An extract from a treatise on the spirit of prayer, or The soul rising out of the vanity of time into the riches of eternity. With some thoughts on war: remarks on the nature and bad effects of the use of spirituous liquors. And considerations on slavery. : [Twelve lines from Porteus] — Spirit of prayer. Selections

An extract from a treatise on the spirit of prayer, or The soul rising out of the vanity of time into the riches of eternity. With some thoughts on war: remarks on the nature and bad effects of the use of spirituous liquors. And considerations on slavery. : [Twelve lines from Porteus] — Spirit of prayer. Selections

Table of contents

Title page

AN EXTRACT, &c.

CONSIDERATIONS on WAR.

REMARKS on the Nature and bad Effects of SPIRITUOUS LIQUORS.

THOUGHTS on SLAVERY from different Authors.

§

§

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AN EXTRACT FROM A TREATISE ON THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER, OR The Soul rising out of the Vanity of Time into the Riches of Eternity.

WITH SOME THOUGHTS ON WAR: Remarks on the Nature and bad effects of the use of Spirituous Liquors.

AND CONSIDERATIONS ON SLAVERY.

Ah! Why will Kings forget that they are Men,

And Men that they are Brethren — why delight,

In human Sacrifice?—Why burst the ties

Of Nature, that should knit their Souls together

In one soft band of Amity and Love.

Father of Men, was it for this

Thy breath divine kindled within his breast

The [...] flame? For this, was thy fair Image

Stampt on his Soul, with god-like lineaments?

For this, dominion given him absolute

O'er all thy works, only that he might reign

Supreme in woe?

PORTEUS.

PHILADELPHIA: Printed by JOSEPH CRUKSHANK, in Market-street, between [...]- [...]reets. MDCCLXXX.

AN EXTRACT, &c.

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THE greatest Part of Mankind, nay of Christians, may be said to be asleep; and that particular Way of Life, which takes up each Man's Mind, Thoughts, and Affections, may very well be called his particular Dream. This Degree of Vanity is equally visible in every Form and Order of Life. The Learned and the Ignorant, the Rich and the Poor, are all in the same State of Slumber; only passing away a short Life in a different Kind of a Dream. But why so? It is because Man has an Eternity within him, is born into this World, not for the Sake of living here, not for any Thing this World can give him, but only to have Time and Place to become either an eternal Partaker of a divine Life with God, or to have an hellish Eternity amongst fallen Angels: And therefore, every Man who has not his Eyes, his Heart, and his Hands, continually governed by this two-fold Eternity, may be justly said to be fast asleep, to have no awakened Sensibility of himself. And a Life devoted to Interest, and the Enjoyments of this World, spent and wasted in the Slavery of earthly Desires, [Page] [...] [Page] may be truly called a Dream, as having all the Shortness, Vanity and Delusion of a Dream; only with this Difference, that when a Dream is over, nothing is lost but Fictions and Fancies: but when the Dream of Life is ended only by Death, all that Eternity is lost, for which we were brought into Being. Now there is no Misery in this World, nothing that makes either the Life or Death of Man to be full of Calamity, but this Blindness and Insensibility of his State, into which he so willingly, nay obstinately, plunges himself. Every Thing that has the Nature of Evil and Distress in it, takes its Rise from thence. Do but suppose a Man to know himself; that he comes into this World on no other Errand, but to rise out of the Vanity of Time into the Riches of Eternity; do but suppose him to govern his inward Thoughts and outward Actions by this View of himself, and then to him every Day has lost all its Evil; Prosperity and Adversity have no Difference, because he receives and uses them both in the same Spirit; Life and Death are equally welcome, because equally Parts of his Way to Eternity. For poor and miserable as this Life is, we have all of us free Access to all that is great, and good, and happy; and carry within ourselves a Key to all the Treasures that Heaven has to bestow upon us.—We starve in the Midst of Plenty, groan under Infirmities, with the Remedy in our own Hands; live and die [Page] without knowing and feeling any Thing of the one only Good, whilst we have it in our Power to know and enjoy it in as great a Reality, as we know and feel the Power of this World over us: For Heaven is as near to our Souls, as this World is to our Bodies; and we are created, we are redeemed, to have our Conversation in it: God, the only Good of all intelligent Natures, is not an absent or distant God, but is more present in and to our Souls, than our own Bodies; and we are Strangers to Heaven, and without God in the World, for this only Reason, because we are void of that Spirit of Prayer, which alone can, and never fails to unite us with the one only Good, and to open Heaven and the Kingdom of God within us. All our Salvation consists in the Manifestation of the Nature, Life, and Spirit of Jesus Christ in our inward new Man. This alone is Christian Redemption; this alone delivers from the Guilt and Power of Sin; this alone redeems, renews, and regains the first Life of God in the Soul of Man. Every Thing besides this is Self, is Fiction, is Propriety, is own Will, and however coloured, is only thy old Man, with all his Deeds. Enter therefore with all thy Heart into this Truth, let thy Eye be always upon it, do every Thing in View of it, try every Thing by the Truth of it, love Nothing but for the Sake of it. Wherever thou goest, whatever thou dost at Home, or Abroad, in the Field, or at [Page] Church, do all in a Desire of Union with Christ, in Imitation of his Tempers and Inclinations, and look upon all as Nothing, but that which exercises and encreases the Spirit and Life of Christ in thy Soul. From Morning to Night keep Jesus in thy Heart, long for Nothing, desire Nothing, hope for Nothing, but to have all that is within Thee, changed into the Spirit and Temper of the Holy Jesus. Let this be thy Christianity, thy Church, and thy Religion. For this new Birth in Christ thus firmly believed, and continually desired, will do every Thing that thou wantest to have done in Thee, it will dry up all the Springs of Vice, stop all the Workings of Evil in thy Nature, it will bring all that is Good into Thee, it will open all the Gospel within Thee, and thou wilt know what it is to be taught of God. This longing Desire of thy Heart to be one with Christ, will soon put a Stop to all the Vanity of thy Life, and nothing will be admitted to enter into thy Heart, or proceed from it, but what comes from God, and returns to God; thou wilt soon be, as it were, tied and bound in the Chains of all holy Affections and Desires, thy Mouth will have a Watch set upon it, thy Ears would willingly hear nothing that does not tend to God, nor thy Eyes be open, but to see, and find Occasions of doing Good. In a Word, when this Faith has got both thy Head and thy Heart, it will then be with thee, as it was with the Merchant [Page] who found a Pearl of Great Price, it will make thee gladly to sell all that thou hast, and buy it. For all that had seized and possessed the Heart of any Man, whatever the Merchant of this World had got together, whether of Riches, Power, Honour, Learning or Reputation, loses all its Value, is counted but as Dung, and willingly parted with, as soon as this glorious Pearl, the new Birth in Christ Jesus, is discovered and found by him. This therefore may serve as a Touchstone, whereby every one may try the Truth of his State; if the old Man is still a Merchant within thee, trading in all Sorts of worldly Honour, Power or Learning, if the Wisdom of this World is not Foolishness to thee, if earthly Interests, and sensual Pleasures, are still the Desire of thy Heart, and only covered under a Form of Godliness, a Cloke of Creeds, Observances and Institutions of Religion, thou mayst be assured, that the Pearl of Great Price is not yet found by thee. For where Christ is born, or his Spirit rises up in the Soul, there all Self is denied, and obliged to turn out; there all carnal Wisdom, Arts of Advancement, with every Pride and Glory of this Life, are as so many Heathen Idols, all willingly renounced, and the Man is not only content, but rejoices to say, that his Kingdom is not of this World.

But thou wilt perhaps say, how shall this great Work, the Birth of Christ, be effected [Page] in me? It might rather be said, since Christ has an infinite Power, and also an infinite Desire to save Mankind, how can any one miss of this Salvation, but through his own Unwillingness to be saved by him? Consider, how was it that the Lame and Blind, the Lunatick and Leper, the Publican and Sinner, found Christ to be their Saviour, and to do all That for them, which they wanted to be done to them? It was because they had a real Desire of having That which they asked for, and therefore in true Faith and Prayer applied to Christ, that his Spirit and Power might enter into them, and heal That which they wanted, and desired to be healed in them. Every one of these said in Faith and Desire, Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me whole. And the Answer was always this, According to thy Faith, so be it done unto Thee. This is Christ's Answer now, and thus it is done to every one of us at this Day, as our Faith is, so is it done unto us. And here lies the whole Reason of our falling short of the Salvation of Christ, it is because we have no Will to it.

But you will say, Do not all Christians desire to have Christ to be their Saviour? Yes. But here is the Deceit; all would have Christ to be their Saviour in the next World, and to help them into Heaven when they die, by his Power and Merits with God. But this is not willing Christ to be thy Saviour; for his Salvation, if it is had, must [Page] be had in this World, if He saves Thee, it must be done in this Life, by changing and altering all that is within Thee, by helping thee to a new Heart, as he helped the Blind to see, the Lame to walk, and the Dumb to speak. For to have Salvation from Christ, is nothing else but to be made like unto Him; it is to have his Humility and Meekness, his Mortification and Self-denial, his Renounciation of the Spirit, Wisdom, and Honours of this World, his Love of God, his Desire of doing God's Will, and seeking only his Honour. To have these Tempers formed and begotten in thy Heart, is to have Salvation from Christ; but if thou will [...] not to have these Tempers brought forth in thee, if thy Faith and Desire does not seek and cry to Christ for them in the same Reality, as the Lame asked to walk, and the Blind to see, then thou must be said to be unwilling to have Christ to be thy Saviour.

Again, Consider, how was it that the carnal Jew, the deep-read Scribe, the learned Rabbi, the religious Pharisee, not only did not receive, but crucified their Saviour? It was because they willed and desired no such Saviour as He was, no such inward Salvation as He offered to them. They desired no Change of their own Nature, no inward Destruction of their own natural Tempers, no Deliverance from the Love of themselves, and the Enjoyments of their Passions; they liked their State, the Gratifications of their [Page] old Man, their long Robes, their broad Philacteries, and Greetings in the Markets. They wanted not to have their Pride and Self-love dethroned, their Covetousness and Sensuality to be subdued by a new Nature from Heaven derived into them. Their only Desire was the Success of Judaism, to have an outward Saviour, a temporal Prince, that should establish their Law and Ceremonies over all the Earth. And therefore they crucified their dear Redeemer, and would have none of his Salvation, because it all consisted in a Change of their Nature, in a new Birth from above, and a Kingdom of Heaven to be opened within them by the Spirit of God.

Oh Christendom, look not only at the old Jews, but see thyself in this Glass. For at this Day, (Oh sad Truth to be told!) at this Day, a Christ within us, an inward Saviour raising a Birth of his own Nature, Life, and Spirit within us, is rejected as gross Enthusiasm, the learned Rabbies take Counsel against it. The Propagation of Popery, the Propogation of Protestantism, the Success of same particular Church, is the Salvation which Priests and People are chiefly concerned about.

But to return: It is manifest, that no one can fail of the Benefit of Christ's Salvation, but through an Unwillingness to have it, and from the same Spirit and Tempers which made the Jews unwilling to receive it. But [Page] if thou wouldst still farther know how this great Work, the Birth of Christ, is to be effected in thee, then let this joyful Truth be told thee, that this great Work is already begun in every one of us. For this holy Jesus, that is to be formed in thee, that is to be the Saviour and new Life of thy Soul, that is to raise thee out of the Darkness of Death into the Light of Life, and give thee Power to become a Son of God, is already within thee, living, stirring, calling, knocking at the Door of thy Heart, and wanting nothing but thy own Faith and good Will, to have as real a Birth and Form in thee, as he had in the Virgin Mary. For the eternal Word, or Son of God, did not then first begin to be the Saviour of the World, when he was born in Bethlehem of Judea; but that Word, which became Man in the Virgin Mary, did, from the Beginning of the World, enter as a Word of Life, a Seed of Salvation, into the first Father of Mankind, was inspoken into him, as an ingrafted Word, under the Name and Character of a Bruiser of the Serpent's Head. Hence it is, that Christ said to his Disciples, the Kingdom of God is within you; that is, the Divine Nature is within you, given unto your first Father, into the Light of his Life, and from him rising up in the Life of every Son of Adam. Hence also the holy Jesus is said to be the Light, which lighteth every Man that cometh into the World. Not as he was born [Page] in Bethlehem, not as He had an human Form upon Earth; in these Respects he could not be said to have been the Light of every Man that cometh into the World; but as he was that eternal Word, by which all Things were created, which was the Life and Light of all Things, and which had as a second Creator entered again into fallen Man, as a Bruiser of the Serpent; in this respect it was truly said of our Lord, when on Earth, that He was that Light which lighteth every Man, that cometh into the World. For He was really and truly all this, as He was the Immanuel, the God with us, given unto Adam, and in him to all his Offspring. See here the Beginning and glorious Extent of the Catholic Church of Christ, it takes in all the World. It is God's unlimited, universal Mercy to all Mankind; and every human Creature, as sure as he is born of Adam, has a Birth of the Bruiser of the Serpent within him, and so is infallibly in Covenant with God, through Jesus Christ. Hence also it is, that the Holy Jesus is appointed to be Judge of all the World, it is because all Mankind, all Nations and Languages have in him, and through him, been put into Covenant with God, and made capable of resisting the Evil of their fallen Nature.

