
 
219 
 
 sphere of natural self, and grasped after a deity in 
 the poor dark shadows, and glimmering representa- 
 tives of him. But I am speaking to Christians : 
 and, amongst these, let no man tell me how ortho- 
 dox his opinions, how pure and spiritual his forms, 
 how numerous and specious his performances are, 
 how rightly he pays his homage, and prays to one 
 living God, by one living Mediator. I will willingly 
 allow, and do, with delight, observe these things 
 wherever they are; but yet all this doth not deno- 
 minate a Christian: for still that of the Apostle must 
 hold good, " His servants ye are to whom ye obey;" 
 and I may add, by somewhat a like phraseology, " His 
 children ye are whom ye resemble;" his creatures ye 
 are, as far as you can make yourselves so, whose suf- 
 ficiency and sovereignty is most magnified in your 
 hearts; his worshippers ye are whom ye mostly love, 
 trust in, delight in, depend upon ; in a word, that is 
 your God, which your soul doth mainly rest, and 
 centre, and wrap up itself in. And, alas 1 how vivsi- 
 bly dear and precious is the self-central life, which 
 is so universally pampered, cherished, and sacrificed 
 unto, besides the invisible and more spiritual obla- 
 tions that are made thereunto. This is as true an 
 Antichrist in the mystery as there is any literal 
 Antichrist in the world; and, of this, one may as 
 truly say, as St. John doth of the other, " All the 
 world wondereth after the beast." In a word, then, 
 whosoever saith in his heart concerning any thing 
 that is not God, what that rich man in the gospel 
 said concerning his goods, " Soul, take thine ease 
 in them, and be merry," the same is an idolater 
 and blasphemer : and this I affirm to be the lan- 
 
 K 2 
 
220 
 
 guage of every apostate spirit and unregenerate soul 
 of man. 
 
 3. " No man can find that happiness, and soul-fill- 
 ing satisfaction in any creature-enjoyment, which 
 every natural man principally seeketh therein/' 
 Here are two things to be spoken to, namely, the 
 enjoyments of men, or what they possess, and the 
 satisfaction which the natural man seeketh in such 
 possessions. For the first of these, I do not be- 
 lieve that ever any natural man had his fill of such 
 possessions, I mean as to the quantity of them ; he 
 never had so much of them, as to be able freely to 
 say, It is enough. The rational soul hath a strong 
 and insatiable appetite, and wherever it imagineth 
 its beloved prey to be found, and filling enjoyment 
 to be had, it is exceedingly greedy and rapacious; 
 whether the same will ever be able to afford it or 
 not, it matters not. The animal life is that vora- 
 cious idol, not like Bel in the story, which seems 
 only to eat up, but which doth really devour all the 
 fat morsels, and sensual pleasures, that are sacrificed 
 to it, and yet it is not filled therewith. The whole 
 employment of the natural man, is nothing else, but 
 as the Apostle elegantly describes it, Rom. xiii. 
 14. " To make provision for the flesh, to fulfil it 
 in the lusts thereof:" wherein yet, to speak the 
 truth, he loses his labour; for he sacrifices all to 
 an insatiable idol, and pours it into a gulf that hath 
 neither bottom nor bounds, but svvalloweth up all 
 into its barren womb, and is rather made to thirst, 
 than to cease from thirsting, by all that is or can 
 be administered to it. I take that of Solomon, 
 Eccles. i. 8. to be a clear proof, in general, ot what 
 
^21 
 
 I affirm, " The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor 
 the ear filled with hearing ;" the eye of man, as 
 little as it is, is bigger than the whole visible world, 
 which, although it may be wearied with looking 
 upon various objects, as the English Annotators 
 observe upon these words, yet still desires new ones, 
 and can drink them in without surfeiting; so that, 
 although the acts of the eye be scant and finite, yet 
 the lusts of the eye seem to have a kind of infinity 
 in them. And indeed, by the insatiableness of the 
 eye and ear, is meant the greediness and voracity of 
 the flesh or animal life, as Mr. Cartwright hath well 
 observed upon Prov. xxvii, 20. " Hell and destruc- 
 tion are never full, so the eyes of man are never 
 satisfied;" where, by ' not being satisfied,' is meant, 
 not having enough in quantity, as appears by the simi- 
 litude in the former part of the verse. To the same 
 sense he speaks, Eccles. iv. 8. v. 10. It would be end- 
 less to relate the monstrous and inexplicable gapings of 
 covetous, am.bitious, voluptuous, proud, vainglorious 
 minds after their respective idols. And, indeed, I 
 need not descend to particular instances; for I sup- 
 pose never any natural man could heartily say he 
 had enough of riches, promotions, applause, sensual 
 delights, eloquence, policy, prowess, or victory, or of 
 any other thing which is accommodated to the gratifi- 
 cation of the flesh, no more than any godly soul, so- 
 journing upon earth, could ever yet be able to say he 
 had enough of God and eternal life. So that, in a word, 
 I know not how to apply any description to this insa- 
 tiable and devouring principle, more properly than 
 that which the prophet makes of hell, " She enlargetli 
 herself, and openeth her mouth without measure, 
 
222 
 
 and all glory, multitude, and pomp, descend into it." 
 I know there are of these men that pretend to have 
 enough in quantity of these fleshly provisions ; but I 
 fear, falsely and unjustly; for, as for the rich and 
 honourable of the earth, it is too evident, that they 
 are still climbing higher, and grasping after more, 
 as the great Alexander is said to have whined after 
 more worlds, when he conceited himself to be master 
 of all this. As for the poorer and meaner sort of 
 people, who are as ready sometimes to lay claim to 
 this virtue of thinking themselves to have enough, 
 as any other people whatsoever, it is too manifest to 
 a wise observer, that it is not a real apprehension 
 that they have enough, but either a lowness and 
 weakness of spirit, arising from the meanness of 
 their education, or a downright despair of ever get- 
 ting more. 
 
 But be it imagined, that the enjoyments of some 
 natural men are enough in respect of quantity, yet 
 still there is certainly wanting a true and sincere 
 satisfaction of soul in such possessions; no man of 
 all these, finds that real happiness in those things 
 which he so vehemently hunteth after. Solomon 
 reduces all the pleasure and contentment, that is to 
 be found in multiplied riches, to a very pitiful sum 
 total : " What good is there to the owners thereof, 
 save the beholding of them with their eyes ?" And, 
 alas ! what is the sight of the eye, to the satisfaction 
 of the soul ! The whole visible world is utterly 
 too scant for, and incommensurate to, the wide and 
 deep capacity of an immortal spirit ; so that the 
 same can no more satisfy than a less can fill a 
 greater, which is surely impossible. Whatever is 
 
223 
 
 in the world out of God, is described by the pro- 
 phet, Isa. Iv. 2. to be " not bread," there is the uii- 
 suitableness; and " not to satisfy," there is the in- 
 sufficiency of it, as to the soul of man. On the other 
 hand, the soul of man is so vastly capacious, that 
 though it be also ever so greedy and rapacious, 
 snatching on the right hand, and catching on the 
 left hand, as the prophet describes the famishing 
 people, Isa. ix. 20. yet still it is hungry and unsa- 
 tisfied. Which ravenous and insatiable appetite of 
 the sensual soul, is described by the prophet, in the 
 similitude of a whorish woman, who prostituted her- 
 self to all comers, *' and multiplieth her fornications," 
 yet is " unsatiable, is not, cannot be satisfied." The 
 soul may indeed feed, yea, and surfeit upon, but it 
 can never satisfy itself, from any created good ; no- 
 thing can ultimately determine and centre the mo- 
 tions of a soul, but something superior to its own 
 essence : which, whilst it misses of, it is, as it were, 
 divided against itself, perpetually struggling and 
 fluctuating, and travelling in pangs, with some new 
 design or other, to be at rest ; like the old lioness, 
 in the parable of Ezekiel, breeding up one vvhelp 
 after another, to be a lion wherein to confide, but 
 disappointed in all ; or, like the poor discontented 
 butterfly, lighting and catching every where, but 
 sticking no where, adoring something for a god to- 
 day, which it will be ready to fling into the fire to- 
 morrow, after their manner of creating gods to 
 themselves. 
 
 Neither the quantity, variety, nor duration, of 
 any created objects can possibly fill up that large and 
 noble capacity wherewith God hath endued the ra- 
 
224 
 
 tional soul ; but having departed from its centre, 
 and not knowing bow to return to its original, it 
 wanders up and down, as it were, in a wilderness, 
 and baving an imperfect glimmering sigbt at some- 
 tbing better tban what itself as yet eitber is or batb, 
 but not being able to attain to it, is miserably tor- 
 mented, even as a man in a tbirst wbicb be cannot 
 quench ; yea, tbe more be runs up and down to seek 
 water, tbe more is bis thirst increased whilst he 
 misses of it; so this distempered and distracted soul, 
 whilst it seeks to quench its thirst at the creature- 
 cistern, does but inflame it, and, in a continual pur- 
 suit of rest, becomes most restless. That every un- 
 regenerate soul is in such a distressed, weary, rest- 
 less state, as I have been describing, appears most 
 evidently by those famous gospel proclamations; 
 one in Isa. Iv. 1, 3. " Ho, every one that thirsteth, 
 come ye to the waters ;" where, by the thirsters, are 
 meant those unfixed, unsatisfied souls, as appears by 
 the second verse; tbe other in Matth. xi. 28. " Come 
 unto me, all ye that labour," &c. where the promise of 
 giving rest, does plainly imply the restless state of 
 tbe persons invited. There is a certain horror and 
 anguish in sin and wickedness, even long before it 
 be swallowed up in bell ; a certain vanity and vexa- 
 tion folded up in all earthly enjoyments, though the 
 same do not always sting and pierce the soul alike ; 
 so true is that famous aphorism of the prophet 
 Isaiah, " There is no peace to the wicked." 
 
 4. " Grace takes not away this thirst of the soul 
 after happiness and plenary satisfaction." Love 
 and desire, and a tendency towards blessedness, are 
 so woven into tbe nature of the soul, and inlaid in 
 
225 
 
 the very essence of it, that she cannot possibly put 
 them off; however, it is the work of grace to change 
 and rectify them, as we shall see under the next 
 head. The soul of man is a kind of immaterial 
 fire, an inextinguishable activity, always necessarily 
 catching at some object or other, in conjunction 
 with which she thinks to be happy; and, therefore, 
 if she be rent from herself and the world, and be 
 mortified to the love of fleshly and animal lusts, she 
 will certainly cleave to som.e higher and more excel- 
 lent object, as will more clearly appear by and by. 
 Grace does not stupify the soul as to its sense of its 
 own indigency and poverty, but, indeed, makes it 
 more abundantly sensible and importunate. There 
 are more strong motions, and more powerful appe- 
 tites in the godly soul towards its true and proper 
 happiness, than in the ungodly and wicked. For 
 the understanding of the regenerate soul is so en- 
 lightened, as that it doth present the will with 
 an amiable and satisfactory object; which object, 
 therefore, being more distinctly and perfectly appre- 
 hended, doth also apprehend, or lay hold upon, the 
 soul, and attract her unto itself. That " the eyes are 
 leaders in love," is most true of the eye of the soul ; 
 I mean the understanding, that first affects the heart 
 with amorous passions. The first and fundamental 
 error and mistake of the rational soul, seems to lie 
 here, even in the understanding; here lies the very 
 root of the degenerate soul's distemper; and if this 
 were thoroughly restored and healed, so as to pre- 
 sent the will with pure and proper ideas and repre- 
 sentations of God, it might be hoped, that this 
 ductile faculty would not be long before it clave 
 
 k3 
 
226 
 
 unto him entirely ; nay, it may be doubted, whether 
 it could possibly resist the dictates of it. Now, in 
 the regenerate soul, this faculty is repaired ; yea, I 
 may say, that the spirit of regeneration, first of all 
 spreads itself into the understanding, and awakens 
 in it a sense of self-indigency, and of the perfect, 
 all-sufficient, suitable, and satisfactory fulness of 
 God, in whom it sees all beauty, sweetness, and 
 loveliness, in an infinitely ineffable manner, wrapt up 
 and contained ; which will be so far from allaying 
 the essential thirst of the soul, and stifling its eager 
 gaspings, that it must needs give a mighty edge and 
 ardour to its inclinations, and put it upon a more 
 bold and earnest contention towards this glorious 
 object, and charm of the whole soul, into the very 
 arms of God. Therefore, not * thirsting,' in the text, 
 must not be understood absolutely, as if grace did 
 utterly extinguish the natural activities of the soul 
 ai>d its propensions ; but the regenerate and gracious 
 soul doth not thirst in such a sense, as thirst implies 
 a want of a suitable good, or dissatisfaction, or in- 
 cludes torment properly so called. In this notion 
 of thirst, grace doth indeed quench it, as I intimated 
 in the beginning of this discourse, and will further 
 appear in the procedure of it. But, as to this most 
 essential thirst, this natural desire, or vergency, of 
 the soul after central rest and happiness, the same 
 is so far from being extinguished, or moderated, by 
 divine grace, that it is greatly improved, and mightily 
 inflamed thereby. I suppose I need not enlarge 
 upon so acknowledged a subject ; therefore, I will 
 but present you with the instances of holy David in 
 the Old Testament, and gracious Paul in the New. 
 
227 
 
 I need not, I suppose, magnify the holy and divine 
 frame of David's spirit, by any rhetoric of mine; 
 God himself hath given the amplest testimony, and 
 fairest character of him, that I remember to have 
 been, at any time, given of any man, when he owns 
 him for " a man after his own heart;" and what a 
 longing, thirsting soul this was, I need do no more 
 to demonstrate, than to turn you to some passages 
 and professions of his own in his devout Psalms ; 
 such as Psalm xlii. 1. Ixiii. 1. cxliii. 6. where he 
 borrows the strongest inclinations that are to be 
 found in the whole creation, to represent the devout 
 ardours of his own soul : " As the hart panteth 
 after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after 
 thee, O God. — O God, thou art my God ; early 
 will I seek thee : my soul thirsteth for thee, my 
 flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, 
 where no water is.^^ — I stretch forth my hands unto 
 thee; my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land.'* 
 Yea, he seems like one that would swoon away for 
 very longing : " Hear me speedily, O Lord ; my 
 spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be 
 like unto them that go down into the pit. — I lift 
 up my soul unto thee.- — I flee unto thee," &c. 
 The very same temper you will find in holy Paul, 
 that chosen vessel of God, if you peruse his epistles, 
 in all which you will meet with devout and strong 
 breathings of the same kind ; particularly, Phil. iii. 
 11, 12, 13, 14. where he seems to be so thirsty 
 after a state of heavenly perfection, that he longs 
 after, if I mistake not the meaning of the 11th 
 verse, something that yet he knows he cannot arrive 
 at whilst he is in this world, even the resurrection 
 
228 
 
 of the dead, or such a perfect state of purity and 
 hoHness, as belongs to the children of the resurrec- 
 tion. 
 
 5. " The godly soul thirsteth no more after hap- 
 piness in any creature, nor rests in any worldly 
 thing, but in God alone." This particular consists 
 also of two branches; the former and negative part 
 whereof seems to me to contain in it the scope and 
 meaning of our Saviour, in these words which I am 
 now interpreting. We have already seen, that 
 every unsanctified soul is restless, and craving, 
 wavering, unsatisfied, inconstant to itself, and its 
 choice. By reason of its natural activity, it is always 
 spending itself in restless and giddy motions ; but, 
 by reason of its ignorance, and unacquaintedness 
 with the one supreme and all-sufficient good, and 
 the multiplicity of lower ends and objects, it is 
 miserably distracted, and doth necessarily grapple 
 with inevitable disturbances, in a continual unsteadi- 
 ness, putting forth itself now towards one thing, 
 anon to another, courting every thing, but matching 
 with nothing; like a fickle lover, that is always en- 
 amoured with the last feature he saw, or a greedy 
 merchant, that being equally in love with the plea- 
 sure of being at home, and the profit of being 
 abroad, can stay long nowhere with any content, 
 but has always most mind of the place where he 
 is not. 
 
