v:>Dl>^> :l '»;• :^ 5» fa - ^^^ 1>^^ .O) )J BOOK-BINDER iSU STATIONSR, 1 151 VV ainut St , 1 Philadelphia. | ^*Sat! L ;@E K < .^S^vhich was, how to get a licence without subscrip- tion to such things as his conscience did not allow of. However, he got over it ; for by means of Lord Conway, he obtained from Archbishop Shel- don a licence (which Calamy gives at length), to teach school any where in his whole province ; and that without once waiting upon the Archbishop. As he needed a licence also from the bishop of the diocese, he got a friend to make his application to Dr. Fuller, then bishop of Lincoln, who put into his lordship's hands Mr. Shaw's late book occasioned by the plague. The bishop was so much pleased with the piety, peaceableness, humility, and learn- ing there discovered, that he gave him a licence Vipon such a subscription as his own good sense dic- tated, and said, that he was glad to have so worthy a man in his diocese upon any terms. He added, that he understood there was another book of his in print, called Immanuel, which he desired to see. Mr. Shaw's learning, piety, and good temper soon MEMOIRS or THE AUTHOR. 7 raised tlie reputation of his school, and the number of his scholars, above any in those parts ; having often one hundred and sixty boys or more under his care. His own house and others in the town, were continually full of boarders from I^ondon, and other distant parts of the kingdom. Several divines of the Church of England, (v. g. Mr. Sturgess of All-Saints in Derby, Mr. Walter Horton, after- wards one of the canons of Lichfield, &c.) and many gentlemen, physicians, lawyers, and others, owed their school-learning to his good instructions. He endeavoured to make the youth under his care, in Jove with piety ; to principle them in religion by his advice, and ' allure them to it by his good example. His temper was affable, his conversation pleasant and facetious, his method of teaching win- ning and easy. He had great skill in finding out, i.nd suiting himself to, the tempers of boys. He freely taught poor children, where he saw in them a disposition for learning, and afterwards pro- cured them assistance to perfect their studies at the university. He did indeed excellent service in the work of education ; and his school was a great ad- vantage to the trading part of the town. AViicn the liberty of the Dissenters was settled by act of parliament, he licensed his scliool-room for 3 place of worship. The first time he used it, 8 MEMOIRS OF THE AUTHOR, he preached from Acts xix. 9, " Disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus."" He so contrived his meetings, as not to interfere with the establishment, preaching at noon between the services at church, and constantly attending there both parts of the day, with all his scholars, his family, and all his hearers ; so that the pul]^ic assembly was hereby considerably augmented ; and the weekly lecture was chiefly attended by him and his scholars. He was upon the most friendly terms with the vicar of the place, and corresponded with Dr. Barlow, the bishop of Lincoln, to whom he presented his book of Meditations, which has been generally esteemed, and read with great profit. Upon which his lord- ship, who was a great reader, and a good judge of books, wrote him the following letter : — " My Rev. Brother, I have received yours, and this comes (with my love and respects) to bring you thanks for the rational and pious book you so kindly sent me. Though my businesses be many, and my infirmities more, being now past 74, yet I have read all your book, and some parts of it more than once, with great satisfaction and benefit. For in your medi- tations of the love of God and the world, I am neither afraid nor unwilling to confess it, and mak^ MEMOIRS OF THE AUTHOR, 9 you my confessor,) you have instructed me in seve- ral things, which I knew not before, or at least con- sidered not so seriously, and so often as I might and ought. One great occasion or cause why we love our gracious God less, and the world more than we should, is want of knowledge, or consideration. God himself, Isa. i. 2, 3, complains of this, and calls heaven and earth to witness the justice of his com- plaint. " I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master*'s crib, but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider." It is strange, and yet most true, that the ox and ass, irra- tional and stupid creatures, should know their mas- ters, who feed and take care of them, and yet men, rational creatures, even Israel, God's only church and people, whom he had miraculously preserved and nourished, should neither know nor consider. This consideration is our duty, and the want of it our sin ; a sin of omission, and therefore it is no wonder if it be a moral cause and occasion of some consequent sin of commission ; so that the best men by reason of the old man, and the remains of cor- ruption in them may, and many times do sin, and come short of fulfilling the law and doing their duty, when they want this consideration, or such a degree and measure of it as is required to the moral 10 MEMOIRS OF THE AUTHOR. goodness of an action. Suppose a man tempted to commit adultery, murder, perjury, or any such sin ; if such a man would seriously consider the nature of the sin he is going to commit, that it is a trans- gression of the law of God, to whom he owes all he has, both for life and livelihood, that it pollutes his soul, that it dishonours his gracious God and hea- venly Father, that it makes him obnoxious to eter- nal misery, both of body and soul : I say, he who considers this, as all should, would certainly be afraid to commit such impieties. Now of such con- siderations, you have given us many in your book, and those grounded on the clear light of nature, or on evident reason, or revelation ; and it is my prayer and hope that many may read, and to their great benefit remember, and practise them. I am well pleased with your discourse against usury ; which, as is commonly managed, I take to be one of the crying sins of our ungrateful nation Give me leave, faithfully and as a friend to add one thing more. In your second page, there is, I believe, a little mistake. For you seem to say, that James, who wrote the canonical epistle, was bro- ther to John the apostle. Now it is certain, that amongst the apostles there were two of that name. 1. James the son of Zebedee, and brother of John. ^. James the son of Alplieus, Matt. x. 2, 3, who MEMOIRS OF THE AUTHOR. 11 was called James the less, Mark xv. 40, whose mo- ther was Mary, who was sister to the Virgin Mary ; and so our blessed Saviour and James the son of Alpheus were sisters' children, cousin-germans. Now that James the son of Zebedee, and brother of John, did not write that canonical epistle, will be certain, if we consider, 1. That James, brother of John, was slain by Herod Agrippa, Acts xii. 2, which was Anno Christi 44* or 45. And 2ndly, If it be considered, that the epistle of James was not written till the year of Christ 63 : for so Baronius, Simpson, and the best chronologers assure us. They say, that epistle of James was not writ till almost twenty years after James the brother of John was slain by Herod : and therefore it is cer- tain, he neither did nor could write it. I beg your pardon for this tedious, and I fear impertinent, scribble. My love and due respects remembered. I shall pray for a blessing upon you and your studies : and your prayers are heartily desired by and for Your affectionate friend and brother, THOMAS LINCOLN. Uuckdcn, March 16, 1681. For my Reverend Friend, IVIr. SAi\r. Sham', at his House at Ashby-de-la-Zouch. * Jac. Usserius, Annal. pag. 868, Ed. 1608 ; Baron. Annal. torn. \. 13 MEMOIRS OF THE AUTHOll. If such a correspondence as this between the bishops of the church of England and the ministers among the Dissenters, had been generally main- tained, it might have produced much better effects than the great distance that has been kept up on both sides. — Mr. Shaw was a man of a peaceable disposition. He was frequently employed, and very successful in his endeavours to reconcile dif- ferences. He had a public and generous spirit, and was ever ready to encourage any good designs. He was given to hospitality, and was very moderate in his principles. For the space of almost thirty years he spent himself in endeavours to make the world better, though with no great gains to himself. It was his chief aim to live usefully ; and he thought that, a considerable reward to itself He was of a middle stature, and his countenance not very pene- trating : like another Melancthon, that could not fill a chair with a big look and portly presence ; but his eye was sparkling, and his conversation witty, savoury, affable, and pertinent. He was ready at re- partees and innocent jests, with a mixture of poetry, history, and other polite learning. But his great- est excellency was in religious discourse, in praying and preaching. One that knew him well, writes as follows : — MEMOIRS OF THE AUTHOK. 13 " I liave known him spend part of many days and nights too in religious exercise, when the times were so dangerous that it would hazard an imprison- ment to be worshipping God with five or six people like minded with himself. I have sometimes been in his company for a whole night together, when we have been fain to steal to the place in the dark, to stop out the light and stop in the voice, by clothing and fast closing the windows, till the first day-break down a chimney has given us notice to be gone. I bless God for such seasons. If some say it was needless to do so much : I reply, the care of our souls and eternity, which only was minded there, requires more. I say, I bless God for the remembrance of them, and for Mr. Shaw at them, whose melting words in prayer, I can never forget. He had a most excellent faculty in speaking to God with reverence, humility, and a holy awe of his pre- sence, " filling his mouth with arguments : by his strength he had power with God ; he wept and made supplication ; he found him in Bethel (such were our assemblies,) and there he spake with us.'"