When our blessed Lord conversed with the Woman at Jacob's Well, He said unto her, If thou knewest the Gift of God, and who it is that talketh with Thee, thou wouldest [Page]have asked of Him, and he would have given Thee living Water. How happy (may any one well say) was this Woman of Samaria, to stand so near this Gift of God, from whom she might have had living Water, had she but vouchsafed to have asked for it! But, dear Christian, this Happiness is thine; for this Holy Jesus, the Gift of God, first given unto Adam, and in him to all that are descended from him, is the Gift of God to Thee, as sure as thou art born of Adam; nay, hast thou never yet owned him; art thou wandered from him, as far as the Prodigal Son from his Father's House? Yet is he still with Thee, he is the Gift of God to Thee, and if thou wilt turn to Him, and ask of Him, he has living Water for Thee.

Poor Sinner! consider the Treasure thou hast within Thee, the Saviour of the World, the eternal Word of God lies hid in Thee, as a Spark of the Divine Nature, which is to overcome Sin and Death, and Hell within Thee, and generate the Life of Heaven again in thy Soul. Turn to thy Heart, and thy Heart will find its Saviour, its God within itself. Thou seest, hearest, and feelest nothing of God, because thou seekest for Him abroad with thy outward Eyes, thou seekest for him in Books, in Controversies, in the Church, and outward Excercises, but there thou wilt not find Him, till thou hast first found Him in thy Heart. Seek for Him in thy Heart, and thou wilt never seek in vain, [Page] for there he dwelleth, there is the Seat of his Light and Holy Spirit.

For this turning to the Light and Spirit of God within Thee, is thy only true turning unto God, there is no other Way of finding Him, but in that Place where he dwelleth in Thee. For though God be every where present, yet He is only present to Thee in the deepest, and most central Part of thy Soul. Thy natural Senses cannot possess God, or unite Thee to him, nay thy inward Faculties of Understanding, Will, and Memory, can only reach after God, but cannot be the Place of his Habitation in Thee. But there is a Root, or Death in Thee, from whence all these Faculties come forth, as Lines from a Center, or as Branches from the Body of the Tree. This Depth is called the Center, the Fund, or Bottom of the Soul. This Depth is the Unity, the Eternity, I had almost said, the Infinity of thy Soul; for it is so infinite, that nothing can satisfy it, or give it any Rest, but the Infinity of God. In this Depth of the Soul, the Holy Trinity brought forth its own living Image in the first created Man, bearing in Himself a living Representation of Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and this was his Dwelling in God and God in Him. This was the Kingdom of God within Him, and made Paradise without Him. But the Day that Adam did eat of the forbidden earthly Tree, in that Day he absolutely died to this Kingdom [Page] of God within Him: This Depth, or Center of his Soul having lost its God, was shut up in Death and Darkness, and became a Prisoner in an earthly Animal, that only excelled its Brethren, the Beasts, in an upright Form, and serpentile Subtlety. Thus ended the Fall of Man. But from that Moment that the God of Mercy inspoke into Adam the Bruiser of the Serpent, from that Moment all the Riches and Treasures of the Divine Nature came again into Man, as a Seed of Salvation sown into the Center of the Soul, and only lieth hidden there in every Man, till he desires to rise from his fallen State, and to be born again from above.

Awake then, thou that sleepest, and Christ, who, from all Eternity, hath been espoused to thy Soul, shall give Thee Light. Begin to Search and dig in thine own Field for this Pearl of Eternity, that lieth hidden in it; it cannot cost Thee too much, nor canst thou buy it dear; for it is All, and when thou hast found it, thou wilt know, that all which thou hast fold, or given away for it, is as meer a Nothing, as a Bubble upon the Water.

But if thou turnest from this heavenly Pearl, or tramplest it under thy Feet, for the Sake of being Rich or Great, either in Church or State, if Death finds Thee in this Success, thou canst not then say, that though the Pearl is lost, yet something has [Page] been gained instead of it. For in that parting Moment, the Things, and the Sounds of this World, will be exactly alike; to have had an Estate, or only to have heard of it; to have lived at Lambeth twenty Years, or only to have twenty Times passed by the Palace, will be the same Good, or the same Nothing to Thee.

But I will now shew a little more distinctly, what this Pearl of Eternity is. First, It is the Light and Spirit of God within Thee, which has hitherto done Thee but little Good, because all the Desire of thy Heart has been after the Light and Spirit of this World. Thy Reason and Senses, thy Heart and Passions, have turned all their Attention to the poor Concerns of this Life, and therefore thou art a Stranger to this Principle of Heaven, this Riches of Eternity within Thee. For as God is not, cannot be truly found by any Worshippers, but those who worship Him in Spirit and in Truth, so this Light and Spirit, though always within us, is not, cannot be found, felt, or enjoyed, but by those, whose whole Spirit is turned to it.

When Man first came into Being, and stood before God as his own Image and Likeness, this Light and Spirit of God was as natural to him, as truly the Light of his Nature, as the Light and Air of this World is natural to the Creatures that have their Birth in it. But when Man, not content [Page] with the Food of Eternity, did eat of the earthly Tree, this Light and Spirit of Heaven was no more Natural to him, no more rose up as a Birth of his Nature, but, instead thereof, he was left solely to the Light and Spirit of this World. And this is that Death which God told Adam he should surely die, in the Day that he should eat of the forbidden Tree.

But the Goodness of God would not leave Man in this Condition; a Redemption from it was immediately granted, and the Bruiser of the Serpent brought the Light and Spirit of Heaven once more into the human Nature. Not as it was in its first State, when Man was in Paradise, but as a Treasure hidden in the Center of our Souls, which should discover, and open itself by Degrees, in such Proportion, as the Faith and Desires of our Hearts were turned to it. This Light and Spirit of God thus freely restored again to the Soul, and lying in it as a secret Source of Heaven, is called Grace, Free Grace, or the Supernatural Gift, or Power of God in the Soul, because it was something, that the Neutral Powers of the Soul could no more obtain. Hence it is, that in the greatest Truth, and highest Reality, every Stirring of the Soul, every Tendency of the Heart towards God and Goodness, is justly and necessarily ascribed to the Holy Spirit, or the Grace of God. It is because this first Seed of Life, which is sown into [Page] the Soul, as the Gift or Grace of God to fallen Man, is itself the Light and Spirit of God, and therefore every Stirring, or Opening of this Seed of Life, every awakened Thought or Desire that arises from it, must be called the Moving, or the Quickening of the Spirit of God; and therefore that new Man which arises from it, must, of all Necessity, be said to be solely the Work and Operation of God. Hence also we have an easy and plain Declaration of the true Meaning, solid Sense, and certain Truth, of all those Scriptures, which speak of the Inspiration of God, the Operation of the Holy Spirit, the Power of the Divine Light, as the sole and necessary Agents in the Renewal and Sanctification of our Souls and also as being Things common to all Men. It is because this Seed of Life, or Bruiser of the Serpent, is common to all Men, and has in all Men a Degree of Life, which is in itself so much of the Inspiration, or Life of God, the Spirit of God, the Light of God, which is in every Soul, and is its Power of becoming born again of God. Hence also it is, that all Men are exhorted not to quench, or resist, or grieve the Spirit; that is, this Seed of the Spirit and Light of God that is in all Men, as the only Source of Good. Again, the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the Flesh. By the Flesh and its Lustings, are meant the mere human Nature, or the natural Man, as He is [Page] by the Fall; by the Spirit is meant the Bruiser of the Serpent, that Seed of the Light and Spirit of God, which lieth as a Treasure hid in the Soul, in order to bring forth the Life that was lost in Adam. Now as the Flesh hath its Life, its Lustings, whence all Sorts of Evil are truly said to be inspired, quickened, and stirred up in us; so the Spirit being a Living Principle within us, has its Inspiration, its Breathing, its Moving, its Quickening, from which alone the Divine Life, or the Angel that died in Adam, can be born in us.

When this Seed, of the Spirit, common to all Men, is not resisted, grieved and quenched, but its Inspirations and Motions suffered to grow and increase in us, to unite with God, and get Power over all the Lusts of the Flesh, then we are born again, the Nature, Spirit and Tempers of Jesus Christ are opened in our Souls, the Kingdom of God is come, and is found within us. On the other Hand, when the Flesh, or the Natural Man hath resisted and quenched this Spirit or Seed of Life within us, then the Works of the Flesh, Adultery, Fornication, Murders, Lying, Hatred, Envy, Wrath Pride, Foolishness, worldly Wisdom, carnal Prudence, false Religion, hypocritical Holiness, and serpentine Subtlety, have set up their Kingdom within us.

See here in short the State of Man as redeemed. He has a Spark of the Light and [Page] Spirit of God, as a Supernatural Gift of God given into the Birth of his Soul, to bring forth by Degrees a New Birth of that Life, which was lost in Paradise. This Holy Spark of the Divine Nature within Him, has a natural, strong, and almost infinite Tendency, or Reaching after that eternal Light and Spirit of God, from whence it came forth. It came forth from God, it came out of God, it partaketh of the Divine Nature, and therefore it is always in a State of Tendency and Return to God. And all this is called the Breathing, the Moving, the Quickening of the Holy Spirit within us, which are so many Operations of this Spark of Life tending towards God. On the other Hand, The Deity▪ as considered in itself, and Without the Soul of Man, has an infinite, unchangeable Tendency of Love, and desire towards the Soul of Man, to unite, and communicate its own Riches and Glories to it, just as the Spirit of the Air without Man, unites, and communicates its Riches and Virtues to the Spirit of the Air that is within Man. This Love, or Desire of God towards the Soul of Man is so great, that He gave His only begotten Son, the Brightness of his Glory, to take human Nature upon Him, in its fallen State, that by this mysterious Union of God and Man, all the Enemies of the Soul of Man might be overcome, and every human Creature might have a Power of being born again according [Page] to that Image of God, in which he was first created. The Gospel is the History of this Love of God to Man. Inwardly he has a Seed of the Divine Life given into the Birth of his Soul, a Seed that has all the Riches of Eternity in it, and is always wanting to come to the Birth in him, and be alive in God. Outwardly he has Jesus Christ, who, as a Sun of Righteousness, is always casting forth his enlivening Beams on this inward Seed, to kindle and call it forth to the Birth, doing that to this Seed of Heaven in Man, which the Sun in the Firmament is always doing to the vegetable Seeds in the Earth.

Consider this Matter in the following Similitude. A Grain of Wheat has the Air and Light of this World inclosed, or incorporated in it: This is the Mystery of its Life, this is its Power of Growing, by this it has a strong continual Tendency of uniting again with that Ocean of Light and Air, from whence it came forth, and so it helps to kindle its own vegetable Life.

On the other Hand, That great Ocean of Light and Air, having its own Offspring hidden in the Heart of the Grain, has a perpetual strong Tendency to unite and communicate with it again. From this Desire of Union on both Sides, the vegetable Life arises, and all the Virtues and Powers contained in it.

