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Life of God in the Soul of Man - Henry Scougal · Melmoth The Wanderer

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Speaker 1: Section one of the Life of God and the Soul
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Speaker 1: of Man. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
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Speaker 1: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
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Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Genre Mundo The
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Speaker 1: Life of God and the Soul of Man by Henry Scougel,
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Speaker 1: Section one, My dear friend, this designation doth give you
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Speaker 1: a title to all endeavors whereby I can serve your interests,
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Speaker 1: and your pious inclinations to do so happily conspire with
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Speaker 1: my duty that I shall not need to step out
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Speaker 1: of my road to gratify you, but I may at
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Speaker 1: once perform an office of friendship and discharge an exercise
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Speaker 1: of my function. Since the advancing of virtue and holiness,
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Speaker 1: which I hope you make your greatest study, is the
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Speaker 1: peculiar business of my employment. This, therefore is the most
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Speaker 1: popular instance wherein I convent my affection and express my
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Speaker 1: gratitude towards you, and I shall not any longer delay
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Speaker 1: the performance of the promise I made you to this purpose,
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Speaker 1: For though I know you are provided with better helps
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Speaker 1: of this nature than any I can offer you. Who
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Speaker 1: are you like to meet with anything here which you
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Speaker 1: knew not before. Yet I am hopeful that what cometh
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Speaker 1: from one whom you are pleased to honor with your friendship,
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Speaker 1: and which is more particularly designed for your use, will
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Speaker 1: be kindly accepted by you. And God's providence perhaps may
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Speaker 1: so direct my thoughts, that something or other may prove
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Speaker 1: useful to you. Nor shall I doubt your pardon if
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Speaker 1: for molding my discourse into the better frame, I lay
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Speaker 1: a low foundation, beginning with the nature and properties of religion,
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Speaker 1: and all along give such way to my thoughts in
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Speaker 1: the prosecution of the subject as may bring me to
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Speaker 1: say many things which were not necessary, did I only
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Speaker 1: consider to whom I am writing. I cannot speak of religion,
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Speaker 1: but I must lament that among so many pretenders to it,
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Speaker 1: so few understand what it means, some placing it in
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Speaker 1: the understanding in orthodox notions and opinions, And all the
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Speaker 1: account they can give of their religion is that they
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Speaker 1: are of this and the other persuasion, and have joined
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Speaker 1: themselves to one of those many sects whereinto Christendom is
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Speaker 1: most unhappily divided. Others place it in the outward man.
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Speaker 1: In a constant course of external duties and a model
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Speaker 1: of performances. If they live peaceably with their neighbors, keep
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Speaker 1: a temperate diet, observe the returns of worship, frequenting the
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Speaker 1: church or their closet, and sometimes extend their hands to
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Speaker 1: the relief of the poor they think they have sufficiently
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Speaker 1: acquitted themselves. Others again put all religion in the affections,
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Speaker 1: in rapturous hearts and ecstatic devotion. And all they aim
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Speaker 1: at is to pray with passion, and think of Heaven
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Speaker 1: with pleasure, and to be affected with those kind and
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Speaker 1: melting expressions. Wherewith they court their Savior till they persuade
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Speaker 1: themselves they are mightily in love with him, and from
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Speaker 1: thence assume a great confidence of their salvation, which they
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Speaker 1: esteem the chief of Christian graces. Thus are these things
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Speaker 1: which have any resemblance of piety, and at the best
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Speaker 1: are but means of obtaining it, or particular exercises of it,
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Speaker 1: frequently mistaken for the whole of religion. Nay, sometimes wickedness
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Speaker 1: and vice pretend to that name. I speak not now
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Speaker 1: of those gross and pieties wherewith the Heathens were wont
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Speaker 1: to worship their gods. There are but too many Christians
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Speaker 1: who would consecrate their vices and follow their corrupt affections,
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Speaker 1: whose ragged humor and sullen pride must be past for
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Speaker 1: Christian severity, whose fierce wrath and bitter rage against their
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Speaker 1: enemies must be called holy zeal, whose petulancy towards their superiors,
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Speaker 1: or rebellion against their governors must have the name of
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Speaker 1: Christian courage and resolution. But certainly, religion is quite another thing,
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Speaker 1: and they who are acquainted with it will entertain far
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Speaker 1: different thoughts and disdain all those shadows and false imitations
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Speaker 1: of it. They know by experience that true religion is
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Speaker 1: a union of the soul with God, a real participation
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Speaker 1: of the divine nature, the very image of God drawn
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Speaker 1: upon the soul, or, in the Apostles phrase, it is
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Speaker 1: Christ formed within us. Briefly, I know not how the
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Speaker 1: nature of religion can be more fully expressed than by
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Speaker 1: calling it a divine life. And under these terms I
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Speaker 1: shall discourse of it, showing first how it is called
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Speaker 1: a life, and then how it is termed divine. I
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Speaker 1: choose to express it by the name of life first,
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Speaker 1: because of its permanency and stability. Religion is not a
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Speaker 1: sudden start or passion of the mind, not though it
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Speaker 1: should rise to the height of a rapture and seem
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Speaker 1: to transport a man to extraordinary performances. There are few
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Speaker 1: but have convictions of the necessity of doing something for
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Speaker 1: the salvation of their souls, which may push them forward
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Speaker 1: some steps with a great deal of seeming haste, but
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Speaker 1: anon they flag and give over. They were in a
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Speaker 1: hot mood, but now they are cooled. They did shoot forth,
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Speaker 1: fresh and high, but are quickly withered because they had
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Speaker 1: no root in themselves. These sudden fits may be compared
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Speaker 1: to the violent and convulsive motions of bodies newly beheaded
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Speaker 1: caused by the agitations of the animal spirits after the
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Speaker 1: soul is departed, which, however violent and impetuous, can be
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Speaker 1: of no long continuance. Whereas the motions of holy souls
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Speaker 1: are constant and regular, proceeding from a permanent and lively principle.
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Speaker 1: It is true this divine life continueth not always in
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Speaker 1: that same strength and vigor, but many times suffers sad decays,
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Speaker 1: and holy men find greater difficulty in resisting temptations and
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Speaker 1: less alacrity in the performance of their duties. Yet it
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Speaker 1: is not quite extinguished, nor are they abandoned to the
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Speaker 1: power of those corrupt affections which sway and overrule the
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Speaker 1: rest of the world. Again, religion may be designed by
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Speaker 1: the name of life, because it is an inward free
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Speaker 1: and self moving principle, And those who have made progress
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Speaker 1: in it are not actuated only by external motives, driven
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Speaker 1: merely by threatenings, nor bribed by promises, nor constrained by laws,
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Speaker 1: but are powerfully inclined to that which is good and
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Speaker 1: delight in the performance of it. The love which a
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Speaker 1: pious man bears to God and Goodness is not so
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Speaker 1: much by virtue of a command in joining him so
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Speaker 1: to do, as by a new nature instructing and prompting
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Speaker 1: him to it. Nor doth he pay his devotions as
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Speaker 1: an unavoidable tribute, only to appease the divine justice or
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Speaker 1: quiet his clamorous conscience. But those religious exercises are the
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Speaker 1: proper emanations of the divine life, the natural employments of
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Speaker 1: the new born soul. He prays and gives thanks and
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Speaker 1: repents not only because these things are commanded, but rather
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Speaker 1: because he is sensible of his wants and of the
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Speaker 1: divine goodness, and of the folly and misery of a
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Speaker 1: sinful life. His charity is not forced, nor his aims
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Speaker 1: ex distorted from him. His love makes him willing to give,
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Speaker 1: And though there were no outward obligation, his heart would
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Speaker 1: devise liberal things injustice or in temperance. And all other
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Speaker 1: vices are as contrary to his temper and constitution as
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Speaker 1: the basest actions are to the most generous spirit, and
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Speaker 1: impudence and scurrility to those who are naturally modest. So
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Speaker 1: that I may well say, with Saint John, whosoever is
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Speaker 1: born of God, doth not commit sin, for his seed
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Speaker 1: remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he is
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Speaker 1: born of God. Though holy and religious persons do much
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Speaker 1: i the Law of God, and have a great regard
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Speaker 1: unto it, Yet it is not so much the sanction
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Speaker 1: of the law as its reasonableness and purity and goodness,
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Speaker 1: which do prevail with them. They account it excellent and
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Speaker 1: desirable in itself, and that in keeping of it there
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Speaker 1: is great reward, And that divine love, wherewith they are actuated,
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Speaker 1: makes them become a law unto themselves. Who shall prescribe
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Speaker 1: a law to those that love loves a more powerful
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Speaker 1: law which doth them move. In a word, what our
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Speaker 1: blessed Savior said of himself is in some measure applicable
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Speaker 1: to his followers. That it is their meat and drink
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Speaker 1: to do their father's will. And as the natural appetite
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Speaker 1: is carried out toward food, though we should not reflect
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Speaker 1: on the necessity of it for the preservation of our lives,
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Speaker 1: so they are carried with a natural and unforced propension
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Speaker 1: toward that which is good and commendable. It is true.
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Speaker 1: External motives are many times of great use to excite
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Speaker 1: and stir up this inward principle, especially in its infancy
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Speaker 1: and weakness, when it is often so languid that the
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Speaker 1: man himself can scarce discern it, hardly being able to
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Speaker 1: move one step forward. But when he is pushed by
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Speaker 1: his hopes or his fears, by the pressure of an
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Speaker 1: affliction or the sense of a mercy, by the authority
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Speaker 1: of the law, or the persuasion of others. Now, if
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Speaker 1: such a person be conscientious and uniform in his obedience,
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Speaker 1: and earnestly groaning under the sense of his dullness, and
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Speaker 1: is desirous to perform his duties with more spirit and vigor,
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Speaker 1: these are the first motions of the divine life, which,
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Speaker 1: though it be faint and weak, will surely be cherished
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Speaker 1: by the influences of heaven and grow into greater maturity.
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Speaker 1: But he who is utterly destitute of this inward principle,
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Speaker 1: and doth not aspire to it, but contents himself with
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Speaker 1: those performances whereunto he is prompted by education or custom,
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Speaker 1: by the fear of hell or carnal notions of heaven,
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Speaker 1: can no more be accounted a religious person than a
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Speaker 1: puppet can be called a man. This forced and artificial
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Speaker 1: religion is commonly heavy and languid, like the motion of
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Speaker 1: a weight forced upward. It is cold and spiritless, like
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Speaker 1: the uneasy compliance of a wife married against her will,
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Speaker 1: who carries it dutily toward the husband whom she does
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Speaker 1: not love, out of some sense of virtue or honor. Hence,
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Speaker 1: also this religion is scant and niggardly, especially in those
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Speaker 1: duties which do greatest violence to men's carnal inclinations, and
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Speaker 1: those slavish spirits will be sure to do no more
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Speaker 1: than is absolutely required. It is a law that compels them,
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Speaker 1: and they will be loath to go beyond what it
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Speaker 1: stints them to nay, they will ever be putting such
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Speaker 1: glosses on it as may leave themselves the greatest liberty,
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Speaker 1: whereas the spirit of true religion is frank and liberal,
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Speaker 1: far from such peevish and narrow reckoning. And he who
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Speaker 1: hath given himself entirely unto God will never think he
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Speaker 1: doth too much for him. By this time, I hope
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Speaker 1: it doth appear that religion is, with a great deal
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Speaker 1: of reason termed a life or vital principle, and that
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Speaker 1: it is very necessary to distinguish betwixt it and that obedience,
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Speaker 1: which is constrained and depends upon external causes. I come
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Speaker 1: next to give an account why designed it by the
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Speaker 1: name of Divine Life. And so it may be called
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Speaker 1: not only in regard of its fountain and original, having
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Speaker 1: God for its author, and being wrought in the souls
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Speaker 1: of men by the power of His Holy Spirit, but
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Speaker 1: also in regard of its nature, religion being a resemblance
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Speaker 1: of the divine perfections, the image of the Almighty shining
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Speaker 1: in the soul of man. Nay, it is a real
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Speaker 1: participation of His nature. It is a beam of the
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Speaker 1: eternal light, a drop of that infinite ocean of goodness,
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Speaker 1: and they who are endowed with it may be said
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Speaker 1: to have God dwelling in their souls, and Christ formed
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Speaker 1: within them. Before I descend to a more particular consideration
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Speaker 1: of that divine life wherein true religion doth consist, it
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Speaker 1: will perhaps be fit to speak a little of that
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Speaker 1: natural or animal life which prevails in those who are
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Speaker 1: strangers to the other. And by this I understand nothing else,
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Speaker 1: but are inclination and propension towards those things which are
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Speaker 1: pleasing and acceptable to nature or self love, issuing forth
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Speaker 1: and spreading itself into as many branches as men have
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Speaker 1: several appetites and inclinations. The root and foundation of the
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Speaker 1: animal life I reckon to be sense, taking it largely
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Speaker 1: as it is opposed unto faith and importeth our perception
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Speaker 1: and sensation of those things that are either grateful or
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Speaker 1: troublesome to us. Now, these animal affections, considered in themselves
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Speaker 1: and as they are implanted in us by nature, are
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Speaker 1: not vicious or blameable. Nay, they are instances of the
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Speaker 1: wisdom of the Creator, furnishing as creatures with such appetites
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Speaker 1: as tend to the preservation and welfare of their lives.
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Speaker 1: These are instead of a law, and to the brute beasts,
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Speaker 1: whereby they are directed towards the ends for which they
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Speaker 1: were made. But man, being made for higher purposes and
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Speaker 1: to be guided by more excellent laws, becomes guilty and
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Speaker 1: criminal when he is so far transported by the inclinations
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Speaker 1: of this lower life as to violate his duty or
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Speaker 1: neglect the higher and more noble designs of his creation.
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Speaker 1: Our natural affections are not wholly to be extirpated and destroyed,
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Speaker 1: but only to be moderated and overruled by a superior
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Speaker 1: and more excellent principle. In a word, the difference betwixt
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Speaker 1: a religious and wicked man is that in the one,
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Speaker 1: divine life bears sway. In the other, the animal life
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Speaker 1: doth prevail. But it is strange to observe unto what
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Speaker 1: different courses this natural principle will sometimes carry those who
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Speaker 1: are wholly guided by it, according to the diverse circumstances
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Speaker 1: that concur with it to determine them. And then, not
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Speaker 1: considering this, doth frequently occasion very dangerous mistakes, making men
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Speaker 1: think well of themselves by reason of that seeming difference,
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Speaker 1: which is betwixt them and others, whereas perhaps their actions
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Speaker 1: do all the while flow from one and the same original.
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Speaker 1: If we consider the natural temper and constitution of men's souls,
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Speaker 1: we shall find some to be airy, frolicsome, and light,
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Speaker 1: which make their behavior extravagant and ridiculous, whereas others are
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Speaker 1: naturally serious and severe, and their whole carriage imposed into
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Speaker 1: such gravity as gains them a great deal of reverence
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Speaker 1: and esteem. Some are of a humorous, rugged, and morose temper,
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Speaker 1: and can neither be pleased themselves nor endure that others
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Speaker 1: should be so. But all are not born with such
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Speaker 1: sour and unhappy dispositions. For some persons have a certain
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Speaker 1: sweetness and benignity rooted in their natures, and they find
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Speaker 1: the greatest pleasure in the endearments of society and the
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Speaker 1: mutual complacency of friends, and covet nothing more than to
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Speaker 1: have everybody obliged to them. And it is well that
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Speaker 1: nature hath provided this complexional tenderness to supply the defect
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Speaker 1: of true charity in the world, and to incline men
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Speaker 1: to do something for one another's welfare. Again, in regard
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Speaker 1: to education, some have never been taught to follow any
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Speaker 1: other rules than those of pleasure or advantage. But others
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Speaker 1: are so inured to observe the strictest rules of decency
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Speaker 1: and honor, and some instances of virtue, that they are
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Speaker 1: hardly capable of doing anything which they have been accustomed
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Speaker 1: to look upon as base and unworthy. In fine, it
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Speaker 1: is no small difference in the deportment of mere natural
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Speaker 1: men that doth arise from the strain their weakness of
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Speaker 1: their wit or judgment, and from their care and negligence
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Speaker 1: in using them. In temperance and lust, injustice and oppression,
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Speaker 1: and all those other impieties which abound in the world
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Speaker 1: and render it so miserable are the issues of self love.
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Speaker 1: The effect of the animal life when it is neither
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Speaker 1: overpowered by religion nor governed by natural reason. But if
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Speaker 1: it once take hold of reason and get judgment and
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Speaker 1: wit to be of its party, it will many times
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Speaker 1: disdain the grosser sort of vices and spring up into
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Speaker 1: fair imitations of virtue and goodness. If a man have
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Speaker 1: but so much reason as to consider the prejudice which,
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Speaker 1: in temperance and inordinate lust do bring unto his health,
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Speaker 1: his fortune, and his reputation, self love may suffice to
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Speaker 1: restrain him, and one may observe the rules of moral
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Speaker 1: justice in dealing with others as the best way to
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Speaker 1: secure his own interest and maintain his credit in the world.
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Speaker 1: But this is not all, for this natural principle, by
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Speaker 1: the help of reason, may take a higher flight and
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Speaker 1: come nigher the instances of piety and religion. It may
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Speaker 1: incline a man to the diligent study of divine truths,
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Speaker 1: for why should not these, as well as other speculations,
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Speaker 1: be pleasant and grateful to curious and inquisitive minds. It
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Speaker 1: may make men zealous in maintaining and propagating such opinions
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Speaker 1: as they have espoused, and be very desirous that others
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Speaker 1: should submit into their judgment and approve the choice of
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Speaker 1: religion which they themselves have made. It may make them
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Speaker 1: delight to hear and compose excellent discourses about the matters
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Speaker 1: of religion, For eloquence is very pleasant, whatever be the subject,
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Speaker 1: nay some it may dispose to no small height of
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Speaker 1: sensible devotion. The glorious things that are spoken of Heaven
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Speaker 1: may make even a carnal heart in love with it.
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Speaker 1: The metaphors and similitudes made use of in scripture of
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Speaker 1: crowns and scepters and rivers of pleasure, et cetera, will
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Speaker 1: easily affect a man's fancy and make him wish to
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Speaker 1: be there, though he neither understand nor desire those spiritual
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Speaker 1: pleasures which are described and shadowed forth by them. And
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Speaker 1: when such a person comes to believe that Christ has
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Speaker 1: purchased those glorious things for him, he may feel a
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Speaker 1: kind of tenderness and affection towards so great a benefactor,
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Speaker 1: and imagine that he is mightily enamored with him. And
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Speaker 1: yet all a while continue a stranger to the holy
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Speaker 1: temper and spirit of the Blessed Jesus. And what hand
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Speaker 1: the natural constitution may have in the rapturous devotions of
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Speaker 1: some melancholy persons, hath been excellently discovered of late by
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Speaker 1: several learned and judicious pens to conclude, there is nothing
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Speaker 1: proper to make a man's life pleasant or himself eminent
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Speaker 1: and conspicuous in the world. But this natural principle, assisted
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Speaker 1: by wit and reason, may prompt them to it. And
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Speaker 1: though I do not condemn those things in themselves, yet
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Speaker 1: it concerns us nearly to know and consider their nature,
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Speaker 1: both that we may keep within due bonds, and also
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Speaker 1: that we may learn never to value ourselves on the
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Speaker 1: account of such attainments, nor lay the stress of religion
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Speaker 1: upon our natural appetites or performances. It is now time
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Speaker 1: to return to the consideration of that divine life wherever
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Speaker 1: I was discussing before, that life which is hid with
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Speaker 1: Christ and God, and therefore hath no glorious show or
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Speaker 1: appearance in the world, and to the natural man will
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Speaker 1: seem a mean and insipid notion. As the animal life
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Speaker 1: consisteth in that narrow and confined love which is terminated
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Speaker 1: on a man's self and in his prepension towards those
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Speaker 1: things that are pleasing to nature. So the divine life
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Speaker 1: stands in a universal and unbounded affection, and in the
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Speaker 1: mastery over our natural inclinations, that they may never be
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Speaker 1: able to betray us to those things which we know
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Speaker 1: to be blameable. The root of the divine life is faith.
