dues him to the dominion of such other evils, as have most affinity with that; it makes him wrathful, malicious, revengeful, and the like. All these miseries, in respect whereof the last days are said to be perilous, are by the apostles in the forementioned places referred unto self-love, self-pleasing, as the proper diagnostics and characters of such a state of the world. But what kind of self-love is it? or what kind of self is it the love of? It is our most ignoble, meanest self, the basest part of ourselves; the body, the sensitive life, and the good things that are suitable and subservient to that. This self is the great idol set up all the world over, and the undue love of it is the idolatry by which that idol is served: terrene and earthly good, in the several kinds and sorts of it, are the several sorts of sacrifices, by which that idol is from time to time provided for. This being the true state of the case, as wickedness doth more prevail and abound, there is still the higher contestation between idol and idol: so many men, so many idols; and so many altars set up for each several idol. And this makes all the hurry and commotion in each part and corner, every man labouring to grasp as much as he can to the service of his own idol, his own private and particu lar interest. This hath drawn that inundation of miseries upon the church of God; the wickedness of men hath thus broke out like a flood. The floods of ungodly men, acted by such principles, and by that one principle as radical to all the rest, have overwhelmed the world and the church with miseries. And where is the cure? Only the Spirit of the Lord lifting up a standard against these floods; and that by turning men from trangression in Zion, Isa. lix. 19. 20. by counterworking that wickedness, that hath prevailed so far and to so high a degree. The Spirit of the living God only can purge and compose at once the troubled state of things. Wickedness can never admit any such thing as quiet. The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked, Isa. 57. 20, 21. They can neither admit it themselves, nor permit it to others. Now here the great purifier must be the Spirit poured forth; spoken of under the metaphorical expressions of a refiner's fire, and of fuller's soap, Mal. 3. 2. is a quick and fervent fire, and will certainly make away with the dross and wickedness, when once it comes to pour forth its mighty and fervent influences to that blessed purpose; even though there should be a state of things, as is foretold in Zech. 13. 8, 9. when two third parts of the land should be cut off and die, and only a third be left: that shall be refined, as silver is refined; and tried, as gold, is tried. It is but That one and the same labour, that gives purity and peace. The same thing that defiles, disturbs: and the same thing that purges, pacifies, and brings all to a quiet state and happy composure. So the Spirit poured forth will be a most efficacious means to bring about a good state, by removing the causes of public miseries. And also, [2] By working whatsoever hath a positive tendency to the good and happiness of the church. To evidence this, I shall speak, first, of the principles, which it doth implant. And, secondly, of the effects, which it works by those implanted principles, tending to the common prosperity of the whole church. i. The principles, which it doth implant. We may comprehend them all summarily under the name of the divine image, which it is the great business of the Spirit to restore among men. And I shall particularize no lower than to these two heads,-divine light, and-love; which the Spirit of God poured forth settles and plants in the minds of men. These are the two great things, wherein men are capable of imitating God. By one of the pen-men of holy writ, the apostle St. John, in one and the same epistle, God is said to be both light and love. God is light, 1 John 1. 5. God is love, chap. 4. 16. These made somewhat generally to obtain amongst men, cannot but infer a most happy state. (i.) Light. When this is diffused, when the knowledge of God comes to cover the earth, (as was said,) as the waters do the sea, it cannot but make a happy peaceful state. There is nothing terrible in light. "A sphere of light (as I remember a heathen speaks,) hath nothing in it that can be disquietive; and therefore therein can be nothing but perfect tranquillity." Where-ever men are quarrelling with one another, they are quarrelling in the dark, scuffling and fighting with one another in the dark; though every man thinks he sees, which makes the matter so much the worse, It is a real, but an unimagined, unapprehended darkness, that overspreads the world; and in that darkness men are working all the mischiefs and miseries to themselves that can be thought of. There will be an end to that, when the divine light comes and spreads itself (as it were) in men's lives. (ii.) Love. When God implants his love in the minds of men, there needs no more. Even that one thing is enough to make a happy world, the love of God dwelling in every breast, transforming them into love. He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him, 1 John 4. 