[Page]But here let it be well observed, that this Desire on both Sides cannot have its Effect, till the Husk and gross Part of the Grain falls into a State of Corruption and Death, till this begins, the Mystery of Life hidden in it, cannot come forth. The Application here may be left to the Reader. I shall only observe, that we may here see the true Ground, and absolute Necessity of that dying to ourselves, and to the World, to which our Blessed Lord so constantly calls all his Followers. An universal Self-denial, a perpetual Mortification of the Lust of the Flesh, the Lust of the Eyes, and the Pride of Life, is not a Thing imposed upon us by the mere Will of God, is not required as a Punishment, is not an Invention of dull and monkish Spirits, but has its Ground and Reason in the Nature of the Thing, and is as absolutely necessary to make Way for the New Birth, as the Death of the Husk, and gross Part of the Grain, is necessary to make Way for its vegetable Life.

But Secondly, this Pearl of Eternity is the Wisdom and Love of God within Thee. In this Pearl of thy Serpent Bruiser, all the Holy Nature, Spirit, Tempers, and Inclinations of Christ lie as in a Seed, in the Center of thy Soul, and divine Wisdom, and heavenly Love, will grow up in Thee, if thou givest but true Attention to God present in thy Soul. On the other Hand, there is hidden also in the Depth of thy Nature, [Page] the Root, or Possibility of all the hellish Nature, Spirit and Tempers of the fallen Angels. For Heaven and Hell have each of them their Foundation within us, they come not into us from without, but spring up in us, according as our Will and Heart is turned either to the Light of God, or the Kingdom of Darkness. But when this Life, which is in the Midst of these two Eternities, is at an End, either an Angel or a Devil will be found to have a Birth in us.

Thou needest not therefore run here, or there, saying, Where is Christ? Thou needest not say, who shall ascend into Heaven, that is, to bring down Christ from above? or who shall descend into the Deep, to bring up Christ from the Dead? for behold the Word, which is the Wisdom of God, is in thy Heart, it is there as a Bruiser of thy Serpent, as a Light unto thy Feet, and Lanthorn unto thy Paths. It is there as an Holy Oil, to soften and overcome the wrathful fiery Properties of thy Nature, and change them into the humble Meekness of Light and Love. It is there as a speaking Word of God in thy Soul; and as soon as thou art ready to hear, this eternal speaking Word will speak Wisdom and Love in thy inward Parts, and bring forth the Birth of Christ, with all his Holy Nature, Spirit and Tempers, within Thee. Hence it was (that is, from this Principle of Heaven, or Christ in the Soul) hence I say it was, that so many [Page] eminent Spirits, Partakers of a divine Life, have appeared in so many Parts of the Heathen World. Glorious Names, Sons of Wisdom, that shone, as Lights hung out by God, in the Midst of idolatrous Darkness. These were the Apostles of a Christ within, that were awakened and commissioned by the inward Bruiser of the Serpent, to call Mankind from the blind Pursuits of Flesh and Blood, to know themselves, the Dignity of their Nature, the Immortality of their Souls, and the Necessity of Virtue, to avoid eternal Shame and Misery. These Apostles, though they had not the Law, or written Gospel, to urge upon their Hearers, yet, having turned to God, they found and preached the Gospel, that was written in their Hearts. Hence one of them could say this Divine Truth, viz. that such only are Priests and Prophets, who have God in themselves. Hence also it is, that in the Christian Church, there hath been in all Ages, amongst the most illiterate, both Men and Women, who have attained to a deep Understanding of the Mysteries of the Wisdom and Love of God, in Christ Jesus. And what Wonder? since it is not Art or Science, or Skill in Grammar or Logic, but the Opening of the Divine Life in the Soul, that can give true Understanding of the Things of God. This Life of God in the Soul, which for its Smallness at first, and Capacity for great Growth, is, by our Lord, [Page] compared to a Grain of Mustard Seed, may be, and too generally is, suppressed, and kept under, either by worldly Cares, or Pleasures, by vain Learning, Sensuality, or Ambition. And all this while, whatever Church or Profession any Man is of, he is a meer Natural Man, unregenerate, unenlightened by the Spirit of God, because this Seed of Heaven is choaked, and not suffered to grow up in him. And therefore his Religion is no more from Heaven, than his fine Breeding; his Cares have no more Goodness in them, than his Pleasures; his Love is worth no more than his Hatred; his Zeal for this, or against that Form of Religion, has only the Nature of any other worldly Contention in it. And thus it is, and must be with every meer natural Man; whatever Appearances he may put on, he may, if he pleases, know himself to be the Slave and Machine of his own corrupt Tempers and Inclinations; to be enlightened, inspired, quickened and animated by Self-love, Self-esteem, and Self-seeking, which is the only Life, and Spirit of the meer natural Man, whether he be Heathen, Jew or Christian.

On the other Hand, wherever this Seed of Heaven is suffered to take Root, to get Life and Breath in the Soul, whether it be in Man or Woman, young or old, there this new born inward Man is justly said to be inspired, enlightened and moved by the Spirit of God, because his whole Birth [Page] and Life is a Birth from above, of the Light and Spirit of God, and therefore all that is in him, hath the Nature, Spirit and Tempers of Heaven in it. As this regenerate Life grows up in any Man, so there grows up a true and real Knowledge of the whole Mystery of Godliness in himself. All that the Gospel teaches of Sin and Grace, of Life and Death, of Heaven and Hell, of the New and Old Man, of the Light and Spirit of God, are Things not got by Hearsay, but inwardly known, felt and experienced, in the Growth of his own new born Life. He has then an Unction from above, which teacheth him all Things, a Spirit that knoweth what it ought to pray for, a Spirit that prays without ceasing, that is risen with Christ from the Dead, and has all its Conversation in Heaven; a Spirit that hath Groans and Sighs that cannot be uttered, that travaileth and groaneth with the whole Creation, to be delivered from Vanity, and have its glorious Liberty in that God, from whom it came forth.

Again, Thirdly, this Pearl of Eternity is the Church, or Temple of God within Thee, the consecrated Place of Divine Worship, where alone thou canst worship God in Spirit, and in Truth. In Spirit, because thy Spirit is that alone in Thee, which can unite, and cleave unto God, and receive the Workings of his Divine Spirit upon Thee. In Truth, because this Adoration in [Page] Spirit, is that Truth and Reality, of which all outward Forms and Rites, though instituted by God, are only the Figure for a Time, but this Worship is Eternal. Accustom thyself to the Holy Service of this inward Temple. In the Midst of it, is the Fountain of Living Water, of which thou mayst drink, and live for ever. There the Mysteries of thy Redemption are celebrated, or rather opened in Life and Power. There the Supper of the Lamb is kept; the Bread that came down from Heaven, that giveth Life to the World, is thy true Nourishment: All is done, and known in real Experience, in a living Sensibility of the Work of God on the Soul. There the Birth, the Life, the Sufferings, the Death, the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ, are not merely remembered, but inwardly found and enjoyed, as the real States of thy Soul, which has followed Christ in the Regeneration. When once thou art well grounded in this inward Worship, thou wilt have learnt to live unto God above Time and Place. For every Day will be Sunday to thee, and wherever thou goest, thou wilt have a Priest, a Church, and an Altar along with Thee. For when God has all that he should have of thy Heart, when renouncing the Will, Judgment, Tempers and Inclinations of thy old Man, thou art wholly given up to the Obedience of the Light and Spirit of God within Thee, to Will only in his Will, to Love [Page] only in his Love, to be Wise only in his Wisdom, then it is, that every Thing thou dost, is as a Song of Praise, and the common Business of thy Life is a conforming to God's Will on Earth, as Angels do in Heaven.

Fourthly, and lastly, This Pearl of Eternity is the Peace and Joy of God within Thee, but can only be found by the Manifestation of the Life and Power of Jesus Christ in thy Soul. But Christ cannot be thy Power and thy Life, till, in Obedience to his Call, thou deniest thyself, takest up thy daily Cross, and followest Him in the Regeneration. This is peremptory, it admits of no Reserve, or Evasion, it is the one Way to Christ and eternal Life. But be where thou wilt, either here, or at Rome, or Geneva, if Self is undenied, if thou livest to thine own Will, to the Pleasures of thy natural Lust and Appetites, Senses and Passions, and in Conformity to the vain Customs and Spirit of this World, thou art dead whilst thou livest, the Seed of the Woman is crucified within Thee, Christ can profit thee Nothing, thou art a Stranger to all that is holy and heavenly within Thee, and utterly incapable of finding the Peace and Joy of God in thy Soul. And thus thou art Poor, and Blind, and Naked, and Empty, and livest a miserable Life in the Vanity of Time; whilst all the Riches of Eternity, the Light and Spirit, the Wisdom [Page] and Love, the Peace and Joy of God, are within Thee. And thus it will always be with Thee, there is no Remedy, go where thou wilt, do what thou wilt, all is shut up, there is no open Door of Salvation, no Awakening out of the Sleep of Sin, no Deliverance from the Power of thy corrupt Nature, no overcoming of the World, no Revelation of Jesus Christ, no Joy of the New Birth from above, till dying to thyself and the World, thou turnest to the Light and Spirit, and Power of God in thy Soul. All is fruitless and insignificant, all the Means of thy Redemption are at a Stand, all outward Forms are but a dead Formality, till this Fountain of Living Water is found within Thee.

But thou wilt perhaps say, How shall I discover this Riches of Eternity, this Light, and Spirit, and Wisdom, and Peace of God, treasured up within me? Thy first Thought of Repentance, or Desire of turning to God, is thy first Discovery of this Light and Spirit of God within Thee. It is the Voice and Language of the Word of God within Thee, though thou knowest it not. It is the Bruiser of thy Serpent's Head, thy dear Immanuel, who is beginning to preach within Thee, that same which He first preached in publick, saying, Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand. When therefore but the smallest Instinct or Desire of thy Heart calleth Thee towards God, and a Newness [Page] of Life, give it Time and Leave to speak; and take Care thou refuse not Him that speaketh. For it is not an Angel from Heaven that speaketh to Thee, but it is the eternal speaking Word of God in thy Heart, that Word which at first created Thee, is thus beginning to create Thee a second Time unto Righteousness, that a new Man may be formed again in Thee in the Image and Likeness of God. But above all Things, beware of taking this Desire of Repentance to be the Effect of thy own natural Sense and Reason, for in so doing thou losest the Key of all the Heavenly Treasure that is in Thee, thou shuttest the Door against God, turnest away from Him, and thy Repentance (if thou hast any) will be only a vain, unprofitable Work of thy own Hands, that will do Thee no more Good, than a Well that is without Water. But if thou takest this awakened Desire of turning to God to be, as in Truth it is, the coming of Christ in thy Soul, the Working, Redeeming Power of the Light and Spirit of the Holy Jesus within Thee, if thou dost reverence and adhere to it as such this Faith will save Thee, will make Thee whole; and by thus believing in Christ, though thou wert dead, yet shalt thou live.

Now all dependeth upon thy right Submission and Obedience to this speaking of God in thy Soul. Stop therefore all Self-activity, listen not to the Suggestions of thy [Page] own Reason, run not on in thy own Will, but be retired, silent, passive, and humbly attentive to this new risen Light within Thee. Open thy Heart, thy Eyes, and Ears to all its Impressions. Let it enlighten, teach, frighten, torment, judge, and condemn Thee, as it pleaseth, turn not away from it, hear all it saith, seek for no Relief out of it, consult not with Flesh and Blood, but with a Heart full of Faith and Resignation to God, pray only this Prayer, that God's Kingdom may come, and his Will be done in thy Soul. Stand faithfully in this State of Preparation, thus given up to the Spirit of God, and then the Work of thy Repentance will be wrought in God, and thou wilt soon find, that He that is in Thee, is much greater than all that are against Thee.

But that thou mayest do all this the better, and be more firmly assured, that this Resignation to, and Dependance upon the working of God's Spirit within Thee, is right and sound, I shall lay before Thee two great, and infallible, and fundamental Truths, which will be as a Rock for thy Faith to stand upon.

