YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

1939

THE
WORKS Of the REVEREND
WILLIAM LAW, M.A.,
Sometime Fellow of Emmanuel
College, Cambridge.

In Nine Volumes.

Volume VI.
CONTAINING
I. An Earnest and Serious Answer
to Dr. Trapp's Discourse of the
Folly, Sin, and Danger of being
Righteous over-much.
II. An Appeal to all that doubt, or
disbelieve the Truths of the
Gospel.
LONDON: Printed for J. Richardson, 1762.
Privately Reprinted for G. Moreton, 42, Burgate
Street, Canterbury. I O 9 3 •

AN
EARNEST AND SERIOUS
ANSWER TO
Dr. TRAPP'S DISCOURSE
OF THE
FOLLY, SIN and DANGER
OF BEING
RIGHTEOUS OVER-MUCH.

By WILLIAM LAW, M.A.

LONDON :
Printed for W. Innys, and J. Richardson,
in Pater-Noster Row. 1 1AO.

An Earnest and Serious
ANSWER TO
Dr. Trapfs Discourse, &c

MIGHT I follow the Bent of my own Mind, my Pen,
such as it is, should be wholly employed in
setting forth the infinite Love of God to Mankind
in Christ Jesus, and in endeavouring to draw all
Men to the Belief and Acknowledgment of it.
This one great Mercy of God, which makes the one only Happi
ness of all Mankind, so justly deserves all our Thoughts and
Meditations, so highly enlightens, and improves every Mind
that is attentive to it, so removes all the Evils of this present
World, so sweetens every State of Life, so inflames the Heart
with the Love of every Divine and human Virtue, that he is no
small Loser, whose Mind is, either by Writing or Reading,
detained from the View and Contemplation of it.
When this Mystery of Divine Love was first manifested to the
World, it produced its proper Effects, it put an End to all
Selfishness and Division ; for all that believed were of one heart,
and one spirit, and had all things common* And indeed under
the real Influence, and full Belief of this great Mystery of Divine
Love, there seems to be no Room left for anything else amongst
Christians, but Returns of Love to God, and Flowings out of
Love towards one another.
But now it is so difficult to enter into Controversy without
being, or at least seeming in some Degree unkind to the Person
that one opposes, that it is with great Reluctance that I have
entered upon my present Undertaking ; having nothing more
deeply riveted in my Heart, than an universal Love and Kind
ness for all Mankind, and more especially for those whom God
has called to be my Fellow- Labourers in promoting the Salvation
of Mankind. But however unwilling, yet I find myself obliged
* Acts ii.

4 An Lamest and Serious
to consider, and lay open many grievous Faults in the Doctor s
Discourse ; and to show to all Christians, that the dearest
Interests of their Souls are much endangered by it.
And this I must do with great Plainness and Sincerity, in the
Love of Truth, and under the Direction of Charity, saying
nothing in the Spirit of an Adversary, sparing nothing through
Respect of Persons, sacrificing nothing to the Taste or Temper oi
the World, but setting forth every Thing in that naked Light, in
which the Spirit of God represents it to my own Mind.
The Doctor undertakes to stir up, and alarm Mankind with
the Sin, Folly, and Danger, of being righteous over-much. The
Text from which he has the Title of his Discourse is very
unhappily chosen, and must be looked upon rather as a severe
Reproach, than any kind of Justification of it. The Text is
indeed in the Writings of Solomon, and as it stands there, has
no Hurt in it ; because as the Royal Preacher sometimes intro
duces Fools, and sometimes Infidels, making their Speeches, so
there is a Necessity of supposing that to be the Case in the
Doctor's Text ; not only from the Context, which plainly shows
there are Two Persons introduced, the one for, the other against
Righteousness ; but because the Words, unless stripped of all
their proper Meaning, cannot be taken in a Sense that is toler
able, or consistent with the common Notions of Piety.
Is it not therefore strange, that the Doctor should choose to
have a Discourse and Title to it, conformable to a Text of this
kind? For if his Discourse is of a Piece with his Text, must
not all sensible People find it as hard to reconcile his Discourse,
as to reconcile the Text with the common Notions of Piety ? Is
it not strange, that he should think it right and just, to limit,
explain, and model, both the Letter and Spirit of the Gospel by
such a Saying in the Writings of Solomon, as must be ascribed
to the Spirit and Mouth of an Infidel? Is it not still stranger,
that such a Text, so offensive to Piety, should have not only
been so long dwelt upon in the Doctor's Three Churches, but
sent abroad into the Christian World, as a proper Key to all the
practical Sayings, Parables, and Doctrines, of Jesus Christ ?
Supported by this Text, the Doctor endeavours to deter and
frighten Christians from the Sin, Folly, and Danger, of being
righteous over-much, and from what he calls the baneful Plague
of Enthusiasm. But then it is Matter of just Complaint, that
he does all this, without ever showing in any Part of his Dis
course, wherein true Righteousness, or the right and sober Spirit
of Piety consists. If he supposed his Readers to be already
well acquainted with the Nature and Extent of Christian Holi
ness, and to have just and distinct Ideas of Religion, what it is

Answer to Dr. Trapp. 5
in itself, what Change, Purification, and Perfection, it aims at
in human Nature, how, and by what Means, a Man may make
himself a full Partaker of all that Benefit, Change, and Per
fection, that is intended by it, there would then have been little
Occasion for his present Undertaking.
For if they may be supposed thus to know what is right in
Religion, they would by such Knowledge be in the best State of
Security against that which is wrong.
But the Doctor overlooks this important Matter. He neither
supposes them to have this Knowledge, nor endeavours to help
them to it ; but in a Flow of Zeal, in a loose, declamatory Style,
reflects at large upon all Attempts towards a Piety, that is not
modern, common, and according to the present Power and
Fashion of Religion in the World. Thus, you everywhere find
hard and severe Reflections cast upon Pretenders to Piety,
pretended Spiritualists, and Righteous over-much ; great Accusa
tion of Excesses, Extraordinaries, and By-paths ; but nowhere a
Word, or a Hint, in Favour of those, who would only be so
excessive, so extraordinary, and so much out of the common
Paths, as the blessed Saints, and Martyrs of the Primitive
Church were ; nowhere are such People told, that he wishes
them God speed, that their Zeal is much wanted both amongst
Clergy and Laity, and that the Gospel suffers, because we know
not where to find living Examples of its Purity and Perfection.
Nowhere are such People told, that he writes not against them,
that He loves their Spirit, and should be glad tp add new
Fervours to it; nowhere are they told, what Christian Perfection
is, what a Holiness of Body, Soul and Spirit it requires, and
what Blessedness of Life it gives ; how powerfully all are called
to it : how earnestly all ought to aspire after it ; and how sadly
they are mistaken, what Enemies to themselves, who for the
Sake of any, or all the Things in the World, die less purified
and perfect, than they might have been.
If we had to do only with one single Person, sincerely good,
yet seeming to carry Matters too high in some Parts of his
Duty, if we intended privately to dissuade him from such
Heights ; yet even this, thus privately done, and to a Person of
Piety, would be exceeding dangerous, and very unjustifiable;
unless we took the utmost Care at the same Time, to keep up the
pious Zeal of his Mind, to show him wherein the true Point of
Perfection consisted, and to encourage his utmost Endeavours
after it.
But if this Caution, Instruction, and Encouragement, cannot
be omitted without great Hurt to Religion, when we speak only
to a Person of Piety, and in private, about any religious Extremes,

6 An Lamest and Serious
what must be said of the Doctor's Conduct ? who to the World
dead in Trespasses and Sin, preaches up the Sin, Folly, and
Danger, of being Righteous over-much. To the World Eating
and Drinking, and rising up to Play, he harangues upon the
Madness, Danger, and Folly, of too much Temperance, Absti
nence, Mortification, and Severity of Life. To the World
asleep, insensible, and careless, not only of the Purity and Perfec
tion, but of the First Principles of the Gospel, he boldly, rashly
reproaches all Appearances of Holiness, that are uncommon and
extraordinary. To no Part of the World does he represent or
propose the Perfection of the Gospel, or recommend it as that,
which deserves all that they can do, or suffer for Sake of it.
This, therefore, I am obliged to point out, as a fundamental
Defect in the Doctor's Discourse, and such as renders it an evil
Temptation, a dangerous Snare, and fatal Delusion, to all those,
who do not read it with a full and thorough Dislike.
Coldness, Indifference, and a lifeless outward Compliance with
all the Duties of Religion ; a Slavery to Ease, Softness, and
sensible Pleasures ; a criminal Conformity to the Spirit, Fashions,
and Corruptions, of the World ; unmortified Passions ; a con
niving at favourite Sins ; deep roots of Pride, Partiality, and
Self-Love ; an unawakened Conscience ; an Insensibility of their
corrupt, unreformed, unregenerate State ; a Proneness to be con
tent and satisfied with poor Beginnings, Names and Appearances
of Virtue ; is perhaps the State of more than Two-thirds of those
that are looked upon to be the Religious amongst us.
Now the Doctor's Discourse has a direct and natural Fitness
to lull all these People asleep, to suppress all Stirrings and
Intentions of Amendment, to keep up and nourish every Dis
order of their Hearts, to increase their Blindness, and awaken
nothing in them, but a hurtful Zeal to censure and condemn all
those, that are endeavouring to practise the uncommon Piety of
the Gospel.
There is scarce a Reader amongst this Number of People,
whether he be Layman or Clergyman, but will find this Effect
from the Doctor's Instructions ; he will begin to take fresh Com
fort in his State, to think himself happy for having had no
aspirings after high Improvements in Piety ; he will not only be
content with his Corruptions, but he fixed, and hardened against
all inward and outward Calls to a solid Piety ; he will approve
of the Deadness and Insensibility of his own Heart, and acquiesce
in it, as his true and just Security, from the Sin and Folly and
Danger of being Righteous over-much.
Again, others there are, I make no doubt, in all Parts of this
Kingdom, both amongst Clergy and Laity, Men and Women,

Answer to Dr. Trapp. 7
rich and poor, whose Consciences are greatly awakened, who see
the general Apostacy from the Religion of the Gospel, whose
Souls are wanting, and wishing nothing so much, as to know
how, all that they are, all that they have, and all that they do,
may be one continual Sacrifice, and Service of Love unto God ;
to know how, and in what Manner, and to what Extent, and by
what Means, they may and ought to ' be perfect, even as their
' Father which is in Heaven is perfect.'
Now who can help looking with Love, Pity, and Compassion,
upon these poor Souls, longing for that, which has been so long
lost ; asking after that, which scarce anyone will tell them any
thing of, and wanting to enter upon Paths, where there are few
or no Footsteps to be seen, nor any Travellers in Motion !
Now had these awakened Souls lived in the First Ages of the
Church, nay, I may say in almost any till these very last Ages
of it, their Zeal had not been in vain ; they could have been at
no Loss to know hotv they were to proceed in their heavenly
Purpose ; because they could have always been immediately
directed to some living Examples of the perfect Spirit of the
Gospel, who were publicly known and acknowledged by all to
be such, and who had the same undisputed Right to point out
every Degree of Christian Perfection, as fohn the Baptist had to
preach up Mortification and Self-denial. Every Age, and every
Sex, consecrated Virgins, holy Widows, Converts, and Penitents,
Priests and People of all Conditions, had their open, known and
public Standards to resort to, where everyone was sure to be
guided and directed, assisted and encouraged to live up to that
Height of Holiness and Perfection, which was proper to their
State and Condition.
But now how does the Doctor deal with this Sort of People ?
What Love, Instruction, Assistance, and Encouragement, does he
reach out to them ? Why, truly, he considers them as a deluded,
weak, or hypocritical, or half-thinking People, that disturb the
Christian Church with their Projects about Perfection, who are
to be set right by returning to the Instruction of common Sense.
He ridicules and exposes every Step they must take in their
intended Progress, by adding Absurdities of his own Invention
to it. There is nothing for such People throughout his whole
Discourse, but Reproaches, Ridicule, and Discouragement.
Are they desirous of all that Self-denial, all that Mortification
of bodily Appetites and sensual Passions, as may best fit them
to be Temples of the Holy Spirit, he ridicules them as holding
the Sinfulness of smelling a Rose ?*
* Page 16.

8 An Lamest and Serious
Do they begin to discover the deep Corruption of their Nature,
the Superficialness and Weakness of their Virtues, and to fear
they have as yet scarce come up to the Righteousness of the
Scribes and Pharisees ? He tells them, ' The great Enemy of
' Souls adapts his Temptations to all Sorts of Tempers and Dis-
' positions. — Those who are disposed to be good and virtuous, if
' he cannot prevail with them to be vicious, commonly so-called,
' he labours to make them over-virtuous, that is vicious, though
' not commonly so-called ; and so involves them in Dangers and
' Mischiefs.'* Are they such as are only desirous of reforming their own
Lives, by bringing all their Actions to the Standard of the
Gospel, and wholly intent upon their own Advancement in
merely practical Piety ?
To these he shows, that they are in the very Paths that lead,
and always did lead, to Fanatic Madness. Thus, says he, ' To
' what a Height of Fanatic Madness in Doctrine, as well as
' Practice are some advanced, who set out at first with an
' Appearance of more than ordinary Sanctity in Practice only ?'
And again, ' I do say, that in all Ages Enthusiasts have been
' Righteous over-much; they began with the last mentioned, and
' ended with the other. And is it not so now ?'f
Further, Are there others, who begin to feel the Mystery of
their Redemption discovered in their own Souls, so that they
hunger and thirst after the Manifestation of the Divine Life in
them, desiring that Christ may be wholly formed and revealed in
them, that they may put on Christ, be in him new Creatures, led
by his Spirit, growing in him as Branches in the Vine, hearing
the Word of God written and spoken in their Hearts, in his
Light seeing Light, and tasting in the inward Man the Powers
of the World to come.
For such as these, the Doctor has this Instruction : ' That
' there is,' says he, 'such a Thing as the Operation and Influence
' of the Holy Spirit upon our Souls, though we cannot distin
guish it from the Operations of our own Minds, is not only
' granted, but insisted upon, by all sincere and sober Christians.
' But what Reason, what Scripture, is there for this inward See-
' ing, Hearing, Feeling ?'\
According therefore to the Doctor's Divinity, both Reason
and Scripture require, that the true Christian be inwardly blind,
inwardly deaf, and void of all inward Feeling. For if neither
Scripture nor Reason will allow of any inward Senses, then they
must both of them require an inward Insensibility. But Scrip
ture, from Genesis to the Revelation, is full of Proof of these
* Page 36. t Page 39. % Page 43.

Answer to Dr. Trapp. 9
inward Senses. I shall not now produce them. I shall here
only observe, that Hardness of Heart is a common and well-
known Phrase of Scripture, and everywhere signifies some
Degree of Blindness, Deafness, and Loss of Feeling* I suppose
it will not be said, that it signifies Blindness, or Loss of outward
Eyes and Ears, or Feeling : Neither does it signify a Want of
human Reason, or natural Sagacity ; for learned, polite, and
ingenious Men are full as subject as others are, to this Hardness
of Heart. Therefore the Scripture is as open, as plain and
express, in declaring for inward Senses, as it is in declaring
against such a Thing as Hardness of Heart.
Hardness of Heart is that to the inward Senses which a deep,
or, as we call it, a dead Sleep, is to the outward. It keeps our
inward Eyes and Ears closed and stopped, just as Sleep does
our outward Eyes, and Ears, and Feeling. A broken and a
contrite Heart unlocks all our inward Senses, and makes us see,
and hear, and feel the Things, which could no more be seen,
heard, or felt before, than a Man in a deep Sleep can hear, and
see, and feel the Things that are said and done about him.
Water violently frozen into a Rock of Ice, is very different from
the same Water melted, rarified, warmed, and moving under the
Influences of the Sun and the Air. Now if this Water was a
sensible Being, we might well suppose, that when it was a soft,
yielding, transparent, flowing Substance, full of Light and Air,
that it had certain Senses in that State ; which Senses were lost,
and locked up, as soon as it became a hard, rough, thick, dark,
immovable Rock of Ice, made so by Coldness, or for the Want of the
Motion oi Light and Air in it. And that the Ice must of all Neces
sity he first melted, before these Senses could be found again.
Now this Difference between Water flowing full of Light and
Air, and the same Water frozen into a dark hard Rock of Ice, is
but a small Resemblance of the Difference between a hardened
Heart, and the same Heart become broken. And a Lump of Ice
would be as well qualified to deny that sweet Sensibility of Water
flowing full of Light and Air, as the natural Man is to dispute
those Senses, which arise in the Heart, that is broken and pene
trated by the Light, and Spirit of God in it.
But no more of this at present. I now return to the Doctor.
His further Instruction to this Sort of People stands thus : They
are told by him, that their high Notions of Spiritual Improve
ments have this Effect : On the one Hand, they lead to Pre
sumption ; on the other, to Desperation. ' He has been told,' he
says, ' that some have been actually thrown into Despair. They
'have been made stark mad, and received into Bedlam, as such.'
* Matt.

i o An Lamest and Serious
And then he cries out, ' Was the Religion of Jesus Christ intended
' to make People mad ? Is this for the Honour of Christianity ?'*
I shall not here question the Doctor's Information. I shall only
observe, that when our Saviour was upon Earth, there were Two
Sorts of mad People about him. The one Sort ran about in
Disorder, tore their Clothes, and cut their own Flesh ; the other
Sort raved in Malice, threw Dust into the Air, stopped their
Ears, and cried out, Crucify him, crucify him.
Now it may be asked, which of these Two Sorts of People
were in the most disordered and distempered State? Whose
Madness was the most shocking, that of the Lunatics, or that of
the High Priests, Scribes, and Pharisees? Those who only
mangled their own Bodies, or those that thirsted after the Blood
of Christ, and would have no Rest, till they saw his Body nailed
to the Cross ? To me the Lunatics seem to be in a less Degree
of Disorder ; and the Reason is this ; because I see that our
Saviour could heal them, but not the Priests, Scribes, and Pha
risees. Now is it reasonable, on the account of the Madness of these
Priests, Scribes, and Doctors of the Law, to say, ' Is this for the
' Honour of the Jewish Law? Was the Law and the Prophets
' intended to make People mad ?' Now if the Doctor knows how
to excuse the Latv and the Prophets, though these great Students
of them were in such a desperate State oi Frenzy and Madness,
then Christianity may be blameless ; though here and there
a Christian may be fit for Bedlam.
Again, there are others, who desire to bring the whole Form
of their Lives under Rules of Religion, to let the Spirit of the
Gospel give Laws to the most ordinary, indifferent, innocent and
lawful Things and Enjoyments, so that as the Apostle speaks,
'whether they eat or drink, or whatever they do, they may do all
'to the Glory of God.'
These People are told by the Doctor, That ' wholly abstaining
'from Things indifferent and innocent in themselves, as forbidden
' and unlawful, is a signal Instance of being Righteous over-much;
' and so, on the other hand, is making Things indifferent to be
'necessary, and Matters of Duty. '-f-
What is here said has some Truth in it, and might be useful
in its proper Place, and under right Limitations. But as it here
stands in the Discourse, it is a grievous Snare and Deceit to the
Reader. For it is to signify to him, that wholly abstaining front
Things in themselves indifferent and innocent cannot be made
a Matter of true religious Advancement ; but is a blamable
* Page 37. f Page 8.

Answer to Dr. Trapp. 1 1
Instance of a Piety in Excess. If the Doctor had meant only to
teach, that we should not wholly abstain from Things indifferent
and innocent, as if they were in themselves unlawful, he should
have told his Readers that he meant no more ; he should have
told them, that such Things might be abstained from justly, and
piously upon a better Principle, and so become vexy expedient and
edifying; and that he did not condemn the abstaining wholly
from such Things, when it was done upon a Motive of Piety, for
the better fulfilling any Duty ; but only when it was done from
a superstitious Notion, of the Things being in themselves sinful.
Had he done this, he had prevented the Snare and Deceit that
is now in his Assertion ; but then he would, at the same time,
have made it useless and insignificant to the Design of his Dis
course, and would have left a Door open for such Advances of
Piety as he is here opposing.
It might easily be shown, if this was the Place for it, that no
one can truly fulfil, or live up to the Two First and greatest of
all Laws, that of loving God with all our Heart, all our Strength,
and all our Mind ; and that of loving our Neighbour as ourselves ;
unless he be willing and glad, in many Instances, wholly to abstain
from Things in themselves indifferent and innocent ; and also to
make Things that in themselves are indifferent, to be Matters of
Duty. St. Paul's Doctrine is this : ' All Things are lawful for me, but
'all Things are npt expedient.' This sets the Matter right on
both Sides. It leaves Things in their own State of Indifference
and Lawfulness, and yet carries us to a higher Rule of acting.
It directs us wholly to abstain from some Things innocent in
themselves, and to do some Things to which the Law calls us
not, because they are expedient ; because by so doing, we show
a higher Love of God, and a greater Desire of doing everything
to his Honour and Glory ; because we thereby attain a greater
Purity and Perfection of Heart, a greater Conquest over all our
inward and outward Enemies, and in a greater Degree help for
ward the Edification of our Neighbour.
Let us look at St. Paul's Doctrine and Example in the Two
following remarkable Instances. First, where he declares it to
be lawful for those that preach the Gospel to live by the Gospel,
and yet makes it Matter of the greatest Comfort and foy to
himself, that he had wholly abstained from this lawful Thing.
And declares, it were better for him to die, than that this Rejoic
ing should be taken from him. He appeals to his daily and
nightly labouring with his own Hands, that so he might preach
the Gospel freely, and not be chargeable to those that heard
him. And this he said he did, not for want of Authority to do

12 An Lamest and Serious

otherwise, but that he might make himself an Ensample unto
them to follow him.
What fine and awakening Instructions are here given to us of
the Clergy, in a practical Matter of the greatest Moment [ _ How
ought everyone to be frightened at the Thought of desiring or
seeking a Second Living, or of rejoicing at great Pay where there
is but little Duty, when the Apostle's Rejoicing consisted in this,
that he had passed through all the Fatigues and Perils of preach
ing the Gospel without any Pay at all ! How cautious, nay, how
fearful ought we to be, of going so far as the secular Laws permit
us, when the Apostle thought it more desirable to lose his Life,
than to go so far as the very Laws of the Gospel would have
suffered him !
It is lawful to receive more for doing the Work of the Ministry
in any Parish, and to spend more upon ourselves than our bare
Subsistence requires. — It is looked tipon as lawful to get several
Preferments, and to make a Gain of the Gospel, by hiring others
to do Duty for us at a lower Rate. — It is looked upon as lawful
to quit a Cure of Souls of a small Income, for no other Reason
but because we can get another of a greater. — It is looked upon
as lawful for a Clergyman to take the Revenue of the Church,
which he serves, to his own Use, though he has more than
a sufficient Competency of his own, and much more than the
Apostle could get by his Labour. — It is looked upon as lawful
for the Clergy to live in State and Equipage, to buy Purple and
fine Linen, out of the Revenues of the Church. — It is looked
upon as lawful for Clergymen to enrich their Families, and bring
up their Children in the fashionable Vanities, and corrupting
Methods of a worldly and expensive Life, by Money got by
preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
But now supposing all this to be lawful, what Comfort and foy
might we treasure up for ourselves, what Glory and Honour
might we bring to Religion, what Force and Power might we
give to the Gospel, what Benefit and Edification should we do to
our Neighbour, if we wholly abstained from all these Things, not
by working Day and Night with our own Hands, as the great
Apostle did, but by limiting our Wants and Desires according
to the plain Demands of Nature, and a religious Self-Denial ?
The other Instance of the Apostle's, I appeal to, is that, where
he says, it is good neither to eat ' flesh, nor to drink wine, nor
' anything whereby thy Brother stumbleth and is offended.'*
And again, ' If meat make my Brother to offend, I will eat no
' flesh while the world standeth, that I may not offend my
* Rom. xiv. 23.

Answer to Dr. Trapp. 13
' Brother/* Hence it appears, that to abstain from Things
indifferent, as if they were in themselves sinful, is wrong ; but
wholly to abstain from them upon other Motives, may be the
highest Piety, and oftentimes Matter of necessary Duty and
Edification. But since the Doctor has not looked at this Matter
in this twofold View, in which it can only be justly apprehended,
he can't well be excused from that Half-Thinking, which he so
much reproaches in others.
But I must further observe, that there is yet more of Snare
and Deception, in what the Doctor has here said of this Matter.
For the Reader may thereby be easily brought into a Belief, that
Things in themselves indifferent and innocent, &c, are not the
proper Subjects of Religion, or Means of advancing in Piety, and
that he need not bring himself under any Laws of Religion con
cerning such Things. Whereas nothing can be more contrary to
Truth, or more hurtful to his Piety, than such a Belief.
Eating, Drinking, Sleeping, Dressing, Resting, Labour, Con
versation, Trade, Diversion, and Money, are in themselves
indifferent, innocent, and useful. But it is in the religious, or
irreligious Use of these Things, that some People live up to the
Spirit of the Gospel, and others wholly die to it. And it is
from strict Laws of Religion made concerning these indifferent
and innocent Things, that the spiritual Life of everyone is to be
built up.
And it is for want of religious Laws in the Use of innocent
and lawful Things that the Spirit of the Gospel cannot get
Possession of our Hearts. For our Souls may receive an infinite
Hurt, and be rendered incapable of all true Virtue, merely by the
Use of innocent and lawful Things.
What is more innocent than Rest and Retirement ? And yet
what more dangerous than Sloth and Idleness ? How lawful and
praiseworthy is the Care of a Family ? And yet how certainly
are many People rendered incapable of all Virtue, and dead to
all the Calls of God, by a worldly solicitous Temper ? How
lawful and beneficial is it to us, to eat and drink in such
Quantity and Quality, as may render the Body healthful,
subservient and useful to the Soul ? And yet, what Danger is
there in eating and drinking, if we are not under this strict Law
of Religion, to seek only Health, and not the Pleasure of various
Tastes in our Food. What Sensuality of Discourse shall we not
every Day fall into, unless it be a fixed Law to us, to speak of no
other Joy in our Food, but that which is expressed by our Grace
before and after our Meals.

* 1 Cor. viii. 13.

14 An Lamest and Serious

How indifferent a Thing, and innocent in itself, is Dress. And
yet what more hurtful and abounding with Sin ? It reaches and
infects the Heart and Soul, both of the Wearer and Beholder.
Its Evils are innumerable. It has destroyed, and does destroy,
like a Pestilence.
If the lustful Eye is in the Scripture deemed to be an
Adultery, we may see plainly the Reason why the Apostle
requires Women to be covered, not to beautify their outward
Person with costly Ornaments of Dress, or curled Hair, but to
be adorned with Shamefacedness and Modesty. For it is only
saying, in other Words, that it becomes not the Piety of
Christian Women, to carry and hold out Snares and Temptations
to the unwary Eye, that can so easily be betrayed into so great
a Sin. Now how can all these Evils, which arise from the Use of
these Things indifferent and lawful in themselves, be avoided,
but by making every Thing in our common and ordinary Life to
be Matter of Conscience ; which is, to have its Rule, and
Measure, and End, from the Spirit of Religion. And indeed
what other End or Intent is there in Religion, but to govern
every Motion and Desire of our Hearts, to make all the Actions
of our common Life pure and holy, by being done in strict Con
formity to the Will of God, and under the Light and Guidance
of his Holy Spirit ? So that every outward Form of our Lives,
and the zvhole Manner of our living in the World, whether in
Estates, Titles, Shops, or Farms, whether in Eating, Drinking,
Dressing, &c, may make it known to all the World, that we do
ever)'thing in the Name of Jesus Christ, suitably to that high
Vocation wherewith we are called.
The Apostle directs Servants to this Degree of Piety ; that is,
' to be obedient to their masters, in singleness of heart, as unto
' Christ. Not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as the
' servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. With
' goodwill doing service, as unto the Lord, and not to men.'*
Surely, if poor Slaves, by reason of their Christian Profession,
are not to comply with their Business, as Men-pleasers, if they
are to look wholly unto God in all their Actions, and serve in
Singleness of Heart, as unto the Lord, surely all Christians of
other Employments and Conditions, must be as much obliged to
go through their Business with the same Singleness of Heart,
not as pleasing the Vanity of their own Minds, not as gratifying
their own selfish, worldly Passions, but as the Servants of God,
that are to live wholly unto him in everything that they do. It

* Eph. vi. 5 ; Col. iii. 22.

Answer to Dr. Trapp. 15
is therefore absolutely certain, that no Christian is to enter any
further into Business, nor seek any worldly Profit, nor do any
thing in any other Measure, nor for any other End, than such as
he can in Singleness of Heart do unto God, as a reasonable
Service. No Folly of Life whatever can be rightly removed, but by
being thus wholly cut up by the Roots, by making everything
subject to the Spirit of Religion. That which is to direct our
Prayers, and govern us at Church, must, with 'Une same Strictness,
direct our Conversation, and govern our Dealings in common
Life. We must Dress with the same Spirit that we give Alms,
or go to Prayers ; that is, we must no more Dress to be seen
and admired by others, than we must give Alms, or make
Prayers for the same Reasons. And when Religion has its
Seat in our Hearts, and is the Work of God's Spirit in us, this
acting according to its Direction in all Things, will be so far
from seeming to be a hard Lesson, that it would be a Pain to
act otherwise. It is no Hardship to a Miser, to do every thing
suitable to the greedy Desires of his Heart. The ambitious
Man is not troubled with acting always agreeably to his
Ambition. If these Persons are in Trouble or Distress, or under
any Dejection, you can only comfort the one with Honour and
Power, and the other with filthy Lucre and Gain.
Yet the Doctor complains of the Treatise upon Christian
Perfection, because Christians in Sickness, Distress, and Dejection
of Spirit, are there solely directed to seek for Comfort and
Refreshment in God alone. Our Blessed Lord is very short, and
yet very full, upon this Article ; he only says, ' Be of good
' Comfort, I have overcome the World.' And the Doctor might
as well be angry at the Gospel for having made no mention of
worldly Amusements proper for sick and distressed Christians, as at
the Treatise of Christian Perfection, for not having done the same.
If I should see a sick Man smelling a Rose, eating an agree
able Fruit, or diverting himself with a Child, I should not call
him from such sinful Indulgences. But if he wanted Comfort in
his State, I would no more direct him to anything, but the
great and solid Comforts, that are to be found in the Love and
Goodness of God, than I would direct him to another Saviour
than Jesus Christ.
For to tell Christians, that in some kinds of Trouble, they
might justly seek for Relief, by reading a Play, or wanton
Bucolic, instead of the Gospel, would be the same Absurdity, as
to have told People in our Saviour's Time, that, in some Sorts of
Distress, they might justly have Recourse to Simon Magus,
instead of Jesus Christ.

1 6 An Lamest and Serious
But now to look back a little. I have considered the Bulk of
those Christians that are the most likely to be the Doctor's
Readers, under Two Characters. The one, as living some Way
or other in a partial, false, superficial, or half State of Piety ;
the other as an awakened People, called by the Spirit of God to
come out of the common Corruptions of the Times. I have
shown, that the Doctor's Discourse (where it is not disliked)
must do great Hurt, and have dreadful Effects upon those Two
Sorts of People ; the one Sort it seals up in a false Security,
sleeping in the Chambers of Death, without any Oil in their
Vessels ; the other it frightens, and discourages from their pious
Intentions of trimming their Lamps with all Diligence, and
living upon the Watch for the midnight Call of the Bridegroom's
Voice. That I may therefore do all the Good that I can to both these
Sorts of People, that I may awaken the one from their false
Security in their half Form of Godliness, and assist and en
courage the other to proceed wth all Earnestness, after every
Degree of Christian Holiness ; I shall, before I proceed any
further, lay down a short, but plain Account of the whole Nature
and Ground of the Christian Religion, that everyone may clearly
see, why we want the Christian Religion to save us : What it is
to do for us ; and how it is done. By this Means everyone will
best judge of the Importance of this Enquiry, and how he
ought to be affected with what is said on either Side of the
Matter. (i.) Man was created a living, real, perfect Image ofthe Holy
Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. This I have largely
¦explained, and proved elsewhere.*
(2.) This whole visible World, as far as the Stars and Ele
ments, or any corporeal Being reaches, stands in the Place, or
takes up that Extent of Space, where Lucifer and his Angels,
before their Fall, had their glorious Kingdom. So far as this
visible Frame of Nature extends itself, so far was the Extent of
their Kingdom.
(3.) That the Place or Extent of this World, was the Place or
Extent of their Kingdom, is plain, from the Two following
Reasons : First, Because the Place of this World is now their
Habitation. For we must by no Means suppose, that God
brought them from some other Region into this World only to
tempt Man, and make his Life dangerous ; but they are here
now, because they were created to dwell here. For fallen Angels
* Grounds and Reasons of Christian Regeneration, &-»c.