16. A most certain assurance, that all will be well. And I would speak of these three branches of divine love, (for it is all divine in respect of the root and principle,) as conducing to make the world happy: supreme love to God; a due and well regulated love of every man to himself; and love to every other man as to himself. But of these hereafter. I shall now close with a short word of Use. By the drift and tenour of what hath been hitherto discoursed, you may see, that the good and felicity of every person, and so of the church in common, though it come at last in the issue to be an exter nal thing, yet in the root and principle is an internal thing. Every man's happiness or misery grows within himself; and so the common happiness and misery of the church of God grow principally and chiefly within itself. It is the saying of a heathen, Epictetus I mean, "The character or note of an idiot or plebeian is this, that he places the expectation of all his good or of all his evil from without; whereas the note, the certain character of a philosopher, (of a wise or virtuous man, so he means by that term,) is to place all his expectation of good or evil in things that are within himself." It were well if we could but learn this document from a heathen; and learn it well, so as to have the sense of it deeply infixed in our minds and hearts; that hearing of these several causes that work the calamities and troubles of the church of God, we would consider, that, according to our participation in any such calamities, these evils in ourselves do contribute a great deal more to them than the evils in any other men. Let us be convinced of this. Do but apprehend, that if the ambition, or pride, or covetousness, or malice of another man may hurt me, these things within myself do hurt me much more; and there is some spice or other of them in each of our natures. Why should not we be convinced of so plain a thing; is not a dart in my own breast worse than in an enemy's hand? if I think myself concerned to know, what the pride and covetousness, and malice and ambition of such and such a man may do against me; if I have any tincture of these evils, (as who dares say he hath not?) within my own soul; have not I a nearer thing to regret, than the evil that only lies in another man? To expect or fear all our hurt from without, and not to fear the next and nearest evil, is the greatest stupidity imaginable. And then for the causes of common good, and so of our own, as that is involved: we hear, it may be, with a great deal of complacency of such principles generally implanted in the minds of men. What glorious times would they be, if all other men were such lovers of God, such orderly lovers of themselves, and such lovers of their neighbours, as they should be? but is it not of a great deal more concernment to our own felicity, that we be so ourselves? ean the goodness, the piety; the righteousness, the benignity of other men do me good, in comparison of what these things lodged and deeply rooted in my own soul would do? It is true, it were a most desirable thing to have all the world religious: but if all the rest of the world were so, and my own soul vacant of it; what should I be the better for that? if all other men were lovers of their own souls, it would be happy for them; but nothing to me, if I despised my own. Therefore let us learn, what our own present business must be; to labour to have the causes of common calamity wrought out from ourselves, and the causes of common felicity and prosperity inwrought into ourselves. We cannot tell how to mend the state and condition of the world; and our duty reaches not so far: but we have each of us a work to do at home, in our own bosoms. And if ever we expect to see good days, it must be in this way, by being good and doing good. Psalm 34, 14. SERMON IX*. WE are considering the principles, which the Spirit poured forth doth implant, conducive to the general prosperity and felicity of the people of God. And, as was said before, of the evil and mischievous principles, that naturally work their calamity and misery, that they may be all reduced to an inordinate self-love; so the good principles, which have a tendency to their welfare, may all be referred unto one common 'head, that of a due and well-tempered, well-proportioned love. When the Spirit of God comes to make a good and happy state of things to obtain and take place in the church; the work of that Spirit, poured forth for this purpose, is to write the laws of God in the hearts of his people. So you may find, (where there is a manifest reference to that future happy state promised, and which we are yet expecting and waiting for;) he speaks in that and in parallel scriptures of giving his Spirit, and of its immediate workings and operations. And this is its general work, to write his law in the hearts of his people, Jer. 31. 33. Now the law, we are told, all the law is fulfilled in that one word, Love, Gal. 5. 14. That is the sum and epitome of the whole law. And if we descend a little more to particulars, these three branches of a holy gracious love will VOL. V. *Preached August 28th, 1678 2 R |