First, That through all the whole Nature of Things, nothing can do, or be a real Good to thy Soul, but the Operation of God upon it. Secondly, That all the Dispensations of God to Mankind, from the Fall of Adam, to the Preaching of the Gospel, were [Page] only for this one End, to fit, prepare, and dispose the Soul for the Operation of the Spirit of God upon it. These two great Truths, well and deeply apprehended, put the Soul in its right State, in a continual Dependence upon God, in a Readiness to receive all Good from Him, and will be a continual Source of Light in thy Mind. They will keep Thee safe from all Errors, and false Zeal in Things, and Forms of Religion, from a Sectarian Spirit, from Bigotry and Superstition; they will teach Thee the true Difference between the Means and End of Religion, and the Regard thou shewest to the Shell, will be only so far as the Kernel is to be found in it.

Man, by his Fall, had broke off from his true Center, his proper Place in God, and therefore the Life and Operation of God was no more in Him. He was fallen from a Life in God, into a Life of Self, into an animal Life of Self-love, Self-esteem, and Self-seeking in the poor perishing Enjoyments of this World. This was the Natural State of Man by the Fall. He was an Apostate from God, and his natural Life was all Idolatry, where Self was the great Idol that was worshipped instead of God. See here the whole Truth in short. All Sin, Death, Damnation and Hell, is nothing else but this Kingdom of Self, or the various Operations of Self-love, Self-esteem, and Self-seeking, which separate the Soul from God, and end in eternal Death and Hell.

[Page]On the other Hand, all that is Grace, Redemption, Salvation, Sanctification, Spiritual Life, and the New-Birth, is nothing else but so much of the Life and Operation of God found again in the Soul. It is Man come back again into his Center, or Place in God, from whence he had broke off. The Beginning again of the Life of God in the Soul, was then first made, when the Mercy of God inspoke into Adam a Seed of the Divine Life, which should bruise the Head of the Serpent, which had wrought itself into the human Nature. Here the Kingdom of God was again within us, though only as a Seed, yet small as it was, it was yet a Degree of the divine Life, which, if rightly cultivated, would overcome all the Evil that was in us, and make of every fallen Man, a new born Son of God.

All the Sacrifices, and Institutions of the antient Patriarchs, the Law of Moses, with all its Types, and Rites, and Ceremonies, had this only End; they were the Methods of Divine Wisdom for a Time, to keep the Hearts of Men from the Wanderings of Idolatry, in a State of Holy Expectation upon God; they were to keep the first Seed of Life in a State of Growth, and make Way for the farther Operation of God upon the Soul; or, as the Apostle speaks, to be as a Schoolmaster unto Christ. That is, till the Birth, the Death, the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ, should conquer Death, [Page] and Hell, open a new Dispensation of God, and baptize Mankind afresh with the Holy Ghost, and Fire of Heaven. Then, that is, on the Day of Pentecost, a new Dispensation of God came forth; which, on God's Part, was the Operation of the Holy Spirit in Gifts and Graces upon the whole Church. And on Man's Part, it was the Adoration of God, in Spirit and in Truth. Thus all that was done by God, from the Bruiser of the Serpent given to Adam, to Christ's sitting down on the right Hand of God, was all for this End, to remove all that stood between God and Man, and to make Way for the immediate and continual Operation of God upon the Soul. And that Man, baptized with the Holy Spirit, and born again from Above, should absolutely renounce Self, and wholly give up his Soul to the Operation of God's Spirit, to know, to love, to will, to pray, to worship, to preach, to exhort, to use all the Faculties of his Mind, and all the outward Things of this World, as enlightened, inspired, moved and guided by the Holy Ghost; who, by this last Dispensation of God, was given to be a Comforter, a Teacher, and Guide to the Church, who should abide with it for ever.

This is Christianity, a spiritual Society, not because it has no worldly Concerns, but because all its Members, as such, are born of the Spirit, kept alive, animated and governed by the Spirit of God. It is constantly [Page] called, by our Lord, the Kingdom of God, or Heaven, because all its Ministry and Service, all that is done in it, is done in Obedience and Subjection to that Spirit, by which Angels live, and are governed in Heaven. Hence our blessed Lord taught his Disciples to pray, that this Kingdom might come, that so God's Will might be done on Earth, as it is in Heaven, which could not be but by that same Spirit by which it is done in Heaven. The short is this: The Kingdom of Self, is the Fall of Man, or the great Apostacy from the Life of God in the Soul, and every one, wherever he be, that liveth unto Self, is still under the Fall and great Apostacy from God. The Kingdom of Christ is the Spirit and Power of God, dwelling and manifesting itself in the Birth of a new inward Man▪ And no one is a Member of this Kingdom, but so far as a true Birth of the Spirit is brought forth in him. These two Kingdoms take in all Mankind, he that is not of one, is certainly in the other; dying to one, is living to the other.

Hence we may gather these following Truths: First, Here is shewn the true Ground and Reason of what was said above, namely, That when the Call of God to Repentance first ariseth in thy Soul, thou art to be retired, silent, passive, and humbly attentive to this new risen Light within thee, by wholly stopping, or disregarding the Workings [Page] of thy own Will, Reason and Judgment. It is because all these are false Counsellors, the sworn Servants, bribed Slaves of thy fallen Nature, they are all born and bred in the Kingdom of Self; and therefore if a new Kingdom is to be set up in Thee, if the Operation of God is to have its Effect in Thee; all these natural Powers of Self are to be silenced and suppressed, till they have learned Obedience and Subjection to the Spirit of God. Now this is not requiring thee to become a Fool, or to give up thy Claim to Sense and Reason, but is the shortest Way to have thy Sense and Reason delivered from Folly, and thy whole rational Nature strengthened, enlightened, and guided by that Light, which is Wisdom itself.

A Child that obediently denies his own Will, and own Reason, to be guided by the Will and Reason, of a truly wise and understanding Tutor, cannot be said to make himself a Fool, and give up the Benefit of his rational Nature, but to have taken the shortest Way to have his own Will and Reason made truly a Blessing to him.

Secondly, Hence is to be seen the true Ground and Necessity of that universal Mortification and Self-denial with regard to all our Senses, Appetites, Tempers, Passions and Judgments. It is because all our whole Nature, as fallen from the Life of God is in a State of Contrariety to the Order and End of our Creation, a continual Source of [Page] disorderly Appetites, corrupt Tempers, and false Judgments And therefore every Motion of it is to be mortified, changed and purified from its natural State, before we can enter into the Kingdom of God. Thus when our Lord saith, Except a Man hateth his Father and Mother, yea, and his own Life, he cannot be my Disciple; it is because our best Tempers are yet carnal, and full of the Imperfections of our fallen Nature. The Doctrine is just and good: Not as if Father and Mother were to be hated; but that Love, which an unregenerate Person, or natural Man, hath towards them, is to be hated; as being a blind Self-love, full of all the Weakness and Partialty, with which fallen Man loves, honours, esteems and cleaves to himself. This love, born from corrupt Flesh and Blood and polluted with Self, is to be hated and parted with, that we may love them with a Love born of God, with such a Love, and on such a Motive, as Christ hath loved us. And then the Disciple of Christ far exceeds all others in the Love of Parents. Again, our own Life is to be hated; and the Reason is plain, it is because there is nothing lovely in it. It is a Legion of Evil, a monstrous Birth of the Serpent, the World, and the Flesh; it is an Apostacy from the Life and Power of God in the Soul; a Life that is Death to Heaven, that is pure unmixed Idolatry, that lives wholly to Self, and not to God, and therefore [Page] all this own Life is to be absolutely hated, all this Self is to be denied and mortified, if the Nature, Spirit, Tempers and Inclinations of Christ are to be brought to Life in us. For it is as impossible to live to both these Lives at once, as for a Body to move two contrary Ways at the same Time. And therefore all these Mortifications and Self-denials have an absolute Necessity in the Nature of the Thing itself.

Thus when our Lord further saith, unless a Man forsake all that he hath, he cannot be my Disciple. The Reason is plain, and the Necessity absolute; it is because all that the natural Man hath, is in the Possession of Self-love, and therefore this Possession is to be absolutely forsaken, and parted with. All that he hath, is to be put into other Hands, to be given to divine Love, or this natural Man cannot be changed into a Disciple of Christ. For Self-love in all that it hath, is earthly, sensual and devilish, and therefore must have all taken away from it; and then to the natural Man all is lost, he hath nothing left, all is laid down at the Feet of Jesus. And then all Things are common, as soon as Self-love has lost the Possession of them. And then the Disciple of Christ, though having nothing, yet possesseth all Things; all that the natural Man hath forsaken, is restored to the Disciple of Christ an Hundred-fold. For Self-love, the greatest of all Thieves, being now cast out, and all that he had [Page] stolen and hidden, thus taken from him, and put into the Hands of divine Love, every Mite becometh a large Treasure, and Mammon openeth the Door into everlasting Habitations. This was the Spirit of the first Draught of a Christian Church at Jerusalem, a Church made truly after the Pattern of Heaven, where the Love that reigns in Heaven reigned in it, where divine Love broke down all the selfish Fences, the Locks and Bolts of me, mine, my own, &c. and laid all Things common to the Members of this new Kingdom of God on Earth.

Now though many Years did not pass after the Age of the Apostles, before Satan and Self got Footing in the Church, and set up Merchandize in the House of God; yet this one Heart; and one Spirit, which then first appeared in the Jerusalem Church, is that one Heart and Spirit of divine Love, to which all are called, that would be true Disciples of Christ. And though the Practice of it is lost as to the Church in general, yet it ought not to have been lost; and therefore every Christian ought to make it his great Care, and Prayer, to have it restored in himself. And then, though born in the Dregs of Time, or living in Babylon, he will be as truly a Member of the first heavenly Church at Jerusalem, as if he had lived in it in the Days of the Apostles. This Spirit of Love, born of that celestial Fire, with which Christ baptizes his true Disciples, [Page] is alone that Spirit, which can enter into Heaven, and therefore is that Spirit which is to be born in us, whilst we are on Earth, For no one can enter into Heaven, till he is made heavenly, till the Spirit of Heaven is entered into him. And therefore all that our Lord hath said of denying and dying to Self, and of his parting with all that he hath, are Practices absolutely necessary from the Nature of the Thing.

Because all turning to Self, is so far turning from God, and so much as we have of Self-love, so much we have of a hellish, earthly Weight, that must be taken off, or there can be no Ascension into Heaven. But thou wilt perhaps say, if all Self-love is to be renounced, then all Love of our Neighbour is renounced along with it, because the Commandment is, only to love our Neighbour as ourselves. The Answer here is easy, and yet no Quarter given to Self-love. There is but one only Love in Heaven, and yet the Angels of God love one another in the same Manner as they love themselves. The Matter is thus; the one supreme, unchangeable Rule of Love, which is a Law to all intelligent Beings of all Worlds, and will be a Law to all Eternity, is this, viz. That God alone is to be loved for Himself, and all other Beings only in Him, and for Him. Whatever intelligent Creature lives not under this Rule of Love, is so far fallen from the Order of his Creation, and is, till He returns to this [Page] eternal Law of Love, an Apostate from God, and incapable of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Now if God alone is to be loved for Himself, then no Creature is to be loved for itself; and so all Self-love in every Creature is absolutely condemned.

And if all created Beings are only to be loved in and for God, then my Neighbour is to be loved as I love myself, and I am only to love myself, as I love my Neighbour, or any other created Being, that is, only in and for God. And thus the Command of loving our Neighbour as ourselves, stands firm, and yet all Self-love is plucked up by the Roots. But what is loving any Creature, only in, and for, God? It is when we love it only, as it is God's Work, Image and Delight; when we love it merely as it is God's, and belongs to Him, this is loving it in God, and when all that we wish, intend, or do to it, is done from a Love of God, for the Honour of God, and in Conformity to the Will of God, this is loving it for God. This is the one Love that is, and must be the Spirit of all Creatures, that live united to God. Now this is no speculative Refinement or fine-spun Fiction of the Brain, but the simple Truth, a first Law of Nature, and a necessary Band of Union between God and the Creature. The Creature is not in God, is a Stranger to Him, has lost the Life of God in itself, whenever its Love does not thus begin and end in God.

