03.00. COMMUNION WITH CHRIST
COMMUNION WITH CHRIST, BY THE REV. J. FLAVEL.
EDITED BY THE REV. WILLIAM VINT.
PRINTED BY JOHN VINT, WESTGATE.
1830.
CONTENTS.
IMMANUEL.
Page Memoirs of the Author
Preface.
CHAP. I. The occasion of the words of the text; the principal contents of it; the origin of true religion; all souls the offspring of God, and a more especial portraiture of him, but pious souls yet more especially: God the author of religion from without, in several respects; God the author of it from within, enlightening the faculty; religion something of God in the soul; a discovery of religious men by the affinity they have to God; God alone to be acknowledged in all holy accomplishments; the origin of sin from hence discovered
CHAP. II. True religion described, as to the nature of it, by 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 virtue of it; this briefly touched upon, and the more full handling of it referred to its proper place; the nature of religion described by a well of water; that it is a principle in the souls of men, proved page by much scripture; an examination of religion by this test, by which examination are excluded all things that are merely external reformations, and performances instanced in; a godly man hath neither the whole of his business, nor his motives lying without him; in the same examination many things internal found not to be religion; it is no sudden passion of the mind; no, not though the same amount to an ecstacy; nor anything begotten and maintained by fancy, and the mere power of imagination
CHAP. III. Containing the first property mentioned of true religion: namely, the freeness and unconstrainedness of it; this discovered in several outward acts of morality and worship; as also in the more inward acts of the soul; this freedom considered first as to its author; in which is examined how far the command of God may be said to act upon a pious soul — Secondly, considered as to its object; two cautionary concessions — 1. That some things without the soul may be said to be naotives; how far afflictions and temporal prosperity may be said to be so—2. That there is a constraint lying upon the pious soul, which yet takes not away its freedom; an inquiry into forced devotion; first into the causes of it, namely, men themselves, and that upon a threefold account, other men, or the providences of God: and next, into the properties of it, proving that it is for the most part dry and spiritless, needy and penurious, uneven and not permanent.
CHAP. IV. The active and vigorous nature of true religion proved by many scriptural phrases of the most powerful importance; more particularly explained in three things —1. In the soul’s continual care and study to be good. 2. In its care to do good — 3. In its powerful and incessant longings after the most full enjoyment of God..
CHAP. V. An expostulation with Christians concerning their remiss and shiggish temper; an attempt 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; an inquiry into the slothfulness and inactivity of christian souls; the grace of faith vindicated from the slander of being merely passive; a short attempt to awaken Christians unto greater vigour and activity
CHAP. VI. That religion is a lasting and persevering principle in the souls of men; the grounds of this perseverance assigned: first, negatively, it doth not arise from the absolute impossibility of losing of grace in the creature, nor from the strength of man’s free will, secondly, affirmatively, the grace of election cannot fail; the grace of justification is neither suspended nor violated; the covenant of grace is everlasting; the Mediator of this covenant lives for ever; the promises of it immutable; the righteousness brought in by the Messiah everlasting; an objection answered concerning a regenerate man’s willing his own apostacy; an objection answered, drawn from the falls of saints in scripture; a discovery of counterfeit religion, and the shameful apostacy of false professors; an encouragement to all holy diligence, from the consideration of this doctrine...
CHAP. VII. Religion considered in the consequence, of not thirsting; divine grace gives a solid satisfaction to the soul; this aphorism confirmed by some scriptures, and largely explained in six propositions: first, that there is a raging thirst in every soul of man after some ultimate and satisfactory good: second, that every natural man thirsteth principally after happiness in the creature; Paite third, that no man can find that soul- filling satisfaction in any creature-enjoyment: fourth, that grace takes not away the soul’s thirst after happiness: fifth, that the pious soul thirsteth no more after rest in any worldly thing, but in God alone; how far a good man may be said to thirst after the creature: sixth, that in the enjoyment of God the soul is at rest; and this in a double sense, namely, so as that it is perfectly matched with its object: secondly, so satisfied as to have joy and pleasure in him: the chapter concludes in a passionate lamentation over the levity and earthliness of christian minds..