* I have heard him for two or three hours together pour out prayer to God, without tautology or vain repetition, with tliat vigour and fervour, and those holy words that imported faith and humble bold- VOL. IE c 14? MEMOIRS OF THE AUTHOR. ness, as have dissolved the whole company into tears," &c. In short, a mixture of so much learn- ing and humility, wit and judgment, piety and pleasantness, are rarely found together, as met in him. He died Jan. 22, 1696, in the iifty-ninth year of his age. His funeral sermon was preached by Mr. William Crosse, his brother-in-law, from Luke xxiii. 28. PREFACE. Amongst the many stupendous spectacles that are wont to surprize and amuse inquisitive minds, there seems to be nothing in the world of a sadder and more astonishing description, than the small pro- gress and propagation of the Christian religion. This I call a sad observation, because religion is a matter of the most weighty and necessary import- ance, without which it is not possible for an immor- tal 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 in it such mighty en- gines to work them into a hearty compliance with it, and to captivate their reason unto itself, as no other religion in the world can with any face pre- tend to. I do earnestly, and I suppose rationally and scripturally, hope that this Veritas magna, 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 this, perhaps, is all the millennium that we can war- rantably look for. But, in the mean time, it is l(j PREFACE. too, too evident, that the 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 to make any arithmetical conjectures, but judge it more ne- cessary, and more becoming a charitable and chris- tian spirit, to sit down in secret, and weep over that sad but true account given in the gospel, "Few are chosen,"' Matt. xx. 16; and again, "Few there be that find it," Matt. vii. 14; 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 hun- dred times so many more as they be ! " 1 Chron. xxi. 3. It is besides my present purpose to inquire into the immediate causes of the non-propagation of the gospel in the former sense ; only it is easy and obvious to guess, that few will enter in by "the way of the tree of life," when the same is guarded with a "flaming sword !" And it were reasonable to hope, that if the minds of Christians were more purged from a selfish bitterness, fierce animosity, and arbitrary sourness, and possessed with a more free, generous, benign, compassionate, condescend- ing, candid, charitable, and Christ-like spirit, which would be indulgent towards such as are, for the pre- PREFACE. 17 sent, under a less perfect dispensation, as our Sa- viour's was, Luke ix. 49, 50, 54, 55, would not impose anything harsh or unnecessary upon the sacred and inviolable consciences of men, but would allow and maintain that liberty to men, which is just and natural to them in matters of religion, and no way forfeited by them ; then, I say, it might be reasonable to hope, that the innate power and virtue of the gospel would prove most victorious; Judaism, Mahometism, and Paganism, would melt away under its powerful influences, and Satan himself *'fall down as lightning" before it, as naturally as the eye-lids of the morning do chase away the black- ness of the night, when once they are lifted up upon the earth. But my design is chiefly to examine the true and proper cause of the non-progress of the gospel, as to the power of it, and its inefficaciousness upon the hearts and consciences of those that do profess it. And now, in finding out the cause hereof, I shall content myself to be wise on this side heaven, leaving that daring course of search- ing the decrees of God, and rifling into the hidden rolls of eternity, to them who can digest the uncom- fortable notion of a self-willed, arbitrary, and im- perious Deity ; which, I doubt, is the most vulgar ap- prehension 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 rake into particulars; which are differently assigned, according to the different hu- c 3 18 PREFACE. mours and interests of them 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," Psal. Ixxv. 3 ; 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 or abridged ; which is a piece of very great fondness, and indeed the more unpardonable, inasmuch as it destroys the design of the gospel, in confining and limiting the Holy One of Israel, and making God as topical, as he was when he dwelt no where upon earth but at the temple in Jerusalem. Waving these extremes therefore, I conceive the true cause in general of the so little prevailing of true religion in the hearts and lives of men, is the false notion that men have of it, placing it there where indeed it is not, nor doth consist. That this must needs be a cause of the not prevailing of the gos- pel 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 description of the true Christian religion, which the most sacred author of it, the Lord Jesus Christ, made to the poor Samaritaness ; which I have en- deavoured 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 PREFACE. 19 important 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 merci- ful Redeemer, and to be swallowed up in that eter- nal life, into which true religion daily springs up, and will, at length, infallibly conduct the christian 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 coun- try, having made it public for no private end ; but, if it might be, to 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 an affair and of such importance as religion is, or any way to awaken and quicken any religious soul not sufficiently im- pressed with the unspeakable glory, nor cheerfully enough springing up into the full fruition of eter- nal life. What a certain and undefeatable tendency true religion hath towards the eternal happiness and sal- vation of men"'s souls, will, 1 hope, evidently ap- pear out of the body of this small Treatise ; but that is not all (though indeed that were enough to com- mend 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 20 PREFACE. unerring expedient in the world, for the uniting and establishing of a divided and tottering kingdom or commonwealth : to demons tate which was the very design of this Preface. It is well known, (O that it were but as well and effectually 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,""^ 1 Tim. iv. 8; that the right seeking of the kingdom of God and his righteousness, hath no less than all things an- nexed to it, Matt. vi. 33. How unmeasurable is the body and bulk of that blessedness, to which all the comforts of this life are to be as an appendix to a volume ! But men are apt to shuffle off general things ; 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 for the political happiness and flourishing state of a nation. Wherein I doubt not but to make appear, that not religion, as some slanderously report, but indeed the want of it, is the immediate troubler of every nation, and individual society ; yea, and soul too : according to that just saying of the holy apo- stle, " From whence come wars and fightings ? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?" James iv. 1. Here let me desire one thing of the reader, and that is, to bear in his mind all along, where he finds the word religion, that I have principally a respect to the description given of it in the text, and that I mean thereby. PREFACE. 21 " a divine principle implanted in the soul, spring- ing up into everlasting life."' And now I should briefly touch those faults, both in governors towards their subjects, subjects to- wards their governors, and towards each other, which do destroy the peaceful state, and the sound and happy constitution of a body politic : and in- deed I fear it will run me upon some inconvenience, if not confusion, to wave this method. But out of a pure desire to avoid whatever may be interpret- able to ill-will, curiosity, presumption, or any other bad disposition, and that it may appear to any ingenuous eye, that I am more desirous to bind up than to rake into sores, I will expressly show how religion would heal the distempers of any nation, without taking any more than an implicit notice of the distempers themselves. First then. It is vmdoubtedly true that religion, deeply radicated in the nature of princes and governors, would most effectually qualify them for the most happy way of reigning. Every body knows well enough what an excellent euchrasy,* and lovely constitution the Jewish polity was in, under the influence of holy David, wise Solomon, devout Hezekiah, 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 • A Greek word, implying a good temperature and condition, or state of the bod v. S2 PREFACE. 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, inasmuch 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 per- fect glory. It will certainly correct and limit the over-eager affectation of unwieldy greatness and unbounded dominion, by teaching them that the most honourable victory in the world is self-con- quest, and that the propagation of the image and kingdom of God in their own souls is infinitely pre- ferable to the advancement or enlargement of any temporal jurisdiction. 