[Page]The Loss of this Love was the Fall of Man, as it opened in him a Kingdom of Self, in which Satan, the World, and the Flesh, could all of them bring forth their own Works. If therefore Man is to rise from his Fall, and return to his Life in God, there is an absolute Necessity that Self, with all his Brood of gross Affections, be deposed, that this first Love, in and for which he was created, may be born again in him. Christ came into the World to save Sinners, to destroy the Works of the Devil. Now Self is not only the Seat and Habitation, but the very Life of Sin. The Works of the Devil are all wrought in Self, it is his peculiar Workhouse, and therefore Christ is not come as a Saviour from Sin, as a Destroyer of the Works of the Devil in any of us, but so far as Self is beaten down, and overcome in us. If it is literally true what our Lord said, That his Kingdom was not of this World, then it is a Truth of the same Certainty, that no one is a Member of this Kingdom, but he that, in the literal Sense of the Words, renounces the Spirit of this World. Christians might as well part with Half the Articles of their Creed, or but Half believe them, as to really refuse, or but by Halves enter into these Self-denials.

For all that is in the Creed, is only to bring forth this Dying and Death to all, and every Part of the old Man, that the Life and Spirit of Christ may be formed in us.

[Page]Our Redemption is this new Birth; if this is not done, or doing in us, we are still unredeemed. And though the Saviour of the World is come, He is not come in us, He is not received by us, is a Stranger to us, is not ours, if his Life is not within us. His Life is not, cannot be within us, but so far as the Spirit of the World, Self-love, Self-esteem, and Self-seeking are renounced, and driven out of us.

Thirdly, Hence we may also learn the true Nature and Worth of all Self-denials and Mortifications. As to their Nature, considered in themselves, they have nothing of Goodness or Holiness, nor are any real Parts of our Sanctification, they are not the true Food or Nourishment of the divine Life in our Souls, they have no Quickening, Sanctifying Power in them; their only Worth consists in this, that they remove the Impediments of Holiness, break down that which stands between God and us, and make Way for the Quickening, Sanctifying Spirit of God to operate on our Souls. Which Operation of God is the one only Thing that can raise the divine Life in the Soul, or help it to the smallest Degree of real Holiness, or spiritual Life. As in our Creation, we had only that Degree of a divine Life, which the Power of God derived into us; a then all that we had, and were, was the sole Operation of God in the Creation of us, so in [...] Redemption, or regaining that first Perfection, which we [Page] have lost, all must be again the Operation of God, every Degree of the divine Life restored in us, be it ever so small, must and can be nothing else but so much of the Life and Operation of God found again in the Soul. All the Activity of Man in the Works of Self-denial, has no Good in itself, but is only to open an Entrance for the one only Good, the Light of God, to operate upon us.

Hence also we may learn the Reason, why many People not only lose the Benefit, but are even the worse for all their Mortifications. It is because they mistake the whole Nature and Worth of them. They practise them for their own Sakes, as Things good in themselves, they think them to be real Parts of Holiness, and so rest in them, and look no farther, but grow full of Self-esteem, and Self admiration for their own Progress in them. This makes them Self-sufficient, morose, severe Judges of all those that fall short of their Mortifications.

And thus their Self-denials do only that for them, which Indulgences do for other People; they withstand and hinder the Operation of God upon their Souls, and instead of being really Self-denials, they strengthen and keep up the Kingdom of Self.

There is no avoiding this fatal Error, but by deeply entering into this great Truth, that all our own Activity and Working has no Good in it, can do no Good to us, but [Page] as it leads and turns us in the best Manner to the Light and Spirit of God, which alone brings Life and Salvation into the Soul. Stretch forth thy Hand, said our Lord to the Man, that had a withered Hand; he did so, and it was immediately made whole as the other.

Now, had this Man any Ground for Pride, or a high Opinion of himself, for the Share he had in the Restoring of his Hand? Yet just such is our Share in the raising up of the spiritual Life within us. All that we can do by our own Activity, is only like this Man's stretching out his Hand; the rest is the Work of Christ, the only Giver of Life to the withered Hand, or the dead Soul. We can only then do living Works, when we are so far born again, as to be able to say with the Apostle, Yet not I, but Christ that liveth in me. But to return, and further shew how the Soul that feels the Call of God to Repentance, is to behave under it, that this stirring of the divine Power in the Soul, may have its full Effect, and bring forth the Birth of the new Man in Christ Jesus. We are to consider it (as in Truth it is) as the Seed of the divine Nature within us, that can only grow by its own Strength, and Union with God. It is a divine Life, and therefore can grow from nothing but divine Power. When the Virgin Mary conceived the Birth of the holy Jesus, all that she did towards it herself, was only this [Page] single Act of Faith and Resignation to God: Behold the Handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy Word. This is all that we can do towards the Conception of that new Man that is to be born in ourselves. Now this Truth is easily consented to, and a Man thinks he believes it, because he consents to it, or rather, does not deny it. But this is not enough, it is to be apprehended in a deep, full, and practical Assurance, in such a Manner as a Man knows and believes that he did not create the Stars, or cause Life to raise up in himself. And then it is a Belief that puts the Soul into a right State, that makes Room for the Operation of God upon it. His Light then enters with full Power into the Soul, and his holy Spirit moves and directs all that is done in it, and so Man lives again in God as a new Creature. For this Truth thus firmly believed, will have these two most excellent Effects: First, it will keep the Soul fixed, and continually turned towards God, in Faith, Prayer, Desire, Confidence, and Resignation to Him, for all that it wants to have done in it, and to it; which will be a continual Source of all divine Virtues and Graces. The Soul thus turned to God, must be always receiving from Him. It stands at the true Door of all divine Communications, and the Light of God as freely enters into it, as the Light of the Sun enters into the Air. Secondly, It will fix and ground the [Page] Soul in a true and lasting Self-denial. For by thus knowing, and owning our own Nothingness and Inability, that we have no other Capacity for Good, but that of receiving it from God alone, Self is wholly denied, its Kingdom is destroyed; no Room is left for spiritual Pride and Self-esteem; we are saved from a Pharisaical Holiness, from wrong Opinions of our own Works and good Deeds, and from a Multitude of Errors, the most dangerous to our Souls, all which arise from the Something that we take ourselves to be either in Nature or Grace. But when we once apprehend but in some Degree the All of God, and the Nothingness of ourselves, we have got a Truth, whose Usefulness and Benefit, no Words can express. It brings a Kind of Infallibity into the Soul in which it dwells; all that is vain, and false, and deceitful, is forced to vanish and fly before it. When our Religion is founded on this Rock, it has the Firmness of a Rock, and its Height reaches unto Heaven. The World, the Flesh and the Devil can do no Hurt to it; all Enemies are known, and all disarmed by this great Truth, dwelling in our Souls. It is the Knowledge of the All of God, that makes Cherubims and Seraphims to be Flames of divine Love. For where this All of God is truly known and felt in any Creature, there its whole Breath and Spirit is a Fire of Love, nothing but a pure, disinterested [Page] Love can rise up in it, or come from it, a Love that begins and ends in God. And where this Love is born in any Creature, there a Seraphick Life is born along with it. For this pure Love introduces the Creature into the All of God, all that is in God, is opened in the Creature; it is united with God, and hath the Life of God manifested in it.

There is but one Salvation for all Mankind, and that is the Life of God in the Soul. God has but one Design or Intent towards all Mankind, and that is to introduce or generate his own Life, Light, and Spirit in them, that all may be as so many Images, Temples, and Habitations of the Holy Trinity. This is God's good Will to all Christians, Jews, and Heathens. They are all equally the Desire of his Heart, his Light continually waits for an Entrance into all of them, his Wisdom crieth, she putteth forth her Voice, not here, or there, but every where, in all the Streets of all the Parts of the World.

Now there is but one possible Way for Man to attain this Salvation, or Life of God in the Soul. There is not one for the Jew, another for a Christian, and a Third for the Heathen. No; God is one, human Nature is one, Salvation is one, and the Way to it is one; and that is, the Desire of the Soul turned to God. When this Desire is alive, and breaks forth in any Creature under [Page] Heaven, then the lost Sheep is found, and the Shepherd hath it upon his Shoulders. Through this Desire the Poor prodigal Son leaveth his Husks and Swine, and hasteth to his Father; 'tis because of this Desire, that the Father seeth the Son while yet afar off, that he runs out to meet him, falleth on his Neck, and kisseth him. See here how plainly we are taught, that no sooner is this Desire arisen, and in Motion towards God, but the Operation of God's Spirit answers to it, cherishes and welcomes its first Beginnings, signified by the Father's seeing, and having Compassion on his Son, whilst yet afar off, that is, in the first Beginnings of his Desire. Thus does this Desire do all, it brings the Soul to God, and God into the Soul, it unites with God, it co-operates with God, and is one Life with God. Suppose this Desire not to be alive, not in Motion either in a Jew or a Christian, and then all the Sacrifices, the Service, he Worship either of the Law or the Gospel, are but dead Works, that bring no Life into the Soul, nor beget any Union between God and it. Suppose this Desire to be awakened, and fixed upon God, though in Souls that never heard either of the Law or Gospel, and then the divine Life, or Operation of God enters into them, and the new Birth in Christ is formed in those, that never heard of his Name. And these are they that shall come from the East, and from the West, and [Page]sit down with Abraham and Isaac in the Kingdom of God.

Oh my God, just and good, how great is thy Love and Mercy to Mankind, that Heaven is thus every where open, and Christ thus the common Saviour to all that turn the Desire of their Hearts to Thee! Oh sweet Power of the Bruiser of the Serpent, born in every Son of Man, that stirs and works in every Man, and gives every Man a Power, and Desire, to find his Happiness in God! O holy Jesus, heavenly Light, that lighteth every Man that cometh into the World, that redeemeth every Soul that followeth thy Light, which is always within Him! O holy Trinity, immense Ocean of divine Love, in which all Mankind live, and move, and have their Being? None are separated from Thee, none live out of thy Love, but all are embraced in the Arms of thy Mercy, all are Partakers of thy divine Life, the Operation of thy holy Spirit, as soon as their Heart is turned to Thee! Oh plain, and easy, and simple Way of Salvation, wanting no Subtleties of Art or Science, no borrowed Learning, no Refinements of Reason, but all done by the simple natural Motion of every Heart, that truly longs after God. For no sooner is the finite Desire of the Creature in Motion towards God, but the infinite Desire of God is united with it, co-operates with it. And in this united Desire of God, and the Creature, is the Salvation [Page] and Life of the Soul brought forth. For the Soul is shut out of God, and imprisoned in its own dark Workings of Flesh and Blood, merely and solely because it desires to live to the Vanity of this World. This Desire is its Darkness, its Death, its Imprisonment, and Separation from God.

When therefore the first Spark of a Desire after God arises in thy Soul, cherish it with all thy Care, give all thy Heart into it, it is nothing less than a Touch of the divine Loadstone, that is to draw Thee out of the Vanity of Time, into the Riches of Eternity. Get up therefore and follow it as gladly, as the Wise-men of the East followed the Star from Heaven that appeared to them. It will do for Thee as the Star did for them; it will lead Thee to the Birth of Jesus, not in a Stable at Bethlehem, in Judea, but to the Birth of Jesus, in the dark Center of thy own fallen Soul.

I shall conclude this first Part, with the Words of the heavenly illuminated, and blessed Jacob Behmen.

It is much to be lamented, that we are so blindly led, and the Truth withheld from us through imaginary Conceptions; for if the divine Power in the inward Ground of the Soul, was manifest, and working with its Lustre in us, then is the whole tri-une God present in the Life and Will of the Soul; and the Heaven, wherein God dwelleth, is opened in the Soul, [Page] and There, in the Soul, is the Place where the Father begetteth his Son, and where the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father and the Son.

Christ saith, I am the Light of the World, he that follweth me, walketh not in Darkness. He directs us only to Himself. He is the Morning Star, and is generated and riseth in us, and shineth in the Darkness of our Nature. O how great a Triumph is there in the Soul, when He ariseth in it, then a Man knows, as he never knew before, that he is a Stranger in a soreign Land.

CONSIDERATIONS on WAR.