 The description that our Lord gives of the un- 
 clean spirit that " is gone out of a man," seems very 
 aptly to agree to that unclean spirit that is in man, 
 that, being departed from God, its proper rest and 
 habitation, walketh through dry and desert places ; I 
 
S29 
 
 mean, empty and unsatisfying creature-enjoyments, 
 seeking rest, but finding none. It was an acci- 
 dental affliction of believers, but is the natural and 
 necessary affliction of every unbelieving and wicked 
 soul, to wander up and down the world destitute, 
 afflicted, tormented. Sinful self is so multiform ; 
 and that one root, the animal life, has such a world 
 of branches, that it is impossible to administer due 
 nourishment to them all; and yet they are all im- 
 portunate and greedy suckers too : so that he must 
 needs have a difficult task, and a painful province, 
 that is constrained to attend upon so many, so differ- 
 ent, and yet all of them so impatient, and imperious 
 masters. But I shall lose ground by thus going 
 backward to what I spoke to under the second head, 
 except I can make this advantage of it, to enforce 
 that which I was going to speak of, with the greater 
 strength and clearer evidence. The case standing 
 thus with the unregenerate soul, as we have seen in 
 this short review, I now say, that divine grace allays 
 the multifarious thirst of the soul after other waters, 
 of which it could never yet drink deep, or, if it 
 drunk ever so deep, could not be quenched; it de- 
 termines the soul to one object, which before was 
 rent in pieces amongst many. It does not destroy 
 any of the natural powers, nor dry up the innate 
 vigour of the soul, as I made evident under the last 
 head, but it takes it off from the chase of all inferior 
 ends, and inadequate objects, setting it upon a vehe- 
 ment pursuit of, and causing it to spend all its powers 
 not less vigorously, but far more rationally and satis- 
 torily upon, that object worthy of our love, the in- 
 finitely amiable and self-sufficient God. When the 
 
230 
 
 soul hath once met with this glorious object, is once 
 mastered with this supreme good, is by divine grace, 
 enlarged, it cannot, with any ease, stretch itself upon 
 the creature any more ; that is too scant and insuffi- 
 cient for it. Certainly the soul that understands 
 its own original, nature, and capacity, and once comes 
 to view itself in God, will see itself too large to be 
 bounded by the narrow confines of self, or any crea- 
 ture, and too free to be bound down and chained to 
 any earthly object whatever. The world indeed 
 may, yea, and will labour to take off the soul; 
 " What is thy Beloved more than another beloved," 
 that thou art so fond of him? " Are not Abana 
 and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the 
 waters of Israel?" Be content, here is hay and pro- 
 vender; stay with me this night; let us dally and make 
 merry together a little longer. But these Syrenian 
 songs are sung to a deaf ear: they cannot enchant 
 the wise and devout soul, that hath her senses rightly 
 awakened, and exercised to discern between good 
 and evil. Oh no, " I am sick of love," and sick of 
 every thing that keeps me from my Beloved; and 
 and therefore, however you may go about to defile 
 me through fraud or force, through surprise or 
 violence, yet I will not prostitute myself to you. 
 The gracious soul hath now discovered the most 
 beautiful, perfect, and lovely object, even him whose 
 name is love itself; which glorious vision hath so 
 blasted and withered the choicest flowers in nature's 
 garden, that they have now "no more form or comeli- 
 ness, beauty or fragrancy, as to deserve to be de- 
 sired; she hath tasted the pure and perfect sweet- 
 ness of the fountain, which hath so imbittered all 
 
231 
 
 cistern-waters, that she finds no more thirstings in 
 herself after them ; which is that which our Saviour 
 promiseth here, " shall never thirst." A godly soul 
 eannot possibly be put off with any thing short of 
 God; give him his God, or he dies; give him ever 
 so much fair usage in the world, ever so much of 
 earthly accommodations, they are not accommodated 
 to her wants and thirsts, if they have not that God 
 in them, out of whom all worldly pleasures are even 
 irksome and unpleasant, and all fleshly ease is tedious 
 and painful : creature-employments are but a weari- 
 some drudgery to a soul that is acquainted with the 
 work of angels; and creature-enjoyments, in them- 
 selves considered, are very insignificant, if not bur- 
 densome, to a mind that is feelingly possessed of 
 the chiefest good. 
 
 But here it will be seasonable, to take into con- 
 sideration a grand inquiry, namely. Whether a 
 godly man may not be said, in some sense, to desire 
 the creature, and how far such a person may be said 
 to thirst after it. This I shall speak to as briefly, 
 and yet as clearly as I can, in these four following 
 particulars. 
 
 1. " All godly souls are not equally mortified to 
 worldly loves, nor equally zealous and importunate 
 lovers of God." This is so evident, that I need 
 not insist upon it. Abraham seems to have been 
 as much higher and nobler in spirit than his brother 
 Lot, as Lot was more excellent than one of the or- 
 dinary sons of Adam, I had almost said, than one of 
 the Sodomites amongst whom he dwelt. The one 
 leaves all the pleasant and plentiful accommodations 
 of his native country, at the very first calling out, not 
 
knowing whither he went, only relying upon the 
 gracious guidance of him whom he followed ; he 
 seems to reckon all soils alike for his sojourning, 
 and the whole habitable world as his own city and 
 home, as appears by his readiness to break up house, 
 and quit his present habitation, rather than interfere 
 with the conveniences of his nephew, Gen. xiii. 9. 
 The other preferred a fruitful soil before a faithful 
 society, and so, in some sense, his body before his 
 soul; and yet, as if it had not been enough to make 
 so unadvised a choice, he rests in it too ; yea, though 
 he was so severely reproved by the captivity that be- 
 fel him there, whereby he was not so much called, 
 as indeed carried away thence; yet this will not 
 loosen him from his earthly conveniences, but he re- 
 turns to Sodom, and from thence he will not part 
 till he be fired out, nay, and then also it is with much 
 lingering and loathness. Gen. xix. 16. It is evi- 
 dent, I say, both from this, and many other instances 
 which I purposely omit, that it is so, that all godly 
 souls are not equally careless of these earthly things, 
 nor carried out with equal ardour and intemperance, 
 as I may call it, towards the supreme and most glo- 
 rious obiect ; of which 1 can assign no fitter reason 
 than this, because they are not all equally godly. 
 For, 
 
 2. " "So far as grace prevails, and religion in the 
 power of it acteth the soul in which it is planted, so 
 far earthly loves decay and wither." For these 
 two cannot stand together, the love of the world is 
 inconsistent with the love of God: " If any man 
 love the world, the love of the Father is not in 
 him." So far as any^oul is sanctified, so far is it 
 
233 
 
 mortified also to all creature-enjoyments, to all 
 things that are only fuel for the animal life, honour, 
 ease, victory, plenty, liberty, relations, recreations, 
 all the entertainments and delights in this lower 
 life, yea, and this very life itself. Earthly and 
 heavenly loves are to each other as the two ends of 
 a pair of balances, save that they are never found 
 equally poizing, as the one rises, the other falls ; just 
 so much advantage as this gets, that loses. The 
 more the sensual and self-central life thrives and 
 prospers, and the creature is exalted, the more re- 
 ligion and the divine life fainteth and flaggeth in the 
 soul : and as certainly, on the other hand, the more 
 divine grace prevails, and the divine life flourisheth 
 in the soul, the more all earthly objects wither away 
 and lose their beauty, and the soul cooleth and lan- 
 guisheth as to its love and desire of them. So far 
 as a regenerate soul is unregenerate, so far will she 
 be bustling after other lovers : which regeneration 
 will not, I conceive, be thoroughly perfected, and 
 therefore these lustings not utterly extinguished, till 
 this mortal put on immortality; or, as the Apostle 
 speaks elsewhere, till " mortality be swallowed up 
 of life." 
 
 3. For the preventing of rash and uncharitable 
 judging, I do affirm, that " divine and holy souls 
 are oft mistaken by them that behold their ordinary 
 converse and actions in the body." They are 
 thought sometimes to take pleasure in the creature, 
 and to gratify the flesh, when indeed it is no such 
 matter; but they take pleasure in the image of 
 God, or the evidence of his fatherly love, which 
 they contemplate therein, and do, perhaps most of 
 
234 
 
 all, serve a spiritual end, and an eternal design, in 
 those very actions which others may think are cal- 
 culated, for the gratification of the animal life, and 
 the service of the flesh. Let not the purblind 
 world, nor the self-befriending hypocrite, be judge, 
 and it will appear, that the truly godly soul counts 
 nothing savoury to itself, but what represents, 
 teaches, exhibits something of God, nothing plea- 
 sant, but what hath a tendency to him : such a soul 
 doth not feel himself in his highest raptures, doth 
 not taste himself in his noblest accomplishments, 
 doth not seek himself in his most excellent perform- 
 ances. Be not mistaken, he doth not so much 
 thirst after long life, riches, friends, liberty, as in- 
 deed after God in them all ; these all signify no- 
 thing to him, if they bring him not nearer to his 
 God, and conduce to his real and spiritual happi- 
 ness. Yea, possibly, in his most suspected actions, 
 and those that seem most alien from religion, and 
 most designed to please the flesh, he may be highly 
 spiritual and pure : so was our blessed Saviour, we 
 know, even in his conversing with scandalous sin- 
 ners, eating and drinking with publicans, and no- 
 torious offenders, however he was traduced by a 
 proud and hypocritical generation ; and so, I doubt 
 not, is many a good Christian, according to his mea- 
 sure, pure as Christ was pure. When a painted 
 hypocrite, who can guess at the temper of others 
 no other way but by what he finds in himself, and 
 by what he should be and do, if he were under the 
 same circumstances, comes to be judge of the actions 
 or disposition of one, who is transformed into the 
 image of the divine freedom and benignity, you may 
 
^35 
 
 easily imagine what a perverse sentence he will pass. 
 It needs not seem very strange, methinks, in spiri- 
 tuals, any more than it is in corporeals, that the most 
 sound and healthful constitutions should, upon a 
 lawful call, adventure themselves further than the 
 crazy and sickly, and familiarly converse with and 
 handle, yea, and make good work with those briars 
 and thorns, which would prove a snare or a wound, 
 or a pricking temptation to others. If it were pos- 
 sible for any man to arrive at the purity and perfec- 
 tion of his Saviour, and his firm and immoveable 
 radication in true goodness, he would find himself 
 so wholly dead to sin, and all temptations and mo- 
 tions thereunto, that he would be able to walk upon 
 the most boisterous waves, without fear of being 
 swallowed up in them, and to take up in his hands 
 the most venemous serpent, not dreading the sting 
 of it. However, the apprehensions and actions of 
 more perfect and refined souls are not rashly to be 
 judged; for they may easily be mistaken, either by 
 the unhallowed hypocrite, or the more imperfect and 
 impotent saint. 
 
 4. To answer yet more fully, I do affirm, that 
 " no truly religious soul in the world doth so thirst 
 after the creature, as to place his main happiness in 
 it, or to seek satisfaction from it." However, all 
 holy souls may not be alike weaned from the world, 
 nor equally loving of God, however the affections 
 and actions of some may really be, and of others 
 may seem to be too gross and fleshly, yet no one of 
 all these, in whom this new and divine life is indeed 
 found, doth erect a self-supremacy in his own soul, 
 nor take his full and complete rest and happiness to 
 
236 
 
 consist in any creature-communion whatsoever. 
 Surely this, of not thirsting, is so far a consequent 
 of true religion, as that no religious soul in the 
 world can be content to exchange the presence of 
 God, and acquaintance with him, for any thing, or 
 for all things besides ; or, if you will, plainly thus, 
 no such person could be content, no, not for all the 
 world, the glory of heaven not excepted, if it may 
 be supposed to be wicked and ungodly : so that, by 
 thirsting here, must not be meant some weak wish- 
 ings, and fainter propensions of the soul towards 
 created objects; for certainly there is no soul found 
 in a body of earth, in which these are not found, 
 no, nor yet some more lively and stronger strugglings 
 after them, (how strong they may be in a good 
 Christian, and yet predominated over by grace, we 
 cannot punctually determine;) but, by thirsting 
 here, must be meant the most quick and powerful 
 breathings, the highest and strongest ardencies, the 
 predominant and victorious motions and desires of 
 the soul, which do, as it were, fold up the whole 
 soul, and lead all its powers and faculties with it 
 into a grateful captivity. Thus shall he thirst no 
 more, who hath once drunk of these waters which 
 flow forth from the presence of the Lord of life, 
 and which the blessed Redeemer of the world is here 
 said to give. 
 
 But, which is the latter branch of this particular, 
 this inspired soul which we have been describing, 
 thirsteth after his happiness in God alone, that is, 
 in the enjoyment of him. We have already seen, 
 that grace does not destroy the natural and essential 
 longings of the soul after a satisfactory good, but 
 
237 
 
 rather enhance them, and that the godly soul is 
 most thirsty of all, but not with a creature-thirst, 
 as is before proved; it remains then, that his thirst- 
 ing after rest and happiness is terminated upon God 
 alone. And so, indeed, it appears in the instances 
 of holy men recorded in holy writ, which I have 
 under the last head spoken something to. But to 
 those passages and professions which I quoted out 
 of Psal. xlii. 1, 2, &c. you may add such as Psal. 
 iv. 6. which is the voice of every godly soul, 
 " Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance 
 upon us." Psal. xxxix. 6, 7. " Surely every man 
 walketh in a vain show; surely they are disquieted 
 in vain : he heapeth up riches," &c. " And now, 
 Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee:" where 
 you have the different seekings and centrings of the 
 ungodly, and of the godly soul, elegantly described. 
 Lastly, you may, in Psal. Ixxiii. 25. again view the 
 term or end of the godly man's ambition : ** Whom 
 have I in heaven but thee ? and there is none upon 
 earth that I desire besides thee." Which trans- 
 lation of the words doth, in a lively manner, set out 
 the godly man's end and aim, and object, and hap- 
 piness, and indeed his all: or, if we translate it, per- 
 haps more fitly, with Mollerus, yet they afford us 
 the same doctrine, " Who will give me to be in 
 heaven, and with thee? on earth I desire nothing." 
 And thus have we despatched the fifth proposi- 
 tion, namely, that the godly soul thirsteth no more 
 after happiness in any creature, or rest in any worldly 
 thing; and come to the sixth and last particular de- 
 signed for the explication of this not thirsting of the 
 religious soul, which is this :— 
 
238 
 
 In the enjoyment of God, this soul is at rest, is fully 
 satisfied. 1 do not mean so satisfied, as not to thirst 
 after any more of him, as I have often hinted ; but 
 so satisfied, as to be perfectly matched with an object 
 transcendently adequate to all its faculties, and their 
 respective capacities; and so satisfied, as to have peace 
 and joy, and triumph in him. To these two I will 
 speak distinctly, and so pass on. 
 
