03.02. CHAP. II. True religion described

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

I COME now to speak of the nature of true religion, which is here described by our blessed Lord, by “a well of water.” First, by water. Secondly, by a well of water. I shall speak something of both these, but more briefly of the former,

I. Pure religion, or gospel grace, is described by water. This is a comparison very familiar in the holy scriptures, both of the Old Testament and the New. By this similitude, gospel grace was typified in the ceremonial law, wherein both persons and things, ceremonially unclean, were commanded to be washed in water, as is abundantly to be seen in that administration. Under this notion, the same grace is prayed for by the Psalmist, when he had defiled himself in the bed of a stranger — “ Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” He had dnmk water out of a strange cistern, as his son Solomon describes that unclean act; and now he calls out for water from the fountain of grace to undefile him: he now cries out for water from the fountain of grace, the blessed Messiah, that sprung up into the world at Bethlehem, and that with more earnestness than formerly we read that he wished for the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate. In the same phrase the same grace is promised by the ministry of the Prophets, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto us.

Thus we read of the fair and flourishing state of the church — “ Thou shaltbe like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not;’’ and of the fruitful state of the gospel proselytes —

“ All the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim.” “Which promises, that they are understood of the grace of sanctification, the prophet Ezekiel showeth plainly ’ — “ I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will’T cleanse vou:”“ for ordinary elementary water cannot cleanse men from idols. The prophet Isaiah also puts it out of doubt, whose prophecy, together with the interpretation of it, we find both in one verse — “ I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thy offspring.” By the same ceremony, the gospel dispensation shadows out the same mystery in the sacrament of baptism; and, by the same phrase our Saviour offers and promises the same grace — “ If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink:”*’ and his apostles after him, who, in allusion to water, call this grace the “ washing of regeneration.’’ To which I might add 1 Peter 3:21, and many other texts if it required.

Now, as the grace of God is compared to nre, because of its refining nature, and consuming the dross and refuse of depravity in the soul; and to other things for other reasons: so it is compared to water, especially for those two properties, namely, cleansing and quenching; for observe this by the way, that it is a very injurious thing to the Holy Ghost, to press the metaphors which he useth in scripture, further than they do naturally and freely serve.

Neither are we to adhere to the letter of the metaphor, but to attend unto the scope of it. If we tenaciously adhere to the phrase, wanton wits will be ready to quarrel with absurdities, and so unawares run into strange blasphemies: they will cry out presently, How can fire wash? when they read that of the Prophet — “ The Lord will wash away the filth of the daughter of Zion, by the spirit of burning/’’ But who art thou, O man! that wilt teach him to speak who formed the tongue? The Spirit of God intends the virtue and property of things, when he names them; and that we must mainly attend to.

1. Therefore, by the phrase water ^ is the cleansing nature of religion commended to us: it is the undefiling of the soul, which sin and wickedness hath polluted: sin is often described in scripture by filthiness, loathsomeness, abomination, uncleanness, a spot, a blemish, a stain, a pollution; which indeed is a most proper description of it. The spots of leprosy, and the scurf of the foulest scurvy, are beauty spots in comparison of it; Job upon the dunghill, furnished cap-a-pee with scabs and boils, was not half so loathsome as goodly Absalom, in whose body ’’ there was no blemish from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head;”’ but his soul was stained with the sanguine spots of malice and revenge, and festered with the loathsome carbuncle and tumour of ambition. Lazarus, lying at the gates full of raw and running sores, was a far more lovely object in the pure eyes of God, than dame Jezebel, looking out at the window, adorned with spots and paints. If the best of a godly man that he hath of his own, even his righteousness, be as a filthy rag, whence shall we borrow a phrase foul enough to describe the worst of a wicked man, even his wickedness? I need say no more of it, I can say no worse of it, than to tell you it is something contrary to God, who is the eternal Father of light, who is beauty, and brightness, and glory itself; or, to give it you in the Apostle’s phrase, “ a falling short of the glory of God.’’ Which hath made me many times to wonder, and almost ready to cry out with the Prophet, “ Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this!” when I have seen poor, ignorant, wicked, and profane wretches, passing by a person or a family visited with some loathsome disease, in a mixture of fear and disdain, stopping their breath, and hastening away; when their own souls have been more vile than the dung upon the earth, spotted with ignorance and atheism, swollen with the risings of pride and self-will, and contempt of God and his holy image. This might well be matter of wonder to any man, till he consider with himself, that one part of these men’s uncleanness, is that very blindness which keeps them from discerning it: I speak principally of the defilement of the soul; though indeed the same do pollute the whole conversation, every action springing from such an unclean heart, thereby becomes filthy; even as Moses’s hand, put into his bosom, became leprous; or rather as one that is unclean by a dead body, defileth all that he toucheth.