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 government by assimilating them to the nature of God, who is infinitely abhorrent from all appear- ance of oppression, and hath most admirably pro- vided 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 pro- fessors ; and the princes of the earth, that are re- generated into his image, will also estimate men ac- cording to God ; I mean, according to his example who loves nothing but the communications of him- TKEFACE. ^3 self, and according to their participation of his image, which alone is amiable and worthy of ad- vancement. What God rejected in his fire-offer- ings, religion will teach princes to dislike in the devo- tions, 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 men ruled by humour, self- interest, and arbitrariness, and teach them 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 for its good ; neither doth he give his people laws on pur- pose 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 which 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 con- tribute towards the happy and blissful state of any 24 PREFACE. kingdom, I will spc*ik freely, let it light where it will, that principle which springs up into popular applause, secular greatness, worldly pomp and ostentation, flesh-pleasing, or any kind of self-exaltation, which is various, is really contradistinct from that divine principle, that religious nature which springs up into everlasting life. And certainly, notwithstanding all the recriminations 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 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, Psal. cxxxiii. 2. 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. PREFACE. 25 The first and fundamental distemper here seems to be a want of due reverence toward these vice- gerents of God upon earth ; which easily grows up 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 the great reproach of living and dying childless. And if an ordinary hatred be so foully interpreted by the holy apostle, " Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer," 1 John iii. 15 ; surely disloyal and malignant dispositions towards gover- nors must needs have a fouler face ; and we may say, by a parity of reason, " Whosoever hateth his prince is a rebel and a regicide." Now this distem- per, as fundamental and epidemical as it is, the spirit of true religion will heal, and I think I may say that only : for I know nothing in the world that hath, nay, I know that nothing in the world hath that sovereignty and dominion over the dispositions and affections of the soul, as this principle thoroughly ingi'afted in the soul, doth challenge to itself. This alone can frame tlie heart of man into that beauti- ful temper and complexion of love and loyalty, that he will not curse the king, no, not in his secret thoughts ; no, not though he were well assured that there were no winged messenger to tell the matter, Eccles. X. 20. Another distemper in subjects, respective to VOL. II. D 26 PREFACE. their governors, is impatience of bearing a yoke ; which is an evil so natural to the proud and im- perious spirit of man, that I believe it were safe to affirm, that every irreligious subject could be well content to be a prince ; however there may be many who, utterly despairing of such an event, may with the fox in the fable profess they care not for it. From this principle of pride and impatience of sub- jection, I suspect it is that the millennarians do so scornfully declaim against, and so loudly decry the carnal ordinances of magistracy and ministry : not that they do verily seek the advancement of Christ's kingdom (which indeed every disorderly, tumultu- ous, proud, impatient soul doth, ip^'o facto, deny and destroy) but of themselves. To whom one might justly apply the censure which Pharaoh in- juriously 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,'" Exod. v. 17. This distemper the power of religion would excellently heal, by mortifying ambitious inclina- tions, and quieting the impatient turbulences of the fretful and envious soul, by fashioning the heart to a right humble frame and cheerful submission to everv ordination of God. You will see in this treatise that a right religious soul, powerfully spring- ing up into everlasting life, hath no list nor leisure to attend to such poor attainments and sorry acqui- sitions, as the lording it over other men ; being feel- ingly acquainted with a life far more excellent than PREFACE. 27 the most princely, and being overpowered with a supreme and sovereign good, which charms all its inordinate ragings, and laying hold upon all its fa- culties, draws them forth by a pleasing violence, unto a most zealous pursuit of itself, A principle of humility makes men good subjects; and they that are indeed probationers for another world, may very well behave themselves with a noble disdain towards all the glories and preferments of this. The last distemper that I shall name in subjects towards their governors is discontents about con- ceited mis -government and mal - administration : which commonly spring from an evil and sinister interpretation of the ruler's actions, and are attend- ed with'an evil and tumultuous zeal for relaxation. ]Now this distemper, as great as it is and destruc- tive to the well-being of a body politic, true reli- gion 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 ireful jealousies, sour suspicions, harsh surmises, and imbittered thoughts which lodge in unhallowed minds, and dis- play itself in a most amicable sweetness and gentle- ness of disposition, in fair glosses upon doubtful actions, friendly censures or none at all, kind ex- tenuations 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 S8 PllEFACE. of good reports, gladly interpreting all things to a good meaning that will possibly admit of such a construction ; or if you will, in the apostle's phrase, " Charity is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil," 1 Cor. xiii. 5. And as charity doth cut up this root of discon- tents, so will faith allay and destroy these discon- tents themselves, which are about mis-government and ill-administration. This noble principle ad- ministers ease and satisfaction to the soul, if she happen to be provoked : for it will not suffer her long to stand gazing upon second causes, but carries her up in a seasonable contemplation to the su- preme cause, without whom no disorder could ever befall the world ; and there commands her to re- pose herself, in the bosom of infinite wisdom and grace, waiting for a comfortable issue. He may well be vexed indeed, that has so much reason as to observe the many monstrous disorders which are in the world, and not so much faith as to eye the inscrutable providence of a benign and all-wise God, who permitteth the same with respect to the most 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-adminis- trations 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 relaxa- PREFACE. 29 tion, discovering itself in secret treacherous con- spiracies, and many times in boisterous and daring attempts. These are at the first sight so directly- contrary to the character given of religious men, namely, " the quiet of the land,'' Psal. xxxv. 20, and the genius of religion, which is wholly made up of " love, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, good- ness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance, mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, forbearance, forgive- ness, charity, thankfulness, wisdom," Gal. v. 22, 23. Col. iii. 12 — 16; 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 op- pression and persecution, 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 time to speak a little more liberally to it. And here I do from the very bottom of my soul protest, that I account the advancement of the glory of God and the kingdom of Christ, to be the most desirable thing in the world ; and that it is highly becoming the greatest spirits upon earth to employ their very utmost zeal and diligence to assist the accomplish- ment thereof: yea, so utterly do I abhor irreligion and atheism, that, as the apostle speaks, Phil. i. 18, in somewhat a like case, I do verily rejoice that Christ is professed, though it be but pretended, and 1)3 30 PREFACE. that truth is owned, though it be not owned in truth. I will further add, that the oppressing and obstructing of the external progress and propagation of the gospel is hated of Christ, and to be lamented of all true Christians. Yea, I will further allow men a due sensibleness of their personal oppressions and injuries, and a natural warrantable desire to be redeemed from them. And now having thus purged myself, I entreat the christian reader patiently and without prejudice to suffer me to speak somewhat closely to this matter : yea, I do verily assure my- self that I shall be accepted, or at least indulged by all free and ingenuous spirits, who are rightly acquainted with the genius of the christian reli- gion, and do prefer truth before interest. And, first, for the complaint that is mostly con- cerning oppression and persecution ; certainly reli- gion, if it did rightly prevail in our hearts, would very much heal this distemper, if not by a perfect silencing of these complaints, yet surely by putting them into another tune. I reckon that religion quite silences these complaints, when it engages the soul so entirely in serving the end of God in * afflictions, and in a right improvement of them for religious purposes, that she cannot spend herself in fruitless murmurings and unchristian indigna- tion. As fire seizeth upon every thing that is combustible, and makes it fuel for itself, and a pre- dominant humour in the body converts into its own gubstance whatever is convertible, and makes it PREFACE. 