CHAP. 5

 

 An expostulation with Christians concerning their sluggish temper: an essay to convince them of it by some considerations; which are, 1. The activity of worldly men. 2. The restless appetites of the body. 3. The strong propensions of every creature towards its own centre. Five marks of a slothful professor. The active nature of Christian Faith. A short essay to awaken Christians to greater vigor and activity.

 

 WE have seen in what respects religion is an active principle in the soul where it is seated. By this property of true religion we shall be able to discover much that is false and counterfeit in the world. If religion be no lazy, languid, sluggish, passive thing, but life, love, the spirit of power and freedom, a fire burning, and a well of water springing up, what shall we say of that heavy, sluggish, spiritless kind of religio n,with which most men are content Shall we call it a spirit of life, and yet allow of a religion that is cold and dead Shall we call it a spirit of love and power, and yet allow of it, though it be indifferent, low, and impotent Or will such pass current with the wise and holy GOD, if we should put a favorable judgment upon it And why should it ever pass with men, if it will not pass with GOD But, indeed, how can this inactivity and sluggishness pass for religion amongst men Who can think you are in pursuit of the Infinite and Supreme Good, that sees you so slow in your motions towards it Who can think that your treasure is in heaven, that sees your heart so far from thence The more any thing partakes of GOD, and the nearer it comes to him who is the fountain of life, and power, and virtue, the more active, powerful, and lively will it be. We read of an atheistical generation in Zeph. 1: 12, who fancied to themselves an idle and slothful GOD, that minded not the affairs of the world at all, saying, " The LORD will not do good, neither will the do evil;" which was also the false and gross conceit of many of the heathen. It is almost as absurd to fancy an idle saint, as an idle Deity.

 

That I may more powerfully convince and awaken the lazy and heavy spirit of many professors, I will briefly touch upon a few particulars.

 

 1. The children of this world, earthly and sensual men, are not so slothful, so lazy, so indifferent in the pursuit of earthly and sensual objects. You say you have laid up your treasure in heaven; we know they have laid up their treasure on earth. Now, who is it that behaves himself most suitably towards his treasure You or they You say you have a treasure in heaven, and are content to be able to say so, but make no haste to be fully and feelingly possessed of it, or to enjoy the benefit and sweetness of it. But they " rise up early, and sit up late," and either pine themselves, or eat the bread of sorrow, to obtain earthly and perishing inheritances; they circuit the world, travel far, sell all to purchase that part which is of so great price with them: and when they have accomplished it, oh how do they set their heart upon it, bind up their very souls in the same bags with their money, and seal up their affections with it; and even then they are not at rest, but find a gnawing hunger upon their hearts after more, still adding house to house, and land to land, and one bag to another: the miser is ready to sit down and wring his hands, because he has no more hands to scrape with; the voluptuous epicure is angry that he has not the neck of a crane, the better to taste his dainties; and ambitious ALEXANDER, when he domineers over the known world, is ready to sit down and weep, because there are no more worlds to conquer. What Christian can help being ashamed of himself when he reads this Where is the like eager and ardent disposition to be found in a Christian towards GOD himself Let us now confess the truth, and every one judge himself.

 

 2. This dull and earthly body is not so indifferently affected towards meat and drink, and rest, and the things that serve its necessities, and gratify its temper. Hunger will break down stone walls, and thirst will give away a kingdom for a cup of water; sickness will not be eased by good words, nor will a drowsy brain be bribed by company or recreation: no, no, the necessities of the body must and will be relieved with food, and physic, and sleep; the restless appetite will never cease crying to the soul for supplies, till it arise and give them. Behold, O my soul! consider the mighty and incessant appetites of the body after sensual objepts, after its suitable good and proper perfection, and be ashamed of thy sluggish inclinations towards the highest good, a GOD-like perfection!

 

 3. No creature in the whole world is so languid, slow, and indifferent in its motions towards its proper rest and centre. How easy were it to call heaven and earth to witness the free, cheerful, eager addresses of every creature, according to its kind, towards its own centre and happiness The sun in the firmament rejoices to run its race, and will not stand still one moment, except it be miraculously overpowered by the command of GOD him-self; the rivers seem to be in pain, till by a continued flowing, they have accomplished to themselves a kind of perfection, and be swallowed up in the bosom of the ocean, except they be benumbed with cold, or otherwise overpowered by foreign violence. I need not instance animals and plants; all which, with a natural vigor, grow up daily towards a perfect state. Were it not a strange and monstrous sight to see a stone settling in the air, and not working towards its centre Such a spectacle is a soul settling upon earth, and not endeavoring a nearer union with its GOD. Wherefore, Christians, either cease to pretend that you have chosen GODfor your portion, centre, and happiness, or else arise and cease not to pursue the closest union with him, of which your souls are capable: otherwise I call heaven and earth to witness against you; and the day is coming when you will be put to shame by the whole creation. Does even the meanest creature of GOD pursue its end with ardent and vehement longings; and shall a soul, the noblest of all creatures, stand folding up itself in itself, or choking up its wide and divine capacity with dust and dirt Tell it not at Athens, publish it not at Rome, lest the Heathen Philosophers deride, and hiss us out of the world.

 

 But you will ask me when a Christian may be said to be sluggish and inactive

 

 I will briefly show this in a few particulars. I pray take it not ill, though the greatest part of Christians be found guilty; for that is no other than what CHRIST himself has prophesied.

 

 I. The active spirit of religion will not suffer men to take their rest in a constant course of external performances; and they are but slothful souls that place their religion in any thing without them. By external performances, I mean not only open, and public, and solemn services, but even the most private performances that are in and by the body. It is not possible that a soul should be happy in any thing that is cxtrinsical to itself, no, not in GOD himself, if we consider him only as something without the soul. The Devil himself knows and sees much of GOD without him; but, having no communication of a divine nature, being perfectly estranged from the life of GOD, he remains perfectly miserable. I doubt it is a common deceit in the world, for men to toil and labor in bodily acts of worship and religion, and think, with those laborers described in the Parable, that, at the end, they must needs receive great wages, because they have borne the heat and burden of the (lay. Alas that ever men should so grossly mistake the nature of religion, as to sink it into a few bodily acts, and carcass-services, and to think that it is nothing else but running the round of duties and ordinances, and keeping up a constant set and course of actions! Such an external legal righteousness the Apostle PAUL, after his conversion, could not be content with, but counted it all loss and dung, in comparison of that GOD-like righteousness which was now brought into his soul, that inward and spiritual conformity to CHRIST, which was now wrought in him. (Phil. ill. 9, 1O.) I know, indeed, men will be does to confess that they place their religion in any thing without them; but, I pray, consider seriously wherein you excel other men, save only in praying or hearing, or some other outward acts, and judge yourselves by your nature, and not by your actions.

 

 2. The active spirit of religion, where it is in the soul, will not suffer men to take up their rest in a mere pardon of sin; and they are but slothful souls that could be so satisfied. " Blessed is the man" indeed " whose iniquities are pardoned:" but if we could suppose a person to be acquitted of the guilt of all sin, and yet to he bound under the dominion of lust and passions, and to live without GOD in the world, he would be far from true blessedness. A real hell will arise out of the very bowels of sin and wickedness, though there should be no reserve of fire and brimstone in the world to come. It is utterly impossible that a soul should be happy out of GOD, though it had the greatest security that it should never suffer any thing from him. The highest care indeed of a slavish spirit, is to be secured from the wrath and vengeance of GOD; but the breathings of the ingenuous and holy soul arc after a divine life, and GOD-like perfections. This right and gracious temper you may see in DAVID, (Psal. I 1: 9-12,) which is also the temper of every truly religious soul.