Now, religion is the cleansing of this unclean spirit and conversation; so that, though the soul were formerly as filthy and odious as Augeus’s stable, when once those living waters flow into it, and through it, from the pure fountain of grace and holiness, the Spirit of our God, one may^say^^of it as the Apostle of his Corinthians, “ Such were some of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified,’“ &c. The soul that before was white as leprosy, is now white as wool. The soul that before was like Moses’ hand, leprous as snow, is now like David’s heart, white as snow; yea, and whiter too. O what a beauty and glory is upon that pious soul that shines with the image and brightness of God upon it! Solomon, in all his glory, was not beautiful like such a soul; nay, I dare say, the splendor of the sun, in its greatest strength and altitude, is a miserable glimmering, if it be compared with the day-star of religion, that even in this life arises in the heart; or, if you will, in the Prophet’s style, “ the Sun of righteousness, which ariseth with healing in his wings,” upon them that fear the name of God. To speak without a metaphor, the pious soul, having received into itself, the pure effluxes of divine light and love, breathes after nothing more than to see more familiarly, and love more ardently: its inclinations are pure and holy; its motions spiritual and powerful; its delights high and heavenly; it may be said to rest in its love; and yet it may be said, that love will not suffer it to rest, but is still carrying it out into a more intimate union with its beloved object. What i.s said of the ointment of Phrist’y name, is true of the water of his Spirit, it is “ poured forth, therefore do the virgins love him.” Rehgion begets a chaste and virgin love in the soul towards that blessed God that begot it; it bathes itself in the fountain that produced it: and suns itself perpetually in the warm beams that first hatched it. Religion issues from God himself, and is ever issuing out towards God alone, passionately breathing with the holy Psalmist, “ Whom have I in heaven but thee? In earth there is none that I desire beside thee!” The soul that formerly may be said to have lain among the pots, by reason of its filthiness, is now as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold: the soul that formerly may be said to have sat down by the flesh-pots of Egypt, in regard of its sensual and earthly loves, being redeemed by the almighty grace of God, is upon its way to the holy land, hastening to a country not earthly but heavenly. This pure principle being put into the soul, puts it upon holy studies, indites holy meditations, directs it to high and noble ends, and makes all its embraces to be pure and chaste, labouring to compass God himself, which before were adulterous and idolatrous; free for sin, and self, and the world, to lodge and lie down in. In a word, this offspring of heaven, this King’s daughter, the pious soul, is “all glorious within;” yea, and outwardly too, “ she is clothed with wrought gold.” Here faith within is more precious than gold; and her conversation is curiously made up of an embroidery of good works, some of piety, some of charity, some of sobriety, but all of purity, and shineth with more noble and excellent splendour, than the high-priest’s garments and breast-plate spangled with such variety of precious stones. This precious ointment, this holy unction, as the Apostle calls it, is as diffusive of itself, and ten thousand times more fragrant, than that of Aaron, so much commended in Psalms 83:1-18 that ran down from his head upon his beard, and from thence upon the skirts of his garment. “ Not my feet only, but my hands and my head. Lord,” saith Peter, not well knowing what he said; but the soul that is truly sensible of the excellent purity which is caused by divine washings, longs to have the whole man, the whole life also, made partaker of it, and cries, Lord, not my head only, not my heart only, but my hands and my feet also; make me wholly pure, as God is pure. In a word then, true religion is the cleansing of the soul, and all the powers of it; so that, whereas murderers sometimes lodged in it, now righteousness; the den of thieves, thievish lusts, and loves, and interests, and ends, which formerly stole away the soul from God, its right owner, is now become a temple fit for the great King to dwell, and live, and reign in: and the whole conversation is turned from its wonted vanity, worldliness, and iniquity, and is continually employed about things that are “ true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report.”