CHAP. VIII. The term or end of religion, eternal life, considered in a double notion — first, as it signifies the essential happiness of the soul: second, as it takes in many glorious appendixes; the noble and genuine breathings of the pious soul after, and springing up into, the former, the argument drawn from the example of Christ; Moses and Paul moderated; it ends in a serious exhortation made to Christians, to live and love more spiritually, more suitably to the nature of souls, redeemed souls, resulting from the whole discourse 240 COMMUNION WITH GOD.
Text — 1 John 1:3, “Our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ” THE ANGELICAL LIFE.
Text — Matthew 22:30, “ Are as the angels of God in heaven”
COMMUNION WITH CHRIST.
Communion with Christ
IMMANUEL:
OR, A DISCOVERY OF TRUE RELIGION, AS IT IMPORTS A LIVING PRINCIPLE IN THE MINDS OF MEN. BY SAMUEL SHAW.
Memoirs OF THE AUTHOR. The Rev. Samuel Shaw, A.M. was born of religious parents at Repton, in Derbyshire, in 1695, and educated at the Free- School there, then the best in that part of England. He went at fourteen years of age to St. John’s College, Cambridge, where he was chamber-fellow with Dr. Morton. When he had completed his studies, he went to Tamworth in Warwickshire, and was usher in the Free-School in 1656. When that reverend person Mr. Blake died, in 1657, Mr. Shaw spoke an eloquent oration at his funeral, after Mr. Anthony Burgess had preached a sermon. They were both printed, and such as have perused them must think a conjunction of three such men, as the deceased and the two speakers, a singular happiness to that neighbourhood. From Tamworth Mr. Shaw removed to Mosely, a small place in the borders of Worcestershire, being invited by Col. Greavis, who showed him much kindness. On his coming hither, he was ordained by the classical presbytery at Wirksworth; and by the assistance of Mr. Gervas Pigot of Thrumpton, he obtained a presentation from the Protector to the rectory of Long-Whatton, which was in the gift of the crown. He had full possession of this place in June, 1658, and continued in the peaceable enjoyment of it till 1660. Fearing some disturbance in the month of September that year, he got a fresh presentation* under the great seal of England, without much difficulty, as the former incumbent Mr. Henry Robinson was dead, and two more who enjoyed it after him. But though his title was thus corroborated. Sir John Pretty man, by making interest with the lord chancellor, found means to remove Mr. Shaw, about a year before the Act of Uniformity passed; and introduced one Mr. Butler, who had no manner of title to the place. He was a man of such mean qualifications, and so little respected in the parish, that some of them told Sir John, that they heard Mr. Butler had given him a pair of coach-mares to get him the living, but they would give him two pair to get him out, and put Mr. Shaw in again. But he now quitted the church, as he could not satisfy himself to conform to the new terms. He was afterwards. Copies of both these Presentations may be seen in Calamy offered this living without any other condition than re-ordination. But he used to say, He would not lie to God and man, in declaring his presbyterian ordination invalid. When he left Whatton he removed to Cotes, a small village near Loughborough. Here his family caught the plague of some relations, who came from London to avoid it, about harvest-time in 1665.
He then preached in his own house, and afterwards published that excellent book, called The Welcome to the Plague, grounded on Amos 4:12, -’Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.’’ He buried two children, two friends, and one servant of that distemper; but he and his wife survived it; and not being ill both at once, they looked after one another and the rest of the family: which was a great mercy, for none durst come to his assistance. He was in a manner shut up for three months, and was forced not only to attend his sick, but to bury his dead himself in his own garden.