 

 3. The active spirit of religion, where it is in the soul, will not suffer men to take up their rest in mere innocency, or freedom from sin; and they are slothful souls that count it happiness enough to be harmless: Men are much mistaken about holiness: it is more than mere innocency, or freedom from the guilt or power of sin; it is not a negative thing; there is something active, noble, divine, powerful, in true religion. A soul that rightly understands its own penury and self-insufficiency, and the emptiness and meanness of all creature-good, cannot possibly take up its rest, or place its happiness, in any thing but in a real participation of GOD himself; and therefore is continually going out towards that GOD from whom it came, and laboring to unite itself more and more unto Him. Let a low-spirited, fleshly-minded Pharisee take up with a negative holiness and happiness, as he doth, in Luke 18: 11; " GOD, I thank thee, that I am not " so and so: a noble and high-spirited Christian cannot take up his rest in any negation or freedom from sin. Every Godly soul is not so learned, indeed, as to be able to describe the nature and proper perfection of a soul, and to tell you how the happiness of a soul consists, not in cessation and rest, as the happiness of a stone doth, but in life, and power, and vigor, as the happiness of GOD himself doth: but yet the spirit of true religion is so excellent and powerful in every Godly soul, that it is still carrying it to the fuller enjoyment of a higher good; and the soul finds and feels within itself, though it cannot discourse philosophically of these things, that though it were free from all disturbance. of sin and affliction, yet still it wants some supreme good to make it completely happy, and so bends all its power thitherward. This is the description which you will every where find in Scripture of the true spirit of holiness, which has always something positive and divine in it, as in Fish. 4: 22, 24: ". Put off the old man; put on that new man, which after GOD is created in righteousness and true holiness." Accordingly, a Godly soul, to use the Apostle's words, though he " know nothing by himself," yet does not thereby count himself happy.

 

 4. The active spirit of true religion, when it exists in the soul, will not suffer men to take up their rest in any measures of grace received; and so far as the soul does so, it is sluggish and less active than it ought to be. The nature of religion, when it affects the soul rightly and powerfully, is to carry it out after a more lively resemblance of GOD. A mind rightly sound is most sick of love; and the nature of love is, not to know when it is near enough to its object, but still to long after the most perfect conjunction. This " Well of Water," if it be not violently obstructed, is ever springing up, till it be swallowed up in the ocean of divine love. The soul that is rightly acquainted with itself and its GOD sees something still wanting in itself, and to be enjoyed in him, which prevents it from being at rest; and it is still springing up into him, till it come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of its LORD. In this holy, loving, longing, striving, active temper, we find the great Apostle. (Phil. 3: 12—14.) And the more of divine grace any soul has imbibed, the more thirsty is it after much more.

 

 5. The active spirit of true religion, where it is power-fully seated in the minds of men, Avill not suffer them to settle into a love of this animal life, nor indeed suffer them to be content to live for ever in such a kind of body as this; and that man is in a degree lazy and slothful that does not desire to depart and be with his LORD. The Godly man, viewing GOD as his perfect happiness, and finding that his being in the body separates him from GOD, most ardently longs that mortality may be swallowed up of life. I know not how much, but I think he has not very much of GOD, neither sight of him, nor love of him, that could be content to abide for ever in this imperfect state, and never be perfect in the full enjoyment of him. And, it seems, that they in whom the love of GOD is rightly predominant, do look earnestly " for the mercy of our LORD JESUS CHRIST unto eternal life;" as without doubt they ought to do: (2 Pet. 3: 12:) " What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and GODliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of GOD! "

 

 Let this suffice by way of general reprehension.

 

 The consideration of the active nature of true religion may well serve to correct a mistake about that noble grace of faith. How dishonorably do some speak of this excellent and powerful grace, when they make it to be a slothful, passive thing; an idle kind of waiting, or sitting still; which, in deed and in truth, is life and power. Be not mistaken in so high and eminent a grace: true faith not only accepts the imputed righteousness of CHRIST [i. C. of CHRIST'S merit] for justification, but by a lively dependence upon GOD, drinks in divine influences, and eagerly imbibes grace, and virtue, and life, from the fountain of grace, for its more perfect sanctification. Faith is not a lazy languid thing, content to wait for salvation till the world to come; but it is even now gasping after it, and accomplishing it too, in a way of mortification, self-denial, and growing up into GOD: it is not content to be a candidate waiting for life and happiness, but is actually drawing down heaven into the soul, attracting GOD to itself, imbibing divine grace into the heart: its motto is that of the famous painter, Nulla dies sine lined; it longs to find some divine lineament, some line of GOD's image, drawn upon the soul daily. Faith is a giving grace, as well as a receiving one; it gives up the whole soul to GOD, and is troubled that it can give him no more: it binds over the soul afresh to GOD every day, and is troubled that it cannot bind it faster and closer to him. The believing soul is wearied because of murderers,—murdering loves, lusts, cares, earthly pleasures; and calls mightily upon CHRIST, to come and take vengeance upon them: it is wearied because of those robbers that are daily stealing away precious time from GOD, which is due unto him; and calls upon CHRIST, to come and scourge these thieves, these buyers and sellers, out of his own temple. In a word, the Godly soul is active, and faith is the very life and action of the soul itself.

 

 Lastly, let me from hence exhort all Christians to be zealous, fervent in spirit, serving the LORD, and longing after him. " Stir up the grace of GOD that is in you;" Quench not, 1: e. blow up, inflame the influences of the SPIRIT of GOD in you. Awake, Christians, out of your lethargy, and rejoice, as the sun, to run the race that is set before you, and, as a mighty man refreshed with wine, to fight your spiritual battles, against the armies of uncircumcised, profane; and earthly passions. View GOD as your centre, the enjoyment of him as the happiness, and full conformity to him as the perfection of your souls; and then say, " Awake, arise, O my soul, and hide not thy hand in thy bosom, but throw thyself into the very heart and bosom of GOD; lay hold upon eternal life." Observe how all things in the world pursue their several perfections with unwearied and impatient longings, and say, " Come, my soul, and do you likewise." Converse not with GOD so much under the notion of a lawgiver, but as with love itself; nor with his commands, as having authority only in them, but as having goodness, and life, and sweetness, in them. Consider your poverty as creatures, and how utterly impossible it is for you to be happy in yourselves, and say, " Arise, O my soul, from this weak and tottering foundation, and build thyself up in GOD; cease to confine thyself within the straits of self-sufficiency, and come to expand thyself upon infinite goodness and fullness." Pore not upon your attainments; do not sit brooding upon your present accomplishments; but forget the things that are behind, and say, " Awake, O my soul; there is yet infinitely more in GOD; pursue after him for it, till you have obtained as much of the divine nature as a created being is capable of receiving. In aword, take heed you live not by the lowest examples, (which thing keeps many in a dwindling state all their days,) but by the highest. Seek after DAVID'S temper, waiting for GOD more than they that watch for the morning, breaking in heart for the longing that he had to the Lord; and say, " Arise, O my soul, and live as high as the highest; it is no fault to desire to be as good, as holy, as happy, as an angel of GOD. And thus, O my soul, open thy mouth wide, and GOD has promised to fill thee! "

 

CHAP. 6

 

 Religion considered in the consequent of " not thirsting." Divine grace gives a solid satisfaction to the soul. This confirmed by some scriptures, and largely explained. There is a raging thirst in every soul of man, after some ultimate and satisfactory good. Every natural man thirsteth principally after happiness in the creature. No man can find that soul-filling satisfaction in any creature-enjoyment,which every natural man principally seeks therein. Grace takes not away the soul's thirst after happiness, but much inflames it. The Godly soul thirsts no more after rest in any worldly thing, but in GOD alone. In the enjoyment of GOD the soul is at rest.