Answer to Dr. Trapp. 17
cannot possibly leave the Place of their Sin and Fall, they must
live in the Defilements and Disorders of their spoiled Kingdom ;
and in that Place they must find their Hell and Torment, where
thy extinguished their Light and Joy. Secondly, Because the
whole Extent of this World, everything in it, Sun, Moon, Stars,
Fire, Air, Water, and Earth, Stones, Minerals, must all be dis
solved, and pass through a purifying Fire. Therefore all these
Things are polluted, and have in them some Grossness and Dis
order from the Fall of the Angels. Therefore we may see where
they have lived, and how far the Place of their Kingdom ex
tended, by the Extent of those Things that are to be dissolved
and purified.
(4.) When the Angels had, by their Rebellion against God,
lost the Divine Life within themselves, and brought their whole
outward Kingdom into Darkness, Grossness, Wrath, and Dis
order, so that, as Moses speaketh, ' Darkness was upon the Face
' of the Deep,' that is, the whole Deep, or Extent of the Place
of this World ; then, at the Fall of the Angels, and in the Place
where they were fallen, and out of the Materials of their ruined
angelical Kingdom, did God begin the Creation of this present,
material, temporary, visible World.
(5.) ' In the beginning,' saith Moses, ' God created the Heaven
' and the Earth ' ; here, at this Instant, ended the Devil's Power
over the Place or Kingdom in which he was created : As soon
as the whole of his outward, disordered Kingdom was thus
divided into a created Heaven and Earth, all was taken out of
his Hands, he was shut out of everything, and he and all his
Hosts became only poor Prisoners in their lost Kingdom, that
could only wander about in Chains of Darkness, looking with
impotent Rage and Anger at the created Heaven and Earth,
which was sprung up in their own Place of Habitation, and
which they. could not rule over, because their Nature had no
Commufiion with this new created Heaven and Earth.
(6.) Thus was this outward Kingdom, of the whole Extent
of this World, taken out of the Hands of Lucifer and his
Angels ; all its V/rath, Darkness, Grossness, Disharmony, Fire,
and Disorder, was, by the Six Days' Creation, changed into a
temporary State, restored to a certain, but low Resemblance of
its first State, and put into that Form and Order of Sun, Stars,
Fire, Air, Light, Water, and Earth, in which we now see it.
(7.) Into this World, thus created out of the Ruins of the
Kingdom of the fallen Angels, and made paradisaical, by the
Goodness of God, was Man introduced on the Sixth Day of the
Creation, to take his Place, as Lord and Prince of it, to have
Power over all outward Things, to discover and manifest the
2

1 8 An Lamest and Serious
Wonders of this new created World, and to bring forth such an
holy Offspring, as might fill up the Places of the fallen Angels.
And when that was done, and certain Periods of Time had pro
duced these great Effects, then this whole Frame of Things was,
by the last purifying Fire, to have been raised from its para
disaical State, into which it was put at the Creation, into that first
heavenly Brightness, and high Degree of Glory, in which it stood
before the Fall of Lucifer.
(8.) But the first Man, thus created to be a Prince and Father,
of a new angelical Kingdom, stood not out his Trial for this
glorious State.
(9.) He came into this World in that same glorious Body, in
which, after the Resurrection, he shall be like the Angels in
Heaven. For no other Body, but that which was at first created,
and died in Adam's Sin, shall rise in Jesus Christ. He only
saves and restores that which was lost. The Resurrection will
only take away what Sin, and Death, and Earth, had added to
the first created Body.
(10.) In this Body, which shall rise Triumphant over Death
and Hell, did the first created Man stand in this World, incapable
of receiving any Hurt, or knowing Evil from outward Nature.
The Holy Ghost was the Breath of his Life, and the Son of God
was the Light, that illuminated all both within and without
him. (n.) Had he fixed his Will to be absolutely and eternally what
he was, had he desired only to eat of the Tree of Life, to live by
the Word of God, he had been established, and confirmed to be
an eternal Angel, or Divine Man.
(12.) But his Imagination wandered after the Secrets of this
outward World, after the Fruit and Knowledge of such Good
and Evil, as wrought an entire Change in his Nature. For every
thing must have the Nature of that which it chooses for its Food.
His own strong Will (a Spark of the Divine Omnipotence)
was to be his Maker ; for he could not be an Angel of Light
with less Freedom. What he desired, that he had : as his
Imagination worked, so he became to be. He turned from the
Tree and Light of Life, and took in the Fruit and Darkness of
the earthly Nature. And so he fell from his Height of Glory as
deep into an earthly Life, and the Miseries of the Earth, as the
Devil fell into a hellish Life, and the Miseries of Hell.
(13.) Imagine a most precious Pearl, infinitely more bright,
infinitely more transparent, infinitely more illuminated, than any
that mortal Eyes ever saw. Imagine this Pearl to be in a
Moment penetrated, thickened, darkened, deformed in every
Part, and through every Pore, with something as hard as Iron

Answer to Dr. Trapp. 19

as heavy as Lead, as rough as Earth, as dark as Soot, and then
you have but a Shadow of that which happened only to the
Body of Adam, when, by desiring and eating the earthly Fruit,
he drew in the earthly Nature of this World into his pearly,
paradisaical Body. And here, by-the-by, we may see as in a
Glass, what it is that earthly Desires now do to every Son of
Adam ; they do all that which they did to the first Man, ihey
carry on, keep up, and continue, that same Death in us, which
he died in Paradise.
(14.) Here it was that his eternal Soul, the immortal Fire of
Life in him, being swallowed up, and smothered by an earthly
dark Body, lost the Light of the Son of God, and the Breath of
the Holy Spirit. And this was the great and immediate Death
that he died in Paradise, before he became the Father of Man
kind, a Death much more grievous than that which is to bring
us all to our Graves. It was a Death that extinguished all that
was Divine and Holy in the Human Nature, just as the Sin of
Angels had turned them into Devils. Now in looking at
this Death, or the Extinction of this first Divine Life, we have
the clearest, fullest View, of what we are to understand by our
Regeneration by the Second Adam. For what can it possibly
be, but the Restoration of that same Divine Life which was lost
in Adam the First, and to which he absolutely died in Paradise ?
Must not that which is re-generated in the Human Nature,
be something that has been generated in it before ? If we want
to be redeemed, or regenerated only, because Adam died in
Paradise, and lost the First Birth of Human Nature, must not
Regeneration be only and solely the bringing forth again that
First Birth in the Human Nature ? Or will anyone say, that
Christ is not in as high a Degree the Restorer of our First Birth,
as Adam was the Destroyer of it ? Now, though this great
Truth, seated in the very Heart of the Christian Religion,
speaks at once the whole Nature of Regeneration, and leaves no
room to mistake about it ; yet many learned Men, either not
seeing, or not loving, or being afraid to own it, have been forced,
not only to mistake, but wholly to sink the most solid,
substantial, edifying, and glorious Article of the Christian
Faith ; and, instead of telling us the Height and Depth of the
Benefit and Blessing of having the Nature and Life of Christ
derived into, or regenerated in us, they can only teach us, what
Kind of Word Regeneration is — that it is a Figurative Ex
pression — and that our Saviour may be justified for having made
use of it. What learned Pains do some People take to root
up the Belief of our having a Life and Birth from Jesus Christ,
in the same Truth and Reality, that we had lost a Life and
2 — 2

20 An Lamest and Serious

Birth in Adam? They run from Book to Book, from Language
to Language, they call upon every Disputant, consult all Critics,
search all Lexicons, to show us, that according to Scripture, and
Antiquity, and the Rules of true Criticism, Regeneration need
signify no more, than what is meant by the federal Rite of
Baptism. Nay, what is still worse, they appeal to the poor
Notions of the blind, infatuated Jews ; they produce the
Opinions which they had of a Regeneration talked of, and a
Baptism used amongst them, when they rejected and crucified
our Saviour, to teach us, what we are to understand by our
Divine Birth in Christ Jesus. But if this be the Use of Learning
amongst ourselves, we need not look at Rome or Geneva, or the
ancient Rabbis of the Jewish Sanhedrim, to see what miserable
Work Learning can make with the Holy Scriptures. For it
must be said, that the true Messiah is not rightly owned, the
Christian Religion is not truly known, nor its Benefits rightly
sought, till the Soul is all Love, and Faith, and Hunger, and
Thirst, after this new Life, Birth, and real Formation of Jesus
Christ in it, till without Fear of Enthusiasm it seeks and expects
all its Redemption from it. But to return.
(15.) Man, thus dead to the Divine Life, thus destitute ofthe
Son, and Holy Spirit oi God, thus fallen into an earthly Nature,
under the Dominion of an earthly World, which would afford
him for a while a miserable Life, and then leave him to a more
miserable Death, thus fallen, he could do no more to replace
himself in Paradise, or to regain his first Nature, than the Devil
could do, to restore to himself his lost Glory.
(16.) But in this State the infinite Mercy of God met him.
That Love which at the first breathed, or spoke out of the Mouth
of God, a living, holy and Divine Soul and Spirit into him, now
again breathed, or inspoke a Spark, or Seed, or Ray of Divine
Light into him, in the Declaration of a Serpent-Treader ; which
Seed or Spark of Life should in Time do all that, which Adam
should have done ; that is, should raise up and bring forth a
Generation of Men, that should become Sons of God, and take
Possession of that Kingdom from which the Angels had fallen.
(17.) Here now began the merciful Mystery of Man's Re
demption ; for this Seed of a Divine Life, or inspoken Word
of Grace, or Treader of the Serpent, was the Holy Jesus, the
Second Adam, who from that Time, stood in the Place of the
First Man, and became the Father and Regenerator of Adam
himself, and all his Posterity. And from that Time it may be
said in a certain and true Sense, .that the Incarnation of the Son
of God began ; because he was from that Time entered again
into the human Nature, as a Seed, or Beginning oi its Salvation

Answer to Dr. Trapp. 21
hidden under the Veil of the Law, and not made manifest, till
he was born in the Holy, and highly Blessed Virgin Mary. And
in this Sense it is, that our Blessed Lord said of himself, that he
was the Light of the World, as Adam might have said of himself,
that he was the Sin and Death of the World ; because, as Sin
and Death came wholly from him upon all Men, so the Light of
Life came as wholly and universally from Jesus Christ. And in
this Sense also St. fohn says of him, ' that he was the true Light
' which lighteth every Man that cometh into the World.'
Because every Man, wherever born, has from him this Light
of Life, this inward Saviour, or Seed of his Salvation, in the
Birth of his own Life, which is to overcome the Darkness, resist
the Evil, and bruise the Serpent that is in his fallen Nature.
This Beginning of the Divine Birth in our Souls, if it is not
stifled and suppressed by us, but inwardly reverenced, and
attended to, as the Voice and Call of God within us, is our
certain Guide and Leader to Christ, born in the Fulness of
Time, and sacrificed for us upon the Cross.
(18.) What we want from Jesus Christ, as our Redeemer, is
manifest by that which he offers and gives to us, namely, a
Birth from Himself, a Birth from the Holy Spirit, a Redemption
from the Hell that is in our Souls, and from the Death and Cor
ruption that is in our Bodies.
(19.) We were no more created to be in the Sorrows, Burdens,
and Anguish, of an earthly Life, than the Angels were created
to be in the Wrath and Darkness of Hell. It is as contrary to
the Will and Goodness of God towards us, that we are out of
Paradise, as it is contrary to the Designs and Goodness of God
towards the Angels, that some of them are out of Heaven,
Prisoners of Darkness.
The Grossness, Impurity, Sickness, Pain and Corruption of
our Bodies, is brought upon us by ourselves in the same Manner
as the dark, hideous serpentine Forms of the Devils are brought
upon them. How absurd, and even blasphemous, would it be,
to say with the Scripture and the Church, that we are by Nature
Children of Wrath, and born in Sin, if we had that Nature which
God at first gave us ? What a Reproach upon God to say, that
this World is a Valley of Misery, a Shadow of Death, an Habi
tation of Disorders, Snares, Evils, and Temptations, if this was
an original Creation, or that State of Things for which God
created us ? Is it not as consistent with the Goodness and Per
fections of God, to speak of the Misery and Disorder that holy
Angels find above, and of the Vanity, Emptiness and Sorrow of
the heavenly State, as to speak of the Misery of Men, and the
Sorrows of this World, if Men and the World were in that Order.

22 An Lamest and Serious

in which God at first had placed them ? If God could make any
Place poor, and vain, and miserable, or create any Beings into
a State of Vanity and Vexation of Spirit, he might do so in all
Places, and to all Beings.
(20.) But by the Mercy of God in Christ Jesus, this Prison of
an earthly Life is turned into a State oi Purification, it is made
a Time and Place of putting off our filthy and defiled Garments,
and of slaying and sacrificing that corrupt old Man of Sin that
is hid under them. And God suffers the Sun to shine upon us,
and the Elements to afford us Nourishment, for no other End, but
that we may all have Time and Opportunity to hear the Call of
the Son of God, to embrace a second Adam, to be born again of
him, to be renewed by the Holy Spirit, and be made capable of
that Kingdom from which Lucifer and his Angels fell.
(21.) Look at our Saviour's Sermon on the Mount, and indeed
at all his Instructions, and you will find them pointing at nothing
else on our Side, but a Denial of ourselves, and a Renunciation
of the World. And indeed how could it be otherwise ? For if
we are ourselves something which we were not created to be, and
if this is our Misery, that we have raised and awakened a Nature
and Life in us, which is not our first, that we had from God ;
must not the First Step towards our Salvation be, a denying and
departing with our whole Will and Inclination from that which
we have made ourselves to be, from that Life which we have
awakened in us ? If Self is our Misery and Captivity, must
not our Deliverance require a total, continual Self-denial ? If
we want a Redeemer, only because we have wandered out of
Paradise, and could not get back to it ourselves ; if we are over
come by this World, only because the Will and Desire of our
first Father sought after it, what Wonder is it that he who is to
replace us in Paradise should call us to a Renunciation of the
World ? If this World has got its Dominion over us, merely
because the Will and Desire of Man turned itself towards the
Earth ; how can its Dominion over us be destroyed, but by our
turning our whole Will and Desire towards Heaven ?
(22.) Vain Man, taken with the Sound of heavenly Things,
and Prospects of future Glory, yet at the same Time a fast
Friend to all the Interests and Passions of Flesh and Blood,
would fain compound Matters between God and Mammon. He
is very willing to acknowledge a Saviour, that died on the Cross
to save him ; he is ready to receive outward Ordinances, and
Forms of Divine Worship, and to contend with Zeal for the
Observance of them. He likes Heaven, and future Glory, on
these Conditions. He is also ready to put on an outward
Morality of Behaviour, to let Religion polish his Manners, that

Answer to Dr. Trapp. 23
he may have the Credit and Ornament of a prudential Piety,
well-ordered Passions, and a Decency of outward Life ; this gives
no Hurt, or at least no Death's-Blow to the old Man. But to
lay the Axe to the whole Root of our Disease, to cut all those
silken Cords asunder, which tie us to the World, and the World
to us, to deny every Temper and Passion that cannot be made
Holy, Wise, and Heavenly ; to die to every Gratification which
keeps up, and strengthens the Folly, Vanity, Pride and Blind
ness of our fallen Nature ; to leave no little Morsels of Sensu
ality, Avarice and Ambition, for the old Man to feed upon,
however well covered under his Mantle ; this, though it be the
very Essence of Religion on our Part, is what he flies from with
as much Aversion as from Heresy and Schism. Here he makes
learned Appeals to Reason and Common Sense to judge betwixt
him and the Gospel ; which is just as wise, as to ask the learned
Greek, and the worldly few, whether the Cross of Christ be not
Foolishness, and a just Rock of Offence ; or to appeal to Flesh
and Blood about the narrow Way to that Kingdom of Heaven,
into which itself cannot possibly have any Entrance.
(23.) To seek for anything in Religion, but a new Nature
fitted for a new World, is knowing neither it, nor ourselves. To
be born again, is to be fit for Paradise, in whatever Part of the
Universe we live. Not to be born again, is continuing where the
Sin and Death of Adam left us, whatever Church, or Sect of
Religion we have Fellowship with. All Ways and Opinions, all
Forms and Modes of Divine Worship, stand on the Outside of
Religion. They may be, and certainly are, great and desirable
Helps to the Kingdom of God, when we consider them only as
the Gate, or Guide to that inward Life, which wants to be raised,
and brought forth in us. But this is unquestionably true, that
our Salvation consists wholly and solely in the Birth of the Son
of God, and the Renewal of the Holy Ghost, in our Souls. When
this begins, our Salvation begins ; as this goes on, our Salvation
goes on; when this is finished, our Salvation is finished. This
alone saves the Soul ; because this alone restores the First Para
disaical, Divine Nature, which is the true Image of God, and
which alone can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.
(24.) If we had only a notional Knowledge that our First
Father had sinned, and knew no more of his sinful Condition
than History tells us of it ; if we had only certain instituted
Types and Figures to keep up the Remembrance of it in our
Minds, we should never be the worse for his Sins ; we should
have no Hurt by owning ourselves to be Children of a sinful
Father, if his Nature, Life and Spirit was not propagated in us :
So, if we have only a notional Belief that Jesus is become the

24 An Lamest and Serious
Second Adam, to redeem or regenerate the fallen Nature; if we
know this only in the Notion and History kept up in our Minds
by outward Figures and Ordinances, though we contend ever so
much for this Belief of a Saviour, and write Volumes in Defence
of it ; yet he is not our Saviour, till his Nature, Life, and Spirit,
be born in us. If there be any Man in the World, in whom the
Nature of Adam is not, he has no Sin from Adam. If there be
any Man, in whom the Life of Jesus is not, he has no Righteous
ness from him. We must have Life and Righteousness in the
same Truth and Reality in us from the Second Adam, as we
have Sin and Death in us from the First.
(25.) The Whole of the Matter is this : This World is our
Curse and Separation from God ; by the Mystery of our Redemp
tion it is turned into a short State of Purification, and can only
be made so, by our going with our whole Will and Desire out of
it, and away from it, as Adam by his Will and Desire sought
after, and fell into it. The Second Adam must take us out, as
the First Adam brought us into this World. Our Bodies are our
Burdens which Sin has laid upon us : Our stinging, wounding
Passions are the Nails which must fasten our Hands and Feet
to the Cross on which we are to die, and commend our Spirit
into the Hands of God, as our Lord did. But yet, all this Turn
ing with our whole Will, and Desire towards God, and Paradise,
all this Bearing our Cross, and passing through Une fiery Trials
of this Life, is still but preparatory to our Salvation, which
wholly consists in the Incarnation of the Son of God in the Soul,
or Life of Man. That must be done, and born in us, which was
done, and born in the Virgin Mary. As our Sin and Death is,
Adam in us, so our Life and Salvation is, Christ in us. This is
it alone that saves us, that delivers us from the Fall, that restores
all that was lost in Adam ; by this alone what died in Adam, is
brought to Life again in us ; by this alone we can be taken out
of an earthly Life, Nature, and World, and translated into a
heavenly Life, Nature, and World.
(26.) Christ, by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, became
in the Body of the holy Virgin Mary, of the same Nature with
that First Man, which was created in Paradise, who, according
to the Purpose of God, was to have been the Father of an holy,
paradisaical Race of Men. Now the First Purpose of God must
stand, and that which God designed must come to pass. But
seeing the First Adam failed in this Design of God, and was not
the Generator of such a Race of Men, therefore the Wisdom of
God provided a Second Adam, who was born of the Virgin
Mary in the same Degree of Perfection, in which the first Man
was created. To this holy, paradisaical, human Nature, the Son of

Answer to Dr. Trapp. 25

God was personally united ; and thus Christ, the Second Adam,
took the Place of the First, and stands as the Regenerator,
Redeemer, Second Father of all the Sons oi Adam. Now as we
are earthly, corrupt, and worldly Men, by having the Nature and
Life of the First Adam propagated in us, so we must become
holy, paradisaical, and heavenly Men, by having the Life and
Nature of the Second Adam derived into, or regenerated in us ;
or, as the Scripture speaks, by being born again of him. There
fore if we are to have the Nature of Christ regenerated in us, as
the Life of Adam is born in us ; if we are to be like him in
Nature, as we are like to Adam in Nature ; if we are to be the
heavenly Sons of the one, as we are the earthly Sons of the
other, then there is an absolute Necessity, that That which was
done and born in the Virgin Mary, be also by the same Power of
the Holy Ghost done and born in us, by a Seed of Life derived
into us from Christ our Regenerator. The Mystery of Christ's
Birth must be the Mystery of our Birth ; we cannot be his
Sons, but by having the Birth of his Life derived into us ; for
the new paradisaical Man must be brought forth in the same
manner in every individual Person ; that which brought forth
this holy Birth in the First Adam at his Creation, and in the
Second Adam in the Virgin Mary, that alone can bring it forth
in any one of their Offspring. Jesus Christ therefore stands as
our Regenerator, to help us by a Second Birth from him, to such
an holy, pure, and undefiled Nature, as he himself received in the
Blessed Virgin, and which we should have received in Paradise
from our First Father.
From the Time of the Fall of Adam, the incorruptible Seed of
Christ is in us all, in the whole human Nature ; he has Power,
as the Son of God, to quicken and raise it up, till it comes to be
that First holy Image of the Blessed Trinity. And when a
Divine Faith arises in this Seed of Life, by which it lays hold
on Christ as the Author, Preserver, and Finisher of its Life, as
the Atonement, Saviour and Deliverer from the Death and Hell
that surrounds it, then it grows up into a new, inward Man, of
the same Nature with that which appeared in Paradise, and with
that which was born in the Virgin Mary. Then the Birth of the
Son of God, the Birth of the Spirit, and that First holy
Humanity which Adam lost, are all restored to us, but in a
Mystery in the inward Man hid in God, till the Resurrection
shall separate everything that is earthly, dark, and corruptible,
from it. Thus by Faith in Christ we put on Christ, he becomes
formed in us, we eat his Flesh, and drink his Blood, and have his
Nature and Life in us ; that is, we have a Flesh and Blood, a
holy Humanity, derived into us from Christ, in the same Reality

26 An Lamest and Serious
as we have Flesh and Blood, a corrupt Humanity from Adam,
our First Father. Thus we are real Members, living Branches,
and new-born Children, of Christ, our Regenerator ; he is our
Father, and as such, as certainly brings us into the Kingdom of
Heaven, Heirs of all his Glory, as Adam brought us into the
Prison of this World, Heirs of all his Sin and Misery. This is
the Whole of the Christian Redemption. Let us look where we
will, and talk of what we will, there is no Possibility of Salvation
for any one Son of Adam, but in this Divine Birth, nor can this
Birth be had any other way. And to this great Truth all the
Writings of the New Testament bear undeniable Witness. For
the further and full View of this important Matter, I refer the
Reader to another little Book* which, if I could afford it, should
be sent gratis into all Parts of the Kingdom. Look now at
yourselves, at the World, at Religion, in this true Light, and
surely you must enough see and feel the desirable Nature of
every Virtue, and every Degree of it, which the Gospel sets
before you. Surely you must awaken into a strong Abhorrence
of everything, that the Fall has brought upon you, whether it be
in your Souls, your Bodies, or the State of the World into which
you are fallen. To renounce the poor Interests of a worldly
Life, to be content with a Pilgrim's Fare in it, to live looking
and longing after that which you have lost ; to have no more of
Covetousness, of Pride, of Vanity, and Ambition, than John the
Baptist had ; to live unto God in your Shops, your Employ
ments and Estates, with such Thoughts and Desires of going to
your heavenly Father, as the lost Son had when he saw his poor
Condition, eating Husks among Swine, is only a Proof that you
are, like him, come to yourselves, that you begin to see what, and
how, and where you are. Surely you can need no Exhortations
to hasten and run to your Redeemer, to ask and beseech him in
Faith and Love to do everything in you and for you, that your
darkened corrupted Heart, and polluted Body, stands in need of.
He now stands as near you, as full of Love over you, as he did
to Lazarus when he raised him from the Dead. He is no
further from your Call, than he was from the Call of blind
Bartim&us, whose Eyes he immediately opened. Surely it
should now be more needless to exhort you to look earnestly
and diligently after every Means of recovering your first glorious
State, than to exhort the Blind to receive their Sight, the Sick
to accept of Health, or the Captive to suffer his Chains to be
taken off. For when you thus see your Misery and your
Redemption in this strong Light, both of them so exceeding

Grounds and Reasons of Christian Regeneration, &*c.

Answer to Dr. Trapp. 27
great, you see something that must needs penetrate and awaken
the inmost Depth of your Soul, that leaves you no room to doubt
about the Nature of any Virtue, no Liberty to indulge one vain
Passion, or to think it any Hardship that the Gospel calls you
to be perfect. For in this Light every Virtue of the Gospel
stands known and recommended to us, just as Health, Purity and
Sight, stand recommended to a sickly, noisome, blind Leper, who
was shut up in a Place that continually increased all his Evils.
It strips us of nothing but the Uncleanness of Leprosies, the
Miseries of Sores, Pains, and Blindness. It takes nothing from
the World which is about us, but its Poison and Power of
infecting us. So that to be called to the Height of all Virtue
attainable in this Life, however excessive it may seem to the
Reasonings of Flesh and Blood, is only being called away from
every Misery and Evil that can be avoided by us. Jesus Christ
is become our Regenerator, that we may again be made like
unto God, have the Purity and Perfection of an angelic Nature,
and be made capable of enjoying the infinite Riches and
Treasures of the Divine Nature to all Eternity. No Virtue
therefore has any blamable Extreme in it, till it contradicts this
general End of Religion, till it hinders the Restoration of the
Divine Image in us, or make us less fit to appear amongst the
Inhabitants of Heaven. Abstinence, Temperance, Mortification
of the Senses and Passions, can have no Excess till they hinder
the Purification of the Soul, and make the Body less useful and
subservient to it. Charity can have no Excess till it contradicts
that Love which we are to have in Heaven, till it is more than
that which would lay down its Life even for an Enemy, till it
exceeds that which the first Christians practised, when they had
all things common ; till it exceeds that of St. fohn, who requires
him that has Two Coats, to give to him that has none, and he
that has Meat to do likewise ; till it is loving our poor Brethren
more than Christ has loved us ; till it goes beyond the Command
of loving our Neighbour as we love ourselves ; till it forgets that
our own Life is to be preserved.
See now how the Doctor instructs and enlightens his Readers
on these Two great Articles, Christian Temperance, and Charity.
To remove the Restraints of the First, he says, ' Our Blessed
' Saviour came eating and drinking, was present at Weddings,
' and other Entertainments ; nay, at one of them worked a
' Miracle to make Wine, when it is plain, there had been more
' drank than was absolutely necessary for the Support of Nature,
'and consequently something had been indulged to Pleasure
' and Cheerfulness.'* * Page 17.

28 An Lamest and Serious

O Holy Jesus, that thy Divine Life should, by a Preacher of
thy Gospel, be made a Plea for Liberties of Indulgence ! The
Doctor's Argument lies in this ; that our Saviour worked a
Miracle to help them to more Wine, when they had already drank
to the Indulgence of Pleasure and Cheerfulness, therefore he could
be no Enemy to such pleasant Indulgences ; therefore it is
lawful for us Christians to delight in them. Now if this Law
fulness is well proved, the Doctor may go on and prove these
Indulgences to be good and pious ; because what our Saviour
worked a Miracle to promote, must needs be esteemed to be so.
And so the adding another Bottle, when Friends are rejoicing,
may be made to be a Christian Duty. But the Doctor should
have remembered, that the Wine here spoken of, was not
common Wine, and therefore has not the least Relation to our
common Drinking — that it was not Wine from the fuice of the
Grape — that it had nothing in it, but what came from a
heavenly Hand — that it must have in it the Purity and Virtue
of him that made it — that it had as good Qualities in it, and was
fitted to have the same Effects upon some that drank it, as the
Clay, which he moistened with his Spittle, had upon the Eyes of
the Blind. He should have remembered, that it was Water,
only so altered, and endued with such Qualities, as he pleased to
put into it ; and therefore we may be sure, it was Water as
highly blessed for their Use, as they were capable of; we may be
sure it was fitter to allay the Heat and Disorder of their
Drinking, than if it had been Water unaltered by our Saviour.
How suitable was this Miracle to a Feast ! How worthy of so
Divine a Person ! To make them cooler, by giving them Water
made fitter for that Purpose, and to raise their Faith by its
miraculously seeming to be turned into the best of Wine. Well
might it be said of this Miracle, that he thereby manifested forth
his Glory, and his Disciples believed on him. But according to
the Doctor's horrid Account ofthis Miracle.it must be said, that
he thereby showed his Approbation of continuing such Pleasures
of Drinking, and has left us a Proof, that we may do the same.
But I must further vindicate the Life and Example of our
Blessed Lord from the Indignity and Irreverence done to it by
the Doctor. Our Blessed Lord came indeed, as he says of
himself, eating and drinking. But how, or in what Manner, or
in what Sense, did he say this of himself? Why, it was in
Opposition to, and Distinction from, fohn the Baptist, who came
eating only one Sort of Food. And it was to show the Jews
their great Guilt in this respect, that nothing could do them any
good. For the Mortification of the Baptist they condemned as
coming from the Devil ; and the Condescension of the Holy

Answer to Dr. Trapp. 29
Jesus in coming to their Tables, they accused as Gluttony and
Wine-bibbing. Now the Doctor is plainly doing what our Lord
accused the fews of ; he with them condemns the Mortification
of the Baptist, as coming from the Devil. But he differs from
the Jews in this, that he does not condemn, but approves of our
Lord, as a Friend to Feasts, and merry Meetings.
Our Saviour, suitable to his gracious Love, in coming into
the World, sought the Conversation of Sinners and Publicans ;
because he came to save that which was lost, and because he
knew that some amongst such Sinners were more movable,
than the proud Sanctity of the learned Pharisees. But may we
thence conclude, that the Lives of such Sinners were not blam
able in his Sight? Is not this as well, as to imagine he favoured
the Indulgences of Feasting and good Fellowship, because he
was found there ? The Holy Jesus conversed more freely, spoke
of himself, and of the Kingdom of God, more divinely to a wicked
Woman of Samaria, than he appears to have done to his
Disciples. May we thence conclude, that he approved of a
Woman of that Character, or that he thereby set his Seal to the
Goodness and Lawfulness of her Way of living? Is not this as
well, as to make his Presence at a Wedding, an Approbation of
the Freedom and Indulgences of such Feasts ?
O Holy Jesus, thou didst nothing of thyself, thou soughtest
only the Glory of thy Father, from the Beginning to the End of
thy Life ; thou spentest whole Nights in Prayer in Mountains
and Desert Places ; thou hadst not where to lay thy Head ; thy
common poor Fare with thy Disciples was barely Bread and
dried Fish ; thy miraculous Power never helped thee to any
Dainties of Refreshment, though ever so much fatigued, and
fainted with Labour. But yet, because this Holy Jesus came
into the World to save all Sorts of Sinners, and to show that
every Kind and Degree of Sin could be taken away, and for
given by him, therefore he came into all Places, and entered
into all Sorts of Companies. He did not, as the Baptist, tie
himself to one Sort of Food, but he came eating and drinking.
But why did he so ? It was, that he might reprove and convert
Sinners at their own Tables. He came, not to indulge himself,
or to find such Gratifications as the Baptist abstained from, but
to work Miracles, to awaken and astonish Sinners in the Midst
of their Indulgences.
It is said, that wherever the King is, there is the Court. But
with much more Reason may it be said, that wherever our
Saviour came, there was the Temple, or the Church. He came
to Feasts and Entertainments with the same Spirit, for the same
End and in the same Divine Power, as he went to raise a dead

30 An Lamest and Serious
Corpse ; namely, to show forth the Glory of God. Wherever he
came, it was in the Spirit and Power of the Redeemer of Man
kind ; everything he did, was only to destroy the Works of the
Devil, to deliver Men from his Power, raise the Dead, and give
Sight to the Blind, and Ears to the Deaf ; it made no Differ
ence to him, whether he did this in the Temple, or in the Streets,
at a Feast, or at a Funeral. As he was everywhere God, so
every Place became Holy to him. Lastly, If our Saviour came
Eating and Drinking, and was present, as is pretended, at
cheerful Entertainments, to show his Approbation oi such Indul
gences, and to leave us a Proof, that we may do so too ; how
came fohn the Baptist, that severe Master of Mortification, to be
a fit Preparer ofthe Way to the Kingdom of Heaven? Surely
his Voice must cry wrong, if such Mortification was not right.
And if our Saviour disapproved of the Severity of his Life and
Manners, how came he to point him out to the fews, as a
burning and shining Light? Thus much may serve to vindicate
our Saviour's holy Life and Example from the shocking Mis
application the Doctor has made of it.
Let us now see how he treats and instructs the charitable
Christian in these Words: 'What! says the Half-Thinker, is
' not Charity to the Poor, a most excellent Thing ? And can I
' be too charitable ? Can I therefore bestow too much upon the
'Poor? I answer, Would you consider the other Side, you
' would perceive, that though you cannot be too charitable, yet
' you may bestow too much upon the Poor, to the Ruin of your
'Wife and Children, which is not Charity, hat Madness, and a
' great and most grievous Sin. Did you never hear, that
' Charity begins at Home ? Did you never read that of St.
' Paul ? If any provide not for his own, and especially those
' of his own House ; he hath denied the Faith, and is worse
'than an Infidel.'*
The Doctor's Proverb I shall leave to himself. But the Text
of St. Paul, which he has as grossly mistaken and misapplied, as
he did our Saviour's Miracle, I must take out of his Hands.
St. Paul's Words are quoted to prove, that it is Madness, a
great and grievous Sin, for anyone, through Charity to the
Poor, to render himself unable to provide for his Wife and
Children. Now the Apostle in this Place speaks no more about
this Sin, than he speaks against the Sin of Watching and
Prayer. Nay, what is more, there is not in all his Writings, or
in the whole New Testament, the least Supposition or Hint that
such a Sin ever was, or would be committed by any charitable
* Page 60.

Answer to Dr. Trapp. 31
Man. The Apostle was singly speaking of such Women as were
to be taken into the Order of Widows, for the Service of the
Church, and to be maintained by it.* Verse 4, he says, that
such Widows as had Children or Nephews that could support
them, such were not to be maintained by the Church. And to
such Sons and Nephews who have Mothers and Aunts that thus
want their Assistance, he says, ' If anyone provide not for his
' own, especially for those of his own House,' i.e. If any Sons or
Nephews, having Mothers or Aunts become desolate Widows,
and take not care to assist them, especially if they live with
them, such have renounced the Piety of the Gospel, and have
not so much Humanity as Infidels. This alone is the Plain
Doctrine of the Apostle, which the Doctor has grossly perverted,
to the condemning of that which he never thought of, either
there, or in any Part of Scripture. On the contrary, the
Scripture abounds with Passages that might persuade us, that
no Family could ever be ruined by the Alms and Charity of its
Father. ' I have been young, and now am old,' saith the
Psalmist, ' yet never saw I the Righteous forsaken, or their Seed
' begging their Bread. The liberal Soul shall be made fat, and
' he that watereth, shall be watered again.' They that cannot
believe this, want the Faith of Christians. Had anyone in the
Apostle's Time reduced his Wife and Children to Want, by his
great Charity to the Poor, the Apostle would have been so far
from rebuking him, as a half-thinking Fool, or exposing him to
others, as guilty of Madness, and grievous Sin, that he would
have told them, that he had consecrated himself and Family to
the Church, that he and they were thereby become the dear
Objects of the Church's Care and Love, since their present
Distress was brought upon them by a boundless Love and
Compassion for the Poor. I will now suppose that the Apostle
had condemned a Charity in a Father that was to the Detriment
of his Wife and Children ; I will put the following Case in as
high Terms as the Doctor can well desire. Let it be supposed
that some good Bishop, possessed of as rich a Bishopric as that
of Winchester, should through his extensive Love and Charity
for the Poor throughout his whole Diocese, be forced to use the
utmost Frugality in Family Expense, and to bring up his
Children in Employments of Labour, to help themselves to Food
and Raiment ; one a Carpenter, in which Business our Saviour
is said to have laboured in his Youth ; another a Maker of Tents,
the Trade of the great Apostle ; and the rest in the like
manner. Let it be supposed, that when he died, he left only
1 Tim. v. 5, 8.

