against the Divine will, may the excellency and noble spirit of true religion appear, in that it tames the impetuousness and turbulency of this self-will. Then, indeed, does religion perform the highest and bravest conquests; then does it display the greatness of its strength, and the excellency of its power, when it overcomes this great Arimanius, that hath so firmly seated himself in the very centre of the soul. 'Who is the man of courage and valour? It is he that subdues his concupiscence, his own will' is a Jewish maxim attributed to Ben Zoma, and a most undoubted truth. This was the grand lesson that our great Lord and Master came to teach us, viz. To deny our own wills; neither was there any thing that He endeavoured more to promote by His own example, as He tells us of Himself, 'I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me';' and, again: Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to do thy will, O God, yea thy law is within my heart3:" and in His greatest agonies, with a clear and cheerful submission to the Divine will, He often repeats it; 'Not my will, but thine be done':' and so He hath taught us to pray, and so to live. This, indeed, is the true life and spirit of religion; this is religion in its meridian altitude, its just dimensions. A true Christian that hath power over his own will, may live nobly and happily, and enjoy a clear heaven within the serenity of his own mind perpetually. When the sea of this world is most rough and tempestuous about him, then can he ride safely at anchor within the haven, by a sweet compliance of his will with God's will. He can look about him, and, with an even and indifferent mind, behold the world either smile or frown upon him; neither will he abate the least of his contentment, for all the ill and unkind usage הכובש את יצרו : 1 איזהו גבור Massec. Avoth. cap. iv. § 1. 2 John vi. 38. 3 Psal. xl. 7, 8. Heb. x. 7. he meets withal in this life. He that hath got the mastery over his own will, feels no violence from without, finds no contests within; and, like a strong man keeping his house, he preserves all his goods in safety: and when God calls for him out of this state of mortality, he finds in himself a power to lay down his own life; neither is it so much taken from him, as quietly and freely surrendered up by him. This is the highest piece of prowess, the noblest achievement, by which a man becomes lord over himself, and the master of his own thoughts, motions and purposes. This is the royal prerogative, the high dignity conferred upon good men by our Lord and Saviour, whereby they, overcoming this both His and their enemy, their self-will and passions, are enabled to sit down with Him in His throne, as He, overcoming in another way, 'is set down with His Father in His throne;' as the phrase is1. Religion begets the most heroic, free, and generous motions in the minds of good men. There is nowhere so much of a truly magnanimous and raised spirit, as in those who are best acquainted with the power of religion. Other men are slaves and captives to one vanity or other: but the truly religious is above them all, and able to command himself and all his powers for God. That bravery and gallantness, which seem to be in the great Nimrods of this world, are nothing else but the swelling of their own unbounded pride and vain-glory. It hath been observed of the greatest monarchs of the world, that, in the midst of their triumphs, they themselves have been led captives to one vice or another. All the gallantry and puissance of which the bravest spirits of the world boast, is but a poor, confined thing, and extends itself only to some particular cases and circumstances: but the valour and puissance of a soul impregnated by religion hath, in a sort, a 1 Rev. iii. 21. universal extent, as St Paul speaks of himself: 'I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me':' it is not determined to this or that particular object, or time, or place, but návтa-all things whatsoever belong to a creature-fall under the level thereof. Religion is by St Paul described to be πνεῦμα δυνάμεως—the spirit of power'-in opposition to the spirit of fear, as all sin is by Simplicius well described to be advvauía-'impotency and weakness3. Sin, by its deadly infusions into the soul of man, wastes and eats out the innate vigour of the soul, and casts it into such a deep lethargy, as that it is not able to recover itself: but religion, like that balsamum vitæ, being once conveyed into the soul, awakens and enlivens it, and makes it renew its strength like an eagle, and mount strongly upwards towards heaven; and so, uniting the soul to God, the centre of life and strength, it renders it undaunted and invincible. Who can tell the inward life and vigour that the soul may be filled with, when once it is in conjunction with an Almighty essence? There is a latent and hidden virtue in the soul of man, which then begins to discover itself, when the Divine Spirit spreads forth its influences upon it. The more spiritual any thing is, and the higher and nobler it is in its being, the more active and vigorous it is; as the more any thing falls and sinks into matter, the more dull, and sluggish, and unwieldy it is. The Platonists were wont to call all things that participated most of matter övтws μn Ovтa. Now, nothing doth more purify, more sublimate and exalt the soul, than religion, when the soul suffers God to sit within it as a refiner and purifier of silver,' and when it abides the day of his coming; for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap'.' Thus the soul, 1 Phil. iv. 13. 