THE temporal miseries and wrongs which are the sad effects of war, are neither to be numbered or expressed.—What theivery bears any proportion to that which with the boldness of drum and trumpet, plunders the innocent of all they have? and if themselves are left alive, with all their limbs, or their daughters unravished, they have many times only the ashes of their consumed houses to lye down upon.—What honour has war gotten, from its thousands and tens of hundreds of thousands of men slaughtered on heaps, with as little regret or concern as at loads of rubbish thrown into a pit.—Who but the fiery dragon, would put a wreath [Page] of laurel on such heroes heads? Who but he, could say unto them, Well done, good and faithful servants. But there is still an evil of war much greater, though less regarded, apparent to those who reflect, how many hundreds of thousands of men, born into this world, for no other end but that they may, by being born again of Christ, from sons of Adam's misery, become sons of God, and fellowheirs with Christ, in everlasting glory; who reflects, I say, what nameless numbers of these are robbed of God's precious gift of life to them, before they have known the one sole benefit of living, who are not suffered to stay in this world, till age and experience have helped them to know the inward voice and operation of God's spirit, have helped them to find and feel that evil, curse, and sting of sin and death, which must be taken from within them, before they can die the death of the righteous; who instead of this, have been either violently forced or tempted in the fire of youth, and full strength of sinful lusts, to forget God, eternity, and their own souls, and rush into a kill or be killed, with as much furious haste and goodness of spirit, as tyger kills tyger for the sake of his prey. Amongst unfallen creatures in heaven, God's name and nature is love, light, and glory—to the fallen sons of Adam, that which was love, light, and glory in heaven, becomes infinite pity and compassion on earth; in a God, cloathed with the nature [Page] of his fallen creature, bearing all its infirmities, entering into all its troubles, and in the meek innocence of a lamb of God; living a life and dying a death of all sufferings due to sin. Sing! O ye heavens! and shout all ye lower parts of the earth, for this is our God, that varies not, whose first creating love knows no change, but into a redeeming pity towards all his fallen creatures. Look now at warring Christendom, what smallest drop of pity towards sinners is to be found in it? or how could a spirit, all hellish, more fully contrive and hasten their destruction; it stirs up and kindles every passion of fallen nature, that is contrary to the all-humble, all-meek, all-loving, all-forgiving, all-saving spirit of Christ—it unites, it drives, and compels nameless numbers of unconverted sinners to fall murdering and murdered, amongst flashes of fire, with the wrath and swiftness of lightning, into a fire infinitely worse than that in which they died— O sad subject for thanksgiving days, whether in popish or protestant churches; for if there is a joy of all the angels in heaven for one sinner that repenteth, what a joy must there be in hell, over such multitudes of sinners, not suffered to repent? And if they who have converted many to righteousness, shall shine as the stars in the firmament forever, what Chorazin woe may they not justly fear, whose proud wrath, and vain glory, have robbed such numberless troops of poor wretches, of all [Page] time and place of knowing what righteousness they wanted for the salvation of their immortal souls. * Here my pen trembles in my hand—But when, O! when will one single christian church, people, or language, tremble at the share they have in this death of sinners—Again, would you further see the fall of the universal church, from being led by the Spirit of Christ, to be guided by the inspiration of the great fiery dragon, look at all European Christendom sailing round the globe, with fire and sword, and every murdering art of war, to seize the possessions and steal or kill the inhabitants of Africa and the Indies.—What natural right of man, what supernatural virtue, which Christ bro't down from heaven, is not here trodden under foot?—all that you ever read or heared of heathen barbarity, was here outdone [Page] by christian conquerors. What wars of christians against christians, blended with scalping heathens, have stained the earth and the seas with human blood, for a miserable share in the spoils of a plundered heathen world; a world which should have heard, or seen, or felt nothing from the followers of Christ, but a divine love, that had forced them from distant lands, and through the perils of long seas, to visit strangers, with those glad tidings of peace and salvation, to all the world, which angels from heaven, and shepherds on earth, proclaimed at the birth of Christ.

But to know whether christianity admits of war, christianity is to be considered as in its right state; now the true state of the world, turned christian, is thus described by the great Gospel-prophet, who shewed what a change it was to make in the fallen state of the world; It shall come to pass, in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and all nations shall flow into it, and many people shall say, Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord's house, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths, Isa. ii. 2. Now what follows from this going up of the nations to the mountain of the Lord's house, the holy prophet expressly tells you in the following words: They shall beat their swords into plow-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up its sword against [Page]nation, ☞ neither shall they learn war any more, Isa. ii. 4. Mic. iv. 3. This is the prophet's true Christendom, with one and the same essential divine mark set upon it, as when the Lamb of God said, By this shall all men know, that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another, as I have loved you, John xiii. 34. Christ's kingdom is no where come, but where the works of the devil are destroyed, and men are turned from the power of satan unto God—God is only another name for the highest and only good, and the highest and only good means nothing else but love, with all its works. Would you farther see when and where the kingdoms of this fallen world are become a kingdom of God, the Gospel-prophet tells you, that it is then and there where all enmity ceaseth. The wolf, saith he, shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lye down with the kid; the calf and the young lion, and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall feed, and their young ones shall lye down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice den—for they shall not hurt and destroy in all my holy mountain, Isa. xi. 6. See here a kingdom of God on the earth; it is nothing else but a kingdom of meer love, where all hurt and destroying is done away, and every work of enmity changed into one united power of heavenly love— [Page] but observe again and again, whence this comes to pass, that God's kingdom on earth is, and can be nothing else, but the power of reigning love; the prophet tells us, it is because in the days of his kingdom the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

Hence we are enjoined, by our blessed Saviour, to pray for, and continually to watch over every suggestion of our corrupt minds, which may impede the accomplishment of these gracious promises: Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is done in heaven. The frequent accounts we meet with in the Old Testament, of wars being carried on in the time of the law, gives no sanction to the same practice under the gospel; as this last dispensation is a wonderous display of divine benignity and love, pronouncing those only blessed, who are found in the actual possession of that poverty of spirit, that meekness and purity of heart, which was pointed out in types and ceremonies, under the law; hence the gospel dispensation is declared to be the bringing in of a better hope, by which we draw nigh unto God, Heb. vii. 19.

We are Christians, not Jews, and are therefore required to attend to the instruction and practice of our great and good exampler, Jesus Christ, who was declared from heaven to be the beloved Son of God; and whose appearance on earth was ushered in by the angels [Page] and heavenly host, with a publication of peace on earth, and good will towards men. The prophecies which preceded our Saviour's coming, clearly pointed to the greater excellency of the dispensation, which was to take place when He, the peaceable Shiloh, the desire of nations should come, unto whom the gathering of the people was to be, Hag. ii. 7.

The primitive christians bore a testimony to the inconsistency of war with the gospel. Robert Barclay, in his Apology, says, ‘That this was the judgment of most (if not all) the ancient fathers, (so called) the first three hundred years after Christ. They affirmed the prophecies of Isaiah and Micah, respecting the peaceable reign of the Messiah, to be fulfilled in the christians of their time.’ * Many of the Reformers favoured the same sentiment, particularly John Wickliff; the first eminent instrument raised in opposition to the errors and corruptions then prevalent in the world; of whom we are told in the account of his life, † ‘That he thought the whole trade of war was sinful.’

[Page]We find by the accounts we meet within John Fox's Acts and Monuments of the Church, that the same testimony against war was maintained amongst the followers of Wickliff. This appears more particularly, from a representation, called Conclusions and Reformations, laid before the parliament, by those first Reformers, the 17th of Richard the IId, in the year 1395, as mentioned vol. I. p. 579. It farther appears from what John Fox calls, ‘The godly Declaration of Walter Brute;’ of whose sufferings for the truth, he gives us a large account, at page 554. An extract of the said Walter's expressions, on that head, are as follows, viz.

‘I marvel why wise men, leaving the plain and manifest doctrine of Christ, whereby he teacheth patience, do seek corners of their own imagining, to the intent they may approve fightings and wars; why mark they not after what manner Christ spake to Peter, striking the high bishop's servant, saying, Put up the sword into the sheath; for every one that shall take the sword, shall perish with the sword.’

Again, ‘the apostle writing to the Corinthians, as touching judgment and contention, which are matter of less weight than are fightings; he writeth, Now verily there is great fault in you, that ye be at law amongst yourselves; why rather take ye [Page] not wrong? why rather suffer ye not deceit. And that apostle generally in all his epistles, teacheth, that patience should be kept, and not corporal resistance by fightings, because charity is patient, it is courteous, it suffereth all things. I marvel how they justify, and make good the wars by christians, saving only the wars against the devil and sin. For seeing that it is plain, that those things which were in the Old Testament, were figures of things to be done in the New Testament, therefore we must needs say, that corporal wars being then done, were figures of the christian wars against sin and the devil, for the heavenly country, which is our inheritance.’ *

[Page]In the times which preceded our Saviour's appearance on earth, ‘every battle of the warrior was with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood,’ but the warfare which was to be introduced by HIM, the Prince of Peace, of the increase of whose government there is to be no end, was to be "with burning and fuel of fire," * Isaiah ix. 5. to the destruction of the man of sin, the corrupt propensity of nature, and establishment of that purity of heart and universal love, which the gospel proposes.

The apostle tells the believers, Eph. vi. 12. "That they warred not after the flesh." 2 Cor. x. 4. ‘That the weapons of their warfare were not carnal, but mighty through God, to the pulling down the strong holds, casting down every imagination, and high thing which exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.’ It was by meekness and patient suffering, that our Saviour overcame and gave a deadly blow to sin; leaving us an example that we should follow his footsteps. ‘Learn of me, says this [Page] blessed Redeemer, for I am meek and low, and ye shall find rest to your souls. Blessed are the meek, the merciful, and those who hunger and thirst after righteousness,’ (with this blessed promise) ‘for they shall be filled. Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called THE CHILDREN OF GOD,’ Mat. v. And to his disciples, when he sent them to preach the Gospel, he says, ‘Behold I send you as lambs amongst wolves.’ The evangelick prophet had a clear prospect of the abasement and sufferings of our Saviour, when he says, ‘He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth,’ Isa. liii. 7.

The efficacy of this suffering spirit of Christ was contrary to the natural will, and a mystery to the reasoning part in man; ‘it was to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks, foolishness,’ and still remains a mystery to the ‘wisdom of the world,’ 1 Cor. i. 22.

Our Saviour himself, in the course of his precepts, clearly distinguished the greater purity of the doctrine he was about to establish, from the imperfectness of that practised in the former dispensations; Mat. v. ‘Ye have heard that it hath been said to them of old times—an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, but I say unto [Page] you, that ye resist not evil.’ Again: ‘Ye have heard that it hath been said, thou shall love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy, but I say unto you, love your enemies, * bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.’ †

Hence we have reason to believe, that the injunction and allowance granted to the Jews, of making war upon their enemies, and one upon another; was in consequence of that hardness of heart, which prevailed amongst them; and that this permission was granted from the same motive, as that mentioned by our Lord, when the Jews were pleading the licence given them by Moses, to put away their wives, and marry other women, Mark x. 5. ‘For the hardness of your hearts, Moses wrote you this precept; but from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female —what therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.’ This [Page] as well as war, slavery, and other practices of the like nature, were a violence upon that union, purity, and brotherly love, which subsisted in the beginning, in the original constitution of things, whilst man retained his primitive innocency. And that the spilling of human blood was not acceptable in the eyes of perfect Purity, who the apostle denominates under the appellation of love, God is Love, appears from the prohibition laid upon king David, not to build an house unto God, on account of his having been concerned in the destruction of so many of his fellow creatures, as himself declared, 1 Chron. xxii. 8. ‘The word of the Lord came to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and hast made great wars; thou shalt not build an house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight.’