32 An Lamest and Serious
Twenty Pounds a Year amongst them, not to be possessed by
any one of them, but only to be used by everyone, as Sickness or
Age made them stand in need of it, with this Injunction, that it
should be given to other sick and helpless People, when there was
no such amongst themselves. Let it be supposed that by his
Life and Conversation, he had filled his Wife and Children with
the true and perfect Spirit of the Gospel, that they loved and
rejoiced in his Memory for all the Good that he had done to
them, desiring nothing but to go through the World in that
same Humility, Piety, Charity, Love of God, and Renunciation
of the World, as he had done. Will the Doctor say, that this
Bishop had ruined his Wife and Children ? that half-thinking
had betrayed him into a most grievous Sin, that he had by this
Life denied the Faith, and become worse than an Infidel? I
will venture to say, that if such a Bishop should ever appear in
this Kingdom, he would bid fair to put an End to Infidelity
through all his Diocese, though it were the largest in the
Nation. Now if the Doctor does not know oi anyone, either
amongst the Laity or Clergy, who is ruining his Wife and
Children by a greater and more blamable Charity than that of
this Bishop, it must be said, that he has been in too much
Haste ; that his Zeal has not proceeded from Knowledge ; and
that he has been throwing cold Water upon Charity, before there
was any Flame in it.
I now proceed to show in a more general Way, the blamable
Nature and Design of the Doctor's Discourse. The whole
Christian World, from the Time of our Saviour to this Day, has
been praying, ' Thy Kingdom come, thy Will be done on Earth
'as it is in Heaven.' Sacraments, Divine Worship, and the
Order of the Clergy, are appointed as ministerial Helps for this
End, to raise, set up, and establish, this Kingdom of God on
Earth. The Fall of Man brought forth the Kingdom of this
World ; Sin in all Shapes is nothing else but the Will of Man
driving on in a State of Self -Motion, and Self- Government,
following the Workings of a Nature broken off from its Depen
dency upon, and Union with, the Divine Will. All the Evil
and Misery in the Creation arises only and solely from this one
Cause. There is not the smallest Degree of Distraction, Pain,
or Punishment, either within us, or without us, but what is
owing to this, viz., that Man stands out of his Place, is not in,
and under, and united to God as he should be, as the Nature of
Things require. God created everything to partake of his own
Nature, to have some Degree and Share of his own Life and
Happiness. Nothing can be good or evil, happy or unhappy,
but as it does or does not stand in the same Degree of Divine

Answer to Dr. Trapp. 33
Life in which it was created, receiving in God, and from God,
all that Good that it is capable of, and co-operating with, and
under him, according to the Nature of its Powers and Per
fections. As soon as it turns to itself, and would, as it were,
have a Sound of its own, it breaks off from the Divine Harmony,
and falls into the Misery of its own Discord ; and all its
Workings then are only so many Sorts of Torment, or Ways of
feeling its own Poverty. The Redemption of Mankind can
then only be effected, the Harmony of the Creation can only
then be restored, when the Will of God is the Will of every
Creature. For this Reason our Blessed Lord having taken upon
him a created Nature, so continually declares against the doing
anything of himself and always appeals to the Will of God, as
the only Motive and End of everything he did, saying, that it
was his Meat and Drink to do the Will of him that sent him.
What now can be so desirable to a sober, sensible Man, as to
have the vain, disorderly Passions of his own corrupted Heart
removed from him, to be filled with such Unity, Love, and Con
cord, as flows from God, to stand united to, and co-operating with
the Divine Goodness, willing nothing, but what God wills, loving
nothing, but what God loves, and doing all the Good that he can
to every Creature, from a Principle of Love and Conformity to
God. Then the Kingdom of God is come, and his Will is done
in that Soul, as it is done in Heaven. Then Heaven itself is in
the Soul, and the Life, and Conversation of the Soul is in
Heaven. From such a Man the Curse of this World is re
moved ; he walks upon consecrated Ground, and everything he
meets, everything that happens to him, helps forward his Union,
and Communion with God. For it is the State oi our Will, that
makes the State of our Life ; when we receive everything from
God, and do everything for God, everything does us the same
Good, and helps us to the same Degree of Happiness. Sickness
and Health, Prosperity and Adversity, bless and purify such a
Soul in the same Degree ; as it turns everything towards God, so
every Thing becomes Divine to it. For he that seeks God in
everything, is sure to find God in everything. When we thus
live wholly unto God, God is wholly ours, and we are then happy
in all the Happiness of God ; for by uniting with him in Heart,
and Will, and Spirit, we are united to all that he is, and has in
himself. This is the Purity and Perfection of Life, that we pray
for in the Lord's Prayer, that God's Kingdom may come, and his
Will be done in us, as it is in Heaven. And this we may be sure
is not only necessary, but attainable by us, or our Saviour would
not have made it a Part of our daily Prayer. It may now then
justly be asked, have we yet obtained that, which we have been
3

34 *^n Lamest and Serious
so long, and so universally praying for ? Can we look upon the
Church of this Nation, as drawing near, or even tending to this
State of Perfection ? Can we be carried to any one Parish,
either in Town or Country, where it can with Truth be said of any
one Pastor and his Flock, that there the Kingdom of God is
coming, and his Will begins to be done on Earth, as it is done in
Heaven ? Can we therefore find any one Parish, where the
Pastor has not great Reason to reject the Doctor's Discourse, and
to pray both for himself and his Flock, that they may enter much
further into the Spirit and Practice of Christianity, than they have
yet entered, that the Gospel may have much greater Power over
them than it hath yet had, and that they all may, with a most
awakening Conviction, see and understand 'what it is, that has made
so Divine and powerful a Religion, so without its proper Effect 'upon
them ? For if the Case be thus, if we stand at this amazing Distance
from that State of Perfection to which Christ has called us,
though we have his infallible Promise to be with us to the End
of the World, to assist us with such Power and Strength from
above, as to obtain, and do everything that we pray for, through
a right Faith in him, and Conformity to his Laws and Example;
if the Case be thus, does not Heaven and Earth seem to call
upon every Minister of the Gospel, to take some Share to him
self of this miserable State of Things, and to endeavour to con
vince both himself and his Flock, that they have not yet been
Christians in true earnest, that they have professed Christ with
the Tempers of fews and Heathens, that they have not yet
entered into the narrow Way that leads to Life ; that they have
not yet enough renounced the World ; not enough denied them
selves; not enough emptied their Hearts of Passions hurtful to
Piety ; not enough offered and devoted themselves to God ; not
enough made the Spirit of Religion the Spirit of their Lives ;
not enough sought for Strength and Deliverance from Sin by
a firm and living Faith in Jesus Christ, who is made Righteous
ness and Sanctification to every Sinner that turns to God through
Faith in him ; not enough prayed, and desired, that they might
be born again of God by the awakening and quickening the
incorruptible Seed of Divine Life in their Souls, so that Christ
may be truly said to he formed in them ; not enough prayed, and
desired to be everywhere, and on all Occasions, under the per
petual Influence and Guidance of the Holy Spirit, that they may
think, and say, and do everything by his Holy Inspiration ; not
enough looked to that first and great Commandment, of loving
God with our whole Heart and whole Strength ; not enough
endeavoured to keep the next, which is like unto it, that of loving
our Neighbour, as we love ourselves ; not enough renounced such

Answer to Dr. Trapp. 35

Fashions, Customs, and Conformities, to the World, as greatly
corrupt the Heart, and grieve and separate the Holy Spirit from
it. Now which way soever we consider the lamentable State of
Religion amongst us, whether they be Evils within or without
the Church, no Evil can be removed, nor any Remedy be pro
cured by us of the Clergy, but in this one Way, That every
Individual of the Order, from the highest to the lowest, begin
in right Earnest with himself, open the Book of his own Heart
and Life, and consider seriously in the Presence of God, whether,
according to his Degree in the Ecclesiastical Function, the World
has had its due Share of Salt and Light from him ; whether all
that is in the World, the Lust of the Flesh, the Lust of the Eyes,
and the Pride of Life, have been so openly, so constantly dis
couraged and renounced by him, that the whole Form of his
Life has been one loud, continual Call to all Orders of Christians,
to set their Affections on Things above, to mind only the one
Thing needful ; to have nothing at Heart, but to be in Christ
new Creatures, seeking, intending, desiring nothing through the
Pilgrimage of this Life, but to live unspotted from the World, and
to obtain every Height of Holiness, and heavenly Affection,
which becomes those who are to be called Sons and Heirs of
God with Christ Jesus. If Religion was at this Time in a most
flourishing State amongst us, abounding with such Congrega
tions as made up the primitive Church, it would be^ra^ Injus
tice to suppose that the Clergy had not, under God, been the
chief Instruments of building it up to such a State of Perfection,
since they are considered by our Saviour himself, as the Salt and
Light of the World, which are to preserve it both from Darkness
and Corruption. Seeing then that an universal Corruption of
Manners is on all hands confessed to have overspread this Chris
tian Nation, and the true Spirit of Religion hardly anywhere to
be seen, nothing can be more reasonable in itself, more suitable
to the present State of Things, than for every Clergyman, where-
ever his Lot is fallen, to suspect himself to have, in some Degree
or other, contributed to this common Calamity, and to be more
or less chargeable with the Guilt of it, and to try to discover his
own State, by such like Questions as these, laid home to his
Conscience. If Christianity has not done that to my Flock
which is the only End and Intent of it, is there nothing of this
Failure chargeable upon my Conduct over it ? Can my righteous
Judge lay nothing grievous to my Charge on that Account ?
Can my own Heart bear me Witness that I did not run in my
own Will, was not driven by human Passions, but stayed and
waited till the Holy Spirit called me to this Office ? Have I
not undertaken the Care of other's Souls, before I had ever
3—2

36 An Lamest and Serious
any true and real Care of my own ? Have I not pre
sumed to convert and strengthen others, before I was con
verted myself? To preach by hearsay of the Grace, and Mercy,
and Salvation, of the Gospel, whilst I myself was an obedient
Slave to Sin ? Have I not taken upon me to explain and lay
open the Mysteries of God's Love in Christ Jesus, before they
had had their proper Entrance into my own Soul ? Has my own
Repentance, Compunction, deep Sensibility of the Burden of Sin,
and want of a Saviour, taught me how to make the Terrors of
the Lord known in the Deep of every Man's Heart, and to
awaken and pierce the Consciences of Sinners ? Has my own
true and living Faith in Christ my Saviour, my own Experience
of the atoning, cleansing, sanctifying Power of his precious
Blood, enabled me with great Boldness to tell all Sinners, that
to the Faith which worketh by Love, Christ always and infallibly
saith, what he said in the Gospel, ' Thy Sins are forgiven : thy
' Faith hath saved thee ; go in Peace' ?
Can my own Heart, and God, who is greater than our Hearts,
bear me Witness that in my sacred Office I have not sought
myself, or my own Things, but the Things of Jesus Christ ? If
I have changed one Flock or Station for another, or added one
Cure to another, have I done it in Singleness of Heart, as unto
the Lord, and not for myself ? Has all that I have sought or
done of this Kind, been only from this Motive, and in this View,
that I might be more truly faithful to him that hath called me,
and be more and more spent and sacrificed for the Salvation of
Souls ? Have I neglected no Means of fitting and preparing
myself for the Illuminations of God's Holy Spirit, which alone
can enable me in any Measure to speak to, and work upon, the
Hearts and Consciences of Men ? Have I earnestly longed,
and laboured after every Kind and Degree of inward and out
ward Holiness, and Purity of Body, Soul, and Spirit, that my
standing at the Altar may be acceptable to God, and my
Prayers and Intercessions for my Flock avail much before him ?
Has my own Self-denial, Renunciation of the World, and Love
of the Cross of Christ, enabled me to preach up those Duties in
their full Extent? Has my own strictly pious Use of the
Things of this World, my own Readiness to relieve and assist
every Creature to the utmost Extent of my Ability, fitted me to
call others to these Things with Power and Authority ? Have
all Ages and Conditions of People under my Care had their
proper Instruction and Warning from me, so that I have spared
no Folly, Vanity, Indulgence, or Conformity to the World, that
hurts Men's Souls, and hinders their Progress in Piety ? Have
I done all that by my Prayers and Preaching, Life and

Answer to Dr. Trapp. 37
Example, which Christ expects from those whom he has
enjoined to feed his Sheep ? Can my Flock by looking at me
see what Virtues they want ? Can they by following me, be led
to every Kind and Degree of Christian Perfection ? Lastly, has
the Will of God and the Spirit of the Gospel been the Begin
ning and End, the Reason and Motive, the Rule and Measure,
of my liking or disliking, doing or not doing, everything among
those People with whom I have lived as their Minister ? These
are a few of such Questions as the present State of Religion in
this Island calls upon every Minister of the Gospel to sift and
try himself by. For as the Order of the Clergy is instituted for
no other End, but for the preserving of Religion and true Piety
in the World ; so when any Age is more than ordinarily sunk
in Vice and Impiety, the whole Order of the Clergy, and every
Member of it, have great reason not only to be deeply afflicted,
but greatly affrighted at it, and to suspect and fear their own
Conduct, since that which is their particular Work, has had so
little Success. They have great reason to apprehend, that it is
some Degeneracy of Spirit, some common Misbehaviour, some
general Negligence, some want of Example, some Failure in
Doctrine, some Defect in Zeal and Care of their particular
Flocks, that too much contributes to so general a Corruption of
Manners. This does not suppose, that it is in the Power of our
Order to regulate the Manners of People as we please ; it only
supposes, that of all human Means it has the greatest Effect ,
and that when any Nation or People are either vexy good or very
bad, the Behaviour of the Clergy may reasonably be reckoned to
have greatly contributed to it. Let us all therefore of the
Clergy, who have any right Sense of the Nature of our Order,
any true Love for our Brethren of it, awaken and stir up one
another to a faithful Diligence in our Callings, not such as may
secure us from public Scandal, and the Laws of the Land, but
such a faithful Diligence as the Nature of our Office, the Spirit
of the Gospel, and the present Decay of Religion, calls for. Let
us beseech and entreat one another deeply to consider the great
Need that this poor Nation hath of a zealous, pious, exemplary,
disinterested and laborious Clergy ; to consider the dreadful
Judgments of God, that may justly be expected to fall first upon
our own Heads, if this true, only Relief and Remedy is not
procured by all of us, according to the utmost of our Ability. It
is now no time for Ease, Indulgence, or worldly Repose; all is to
be renounced, all is to be sacrificed ; and we must in the Spirit
of Martyrdom awaken the World into a Faith and Love of the
Gospel. Now is the Time that we must give up all our worldly
Regards, ' forsake all that we have ; that we must hate Father

38 An Lamest and Serious
' and Mother, Wife and Children, and Brothers and Sisters, yea,
' and our own Lives also,' or we cannot be faithful Ministers of
Jesus Christ. The same Spirit which first planted the Gospel,
is now required to recover and restore it amongst us. We must
break off our Chains of worldly Prudence, and come forth in the
Spirit and Power of the Gospel ; so live, and speak, and act,
whether in the Pulpit or out of it, that all who see and hear us
may be forced to confess that God is in us of a Truth, and that
his Holy Spirit hath sent us. A Ministry that hath not this
Power, that have not full Proof , both to themselves and others,
that the Holy Spirit is thus with them, opening the Kingdom of
God in their own Souls, and enabling them to preach it to
others with Spirit and Power, are to answer to God for their
Want of it.
To ask whether the Assistance of the Holy Spirit is to be
ordinary or extraordinary , is as needless and groundless a Dis
tinction, as to ask whether a Minister of the Gospel ought to be
an ordinary or extraordinary good Man. The Operation of the
Holy Spirit in us since the Fall, is a supernatural Power, and
therefore in a just Sense always extraordinary, because enabling
us to be and do that, which the ordinary Power of fallen Nature
is insufficient for ; but it is more or less restored to us, as we are
more or less fitted to receive it. And all that Assistance or
Renovation of the Holy Spirit which an Apostle might expect,
for the raising his own personal Holiness to its greatest Height,
or for enabling him with Spirit and Power to move, affect, and
convert the Hearts of Men to the Faith of the Gospel, may be
justly expected now by such Ministers of the Gospel, as do all
that which an Apostle did to obtain and receive it. Our
Religion is founded on this Doctrine, — that we are to be born
again ofthe Holy Spirit, — that it is to be the B reath and Life oi
our new-born, inward Man, — that there is no Sanctificatian of
the Heart, no Illumination of the Mind, no Knowledge of Divine
Mysteries, no Love of holy Things, possible to be had, but in and
by the Motion and Life of this Holy Spirit renewed or born
again in us ; — that its Life, Motion, and Power, in us, increaseth
according to our Faith, Prayers, and Desires of it.
Is it not now a flat Denial of all this to say, as is said by
some, that the Establishment of the Gospel in the World,
together with the Assistances of human Learning and Languages,
has been the Occasion why the Assistance of the Holy Ghost is
abated, and become only such as may be called ordinary ? For
if we consult either Scripture or Experience, must it not be said,
that worldly Peace and Prosperity want as much to be sanctified
by the Holy Spirit, as Persecution and Distress ? That human

Answer to Dr. Trapp. 39

Learning and Knowledge need as high Degrees of Divine Grace
and Help, as human Ignorance ? Is not the Blindness, the
Infatuation and Corruption of Men of Letters, as notorious as
that of unlearned Men ? Does an Editor of Terence, Horace, or
Virgil, receive such Illumination from Plays and Poetry ? Do
Cardinals and Pluralists receive so much Unction and Assistance
from human Establishments, as to need less to be led and
governed by the Holy Spirit of God ? Or will we say, that a
critical Study of divided Languages, and a Religion established
in worldly Ease and Peace, are not only in themselves free from
Danger and Corruption, but have so much of the Nature of the
Holy Spirit of God in them, that they can be to us in his Stead,
and make his sanctifying Operations upon us needed in a less
Degree ?
On the Part of God, our Redemption in Jesus Christ, and our
Sanctification by the Holy Ghost, stand always in the same
Degree of Nearness and Fulness to all of us ; there is hardly
a Chapter in the New Testament that can be understood, or its
Doctrines observed, but upon the Supposition of this great
Truth. If Christ is less formed in us than he was in the first
Saints of the Church, if we come not to the perfect Man, to the
Measure of the Stature of the Fulness of Christ, it is not because
Christ is now become only our Redeemer in an ordinary Way or
Degree, but it is because we have not so turned to him, not so
turned from ourselves, not so counted all Things but Dung, that
we might win Christ, and be found in him, as the first Saints did.
If the Holy Spirit does not now in such a Degree renew, quicken,
move, and sanctify our Hearts, and fill us with such Degrees of
Divine Light and Love, as was done in the first Age of the
Church, it is not because this sanctifying Spirit has committed
some Part of his Work to human Learning, and so is become
only our Sanctifier in a lesser and ordinary Degree, but it is
because we ourselves have forsaken this Fountain of living
Waters, and hewed out broken Cisterns for ourselves ; it is be
cause we have grieved this holy Spirit, resisted his Motions,
quenched his holy Fire, and under an outward Profession of
Christ have kept up that Old Man, with his Deeds, which cannot
be the Temple and Habitation of the Holy Spirit.
If therefore we have any true Sense of the Nature and Weight
of our Ecclesiastical Calling, any Desire to do the full Work of
the Ministry, to satisfy the Wants and Necessities of our Flocks ;
if we have any Fear of being condemned as useless, insignificant
Labourers in Christ's Vineyard, it is high time to awake from
this Dream of an ordinary and extraordinary Sanctification of
the Holy Spirit ; it serves only to keep us unsanctified, shut up

4° An Lamest and Serious
in Death, in the dead Workings of our own corrupted Nature, to
keep us learnedly content with our State, as if we were rich, and
increased in Goods, and had Need of nothing* and hinders us
from knowing that we, are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and
blind, and naked.
Several of the Clergy, whose Lot is fallen in this corrupt Age,
may be supposed to have taken upon them the sacred Office,
and to have lived in it, not enough according to the Nature and
Spirit of it, merely through the Degeneracy of the Times, and
from a Consideration that they are well enough, according to
the Measure of Religion that now passes in the World. And
perhaps there are iew, ii any, of the Order, however eminent for
good Works, whose Virtues have not received some Abatement
from the same Cause. This therefore may be added as another
Reason why all the Clergy of this Land should search into their
Lives and Conduct with the utmost Severity, and bring every
thing to the Test of the Letter and Spirit of the Gospel.
The Christian Religion has not had its proper Effect, nor
obtained its intended End, till it has so set up the Kingdom of
God amongst us, that ' his Will is done on Earth, as it is done
'in Heaven.' This is the Perfection that every Christian, when
advancing forward in the several Degrees of Holiness and Puri
fication, is to tend to, and aspire after. And if they who are to
be taught, are to be thus separated from an earthly Nature, thus
emptied of all worldly Passions, thus dead to the Workings of
Self-will, and Self-love, that the Spirit of God may be all in all
in them, what Manner of Men ought they to be, who are to
teach, promote, advance, and lead the Way to this Purity and
Perfection ? What a Distance ought he to be from every
Appearance of Pride, that is to draw others to love and practise
the profound Humility of the Blessed Jesus ? How ought he
to deny his Appetites, to humble his Body, and be steady in all
Kinds of Self-Denial, who would convince his Flock that they
who sow to the Flesh, shall of the Flesh reap Destruction ? How
heavenly-minded, how devoted to God, how attentive to the one
Thing needful, how unspotted from the World ought he to be,
who is to persuade others that they cannot possibly serve God
and Mammon? How empty ought he to be of all selfish
Cunning, all worldly Policy, all Arts and Methods of Ambition,
who is to fix it deep in the Hearts of his Hearers, that unless
they become as little Children, they cannot see, nor enter into the
Kingdom of God? What open Hands, and open Heart ought
he to have, what an Extent of Charity ought to be visible in him,
* Rev. iii. 17.

Answer to Dr. Trapp. 41

who is to bring his Flock to this Faith, that ' it is more blessed
' to give than to receive ?' How remarkably, undeniably plain,
open, sincere, undesigning, and faithful, should he be, who is to
recommend, plant, and establish sincerity, Plainness, Simplicity,
Truth, and Innocence, amongst his Flock ? There is such a
necessary Fitness in these Things, that the Force and Power of
Religion must be much prevented, when its Precepts are recom
mended to the World by such as excuse themselves from the
plain and open Practice of them ?
The Office of the Ministry is of the highest Nature; it is a
Trust which no Language can sufficiently express ; and the
unfaithful Discharge of it is, of all Conditions in Life, the most
dreadful. To be charged with the Death and Blood of Souls, by
that God who laid down his Life to redeem them, is a Con
demnation that will carry more of Guilt and Punishment in
it than any other. Would you know the Office of a Christian
Pastor, you must look at the Office of Christ ; would you know
what Manner of Spirit he ought to be of, you must look at the
Spirit of Christ. For the Work of the Ministry is only the
Work of Christ committed to other Hands, who are to supply
his Absence, to be here in his Stead, to be doing the same
Things, and with the same Spirit that he did, till the End of the
World. Nothing is so highly honourable as to bear a Part in the Priest
hood of Christ, and be employed in the Work of the Ministry ;
but then it should be well considered, that it is only honourable
in the same Sense as it may be said that nothing is more honour
able than to suffer as a Martyr. It is an Honour that is as dif
ferent from all worldly Figure and Distinction, as the Glory of
Christ upon the Cross is different from the Triumph of an
earthly Prince. When therefore we think of the Honour and
Dignity of the Pastoral Function, we should be careful to re
member, that it is only the Honour of dying a Martyr, an
Honour of humbling, abasing, and sacrificing ourselves with
Christ, and continuing the Exercise of his suffering Priesthood
for the Salvation of the World. The holy Function is often
considered only as an authoritative Commission to minister in
holy Things; but it is much more than this; it is a Call and
Command to act with the Spirit of Christ', to represent his
Purity, to continue his Holiness, to bear a Part of his Sacrifice,
and devote themselves for the Good of others, as he did. A
Priest that has only his Ordination to distinguish him, wants as
much to make him a true Priest, as fudas wanted to make him
a true Apostle. For though Holiness gives no Man a Commis-
•sion to exercise the Pastoral Office, yet all who are called to it,

42, An Lamest and Serious
are as much ordained and appointed to a peculiar Holiness of
Life, as to the Administration of the Sacraments ; and when
they cease to be as Light and Salt to the rest of the World, they
sin against the Pastoral Office in as high a degree as they that
enter upon it without any Authority.
For the sacred Office is God's Appointment, to continue through
all Ages of the World, the Spirit and Power of Christ, for recon
ciling Men to God, in the same Manner, and by the same Means
of Holiness, Sacrifice, and Devotion, which Christ exercised
when he was upon Earth. We need no other Proof of this, than
this one Saying of our Blessed Lord : ' As my Father hath sent
' me, so send I you.' That is, for all the Ends for which I am
come into the World, for all the same Ends I send you into it,
to be there in my stead, to supply my Absence, to carry on the
Work that I have begun, to exercise my Power, to act with my
Spirit, to continue the Exercise of my Love, and Labour, and
Suffering, for the Salvation of Mankind. To be sent by our
Blessed Lord for the same Ends as he was sent into the World,
is such an Appointment of us to all Kinds and Degrees of Holi
ness, as can never be rightly discharged, but by our giving and
devoting ourselves wholly and absolutely unto God.
Imagine that you had lived with our Blessed Lord when he
was upon Earth, that you had learned the Dignity and Divinity
of his Person, that you had seen the Love which he bore to
Mankind, that you had entered into the glorious Designs of his
Kingdom ; which were, to convert the Inhabitants of the Earth,
poor Creatures of Flesh and Blood, into Sons of God, and Heirs
of eternal Glory.
Imagine that you had seen him after his Resurrection, when
he had redeemed the World, conquered Sin, Death, and Hell,
and was about to take Possession of his Throne ; imagine that
then, in that State, you had seen him commission some of his
Followers to be Priests and Intercessors with God on Earth, as
he had been, to feed, and nourish, and watch over his Flock, as
he had done, to go before them in such exemplary Holiness, such
Love of God, such Compassion for Sinners, such Contempt of
the World, such Poverty of Spirit, such Obedience and Resig
nation, as they had him for an Ensample ; had you been present
at all this, how would you then have heard and felt these
Words : ' As my Father hath sent me, so send I you ' ?
What Sentiments of Piety, what Magnificence of Spirit, what
exalted Holiness, would you have expected of those, who were
called to succeed so great a Master in so great a Work ? Could
you think they could be fit for this Office, or were enough like
him that had called them to it, unless they had renounced and

Answer to Dr. Trapp. 43
sacrificed everything for the Sake of it ? Could you think that
any Care but that of the Church of God was proper for them ?
Would you not own that the Conversion of Sinners to God,
ought to have been their one only Labour and Pains ? that they
were to seek for no other Happiness in this World, than such as
their Lord and Master had done, but consider themselves as
called from the common Affairs, Ease and Pleasures of Life, to
be in Christ's Stead towards the rest of Mankind, to conduct
them safely to eternal Happiness ? Now when we consider the
Apostles in this Light, as being the first that were entrusted
with the Care of Souls, and from Christ himself, we can see no
Degree of Zeal, no Height of Piety, no Compassion for Sinners,
no Concern for the Honour of God, no Contempt of Sufferings,
no Disregard of worldly Interest, no Watchings or Mortifications,
no Fervours of Devotion, to which we of the Clergy are not
equally obliged. For the Salvation of Mankind is still the same
glorious, great and necessary Work that it was in their Days, is
still to be carried on by the same Means, and is now in the
Hands of the Clergy, as it was then in theirs. If it was their
Happiness and Glory to be faithful to him that called them, to
forget the little Interests of Flesh and Blood, and have nothing
at Heart, but the Advancement of God's Kingdom, we shall fail
both of Happiness and Glory, if we seek it any other way. If
an Apostle, considering the Weight of reconciling Souls unto
God, is forced to cry out, ' Who is sufficient for these things ?'
shall we think any Care but that which is the greatest, sufficient
to make us stand uncondemned before God ? It is a fatal
Deception to imagine, that the Life of a Minister of God is ever
to be a Life of Ease or worldly Repose. For though the
temporal Sword be not always drawn against them, nor they
forced to flee from one City to another, yet the World, the
Flesh, and the Devil, have perhaps never so much Difficulty to
be resisted, as in temporal Prosperity, nor have the Ministers of
Christ ever more Occasion to put on all their Armour, than
when the World is given up to Ease, and Peace, and Plenty.
Swarms of Vice steal upon us in these Seasons, the Spirit and
Life of Religion is in danger of being lost, and the Salvation of
Souls is made more difficult, than in the most perilous Times.
And how is such a State of Temptation to be resisted, such a
Torrent of Vice to be opposed, but by the Clergy's showing
themselves visible and notorious Examples of all the contrary
Virtues. When Mankind are wallowing in Debauchery, wan
toning in Pleasures, and given up to Vanity and Luxury in all
Shapes, it is then the Duty of the faithful Minister, by his being
crucified to the World, to proclaim himself the Messenger of a

44 An Lamest and Serious

crucified Saviour, and to make his own self-denying, mortified,
and heavenly Life, a plain, open, and constant Reproof of all
vain Indulgences. For to yield to, or fall in with the Softness,
Vanity, Luxury, Indulgence, or Avarice of the World, is the
same Infidelity and Breach of Trust in the sacred Office, as to
depart from the true Faith, and fall in with some abominable
Heresy. I believe I need not now help the Reader to observe, that the
Doctor's Undertaking is further liable to these great Objections
against it : First, That it calls us from the Sin and Danger of
being Righteous over-much, when we are always to own, that we
are not yet Righteous enough. Secondly, That it proposes to stir
us up against this Sin and Danger, at a time, when this Nation
is in Danger of the severest fitdgments of God upon it, for a
general Irreligion and Profaneness. Thirdly, That it tends to
lead the Clergy from a just Sense of what the Nature of their
Office, the Nature of Religion, and the present State of this
Nation, requires of them. That it tends to raise an /// Spirit in
them, not only to be content with an ordinary common Degree
of Piety in themselves, and their Flocks, but, with a watchful,
and jealous Eye to guard against all the Beginnings of an
uncommon, or more than ordinary Sanctity of Life, either in
themselves or others.
Thus, says he, ' To what a Height of Fanatic Madness in
' Doctrine, as well as Practice, are some advanced, who set out
• at first with an Appearance of more than ordinary Sanctity in
' Practice only ?'* Is not this calling upon the Clergy to beware,
how they admit these Beginnings of a more than ordinary
Sanctity of Life, either in themselves, or those committed to
their Care ? Is it not plainly telling them, that they must stick
closely and steadily to such Sanctity of Practice, as may be called
ordinary, or else they will be in Fanatic Madness ? Here is no
Force put upon his Words, ' a more than ordinary Sanctity in
' Practice only,' is marked out as the genuine natural Cause of
Fanatic Madness; and therefore the Cause is equally con
demned with the Effect. Had he meant that his Reader should
not have the same Dislike of the one, as of the other, or had he
been afraid of his doing so, would he not have put in a Word in
Favour of a more than ordinary Sanctity of Life ? would he not
have said, that he did not intend to blame that, or at least not
so much as the other ? But not a Word of this, a more than
ordinary Sanctity in Practice only, and Fanatic Madness, axe
considered as Cause and Effect, and left in the same State of
* Page 39.