2. By the phrase water, the quenching nature of religion is commended to us. God hath endued the immortal soul with a restless appetite, and raging thirst after some chief good, which the heart of every man is continually groping after, and catching at, though indeed few find it, because they seek it where it is not to be found. If we speak properly, it is not gold or silver, or popular applause, which the covetous or ambitious mind doth viltimately aim at, but some chief good, happiness, sufficiency, and satisfaction in these things; wherein they are more guilty of blasphemy than atheism, for it is clear that they do not deny a Supreme Good; for that which men do chiefly and ultimately aim at, is their god, be it what it will; but they do verily blaspheme the true God, when they place their happiness there where it is not to be found, and attribute that fulness and sufficiency to something else besides the living God. Sin hath not destroyed the nature and capacity of the rational soul, but hath diverted the mind from its adequate object, and hath sunk it into the creature, where it wanders hither and thither, like a banished man, from one den and cave to another, but is secure no where. A wicked man, who is loosed from his centre by sin, and departed from the fountain of his life, flies low in his affections, and flutters perpetually about the earth, and earthly objects, but can find no more rest for the foot of his soul, than Noah’s dove could find for the sole of her foot.

Now, religion is the hand that pulls this wandering bird into her own ark from whence she was departed; it settles the soul upon its proper centre, and quenches its burning thirst after happiness. And hence it is called water in scripture, as appears from these expressions — “ The Lord shall satisfy thy soul in drought;”“ and — “ I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground compared with — “ Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.”

Religion is a taste of infinite goodness, which quenches the souFs thirst after all other created and finite good; even as that taste which honest Nathanael had of Christ’’s divinity, took him off from the expectation of any Messiah to come, and made him cry out presently, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.’’’ And every religious soul hath such a taste of God, even in this life, which, though it do not perfectly fill him, yet doth perfectly assure him where all fulness dwells. But of this I shall have occasion to discourse more largely, when I come to treat of the consequences of true religion.

I proceed, therefore, to the second phrase, whereby our Saviour describes the nature of true religion; it is a well, a fountain in the soul: “ Shall be in him a well of water.”“ From which phrase, to wave niceties, I shall only observe, “ That Religion is a principle in the souls of men.’’ The water that Christ pours into the soul is not like the water that he pours upon our streets, that washes them, and runs away; but it becomes a cleansing principle within the soul itself; every drop from God becomes a fountain in man; not as if man had a kind of avToZ(i)ri in himself, or were the first spring of his own motions towards God: I find not any will in the natural man so divinely free.