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Speaker 1: The chief branches are loved to God, charity to man,
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Speaker 1: purity and humility, for as an excellent person hath well observed. However,
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Speaker 1: these names be common and vulgar, and make no extraordinary sound,
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Speaker 1: Yet do they carry such a mighty sense that the
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Speaker 1: tongue of man or angel can pronounce nothing more weighty
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Speaker 1: or excellent. Faith hath the same place in the divine life,
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Speaker 1: which sense hath in the natural, being indeed nothing else
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Speaker 1: but a kind of sense or feeling persuasion of spiritual things.
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Speaker 1: It extends itself unto all divine truths. But in our
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Speaker 1: lapsed dis state it hath a peculiar relation to the
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Speaker 1: declaration of God's mercy and reconcilableness to sinners through a mediator,
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Speaker 1: and therefore receiving its denomination from that principal object is
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Speaker 1: ordinarily termed faith. In Jesus Christ. The love of God
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Speaker 1: is a delightful and affectionate sense of the divine perfections,
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Speaker 1: which makes the soul resign and sacrifice itself wholly unto Him,
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Speaker 1: desiring above all things to please Him, and delighting in
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Speaker 1: nothing so much as in fellowship and communion with Him,
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Speaker 1: and being ready to do or suffer anything for his
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Speaker 1: sake or at his pleasure. Though this affection may have
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Speaker 1: its first rise from the favors and mercies of God
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Speaker 1: toward ourselves, yet doth it in its growth and progress
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Speaker 1: transcend such particular considerations and ground itself on His infinite
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Speaker 1: goodness manifested in all the works of creation and providence.
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Speaker 1: A soul thus possessed with divine love must needs be
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Speaker 1: enlarged toward all mankind in a sincere and unbounded affection,
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Speaker 1: because of the relation they have to God, being his creatures,
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Speaker 1: and having something of His image stamped upon them. And
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Speaker 1: this is that charity I named as the second branch
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Speaker 1: of religion, and under which all the parts of justice,
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Speaker 1: all the duties we owe to our neighbor, are eminently comprehended.
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Speaker 1: For he ye who doth truly love all the world,
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Speaker 1: will be nearly concerned in the interest of every one,
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Speaker 1: and so far from wronging or injuring any person, that
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Speaker 1: he will resent any evil that befalls others, as if
18:10
Speaker 1: it happened to himself. By purity, I understand a due
18:13
Speaker 1: abstractedness from the body and mastery over the inferior appetites,
18:17
Speaker 1: or such a temper and disposition of mind as makes
18:20
Speaker 1: a man despise and abstain from all pleasures and delights
18:23
Speaker 1: of sense or fancy, which are sinful in themselves, or
18:26
Speaker 1: tend to extinguish or lesson are relish of more divine
18:29
Speaker 1: and intellectual pleasures, which doth also infer a resoluteness to
18:33
Speaker 1: undergo all those hardships he may meet with in the
18:35
Speaker 1: performance of his duty, so that not only chastity and temperance,
18:39
Speaker 1: but also Christian courage and magnanimity may come under this head.
18:44
Speaker 1: Humility imports a deep sense of our own meanness, with
18:47
Speaker 1: hearty and affectionate acknowledgment of our owing all that we
18:50
Speaker 1: are to the divine bounty, which is always accompanied with
18:53
Speaker 1: a profound submission to the will of God, and a
18:56
Speaker 1: great deadness towards the glory of the world and applause
18:59
Speaker 1: of men. These are the highest perfections that either men
19:02
Speaker 1: or angels are capable of. The very foundation of heaven
19:06
Speaker 1: laid in the soul, And he who hath attained them
19:08
Speaker 1: needs not desire to pry into the hidden rolls of
19:11
Speaker 1: God's decrees or search the volumes of heaven to know
19:14
Speaker 1: what is determined about his everlasting condition. But he may
19:17
Speaker 1: find a copy of God's thoughts concerning him written in
19:20
Speaker 1: his own breast. His love to God may give him
19:23
Speaker 1: assurance of God's favor to him, and those beginnings of
19:25
Speaker 1: happiness which he feels in the conformity of the powers
19:28
Speaker 1: of his soul to the nature of God, and compliance
19:30
Speaker 1: with his will, are a sure pledge that his felicity
19:33
Speaker 1: shall be perfected and continued to all eternity. And it
19:37
Speaker 1: is not without reason that one said, I had rather
19:40
Speaker 1: see the real impressions of a godlike nature upon my
19:43
Speaker 1: own soul than have a vision from heaven or an
19:45
Speaker 1: angel sent to tell me that my name was enrolled
19:48
Speaker 1: in the Book of life. When we have said all
19:51
Speaker 1: that we can, the secret mysteries of a new nature
19:53
Speaker 1: and divine life can never be sufficiently expressed. Language and
19:57
Speaker 1: words cannot reach them, nor can they be truly understood
20:00
Speaker 1: good but by those souls that are enkindled within and
20:02
Speaker 1: awakened unto the sense and relish of spiritual things. There
20:06
Speaker 1: is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the
20:09
Speaker 1: Almighty giveth this understanding. The power and life of religion
20:13
Speaker 1: may be better expressed in actions than in words, because
20:16
Speaker 1: actions are more lively things and do better represent the
20:18
Speaker 1: inward principle. Whence they proceed, And therefore we may take
20:22
Speaker 1: the best measure of those gracious endowments from the deportment
20:25
Speaker 1: of those in whom they reside, especially as they are
20:28
Speaker 1: perfectly exemplified in the holy life of our blessed Savior.
20:32
Speaker 1: A main part of whose business in this world was
20:34
Speaker 1: to teach by his practice what he did require of others,
20:37
Speaker 1: and to make his own conversation in exact resemblance of
20:40
Speaker 1: those unparalleled rules which he prescribed, so that if ever
20:43
Speaker 1: true goodness was visible to mortalize, it was then when
20:47
Speaker 1: his presence did beautify and illustrate this lower world. End
20:52
Speaker 1: of section one, recording by General Mundo. Section two of
21:03
Speaker 1: the Life of God and the Soul of Man by
21:04
Speaker 1: Henry Scougel. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
21:08
Speaker 1: Recording by Genre Mundo, Section two that sincere and devout affection,
21:14
Speaker 1: wherewith his blessed soul had constantly burned towards his heavenly Father,
21:18
Speaker 1: did express itself in an entire resignation to his will.
21:21
Speaker 1: It was his very meat to do the will and
21:23
Speaker 1: finish the work of him that sent him. This was
21:26
Speaker 1: the exercise of his childhood and the constant employment of
21:29
Speaker 1: his riper age. He spared no traveler pains while he
21:32
Speaker 1: was about his father's business, but took such infinite content
21:35
Speaker 1: and satisfaction in the performance of it, that, when being
21:38
Speaker 1: faint and weary with his journey, he rested himself on
21:41
Speaker 1: Jacob's well and entreated water of the Samaritan woman. The
21:45
Speaker 1: success of his conference with her, and the accession that
21:48
Speaker 1: was made to the Kingdom of God, filled his mind
21:50
Speaker 1: with such delight as seemed to have redounded to his
21:53
Speaker 1: very body, refreshing his spirits and making him forget the
21:56
Speaker 1: thirst whereof he complained before and refused the meat which
21:59
Speaker 1: he had said and his disciples to buy. Nor was
22:02
Speaker 1: he less patient and submissive in suffering the will of
22:04
Speaker 1: God than diligent in the doing of it. He endured
22:07
Speaker 1: the sharpest afflictions and extremest miseries that ever were inflicted
22:11
Speaker 1: on any mortal without repining thought or discontented word. For
22:15
Speaker 1: though he was far from as stupid insensibility or a
22:18
Speaker 1: fantastic or stoical obstinacy, and had as quick a sense
22:21
Speaker 1: of pain as other men, and the deepest apprehension of
22:23
Speaker 1: what he was about to suffer in his soul, as
22:26
Speaker 1: his bloody sweat, and the sore, amazement and sorrow which
22:28
Speaker 1: he professed do abundantly declare. Yet did he entirely submit
22:32
Speaker 1: to that severe disposition of providence and willingly acquiesced in it.
22:37
Speaker 1: And he prayed to God that if it were possible,
22:40
Speaker 1: or as one of the evangelists hath it, if he
22:42
Speaker 1: were willing, that cup might be removed. Yet he gently added, nevertheless,
22:47
Speaker 1: not my will, but thine be done. Of what strange
22:50
Speaker 1: importance are the expressions John twelve, verse twenty seven, where
22:54
Speaker 1: he first acknowledgeth the anguish of his spirit. Now is
22:57
Speaker 1: my soul troubled? Which would seem to produce a kind
23:00
Speaker 1: of demure? And what shall I say? And then he
23:03
Speaker 1: goes on to depreciate his sufferings, Father, save me from
23:06
Speaker 1: this hour, which he had no sooner uttered. But he doth,
23:09
Speaker 1: as it were, on second thoughts, recall it in these words.
23:12
Speaker 1: But for this cause came I into the world, and concludes, Father,
23:17
Speaker 1: glorify thy name. Now we must not look on this
23:20
Speaker 1: as any levity or blameable weakness. In the blessed Jesus.
23:23
Speaker 1: He knew all along what he was to suffer, and
23:26
Speaker 1: did most resolutely undergo it. But it shows us the
23:29
Speaker 1: inconceivable weight and pressure that he was to bear, which
23:32
Speaker 1: being so afflicting and contrary to nature he could not
23:35
Speaker 1: think of without terror. Yet considering the will of God
23:39
Speaker 1: and the glory which was to redound from him, thence
23:41
Speaker 1: he was not only content, but desirous to suffer it.
23:46
Speaker 1: Another instance of his love to God was his delight
23:48
Speaker 1: in conversing with him by prayer, which made him frequently
23:51
Speaker 1: retire himself from the world, and with the greatest devotion
23:54
Speaker 1: and pleasure, spend whole nights in that heavenly exercise. Though
23:57
Speaker 1: he had not sins to confess, and but few secular
24:00
Speaker 1: interests to pray for, which, alas are almost the only
24:03
Speaker 1: things that are wont to drive us to our devotions. Nay,
24:06
Speaker 1: we may say his whole life was a kind of prayer,
24:08
Speaker 1: a constant course of communion with God. If the sacrifice
24:12
Speaker 1: was not always offering, yet was the fire still kept alive,
24:15
Speaker 1: Nor was ever the blessed Jesus surprised with that dullness
24:18
Speaker 1: or tupidity of spirit, which we must many times wrestle
24:21
Speaker 1: with before we can be fit for the exercise of devotion.
24:24
Speaker 1: In the second place, I should speak of his love
24:27
Speaker 1: and charity toward all men, but he who would express
24:30
Speaker 1: it must transcribe the history of the Gospel and comment
24:33
Speaker 1: upon it. For scarce anything is regarded to have been
24:35
Speaker 1: done or spoken by him which was not designed for
24:38
Speaker 1: the good and advantage of some one or other. All
24:40
Speaker 1: his miraculous works were instances of his goodness as well
24:43
Speaker 1: as his power, and they benefited those on whom they
24:46
Speaker 1: wrought as well as they amazed the beholders. His charity
24:49
Speaker 1: was not confined to his kindred or relations, nor was
24:52
Speaker 1: all his kindness swallowed up in the endearment of that
24:54
Speaker 1: peculiar friendship which he carried toward his beloved disciple. But
24:58
Speaker 1: every one was his friend who obeyed his whole commands
25:01
Speaker 1: John chapter fifteen, verse fourteen. And whosoever did the will
25:04
Speaker 1: of his father, the same was to him as his brother, sister,
25:07
Speaker 1: and mother. Never was any unwelcome to him who came
25:10
Speaker 1: with an honest intention, nor did he deny any request
25:13
Speaker 1: which tended to the good of those that asked it.
25:16
Speaker 1: So that what was spoken of that Roman emperor, who
25:18
Speaker 1: for his goodness was called the darling of mankind, was
25:21
Speaker 1: really performed by him. That never any departed from him
25:24
Speaker 1: with a heavy countenance, except that rich youth Mark ten,
25:28
Speaker 1: who was sorry to hear that the kingdom of heaven
25:30
Speaker 1: stood at so high a rate, and that he could
25:32
Speaker 1: not save his soul and his money too. And certainly
25:35
Speaker 1: it troubled our Savior to see that, when a price
25:38
Speaker 1: was in his hand to get wisdom, yet he had
25:40
Speaker 1: no heart to it. The ingenuity that appeared in his
25:43
Speaker 1: first address had already procured some kindness for him, for
25:46
Speaker 1: it is said, and Jesus beholding him, loved him. But
25:50
Speaker 1: must he, for his sake cut out a new way
25:52
Speaker 1: to heaven and alter the nature of things which make
25:54
Speaker 1: it impossible that a coveteous man should be happy? And
25:58
Speaker 1: what shall I speak of his meekness? Who could but
26:00
Speaker 1: encounter the monstrous ingratitude and dissimulation of that miscreant who
26:03
Speaker 1: betrayed him In no harsher urn than these judas betrayest thou,
26:08
Speaker 1: the son of Man, with the kiss. What farther evidence
26:10
Speaker 1: could we desire of his fervent and unbounded charity than
26:13
Speaker 1: that he willingly laid down his life, even for his
26:16
Speaker 1: most bitter enemies, and mingling his prayer with his blood,
26:19
Speaker 1: besought the Father that his death might not be laid
26:22
Speaker 1: to their charge, but might become the means of eternal
26:24
Speaker 1: life to those very persons who procured it. The third
26:28
Speaker 1: branch of the divine life is purity, which, as I said,
26:31
Speaker 1: consists in a neglect of worldly enjoyments and accommodations, and
26:34
Speaker 1: a resolute enduring of all such troubles as we meet
26:37
Speaker 1: with in doing our duty. Now, surely, if ever any
26:40
Speaker 1: person was wholly dead to all the pleasure of the
26:42
Speaker 1: natural life, it was the blessed Jesus, who seldom tasted them,
26:46
Speaker 1: but when they came in his way, but never stepped
26:48
Speaker 1: out of his row to seek them. Though he allowed
26:51
Speaker 1: others the comforts of wedlock an honored marriage with his presence,
26:54
Speaker 1: yet he chose the severity of a virgin life, and
26:56
Speaker 1: ever knew the nuptial bed. And though at the same
26:59
Speaker 1: time he supplied the lack of wine with a miracle,
27:01
Speaker 1: yet he would not work a miracle to relieve his
27:03
Speaker 1: own hunger in the wilderness. So gracious and divine was
27:07
Speaker 1: the temper of his soul that he allowed others such
27:09
Speaker 1: lawful gratifications as he thought good to abstain from, and
27:12
Speaker 1: supplied not only their more extreme and pressing necessities, but
27:16
Speaker 1: also their smaller and less considerable wants. We hear many
27:19
Speaker 1: times of our saviour's sighs, groans, and tears, but never
27:22
Speaker 1: that he laughed, and but once that he rejoiced in spirit.
27:26
Speaker 1: So through his whole life he exactly answered that character
27:29
Speaker 1: given of him by the Prophet of old, that he
27:31
Speaker 1: was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Nor
27:34
Speaker 1: were the troubles and disaccommodations of his life other than
27:37
Speaker 1: matters of choice. For never did there appear on the
27:39
Speaker 1: stage of the world any one with greater advantage to
27:42
Speaker 1: have raised himself to the highest secular felicity. He who
27:45
Speaker 1: could bring together such a prodigious number of fishes into
27:48
Speaker 1: his disciples nuts, and at another time received that tribute
27:52
Speaker 1: from a fish which he was to pay to the temple,
27:54
Speaker 1: might have easily made himself the richest person in the world. Nay,
27:57
Speaker 1: without money, he could have maintained an army powerful enough
28:00
Speaker 1: to have jostled Caesar out of his throne, having more
28:02
Speaker 1: than once fed several thousand with a few loaves and
28:05
Speaker 1: small fishes. But to show what little esteem he had
28:08
Speaker 1: for all the enjoyments of this world, he chose to
28:11
Speaker 1: live in so poor and mean a condition that though
28:13
Speaker 1: the foxes had holes and the birds of the air
28:15
Speaker 1: had nests, yet he who was Lord and heir of
28:18
Speaker 1: all things, had nowhere to lay his head. He did
28:20
Speaker 1: not frequent the courts of princes, nor effect the acquaintance
28:24
Speaker 1: or converse of great ones. But being reputed the son
28:27
Speaker 1: of a carpenter, he had fishermen and such other poor
28:29
Speaker 1: people for his companions, and lived at such a rate
28:32
Speaker 1: as suited the meanness of that condition. And thus I
28:35
Speaker 1: am brought unawares to speak of his humility, the last
28:38
Speaker 1: branch of the divine life, wherein he was a most
28:41
Speaker 1: eminent pattern to us, so that we might learn from
28:43
Speaker 1: him to be meek and lowly in heart. I shall
28:46
Speaker 1: not now speak of that infinite condescension of the eternal
28:48
Speaker 1: son of God in taking our nature upon himself, but
28:51
Speaker 1: only reflect on our savior's lowly and humble deportment. While
28:54
Speaker 1: he was in the world, he had none of those
28:56
Speaker 1: sins and imperfections which may justly humble the best of men.
29:00
Speaker 1: But he was so entirely swallowed up with a deep
29:02
Speaker 1: sense of the infinite perfections of God, that he appeared
29:05
Speaker 1: as nothing in his own eyes. I mean so far
29:08
Speaker 1: as he was a creature. He considered those eminent perfections
29:11
Speaker 1: which shined in his blessed soul not as his own,
29:14
Speaker 1: but the gifts of God. And therefore he assumed nothing
29:16
Speaker 1: to himself for them, but with the most profound humility,
29:20
Speaker 1: renounced all pretenses to them. Hence he refused that ordinary
29:23
Speaker 1: compilation of good Master, when addressed to his human nature
29:27
Speaker 1: by one whom, it seems, was ignorant of his divinity.