 

 HITHERTO we have taken a view of true religion as to its origin, nature, and properties. We arc now to consider it in the certain and genuine consequent of it; and that is, Satisfaction, or not Thirsting: " Whosoever drinketh of the Water that I shall give him shall never thirst."

 

 1. " Whosoever drin/ceth of the Water that I shall give hint shall never thirst" after any other Water. No worldly liquor can be so attempered to the palate, as to give it a universal satisfaction: but this heavenly water is so fitted to the palate of spirits, and brings such satisfaction along with it, that the soul thirsts no more after any other thing, neither through necessity, nor for variety. The more the soul drinks of this water, indeed, the more it thirsts after fuller measures of the same; and not only receives divine grace and influences, but even longs to be itself received up into the divinity. Its thirst, likewise, after all created good, all the waters of the cistern, is hereby overcome and mortified.

 

 2. " Whosoever drinketh of the Water that I shall give him" shall never be at a loss more,—never be uncertain or unsatisfied, as to his main happiness: he shall not range up and down the, world in unfixedness and suspense any more; he shall not run up and down to seek satisfaction and rest any more. From an internal dissatisfaction of the body spring violent and restless motions, and runnings up and down, by which thirst is contracted; so that thirst comes to be used for dissatisfaction, which is the remote cause of it; and, by a metaphor, the same phrase comes to be applied to the soul. Thirst, then, is a dissatisfaction, or spiritual disquiet, which causes the soul to range up and down, seeking something wherein ultimately to acquiesce. And in this sense, our LoRD's declaration is most true,—" Whosoever drinketh of the Water that I shall give him shall never thirst."

 

 It is not of much importance by which of these two ways we explain the phrase here, "not thirsting;" for, according to either of them, it will result, that,

 

Divine Grace, or true Christian Religion, gives a real satisfaction to the soul. It cannot be doubted, that the promise made in Isa. xlix. TO, is to be performed unto believers in this life; for so the foregoing verses must necessarily be understood, and there we have the doctrine expressly asserted: " They shall not hunger nor thirst; for he that has mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them." To which those words of our SAVIOR are parallel, (John 6:35,) " He that believeth on me shall never thirst:" which doctrine is enlarged in John 7: 38; " He that believeth on me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." What greater security from thirst can be desired, than that one should be led by springs of water Yes, one may be led by the springs of water, and yet not be suffered to drink of them: therefore, to put all out of fear, the Godly soul shall contain within himself a spring of water; he shall have rivers of living water in himself; and, for his fuller security, these rivers shall be ever flowing too. Having given the meaning of the words in this shorter position, I shall endeavor to unfold it in these six propositions.

 

 1. There is a raging thirst in every soul of man after some ultimate and satisfactory good. The GOD of nature has implanted in every created nature, a secret, but powerful tendency towards a centre, which dictate, arising out of the very constitution of it, it cannot disobey, until it cease to be such, and utterly apostatize from the state of its creation. And the nobler any being is, the more excellent is the object assigned to it, and the more strong and uncontrollable are its motions thereto. Wherefore the soul of man must needs also have its own proper centre, which must be something superior to, and more excellent than itself, able to supply all its indigencies, to fill all its capacities, to overcome all its cravings, and to give a perfect satisfaction; which therefore can be no other than uncreated goodness, even GOD himself. It was not possible that GOD should make man of such faculties, and those faculties of that capaciousness which we see in them, and then appoint any thingbelow himself to be his ultimate happiness. Now, although it be sadly true, that the faculties of the soul are miserably maimed, depraved, benighted, and distorted; yet I do not see that the soul is utterly unnatured by sin, so as that any other thing should be obtruded upon it for its centre and happiness, than the same infinite good which from the beginning was such, or so as that its main motions should be ultimately directed to any other than its natural and primitive object. The natural understanding has not, indeed, any clear or distinct sight of this blessed object; but yet it retains a dark and general apprehension of Him, and may be said, even in all its pursuits of other things, to be still groping in the dark after Him: neither is it without some secret and latent sense of GOD, that the will of man chooses or embraces anything for good. The Apostle hesitates not to affirm that the idolatrous Athenians themselves worshipped GOD, (Acts 17: 23.) though at that time, indeed, they knew not what they worshipped: their worship was secretly and implicitly directed unto GOD, and did ultimately resolve itself into Him, though they were not aware of it: —" whom ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you." Now, that he declared GOD unto them appears abundantly by the following verses; and what he says in point of worship, the same I may say in point of love, trust, delight, dependence, and apply it to all sorts of idolaters, as well as image-worshippers. For that peace, happiness, and satisfaction, at which these mistaken souls aim, what is it other than GOD, though they attribute it to some-thing else which cannot afford it, and so commit a real blasphemy For they who ascribe a filling and satisfying virtue to riches, pleasure, or honors, do as truly, though not so loudly, blaspheme, as they who cried out concerning the calf of gold, (Exod. xxxii. 4,) " These be thy GODs, O Israel! " &c. And in this sense, one may safely affirm, that the most professed atheist in the world secretly pursues the GOD whom he openly denies, whilst his will is catching at that which his judgment renounces, and he allows that Deity in his lusts whom he will not own in heaven. Yet let not any one think that this ignorant and unwary pursuit of GOD can pass for religion, or be accept-able in the sight of GOD; for, as it impossible that any man should stumble into a happy state, without foresight and free choice, and be in it without any kind of sense or feeling of it, so neither can GOD accept the blind for sacrifice, or be pleased with any thing less than reasonable service from a reasonable creature. As the Athenians, worshipping GOD by altars and images, are. counted " superstitious," not devout, so the whole generation of gross and sensual souls admiring, loving, and ignorantly coveting after GOD in the pictures and images of true goodness, are, indeed, truly blasphemers and idolaters, but religious they cannot be.

 

 2. Every natural man thirsts principally after happiness and satisfaction in the creature. The fall of the soul consists in its sinking into the animal life; and the business of every unrenewed soul is, in one kind or other, still to gratify the same life: for although, as I have shown, GOD is in the bottom of these men's cares, and loves, and desires, and implicitly in all their thirstings, yet I may well say of them, as GOD said of the Assyrian Monarch, when he executed his pleasure in correcting his people Israel, (Isa. 10: 7,) " Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither does his heart think so." GOD is not in all their thoughts, whilst they pursue that in the creature which really none but GOD can be unto them. They ultimately direct, as to their intention, all their cares, and covetings, and thirstings, to some created object; all which are calculated for the animal life, the gratification and accomplishment of their own base lusts. This is very apparent in the idolatry of the pagans, whose lusts gave being to their GODs; and so their deities were as many as their concupiscences and filthy passions. To sacrifice to their own revenge and sensuality, under the names of Mars, Bacchus, and Venus, what was it else, but to proclaim to all the world, that they took the highest contentment and satisfaction in the fulfilling of such kind of lusts This was unto them their GOD, or supreme felicity. The case is the same, though not so professedly, with all carnal Christians, who, although they profess the true GOD, yet, in truth, make him only a pander to their own lusts and base ends; though they " name the name of CHRIST," yet, in very deed, they deify their own passions, and sacrifice to the gratification of their animal powers.