God hath indeed given this to his own Son, his only begotten Son, to have “life in himself,” but not to any of his adopted ones. If you ask me concerning man in his natural capacity, I am so far from thinking that he hath a self-quickening power, a principle of life in himself, that I must needs assert the contrary with the Apostle, that he is “ dead in trespasses and sins;” so far from thinking that he hath in himself a well of water, that I must call him, with the Prophet, “ thirsty and dry ground.’“ As for the regenerate man, I will not enter into that deep controversy concerning the co-operation of man’s will with the Spirit of God, and its subordination to that in all gracious acts, or what description of cause this renewed will of man may be safely called; only I will affirm, that repenting and believing are properly man’’s acts, and yet they are performed by God’s power; first, Christ must give this water ere it can be a well of water in the soul; which is enough, I suppose, to clear me from siding with either of those parties, whether those that ascribe to God that which he cannot do, or those that ascribe to free will that which God alone can do. But I fear nothinsr from these controversies; for that way wherein I shall discourse of this matter, will nothing at all border upon them. This, then, I affirm, that religion is a living principle in the souls of good men. I cannot better describe the nature of religion, than to say it is a nature; for so does the Apostle speak, or at least allows us to speak, when he calls it a participation of a divine nature. Nothing but a nature can partake of a nature; a man’s friend may partake of his goodness and kindness, but his child only partakes of his nature; he that begets, begets a nature; and so doth he that procreates again. The sun enlightens the world outwardly, but it does not give a sun-like nature to the tilings so enlightened; and the rain doth moisten the earth, and refresh it inwardly, but it does not beget the nature of water in the earth, “ But this water that I give,” says our Saviour, “ becometh a well of water in the soul.” Religion is not anything without a man, hanging upon him, or annexed to him; neither is it every something that is in a man, as we shall see anon; but it is a divine principle informing and actuating the souls of good men, a living and lively principle, a free and flowing principle, a strong and lasting principle, an inward and spiritual principle. I must not speak of all these distinctly in this place, for fear of interfering in my discourse. When I say religion is a principle, a vital form acting the soul, and all the powers of it, an inward nature, Sec.; saith not the scripture the same here, a well or fountain of water? And elsewhere, a ’^ new man, the hidden man of the heart, the inward man.’“ As the soul is called an inward man, relative to the body, so religion is called an inward man, relative to the soul itself. It is a man within man. The man that is truly alive to God, hath in him not only inward parts, for so a dead man hath, but an inward man, an inward nature and principle. Again, it is called a root. Job 19:28; or, if not there, yet plainly in Mark 4:17, where temporary professors are said to have no root in themselves. And this is by the same propriety of speech whereby a wicked principle is called, “a root of bitterness.’’ Again, it is called a seed, “ the seed of God;” where this seed of God is called an abiding or remaining principle. In the first creation, God made the trees of the earth, having their seed in themselves; and in the new creation, these trees of righteousness of God’s planting, are also made with seed in themselves, though not of themselves; it is said to be the seed of God indeed, but remaining in the pious soul. Again, it is called a treasure, in opposition to an alms or annuity, that lasteth but for a day or year, as a well of water, in opposition to a draught of water; and a treasure of the heart, in opposition to all outward and earthly treasures. It is a treasure affording continual expences, not exhausted, yea, increased by expences; wherein it exceeds all treasures in the world. By the same propriety of speech, sin is called a treaure too, but it is an evil treasure, as our Saviour speaks in that same place. Do you not see what a stock of wickedness sinful men have within themselves, which, although they have spent upon ever since they were born, yet it is not impaired, nay, it is much augmented thereby; and shall not the second Adam bestow something as certain and permanent upon his offspring, as the first Adam conveyed to his posterity? Though men have something without them, to guide them in the way of life, yet it is some living principle within them, that denominates them living men. The scripture will abundantly inform you which is the true circumcision, the true sacrifice to God. And indeed the law itself is not so much to be considered as it was engraven in tables of stone, as *’ being written in the heart.”“ The Jews needed not have taken up their rest in the law, considered as an outward rule or precept; for they knew or might have known, that God require th “ truth in the inward parts,”as one of themselves, a prophet and king of their own, acknowledgeth. But I doubt many Christians are also sick of the same disease, whilst they view the gospel as a history, and an external dispensation; whereas the Apostle, when he opposeth it to the law, seems altogether to make it an internal thing, a vital form and principle seated in the minds and spirits of men. The law was an external rule or dispensation that could not give life, though it showed the way to it; but the gospel, in the most proper notion of it, seems to be an internal impression from God, a living principle, whereby the soul is enabled to express a real conformity to God himself If we consider the gospel in the history of it, and as a piece of book learning, it is as weak and impotent a thing as the law was; and men may be as remiss and formal in the profession of this as they were of that, which we see by daily sad experience. But if we consider the gospel as an efflux of life and power from God himself upon the soul, producing life wherever it comes, then we have a clear distinction between the law and the gospel; to which the Apostle seems to refer, when he calls the Corinthians “ the epistle of Christ, not written with ink, nor in tables of stone, but with the Spirit of the living God, in fleshly tables of the heart.”“ According to which notion of the law and gospel, I think we may, with a learned man of our own, come to a good understanding of that tormented text, Jer. 30:31, quoted by the Apostle — “This is the covenant that I will make, I will put my law into their minds,’“’ &c. The gospel doth not so much consist in words as in virtue; a divine principle of religion in the soul, is the best gospel: and so Abraham and Moses under the law, were truly gospellers; and, on the other hand, all carnal Christians that converse with the gospel only as a thing without them, are as truly legal, and as far short of the righteousness of God, as ever any of the Jews were. Thus we see that religion is a principle in the souls of good men — “ shall be in him a well of water.’“

We shall here now take notice of the difference between the true, and all counterfeit religions.

Religion is that pearl of great price, which few men are possessed of, though all men pretend to it, Laodicean-like, saying, ’’they are rich and need nothing,”’ when indeed “ they are poor and have nothing.’’ This, then, shall be the test by which, at present, we will a little try the counterfeit pearls.

True religion is an inward nature, an inward and abiding principle in the minds of good men, a well of water.

1. Then we must exclude all things that are merely external; these are not it. Religion is not something annexed to the soul, ah ewtra, but a new nature put into it. And here we shall glance at two things: —