29:30
Speaker 1: Why calle thou me good? There is none good but
29:33
Speaker 1: God only. It is as if he had said, the
29:36
Speaker 1: goodness of any creature, and such only you take me
29:38
Speaker 1: to be is not worthy to be named or taken
29:40
Speaker 1: notice of. It is God alone who is originally and
29:43
Speaker 1: essentially good. He never made use of his miraculous power
29:47
Speaker 1: for vanity or ostentation. He would not gratify the curiosity
29:50
Speaker 1: of the Jews with a sign from heaven some prodigious
29:53
Speaker 1: appearance in the air, Nor would he follow the advice
29:56
Speaker 1: of his countrymen and Kindred, who would have had all
29:58
Speaker 1: his great works performed in the eyes of the world
30:00
Speaker 1: in order to gain greater fame. But when his charity
30:03
Speaker 1: had prompted him to the relief of the miserable. His
30:06
Speaker 1: humility made him many times conceal the miracle, And when
30:09
Speaker 1: the glory of God and the design for which he
30:11
Speaker 1: came into the world required the publication of them, he
30:14
Speaker 1: ascribed the honor of all to his father, telling them
30:17
Speaker 1: that of himself he was able to do nothing. I
30:20
Speaker 1: cannot insist on all the instances of humility in his
30:23
Speaker 1: deportment towards men, his withdrawing himself when they would have
30:26
Speaker 1: made him a king, his subjection not only to his
30:29
Speaker 1: blessed mother but to her husband during his younger years,
30:32
Speaker 1: and his submission to all the indignities in affronts which
30:34
Speaker 1: his rude and malicious enemies put upon him. The history
30:38
Speaker 1: of his holy life, recorded by those who converse with
30:40
Speaker 1: him is full of such passages as these, and indeed
30:44
Speaker 1: the serious and attentive study of it is the best
30:46
Speaker 1: way to get the right measures of humility and all
30:49
Speaker 1: the other parts of religion which I have been endeavoring
30:51
Speaker 1: to describe. But now that I may lessen your trouble
30:54
Speaker 1: of reading a long letter by making some pauses in it,
30:57
Speaker 1: let me here join a prayer that might be proper
30:59
Speaker 1: when one who had formally entertained some false notions of religion,
31:02
Speaker 1: begins to discover what true religion is, infinite and eternal, Majesty,
31:08
Speaker 1: author and fountain of being in Blessedness. How little do we,
31:11
Speaker 1: poor sinful creatures know of THEE or the way to
31:14
Speaker 1: serve and please THEE. We talk of religion and pretend
31:17
Speaker 1: unto it, But alas how few there are who know
31:19
Speaker 1: and consider what it means. How easily we mistake the
31:23
Speaker 1: affections of our nature and the issues of self love
31:25
Speaker 1: for those divine graces which alone can render us acceptable
31:29
Speaker 1: in Thy sight. It may justly grieve me to consider
31:31
Speaker 1: that I should have wandered so long and contented myself
31:34
Speaker 1: so often with vain shadows and false images of piety
31:38
Speaker 1: and religion. Yet I cannot but acknowledge and adore Thy Goodness,
31:42
Speaker 1: who hast been pleased in some measure to open my
31:44
Speaker 1: eyes and let me see what it is at which
31:46
Speaker 1: I ought to aim. I rejoice to consider what mighty
31:49
Speaker 1: improvements my nature is capable of, and what a divine
31:52
Speaker 1: temper of spirit shines in those whom Thou art pleased
31:55
Speaker 1: to choose and cause to approach unto THEE. Blessed be
31:58
Speaker 1: Thine infinite Mercy, who sent thine own son to dwell
32:01
Speaker 1: among men, and to instruct them by his example as
32:04
Speaker 1: well as his laws, giving them a perfect pattern of
32:07
Speaker 1: what they ought to be. Oh, that the holy life
32:09
Speaker 1: of the Blessed Jesus may be always in my thoughts
32:12
Speaker 1: and before my eyes, till I receive a deep sense
32:14
Speaker 1: and impression of those excellent graces that shone so eminently
32:18
Speaker 1: in Him. And let me never cease my endevors until
32:21
Speaker 1: that new and divine nature prevails in my soul, and
32:24
Speaker 1: until Christ is formed within me. And now, my dear friend,
32:28
Speaker 1: having discovered the nature of true religion, before I proceed
32:31
Speaker 1: any further, I will not perhaps be unfit to fix
32:34
Speaker 1: our meditations a little on the excellency and advantages of it,
32:38
Speaker 1: so that we may be excited to a more vigorous
32:40
Speaker 1: and diligent prosecution of those methods whereby we may attain
32:43
Speaker 1: so great a felicity. But alas what words shall we
32:46
Speaker 1: find to express that inward satisfaction, those hidden pleasures which
32:50
Speaker 1: can never be rightly understood except by those holy souls
32:53
Speaker 1: who feel them a stranger intermedleth not with their joy Proveraps.
32:57
Speaker 1: Fourteen ten. Holiness is the right way temper, the vigorous
33:01
Speaker 1: and healthful constitution of the soul. Its faculties had formerly
33:04
Speaker 1: been enfeebled and disordered, so that they could not exercise
33:07
Speaker 1: their natural functions. It had wearied itself with endless tossings
33:11
Speaker 1: and rollings, and was never able to find any rest.
33:14
Speaker 1: Now that distemper being removed, it feels itself well. There
33:17
Speaker 1: is a due harmony in its faculties, and a sprightly
33:20
Speaker 1: vigor possesses every part. The understanding can discern what is good,
33:24
Speaker 1: and the will can cleave unto it. The affections are
33:27
Speaker 1: not tied to the motions of sense and the influence
33:29
Speaker 1: of external objects, but they are stirred by more divine
33:32
Speaker 1: impressions and touched by a sense of visible things. Let
33:36
Speaker 1: us descend, if you please, into a nearer and more
33:39
Speaker 1: particular view of religion in those several branches of it
33:42
Speaker 1: which were named before. Let us consider that love and affection,
33:45
Speaker 1: wherewith holy souls are united to God, so that we
33:48
Speaker 1: may see what excellency and felicity is involved in it.
33:52
Speaker 1: Love is that powerful and prevalent passion by which all
33:55
Speaker 1: the faculties and inclinations of the soul are determined, and
33:58
Speaker 1: on which both its perfection and happy piness depend. The
34:01
Speaker 1: worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured
34:04
Speaker 1: by the object of its love. He who loves mean
34:07
Speaker 1: and sordid things thereby becomes base and veil. But a
34:10
Speaker 1: noble and well placed affection advances and improves the spirit
34:13
Speaker 1: into a conformity with the perfections which it loves. The
34:17
Speaker 1: images of these frequently present themselves into the mind, and
34:20
Speaker 1: by a secret force and energy, insinuate into the very
34:23
Speaker 1: constitution of the soul, and mold and fashion it into
34:26
Speaker 1: their own likeness. Hence we may see how easily lovers
34:30
Speaker 1: are friends slide into the imitation of the persons whom
34:32
Speaker 1: they affect, and how even before they are aware, they
34:35
Speaker 1: begin to resemble them, not only in the more considerable
34:38
Speaker 1: instances of their deportment, but also in their voice and gesture,
34:41
Speaker 1: and that which we call their mien and error. And
34:44
Speaker 1: certainly we would as well transcribe the virtues and inward
34:47
Speaker 1: beauties of the soul if they were the object and
34:50
Speaker 1: motive of our love. But now, as all the creatures
34:53
Speaker 1: we converse with have their mixture and alloy, we are
34:55
Speaker 1: always in danger of being sullied and corrupted by placing
34:58
Speaker 1: our affections on them. Passion easily blinds our eyes, so
35:02
Speaker 1: that we first approve and then imitate the things that
35:04
Speaker 1: are blameable in them. The true way to improve and
35:07
Speaker 1: ennoble our souls is by fixing our love on the
35:10
Speaker 1: divine perfections, so that we may have them always before us,
35:14
Speaker 1: and derive an impression of them on ourselves. Then beholding
35:17
Speaker 1: with open face, as in a glass, the glory of
35:20
Speaker 1: the Lord, we may be changed into the same image,
35:22
Speaker 1: from glory to glory. He who, with a generous and
35:26
Speaker 1: holy ambition has raised his eyes towards that uncreated beauty
35:29
Speaker 1: and goodness and fixed his affections there is of quite
35:32
Speaker 1: another spirit, of a more excellent and heroic temper than
35:35
Speaker 1: the rest of the world, and cannot but infinitely disdain
35:38
Speaker 1: all mean and unworthy things, and will not entertain any
35:41
Speaker 1: low or base thoughts which might disparage his high and
35:44
Speaker 1: noble pretensions. Love is the greatest and most excellent thing
35:48
Speaker 1: we are masters of, and therefore it is folly and
35:50
Speaker 1: baseness to bestow it unworthily. It is indeed the only
35:54
Speaker 1: thing we can call our own. Other things may be
35:56
Speaker 1: taken from us by violence, But none can ravish our
35:59
Speaker 1: love if anything else is counted as ours. By giving
36:02
Speaker 1: our love we give all, so far as we make
36:04
Speaker 1: over our hearts and wills, by which we possess our
36:07
Speaker 1: other enjoyments. It is not possible to refuse him anything
36:10
Speaker 1: to whom by love we have given ourselves. Nay, since
36:13
Speaker 1: it is the privilege of gifts to receive their value
36:16
Speaker 1: from the mind of the giver, and not to be
36:18
Speaker 1: measured by the event, but by the desire, he who
36:20
Speaker 1: loves may in some sense be said not only to
36:23
Speaker 1: bestow all that he has, but all things else which
36:26
Speaker 1: may make the beloved person happy, since he heartily wishes them,
36:29
Speaker 1: and would readily give them if they were in his power.
36:32
Speaker 1: It is in this sense that one man could say
36:34
Speaker 1: that divine love does, in a manner give God unto himself,
36:37
Speaker 1: by the complacency it takes in the happiness and perfection
36:40
Speaker 1: of his nature. But though this may seem too strained
36:43
Speaker 1: an expression, certainly love is the most worthy present we
36:46
Speaker 1: can offer into God, and it is extremely debased when
36:50
Speaker 1: we bestow it in another way. When this affection is misplaced,
36:54
Speaker 1: it often vents itself. In such expressions as point at
36:57
Speaker 1: its genuine and proper object and insinuate where it ought
37:00
Speaker 1: to be placed. The flattering and blasphemous terms of adoration
37:04
Speaker 1: wherein men sometimes express their passion, are the language of
37:07
Speaker 1: that affection which was made and designed for God. Just
37:10
Speaker 1: as he who is accustomed to speaking to some great person,
37:12
Speaker 1: perhaps unawares accosts another with those titles he was wont
37:16
Speaker 1: to give him, but certainly that passion, which accounts its
37:19
Speaker 1: object to be Deity, ought to be bestowed on him
37:21
Speaker 1: who really is. So those unlimited submissions which would debase
37:25
Speaker 1: the soul if directed to any other person, will exalt
37:28
Speaker 1: and ennoble it. When placed here. Those chains and chords
37:32
Speaker 1: of love are infinitely more glorious than liberty itself. This
37:36
Speaker 1: slaver is more noble than all the empires in the world. Again,
37:40
Speaker 1: as divine love advances and elevates the soul, so it
37:43
Speaker 1: is that alone which can make it happy. The highest
37:46
Speaker 1: and most ravishing pleasures, the most solid and substantial delight
37:49
Speaker 1: that human nature is capable of, are those which arise
37:52
Speaker 1: from the endearments of a well placed and successful affection,
37:56
Speaker 1: That which embitters love and makes it ordinarily a very
37:59
Speaker 1: troublesome and hurt passion is placing it on those who
38:02
Speaker 1: do not have worth enough to deserve it, or affection
38:04
Speaker 1: and gratitude to requit it, or whose absence may deprive
38:08
Speaker 1: us of the pleasure of their company, or their miseries
38:10
Speaker 1: occasion our trouble. To all these evils, they are exposed
38:13
Speaker 1: whose chief and supreme affection is placed on creatures like themselves.
38:17
Speaker 1: But the love of God delivers us from them all. First,
38:21
Speaker 1: I say, love must be miserable and full of trouble
38:23
Speaker 1: and disquiet when there is not enough worth and excellency
38:26
Speaker 1: in the object to answer the vastness of its capacity.
38:29
Speaker 1: So eager and violent a passion cannot but fret and
38:32
Speaker 1: torment the spirit where it does not find something to
38:35
Speaker 1: satisfy its cravings, And indeed, so large and unbounded as
38:38
Speaker 1: its nature, that it must be extremely pinched and straightened
38:41
Speaker 1: when confined to any creature. Nothing below an infinite good
38:45
Speaker 1: can afford it room to stretch itself and exert its
38:47
Speaker 1: vigor and capacity. What is a little skin deep beauty
38:51
Speaker 1: or some small degree of goodness to match or satisfy passion,
38:54
Speaker 1: which was made for God, designed to embrace an infinite good,
38:58
Speaker 1: no wonder lovers hardly allow it rival, and do not
39:01
Speaker 1: desire that others should approve their passion by imitating it.
39:04
Speaker 1: They know the scantiness and narrowness of the good which
39:06
Speaker 1: they love, that it cannot suffice, too, being an effect
39:09
Speaker 1: too little for one. Hence, love, which is as strong
39:13
Speaker 1: as death, occasions jealousy, which is as cruel as the
39:16
Speaker 1: grave the coals whereof are coals of fire, which have
39:19
Speaker 1: a most violent flame. But divine love has no mixture
39:22
Speaker 1: of this gall Once the soul is fixed on that
39:25
Speaker 1: supreme and all sufficient good, it finds so much perfection
39:28
Speaker 1: and goodness, as not only answers and satisfies its affection,
39:31
Speaker 1: but masters and overpowers it too. It finds all its
39:34
Speaker 1: love to be too faint and languid for such a
39:37
Speaker 1: noble object, and is only sorry that it can command
39:40
Speaker 1: no more. It wishes for the flames of a seraph,
39:42
Speaker 1: and longs for the time when it shall be wholly
39:44
Speaker 1: melted and dissolved into love. And because it can do
39:47
Speaker 1: so little itself, it desires the assistance of the whole creation,
39:51
Speaker 1: so that angels and men would concur with it in
39:53
Speaker 1: the admiration and love of those infinite perfections. Again, love
39:58
Speaker 1: is accompanied with trouble. When it misses it's a suitable
40:00
Speaker 1: return of affection. Love is the most valuable thing we
40:03
Speaker 1: can bestow, and by giving it we do in effect
40:06
Speaker 1: give all that we have. And therefore it must be
40:09
Speaker 1: afflicting to find so great a gift despised, and that
40:12
Speaker 1: the present which one has made of his whole heart
40:14
Speaker 1: cannot prevail to obtain any return. Perfect love is a
40:17
Speaker 1: kind of self dereliction, a wandering out of ourselves. It
40:21
Speaker 1: is a kind of voluntary death, wherein the lover dies
40:23
Speaker 1: to himself and all his own interests, not thinking of them,
40:27
Speaker 1: nor caring for them any more, and minding nothing but
40:29
Speaker 1: how he may please and gratify the party whom he loves.
40:32
Speaker 1: Thus he is quite undone. Unless he meets with reciprocal affection,
40:36
Speaker 1: he neglects himself, and the other has no regard to him.
40:39
Speaker 1: But if he is beloved, he is revived, as it were,
40:42
Speaker 1: and lives in the soul and care of the person
40:44
Speaker 1: whom he loves. And now he begins to mind his
40:46
Speaker 1: own concerns, not so much because they are his, as
40:49
Speaker 1: because the beloved is pleased to own an interest in them,
40:52
Speaker 1: He becomes dear unto himself, because he is so into another.
40:56
Speaker 1: But why should I enlarge and so known? No matter,
40:58
Speaker 1: Nothing can be more clear than that the happiness of
41:01
Speaker 1: love depends on the return it meets with. And herein
41:04
Speaker 1: the divine lover has unspeakably the advantage having placed his
41:08
Speaker 1: affection on him whose nature is love, whose goodness is
41:11
Speaker 1: as infinite as his being, whose mercy prevented us when
41:14
Speaker 1: we were his enemies, and therefore cannot choose but to
41:17
Speaker 1: embrace us when we have become as friends. It is
41:20
Speaker 1: utterly impossible that God should deny his love to a
41:22
Speaker 1: soul wholly devoted to him, and which desires nothing so
41:25
Speaker 1: much as to serve and please him. He cannot disdain
41:28
Speaker 1: his own image, nor the heart in which it is engraven.
41:31
Speaker 1: Love is all the tribute which we can pay him,
41:34
Speaker 1: And it is a sacrifice that he will not despise
41:37
Speaker 1: another thing which disturbs the pleasure of love and renders
41:40
Speaker 1: it a miserable and unquiet. Passion is absence and separation
41:43
Speaker 1: from those we love. It is not without a sensible
41:46
Speaker 1: affliction that friends do part, though for some little time
41:49
Speaker 1: it is sad to be deprived of that society which
41:52
Speaker 1: is so delightful. Our life becomes tedious, being spent in
41:55
Speaker 1: an impatient expectation of the happy hour, wherein we may
41:58
Speaker 1: meet again. But if death has made the separation, as
42:01
Speaker 1: some time or other it must this occasions aggrieve scarcely
42:04
Speaker 1: to be paralleled by all the misfortunes of human life,
42:07
Speaker 1: and wherein we pay dearly enough for the comforts of
42:09
Speaker 1: our friendship. But oh how happy are those who have
42:12
Speaker 1: placed their love upon him who can never be absent
42:14
Speaker 1: from them. They need but open their eyes, and they
42:17
Speaker 1: shall everywhere behold the traces of his presence and glory,
42:20
Speaker 1: and converse with him whom their soul loves. And this
42:23
Speaker 1: makes the darkest prison or the wildest desert not only supportable,
42:27
Speaker 1: but delightful to them. A lover is miserable if the
42:30
Speaker 1: person whom he loves is so They who have made
42:32
Speaker 1: an exchange of hearts by love, thereby get an interest
42:35
Speaker 1: in one another's happiness and misery. And this makes love
42:38
Speaker 1: a troublesome passion. When placed on earth, the most fortunate
42:42
Speaker 1: person has enough grief to mar the tranquility of his friend,
42:45
Speaker 1: and it is hard to hold out when we are
42:47
Speaker 1: attacked on all hands and suffer not only in our
42:49
Speaker 1: own person but in another's. But if God were the
42:52
Speaker 1: object of our love, we would share in an infinite
42:55
Speaker 1: happiness without any mixture of possibility of diminution. We would
42:59
Speaker 1: rejoice to behold the glory of God and receive comfort
43:02
Speaker 1: and pleasure from all the praises wherewith men and angels
43:04
Speaker 1: extol Him. It would delight us beyond all expression to
43:07
Speaker 1: consider that the beloved of our souls is infinitely happy
43:11
Speaker 1: in himself, and that all his enemies cannot shake or
43:14
Speaker 1: unsettle his throne. Our God is in the heavens, and
43:17
Speaker 1: doth whatsoever he pleaseth behold on what sure foundations His
43:21
Speaker 1: happiness is built, whose soul is possessed with divine love,
43:24
Speaker 1: whose will is transformed into the will of God, and
43:27
Speaker 1: whose greatest desire is that his Maker should be pleased. Oh,
43:30
Speaker 1: the peace, the rest in the satisfaction that attends such
43:33
Speaker 1: a temper of mind. What an infinite pleasure it must be,
43:36
Speaker 1: as it were, to lose ourselves in Him and being
43:39
Speaker 1: swallowed up in the overcoming sense of His goodness, to
43:42
Speaker 1: offer ourselves a living sacrifice always ascending unto him in
43:46
Speaker 1: flames of love. Never does a soul know what solid
43:49
Speaker 1: joy and substantial pleasure are till once being weary of itself,
43:53
Speaker 1: it renounces all property, gives itself up to the author
43:56
Speaker 1: of its being, feels itself become a hallowed and devoted thing,
44:00
Speaker 1: and can say from an inward sense and feeling, my
44:02
Speaker 1: beloved is mine. I count all his interests my own,
44:06
Speaker 1: and I am his. I am content to be anything
44:08
Speaker 1: for him, and do not care for anything for myself
44:11
Speaker 1: but that I may serve him. A person molded into
44:14
Speaker 1: this temper would find pleasure in all the dispensations of providence.
44:18
Speaker 1: Temporal enjoyments would have another relish when he would taste
44:21
Speaker 1: the divine goodness in them and consider them as tokens
44:24
Speaker 1: of love sent by his dearest Lord and Master. And chastisements,
44:28
Speaker 1: though they are not joyous but grievous, would hereby lose
44:31
Speaker 1: their sting. The rod as well as the staff would
44:33
Speaker 1: comfort him. He would snatch a kiss from the hand
44:36
Speaker 1: that was smiting him, and would gather sweetness from that severity. Nay,
44:39
Speaker 1: he would rejoice that, though God did not do the
44:41
Speaker 1: will of such a worthless and foolish creature as himself.
44:44
Speaker 1: Yet he did his own will and accomplished his own designs,
44:47
Speaker 1: which are infinitely more holy and wise. The exercises of religion,
44:52
Speaker 1: which to others are insipid and tedious, yield the highest
44:55
Speaker 1: pleasure and delight to souls possessed with divine love. They
44:58
Speaker 1: rejoice when they are called to go out to the
45:00
Speaker 1: house of the Lord, so that they may see his
45:02
Speaker 1: power and his glory as they have formerly seen it
45:04
Speaker 1: in his sanctuary. They never think themselves so happy as
45:07
Speaker 1: when having retired from the world and gotten free from
45:10
Speaker 1: the noise and hurry of affairs, and silenced all their
45:13
Speaker 1: clamorous passions those troublesome guests within, they have placed themselves
45:17
Speaker 1: in the presence of God and entertain fellowship and communion
45:20
Speaker 1: with Him. They delight to adore his perfection, recount his favors,
45:24
Speaker 1: declare their affection for him, and tell him a thousand
45:27
Speaker 1: times that they love him. To lay out their troubles
45:29
Speaker 1: or wants before him and unburden their hearts in his bosom.