 

 I need not here declaim against covetous, luxurious souls, the Apostle having so expressly prevented me by his plain and punctual arraignment of such men, in Phil. 3: 19, and Col. 3: 5; where he charges them with placing a deity in their bags and bellies: otherwise’I durst appeal to all the world, that are not parties, yea, to the parties themselves, whether it be GOD, or themselves, that these persons intend to serve, and please, and gratify; whether >it be a real assimilation unto GOD, and the true honor of his name, or some lust or humor of self-pleasing, self-advancing, and self-enjoying, unto which they sacrifice their cares and pains, and the main thirstings of their souls. It will be easily acknowledged, that the covetous, voluptuous, and ambitious, sacrifice all they arc, and do, to the latter; but it is not yet agreed among men who are such: and this is no wonder; for it is as natural for the animal self-life to shift off guilt, as it is to contract it; and the pride of the natural man is no less conspicuous in his endeavors to seem innocent of what he is indeed guilty, than his covetousness and voluptuousness are apparent in the matter wherein his guilt consists. It is not only these, and some of the most gross and profane sort of persons, who are guilty in this kind, though they, indeed, are most visibly guilty; but the whole generation of mere animal men, who have no principle of divine life implanted in them, spend all their days, bestow all their pains, and enjoy all their comforts, in a real strain of blasphemy from first to last. What a blasphemous kind of philosophy was that which professedly placed the supreme good of man in the fruition of pleasures And, indeed, all those kinds of philosophy, which placed it in things below GOD himself, and the enjoyment of him, were no less profane, though they may seem somewhat less beastly: for whether the Epicureans idolized their own senses, or the more exalted Stoics deified their own faculties, placing their main content in their self-sufficiency, it is apparent that both the one and the other sect still moved within the low and narrow sphere of natural self, and grasped after a deity in the poor dark shadows and glimmering representatives of him. But I am speaking to Christians: and, amongst these, let no man tell me how orthodox are his opinions, how pure and spiritual his forms, how numerous and specious his performances, how rightly he pays his homage, and prays to one living GOD, by one living Mediator; I do, with delight, observe these things wherever they are; but yet all this does not constitute a Christian: for still that saying of the Apostle must hold good, (Rom. 6: 16,) " His servants ye are to whom ye obey;" and I may acid, by a somewhat like phraseology, "His children ye are whom ye resemble; his creatures ye are, as far as you can make yourselves so, whose sufficiency and sovereignty are most magnified in your hearts; his worshippers ye are whom ye most love, trust in, delight in, depend upon; in a word, that is your GOD, which your soul does mainly rest and wrap up itself in." Whosoever, then, says in his heart concerning any thing that is not GOD, what the rich man in the Gospel said concerning his goods, " Soul, take thine ease" in them, " and be merry," the same is an idolater and blasphemer: and this I affirm to be the language of every unregenerate soul of man.

 

 3. No man can find that happiness, and soul-filling satisfaction, in any creature, which every natural man seeks therein. Here two things are to be considered, viz. the enjoyments of men, or what they possess, and the satisfaction which the natural man seeks in such possessions. For the first of these, I do not believe that ever any natural man had his fill of such possessions, I mean as to the quantity of them; he never had so much of them as to be able freely to say, It is enough. The rational soul has a strong and insatiable appetite, and wheresoever it imagines its satisfying enjoyment to be had, it is exceedingly greedy and rapacious; whether the same will ever be able to satisfy it or no, it matters not. The animal life is that voracious idol, not like Bel in the story, which only seems to eat up, but which does really devour all the fat morsels, and sensual pleasures, that are sacrificed to it, and yet is not filled therewith. The whole employment of the natural man is nothing else, but, as the Apostle elegantly describes it, (Rom. 13: 14,) " to make provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof;" wherein yet, to speak the truth, he loses his labor; for he sacrifices all to an idol that can never be satisfied, and pours it into a gulf that has neither bottom nor bounds, but which swallows up all, and is rather made to thirst, than to cease from thirsting, by all that is or can be administered unto it. I consider that declaration of SOLOMON, (Eccles. 1: S,) to be a clear proof in general of what I affirm, " The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing:" the eye of man, as little as it is, is bigger than the whole visible world, which, although it may be wearied with looking upon various objects, yet still desires new ones, and can take them in without surfeiting; so that, although the acts of the eye be contracted and finite, yet the lusts of the eye seem to have a kind of infinity in them. And, indeed, by the unsatiableness of the eye and ear,. is meant the greediness of the flesh or animal life, as MR. CART\VRIGHT has well observed upon Prov. 27: 2O: " Hell and destruction are never full, so the eyes of man are never satisfied;" where, by not being satisfied, is meant not having enough in quantity. And, indeed, I need not descend to particular instances; for I suppose no natural man could ever heartily say he had enough of riches, promotions, applause, sensual delights, eloquence, policy, or victory, or of any other thing which is accommodated to the gratification of the flesh, no more than any Godly soul sojourning upon earth could ever be yet able to say he had enough of GOD and eternal life. 

 

 So that, in a word, I know not how to apply any description to this insatiable and devouring principle more properly than that which the Prophet makes of hell: (Isa. 5: 14:) "She enlargeth herself, and opens her mouth without measure; and all glory, multitude, and pomp, descend into it." But be it imagined that the enjoyments of some natural men are enough in respect of quantity, yet still there is wanting a sincere satisfaction of soul in such possessions; for no natural man finds, in those things, that real happiness which he so earnestly seeks. SOLOMON reduces all pleasure and contentment which can be found in multiplied riches to a very small sum: (Eccles. 5: 11:), " What good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes " And, alas! What is the sight of the eye to the satisfaction of the soul The whole world is utterly too small for the wide and deep capacity of an immortal spirit; so that the world can no more satisfy a soul, than a less can fill a greater, which is impossible. Whatever is in the world, out of GOD, is described by the Prophet (Isa. 4: 2,) to be "not bread,"—there is the unsuitableness; and, "not to satisfy,"—there is the insufficiency of it, as to the soul of man: on the other hand, this soul of man is so vastly capacious, that though it be also ever so greedy and rapacious, snatching on the right hand, and catching on the left hand, as the Prophet describes the people, (Isa. 9: 2O,) yet still it is hungry and unsatisfied. This ravenous and insatiable appetite of the sensual soul is elegantly described by the Prophet, in the similitude of a whorish woman, who prostitutes herself to all corners, and "multiplieth her fornications," yet is " insatiable,—is not, cannot be, satisfied." (Ezek. 16: 28, 29.) The soul may indeed feed, yea, and surfeit upon, but it can never satisfy itself from itself, or from any created good: nothing can ultimately determine the motions of a soul, but something superior to its own essence; and whilst it misses of this, it is, as it were, divided against itself, perpetually struggling, and fluctuating, and traveling in pangs with some new design or other to be at rest; like the old lioness in the parable of Ezekiel, breeding up one whelp after another, to be a lion wherein to confide, but disappointed in all; adorning something for a GOD to-day, which it will be ready to fling into the fire to-morrow, after their manner of creating GODs to themselves, whom the poet describes as saying, Hodie mnihi Jupiter esto; eras mild truncus eris ficulnus, inutile lignum.