 Now, for the better understanding of the first of 
 these, it should be noticed, that the reasonable soul, 
 and the faculties of it, are of a vast, large, and noble 
 capacity. It is universally granted by all, that are 
 not Sadducees, that the capacity of angels is very 
 great and noble; and that the condition of the hu- 
 man soul is not much inferior to it, may I think, be 
 gathered from the Psalmist's words : " Thou hast 
 made him a little lower than the angels;" which 
 words, although the author to the epistle to the He- 
 brews applies them to Christ, Heb. ii. 9. and, indeed, 
 they have a marvellous aptness to him, according to 
 the Dutch translation, which runs thus, ** We see 
 Jesus crowned with glory and honour, who was be- 
 come a little lesser than the angels, by reason of 
 the sufferings of death ; that he should by the grace 
 of God," &c. yet I see nothing hindering, but that 
 they may be well applied to the excellent condition 
 of man by creation; especially considering that many 
 other passages of the Old Testament have a double 
 aspect, one more ordinary and obvious, which was 
 most clearly understood by the prophet that wrote 
 them; the other more abstruse and mysterious, prin- 
 cipally intended by the Spirit that inspired him, and 
 only to be understood by the revelation of the same 
 
239 
 
 Spirit: such are those passages, I conceive, which are 
 found in Isa. vii. 14. Hosea xi. 1. interpreted by 
 the evangelist. Matt. i. 23. and ii. 15. as also Jer. 
 xxxi. 15. with many more. But, however it goes 
 with that text, and whether or not the souls of men 
 be so near of kindred to the angels, as to their own 
 comprehensions; yet, that they are capable of a most 
 noble and excellent happiness, and much allied to 
 God himself, doth appear from such texts of Scrip- 
 ture, as do require them to be " holy, as God is 
 holy," to be " perfect, as their heavenly Father is 
 perfect." Neither need it seem to any incredible, 
 that the rational soul should be so capacious; for we 
 are no more to judge of the angelical temper, and 
 noble actings of the separated soul, by what we see 
 it to be and do in this body of flesh, than one can 
 judge of the prowess and puissance of a renowned 
 warrior in the head of an army, by what we discern 
 in him when he lies bound in chains, or of the power 
 and splendour of the sun, by what we discern of it 
 when it is eclipsed, or miserably beclouded ; or, if 
 you will, no more than we can judge of a man, by 
 the imperfections of his childhood: for so the Apostle 
 Paul seems to state the case, 1 Cor. xiii. 10, 11. 
 plainly implying, that the present and future condi- 
 tion of the soul is comparable to the minority and 
 adult state of a man ; as if he had said, the soul, in 
 its future and separate state, will act as much nobler 
 than what it doth now, as the soul of the wisest and 
 discreetest man in the world acteth more nobly than 
 what it did when he was a child : yea, and what is 
 still more to our present purpose, he seems clearly 
 to intimate in the twelfth verse, that this improve- 
 
240 
 
 ment shall happen, not so much by the more evident 
 propounding of the object, as by the more ample 
 illumination and corroboration of the faculties. In 
 the next place, it will be easily inferred, that all 
 created good is too scant and insufficient for this 
 capacious spirit of man ; too short a bed to stretch 
 itself upon ; nay, it cannot contract itself so, as to 
 be accommodated to any worldly good, without pain 
 and anguish. From both which, it will be naturally 
 and necessarily concluded, that God alone is that 
 adequate object which can match the soul of man, 
 and satisfy it, as being infinitely superior and tran- 
 scendent to it. The enjoyment of God is that ulti- 
 mate end, and perfect good, that is only able to fix 
 the spirit of man, which otherwise, not meeting with 
 its match, would be tossed to and fro, and labour 
 under perpetual disquietness, and restless fluctua- 
 tions. God is that almighty goodness and sweet- 
 ness, who alone is able to draw out all the appetites 
 of the soul into himself, satisfy all its cravings, charm 
 all its restless motions, and cause all its faculties, in 
 the purest and most complacential manner, to con- 
 spire together to give up themselves wholly and en- 
 tirely to himself. 
 
 Secondly, From this conjunction with omnipotent 
 goodness, ariseth pure peace, yea, joy and triumph, 
 to the religious soul. For the clearer understand- 
 ing of this, I should premise, what some have wisely 
 observed, that there is a natural congruity between 
 God and the soul, she being a spiritual substance, 
 and he being a spiritual good, only suitable to her. 
 This seems to be evident by experience; for we see 
 how difficult, I had almost said, impossible it is, ut- 
 
^41 
 
 terly to eradicate and extinguish all sense of virtue 
 and goodness out of the soul of man ; to which pur- 
 pose I think our divines generally speak, when they 
 allow of some holy relics, something of the image of 
 God, remaining in the most degenerate souls, how- 
 ever all men have reduced the same to a very poor and 
 inconsiderable spark, and many have raked that very 
 spark under ashes too, and imprisoned that remainder 
 of truth in unrighteousness, living according to those 
 unnatural and foreign principles and conceptions that 
 they have unhappily drunk in. Hence it is, I sup- 
 pose, that sin and wickedness are so often styled the 
 defilement of the soul. Now, we know, that whatso- 
 ever defileth, is adventitious and improper, and hence 
 it is, that sin many times stings and wounds the 
 consciences of those that take most pleasure in it, 
 namely, being so perfectly contrary to this noble and 
 inbred sense of the soul. Allowing, then, this natural 
 sympathy that the soul of man hath with its Creator, 
 it will be easy to give a philosophical account of that 
 peace, joy, and triumph, of which the soul must 
 needs be possessed, or rather indeed transported 
 with, that finds and feels itself in conjunction with 
 its centre, and in the dearest embraces of its Creator. 
 It need not seem strange, that the soul should 
 mightily congratulate itself in its arrival at its own 
 haven; nay it were strange if it should not dissolve 
 into secret joy and pleasure in the hearty entertain- 
 ments of so blessed and proper a guest as God is to 
 it; nay, indeed it were unreasonable to imagine, that 
 the conjunction of so noble and discerning faculties, 
 with so perfect and proper an object, should not be- 
 get the truest and sincerest delight and pleasure 
 
 L 38 
 
242 
 
 imaginable. The delights of an earthly and sensual 
 mind are filthy and dreggy, in comparison of these 
 pleasures of the refined and purified soul; which 
 must needs live most gracefully, triumphantly, and 
 deliciously, when it converseth with God most inti- 
 mately. Certainly, if there be any innocent and 
 well-natured self-feeling or self-pleasing, in the 
 world, this is it; though, indeed, to speak truly, it 
 deserves a better name. It cannot be but that a 
 godly soul, being in its right senses, should taste 
 a sweetness in these pure and divine accomplish- 
 ments wrought in it by the eternal Spirit of righ- 
 teousness; which self-pleasing is no more blameable, 
 than that natural pleasure, which every creature finds 
 in the enjoyment of that which is most aptly accom- 
 modated to its necessities, and most perfective of its 
 happiness; which pleasure, I say, ariseth in the soul 
 from its sensible union with God in the spirit, and 
 enjoyment of him. By which enjoyment of God, 
 you will easily perceive that I do not mean the bare 
 pardon of sin, or an abstract justification ; for this is 
 not the attainment that is perfective of the soul, 
 neither could it alone, if we could suppose it alone, 
 fill up the capacities of the soul, or make it happy, 
 )iowever the rapturous joys of the unprincipled hypo- 
 crite spring principally from the opinion and false 
 apprehension of this; which, indeed, I take to be a 
 notable, though not infallible, sign of a mercenary, 
 low-spirited, and fleshly-minded Christian : but, by 
 it, I mean the soul's being really regenerated into 
 the image of God, consisting in knowledge, righte- 
 ousness, and holiness, and her implantation into the 
 root Christ Jesus, by which she partakes of his divine 
 life, power, and Spirit. 
 
243 
 
 And yet, besides this, I conceive there is a more 
 theological account to be given of these joys and 
 pleasures which the renewed soul doth so plentifully 
 reap, upon her return to God, from whom she had 
 so long straggled by sin and wickedness. For the 
 " God of hope filleth the godly soul with all peace 
 and joy in believing :" Christ doth on purpose speak 
 words to the hearts of his disciples, that their " joy 
 may be full." But whether the most benign and 
 gracious Father of spirits doth immediately, from 
 himself, inspire the holy soul with divine joys and 
 pleasures, kindled, as I may say, with nothing but 
 his own breath : or whether he bring them to his 
 holy mountain, and into his house of prayer, and by 
 that, or any other like means, make them joyful and 
 of glad heart, as in the day of a solemn festival, as 
 he hath promised to do, Isa. Ivi. 7. and xxv. 6. 
 however it be, I say, sure it is that he frequently 
 puts a gladness into their hearts beyond that of the 
 harvest or the vintage, and makes them to rejoice 
 with "joy unspeakable and full of glory.'* 
 
 Having now unfolded the meaning of the gracious 
 soul's not thirsting any more, I should pass to the 
 last thing contained in the text; but finding myself 
 oppressed in my spirit, by the consideration of this 
 necessary consequent of true religion, when I com- 
 pare the temper of Christians with it, I must crave 
 leave to stay a little, and breathe. And what shall 
 I breathe but a sad and bitter complaint over that 
 low, earthly, selfish, greedy spirit, which actuateth 
 the world at this day, yea, and the generality of 
 professors of that sacred religion, which we call 
 Christianity. Alas ! what a company of thieves and 
 
 l2 
 
244 
 
 murdevers-p~l mean, base and sensual loves and lusts 
 -■ — lodge in those very souls, who would be taken for 
 temples consecrated to the name, and honour, and 
 inhabitation of the eternal God, the Spirit of truth 
 and holiness. Oh, what pity is it that the precious 
 souls of men, yea, and of Christians, the best of men, 
 that are all capable of so glorious liberty, so high 
 and honourable a happiness, should be bound down 
 under such vile and sordid lusts, feeding upon dust 
 and gravel, to whom the hidden manna is freely 
 offered, and God himself is ready to become a ban- 
 quet ! And O what a shame is it for those who 
 profess themselves children of God, disciples of the 
 most holy Jesus, and heirs of his pure and undefiled 
 kingdom of heaven ; for these, I say, willingly and 
 greedily to roll them.selves in filthy and brutish sen- 
 sualities, to set up that on high in their souls, which 
 was made to be under their bodies, and so to love 
 and live as if they studied to have no affinity at all, 
 but would be as unlike as they could to that God 
 and Redeemer, and unfit for that inheritance ! Plow 
 often shall it be protested to the Christian world, by 
 men of the greatest devotion and seriousness, that it 
 is utterly mad, and perfectly vain, to dream of enter- 
 ing into the kingdom of heaven hereafter, except the 
 kingdom of heaven enter into our souls during their 
 union with these bodies? How long shall the Son 
 of God, who came into the world on purpose to be 
 the most glorious example of true and divine purity, 
 exact and perfect self-denial and mortification ; how 
 long shall he lie by in his word, as an antiquated 
 pattern only cut out for the apostolical ages of the 
 world, and only suited to some few morose and me- 
 
245 
 
 lancholic men ? Is it not a monstrous spectacle, 
 and to be hissed out of the world with the greatest 
 indignation, a covetous, voluptuous, ambitious, sen- 
 sual saint? With what face can we pretend to true 
 relioion, or a feeling acquaintance with God, and 
 the tilings of his personal service and kingdom, whilst 
 the continual bleatings and lowings of our souls after 
 created good do bewray us so manifestly, and pro- 
 claim before all the world, that the beast, the brutish 
 life, is still powerful in us? " If ye seek me," saith 
 Christ to his followers, as well as he did once to his 
 persecutors, " then let these go ;" let go the hold of 
 these earthly objects, let vanish these worldly joys 
 and toys ; " Vv'ithhold your throat from thirst, and 
 your feet from being unshod," and come follow me 
 only, and ye shall have treasure in heaven ; for " he 
 that will not deny all for me, is not worthy of me." 
 Ah, sad and dreadful fiill, that hath so miserably 
 cramped this royal offspring, and made the King's 
 son to be a lame Mephibosheth ! Ah doleful apos- 
 tacy ! How are the sons of the morning become 
 children of darkness, and the heirs of heaven, vassals 
 and drudo-es to earth ! How is the Kinjj's dau>jhter 
 unequally yoked with a churlish Nabal, that continu- 
 ally checketh her more divine and generous motions ! 
 " How unhappily art thou matched, O my soul !" 
 And yet, alas ! I see it is too properly a marriage ; 
 for thou hast clean forgotten " thine own people, 
 and thy Father's house." Take up. Oh take^up a 
 lamentation, thou virgin, daughter of the God of 
 Zion : sometimes indeed a virgin, but now, alas ! no 
 longer a virgin, but miserably married to an unworthy 
 mate, that can never be able to match thy faculties, 
 
246 
 
 nor maintain thee according to the grandeur of thy 
 birth, or the necessary pomp of thy expenses, and 
 way of living ; nay, thou art become not only a miser- 
 able wife, but, in so being, thou art also a wicked 
 adulteress, prostituting thyself to the very vilest of 
 thy lawful husband's servants ; if thou be not inces- 
 tuous, it is no thank to thee, there being nothing in 
 this world so near of kin to thee, as to make way for 
 incest. '* Return, return, O Shulamite ; return, re- 
 turn ; put away thine adulteries from between thy 
 breasts, and so shall the King yet again greatly de- 
 sire thy beauty;" for so he hath promised, Jer. iii. 
 21. that when there shall be a voice heard upon the 
 high places, weeping, and supplications of the chil- 
 dren of Israel, because they have perverted their way, 
 and forgotten the Lord their God, and the backslid- 
 ing children shall return, and then he *' will heal 
 their backslidings." 
 
247 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The term or end of religion •, eternal life^ considered in a 
 double notion : First, as it signifies the essential happi- 
 ness of the soul. Second, as it takes in many glorious 
 appendixes. The noble and genuine breathings of the 
 godly soul after, and springing up into, the former. The 
 argument drawn from the example of Christ. Moses 
 and Paul moderated. It ends in a serious exhortation 
 made to Christians, to live and love more spiritually, 
 more suitably to the nature of souls, redeemed souls, re- 
 sulting from the vohole discourse. 
 
 I AM now come to the last thing whereby this 
 most noble principle is described, namely, the term 
 or end of it ; and that is said here, in the text, to be 
 " everlasting life." This is the highest pitch of per- 
 fection, unto which the new creature is continually 
 growing up ; which the Apostle Paul hath expressed 
 with as much grand eloquence, as words are able to 
 magnify it, calling it " the measure of the stature of 
 the fulness of Christ:" this is that unbounded ocean, 
 which this living fountain, by so many incessant 
 issues, and unwearied streamings, perpetually en- 
 deavours to empty itself into, or rather to embosom 
 itself in. Now, what this is, we must confess with 
 the Apostle John, and indeed we have more reason 
 to make such a confession than he had, that it doth 
 not yet appear, namely, neither fully nor distinctly : 
 but yet, since I am thus cast upon the contemplation 
 of it, it will be a suitable and agreeable matter to 
 
S48 
 
 inquire into it; and though it surpass the power and 
 skill of all created comprehensions to take the just 
 dimensions, and faithfully give in the height, and 
 depth, and length, and breadth of it ; yet we may 
 attempt to walk about this heavenly Jerusalem, as 
 the Psalmist speaks of the earthly, ''and tell the 
 towers thereof, mark her walls, consider her palaces, 
 that we may tell it to the generation following." 
 
 1. Then, we will consider " eternal life" in the 
 most proper notion of it, as it implies the essential 
 happiness of the soul; and so it is no other than the 
 soul's pure, perfect, and established state. By a 
 state, 1 do designedly undervalue that grosser notion 
 of a place, as that which scarcely deserves to enter 
 into the description of such a glory, or, at best, will 
 obtain but a very low room there: by purity, I do 
 purposely explode that carnal ease, rest, immunity, 
 affluence of sensual delights, accommodated only to 
 the animal life — which last Mahometans, and the for- 
 mer too many professed Christians, and the Jews 
 almost generally, dream of, and judge heaven to be. 
 By perfection, I distinguish it from the best state, 
 which the best men upon earth can possibly be in. 
 So, then, I take " eternal life," in the primary and 
 most proper notion of it, to be the full, perfect, and 
 everlasting enjoyment of God, communion with him, 
 and a most blissful conformity of all the powers and 
 faculties of the soul to that eternal goodness, truth, 
 and love, as far as it is, or may become, capable of 
 the communications of the Divinity. This life v/as, 
 at the highest rate imaginable, purchased by our 
 ever blessed Lord and Saviour in the days of his 
 flesh, and here, in the text, promised to every believ- 
 
249 
 
 inop souL Now, in as much as we are iijnorant both 
 of the present capacity of our own facuhies, how 
 large they are, and much more ignorant, how much 
 more large and ample they may be made, on purpose 
 to receive the more rich and plentiful communica- 
 tions of the divine life and image, therefore can we 
 not comprehend neither the transcendent life, hap- 
 piness, and glory, nor that degree of sanctity and 
 blessedness which the "believing soul may be ad- 
 vanced to in another world. The Popish schoolmen 
 do nicely dispute about the sight of God, and the 
 love of God, to wit, in whether of these the formal 
 blessedness of the soul consisteth, ill separating those 
 whom God hath so firmly joined together; as if it 
 were possible that either a blind love, or a jejune 
 and unafFectionate speculation, could render a soul 
 entirely happy: but it is much safer to say, that the 
 ^lappiness and eternal life of tlie soul standeth in the 
 possession or fruition of God ; and this doth neces- 
 sarily import the proper perfection of every faculty. 
 Nothing can be the formal happiness of a spirit that 
 is either inferior or extrinsical to it; it must be some- 
 thing divine, and that wrought into the very nature 
 and temper of it. I hesitate not to afSrra, that if 
 the soul of man could possibly be advanced, so as to 
 receive adoration or divine power, yet, if it were, in 
 the mean time, void of divine dispositions, and a god- 
 like nature; it would be far from being glorified, and 
 made happy as to its capacity. What health is to 
 the body, that is holiness to the soul; which haply 
 the Apostle alludes to, when he speaks of the spirit 
 of a sound mind, 2 Tim. i. 7. 
 