Towards the latter end of the year 1666, he removed to Ashby-de-la-Zouch in the same county; and was chosen to be the sole master of the freeschool in 1668. The revenue was then but small, The excellent temper of mind which he expressed under this severe dispensation, is discovered in the above-mentioned work, whick is reprinted in vol. i. the school-buildings quite out of repair, and the number of scholars few. But by his diligence he soon got the salary augmented, not only for himself, but his successors; and by his interest with several gentlemen, he procured money for the building of a good school-house, and a gallery for the scholars in the church. But then he had another difficulty; which was, how to get a licence without subscription 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 Sheldon 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 learning there discovered, that he gave him a licence Vipon such a subscription as his own good sense dictated, 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 raised the 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 London, 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, afterwards 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 winning and easy. He had great skill in finding out, and suiting himself to, the tempers of boys.
He freely taught poor children, where he saw in them a disposition for learning, and afterwards procured 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 advantage to the trading part of the town.
AViicn the liberty of the Dissenters was settled by act of parliament, he licensed his school-room for 3 place of worship. The first time he used it, he preached from Acts 19:9, “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 public 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 lordship, 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 meditations of the love of God and the world, I am neither afraid nor unwilling to confess it, and make you my confessor,) you have instructed me in several things, which I knew not before, or at least considered 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, Isaiah 1:2-3, complains of this, and calls heaven and earth to witness the justice of his complaint. “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, irrational and stupid creatures, should know their masters, 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 corruption 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 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 transgression 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 heavenly Father, that it makes him obnoxious to eternal 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 considerations, 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 brother 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.
2. James the son of Alplieus, Matthew 10:2-3, who was called James the less, Mark 15:40, whose mother 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 12:2, 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 written till almost twenty years after James the brother of John was slain by Herod: and therefore it is certain, 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, Rev. Sam Shaw, at his House at Ashby-de-la-Zouch.
* Jac. Usserius, Annal. pag. 868, Ed. 1608; Baron. Annal. torn. \.
If such a correspondence as this between the bishops of the church of England and the ministers among the Dissenters, had been generally maintained, 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 differences. 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 penetrating: 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 repartees and innocent jests, with a mixture of poetry, history, and other polite learning. But his greatest excellency was in religious discourse, in praying and preaching. One that knew him well, writes as follows: — “ I have known him spend part of many days and nights too in religious exercise, when the times were so dangerous that it would hazard an imprisonment 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 presence, “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 that vigour and fervour, and those holy words that imported faith and humble boldness, as have dissolved the whole company into tears,” &c. In short, a mixture of so much learning and humility, wit and judgment, piety and pleasantness, are rarely found together, as met in him. He died Jan. 22, 1696, in the fifty-ninth year of his age. His funeral sermon was preached by Mr. William Crosse, his brother-in-law, from Luke 23:28.
PREFACE.
Amongst the many stupendous spectacles that are wont to surprise and amuse inquisitive minds, there seems to be nothing in the world of a sadder and more astonishing description, than the small progress and propagation of the Christian religion. This I call a sad observation, because religion is a matter of the most weighty and necessary importance, without which it is not possible for an immortal soul to be perfected and made happy: I call it astonishing, because the Christian religion hath in itself such advantages of recommending itself to the minds of men, and contains in it such mighty engines 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 pretend 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 warrantably look for. But, in the mean time, it is 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 necessary, and more becoming a charitable and christian spirit, to sit down in secret, and weep over that sad but true account given in the gospel, “Few are chosen,”’ Matthew 20:16; and again, “Few there be that find it,” Matthew 7:14; 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 hundred times so many more as they be! “ 1 Chronicles 21:3. 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, condescending, candid, charitable, and Christ-like spirit, which would be indulgent towards such as are, for the present, under a less perfect dispensation, as our Saviour’s was, Luke 9:49-50, Luke 9:54-55, 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 blackness 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 searching the decrees of God, and rifling into the hidden rolls of eternity, to them who can digest the uncomfortable notion of a self-willed, arbitrary, and imperious Deity; which, I doubt, is the most vulgar apprehension of God, men measuring him most grossly and unhappily by a self-standard. And as I dare not soar so high, so neither will I adventure to stoop so low, as to rake into particulars; which are differently assigned, according to the different humours and interests of them that do assign them; each party in the world being so exceedingly favourable to itself, as to be ready to say with David, “ The earth, and all the inhabitants of it, are dissolved; I bear up the pillars of it,” Psalms 75:3; 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 gospel wherever it is found, I suppose every body will grant; and that it is almost every where to be found, will, I doubt, too evidently appear by that 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 endeavoured briefly to explain, according to the tenor of the gospel, in this small Treatise; which I first framed for private use, in a season when it was most 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 merciful Redeemer, and to be swallowed up in that eternal 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 country, 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 undeceive 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 impressed with the unspeakable glory, nor cheerfully enough springing up into the full fruition of eternal life.