 

 Neither the quantity, variety, nor duration, of any created objects can possibly fill up that large capacity with which GOD has endued the rational soul; but having departed from its centre, and not knowing how to return, it wanders up and down, as it were, in a wilderness: and having an imperfect glimmering sight of something better than what itself, as yet, either is or has, but not being able to attain to it, is miserably tormented, even as a man in a thirst which he. cannot quench; yea, the more he runs up and clown to seek water, the more is his thirst increased whilst he misses of it: so this distempered and distracted soul, whilst it seeks to quench its thirst at the creature-cistern, does but inflame it, and in a continual pursuit of rest becomes most restless. That every unregenerate soul is in such a distressed, weary, restless state as I have been describing, appears most evidently by those gospel-proclamations;—one in Isa. lv. 1, " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; " where, by the thirsters, are meant these unfixed, unsatisfied souls, as appears by the second verse;—the other in Matt. 11: 28, "Come unto me, all ye that labor," &c where the promise of giving rest plainly implies the restless state of the persons invited. There is a certain horror and anguish in sin and wickedness, even long before it be swallowed up in hell; a certain vanity and vexation folded up in all earthly enjoyments, though they do not always sting and pierce the soul alike: so true is that declaration of the Prophet, "There is no peace to the wicked."

 

 4. Grace takes not away this thirst of the soul after happiness, and plenary satisfaction. Love and desire, and a tendency towards blessedness, are so woven into the nature of the soul, and inlaid in the very essence of it, that she cannot possibly put them off; although it is the work of grace to change and rectify them, as we shall see under the next head. The soul of man is a kind of immaterial fire, an inextinguishable activity, always necessarily catching at some object or other, in conjunction withwhich she expects to be happy: and therefore, if she be rent from herself and the world, and be mortified to the love of fleshly and animal lusts, she will certainly cleave to some higher and more excellent object. Grace does not stupify the soul as to its sense of its own indigency and poverty, but makes it more abundantly sensible and importunate. There are more strong motions, and more powerful appetites, in the Godly soul towards its true happiness, than in the unGodly and wicked. For the under-standing of the regenerate soul is so enlightened, that it presents the will with an amiable and satisfactory object; which object, therefore, being more distinctly apprehended, also lays hold upon the soul, and attracts her unto itself. Deuli sent in amore daces, is most true of the eye of the soul, I mean the understanding, which first affects the heart. The first and fundamental error of the rational soul seems to he in the understanding; the very root of the degenerate soul's distemper; and if this were thoroughly restored and healed, so as to present the will with proper representations of GOD, it might be hoped that this ductile faculty would not be long before it chive unto him entirely; nay, some have doubted whether it could possibly resist the dictates of it. Now, in the re-generate soul, this faculty is repaired; the Spirit of Regeneration first spreads itself upon the under standing, and awakens in it a sense of self-indigency, and of the perfect, all-sufficient, and satisfactoryfulness of GOD, in whom it sees all beauty, sweetness, and loveliness, in au infinitely ineffable manner, which is so far from allaying the essential thirst of the soul, that it gives a (nighty edge and ardour to its inclinations, puts it upon a more bold and earnest contention towards this glorious object, and charms the whole soul into the very arms of Gob. Therefore "not thirsting," in the text, must not be under-stood absolutely, as if grace utterly extinguished the natural activities of the soul; but the regenerate soul does not thirst in that sense, according to which thirst implies the want of a suitable good, or dissatisfaction. In this notion of thirst, grace does indeed quench it: but, as to this most essential thirst, this natural out-going of the soul after rest and happiness, it is so far from being extinguished by divine grace, that it is greatly inflamed thereby. Hence, DAVID borrows the strongest inclinations that are to be found in the whole creation, to represent the devout ardours of his own soul: " As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O GOD. O GOD, you art my GOD, early will I seek thee; my soul thirstest for thee my flesh longeth for thee, in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is. I stretch forth my hands unto thee; my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land:" yea, he seems like one that would swoon away for very longing; " Hear me speedily, O LoRD, my spirit faileth; hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit; I lift up my soul unto thee, I flee unto thee:" &c.

 

 5. The Godly soul thirsts no longer after happiness in any creature, nor rests in any worldly thing, but in GOD alone. Divine grace allays the thirst of the soul after other waters, filthy pools, of which it could never yet drink deep, or by which, if it drunk ever so deep, it could not be quenched; it determines the soul to one object, whereas before it was rent in pieces amongst many. It does not destroy any of the natural powers, nor dry up the innate vigor of the soul, but takes it off from the pursuit of all inferior ends, and causes it to spend all those powers not less vigorously, but far more rationally and satisfactorily, upon the infinitely amiable and self-sufficient GOD. When the soul has once met with this glorious object, it will no longer spend itself upon the creature; that is too poor and insufficient for it. The soul which under-stands its own nature and capacity, and once comes to view itself in GOD, will see itself too large to be bounded by the narrow confines of any creature, and too free to be chained to any earthly object whatever. The world indeed may, yea, and will labor to divert the soul;—" What is thy beloved more than another beloved," that you art so fond of him " Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel:'" " Be content, here is hay and provender; stay with me this night; let us dally and make merry together little longer." But these songs are sung to a deaf ear; they cannot enchant the wise and devout soul, which has her senses rightly awakened, and exercised to discern between good and evil. She replies, " Oh no, I am sick of love, and sick of every thing that keeps inc from my beloved; and therefore, however you may go about to defile me through fraud or force, through surprise or violence, yet I will not give up myself unto you." The gracious soul has now discovered the most beautiful, perfect, and lovely object, even Him, whose name is LOVE; which glorious vision has so withered the choicest flowers in nature's garden, that they have now no more form nor comeliness, beauty nor fragrancy. She has tasted the perfect sweetness of the fountain, which has so embittered all-cistern waters, that she finds no more thirstings in herself after them. This is what our Savior promises here,—" shall never thirst." A Godly soul can-not possibly be put off with any thing short of Gov: give him his GOD, or he dies; give him ever so much fair usage in the world, ever so much of earthly accommodations, they are not accommodated to his wants and thirst, if they have not that GOD in them, out of whom all worldly pleasures are even irksome and unpleasant, and all fleshly ease tedious and painful.

 

 Though all holy souls may not be alike weaned from the world, and may not equally love GOD, yet no one of all those, in whom this divine life is found, takes his rest in any creature-communion whatever. No religious soul can be content to exchange the presence of GOD, and acquaintance with him, for any thing, or for all things besides; no such person could be content, for all the world, (the glory of heaven not excepted, if that might be supposed,) to be wicked and ungodly: so that, by "thirsting" here, we must not understand some weak wishings, and fainter propensions of the soul towards created objects; but the most quick and powerful breathings, the highest and strongest ardencies, the predominant and victorious motions and desires of the soul, which do, as it were, fold

 

up the whole soul, and lead all its powers into a grateful captivity. Thus shall be "thirst no more," who has once drunk of these waters which flow forth from the presence of the LORD of Life, and which the blessed REDEEMER is here said to give. He thirsts after his happiness in GOD alone, that is, in the enjoyment of Him. We have already seen, that grace does not destroy the natural longings of the soul after a satisfactory good, but rather enhances them, and that the Godly soul is most thirsty of all, but not with a creature-thirst; it remains that his thirsting after rest and happiness terminates on GOD alone.

 

 You may, in Psal. lxxiii. 25, view the term or end of the Godly man's ambition: " Whom have 1 in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee." These words express, in a lively manner, the Godly man's end, and aim, and object, and happiness, and indeed his all. Or, if we translate, perhaps more fitly, with MOLLERUS, yet they afford us the same doctrine, " Who will give me to be in heaven, and with thee On earth I desire nothing."