Answer to Dr. Trapp. 45
Condemnation, to be equally guarded against, and avoided by
the Reader. So that in a Nation over-run with all manner of
Corruption both of Principle and Practice, where the ordinary
State of Religion has hardly the Form of Godliness, People are
in this State of Things to content themselves with such a
Sanctity of Life, as may be deemed to be oi'dinary.
And here I can't help addressing myself with great Affection
to all my younger Brethren of the Clergy. According to the
Course of Nature, you are likely to have the Care of the Church
wholly upon your Hands in a short time ; and therefore it is
chiefly from you that the Restoration of true Piety is to be
expected in this Nation. I beseech you, therefore, for your
own Sakes, for the Gospel's Sake, for the Sake of Mankind, to
devote yourselves wholly to the Love and Service of God. As
you are yet but Beginners in this great Office, you have it in
your Power to make your Lives the greatest Happiness, both to
yourselves, and the whole Nation. You are entered into Holy
Orders in degenerate Times, where Trade and Traffic have seized
upon all holy Things ; and it will be easy for you, without
Fear, to swim along with the corrupt Stream, and to look upon
him as an Enemy, or Enthusiast, that would save you from
being lost in it. But think, my dear Brethren, think in time,
what Remorse you are treasuring up for yourselves, if you live to
look back upon a loose, negligent, corrupt, disorderly, worldly,
unedifying Life, spent amongst those whose Blood will be
required at your Hands. Think, on the other Hand, how
blessedly your Employment will end, if by your Voices, your
Lives, and Labours, you put a Stop to the Overflowings of
Iniquity, restore the Spirit of the Primitive Clergy, and make all
your Flock bless and praise God, for having sent you amongst
them. Lay this' down as an infallible Principle, that an entire,
absolute Renunciation of all worldly Interest, is the only possible
Foundation of that exalted Virtue which your Station requires.
Without this, all Attempts after an exemplary Piety are in vain.
If you want anything from the World by way of Figure and
Exaltation, you shut the Power of your Redeemer out of your
own Souls ; and instead of converting, you corrupt the Hearts
of those that are about you. Detest therefore, with the utmost
Abhorrence, all Desires of making your Fortunes, either by Pre
ferments or rich Marriages, and let it be your only Ambition to
stand at the Top of every Virtue, as visible Guides and Patterns
to all that aspire after the Perfection of Holiness. Consider
yourselves merely as the Messengers of God, that are solely sent
into the World on his Errand, and think it Happiness enough,
that you are called to the same Business, for which the Son of

46 An Lamest and Serious

God was born into the World. I don't call you from a sober
Use of human Learning, but I would fain persuade you to think
nothing worthy of your Notice in Books and Study, but that
which directly applies to the Amendment of the Heart, which
makes you more holy, more Divine, more heavenly, than you
would be without it. You want nothing, but to have the Cor
ruption of your natural Birth removed, to have the Nature, Life
and Spirit of Jesus Christ derived into you; as this is all that
you want, so let this be all that you seek from Books, Study, or
Men. This is the only, certain Way to become eminent Divines,
instructed to the Kingdom of Heaven. And above all, let me
tell you, that the Book of all Books is your own Heart, in which
are written and engraven the deepest Lessons of Divine Instruc
tion ; learn, therefore, to be deeply attentive to the Presence of
God in your Hearts, who is always speaking, always instructing,
always illuminating that Heart that is attentive to him. Here
you will meet the Divine Light in its proper Place, in that Depth
of your Souls, where the Birth of the Son of God, and the Pro
ceeding of the Holy Ghost, are always ready to spring up in
you : And be assured of this, that so much as you have of
inward Attention to God in your Hearts, of inward Love and
Adherence to his holy Light and Spirit within you, so much as
you have of real, unaffected Humility and Meekness, so much as
you are dead to your own Will and Self-love, so much as you
have oi Purity of Heart, so much, and no more, nor any further,
do you see and know the Truths of God. These Virtues are
the only Eyes, and Ears, and Senses, and Heart, by which you
will know and understand everything in Scripture, in that
Manner, and in that Degree, in which God would have it
understood, both for your own Good, and the Good of other
People. It was owing to this Purity of Heart, and Attendance
upon God, that an ancient Widow, named Anna* knew him to
be the true Messiah, whom the Rulers, Chief Priests, and Doctors
of the Law, condemned as an Impostor. Had they, instead of
their Adherence to critical Knoivledge, and 7'abbinical Learning,
been devoted to God in such Purity of Heart as she was, they
had known as much of the Kingdom of God as she did. Place
therefore all your Hope and Confidence, all your learned Help and
Skill, in the ardent Love and Practice of these Virtues, and then,
and then only, you will be able Ministers, holy Priests, and
Messengers of God ; your cleansed Hearts, like so many purified
Mirrors, will be always penetrated, always illuminated, by the
Rays of Divine Light, and you will no more need the Critics, to
* Luke ii. 3(\

Answer to Dr. Trapp. 47

tell you what God speaks to you in the Scriptures, than to tell
you what God speaks to you in your own Hearts. There are
indeed in the Scriptures Secrets and Mysteries, only fully to be
known in God's own Time, and not a Minute sooner; but of all
Men in the World, the critical Dealers in Words and Particles,
know the least of them, and make the vainest Attempts to
understand them. But Scripture, considered as a Doctrine of
Life, Faith, and Salvation in Jesus Christ, is a sealed ox unsealed,
an open or shut up Book to every Heart, in the same Proportion
as it stands turned to the World, or turned to God. Nothing
understands God, but the Spirit of God ; nothing brings the
Spirit of God into any Mind, but the renouncing all for it, the
turning wholly to it, and the depending wholly upon it. Human
Learning is by no means to be rejected from Religion ; for it is
of the same good Use and Service, and affords the same Assist
ance to Religion, that the Alphabet, Writing and Printing does.
But if it is raised from this Kind and Degree of Assistance, if it
is considered as a Key, or the Key, to the Mysteries of our
Redemption in Jesus Christ, instead of opening to us the
Kingdom of God, it locks us up in our ozvn Darkness. It is a
Truth confessed on all Hands, that the Kingdom of Grace is
the Beginning of the Kingdom of Glory, and that they differ
only in degree. Is not this plainly confessing, that the Light of
the Kingdom of Grace must be one and the same with that of
the Kingdom of Glory ? How else can one be the Beginning
of the other ? And must not that, which is to be our one only
Light in Heaven in a full Degree, be now our one only Light of
all heavenly Things in a lower Degree ? Therefore all that we
see and know of the Kingdom of God now, must be by that
same Light by which we shall see and know the Kingdom of
God hereafter. God is an all-speaking, all-working, all-illumi
nating Essence, possessing the Depth, and bringing forth the
Life of every Creature according to its Nature. Our Life is out
ofthis Divine Essence, and is itself a creaturely Similitude of it;
and when we turn from all Impediments, this Divine Essence
becomes as certainly the true Light of our Minds here, as it will
be hereafter. This is not Enthusiasm, but the Words of Truth
and Soberness ; and it is the running away from this Enthusiasm,
that has made so many great Scholars as useless to the Church
as tinkling Cymbals, and all Christendom a mere Babel of learned
Confusion. I shall now only add one Word more : A composed
Gravity of Life, a suitable Decency of outward Behaviour, is not
the Thing that is demanded of you ; your Piety must be solid,
your Lives exemplary, the Perfection of your Virtues must shine
before Men, or you will all of you in your several Degrees,

48 An Lamest and Serious
stand chargeable with the ill State of Religion, that is about
you. I must now take Notice of an injurious Quotation or two that
the Doctor has made from the Treatise of Christian Perfection.
The Doctor quotes me as affirming, 'That not only the Wicked-
' ness and Vanity of this World, but even its most lawful and
' allowed Concerns, render Men unable to enter, and unworthy to
' be received into the true State of Christianity.' And again that
' the Wisdom from above condemns all Labour as equally fruit
less, but that which labours after everlasting Life.' Then the
Doctor affirms thus : ' Here's an utter Condemnation of all
'Trades, and of all Professions, of all Business, and secular
' Concerns whatever.'* Does the Doctor then believe that I
bought Pen, Ink, and Paper, and wrote that Book, to show
that no Christian ought to make, buy or sell Pen, Ink, and
Paper ? And that I published that Book to prove that it was
my Opinion that it was utterly unlawful for a Christian to be
a Printer, a Bookbinder, or a Bookseller? Does not the Doctor
know, that the Christian Perfection in the Two first Pages,
to prevent all Mistake, openly declares for the Continuance
of Mankind in their several States and Conditions, openly
declares against a Cloister, or any singular State of Life, openly
asserts Christian Perfection to consist in the holy and religious
Conduct of ourselves in every State of Life ?f Does he not
know that in the Serious Call to a Devout Life, &c, which pre
sently followed the other Book, the very Title declares solely for
a Piety adapted to the State and Condition of all Orders of Men ?
But there is something still more wonderful, more regardless of
Right and Wrong in the Doctor's Charge against me; for in this
very Passage quoted by him, secular Business is expressly
affirmed to be most lawful and allowed Concerns. And yet from
this Passage affirming the Lawfulness of worldly Business, and
proceeding upon it as a certain Truth, the Doctor has extracted
the Unlawfulness of all secular Concerns whatever. Again, Does
not the Doctor know that he designedly mangled the Words
he quoted, and left out that Part which showed the Reason of
my so expressing myself? That I was there speaking to that
Parable of our Lord's, where all that were bidden to the Feast,
refused to come. The First, because he had bought a Piece of
Ground; the other, because he must try his Oxen ; the Third,
because he had married a Wife. Then the Master in Anger
said, ' None of these Men shall taste of my Supper.' Whence
I thus observed ' This Parable teaches us, that not only the
* Page 15. t Page 2.

Answer to Dr. Trapp. 49

' Vices and the Vanity of the World, but its most lawful and
' allowed Concerns, render Men unable to enter, and unworthy to
'be received into the true State of Christianity.' And does not
everyone see this to be the plain, necessary, and inoffensive
Sense of the Parable ? Had I not made Nonsense of it, if I had
said, that lawful Business could not become a Hindrance of
Men's Salvation ? For are there not here Three lawful Concerns
become Three Hindrances of their coming to the Feast, and
Three Reasons of their being declared unworthy of it ? Then
I go on to show, that it is not the Employment itself that is con
demned, but its being made a Reason, or Excuse, as in the
Parable, for not living wholly unto God, adding these Words,
the ' true Wisdom from above condemns all Labour as equally
' fruitless, but that which labours after everlasting Life.' Let but
Religion determine the Point, and what can it signify, whether
a Man forgets God in his Farm, or a Shop, or at a Gaming Table?
Now what is there here condemned, but Une forgetting God?
Or will anyone say, that a Shop, and a Farm, are here con
demned, because God is to be remembered in them, or because
they are to be made Employments of Piety, that labour after
everlasting Life? The Doctor proceeds to charge me with
' positively asserting, that all Christians are, in all Ages, obliged
' to sell all that they have, and give it to the Poor.' I have been
so far from asserting this, that I have with all my Might said,
and proved the direct contrary, that no Christians of any Age axe
obliged to it. Speaking of the Command of our Saviour's to
the young Man, ' to sell all, and give it to the Poor,' I have
shown, by Variety of Arguments, and Texts of Scripture, that
that Command calls no rich Man to sell what he has ; that it
calls him only to do that with his Estate, which he is called to,
by the whole Tenour of Scripture, as having Riches, that are
not his own, of which he is only a Steward, and not a Proprietor,
as being obliged to love his Neighbour as himself in the Use of
them. That the Command of selling all, implies only such
heavenly Affection, such ' Disregard of Riches, as is expressed,
'by being dead to the World, having our Conversation in
' Heaven, being born again from above, and having overcome the
'World.' From the Beginning to the End ofthis Matter, I have
utterly rejected all feeling, and shown, that it means only a per
fect Charity, a parting with the Self-Enjoyment of our Estates,
to make them, as far as we are able, the common Support of those
People whom we are to love, as we love ourselves, and as Christ
has loved us. The Doctor, therefore, in this Accusation, must
' be allowed to have stuck closely to his Text ; he has not been
Righteous over-much. The Doctor makes now an Inference or
4

50 An Lamest and Serious
two from this Doctrine of Charity. ' According to this Divinity,'
says he, 'it is a Sin to be rich.' Here he is just as wrong as he
could possibly be. For, according to the Divinity in the Book
of Christian Perfection, and the Serious Call, &c, the Blessed
ness, the Piety, the Happiness arising from the Possession of
Riches, is demonstrated from Chapter to Chapter, and visibly
painted in a great Variety of Characters. Those Two Books
were published chiefly to show to rich Men their exceeding
Happiness. And I can consistently say, that I should reckon
it a Happiness to myself, to be one of the Number, supported
only by this one Saying of our Lord's ; that ' it is more blessed
' to give, than to receive.' Another Inference the Doctor makes,
is this ; that according to this Divinity, ' if a Man sues you for
' your House or Land, without the least Pretence of Right, you
' are bound to recede from your Right, and let him have it, rather
' than defend it.'* There had been as much Truth, and more
Wit, if he had said, when Thieves have any Design of entering
into your House, you are obliged to have no Locks or Bolts upon
your Doors. For I have said no more of the Unlawfulness of
appealing to Courts of Justice, to secure us in the just Possession
of our House and Land, than of the Unlawfulness of going to
a Smith for Locks and Bolts, when Thieves want to have our
Goods. I take it to be as lawful to live under human Govern
ment, and to enjoy the Benefit of it, as to live under the Light
and Benefit of the Sun. And I look upon Courts of fuslice,
which are to protect People in the Enjoyment of their Property,
to be the first and chief Benefit of Government. And if they
were absolutely unlawful, for the same Reason would all Locks,
and Doors, and Fences be so too. On the other hand, I have said,
that the abstaining from Contentions at Law, choosing to suffer,
and bear with Variety of Injuries, where we might legally defend
ourselves, and bring Punishment upon those that injure us, is a
proper Part of Christian Self-denial, a just Conformity to the
Meekness, and suffering Spirit of our Blessed Lord, and highly
beneficial to our own spiritual Advancement. And must not
everyone, that owns the Gospel, say the same? Has not our
Saviour himself first said so ? But does it therefore follow,
that a Man has no Rights, or none that he may own ; because it
may be often, and in many Cases, a Matter of great Piety to
suffer wrongfully with Patience ? The short of the Matter is
this : All Things that are lawful, are not expedient, nor edify
ing. Of Contentions at Law, most of them are very apt to do
us great Hurt, many of them are piously to be avoided, through
* Page 15.

Answer to Dr. Trapp. 5 1
Patience and Meek-suffering of Wrong ; but some may be
necessary, even as Parts of our Duty. Is there anything more
plain, or self-evident, than this ? The Doctor might have
observed, that I spoke of Law-Suits only under the Article of
Self-denial, and therefore was only to speak of the Duty, Piety
and Benefit, of forbearing from them ; that there was great
Necessity that this Doctrine of Meekness, and patient Suffering
of ill Usage, should he fully set forth, both to Clergy and Laity ;
that I had no more Reason to tell People that Courts of fustice
were in themselves lawful, and such as might justly be appealed
to in some Cases, than to tell them that it was lawful to live in
this Island, and that they need not seek for a Country where
there was no Laws nor Government to protect them. The
Doctor has something like an excuse for the Weakness and
Injustice of all the foregoing Remarks and Censures ; they are
to be considered only as little Dashes of his Pen upon Books,
which he says 'are not considerable enough to be formally
' refuted.'* Something like this I remember was formerly said
by the Bishop of Bangor, now Lord Bishop of Winchester, con
cerning my Letters to him. But his Lordship had the Prudence
and Equity not to make inconsiderate Remarks upon Books, that
he thought not inconsiderable enough to be formerly refuted
by him. Into whose Head could it enter to think of formally
confuting Thomas a Kempis, Taylors Life of Christ, or his Holy
Living and Dying? Or what must we think of his Piety, who
should say, that he only forbore such a Work, because the
Reasonings in those Books were too inconsiderable to be formally
refuted ? I desire no Authority for what I have written, but the
Gospel, or I could soon show that everything in my Books that
offends the Doctor, is again and again to be found, not only in
these pious Authors, but in the Writings of the most eminent
Saints through all Ages of the Church.

FINIS.

* Page 22.

AN
APPEAL To all that Doubt, or Disbelieve
The Truths of the Gospel,
WHETHER
They be Deists, Arians, Socinians,
Or Nominal Christians.
IN WHICH
The true Grounds and Reasons of the whole
Christian Faith and Life are plainly and
fully demonstrated.
By WILLIAM LAW, M. A.
To which are added,
Some Animadversions upon Dr.
Trapfs Late Reply.

LONDON :
Printed for W. Innys and J. Richardson,
in Pater No ster 1%ow. I 740.

An Advertisement
to the Reader.

T Have Nothing to say by way of Pre-
-*¦ face or Introduction. I only ask this
Favour of the Reader, that he would not
pass any Censure upon this Book, from only
dipping into this, or that particular Part
of it, but give it one fair Perusal in the
Order it is written, and then I shall have
neither Rjght, nor Inclination to complain
of any fudgment he shall think Jit to pass
upon it.

An Appeal to all who Doubt
the Truths of the Gospel.
Chapter I.
Of Creation in general. Of the Origin of
the Soul. Whence JVM and Thought are in
the Creature. Why the Will is free. The
Origin of Evil solely from the Creature.
This World not a first, immediate Creation
of God. How the World comes to be in its
present State. The first Perfection of Man.
All Things prove a Trinity in God. Man
hath the triune Nature of God in Him.
Arianism and Deism confuted by Nature.
That Life is uniform through all Creatures.
That there is but one kind of Death to be
found in all Nature. The fallen Soul hath
the Nature of Hell in it. Regeneration is
a real Birth of a Divine Life in the Soul.
That there is but one Salvation possible in
Nature. This Salvation only to be had
from fesus Christ. All the Deist's Faith
and Hope proved to be false.
IT has been an Opinion commonly received, though without
any Foundation in the Light of Nature, or Scripture,
that God created this whole visible World, and all
Things in it, out of Nothing. Nay, that the Souls of
Men, and the highest Orders of Beings, were created in
the same Manner. The Scripture is very decisive against this
Original of the Souls of Men. For Moses saith, ' God breathed

58 An Appeal to all who doubt
' into Man {Spiraculum Vitamin) the Breath of Lives, and Man
' became a Living Soul.' Here the Notion of a Soul created
¦out of Nothing, is in the plainest, strongest Manner rejected, by
the first Written Word of God ; and no few or Christian can
have the least Excuse for falling into such an Error; here the
highest and most Divine Original is not darkly, but openly,
absolutely, and in the strongest Form of Expression ascribed to
the Soul ; it came forth as a Breath of Life, or Lives, out from
the Mouth of God, and therefore did not come out of the Womb
of Nothing, but is what it is, and has what it has in itself, from,
and out of the first and highest of all Beings.
For to say that God breathed forth into Man the Breath of
Lives, by which He became a Living Soul, is directly saying,
that That which was Life, Light, and Spirit in the living God,
was breathed forth from Him to become the Life, Light and
Spirit of a Creature. The Soul therefore being declared to be
an Effluence from God, a Breath of God, must have the Nature
and Likeness of God in it, and is, and can be nothing else, but
something, or so much of the Divine Nature, become creaturely
existing, or breathed forth from God, to stand before Him in the
Form of a Creature.
When the Animals of this World were to be created, it was
only said, Let the Earth, the Air, the Water bring forth
Creatures after their kinds ; but when Man was to be brought
forth, it was said, ' Let us make Man in our own Image and
'Likeness/ Is not this directly saying, Let Man have his
Beginning and Being out of us, that He may be so related to us
in his Soul and Spirit, as the Animals of this World are related
to the Elements from which they are produced. Let Him so
come forth from us, be so breathed out of us, that our triune,
Divine Nature may be manifested in Him, that he may stand
before us as a creaturely Image, Likeness, and Representative
of that which we are in ourselves.
Now, from this original Doctrine of the Creation of Man,
known to all the first Inhabitants of the World, and published
in the Front of the first Written Word of God ; these great
Truths have been more or less declared to all the Nations of the
World. First, That all Mankind are the created Offspring of the
One God. Secondly, That in all Men there is a Spirit or Breath
of Lives, that did not begin to be out of Nothing, or was created
out of Nothing ; but came from the true God into Man, as his
own Breath of Life breathed into Him. Thirdly, That therefore
there is in all Men, wherever dispersed over the Earth, a Divine
immortal, never-ending Spirit, that can have nothing of Death in
it, but must live for ever, because it is the Breath of the ever-

the Truths of the (gospel. 59
living God. Fourthly, That by this immortal Breath, or Spirit
of God in Man, all Mankind stand in the same Nearness of
Relation to God, are all equally his Children, are all under the
same Necessity of paying the same Homage of Love and
Obedience to Him, all fitted to receive the same Blessing and
Happiness from Him, all created for the same eternal Enjoy
ment of his Love and Presence with them, all equally called to
worship and adore Him in Spirit and Truth, all equally capable
of seeking and finding Him, of having a Blessed Union and
Communion with Him.
These great Truths, the first Pillars of all true and Spiritual
Religion, on which the Holy and Divine Lives of the ancient
Patriarchs was supported, by which they worshipped God in a
true and right Faith ; these Truths, I say, were most eminently
and plainly declared in the express Letter of the Mosaic
Writings, here quoted. And no Writer, whether fewish or
Christian, has so plainly, so fully, so deeply laid open the true
Ground, and Necessity of an Eternal, never-ceasing Relation
between God, and all the Human Nature ; no one has so incon
testably asserted the Immortality of the Soul, or Spirit of Man ;
or so deeply laid open, and proved the Necessity of one Religion,
common to all Human Nature, as the Legislator of the fewish
Theocracy has done. Life and Immortality are indeed justly
said to be brought lo Light by the Gospel; not only because they
there stand in a new Degree of Light, largely explained, and
much appealed to, and absolutely promised by the Son of God
Himself, but chiefly because the precious Means and Mysteries
of obtaining a blessed Life, and a blessed Immortality, were only
revealed, or brought to Light by the Gospel.
But the incontestable Ground and Reason of an immortal
Life, and eternal Relation between God, and the whole Human
Nature, and which lays all Mankind under the same Obligations
to the same true Worship of God, is most fully set forth by
Moses, who alone tells us the true Fact; How, and Why Man is
immortal in his Nature, viz., because the Beginning of his Life
was a Breath, breathed into Him from God; and for this End,
that he might be a living Image and Likeness of God, created to
partake of the Nature and Immortality of God.
This is the great Doctrine of the fewish Legislator, and which
justly places Him amongst the greatest Preachers of true
Religion. St. Paul used a very powerful Argument to persuade
the Athenians to own the true God, and the true Religion, when
he told them, ' that God made the World and all Things therein ;
' that He giveth Life and Breath, and all Things ; that he hath
' made of one Blood, all Nations of Men to dwell on the Earth ;

60 An Appeal to all who doubt
'that they should all seek the Lord, if haply they might feel
' after, and find Him, seeing He is not far from any of us, because
' in Him we live, move, and have our Being!* And yet this
Doctrine, which St. Paul preaches to the Athenians, is nothing
else, but that same Divine and Heavenly Instruction, which He
had learnt from Moses, which Moses openly and plainly taught
all the fews. The fewish Theocracy therefore was by no means
an Intimation to that People, that they had no Concern with the
true God, but as Children of this World, under his temporal
Protection or Punishment ; for their Lawgiver left them no room
for such a Thought, because He had as plainly taught them
their eternal Nature and eternal Relation, which they had to God
in common with all Mankind ; as St. Paul did to the Athenians,
who only set before them that very Doctrine that Moses taught
all the Jews. The great End of the fewish Theocracy was to
show, both to few and Gentile, the absolute, uncontrollable
Power of the one God, by such a Covenanted Interposition of his
Providence, that all the World might know, that the one God,
from whom hoth few and Gentile were fallen away, by departing
from the Faith and Religion of their First Fathers, was the only
God, from whom all Mankind could receive either Blessing or
Cursing. This was the great Thing intended to be proclaimed to all the
World by this Theocracy, viz., that only the God of Israel had
Power to save or destroy, to punish or reward, according to his
Pleasure ; and that therefore all the Gods of the Heathens, were
mere Vanity. If therefore any fews, by reason of those extra
ordinary Temporal Blessings and Cursings which they received
under their Theocracy, grew grossly ignorant, or dully senseless
of their eternal Nature, and eternal Relation to God, and of that
one true Religion, which by Nature they were obliged to observe
in common with all Mankind ; if they took God only to be their
local or tutelary Deity, and themselves to be only Animals of
this World ; such a Grossness of Belief was no more to be
charged upon their great Lawgiver, Moses, than if they had
believed, that a Golden Calf was their true God. But to return
to the Creation.
2. It is the same Impossibility for a Thing to be created out
of Nothing, as to be created by Nothing, f It is no more a Part,
or Prerogative of God's Omnipotence to create a Being out of
Nothing, than to make a Thing to be, without any one Quality
of Being in it ; or to make, that there should be Three, where
* Acts xvii. 24.
f See Spirit of Prayer, Part II., page 58, &c. Way to Divine Know
ledge, page 247, &*c.

the Truths of the Qospel. 6 1
there is neither Two, nor One. Every Creature is nothing else,
but Nature put into a certain Form of Existence ; and therefore
a Creature not formed out of Nature, is a Contradiction. A
Circle, or a Square cannot be made out of Nothing, nor could
any Power bring them into Existence, but because there is an
Extension in Nature, that can be put into the Form of a Circle,
or a Square : But if dead Figures cannot by any Power be made
out of Nothing, who sees not the Impossibility of making Living
Creatures, Angels, and the Souls of Men out of Nothing ?
3. Thinking and Willing are Eternal, they never began to be.
Nothing can think, or will now, in which there was not Will and
Thought from all Eternity. For it is as possible for Thought in
General to begin to be, as for That which thinks in a particular
Creature to begin to be of a Thinking Nature : therefore the
Soul, which is a Thinking, Willing Being is come forth, or
created out of That which hath Willed and Thought in God,
from all Eternity. The created Soul is a Creature of Time, and
had its Beginning on the Sixth Day of the Creation ; but the
Essences of the Soul, which were then formed into a Creature,
and into a State of Distinction from God, had been in God
from all Eternity, or they could not have been breathed forth
from God into the Form of a living Creature.
And herein lies the true Ground and Depth of the uncon
trollable Freedom of our Will and Thoughts : They must have a
Self-motion, and Self -direction, because they came out of the
Self-existent God. They are eternal, Divine Powers, that never
began to be, and therefore cannot begin to be in Subjection to
any Thing. That which thinks and wills in the Soul, is That
very same unbeginning Breath which thought and willed in God,
before it was breathed into the Form of an human Soul ; and
therefore it is, that Will and Thought cannot be bounded or
constrained. Herein also appears the high Dignity, and never-ceasing
Perpetuity of our Nature. The Essences of our Souls can never
cease to be, because they never began to be : and nothing can
live eternally, but that which hath lived from all Eternity. The
Essences of our Soul were a Breath in God before they became
a Living Soul, they lived in God before they lived in the created
Soul, and therefore the Soul is a Partaker of the Eternity of
God, and can never cease to be. Here, O Man, behold the
great Original, and the high State of thy Birth ; Here let all
that is within thee praise thy God, who has brought Thee into
so high a State of Being, who has given Thee Powers as eternal,
and boundless as his own Attributes, that there might be no End
or Limits of thy Happiness in Him. Thou begannest as Time

61 An Appeal to all who doubt
began, but as Time was in Eternity before it became Days and
Years, so Thou wast in God before Thou wast brought into the
Creation : And as Time is neither a Part of Eternity, nor
broken off from it, yet come out of it ; so thou art not a Part of
God, nor broken off from Him, yet born out of Him. Thou
shouldst only will that which God willeth, only love that which
He loveth, co-operate, and unite with Him in the whole Form of
thy Life ; because all that Thou art, all that Thou hast, is only
a Spark of his own Life and Spirit derived into Thee. If thou
desirest, inclinest, and turnest to God, as the Flowers of the
Field desire, and turn towards the Sun, all the Blessings of the
Deity will spring up in Thee ; Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, will
make their Abode with Thee. If thou turnest in towards thy
self, to live to thyself, to be happy in the Workings of an own
Will, to be rich in the Sharpness and Acuteness of thy own
Reason, thou choosest to be a Weed, and canst only have such a
Life, Spirit and Blessing from God, as a Thistle has from the
Sun. But to return.
4. To suppose a Willing, Understanding Being, created out of
Nothing, is a great Absurdity. For as Thinking and Willing
must have always been from all Eternity, or they could never
have been either in Eternity, or Time ; so, wherever they are
found in any particular, finite Beings, they must of all Necessity,
be direct Communications, or Propagations of that Thinking and
Willing, which never could begin to be.
The Creation therefore of a Soul, is not the Creation of
Thinking and Willing, or the making That to be, and to think,
which before had Nothing of Being, or Thought ; but it is the
Bringing the Powers of Thinking and Willing out of their
Eternal State in the One God, into a Beginning State of a Self-
conscious Life, distinct from God. And this is God's omni
potent, creating Ability, that He can make the Powers oi his
own Nature become Creatural, Living, Personal Images of what
He is in Himself, in a State of distinct Personality from Him:
So that the Creature is one, in its finite, limited State, as God is
one, and yet hath nothing in it, but that which was in God
before it came into it : For the Creature, be it what it will, high
or low, can be Nothing else, but a limited Participation of the
Nature of the Creator. Nothing can be in the Creature, but
what came from the Creator, and the Creator can give nothing
to the Creature, but that which it hath in itself to give. And if
Beings could be created out of Nothing, the Whole Creation
could be no more a Proof of the Being of God, than if it had
sprung up of itself out of Nothing : For if they are brought into
Being out of Nothing, then they can have Nothing of God in

the Truths of the Qospel. 63
¦ ; and so can bear no Testimony ot God ; but are as good a
Proof, that there is no God, as that there is one. But if they
have any Thing of God in them, then they cannot be said to be
created out of Nothing.
5. That the Souls of Men were not created out of Nothing,
but are born out of an Eternal Original, is plain from hence;
from that Delight in, and Desire of Eternal Existence, which is
so strong and natural to the Soul of Man. For nothing can
delight in, or desire Eternity, or so much as form a Notion of it,
or think upon it, or any way reach after it, but that alone which
is generated from it, and come out of it. For it is a Self-evident
Truth, that Nothing can look higher, or further back, than into
its own Original ; and therefore, Nothing can look or reach
back into Eternity, but that which came out of it. This is as
certain, as that a Line reaches, and can reach no further back,
than to that Point from whence it arose.
Our bodily Eyes are born out of the firmamental Light of this
World, and therefore they can look no further than the Firma
ment y But our Thoughts know no Bounds ; therefore they are
come out of that which is boundless. The Eyes of our Minds
can look as easily backwards into that Eternity which always
hath been, as into that which ever shall be ; and therefore it is
plain, that That which Thinks and Wills in us, which so easily,
so delightfully, so naturally penetrates into all Eternity, has
always had an Eternal Existence, and is only a Ray or Spark of
the Divine Nature, brought out into the Form of a Creature, or
a limited, personal Existence, by the Creating Power of God.
6. Again. Every Soul shrinks back, and is frightened at the
very Thought of falling into Nothing. Now this undeniably
proves, that the Soul was not created out 0/" Nothing. For it is
an Eternal Truth, spoken by all Nature, that every Thing
strongly aspires after, and cannot be easy, till it finds and enjoys
that Original out of which it arose. If the Soul therefore was '¦
brought forth out of Nothing, all its Being would be a Burden to
it ; it would want to be dissolved, and to be delivered from
every kind and Degree of Sensibility ; and nothing could be so
sweet and agreeable to it, as to think of falling back into That
Nothingness, out of which it was called forth by its Creation.
Thus is the Eternal, immortal, Divine Nature of the Soul, which
the Schools prove with so much Difficulty one of the most
obvious, self-evident Truths in all Nature. For Nothing but
that which is Eternal in its own Nature, can have the least
Thought about Eternity.
If a Beast had not the Nature of the Earth in it, Nothing that
is on the Earth, or springs out of it, could be in the least Degree

64 An Appeal to all who doubt
agreeable to it, or desired by it. If the Soul had not the
Nature of Eternity in it, Nothing that is eternal could give it the
smallest Pleasure, or be able to make any kind of Impression
upon it. For as Nothing can taste, or relish, or enter into the
agreeable Sensations of this World, but that which hath the
Nature of this World in it ; so Nothing can taste, or relish, or
look into Eternity with any kind of Pleasure, but that which
hath the Nature of Eternity in it.
7. If the Soul was not born, or created out of God, it could
have no Happiness in God, no Desire, nor any Possibility oi
enjoying Him. If it had nothing of God in it, it must stand in
the utmost Distance of Contrariety to him, and be utterly
incapable of living, moving, and having its Being in God : For
every Thing must have the Nature of That, out of which it was
created, and must live, and have its Being in that Root or
Ground from whence it sprung. If therefore there was nothing
of God in the Soul, nothing that is in God could do the Soul
any Good, or have any kind of Communication with it ; but the
Gulfoi Separation between God and the Soul, would be even
greater than that which is between Heaven and Hell.
8. But let us rejoice, that our Soul is a Thinking, Willing
Being, full of Thoughts, Cares, Longings, and Desires of
Eternity ; for this is our full Proof, that our Descent is from
God Himself, that we are born out of Him, breathed forth from
him ; that our Soul is of an Eternal Nature, made a Thinking,
Willing, Understanding Creature out of "That which hath Willed
and Thought in God from all Eternity ; and therefore must, for
ever and ever, be a Partaker of the Eternity of God.
And here you may behold the sure Ground of the absolute
Impossibility of the Annihilation of the Soul. Its Essences
never began to be, and therefore can never cease to be ; they
had an Eternal Reality before they were in, or became a distinct
Soul, and therefore they must have the same Eternal Reality in
it. It was the Eternal Breath of God before it came into Man,
and therefore the Eternity of God must be inseparable from it.
It is no more a Property of the Divine Omnipotence to be able
to annihilate a Soul, than to be able to make an Eternal Truth
become a Fiction of Yesterday : And to think it a Lessening of
the Power of God, to say, that he cannot annihilate the Soul, is
as absurd, as to say, that it is a Lessening of the Light of the
Sun, if it cannot destroy, or darken its own Rays of Light.
O, dear Reader, stay a while in this important Place, and
learn to know thyself : All thy Senses make Thee to know and
feel, that thou standest in the Vanity of Time ; but every
Motion, Stirring, Imagination, and Thought of thy Mind,

the Truths of the (gospel. 65
whether in fancying, fearing, or loving Everlasting Life, is the
same infallible Proof, that Thou standest in the Midst of
Eternity, art an Offspring and Inhabitant of it, and must be for
ever inseparable from it. Ask when the first Thought sprung up,
find out the Birth-Day of Truth, and then thou wilt have found
out, when the Essences of thy Soul first began to be. Were not
the Essences of thy Soul as old, as Unbeginning, as unchangeable,
as Everlasting as Truth itself, Truth would be at the same
Distance from Thee, as absolutely unfit for Thee, as utterly
unable to have any Communion with Thee, as to be the Food of
a Worm.
The Ox could not feed upon the Grass, or receive any Delight
or Nourishment from it, unless Grass and the Ox had one and
the same Earthly Nature and Original ; Thy Mind could receive
no Truth, feel no Delight and Satisfaction in the Certainty,
Beauty, and Harmony of it, unless Truth and the Mind stood
both in the same Place, had one and the same unchangeable
Nature, Unbeginning Original. If there will come a Time, when
Thought itself shall cease, when all the Relations and Con
nections of Truth shall be untied ; then, but not till then, shall
the Knot, or Band of thy Soul's Life be unloosed. It is a
Spark of the Deity, and therefore has the Unbeginning,
Unending Life of God in it. It knows nothing of Youth, or
Age, because it is born Eternal. It is a Life that must burn for
ever, either as a Flame of Light and Love in the Glory of the
Divine Majesty, or as a miserable Firebrand in that God, which
is a Consuming Fire.
9. It is impossible, that this World, in the State and Con
dition it is now in, should have been an immediate and Original
Creation of God : This is as impossible, as that God should
create Evil, either Natural or Moral. That this World hath
Evil in all its Parts ; that its Matter is in a corrupt, disordered
State, full of Grossness, Disease, Impurity, Wrath, Death and
Darkness, is as evident, as that there is Light, Beauty, Order
and Harmony everywhere to be found in it. Therefore it is as
impossible, that this outward State and Condition of Things,
should be a first and immediate Work of God, as that there
should be Good and Evil in God Himself. All Storms and
Tempests, every Fierceness of Heat, every Wrath of Cold
proves with the same Certainty, that outward Nature is not a
first Work of God, as the Selfishness, Envy, Pride, Wrath, and
Malice of Devils, and Men proves, that they are not in the first
State of their Creation. As no Kind or Degree of Moral Evil
could possibly have its Cause in, or from God, so there cannot
be the least Shadow of Imperfection and Disorder in outward 5