What a certain and undefeatable tendency true religion hath towards the eternal happiness and salvation of men’s souls, will, 1 hope, evidently appear out of the body of this small Treatise; but that is not all (though indeed that were enough to commend it to any rational soul, that is any whit free and ingenuous, and is not so perfectly debauched as to apostatize utterly from right reason;) for it is also the sincerest policy imaginable, and the most unerring expedient in the world, for the uniting and establishing of a divided and tottering kingdom or commonwealth: to demonstate 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 Timothy 4:8; that the right seeking of the kingdom of God and his righteousness, hath no less than all things annexed to it, Matthew 6:33. 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 apostle, “ From whence come wars and fightings? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?” James 4:1. 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 a divine principle implanted in the soul, springing up into everlasting life.”’ And now I should briefly touch those faults, both in governors towards their subjects, subjects towards their governors, and towards each other, which do destroy the peaceful state, and the sound and happy constitution of a body politic: and indeed 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 interpretable to ill-will, curiosity, presumption, or any other bad disposition, and that it may appear to any ingenuous eye, that I am more desirous to bind up than to rake into sores, I will 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 undoubtedly 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 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 perfect 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-conquest, and that the propagation of the image and kingdom of God in their own souls is infinitely preferable to the advancement or enlargement of any temporal 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 appearance of oppression, and hath most admirably provided that his servants should not be slaves, by making his service perfect freedom. The pure and impartial nature of God cannot endure superstitious flatterers, or hypocritical professors; and the princes of the earth, that are regenerated into his image, will also estimate men according to God; I mean, according to his example who loves nothing but the communications of himself, and according to their participation of his image, which alone is amiable and worthy of advancement. What God rejected in his fire-offerings, religion will teach princes to dislike in the devotions, as they call them, of their courtiers; I mean, not only the leaven of superstitious pride and dogged morosity, but also the honey of mercenary prostrations and fawning adulations. In a word, this religious principle which makes God its pattern and end springs from him, and is always springing up into him, would sovereignly heal the distempers of men ruled by humour, selfinterest, 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 purpose that he might show his sovereignty in making them, or his justice in punishing the breach of them; much less doth he give them any such statutes, as 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 contribute towards the happy and blissful state of any kingdom, I will speak 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, Psalms 133:2.
Therefore,
Secondly, It is indispensably requisite for the thorough healing and right constituting of any political body, that the subjects therein be thus divinely principled. This will not fail to dispose them rightly towards their governors, and towards one another.
1. Towards their governors. There are many evil and perverse dispositions in subjects towards their rulers; all which religion is the most excellent expedient to rectify. The first and fundamental distemper here seems to be a want of due reverence toward these vicegerents of God upon earth; which easily grows up into something positive, and becomes a secret wishing of evil to them. This fault, as light as some esteem it, was 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 3:15; surely disloyal and malignant dispositions towards governors must needs have a fouler face; and we may say, by a parity of reason, “ Whosoever hateth his prince is a rebel and a regicide.” Now this distemper, as fundamental and epidemical as it is, the spirit of true religion will heal, and I think I may say that only: for I know nothing in the world that hath, nay, I know that nothing in the world hath that sovereignty and dominion over the dispositions and affections of the soul, as this principle thoroughly ingrafted in the soul, doth challenge to itself. This alone can frame the heart of man into that beautiful temper and complexion of love and loyalty, that he will not curse the king, no, not in his secret thoughts; no, not though he were well assured that there were no winged messenger to tell the matter, Ecclesiastes 10:20.