31 nourishment to itself; so doubtless this spirit of burning, this divine principle, if it were rightly predominant in the soul, would nourish itself by all things that 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 religion should not utterly silence these complainings, by ren- dering the soul thus forgetful of the body, and re- gardless 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 ano- ther tune. It is very natural to the religious soul to make God ail things unto itself, to lay to heart the interest of truth and holiness more than an^ particular interest of its own ; and to bewail the disservice done to God more than any self-incom- modation. 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 un- der ? that can be more grieved that men are cruel, than that they kill him ? that can be more troubled because there are oppressions in the world, than be- cause he himself is oppressed ? such subjects reli- gion alone can make. As for the cry that is made for liberty and deli- verance, I confess I do not easily apprehend what is more, or more naturally desirable than true liberty : yea, I believe there are many devout and 82 PREFACE. religious souls that, from a right noble and gene- rous 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 pre- ferments, or anything that may be properly called sensual, and would purchase it with anything that they can possibly part with. But yet that I may a little moderate, if not quite stifle this cry, I must freely profess that I do apprehend too much of sel- fishness 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 conversation. 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?" Matt. v. 47. But were this divine principle rightly exercising its sovereignty in the soul, it would value all things, and all estates and conditions, only as they have a tendency to the advancement and nourishment of itself. With what an ordinary, not to say disdain- ful eye, would the religious soul look upon the fairest self-accommodations in the world; and be ready to say within itself, What is a mere abstract ' PllEFACE. 33 deliverance from afflictions worth ? wherein is a naked freedom from afflictions to be accounted of? will this make me a blessed man ? was not profane and impudent Ham delivered from the deluge of water, as well as his brethren ? were not the iilthy, shameless daughters of Lot delivered from the de- luge 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 different sense, dis- covered their father's nakedness. If we did really value ourselves by our souls, and our souls them- selves 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 prefer- ments, humility before honour, the denial of our- selves before the approbation of others, the advance- ment 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 dis- playing of the beauty, glory, and perfections of God, before health, wealth, liberty, livelihood, and life itself We should certainly be more indiffer- ently affected towards any condition, whether pros- 34 PREFACE. perity or adversity, and not be so fond of the one, nor weary of the other, if we did verily vakie them only by the tendency that they had to further reli- gion, 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 less longing to see the end of their afflictions. And as for treacheries, plottings, invasions, usurpations, rebellions, and that tumultuous zeal for relaxation, which this impatience of oppression, and fondness of deliverance do so often grow up into, I dare say there is nothing like religion, in the power of it, for the effectual healing of them. The true spirit of religion is not so weary of op- pression, though it be by sinful men, as it is abhor- rent from deliverance, if it be by sinful means. May I not be allowed to allude to the Apostle, and say, whereas there is amongst you this zeal, con- tention, and faction, "Are ye not carnal, and walk as men .?" 1 Cor. iii. 3. 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 galling 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 this scalding zeal, and calm these tempestuous motions of the soul, and make men rather content to be delivered up to the adversary, though the flesh should by him be destroyed, so the PREFACE. 35 spirit might be saved, and the divine life advanced in the way of the Lord. O how dear and precious are the possession and practice of faith, patience, humihty, and self-denial to a pious soul, in com- parison of all the joys and toys, treasures, pleasures, ease and honour of the world, the safety and liberty of the flesh ! How m.uch more then, when these must be accomplished by wicked means, and pur- chased at the rate of God's displeasure ? And be- cause the kingdom of Christ is so often alleged to defend and patronize these strange fervours and frenzies, let me here briefly record to all that shall read these lines, the way and method of Christ himself in propagating his own kingdom. It will not be denied but that Christ was infinitely studious to promote his own kingdom in the best and most proper sense : but I no where read that he ever at- tempted it by force or fraud, by violent opposition or crafty insinuation. Nay, he reckoned that his kingdom was truly promoted, when these tumul- tuous, impatient, 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 Caesar out of the world : but indeed nothing- more impossible, considering the perfect innocency and infinite sacredncss of his temper, nor anything more 3b PllEFACE. contradictious, considering the proper notion of his kingdom ; which he professes 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 him- self 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,'' John xviii. 37. So then it seems wherever there are 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 under- stand that the kingdom of Christ is not the thriving of parties, the strengthening of factions, the ad- vancement of any particular interest, though it seem to be of ever so evangelical a complexion ; no, nor yet the proselyting of the world to the profes- sion 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 are faith, patience, humility, self- denial, contempt of this world, and pregnant hopes of a better, pure obedience to God, and sincere benignity to men, here and there is the kingdom of God, Christ regnant, and the gospel in the power and triumph of it. And may not these things be, and be most conspicuously, in a persecuted condi- tion of the church ? That certainly was a high PilEFACE. 37 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," 1 Pet. ii. 23. The same divine principle dwelling plentifully in our soul, would conduct us to the same behaviour, according to the precept given by the same Apostle, " Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing ; but contrariwise blessing," &c. 1 Pet. iii. 9. How vainly do men dream that they serve the interest and advance the kingdom of Christ by fierce and raging endeavours to cast off every yoke that galls them, and kicking against every thorn that pricks them, when indeed they serve the interest of the flesh, and do, under a fine cloak, gratify the mere animal life, and sacrifice to scif- love, which is as covetous of freedom from all re- trenchments and confinements as religion itself can be. It is said indeed that when the churches had rest they were "edified and multiplied," Acts ix. 31 ; but when they suffer "according to the will of God," they are then glorified : for " the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon them," 1 Pet. iv. 14, as the apostle Paul professes of himself in that most noble and heroical passage of his to the Corinthians; " Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me," 2 Cor. xii. 9- Secondly, Religion will not fail rightly to dis- VOL, II. K 38 niEFACE, pose 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 confident it would do more towards this catholic union, than all the laws and severities in the world can. Mutual forbearance and forgiveness, christian kindness and discreet condescension, are the most warrantable and most effectual method for introduc- ing 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 reference 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,'' 2 Cor. v. 16, no, not Christ himself.^ The same principle would not fail to cure the distempers of men relative to those that are of a different way and judgment from themselves ; whe- ther of Protestants towards Protestants, or Protest- * I'REFACK. 39 ants and Papists towards one another. It would heal the distempered affections and behaviours of Pro- testants towards Protestants. Were men thoroughly- baptized into the spirit of love and wisdom, which are so lively pourtrayed by the apostles St. Paul and St. James, that one might be well enamoured of the very description : how certainly would all op- pressions, law-suits, disputations about unprofitable and indeterminable points, either be suppressed or sanctified, either not be, or not be vexatious ? Not to speak of the oppressions done by overreaching, stealing, lying, false witness-bearing, slanderous de- tractions, envious suggestions, and malignant dis- semination of doubtful suspicions, by which com- monly poor men oppress the rich ; all which true religion abhors. There is a great oppression that goes uncontrouled in the world, which is, by the cruel engrossings and covetous insatiable tradings of richer men. What these are intentionally I will not say, but that they are really and eventually as great oppressions as those inhuman depopulations, and squeezing exactions, which are so much in- veighed 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 re- lieve 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 consistency with, and sub- 40 niEFACE, serviency 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. / do verily believe^ that if there ivere none but good me7i 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 reli- gion, if it were universally obeyed, would make men so nobly regardless of earthly accommodations, that there would soon be room enough for all men to thrive into a sufficient stature ; and then, being so grown, they would covet no more. In law-suits, if there were any, men would seek the advancement of truth, and not of their own cause and interest distinct from it. And O how excellently would it still the noise of axes and hammers about the temple of God ! It would take men off from vain speculations and much eagerness about unnecessary opinions, by employing them in more substantial and important studies. The very being of religion in the soul would indeed decide a world of controversies, which the schools have long laboured in vain to deter- mine. For I reckon that these scholastic wars fitly called polemics, like those civil dissentions spoken of by the apostle James, chap. iv. 1, do, for the most part, spring from men's lusts that war in their members, such as pride, curiosity, wantonness of wit, disobedience, and unsubduedness of under- PREFACE. 