66 An Appeal to all who doubt
Nature, but what must have sprung up in the same manner, and
from the same Causes, as Sickness and corrupt Flesh is come
into the Human Body, namely, from the Sin of the Creature.
Storms, Tempests, Gravel, Stone, sour and dead Earth are the
same Things, the same Diseases, the same Effects of Sin, pro
duced in the same manner in the outward Body of Nature, as
corrupt Flesh, Fevers, Dropsies, Plagues, Gravel, Stone, and
Gout, are produced in the outward Body of Man. For That,
and That only which produces Stone in the Body of Man, did
produce Stone in the outward Nature, as shall plainly appear by
and by. For Nature within, and without Man, is one and the
same, and has but one and the same way of Working ; a Stone
in the Body, and a Stone out of the Body of Man, proceeds from
one and the same Disorder of Nature.
When therefore you see a diseased, gouty, leprous, asthmatical,
scorbutic Man, you can with the utmost Certainty say, this is
not that Human Body which God first created in Paradise ; so,
when you see the Disorders of Heat and Cold, the poisonous
Earth, unfruitful Seasons, and malignant Qualities of outward
Nature, you can with the same Certainty affirm, this State of
Nature is not a first Creation of God, but that same must have
happened to it, which has happened to the Body of Man. For
dark, sour, hard, dead Earth, can no more be a first, immediate
Creation of God, than a Wrathful Devil, as such, can be created
by Him. For dark, sour, dead Earth is as disordered in its
kind, as the Devils are, and has as certainly lost its first
heavenly Condition and Nature, as the Devils have lost theirs.
But now, as in Man, the little World, there is Excellency and
Perfection enough to prove, that Human Nature is the Work of
an all-perfect Being, yet, so much Impurity and Disease of
corrupt Flesh and Blood, as undeniably shows, that Sin has
almost quite spoiled the Work of God. So, in the great World,
the Footsteps of an infinite Wisdom in the Order and Harmony
of the Whole, sufficiently appears ; yet, the Disorders, Tumults,
and Evils of Nature, plainly demonstrate, that the present
Condition of this World is only the Remains or Ruins, first, of
a Heaven spoiled by the Fall of Angels, and then of a Paradise
lost by the Sin of Man. So that Man, and the World in which
He lives, lie both in the same State of Disorder and Impurity,
have both the same Marks of Life and Death in them both
bring forth the same sort of Evils, both want a Redeemer, and
have need of the same kind of Death and Resurrection before
they can come to their first State of Purity and Perfection.
10. That this outward World was not created out of Nothing
is plainly taught by St. Paul, who declares, Rom. i. 20, that the

the Truths of the (gospel. 6y

Creation of the World is out of the Invisible Things of God ;
so that the outward Condition and Frame of Visible Nature, is
a plain Manifestation of that Spiritual World from whence it is
descended. For as every Outside necessarily supposes an Inside,
and as temporal Light and Darkness must be the Product of
Eternal Light and Darkness, so this outward, visible State of
Things necessarily supposes some inward, invisible State, from
whence it is come into this Degree of Outwardness. Thus all
that is on Earth is only a Change, or Alteration of something
that was in Heaven : And Heaven itself is Nothing else but the
first glorious Out-birth, the Majestic Manifestation, the beatific
Visibility of the One God in Trinity. And thus we find out,
how this temporal Nature is related to God ; it is only a gross
Out-birth of that which is an Eternal Nature, or a blessed
Heaven, and stands only in such a Degree of Distance from it,
as Water does to Air ; and this is the Reason why the last Fire
will, and must turn this gross, Temporal Nature into its first,
heavenly State. But to suppose the gross Matter of this World
to be made out of Nothing, or to be a Grossness that has pro
ceeded from Nothing, or compacted Nothing, is more absurd, than
to suppose Ice that has congealed Nothing, a Yard that is not
made up of Inches, or a Pound that is not the Product of Ounces.
ii. And indeed to suppose this, or any other material World
to be made out of Nothing, has all the same Absurdities in it.
as the supposing Angels and Spirits, to be created out of
Nothing. All the Qualities of all Beings are Eternal ; no real Quality or
Power can appear in any Creature, but what has its eternal
Root, or generating Cause in the Creator. If a Quality could
begin to be in a Creature, which did not always exist in the
Creator, it would be no Absurdity to say, that a Thing might
begin to be, without any Cause either of its Beginning, or Being.
All Qualities, Properties, or whatever can be affirmed of God,
are self- existent, and necessary existent. Self and necessary
Existence is not a particular Attribute of God, but is the general
Nature of every Thing that can be affirmed of God. All
Qualities and Properties are self-existent in God : Now, they
cannot change their Nature when they are derived, or formed
into Creatures, but must have the same Self-birth, and necessary
Existence in the Creature, which they had in the Creator. The
Creature begins to be, when, and as it pleased God ; but the
Qualities which are become Creaturely, and which constitute the
Creature, are self-existent, just as the same Qualities are in God.
Thus, Thinking, Willing, and Desire can have no outward Maker,
their Maker is in themselves, they are self-existent Powers wherever
5-2

68 An Appeal to all who doubt
they are, whether in God, or in the Creature, and as they form
themselves in God, so they form themselves in the Creature.
But now, if no Quality can begin to be, if all the Qualities and
Powers of Creatures must be eternal and necessary existent in
God, before they can have any Existence in any Creature ; then
it undeniably follows, that every created Thing must have its
whole Nature from, and out of the Divine Nature.
All Qualities are not only good, but infinitely perfect, as they
are in God ; and it is absolutely impossible, that they should have
any Evil or Defect in them, as they are in the One God, who is
the great and Universal All. Because, where all Properties are,
there must necessarily be an all possible perfection : And that
which must always have All in itself, must, by an absolute
Necessity, be always all perfect. But the same Qualities, thus
infinitely good and perfect in God, may become imperfect and
evil in the Creature ; because in the Creature, being limited and
finite, they may be divided and separated from one another by
the Creature itself. Thus Strength and Fire in the Divine
Nature, are Nothing else but the Strength and Flame of Love,
and never can be anything else ; but in the Creature, Strength
and Fire may be separated from Love, and then they are become
an Evil, they are Wrath and Darkness, and all Mischief: And
thus that same Strength and Quality, which in Creatures making
a right Use of their own Will, or Self-motion, becomes their
Goodness and Perfection, doth in Creatures making a wrong Use
of their Will, become their evil and mischievous Nature : And
it is a Truth that deserves well to be considered, that there is
no Goodness in any Creature, from the highest to the lowest, but
in its continuing to be such an Union of Qualities and Powers, as
God has brought together in its Creation.
In the highest Order of created Beings, this is their standing
in their first Perfection, this is their Fulfilling the whole Will or
Law of God, this is their Piety, their Song of Praise, their
Eternal Adoration of their great Creator. On the other hand,
there is no Evil, no Guilt, no Deformity in any Creature, but in
its dividing and separating itself from something which God had
given to be in Union with it. This, and This alone, is the
Whole Nature of all Good, and all Evil in the Creature, both in
the moral and natural World, in Spiritual and Material Things.
For Instance, dark, fiery Wrath in the Soul, is not only very
like, but it is the very self-same Thing in the Soul which a
Wrathful Poison is in the Flesh. Now, the Qualities of Poison
are in themselves, all of them good Qualities, and necessary to
every Life ; but they are become a Poisonous Evil, because they
are separated from some other Qualities. Thus also the Qualities

the Truths of the (jospel. 69
of Fire and Strength that constitute an Evil Wrath in the Soul,
are in themselves very good Qualities, and necessary to every
good Life ; but they are become an evil Wrath, because separated
from some other Qualities with which they should be united.
The Qualities of the Devil and all fallen Angels, are good
Qualities ; they are the very same which they received from their
infinitely perfect Creator, the very same which are, and must be
in all heavenly Angels ; but they are an hellish, abominable
Malignity in them now, because they have, by their own Self-
motion, separated them from the Light and Love which should
have kept them glorious Angels.
And here may be seen at once, in the clearest Light, the true
Origin of all Evil in the Creation, without the least Imputation
upon the Creator. God could not possibly create a Creature to
be an infinite All, like Himself: -God could not bring any
Creature into Existence, but by deriving into it the self existent,
self -generating, self-moving Qualities of his own Nature : For the
Qualities must be in the Creature, that which they were in the
Creator, only in a State of Limitation ; and therefore, every
Creature must be finite, and must have a Self-motion, and so
must be capable of moving right and wrong, of uniting or
dividing from what it will, or of falling from that State in which
it ought to stand : But as every Quality, in every Creature, both
within and without itself, is equally good, and equally necessary
to the Perfection of the Creature, since there is nothing that is
evil in it, nor can become evil to the Creature, but from itself,
by its separating That from itself, with which it can, and ought
to be united, it plainly follows, that Evil can no more be charged
upon God, than Darkness can be charged upon the Sun ; because
every Quality is equally good, every Quality of Fire is as good
as every Quality of Light, and only becomes an Evil to that
Creature, who, by his own Self-motion, has separated Fire from
the Light in his own Nature.
12. If a delicious, fragrant Fruit had a Power of separating
itself from that rich Spirit, fine Taste, Smell, and Colour which
it receives from the Virtue of the Sun, and the Spirit of the
Air ; or if it could in the Beginning of its Growth, turn away
from the Sun, and receive no Virtue from it, then it would
stand in its own first Birth of Wrath, Sourness, Bitterness, and
Astringency, just as the Devils do, who have turned back into
their own dark Root, and rejected the Light and Spirit of God :
So that the hellish Nature of a Devil is Nothing else, but its
own first Forms of Life, withdrawn, or separated from the
heavenly Light and Love ; just as the Sourness, Astringency,
and Bitterness of a Fruit, are Nothing else but the first Forms

jo An Appeal to all who doubt
of its own vegetable Life before it has reached the Virtue of
the Sun, and the Spirit of the Air.
And as a Fruit, if it had a Sensibility of itself, would be full
of Torment, as soon as it was shut up in the first Forms
of its Life, in its own Astringency, Sourness, and Stinging
Bitterness y So the Angels, when they had turned back into these
very same first Forms of their own Life, and broken off from the
Heavenly Light and Love of God, they became their own Hell.
No Hell was made for them, no new Qualities came into them,
no Vengeance or Pains from the God of Love fell upon them ;
they only stood in that State of Division and Separation from
the Son, and Holy Spirit of God, which, by their own Motion,
they had made for themselves. They had nothing in them, but
what they had from God, the first Forms of an Heavenly Life,
Nothing but what the most heavenly Beings have, and must
have, to all Eternity ; but they had them in a State of Self-
torment, because they had separated them from that Birth of
Light and Love, which alone could make them glorious Sons,
and blessed Images of the Holy Trinity.
The same strong Desire, fiery Wrath, and Stinging Motion is
in Holy Angels, that is in Devils, just as the same Sourness,
Astringency, and biting Bitterness is in a full ripened Fruit,
which was there before it received the Riches of the Light and
Spirit of the Air. In a ripened Fruit, its first Sourness,
Astringency, and Bitterness is not lost, nor destroyed, but becomes
the real Cause of all its rich Spirit, fine Taste, fragrant Smell,
and beautiful Colour ; take away the working, contending Nature
of these first Qualities, and you annihilate the Spirit, Taste,
Smell, and Virtue of the Fruit, and there would be nothing left
for the Sun and Spirit of the Air to enrich.
Just in the same manner, that which in a Devil is an evil
Selfishness, a wrathful Fire, a Stinging Motion, is in an Holy
Angel, the everlasting Kindling of a Divine Life, the strong
Birth of an Heavenly Love, it is a real Cause of an ever-
springing, ever-triumphing Joyfulness, an ever-increasing Sensi
bility of Bliss.
Take away the working, contending Nature of these first
Qualities, which in a Devil, are only a Serpentine Selfishness,
Wrath, Fire, and Stinging Motion ; take away these, I say,
from Holy Angels, and you leave them neither Light, nor
Love, nor heavenly Glory, Nothing for the Birth of the Son, and
Holy Spirit of God to rise up in.
So that here you may see this glorious Truth, that the Love
and Goodness of God is as plain and undeniable in having given
to the fallen Angels, those very Qualities and Powers which are

the Truths of the (gospel. 7 1
now their Hell, as in giving the first Sourness, Astringency and
Bitterness to Fruits, which alone makes them capable of their
delicious Spirit, Taste, Colour, and Smell.
13. And thus you see the uniform Life of all the Creatures of
God ; how they are all raised, enriched, and blessed by the
same Life of God, derived into different Kingdoms of Creatures.
For the Beginnings and Progress of a perfect Life in Fruits, and
the Beginnings and Progress of a perfect Life in Angels, are
not only like to one another, but are the very same Thing, or
the working of the very same Qualities, only in different King
doms. Astringency in a Fruit, is the very same Quality, and
does the same Work in a Fruit, that attracting Desire does in a
Spiritual Being; it is the same Beginner, Former, and Supporter
of a Creaturely Life in the one, as in the other. No Creature
in Heaven, or Earth, can begin to be, but by this Astringency, or
Desire, being made the Ground of it : And yet this Astringency
kept from the Virtue of the Sun, can only produce a poisonous
Fruit, and this astringent Desire in an Angel, turned from the
Light of God, can only make a Devil. The biting, stinging
Bitterness of a Fruit, if you could add Thought to it, would be
the very gnawing Envy of the Devil : And the envious Motion
in the Devil's Nature, would be Nothing else but that Stinging
Bitterness which is in a Fruit, if you could take Thought from
the Devil's Motion.
14. From this Attraction, Astringency, or Desire, which is
one and the same Quality in every individual Thing, which is the
first Form of Being and Life, the very Ground oi every Creature,
from the highest Angel to the lowest Vegetable, we are led by
an unerring Thread to the first Desire, or that Desire which is
in the Divine Nature. For as this Attraction, or astringent
Desire is in Spiritual and corporeal Things, one and the same
Quality, working in the same Manner, so is it one and the same
Quality with that first, unbegimmig Desire, which is in the
Divine Nature.
That there is an attracting Desire in the Divine Nature, is
undeniable, because Attraction is essential to all Bodies; and
Desire, which is the same Quality, is absolutely inseparable
from all intelligible Beings ; therefore, that which is necessarily
existent in the Creature, upon the Supposition of its Creation,
must necessarily be in the Creator ; because no inherent,
operative Quality can be in the Creature, unless the same kind
of Quality had always been in the Creator : Therefore, Attrac
tion or Desire, which are inseparable from every created Being
and Life, are only various Participations of the Divine Desire ;
or Emanations from it, formed into different Kingdoms of

yz An Appeal to all who doubt

Creatures, and working in all of them according to their
respective Natures.
In Vegetables, it is that Attraction, or Desire, which brings
every growing Thing to its highest Perfection : In Angels, it is
that blessed Hunger, by which they are filled with the Divine
Nature : In Devils, it is turned into that Serpentine Selfishness,
or crooked Desire, which makes them a Hell and Torment to
themselves. 15. On the other hand, as we thus prove a posteriori, from a
View of the Creature, that there must be an attracting Desire
in the Divine Nature ; so we can prove a priori also, from a
Consideration of God, that there must be an attracting Desire in
every Thing that ever was, or can be created by God : For
nothing can come into Being, but because God wills and desires
it ; therefore the Desire of God is the Creator, the Original of
every Thing. The Creating Will, or Desire of God, is not a
distant, or separate Thing, as when a Man wills or desires some
thing to be done, or removed at a Distance from him ; but it is
an Omnipresent, working Will and Desire, which is itself, the
Beginning and Forming of the Thing desired. Our own Will,
and desirous Imagination, when they work and create in us a
settled Aversion, or fixed Love of anything, resemble in some
Degree, the Creating Power of God, which makes Things out
of itself, or its own working Desire. And our Will, and
working Imagination could not have the Power that it has now
even after the Fall, but because it is a Product, or Spark of that
first Divine Will or Desire which is omnipotent.
16. Here therefore we have plainly found the true Original,
or first Source of all Things. The Desire in God is the first
Former, Generator, and Creator of all Things ; they are all the
Births of this omnipotent, working Desire ; for every Thing
that comes into Being, must have the Nature of that Power that
formed it, and therefore the Nature of every Creature must
stand in an attractive Desire, that is, every Thing must be a
Created, attractive Power ; because it is the Birth, or Product of
a Desire, or attractive Power, and could neither come into, nor
continue in Being, but because it was generated not only by, but
out of an attracting Desire. And herein lies the Band, or Knot
of all created Being and Life.
17. Will or Desire in the Deity, is justly considered as God
the Father, who from Eternity to Eternity, wills or generates
only the Son, from which eternal Generating, the Holy Spirit
eternally proceeds : And this is the infinite Perfection or Ful
ness of Beatitude of the Life of the Triune God.
Now, as the unbeginning, eternal Desire is in God, so is the

the Truths of the Qospel. 73
created Desire in the Creature ; it stands in the same Tendency,
hath the Nature of the Divine Desire, because it is a Branch out
of it, or created from it. In the Deity, the Eternal Will or
Desire, is a Desiring, or Generating the Son, whence the Holy
Spirit proceeds ; the Desire that is come out of God into the
Form of a Creature, has the same Tendency, it is a Desire of the
Son and Holy Spirit. And every created Thing in Heaven and
Earth attains its Perfection, by its Gaining in some Degree, the
Birth of the Son and Holy Spirit of God in it : For all Attraction
and Desire-in the Creature, generates in them as it did in God;
and so the Birth of the Son and Holy Spirit of God arises in
some Degree, or other, in all Creatures that are in their proper
State of Perfection.
18. And here lies the Ground of that plain, and most funda
mental Doctrine of Scripture, that the Father is the Creator, the
Son the Regenerator, and the Holy Spirit the Sanctifier. For
what is this but saying in the plainest manner, that as there are
Three in God, so there must be Three in the Creature, that as
the Three stand related to one another in God, so must they
stand in the same Relation in the Creature. For if a threefold
Life of God must have distinct Shares in the Creation, Blessing,
and Perfection of Man, is it not a Demonstration, that the Life
of Man must stand in the same threefold State, and have such a
Trinity in it, as has its true Likeness to that Trinity which is
in God ?
That which generates in God, must generate in the Creature ;
and that which is generated in God, must be generated in the
Creature ; and that which proceeds from this Generation in the
Deity, must proceed from this Generation in the Creature : And
therefore, the same threefold Life must be in the Creature in the
same manner as it is in God. For a Creature that can only
exist, and be blessed by the distinct Operation of a Triune God
upon it, must have the same Triune Nature that is answerable
to it. And herein lies our true, and easy, and sound, and
edifying Knowledge and Belief of the Mystery of a Trinity in
Unity : And this is all that the Scripture teaches us concerning
it. It is not a Doctrine that requires learned or nice Specula
tions, in order to be rightly apprehended by us. But when with
the Scriptures, we believe the Father to be our Creator, the Son
our Regenerator, and the Holy Spirit the Sanctifier; then we
are learned enough in this Mystery, and begin to know the
Triune God in the same Manner in Time, that we shall know
him in Eternity.
And the Reason why this great Mystery of a Trinity in the
Deity is thus revealed to us, and the Necessity of a Baptism in

74 An Appeal to all who doubt

the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, laid upon us, is
this ; it is to show us, that the Divine, Triune Life of God is lost
in us, and that nothing less than a Birth from the Son and Holy
Spirit of God in us, can restore us to our first Likeness to that
Triune God, who at first created us. This I have fully shown in
the little Treatise upon Regeneration.
19. When Man was created in his Original Perfection, the
Holy Trinity was his Creator ; the Breath of Lives, which became
a Living Soul, was the Breath of the Triune God : But when
Man began to will, and desire, that is, to generate contrary to the
Deity, then the Life of the Triune God extinguished in him.
The Desire in Man being turned from God, lost the Birth of
the Son, and the Pi-oceeding of the Holy Spirit ; and so fell into,
or under the Light and Spirit of this World : That is, of a
Paradisaical Man, enjoying Union and Communion with Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost, and living on Earth in such Enjoyment
of God, as the Angels live in Heaven, he became an Earthly
Creature, subject to the Dominion of this outward World, capable
of all its evil Influences, subject to its Vanity and Mortality ;
and as to his outward Life, stood only in the highest Rank of
Animals. This and This alone, is the true Nature and Degree
of the Fall of Man ; it was neither more nor less than this. It
was a Falling out of one World, or Kingdom, into anotlier, it was
changing the Life, Light and Spirit of God, for the Light and
Spirit of this World. Thus it was that Adam died the very Day
of his Transgression, he died to all the Influences and Opera
tions of the Kingdom of God upon him, as we die to the
Influences of this World, when the Soul leaves the Body ; and,
on the other hand, a.11 the Influences, Operations and Powers of
the Elements of this Life became opened in him, as 'they are in
every Animal at its Birth into this World.
All other Accounts of that Fall, which only suppose the Loss
of some Moral Perfection, or Natural Acuteness of his Rational
Powers, are not only senseless Fictions, but are an express
Denial of the Old and New Testament Account of it; for the
Old Testament expressly says, that Adam was to die the Day of
his Transgression, and therefore it is certain, that He then did
die, and that the Fall was his losing his first Life : And to say
that he did not die to that first Life in which he was created, is
the same Denial of Scripture, as to say, that he did not eat of
the forbidden Tree.
Again, the same Scripture assures us, that after the Fall, his
Eyes were opened ; I suppose this is a Proof, that before the Fall,
they were shut. And what is this, but saying in the plainest
manner, that before the Fall, the Life, Light and Spirit of this

the Truths of the (gospel. 75
World, were shut out of him ? and that the Opening of his Eyes,
was only another way of saying, that the Life and Light of this
World were opened in him ?
If an Angel, or any Inhabitant of Heaven, was to be sent of a
Message into this World, it must be supposed, that neither the
Darkness, nor Light of this World could act according to their
Nature upon him ; and therefore, though he was here, he must
be said not to have the opened Eyes oi this World : But if this
Heavenly Messenger should be taken with our Manner of Life,
should be in Doubts about returning to Heaven, and long to
have such Flesh and Blood as ours is, as earnestly as Adam
longed to eat of the earthly Tree ; and if by this Longing, he
should actually obtain that which he desired ; must it not then
be said of him, when he had got this new Nature, his Eyes were
opened, to see Light and Darkness ; and that only for this Reason,
because the Heavenly Life was departed from him, and the
Earthly Life of this World was opened in Him ? And thus it
was that Adam died, and thus his Eyes were opened.
Again, when his Eyes were thus opened, or the Light and
Life of this World thus opened in him, he was immediately
ashamed and shocked at the Sight of his own Body, and wanted
to hide it from himself, and from the Sight of the Sun. Now,
how could this have happened to him, if his Body had not
undergone some very extraordinary Change, from a State of
Glory and Perfection, to a lamentable Degree of Vileness and
Impurity ?
All the Terror at his fallen State, seems to arise from the sad
Condition, in which he saw and felt his outward Body. This
made him ashamed of himself ; this made him tremble, at hearing
the Voice of God ; this made him creep behind the Trees, and
endeavour to hide and cover his Body with Leaves.
And is not all this the same Thing, as ii Adam had said, 'All
' my Sin, my Guilt, my Misery, and Shame, is published before
' Heaven and Earth, by this sad State and Condition in which
' my Body now appears.'
But now, what was this sad State and Condition of his Body ?
What did Adam see in the Manner and Form of it that filled
him with such Confusion ? Why, he only saw that he was
fallen from his Paradisaical Glory, to have the same gross Flesh
and Blood as the Beasts and Animals of this World have; which
was, to bring forth an Offspring in the same earthly Manner, as
they did. He could see, and be ashamed of no other Deformity
in his Body, but that which he had in common with the Animals
of this World ; and therefore there was nothing else in his out
ward Form that He could be ashamed of; and yet it was his

j 6 An Appeal to all who doubt

outward Form that filled him with Confusion. And is not this
the greatest of all Proofs, that before his Fall, his Body had not
this Nature and Condition of the Beasts in it ? Is it not the
same Thing, as if he had said, ' this Body which now makes me
' ashamed, and which I want to hide, though it be only with
' thin Leaves, because it brings me down amongst the Animals
' of this World, is not that first Body of Glory into which God at
' first breathed the Breath of Lives, and in which I became a
' Living Soul.'
Again, if Adam's Body had been of the same kind of Flesh
and Blood as ours is now, only in a better State of Health and
Vigour, How could he have been created Immortal ? If he was
not created Immortal, how can it be said, that Sin alone brought
Mortality, or Death into human Nature ? But if he had Immor
tality in his first created State, then he must have such a Body
as none of the Elements, or Elementary Things of this World
could act upon ; for there is no Death in any Creature of this
World, but what is brought upon it by that Strife and Destruc
tion which the four Elements bring upon one another. But if
Sin alone gave the Elements, and all Elementary Things their
first Power of acting upon the Body oi Adam ; then it is plain,
that before his Sin, he had not, could not have a Body of such
Flesh and Blood as we now have, but that he stood, as to the
State, Nature, and Condition of his outward Body, at as great a
Distance and Difference from the Animals of this World, as
Heaven does from Earth, and was created with Flesh and Blood
as much exalted above, and superior to the Nature and Power
of all the Elements, as the Beasts of this World are under them.
And herein plainly appears the true Sense of that saying,
' God made not Death,' that is, he made not That which is
mortal, or dying in the Human Nature, but Sin alone formed
and produced That in Man, which could, and must die like the
Bodies of Beasts. Death, and the Grave, and the Resurrection,
are all three, standing Proofs, that the Body of bestial Flesh and
Blood, which we now have, at the Sight of which Adam was
ashamed, which must die, which can rot in the Grave, which
must not be seen after the Resurrection, was not that first
Body, in which Adam appeared before God in Paradise : For if
it is an undeniable Truth of Scripture, that this Flesh and Blood
cannot enter into the Kingdom of God ; it must be a Truth of the
same Certainty, that this Flesh and Blood could not by God
Himself be brought into Paradise ; but that it must have the
same Original with every other polluted Thing that is an
Abomination in his Sight, or incapable of entering into the
Kingdom of God.

the Truths of the (jospel. 77

20. That the Gospel also plainly shows, that Man was created
in the Dignity and glorious Enjoyment of the Triune Life
of God, and that his Fall, was a falling into the earthly Life of
the Light and Spirit of this World, I have sufficiently proved
from the greatest Articles of our Christian Faith, concerning the
Necessity, Nature, and Manner of our Redemption, in the Book
of Christian Regeneration. I have there shown, that Baptism in
the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, signifies Nothing
but our being born again into this Triune Life of God. — That
the Necessity of being born again of the Word or Son of God,
of being born of the Spirit, or receiving Him as a Sanctifier of
our newly raised Nature, plainly proves that what we lost by the
Fall, was this Triune Life of God : He that denies this, denies
the whole of the Christian Redemption.*
21. It has been already observed, that when Man was created
in his Original Perfection, the Holy Trinity was his Creator ;
but when Man was fallen, or had lost his first Divine Life, then
there began a new Language of a Redeeming Religion. Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost were now to be considered, not as creating
every Man as they created the Frst, but as differently concerned
in raising the fallen Race of Mankind, to that first Likeness of
the Holy Trinity in which their first Father was created : Hence
it is, that the Scriptures speak of the Father, as Drawing, and
Calling Men ; because the Desire which is from the Father's
Nature, must be the first Mover, Stirrer, and Beginner. This
Desire must be moved and brought into an anguishing State,
and have the Agitation of a Fire that is kindling ; and then
Men are truly drawn by the Father.
The Son of God is now considered as the Regenerator or
Raiser of a new Birth in us ; because he enters a second Time
into the Life of the Soul, that his own Nature and Likeness may
be again generated in it, and that he may be That to the Soul
in its State, which he is to the Father in the Deity.
The Holy Ghost is represented as the Sanctifier, or Finisher
of the Divine Life restored in us ; because as in the Deity, the
Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son, as the
amiable, blessed Finisher of the Triune Life of God ; so the
fallen Nature of Man cannot be raised out of its unholy State,
cannot be blessed and sanctified with its true Degree of the
Divine Life, till the Holy Spirit arises up in it.
Since then the Triune God, or the three Persons in the one
God, must have this Difference of Shares, must reach out this

* See Spirit of Prayer, Part II., page 63, 6r>c, page 91. Way to Divine
Knowledge, pages 39- 53.

7 8 An Appeal to all who doubt
different Help to the Raising up of fallen Man, it is undeniable,
that the first created Man stood in the Image and real Likeness
of the one God, not only representing, but really having in his
Birth and Life, the Birth and Life of the Holy Trinity. God
the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost had such a Unity in Trinity in
Man, as they had in the Deity itself : How else could Man be
the Image and Likeness of the Holy Trinity, if it was not such
a Birth in Man, as it was in itself? Or, how could the Holy
Trinity dwell and operate in Man, each Person according to its
respective Nature, unless there was the same threefold Life in
Man as there is in God ? How could the Holy Trinity be an
Object of Man's Worship and Adoration, if the Holy Trinity had
not produced itself in Man ? The Creature is only to own and
worship its Creator ; therefore Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
must have each of them their Creaturely Offspring, or Product in
Man, if Man is to worship Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If
therefore you deny Angels, and the Souls of perfect Men to
have the triune Nature, or Life of God in them : If you deny
that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, have such Union and
Relation in the Soul, as they have out of it, you are guilty of as
great Heresy and Apostacy from the Gospel, as if you denied
the Father to be the Creator or Him that calleth and draweth,
the Son to be the Redeemer, or Him that regenerateth, and the
Holy Spirit to be Him that sanctifieth Human Nature.
22. Again: Consider this great Truth, which will much illus
trate this Matter ; you can be an Inhabitant of no World, or a
Partaker of its Life, but by its being inwardly the Birth of your
own Life, or by having the Nature and Condition of that World
born in you. As thus, Hell must be inwardly born in the Soul,
it must arise up within it, as it does without it, before the Soul
can become an Inhabitant of it.
Again : That which is the Life of this outward World, viz., its
Fire, and Light, and Air, must have such a State and Birth
within you, as they have without you, before you can be an
Inhabitant or Partaker of the Life of this World ; that is, Fire
must be in you, must be the same Fire, have the same Place and
Nature within you, have the same Relation to the Light and
Air that is within you, as it has without you, or else the Fire of
the outward World, cannot keep up, or have any Communion
with your own Life.
The Light of this World can signify nothing to you, cannot
reach or enrich you with its Powers and Virtues, if the same
Light is not arisen in the same Manner in the kindling of your
own Life, as it arises in the outward World.
The Air also of this World can do you no Good, can be no

the Truths of the Cjospel. 79

Blower up and Preserver of your Life, but because it has the
same Birth in you, that it has in outward Nature. And therefore
it must be a Truth of the greatest Certainty, that so it must of
all Necessity be with Respect to the Kingdom of God, or that
Life which is to be had in the Beatific Presence of God ; it
must, by an absolute Necessity, have the same Birth within you,
as it has without you, before you can enter into it, or become an
Inhabitant of it : If you are to live, and be eternally blessed in
the triune Life, or Beatific Presence of God, that Triune Life,
must, of the utmost Necessity, first make itself creaturely in you ;
it must be and arise in you, as it does without you, before you
can possibly enter into any Communion with it.
Now is there any Thing more plain and Scriptural, more easy
to be conceived, more pious to be believed, and more impossible
to be denied, than all this ? And yet this is all that I have said,
in two Propositions in the Treatise upon Christian Regeneration:
It is there said, ' Man was created by God after his own Image,
' and in his own Likeness, a Living Mirror of the Divine Nature ;
'where Father, Son, and Holy Ghost each brought forth their
' own Nature in a Creaturely Manner/ Now, what is this, but
saying, That the Holy Trinity brought forth a Creature in its
own Likeness, standing in a creaturely Birth of the Divine, triune
Life? If it did not stand thus, how could it have a Likeness of
the Holy Trinity ? Or how could it have its Form or Creation
from the Holy Trinity ? Or how could it without this triune
Life in itself, enter into, or be a Partaker of the triune Life or
Presence of God ? In the next Proposition it is said ; ' In it,
'that is, in this created Image of the Holy Trinity, the Father's
' Nature generated the Divine Word, or Son of God, and the
' Holy Ghost proceeded from them both as an amiable, moving
' Life of both. This was the Likeness or Image of God, in which
' the first Man was created, a true Offspring of God, in whom
' the Divine Birth sprung up as in the Deity, where Father, Son,
' and Holy Ghost, saw themselves in a creaturely manner.'
Now, what is this, but saying in the plainest Manner, only
thus much, that the triune, creaturely Life stood in the same
Birth and Generation of its threefold Life, as the Deity doth,
whose Image, Likeness, and Offspring it is ? And can it possibly
be otherwise ; for if the Creature cometh from the Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost, as their created Image and Likeness, must not
That which it hath from the Father, be of the Nature of the
Father, That which it hath from the Son, be of the Nature of
the Son, and That which it hath from the Holy Ghost, be of the
Nature of the Holy Ghost ? And must they not therefore stand
in the Creature in such Relation to one another, as they do in

80 An Appeal to all who doubt
the Creator ? If it is the Nature of the Father to generate, if it
is the Nature of the Son to be generated, if it is the Nature of
the Holy Ghost to proceed from both, must not That which you
have from the Father generate in you, That which you have
from the Son be generated in you, and that which you have from
the Holy Ghost, proceed from both in you ? All which is only
saying this plain and obvious Truth, that That Being, or
created Life, which you have from Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
must stand in such a triune Relation within you as it does with
out you ; that having this threefold Likeness of God, you may
be capable of entering into an Enjoyment of his triune, beatific
Life or Presence.
For, consider again this Instance, with regard to the Life of
this World. The Fire, and Light, and Air, of outward Nature,
must become creaturely in you ; that is, you must have a Fire
that is your own creaturely Fire, you must have a Light that is
generated by, or from your own Fire, a Breath that proceeds
from your own Fire and Light, as the Air of outward Nature
proceeds from its Fire and Light : You must have all this Nature
and Birth of Fire, and Light, and Air in your own creaturely
Being, or you cannot possibly live in, or have a Life from the
Fire, and Light, and Air of outward Nature : No Omnipotence
can make you a Partaker of the Life of this outward World,
without having the Life of this outward World born in your own
creaturely Being. And therefore, no Omnipotence can make
you a Partaker of the Beatific Life or Presence of the Holy
Trinity, unless that Life stands in the same triune State within
you, as it does without you.
The Nature of this World must become creatural in you,
before you can live, or have a Share in the Life of this World ;
the triune Nature of God must breathe forth itself to stand
creaturely in you, before you can live, or have a Share in the
Beatific Life or Presence of the triune God.
Now, is not all this strictly according to the very outward
Letter, and inward Truth of the most important Articles of the
Christian Religion ? For what else can be meant by the Neces
sity of our being born again of the Word, or Son of God, being
born of the Spirit of God, in order to our Entrance into the
Kingdom of Heaven ? Is not this saying, that the triune Life
of God must first have its Birth in us, before we can enter into
the triune, beatific Life, or Presence of God ? What else is
taught us by that new Birth sought for by a Baptism, in the
Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ? Does it not plainly
tell us, that the triune Nature of the Deity is That which wants
to be born in us, and that our Redemption consists in Nothing

the Truths of the (jospel. 81
else but in the Bringing forth this new Birth in us, and that,
being thus born again in the Likeness of the Holy Trinity, we
may be capable of its threefold Blessing and Happiness ? The
New Testament tells us of the Impossibility of our being re
deemed, but by the Son of God, of the Impossibility of our being
made holy, but by the Holy Spirit of God : Now, how could we
want any distinct Thing particularly from the Son of God, any
distinct Thing, particularly from the Holy Ghost, in order to
raise and repair our fallen Nature, how could this Particularity
be thus absolutely necessary, but because the holy threefold Life
of the Deity must stand within us, in the Birth of our own Life,
as it does without us, that so we may be capable of living in
God, and God in us.
Search to Eternity, why no Devil, or Beast can possibly be a
Partaker of the Kingdom of Heaven, and there can only this
one Reason be assigned for it, because neither of them have the
triune, holy Life of God in them : For every created Thing
does, and must, and can only want, seek, unite with, and enjoy
That outwardly, which is of the same Nature with itself. Remove
a Devil where you will, he is still in Hell, and always at the
same Distance from Heaven ; he can touch, or taste, or reach
Nothing but what is in Hell. Carry a Beast where you please,
either to Court, or to Church, he is yet at the same infinite
Distance from the Joys and Fears either of Church, or Court, as
the Beasts that never saw any Thing else but their own Kind :
And all this is grounded solely on this Eternal Truth ; namely,
That no Being can rise higher than its own Life reaches. The
Circle of the Birth of Life in every Creature is its necessary
Circumference, and it cannot possibly reach any further ; and
therefore it is a joyful Truth, that Beings created to worship and
adore the Holy Trinity, and to enter into the beatific Life
and Presence of the triune God, must, of all Necessity, have the
same triune Life in their own Creaturely Being. And now,
what can be so glorious, so edifying, so ravishing, as this Know
ledge of God and ourselves ? The very Thought of our standing
in this Likeness and Relation to the Infinite Creator and Being
of all Beings, is enough to kindle the Divine Life within us, and
melt us into a continual Love and Adoration : For how can we
enough love and adore that Holy Trinity which has created us
in its own Likeness, that we might live in an Eternal Union and
Communion with it ? Will anyone call this an irreverent
Familiarity, or bold Looking into the Holy Trinity, which is
nothing else but a thankful Adoration of it, as our Glorious
Father and Creator ? It is our best and only Acknowledgment
of the greatest Truths of the Holy Scriptures ; it is the Scripture 6