45:33
Speaker 1: Repentance itself is a delightful exercise when it flows from
45:36
Speaker 1: the principle of love. There is a secret sweetness which
45:39
Speaker 1: accompanies those tears of remorse, those meltings and relentings of
45:42
Speaker 1: a soul returning unto God and lamenting its former unkindness.
45:46
Speaker 1: The severities of a holy life, and that constant watch
45:49
Speaker 1: which we are obliged to keep over our hearts and
45:51
Speaker 1: ways are very troublesome to those who are overruled and
45:53
Speaker 1: acted by an external law, and have no law in
45:56
Speaker 1: their minds in inclining them to the performance of their duty.
45:59
Speaker 1: But where divine love possesses the soul, it stands as
46:02
Speaker 1: a sentinel to keep out everything that may offend the beloved,
46:05
Speaker 1: and disdainfully repulses those temptations which assault it. It complies cheerfully,
46:10
Speaker 1: not only with explicit commands, but with the most secret
46:13
Speaker 1: notices of the beloved's pleasure, and is ingenious in discovering
46:16
Speaker 1: what will be most grateful and acceptable unto him. It
46:19
Speaker 1: makes mortification and self denial change their harsh and dreadful
46:22
Speaker 1: names and become easy, sweet and delightful things. But I
46:26
Speaker 1: find this part of my letter swells bigger than I
46:28
Speaker 1: had designed. Indeed, who would not be tempted to dwell
46:31
Speaker 1: on so pleasant a theme? I shall endeavor to compensate
46:34
Speaker 1: for it by brevity in the other points. End of
46:38
Speaker 1: section two. Recording by Genreemundo. Section three of the Life
46:49
Speaker 1: of God and the Soul of Man. This LibriVox recording
46:52
Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Recording by Genreimundo. The next
46:57
Speaker 1: branch of the divine life is a universal chairity and love.
47:01
Speaker 1: The excellency of this grace will be easily acknowledged, for
47:04
Speaker 1: what can be more noble and generous than a heart
47:06
Speaker 1: enlarged to embrace the whole world, whose wishes and designs
47:10
Speaker 1: are leveled at the good and welfare of the universe,
47:12
Speaker 1: and which considers every man's interest as his own. He
47:15
Speaker 1: who loves his neighbor as himself can never entertain any
47:18
Speaker 1: base or injurious thought, or be wanting in expressions of bounty.
47:22
Speaker 1: He would rather suffer a thousand wrongs than be guilty
47:24
Speaker 1: of one, and never accounts himself happy. But when some
47:27
Speaker 1: one or other has benefited from him, the malice or
47:30
Speaker 1: ingratitude of men is not able to resist his love.
47:33
Speaker 1: He overlooks their injuries, pities their follies, and overcomes their
47:37
Speaker 1: evil with good. And he never designs any other revenge
47:40
Speaker 1: against his most bitter and malicious enemies than to put
47:43
Speaker 1: all the obligations he can upon them, whether they will
47:46
Speaker 1: or not. Is it any wonder that such a person
47:49
Speaker 1: is reverenced and admired and accounted the darling of mankind.
47:53
Speaker 1: This inward goodness and benignity of spirit reflects a certain
47:56
Speaker 1: sweetness and serenity upon the very countenance, and makes it
47:59
Speaker 1: amiable and lovely. It inspires the soul with a noble
48:02
Speaker 1: resignation and courage, and makes it capable of enterprising and
48:06
Speaker 1: affecting the highest things. Those heroic actions which we are
48:10
Speaker 1: wont to read with admiration have for the most part
48:13
Speaker 1: been the effects of the love of one's country or
48:15
Speaker 1: of particular friendships, And certainly a more extensive and universal
48:19
Speaker 1: affection must be much more powerful and efficacious. Again, as
48:23
Speaker 1: charity flows from a noble and excellent temper, so it
48:26
Speaker 1: is accompanied with the greatest satisfaction and pleasure. It delights
48:30
Speaker 1: the soul to feel itself thus enlarged and to be
48:33
Speaker 1: delivered from those disquieting as well as deformed passions of malice, hatred,
48:37
Speaker 1: and envy, and become gentle, sweet and benign. Had I
48:41
Speaker 1: my choice of all things that might tend to my
48:43
Speaker 1: present felicity. I would pitch upon this one to have
48:46
Speaker 1: my heart possessed with the greatest kindness and affection towards
48:49
Speaker 1: all men in the world. I am sure this would
48:52
Speaker 1: make me partake in all the happiness of others. Their
48:54
Speaker 1: inward endowments and outward prosperity, Everything that benefited and advantaged
48:59
Speaker 1: them would afford me comfort and pleasure. And though I
49:02
Speaker 1: should frequently meet with occasions of grief and compassion, yet
49:05
Speaker 1: there is a sweetness in commiseration which makes it infinitely
49:09
Speaker 1: more desirable than a stupid insensibility. The consideration of that
49:13
Speaker 1: infinite goodness and wisdom which governs the world might repress
49:16
Speaker 1: any excessive trouble for particular calamities that happen in it,
49:19
Speaker 1: and the hopes or possibility of men's later happiness might
49:22
Speaker 1: moderate their sorrow for their present misfortunes. Certainly, next to
49:26
Speaker 1: the love and enjoyment of God, that ardent charity and affection,
49:29
Speaker 1: wherewith blessed souls embrace one another, is justly to be
49:33
Speaker 1: reckoned as the greatest felicity of those regions above. And
49:36
Speaker 1: if it universally prevailed in the world, it would anticipate
49:39
Speaker 1: that blessedness and make us taste the joys of heaven
49:42
Speaker 1: upon earth. That which I named as a third branch
49:45
Speaker 1: of religion was purity. And you may remember that I
49:47
Speaker 1: described it to consist in a contempt of central pleasures
49:51
Speaker 1: and a resoluteness to undergo those troubles and pains we
49:53
Speaker 1: may meet with in the performance of our duty. Now
49:56
Speaker 1: naming this may suffice to recommend it as the most
49:59
Speaker 1: noble and excellent quality. There is no slavery so base
50:02
Speaker 1: as that whereby a man becomes a dredge to his
50:04
Speaker 1: own lusts, nor any victory so glorious as that which
50:07
Speaker 1: is obtained over them. Never can that person be capable
50:11
Speaker 1: of anything that is noble and worthy who has sunk
50:13
Speaker 1: in the gross and feculent pleasures of sense, or been
50:16
Speaker 1: bewitched with the light and airy gratifications of fancy. But
50:19
Speaker 1: the religious soul is of a more sublime and divine temper.
50:23
Speaker 1: It knows it was made for higher things and scorns,
50:25
Speaker 1: to step aside one foot out of the way of
50:27
Speaker 1: holiness just to obtain any of these. And this purity
50:31
Speaker 1: is accompanied with a great deal of pleasure. Whatsoever defiles
50:34
Speaker 1: the soul disturbs it too. All impure delights have a
50:37
Speaker 1: sting in them, and leave smart and trouble behind them.
50:40
Speaker 1: Excess and intemperance, and all inordinate lusts are such enemies
50:44
Speaker 1: to the health of the body and the interests of
50:46
Speaker 1: this present life, that a little consideration might oblige any
50:50
Speaker 1: rational man to forbear them on that very score. And
50:52
Speaker 1: if the religious person goes higher and not only abstains
50:55
Speaker 1: from noxious pleasures, but neglects those which are innocent, this
50:59
Speaker 1: is not to be looked upon as any violent and
51:01
Speaker 1: uneasy restraint, but as the effect of a better choice,
51:04
Speaker 1: that their minds are taken up in the pursuit of
51:06
Speaker 1: more sublime and refined delights, so that they cannot be
51:09
Speaker 1: concerned with these. Any person who is engaged in a
51:12
Speaker 1: violent and passionate affection will easily forget his ordinary gratifications,
51:17
Speaker 1: will be little curious about his diet, or his bodily ease,
51:20
Speaker 1: or the divertisements he was wont to delight in. No wonder, then,
51:23
Speaker 1: if souls that are overpowered with divine love despise inferior
51:27
Speaker 1: pleasures and are almost ready to grudge the body its
51:29
Speaker 1: necessary attendance for the common accommodations of life, judging all
51:33
Speaker 1: these as impertinent to their main happiness and those higher
51:36
Speaker 1: enjoyments they are pursuing. As for the hardships they meet with,
51:39
Speaker 1: they rejoice in them as opportunities to exercise and testify
51:42
Speaker 1: their affection. And since they are able to do so
51:45
Speaker 1: little for God, they are glad for the honor of
51:47
Speaker 1: suffering for him. The last branch of religion is humility,
51:51
Speaker 1: And however, to vulgar and carnalize, this may appear to
51:54
Speaker 1: be an abject base and despicable quality. Yet really the
51:57
Speaker 1: soul of man is not capable of a higher and
51:59
Speaker 1: more noble endowment. It is a silly ignorance that begets pride.
52:03
Speaker 1: But humility arises from a nearer acquaintance with excellent things,
52:07
Speaker 1: which keeps men from doting on trifles or admiring themselves
52:10
Speaker 1: because of some pretty attainments. Noble and well educated souls
52:14
Speaker 1: have no such high opinion of riches, beauty, strength, and
52:17
Speaker 1: other such advantages so as to value themselves for them
52:20
Speaker 1: or despise those who lack them. And as for inward
52:22
Speaker 1: worth and real goodness, the sense they have of the
52:25
Speaker 1: divine perfections makes them think very lowly of anything they
52:28
Speaker 1: have hitherto attained, and still be endeavoring to surmount themselves
52:32
Speaker 1: and make nearer approaches to those infinite excellencies which they admire.
52:36
Speaker 1: I do not know what thoughts people may have of humility,
52:39
Speaker 1: but I see almost every person pretending to it, and
52:41
Speaker 1: shunning such expressions and actions as may make them be
52:44
Speaker 1: accounted arrogant and presumptuous, so that those who are most
52:47
Speaker 1: desirous of praise will be loathed to commend themselves. What
52:51
Speaker 1: are all those compliments and modes of civility so frequent
52:54
Speaker 1: in our ordinary conversations, but so many protestations of the
52:57
Speaker 1: esteem of others, and the low thoughts we have of ourselves?
53:00
Speaker 1: And must not that humility be a noble and excellent endowment,
53:03
Speaker 1: when the very shadows of it are accounted so necessary
53:06
Speaker 1: a part of good breeding. This grace is accompanied with
53:09
Speaker 1: a great deal of happiness and tranquility. The proud and
53:13
Speaker 1: arrogant person is a trouble to all who converse with him,
53:15
Speaker 1: but most of all unto himself. Everything is enough to
53:18
Speaker 1: vex him, but scarcely anything is sufficient to content and
53:21
Speaker 1: please him. He is ready to quarrel with everything that
53:24
Speaker 1: falls out, as if he himself were such a considerable person,
53:27
Speaker 1: that God Almighty should do everything to gratify him, and
53:30
Speaker 1: all the creatures of heaven and earth should wait upon
53:32
Speaker 1: him and do his will. The leaves of high trees
53:34
Speaker 1: shake with every blast of wind, and every evil word
53:37
Speaker 1: will disquiet and torment an arrogant man. But the humble
53:41
Speaker 1: person has the advantage when he is despised, because none
53:44
Speaker 1: think more lowly of him than he does of himself.
53:46
Speaker 1: And therefore he is not troubled at the matter, but
53:49
Speaker 1: can easily bear those reproaches which wound the other to
53:51
Speaker 1: the soul and withal. As he is less affected with injuries,
53:55
Speaker 1: so indeed he is less prone to them. Contention which
53:58
Speaker 1: comes from pride betrays him into a thousand inconveniences which
54:02
Speaker 1: those of a meek and lowly temper seldom meet. With
54:05
Speaker 1: true and genuine humility beget both a veneration and love
54:08
Speaker 1: among all wise and discerning persons. While pride defeats its
54:11
Speaker 1: own design and deprives a man of that honor it
54:14
Speaker 1: makes him pretend to. But as the chief exercises of
54:17
Speaker 1: humility are those which relate unto Almighty God, so these
54:20
Speaker 1: are accompanied with the greatest satisfaction and sweetness. It is
54:24
Speaker 1: impossible to express the great pleasure and delight which religious
54:27
Speaker 1: persons feel in the lowest frustration of their souls before God,
54:31
Speaker 1: when having a deep sense of the divine majesty and glory,
54:34
Speaker 1: they sink to the bottom of their beings and vanish
54:36
Speaker 1: and disappear in the presence of God by a serious
54:39
Speaker 1: and affectionate acknowledgment of their own nothingness and the shortness
54:43
Speaker 1: in imperfections of their attainments. When they understand the full
54:46
Speaker 1: sense and emphasis of the psalmists exclamation, Lord, what is man?
54:50
Speaker 1: And can utter it with the same affection. Never did
54:53
Speaker 1: any haughty and ambitious person receive the praises and applauses
54:56
Speaker 1: of men with so much pleasure as the humble and
54:59
Speaker 1: religious renounced them. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us,
55:03
Speaker 1: but unto Thy name, give glory some one hundred and
55:06
Speaker 1: fifteen verst one. Thus I have spoken something of the
55:09
Speaker 1: excellencies and advantage of religion in its various branches. But
55:13
Speaker 1: I would be very injurious to the subject if I
55:15
Speaker 1: pretended to have given any perfect account of it. Let
55:18
Speaker 1: us acquaint ourselves with it, My dear friend, Let us
55:20
Speaker 1: acquaint ourselves with it, and experience will teach us more
55:23
Speaker 1: than all that ever has been spoken or rich in
55:25
Speaker 1: concerning it. But if we may suppose the soul to
55:27
Speaker 1: be already awakened unto some longing desires, after so great
55:30
Speaker 1: a blessedness, it will be good to give them vent
55:33
Speaker 1: and to allow them to issue forth in some such
55:35
Speaker 1: aspirations as these. Good God, what a mighty felicity is
55:39
Speaker 1: this to which we are called. How graciously thou hast
55:42
Speaker 1: joined our duty and happiness together and prescribed that for
55:45
Speaker 1: our work the performance whereof as a great reward. And
55:48
Speaker 1: shall such silly worms be advanced to so great a height?
55:52
Speaker 1: Wilt thou allow us to raise our eyes to THEE?
55:54
Speaker 1: Wilt thou admit and accept our affection? Shall we receive
55:57
Speaker 1: the impression of Thy divine excellencies by blae holding and
56:00
Speaker 1: admiring them, and partake of Thy infinite blessedness and glory
56:03
Speaker 1: by loving THEE and rejoicing in them. Oh, the happiness
56:06
Speaker 1: of those souls that have broken the fetters of self
56:09
Speaker 1: love and hast entangled their affection from every narrow and
56:12
Speaker 1: particular good whose understandings are enlightened by the Holy Spirit,
56:16
Speaker 1: and their wills enlarged to the extent of Thine, who
56:18
Speaker 1: love THEE above all things and all mankind. For thy sake,
56:22
Speaker 1: I am persuaded, O God, I am persuaded that I
56:24
Speaker 1: can never be happy till my carnal and corrupt affections
56:27
Speaker 1: are mortified, and the pride and vanity of my spirit
56:30
Speaker 1: are subdued, and till I come seriously to despise the
56:33
Speaker 1: world and think nothing of myself. But Oh, when shall
56:37
Speaker 1: it be? Oh, when wilt thou come unto me and
56:39
Speaker 1: satisfy my soul with thy likeness, making me holy as
56:42
Speaker 1: thou art holy even in all manner of conversation. Hast
56:46
Speaker 1: thou given me a prospect of so great a felicity,
56:48
Speaker 1: and wilt thou not bring me unto it? Hast thou
56:51
Speaker 1: excited these desires in my soul, and wilt thou not
56:54
Speaker 1: also satisfy them. Oh, teach me to do thy will,
56:57
Speaker 1: for thou art, my God, Thy spirit is good. Lead
57:00
Speaker 1: me unto the land of uprightness. Quaken me, o Lord,
57:03
Speaker 1: for thy name's sake, and perfect that which concerns me
57:06
Speaker 1: thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever forsake, not the work
57:09
Speaker 1: of thine own hands. I have hitherto considered wherein true
57:14
Speaker 1: religion consists, and how desirable a thing it is. But
57:17
Speaker 1: when one sees how infinitely distant the common temper and
57:20
Speaker 1: frame of men are from it, he may perhaps be
57:22
Speaker 1: ready to despond and give over, and think it utterly
57:25
Speaker 1: impossible to be obtained. He may sit down in sadness
57:28
Speaker 1: and bemoan himself, saying, in the anguish and bitterness of
57:31
Speaker 1: his spirit, they are happy indeed, whose souls are awakened
57:34
Speaker 1: unto the divine life, who are thus renewed in the
57:37
Speaker 1: spirit of their minds. But alas, I am of quite
57:39
Speaker 1: another constitution, and am not able to effect so mighty
57:43
Speaker 1: a change. If outward observances could have done the business,
57:46
Speaker 1: I might have hoped to acquit myself by diligence and care.
57:49
Speaker 1: But since nothing but a new nature can serve the turn,
57:52
Speaker 1: what am I able to do? I could bestow all
57:54
Speaker 1: my goods and oblations to God, or almost to the poor,
57:57
Speaker 1: but I cannot command that love and charity without which
57:59
Speaker 1: this expense would profit me nothing. This gift of God
58:02
Speaker 1: cannot be purchased with money. If a man should give
58:05
Speaker 1: all the substance of his house forever, it would utterly
58:07
Speaker 1: be condemned. I could pine and maaconate my body, and
58:10
Speaker 1: undergo many hardships and troubles. But I cannot get all
58:13
Speaker 1: my corruptions starved, nor my affections wholly weaned from earthly things.
58:18
Speaker 1: There are still some worldly desires lurking in my heart,
58:20
Speaker 1: and those vanities that I have shut out of doors
58:22
Speaker 1: are always getting into the windows. I am many times
58:26
Speaker 1: convinced of my own meanness, of the weakness of my body,
58:28
Speaker 1: and the far greater weakness of my soul. But this
58:31
Speaker 1: rather begets indignation and discontent than true humility in my spirit.
58:35
Speaker 1: And though I should come to think meanly of myself,
58:38
Speaker 1: yet I cannot endure that others should think so too.
58:41
Speaker 1: In a word, when I reflect on my highest and
58:43
Speaker 1: most specious attainments, I have reason to suspect that they
58:46
Speaker 1: are all merely the effects of nature, the issues of
58:49
Speaker 1: self love, of acting under several disguises. And this principle
58:52
Speaker 1: is so powerful and so deeply rooted in me, that
58:54
Speaker 1: I can never hope to be delivered from the dominion
58:57
Speaker 1: of it. I may toss and turn as a door
58:59
Speaker 1: on the hinges. But I can never get clear off
59:01
Speaker 1: or be quite unhinged of self, which is still the
59:03
Speaker 1: center of all my motions. So that all the advantage
59:06
Speaker 1: I can draw from the discovery of religion is but
59:09
Speaker 1: to see at a huge distance that felicity which I
59:11
Speaker 1: am not able to reach. I am like a man
59:14
Speaker 1: in a shipwreck who discerns the land and envies the
59:17
Speaker 1: happiness of those who are there, but thinks it impossible
59:19
Speaker 1: for he himself to get ashore. These I say, or
59:23
Speaker 1: such like desponding thoughts may arise in the minds of
59:26
Speaker 1: those persons who begin to conceive something more of the
59:29
Speaker 1: nature and excellency of religion than before. They have spied
59:32
Speaker 1: the land and have seen that it is exceedingly good,
59:34
Speaker 1: and that it flows with milk and honey. But they
59:37
Speaker 1: find that they have the children of Anek to grapple
59:39
Speaker 1: with many powerful lusts and corruptions to overcome, and they
59:42
Speaker 1: fear they shall never prevail against them. But why should
59:45
Speaker 1: we give way to such discouraging suggestions? Why should we
59:48
Speaker 1: entertain such unreasonable fears which dampen our spirits, weaken our hands,
59:52
Speaker 1: and augment the difficulties of the way. Let us encourage ourselves,
59:56
Speaker 1: My dear friend, let us encourage ourselves with these mighty
59:58
Speaker 1: aids we are to expect in this spiritual warfare. For
1:00:02
Speaker 1: greater is he who is in us than all who
1:00:04
Speaker 1: can rise up against us. The eternal God is our refuge,
1:00:07
Speaker 1: and underneath are the everlasting arms. Let us be strong
1:00:10
Speaker 1: in the Lord and in the power of his might.