 

Thus have we dispatched the fifth proposition, viz. That the Godly soul thirsts no more after happiness in any creature, nor rests in any worldly thing; and come to the sixth and last, which is this:

 

 6. In the enjoyment of GOD, the soul is at rest, is fully satisfied; so satisfied, as to be perfectly suited with an object transcendently adequate to all its faculties; and so satisfied, as to have peace, and joy, and triumph in him. For the better understanding of the first of these, it should be remarked, that the reasonable soul, and the faculties of it, are of a vast, large, and noble capacity. It is universally granted by all, who are not Sadducees, that the capacity of angels is very great and noble; and that the condition of the human soul is not much inferior to it, may, I think, be gathered from the Psalmist's words, (Psal. 8: 5,) "You have made him a little lower than the angels." although the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews applies these words eminently to CHRIST,(Hell. 2: 9,) yet I see no reason why they may not be well applied to the excellent condition of man by creation: but whether or not the souls of men be so near of kindred to the angels, yet, that they are capable of a most noble and excellent happiness, and much allied to GOD himself, appears from such texts of Scripture as require them to be "holy, as GOD is holy," to be " perfect, as their heavenly FATHER is perfect." Neither need it seem to any incredible, that the rational soul should be so capacious; for we are no more to judge of the angelical temper and noble actions of the separated soul, by what we see it to be and do in this body of flesh, than one can judge of the courage and power of a renowned warrior at the head of an army, by what we discern in him when he lies bound in chains.

 

 In the next place, it will be easily inferred, that all created good is too scanty and insufficient for this capacious spirit of man; nay, it cannot contract itself so, as to be accommodated to any worldly good, without pain and anguish. From both these principles it will be naturally and necessarily concluded, that GOD alone is that adequate object which can satisfy and fill the soul of man. The enjoyment of GOD is that ultimate end, and perfect good, that alone is able to fix the spirit of man; which other-wise, not meeting with its proper object, would be tossed to and fro, and labor under perpetual disquiet. GOD is that almighty goodness and sweetness, who alone is able to draw out all the appetites of the soul unto himself, satisfy all its cravings, charm all its restless motions, and cause all its faculties to conspire together how to give up themselves entirely to himself.

 

 Secondly, From this conjunction with omnipotent goodness, arises pure peace, yea, joy and triumph, to the religious soul. For the clearer understanding of this, I should premise, what some have wisely observed, that there is a natural congruity between GOD and the soul, it being a spiritual substance, and he being a spiritual good, who alone is suitable unto her. Hence it is that sin and wickedness are so often styled the defilement of the soul: now, we know, that whatsoever defileth is adventitious and improper; and hence it is that sin many times stings and wounds the consciences of those that take most pleasure in it, because it is perfectly contrary to this noble and inbred sense of the soul. Allowing then this natural sympathy which the soul of man has with its Creator, it will be easy to give an account of that peace, joy, and triumph, of which the soul must needs be possessed, when it finds and feels itself in conjunction with its centre, and in the nearest union with its Creator. It need not seem strange, that the soul should highly congratulate itself on its arrival at its own haven; nay, it were strange if it should not dissolve into secret joy and pleasure in the hearty entertainment of so blessed a guest as GOD is. Indeed it were unreasonable to imagine, that the con-junction of so noble and discerning faculties with so perfect and proper an object, should not beget the greatest and sincerest delight.

 

 The delights of an earthly and sensual mind are low and filthy, in comparison of the pleasures of the refined and purified soul, which must needs live most gracefully, triumphantly, and deliciously, when it converses with GOD most intimately. A Godly soul, being in its right senses, cannot fail of tasting a sweetness in these pure and divine accomplishments wrought in it by the eternal SPIRIT of righteousness; which pleasure arises in the soul from its sensible union with GOD in the SPIRIT, and enjoyment of Him: by which enjoyment of GOD, you will easily perceive that I do not mean the bare pardon of sin, or an abstract justification; for this is not the attainment that is perfective of the soul, neither could it alone, if we could suppose it to be alone, fill up the capacities of the soul, or make it happy, however the rapturous joys of the unprincipled hypocrite spring principally from the false apprehension of this; but, by it, I mean the soul's being really regenerated into the image of GOD, consisting in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, and its implantation into the root CHRIST JESUS, by which it partakes of his life, power, and SPIRIT.

 

 And yet, besides this, I conceive, there is a more direct account to be given of those joys which the renewed soul so plentifully reaps upon its return to Con: for " the GOD of hope " filleth the Godly soul " with all peace and joy in believing." (Rona. 15: 13.) CHRIST does on purpose speak words to the hearts of his disciples, that their "joy may be full." (John 15: 11.) But whether the gracious Father of spirits does immediately from himself inspire the holy soul with divine joys and pleasures, or whether he bring them to his holy mountain, into his house of prayer, and by that, or any other means, make them joyful, and of glad heart, sure it is that he frequently puts a gladness into their hearts beyond that of the harvest or the vintage, and makes them to rejoice with " joy unspeakable and full of glory."

 

Having now unfolded the meaning of the gracious soul's not thirsting any more, I should pass to the last thing contained in the text; but finding myself oppressed in spirit, when I compare the temper of Christians with it, I must have leave to stay a little, and breathe. And what shall I breathe but a sad and bitter complaint over that low, earthly, selfish, greedy spirit, which actuates the world at this day, yea, and the generality of professors of that sacred religion, which we call Christianity. Alas! what a company of thieves and murderers,—I mean, base and sensual loves,—lodge in those very souls, which should be temples consecrated to the name, and honor, and inhabitation of the eternal GOD, the SPIRIT of truth and holiness. Oh, what pity is it that the precious souls of men, yea, and of Christians, that are all capable of such a glorious liberty, so high and honorable a happiness, should be bound down under such vile and sordid lusts, feeding upon dust and gravel, to whom the hidden manna is freely offered, and GOD himself is ready to become a banquet! And O what a shame is it for those who profess themselves children of GOD, disciples of the most holy JESUS, and heirs of his pure and undefiled kingdom of heaven, to roll themselves in filthy and brutish sensualities, to set up that on high in their souls, which was made to be under their bodies, and so to love and live as if they studied to have no affinity at all, but would be as unlike as they could, to that GOD and REDEEMER, and unfit for that inheritance! How often shall it be protested to the Christian world, by men of the greatest devotion and seriousness, that it is vain to dream of entering into the kingdom of heaven hereafter, except the kingdom of heaven enter into their souls during their union with these bodies How long shall the SON of GOD, who came into the world on purpose to be the most glorious example of purity, self-denial, and mortification, how long shall He he by, in his word, as an antiquated pattern, only cut out for the apostolical ages of the world, and only suited to some few morose and melancholy men

 

With what face can we pretend to true religion, or a feeling acquaintance with GOD, and the things of his kingdom, whilst the continual bleatings and lowings of our souls after created good betray us so manifestly, and proclaim before all the world, that the beast, the brutish life, is still powerful in us " If ye seek me," says CHRIST to his followers, as well as he did once to his persecutors, " then let these go; "—let go your hold of earthly objects, let these worldly joys and toys vanish; " withhold your throat from thirst, and your feet from being unshod," and come follow me only, and ye shall have treasure in heaven; for he that will not deny all for me, is not worthy of me. But, ah sad and dreadful fall, which has so miserably cramped this royal offspring, and made the King's son to be a lame MEPHIBOSHETH! How are the sons of the morning become children of darkness, and the heirs of heaven vassals and drudges to earth! How is the King's daughter unequally yoked with a churlish NABAL, who continually checks her divine and generous motions! How unhappily art you matched, Omy soul! And yet, alas! i see it is too properly a marriage; for you have clean forgotten " thine own people, and thy father's house." Take up, take up a lamentation, you virgin-daughter of the Goss of Zion: some time, indeed, a virgin, but now, alas! miserably married to an unworthy mate, that can never be able to match thy faculties, nor maintain thee according to the grandeur of thy birth, or the necessary pomp of thy expenses, and way of living! Nay, you art not only become a miserable wife; but, in so being, you art also a wicked adulteress, prostituting thyself to the very vilest of thy lawful husband's servants: if you be not incestuous, it is no thanks to thee, there being nothing in this world so near of kin to thee, as to make way for incest. " Return, return, O Shulamite, return, return; put away thine adulteries from between thy breasts, and so shall the King yet again greatly desire thy beauty;" for so He has promised, (,Jee. 3: 21,) that when there shall be a voice heard upon the high places, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel, because they have perverted their way, and forgotten the LORD their GOD, and the back-sliding children shall return, then He " will heal their haekslidings."