That pious, learned man, bishop Taylor, chaplain to king Charles the Ist, in his dedication to his Discourse on the liberty of Prophesying, printed in London, 1702; appears to have had a clear prospect of what must be the genuine effect of the doctrine and power, which our blessed Saviour came to communicate to mankind, even that inexpressible love, which breathing peace and goodwill to every individual, knows of no enemy; but, in Jesus Christ, embraces with brotherly affection, the whole creation. He expresses himself as follows at page 3. &c. [Page] ‘As contrary as cruelty is to mercy, tyranny to charity; so is war and bloodshed, to the meekness and gentleness of the christian religion. I had thought, says he, of the prophecy, That under the gospel, our swords should be turned into plowshares, and our spears into pruning-hooks: I knew that no tittle spoken by God's Spirit, should return unperformed and ineffectual; and I was certain, that such was the excellency of Christ's doctrine, that if men would obey it, christians should never war one against another.’

Notes

*

Most lamentable was the calamity, or rather grievous judgment, which befel the English State, by means of the intestine wars which prevailed between the two Houses of York and Lancaster, in support of their claim to the crown We are told in History▪ That above one hundred thousand men perished in the several conflicts which ensued on that debate, with great numbers of the principal men of the nation, amongst whom [...] more than fifty of the royal blood, who laid down their lives either in battle, or by the hands of the public executioner. And here an awful consideration occurs—What did either party obtain by this lamentable devastation and destruction of their fellow creatures their countrymen, their brethren, called to be heirs of the same salvation.

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*

Origen (who wrote in the beginning of the third century) confirms this in his answer to Celsus, a most virulent adversary, who had charged the christians with refusing to bear arms, and to enter into military employment. Origine contra Celsum, lib. 8. p. 426. Cantab. editio.

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†

Life of John Wickliff, &c. by W. Gilpin.

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*

Wickliff thought all arts which administered to the luxuries of life, were prohibited by the gospel. The scripture, he said, tells us that having food and raiment, we should be therewith content. Beihner, tho' a popish writer, gives a very favourable account of Wickliff's disciples. He says they they were men of a serious modest deportment, avoiding all ostentation in dress; chaste and temperate; never seen in taverns, or amused by the trifling gaieties of life—that they utterly despised wealth, being fully content with bare necessaries. † — Hence it appears that these first Reformers, as well as the primitive christians, took our Saviour's injunction, Mat. vi. [...]9. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, in a more literal sense than it has been underdood by many high professors in more latter days. They were sensible of the truth of his declaration, Mark x 23. That it would be hard for those that had accumulated riches ▪ had added house to house and field to field to enter the kingdom of heaven.

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†

Gilpin's life of Wickliff.

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*

This expression, Of the increase of whose government, there is to be no end, appears to point out, that the prevalency of the suffering spirit of the gospel in the world, is to be a gradual work, which will be brought about under suffering to the followers of Christ, as it was to their Master, who was made perfect through suffering.

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*

It is certainly as easy to reconcile the greatest contradiction as these declarations of our Lord's with the practice of war, resist not evil, with distress and annoy those we are contending with; love your enemies with contrive every method to spoil, to make a prey of, and pursue them with fire and sword.

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†

A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another as I have loved you, John xiii. 34.

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REMARKS on the Nature and bad Effects of SPIRITUOUS LIQUORS.

THE common use of Spirituous liquors distilled from molasses, grain, fruit, &c. is a matter that calls for the particular attention of every lover of mankind.

Several physicians of note, * have given it as their sentiments, that those distilled spirits when taken inwardly, even tho' mixed with water, destroy the human frame; being burning spirits, the use of which bring on many fatal diseases, such as fevers, jaundice, [Page] dropsies, consumptions, and whereby multitudes are daily destroyed. That they parch up and contract the stomach to half its natural size, like burnt leather, and rot the entrails, as is evident, not only by opening the bodies of those persons who are killed by drinking them; but also by what Doctor Hoffman says, was observed of the effects which the caustic fiery remaining wash of the distillers, has on the guts of those hogs which in some places are fed by it, which are thereby so tendered, that puddings cannot be made in them: Wherefore all people, who have any regard to their health and lives ought to tremble at the cravings for such poisonous liquors, which shorten and destroy the lives of such multitudes of people. It is farther observable, that the free use of those Spirits, deprave the morals of those who addict themselves thereto; the feelings of their minds are gradually benumbed; an insensibility to the healing influences of grace prevails, and many become profane and regardless of their duty to God and Man.

Doctor Cheyne, in his Essay of health and long life, says, "All people, who have any regard to their health and lives, ought to tremble at the first cravings for such poisonous liquors. The maladies begot by them bring forth necessity upon necessity of drams and gills; till at last, a kind dropsy, nervous convulsion, flux, if not a fever, or phrensy sets the poor soul free. It has often [Page] raised in me, says the Doctor, the most melancholly reflections, to see the virtuous and sensible, bound in such chains and fetters, as nothing less than omnipotent grace or the unrelenting grave could release them from."

It is pretended, that drams comfort, warm, and defend from the severity of weather, to which men are sometimes exposed; without which they say, they should perish with cold; which is probably, in a great measure, true of those who are habituated to drink them; the blood of such being thereby so much improverished, that it is well known many of the drinkers of drams are cold and lifeless in the midst of summer, without frequent repetitions; this is what some of them have owned. But on the other hand, how much more able are sober persons to endure cold and hardships; their vital heat not being extinguished by intemperance, does by its kindly genial warmth, more effectually secure them from the inclemency of the weather, than the false flash of a dram. Besides, it is well known, that men did not perish in the coldest countries for want of drams formerly, when they were not to be had, of the undoubted truth of this, Captain Ellis gives a full proof in the account of his voyage to Hudson's bay, page 199: Where he observes, "That the natives of the very cold coast of that Bay, to whom the French are kinder than to sell [Page] distilled spirituous liquors, are tall, hardy, robust and active; whereas those of them that are supplied with drams from the English, are a meagre, dwarfish, indolent people, hardly equal to the severity of the country and subject to many disorders. And as to the pernicious effects of spirituous liquors in very hot climates, (as on the coast of Guinea,) it is observed, that the French and Portuguese, who do not indulge in distilled spirits, are healthy compared with the English; who, drinking freely of spirits, &c. die fast."

The unhappy dram-drinkers are so absolutely bound in slavery to these infernal spirits, that they seem to have lost the power of delivering themselves from this worst of bondage. How much then is it the bounden duty of those, who have it in their power to withhold this destructive man bane, either as parents, masters, or rulers to the people committed to their trust. This is a case so calamitous to mankind, that to have a thorough sense of it, and yet not to remonstrate, nor earnestly caution against it, is certainty as criminal as it is unfriendly not to warn a blind person of a dangerous precipice or pit. Yet, alas how unconcerned are the greatest part of mankind at this enormous ruin of multitudes! In trials for life, what diligence is used to find the occasion of the loss of one subject. What care will not a faithful Physician bestow for the preservation of one life. How did the wise Romans honour [Page] him, who saved the life of one Roman citizen. But in the present case it is not one, nor one hundred, nor one thousand, but probably no less than a million that perish yearly.

The mistaken use and grievous abuse of rum and other distilled spirits, in no case appears more palpably than at the time of harvest, a business which the people under the Mosaic dispensation were enjoined to carry on with humiliation and thanksgiving; but which amongst us, through the free use of spirituous liquors, is made an occasion of a greater abuse of the creatures and dishonour of the Creator; this arises in many, from a mistaken persuasion that hard labour, particularly that of the harvest field, cannot be carried on without using a quantity of rum or other distilled spirits. In support of this opinion, we are frequently told of the many people who have died at those times through the extream heat and fatigue, and it is supposed that many more would die, if a plentiful use of spirituous liquors was not allowed; but this is a mistaken notion, it being much more likely that the free use of rum occasioned the death of those people, the quantity they had swallowed down, sending a great flow of spirits into the head in proportion to the strength of their body caused them to strain their strength beyond what nature could bear; and in general the repeated large quantities of spirit commonly [Page] drank during the whole time of harvest, keeps up the blood in so continual a ferment and fever, that people cannot have a proper restorative sleep; their constitutions are thereby enervated, their lives shortned and an unfitness for religious impressions generally prevails.

These weighty considerations have induced some well minded people to endeavour to induce, by their examples, their friends and neighbours into a contrary practice; and under these attempts experience has made it manifest that very little or no strong liquor is necessary at those times; indeed they have been convinced that the harvest, and other laborious work, can be very well managed without making use of any spirituous liquors at all. If such labour was carried on with steadiness and proper moderation, there would certainly be no need of a recruit of strength being sought for by that means; more frequent intervals of rest, with a little food oftener allowed the reapers, and small drinks, such as molasses and water, either alone or made more agreable with a little cyder, small beer, or even milk and water would fully enable them to perform their work to their employer's satisfaction and their own advantage, and the overplus wages they would receive to the value of the spirits usually given them, might be sufficient to purchase bread for their families. Several persons who from a persuasion that the common [Page] method of giving spirituous liquors to labourers was exceeding hurtful, have made it a condition with those they have employed, not to use any spirituous liquors in their field; these have had their work performed to good satisfaction and without any damage ensuing to their labourers. Nay, where they have remained any considerable time with such employers, they have generally acknowledged themselves sensible of the benefit arising from having thus totally refrained the use of those liquors.

Should this practice take place, it would prove a great blessing, particularly to the labouring people, one half of whom (a physician of this country hath given as his sentiment) die sooner than they otherwise would do, solely by the use of spirituous liquors. Besides, that it would discourage the distillation of rye and other grain; a practice which is not only a great hurt to the poor in raising the price of bread, but must also be very offensive to God the great and good father of the family of mankind, that people should, in their earthly and corrupt wisdom, pervert their Maker's benevolent intention, in converting the grain he hath given to us as the staff of life, unto a fiery spirit, so destructive of the human frame and attended with the other dreadful consequences already mentioned. Here it may be noted, that any quantity of good molasses will by distillation, yield more than the same quantity of [Page] proof spirit. And that a considerable quantity of molasses if taken with bread at one time, as the Indians will sometimes do, will not intoxicate, the spirituous parts in the molasses being properly united by our good and wise creator with the earthly and balsamick parts, so as to make it quite friendly to our nature; but when by distilation the spirituous parts are separated from the other parts, that measure of spirits proceeding from the same quantity of molasses, becomes a fiery liquid, destructive of the human frame. Doctor Buchan in his Domestic Medicine, or Family Physician, a book which has gained so much esteem as to be twice published in this city, at page 71 of the English Edition says, ‘many imagine that hard labour could not be supported without drinking strong liquors. This, tho' a common is a very erronous notion, men who never tasted strong liquors are not only able to endure more fatigue, but also live much longer than those who use them daily. * But suppose strong liquors did enable a man to do more work, they must nevertheless waste the powers of life, and of course occasion premature old age. They keep up a constant fever, which wastes [Page] the spirits, heats and inflames the blood and predisposes the body to numberless diseases. At page the same author tells us, that all intoxicating liquors may be considered as poisons. However disguised, that is their real character, and sooner or later they will have their effect.’

Amongst the several prejudices in favour of the mistaken use of spirituous liquors, there is none gives it a greater sanction or support, than the prevailing opinion, even with persons of reputation, that what they term a moderate quantity of rum mixed with water, is the best and safest liquor that can be drank; hence confirming the opinion, that spirit in one form or other is necessary To such who have not been accustomed, and think they cannot habituate themselves to drink water, there may appear to be some kind of plea in this argument, especially to travellers, who often meet with beer, cyder, or other fermented liquors that are dead, hard, sour, or not properly fermented, which tend to generate air in the bowels, produceing colicks, &c. But if those persons suffered the weight of the subject, and the encouragement they thereby give to the use of these destructive spirits, to take proper place with them, it might suggest the propriety, if not necessity of introducing a more salutary practice.

That pure fluid (water) which the benevolent father of the family of mankind, points [Page] out for general use, is so analogous to the human frame, that people might with safety gradually use themselves to it. Dr. Cheyne observes, that without all doubt, water is the primitive original beverage, as it is the only simple fluid fitted for diluting, moistening and cooling; the ends of drink, appointed by nature, and he adds happy had it been for the race of mankind, if other mixed and artificial liquors had never been invented. Water alone is sufficient and effectual for all the purposes of human want in drink: Strong liquors were never designed for common use. Speaking of the effect of wine, which he says to have been so much in use at the time he wrote, that the better sort of people scarcely diluted their food with any other liquor, he remarks, ‘That as natural causes will always produce their proper effects, their blood was inflamed into gout, stone, and rheumatism, raging fevers, pleurisies, &c. Water is the only disolvent or menstruum, and the most certain diluter of all bodies proper for food.’