Another distemper in subjects, respective to their governors, is impatience of bearing a yoke; which is an evil so natural to the proud and imperious spirit of man, that I believe it were safe to affirm, that every irreligious subject could be well content to be a prince; however there 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 subjection, 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, tumultuous, proud, impatient soul doth, ipto facto, deny and destroy) but of themselves. To whom one might justly apply the censure which Pharaoh injuriously passes upon the children of Israel, with a little alteration, “ Ye are proud, therefore ye say, Let us go, and do sacrifice to the Lord,’“ Exodus 5:17. This distemper the power of religion would excellently heal, by mortifying ambitious inclinations, and quieting the impatient turbulences of the fretful and envious soul, by fashioning the heart to a right humble frame and cheerful submission to every ordination of God. You will see in this treatise that a right religious soul, powerfully springing up into everlasting life, hath no list nor leisure to attend to such poor attainments and sorry acquisitions, as the lording it over other men; being feelingly acquainted with a life far more excellent than the most princely, and being overpowered with a supreme and sovereign good, which charms all its inordinate ragings, and laying hold upon all its faculties, draws them forth by a pleasing violence, unto a most 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 conceited mis-government and mal - administration, which commonly spring from an evil and sinister interpretation of the ruler’s actions, and are attended with’an evil and tumultuous zeal for relaxation.
]Now this distemper, as great as it is and destructive to the well-being of a body politic, true religion would heal both root and branch. Were that noble part and branch of the Christian religion, universal charity, rightly seated in the soul, it would not suffer the son of the bond-woman to inherit with it; it would cast out those ireful jealousies, sour suspicions, harsh surmises, and imbittered thoughts which lodge in unhallowed minds, and display itself in a most amicable sweetness and gentleness of disposition, in fair glosses upon doubtful actions, friendly censures or none at all, kind extenuations of greater faults and covering of lesser; for this is the proper genius of this divine principle, to be very unbelieving of evil or easily entertaining of good reports, gladly interpreting all things to a good meaning that will possibly admit of such a construction; or if you will, in the apostle’s phrase, “ Charity is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil,”
1 Corinthians 13:5. And as charity doth cut up this root of discontents, so will faith allay and destroy these discontents themselves, which are about mis-government and ill-administration. This noble principle administers ease and satisfaction to the soul, if she happen to be provoked: for it will not suffer her long to stand gazing upon second causes, but carries her up in a seasonable contemplation to the supreme cause, without whom no disorder could ever befall the world; and there commands her to repose herself, in the bosom of infinite wisdom and grace, waiting for a 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-administrations of men, that she hath no leisure to fall out with men, or quarrel with instruments.
These discontents, I said, were frequently attended with an evil and seditious zeal for relaxation, discovering itself in secret treacherous conspiracies, and many times in boisterous and daring attempts. These are at the first sight so directly contrary to the character given of religious men, namely, “ the quiet of the land,’’ Psalms 35:20, and the genius of religion, which is wholly made up of “ love, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance, mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, forbearance, forgiveness, charity, thankfulness, wisdom,” Galatians 5:22-23.
Colossians 3:12-16; 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 oppression 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 accomplishment thereof: yea, so utterly do I abhor irreligion and atheism, that, as the apostle speaks, Php 1:18, in somewhat a like case, I do verily rejoice that Christ is professed, though it be but pretended, and that truth is owned, though it be not owned in truth. I will further add, that the oppressing and obstructing of the external progress and propagation of the gospel is hated of Christ, and to be lamented of all true Christians. Yea, I will further allow men a due 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 myself that I shall be accepted, or at least indulged by all free and ingenuous spirits, who are rightly acquainted with the genius of the christian religion, and do prefer truth before interest.