 2. There is another notion of " eternal life," which 
 
 l3 
 
250 
 
 some contend for, by which they mean not barely 
 the essential happiness of the soul, but that with the 
 addition of many suitable and glorious circumstances, 
 — the essential happiness of the soul, as it is attended 
 with the appendixes of a glorified body, the behold- 
 ing of Christ, the amicable society of angels, free- 
 dom from temptations, the knowledge of the secrets 
 of nature and providence, and such like : to which 
 may be also added, though of a lower degree, open 
 absolution, or a visible deliverance of the saints out 
 of the overthrow of the wicked, at the conflagration 
 of the world, power over devils, eminence of place, 
 enjoyment of friends, and such like. Now, let us 
 briefly consider what tendencies there are in the re- 
 ligious soul towards each of these. And here I must 
 crave leave to speak jointly both of the end, and of 
 the motion thereunto ; though it may be thought 
 that the former only falls fairly under our present 
 consideration. 
 
 (1.) Then, I suppose, that " eternal life," in the 
 first sense of it, is intended here, to wit, the essential 
 happiness of the soul, or its perfect and everlasting 
 enjoyment of God. For the description is here 
 made of religion itself in the abstract, or that prin- 
 ciple of divine life, which Christ Jesus implanted in 
 the soul; and being so considered, it is hard to con- 
 ceive how that should spring up into any of these 
 appendant circumstances, or into any thing but the 
 completion and perfection of itself; though the re- 
 ligious soul, taken in connection with them, possibly 
 may. And, indeed, though we should allow, which 
 we shall take into consideration under the next 
 head, that many of those high scriptural phrases, 
 
251 
 
 which are brought to describe the future condition 
 of believing souls, do principally respect the appen- 
 dixes of its essential happiness, (as a kingdom, a 
 house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, 
 an inheritance reserved, a place prepared, and the 
 like,) yet it seems very unnatural to interpret this 
 phrase, " life," and " eternal hfe," any otherwise 
 than of that which I call the essential happiness 
 of the soul : but if we interpret it of this, the sense 
 is very fair and easy. Thus, this principle of divine 
 life is continually endeavouring to grow up to its 
 just altitude, to advance itself to a triumphant state, 
 even as all other principles of life do naturally tend 
 towards a final accomplishment, and ultimate perfec- 
 tion. Carnal self, or the animal life, may be indeed 
 said to be a well of water too, poisonous water; but 
 that springs up into a sensual life, popular applause, 
 self-accommodations, or, if you will, in the Apostle's 
 phrase, into the fulfilment of the lusts of the flesh. 
 This I speak only by way of illustrative opposition ; 
 fpr, to speak more properly, this corrupt principle 
 hath in it the central force of death and hell, and is 
 always tumbling downward; whereas this divine 
 principle is always climbing upward : but they do 
 both agree in this, that they both seek their own 
 gratifications, and study to acquire their respective 
 perfections. The everlasting and most glorious en- 
 joyment of God is certainly most perfective of the 
 soul; and therefore is most properly and most de- 
 servingly said to be its " eternal life," according to 
 that of our Saviour, John xvii. 3. Now, this " eter- 
 nal life" is not a thing specifically different from reli- 
 gion, or the image of God, or the divine life, but in- 
 
Q52 
 
 deed the greatest height, and the greatest possible 
 perfection of itself: even as the sun at noon-day is 
 not a light really distinct from what it was in the 
 first dawnings of the morning, but a different de- 
 gree, and far more glorious state ; which seeras to 
 be tbe very similitude whereby the Spirit of God 
 illustrateth the matter in hand, Prov. iv. 18. or, as 
 a man of perfect age is not a distinct species from a 
 child, but much more complete and excellent in that 
 species: to which the Apostle refers, treating of this 
 subject, 1 Cor. siii. 11. Man hath not two dis- 
 tinct kinds of happiness in the two distinct worlds, 
 that he is made to live in; but one and the same 
 thinfj is his blessedness in both, which, as I said be- 
 fore, must needs be the enjoyment of God. The 
 translation made of the text is very suitable to this 
 notion : for this divine principle is said to spring up, 
 not unto, but into, everlasting life, q. d. it springs 
 up till it be swallowed up into the perfect know- 
 ledge, love, and enjoyment of God. Even as youth 
 is swallowed up in manhood, so this grace is swal- 
 lowed up in glory, and not so much abolished, as in- 
 deed perfected. 
 
 By this phrase, the genius of true religion, and 
 the excellent temper of the truly religious soul, is 
 most lively described. This is the soul, that, be- 
 injj in some measure delivered from its unnatural 
 bondage, and freed from its unhappy confinement, 
 now spreads itself in God, lifts up itself to him, 
 stretches itself upon him, is not content with a hea- 
 ven merely to come, but brings down a heaven into 
 itself, by carrying up itself unto, and after, the God 
 of heaven. God is become great, only great in the 
 
Q53 
 
 eye of such a Christian ; he is indeed become all 
 things to him. Whilst this principle is rightly and 
 actually predominant in him, he knows no interest 
 but to thrive and grow great in God ; no will, but 
 to serve the will, and comply with the mind of God; 
 no end, but to be united to God ; no business, but 
 to display and reflect the glory and perfections of 
 God upon the earth. The main business of his life, 
 I say, is to serve him ; the main ambition of his soul 
 to be like to him ; and his main happiness in this 
 world to be united to him ; and in the world to come 
 to be swallowed up in him : in this world to .know, 
 and love, and rest, and delight in, and enjoy God 
 more than all things, and in the world to come to 
 enjoy him more so. The gladsome growings up of 
 the tender flowers to the friendiv sun, beincr once 
 powerfully surprised with his precious and benign 
 influences, and the cheerful haste with which the 
 sympathetic needle so amorously pursues the en- 
 chanting loadstone, being once rightly touched and 
 affected with it, do a little, though but a little, 
 resemble and represent the motions of a spirit 
 impregnated with this divine principle-, and strongly 
 impressed with the image and stamp of God : he 
 puts in his hand by the hole of the door, and the 
 bowels of the espoused soul are presently moved, 
 yea, melted for him. Canticles v. 4. He casts 
 the skirt of his garment, the mantle of his love, and 
 presently the converted soul leaves all to follow him. 
 Faith, hope, and love, are knitting and springing 
 graces, and this eternal life is the end and perfec- 
 tion of them all; not that any one of them, I con- 
 ceive, shall be utterly abolished, as some conclude 
 
2545 
 
 concerning the two former, though without good 
 ground, I think, from the Apostle's words, 1 Cor. 
 xiii. J 3. But faith will be ripened into the most 
 firm and undisturbed confidence, affiance, and ac- 
 quiescence in God ; hope will be advanced into a 
 more cheerful, powerful, and confident expectation, 
 having for its object the perpetuation of the soul's 
 felicity; and love will become much more loving, 
 and more clearly distinguishable from the imperfect 
 longings and languishings of this present state, 
 when it shall flower up into pure delights and com- 
 placencies, resting and glorying in the arms of its 
 adequate, satisfactory, and eternal object. The 
 faith of the hypocrite, and indeed his hope too, is 
 still springing up into self-preservation, deliverance, 
 liberty, a splendid and pompous state of the church, 
 (that is, of his own party) or some such thing as 
 will gratify the animal life, and there it terminates; 
 but the faith of the sincere and religious soul springs 
 up into eternal life ; it knows no term but * the sal- 
 vation of the soul,' 1 Pet. i. 9. as his hope knows 
 no accomplishment but a state of God-like purity 
 and perfection, 1 John iii. 3. The mere natural 
 man lives within himself, within a circle of his own, 
 and cannot get out; whether he eat, or drink, or 
 pray, or be zealous for the popular pulling down of 
 the political Antichrist, he is still in his own circle, 
 he is still sacrificing in all this to that great helluo, 
 the animal life, as I have already made evident: but 
 the godly soul is disinterested of self, and so is still 
 contriving the advancement of a nobler life within 
 itself, and moving towards God, as his supreme and 
 all-sufficient good. Give him all that the whole world 
 
255 
 
 can afford, he cannot fix, nor settle, nor centre hera: 
 God hath put into him a holy restless appetite after 
 a higher good, which he would rather be, than what 
 he is. I know indeed that the soul that is thus 
 divinely free may be hindered in its flight ; but it 
 will deliver itself from the clog at length. You may 
 choke and dam up the streamings of this fountain, 
 perhaps, but they will burst out again ; you may 
 cast ashes upon this pure fire for a time, but it will 
 flame out again: such a damp cannot arise, no, not 
 from hell itself, as to extinguish it. The Philis- 
 tines, I remember, stopped the wells of water which 
 Abraham had digged in Gerar, " and filled them 
 with earth," Gen. xxvi. 15. But this well of water, 
 which God diggeth in the holy and humble soul, 
 cannot be stopped, neither by the devil, that king of 
 Gerar, that is, of wanderings. Job i. 7. nor by any 
 of his servants, but it will find vent upward : though 
 you endeavour to fill it with earth, which indeed is 
 the likeliest to choke it, though you cast the dust and 
 gravel of earthly pleasures, profits, or preferments 
 into it, yet it is a well of living water, and will work 
 its passage out. The hungerings of the godly soul 
 are not, cannot be satisfied, till it come to feed upon 
 the hidden manna, nor its thirstings quenched, till 
 it come to be swallowed up in the unbounded ocean 
 of life and love. 
 
 But I find I cannot divide " springing up" from 
 " eternal life," nor pursue the term of religion, but 
 I must also take in the motion of the religious soul, 
 whereby he pursues it, which I have already handled 
 in my discourse ; therefore I will quit this head, 
 and take a short view of the second. 
 
256 
 
 (2.) The secondary and more improper notion of 
 " eternal life," I mentioned, was that which takes in 
 the circumstances or appendixes of it. And here we 
 must needs allow, that the Holy Scriptures do openly 
 avouch some of these circumstances, as those espe- 
 cially of the first class that I named, of some of 
 which it seems to make great account; and possibly 
 the Scripture may somewhere or other imply all the 
 rest, even those of the inferior rank. Again, we 
 will allow, that many of those phrases which the 
 Scripture uses to describe the blessed state of the 
 other world, do principally respect these appendixes 
 of the soul's essential happiness ; such perhaps are 
 the "crown of righteousness" mentioned by the 
 Apostle Paul. " The prize of the high calling," 
 mentioned by the same Apostle. " The house which 
 is from heaven." " A kingdom, an incorruptible in- 
 heritance, a place prepared, mansions, areward, praise, 
 and honour, and glory at the appearing of Jesus 
 Christ," 1 Pet. 1. 7. And that "glory, honour, 
 and peace," spoken of by the Apostle, Rom. ii. 10. 
 These are all Scripture descriptions of the other 
 state, and I suppose we may grant them to have a 
 peculiar reference to this secondary essential happi- 
 ness of the'soul : though I know not any necessity 
 there is to be so liberal in our concessions; for it 
 may be fairly said concerning all, or most of them, 
 that the design of these phrases is not so much to 
 establish this less proper notion, or to point out the 
 circumstances of the glorified state, as to insinuate 
 how much more ample and glorious the state shall 
 be than this in which we now are; as a prize is 
 looked upon as somewhat more excellent than what 
 
257 
 
 is done or expended to acquire it, (it must needs be 
 so esteemed by runners or wrestlers) ; a kingdom is 
 a more glorious state than that of subjection, and aii 
 inheritance is incomparably more ample than the pen- 
 sion that is allowed the heir in his minority. 
 
 But these things being conceded, it doth not ap- 
 pear how far, or under what notion, the religious 
 soul, as such, doth spring up into these additional 
 glories, and thirst after them. I know there are 
 many that speak very highly of these appendixes, 
 and allow the godly soul a very high and irrespec- 
 tive valuation of them ; and this they principally in- 
 fer from the examples of Christ himself, as also of 
 Moses and Paul. Give me leave, therefore, to 
 suggest something, not to enervate, but to moderate, 
 the argument drawn from these persons; and after 
 that, I shall briefly lay down what I conceive to be 
 most scriptural and rational in this matter. 
 
 1. As for the example of Christ, it seems to make 
 not much for them in this matter. For however the 
 text is very plain, that " for the joy that was set be- 
 fore him, he endured the cross;" and this joy seems 
 plainly to be -his session " at the right hand of 
 God." Yet, if by this joy we understand a more 
 full and glorious possession of God, and a more ex- 
 cellent exaltation of his human nature, to a more 
 frea fruition of the divine, then it cannot be applied 
 to any thing but the springing up of the gracious 
 soul into its essential happiness; which I have al- 
 ready contended for, as being the proper genius of 
 such a soul: or if by this joy and throne we under- 
 stand the power that Christ foresaw he should be 
 vested with, of leading captivity captive, trampling 
 
258 
 
 under feet the powers of hell and darkness, and pro- 
 curing gifts for men, which seems to me to be most 
 likely, then it belongs not at all to men, neither can 
 this example be exhibited for imitation. 
 
 As for the instance of Moses, who is said to have 
 had " respect to the recompense of the reward.'^ 
 It is not yet granted, that that " recompense of re- 
 ward " relates principally to these appendants of the 
 soul's essential happiness, neither can it, I suppose, 
 be evinced: but, though I should also allow that, 
 which I incline to do, yet all that can be inferred 
 from it, is but a respect that Moses had, as our 
 translation well renders it, or some account which 
 he in his sufferings made of this recompense; which 
 was a very warrantable contemplation. 
 
 The Apostle Paul, indeed, doth openly profess 
 that he looked for, and desired, the coming of Christ 
 from heaven, upon the account of that glorious 
 body which he would then clothe him with, and so 
 he might, and yet not desire it principally and pri- 
 marily, but secondarily, and with reference. 
 
 And this leads me to the general answer that I 
 was preparing to give, which is this. Some of these 
 circumstances which I have named, especially that 
 of the glorified body, may be reduced to the essen- 
 tial happiness of the soul, or included in it, so that 
 the soul could not otherwise be perfectly happy. It 
 is the opinion of all divines, I think, that a Chris- 
 tian is not completely happy, till he consist of a soul 
 and body both glorified. And, indeed, considering 
 the dear affection, and essential aptitude, that God 
 hath planted in the human soul for a body, we can- 
 not well conceive how she should be perfectly 
 
259 
 
 happy without one : and this earthly body is, alas ! 
 an unequal yoke-fellow, in which she is half stifled, 
 and rather buried, than conveniently lodged ; so 
 that it seems necessary, even to her essential happi- 
 ness, that she should have some more heavenly and 
 glorious body, wherein she may coramodiously and 
 pleasantly exert her innate powers, and whereby she 
 may express herself in a spiritual and nobler manner, 
 suitable to her own natural dignity and vigour, and 
 to her infinitely amiable, and most beloved object. 
 