Doctor Short, in his discourse of the inward use of water, speaks much in its commendation. He says, we can draw a very convincing argument of the excellency of water, from the longevity and healthfulness of those who at first had no better liquor, and the health and strength of body and serenity of mind, of those who at this day [Page] have no other common liquor to drink, of this the common people amongst the Highlands of Scotland, are a sufficient instance, amongst whom it is no rarity to find persons of eighty, ninety, yea an hundred years of age, as healthy strong and nimble, as wine or ale bibbers are at thirty six or forty. The Doctor says, There is a ridiculous maxim used by drinkers, that water makes but thin blood, not fit for business. I say, says he, it is water only that can enduce its drinkers with the strongest bodies and most robust constitutions, where exercise or labour is joined with it, since it best assists the stomach and lungs to reduce the aliments into the smallest particles, that they may better pass the strainers of the body, which separates the nutritious parts of the blood to be applyed to the sides of the vessels, and exercise invigorates the sibres and muscles; whereas the rapid motion of the blood excited by drinking spirituous liquors, cannot fail of being prejudicial to the body, it will cause the watery parts to dissipate, and the remaining to grow thick and tough, and the event be obstructions, inflammations, impost-humations, &c.—and tho' strong liquors afford a greater slow of spirits for a short time, yet this is always followed with as much lowness of spirit; so that to gain a necessary stock of spirits, the person is obliged to repeat the same force, till he learns a custom of drinking drams. In this we are confirmed, [Page] if we consider the great strength and hardiness of poor rusticks in many parts of the world, whose provisions is mostly vegetable food, and their drink water. The doctor adds, that it often happens that persons of tender, weakly, crazy constitutions, by refraining from strong liquors and accustoming themselves to drink water, make a shift to spin out many years.

After describing the many distempers produced by drinking malt or other fermented liquors he adds, that seeing constitutions differ, it is not to be expected that spirituous liquors should produce all the same symptoms in one and the same person, yet that all drinkers have several of them; and if they come not to that height, its because they afterwards use great exercise or hard labour, with sometimes thin diluting liquors, which prevent their immediate hurting.

And with respect to such well disposed people, who still retain a favourable opinion of the use of spirits mixed with water, ought they not, even from a love to mankind, to endeavour to refrain from it, on account of the effect their example may have in encouraging others in the use of spirituous, liquors, agreeable to the example left us by the apostle Paul, 1 Cor. viii. 13. If meat make my brother to offend I will eat no flesh while the world stands, lest I make my brother to offend. How much more ought they to refrain from that which tends to establish mankind, in a practice [Page] so generally destructive, more especially when they consider the danger themselves are in of encreasing the quantity of spirit with their water, as it has been observed, that the use of this mixture is particularly apt, almost imperceptible to gain upon those that use it, so that many otherwise good and judicious people have unwarily to themselves and others, fallen, with the common herd, a sacrifice to this mighty devourer.

A very eminent physician has given the following direction, for the benefit of those who have not wisdom enough left at once to abandon the odious and pernicious practice of drinking distilled spirituous liquors, viz. By degrees to mix water with the spirit, to lessen the quantity every day, and keep to the same quantity of water, till in about the course of a week, nothing of the dram kind be used along with water. By this means the person will suffer no inconveniency, but reap great benefit upon leaving off drams or spirits as has been tried by many. If any gnawing be left in the stomach upon quite leaving it off, a little warm broth, weak tea, or any thing of that kind, will be of service. The appetite always increases in a few days after leaving off drams, unless by the too long continuance of them, the tone of the stomach is destroyed. And when the stomach is thus affected a cup of carduus, camomile wormwood or centaury tea, every morning fasting and every evening will be found a good remedy.

Notes

*

Doctor Hoffman, Cheyne, Short, Lind, Buchan, &c.

↵

*

The few of those who notwithstanding their excess in drinking spirituous liquors, from the uncommon strength of their constitution, may have attained to considerable age, would doubtless have lived much longer if they had lived temperate lives.

↵

THOUGHTS on SLAVERY from different Authors.

[Page]

‘IF Slavery admits of a moral or a rational Justification, every Crime, even the most atrocious, may be justified: Government was instituted for the Good of Mankind. Kings, Princes, Governors, are not Proprietors of those who are subjected to their Authority; they have not a Right to make them miserable. On the contrary, their Authority is vested in them, that they may, by the just Exercise of it, promote the Happiness of their People: Of Course, they have not a Right to dispose of their Liberty, and to sell them for Slaves: Besides, no Man has a Right to acquire or to purchase them: Men and their Liberty are not either saleable or purchasable, one therefore has Nobody but himself to blame, in case he shall find himself deprived of a Man, whom he thought he had, by buying for a Price, made his own; for he dealt in a Trade which was illicit, and was prohibited by the most obvious Dictates of Humanity. For these Reasons, every one of those unfortunate Men, who are pretended to be Slaves, has a Right to be declared free, for he never lost his Liberty; he could not lose it; his Prince has no Power to dispose of him; of Course [Page] the Sale was void. This Right he carries about with him, and is intitled every where to get it declared. As soon, therefore, as he comes into a Country, in which the Judges are not forgetful of their own Humanity, it is their Duty to remember that he is a Man, and to declare him to be free.—This is the Law of Nature, which is obligatory on all Men, at all Times, and in all Places.— Would not any of us, who should be snatched by Pirates from his native Land, think himself cruelly abused, and at all Times intitled to be free? Have not these unfortunate Africans, who meet with the same cruel Fate, the same Right? Are not they Men as well as we, and have they not the same Sensibility? Let us not, therefore, defend or support a Usage, which is contrary to all the Laws of Humanity.’

‘—He who detains another by Force in Slavery, is always bound to prove his Title. The Slave sold or carried away into a distant Country, must not be obliged to prove a Negative, That he never forfeited his Liberty. The violent Possessor must, in all Cases, shew his Title, especially where the old Proprietor is well known. In this Case each Man is the original Proprietor of his own Liberty: The Proof of his losing it must be incumbent on those, who deprived him of it by Force. Strange [Page] (says the same Author) that in any Nation, where a Sense of Liberty prevails, where the Christian Religion is professed, Custom, and high Prospect of Gain, can so stupify the Consciences of Men, and all Sense of natural Justice, that they can hear such Computation made about the Value of their Fellow-Men, and their Liberty, without Abhorrence and Indignation!’

—The Bondage we have imposed on the Africans, is absolutely repugnant to Justice. That it is highly inconsistent with civil Policy: First, as it tends to suppress all Improvements in Arts and Sciences; without which it is morally impossible that any Nation should be happy or powerful. Secondly, as it may deprave the Minds of the Freemen; steeling their Hearts against the laudable Feelings of Virtue and Humanity. And, lastly, as it endangers the Community, by the destructive Effects of civil Commotions; need I add to these (says that Author) what every Heart, which is not callous to all tender Feelings, will readily suggest; that it is shocking to Humanity, violative of every generous Sentiment, abhorrent utterly from the Christian Religion; for as Montesquieu very justly observes, We must suppose them not to be Men, or a Suspicion would follow that we ourselves are not Christians.— There cannot be a more dangerous Maxim, [Page] than that Necessity is a Plea for Injustice. For who shall fix the Degree of this Necessity? What Villain so atrocious, who may not urge this Excuse; or, as Milton has happily expressed it,

"—And with Necessity,

"The Tyrant's Plea, excuse his dev'lish Deed?

That our Colonies want People, is a very weak Argument for so inhuman a Violation of Justice.—Shall a civilized, a Christian Nation encourage Slavery, because the barbarous, savage, lawless African, hath done it? Monstrous Thought! To what End do we profess a Religion whose Dictates we so flagrantly violate? Wherefore have we that Pattern of Goodness and Humanity, if we refuse to follow it? How long shall we continue a Practice, which Policy rejects, Justice condemns, and Piety dissuades? Shall the Americans persist in a Conduct, which cannot be justified; or persevere in Oppression, from which their Hearts must recoil? If the barbarous Africans shall continue to enslave each other, let the Daemon Slavery remain among them, that their Crime may include its own Punishment. Let not Christians, by administring to their Wickedness, confess their Religion to be a useless Refinement, their Profession vain, and themselves as inhuman as the Savages they detest.

[Page] ‘—Should we have read concerning the Greeks or Romans of old, that they traded, with a View to make Slaves of their own Species, whom they certainly knew that this would involve in Schemes of Blood and Murder, of destroying or enslaving each other, that they even fomented Wars, and engaged whole Nations and Tribes in open Hostilities, for their own private Advantage; that they had no Detestation of the Violence and Cruelty; but only feared the ill Success of their inhuman Enterprizes; that they carried Men like themselves, their Brethren, and the Offspring of the same common Parent, to be sold like Beasts of Prey, or Beasts of Burden; and put them to the same reproachful Trial of their Soundness, Strength and Capacity for greater bodily Service; that quite forgetting and renouncing the original Dignity of human Nature, communicated to all, they treated them with more Severity and ruder Discipline, than even the Ox or the Ass, who are void of Understanding;—should we not, if this had been the Case, have naturally been led to despise all their pretended Refinements of Morality; and to have concluded, that as they were not Nations destitute of Politeness, they must have been intire Strangers to Virtue and Benevolence.’

[Page] ‘But, notwithstanding this, we ourselves (who profess to be Christians, and boast of the peculiar Advantage we enjoy, by means of an express Revelation of our Duty from Heaven) are, in Effect, these very untaught and rude Heathen Countries. With all our superior Light, we instil into those, whom we call savage and barbarous, the most despicable Opinion of human Nature. We, to the utmost of our Power, weaken and dissolve the universal Tie, that binds and unites Mankind. We practise what we should exclaim against, as the utmost Excess of Cruelty and Tyranny, if Nations of the World, differing in Colour, and Form of of Government from ourselves, were so possessed of Empire, as to be able to reduce us to a State of unmerited and brutish Servitude. Of Consequence, we sacrifice our Reason, our Humanity, our Christianity, to an unnatural sordid Gam. We teach other Nations to despise, and trample under Foot, all the Obligations of social Virtue. We take the most effectual Method to prevent the Propagation of the Gospel, by representing it as a Scheme of Power and barbarous Oppression, and an Enemy to the natural Privileges and Rights of Men.’

THE END.

Information about this book

Title statement

An extract from a treatise on the spirit of prayer, or The soul rising out of the vanity of time into the riches of eternity. With some thoughts on war: remarks on the nature and bad effects of the use of spirituous liquors. And considerations on slavery. : [Twelve lines from Porteus]Spirit of prayer. Selections

Law, William, 1686-1761.

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Publisher

Text Creation Partnership,

Place of publication

Ann Arbor, MI :

Date

2009-04.

ID [DLPS]

N13302

ID [TCP]

N13302

ID [STC]

Evans 16817

ID [NOTIS]

APY5076

ID [IMAGE-SET]

16817

ID [EVANS-CITATION]

99032233

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Early American Imprints, 1639-1800 ; no. 16817.

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(Evans-TCP ; no. N13302)

Transcribed from: (Readex Archive of Americana ; Early American Imprints, series I ; image set 16817)

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Source

— An extract from a treatise on the spirit of prayer, or The soul rising out of the vanity of time into the riches of eternity. With some thoughts on war: remarks on the nature and bad effects of the use of spirituous liquors. And considerations on slavery. : [Twelve lines from Porteus], Spirit of prayer. Selections, Law, William, 1686-1761., Benezet, Anthony, 1713-1784. Remarks on the nature and bad effects of the use of spirituous liquors..

Extent

84 p. ; 16 cm. (12mo)

Printed by Joseph Crukshank, in Market-Street, between Second and Third-Streets.,. Philadelphia: :: MDCCLXXX. [1780]. (Attributed to William Law in the Dictionary of national biography. "Remarks on the nature and bad effects of spirituous liquors" is by Anthony Benezet.) ("Considerations on war."--p. 52-66.) ("Thoughts on slavery from several authors."--p. 79-84.)

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