41 standino; and the like. I have observed widi frreat grief, how tiie spirits of many men, I had ahnost said sects of men, run out wholly into disputes about ceremonies, pro and con^ about church go- vernment, about what is orthodox and what is heter- odox, about the true and the false church, (which commonly they judge by something external, and indeed separable from the essence of a true church;) and hereabout are their zeal, their conference, and their very prayers themselves mostly bestowed. Who can doubt but that religion, in the power of it, would find men something else to do ? yea, and if it could not perfectly determine these niceties, yet it would much heal our dissentions about them, and bring tears to quench the strange and unnatural heats that are amongst us, and cause such dreadful inflammations in our breasts. But it may seem that there is such a fatal enmity and irreconcileable 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 pre- tended. Cruel religion, bloody religion, selfish re- ligion, envious and revengeful religion ! Who can choose but cry out of tlie blasphemy of this con- tradiction at the very firit hera-ing ? Nay, I dare 42 PREFACE. affirm it without hesitation, that the more rehgious any Protestant or Papist is, the more abhorrent he is from brutish savageness, wicked revenge, and deviUsh hatred. The church of Rome judges the reformed heretics are not fit to live ; and why ? not because they Hve not well, but because they can- not think and believe as they do. And is this the genuine product of true religion ? nothing less. 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 doubt, generally more of- fended at the Papists for their persecutions of them, than for their real persecuting and crucifying Christ afresh by their sins ; and so, consequently, do ra- ther 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 proportion- ably, as in any church upon earth ; and yet I fear there are far more that could wish the Papists out of this world, than that earnestly desire that they might be fitted for, and so counted worthy of a bet- ter. And doth this spring from a religious prin- ciple, think ye, or a selfish ? Doth it not agree well to the animal life, and natural self, to be ten- der of its own interests and concernments, to wish well to its own safety, to defend itself from violence ? May I not allude to our Saviour's words and say. 1 PllEFACE. 4i " If ye hate them that hate you, liow can tliat be accounted religious ? Do not even the publicans the same?'"* Matt. v. 46. 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 temper; 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 prophet 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. Rev. xix. 20, but, in- asmuch as that sword is said to proceed " out of his mou.th," Rev, xix. 21 ; I would gladly interpret it of "the word of God," Eph. vi. 17, which kills men unto salvation. However, let the interpreta- tion of that text, and others of the like importance, be what it will, I reckon it very unsafe to turn all the prophecies and threatenings of God into prayers, lest perhaps we should be found to contribute to the damning of men's souls. Yea, when all is said con- cerning the sovereign decrees of God, and his essential and inflexible punitive justice, and all those texts that seem to speak of God's revenging him- self 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,'' Ezek. xviii. 32 ; and again, "As I live, saith the Lord God. I have no 44 PREFACE. pleasure in the deatli of the wicked," Ezek. xxxiii. 11. Wherefore, to wave all those dreadful glosses (that do rather describe the bitter and revengeful temper 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 ex- emplar of it; who by his incarnation, life, and death, abundantly demonstrated the infinite benignity and compassionate ardors of his soul towards us, when we were worse than Papists, as being out of a possi- bility of salvation without him ; and "let that mind be in us, which v/as in him also," Phil. ii. 5. Though it be not directly our Saviour's meaning in my text, yet I believe it is reductively, that this pure and divine principle, religion, springs up into everlast- ing life, not only our own, but other inen''s also. But, however religion is described, sure I am it is most unnatural to the religious soul that is regene- rated into the pure spirit of piety, pity, and univer- sal charity, to be of a cruel, fierce, revengeful, con- demning disposition. And therefore whatever are the ranting and wrathful strains of some men''s de- votions, I beseech the reader to endeavour with me, that charity 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 fio, I am ccnfidcnt, it v.ill if v/e pray rilEFACE. 45 sincerely to this purpose, namely, " That God would cause the wickedness of the wicked to come to an end, that he would consume the Antichrist, but convert the Papist, and make the wonderers after the beast to become followers of the Lamb !" I doubt there are many that think they can never be too liberal in wishing ill of the Papists, nay, they count it a notable argument of a good Protes- tant, 1 had almost said an evidence of grace, to be very furious and vehement 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 ourselves herein antichristian, whilst we complain of their cruelties, our own souls, in the very act, boiling over with revengeful and scalding affections? If we do indeed abhor their cruelty, because it is contrary to the holy precepts of the gospel, and the true kingdom of Christ, we ought to be as jealous at the same time lest anything like unto it should be found in ourselves ; otherwise are we not carnal ? For mere nature, as 1 have often said, will abhor anything 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 Christ, calleth Christ accursed," 1 Cor. xii. 3 ; but I doubt it is common to curse Antichrist, and yet by a spirit that is anti- christian, I mean carnal, selfish, cruel, and unchari- table. For there is a spiritual Antichrist, or, if you will, in the Apostle's phrase, a " spirit of Anti- 46 PREFACE. christ,'"' 1 John iv. 3, as well as a political Anti- christ ; and I doubt the former prevails most in the world, though it be the least discerned and banned. Men do by Antichrist 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 content to be all that in the very deed which the devil and Antichrist is. All this evidently appears to be for want of the true power and spirit of religion which I commend for so great a healer, even the to iravatdg 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 other accounts, all that I have hitherto said to distempered Protestants being rightly enough, 7nu- tatis 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 themselves and their adherents, only by the divine impressions of piety and purity, and to account such only worthy of the glorious title of apostolical, and children of God, who are sincere followers of the apostles wherein they were followers of Christ, namely, in true holiness and righteous- ness. Are they industrious and zealous for the proselyting of the world, and spreading of their in- rilEFACE. 47 terest fiir and near? And are not all wicked men. yea, and the devil himself so too ? The fairest and most flourishing state of a church is nothing to God, and so consequently not to a pious soul, in comparison of those excellent divine beauties where- with religion adorneth the world. But whereas the greatest complaint, and the most dreadful charge which the Protestants bring against the Papists, is their inhumanity and most unchristian cruelty, ex- ercised against all whom they can but make 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 sacrifice 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 wis- dom is at all times justified of, and in her childr^i, so she may be sometimes justified by them, espe- cially when the aspersions are so monstrously foul. And indeed she has sufficiently instructed us how to justify her from all such imputations ; having so fairly pourtrayed herself by the pen of the apostle James, both negatively and affirmatively. She is void of " strife, envyings, bitterness, and every evil work ;" but she is " pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy,'"' James iii. 14 — 17. This is the proper description of heavenly wisdom, or pure religion : and O that all Christians would estimate themselves to be wise according to 48 PREFACE. their consonancy and conformity tliereunto ! then I would easily believe, that none would be papists in practice, whatever they might be in opinion. What, sirs, is the God of the Christians become like a devil, that he should delight in cruelty, and drink the blood of men ? Is the butchering of reason- able creatures that reasonable service which he re- quires ? Rom. xii. 1. Is the living sacrifice of your own bodies turned into the dead sacrifice of other men's ? It was wont to be said, " AVhat com- munion hath Christ with Behal .?" 