1:00:12
Speaker 1: Deuteronomy chapter thirty three, verse twenty seven. Ephesians chapter six,
1:00:16
Speaker 1: verse ten. For it is he who shall tread down
1:00:19
Speaker 1: our enemies. God has a tender regard unto the souls
1:00:22
Speaker 1: of men, and is infinitely willing to promote their welfare.
1:00:25
Speaker 1: He has condescended to our weakness and declared with an
1:00:28
Speaker 1: oath that he has no pleasure in our destruction. There
1:00:31
Speaker 1: is no such thing as despite or envy, lodged in
1:00:33
Speaker 1: the bosom of that ever blessed being whose name and
1:00:36
Speaker 1: nature is love. He created us at first in a
1:00:39
Speaker 1: happy condition, and now when we are fallen from it,
1:00:42
Speaker 1: he has laid help upon one who is mighty to save.
1:00:44
Speaker 1: He has committed the care of our souls to the
1:00:46
Speaker 1: eternal son of his love. It is he who is
1:00:49
Speaker 1: the captain of our salvation. And what enemies can be
1:00:52
Speaker 1: too strong for us when we are fighting under his banner?
1:00:55
Speaker 1: Did not the Son of God come down from the
1:00:57
Speaker 1: bosom of his father and pitch his tabernacle among the
1:00:59
Speaker 1: sun of men? So that he might recover and propagate
1:01:02
Speaker 1: the divine life and restore the image of God and
1:01:04
Speaker 1: their souls. All the mighty works which he performed, all
1:01:07
Speaker 1: the sad afflictions which he sustained, had this for their
1:01:10
Speaker 1: scope and design. For this he labored and toiled. For
1:01:13
Speaker 1: this he bled and died. Has he wrought no deliverance
1:01:16
Speaker 1: in the earth? Shall he not see the travail of
1:01:19
Speaker 1: his soul. Certainly, it is impossible that this great contrivance
1:01:22
Speaker 1: of Heaven should prove abortive, that such a mighty undertaking
1:01:25
Speaker 1: should fail and miscarry. It has already been effectual for
1:01:28
Speaker 1: the salvation of many thousands who were once as far
1:01:31
Speaker 1: from the Kingdom of Heaven as we can suppose ourselves
1:01:34
Speaker 1: to be. And our High Priest liveth forever and is
1:01:37
Speaker 1: able to save them to the uttermost that come unto
1:01:39
Speaker 1: God by Him Hebrews chapter seven, verse twenty five. He
1:01:43
Speaker 1: is tender and compassionate. He knows our infirmities and has
1:01:46
Speaker 1: experienced our temptations. A bruised read he will not break,
1:01:50
Speaker 1: and a smoking flex he will not quench till he
1:01:52
Speaker 1: sends forth judgment unto victory. Isaiah, chapter forty two, Verse three.
1:01:57
Speaker 1: He has sent out his Holy Spirit, whose sweet but
1:01:59
Speaker 1: powerful breathings are still moving up and down in the world,
1:02:02
Speaker 1: to quicken and revive the souls of men, and awaken
1:02:05
Speaker 1: them into the sense and feeling of those divine things
1:02:07
Speaker 1: for which they were made. That Holy Spirit is ready
1:02:10
Speaker 1: to assist such weak and languishing creatures as we are
1:02:13
Speaker 1: in our essays towards holiness and felicity. And when he
1:02:16
Speaker 1: has once taken hold of a soul and kindled in
1:02:18
Speaker 1: it the smallest spark of divine love, it will be
1:02:21
Speaker 1: sure to preserve and cherish and bring it forth into
1:02:23
Speaker 1: a flame which many waters shall not quench, neither shall
1:02:27
Speaker 1: the floods be able to drown it. Whenever this day
1:02:29
Speaker 1: begins to dawn and the day star rises in the heart,
1:02:32
Speaker 1: it will easily dispel the power of darkness, and make
1:02:35
Speaker 1: ignorance and folly, and all the corrupt and selfish affections
1:02:38
Speaker 1: of men flee away, as fast before it, as the
1:02:41
Speaker 1: shades of night when the sun comes out of his chambers.
1:02:44
Speaker 1: For the path of the jest is as the shining
1:02:46
Speaker 1: light that shineth more and more into the perfect day.
1:02:49
Speaker 1: They shall go on from strength to strength, every one
1:02:52
Speaker 1: of them in Zion appereth before God. Proverbs, Chapter four,
1:02:55
Speaker 1: verse eighteen. Soul may be four ver seven. Why should
1:02:59
Speaker 1: we think it impossible that true goodness and universal love
1:03:02
Speaker 1: should ever come to sway and prevail in our souls?
1:03:05
Speaker 1: Is not this their primitive state and condition, their native
1:03:08
Speaker 1: and genuine constitution, as they first came from the hands
1:03:11
Speaker 1: of their maker. Sin and corruption are but usurpers, And
1:03:14
Speaker 1: though they have long kept the possession, yet from the
1:03:16
Speaker 1: beginning it was not so. That inordinate self love, which
1:03:20
Speaker 1: one would think was rooted in our very being and
1:03:22
Speaker 1: interwoven with the constitution of our nature, is nevertheless of
1:03:25
Speaker 1: foreign extraction, and has no place at all in this
1:03:28
Speaker 1: state of integrity. We have still so much reason left
1:03:31
Speaker 1: as to condemn it. Our understandings are easily convinced that
1:03:34
Speaker 1: we ought to be wholly devoted to Him from whom
1:03:37
Speaker 1: we have our being, and to love him infinitely more
1:03:39
Speaker 1: than ourselves. Who is infinitely better than we are, and
1:03:42
Speaker 1: our wills would readily comply with this if they were
1:03:44
Speaker 1: not disordered and put out of tune. And is not
1:03:47
Speaker 1: he who makes our souls able to rectify and mend
1:03:50
Speaker 1: them again? Shall we not be able, by His assistance
1:03:53
Speaker 1: to vanquish and expel those violent intruders and turn to
1:03:56
Speaker 1: flight the armies of the aliens. No sooner shall we
1:03:59
Speaker 1: take up ourms in this holy war. Then we shall
1:04:01
Speaker 1: have all the saints on earth and all the angels
1:04:03
Speaker 1: in heaven engaged on our side. The Holy Church throughout
1:04:06
Speaker 1: the world is daily interceding with God for the success
1:04:09
Speaker 1: of all such endeavors. And doubtless those heavenly hosts above
1:04:13
Speaker 1: are nearly concerned in the interests of religion, and infinitely
1:04:16
Speaker 1: desirous of seeing the divine life thriving and prevailing in
1:04:19
Speaker 1: this inferior world, as it is done by them in heaven.
1:04:22
Speaker 1: And may we not then encourage ourselves as the prophet
1:04:25
Speaker 1: did his servant when he showed him the horses and
1:04:27
Speaker 1: chariots of fire. Fear not, for they that be with
1:04:30
Speaker 1: us are more than they that be with them. Second Kings,
1:04:33
Speaker 1: Chapter six, verse sixteen. Away, then with all perplexing fears
1:04:37
Speaker 1: and desponding thoughts. To undertake vigorously and rely confidently on
1:04:41
Speaker 1: the divine assistance is more than half the conquest. Let
1:04:44
Speaker 1: us arise and be doing, and the Lord will be
1:04:47
Speaker 1: with us. First Chronicles, Chapter twenty two, Verse sixteen. It
1:04:51
Speaker 1: is true religion in the souls of men is the
1:04:53
Speaker 1: immediate work of God, and all our natural endeavors can
1:04:56
Speaker 1: either produce it alone nor merit those supernatural aids by
1:04:59
Speaker 1: which it must be. The Holy Ghost must come upon us,
1:05:02
Speaker 1: and the power of the Highest must overshadow us before
1:05:05
Speaker 1: that holy thing can be begotten and Christ be formed
1:05:07
Speaker 1: in us. Yet we must not expect that this whole
1:05:10
Speaker 1: work should be done without any concurring endeavors of our own.
1:05:13
Speaker 1: We must not lie loitering in the ditch, waiting until
1:05:16
Speaker 1: omnipotence pulls us from there. No. No, we must stir
1:05:19
Speaker 1: ourselves up and actuate those powers which we have already received.
1:05:22
Speaker 1: We must put forth ourselves to our utmost capacities, and
1:05:26
Speaker 1: then we may hope that our labor and the Lord
1:05:27
Speaker 1: shall not be in vain. All the art and industry
1:05:30
Speaker 1: of man cannot form the smallest herb, nor make a
1:05:32
Speaker 1: stock of corn to grow in the field. It is
1:05:35
Speaker 1: the energy of nature and the influences of heaven which
1:05:37
Speaker 1: produce this effect. It is God who causes the grass
1:05:40
Speaker 1: to grow and herbs for the service of man. Yet
1:05:43
Speaker 1: nobody will say that the labors of the husbandmen are
1:05:45
Speaker 1: useless or unnecessary. So likewise, the human soul is immediately
1:05:49
Speaker 1: created by God. It is he who both forms and
1:05:52
Speaker 1: enlivens the child. And yet He has appointed the marriage
1:05:55
Speaker 1: bed as the ordinary means for the propagation of mankind.
1:05:58
Speaker 1: Though there must intervene us stroke of omnipotence to effect
1:06:01
Speaker 1: this mighty change in our souls. Yet we ought to
1:06:04
Speaker 1: do what we can to fit and prepare ourselves. We
1:06:06
Speaker 1: must break up our fallow ground, root out the weeds,
1:06:08
Speaker 1: and pull up the thorns, so that we may be
1:06:10
Speaker 1: more ready to receive the seeds of grace and the
1:06:12
Speaker 1: dew of heaven. It is true that God has been
1:06:15
Speaker 1: found by some who do not seek him. He has
1:06:17
Speaker 1: cast himself in their way, who were quite out of
1:06:19
Speaker 1: his He has laid hold upon them and stopped their course. Suddenly,
1:06:23
Speaker 1: Saint Paul was converted on his journey to Dabascus. But
1:06:26
Speaker 1: certainly this is not God's ordinary method of dealing with men.
1:06:29
Speaker 1: Though he has not tied himself to means, yet he
1:06:31
Speaker 1: has tied us to the use of them, and we
1:06:33
Speaker 1: have never more reason to expect divine assistance than when
1:06:36
Speaker 1: we are doing our utmost endeavors. It shall therefore be
1:06:39
Speaker 1: my next work to show what course we ought to
1:06:41
Speaker 1: take for attaining that blessed temper. I have heretofore described.
1:06:44
Speaker 1: But here, if in delivering my own cots, I shall
1:06:47
Speaker 1: chance to differ from what is or may be said
1:06:49
Speaker 1: by others in this matter, I would not be thought
1:06:51
Speaker 1: to contradict and oppose them any more than physicians do
1:06:54
Speaker 1: when they prescribe several remedies for the same disease, all
1:06:57
Speaker 1: which may be safe and useful. Every One may propose
1:06:59
Speaker 1: the method he judges most proper and convenient, but he
1:07:02
Speaker 1: does not thereby pretend that the cure can never be
1:07:05
Speaker 1: effected unless it is strictly observed. I doubt that it
1:07:08
Speaker 1: has occasioned much unnecessary disquietude to some holy persons that
1:07:12
Speaker 1: they have not found such a regular and orderly transaction
1:07:14
Speaker 1: in their souls as they have seen described in books,
1:07:17
Speaker 1: that they have not passed through all those steps in
1:07:19
Speaker 1: stages of conversion, which some who perhaps have felt in themselves,
1:07:22
Speaker 1: have too peremptorily prescribed into others. God has several ways
1:07:26
Speaker 1: of dealing with the souls of men, and it suffices
1:07:28
Speaker 1: if the work is accomplished, whatever the methods have been. Again,
1:07:32
Speaker 1: though in proposing directions, I must follow that order which
1:07:35
Speaker 1: the nature of things shall lead to. Yet I do
1:07:37
Speaker 1: not mean that the same methods should be so punctually
1:07:39
Speaker 1: observed in the practice as if the latter rules were
1:07:42
Speaker 1: never to be heeded till some considerable time has been
1:07:44
Speaker 1: spent in practicing the former. The directions I intend are
1:07:48
Speaker 1: mutually conducive one to another, and are all to be
1:07:50
Speaker 1: performed as occasion shall serve, and we find ourselves enabled
1:07:54
Speaker 1: to perform them. And of section three recording by General Window.
1:08:05
Speaker 1: Section four of the Life of God and the Soul
1:08:07
Speaker 1: of Man by Henry Skougel, The sleebrivox recording is in
1:08:10
Speaker 1: the public domain recording by General Window Section four. But
1:08:15
Speaker 1: now that I may detain you no longer, if we
1:08:17
Speaker 1: desire to have our souls molded to this holy frame,
1:08:20
Speaker 1: to become ourtakers of the divine nature, and have Christ
1:08:23
Speaker 1: formed in our hearts. We must seriously resolve and carefully
1:08:26
Speaker 1: endeavor to avoid and abandon all vicious and sinful practices.
1:08:30
Speaker 1: There can be no treaty of peace till we lay
1:08:32
Speaker 1: down these weapons of rebellion, wherewith we fight against heaven.
1:08:35
Speaker 1: Nor can we expect to have our distempers cured if
1:08:38
Speaker 1: we are daily feeding on poison. Every wilful sin gives
1:08:41
Speaker 1: a mortal wound to the soul and puts it at
1:08:43
Speaker 1: a greater distance from God and Goodness. And we can
1:08:46
Speaker 1: never hope to have our hearts purified from corrupt affections
1:08:49
Speaker 1: unless we cleanse our hands from vicious actions. Now, in
1:08:52
Speaker 1: this case, we cannot excuse ourselves by the pretense of impossibility.
1:08:56
Speaker 1: For surely our outward man is in some way in
1:08:58
Speaker 1: our power. We have command, and of our feet, hands,
1:09:01
Speaker 1: and tongue. Nay, and of our thoughts and fancies too,
1:09:04
Speaker 1: at least so far as to divert them from impure
1:09:06
Speaker 1: and sinful objects, and to turn our mind another way.
1:09:09
Speaker 1: And we would find this power and authority much strengthened
1:09:11
Speaker 1: and advanced if we were careful to manage and exercise it.
1:09:15
Speaker 1: In the meantime, I acknowledge that our corruptions are so strong,
1:09:18
Speaker 1: and our temptations so many, that it will require a
1:09:21
Speaker 1: great deal of steadfastness and resolution, of watchfulness and care
1:09:25
Speaker 1: to preserve ourselves even in this degree of innocence and purity.
1:09:29
Speaker 1: And first let us inform ourselves well what those sins
1:09:32
Speaker 1: are from which we ought to abstain. And here we
1:09:34
Speaker 1: must not take our measures from the maxims of the
1:09:37
Speaker 1: world or the practices of those whom in charity we
1:09:39
Speaker 1: account good men. Most people have very light apprehensions of
1:09:43
Speaker 1: these things, and are not sensible of any fault unless
1:09:45
Speaker 1: it is gross and flagitious. They scarcely reckon any so
1:09:49
Speaker 1: great as that which they call preciseness. And those who
1:09:52
Speaker 1: are more serious many times allow themselves too great latitude
1:09:55
Speaker 1: and freedom. Alas how much pride and vanity, passion and humor,
1:09:59
Speaker 1: how much weakness, folly and sin every day shows itself
1:10:02
Speaker 1: in their conversation and behavior. It may be that they
1:10:05
Speaker 1: are humbled for it, are striving against it, and are
1:10:08
Speaker 1: gaining ground daily. But then the progress is so small
1:10:11
Speaker 1: and their failing so many, that we need to choose
1:10:13
Speaker 1: a more exact pattern. Every one of us must answer
1:10:16
Speaker 1: for himself, and the practices of others will never warrant
1:10:19
Speaker 1: and secure us. It is the highest folly to regulate
1:10:22
Speaker 1: our actions by any other standard than that by which
1:10:25
Speaker 1: they must be judged. If ever we would cleanse our way,
1:10:28
Speaker 1: it must be by taking heed according to the word
1:10:31
Speaker 1: of God, sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even
1:10:34
Speaker 1: to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of
1:10:37
Speaker 1: the joints and marrow, and which is the discerner of
1:10:39
Speaker 1: the thoughts and intents of the heart, will certainly discover
1:10:42
Speaker 1: many things to be sinful and heinous, which pass for
1:10:45
Speaker 1: very innocent in the eyes of the world. Let us
1:10:48
Speaker 1: therefore imitate the Psalmist, who said, concerning the works of men,
1:10:51
Speaker 1: by the words of thy lips, I have kept myself
1:10:54
Speaker 1: from the paths of the destroyer Psalm seventeen, verse four.
1:10:57
Speaker 1: Let us acquaint ourselves with the strict and whole laws
1:11:00
Speaker 1: of our religion. Let Us consider the discourses of our
1:11:03
Speaker 1: blessed Savior, especially that divine Sermon on the Mount, and
1:11:06
Speaker 1: the writings of his Holy Apostles, where an ingenious and
1:11:09
Speaker 1: unbiased mind may clearly discern those limits and bounds by
1:11:12
Speaker 1: which our actions ought to be confined. And then let
1:11:15
Speaker 1: us never look upon any sin as light and inconsiderable,
1:11:18
Speaker 1: but be fully persuaded that the smallest sin is infinitely
1:11:22
Speaker 1: heinous in the sight of God, and prejudicial to the
1:11:24
Speaker 1: souls of men. If we had a right sense of things,
1:11:27
Speaker 1: we would be as deeply affected with the least irregularities
1:11:30
Speaker 1: as we now are with the highest crimes. Among those
1:11:34
Speaker 1: things which we discover to be sinful, there will be
1:11:36
Speaker 1: some unto which, through the disposition of our nature, long custom,
1:11:40
Speaker 1: or the endearments of pleasure, we are so much wedded
1:11:43
Speaker 1: that it will be like cutting off our right hand
1:11:44
Speaker 1: or pulling out our right eye to abandon them. But
1:11:47
Speaker 1: must we therefore sit down and wait till all difficulties
1:11:50
Speaker 1: are over and all temptations are gone. This would be
1:11:53
Speaker 1: to imitate the fool and the poem who stood the
1:11:55
Speaker 1: whole day at the riverside, waiting until all the water
1:11:58
Speaker 1: had run by, before trying to cross over. We must
1:12:00
Speaker 1: not indulge our inclinations as we do little children, till
1:12:03
Speaker 1: they grow weary of the thing they are unwilling to
1:12:05
Speaker 1: let go of. We must not continue our sinful practices
1:12:08
Speaker 1: in hopes that the divine grace will one day overpower
1:12:11
Speaker 1: our spirits and make us hate them for their own deformity.
1:12:15
Speaker 1: Let us suppose the worst that we are utterly destitute
1:12:18
Speaker 1: of any supernatural principle, and lack that taste by which
1:12:21
Speaker 1: we should discern and abhor perverse things. Yet surely we
1:12:24
Speaker 1: are capable of some considerations which may be of force
1:12:27
Speaker 1: to persuade us to this reformation of our lives. If
1:12:30
Speaker 1: the inward deformity and heinous nature of sin cannot affect us,
1:12:33
Speaker 1: at least we may be frightened by those dreadful consequences
1:12:36
Speaker 1: that attend it. That same selfish principle which pushes us
1:12:39
Speaker 1: forward into the pursuit of sinful pleasures, will make us
1:12:42
Speaker 1: loath to buy them at the rate of everlasting misery.
1:12:45
Speaker 1: Thus we may encounter our self love with its own weapons,
1:12:47
Speaker 1: and employ one natural inclination for repressing the exorbitancies of another.