82 An Appeal to all who doubt
Doctrine of the Trinity kept in its own Simplicity, separated
from Scholastic Speculations, where the three in God, are only
distinguished by that threefold Share that they have in the
Creation and Redemption of Man. When we thus know the
Trinity in ourselves, and adore its high Original in the Deity,
we are possessed of a Truth of the greatest Moment, that
enlightens the Mind with the most solid and edifying Knowledge,
and opens to us the fullest Understanding of all that concerns
the Creation, Fall, and Redemption of Man.
Without this Knowledge, all the Scripture will be used as a
dead Letter, and formed only into a figurative, historical System
of Things, that has no Ground in Nature ; and learned Divines
can only be learned in the Explication of Phrases, and verbal
Distinctions. The first Chapters of Genesis will be a Knot that cannot be
untied ; the Mysteries of the Gospel will only be called foederal
Rites, and their inward Ground reproached as enthusiastic
Dreams ; but when it is known, that the triune Nature of God
was brought forth in the Creation of Man, that it was lost in his
Fall, that it is restored in his Redemption, a never-failing Light
arises in all Scripture, from Genesis to the Revelation. Every
Thing that is said of God, as Father, Regenerator, or Sanctifier
of Man ; every Thing that is said of Jesus Christ, as Redeeming,
forming, dwelling in, and quickening; and ofthe Holy Spirit, as-
moving and sanctifying us : Every Thing that is said of the
Holy Sacraments, or promised in and by them, has its deep and
inward Ground fully discovered ; and the whole Christian
Religion is built upon a Rock, and that Rock is Nature, and
God will appear to be doing every Good to us, that the God of
all Nature can possibly do. The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity
is wholly practical ; it is revealed to us, to discover our high
Original, and the Greatness of our Fall, to show us the deep and
profound Operation of the triune God in the Recovery of the
Divine Life in our Souls ; that by the Means of this Mystery
thus discovered, our Piety may be rightly directed, our Faith
and Prayer have their proper Objects, that the Workings and
Aspirings of our own Hearts may co-operate, and correspond
with that triune Life in the Deity, which is always desiring to
manifest itself in us ; for as every Thing that is in us, whether it
be Heaven, or Hell, rises up in us by a Birth, and is generated
in us by the Will-spirit of our Souls, which kindles itself either
in Heaven, or Hell ; so this Mystery of a triune Deity mani
festing itself, as a Father creating, as a Son, or Word, regenerating,
as a Holy Spirit sanctifying us, is not to entertain our Specula
tion with dry, metaphysical Distinctions of the Deity, but to

the Truths of the (jospel. 83
show us from what a Height and Depth we are fallen, and to
excite such a Prayer and Faith, such a Hungering and Thirsting
after this triune Fountain of all Good, as may help to generate
and bring forth in us that first Image of the Holy Trinity in
which we were created, and which must be born in us before we
can enter into the State of the Blessed : Here we may see the
Reason, why the Learned World has had so many fruitless
Disputes about this Mystery, and why it has been so often a
Stone of Stumbling to Philosophers and Critics ; it is because
they began to reason about that, which never was proposed to
their Reason, and which no more belongs to human Learning
and Philosophy, than Light belongs to our Ears, or Sounds to
our Eyes. No Person has any Fitness, nor any Pretence, nor any
Ground from Scripture, to think, or say any Thing of the
Trinity, till such Time as he stands in the State of the Penitent
Returning Prodigal, weary of his own sinful, shameful Nature ;
and desiring to renounce the World, the Flesh, and the Devil,
and then is he first permitted to be baptized into the Name of
the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost : This is the first Time the
Gospel teaches, or calls anyone to the Acknowledgment of the
Holy Trinity. Now, as this Knowledge is first given in
Baptism, and there only as a Signification of a triune Life of
the Deity, which must be regenerated in the Soul ; so the
Scriptures say Nothing afterwards to this Baptized Penitent
concerning the Trinity, but only with Regard to Regeneration,
everywhere only showing him how Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
all equally Divine, must draw, awaken, quicken, enlighten,
move, guide, cleanse, and sanctify the new-born Christian : Is it
not therefore undeniably plain, that all abstract Speculations of
this Mystery, how it is in itself, how it is to be ideally conceived,
or Scholastically expressed by us, are a Wandering from that
true Light, in which the Trinity of God is set before us, which is
only revealed as a Key, or Direction to the true Depths of that
Regeneration, which is to be sought for from the triune Deity ?
But to go on in a further Account of the Creation.
23. Now, as all Creatures, whether intellectual, animate, or
inanimate, are Products, or Emanations of the Divine Desire,
created out of the Father, who from Eternity to Eternity
generates the Son, whence the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds ;
so every intelligent, created Being, not fallen from its State,
stands in the same Birth, ox generating Desire, it generates in
its Degree, as God the Father generates eternally the Son, and
is blessed and perfected in the Divine Life, by having the Holy
Spirit arise up in it.
Hence it is, that those Angels which stood, and continued in
6—2

84 An Appeal to all who doubt
the same Will and Desire in which they came out from God,
willing and desiring as God from all Eternity had willed and
desired, were by the Rising up of the Holy Spirit in them, con
firmed and established in the Divine Life, and so became
eternally and inseparably united with the ever-blessed triune
Deity. On the other hand, those Angels which did not keep their
Will and Desire in its first created Tendency, but raised up an
own Will and Desire, which own Will and Desire was their
direct, full choosing and desiring to be, and do something which
they could not be, and do in God, and is therefore properly
called their aspiring to be above God, or to be without any
Dependence upon him; these Angels, by thus going backwards
with their Will and Desire out of, or from God and the Divine
Truth, could only find, or generate That which had the utmost
Contrariety to God and the Divine Birth, and so became under
a Necessity of finding themselves in an Eternal State, Spirit
and Life that was directly contrary to all that is good, holy,
amiable, blessed and Divine.
Now, the Will and Desire in every Creature is generating, and
efficacious, strictly according to the State and Nature of that
Creature ;* therefore, Eternal Beings in an Eternal State, must
have an Eternal Power and Efficacy in the Working of their
Wills and Desires : When therefore those Angels, with all the
Strength of their Eternal Desires, turned away from, and
contrary to God and the Divine Birth, they could become
Nothing else, but Beings eternally separated and broken off
from all that was God and Goodness : For Eternal Beings that
stood only in an eternal State, acting with all their Vigour, not
doubting, but strongly willing, could not do anything that had
only a Temporal Nature and Effect, because they stood not in
such a Nature or such a World, and therefore what they willed
and generated with all their Nature, (which was a Contrariety
to God) that became the Eternal State of their Nature. And
this is the Birth and Origin of Hellish Beings.
God had done all to them and for them, that he had done to
and for the Angels that stood ; he had given them the same
holy Beginning of their Lives, had brought them forth out of
himself in the same Tendency, that which was the Nature of
other Angels, was theirs ; he could not make any established,
fixed, and unchangeable Angels, because the Life of every
Thing must be a Birth, and willing Beings must have a Birth
of their Wills ; he could not make them fixed, because every
* See Way to Divine Knowledge, pages 139-160.

the Truths of the (gospel. 85

Thing that comes from God, must so come from him, as it was
in him, a self-existent and self-moving Power, and therefore no
Goodness of God could hinder their having a Self-motion,
because they were, and could be Nothing else but Creatures
brought forth by, and out of his own self-existent and self-moving
Nature. God is all Good, and every Thing that comes out from him, as
his Creature, Product, or Offspring, must come forth in that
State of Goodness, which it had in Him ; and every Creature,
however high in its Birth from God, must in the Beginning of
its Life, have a Power of joining with or departing from God,
because the Beginning of its Life is nothing else but the
Beginning of its own Self-motion as a Creature ; and therefore
no Creature can have its State or Condition fixed, till it gives
itself up either wholly unto God, or turns wholly from him ; for
if it is an Intelligent Creature, it can only be so, by having the
Intelligent Will of God derived into it, or made creaturely in
it ; but the Intelligent Will brought into a creaturely Form,
must be That which it was in the Creator, and therefore must be
the same self existent and self-moving Power that it was before
it became creaturely in any Angel or Spirit. And thus the
Cause and Origin of Evil, wherever it is, is absolutely and
eternally separated from God.
24. Again : As all Intelligent Beings can no way attain their
Happiness and Perfection, but by standing with their Will and
Desire united to God, in the same Tendency in which the Father
eternally generateth the Son, from whence the Holy Spirit pro-
ceedeth as the Finisher of the triune, beatific Life, so the
same Thing is manifestly proved to us by the lowest kind of
Beings that are in this visible World ; for all Vegetables, by their
Attraction or Astringency, which is their Desire, and is an Out-
birth of the Divine Desire, reach their utmost Perfection by the
same Progress, that is, by getting a Birth of the Light and
Spirit of this outward World into them, and so become
infallible, though remote Proofs that no Life can be brought to
its proper Perfection in the Creature, till the Image of the
triune Life of God, is, according to the State and Capacity of
the Creature, formed in it : Look where you will, every Thing
proclaims and proves this great Truth. The Christian Doctrine
of the Salvation of Mankind by a Birth of the Son, and Holy
Spirit of God in them, is not only written in Scripture, but in
the whole State and Frame of Nature, and of every Life in this
World ; for every perfect Fruit openly declares, that it can
have no Goodness in it, till the Light and Spirit of this World
has done that to it and in it, which the Light and Spirit of

86 An Appeal to all who doubt
God must do to the Soul of Man, and therefore is a full Proof,
that it is as absolutely necessary for every Human Creature to
desire, believe, and receive the Birth of the Son and Holy
Spirit of God to save it from its own Wrath and Darkness, as it
is necessary for every Fruit of the Earth to be raised and
regenerated from its own Bitterness and Sourness, by receiving
the Light and Spirit ofthis World into it.
25. Some Learned Men, willing to discover the Image of the
Holy Trinity in the Creation, have observed three Properties
both in Body and Spirit, which they supposed to be a proper
Likeness of the Trinity. But all this is Nothing to the Matter.
For as the Holy Trinity is a threefold Life in God, so the
Image of the Trinity is only found in a threefold Life in the
Creature ; for it is the whole Birth, or Generation of the Thing
itself, whether it be corporeal or spiritual, that stands in such a
threefold State as the Holy Trinity doth, that is the proper
Likeness or Image of the Trinity. As there is one infinitely
perfect Deity, because this one Deity is Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, so every Creature that is an original Production of the
Deity, or in its proper State of Perfection, stands in its whole
Being, or generating as the Deity doth, and neither hath, nor
ever can have any Perfection, but because the Triune Nature
of God is manifested and brought forth in it ; for Perfection of
Life in God, and a Perfection of Life derived from God, must
stand in the same threefold State, and that which is a Life from
the Deity, must have a Life of the Trinity in it.
26. Take away Attraction, or Desire from the Creature of this
World, and you annihilate the Creature ; for where there is no
Attraction or Desire, there can be no Nature or Being ; and
therefore Attraction or Desire shows the Work of the Creator in
every Thing, or what is meant by the Divine Fiat, or Creating
Power. Now, what is it which this Attraction or Desire wants,
hungers, draws and reaches after? Nothing else but the Light
and Spirit of this World. What is the true, deep, and infallible
Ground of this ? Why does this Desire thus work in every
Life of this World? It is because the Eternal Will in the
Deity, is a Desiring or Generating the Son, from whence the
Holy Spirit of God proceeds : And therefore Attraction, which
is an Out-birth of the Divine Desire, stands in a perpetual
Desiring of the Light and Spirit of this World, because they
are the two Out-births of the Light and Holy Spirit of God.
What rational Mind can help being charmed with this wonderful
Harmony and Relation betwixt God, Nature, and Creature?
27. And now, my dear Reader, if you are either Arian, or
Deist, be so no longer : The Ground is dug up from under you,

the Truths of the (jospel. 87

and neither Opinion has any Thing left to stand upon ; you may
wrangle and wrest the Doctrine of Scripture, because it is only
taught in Words ; but the Veil is now taken off from Nature,
and every Plant and Fruit will teach you with the Clearness of
a. Noon-day Sun, these two great Truths ; First, That Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit are one Being, one Life, one God : Secondly,
That the Soul, which is dead to the Paradisaical Life, must be
made alive again by the Birth of the Son and Holy Spirit of
God in it, in the same Manner as a dead Seed is, and only can
be brought to Life in this World, by the Light and Spirit of this
World. If you are an Arian, don't content yourself with the Numbers
that are with you, or with a Learned Name or two that are on
your Side : Arianism has never yet been recommended by the
Genius and Learning of a Baronious, or Bellarmin ; and nothing
but a poor, groping, purblind Philosophy, that is not able to look
either at God, Nature, or Creature, hath ever led any Man into
it : For it is a Truth proclaimed by all Nature and Creature, that
there is a threefold Life in God, and every Thing that is, whether
it be happy, or miserable, perfect or imperfect, is only so, because
it has, or has not the triune Nature of God in it.
A beginning Fruit is like a Poison ; a Seed, for a while, is shut
up in a hard Death. Why are they both at first in this State ?
It is because each of them stands as yet only in that first Birth
of Nature, which is but a Beginning Manifestation of the Deity.
Let the Light of the Sun, and the Spirit of this World be born
in them, and then the sour, astringent Fruit, and the dead Seed
becomes a perfect, vegetable Life, and is in its kind perfect,
for this one only Reason, because the triune Life of the Deity is
truly manifested in it.
28. If you are a Deist, made so, either by the disorderly State
of your own Heart, or by Prejudices taken from the Corruptions
and Divisions of Christians, or from a Dislike of the Language
of Scripture, or from an Opinion of the Sufficiency of a Religion
of Human Reason, or from whatever else it may be, look well to
yourself, Christianity is no Fiction of Enthusiasm, or Invention
of Priests.
If you can show, that the Gospel proposes to bring Men into
the Kingdom of Heaven by any other Method, than that, which
Nature requires to make any Creature a living Member of this
World, then I will acknowledge the Gospel not to be founded in
Nature. But if what the Gospel saith of the absolute Necessity, that
the fallen Soul be born again of the Son and Holy Spirit of God,
is the very same which all temporal Nature saith of every Thing

88 An Appeal to all who doubt
that is to enter into the Life of this World, viz., that it cannot
partake of the Life of this World, till the Light and Spirit of
this World is born in it ; then does not all Nature in this World,
and every Life in it, declare, that the Christian Method of Sal
vation is as necessary to raise fallen Man, as the Sun and Spirit
of this World is, to bring a Creature alive into it ?
Now, as there is but one God, so there is but one Nature, as
unalterable as that God from whom it arises, and whose Mani
festation it is ; so also there is but one Religion founded in
Nature, and but one Salvation possible in Nature. Revealed
Religion is nothing else but a Revelation of the Mysteries of
Nature, for God cannot reveal, or require any Thing by a spoken
or written Word, but that which he reveals and requires by
Nature ; for Nature is his great Book oi Revelation, and he that
can only read its Capital Letters, will have found so many
Demonstrations of the Truth of the written Revelation of
God* But to show, that there is but one Salvation possible in Nature,
and that Possibility solely contained in the Christian Method :
Look from the Top to the Bottom of all Creatures, from the
highest to the lowest Beings, and you will find, that Death has
but one Nature in all Worlds, and in all Creatures : Look at
Life in an Angel, and Life in a Vegetable, and you will find, that
Life has but one and the same Form, one and the same Ground
in the whole Scale of Beings : No Omnipotence of God can
make that to be Life, which is not Life, or that to be Death,
which is not Death, according to Nature ; and the Reason is,
because Nature is nothing else but God's own outward Manifes
tation of what he inwardly is, and can do ; and therefore no
Revelation from God can teach, or require any Thing but that
which is taught and required by God in, and through Nature.
The Mysteries of Religion therefore, are no higher, nor deeper
than the Mysteries of Nature, and all the Rites, Laws, Cere
monies, Types, Institutions and Ordinances given by God from
Adam to the Apostles, are only typical of something that is to
be done, or instrumental to the doing of that, which the unchange
able Working of Nature requires to be done. As sure therefore as
there is but one and the same Thing that is Death, and one and
the same Thing that is Life throughout all Nature, whether tem
poral or eternal, so sure is it, that there is but one Way to Life
or Salvation for fallen Man. And this Way, let it be what it
will, must and can be only that, which has its Reason and Foun
dation in that one Universal Nature, which is the one unchange-
* Spirit of Love, Part II., pages 134-149.

the Truths of the (jospel. 89
able Manifestation of the Deity. For if there is but one Thing
that is Life, and one thing that is Death throughout all Nature,
from the highest Angel to the hardest Flint upon Earth, then it
must be plain, that the Life which is to be raised or restored by
Religion, must, and can only be restored according to Nature :
And therefore, true Religion can only be the Religion of Nature,
and Divine Revelation can do nothing else, but reveal and mani
fest the Demands and Workings of Nature.
29. Now, the one great Doctrine of the Christian Religion,
and which includes all the rest, is this, that Adam, by his Sin,
died to the Kingdom of Heaven, or that the Divine Life extin
guished in him ; That he cannot be redeemed, or restored to this
first Divine Life, but by having it kindled or regenerated in him
by the Son and Holy Spirit of God : Now, that which is here
called Death, his losing the Light and Spirit of the Kingdom of
Heaven, and that which is here made necessary to make him
alive again to the Kingdom of Heaven, is that very same which
is called, and is Death and Life throughout all Nature, both
temporal and eternal : And therefore, the Christian Religion
requiring this Method of raising Man to a Divine Life, has its
infallible Proof from all Nature.* Consider Death, or the Dead
ness that is in a hard Flint, and you will see what is the Eternal
Death of a fallen Angel : The Flint is dead, or in a State of
Death, because its Fire is bound, compacted, shut up, and
imprisoned ; this is its Chains and Bands of Death : A Steel
struck against a Flint will show you, that every Particle of the
Flint consists of this compacted Fire.
Now, a fallen Angel is in no other State of Death, knows no
other Death than this : It is in its whole Spiritual, Intelligent
Being, nothing else, but that very same which the Flint is, in its
insensible Materiality, viz., an imprisoned compacted, darkened
Fire-spirit, shut up, and tied in its own Chains of Darkness, as
the Fire of the Flint ; and you shall see by and by, that the
Flint is changed from its first State into its present Hardness of
Death, in the same Manner, and by the same Means, as the
Heavenly Angel is become a fiery Serpent in the State of
Eternal Death.
Now, look at every Death that can be found betwixt that of a
fallen Angel, and that of a hard Flint, and you will find that
Death enters nowhere, into no kind of Vegetable, Plant, or
Animal, but as it has entered into the Angel, and the Flint, and
stands in the same manner in every Thing wherever it is.
Now, that a fallen Angel, is nothing else but a Fire-spirit

* Spirit of Love, Part II., page 117, &*c.

90 An Appeal to all who doubt
imprisoned in the same manner as a Flint is an imprisoned Fire,
is plain from the Scripture Account of them ; not only because
all the wrathful Properties of a Fire without Light, are ascribed
to them as their essential Qualities, but because the Place of
their Habitation, or the State of their Life, is a Fire of Hell.
For how could it be possible, that a hellish Fire should be the
Eternal State of their Life, unless their Nature was such a Fire ?
Must not their painful Condition arise from their Nature, and
their Misery be only a Sensibility of themselves, of that which
they have made themselves to be ? Therefore, if Fixe shut up in
Darkness, is the Nature of Hell, it can only be so, because such
a darkened Fire is the very Nature oi a fallen Angel. Or how
again could the Human Soul, which has withstood its Salvation
in this Life, be said to fall into Eternal Death, ox the Fire of
Hell, if the Soul itself did not become that Fire of Hell ? For
when you say the Soul enters into Hell, you say neither more
nor less, than if you had said, that Hell enters into the Soul ;
therefore, the State of Hell, and the State of the Soul in Hell, is
one and the same Thing. If therefore Hell is a State of Fire
shut up, and imprisoned from all Communion with Light, then
the same dark, imprisoned Fire must be the Nature of the fallen
Angel and lost Soul ; and thus, what your Eyes see to be the
Death or Deadness of a Flint, is that same Thing, or that same
State of the Thing, which the Scripture assures you, to be the
Eternal Death of a fallen Angel, and a lost Soul. Here also you
may see a plain Proof of what I have elsewhere declared
concerning the fallen Soul ; that considered without its Redeemer
in it, or the in-spoken Wordoi Life given to Adam at his Fall, it
is in itself, as a fallen Soul, the same dark, fiery Spirit, as the
Devils are ; and that the Reason why Men wholly given up to
Wickedness, and who have suppressed the Redeeming Power of
God in their Souls, do not become fully sensible of this State of
their Souls, is this, because the Soul, while it is in this Flesh and
Blood, is capable of being softened, assuaged, and comforted in
some Degree or other, by the Influences of the Sun and Spirit
of this World, as all other Creatures and Beings are. And if it
was not thus, how could it be a plain, constant Doctrine of
Scripture, that when the Unredeemed Soul departs this Life, it is
incapable of anything but Hell? Is not this directly saying,
that Hell, or the Sensibility of Hell was only hid and suppressed
in such a Soul, by the Life and Light of this World shining
upon it.
Now what I have said of the sad Condition of the Soul at the
Fall, that it lost the Divine Life, or the Birth of the Son and
Holy Spirit of God in it, and so became of the same dark, fiery

the Truths of the (jospel. 91

Nature, as the Devils, is not possible to be denied, without
denying the most universally received Doctrine of Scripture.
Is it not a fundamental Doctrine of Scripture, that Adam and
all his Posterity had been left in a State oi Eternal Death, or
Damnation, unless Jesus Christ had become their Redeemer, and
taken them out of their natural State ? But how can you
believe, or own they had been left in this State, without
believing and owning that they were in it ? Or, how can you
with the Scripture believe, that by the Fall they became Heirs
of Eternal Death and Damnation with the Devils, unless you
believe and affirm, that by the Fall they became of a hellish,
diabolical Nature ? Or how can you hold, that by the Fall
they wanted to be delivered from the State of the Devils, and
yet not allow, that by the Fall, they got the Nature of the
Devils ? Can any Thing be more absurd and inconsistent ? Is
it not, the same Thing as saying, that God made them Heirs of
Eternal Death and Hell, before they were by Nature fit for it,
or before they had extinguished in themselves the Divine Life
which was at first brought forth in them.
Again : It is a Scripture Doctrine of the utmost Certainty and
Importance, that those Souls which have totally resisted and
withstood all that God has done in them and for them by his
Son Jesus Christ, will, at their Departure from the Body, be
incapable of any Thing but Eternal Death, or a hellish Con
dition. Now, how can you possibly hold this Doctrine of
Scripture, without holding at the same Time, that the Soul
was in that State by the Fall, before it had received its
Redeemer, as it is then in, when it has refused to receive him ;
for all that you can say of a lost Soul is only this, that it has
lost its Redeemer, and therefore is only in the Condition of that
Soul which has not received him : And therefore, if a lost Soul is
only an unredeemed Soul, it must be plain, that the Soul, before
it had received its Redeemer, was in the miserable Condition,
and had the miserable Nature of a Lost Soul ; and therefore,
the only Difference between the fallen Soul, and the lost Soul is
this, they are both in the same need of a Saviour, both have the
same miserable Nature, because they have him not ; but the one
has the Offer of him, and the other has refused to accept of
Him : But his final Refusal of him, has only left him in
Possession of that fallen State of a hellish Condition, which it
had before a Saviour was given to it ; and therefore, it is a Truth
of the utmost Certainty, that Adam, by his Fall, died to the
Divine Life, and that by this Death, his Soul became of the
same Nature and Condition with the fallen Angels ; and that
therefore that new Birth or Regeneration, which he is to obtain

92 An Appeal to all who doubt
by his Redeemer Jesus Christ, is nothing else but the bringing
back his Soul into the Kingdom of Heaven, by a Birth of the
Son and Holy Spirit of God brought forth in it, that so the Life
of the triune God may be in him again, as it was at his Creation,
when his Soul was first breathed forth from the triune God. Is
there any Thing more great, more glorious, or more consistent
than these Truths ? Or is there any Possibility of denying any
Part of them, without giving up the whole ? Or is there any
Reason, why a Christian should be loath to believe this, and this
alone, to be the true State of that Regeneration which is so
absolutely required by the Gospel ? Is it an unreasonable or
uncomfortable Thing to be told, that our Regeneration is a true
and real Regaining that heavenly, Divine, immortal Life which
at first came forth from God, and which alone can enter into
the Kingdom of Heaven ?
Say that Adam did not die a real Death at his Transgression,
that he did not lose a Divine, immortal Life, Light and Spirit,
that he did not then first become a mere earthly, mortal,
Diabolical Animal in the true and proper Sense of the Words,
but that these Things could only be affirmed of him in a figura
tive Form of Speech ; say this, and then tell me what Reality
you have left in any Article of our Salvation ?
But if all these Things must be said of fallen Man according
to the strictest Truth of the Expression, then the Gospel Re
generation, by a Birth of the Son and Holy Spirit of God, arising
a second Time, in the Soul of Man, must mean such a real Birth
of a new heavenly Life, as the proper Sense of the Words
denote. 30. But to return now to my Argumentation with the Deist.
I have plainly shown you, that there is, and can be but one
kind of Death through all Nature, whether temporal or eternal ;
and this I have done, by showing that Eternal Death in an Angel,
is the same Thing, and has the same Nature, as the hard Death
that is in a senseless Flint. But if it be a certain Truth, that
Death has but one Way of entering into, or possessing any Being
from the highest of spiritual to the lowest of material Creatures,
then, though nothing else could be offered, it must be an in
fallible Consequence, that Life has but one Way of being kindled
throughout all Nature, and that therefore there can be but one
true Religion, and that only can be it, which hath the one only
way of kindling the heavenly Life in the Soul.
Now, look where you will, the Birth or kindling of Life through
all Nature shows you, that the Way of Gospel Regeneration, or
Raising the Divine Life again in the fallen Soul, is that one
and the same Way, by which every kind of Life is, and must be

the Truths of the (gospel. 93
raised, wherever it is found. The Gospel saith, unless the fallen
Soul be born again from above, be born again of the Word, or
Son, and the Spirit of God, it cannot see, or enter into the King
dom of Heaven : Now here it says a Truth, as much confirmed
and ratified by all Nature, as when it is said, except a Creature
hath the Light and Spirit of this World born in it, it cannot
become a living Animal of this World : Or, except a Seed have
the Light and Spirit of this World incorporated in it, it cannot
become a Vegetable of this World, either as Plant, Fruit, or
Flower. Ask now wherein lies the absolute Impossibility, that
the fallen Soul should be raised to its Divine Life, without a
Birth of the Son and Holy Spirit of God in it, and the true
Ground ofthis Impossibility is only this, because a .SV^shut up
in its own cold hardness, cannot possibly be raised into its highest
Vegetable Life, but by a Birth of the Light and Spirit of this
World rising up in it.
On the other hand, ask why a Seed cannot possibly become a
Vegetable Life, till the Light and Spirit of this World has been
incorporated, or generated in it ; and the only true Ground of it
is, because a fallen Soul can only be raised to a Divine Life, or
become a Plant of the Kingdom of Heaven, by receiving the
Birth of the Light and Spirit of God into it. For the true
Reason, why Life is in such a Form, and rises in such a Manner
in the lowest Creature living, is because it does, and must arise
in the same matmer, and stand in the same Form in the highest
of Living Creatures : For Nature does, and must always act
and generate in one and the same unchangeable Manner, because
it is nothing else but the Manifestation of one unchangeable
God. It is one and the same Operation of Light and Spirit, that
turns Fire into every Degree and kind of Life that can be found
either in temporal or eternal Nature : It is one and the same
Operation of Light and Spirit, that upon one State of Fire, raises
only a vegetable Life, upon another State of Fire, raises an animal
Life, upon another State of Fire, raises an intellectual and angelical
Life. There is no State or Form of Death in any Creature, but
where some kind of Fire is shut up from Light and Spirit, nor is
there any kind of Life but what is kindled by the same Operation
of Light and Spirit upon some sort of Fire.
A Fruit must first stand in a poisonous, sour, astringent, bitter,
and fiery Agitation of all its Parts, before the Light and Spirit of
this World can be generated in it. And thus Light and Spirit
operate upon one sort of Fire in the Production of a vegetable
Life.

94 An Appeal to all who doubt
An Animal must be conceived in the same manner, it must
begin in the same Poison, and when Nature is in its fiery Strife,
the Light and Spirit of this World kindles up the true animal
Life. Thus also there is but one kind, or State of Death that can
fall upon any Creature, which is nothing else, but its losing the
Birth of Light and Spirit in itself, by which it becomes an im
prisoned, dark Fire. In an Animal, Vegetable, or mere Matter,
it is a senseless State of imprisoned Fire ; in an Angel, or intel
lectual Being, as the Soul of Man, it is a self -tormenting, self-
generating, fiery Worm, that cannot lose its Sensibility, but is in
a State of Eternal Death, because it is separated eternally from
that Light and Spirit, which alone can raise a Divine Life in any
intellectual Creature.
And thus it is plain, beyond all Possibility of Doubt, that there
is neither Life nor Death to be found in any Part of the Creation
but what sets its infallible Seal to this Gospel Truth, that fallen
Man cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven any other Way,
than by being born again of the Son and Holy Spirit of
God. 31. And here, my Friend, you may with Certainty see what
a poor, groundless Fiction, your Religion of Human Reason is ;
its Insignificancy and Emptiness is shown you by every Thing
you can look upon.
Salvation is a Birth of Life, but Reason can no more bring
forth this Birth, than it can kindle Life in a Plant, or Animal y
You might as well write the Word Flame, upon the outside of a
Flint, and then expect that its imprisoned Fire should be kindled
by it, as to imagine, that any Images, or Ideal Speculations of
Reason painted in your Brain, should raise your Soul out of its
State of Death, and kindle the Divine Life in it. No : Would
you have Fire from a Flint ; its House of Death must be shaken,
and its Chains of Darkness broken off by the Strokes of a Steel
upon it. This must of all Necessity be done to your Soul, its
imprisoned Fire must be awakened by the sharp Strokes of Steel,
or no true Light of Life can arise in it : All Nature and Creature
tells you, that the Heavenly Life must begin in you from the
same Causes, and the same Operation as every earthly Life,
whether vegetable, or animal, does in this World.*
Now, look where you will, all Life must be generated in this
Manner: First, an Attraction, or an astringing Desire, must work
itself into an anguishing Agitation, ox painful Strife ; this Attrac
tion become restless, and highly agitated, is that first Poison, or
* Way to Divine Knowledge, page 162, &-v.

the Truths of the Qospel. 95
Strife of the Properties of Nature, which is and must be the
Beginning of every Vegetable ox Animal Life ; it is by this Strife,
or inward Agitation, that it reaches and gets a Birth of the Light
and Spirit of this World into it, and so becomes a Living
Member, either ofthe animal or vegetable World.
Now, this must be your Process, a Desire brought into an
anguishing State ; or the bitter Sorrows and fiery Agitations of
Repentance, must be the Beginning of a Divine Life in your
Soul ; 'tis by this awakened Fire, or inward Agitation, that it
becomes capable of being regenerated, or turned into an heavenly
Life, by the Light and Holy Spirit of God.
Nothing is, or can possibly be Salvation, but this regenerated
Life of the Soul : How vain and absurd would it be, to talk of a
Creature's being made a Member of a vegetable or animal
Kingdom, through an outward Grace or Favour? or by any
outward Thing of any kind ? For does not Sense, Reason, and
all Nature force you to confess, that it is absolutely impossible
for any Thing to become a Living Member of the animal or
vegetable Kingdom, but by having the animal or vegetable Life
raised or brought forth in it ? Therefore, does not Sense and
Reason, and all Nature join with the Gospel in affirming, that
no Man can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, till the Heavenly
Life, or that which is the Life in Heaven, be born in him ?
The Gospel says to the fallen, earthly Man, that he must be
born again from above, before he can see, enter into, or become a
Living Member of the Kingdom that is above.
Now, he that understands this to be a figurative Saying, that
requires no real Birth of a real Life that is only above, but that
an earthly Man may enter into the Life of Heaven, by only
carrying this figurative Saying along with him, is as absurd, as
ignorant, and offends as much against Sense, Reason, and all
Nature, as he who holds, that it is a figurative Expression, when
we say that nothing can enter into the vegetable Kingdom, till
it has the vegetable Life in it, or be a Member of the Animal
Kingdom, till it hath the Animal Life born in it.*
And if some Learned Men will say, that it is Religious
Enthusiasm to place our Salvation, or Capacity for the Kingdom
of Heaven in the inward Life or Birth of Heaven derived into
our Souls, they are only as learned as those who should call it
Philosophical Enthusiasm to place the true Nature of a Vegetable,
or Animal, in its getting the inward, real Birth of a Vegetable
and Animal Life. But to return to the Deist.
You act as if God was a Being that had an arbitrary, discre-
* Way to Divine Knowledge, page 1 59.