 Concerning the rest of the circumstances which 
 cannot be thus reduced, I conceive that such of 
 them as are necessary to the essential happiness of 
 the soul, by way of subserviency, may be eyed, and 
 desired, and thirsted after, secondarily, under this 
 motion only, as they are subservient to that essen- 
 tial blessedness. I confess I do not understand 
 under what other notion a religious soul can lift up 
 itself to them ; I mean, not so far forth as it is holy 
 and religious, and acts suitably to that divine princi- 
 ple which the Father of spirits, or rather the Father 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ, hath implanted in it. 
 And if there be any other circumstance which cannot 
 be reduced to one of these kinds, I suppose it may 
 be reckoned amongst the objects and gratifications of 
 the animal life, and not to make up any part of the 
 godly man's heaven, or that eternal life which reli- 
 gion springs up into : for I easily imagine, that a 
 fleshly fancy may verily be mightily ravished with 
 the desire of such a heaven as is suitable to it ; and 
 that a mere animal man may be as heartily desirous 
 to be in such a kingdom of God, as he hath shaped 
 out to himself, as he is utterly unwilling that the 
 
260 
 
 true kingdom of God, such as the Apostle describes, 
 Rom.xiv. 17. consisting in " righteousness and peace, 
 and joy in the Holy Ghost," should be in him. If our 
 continual cry be after safety, self-preservation, liberty, 
 redemption, and deliverance from those things only 
 that oppress and grieve our fleshly interest, and our 
 thirstings principally terminated in knowledge, though 
 it be of God himself, freedom from condemnation, 
 power over devils, yea, or any visible pomp, glory, 
 or splendour, though it be of ever so ethereal and 
 heavenly a nature, what do we more than others? 
 what is all this more than may naturally spring up 
 from the animal life, and may be ultimately resolved 
 into carnal itself? 
 
 Wherefore, as a result from the whole discourse, 
 especially from this last part of it, let me earnestly 
 entreat of all the professors of this holy religion, 
 which the blessed Messiah, Christ Jesus, hath so 
 dearly bought for the world, and so clearly revealed 
 in it, not to value themselves by any thing which 
 the power of natural self-love may exert or desire, 
 perform or expect, nor by any thing below the image 
 of God, and the internal and transforming manifes- 
 tations of Christ Jesus in them ; the perfection of 
 which is eternal life, in the most proper and true 
 notion of it. I know that I have often suggested 
 the same lesson in this short treatise, but I know 
 also, that I can never inculcate it often enough ; 
 nay, the eloquence of angels is not sufficient to im- 
 print it upon the hearts of men. Possibly it may 
 startle some hypocritical professors, and carnal gos- 
 pellers, (God grant it may effectually !) and make 
 the ears of many that hear it to tingle, but yet I 
 
261 
 
 will proclaim it, " It is possible for a man to desire 
 not only the things of this world, which St. James 
 speaks of, (James iv. 3.) but even heaven itself, to 
 consume it upon his lusts ; and he may as truly be 
 making provision for the flesh to fulfil it in the lust 
 thereof, in longing after a kind of self-salvation, as in 
 eating, and drinking, and rising up to play." Cer- 
 tainly a true Christian spirit, rightly invigorated 
 and actuated by this divine and potent principle, 
 Christian religion, cannot look upon heaven as 
 merely future, or as something perfectly distinct 
 from him ; but he eyes it as life, eternal life, the 
 perfection of the purest and divinest life communica- 
 ble to a soul, and is daily thirsting after it, or rather, 
 as it is in the text, " growing up into it." I know 
 that heaven is sometimes called a rest, in opposition 
 to the dissatisfaction of the uncentred and unbe- 
 lieving soul ; but, in opposition to a sluggish, inert, 
 and dormant rest, it is here said to be life, eternal 
 life. Let us show ourselves to be living Christians, 
 by springing up into the utmost consummation of 
 life : let it appear that Christ Jesus, the Prince of 
 life, who was manifested on purpose " to take away 
 our sins," hath not only covered our shame, and, as 
 it were, embalmed our dead souls, to keep them 
 from putrefaction, and strewed them with the flowers 
 of his merits, to take away their noisome smell from 
 the nostrils of his Father, but hath truly advanced, 
 reinstated, and made the souls flourish that sin had 
 so miserably degraded and deflowered. Deliver 
 yourselves, O immortal souls ! from all those un- 
 suitable and unseemly cares, studies, and joys; from 
 all those low and particular ends and lusts, which do 
 
262 
 
 not only pinch and straiten, but even debase and 
 degrade you. Let it not be said, that the king of 
 Sodom made Abraham rich ; that your main dehght, 
 happiness, and contentment, is derived from any 
 prosperous, plentiful, peaceable, pompous state, any 
 thing that may be called a self-accommodation, either 
 in the world that now is, or that which is to come ; 
 but from the righteousness of faith, and your vital 
 union with the Father and the Son ; to whom, in 
 the unity of the Spirit, be honour and glory, world 
 without end. Amen. 
 
ON 
 
 COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
ON 
 
 COMMUNION WITH GOD. 
 
 1 John i. 3. 
 
 " Owjelloivshij) is tvith the Father, and tviih his Son 
 Jesus Christ." 
 
 These words express the way of a Christian's living, 
 and that kind of converse whereby a good man is 
 distinguished from all other men. 
 
 A good man is not differenced from other men by 
 any thing without him, any church privileges which 
 are common to hypocrites and sincere Christians ; any 
 external visible performances, in which the disciples 
 of the Pharisees maybe more abundant and more spe- 
 cious than the disciples of Christ, much less by any 
 corporeal or temporal enjoyment or ornament, strength, 
 beauty, riches, descent, &c. nor by any carnal rela- 
 tion, though it were to Abraham, as the Jews boasted 
 of their father Abraham, but by something internal, 
 substantial, by a relation to God. The character of a 
 good man must be drawn from his correspondence to 
 the chief good, and the happiness of a soul must be 
 judged of by its relation to life, and love, and blessed- 
 
 M 38 
 
266 
 
 ness itself. Things external, corporeal, temporal, 
 make some difference amongst men, but it is but 
 nominal and titular in comparison : by these, men 
 are said to be rich or poor, noble or ignoble; but 
 men are really and substantially differenced by the 
 relation that they have to God : by this they are' 
 good or bad, godly or wicked. This is the most 
 certain and proper note of a good man, namely, 
 communion with God : in all other things he may 
 be like other men, but in this he differs from and 
 excels them all. This is a character proper or pecu- 
 liar to them ; for it agrees to every good man, to 
 none but a good man, and always to him, as we shall 
 see hereafter. The ground of my discourse, then, 
 shall be this short and plain proposition, namely, 
 " A godly man hath communion with God." 
 In order to the more distinct handling hereof, I 
 must premise a few things briefly. 
 
 1. ''That the gracious and loving God made 
 nothing miserable of all that he made." There are 
 no slaves born in this great house of the world. He 
 made all thiiigs out of himself, and he hath no idea 
 of evil in himself, so that it was not possible that he 
 should make any thing evil or miserable. Every 
 thing was good. Gen. i. and so, in some sense, happy. 
 He was free to make the world, but making it, he 
 could not make it evil or miserable. Every thing is 
 the product of Almighty love and goodness. 
 
 2. " The happiness of every creature consists in 
 its acting agreeably to that nature that God gave it, 
 and those ends which he propounded to it, and suit- 
 ably to those laws which he gave them ;" which laws 
 were contrived with the greatest suitableness to those 
 
267 
 
 natures, and subserviency to those ends. Every 
 creature is in its kind happy, whilst it acts agreeably 
 to that nature which the wise Creator implanted in 
 it ; as the sun runs its race without ceasing, and re- 
 joices so to do, and is, in some sense, happy in so 
 doing. Departing from that nature it becomes mi- 
 serable, as the earth bringing forth briers and thorns, 
 instead of those good fruits which it was appointed 
 to bring forth, is said to be cursed. Gen. iii. 17, 18. 
 
 3. " The happiness of the creature is higher or 
 lower, greater or lesser, according as it comes nearer 
 to God, or is further off from him," according as it 
 receives more or less from him, . according to what 
 communion it hath with him. The life and happi- 
 ness of the sun is much lower than that of a man, 
 because it cannot enjoy such high and excellent 
 communications from, or communion with God, as 
 man doth. 
 
 4-. " There can be no communion without like- 
 ness." The sun shines upon a stone wall, as well 
 as upon man, but a stone wall has no communion 
 with the sun, because it hath no eyes to see the light 
 of it as mart hath, nor can receive the benign influ- 
 ences of its heat as the herbs do. A log of wood 
 lieth in the water as well as the fish, but it hath no 
 communion with the water, nor receives any advan- 
 tage by it as the fish doth. God is present, accord- 
 ing to his infinite essence, with the devils, as with 
 the angels, but they have no likeness in nature 
 to him, and so no communion with him, as these 
 have. 
 
 5. " God hath given a more large and excellent 
 capacity to man, than to any other of his creatures 
 
 M 2 
 
268 
 
 upon earth." God hath endued man with reason, 
 and so made him capable of a higher life, and a more 
 excellent communion with his Maker than all the 
 rest. Of all sublunary creatures, the rational soul 
 only is capable to know, love, serve, enjoy, imitate 
 God, and so to have a glorious communion with him. 
 The sun, in all its glory and brightness, is not so 
 excellent a being as any soul of man, upon this ac- 
 count. And although man, by his fall, lost his 
 actual communion with God, yet he is a reasonable 
 creature still: he hath not lost his capacity of re- 
 ceiving influences from him, and enjoying communion 
 with him. The world, when it is at the darkest, is 
 yet capable of being enlightened. 
 
 6. " When the nature of man is, by divine grace, 
 healed of its distemperedness, and restored to its 
 former rectitude, to act suitably to the end for which 
 it was made, and to spend itself upon its proper ob- 
 ject, then man comes to have a right communion 
 with God, and to be happy." All rational souls are 
 capable of holding communion with God, but all do 
 not hold communion with him ; but they that ex- 
 press the purity and holiness of the divine life, that 
 know God, and live like him, these are his children, 
 Matt. V. 15. and those only do rightly and really 
 converse with him. When the Spirit of God informs 
 these rational souls, and communicates the strength 
 of a divine life through them, and stamps the lively 
 impressions of divine perfections upon them, render- 
 ing our hearts, wills, and ways, conformable to that 
 glorious pattern, that infinite good, then do we en- 
 joy a proper communion with him, and are truly 
 blessed; though we are not completely blessed, till 
 
S69 
 
 this conformity be perfected according to what those 
 souls are, or may be capable of. 
 
 This is the true and proper notion of man's com- 
 munion with God, and relation to him, which we 
 cannot fully describe, till we more fully enjoy. That 
 soul that truly lives and feeds upon God, does taste 
 more than it can tell ; and yet it can tell this, that 
 this is the most high, excellent, noble, glorious life 
 in the whole world. 
 
 This communion, as also the intimateness and 
 closeness of it, are described variously in the Holy 
 Scriptures, by the similitude of members being in 
 the body. Of branches being in the vine. By 
 being formed according to God's image, changed 
 into his image. By God's dwelling in the soul, 
 and the soul in him. By Christ's being formed 
 in the soul. By the soul's having Christ. By 
 Christ's supping with the soul, and the soul with 
 him. Because nothing is more our own, nor more 
 one with us, than that which we eat and drink, be- 
 ing incorporated into us ; therefore is this spiritual 
 communion between God and the godly soul, oft- 
 times in Scripture described by our eating and 
 drinking with him. Thus God was pleased to allow 
 his people under the law, when they had offered up a 
 part of their beasts in sacrifice to him, to sit down 
 and feast upon the rest, as a token of that familiarity 
 and oneness that was between him and them. By 
 the like action, our Saviour shadowed out the same 
 mystery, when, in the sacrament of his Supper, he 
 appointed them to sit down to eat and drink with 
 him, to intimate their feeding upon him, and most 
 close communion with him : yea, the state of glory. 
 
270 
 
 which is the most perfect communion with God. is 
 thus shadowed out too, Matt. viii. 11. Rev. xix. 9. 
 And, which is worth noting, I think the sacra- 
 mental eating and drinking hath some reference to 
 that most intimate communion of the saints with God 
 in glory. Our Saviour himself seems to imply as 
 much in that speech of his, Luke xxii. 30. " That 
 ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom :" 
 in which words he seems plainly to allude to the sa- 
 cramental eating and drinking which he, had a little 
 before instituted. Which makes some to believe 
 that that gesture is to be retained in that ordinance, 
 which is most proper and usual to express familiarity 
 and communion ; and to take away that gesture, is 
 to destroy one great end of our Saviour, in appoint- 
 ing this Supper, which was to represent that familiar 
 communion which is between himself and every be- 
 lieving soul. I will not here examine the validity 
 of their argument, which, possibly, if pressed home, 
 might introduce a rudeness into the worship of God, 
 under pretence of familiarity : but it seems very plain, 
 that the nat'ure of that ordinance doth shadow out 
 the intimate communion between God and a godly 
 soul. 
 
 I have already, in part, prevented myself, and 
 showed you wherein the soul's communion with God 
 consists: but yet, to give you a more distinct know- 
 ledge of this great mystery, I shall unfold it in these 
 three following particulars. 
 
 1. "A godly soul hath communion with God in 
 his attributes." When the soul of man is moulded 
 and formed into a resemblance of the divine nature, 
 then hath it a true fellowship with him. Now, this 
 
271 
 
 communion with God in his attributes is to be seen 
 two ways. 
 
 Ist, " When the soul is, in its measure,, according 
 to the capacity of a creature, all that which God is." 
 This is the communion which the angels have with 
 God. Their beholding the face of God, is not to be 
 understood of a mere speculation, or an idle gazing 
 upon a deity; but they see him, by receiving his 
 image upon themselves, and reflecting his glory and 
 brightness ; they partake of the goodness, purity, 
 holiness, wisdom, righteousness of God, which makes 
 them such glorious spirits ; and the want of this 
 makes the other, whom we call devils, to be vvhat 
 they are. Thus, godly men shall have communion 
 with God, they shall see God. Yea, thus they 
 have communion with him in some measure : they 
 do not only see God in the world, as the devils do, 
 nor see him in the Word, as many hypocritical and 
 wicked men do, but they see him in themselves, in 
 the frame of their own souls, they find themselves 
 moulded into his image, and a resemblance of him 
 drawn upon them. This is a beatifical vision of 
 God, true and real, though not full and complete. 
 This is set out in Scripture, by being " holy, as 
 God is holy," " perfect, as God is perfect." This 
 our Saviour exhorts us to seek after, " Take my yoke 
 upon you, learn of me ; for I am meek and lowly ;" 
 and the Apostle, " Be ye followers of God, as dear 
 children." When the nature and perfections of 
 God, his holiness, goodness, righteousness, wisdom, 
 &c. are copied out upon our natures, and the same 
 spirit is in us, which was in Christ Jesus, then have 
 we a true communion with God, which blessed com- 
 
272 
 
 munlon, when the soul becomes all that which God 
 is, is by a conformity of nature. 
 
 2dly, " When the soul, in its actions as a creature, 
 doth rightly answer to the attributes of the Creator." 
 As when the soul doth answer the goodness of God 
 with suitable affections of love and joy, and delight ; 
 when the soul doth correspond to the sovereignty and 
 wisdom of God by the acts of self-denial and resig- 
 nation ; doth converse with the righteousness of God 
 by patience and a holy acquiescence. When the 
 soul doth rightly exert those acts which are proper 
 and suitable to the nature of God, then it may be 
 said to hold communion with him in his attributes ; 
 when the actions and motions of the soul do corre- 
 spond to the divine nature and attributes. Now, 
 this suitableness of the soul, I mean especially with 
 reference to the incommunicable attributes of God, 
 where there is no place for imitation, though it hold 
 good in the rest also. 
 
 2. " A godly soul hath communion with God 
 in his word." To read, profess, or hear the word, 
 is not to hold a real communion with God therein : 
 many do so that are strangers to God : a man may 
 read my letters, and yet correspond with my enemy. 
 'I'hat son, in the gospel, that heard his father's com- 
 mand, and answered, "I go, Sir," but went not, had 
 no right communion with his paternal authority. 
 But when the soul is ennobled into such a frame as 
 this word doth require, then it holds communion 
 with God in his word; for example, when the soul 
 puts forth those acts of humiliation, holy fear and 
 reverence, godly trembling, which do suit the nature 
 of a divine threatening, when the soul answers the 
 
273 
 
 command of God with suitable resolutions, repent- 
 ings, reformations, and real obedience, when it enter- 
 tains the promise with suitable acts of holy delight, 
 joy, refreshment, recumbency, and acquiesces in the 
 same, then doth it truly converse with God in his 
 Word. 
 