 

CHAP. 7

 

 The End of religion, Eternal Life, considered in a double notion: L As it signifies the essential happiness of the soul; 2: As it takes in 2nanyglorious appendages. The former more fully described; the latter more briefly. The noble and genuine breathings of the Godly soul after, and springing up into, the former. In what sense the Godly soul may be said to desire the latter.

 

 I AM now come to the last thing by which this noble principle is described, viz. the Term or End of it; and that is, Everlasting Life. This is the highest pitch of perfection, unto which the new creature is continually growing up; which the Apostle PAUL has expressed with as much grandeur of eloquence as words are able to convey, calling it "the measure of the stature of the fullness of CHRIST." This is that unbounded ocean, into which this living fountain, by so many unwearied streamings, perpetually endeavors to empty itself, or rather in which it embosoms itself. Now, as to what this is, we must confess with the Apostle JOHN, and indeed we have more reason to make such a confession than he had, that "it does not yet appear," viz. neither fully, nor distinctly. But yet we may a little inquire into it; and though it surpass all created comprehensions to take the just dimensions, and faithfully give in the height, and depth, and length, and breadth of it; yet we may essay to walk about this heavenly Jerusalem, as the Psalmist speaks of the earthly, " to tell the towers thereof, mark her walls, and consider her palaces," that we may tell it to the generation following.

 

 I. First, then, we will consider " eternal life" in the most proper notion of it, as it implies the essential happiness of the soul; and thus it is no other than the soul's pure, perfect, and established state. By calling it a State, I designedly disparage the gross notion of a Place, as that which scarcely deserves to enter into the description of such a glory, or, at best, will obtain but a very low room there: by referring to its Purity, I purposely explode that carnal ease, rest, and affluence of sensual delights, of which last Mahometans, and of the former too many professed Christians, generally dream, and judge heaven to consist. So, then, I take " eternal life," in the most proper notion of it, to be full, and perfect, and everlasting enjoyment of God, communion with him, and a most blissful conformity of all the powers and faculties of the soul to that eternal goodness, truth, and love, as far as it is, or may become, capable of the communications of the divinity. This life was purchased by our blessed Lord and SAVIOR in the days of his flesh, and is here promised to every believing soul. Now, in as much as we are ignorant both of the present capacity of our own faculties, how large they are, and much more ignorant, how much more large they may be made, on purpose to receive the more plentiful communications of the divine life and image, therefore can we not comprehend either the transcendent life, happiness, and glory, or that degree of sanctity and blessedness to which the believing soul may be advanced in another world. The happiness and eternal life of the soul consist in the possession or fruition of God; and this necessarily imports the proper perfection of every faculty. Nothing can be the happiness of a spirit, that is either inferior or extrinsical to it; it must be something divine, and that wrought into the very nature and temper of it. I hesitate not to affirm, that if the soul of man were advanced, so as to receive adoration or divine power, yet, if it were, in the mean time, void of divine dispositions, and a GOD-like nature, it were far from being made happy.

 

 II. There is another notion of "eternal life," which is, not barely the essential happiness of the soul, but that with the addition of many suitable and glorious circumstances, attended with the appendages of a glorified body, the vision of CHRIST, the amicable society of Angels, freedom from temptations, and theknowledgeof the secrets of nature and providence: to which may be also added, though of a lower degree, open absolution, or a visible deliverance of the saints out of the overthrow of the wicked, at the conflagration of the world, power over Devils, eminence of place, enjoyment of friends, and the like.

 

Now, let us briefly consider what tendencies there are in the religious soul towards each of these.

 

 1. I suppose, then, that "eternal life" in the first sense of it, is intended here, namely, the essential happiness of the soul, or its perfect and everlasting enjoyment of God. For the description is here made of religion itself, or that principle of divine life which CHRIST JESUS implanted in the soul; and, though we should allow, that many of those high scriptural phrases, which are brought to describe the future condition of believing souls, principally respect the appendages of its essential happiness, (as a kingdom, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, an inheritance re-served, a place prepared, and the like,) yet it seems very unnatural to interpret this phrase, " life," and " eternal life," any otherwise than of that which I call the essential happiness of the soul. But if we interpret it of this, the sense is very fair and easy thus, this principle of divine life is continually endeavoring to grow up to its just altitude, and to advance itself unto a triumphant state, even as all other principles of life naturally tend towards a final accomplishment, and ultimate perfection. Now, this " eternal life" is not a thing specifically different from religion, or the image of GOD, or the divine life, but indeed the greatest height and perfection of it: even as the light of the sun at noon-day is not a light really distinct from what it was in the first dawnings of the morning, but only a different degree;—which seems to be the very similitude by which the SPIRIT of GOD illustrates the matter in hand. (Prov. 4: 18.) Man has not two distinct kinds of happiness in the two distinct worlds, in which he is made to live; but one and the same thing is his blessedness in both, which must needs be the enjoyment of Goo. The translation made of the text is very suitable to this notion; for this divine principle is said to spring up, not unto, but into everlasting life; as if it were said, it springs up till it be swallowed up into the perfect knowledge, love, and enjoyment of Goo. Even as youth is swallowed up in manhood, so this grace is swallowed up in glory; and then is not so much abolished, as perfected.

 

 By this phrase, the genius of true religion, and the excellent temper of the truly religious soul, are most strikingly described. This is the soul which, being in some measure delivered from its unnatural bondage, and freed from its unhappy confinement, now spreads itself in GOD, lifts up itself unto him, stretches itself upon him, and is not content with a heaven merely to come, but brings down a heaven into itself, by carrying up itself unto, and after, the GOD of heaven. GOD is become great, and He only is great, in the eye of such a Christian; he is indeed become all things to him: whilst this principle is predominant in him, he knows no interest but to thrive and grow great in God; no will, but to serve the will, and comply with the mind of God; no end, but to be united to God; no business, but to display and reflect the glory and perfections of GOD upon earth: the business of his life is to serve him; the ambition of his soul to be like him; and his happiness in this world to be united to him, and in the world to come, to be swallowed up in him; in this world to know, and love, and rest, and delight in, and enjoy GOD more than all things, and in the world to come to enjoy him still more. Faith, hope, and love, are uniting and springing graces, and this eternal life is the end and perfection of them all: not that any one of then, I conceive, shall be utterly abolished; but faith will be ripened into the most firm and undisturbed confidence, affiance, and acquiescence in God; hope will be advanced into a more cheerful, powerful, and confident expectation, having for its object the perpetuation of the soul's felicity; and love will become much more loving, and more clearly distinguishable from the imperfect languishings of this present state, when it shall grow up into pure delights and complacencies, resting and glorying in the arms of its adequate, satisfactory, and eternal object. The faith of the hypocrite, and indeed his hope too, are still springing up into self-preservation, deliverance, liberty, a splendid and pompous state of the church, (that is, of his own party,) or some such thing as will gratify the animal life,—and there it terminates: but the faith of the religious soul springs up into eternal life; it knows no term but "the salvation of the soul;" (1 Pet. 1: 9;) as his hope knows no accomplishment but a state of GOD-like purity and perfection. (1 John 3: 3.) The merely natural man lives within himself, within a circle of his own, and cannot get out; whether he cat, or drink, or pray, or be zealous for the popular pulling down of the political Antichrist, he is still in his own circle, he is still sacrificing in all this to that great hello, (glutton,) the animal life: but the Godly man is disinterested of self, and thus is still contriving the advancement of a nobler life within himself, and moving towards GOD, as his supreme and all-sufficient good. Give him the whole world, still he cannot fix nor centre here: GOD has put into him a holy, restless appetite after a higher good. The hungerings of the Godly soul are not, cannot be satisfied, till it come to feed upon the hidden manna, nor its thirstings quenched, till it come to be swallowed up in the unbounded ocean of life and love.