2 2 Tim. i. 7. 3 Πᾶσα γὰρ κακία διὰ ἀδυναμίαν συμ βαίνει, εἴπερ ἡ δύναμις ἀγαθόν τι ἐστίν. Simpl. in Epictet. cap. i. § 1. 4 Mal. iii. 2, 3. being purified and spiritualized, and changed more and more into the glorious image of God, is able to do all things, 'out of weakness is made strong,' gives proof of its Divine vigour and activity, and shows itself to be a noble and puissant spirit, such as God did at first create it. CHAPTER V. The third property or effect discovering the nobleness of religion, viz. That it directs and enables a man to propound to himself the best end, viz. The glory of God, and his own becoming like unto God. Low and particular ends and interests both debase and straiten a man's spirit : the universal, highest, and last end both ennobles and enlarges it. A man is such as the end is he aims at. The great power the end hath to mould and fashion man into its likeness. Religion obliges a man, not to seek himself, nor to drive a trade for himself; but to seek the glory of God, to live wholly to Him; and guides him steadily and uniformly to the one chief good and last end. Men are prone to flatter themselves with a pretended aiming at the glory of God. A more full and distinct explication of what is meant by a man's directing all his actions to the glory of God. What it is truly and really to glorify God. God's seeking His glory in respect of us is the flowing forth of His goodness upon us: our seeking the glory of God is our endeavouring to partake more of God, and to resemble Him, as much as we can, in true holiness and every divine virtue. That we are not nicely to distinguish between the glory of God and our own salvation. That salvation is nothing else, for the main, but a true participation of the Divine nature. To love God above ourselves, is not to love Him above the salvation of our souls; but above our particular beings and above our sinful affections, &c. The difference between things that are good relatively, and those that are good absolutely and essentially: that, in our conformity to these, God is most glorified, and we are made most happy. 3. THE third property or effect whereby religion discovers its own excellency, is this; That it directs and enables a man to propound to himself the best end and scope of life, viz. The glory of God, the highest Being, and his own assimilation, or becoming like unto God. That Christian in whom religion rules powerfully, is not so low in his ambitions as to pursue any of the things of this world as his ultimate end: his soul is too big for earthly designs and interests; but, understanding himself to come from God, he is continually returning to Him again. It is not worthy of the mind of man to pursue any perfection lower than its own, or to aim at any end more ignoble than itself. There is nothing that more straitens and confines the freeborn soul than the particularity, indigency, and penury of that end which it pursues: when it complies most of all with this lower world, as is well observed by an excellent philosopher;-'the true nobleness and freedom of it is then most disputable,' and the title it holds to true liberty becomes most litigious'. It never more slides and degenerates from itself, than when it becomes enthralled to some particular interest: as, on the other side, it never acts more freely or fully, than when it extends itself upon the most universal end. Every thing is so much the more noble, quo longiores habet fines, as was well observed by Cicero. As low ends. debase a man's spirit, supplant and rob it of its birthright; so the highest and last end raises and ennobles it, and enlarges it into a more universal and comprehensive capacity of enjoying that one unbounded goodness, which is God Himself: it makes it spread and dilate itself in the infinite sphere of the Divine Being and blessedness; it makes it live in the fulness of Him that fills all in all. Every thing is most properly such as the end is which is aimed at the mind of man is always shaping itself into a conformity, as much as may be, to that which is his end; and the nearer it draws to it in the achievement thereof, 1 καὶ αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ ὄρεξις αὐτῆς, ἡ τὸ αὐτεξούσιον ἀμφισβητήσιμον ἔχουσα. Simpl. έτι Epictet. cap. i. § 1. |