 3. " A godly soul hath communion with God in 
 his works." And that is, when the soul doth an- 
 swer the several providences of God witjb suitable 
 and pertinent affections and dispositions. The godly 
 soul doth not only eye and observe the hand of God 
 in all things that fall out, but doth comply with 
 those providences, and is moulded into that frame, 
 and put upon those duties, which such providences 
 do call for. Then doth the soul rightly hold com- 
 munion with God in his. works, when it is humbled 
 under humbling providences, is refreshed, strength- 
 ened, and grows up under prosperous providences, as 
 they did, Acts ix. 31. who having rest given them, 
 were edified, comforted, multiplied, &c. When the 
 soul doth rightly comport with every providence, 
 and the will is moulded into the will of God, then 
 do we hold communion with him in his works. 
 This theme is large, because the works of God are 
 manifold, of creation, redemption, preservation, works 
 towards other men, and towards ourselves, both to- 
 wards our outward and inward man. A godly soul 
 hath communion with God in all these; in the sense 
 that I named even now, though perhaps not equally 
 in all, yet sincerely and truly. 
 
 By what hath been said, you understand that 
 ricfht fellowship with God is not a bare communion 
 of names. To have the name of God called upon us, 
 
 M 3 
 
274i 
 
 and to be called Christians, or the people of God, 
 or to nanae the name of God, to profess it, to cry, 
 Lord, Lord, doth not make any one really and truly 
 the better man, doth not make a soul rightly happy. 
 It is not enough to cry, " The temple of the Lord, 
 the temple of the Lord," with those in Jer. i. 4. to 
 make our " boast in the law," with those in Rom. 
 ii. 23. to call ourselves " the children of Abraham," 
 as the Jews did in John the Baptist's time, Matt. iii. 
 9. These privileges and professions are extrinsical 
 to the soul, and do nothing to the true ennobling 
 of it. But right fellowship with God is a commu- 
 nion of hearts and natures, of will and affections, of 
 interest and ends; to have one heart and will, the 
 same interest and ends with God, is to be truly 
 godly: a God-like man is the only godly man; a 
 Christ-like nature brought into the soul, doth only 
 denominate a man a true Christian. It is not 
 speaking together, but loving and living together, 
 that brings God and the soul into one : " I live, 
 yet not 1, but Christ that liveth in me." And 
 thus, I suppose, you have a fair account why the 
 Apostle James, chap. ii. does so much prefer works 
 before faith, (for indeed faith is nothing worth,* save 
 only that faith which joins the soul to the object, 
 and makes the thing believed one's own,) as also, why 
 the Apostle Paul prefers love before a faith of mira- 
 cles, 1 Cor. xiii. 2. Though, indeed, a justifying 
 faith is the most miraculous, that faith which unites 
 the soul and God together is more excellent, and, 
 indeed, more miraculous than the faith that removes 
 mountains. When I consider the proper happiness 
 and perfection of a soul, and the nature of this true 
 
T}5 
 
 blissful communion with God, I cannot but wonder 
 how it is possible, that men should take their com- 
 munion with God to consist in an overly acquaint- 
 ance with him, profession of him, performances to 
 him. lam confident it is not possible, that men 
 should have any true feeling of happiness in such 
 acquaintance, no more than a man can be reallv filled 
 with the seeing or craving of meat which he eats not. 
 Before I apply the doctrine, give me leave to 
 lay down some rules or positions, tending further to 
 explain and clear it. 
 
 1. This must be held, which I touched upon 
 before, that " there can be no communion between 
 God and man, but by a likeness of nature, a new, 
 a divine principle implanted in the soul." A beast 
 hath no communion with a man, because reason, the 
 ground of such communion, is wanting. Of all the 
 creatures, there was none found that could be a meet 
 help for Adam, that could be taken into the human 
 society, till Eve was made, who was a human per- 
 son. So, neither can there be any conjunction of 
 the soul with God, but by oneness of spirit, " He 
 that is joined to the Lord is one spirit." 
 
 ^. *' There can be no communion with God but 
 by a Mediator," no Mediator but Christ Jesus, who 
 is God-man. " Two cannot walk together," nor 
 hold communion, " except they be agreed; and 
 there can be no agreement made between God and 
 man but by Christ Jesus. Therefore it is said, 
 *' Our communion is with the Father and the Son," 
 with the Father by the Son: and faith, whereby 
 the soul and God are united, is still said to be 
 " faith in Christ," as we find in the Scriptures. 
 
276 
 
 3. " There can be no perfect communion with 
 God in this life." Our communion with heaven, 
 whilst we are upon earth, is imperfect ; our resem- 
 blance to God is scant and dark in comparison of 
 what it shall be. We know but in part, love but 
 in part, enjoy but in part ; we are but in part holy 
 and happy. There can be no perfect communion 
 with God, till there be a perfect reconciliation of 
 natures as well as persons ; and that cannot be whilst 
 there is any thing unlike to God in the soul, 
 whilst any impure thing dwells in the soul which 
 cannot truly close with God, nor God with that. 
 The Holy Spirit can never suffer any defiled thing 
 to unite itself with it: " It is not lawful for any im- 
 pure thing to mix itself with pure divinity," saith So- 
 crates the heathen. " What communion hath right- 
 eousness with unrighteousness?" saith the Apostle; 
 and so far as a righteous man is in any part unright- 
 eous, so far is he a stranger to God. The unre- 
 generate part of a regenerate man hath no more com- 
 munion with God than a wicked man, than the devil 
 himself hath ; no more than darkness hath with light. 
 
 4. " Our communion with God must be distin- 
 guished from the sense and feeling of it." Many 
 have run upon sad miscarriages, (and those indeed 
 extremes,) whilst they place communion with God 
 in the sense and feeling of it, in raptures of joy, ex- 
 tacies and transports of soul ; which, indeed, if they 
 be real, are not so much it, as the flower of it, some- 
 thing resulting and separable from it. Communion 
 with God cannot be lost in a saint, for then he is 
 no saint ; for it is the proper characteristic of a saint 
 to have communion with God; and a saint under 
 
277 
 
 desertion, hath communion with God even then as 
 really, though not so feeUngly, as at any other time, 
 so far as he is sanctified. But the sense of this 
 communion may be very much, if not altogether 
 lost, and oftentimes is lost. 
 
 5. *' A soul's communion with God cannot be 
 interrupted by any local mutations." It is a spiri- 
 tual conjunction, and is not violated by any confine- 
 ment ; the walls of a prison cannot separate God 
 and the godly soul ; banishment cannot drive a soul 
 from God. The blessed angels, those ministerino- 
 spirits, wjien they are despatched into the utmost 
 ends of the world upon the service of God, are even 
 then beholding the face of God, and do enjoy as in- 
 timate communion with him as ever. The case is 
 the same with all godly souls, whose communion 
 with God does not depend upon any local situation ; 
 it is not thousands of miles that can beget a dis- 
 tance between God and the soul. Indeed nothino^ 
 
 o 
 
 but sin does it, or can do it. " Your iniquities 
 have separated between you and your God ;" no- 
 thing but sin is contrary to this divine fellowship, 
 and so nothing but that can interrupt this spiritual 
 society. To speak properly, sin does not so much 
 cause the soul's distance from God, as itself is that 
 distance. Man and wife remain one, though at a 
 hundred miles' distance; and believing souls do 
 maintain a certain spiritual communion one with an- 
 other, though in several parts of the world. The 
 society and communion of godly souls one with an- 
 other, so far as it is spiritual, cannot be interrupted 
 by bodily distance; much less, then, the fellowship 
 of God with the godly soul, who carries about with 
 
278 
 
 him, and in him, a divine nature, the image of God, 
 a holy, God-like disposition whithersoever he goes. 
 6. " This communion with God, which I have 
 been speaking of, is much better than all outward 
 acts and enjoyments, duties and ordinances whatso- 
 ever, though they be ever so many or specious." 
 God himself long since decided this matter, that a 
 broken and contrite heart is better than all sacri- 
 fices, Psalm li. 17. that " to obey was better than 
 sacrifice," 1 Sam. xv. 22. that *' mercy was better 
 than sacrifice," Hosea vi. 6. that " to do justly, to 
 love mercy, and to walk humbly with God," was to 
 be preferred before " thousands of rams, and ten 
 thousands of rivers of oil," Micah vi. 7, 8. It 
 holds, in reference to gospel duties, though they 
 may seem more spiritual than the oblations of the 
 law. A real soul-communion with God, a commu- 
 nion of hearts and natures, of wills and affections, 
 of interests and ends, is infinitely more excellent 
 than all hearing, praying, celebration of sabbaths 
 or sacraments, James v. 25. as the end is more ex- 
 cellent than the means: for so stands the case be- 
 tween them. 
 
 Yea, I will add, (though some proud and wanton 
 spirits have made strange work with it, yet) it is a 
 sure and most excellent doctrine, that this spiritual 
 communion is a continual sabbath, (a sabbath of 
 communion is much better than a sabbath of rest ;) 
 this is the sabbath that the angels and saints in 
 heaven keep, though they know no such thing as a 
 first day in the week, have no reading, preaching, 
 or praying, amongst them. This is a continual 
 praying, and effectual way of praying in silence. A 
 
279 
 
 right active appropriating faith, does virtually con- 
 tain a prayer in it; right believing is powerful pray- 
 ing. The knees, eyes, and tongues, bear the least 
 share in prayer, the whole of the work lies upon the 
 soul, and particularly upon faith in the soul, which 
 is indeed the life and soul of prayer. Faith can 
 pray without words ; but the most elegant words, 
 the phrase of angels, is not worthy to be called 
 prayer without faith. I speak not so much of faith 
 inditing a prayer, or giving life to it, as of its being 
 virtually prayer, if not something more ; for, indeed, 
 faith is a real bringing down of that God, and draw- 
 ing in of those influences into the soul, which 
 prayer only looks up for. 
 
 Communion with God is a continual fast; it is 
 that spiritual and most excellent way of fasting, 
 whereby the soul, emptying itself of itself, and all 
 self-fulness, self-sufficiency, self-confidence, receives 
 of the fulness of God alone, and is filled therewith. 
 A soul communing rightly with God, is a soul 
 emptied of, and, as it were, fasting from itself; 
 which is the most excellent way of fasting. 
 
 It is a continual thanksgiving; and indeed the 
 best way of thanksgiving in the world. To render 
 up ourselves to God purely and entirely, to reflect 
 the glory of God in a holy and God-like temper, 
 is a real and living thank-offering. This is that 
 hallelujah, so much spoken of, which the angels and 
 saints in glory do sing perpetually: what other ad- 
 junct of it there may be, I will not here dispute. 
 
 This communion of hearts and wills is a constant 
 and most excellent celebration of sacraments. The 
 soul that is really baptized into the Spirit of the 
 
280 
 
 Lord Jesus, and feeds upon God, and is one with 
 him, keeps a continual sacrament; without which, 
 the sacramental eating and drinking is but a jejune 
 and dry devotion. In a word, it is not possible for 
 any thing that is extrinsical to the soul to make it 
 happy; but the soul that is advanced into the noble 
 state of communion with God, is made partaker of a 
 new nature, and is truly happy. 
 
 Nay, further, I will add, that this communion 
 witli God is not only better than all duties and or- 
 dinances, but even better than all revelations, evi- 
 dences, discoveries that can be made or given to the 
 soul from without; a manifestation of God, that is, 
 of a divine life in the soul, is much better than such 
 a manifestation as Moses had of his glory in the 
 cleft of the rock, Exod. xxxiv. Many think, O if 
 they might but be assured of the love of God, of the 
 pardon of sin, of an interest in Christ, they should 
 be happy ! why, I will tell you, if you had a voice 
 from heaven, saying that ye were the beloved chil- 
 dren of God, as Christ had; an angel sent from 
 God to tell you that ye were beloved and highly 
 favoured of God, as his mother Mary had, yet were 
 communion with God to be pret'erred before these : 
 for these things could not make a soul happy with- 
 out real communion with God, but communion with 
 God can and doth make a soul happy without these: 
 and to this purpose, 1 suppose, I may apply that 
 famous speech of our Saviour's by way of allusion, 
 " It is more blessed to give, than to receive," to 
 give up one's self, one's heart, will, interests, and 
 affections, to God, than to receive any external dis- 
 coveries and manifestations from him. Why do we 
 
281 
 
 so earnestly seek after signs from without us, of 
 God's presence with us, as if there were any thing 
 better or more desirable to the soul than Emmanuel, 
 God with us, or, as the Apostle speaks, " Christ in 
 us the hope of glory?" He that desires any other 
 evidence of grace, but more grace, does not only 
 light up a candle to see the sun by, but indeed he 
 acts like one that thinks there is something better 
 than God himself; though I do not say that all do 
 think so who are covetous of such manifestations. 
 But this I will say, and you may do well to meditate 
 upon it, that holy longings after a true and spiritual 
 communion with God, do certainly spring from a 
 divine principle in the soul; whereas a thirst after 
 assurance of God's love, and reconciliation of our 
 persons with him, may be only the fruit of self-love 
 and interest. — " Let me die the death of the righ- 
 teous!" you know whose wish it was. 
 
 7. " Though communion with God do concern 
 the whole soul, and all the faculties, afiPections, and 
 motions of it," (it is God's spreading his influences, 
 and exercising his sovereignty over all the powers of 
 the soul, and their mutual spending of themselves 
 upon him, and conforming to him,) " yet the great 
 acts of the soul, whereby it chiefly holds communion 
 with God, are loving and believing." Love is the 
 joining and knitting of the soul to God; faith is the 
 soul's labouring after more intimate conjunction with 
 him, a drawing in influences from him, and partici- 
 pations of him into the soul. We may say that 
 faith fetches in supplies from heaven, and love en- 
 joys them ; faith draws in sweetness and virtue from 
 Christ, and love feeds upon it. Certainly these 
 
two eminent graces grow, live, and thrive together, 
 and are inseparable companions. It is somewhat 
 difficult to distinguish them, or to assign to each his 
 proper place and work in the soul; they seem mutu- 
 ally to act, and to be mutually acted by each other: 
 perhaps the Apostle might have respect to this 
 mystery, when he speaks so doubtfully, Gal. v. 6. 
 " Faith which worketh by love," which words may 
 signify either ' faith acting by love,' or ' faith acted 
 by love.' We know, indeed, that in the state of 
 perfect communion, which we call glory, love shall 
 abide and flourish more abundantly, and there shall 
 be no room for faith there, as to the principal act of 
 it; but which of them hath the greater part in main- 
 taining our communion with God in this world, is 
 not easy, nor indeed needful to determine. The 
 godly soul is the most proper temple wherein God 
 dwelleth, according to that, " Ye are the temple of 
 the living God:" faith and love are the Jachin and 
 Boaz, the two great pillars which keep up the soul 
 as a temple ; take away these and it remains a soul 
 indeed, but the soul does not remain a temple to the 
 Lord. In a word, these two are the soul's principal 
 handmaids which she useth about this blessed guest; 
 faith goes out and brings him in, and love entertains 
 him ; by faith she finds him whom she seeks, and by 
 love she kisses him whom she finds, as the spouse is 
 described. Cant. viii. 1. 
 