 

 2. The second and more improper notion of eternal life, is that which takes in the circumstances or appendages of it. And here we must allow, that the Holy Scripture openly reveals these circumstances, of some of which it seems to make great account. Again, we will allow, that many of those phrases which the Scripture uses to describe the blessed state of the other world, principally respect these appendages of the soul's essential happiness Tim. such perhaps are the " crown of righteousness;" (24. 8) " the prize of the high calling;" (Phil. 3: 14;) " the house which is from heaven;" (2 Cor. 5: 2;) place kingdom," " an incorruptible inheritance," " a prepared " " mansions," " a reward," " praise and honor and glory at the appearing of JESUS CHRIST." (1 Pet. 1: 7, 4c.)

 

 But, these things being conceded, it does not appear how far the religious soul springs up into these additional glories, and thirsts after them. I know there are many that speak very highly of these appendages, and allow the Godly soul a very high valuation of them: and this they principally infer from the example of Christ himself, as also those of MOSES and Paul suggest something, not to enervate, but to moderate, the argument drawn from these persons; and, after that, I shall briefly lay down what I conceive to be most scriptural and rational in this matter.

 

As for the example of CHRIST, it seems to make not much for them in this matter. For although that text is very plain, which says, that "for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross," and this joy seems as plainly to be his session " at the right hand of the throne of GOD," (Heb. 12: 2,) yet, if by this joy we understand a more full and glorious possession of GOD, and a more excellent exaltation of his human nature to a more free fruition of the divine, then it cannot be applied to any thing but the springing up of the gracious soul into its essential happiness. Or, if by this joy and throne we understand the powers, with which CHRIST foresaw he should be vested, of leading captivity captive, trampling under his feet the powers of hell and darkness, and procuring gifts for men, which seems to me to be most likely, then it belongs not at all to men, neither can this example be drawn into imitation.

 

 As for the instance of MOSES, who is said to have had " respect to the recompence of the reward," (Heb. 11: 26,) it is not granted, that that " recompence of reward" relates principally to these appendages of the soul's essential happiness: but, though I should also allow that, yet all that can be inferred from it is but a respect which MOSES had to this recompence, or some account which he in his sufferings made of it; which was a very warrantable contemplation.

 

The Apostle PAUL, indeed, does openly profess that he looked for and desired the coming of CHRIST from heaven, upon the account of that glorious body with which he would then clothe him; (Phil. 3: 2O, 21;) and so he certainly might, and yet not desire it principally and primarily, but secondarily, and with reference.

 

And this leads me to the general answer. Some of these circumstances which I have named, especially that of the glorified body, may be reduced to the essential happiness of the soul, or included in it, so as that the soul could not otherwise be perfectly happy. It is the opinion of all divines, that a Christian is not completely happy, till he consist of a soul and body both glorified. And, indeed, considering the dear affection and essential aptitude for a body, which GOD has planted in the human soul, we cannot well conceive how she should be perfectly happy without one: and this earthly body is, alas! an unequal yoke-fellow, in which she is half-stifled, and rather buried than conveniently lodged; so that it seems necessary even to her essential happiness, that she should have some more heavenly and glorious body, wherein she may commodiously and pleasantly exert her innate powers, and by which she may express herself in a spiritual and nobler manner, suitable to her own natural dignity and vigor, and to her infinitely amiable and most beloved object.

 

 Concerning the rest of the circumstances which cannot be thus reduced, I conceive that such of them as are necessary to the essential happiness of the soul, by way of subserviency, may be viewed, and desired, and thirsted after, secondarily, and with reference; that is, under this notion only, as they are subservient to that essential blessedness. I confess I do not understand under what other notion a religious soul can lift up itself unto them; I mean, so far as it is holy and religious, and acts suitably to that divine principle which the Father of Spirits, or rather the Father of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, has implanted in it.

 

As a result from the whole discourse, especially from this last part of it, let me earnestly entreat all the professors of this holy religion, which the blessed Messiah, CHRIST JESUS, has so dearly bought for the world, and so clearly revealed in it, not to value themselves by any thing which the power of natural self-love may exert or desire, perform or expect,—nor by any thing below the image of GOD, and the internal and transforming manifestations of CHRIST JESUS in them, the perfection of which is eternal life, in the most proper and true notion of it. I have often suggested the same lesson in this short treatise, but I can never inculcate it often enough; nay, the eloquence of angels is not sufficient to imprint it upon the hearts of men. Possibly it may startle some, (GOD grant it may effectually!) and make the ears of many that hear it to tingle, but yet I will proclaim it, It is possible for a man to desire not only the things of this world, hut even heaven itself, to consume it upon his lusts; and he may as truly be nicking provision for the flesh, to fulfill it in the lusts thereof, in longing after a kind of heaven, as in eating, and drinking, and rising up to play. Certainly a truly Christian spirit, rightly invigorated and actuated by this divine and potent principle, religion, cannot look upon heaven as merely future, or as something perfectly distinct from him; but he eyes it as life, eternal life, the perfection of the purest and divinest life communicable to a soul, and is daily thirsting after it, or rather, as it is said in the text, growing up into it. I know that heaven is sometimes called a rest, in opposition to the dissatisfaction of the uncentered and unbelieving soul; but, in opposition to a sluggish, inert, and dormant rest, it is here said to be Life, Eternal Life. Let us show ourselves to be living Christians, by springing up into the utmost consummation of life: let it appear that CHRIST JESUS, the Prince of Life, who was manifested on purpose to take away our sins, (1 John 3: 5,) has not only covered our shame, and, as it were, embalmed our dead souls, to keep them from putrefaction, and strewed them with the flowers of his merits, to take away their noisomeness from the nostrils of his Father, but has truly advanced, re-instated, and made to flourish, the souls that sin had so miserably degraded and deflowered. Deliver yourselves, O immortal souls! from all those unsuitable and unseemly cares, studies, and joys, from all those low and particular ends and lusts, which do not only pinch and straiten, but even debase and debauch you: let it not be said, that the King of Sodom made ABRAHAM rich; that your delight, happiness, and contentment, are derived from any prosperous, plentiful, pompous state, either in the world that now is, or that which is to come: but let it be derived from the righteousness of faith, and your vital union with the FATHER and the SON; to whom, in the unity of the SPIRIT, be honor and glory, world without end. Amen.