96 An Appeal to all who doubt
tionary Will, or Wisdom, like that of a great Prince over his
Subjects, who will reward Mankind according as their Services
appeared to him. And so you fancy, that your Religion of Reason
may appear as valuable as a Religion that consists of Forms, and
Modes, Ordinances, and Doctrines of Revelation ; but your Idea
of the last Judgment is a Fiction of Reason that knows nothing
rightly of God. God's last rewarding, is only his last separating
every Thing into its own Eternal Place ; it is only putting an
end to all temporary Nature, to the Mixture of Good and Evil
that is in Time, and leaving every Thing to be That in Eternity,
which it has made itself to be in Time. Thus it is that our
Works follow us, and thus God rewards every Man according to
his Deeds.*
During the Time of this World, God may be considered as
the good Husbandman ; he sows the Seed, the End of the
World is the Harvest, the Angels are the Reapers ; if you are
Wheat, you are to be gathered into the Barn, if you are Tares, it
signifies nothing, whence, or how, or by what Means you are
become so ; Tares are to be rejected, because they are Tares,
and Wheat to be gathered by the Angels, because it is Wheat :
This is the Mercy, and Goodness, and Discretionary Justice of
God that you are to expect at the last Day. If you are not
Wheat, that is, if the heavenly Life, or the Kingdom of God, is
not grown up in you, it signifies nothing what you have chosen
in the stead of it, or why you have chosen it, you are not That,
which alone can help you to a Place in the Divine Granary.
God wants no Services of Men to reward, he only wants to
have such a Life quickened and raised up in you, as may make
it possible for you to enter into, and live in Heaven.
He has created you out of his own Eternal Nature, and there
fore you must have either an Eternal Life, or Eternal Death
according to it. If eternal Nature standeth in you, as it doth
without you, then you are born again to the Kingdom of
Heaven ; but if Nature works contrary in you to what it does in
Heaven, then you are in Eternal Death : And here lies the
Necessity of our being born again of the Word and Spirit of
God, in order to the Kingdom of Heaven. It is because we are
created out of that eternal Nature which is the Kingdom of
Heaven ; 'tis because we are fallen out of it into a Life of
temporal Nature, and therefore must have the Life of eternal
Nature re-kindled in us, before we can possibly enter into the
Kingdom of Heaven : Therefore, look where you will, or at
what you will, there is only one Thing to be done, we want
* Way to Divine. Knowledge, pages 169-183.

the Truths of the (jospel. 97
Nothing else, but to have the Light World, or the life of Eternal
Nature kindled again in our Souls, that Life, and Light, and
Spirit may be That in our Souls, which they are in Eternal
Nature, out of which our Souls were created ; that so we may be
heavenly Plants growing up to the Kingdom of Heaven.*
You deceive yourself with fancied Notions of the Goodness of
God ; you imagine, that so perfect a Being cannot damn you
for so small a Matter, as choosing a Religion according to your
own Notions, or for not joining yourself with this, or that
Religious Society.
But all this is great Ignorance of God, and Nature, and
Religion. God has appointed a Religion, by which Salvation is
to be had according to the Possibility of Nature, where no
Creature will be saved, or lost, but as it works with, or contrary
to Nature. For as the God of Nature cannot himself act
contrary to Nature, because Nature is the Manifestation of
himself, so every Creature having its Life in, and from Nature,
can have only such a Life, or such a Death as is according to the
Possibility of Nature : And therefore, no Creature will be saved,
by an arbitrary Goodness of God, but because of its Conformity
to Nature, nor any Creature lost by a Want of Compassion in
God, but because of its Salvation being impossible, according to
the whole State of Nature.
It is not for Notional, or Speculative Mistakes, that Man will
be rejected by God at the last Day, or for any Crimes that God
could over-look, if he was so pleased ; but because Man has
continued in his unregenerate State, and has resisted and
suppressed that Birth of Life, by which alone he could become
a Member of the Kingdom of Heaven. The Goodness and Love
of God have no Limits or Bounds, but such as his Omnipotence
hath : And every Thing that hath a Possibility of partaking of
the Kingdom of Heaven, will infallibly find a Place in it.
God comes not to Judgment to display any Wrath of his own,
or to inflict any Punishment as from Himself upon Man : He
only comes to declare, that all temporary Nature is at an End,
and that therefore, all Things must be, and stand in their own
Places in Eternal Nature : His Sentence of Condemnation, is
only a leaving them that are lost, in such a Misery of their own
Nature, as has finally rejected all that was possible to relieve it.
You fancy that God will not reject you at the last Day, for
having not received this, or that Mode, or Kind of Religion :
But here all is Mistake again. You might as well imagine, that
no particular kind of Element was necessary to extinguish

* Way to Divine Knowledge, pages 186-195.

98 An Appeal to all who doubt
Fire, or that Water can supply the Place of Air in kindling it,
as suppose that no particular kind of Religion is absolutely
necessary to raise up such a Divine Life in the Soul as can only
be its Salvation ; for Nature is the Ground of all Creatures, it
is God's Manifestation of himself, it is his Instrument in, and by
which he acts in the Production and Government of every Life;
and therefore a Life that is to belong to this World, must be
raised according to temporal Nature, and a Life that is to live in
the next World, must be raised according to Eternal Nature.
Therefore, all the particular Doctrines, Institutions, Mysteries,
and Ordinances of a revealed Religion that comes from the God
of Nature, must have their Reason, Foundation, and Necessity in
Nature ; and then your renouncing such a revealed Religion, is
renouncing all that the God of Nature can do to save you.
When I speak of Nature as the true Ground and Foundation
of Religion, I mean nothing like that which you call the
Religion of Human Reason, or Nature ; for I speak here of
Eternal Nature, which is the Nature ofthe Kingdom of Heaven,
or that Eternal State, where all redeemed Souls must have
their Eternal Life, and live in Eternal Nature by a Life derived
from it, as Men and Animals live in temporal Nature, by a Life
derived from it ; for, seeing Man stands with his Soul in
Eternal Nature, as certainly as he lives outwardly in temporal
Nature, and seeing Man can have nothing in this World,
neither Happiness, nor Misery from it, but what is according to
temporal Nature, so he can with his Soul, attain nothing, nor
suffer nothing in the next World, but what is according to the
Eternal Nature of that World ; and therefore, it is an infallible
Truth, that that particular Religion can alone do us any Good,
or help us to the Happiness of the next World, which works
with, and according to Eternal Nature, and is able to generate
that Eternal Life in us. But your Notion of a Goodness of
God that may be expected at the last Day, is as groundless, as
if you imagined, that God would then stand over his Creatures
in a compassionate kind of weighing or considering who should
be saved, and who damned, because a good-natured Prince
might do so towards Variety of Offenders.
But hear how the God of Nature himself speaks of this
Matter : Behold, I have set before thee, Life and Death, Fire and
Water, — choose whitfier thou wilt. Here lies the Whole of the
Divine Mercy ; 'tis all on this side the Day of Judgment : Till
the End of Time, God is compassionate and long-suffering, and
continues to every Creature a Power of choosing Life or Death,
Water or Fire ; but when the End of Time is come, there is an
End of Choice, and the last Judgment is only a putting

the Truths of the Qospel. 99
everyone into the full and sole Possession of That which he
has chosen.
But your Notion of a Goodness of God at the last Day
supposes, that if a Man has erroneously chosen Death instead of
Life, Fire instead of Water, that God will not suffer such a
Creature to be deprived of Salvation through a mistaken Choice ;
but that in such a Creature, he will make Death to be Life, and
Fire to be Water. But you might as well expect, that God
should make a Thing to be, and not to be at the same Time ;
for this is as possible as to make Hell to be Heaven, or Death
to be Life : For Darkness can no more be Light, Death can no
more be Life, Fire can no more be Water in any Being through
a Compassion of God towards it, than a Circle could be a Square,
a Falsehood a Truth, or two to be more than three, by God's
looking upon them.
32. Our Salvation is an Entrance into the Kingdom of
Heaven ; now, the Life, Light and Spirit of Heaven must as
necessarily be in a Creature before it can live in Heaven, as the
Life, Light and Spirit of this World must be in a Creature
before it can live in this World : Therefore the one only Religion
that can save any one Son of fallen Adam, must be that which
can raise ox generate the Life, Light and Spirit of Heaven in his
Soul, that when the Light and Spirit of this World leaves him,
he may not find himself in eternal Death and Darkness.
Now if this Light and Spirit of Heaven is generated in your
Soul as it is generated in Heaven, if it arises up in your
Nature within you, as it does in eternal Nature without you,
(which is the Christian new Birth, or Regeneration) then you
are become capable of the Kingdom of Heaven, and nothing
can keep you out of it ; but if you die without this Birth of the
Eternal Light and Spirit of God, then your Soul stands in the
same Distance from, and Contrariety to the Kingdom of Heaven,
as Hell does : If you die in this unregenerate State, it signifies
nothing how you have lived, or what Religion you have owned,
all is left undone that was to have saved you : It matters not
what Form of Life you have appeared in, what a Number of
decent, engaging or glorious Exploits you have done either as a
Scholar, a Statesman, or a Philosopher ; it they have proceeded
only from the Light and Spirit of this World, they must die
with it, and leave your Soul in that Eternal Darkness, which it
must have, so long as the Light and Spirit of Eternity is not
generated in it.
And this is the true Ground and Reason, why an outward
Morality, a Decency and Beauty of Life and Conduct with respect
to this World, arising only from a Worldly Spirit, has nothing
7—2

ioo An Appeal to all who doubt
of Salvation in it : He that has his Virtue only from this World,
is only a Trader of this World, and can only have a Worldly
Benefit from it. For it is an undoubted Truth, that every
Thing is necessarily bounded by, or kept within the Sphere of
its own Activity ; and therefore, to expect Heavenly Effects
from a Worldly Spirit, is Nonsense : As Water cannot rise
higher in its Streams, than the Spring from whence it cometh,
so no Actions can ascend further in their Efficacy, or rise
higher in their Value, than the Spirit from whence they proceed.
The Spirit that comes from Heaven is always in Heaven, and
whatsoever it does, tends to, and reaches Heaven : The Spirit
that arises from this World, is always in it ; it is as worldly
when it gives Alms, or prays in the Church, as when it makes
Bargains in the Market. When therefore the Gospel saith,
He that gives Alms to be seen of Men, hath his Reward ; it is
grounded on this general Truth, That every Thing, every
Shape, or kind or degree of Virtue that arises from the Spirit of
this World, has nothing to expect but That which it can receive
from this World : For every Action must have its Nature, and
Efficacy according to the Spirit from whence it proceeds. He
that loves to see a Crucifix, a worthless Image, solely from this
Principle, because from his Heart he embraces Christ as his
suffering Lord and Pattern, does an Action poor, and needless
in itself, which yet by the Spirit from whence it proceeds,
reaches Heaven, and helps to kindle the heavenly Life in the
Soul. On the other hand, he that from a selfish Heart, a
Worldly Spirit, a Love of Esteem, distinguishes himself by the
most rational Virtues of an exemplary Life, has only a Piety
that may be reckoned amongst the perishable Things of this
World. 33. You (the Deist) think it a Partiality unworthy of God, when
you hear that the Salvation of Mankind is attributed and appro
priated to Faith and Prayer in the Name of Jesus Christ. It •
must be answered, First, That there is no Partiality of any kind
in God ; every Thing is accepted by him according to its own
Nature, and receives all the Good from him that it can possibly
receive : Secondly, That a Morality of Life, not arising from the
Power and Spirit of Jesus Christ, but brought forth by the Spirit
of this World, is the same Thing, has the same Nature and
Efficacy in a Heathen, as a Christian, does only the same worldly
Good to the one, as it does to the other ; therefore, there is not
the least Partiality in God, with respect to the Moral Works of
Mankind, considered as arising from, and directed by the Spirit
of this World.
Now, were these the only Works that Man could do, could he

the Truths of the (jospel. 101

only act from the Spirit of this World, no Flesh could be saved,
that is, no earthly Creature, such as Man is, could possibly begin
to be of a heavenly Nature, or have a heavenly Life brought
forth in him ; so it is only a Spirit from Heaven derived into the
fallen Nature, that makes any Beginning of a heavenly Life in
it, that can lay the Possibility of its having the least Ability,
Tendency, and Disposition towards the Kingdom of Heaven.
This Spirit derived from Heaven, is the Birth ofthe Son of God,
given to the Soul as its Saviour, Regenerator, or Beginner of its
Return to Heaven ; it is that Word of Life, or Bruiser of the
Serpent, that was in-spoken into the first fallen Father of Men ;
'tis this alone that gives to all the Race of Adam their Capacity
for Salvation, their Power of being again Sons of God ; and
therefore, Faith and Prayer in the Name of Jesus Christ, or
Works done in the Spirit and Power of Jesus Christ can alone
save the Soul, because the Soul can have no Relation to Heaven,
no Communion with it, no Beginning or Power of Growth in the
heavenly Life, but solely by the Nature and Name of Jesus
Christ derived into it. God's Redemption of Mankind is as
universal as the Fall : It was the one Father of all Men that
fell, therefore, all his Children were born into his fallen State :
It was the one Father of all Men that was redeemed by the in-
spoken Word of Life into him ; therefore, all his Children are
born into his State of Redemption, and have as certainly the
same Bruiser of the Serpent in the Birth of their Life from
him, as they have from him a Serpentine Nature that is to be
bruised. Hence it was, that this Bruiser of the Serpent, when born of
a Virgin, and come to die for the World, saith of himself, ' I am
'the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no Man cometh unto the
' Father but by me.' Hence also the Apostle saith, ' There is
' no other Name under Heaven given among Men, whereby we
' must be saved,' — because he is that same saving Name, or Power
of Salvation which from the Beginning was given to Adam, as
an in-spoken Word of Life, or Bruiser of the Serpent : And
therefore, as sure as Adam had any Power oi Salvation derived
into him from Jesus Christ, so sure was it, that the Apostle must
tell, both Jews and Heathens, that there was no Salvation in any
other. Therefore, though Jesus Christ is the one only Saviour of all
that can anywhere, or at any Time be saved, yet there is no
Partiality in God, because, this same Jesus Christ, who came
in Human Flesh to the Jews in a certain Age, was that same
Saviour who was given to Adam, when all Mankind were in his
Loins ; and who, through all Ages, and in all Countries, from

102 An Appeal to all who doubt

the first Patriarchs to the End of the World, is the common
Saviour, as he is the common Light that lighteth every Man that
cometh into the World, and that Principle of Life both in Jews
and Heathens, by which they had any Relation to God, or any
Power, or Right, or Ability to call him Father. When therefore
you look upon the Gospel as narrowing the Way of Salvation,
or limiting it to those, who only know and believe in Jesus
Christ, since his Appearance in the Flesh, you mistake the whole
Nature of the Christian Redemption.
And when you reject this Saviour that then appeared, and died
as a Sacrifice upon the Cross, you don't renounce a particular
kind of Religion, that was given only at a certain Time to one
Part of the World, but you renounce the one Source and Foun
tain of all the Grace and Mercy that God can bestow upon
Mankind, you renounce your Share of that first Covenant which
God made with all Men in Adam, you go back into his first
fallen State, and so put yourself into that Condition of Eternal
Death, from which there is no Possibility of Deliverance, but by
that one Saviour whom you have renounced.
And now, my dear Friend, beware of Prejudice, or Hardness
of Heart : One careless, or one relenting Thought upon all that
is here laid before you, may either quite shut out, or quite open
an Entrance for true Conviction. I have shown you what is
meant by Christian Redemption, and the absolute Necessity of
a new and heavenly Birth, in order to obtain your Share of a
heavenly Life in the next World : I have confirmed the Truths
of the Gospel, by Proofs taken from what is undeniable in
Nature : And I readily grant you that nothing can be true in
revealed Religion, but what has its Foundation in Nature ;
because a Religion coming from the God of Nature, can have
no other End but to reform, and set right the Failings, Trans
gressions, and Violations of Nature. When the Gospel saith
that Man fallen from the State of his Creation, and become an
earthly Animal of this temporal World, must be born again of
the Son and Holy Spirit of God, in order to be a heavenly
Creature ; 'tis because all Nature saith, that an immortal, eternal
Soul, must have an immortal, eternal Light and Spirit, to make
it live in Eternal Nature, as every Animal must have a temporal
Light and Spirit, in order to live in temporary Nature. Must you
not therefore either deny the Immortality of the Soul, or acknow
ledge the Necessity of its having an Eternal Light and Spirit?
When the Gospel saith, that nothing can kindle or generate the
heavenly Life, but the Operation of the Light and Spirit oi
Heaven, it is because all Nature saith, that no temporal Life can
be raised but in the same manner in temporary Nature. Must

the Truths of the Qospel. 103

you not therefore be forced to confess, that Nature and the
Gospel both preach the same Truths.
Light and Spirit must be wherever there are living Beings :
And there must be the same Difference betwixt the Light and
Spirit of different Worlds, as there is betwixt the Worlds them
selves. Hell must have its Light, or it could have no living
Inhabitants, but its Light is not so refreshing, not so gentle, not
so delightful, not so comfortable as flashing Points of Fire in the
thickest Darkness of Night ; and therefore their Light is called
an Eternal Darkness, because it can never disperse, but only
horribly discover Darkness : Hell also must have its Spirit ; but
it is only an incessant Sensibility of wrathful Agitations, of
which the Thunder and Rage of a Tempest is but a low, shadowy
Resemblance, as being only a little outward Eruption of That
Wrath, which is the inward, restless Essence of the Spirit of
Hell ; and therefore that Life, though it be a living Spirit, is
j ustly called an Eternal Death.
The Light and Spirit of God admit of no Delineation or
Comparison, they are only so far known to anyone, as they are
brought into the Soul by a Birth of themselves in it.
Now consider, I pray you : The Light and Spirit of this
World can no more be the Light and Spirit of immortal Souls,
than Grass and Hay can be the Food of Angels ; but is as
different from the Light and Spirit of Heaven, as an Angel is
different from a Beast of the Field. When therefore the Soul
of a Man departs from his Body, and is eternally cut off from all
temporal Light and Spirit, what is it that can keep such a Soul
from falling into Eternal Darkness, unless it have in itself, that
Light and Spirit, which is of the same Nature with the Light
and Spirit of Eternity, so that it may be in the Light of Heaven
or Eternal Nature, as it was in the Light of this World in
temporary Nature.
Light and Spirit there must be in every Thing that lives, but
the Death of the Body takes away the Light and Spirit of this
World ; if therefore the Light and Spirit of Heaven be not born
in the Soul when it loses the Body, it can only have that Light
and Spirit, which is the very Death and Darkness of Hell.
When Man lost the Light and Spirit of his Creation, he lost
it by turning the Will and Desire of his Soul into an Earthly
Life ; this was his Desire of knowing Good and Evil in this
World. His Fall therefore consisted in this, his Soul lost its
first innate, in-breathed Light and Spirit of Heaven, and instead
of it, had only the Light and Spirit of Temporary Nature, to
keep up for a Time such a Life in him from this World, as the
proper Creatures of this World have : And this is the Reason,

04 An Appeal to all who doubt

why Man, the noblest Creature that is in this World, has yet
various Circumstances of Necessity, Poverty, Distress and
Shame, that are not common to other Animals of this World.
'Tis because the Creatures of this Life are here at home, are the
proper Inhabitants of this World, and therefore that Womb out
of which they are born, has provided them with all that they
want ; but Man being only fallen into it, and as a Transgressor,
must in many Respects find himself in such Wants as other
Creatures have not. Transitory Time has brought them forth,
and therefore they can have no Pain, nor Concern, nor Danger
in passing away , because it is the very Form of their Nature, to
begin, and to have an End : And therefore the God of Nature
has no outward Laws, or Directions for the Creatures of this
World. But the Soul of Man being not born of the Light and Spirit of
this transitory World, but only standing a while as a Stranger
upon Earth, and being under a Necessity of having either the
Nature of an Angel, or a Devil, when it leaves this World, is met
by the Mercy and Goodness of the God of Nature, is inwardly
and outwardly called, warned, directed, and assisted how to
regain that Light and Spirit of Heaven which it lost, when it
fell under the temporary Light and Spirit of this World. And
this is the whole Ground and End of revealed Religion, viz., to
kindle such a Beginning or Birth of the Divine Light and Spirit
in the Soul, that when Man must take an Eternal Leave of the
Light and Spirit of this World, he may not be in a State of
Eternal Death and Darkness.
Now, seeing the Light and Spirit of Heaven or Eternal
Nature, is as different from the Light and Spirit of this World,
as an Angel is from an Animal of the Field, if you have lived
here only to the Spirit and Temper of this World, governed by
its Goods and Evils, and only wise according to its Wisdom, you
must die as destitute of the Light and Spirit of Heaven, as the
Beasts that perish. You have now an Aversion and Dislike, or
at least, a Disbelief oi the Doctrines of Christian Regeneration,
you struggle against this Kind of Redemption, you would have
no Salvation from the Light and Spirit of Eternity regenerated
in your Soul ; where then must you be, when the Light and
Spirit of this World leaves you ?
Do you think that the Light and Spirit of God will then seize
upon you, shine up in you by an outward Force, though they
never could be born in you ? Or do you think, that the Light
and Spirit of God can now be generating themselves in you, and
ready to appear, as soon as you have ended a Life, that has
continually resisted them, and would have no new Birth from

the Truths of the Qospel. 105

them ? Or that God, by a compassionate Goodness, will not
suffer you to be in that Condition, into which your own Will has
brought you ? No, my Friend, the Will that is in you, must do
That for you, which the Will that was in Angels did for those
that stood, and for those that fell.
God's Goodness or Compassion is always in the same infinite
State, always flowing forth, in and through all Nature in the
same infinite Manner, and nothing wants it, but that which
cannot receive it : Whilst the Angels stood, they stood encom
passed with the infinite Source of all Goodness and Compassion,
God was communicated to them in as high a Degree as their
Nature could receive ; and they fell, not because he ceased to
be an infinite, open Fountain of all Good to them, but because
they had a Will which must direct itself.
For the Will, at its first arising in the Creature, can be
subject to no outward Power, because it has no outward Maker ;
as it stands in a creaturely Form, God is its true Creator ; but
as a Will, it has no outward Maker, but is a Ray, or Spark,
derived from the Unbeginning Will of the Creator, and is of the
same Nature in the Creature, as it was in the Creator, self-
existent, self-generating, self-moving, and uncontrollable from
without ; and there could not possibly be a free Will in the
Creature, but by its being directly derived, or propagated from
the same Will in the Creator, for Nothing can be free now, but
that which always was so.
But if the free Will of God, which is above and superior to
Nature, be communicated to the Creature, then the Creature's
free Will must have the same Power over its one Nature, that
the Will of God has over that Eternal Nature, which is his own
Manifestation : And therefore, every free Creature must have,
and find its own Nature in this, or that State, as a Birth from
the free Working of its own Will. And here appears the true
Reason, why no Creatures of this World can commit Sin ; 'tis
because they have no Will that is superior to Nature : Their
Will in every one of them, is only the Will of Nature ; and
therefore let them do what they will, they are always doing that
which is natural, and consequently, not sinful. But the Will of
Angels and Men being an Offspring, or Ray, derived from the
Will of God, which is superior to Nature, stands chargeable with
the State and Condition of their Nature; and therefore it is,
that the Nature of the Devil, and the Nature of fallen Man is
imputed to both of them, as their Sin, which could not be, but
because their Will was uncontrollable, and gave Birth and
Being to that State and Condition of Nature, which is called,
and is their Sin.

106 An Appeal to all who doubt
Therefore, O Man ! look well to thyself, and see what Birth
thou art bringing forth, what Nature is growing up in Thee, and
be assured, that stand thou must, in that State in Nature, which
the Working of thy own Will has brought forth in Thee, whether
it be happy or miserable. Expect no Arbitrary Goodness, of
God towards Thee, when thou leavest this World ; for that
must grow for ever which hath grown here. God hath created
thee in Nature, his Mercy hath shown Thee all the Laws and
Necessities of Nature, and how Thou mayest rise from Thy Cor
ruption, according to the Possibilities of Nature, and He can only
save Thee by thy conforming to the Demands of Nature : The
Greatness of the Divine Mercy and Favour towards all Men
appears in this, that when all Nature had failed, and Mankind
could from Nature have nothing but Eternal Death, that God
brought such a Second Adam into the World, as being God and
Man, could make Nature begin its Work again, where it failed
in the first Adam.
The free Grace and Mercy by which we are said in the Scrip
ture to be saved, is not an arbitrary Good Will in God, which
saves whom he pleases ; as a Prince may forgive some, and not
forgive others, merely through his own Sovereign Grace and
Favour : Nothing of this Kind hath any Place in God, or in the
Mystery of our Redemption ; but the Mercy and Grace, by
which we are saved, is therefore free, because God hath freely,
and from his own Goodness, put us into a State and Possibility
of Salvation, by freely giving us Jesus Christ, (the Divine and
Human Nature united in one Person) as the only Means of
regenerating that first Divine and Human Life, which the whole
Race of Mankind had lost. In this sense alone it is, that all our
Salvation is wholly owing to the free Grace of God, that is, our
State, and Possibility, and Means of attaining Salvation is wholly
owing to his free Grace in giving us Jesus Christ ; but our Sal
vation, considered as a finished Thing, is not, cannot be found
by any Act of God's free Grace towards us, but because all That
is done, altered, removed, suppressed, quickened, and recovered
by us in the State of our Nature, which the free Grace of God
had furnished us with the Possibility and Means of doing. If
Nature and Creature had no Share in working out our Salva
tion ; if it was all free Grace, effected against, and without the
Powers of Nature, how comes it, that the fallen Angels are not
to be redeemed as well as Man? Must we say that God is less
good to them than he is to us ? Or if they are not redeemed,
can there be any other Reason for it, but because it is an Impos
sibility in Nature ? Must not an infinite Good do all the Good
that is wanted, and is possible to be done ? If free Grace can

the Truths of the Qospel. 107

do what it pleases, if it wants no Concurrence of Nature and
Creature, how can any Being, whether Man or Angel, be eternally
miserable, but through an Eternal Defect in the Goodness of
God towards it? Shall we call that infinite Goodness, which
sets Bounds and Limits to itself, and which could do more Good,
but will not ?
The Truth of the Matter is this, God is as infinite and bound
less in Love and Goodness, as he is in Power, but his Omni
potence can only do that which is possible, and nothing is
possible but that which hath its Possibility in Nature ; because
Nature is God's first Power, his great, universal Manifestation of
his Deity, in and through, and by which all his infinite Attributes
break forth, and display themselves : So that to expect, that God
should do any Thing that is above, or contrary to this Nature, is
as absurd as to expect that God should act above, or contrary to
himself : As God can only make a Creature to be in, and through,
and by Nature ; so the Reason why he cannot make a Creature
to be, and not to be at the same Time, is only this, because it is
contrary to Nature. Let no Man therefore trust to be saved at
the last Day, by any arbitrary Goodness, or free Grace of God ;
for Salvation is, and can be nothing else, but the having put off
all that is damnable and hellish in our Nature, which Salvation
can be found by no Creature but by its own full conforming to,
and concurring with those Mysterious Means, which the free Grace
of God hath afforded for the Recovery of our first, perfect,
glorious State in Nature.

Chapter II.
Of Eternal and Temporal Nature. How
Nature is from God, and the Scene of his
Action. How the Creatures are out of it.
Temporal Nature created out of that which
is eternal. The fallen Angels brought the
first Disorders into Nature. This World
created to repair those Disorders. Whence
Good and Evil is in every Thing of this

108 An Appeal to all who doubt
World. How Heaven and Hell make up
the Whole of this World. How the Fire of
this World differs from eternal Fire ; and
the Matter of this World from the Materi
ality of Heaven. Eternal Nature is the
Kingdom of Heaven, the beatific Manifes
tation of the triune God. God is mere
Love and Goodness. How Wrath and
Anger come to be ascribed to him. Of
Fire in general. Of the Unbeginning Fire.
Of the Spirituality of Fire. How Fire
comes to be in material Things. Whence
the Possibility of kindling Fire in the
Things of this World. Every Man is,
and must be the Kindler of his own Eternal

Fire, c&fc.
i. "V ~JT TAS there no Nature, there could be no Creature,
\ /%/ because the Life of every Creature is, and can
yf yf be nothing else, but the Life of that Nature out
of which it was created, and in which it has its
Being. Eternal Beings must have their Qualities, Nature, Form
and Manner of Existence out of Eternal Nature, and temporal
Beings out of temporary Nature : Was there no Eternity, there
could be no Time, was there nothing infinite, there could be
nothing finite ; therefore we have here two great fundamental
Truths that cannot be shaken ; First, That there is, and must be,
an Eternal Nature ; because there is a Nature that is temporary,
and that it must be that to Eternal Creatures, which temporal
Nature is to temporal Creatures : Secondly, That everywhere,
and in all Worlds, Nature must stand between God and the
Creature, as the Foundation of all mutual Intercourse ; God can
transact nothing with the Creature, nor the Creature have any
Communion with God, but in, and by that Nature, in which it
stands.

the Truths of the (jospel. 109

I hope no one will here ask me for Scripture Proofs of this, or
call these Truths Nostrums, because they are not to be found in
the same Form of Expression in some particular Text of Scrip
ture. Where do the Holy Writings tell us, that a Thing cannot
be, and not be at the same Time ? Or that every Consequence
must arise from Premises ? And yet the Scripture is continually
supposing both these Truths, and there could be no Truth in
the Scripture, or anywhere else, if these Things were not un
deniable. There is nothing said of Man throughout all Scripture, but
what supposes him to stand in Nature, under a necessity of
choosing something that is natural, either Life or Death, Fire or
Water. There is nothing said of God with relation to Creatures,
but what supposes him to be the God of Nature, manifesting
himself in and through Nature, calling, assisting and directing
every Thing to its highest natural State. Nature is the Scene
of his Providence, and all the Variety of his governing Attributes
display themselves by his various Operations in and through
Nature : Therefore it is equally certain, that what God does to
any Creature, must be done through the Medium of Nature, and
also what the Creature does toward God, must be done in and
through the Powers of that Nature in which it stands. No
temporary Creature can turn to God, or reach after him, or have
any Communion with him, but in, and according to that Relation
which temporary Nature bears to God ; nor can any Eternal
Beings draw near to, or unite with God in any other manner,
than that in which Eternal Nature is united with him. Would
you know, why no Omnipotence of God can create Temporal
Animals but out of temporary Nature, nor eternal Animals but
out of Eternal Nature ; it is because no Omnipotence of God can
produce a visible Triangle, but out of, and by three visible Lines ;
for, as Lines must be before there can be any lineal Figures,
so Nature must be before there can be natural Creatures.
2. Every Thing that is in Being, is either God, or Nature, or
Creature ; and every Thing that is not God, is only a Manifes
tation of God ; for as there is nothing, neither Nature, nor
Creature, but what must have its Being in, and from God, so
every Thing is, and must be according to its Nature, more or
less a Manifestation of God. Everything therefore, by its Form
and Condition, speaks so much of God, and God in every Thing,
speaks and manifests so much of himself. Temporary Nature is
this beginning, created System of Sun, Stars, and Elements ;
'tis temporary Nature, because it begins and hath an End, and
therefore is only a temporary Manifestation of God, or God
manifested according to transitory Things.