2 Cor. vi. 15. And is the Prince of peace now become very Satan, the author of enmity, malignity, confusion, and every evil work ? Did he shed his blood for his enemies, to teach us that goodly lesson of shedding the blood of ours ? Did he come " to seek and to save that which was lost,"*' Luke xix. 10, 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 he expiated, not with the blood of the apostates, but with his own. Religion was formerly a principle springing up into eternal life. How is the world changed, that it should now be a principle springing up into massa- cres, and temporal death ? or is religion now be- come a principle springing up into secular power, worldly dominion, temporal greatness, and all man- ner of fleshly accommodations ? This was of old the PREFACE. 49 description of sensuality, and a heathen genius, "for after all these things do the Gentiles seek,'' Matt, vi. 32. Are there so many mighty engines in the gospel to engage the hearts of men to believe, pro- fess, and obey it, and must they all now give place to fire and sword ? Are these the only gospel me- thods of winning men to the catholic faith ? What ! are we wiser for Christ, or more zealous than he himself was .-^ Did he forbid fire from heaven, and will you fetch it even from hell to consume Dis- senters ? 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 meri- torious 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 VOL. II. 1- 50 PREFACE. religious principle is always 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 in these discoveries ; and perhaps my pains may prove ungrateful to many : but may it please Al- mighty God that they may prove a vindication of religion, restorative of the sickly and lapsed ecclesi- astical or political state, yea, or medicinal and pro- fitable 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 encouragement, I will let down the net once again, and so finish these epistolary pains with an earnest hortatory address to all that shall peruse them. Let nothing 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 looked into, will be found to grow upon no better root than natural self, and to spring from no PREFACE. 54 higher principle than this animal life. It is im- possible 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 might be added, if I had a fair op- portunity. But at present let me in general com- mend to you this description given by our Saviour of true religion, as the rule whereby I do earnestly intreat you faithfully to examine yourselves, your actions, affections, zeal, confidence, professions, per- formances. Let me speak freely ; all pomp of wor- ship, all speculative knowledge, though ever so or- thodox, is as agreeable to the animal life as the di- vine: and all external models of devotion, humble con- fessions, devout hymns, pathetical prayers, raptures of joy, much zeal to reform indecencies in worship or superstitions, a fierce raging against the political Antichrist, do as well suit a natural man as a spiritual, and may be as fairly acted over apparently, by a mere selfish carnal principle, as by that which is truly divine. When Diogenes trampled upon Plato's stately bed, saying calco Platonis fastum, it was answered him very sharply, sed majore fastti, 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 anti- christian prelates, with a pride no whit inferior to theirs whom they thus decry. However it is plain. 9^ i'llEFACE. 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. Head over therefore, I beseech you, the fruits of the Spirit recorded by the apostle Paul and the apostle Peter, Gal. v. 22, &c. 2 Pet. i. 5, 6; and estimate yourselves by them; these things are utterly incompatible to the mere animal man ; all the natural men and devils in the world .cannot be humble, meek, self-denying, patient, jcharitable, lovers of God more than of themselves, jor of their enemies as themselves. Would you judge rightly of the goodness of any opinion ? theu value it by the tendency that is in it to advance the life of God : particularly thus judge of the millen- narian 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 notion 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 satisfaction, 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. FIIEFACE. 53 &c. and value them, if it be possible, only under this consideration. But to hasten to an end, I will endeavour to enforce 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 God. 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 souFs acquaintance with him, and nothing but 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 to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works." 2. It appears that this is the grand design of God in the world, inasmuch as he doth not deliver his faithful servants out of their afflic- tions and tribulations ; which he would not fail to do, did he not intend them a greater good thereby, f3 54* PREFACE. 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 li6s 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 gener- ation : 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 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. \l IMMANUEL. CHAP. I. The occasion of the words of the text — The principal contents of it — The origin qf true religion — All souls the offspring of God, and a more especial portraiture qf him; hut pious souls yet more especially — God the author of religion from without, in several respects; God the author qf it from within, enlightening the faculty — Religion something of God in the soul — A discovery qf religious meti by the affinity they have to God — God alone to be acknowledged in all holy accom- plishjnents — The origin qf sin from hence discovered. John iv. 14. " But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst ; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life.'* This chapter contains an excellent, profitable fami- liar discourse of the blessed Saviour of the world, into whose lips gi'ace was poured, and he ceased not to pour it out again. That which is said of the wise, is fully verified of wisdom itself, His lips dis- persed knowledge. A poor woman of Samaria comes to draw water, and our Saviour takes ocya- 50 IMMANUEL. sion 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 wonderful, unsearchable counsels of an all-wise God ! He ordains SauPs 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 occa- sion of her finding the way to the kingdom of hea- ven. She comes to the well of Jacob, and, behold, she meets with the God of Jacob there. The oc- casion, passages, and issue of this discourse, would each afford many good and profitable observations : but I think none more than this verse that I have pitched upon ; in which the mystery of gospel-grace is rarely unfolded, and true christian religion is excellently described. For so I understand our Saviour, not as speaking of faith, or knowledge, or any other particular grace, but of grace in general, of the Holy Spirit of God ; that is, the gifts and graces of it, of true godliness ; or, if you will, of christian religion ; for that word I shall choose to retain throughout my discourse, as being most in- telligible and comprehensive. In which words we find the true christian reli- gion unfolded in the origin, nature, properties, consequences, and end of it. The origin 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 1MMA>;UEL. 5Y *' springing up ;'"' the consequence of it, that the man that is endoTA'ed with it "shall never thirst;"'*' the end or perfection of it is "everlasting life."" Of ,ali these, by God's assistance, in this order. ' First, I begin at the origin of it, as it seems meet I should ; for indeed it is first found in the words, "The water that I shall give him." And here the proposition that I shall go upon must be,. " That the true Christian religion is of divine ori- gin." 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 hatk transferred 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. He that rightly converseth with his own soul, will get more acquaintance with God, than they that gaze continually upon the material heavens, or tra- verse the dark and utmost corners of the earth, or "go down unto the sea in ships;" the serious con- sideration of the little world will teach more of him than the great one could do ; so that I hesitate not 58 IMMANUEL. 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 displayed in the constitution and frame, powers and faculties thereof: God hath not made any creatures so capa- ble of receiving and reflecting his image and glory, as angels and men : which hath made me often to say, " That the vilest soul of man is much more beautiful and honourable than the most excellent >body, than the very body of the sun at noon-day."*' And, by the way, this may render sin odious and loathsome ; because it hath defiled the fairest piece of God's workmanship in the world, and hath blurred the clearest copy which he had drawn of himself in the whole creation. But though all rational souls be the children of God, yet all of them do not 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 pious 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. And in this respect God's children are his " work- manship created unto good works." Religion is of IMiMAM'EL. 59^ a divine origin : 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 un- able to return, God was pleased to set up that glo- rious light, his own Son, " the Sun of righteous- ness,'' in the world, that he might guide our feet into the way of peace, who is therefore called, " A light to lighten the Gentiles,'' anVl compared to a candle set upon a candlestick. God of his infinite free grace, and over-flowing goodness, provided a Mediator, in and by whom these apostate souls might be reconciled, and re-united to himself; and " to as many as receive him, to them he giveth power to become the sons of God." 