(1.) A pious soul does not find the whole of his business lying without him. Religion does not consist in external reformations, though ever so many and specious. A false and slight religion may serve to tie men’s hands, and reduce their outward actions to a fair seemliness in the eyes of men, but true religion’s main dominion and power is over the soul, and its business lies mostly in reforming and purging the heart, with all the affections and motions thereof It is not a battering ram coming from without, and serving to beat down the outworks of open and visible enormities of life, but it enters with a secret and sweet power into the soul itself, and reduces it from its rebellious temper, and persuades it willingly to surrender itself, and all that is in it. Sin may be beaten out of the outward conversation, and yet retire and hide itself in the secret places of the soul, and there bear rule as perfectly by wicked loves and lusts, as ever it did by profane and notorious practices. A man”’s hands may be tied by some external cords cast upon them, from visible revenge, and yet murders may lodge in the temple of his heart, as murderers lodged in the temple of old: men”’s tongues may be tied up from the foul sin of giving fair words concerning themselves; very shame may chastise them out of proud boastings, and self-exaltings, when, in the meantime, they swell in self-conceit, and are not afraid to bear an unchaste and sinful love towards their own perfections, and adore an image of self set up in their hearts. What a fair outside the Pharisee had, himself will best describe, for indeed it is one of his properties to describe himself, “God, I thank thee that I am not,” &c. But if you will have a draught of his inside, you may best take it from our Saviour, Matthew 23:23. Neither doth religion consist in external performances, though ever so many, and seemingly spiritual. Many professors of Christianity, I doubt, sink all their religion into a constant course of duties, and a model of performances, being mere strangers to the life, and strength, and sweetness of true religion. Those things are needful, and useful, and helpful, yea, and honourable, because they have a relation and some tendency to God; but they are apt to become snares and idols to superstitious minds, who conceit that God is some way gratified by these; and so they take up their rest in them. That religion, which only varnishes and beautifies the outside, tunes the tongue to prayer and conference, instructs and extends the hands to diligence and alms-deeds, which awes the conversation into some external righteousness or devotion, is here excluded, as also by the Apostle, 1 Corinthians 13:1. Much less can that pass for religion, which spends itself about forms, and opinions, and parties, and many disputable points, which we have seen so much of in our own generation. The religion that runs upon modes, and turns upon interests, as a door turns upon its hinges, is a poor narrow scant thing, and may easily view itself at once, altogether from first to last. Men may be as far from the kingdom of heaven in their more spiritual forms, and orthodox opinions, as they were in their more carnal and erroneous, if they take up their rest in them: neither is it the pursuing of any interest that will denominate them religious, but the grand interest of their souls.

(2.) A pious soul in its more inward and spiritual acts, hath not its motive without it: for a man may be somewhat more inward in his emotions, and yet as outward in his motives as the former. Religious acts, and gracious emotions, are not originally and primarily caused by some weights hung upon the soul, either by God or men, neither by the worldly blessings which God gives, nor the heavy afflictions which he sends. The wings, by which the pious soul flies out towards God, are not waxed to it, as the poets feign Icarus’s to have been; but they grow out of itself, as the wings of an eagle that flies swiftly towards heaven: on the other side, a soul may be pressed down unto humiliation under the heavy weight of God”’s judgments, that has no mind to stoop, no self-denying or self-abasing disposition in it. Thus you may see Jehu flying upon the wings of ambition and revenge, borne up by successes in his government; and his predecessor Ahab bowing down mournfully under a heavy sentence. The laws, and penalties, and encouragements, and observations of men, sometimes put a weight upon the soul too, but they beget a more sluggish, uneven, and unkindly movement in it. You may expect that under this head I should speak something of heaven and hell: and truly so I may very pertinently, for I think they belong to this place. If you take heaven properly, for a full and glorious union to God, and fruition of him, and hell for an eternal separation and straggling from the divinity; and suppose that the love of God, and the fear of living without him, be well drunk into the soul, then verily these are pure and religious principles: but if we view them as things merely without us, and reserved or US, and under those common carnal notions of delectableness and dreadfulness, they are no higher nor better motives to us, than the carnal Jews had in the wilderness, when they turned their backs upon Egypt, where they had been in bondage, and set their faces towards Canaan, where they hoped to find milk and honey, peace, plenty, and liberty. A soul is not carried to heaven, as a body is carried to the grave, upon men”’s shoulders; it is not borne up by props, whether human or divine; nor carried to God in a chariot, as a man is carried to see his friend; the holy fire of ardent love, wherein the soul of Elijah had been long carried up towards God, was something more excellent, and indeed more desirable, than the fiery chariot by which his body and soul where translated together. Religion is a spring of motion which God hath put into the soul itself. And as all things that are external, whether actions or motives, are excluded in this examination, which we make of religion; so neither, 2. Must we allow of every thing that is internal to be religion. And therefore,