And, first, for the complaint that is mostly concerning oppression and persecution; certainly religion, if it did rightly prevail in our hearts, would very much heal this distemper, if not by a perfect silencing of these complaints, yet surely by putting them into another tune. I reckon that religion quite silences these complaints, when it engages the soul so entirely in serving the end of God in afflictions, and in a right improvement of them for religious purposes, that she cannot spend herself in fruitless murmurings and unchristian indignation. As fire seizeth upon every thing that is combustible, and makes it fuel for itself, and a predominant humour in the body converts into its own substance whatever is convertible, and makes it nourishment to itself; so doubtless this spirit of burning, this divine principle, if it were rightly predominant in the soul, would nourish itself by all things that 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 rendering the soul thus forgetful of the body, and regardless of its smart, in comparison of the happy advantage that may be made of it; yet, methinks, it should draw the main stream of these tears into another channel, and put these complaints into another tune. It is very natural to the religious soul to make God ail things unto itself, to lay to heart the interest of truth and holiness more than any particular interest of its own; and to bewail the disservice done to God more than any self-incommodation. Must not he needs be a good subject to his prince, who can more heartily mourn that God’s laws are not kept, than that he himself is kept under? that can be more grieved that men are cruel, than that they kill him? that can be more troubled because there are oppressions in the world, than because he himself is oppressed? such subjects religion alone can make. As for the cry that is made for liberty and deliverance, I confess I do not easily apprehend what is more, or more naturally desirable than true liberty: yea, I believe there are many devout and religious souls that, from a right noble and generous principle, and out of a sincere respect to the Author and end of their creation, are almost intemperately studious of it, do prefer it above all preferments, 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 selfishness generally in it; because this liberty is commonly 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 inconveniences, 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 natural good, “ what do you more than others? Do not even the publicans the same?” Matthew 5:47. 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 disdainful 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 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 deluge of fire, as well as their father? And yet we are so far from rising up and calling these people blessed, that the heart of every chaste and modest Christian is ready to rise against the very mention of their names, when he remembers how both the one and the other, though in a different sense, discovered their father’s nakedness. If we did really value ourselves by our souls, and our souls themselves by what they possess of the image of God, if we did rightly prefer the advancement of the divine life before the gratification of the animal, it is easy to conceive how we should prefer patience before prosperity, faith in God before the favour of men, spiritual purity before temporal pleasures or preferments, humility before honour, the denial of ourselves before the approbation of others, the advancement of God’s image before the advancement of our own names, an opportunity of exercising gracious dispositions before the exercising of any temporal power or secular authority; and in a word, the displaying of the beauty, glory, and perfections of God, before health, wealth, liberty, livelihood, and life itself We should certainly be more indifferently affected towards any condition, whether prosperity or adversity, and not 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 religion, and advance the life of Christ in our souls. This would certainly make men more sincerely studious to read God’s end in afflicting them, and 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 oppression, though it be by sinful men, as it is abhorrent 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, contention, and faction, “Are ye not carnal, and walk as men.?” 1 Corinthians 3:3. 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 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 comparison of all the joys and toys, treasures, pleasures, ease and honour of the world, the safety and liberty of the flesh! How much more then, when these must be accomplished by wicked means, and purchased at the rate of God’s displeasure? And because the kingdom of Christ is so often alleged to defend and 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 attempted it by force or fraud, by violent opposition or crafty insinuation. Nay, he reckoned that his kingdom was truly promoted, when these tumultuous, 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 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 himself seems to intimate it in his answer to Pilate, “ Thou sayest that I am a king; to this end was I born, that I should bear witness unto the truth,’’ John 18:37. 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 understand that the kingdom of Christ is not the thriving of parties, the strengthening of factions, the advancement 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 profession of Christianity, or of the Christian world to the purer and more reformed profession of it, though these latter would be a great external honour to the person of Christ: but that it is most properly and happily propagated in the spirits of men; and that wherever there are faith, patience, humility, selfdenial, 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 condition of the church? That certainly was a high instance of the mighty power of the divine life in our blessed Saviour, which the apostle Peter records of him, who “when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously,”
1 Peter 2:23. 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 Peter 3:9. 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 sciflove, which is as covetous of freedom from all retrenchments and confinements as religion itself can be. It is said indeed that when the churches had rest they were “edified and multiplied,” Acts 9:31; 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 Peter 4:14, 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 Corinthians 12:9.