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 terms of the covenant of peace which was made in the Mediator, and given precepts and promises for the direction and encouragement of as many as will inquire into the same. These are the sacred oracles which 0-ive clear and certain answers to all that do consult them about their future state. Christ Jesus opened the way into the holiest of all, and the scriptures come after and point it out unto us : he purchased life and immortality, and these bring it to light. 60 IMMANUEL. 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;' These things hath God done for us, from with- out us ; he hath set up a light, chalked out our way, and appointed us guides. To which I might add the many incitements and motives which we call mercies or comforts of this life ; and the many affrightments of judgment and afflictions which God hath added to the promises and threatenings 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 religion 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 IMMANUEL. 61 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 where- by 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 enlightens the faculty, he gives the seeing eye, and does actually enable it to discern. Therefore the work of converting a soul is still ascribed to God in scripture ; he begets us again ; he draws the soul, before it can run after him ; Christ appre- hends the soul, lays powerful hold of it. God gives a heart of flesh, a new heart ; he causes men to walk in his statutes. He puts his law into their in- ward parts, and writes it in their hearts. To which I might add many more quotations of the same value. But yet, methinks, 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 enlight- eneth 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 husbandman to discretion in his affairs of husbandry, and teaches him to plough, and sow, and thrash, &c. Not only the gift of divine know- voL. 11. a 62 IMMAXLEL. ledge, but indeed " every good gift cometli from the Father of lights/' God doth from within give that capacity, illumination of the faculty, ingenuity, whereby we comprehend the mysteries of nature, as well as of grace. Therefore we may conceive of the origin of reli- gion 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 life, 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 be- fore, yea, which seems to be somewhat more, by shining in their hearts, as the Apostle phraseth 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 it ; and religion is no other than a reflec- tion 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 en- lighten the soul, but it is not as the sun enlightens, that you see ; so he draws the soul too, but not ab extra only, as one man draweth another with a cord, as Jupiter in Homer draws men up to heaven IMMANUEL. 65 by a chain, and Mahomet, his disciples by a lock of hair ; but he draws the soul, as the sun draws up earthly vapours by infusing its virtue and power into them ; or, as the loadstone draws the iron, by the powerful insinuations of his grace. God doth not so much communicate himself to the soul by way of discovery, as by way of impression, as I said before; and indeed not so much by impression ei- ther, as by a mystical and wonderful way of im- plantation. Religion is not so much something from God, as something of God in the minds of good men, for so the scripture allows us to speak : it is therefore called his image, and good men are said to " live according 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 na- ture, 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 pious soul — " I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a 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, lu- men de lumi7ie ; it is a drop of that eternal foun- tain of goodness and holiness, the breath of the 64 IMMANUEL. power of God, a pure influence flowing from the glory of the Almighty, the brightness of the ever- lasting 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; be- ing 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, may in a sense, be truly affirmed of religion con- sidered in the abstract, that it is " the effulgency or beaming forth of divine glory," Heb. i. 3; for there is more of the divine glory and beauty shining forth in one pious soul, than in all things in the world beside ; the glorious light of the sun is but a dark shadow of the divine light, not to be compared with the beauty of holiness. An immortal soul doth more resemble the divine nature than any other created being ; but religion in the soul is a thou- sand times more divine than the soul itself. The material world is indeed a darker representation of divine wisdom, power, and goodness ; it is as it were the footsteps of God : the immaterial world of angels and 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 some resemblance of their Maker. But no creature is IMMAMUEL. 65 capable of sucli communications of God as a rational immortal spirit is ; and the highest that angel or spirit, or any created nature can be made capable of, is to be holy as God is holy. So then, if the poet may call the soul, and St. Paul allows him in it, a particle of the Divine essence ; 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 de- gree 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 angels. I have often admired three great mys- steries and mercies, God revealed in the flesh, God revealed in the word, and God revealed in the soul: this last is the mystery of godliness which I am speaking of, but cannot fathom ; it is this that the Apostle says transcends the sight of our eyes, the capacity of our ears, and all the faculties of our souls too, " Eye hcith 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 glorjang concerning Christ in the world, the hope of Israel ; but let us call out to the powers of eternity, and the ages of the world to come, to help us to celebrate and magnify Christ in us " the hope c> 66 IMMANUEL. of glory ;'' or, if you will, Christ in us the first-fruits of glory. What has been said may, First, Help us in our discoveries of 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 in one way or other; but alas how few that have obtained it ! At this day there are many claims laid to it, all pretending a just title ; the men of Judah cry. She is of kin to us ; the men of Israel say. We have ten parts in this queen, and we have more right in religion than ye ; according as they contended of old about King David. They say of Christ, as it was foretold, though perhaps not in the same sense as was fore- told, 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 by the rule that there follows, they will not go forth to seek him any where. Mighty strivings, yea, and wars there have been about the Prince of peace, whose he should be ; and at this day no question more de- bated, nor less decided, than, Which is the religious party in the land.'^ O would to God men would dis- pute 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 v/hich she worketh, which no one else IMMANUEL. G7 can work, the same do bear witness wliich is she. I am ready to say with the man tliat had been blind, " 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 edifying the souls of men. Why do we not also go about enquiring which of those many stars is the moon in the firmament ? If ye ask which is 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 Baptist — "Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining, the same is he." If ye enquire about the children of God, the Apostle shall describe them for you, 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, and the man that doth ap- pear 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 the man, under what name soever he goes, of what party or faction soever he is. And let no soul examine itself by any lower marks than this, iari tiq Qeog fv^ov, " participation of the divine nature, conformity to G8 IMMANUEL. the divine image/"' Examine what alliance your soul hath to God, " whose is the image and super- scription." Religion is a divine accomplishment, an efflux from God, and may, by its affinity to hea- ven, be discerned from a brat of hell and darkness. Therefore, Christians, if you will form a judgment of your state, lay your hearts and lives to the rule, the eternal goodness, the uncreated purity and holi- ness, and see 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 decrees, the secrets of predestination, to find out the causes and method of their vocation and sal- vation ; 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 pious soul itself, and the whole plot and mystery of salvation trans- acted upon the heart of a true Christian. There is a vanity which I have observed in many pre- tenders to nobility and learning, when men seek to demonstrate the one by their coat of arras, 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 accomplish- IMMANUEL. 