1:12:52
Speaker 1: Let us therefore accustom ourselves to consider seriously what a
1:12:56
Speaker 1: fearful thing it must be to irritate and offend that
1:12:58
Speaker 1: infinite being on whom we hang and depend every moment,
1:13:02
Speaker 1: who needs but to withdraw his mercies to make us miserable,
1:13:05
Speaker 1: or his assistance to make us nothing. Let us frequently
1:13:08
Speaker 1: remember the shortness and uncertainty of our lives, and how
1:13:11
Speaker 1: that after we have taken a few more turns in
1:13:13
Speaker 1: the world and conversed a little longer among men, we
1:13:16
Speaker 1: must all go down into the dark and silent grave,
1:13:19
Speaker 1: and carry nothing along with us but anguish and regret
1:13:22
Speaker 1: for all our sinful enjoyments. Let us then think what
1:13:25
Speaker 1: horror must seize the guilty soul to find itself naked
1:13:28
Speaker 1: and all alone before the severe and impartial judge of
1:13:31
Speaker 1: the world, to render an exact account not only of
1:13:33
Speaker 1: its more important and considerable transactions, but of every word
1:13:37
Speaker 1: that the tongue has uttered, and the swiftest and most
1:13:40
Speaker 1: secret thought that ever passed through the mind. Let us
1:13:43
Speaker 1: sometimes represent unto ourselves the terrors of that dreadful day,
1:13:46
Speaker 1: when the foundations of the earth shall be shaken, when
1:13:49
Speaker 1: the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, when
1:13:51
Speaker 1: the elements shall melt with fervent heat, when the present
1:13:54
Speaker 1: frame of nature be dissolved, and our eyes shall see
1:13:57
Speaker 1: the blessed Jesus who came once into the world in
1:13:59
Speaker 1: all humility to visit us, to purchase pardon for us,
1:14:02
Speaker 1: and beseech us to accept it. Now appearing in the
1:14:05
Speaker 1: majesty of his glory, and descending from heaven in flaming fire,
1:14:09
Speaker 1: to take vengeance on all those who have despised his
1:14:11
Speaker 1: mercy and persisted in rebellion against him. Then all the
1:14:15
Speaker 1: hidden things of darkness shall be brought to light. Then
1:14:18
Speaker 1: those secret impurities and settle frauds, whereof the world never
1:14:21
Speaker 1: suspected us shall be exposed and laid open to public view.
1:14:25
Speaker 1: And many thousands of actions which we never dreamed to
1:14:27
Speaker 1: be sinful, or else had altogether forgotten, shall be charged
1:14:31
Speaker 1: home to our consciences with such evident convictions of guilt
1:14:34
Speaker 1: that we shall neither be able to deny nor excuse them.
1:14:37
Speaker 1: Then the angels in heaven and all the saints who
1:14:39
Speaker 1: ever lived on the earth shall approve that dreadful sentence
1:14:42
Speaker 1: which shall be passed on wicked men, And those who
1:14:45
Speaker 1: perhaps loved and esteemed them when they lived in the world,
1:14:47
Speaker 1: shall look upon them with indignation and abhorrence, and never
1:14:50
Speaker 1: shall make one request for their deliverance. Let us consider
1:14:54
Speaker 1: the eternal punishment of damned souls, which are shadowed forth
1:14:57
Speaker 1: in scripture by menaphors taken from those things that are
1:14:59
Speaker 1: mo most terrible and grievous in the world. And yet
1:15:02
Speaker 1: all those combined do not suffice to convey into our
1:15:05
Speaker 1: minds any full apprehensions of them. When we have joined
1:15:08
Speaker 1: together the importance of all these expressions and added unto
1:15:11
Speaker 1: them whatever our fancy can conceive of misery and torment,
1:15:14
Speaker 1: we must still remember it that all this comes infinitely
1:15:17
Speaker 1: short of the truth and reality of the thing. It
1:15:20
Speaker 1: is true, this is a sad and melancholy subject. There
1:15:23
Speaker 1: is anguish and horror in the consideration of it. But
1:15:26
Speaker 1: surely it must be infinitely more dreadful to endure it.
1:15:29
Speaker 1: And such thoughts as these may be very useful to
1:15:31
Speaker 1: frighten us from the courses that would lead us there.
1:15:34
Speaker 1: However fond we may be of sinful pleasures, the fear
1:15:37
Speaker 1: of hell would make us abstain our most forward inclinations.
1:15:40
Speaker 1: Will startle us and make us draw back when we
1:15:42
Speaker 1: are pressed with that question. From Isaiah, chapter thirty three,
1:15:44
Speaker 1: verse fourteen, who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?
1:15:49
Speaker 1: To this very purpose, it is that the terrors of
1:15:51
Speaker 1: another world are so frequently represented in holy writ and
1:15:55
Speaker 1: that in such terms as are most proper to affect
1:15:57
Speaker 1: and influence a carnal mind. These fears can never suffice
1:16:00
Speaker 1: to make any person truly good, but they may certainly
1:16:03
Speaker 1: restrain us from such evil, and have often made way
1:16:06
Speaker 1: for more ingenious and kindly impressions. But it will not
1:16:09
Speaker 1: suffice to consider these things once and again, nor to
1:16:12
Speaker 1: form some resolutions of abandoning our sins, unless we maintain
1:16:16
Speaker 1: a constant guard and are continually watching against them. Sometimes
1:16:20
Speaker 1: the mind is awakened to see the dismal consequences of
1:16:22
Speaker 1: a vicious life, and then we are immediately resolve to
1:16:25
Speaker 1: reform ourselves. But alas it then soon falls asleep, and
1:16:28
Speaker 1: we lose that prospect which we add of things. And
1:16:31
Speaker 1: then temptations take the advantage. They solicit and importune us continually,
1:16:36
Speaker 1: and so they frequently engage our consent before we are aware.
1:16:39
Speaker 1: It is the folly and ruin of most people to
1:16:41
Speaker 1: live adventurously and take part in everything that comes in
1:16:44
Speaker 1: their way, seldom considering what they are about to say
1:16:46
Speaker 1: or do. If we would have our resolutions take effect,
1:16:49
Speaker 1: we must take heed into our ways, set a watch
1:16:52
Speaker 1: before the door of our lips, examine the motions that
1:16:55
Speaker 1: arise in our hearts, and cause them to tell us
1:16:57
Speaker 1: from whence they come and to where they go, whether
1:17:00
Speaker 1: it is pride or passion, or any corrupt and vicious
1:17:02
Speaker 1: humor that prompts us to any design, and whether God
1:17:05
Speaker 1: will be offended or anyone harmed by it. And if
1:17:08
Speaker 1: we have no time for long reasonings, let us at
1:17:10
Speaker 1: least turn our eyes toward God and place ourselves in
1:17:13
Speaker 1: His presence to ask his permission and approbation for what
1:17:16
Speaker 1: we do. Let us consider ourselves under the all seeing
1:17:18
Speaker 1: eye of that Divine Majesty, as in the midst of
1:17:21
Speaker 1: an infinite globe of light, which compasses us about both
1:17:24
Speaker 1: behind and before, and pierces to the innermost corners of
1:17:27
Speaker 1: our soul. The sense and remembrance of the divine presence
1:17:31
Speaker 1: is the most ready and effectual means to both discover
1:17:33
Speaker 1: what is unlawful and restrain us from it. There are
1:17:36
Speaker 1: some things a person could attempt to conceal or defend,
1:17:40
Speaker 1: and yet that person dares not look Almighty God in
1:17:42
Speaker 1: the face and adventure upon them. If we look unto Him,
1:17:45
Speaker 1: we shall be lightened. If we set him always before us,
1:17:48
Speaker 1: he will guide us by his eye and instruct us
1:17:50
Speaker 1: in the way wherein we ought to walk. This care
1:17:53
Speaker 1: and watchfulness over our actions must be seconded by frequent
1:17:56
Speaker 1: and serious reflections upon them, not only that we may
1:17:59
Speaker 1: obtain the divine mercy and pardon for our sins by
1:18:02
Speaker 1: a humble and sorrowful acknowledgment of them, but also that
1:18:05
Speaker 1: we may reinforce and strengthen our resolutions, and learn to
1:18:08
Speaker 1: decline or resist the temptations by which we have been
1:18:11
Speaker 1: formally foiled. It is advice worthy to have come from
1:18:14
Speaker 1: a Christian, though it first came from a heathen pen.
1:18:18
Speaker 1: Before we betake ourselves to rest, we should renew and
1:18:21
Speaker 1: examine all the passages of the day, that we may
1:18:23
Speaker 1: have the comfort of what we have done aright, and
1:18:25
Speaker 1: may redress what we find to have been amiss, and
1:18:27
Speaker 1: make the shipwrecks of one day be as marks to
1:18:30
Speaker 1: direct our course in another. This may be called the
1:18:33
Speaker 1: very art of virtuous living, and would contribute wonderfully to
1:18:36
Speaker 1: advance our reformation and preserve our innocence. But withal we
1:18:40
Speaker 1: must not forget to implore the divine assistance, especially against
1:18:44
Speaker 1: those sins that most easily beset us. And though it
1:18:46
Speaker 1: is supposed that our hearts are not yet molded into
1:18:49
Speaker 1: that spiritual frame which should render our devotions acceptable. Yet
1:18:52
Speaker 1: I think that such considerations as have been proposed to
1:18:55
Speaker 1: deter us from sin may also stir us up to
1:18:57
Speaker 1: some natural seriousness, and make our prayers against it as earnest,
1:19:01
Speaker 1: at least as they are wont to be against other calamities.
1:19:04
Speaker 1: I do not doubt that God, who hears the cry
1:19:06
Speaker 1: of the ravens, will have some regard even to such
1:19:09
Speaker 1: petitions as proceed from those natural passions which He himself
1:19:12
Speaker 1: has planted in us. Besides, those prayers against sin will
1:19:15
Speaker 1: be powerful engagements on ourselves to excite us to watchfulness
1:19:19
Speaker 1: and care, and common ingenuity will make us ashamed to
1:19:22
Speaker 1: relapse into those faults which we have lately bewailed before God,
1:19:25
Speaker 1: and against which we have begged for his assistance. Thus
1:19:28
Speaker 1: we are to make the first essay for recovering the
1:19:30
Speaker 1: divine life by restraining the natural inclinations, so that they
1:19:34
Speaker 1: do not break out into sinful practices. But I must
1:19:37
Speaker 1: add here that Christian prudence will teach us to abstain
1:19:40
Speaker 1: from gratifications that are not simply unlawful, and that not
1:19:44
Speaker 1: only that we may secure our innocence, which would be
1:19:46
Speaker 1: in continual hazard if we should strain our liberty to
1:19:48
Speaker 1: the utmost point. But also that hereby we may weaken
1:19:52
Speaker 1: the forces of nature and teach our appetites to obey.
1:19:55
Speaker 1: We must do with ourselves as prudent parents do with
1:19:57
Speaker 1: their children, who cross their wills in many life little
1:20:00
Speaker 1: indifferent things, to make the manageable and submissive in more
1:20:03
Speaker 1: considerable instances. He who would mortify the pride and vanity
1:20:07
Speaker 1: of his spirit should stop his ears to the most
1:20:09
Speaker 1: deserved praises, and sometimes forbear his just vindication from the
1:20:13
Speaker 1: censures and aspersions of others, especially if they reflect only
1:20:17
Speaker 1: upon his prudence and conduct, and not on his virtue
1:20:19
Speaker 1: and innocence. He who would check a vengeful disposition would
1:20:23
Speaker 1: do well to deny himself the satisfaction of representing unto
1:20:26
Speaker 1: others the injuries which he has sustained. And if we
1:20:29
Speaker 1: would so take heed to our ways, that we do
1:20:31
Speaker 1: not sin with our tongue, we must accustom ourselves much
1:20:33
Speaker 1: to solitude and silence, and sometimes with a psalmist, hold
1:20:37
Speaker 1: our peace even from good until we have gotten some
1:20:39
Speaker 1: command over that unruly member. Thus, I say we may
1:20:43
Speaker 1: bind up our natural inclinations, and make our appetites more
1:20:45
Speaker 1: moderate in their cravings by accustoming them to frequent refusals.
1:20:49
Speaker 1: It is not enough to have them under violence and restraint.
1:20:53
Speaker 1: Our next essay must be to wean our affections from
1:20:55
Speaker 1: created things and all the delights and entertainments of the
1:20:58
Speaker 1: lower life, which sink and oppress the souls of men,
1:21:00
Speaker 1: and retard their motions towards God and Heaven. And this
1:21:03
Speaker 1: we must do by possessing our minds with the deep
1:21:06
Speaker 1: persuasion of the vanity and emptiness of worldly enjoyments. This
1:21:09
Speaker 1: is an ordinary theme, and everybody can make declamations upon it,
1:21:13
Speaker 1: But alas how I few understand and believe what they say.
1:21:17
Speaker 1: These notions float in our brains and come sliding off
1:21:19
Speaker 1: our tongues, but we have no deep impression of them
1:21:21
Speaker 1: on our spirits. We do not feel the truth which
1:21:24
Speaker 1: we pretend to believe. We can tell that all the
1:21:26
Speaker 1: glory and splendor, and the pleasures and enjoyments of the
1:21:29
Speaker 1: world are vanity and nothing. And yet these nothings take
1:21:32
Speaker 1: up all our thoughts and engross all our affections. They
1:21:34
Speaker 1: stifle the better inclinations of our soul, and inveigle us
1:21:38
Speaker 1: into many a sin. It may be in a sober
1:21:40
Speaker 1: mood we give them the slight and resolve to be
1:21:43
Speaker 1: no longer deluded with them. But these thoughts seldom outlive
1:21:46
Speaker 1: the next haptation. The vanities which we have shut out
1:21:48
Speaker 1: at the door get in at a postern. There are
1:21:51
Speaker 1: still some pretenses, some hopes, that flatter us, And after
1:21:54
Speaker 1: we have been frustrated a thousand times, we must be
1:21:57
Speaker 1: continually repeating the experiment. The least difference of circumstances is
1:22:02
Speaker 1: enough to delude us and make us expect that satisfaction
1:22:05
Speaker 1: in one thing which we have missed in another. But
1:22:07
Speaker 1: could we once get clearly off and come to a
1:22:09
Speaker 1: real and serious contempt of worldly things, this would be
1:22:12
Speaker 1: a very considerable advancement in our way. The soul of
1:22:16
Speaker 1: man is of a vigorous and active nature, and has
1:22:18
Speaker 1: in it a raging and inextinguishable thirst, an immaterial kind
1:22:22
Speaker 1: of fire, always catching at some object or other in conjunction,
1:22:25
Speaker 1: wherewith it thinks to be happy and wore at once
1:22:28
Speaker 1: wrench from the world and all the bewitching enjoyments under
1:22:30
Speaker 1: the sun, It would quickly search after some higher and
1:22:33
Speaker 1: more excellent object to satisfy its ardent and importunate cravings, and,
1:22:37
Speaker 1: being no longer dazzled with glittering vanities, would fix on
1:22:40
Speaker 1: that supreme and all sufficient good, where it would discover
1:22:43
Speaker 1: such beauty and sweetness as would charm and overpower all
1:22:46
Speaker 1: its affections. The love of the world and the love
1:22:49
Speaker 1: of God are like the scales of a balance. As
1:22:51
Speaker 1: one falls, the other rises. When our natural inclinations prosper
1:22:55
Speaker 1: and the creature is exalted in our soul, religion feints
1:22:58
Speaker 1: and languishes. But when earthly objects wither away and lose
1:23:02
Speaker 1: their beauty, and when the soul begins to cool and
1:23:04
Speaker 1: flag in its prosecution of them, then the seeds of
1:23:07
Speaker 1: grace take root, and so divine life begins to flourish
1:23:10
Speaker 1: and prevail it. Therefore, nearly concerns us to convince ourselves
1:23:14
Speaker 1: of the emptiness and vanity of creature enjoyments and reason
1:23:17
Speaker 1: our hearts out of love with them. Let us seriously
1:23:20
Speaker 1: consider all that our reason, or our faith, or our
1:23:23
Speaker 1: own experience, or the observations of others can suggest to
1:23:26
Speaker 1: this effect. Let us ponder the matter over and over,
1:23:29
Speaker 1: and fix our thoughts on this truth until we become
1:23:31
Speaker 1: really persuaded of it. Amidst all our pursuits and designs,
1:23:35
Speaker 1: Let us stop and ask ourselves, for what end is
1:23:37
Speaker 1: all this? At what do I aim? Can the gross
1:23:39
Speaker 1: and muddy pleasures of sense? Can a heap of white
1:23:42
Speaker 1: and yellow earth, or the esteem and affection of silly
1:23:44
Speaker 1: creatures like myself, satisfy a rational and immortal soul. Have
1:23:49
Speaker 1: I not tried these things already? Will they have a
1:23:51
Speaker 1: higher relish and yield me more contentment tomorrow than yesterday,
1:23:55
Speaker 1: or the next year more than the last. There may
1:23:57
Speaker 1: be some little difference between that which I am now
1:23:59
Speaker 1: pursued and that which I enjoyed before. But surely my
1:24:02
Speaker 1: former enjoyments that show as pleasant and promised as fair
1:24:05
Speaker 1: before I attained them. Like the rainbow, they looked very
1:24:09
Speaker 1: glorious at a distance, but when I approached I found
1:24:12
Speaker 1: nothing but emptiness and vapor Oh what a poor thing
1:24:15
Speaker 1: would the life of man be if it were capable
1:24:17
Speaker 1: of no higher enjoyments. I cannot insist on this subject,
1:24:20
Speaker 1: and there is even less need when I remember to
1:24:22
Speaker 1: whom I am riding. Yes, my dear friend, you have
1:24:25
Speaker 1: had as great experience of the emptiness and vanity of
1:24:28
Speaker 1: human things, and have at present as few worldly engagements
1:24:31
Speaker 1: as any one I know. I have sometimes reflected on
1:24:34
Speaker 1: those passages of your life wherewith you have been pleased
1:24:36
Speaker 1: to acquaint me, and I think through all I can
1:24:39
Speaker 1: discern a design of the divine providence to wean your
1:24:42
Speaker 1: affections from everything here below. The trials you have had
1:24:45
Speaker 1: of those things which the world dowds upon have taught
1:24:48
Speaker 1: you to despise them. And you have found by experience
1:24:51
Speaker 1: that neither the endowments of nature nor the advantages of
1:24:53
Speaker 1: fortune are sufficient for happiness. You have found that every
1:24:57
Speaker 1: rose has its thorn, and there may be a worm
1:24:59
Speaker 1: at the root of the fairest gourd, some secret and
1:25:01
Speaker 1: undiscerned grief, which may make a person deserve the pity
1:25:04
Speaker 1: of those who perhaps admire or envy their supposed felicity.
1:25:08
Speaker 1: If any earthly comforts have gotten too much of your heart,
1:25:11
Speaker 1: I think they have any relations and friends, and the
1:25:13
Speaker 1: dearest of those are removed out of the world, so
1:25:15
Speaker 1: that you must raise your mind towards Heaven when you
1:25:18
Speaker 1: would think upon them. Thus God has provided that your
1:25:21
Speaker 1: heart may be loosed from the world, and that he
1:25:23
Speaker 1: may not have any rival in your affection, which I
1:25:25
Speaker 1: have always observed to be so large and unbounded, so
1:25:28
Speaker 1: noble and disinterested, that no inferior object can answer or
1:25:32
Speaker 1: deserve it. When we have gotten our corruptions restrained, and
1:25:35
Speaker 1: our natural appetites and inclinations towards worldly things in some
1:25:39
Speaker 1: measure subdued, we must proceed to such exercises as have
1:25:42
Speaker 1: a more immediate tendency to excite and awaken the divine life.
