and be not over credulous, till we find that He doth those works there which none other could do. As for a true, well-grounded, assurance, say not so much, 'Who shall ascend up into heaven,' to fetch it down from thence? or, 'who shall descend into the deep,' to fetch it up from beneath? for in the growth of true, internal, goodness, and in the progress of true religion it will freely unfold itself within us. Stay till the grain of mustard-seed itself breaks forth from among the clods that buried it; till, through the descent of the heavenly dew, it sprouts up, and discovers itself openly. This holy assurance is, indeed, the budding and blossoming of felicity in our own souls; it is the inward sense and feeling of the true life, spirit, sweetness, and beauty of grace, powerfully expressing its own energy within us.

Briefly true religion, in the progress of it, transforms those minds in which it reigns, from glory to glory: it goes on and prospers in bringing all enemies in subjection under their feet, in reconciling the minds of men fully to God; and it instates them in a firm possession of the supreme good. This is the seed of God within holy souls, which is always warring against the seed of the serpent, till it prevail over it, through the divine strength and influence. Though hell may open her mouth wide and without measure, yet a true Christian, in whom the seed of God remaineth, is in a good and safe condition: he finds himself borne up by an Almighty arm, and carried upwards as upon eagle's wings; and the evil one hath no power over him; or, as St John expresseth it, the evil one toucheth him not1.'

1 ὁ πονηρὸς οὐχ ἅπτεται αὐτοῦ. 1 John v. 18.

CHAPTER XI.

5. The excellency of religion in regard of its term and end, viz. Perfect blessedness. How unable we are, in this state, to comprehend and describe the full and perfect state of happiness and glory to come. The more godlike a Christian is, the better may he understand that state. Holiness and happiness not two distinct things, but two several notions of one and the same thing. Heaven cannot so well be defined by any thing without us, as by something within us. The great nearness and affinity between sin and hell. The conclusion of this treatise, containing a serious exhortation to a diligent minding of religion, with a discovery of the vanity of those pretences which keep men off from minding religion.

5.

WE

E come now to the fifth and last particular, viz. The excellency of religion in the term and end of it, which is nothing else but blessedness itself in its full maturity. Which yet I may not here undertake to explain, for it is altogether appnróv TI, nor can it descend so low as to accommodate itself to any human style. Accordingly, St John tells us, 'it does not yet appear what we shall be;' and yet, that he may give us some glimpse of it, he directs us to God, and tells us, 'we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is1.' Indeed, the best way to get a discovery of it, is to endeavour, as much as may be, to be godlike, to live in a feeling converse with God, and in a powerful exercise and expression of all godlike dispositions: so shall our inner man be best enabled to know the breadth and length, the depth and height, of that love and goodness which yet passeth all knowledge'.' There is a state of perfection in the life to come, so far transcendent to any in this life, as that we are not able, from hence, to take the just proportions of it, or to form a full and comprehensive notion of it. We are unable to comprehend the vastness and fulness of that happiness, to which the most purified souls may be raised, 2 Rom. xi. 33; Eph. iii. 18, 19.

1 ὅμοιοι αὐτῷ ἐσόμεθα. I John iii. 2.

or to apprehend how far the mighty power and strength of the Divinity, deriving itself into created being, may communicate a more transcendent life and blessedness to it. We know not what latent powers our souls may here contain within themselves, which then may begin to open and dilate themselves, to let in the full streams of the Divine goodness, when they come nearly and intimately to converse with it; or how blessedness may act upon those faculties of our minds which we now have. We know not what illapses and irradiations there may be from God upon souls in glory, that may raise them into a state of perfection, surpassing all our imaginations.

As for corporeal happiness, there cannot be anything further added to the pleasure of our bodies or animal part, than a restoring of it from disturbing passion and pain, to its just and natural constitution; and, therefore, some philosophers have well disputed against the opinion of the Epicureans, who make happiness to consist in bodily pleasure, ὅτι πολλαπλάσιον ἔχει τὸ λυπηρὸν προηγούμενον· and when the molestation is gone, and the just constitution of nature recovered, pleasure ceaseth. But the highest pleasure of minds and spirits does not only consist in the relieving of them from any antecedent pains or grief, or in a relaxation from some former molesting passion: neither is their happiness a mere Stoical arapačia as the happiness of the Deity is not a mere negative thing, rendering it free from all disturbance or molestation, so that it may eternally rest quiet within itself: it does not so much consist in quiete, as in actu et vigore. A mind and spirit is too full of activity and energy, is too quick and potent a thing, to enjoy a full and complete happiness in a mere cessation; this were to make happiness a heavy, spiritless, thing. The philosopher hath well observed, that there is infinite power and strength in divine joy,

1 Vid. not. I, p. 453.

pleasure, and happiness, commensurate with that Almighty Being and Goodness, who is the eternal source of it'.