Secondly, Religion will not fail rightly to dispose the hearts of subjects towards one another; and that whether they be of the same way and judgment with themselves, or different. I dare not assert that it would make them all of the same way and mind; neither do I believe it would: yet I am 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 introducing uniformity, and unanimity too, which is much better, into the church of Christ. But, however, religion would certainly give a right disposition, and teach men a right behaviour in 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 anything 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 Corinthians 5:16, 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; whether of Protestants towards Protestants, or Protestants and Papists towards one another. It would heal the distempered affections and behaviours of Protestants towards Protestants. Were men thoroughlybaptized 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 oppressions, 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 detractions, envious suggestions, and malignant dissemination of doubtful suspicions, by which commonly 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 inveighed against, I doubt not. But, be they what they will, or be they excused how they will, I am confident that this divine principle that powerfully springs up into everlasting life, would mightily relieve the world in this respect; in that it would moderate men”’s desires of corruptible riches, forbid them to seek the things of this world any more or any otherwise than in consistency with, and subserviency to, their primary and most diligent seeking of the kingdom of God; it would make men seek the wealth of others even as their own, and make private advantages stoop to the public good. / 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 religion, if it were universally obeyed, would make men so nobly regardless of earthly accommodations, that there would soon be room enough for all men to 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 determine. For I reckon that these scholastic wars fitly called polemics, like those civil dissentions spoken of by the apostle James, James 4:1, 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 understanding; and the like. I have observed widi frreat grief, how the spirits of many men, I had ahnost said sects of men, run out wholly into disputes about ceremonies,proand con^ about church government, about what is orthodox and what is heterodox, about the true and the false church, (which commonly they judge by something external, and indeed separable from the essence of a true church;) and 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 Protestants, that nothing, no, not religion itself, can heal it. And truly if we suppose that it is religion that engages both parties in this enmity, I think it will prove incurable; but God forbid that this pure offspring of heaven should be so blasphemed!
It is not religion, but indeed the want of it, that begets this implacable animosity, whatever is pretended. Cruel religion, bloody religion, selfish religion, envious and revengeful religion! Who can choose but cry out of the blasphemy of this contradiction at the very firit hera-ing? Nay, I dare 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 cannot 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 offended at the Papists for their persecutions of them, than for their real persecuting and crucifying Christ afresh by their sins; and so, consequently, do rather write and fight against them, than either pity or pray for them. I hope there are as many wellspirited Christians in England, at least proportionably, as in any church upon earth; and yet I fear there are far more that could wish the Papists out of this world, than that earnestly desire that they might be fitted for, and so counted worthy of a better. And doth this spring from a religious principle, think ye, or a selfish? Doth it not agree well to the animal life, and natural self, to be tender 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.