 8. " The communion that is between God and 
 the godly soul is altogether different from that com- 
 munion that is between creatures." Here I might 
 show you how it exceeds and excels that, in many 
 respects : but I shall not insist upon any of those 
 
283 
 
 particulars, nor indeed upon any of those many differ- 
 ences that are between them, save only upon this 
 one: the communion that is between creature and 
 creature is perfect in its kind, and so, consequently? 
 gives mutual satisfaction; I mean, it terminates the 
 expectations, so that nothing remains to be enjoyed 
 in them more than what is enjoyed. The creature 
 is shallow, and soon is fathomed, we soon come to 
 the bottom of it : a finite can grasp a finite being, 
 and enjoy it, as I may say, all at once. A man 
 may come so near to his friend, that he can come no 
 nearer, enjoy him as fully as he is capable to enjoy, 
 or the other to be enjoyed : created sweetness may 
 be exhausted to the very bottom. But the soul's 
 communion with God does not give it any such 
 satisfaction, though indeed, in some sense, it gives 
 a satisfaction of a much higher and more excellent 
 kind. I told you before, that the soul's communion 
 with God is imperfect in this life; and therefore it 
 must needs follow, that it cannot satisfy; that is, 
 not terminate and fill up the desires of it. Com- 
 munion with God is maintained by faith and love, 
 which proves it to be very sweet; but it also admits 
 of hope, which proves it to be not satisfactory; for 
 where there is yet any place left for hope, there is 
 no full or satisfactory enjoyment. This may serve 
 as a certain note, whereby to judge of the truth of 
 that communion with God; it is not glutting to the 
 soul, but will certainly manifest itself in incessant 
 hungering, poor in the midst of riches; the soul is 
 in the midst of plenty, and yet cries out, as if it 
 were ready to starve for want. When I consider 
 the temper of some perfectionists, who cry down 
 
284 
 
 duties and ordinances, as low and unprofitable rudi- 
 ments, and boast of their full and inaccessionable at- 
 tainments, and compare it with the temper of the 
 great Apostle, who did not reckon that he had at- 
 tained, but still followed after that he might appre- 
 hend, who forgot the things that were behind, and 
 reached forth unto those things that were before, 
 pressing towards the mark, &c. I am ready to cry 
 out, either this man is not an Apostle, or these men 
 are not Apostles; but an Apostle he was, and had 
 very intimate communion with his Lord; and there- 
 fore, I confess, I cannot allow these men §o high a 
 place, in my opinion, as they have in their own. 
 God is infinite; and, therefore, though the soul be 
 ever grasping, yet it can never comprehend; and yet 
 the soul finds him to be infinitely good, and so can- 
 not cease grasping at him neither. The godly soul 
 sees that there is yet much more to be enjoyed of 
 God, and in him; and, therefore, though it be very 
 near to him, yet cries out, and complains of its dis- 
 tance from him; — ' Oh when shall I come and appear 
 before him !' though it be united to him, yet it longs 
 to be yet more one with him still, to be in a closer 
 conjunction. The godly soul forgets, with Paul, 
 what it hath received, not through disingenuity and 
 unthankfulness, but through a holy ardour and cove- 
 tousness: all that he hath of God seems little, be- 
 cause there is yet so much to be had. Though the 
 godly soul do drink of the fountain, yet that is not 
 enough, it would lie down by it; though it do lie 
 down by it, yet it is not satisfied neither, except it 
 may bathe itself, and even be swallowed up therein. 
 Behold a paradox! the godly soul is most thirsty, 
 
QS5 
 
 # 
 
 though, according to Christ's promise, it thirst no 
 more: it is most restless, though, according to his 
 promise, it have rest. It is proper to God alone to 
 rest in his love, for the creature cannot in this im- 
 perfect state: by this we know that we are not yet 
 in heaven; for it is a state of perfect rest, not sloth, 
 or cessation, but satisfaction. Faith is the fever of 
 the soul, rendering it more thirsty by how much the 
 more it drinks in of the water of life, the living 
 streams that flow forth from the throne of God and 
 of the Lamb. As the waters of the sanctuary are 
 described by the prophet, growing deeper and deeper, 
 Ezek. xlvii. so hope, which is the soul's appetite, 
 grows larger and larger, and cannot be satisfied till 
 the soul's capacity be filled up. 
 
 The doctrinal part being thus briefly despatched, 
 it will be easy to infer some things by way of corol- 
 lary. I shall content myself with three only amongst 
 many. 
 
 1. " All wicked men are strangers to God." 
 We know, indeed, that God, according to his infi- 
 nite essence, is present with all his creatures ; not only 
 men, but even devils too, have their being in him : 
 he hath spread his omnipotence, as the foundation 
 whereupon the whole creation doth stand; he reared 
 up the world in himself, and in him it doth subsist 
 at this day. However angels and men have sadly 
 fallen from God, yet they may be truly said to live 
 in him still ; and although all wicked souls do 
 straggle off from God, as to their dispositions and 
 affections, ingrafting themselves into another stock 
 by sin and wickedness, yet they cannot possibly 
 straggle from him as to their subsistence, as the 
 
Q86 
 
 Apostle teaches the Athenian philosophers, " He 
 is not far from every one of us," though few feel 
 after him or find him. And it may be truly said, 
 in some sense, that all the creatures, yea, the very 
 worst of them, have a communion with God; all 
 partake of him; no creature hath any thing of its 
 own really distinct from him. Every thing that 
 hath a being, hath a relation to that infinite and su- 
 preme being; and every living thing may be rightly 
 said to have communion with him who is life itself. 
 And all those several excellencies that are in the 
 creatures, flow out from God, who hath impressed 
 various prints of his own beauty and perfection upon 
 every thing that he hath made. God's making of 
 a thing is no other than the communicating of him- 
 self thereunto. And, therefore, when you look into 
 the world, do not view any creature in the narrow 
 point of its own being, but in the unbounded essence 
 of God, and therein love and admire it. But, upon 
 the immortal soul of man, God hath copied out his 
 divine perfections more clearly and gloriously, than 
 upon any other creature in this world. God could 
 not make a rational soul, without communicating of 
 his own infinite wisdom, power, life, freedom to it ; 
 so that there is more of the divine nature to be seen 
 in the understanding and will of any one man, than 
 in the whole fabric of heaven and earth. 
 
 Notwithstanding this, wicked men are strangers 
 to God. They live and move in God indeed, but 
 they know it not, they consider it not; they act as 
 if they had no dependence upon him, no relation to 
 him. Though they have some kind of communion 
 with God, as creatures, yet this makes them not at 
 
287 
 
 all happy : for they are departed from God in their 
 affections and dispositions ; they have degenerated 
 from that subserviency and subordination to the 
 divine will, which is the proper perfection of the 
 creature, and are " alienated from the life of God," 
 as the Apostle speaks. It is not the soul's moving 
 in God, that makes it truly and happily nigh unto 
 him, but its moving towards God, as the chief ob- 
 ject, and according to the will of God, as the chiefest 
 rule; and therefore wicked men, who pitch upon 
 other objects, and walk by other laws, even the lusts 
 and ordinances of their own flesh and fancy, are 
 properly strangers to God, and miserable. He is 
 not properly said to know God, who hath a notion 
 of him formed in his head, but he whose heart and 
 will is moulded into a conformity to God, and a de- 
 light in him ; so that a wicked man, though he 
 know, and believe, and tremble, as much as any of 
 the devils, yet not loving nor delighting in God, as 
 his chiefest good, not being conformed to his image, 
 as the highest and purest perfection, may be truly 
 said to be estranged from him; which is a state of 
 hell, and death, and darkness. This is the man, 
 who, though not in words, yet, interpretatively, and 
 really, saith unto God, " Depart from me, I desire 
 not the knowledge of thy ways," with them in 
 Job xxi. 14. These do really exempt themselves 
 from the dominion of Christ, and do really, though 
 not audibly, say with them in the gospel, " We 
 will not have this man to reign over us." However 
 men pretend, and boast of their relation to, and ac- 
 quaintance with God, certainly all that live a mere 
 sensual life, nonconformists to the image of God, 
 
288 
 
 are truly said to be strangers to him, and in a state 
 of non-communion with him, 1 John i. 6. 2 Cor. 
 vi. 14. 
 
 2. " The life of a true Christian is the most high 
 and noble life in the world ;" it exceeds the life of 
 all other men, even of the greatest men. The 
 character that is here given of the godly man is the 
 highest that can be given of any man, or indeed of 
 any creature. It is the highest glory and excel- 
 lency of the creature, to partake of the life of God, 
 of the perfections of the Creator; and such is the 
 description that the Spirit of God here makes of the 
 godly man. What an unreasonable and senseless 
 reproach is that which this wicked world doth cast 
 upon religion, calling it a low and despicable thing; 
 and upon religious and godly men, calling them 
 low-spirited, puny people. Can a man be better 
 spirited, than with the Spirit of God ? Can any 
 thing more truly ennoble a soul than a divine na- 
 ture? Can a man be raised any higher than unto 
 heaven itself? So noble is the godly soul. " The 
 way of life is above to the wise;" and, consequently, 
 all wicked men lead a low life, and are bound under 
 chains of death and darkness : the righteous man is 
 of a high and divine original, born of God, born 
 from above ; and therefore is more excellent than his 
 neighbour, than any of his neighbours, even a king 
 himself being judge, Prov. xii. 26. What a hellish 
 baseness is that sinful gallantry of spirit, what a 
 brutishness is that sensuality of living, which the 
 degenerate sons of Adam do so much magnify ! 
 True goodness and excellency of spirit must be 
 measured by the proportion that it bears to the 
 
289 
 
 supreme good, the infinite pattern of all perfection. 
 What excellent persons were those renowned saints 
 of old, of whom the Apostle says, that " the world 
 was not worthy," however they were thoui^ht not 
 worthy to live in the world. What a noble and 
 generous spirit of true Christian valour, patience, 
 meekness, contempt of" the world, and self-denial, 
 was that, which was to be seen in the blessed 
 apostles, however they were esteemed as the filth 
 and sweepings of the world, the " offscouring of all 
 things?" To which of the noble, wise, mighty men 
 of the world, as such, did God ever say. These are 
 the men that have fellowship with me, these are the 
 men that lead a noble and divine life?" No, no, 
 " not many noble are called;" and when they are 
 called, they are made more noble than ever they 
 were by birth or descent, by places of preferment or 
 command. The life of every wicked man, of what 
 rank soever he be in the world, is but a low life, a 
 life in most things common to the very beasts with 
 him; if the main of his business and delight be to 
 eat, and drink, and work, and sleep, and enjoy sen- 
 sual pleasures, what doth he ? what enjoyeth he 
 more than the beasts that perish? But the life of 
 the meanest soul, that hath true and spiritual com- 
 munion with God, is a life common to him with the 
 blessed angels, those sons of the morning, the flower 
 of the whole creation. That life which hath self 
 for its centre, must needs be a penurious, and indeed 
 a painful life : for how can the soul of man possibly 
 feed to the full upon such spare diet, such scant 
 fare as it finds at home? Nay, indeed, how can it 
 choose but be in pain and torture, whilst it stretch- 
 
 N 38 
 
290 
 
 eth itself upon self-sufficiency, or creature-fulness, 
 which is not at all commensurate to it? But the 
 soul that rightly stretches and spends all its facul- 
 ties upon the infinite and blessed God, finds all its 
 capacities filled up to the brim with that fountain of 
 goodness, and itself perfectly matched with a suit- 
 able and satisfactory object. This is the true and 
 only nobleness of spirit, when all the powers and 
 faculties of this immortal soul are exalted and ad- 
 vanced into a true and vital sympathy and com- 
 munion with the chiefest good, formed according to 
 his will, conformed to his image. 
 
 And O that wisdom might be more " justified of 
 her children !" O that the life of God did but 
 clearly manifest itself, and shine forth in the lives of 
 those that call themselves godly ! Alas, that ever 
 God himself should suffer reproach, by reason of the 
 low-spiritedness and laziness of his servants ! For 
 this cause is religion evil spoken of. The Lord 
 awake and enable us to express and show forth the 
 divine life with all power and vigour, to live as high 
 as the calling wherewith we are called, and so roll 
 away this reproach ! 
 
 3. " The life of a Christian is not a heavy 
 sluggish thing, but active and vigorous," as the 
 phrase * communion with God,' imports. Religion is 
 a communication of life and vigour from Him, who 
 is life itself; which makes the truly God-like soul 
 to be quick and powerful in its motions. Every 
 thing is by so much the swifter and stronger in its 
 motions, by how much the nearer it is to its centre, 
 as philosophy tells us. Certainly by how much the 
 nearer any man is gotten to God, who is the centre 
 
of souls, by so much the more does he covet after 
 more intimate communion with him, and the more 
 eagerly lay hold upon him. Communion does ne- 
 cessarily imply re-action or reflection : the soul that 
 receives of God, and his fulness, will certainly be 
 emptying itself into him again. Communion, in 
 the very force of the phrase, implies a mutualness ; 
 we cannot suppose a soul partaking of God, but it 
 must needs mutually render up itself to him again. 
 There can be no commerce nor correspondence with- 
 out returns : but what return can the godly soul 
 make unto God? Why, it renders up its whole 
 self to him. Faith is a giving grace as well as a 
 receiving, it gives the soul back to Christ, as well 
 as takes Christ into the soul ; it draws in strength 
 and grace from God, and reciprocally spends the 
 whole powers of the soul upon him. The happiness 
 of a godly soul doth not consist in cessation and 
 rest; the soul itself being a powerful and active 
 being, the happiness of it, the very rest of it, must 
 also be active and vigorous. Where there is com- 
 munion, there must needs be quick and lively re- 
 turns, reciprocations, reflections, and corresponden- 
 cies ; the drawings of God are answered with the 
 soul's running. The motion of Christ's fingers 
 begets a motion in the Christian's soul: " My 
 Beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, 
 and my bowels were moved for him." These are 
 the divine and harmonious responses which are made 
 and maintained in the godly soul, the temple of the 
 living God. O shake off that lazy and drowsy 
 spirit, which hath so benumbed many in this cold 
 and stupid age of the world ; work out your salva- 
 
 N 2 
 
292 
 
 tioii with care and diligence. If your religion be 
 nothing but a spiritual kind of sleep, your heaven 
 will prove to be nothing but a pleasant kind of 
 dream. 
 
 Communion with God speaks something divine, 
 active, vigorous. The life of a Christian doth not 
 consist only in cessation from evil, reformation from 
 sin, or dying thereunto ; mortification is but one part 
 'of regeneration. It is the conceit, and, I doubt, 
 the deceit, of many nominal Christians, that if they 
 can but keep up an indifferent even spirit and con- 
 versation, free from gross and scandalous sins, from 
 day to day, they are happy enough : their utmost 
 ambition is to be innocent and harmless. This, 
 indeed, is necessary and praise-worthy; but surely 
 the happiness of a soul lies higher: thus happy are 
 all the creatures that keep in the station, and keep 
 up the order, prescribed them of God: thus happy 
 is the sun in the firmament, running his race con- 
 tinually, and never departing from the office which 
 is assigned to it. But the soul of man is capable 
 of a higher kind of happiness, namely, communion 
 with God ; which is, when the faculties thereof 
 being awakened, refined, and acted by the Spirit of 
 God, do reciprocally act, and spend themselves upon 
 him, longing to be perfectly swallowed up in him, 
 and to be all that which God himself is, as far as 
 the creature is capable to drink in the perfections of 
 the Creator, and become one with his Maker. This 
 is that truly noble and divine life, which is here 
 called communion with God, which the high-spirited 
 and generous soul labours yet more and more to be 
 growing up into, and perfected in. Keep your- 
 
S93 
 
 selves, with David, from your iniquities; it is some- 
 thing to be freed from the guilt and power of sin, 
 but there is somewhat higher than this, a more ex- 
 cellent attainment, a more divine accomplishment : 
 go on, therefore, with the same David, and aspire 
 after this pure and blissful state, this heaven upon 
 earth, waiting for the more ample and glorious 
 manifestations of God to you, and in you, more 
 than they that watch for the morning, as he did. 
 This inference was only of instruction, but the 
 sweetness and needfulness of the subject almost pre- 
 vails with me to turn it into an earnest exhortation, 
 but that I would not prevent' myself. Therefore, 
 I proceed to the next way of improving this doc- 
 trine, which shall be by way of conviction or repre- 
 hension. 
 