As created beings, that are capable of conversing with God, stand nearer to God, or further off from Him; and as they partake more or less of His likeness, so they partake more or less of that happiness which flows forth from Him, and God communicates Himself in different degrees to them. There may be as many degrees of sanctity and perfection, as there are of states and conditions of creatures: and that is properly sanctity, which guides and orders all the faculties and actions of any creature, in a way suitable and correspondent to that rank and state in which God hath placed it: and, while it doth so, it admits no sin or defilement to itself, though yet it may be elevated and advanced higher; and, accordingly, true positive sanctity comes to be advanced higher and higher, as any creature comes more to partake of the life of God, and to be brought into a nearer conjunction with God: and so, the sanctity and happiness of innocency itself might have been perfected.

Thus we see how true religion carries up the souls of good men above the black regions of hell and death. This, indeed, is the great aокатáσтаσis of souls: it is religion itself, or a real participation of God and His holiness, which is their true restitution and advancement. All that happiness which good men shall be made partakers of, as it cannot be borne up upon any other foundation than true goodness, and a godlike nature within them, so neither is it distinct from it. Sin and hell are so twined and twisted up together, that if the power of sin be once dissolved, the bonds of death and hell will

1 Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ τῷ ἀληθινῷ ἀγαθῷ συνἐστιν ἡ ἀληθινὴ ἡδονὴ, ὅπου ἂν ἡδονῆς αἴσ θηται σκιαγραφίας, μὴ κρίνουσα αὐτὴν ὁποία τις ἐστὶ, πότερον ἀληθὴς καὶ τῷ ἀληθινῷ ἀγαθῷ συγγενής, ἢ ἀπατηλὴ καὶ σκιὰ ἀγα

θοῦ ψευδώνυμος, ἐπιτρέχει ὡς πρὸς τὸ ἀγα θὸν, οὐκ ἐφιστάνουσα ὅτι πολλαπλάσιον ἔχει τὸ λυπηρόν προηγούμε νόν τε πάντως· οὐ γὰρ, κ.τ.λ.-Simpl. in Epictet. cap. I. § I.

also fall asunder. Sin and hell are of the same kind, of the same lineage and descent: as, on the other side, true holiness or religion, and true happiness, are but two several notions of one thing, rather than distinct in themselves. Religion delivers us from hell, by instating us in a possession of true life and bliss. Hell is rather a nature than a place: and heaven cannot be so truly defined by any thing without us, as by something that is within us.

Thus have we done with those particulars, wherein we considered the excellency and nobleness of religion, which is here expressed by 'The way of life,' and elsewhere is styled by Solomon 'A tree of life':' true religion being an inward principle of life, of a divine life, the best life, that which is life, most properly so called: accordingly, in the holy Scripture, a life of religion is styled life, as a life of sin and wickedness is styled death. In the ancient academical philosophy it was much disputed, whether that corporeal and animal life, which was always drawing down the soul into terrene and material things, was not more properly to be styled death than life. What sense hereof the Pythagoreans had, may appear by this practice of theirs: they were wont to set up Kevoтápia-empty coffins, in the places of those that had forsaken their school, and degenerated from their philosophy and good precepts, as being apostates from life itself, and dead to virtue and a good life, which is the true life, and, therefore, fit only to be reckoned among the dead".

; 18 .Prov. iii עץ חיים ארח חיים 1

XV. 24.

2

· ...μνῆμα δὲ αὐτοῖς ὡς νεκροῖς ἐχώννυτο Vπò τŵV dμakówv.-Iamblich. Pythag. Vit. cap. 17, p. 154 (ed. Kiessling).

...τάφον αὐτοῦ κατασκευασθῆναι, ὡς δῆτα ἀποιχομένου ἐκ τοῦ μετ ̓ ἀνθρώπων βίου τοῦ ποτὲ ἑτέρου γενομένου.—Ibid. cap. 34, p. 482.

Οἱ δὲ Πυθαγόρειοι κενοτάφια ᾠκοδόμουν τοῖς μετὰ τὸ προτραπῆναι ἐπὶ φιλοσοφίαν, παλινδρομήσασιν ἐπὶ τὸν ἰδιωτικὸν βίον.—

Origen. Cont. Cels. Lib. II. c. 12.

Καὶ τὸ μὲν τῶν Πυθαγορείων σεμνὸν δι· δασκαλεῖον κενοτάφια τῶν ἀποστάντων τῆς σφῶν φιλοσοφίας κατεσκεύαζε, λογιζόμενον νεκροὺς αὐτοὺς γεγονέναι. Ibid. Lib. II. c. 51.

Φασὶ γοῦν Ἵππαρχον τὸν Πυθαγόρια, αἰτίαν ἔχοντα γράψασθαι τὰ τοῦ Πυθαγό ρου σαφῶς, ἐξελαθήναι τῆς διατριβῆς, καὶ στήλην ἐπ' αὐτῷ γενέσθαι οἷα νέκρῳ. Clem. Alex. Strom. Lib. v. c. 9.

Cf. Scheffer. Philos. Ital. cap. xii.