(1.) It is not a fit, a start, a sudden passion of the mind, caused by the power and strength of some present conviction in the soul, which, in a hot mood, will needs set out after God in all haste. This may fitly be compared to the rash and rude motion of the host of Israel, who, being chidden for their slothfulness over night, rose up early in the morning, and gat them up to the top of the mountain, saying, “ Lo we be here, and will go up unto the place which the Lord hath promised, for we have sinned.” And indeed it fares with these men oftentimes as it did with those, both as to the undertaking, and as to the success; their motion is as sinful as their station; and their success is answerable, they are driven back and discomfited in their enterprize. Nay, though this passion might arise so high, as to be called an ecstacy or a rapture, yet it deserves not the name of religion: “ For religion is,” as one speaks elegantly, “ like the natural heat that is radicated in the hearts of living creatures, which hath the dominion of the whole body, and sends forth warm blood and spirits, and vital nourishment into every part and member; it regulates and orders the motions of it in -a due and even manner.” But these extatical souls, though they, may blaze like a comet, and swell like a torrent or land-flood for a time, and shoot forth fresh and high for a little season, are soon extinguished, emptied, and dried up, because they have not a principle, a stock to spend upon, or, as our Saviour speaks, “ no root in themselves.” These men’s motions and actions bear no more proportion to religion, than a land-flood that swells high, and runs swiftly, but it is only during the rain; or, in the scripture phrase, than a morning dew that soon passes away, is like a well or fountain of water.

If religion be a principle, a new nature in the soul, then it is not mere mechcanism, a piece of art. Art imitates nature: nothing more common, I doubt, than for religion itself, that new nature, to go into an art. I need not tell you how all the external acts and shootings forth of religion, may be dissembled and imitated by art, and l>e acted over by a mimical apish Pharisee, who finds nothing at all of the gentle and mighty heat, nor the divine and noble life of it in his own soul, w^hereby he may fairly deceive the credulous world, us I have partly hinted already. But it is possible, I wish it be not common, for men that are somewhat more convinced, enlightened, and affected, to imitate the very power and spirit of religion, and to deceive themselves too, as if they possessed some true, living principle; and herein they exceed the most exquisite painters. Now, this may be done by the power of a quick and raised fancy; men hearing such glorious things spoken of heaven, the city of the great King, the new Jerusalem, may be carried out by the power of self-love to wish themselves there, being mightily taken with a conceit of the place. But how shall they come at it? Why, they have seen in books, and heard in discourses, of certain signs of grace, and evidences of salvation; and now they set their fancies to work, to find or make some such things in themselves. Fancy is well acquainted with the several affections of love, fear, joy, grief, which are in the soul, and having a great command over the animal spirits, it can send them forth to raise up these affections, even almost when it listeth; and when it hath raised them, it is but putting to some thoughts of God and heaven, and then these look like a handsome platform of true religion drawn in the soul, which they presently view, and fall in love with, and think they do even taste of the powers of the world to come, when indeed it is nothing but a self-fulness and sufficiency that they feed upon. Now, you may know this artificial religion by this: these men can vary it, alter it, enlarge it, straiten it, and new-mould it at pleasure, according to what they see in others, or, according to what themselves like best; one while acting over the joy and confidence of some Christians, anon the humiliation and broken-heartedness of others. But this fanciful religion, proceeding indeed from nothing but low and carnal conceits of God and heaven, is of a flitting and vanishing nature. But true Christians are gently, yet powerfully moved by the natural force of true goodness, and the excellencies of God, and move on steadily and constantly in their way to him and pursuit of him. The spirit of regeneration in good men spreads itself upon the understanding, and sweetly diffuses itself through the will and affections, which makes true religion to be a consistent and thriving principle in the soul, as not being acted upon the stage of imagination, but upon the highest powers of the soul itself, and it may be discerned by the evenness of its movements, and the immortality of its nature; for a good man, though indeed he cannot go on always with like speed and cheerfulness in his way, yet is not willing at any time to be quite out of it. By this same nature of true religion you may examine all those spurious and counterfeit religions, that spring from a natural belief of a deity, from convictions, observations, fleshly and low apprehensions of heaven, book-learning, and the precepts of men, as the Prophet calls them, and the rest, which are seated in the fancy, and swim in the brain; whose effect is but to gild the outward man, or, at best, but to move the soul by an external force, in an unnatural, inconstant and transient manner. In a word, all these pretenders to religion may seem to have water, but they have no well: as there are others, deep men, principled indeed with learning, policy, ingenuity, &c. but not with true goodness, whom the Apostle calls wells, but without water. But the truly pious, and God-like soul, hath in itself a principle of pure religion. “ The water that I shall give him, shall be a well of water, springing up into eternal life.’’