1:25:46
Speaker 1: And first, let us endeavor conscientiously to perform those duties
1:25:49
Speaker 1: which religion requires, and where unto it would incline us
1:25:52
Speaker 1: if it prevailed in our souls. If we cannot get
1:25:55
Speaker 1: our inward disposition presently changed, let us study at least
1:25:58
Speaker 1: to regulate our outward DEAs aportment. If our hearts are
1:26:01
Speaker 1: not inflamed with divine love. Yet, let us, however, own
1:26:04
Speaker 1: our allegiance to that divine majesty, by attending his service
1:26:07
Speaker 1: and listening to his word, by speaking reverently of his
1:26:10
Speaker 1: name and praising his goodness, and by exhorting others to
1:26:13
Speaker 1: serve and obey him. If we lack that charity and
1:26:16
Speaker 1: those bowels of compassion which we ought to have towards
1:26:18
Speaker 1: our neighbors, Yet we must not omit any occasion of
1:26:21
Speaker 1: doing them good. If our hearts are haughty and proud,
1:26:24
Speaker 1: we must nevertheless study a most humbled aportment. These external
1:26:28
Speaker 1: performances are of little value in themselves, yet they may
1:26:31
Speaker 1: help us forward to better things. The apostle indeed tells
1:26:34
Speaker 1: us that bodily exercise is of little profit, but he
1:26:37
Speaker 1: does not seem to affirm that it is altogether useless.
1:26:40
Speaker 1: It is always good to be doing what we can,
1:26:42
Speaker 1: for then God is wont to pity our weakness and
1:26:44
Speaker 1: assist our feeble endeavors. And when true charity and humility,
1:26:48
Speaker 1: and other graces of the Divine spirit come to take
1:26:50
Speaker 1: root in our souls, they will exert themselves more freely
1:26:53
Speaker 1: and with less difficulty if we have before been accustomed
1:26:56
Speaker 1: to express them in our outward conversations. Nor need we
1:27:00
Speaker 1: fear the imputation of hypocrisy, though our actions do thus
1:27:03
Speaker 1: somewhat outrun our affections, seeing that they still proceed from
1:27:06
Speaker 1: a sense of our duty. Our design is not to
1:27:08
Speaker 1: appear better than we are, but that we may really
1:27:11
Speaker 1: become so. But as inward acts have a more immediate influence,
1:27:14
Speaker 1: on the soul to mold it to a right temper
1:27:16
Speaker 1: and frame, so ought we to be most frequent and
1:27:19
Speaker 1: sedulous in the exercise of them. Let us often be
1:27:22
Speaker 1: lifting up our hearts towards God. And if we do
1:27:24
Speaker 1: not say that we love him above all things, let
1:27:27
Speaker 1: us at least acknowledge that it is our duty, and
1:27:29
Speaker 1: that it would be our happiness to do so. Let
1:27:31
Speaker 1: us lament the dishonor done to him by foolish and
1:27:34
Speaker 1: sinful men, and applaud the praises and adorations that are
1:27:36
Speaker 1: given him by that blessed and glorious company. Above. Let
1:27:40
Speaker 1: us resign and yield ourselves up unto him a thousand times,
1:27:43
Speaker 1: to be governed by his laws and disposed of at
1:27:45
Speaker 1: his pleasure. And though our stubborn hearts might step back
1:27:48
Speaker 1: and refuse, yet, let us tell him that we are
1:27:50
Speaker 1: convinced that his will is always just and good, and
1:27:53
Speaker 1: that we therefore desire him to do with us whatsoever
1:27:56
Speaker 1: he pleases, whether we like it or not. And so
1:27:59
Speaker 1: for begetting anne universal charity towards men, we must frequently
1:28:02
Speaker 1: be putting up wishes for their happiness and blessing every
1:28:05
Speaker 1: person that we see. And when we have done anything
1:28:07
Speaker 1: for the relief of the miserable, we may second it
1:28:10
Speaker 1: with earnest desires that God would take care of them
1:28:12
Speaker 1: and deliver them out of all their distresses. Thus should
1:28:16
Speaker 1: we excite ourselves unto Godliness. And when we are employing
1:28:19
Speaker 1: the powers that we have, the Spirit of God is
1:28:21
Speaker 1: wont to strike in and elevate these acts of our
1:28:24
Speaker 1: soul beyond the pitch of nature and give them a
1:28:26
Speaker 1: divine impression. And after the frequent reiteration of these we
1:28:30
Speaker 1: shall find ourselves more inclined unto them, and they will
1:28:33
Speaker 1: flow with greater freedom and ease. And of Section four
1:28:37
Speaker 1: recording by General Window, Section five of the Life of
1:28:47
Speaker 1: God and the Soul of Man by Henry Scougle. The
1:28:50
Speaker 1: Sleeprivox recording is in the public domain recording by General Mundo.
1:28:55
Speaker 1: I shall mention but two other means for begetting that
1:28:58
Speaker 1: holy and divine temper of spirit which is the subject
1:29:01
Speaker 1: of the present discourse. The first is a deep and
1:29:04
Speaker 1: serious consideration of the truths of our religion, and that
1:29:08
Speaker 1: as to both the certainty and importance of them, the
1:29:11
Speaker 1: assent which is ordinarily given to divine truths is very
1:29:14
Speaker 1: faint and languid, very weak, and ineffectual, flowing only from
1:29:17
Speaker 1: a blind inclination to follow that religion which is in fashion,
1:29:21
Speaker 1: or a lazy indifference and unconcernedness whether things are so
1:29:24
Speaker 1: or not. Men are unwilling to quarrel with the religion
1:29:27
Speaker 1: of their country, and since all their neighbors are Christians,
1:29:30
Speaker 1: they are content to be so as well. But they
1:29:33
Speaker 1: are seldom at pains to consider the evidence of those truths,
1:29:36
Speaker 1: or to ponder the importance and tendency of them. And
1:29:39
Speaker 1: thence it is that they have so little influence on
1:29:41
Speaker 1: their affections. In practice, those spiritless and paralytic thoughts are
1:29:45
Speaker 1: not able to move the will and direct the hand.
1:29:48
Speaker 1: We must therefore endeavor to work our minds up to
1:29:50
Speaker 1: a serious belief and full persuasion of divine truths, and
1:29:54
Speaker 1: to a sense and feeling of spiritual things. Our thoughts
1:29:57
Speaker 1: must dwell upon them till we are both convinced of
1:29:59
Speaker 1: them and deeply affected by them. Let us urge our
1:30:03
Speaker 1: spirits forward and make them approach the invisible world. Let
1:30:07
Speaker 1: us fix our minds upon immaterial things until we clearly
1:30:10
Speaker 1: perceive that these are not dreams, nay, that all things
1:30:13
Speaker 1: our dreams and shadows except them. When we look about
1:30:16
Speaker 1: us and behold the beauty and magnificence of this goodly frame,
1:30:20
Speaker 1: the order and harmony of the whole creation, let our
1:30:22
Speaker 1: thoughts from thence take their flight towards that omnipotent wisdom
1:30:26
Speaker 1: and goodness which at first produced and still establishes and
1:30:29
Speaker 1: upholds the same. When we reflect upon ourselves, let us
1:30:33
Speaker 1: consider that we are not a mere piece of organized matter,
1:30:36
Speaker 1: a curious and well contrived engine. That there is more
1:30:39
Speaker 1: in us than flesh, blood and bones, even a divine
1:30:43
Speaker 1: spark that is capable of knowing, loving, and enjoying our maker.
1:30:46
Speaker 1: And though that spark is now exceedingly clogged with its
1:30:49
Speaker 1: dull and lumpy companion, yet ere long it shall be delivered,
1:30:53
Speaker 1: and can subsist without the body, as well as the
1:30:55
Speaker 1: body can do without the clothes which we throw off
1:30:57
Speaker 1: at our pleasure. Let us often withdraw thoughts from this earth,
1:31:01
Speaker 1: the scene of misery, folly, and sin, and raise them
1:31:04
Speaker 1: towards that more vast and glorious world, whose innocent and
1:31:07
Speaker 1: blessed inhabitants solace themselves eternally in the divine presence and
1:31:11
Speaker 1: know no other passion. But an unmixed joy and an
1:31:14
Speaker 1: unbounded love. And then let us consider how the blessed
1:31:17
Speaker 1: Son of God came down to this lower world to
1:31:20
Speaker 1: live among us and die for us, so that he
1:31:22
Speaker 1: might bring us to a portion of the same felicity.
1:31:26
Speaker 1: Think how he has overcome the sharpness of death, opened
1:31:29
Speaker 1: the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers, and is now
1:31:31
Speaker 1: set down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
1:31:34
Speaker 1: Yet he is no less mindful of us, but receives
1:31:37
Speaker 1: our prayers and presents them unto his Father, and is
1:31:40
Speaker 1: daily visiting his church with the influences of his spirit,
1:31:43
Speaker 1: as the sun reaches us with its beams. The serious
1:31:46
Speaker 1: and frequent consideration of these and such other divine truths
1:31:50
Speaker 1: is the most proper method to beget that lively faith
1:31:53
Speaker 1: which is the foundation of religion, the spring and root
1:31:56
Speaker 1: of the divine life. Let me further suggest some particular
1:31:59
Speaker 1: subjct of meditation for producing the various branches of it.
1:32:03
Speaker 1: And first to inflame our souls with the love of God.
1:32:06
Speaker 1: Let us consider the excellency of his nature and his
1:32:09
Speaker 1: love and kindness towards us. We know little of the
1:32:11
Speaker 1: divine perfection, and yet that little may suffice to fill
1:32:15
Speaker 1: our souls with admiration and love, to ravish our affections,
1:32:18
Speaker 1: as well as to raise our wonder For we are
1:32:20
Speaker 1: not merely creatures of sense, that we should be incapable
1:32:23
Speaker 1: of any other affection. But that which enters by the eyes.
1:32:26
Speaker 1: The character of any excellent person whom we have never seen,
1:32:30
Speaker 1: will many times engage our hearts and make us hugely
1:32:33
Speaker 1: concerned in all his interests. And what is it, I
1:32:36
Speaker 1: pray you, that engages us so much to those with
1:32:38
Speaker 1: whom we converse. I cannot think that it is merely
1:32:41
Speaker 1: the color of their face or their comely proportions, For
1:32:44
Speaker 1: then we would fall in love with statues, pictures, and flowers.
1:32:48
Speaker 1: These outward accomplishments may delight the eye a little, but
1:32:51
Speaker 1: would never be able to prevail so much on the
1:32:53
Speaker 1: heart if they did not represent some vital perfection. We
1:32:57
Speaker 1: either see or apprehend some greatness of mind, vigor of spirit,
1:33:01
Speaker 1: or sweetness of disposition, some sprightliness, wisdom, or goodness which
1:33:05
Speaker 1: charmed our spirit and commanded our love. Now, these perfections
1:33:09
Speaker 1: are not obvious to the sight. The eyes can only
1:33:12
Speaker 1: discern the signs and effects of them, and if it
1:33:14
Speaker 1: is the understanding that directs the affection, and vital perfections
1:33:18
Speaker 1: prevail with it. Certainly the excellencies of the divine nature,
1:33:22
Speaker 1: the traces whereof we cannot but discover in everything we behold,
1:33:25
Speaker 1: would not fail to engage our hearts if we seriously
1:33:28
Speaker 1: viewed and regarded them. Shall we not be infinitely more
1:33:31
Speaker 1: transported with that almighty wisdom and goodness which fills the
1:33:35
Speaker 1: universe and displays itself in all parts of creation, which
1:33:38
Speaker 1: establishes the frame of nature, and turned the mighty wheels
1:33:41
Speaker 1: of providence, which keeps the world from disorder and ruin,
1:33:45
Speaker 1: than with faint rays of the same perfections which we
1:33:47
Speaker 1: meet with in our fellow creatures. Shall we dote on
1:33:50
Speaker 1: the scattered pieces of a rude and imperfect picture and
1:33:53
Speaker 1: never be affected with the original beauty. This would be
1:33:57
Speaker 1: an unaccountable stupidity and blindness. Whatever we find lovely in
1:34:01
Speaker 1: a friend or a saint ought not to engross but
1:34:04
Speaker 1: to elevate our affection. We should conclude with ourselves that
1:34:08
Speaker 1: if there is so much sweetness in a drop, there
1:34:10
Speaker 1: must be infinitely more in the fountain. If there is
1:34:13
Speaker 1: so much splendor in array, what must the sun be
1:34:16
Speaker 1: in its glory. Nor can we pretend the remoteness of
1:34:19
Speaker 1: the object, as if God were at too great a
1:34:21
Speaker 1: distance for our converse or a love. As the Scripture says,
1:34:26
Speaker 1: he is not far from every one of us, for
1:34:28
Speaker 1: in Him we live and move and have our being
1:34:31
Speaker 1: Acts Chapter seventeen, verses twenty seven to twenty eight. We
1:34:35
Speaker 1: cannot open our eyes without beholding some footsteps of his glory,
1:34:38
Speaker 1: and we cannot turn them towards him. But we shall
1:34:40
Speaker 1: be sure to find His intent upon us, waiting, as
1:34:43
Speaker 1: it were, to catch a look, ready to entertain the
1:34:45
Speaker 1: most intimate fellowship and communion with us. Let us therefore
1:34:50
Speaker 1: endeavor to raise our minds to the clearest conceptions of
1:34:52
Speaker 1: the divine nature. Let us consider all that his works declare,
1:34:56
Speaker 1: or all that his word reveals to us of Him.
1:34:59
Speaker 1: And let us espect visually contemplate that visible representation of
1:35:02
Speaker 1: Him which was made in our own nature by His son,
1:35:05
Speaker 1: who was the brightness of his glory and the express
1:35:08
Speaker 1: image of his person Hebrews Chapter one, verse three, and
1:35:12
Speaker 1: who appeared in the world to reveal at the same
1:35:14
Speaker 1: time what God is and what we ought to be.
1:35:17
Speaker 1: Let us represent him unto our minds, as we find
1:35:20
Speaker 1: him described in the Gospel, and there we shall behold
1:35:22
Speaker 1: the perfections of the divine nature, though covered with the
1:35:25
Speaker 1: veil of human infirmities. And when we have framed unto
1:35:28
Speaker 1: ourselves the clearest notion that we can of such a being,
1:35:31
Speaker 1: infinite in power, in wisdom and goodness, the author and
1:35:34
Speaker 1: fountain of all perfections, let us fix the eyes of
1:35:37
Speaker 1: our soul upon it, so that our eyes may affect
1:35:39
Speaker 1: our heart. And while we are thus musing, the fire
1:35:42
Speaker 1: will burn. We must do this, especially if here unto
1:35:45
Speaker 1: we add the consideration of God's favor and good will
1:35:48
Speaker 1: towards us. Nothing is more powerful to engage our affection
1:35:52
Speaker 1: than to find that we are beloved. Expressions of kindness
1:35:55
Speaker 1: are always pleasing and acceptable unto us, though the person
1:35:58
Speaker 1: might be otherwise mean and contemptible. But to have the
1:36:01
Speaker 1: love of one who is altogether lovely, To know that
1:36:04
Speaker 1: the glorious majesty of Heaven has any regard for us,
1:36:08
Speaker 1: How must that astonish and delight us. How it must
1:36:11
Speaker 1: overcome our spirits, melt our hearts, and put our whole
1:36:14
Speaker 1: soul into a flame. As the word of God is
1:36:16
Speaker 1: full of the expressions of his love towards man, so
1:36:19
Speaker 1: all his works loudly proclaim it. He gave us our being,
1:36:23
Speaker 1: and by preserving us in it, he renews the donation
1:36:25
Speaker 1: every moment. He has placed us in a rich and
1:36:28
Speaker 1: well furnished world, and liberally provides for all our necessities.
1:36:32
Speaker 1: He rains down blessings from Heaven upon us and causes
1:36:35
Speaker 1: the earth to bring forth our provision. He gives us
1:36:38
Speaker 1: our food and raiment, And while we are spending the
1:36:41
Speaker 1: productions of one year, he is preparing for us against another.
1:36:44
Speaker 1: He sweetens our lives with innumerable comforts, and gratifies every
1:36:48
Speaker 1: faculty with suitable objects. The eye of his providence is
1:36:51
Speaker 1: always upon us, and he watches for our safety when
1:36:55
Speaker 1: we are fast asleep. But lest we should think these
1:36:57
Speaker 1: testimonies of his kindness less concerned literable, because they are
1:37:01
Speaker 1: the easy issues of his omnipotent power, and do not
1:37:04
Speaker 1: put him to any trouble or pain, he has taken
1:37:07
Speaker 1: a more wonderful method to endear himself to us. He
1:37:10
Speaker 1: has testified his affection to us by suffering as well
1:37:13
Speaker 1: as doing. And because he could not suffer in his
1:37:15
Speaker 1: own nature, he assumed ours the eternal son of God,
1:37:19
Speaker 1: clothed himself with the infirmities of our flesh, and left
1:37:22
Speaker 1: the company of those innocent and blessed spirits who well
1:37:25
Speaker 1: knew how to love and adore him, so that he
1:37:28
Speaker 1: might dwell among men and wrestle with the obstinacy of
1:37:31
Speaker 1: that rebellious race, to reduce them to their allegiance and fidelity,
1:37:34
Speaker 1: and then to offer himself up as a sacrifice and
1:37:37
Speaker 1: propitiation for them. I remember that one of the poets
1:37:40
Speaker 1: used ingenious fancy to express the passion with which he
1:37:43
Speaker 1: found himself overcome. After resisting God for a long time,
1:37:47
Speaker 1: the God of Love shot all his golden arrows at me,
1:37:50
Speaker 1: but could never pierce my heart, until at length he
1:37:54
Speaker 1: put himself into the bow and darted himself straight into
1:37:57
Speaker 1: my breast. I think this, in some way outlines God's
1:38:00
Speaker 1: method of dealing with men. He had long contended with
1:38:03
Speaker 1: a stubborn world, and had thrown down many a blessing
1:38:06
Speaker 1: upon them, And when all his other gifts could not prevail,
1:38:09
Speaker 1: he at last made a gift of himself to testify
1:38:12
Speaker 1: his affection and to engage theirs. The account which we
1:38:16
Speaker 1: have of our Saviour's life in the Gospel all Along
1:38:19
Speaker 1: presents us with the story of his love. All the
1:38:21
Speaker 1: pains that he took and the troubles that he endured
1:38:24
Speaker 1: were the wonderful effects and uncontrollable evidences of it. But
1:38:28
Speaker 1: oh at last, that dismal scene, is it possible to
1:38:31
Speaker 1: remember it and question his kindness or deny him ours.