“ If ye hate them that hate you, how can that be accounted religious? Do not even the publicans the same?’“ Matthew 5:46. 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. Revelation 19:20, but, inasmuch as that sword is said to proceed “ out of his mou.th,” Revelation 19:21; I would gladly interpret it of “the word of God,” Ephesians 6:17, which kills men unto salvation. However, let the interpretation 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 concerning the sovereign decrees of God, and his essential and inflexible punitive justice, and all those texts that seem to speak of God’s revenging himself with delight, are interpreted to the utmost harshness of meaning that the cruel wit of man can invent; yet it remains a sealed, and to me a sweet truth, “ I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God,’’ Ezekiel 18:32; and again, “As I live, saith the Lord God. I have no pleasure in the deatli of the wicked,” Ezekiel 33:11. 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 exemplar 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 possibility of salvation without him; and “let that mind be in us, which was in him also,” Php 2:5. 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 everlasting 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 regenerated into the pure spirit of piety, pity, and universal charity, to be of a cruel, fierce, revengeful, condemning disposition. And therefore whatever are the ranting and wrathful strains of some men’’s devotions, 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 we pray 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 Protestant, 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 Corinthians 12:3; but I doubt it is common to curse Antichrist, and yet by a spirit that is antichristian, I mean carnal, selfish, cruel, and uncharitable. For there is a spiritual Antichrist, or, if you will, in the Apostle’s phrase, a “ spirit of Anti-christ,’“’ 1 John 4:3, as well as a political Antichrist; 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, nutatis mutandis, applicable to them. But moreover, 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 righteousness. Are they industrious and zealous for the proselyting of the world, and spreading of their interest ffir 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 wherewith 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, exercised 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 wisdom is at all times justified of, and in her childr^i, so she may be sometimes justified by them, especially 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 3:14-17. This is the proper description of heavenly wisdom, or pure religion: and O that all Christians would estimate themselves to be wise according to their consonancy and conformity thereunto! 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 reasonable creatures that reasonable service which he requires? Romans 12:1. Is the living sacrifice of your own bodies turned into the dead sacrifice of other men’s? It was wont to be said, “ AVhat communion hath Christ with Behal.?” 2 Corinthians 6:15. 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 19:10, 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 massacres, and temporal death? or is religion now become a principle springing up into secular power, worldly dominion, temporal greatness, and all manner of fleshly accommodations? This was of old the description of sensuality, and a heathen genius, “for after all these things do the Gentiles seek,’’ Matthew 6:32. Are there so many mighty engines in the gospel to engage the hearts of men to believe, profess, and obey it, and must they all now give place to fire and sword? Are these the only gospel methods 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 Dissenters? Did he sheath his sword that was drawn in his own defence, and set a dreadful seal upon it too, “All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword;*” and will you adventure to draw it in a way of revenge and persecution, and count it meritorious too, as if you should therefore never perish because you take it? Is it not written in your Bibles, as well as ours, that “no murderer shall enter into the kingdom of God?’“ And do you think by murders to propagate this kingdom upon earth, and have a more abundant entrance into it yourselves hereafter? Can hell dwell with heaven? Shall bloody cruelty ever come to lodge in the bosom, or lie down in the sacred arms of eternal love? Be not deceived, sirs, with a false heaven; but take this for an indubitable and self-evidencing aphorism of truth. No soul of man hath any more of heaven, no, nor ever shall have, than he hath of God, and of his pure, placable, patient, benign, and gracious nature. And this is that everlasting life which a religious principle is 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 Almighty God that they may prove a vindication of religion, restorative of the sickly and lapsed ecclesiastical or political state, yea, or medicinal and profitable to any single soul of man, I shall venture to estimate it against an age of pains. And if it should prove that by all this toil I have caught nothing, as the weary disciples complained of old, nevertheless being well assured that I have a word of God for my 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 higher principle than this animal life. It is impossible for me to give an exact catalogue of all these; many of them I have occasionally recorded in the latter end of the ensuing treatise; to which yet many more might be added, if I had a fair opportunity. But at present let me in general commend 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, performances. Let me speak freely; all pomp of worship, all speculative knowledge, though ever so orthodox, is as agreeable to the animal life as the divine: and all external models of devotion, humble confessions, 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 antichristian prelates, with a pride no whit inferior to theirs whom they thus decry. However it is plain that those things which are imitable by a sensual heart, and indeed performable by the mere magic of an exalted fancy, are not to be rested in by a sincere Christian. Head over therefore, I beseech you, the fruits of the Spirit recorded by the apostle Paul and the apostle Peter, Galatians 5:22, & 2 Peter 1:5-6; 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 millennarian 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. &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 purpose, “ 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 afflictions and tribulations; which he would not fail to do, did he not intend them a greater good thereby, and design to lead them on and raise them up to a higher life. Now, what can more ennoble these souls of ours, than to live upon the same design with God himself? And now, reader, I commend thee to the blessing of God, in the perusal of this small tract, which I have composed, and now exposed under a sense of that common obligation that 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 generation: 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 commend thee, and to the precious influences of his eternal Spirit, and rest.
Thy servant, In his work and for his sake,
SAMUEL SHAW.