69 ments and behaviour of gentlemen or scholars. A like vanity, I doubt, 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 in examining; themselves bv 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 glory in the bulk of their duties, and in the multitude of their pompous performances, and religious achievements, crying, with Jehu, " Come, see here my zeal for the Lord f whereas it were much more excellent, if one could see their likeness to the Lord, and the characters of divine beauty and holiness drawn upon their hearts and lives. But we, if we would judge rightly of our religious state, must view ourselves in God, who is the fountain of all goodness and holiness, and the rule of all perfection. Value yourselves by your souls, and not by your bodies, estates, friends, or any outward accomplishments, as most men do: but that is not enough ; if men rest there, they 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 con- 70 I iM MANUEL verse with him in his works, is indeed an excellent and honourable employment ; but O what a blessed study it is to view him in the communications of himself, and the impressions of his grace upon our own souls ! All the thin and subtile speculations which the most eminent philosophers have of he essence and nature of God are a poor, and low, and beggarly employment and attainment, in com- parison of those blessed visions of God which a pious soul hath in itself, when it finds itself par- taker of a divine nature, and living a divine life. O labour to view God and his divine perfections in your own souls, in those copies and transcripts of them which his Holy Spirit draws upon the hearts of all pious men. This is the most excellent dis- covery of God that any soul is capable of; it is better and more desirable than that famous dis- covery that was made to Moses in the cleft of the rock. Nay, I should much rather desire to see the real impression of a God-like nature upon my own soul, to see the crucifying of my own pride and self-will, the mortifying of a 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 Al- mighty, or hear a voice witnessing from heaven, and saying, " Thou art my beloved Son, in whom my soul is well pleased."" This that I am speaking 131 MANUEL. 71 of is a true foundation of heaven itEielfin the soul, a real beginning of happiness ; for happiness, heaven itself, is nothing else but a perfect conformity, a cheerful and eternal compliance of all the powers of the soul with the will of God : so that as far as a pious soul is thus conformed to God, and filled with his fulness, so far is he glorified upon earth. Sed hen qziantum didamiis ah illo ! Secondly, 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 the imitation of their Lord and Saviour, that eldest Son of God, that " first-born amongst many brethren,"" who rejoiced 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, accord- ing to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again !'"* There is no greater contradiction in the world, than a man pretending religion, and yet ascribing it to himself; whereas pure religion is purely of a divine origin : besides, religion doth principally consist in the subduing of self-will, in conformity to, and compliance with the divine will, in serving the in- terest 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 crcature-Iove, 72 I M MANUEL. 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 madly do men dream of their self-religion car- rying them to heaven ; when heaven itself is no- thing else but the perfection of self-denial, and God's becoming all things to the saints. Instead of ad- vancing men towards heaven, there is nothing in the world that doth more directly make war against heaven, than that yiyavrw^i^g ^i^X^^ (^^ Siracides calls it) that proud and petulant spirit of self-will that rules in the children of disobedience. So that when the Holy Ghost would describe David one of the best men, to the best advantage, he describes him with opposition to self and self-will, "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 phi- losophical men, who being raised up above the spe- culations of their own souls, which is the logical life, unto a contemplation of a deity ; and being purged, by a lower kind of virtue and moral goodness, from the pollutions that are in this world through lust, did yet ultimately settle into themselves, and their own self-love. They were full indeed, but it was not with the fulness of God, as the Apostle speaks, IMMANUEL. 73 but with a self-sufficiency ; the leaven of self-love lying at the bottom made 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 them- selves continually before their eyes, that they had no clear and spiritual discerning of God. They did, as it is storied of one of the Persian kings, en- shrine themselves in a temple of their own. But what speak I of heathen philosophers? Is there not the same unclean spirit of self-adoration to be found amongst many Christians, yea, and teachers of Christianity too ? witness that whole brood, those men, who, whilst they suspend 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, while they pretend to high attainments, do discover a low and most ignoble spirit : to fasten and feed upon any- thing in the creature, is the part of a low and de- generate spirit ; on the other hand, it is the great- est perfection of the creature, not to be its own, not to be anything in itself, or any way distinct from the blessed God, the Father and Fountain of hght and grace. Holy Paul is all along in a different strain, as, " I, yet not I, but the grace of God VOL. II. i( 74 IMMAKUEL. 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 conform to God's image, we shall not set up our own. This self-glorying, in the predominancy of it, is utterly inconsistent with true religion, as fire is with water ; for religion is nothing else but the shinings forth of God into the soul, the reflection of a beauty and glory which God hath put upon it. Give all therefore unto God ; for whatsoever is kept back, is sacrilegiously purloined from him : glory we in the fulness of God alone, and in self- penury and nothingness. The v/hole 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 ; ac- cording 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 holi- ness, according to that of the Apostle — " Partakers of his holiness." If we be really and truly full, wc receive it of Ids fulness, according to that of the IMMANUEL. 75 Apostle — " filled with all the fulness of God/"' In a word, if we be in any God-like dispositions, like unto him, it is by his spreading of his image in us, and over us. By all which, it appears to be a thing not only wicked and unwarrantable, but utterly im- possible for a pious soul to exalt himself against God, for grace to advance itself against divine glory ; for grace is nothing else but a communica- tion of divine glory ; and God is then glorified, when the soul in holy and gracious dispositions be- comes 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 con- clude 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 farther. Thirdly, By this discovery of the origin of reli- gion, we come to understand the origin of sin and wickedness. And here, according to the method wherein I spoke of the origin of religion, I might show you how the origin of sin from without is of the devil, who 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 76 IMMANUEL. causes of sin. The inward cause is the corrupt heart of man, that unclean spirit, that diabolical nature, which is indeed the worst and most perni- cious devil in the world to man. It is an old say- ing, one man is a 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 ori- gin 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 degen- eration from a holy state, an apostacy from a holy God. Religion is a participation of God, and sin is a straggling off from him. Therefore it is wont to be defined by negatives, a departure from God, a forsaking of him, a living in the world with- ovit him, &c. The souFs falling off from God, describes the general nature of sin ; but then as it sinks into itself, or settles upon the world, and fastens upon the creature, or anything therein ; so it becomes specified, and is called pride, covetous- ness, ambition, and by many other names. All souls are the offspring of God, were originally formed into his image and likeness ; and when they express the purity and holiness of the divine nature, in be- ing perfect as God is perfect, then are they called the children of God : but those impure spirits that IMMANUEL. 77 do lapse and slide from God, may be said to im- plant 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 origin of sin : nothing can be so vile as that which, to speak properly, is nothing else but a perfect falling off from glory itself. By this you may also by the way, take notice of the miserable condition of unholy souls. We need not call for fire and brimstone to paint out the wretched state of sinful souls. Sin itself is hell and death, and misery to the soul, as being a departure from good- ness and holiness itself: I mean from God, in con- junction with whom the happiness, and blessedness, and heaven of a soul consist. Avoid it therefore, as you would avoid being miserable. h3 78 IM MANUEL. CHAP. II. True religion described, as to the nature of it, hy water; a metaphor usual in the scriptures — 1. By reason of the cleansing virtue of it — The defiling nature of sin, and the beauty of holiness manifested. — 2. By reason of the quenching vifiiie of it — This briefly touched upon, and the more full handling of it referred to its 2Jroper place — The nature of religion described by a well of water — that it is a principle in the soids of me7i, proved by much scripture — An examination of religion by this test — by which examination are ex- cluded all things that are 7nerely external reformations and performances instanced in — A godly man hath 7ieither the whole of his busitiess, nor his 7notives lyifig without hi7n — /w the same exami7iation ma7iy things internal foiind not to be religion — it is no sudden pas- sio7i of the 7ni7id — no, not though the sa7ne amount to 071 ecstacy — 7ior anything begotten and 7naintai7ied by fa7icy, and the mere power of i7naginatio7i. I COME now to speak of the nature of true religion, which is here described by our blessed Lord, by "a well of water.*" First, by water. Secondly, by a well of water. I shall speak something of both these, but more briefly of the former, I. 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 IMMA7