1:38:35
Speaker 1: Here here it is, my dear friend, that we should
1:38:37
Speaker 1: fix our most serious and solemn thoughts, so that Christ
1:38:41
Speaker 1: may dwell in our hearts by love, that we, being
1:38:44
Speaker 1: rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend
1:38:47
Speaker 1: with all saints what is the breadth, length, depth, and height,
1:38:50
Speaker 1: and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge,
1:38:53
Speaker 1: so that we may be filled with all the fullness
1:38:55
Speaker 1: of God. We ought also frequently to reflect on those
1:38:59
Speaker 1: particular tokens of favor and love which God has bestowed
1:39:02
Speaker 1: on us. How long He has borne with our follies
1:39:04
Speaker 1: and sins, and waited to be gracious unto us, wrestling
1:39:08
Speaker 1: as it were, with the stubbornness of our hearts, and
1:39:10
Speaker 1: using every method to reclaim us. We should keep a
1:39:13
Speaker 1: register in our minds of all the eminent blessings and
1:39:16
Speaker 1: deliverances we have met with some whereof have been so
1:39:19
Speaker 1: conveyed that we might clearly perceive that they were not
1:39:22
Speaker 1: the issues of chance, but the gracious effects of the
1:39:25
Speaker 1: divine favor and the signal returns of our prayers. Nor
1:39:28
Speaker 1: ought we to embitter the thoughts of these things with
1:39:30
Speaker 1: any harsh or unworthy suspicion, as if they were designed
1:39:34
Speaker 1: on purpose to enhance our guilt and heighten our eternal damnation. No, no,
1:39:38
Speaker 1: my friend, God is love, and he has no pleasure
1:39:41
Speaker 1: in the ruin of his creatures. If they abuse his
1:39:44
Speaker 1: goodness and turn his grace into wantonness, thereby plunging themselves
1:39:47
Speaker 1: into greater depths of guilt and misery. This is the
1:39:50
Speaker 1: effect of their obstinate wickedness, and not the design of
1:39:53
Speaker 1: those benefits which He bestows. If these considerations had once
1:39:57
Speaker 1: begotten in our hearts a real love and effect towards
1:40:00
Speaker 1: Almighty God, then that would easily lead us into the
1:40:03
Speaker 1: other branches of religion. And therefore, I need say the
1:40:07
Speaker 1: less of them. We shall find our hearts enlarged in
1:40:10
Speaker 1: charity towards men by considering the relation wherein they stand
1:40:14
Speaker 1: unto God and the impresses of His image, which are
1:40:16
Speaker 1: stamped upon them. They are not only his creatures the
1:40:20
Speaker 1: workmanship of his hands, but such of whom he takes
1:40:22
Speaker 1: special care, and for whom he has a very dear
1:40:25
Speaker 1: and tender regard. He laid the design of their happiness
1:40:28
Speaker 1: before the foundations of the world, and is willing to
1:40:31
Speaker 1: live and converse with them to all eternity. The meanest
1:40:34
Speaker 1: and most contemptible person we may behold is the offspring
1:40:37
Speaker 1: of Heaven, one of the children of the most High,
1:40:40
Speaker 1: And however unworthy he might behave himself with regard to
1:40:43
Speaker 1: that relationship, as long as God has not abdicated and
1:40:46
Speaker 1: disowned him by a final sentence, he will have us
1:40:49
Speaker 1: acknowledged him as one of his, and as such to
1:40:52
Speaker 1: embrace him with the sincere and cordial affection. You know
1:40:55
Speaker 1: what a great concern we are wont to have for
1:40:57
Speaker 1: those who in any way belong to the person whom
1:40:59
Speaker 1: we love. How gladly we lay hold on every opportunity
1:41:03
Speaker 1: to gratify the child or servant of a friend, And
1:41:06
Speaker 1: surely our love towards God would as naturally spring forth
1:41:09
Speaker 1: in charity towards men, if we minded the interests that
1:41:12
Speaker 1: He is pleased to take in them, and consider that
1:41:14
Speaker 1: every soul is dearer unto Him than all the material world,
1:41:18
Speaker 1: and that he did not account the blood of his
1:41:20
Speaker 1: son too great a price to pay for their redemption. Again,
1:41:23
Speaker 1: as all men stand in a near relation to God,
1:41:26
Speaker 1: so they have still so much of His image stamped
1:41:28
Speaker 1: upon them, as may oblige and excite us to love them.
1:41:32
Speaker 1: In some this image is more eminent and conspicuous, and
1:41:35
Speaker 1: we can discern the lovely traces of wisdom and goodness.
1:41:38
Speaker 1: And though in others it is miserably sullied and defaced,
1:41:41
Speaker 1: yet it is not altogether erased. Some lineaments at least
1:41:44
Speaker 1: still remain. All men are endued with rational and immortal souls,
1:41:48
Speaker 1: with understandings and wills, capable of the highest and most
1:41:51
Speaker 1: excellent things. And if they are at present disordered and
1:41:54
Speaker 1: put out of tune by wickedness and folly, this may
1:41:57
Speaker 1: indeed move our compassion, but ought not to be reason
1:42:00
Speaker 1: to extinguish our love. When we see a person in
1:42:03
Speaker 1: a rugged humor and perverse disposition, full of malice and dissimilation,
1:42:07
Speaker 1: very foolish and very proud, it is hard to fall
1:42:10
Speaker 1: in love with an object that presents itself unto us
1:42:13
Speaker 1: under an idea so ungrateful and unlovely. But when we
1:42:16
Speaker 1: consider these evil qualities as the diseases and distempers of
1:42:20
Speaker 1: a soul which in itself is capable of all that
1:42:22
Speaker 1: wisdom and goodness, wherewith the best of saints have ever
1:42:25
Speaker 1: been adorned, and which may one day come to be
1:42:28
Speaker 1: raised unto such heights of perfection as shall render it
1:42:31
Speaker 1: a fit companion for the holy angels. This will turn
1:42:34
Speaker 1: our version into pity, and make us behold him with
1:42:37
Speaker 1: such resentments as we should have when we look upon
1:42:39
Speaker 1: a beautiful body that has been mangled with wounds or
1:42:43
Speaker 1: disfigured by some loathsome disease. And however we hate the vices,
1:42:47
Speaker 1: we shall not cease to love the man in the
1:42:50
Speaker 1: next place. To purify our souls and disentangle our affections
1:42:53
Speaker 1: from the pleasures and enjoyments of this lower life, let
1:42:57
Speaker 1: us frequently ponder the excellency and dignity of our names,
1:43:00
Speaker 1: and what a shameful and unworthy thing it is for
1:43:03
Speaker 1: so noble and divine a creature as the soul of man,
1:43:06
Speaker 1: to sink and be immersed in brutish and sensual lust,
1:43:09
Speaker 1: or mused with airy and fantastic delights, and so to
1:43:12
Speaker 1: lose the relish of solid and spiritual pleasures, so that
1:43:16
Speaker 1: the beasts should be fed and pampered, and the man
1:43:18
Speaker 1: and the Christian in us be starved. If we minded
1:43:21
Speaker 1: who we are and for what we were made, this
1:43:24
Speaker 1: would teach us in a right sense to reverence and
1:43:26
Speaker 1: stand in awe of ourselves. It would beget a modesty
1:43:29
Speaker 1: and shamefacedness, and make us very shy and reserved in
1:43:32
Speaker 1: the use of the most innocent and allowable pleasures. It
1:43:36
Speaker 1: will be very effective for the same purpose that we
1:43:38
Speaker 1: frequently raise our minds towards heaven and represent to our
1:43:42
Speaker 1: thoughts the joys that are at God's right hand, those
1:43:44
Speaker 1: pleasures that endure forever. For every man who has this
1:43:48
Speaker 1: hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure.
1:43:52
Speaker 1: First John, chapter three, verse three. If our heavenly country
1:43:55
Speaker 1: is much in our thoughts, it will make us, as
1:43:57
Speaker 1: strangers and pilgrims, to abstain and fleshly lusts which wage
1:44:01
Speaker 1: war against the soul, and keep ourselves unspotted from this world,
1:44:05
Speaker 1: so that we may be fit for the enjoyments and
1:44:07
Speaker 1: felicities of the other but our notions of heaven must
1:44:10
Speaker 1: not be gross and carnal. We are not to dream
1:44:12
Speaker 1: of some mahommed in paradise, nor rest on those metaphors
1:44:15
Speaker 1: and similitudes by which these joys are sometimes represented, For
1:44:20
Speaker 1: this might perhaps have quite a contrary effect. It might
1:44:23
Speaker 1: entangle us further in carnal affections. And we should be
1:44:26
Speaker 1: ready to indulge ourselves in a very liberal foretaste of
1:44:29
Speaker 1: those pleasures wherein we had placed our everlasting felicity. But
1:44:33
Speaker 1: once we come to conceive a right of those pure
1:44:36
Speaker 1: and spiritual pleasures, when the happiness we proposed ourselves is
1:44:39
Speaker 1: from the sight, love, and enjoyment of God, and our
1:44:42
Speaker 1: minds are filled with the hopes and forethoughts of that
1:44:45
Speaker 1: blessed estate. Oh how lowly and contemptible will all things
1:44:48
Speaker 1: here below appear in our eyes? With what disdain shall
1:44:52
Speaker 1: we reject the gross and muddy pleasures that would deprive
1:44:55
Speaker 1: us of those celestial enjoyments, or in any way unfit
1:44:58
Speaker 1: an indispose us for them. The last branch of religion
1:45:02
Speaker 1: is humility, and surely we can never lack matter of
1:45:04
Speaker 1: consideration for begetting it. All our weaknesses and imperfections. All
1:45:09
Speaker 1: our follies and our sins may help to pull down
1:45:12
Speaker 1: that fond conceit which we are apt to entertain of ourselves.
1:45:16
Speaker 1: That which makes anybody esteem us is their knowledge or
1:45:18
Speaker 1: apprehension of some little good, and their ignorance of a
1:45:21
Speaker 1: great deal of evil that may be in us. Were
1:45:24
Speaker 1: they thoroughly acquainted with us, they would quickly change their opinions.
1:45:27
Speaker 1: The thoughts that pass in our heart in the best
1:45:30
Speaker 1: and most serious day of our life, being exposed to
1:45:32
Speaker 1: public view, would render us either hateful or ridiculous. And now,
1:45:37
Speaker 1: however we conceal our failings from one another, yet we
1:45:40
Speaker 1: are surely conscious of them ourselves, and some serious reflection
1:45:43
Speaker 1: on them would much qualify and allay the vanity of
1:45:46
Speaker 1: our spirits. Thus, holy men have come really to think
1:45:49
Speaker 1: worse of themselves than of any other person in the world.
1:45:52
Speaker 1: Not that they knew that gross and scandalous vices are
1:45:55
Speaker 1: in their nature more heinous than the surprises of temptations
1:45:58
Speaker 1: and infirmity, but because they were much more focused on
1:46:01
Speaker 1: their own miscarriages than on those of their neighbors, and
1:46:04
Speaker 1: considered all the aggravations of the one and everything that
1:46:07
Speaker 1: might be supposed to diminish and alleviate the other. But
1:46:11
Speaker 1: it is well observed by a pious rider that the
1:46:13
Speaker 1: deepest and most pure humility does not so much arise
1:46:17
Speaker 1: from the consideration of our own faults and defects as
1:46:20
Speaker 1: from a calm and quiet contemplation of the divine purity
1:46:24
Speaker 1: and goodness. Our spots never appear so clearly as when
1:46:28
Speaker 1: we place them before this infinite light, and we never
1:46:30
Speaker 1: seem less in our own eyes than when we look
1:46:32
Speaker 1: down upon ourselves from on high. Oh, how little, how
1:46:36
Speaker 1: nothing do all those shadows of perfection than appear for
1:46:40
Speaker 1: which we are wont to value ourselves. That humility, which
1:46:43
Speaker 1: comes from a view of our own sinfulness and misery,
1:46:45
Speaker 1: is more turbulent and boisterous. But the other lays us
1:46:49
Speaker 1: full as low, and lacks nothing of that anguish and vexation,
1:46:52
Speaker 1: wherewith our souls are apt to boil when they are
1:46:54
Speaker 1: the nearest objects of our thoughts. There remains yet another
1:46:58
Speaker 1: means for begetting a holy and religious disposition in the soul,
1:47:01
Speaker 1: and that is fervent and hearty prayer. Holiness is the
1:47:04
Speaker 1: gift of God, indeed the greatest gift He bestows, Or
1:47:08
Speaker 1: that we are capable of receiving, and He has promised
1:47:10
Speaker 1: his Holy Spirit to those who ask it of him.
1:47:13
Speaker 1: In prayer we make the nearest approaches to God and
1:47:16
Speaker 1: lie open to the influences of Heaven. Then it is
1:47:19
Speaker 1: that the Son of Righteousness visits us with his most
1:47:21
Speaker 1: direct rays, dissipates our darkness, and imprints his image upon
1:47:25
Speaker 1: our souls. I cannot now insist on the advantages of
1:47:28
Speaker 1: this exercise or the dispositions wherewith it ought to be performed,
1:47:32
Speaker 1: and there is no need that I should, since there
1:47:34
Speaker 1: are so many books that treat this subject. I shall
1:47:37
Speaker 1: only tell you that as there is one sort of
1:47:38
Speaker 1: prayer wherein we make use of the voice, which is
1:47:41
Speaker 1: necessary in public and may sometimes have its own advantages
1:47:44
Speaker 1: in private, and another wherein, though we utter no sound,
1:47:48
Speaker 1: we conceive the expressions and form the words as it
1:47:51
Speaker 1: were in our minds. So there is a third and
1:47:53
Speaker 1: more sublime kind of prayer, wherein the soul takes a
1:47:56
Speaker 1: higher flight, and having collected all its forces by long
1:47:59
Speaker 1: and serious meditation, it darts itself towards God in sighs, groans,
1:48:03
Speaker 1: and thoughts too big for expression. An example of this
1:48:07
Speaker 1: would be when a person, after a deep contemplation of
1:48:10
Speaker 1: the divine perfections appearing in all his works of wonder,
1:48:13
Speaker 1: addresses himself unto God in the most profound adoration of
1:48:17
Speaker 1: his majesty and glory, Or when, after sad reflections on
1:48:20
Speaker 1: its vileness and miscarriages, a man prostrates himself before God
1:48:25
Speaker 1: with the greatest confusion and sorrow, not daring to lift
1:48:28
Speaker 1: up his eyes or utter one word in his presence,
1:48:31
Speaker 1: Or when having well considered the beauty of holiness and
1:48:34
Speaker 1: the unspeakable felicity of those who are truly good, he
1:48:37
Speaker 1: pants after God and sends up such vigorous and ardent
1:48:40
Speaker 1: desires as no words can sufficiently express, continuing and repeating
1:48:45
Speaker 1: each of these acts as long as he finds himself
1:48:47
Speaker 1: upheld by the force and impulse of the previous meditation.
1:48:51
Speaker 1: This mental prayer is, of all others, the most effectual
1:48:54
Speaker 1: to purify the soul and dispose it unto a holy
1:48:57
Speaker 1: and religious temper. It may be called the grit secret
1:49:00
Speaker 1: of devotion, and one of the most powerful instruments of
1:49:03
Speaker 1: the divine life. It may be that the Apostle had
1:49:06
Speaker 1: a peculiar respect for it when he said that the
1:49:08
Speaker 1: spirit helps our infirmities, making intercession for us with groanings
1:49:12
Speaker 1: that cannot be uttered Romans Chapter eight, verse twenty six,
1:49:16
Speaker 1: or as the Original has it, that cannot be worded.
1:49:19
Speaker 1: Yet I do not so recommend this sort of prayer
1:49:21
Speaker 1: as to supersede the use of the other. For we
1:49:24
Speaker 1: have so many things to pray for, and every petition
1:49:26
Speaker 1: of this nature requires so much time and such great
1:49:30
Speaker 1: intention of spirit, that it would not be easy therein
1:49:32
Speaker 1: to overtake them all. To say nothing of the deep
1:49:35
Speaker 1: size and heavings of the heart which are wont to
1:49:37
Speaker 1: accompany it are something oppressive to nature, and make it
1:49:40
Speaker 1: hard to continue long in them. But certainly a few
1:49:43
Speaker 1: of these inward aspirations will do more than a great
1:49:45
Speaker 1: many fluent and melting expressions. Thus, my dear friend, I
1:49:50
Speaker 1: have briefly disposed the method which I judge proper for
1:49:53
Speaker 1: molding the soul into a holy frame. And the same
1:49:56
Speaker 1: means which serve to beget this divine temper must still
1:49:58
Speaker 1: be practiced for streng strengthening and advancing it. Therefore, I
1:50:02
Speaker 1: shall recommend but one more means for that purpose, and
1:50:05
Speaker 1: that is the frequent and conscientious use of that holy
1:50:08
Speaker 1: sacrament which is peculiarly appointed to nourish and increase the
1:50:12
Speaker 1: spiritual life. Whence it is begotten in the soul. All
1:50:15
Speaker 1: the instruments of religion meet together in this ordinance, And
1:50:18
Speaker 1: while we address ourselves unto it, we put to practice
1:50:21
Speaker 1: all the rules which were mentioned before. Then it is
1:50:24
Speaker 1: that we make the most severe survey of our actions
1:50:27
Speaker 1: and lay the strictest obligations on ourselves. Then are our
1:50:31
Speaker 1: minds raised to the highest contempt of the world, and
1:50:33
Speaker 1: every grace exercises itself with the greatest activity and vigor.
1:50:37
Speaker 1: All the subjects of contemplation there present themselves unto us
1:50:41
Speaker 1: with the greatest advantage. And then, if ever does the
1:50:44
Speaker 1: soul make its most powerful rashes towards Heaven and assaults
1:50:47
Speaker 1: it with a holy and acceptable force. And certainly, the
1:50:51
Speaker 1: neglect or careless performance of this duty is one of
1:50:53
Speaker 1: the chief causes that dwarfs our religion and makes us
1:50:56
Speaker 1: continue of so low a size. But it is time
1:50:59
Speaker 1: that I put a close to this letter, which has
1:51:01
Speaker 1: grown to a far greater book than I at first intended.
1:51:04
Speaker 1: If these poor papers can do you the smallest service,
1:51:07
Speaker 1: I shall think myself very happy in this undertaking. At
1:51:10
Speaker 1: least I am hopeful that you will kindly accept the
1:51:13
Speaker 1: sincere endeavors of a person who would fain acquit himself
1:51:16
Speaker 1: of some part of that which he owes you. And now,
1:51:19
Speaker 1: almost gracious god Father and fountain of mercy and goodness,
1:51:23
Speaker 1: who has blessed us with the knowledge of our happiness
1:51:26
Speaker 1: and the way that leads unto it, excites in our
1:51:28
Speaker 1: souls such ardent desires after the one as may put
1:51:31
Speaker 1: us forth to the diligent prosecution of the other. Let
1:51:34
Speaker 1: us neither presume on our own strength, nor distressed thy
1:51:37
Speaker 1: divine assistance. But while we are doing our utmost endeavors,
1:51:41
Speaker 1: teach us still to depend on THEE for success. Open
1:51:44
Speaker 1: our eyes, O God, and teach us out of Thy law.
1:51:47
Speaker 1: Bless us with an exact and tender sense of our
1:51:49
Speaker 1: duty and a knowledge to discern perverse things. Oh, that
1:51:53
Speaker 1: our ways were directed to keep Thy statutes. Then shall
1:51:56
Speaker 1: we not be ashamed when we have respect unto all
1:51:59
Speaker 1: Thy commandments. Possess our hearts with the generous and holy
1:52:02
Speaker 1: disdain of all those poor enjoyments which this world holds
1:52:05
Speaker 1: out to allure us, so that we may never be
1:52:08
Speaker 1: able to invigle our affections or betray us to any sin,
1:52:12
Speaker 1: Turn away our eyes from beholding vanity, and quicken us
1:52:14
Speaker 1: in Thy law. Fill our souls with such a deep
1:52:17
Speaker 1: sense and full persuasion of those great truths which thou
1:52:20
Speaker 1: hast revealed in the Gospel, as may influence and regulate
1:52:23
Speaker 1: our whole conversation, And so that the life which we
1:52:26
Speaker 1: henceforth live in the flesh, we may live through faith
1:52:29
Speaker 1: in the Son of God. O, that the infinite perfections
1:52:32
Speaker 1: of thy blessed nature and the astonishing expressions of Thy
1:52:35
Speaker 1: goodness and love may conquer and overpower our hearts, that
1:52:39
Speaker 1: they may be constantly rising toward THEE in flames of
1:52:42
Speaker 1: the most devout affection, and enlarging themselves in sincere and
1:52:46
Speaker 1: cordial love towards all the world for thy sake, And
1:52:49
Speaker 1: that we may cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh
1:52:52
Speaker 1: and spirit, perfecting holiness in Thy fear, without which we
1:52:55
Speaker 1: can never hope to behold and enjoy THEE. Finally, O, God,
1:52:59
Speaker 1: grant THEE. The considerations of what thou art and what
1:53:02
Speaker 1: we ourselves are, may both humble and lay us low
1:53:05
Speaker 1: before THEE, and also stir up in us the strongest
1:53:08
Speaker 1: and most ardent aspirations towards thee. We desire to resign
1:53:11
Speaker 1: and give up ourselves to the conduct of thy Holy Spirit.
1:53:14
Speaker 1: Lead us in thy truth and teach us, for thou
1:53:17
Speaker 1: art the God of our salvation. Guide us with thy counsel,
1:53:20
Speaker 1: and afterwards receive us unto glory for the merits and
1:53:23
Speaker 1: intercession of thy blessed son, our Savior. Amen. End of
1:53:29
Speaker 1: section five recording by General Mundo. End of the Life
1:53:33
Speaker 1: of God in the Soul of Man by Henry's Google