 1. Our fellowship is — it reproves them that can 
 take up with a shall be — a heaven to come. I am 
 now speaking, not to the worst of men, whose very 
 souls are swallowed up in sensual enjoyments, and 
 imprisoned in their senses ; for these men either 
 think of no heaven at all, or else they place their 
 heaven and happiness in the enjoyment of them- 
 selves, or of the creature. Nor yet do I speak to 
 those men who, being persuaded of a future state, 
 do indeed wish for a heaven to come; but then it is 
 a poor kind of low and earthly heaven, consisting in 
 ease, rest, safety, freedom from troubles or torments, 
 which is the best happiness which most men under- 
 stand, the highest heaven that any carnal mind can 
 see or soar up to. But I am speaking to a better 
 and finer sort of souls than these, that are verily 
 possessed with a sense of a pure and spiritual heaven 
 
29^ 
 
 in the world to come; yea, they are so overpowered 
 with the foresight of it, as that they do earnestly 
 expect aiid wish for it; yea, the hopes of it do sus- 
 tain and strengthen their hearts under the manifold 
 temptations and persecutions of this present world ; 
 they are so verily persuaded of the truth of it, and 
 of their own title to it too, that they are content to 
 abide this long and disconsolate night of dimness, 
 and anguish, and Rightfulness, merely in expecta- 
 tion of the dawning of that day, that clear and bright 
 day, of their glorious and everlasting redemption. 
 And herein I am far from blaming them, nay, I must 
 needs commend theii* magnanimous faith, and self- 
 denial. But, in the mean time, they dwell too much 
 upon heaven, as a future state, and comfort them- 
 selves only in a happiness to come, not longing and 
 labouring to find a heaven opened within themselves, 
 a beginning of eternal bliss brought into themselves; 
 they are too well content with a certain reversion, 
 and do not eagerly enough endeavour after present 
 possession, to be actually instated in so much of the 
 inheritance of souls as may fall to their share even 
 in this lower world; this slothful temper and inacti- 
 vity I do condemn wherever it is found, yea, though 
 it be in my own soul. Every thing in the world, by 
 a natural principle, thirsts after its proper rest, and 
 a happiness suitable to the nature of it; no creature 
 can be content, though it may be constrained, to be 
 at a distance from its centre, but is still carried out 
 towards its own perfection. And why, then, should 
 a godly soul, who is God's only new creature in the 
 world, be content with a state of imperfections ? 
 Why should not he as eagerly covet, and as ear- 
 
295 
 
 nestly pursue, the most intimate and close commu- 
 nion and conjunction with his God, as they do vvith 
 their respective centres? Can any earthly, sensual, 
 unregenerate man, he content vvith an inheritance in 
 reversion, so as to suspend his minding and following 
 of the world till hereafter? Can any ambitious 
 spirit, who places his main happiness and content- 
 ment in popular estimation and worldly greatness, be 
 content to stand gazing at preferments? will he be 
 willing to sit still, and wait till they drop into his 
 mouth? No, no; there is a raging thirst in the 
 soul, which will not suffer it to be at rest, but is still 
 awakening and provoking all the powers of the whole 
 man, till they arise and fetch in water to quench it. 
 And therefore we read of men making haste to be 
 rich, and hastening after another god; which eager 
 and ardent passions towards earthly objects, you 
 may see lively described in the instances of Ahab, 
 Amnon, and Haman, in the Holy Scriptures. And 
 is there any reason to be given, why that new nature 
 and divine principle, which God putteth into regene- 
 rate souls, should not carry them as hastily and 
 forcibly to a present fruition of their proper object 
 and happiness, (so far as at present it may be en- 
 joyed,) as that corrupt and degenerate nature doth 
 hurry on those, in whom it ruleth, towards the satis- 
 faction of their beastly lusts? Divines speak some- 
 times of making heaven and eternal life present to 
 ourselves, and say that this is the work of faith ; 
 which is a high and excellent doctrine, but, I doubt, 
 not thoroughly understood by ordinary Christians. 
 To make heaven present to one's self, is not merely 
 to insist upon a state of future happiness in frequent 
 
^96 
 
 meditations, to tliink much of it, neither is this that 
 noble employment of saving faith; but the life and 
 power of faith is most eminently exerted in drawing 
 in participations of life and grace from Christ, and 
 in a real bringing down of God and heaven into the 
 soul. The truth is, heaven is a state of perfect 
 communion with God, a state of love, joy, peace, 
 purity, freedom, and as far as any soul is in such a 
 state upon earth, so far he is above the earth, and 
 may be said to be in heaven. Therefore, a right 
 active soul, that truly understands his proper and 
 spiritual heaven and happiness; so far as he is thus 
 active and sensible, cannot be content to stay for all 
 his happiness till the world to come, cannot be con- 
 tent to be unhappy, no, not for an hour, but is still 
 growing up in God, and springing up into everlast- 
 ing life. 
 
 2. It reprehends those that make a stir about the 
 kingdom of Christ in the world, and men's being 
 brought into the communion of the church, but ad- 
 vance not his kingdom in their own souls, nor long 
 to have their own souls advanced into that noble 
 state of communion with " the Father, and with his 
 Son Jesus Christ." There is, doubtless, a genera- 
 tion of such popular Christians, who, being strangers 
 to the life, and power, and spirit of true religion, do 
 endeavour to pass off themselves on the world, and 
 commend themselves to the charitv of their brethren, 
 by a pretended zeal for the kingdom of Christ in the 
 world, and the glorious manifestation of it, as they 
 speak. I know, indeed, that it is worthy the cares, 
 and prayers, and utmost diligence of every serious 
 Christian, to spread and propagate the knowledge of 
 
^97 
 
 tlie gospel, to pour out the ointment of Christ's 
 name far and near. A more pure and spiritual ad- 
 ministration of all gospel ordinances throughout the 
 world is highly desirable; yea, and I think an in- 
 different and careless disposition towards the worship 
 of God argues much of an earthly and atheistical 
 mind. But I fear that kingdom of Christ, and 
 those glorious manifestations and discoveries which 
 are so much pretended to by many, if they should be 
 thoroughly examined, would be, at length, resolved 
 into nothing else but the advancement of some one 
 party or interest above all the rest, or the exchang- 
 ing of an old form and dress of religion for a new 
 one ; and that this zeal would be found little better 
 than the blazings of self-love, a fire kindled not by 
 a coal from the altar, but by a spark of their own. 
 But, be it so, that this disposition of theirs is sincere 
 and spiritual; should not this charity begin at home? 
 The most proper kingdom of Christ is that whereby 
 he ruleth in the hearts of men; the most excellent 
 worship is when the soul itself becomes a temple for 
 the living God to dwell in, and to receive and re- 
 flect the manifestations of his glory ; when a fire of 
 divine love is kindled in it, and therein it doth offer 
 up, not bulls and goats, no, nor prayers and medita- 
 tions, so much asitself unto God; which is a reason- 
 able service, as the Apostle speaks, far more glorious 
 than either the Mosaical or Evangelical dispensation, 
 if you consider it in the letter only. Whatever men 
 may pretend, no man can be truly and rightly studi- 
 ous of the advancement of the kingdom of God in 
 the world, that hath not first felt the mighty power 
 and blessed effects of it in his own soul. Commu- 
 
 n3 
 
298 
 
 nioii with the church is only so far to he valued, as 
 it is in order to a real and spiritual communion with 
 God; which communion with God, if we do indeed 
 sincerely wish toothers, we shall more abundantly la- 
 hour to promote in ourselves. I cannot believe that he 
 doth heartily seek the happiness of others, who himself 
 sits still, and is content to be miserable, especially 
 when their happiness and his is one and the same. 
 
 3. It condemns them as not Christians, whose 
 fellowship is only with their fellow-creatures. We 
 have seen that is the character, the distinguishing 
 character of a godly man, to have fellowship with 
 God. It must needs follow, then, that those de- 
 generate souls that rise no higher than the world, 
 that converse only with self or any other creature, 
 are verily strangers to true Christianity, whatever 
 their confidence or presumption may be. Christians, 
 tell not me what you profess of Christ, what you 
 believe of the gospel, what orthodox opinions you 
 hold, what an honest party you side with, how many 
 and specious duties you perform, no, nor what hopes 
 or wishes you have of going to heaven ; but, tell me, 
 where is your principal communion ; what do you 
 mainly mind, follow, converse with; what pattern do 
 you conform to ; what rule do you live by; what ob- 
 ject do you ultimately aim at? The whole world of 
 worldly men doth hasten after another god, as the 
 Psalmist phrases it, though not all after the same 
 god : they spend their souls, indeed, upon various 
 objects, and use different methods to obtain rest, 
 but yet all their happiness and contentment is ulti- 
 mately resolved into creature-communion. That 
 dreadful sentence, which the Apostle delivers univer- 
 
299 
 
 sally concerning all men, is to be limited to all 
 wicked men only, and of them it is undoubtedly 
 true : " All seek their own, and none the things of 
 Jesus Christ." And, of all these, that of the Psal- 
 mist's " many" is to be understood: " There be 
 many that say. Who will show us any good?" that 
 is, any creature-good, as the words following do ex- 
 plain it. All unregenerate souls are bound up in 
 the creature, some creature or other ; and therefore 
 the noblest of them, whatever boasting they may 
 make, is low and ignoble; their main converse is 
 but with their fellow-creatures, and indeed creatures 
 much inferior to themselves: " Corn and wine," says 
 the Psalmist; " earthly things," says the Apostle, 
 — " who mind earthly things." In a word, though 
 it be true what the Apostle says in one place, that 
 all men in the world do live in God, yet it is also 
 true, that most of men, as the same Apostle speaks 
 elsewhere, do " live without God in the world," 
 have their hearts staked down to one creature or 
 other, and so fall short of this honourable character 
 which the Apostle here gives of godly men : " Our 
 fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Je- 
 sus Christ." 
 
 And now I shall conclude the remainder of this 
 discourse, with a humble request, and earnest expos- 
 tulation. 
 
 " Reckon not upon any happiness below this com- 
 munion." There are many things which a Christian 
 may take to be comforts; but only one, this one, that 
 he ought to take to be the happiness of his life. I 
 design not to speak any thing to the prejudice of 
 natural or civil ornaments or accomplishments, much 
 
300 
 
 less to the disparagement of any of those endowments 
 or employments which are, in a sense, spiritual, com- 
 monly called gifts and duties : but, I must confess, 
 it is one of the great wonders of the world to me, to 
 see such a noble and intelligent being, as the soul 
 of man is, attending to, and pursuing after, things 
 either extrinsical or inferior to itself, in the mean 
 time carelessly forgetting, or wilfully rejecting, its 
 main happiness, principal end, and proper perfection. 
 As for those sensual persons, those mere animals, 
 whose souls are incarnate in their senses, and seem 
 to perform no higher oflBce in the world than the 
 souls of beasts, that is, to carry about their bodies ; 
 who value themselves by their bodies, or, which is 
 baser, by the apparel that clothes them, or the 
 estates that feed them : 1 shall not now trouble my- 
 self about them, but leave them to be chastised by 
 Seneca or Plutarch, or indeed any ordinary philo- 
 sopher. I shall rather apply myself a little to a sort 
 of higher spirited people, whom by a condescension 
 of charity we call Christians, who, valuing themselves 
 by external professions, privileges, performances, may 
 indeed be said to be somewhat more scrupulous and 
 curious, but no less mistaken than the former: for 
 if the grosser sort of sensualists do deny, and pro- 
 fessedly abjure their own reason, and the finer sort 
 of liypocrites do more cunningly bribe theirs, each 
 method amounts to no more than a cheat, and both 
 parties will be alike miserable, save that the latter 
 will be somewhat more tormented in missing a hap- 
 piness which he looked and hoped for. It is not 
 proper to my present discourse, to speak so highly 
 and honourably of these externals of Christianity, 
 
301 
 
 nor to press them so zealously, as I do at all times 
 when I have occasion ; lor 1 verily value all ordi- 
 nances of Christ, and duties of God's vvorship, at a 
 high rate ; nay, I know not any serious and truly 
 godly soul in the world, but is of this same opinion 
 with me; but, I must confess, I think it is one of 
 the greatest and most pernicious cheats in the world, 
 for men to feed upon the dish instead of the meat, 
 to place their happiness in those things v/hich God 
 hath only appointed to be means to convey it. This 
 was the great destruction of the Jewish church ; by 
 this they perished; thus they are every where de- 
 scribed in Scripture, as a people resting in their pri- 
 vileges and performances, boasting of their sacrifices 
 and temple-service ; they made account of a strange 
 kind of flesh-pleasing heaven, something distinct from 
 them, and reserved for them, to be given them by 
 way of reward for the righteousness which them- 
 selves had wrought by the power of their own free- 
 will (which free-will, they say, is an effect of man's 
 fall, but they make it a cause of man's rise ; for now 
 he can purchase and merit a happiness, which hap- 
 piness is also more illustrious than that given of 
 mere grace;) which righteousness, if we look either 
 into their own writings, or God's writings concern- 
 ing them, we shall find was nothing else but a strict 
 observance of the precepts of the law, according to 
 the letter and external dispensation of it. Such a 
 low and legal spirit was generally found amongst the 
 Jews ; I wish the greatest part of us, who are in 
 profession and name evangelical, be not found as 
 truly legal in spirit and temper as they were. If 
 we cry the gospel of Christ, the gospel of Christ, 
 
802 
 
 with the same spirit, as they cried, ** the temple of 
 the Lord, the temple of the Lord," our confidence 
 will as surely betray us into final misery as theirs 
 did. True, indeed, prayers, sacraments, sermons, 
 are somewhat finer words than the old obsolete ones, 
 the law, sacrifices, ceremonies ; but, alas ! they are 
 but words ; at least they are not God's, no more fit 
 to terminate our devotions and atFections than these. 
 I beseech vou. therefore, Christians, be not mistaken 
 in this matter. True Christianity is not a notion, 
 but a nature; that is not religion which is wrapped 
 up in books, or laid up in men's brains, but it is laid 
 in the very constitution of the soul, a new principle 
 implanted by God, in the higliest powers of the soul, 
 refining and spiritualizing all the faculties thereof, 
 and renderin<r them as like to God himself, as such 
 a creature can resemble its Creator. It is a truth, 
 as clear as the sun is clear, that nothing can make 
 a soul truly happy, but what is wrought into the 
 nature of it, and that must be somewhat more ex- 
 cellent than itself, and that can be nothing less than 
 something divine, even the image of the blessed 
 God. If you be Christians, in deed and in truth, 
 value all the ordinances of God, and the duties of 
 the Christian religion, but value not yourselves by 
 these, your happiness by these. Attend upon them 
 all for the maintaining and increasing of real fellow- 
 ship with God; for though these be not it, yet they 
 are the way wherein it pleases God to give it. Drink 
 the sincere milk of the word, but let it be only with 
 a holy design of growing thereby, of growing up 
 into God, and a divine life. Away with those low 
 and base thoughts of happiness ; the happiness of a 
 
303 
 
 soul is a high and excellent, indeed a divine thing; 
 it is in some sense common to God and the soul; 
 God is happy in himself alone, and the soul can only 
 be happy in him. What contentment, what real 
 happiness, Christian, can the rising of thy party in 
 the world, or the rising of thy name in the country, 
 bring thee, if, in the mean time, thou thyself har- 
 bourest any carnal will, self-interest that doth rise 
 up in opposition to the pure and perfect will and 
 nature of God ? how art thou happy in thy prayers, 
 if thou cast sin out of thy mouth, and, in the mean 
 time, a fountain of iniquity be springing up in thy 
 heart ! What avails it towards a state of perfection, 
 to be of the most orthodox opinions, the most honest 
 society, the fairest profession, the most popular and 
 sanctimonious form, or the most plausible perform- 
 ances either, the soul being, in the mean time, alie- 
 nated from the life of God, and feeding upon some 
 earthly trash or other, which destroys the native 
 powers and vigour o^ it, and keeps it under a per- 
 petual languor? even just so much as a silken stock- 
 ing upon a gouty leg, or a princely diadem upon an 
 aching head, avails towards a state of ease and sound- 
 ness and good temperature of body. Let nothing 
 limit your ambition, but a state of God-like perfec- 
 tion, let nothing set bounds to your loving and long- 
 ing souls, but a real fruition of God himself; nay, 
 let not that bound them neither, but the more you 
 enjoy, see, and taste, the more let your love be 
 strengthened, after the manner of fire, which, the 
 more it is fed, the more hungry and devouring it 
 grows. In a word, let nothing satisfy you lower 
 than the highest character that can be given of mor- 
 
304. 
 
 tal man, to be men "after God's own heart," to 
 have God dwelling in you, to be filled with his ful- 
 ness, to have this real and excellent "communion 
 with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." 
 To whom be all honour, praise, and glory, for ever 
 and ever ! 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 PriiUed by W. Collins & Co. 
 Glasgow. 
 
Princeton Theological Seminary Librari 
 
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