1 1 o An Appeal to all who doubt
3. Properly and strictly speaking, nothing can begin to be :
The Beginning of every Thing is nothing more, than its begin
ning to be in a new State. Thus Time itself does not begin to
be, but Duration, which always was, began to be measured by
the Earth's turning round, or the rising and setting of the Sun,
and that is called the Beginning of Time, which is, properly
speaking, only the Beginning of the Measure of Duration :
Thus it is with all temporal Nature, and all the Qualities and
Powers of temporal Beings that live in it : No Quality or Power
of Nature then began to be, but such Qualities and Powers as
had been from all Eternity, began then to be in a new State.
Ask what Time is, it is nothing else but something of Eternal
Duration become finite, measurable, and transitory? Ask what
Fire, Light, Darkness, Air, Water, and Earth are ; they are,
and can be nothing else, but some eternal Things become gross,
finite, measurable, divisible, and ti'-ansitory ? For if there could
be a temporal Fire that did not spring out of Eternal Fire, then
there might be Time that did not come out of Eternity.
'Tis thus with every temporary Thing, and the Qualities of it ;
'tis the Beginning of Nothing, but only of a new State of some
thing that existed before : Therefore all temporary Nature is a
Product, Offspring, or Out-birth of Eternal Nature, and is
nothing else but so much of Eternal Nature changed from its
eternal to a temporal Condition. Fire did not begin to be,
Darkness did not begin to be, Light did not begin to be, Water
and Earth did not begin to be, when this temporary World first
appeared, but all these Things came out of their Eternal State,
into a lower, divided, compacted, created and transitory State.
Hearing. Seeing, Tasting, Smelling, Feeling, did not then begin
to be, when God first created the Creatures of this World, they
only came to be Qualities and Powers of a lower, and more
imperfect Order oi Beings than they had been before.
Figures, and their Relations, did not then begin to be, when
Material Circles and Squares, &c, were first made, but these
Figures and Relations began then to appear in a lower State
than they had done before : And so it must be said of all
temporal Nature, and every Thing in it. It is only something
of Eternal Nature separated, changed, or created into a new,
temporary State and Condition.
4. Now it may be asked, why was Eternal Nature thus
degraded, debased, and changed from its Eternal State of
Perfection ? Will anyone say, that God of his own Will changed
Eternal Nature, which is the Glorious Manifestation of his Power
and Godhead, the Seat of his holy Residence, his Majestic
Kingdom of Heaven, into this poor, miserable Mixture of Good

the Truths of the (gospel. 1 1 1
and Evil, into this impure State of Division, Grossness, Death,
and Darkness ? No. It is the highest of all Absurdities, to say
so. Now, we sufficiently know from Scripture, that a whole
Hierarchy, or Host of Angels, renounced their Heavenly Life,
and thereby raised up a Kingdom that was not Pleavenly.
Could they not have inflamed and disordered outward Nature
in which they lived, they could not have destroyed the Heavenly
Nature in themselves : For every Thing must be according to
the State of that World in which it lives ; and therefore, the
State of outward Nature, and the State of inward Nature in the
Angels must stand and fall together ; and as sure as a whole
Kingdom of Angels lost their heavenly Life, so sure it is, that
their whole Kingdom lost its heavenly State and Condition :
And therefore, it is an undeniable Truth, founded on Scripture
Evidence, that same Part of Eternal Nature was changed from
its first State of Glory and Perfection, before the Creation of
Temporary Nature ; therefore, in the Creation of this poor,
gross, disordered, perishable, material World, one of these
two Things was done, either God took the spoiled Part of
Heaven or Eternal Nature, and created it into this Temporary
State of Good and Evil ; or he degraded, and brought down
some Part of the Kingdom of Heaven from its Glory and
Perfection, into this Mixture of Good and Evil, Order and
Disorder in which the World stands. He could not do this
latter, without bringing Evil into Nature, as the Devil had done,
and therefore we may be sure he did not do it ; but if he did
the former, then the Creation of this lower World, was a glorious
Act, and worthy of the infinite Goodness of God, it was putting
an End to the Devil's working Evil in Nature, and it was putting
the Evil that was brought into Nature, in a way of being finally
overcome, and turned into Good again. Will anyone now call
these Things whimsical Speculations ? Can any Thing be
thought of more worthy of God, more conformable to Nature, or
more consonant to all revealed Religion ? But perhaps you will
say, how could the Angels spoil or destroy that glorious
Kingdom of Eternal Nature in which they dwelt. It may be
answered, how could it possibly be otherwise ? How could they
live in Eternal Nature, unless Nature without them, and Nature
within them, mutually mixed and qualified with each other ?
Would you have such mighty Spirits, with their eternal Energies,
have less Power in that Nature, or Kingdom in which they
dwelt, than a kindled Piece of Coal hath in this World ? For
every Piece of Coal set on Fire, adds so much Heat to outward
Nature, and so far alters and changes the State of it.
5. Now, let it be supposed, not only that a Piece of Coal, but

112 An Appeal to all who doubt
that the Whole of every Thing in this World, that could either
give or receive Fire was made to burn, what Effect would it have
upon the whole Frame of Nature ? Would not the whole State
of Things, the Regions, Places, and Divisions of the Elements,
and all the Order of temporal Nature be quite destroyed ?
When therefore every Angelical Life kindled itself in Wrath,
and became thereby divided, darkened, and separated from God,
the same Kindling, Darkening, Dividing and Confusion must be
brought forth in their Natural Kingdom, because they lived in
Nature, and could have neither Love, nor Wrath, but such as
they could exert in and by the Powers of Nature.
Now, all Fire, wherever it is, is either a Fire of Wrath, or a
Fire of Love : Fire not overcome or governed by Light, is the
Fire of Wrath, which only tears in Pieces, consumes and devours
all that it can lay hold of, and it wills nothing else : But Light
is the Fire of Love, it is meek, amiable, full of kind Embraces,
lovingly spreading itself, and giving itself with all its Riches into
every Thing that can receive it. These are the two Fires of
Eternal Nature, which were but one in Heaven, and can be only
one wherever Heaven is ; and it was the Separation of these two
Fires that changed the Angels into Devils, and made their King
dom a Beginning of Hell.
Now, either of these two Fires, wherever it is kindled in
animate or lifeless Things, communicates its own kind of Heat
in some Degree to outward Nature, and so far alters and changes
the State of it : The Wrath of a Man, and the Wrath of a
Tempest do one and the same Thing to outward Nature, alter its
State in the same Manner, and only differ in their Degree of
doing it.
Fire kindled in a material Thing, can only communicate with
the Materiality of Nature ; but the Fire of a wrathfully-inflamed
Man, being a Fire both of Body and Soul, communicates a two-
told Heat, it stirs up the Fire of outward Nature, as Fire does in
a Coal, and it stirs up the Wrath of Hell as the Devils do.
The Fire of Love kindled by the Light and Spirit of God in a
truly regenerated Man, communicates a twofold Blessing, it out
wardly joins with the meek Light of the Sun, and helps to over
come the Wrath of outward Nature; it inwardly co-operates with
the Power of Good Angels, in resisting the Wrath and Darkness
of Hell : And it would be no Folly to suppose, that if all human
Breath was become a mere, unmixed Wrath, that all the Fire in
outward Nature would immediately break forth, and bring that
Dissolution upon outward Nature, which will arise from the last
Fire. Therefore it is necessary, that a whole Kingdom of Angels
should kindle the same Wrath and Disorder in outward Nature

the Truths of the (gospel. 113
that was in themselves ; for being in eternal Nature, and com
municating with it, as temporal Beings do in temporal Nature,
what they did in themselves, must be done in that Nature or
Kingdom in which they lived, and moved, and had their
Being. What a powerful Fire there is in the Wrath of a Spirit, may
be seen by the Effects of human Wrath ; one sudden Thought
shall in a Moment discolour, poison, inflame, swell, distort and
agitate the whole Body of a Man. Whence also is it, that a
diseased Body infects the Air, or that malignant Air infects a
healthful Body ? Is it not because there is, and must be an in
separable Qualifying, Mixing and Uniting betwixt Nature and
those Creatures that live in it? Now, all Diseases and Malignities,
whether in Nature or Creature, all proceed from the sinful
Motions of the Will and Desires of the Creature. This is as
certain, as that Death and all that leads to it, is the sole Product
of Sin ; therefore it is a certain Truth, that all the Disorder that
ever was, or can be in Nature, arises from that Power which the
Creature hath in and upon Nature ; and therefore, as sure as a
whole Host of Heavenly Beings raised up a fiery, wrathful, dark
Nature in themselves, so sure is it, that the same wrathful, fiery,
dark Disorder was raised up in that Kingdom, or Nature, in
which they had their Being.
6. Now the Scriptures nowhere say in express Words, that
the Place of this World was the Place of the Angels that fell,
and that their fallen, spoiled and disordered Kingdom, was by
the Power of God, changed or created into this temporary State
of Things in which we live ; this is not expressly said, because it
is plainly implied and fully signified to us by the most general
Doctrines of Scripture ; for if we know, both from Nature and
Scripture, that this World is a Mixture of Good and Evil, do not
we enough know, that it could only be created out of That which
was Good and Evil ? And if we know that Evil cannot come
from God, if we know that the Devil had actually brought it forth
before the Creation ofthis World ; are we not enough told, that
the Evil which is in this World, is the Evil that was brought forth
into Nature by the Devil ? And that therefore the Matter of this
World, is that very Materiality which was spoiled by the fallen
Angels? How can we need a particular Text of Scripture to tell
us, that the Place of this World was the Place of the^«^/.f before
their Fall, when the whole Tenor of Scripture tells us, that it is
the Place of their Habitation now? For how could they have,
or find Darkness, but in that very Place, where they had extin
guished the Light ? What could they have to do with us, or we
with them, but that we are entered into their Possessions, and

114 *^n Appeal to all who doubt
have their Kingdom made over to us? How could they go about
amongst us as roaring Lions, seeking whom they may devour,
but that our Creation has brought us amongst them ? They
cannot possibly be anywhere, but where they fell, because they
can live nowhere but in the Evil which they have brought forth ;
they can have no Wrath and Darkness but where they broke off
from Light and Love ; they can communicate with no outward
Nature but that which fell with them, and underwent the same
Change as they did : Therefore, though St. fude saith with great
Truth, that they left their own Habitation, yet, it is only as they
left their own Angelical Nature, not departed from it into a
distant Place, but deformed and changed it; so that the Heaven
that was within them, and without them, is equally left, because
both within them, and without them, they have no Habitation
but a fiery Darkness broken off from the Light of God.
And therefore, as Man by his Creation is brought into a
Power of Commerce with those fallen Angels, who must live,
and could only act in that Part of Nature which they had
deformed, it is plain, that this Creation placed him in that
System of Things, which was formed and created out of their
fallen Kingdom, because they can act, or be acted upon nowhere
else. 7. And this is the one true, and only Reason, why there is
Good and Evil throughout all temporal Nature and Creature ;
'tis because all this temporary Nature is a Creation out of that
Strife of Evil against Good which the fallen Angels had brought
into their Kingdom. No subtle, evil Serpent could have been
generated, no Tree of Knotvledge of Good and Evil could have
sprung out of the Earth, but because Nature in this World was
that Part of Eternal Nature which the fallen Angels had
corrupted ; and therefore, a Life made up of Good and Evil
could be brought forth by it. Evil and Good was in the
Angelical Kingdom as soon as they set their Wills and Desires
contrary to God, and the Divine Life. Had God permitted
them to go on, their whole Kingdom had been like themselves,
all over one unmixed Evil, and so had been incapable of being
created into a redeemable State : But God put a Stop to the
Progress of Evil in their Kingdom, he came upon it whilst it
was in Strife, and compacted or created it all into a new,
temporary, material State and Condition ; whence these two
Things followed : First, That the fallen Angels lost their Power
over it, and could no further kindle their own Fire in it, but were
as chained Prisoners, in an Extent of Darkness which they could
neither get out of, nor extend any further : Secondly, This new
Creation being created out of this begun Strife, stood as yet in

the Truths of the (jospel. 115
the Birth of Life, and so became capable of being assisted and
blessed by God ; and finally, at the End of Time, restored to its
first heavenly State.
Now, the Good and Evil that is in this World is that same
Good and Evil, and in the same Strife that it was in the
Kingdom of the fallen Angels, only with this happy Difference,
there it was under the Devil's Power, and in a Way to be wholly
evil ; here it is in a new compacted, or created State under the
Providence and Blessing of God, appointed to bring forth a new
kind of Life, and display the Wonders of Divine Love, till such
Time as a new Race of Angelical Creatures born in this
Mixture of Good and Evil, shall be fit to receive the Kingdom
of Lucifer, restored to its first Glory ?
Is there any Part of the Christian Religion that does not
either suppose or speak this great Truth, any Part of outward
Nature that does not confirm it ? Is there any Part of the
Christian Religion that is not made more intelligible, more
beautiful and edifying by it ? Is there any Difficulty of outward
Nature that is not totally removed and satisfied by it ?
How was the Philosophy of the Ancient Sages perplexed
with the State of Nature ? They knew God to be all Goodness,
Love, and Perfection, and so knew not what to do with the
Misery of Human Life, and the Disorders of outward Nature,
because they knew not how this Nature came into its present
State, or from whence it was descended. But had they known,
that temporal Nature, all that we see in this whole Frame of
Things, was only the sickly, defiled State of Eternal Things put
into a temporary State of Recovery, that Time and all transitory
Things were only in this War and Strife, to be finally delivered
from all the Evil that was brought into Eternal Nature, their
Hearts must have praised God for this Creation of Things as
those Morning Stars did, that shouted for foy when it was first
brought forth.
8. From this true Knowledge of the State, and Nature, and
Place of this Creation, what a Reasonableness, Wisdom, and
Necessity does there appear in the hardest Sayings, Precepts
and Doctrines of the Gospel ? He that thus knows what this
World is, has great Reason to be glad that he is born into it,
and yet still greater Reason to rejoice, in being called out of it,
preserved from it, and shown how to escape with the Preservation
of his Soul. The Evils that are in this World, are the Evils of
Hell, that are tending to be nothing else but Hell ; they are the
Remains of the Sin and Poison of the fallen Angels : The Good
that is in this World are the Sparks of Life that are to generate
Heaven, and gain the Restoration of the first Kingdom of
8—2

1 1 6 An Appeal to all who doubt
Lucifer. Who therefore would think of any Thing, desire any
Thing, endeavour any Thing, but to resist Evil in every Kind,
under every Shape and Colour ? Who would have any Views,
Desires and Prayers after any Thing, but that the Life and Light
of Heaven may rise up in Himself, and that God's Kingdom
may come, and his Will be done in all Nature and Creature?
Darkness, Light, Fire and Air, Water and Earth, stand in
their temporary, created Distinction and Strife, for no other
End, with no other View, but that they may obtain the one
Thing needful, their first Condition in Heaven : And shall Man
that is born into Time for no other End, on no other Errand,
but that he may be an Angel in Eternity, think it hard to live
as if there were but one Thing needful for him ? What was the
poor Politics, the earthly Wisdom, the Ease, Sensuality, and
Advancements of this World for us, but such Fruits as must be
eaten in Hell ? To be swelled with Pride, to be fattened with
Sensuality, to grow great through Craft, and load ourselves with
earthly Goods, is only living the Life of Beasts, that we may die
the Death of Devils. On the other hand, to go starved out of
this World, rich in nothing but heavenly Tempers and Desires,
is taking from Time all that we came for, and all that can go
with us into Eternity.
9. But to return to the further Consideration of Nature. As
all temporary Nature is nothing else but eternal Nature brought
out of its kindled, disordered Strife, into a created or compacted
Distinction of its several Parts, so it is plain, that the Whole of
this World, in all its working Powers, is nothing else but a
Mixture of Heaven and Hell. There cannot be the smallest
Thing, or the smallest Quality of any Thing in this World, but
what is a Quality of Heaven or Hell, discovered under a
temporal Form : Every Thing that is disagreeable to the Taste,
to the Sight, to our Hearing, Smelling or Feeling, has its Root
and Ground, and Cause, in and from Hell, and is as surely in its
Degree the Working or Manifestation of Hell in this World, as
the most diabolical Malice and Wickedness is : The Stink of
Weed.'., of Mire, of all poisonous, corrupted Things, Shrieks,
horrible Sounds, wrathful Fire, Rage of Tempests, and thick
Darkness, are all of them Things that had no Possibility of
Existence, till the fallen Angels disordered the State of their
Kingdom ; therefore, every Thing that is disagreeable and
horrible in this Life, every Thing that can afflict and terrify our
Senses, all the Kinds of natural and moral Evil, are only so much
of the Nature, Effects, and Manifestation of Hell : For Hell and
Evil are only two Words for one and the same Thing : The
Extent of one is the Extent of the other, and all that can be

the Truths of the (gospel. 117

ascribed to the one, must be ascribed to the other. On the
other hand, all that is sweet, delightful and amiable in this
World, in the Serenity of the Air, the Fineness of Seasons, the
foy of Light, the Melody of Sounds, the Beauty of Colours, the
Fragrancy of Smells, the Splendour of precious Stones, is v
nothing else but Heaven breaking through the Veil of this
World, manifesting itself in such a Degree, and darting forth in
such Variety so much of its own Nature. So that Heaven and
Hell are not only as near you, as constantly showing and
proving themselves to all your Senses, as Day and Night, but
Night itself is nothing else but Hell breaking forth in such a
Degree, and the Day is nothing else but a certain Opening of
Heaven, to save us from the Darkness that arises from Hell.
O Man ! consider thyself, here thou standest in the earnest,
perpetual Strife of Good and Evil, all Nature is continually at
work to bring about the great Redemption ; the whole Creation
is travailing in Pain, and laborious Working, to be delivered
from the Vanity of Time, and will thou be asleep ? Everything
thou hearest, or seest, says nothing, shows nothing to Thee, but
what either eternal Light, or eternal Darkness hath brought forth;
for as Day and Night divide the whole of our Time, so Heaven
and Hell divide the whole of our Thoughts, Words and Actions.
Stir which way thou wilt, do, or design what thou wilt, thou
must be an Agent with the one or with the other. Thou canst
not stand still, because thou livest in the perpetual Workings of
temporal and eternal Nature ; if thou workest not with the Good,
the Evil that is in Nature carries thee along with it : Thou hast
the Height and Depth of Eternity in Thee, and therefore be
doing what thou wilt, either in the Closet, the Field, the Shop,
or the Church, thou art sowing That which grows, and must be
reaped in Eternity. Nothing of thine can vanish away, but
every Thought, Motion, and Desire of thy Heart, has its Effect
either in the Height of Heaven, or the Depth of Hell : And as
Time is upon the Wing, to put an End to the Strife of Good
and Evil, and bring about the last great Separation of all Things
into their Eternal State, with such Speed art Thou making Haste
either to be wholly an Angel, or wholly a Devil : O ! therefore
awake, watch and pray, and join with all thy Force with that
Goodness of God, which has created Time and all Things in it,
to have a happy End in Eternity.
10. Temporal Nature opened to us by the Spirit of God,
becomes a Volume of holy Instruction to us, and leads us into
all the Mysteries and Secrets of Eternity: For as every Thing
in temporal Nature is descended out of that which is eternal, and '
stands as a palpable, visible Out-birth of it; so when we know

1 1 8 An Appeal to all who doubt
how to separate the Grossness, Death, and Darkness of Time
from it, we find what it is in its eternal State. Fire, and Light,
and Air in this World are not only a true Resemblance of the
Holy Trinity in Unity, but are the Trinity itself in its most out
ward, lowest kind of Existence or Manifestation ; for there could
be no Fire, Fire could not generate Light, Air could not proceed
from both, these three could not be thus united, and thus divided,
but because they have their Root and Original in the Triunity
of the Deity. Fire compacted, created, separated from Light and
Air, is the Elemental Fire of this World : Fire uncreated, uncom-
pacted, unseparated from Light and Air, is the heavenly Fire of
Eternity : Fire kindled in any material Thing is only Fire break
ing out of its created, compacted State ; it is nothing else but the
awakening the Spiritual Properties of that Thing, which being
thus stirred up, strive to get rid of that material Creation under
which they are imprisoned : Thus every kindled Fire, with all its
Rage and Fierceness, tears -and divides, scatters and consumes
that Materiality under which it is imprisoned ; and were not
these Spiritual Properties imprisoned in Matter, no material
Thing could be made to burn. And this is another Proof, that
the Materiality of this World is come out of a higher, and
spiritual State, because every Matter upon Earth can be made
to discover Spiritual Properties concealed in it, and is indeed a
Compaction of nothing else. Fire is not, cannot be a material
Thing, it only makes itself visible and sensible by the Destruc
tion of Matter : Matter is its Death and Imprisonment, and it
comes to Life but by being able to agitate, divide, shake off, and
consume that Matter which held it in Death and Bondage ; so
that every Time you see a Fire kindled, you see Nature striving
in a low degree to get rid of the Grossness of this material
Creation, and to do that which can alone be done by the last
Fire, when all the inward, spiritual Properties hid in every Thing,
in Rocks, and Stones, and Earth, in Sun, and Stars, and Elements,
shall by the last Trumpet be awakened and called forth : And
this is a certain Truth, that Fire could nowhere now be kindled
in any material Thing, but for this Reason, because all material
Nature was created to be restored, and stands by Divine
Appointment in a Fitness and Tendency to have its Deliverance
from this created State, by Fire; so that every Time you see a
Piece of Matter dissolved by Fire, you have a full Proof, that all the
Materiality of this World is appointed to a Dissolution by Fire ;
and that then, (O glorious Day !) Sun and Stars, and all the
Elements will be delivered from Vanity, will be again that one
eternal, harmonious, glorious Thing which they were, before they
were compacted into material Distinctions and Separations.

the Truths of the (gospel. 119
11. The Elements of this World stand in great Strife and
Contrariety, and yet in great Desire of mixing and uniting with
each other; and hence arises both the Life and Death of al)
Temporal Things : And hereby we plainly know that the
Elements of this World were once one undivided Thing ; for
Union can nowhere be desired, but where there has first been a
Separation ; as sure therefore as the Elements desire each other,
so sure is it, that they have been parted from each other, and are
only Parts of some one Thing that has been divided. When the
Elements come to such a Degree of Union, a Life is produced ;
but because they have still a Contrariety to each other, they soon
destroy again that same Life which they had built, and therefore
every four-elementary Life is short and transitory.
Now, from this undeniable State of Nature, we are told these
following great Truths : i. That the four Elements are only
four Parts of That, which before the Creation of this World, was
only a one Element, or one undivided Power of Life. 2. That
the Mortality of this Life is wholly and solely owing to the
divided Slate of the Elements. 3. That the true, immortal Life
of Nature, is only there to be found, where the four Elements
are only one Thing, mere Unity and Harmony ; where Fire and
Air, Water and Earth, have a much more glorious Union than
they have in Diamonds and precious Stones: For in the brightest
Diamonds the four Elements still partake of their divided State,
though to our Eye they appear as only one glorious Thing ; but
the Beauty of the Diamond is but a Shadow, a low Specimen of
that Glory which will shine through all Nature, when Fire and
Air, Water and Earth shall be again that one Thing which they
were, before the Fall of Angels and the Creation of this World.
4. That the Body of A dam (being formed for Immortality) could
not possibly have the Nature, or be made out of the divided
State of the Elements. The Letter of Scripture absolutely
demonstrates this ; for if Sickness, Sorrow, Pain, the Trouble of
Heat and Cold, all so many Forerunners of Death, can only be
where the Elements are in Division and Contrariety ; and if,
according to Scripture, these Calamities did not, could not
possibly touch Adam till he fell, then it is plain from Scripture,
that before his Fall, the Division and Contrariety of the Elements
was not in him : And that was his Paradisaical Nature, in and by
which he stood in a State of Superiority over all the Elements of
this World. 5. That the Body oi Adam lost its one Elementary
Glory and Immortality, and then first became gross, dark, heavy
Flesh and Blood, under the Power of the four Elements, when he
lusted to eat, and actually did eat of that Tree, which had its
Good and Evil from the divided State of the Elements. 6.

120 An Appeal to all who doubt
Hence we also know, with the greatest Certainty, the Mystery of
the Resurrection of the Body, that it consists wholly and solely
in the reducing the four-Elementary Body of this World, to its
first, one Elementary State, and then everyone has that same
Body raised again that died, and all that Adam lost is restored.
For if the Body is mortal, and dies because it is become a Body
of the four Elements, it can only be raised immortal, by having
its four Elements reduced again into one: And here lies the true
Sameness of the Body that died, and that which rises again. But
to proceed :
12. As all the four Elements, by their Desiring, and wanting
to be united together, prove that they are only four grossly divided
Out-births of That which before was only one heavenly, harmonious
Element, so every single Element fully demonstrates the same
Thing ; for every single Element, though standing in its created
Contrariety to every other, has yet in its own divided State, all
the four Elements in itself : Thus the Air has every Thing in it
that is in the Earth, and the Earth has in itself every Thing that
is in Fire, Water and Air, only in a different Mixture and Com
paction ; were it not so, had not every Element in some Degree
the whole Nature of them all, they could not possibly mix, and
qualify with one another ; and this may well pass for a Demon
stration, that That out of which the four Elements are descended,
was one harmonius Union of them all, because every one of the
four, has now, and must have in its divided State, all the four in
itself, though not in Equality ; for if the four must be together,
though unequally lodged in every single Element, it is plain, the
four must have been one harmonious Thing, before they were
brought into four unequal Separations : And therefore, as sure
as there are four warring, disagreeing Elements in Time, so sure
is it, that That which is now in this fourfold Division, was and is
in Eternity, one, in an heavenly, harmonious Union, keeping up
an Eternal, joyful, glorious Life in Eternal Nature, as its four
broken Parts bring forth a poor, miserable, transitory Life in
temporal Nature.
13. All Matter in this World is only the Materiality of Heaven
thus altered. The Difference between Matter in this World and
Matter in the other World, lies wholly and solely in this ; in the
one it is dead, in the other it is living Materiality. It is dead
Materiality in this World, because it is gross, dark, hard, heavy,
divisible, &c. It is in this State of Death, because it is separated,
or broken off from the Eternal Light, which is the true Life, or
the Power of Life in every Thing.
In eternal Nature or the Kingdom of Heaven, Materiality
stands in Life and Light; it is the Light's glorious Body, or that

the Truths of the (jospel. 121
Garment wherewith Light is clothed, and therefore has all the
Properties of Light in it, and only differs from Light, as it is its
Brightness and Beauty, as the Holder and Displayer of all its
Colours, Powers and Virtues. But the same Materiality in this
World, being created or compacted into a Separation from Fire
united with Light, is become the Body of Death and Darkness,
and is therefore gross, thick, dark, heavy, divisible, &c, for Death
is nothing else but the shutting up, or shutting out the united
Power ot Fire and Light : This is the only Death that ever did,
or can happen to any Thing, whether earthly or heavenly.
Therefore, every Degree of Hardness, Darkness, Stiffness, &c,
is a Degree of Death ; and herein consists the Deadness of the
Materiality of this World. When it shall be raised to Life, that
is, when the United Power of Fire and Light shall kindle itself
through all temporal Nature, then Hardness, Darkness, Divisi
bility, &c, will be all extinguished together.
That the Deadness of the Earth may, and certainly will be
brought to Life by the united Power of Fire and Light, is
sufficiently shown us by the Nature and Office of the Sun. The
Sun is the united Power of Fire and Light, and therefore the
Sun is the Raiser of Life out of the Deadness of the Earth ; but
because Fire and Light as united in the Sun, is only the Virtue
of temporary Fire and Light, so it can only raise a short and
fading, transitory Life. But as sure as you see, that Fire and
Light united in the Sun, can change the Deadness of the Earth,
into such a beautiful Variety of a Vegetable Life, so sure are
you, that this dark, gross Earth, is in its State of Death and
Darkness, only for this Reason, because it is broken off from the
united Power of Fire and Light : For as sure as the outward
Operation of the Fire and Light of the Sun can change the
Deadness of the Earth into a Degree of Life, so sure is it, that
the Earth lies in its present Deadness, because it is separated
from its own Eternal Fire and Light : And as sure as you see,
that the Fire and Light of the Sun can raise a temporal Life out
of the Earth, so sure is it, that the united Power of Eternal Fire
and Light can, and will turn all that is earthly, into its first State
of Life and Beauty. For the Sun of this World, as it is the
Union of temporal Fire and Light, has no Power, but as it is the
outward Agent, or Temporary Representative of Eternal Fire and
Light, and therefore it can only do that in part, and imperfectly
in Time, which by the Eternal Fire and Light will be zvholly and
perfectly done in Eternity. And therefore every Vegetable Life,
every Beauty, Power, and Virtue which the Sun calls forth out
of the Earth, tells us, with a Divine Certainty, that there will
come a Time, when all that is hid in the Deadness, Grossness,

122 An Appeal to all who doubt
and Darkness of the Earth, will be again called up to a Perfec
tion oi Life and Glory of Beauty.
14. How has the Philosophy of the Schools been puzzled with
the Divisibility of Matter! It is because human Reason, the
Mistress of the Schools, partakes of the Deadness of the Earth ;
and the Soul of Man must first have the Light of Eternal Life
rise up in him, before he can see ox find out the Truths of Nature.
Human Reason knew nothing of the Death of the Matter, or the
Nature and Reason of its temporary Creation, and so thought
Death and Divisibility to be essential to Matter; but the Light
of God tells every Man this infallible Truth, that God made not
Death in any Thing, that he is a God of Life, and therefore,
every Thing that comes from him, comes into a State of Life.
Matter is thick, hard, heavy, divisible, and the like, only for
a Time, because it is compacted or created into Thickness,
Hardness, and Divisibility only for a Time : These are only the
Properties of its temporal, created State, and therefore are no
more essential to it than the Hardness of Ice is essential to
Water. Now, that the Creation of the Matter of this World is
nothing else but a Compaction, that all the Elements are separated
Compactions of That which before was free from such a Compac
tion, is plain from Scripture. For we are told, that all the
Material Things and Elements of this World, are to have their
created State and Nature taken from them, by being dissolved or
melted : But if this be a Scripture Truth, then it is equally true
from Scripture, that their Creation was only a Compaction ; and
a Compaction of something that stood before according to its
own Nature, absolutely free from it. Mortality, Corruptibility,
and Divisibility, are not essential Properties, but temporary
Accidents, they are in Things, as Diseases and Sickness are,
and are as separable from them ; and that is the true Reason,
why this Mortal can put on Immortality, this Corruptible can put
on Incorruptibility, and this Divisible put on Indivisibility : For
when the four Elements shall be dissolved and loosed from their
separate Compaction from one another, when Fire and Air, Water
and Earth, shall be a one much more glorious and harmonious
Thing than they are now in the brightest Diamond, then the
Divisibility of this redeemed Materiality will be more impossible
to be conceived, than the Distance between Fire and Water in a
Diamond.
15. The Reason why all inanimate Things ofthis World tend
towards their utmost Perfection in their Kind, lieth wholly and
solely in this Ground ; it is because the four Elements of this
World were once the one Element of the Kingdom of the
fallen Angels ; and therefore. Nature in this World is always

the Truths of the Qospel. 1 23
labouring after its first Perfection of Life, or as the Scripture
speaks, the ' whole Creation travaileth in Pain, and groaneth to
' be delivered from its present Vanity :' And therefore it is,
that all Vegetables and Fruits naturally grasp after every Kind
and Degree of Perfection they can take in ; endeavouring with
all their Power, after that first Perfection of Life which was
before the Fall of the Angels. Every Taste and Colour, and
Power and Virtue, would be what it was before Lucifer kindled
his dark, fiery, wrathful Kingdom ; but as this cannot be, so
when every Fruit and Flower has worked itself as far towards a
heavenly Perfection as it can, it is forced to wither and rot, and
become a Witness to this Truth, that neither Flesh nor Blood,
nor Fruit, nor Flower, can reach the Kingdom of God.
16. All the Misery and Imperfection that is in Temporary
Nature, arises from the divided State of the Elements : Their
Division is that which brings all Kinds and Degrees of Death
and Hell into this World, and yet their being in a certain
Degree in one another, and always endeavouring after their
first Union, is so much of the Nature and Perfection of Heaven
still in them. The Death that is in this World, consists in the
Grossness, Hardness and Darkness of its Materiality. The
Wrath that is in this World consists in the kindled Division of
its Qualities, whence there arises a contrary Motion and
Fermentation in all its Parts, in which consists both the Life
and Death of all its Creatures. This Death and this Wrath is
the Nature of Hell in this World, and is the Manifestation of
the Disorders which the fallen Angels have occasioned in
Nature. The Heaven in this World began when God said, Let
there be Light, for so far as Light is in any Thing, so much it has
of Heaven in it, and of the Beginning of a heavenly Life : This
shows itself in all Things of this World, chiefly in the Life-
giving Power of the Sun, in the Sweetness and Meekness of
Qualities and Tempers, in the Softness of Sounds, the Beauty of
Colours, the Fragrancy of Smells, and Richness of Tastes and
the like; thus far as any Thing is tinctured with Light, so far
it shows its Descent from Heaven, and its partaking of some
thing heavenly and paradisaical. Again, Love or Desire of
Union, is the other Part of Heaven that is visible in this World.
In Things without Life, it is a senseless Desire, a friendly mixing
and uniting of their Qualities, whereby they strive to be again
in that first State of Unity and Harmony in which they existed,
before they were kindled into Division by Lucifer. In rational
Creatures, it is Meekness, Benevolence, Kindness and Friendship
amongst one another : And thus far they have Heaven and the
Spirit of God in them, each in their Sphere, being and doing

124 ^n Appeal to all who doubt
that to one another, which the Divine Love is and does to
all. Again, the Reason why Man is naturally taken with beautiful
Objects, why he admires and rejoices at the Sight of lucid and
transpai'ent Bodies, and the Splendour of precious Stones, why he
is delighted with the Beauty of his own Person, and is fond of
his Features when adorned with fine Colours, has this only true
Ground, 'tis because he was created in the greatest Perfection of
Beauty, to live amongst all the Beauties of a glorious Paradise :
And therefore Man, though fallen, has this strong Sensibility
and reaching Desire after all the Beauties, that can be picked
up in fallen Nature. Had not this been his Case, had not
Beauty, and Light, and the Glory of Brightness been his first
State by Creation, he would now no more want the Beauty of
Objects, than the Ox wants to have his Pasture enclosed with
beautiful Walls, and painted Gates. Every Vanity of fallen
Man shows our first Dignity, and the Vanity of our Desires are
so many Proofs of the Reality of that which we are fallen from.
Man wants to see himself in Riches, Greatness and Power,
because Human Nature came first into the World in that State;
and therefore, what he had in Reality in Paradise, that is he
vainly seeking for, where he is only a poor Prisoner in the
Valley and Shadow of Death.
17. All Beings that are purely of this World, have their
Existence in and Dependence upon temporal Nature. God is
no Maker, Creator or Governor of any Being or Creature of
this World, immediately, or by himself, but he creates, upholds
and governs all Things of this World, by, and through, and
with temporal Nature : As temporary Nature is nothing else
but Eternal Nature separated, divided, compacted, made visible
and changeable for a Time, so Heaven is nothing else but the
beatific Visibility, the Majestic Preference of the abyssal, un
searchable, triune God : 'Tis that Light with which the Scripture
saith, God is decked as with a Garment, and by which he is
manifested and made visible to heavenly Eyes and Beings ; for
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as they are the triune God,
deeper than the Kingdom of Heaven or Eternal Nature, are
invisible to all created Eyes ; but that beatific Visibility and
outward Glory which is called the Kingdom of Heaven, is the
Manifestation of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in, and by,
and through the glorious Union oi Eternal Fire, and Light, and
Spirit. In the Kingdom of Heaven, these are three and one,
because their Original, the Holy Trinity, is so, and we must call
them by the Names of Fire, and Light, and Spirit ; because all
that we have of Fire, and Light, and Spirit in this World, has

the Truths of the (gospel. 125
its whole Nature directly from them, and is indeed nothing else
but the Fire, and Light, and Spirit of Eternity, brought into a
separated, compacted, temporal State. So that to speak of a
heavenly Fire, has no more Giossness and Offence in it, than
when we speak of a heavenly Life, a heavenly Light, or heavenly
Spirit ; for if there is a heavenly Light and Spirit, there must
of all necessity be a heavenly Fire ; and if these Things were
not in Heaven in a glorious State of Union, they never could
have been here in this gross State of a temporal Compaction
and Division : So that as sure as there are Fire, and Light, and
Air in this World, in a divided, compacted, imperfect State, in
which consists the Life of temporary Nature and Creatures, so
sure is it, that Fire, and Light, and Spirit are in the Kingdom
of Heaven, united in one Perfection of Glory, in which consists
the beatific Visibility of God, the Divine Nature, as communi
cable to heavenly Beings.
18. The Kingdom of Heaven stands in this threefold Life,
where three are one, because it is a Manifestation of the Deity,
which is three and one ; the Father has his distinct Manifesta
tion in the Fire, which is always generating the Light; the Son
has his distinct Manifestation of the Light, which is always
generated from the Fire ; the Holy Ghost has his Manifestation
in the Spirit, that always proceeds from both, and is always
united with them.
It is this Eternal Unbeginning Trinity in Unity of Fire,
Light, and Spirit, that constitutes Eternal Nature, the Kingdom
of Heaven, the heavenly ferusalem, the Divine Life, the beatific
Visibility, the Majestic Glory and Presence of God. Through
this Kingdom of Heaven, or Eternal Nature, is the invisible
God, the incomprehensible Trinity eternally breaking forth, and
manifesting itself in a boundless Height and Depth of blissful
Wonders, opening and displaying itself to all its Creatures as in an
infinite Variation and endless Multiplicity of its Powers, Beauties,
Joys and Glories. So that all the Inhabitants of Heaven are
for ever Knowing, Seeing, Hearing, Feeling, and variously
enjoying all that is great, amiable, infinite and glorious in the
Divine Nature.
Nothing ascends, or comes into this Kingdom of Heaven,
but that which descended, or came out of it, all its Inhabitants
must be innate Guests, and born out of it.
19. God considered in himself, as distinct from this Eternal
Nature, or Kingdom of Heaven, is not the immediate Creator
of any Angels, Spirits, or Divine Beings ; but as he creates and
governs all temporal Beings in, and by, and out of temporal
Nature, so he creates and governs all Spiritual and Heavenly

126 An Appeal to all who doubt
Beings in, and by, and out of Eternal Nature : This is as abso
lutely true, as that no Being can be temporal, but by partaking
of temporal Nature, nor any Being eternal, but by partaking of
the eternal, Divine Nature ; and therefore, whatever God creates
is not created immediately by himself, but in and by, and out of
that Nature, in which it is to live, and move, and have its Being,
temporal Beings out of temporal Nature, and eternal Beings out
of the heavenly Kingdom of Eternal Nature : And hence it is,
that all Angels, and the Souls of Men are said to be born of
God, Sons of God, and Partakers of the Divine Nature, because
they are formed out of that Eternal Nature, which is the un
beginning Majesty of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, or Visible
Glory of the Deity. In this Eternal Nature, which is the
Majestic Clothing, or Glory of the triune God, manifested in
the glorious Unity of Divine Fire, Light, and Spirit, have all the
created Images of God, whether they be Angels or Men, their
Existence, Union and Communion with God ; because Fire, and
Light, and Spirit have the same Union and Birth in the Creature,
as in the Creator : And hence it is, that they are so many various
Mirrors of the Deity, penetrated with the- Majesty of God,
receiving and returning back Communications of the Life of
God. Now, in this Ground, that is, in this Consideration of
God, as manifesting his Holy Trinity through Nature and
Creature, lieth the solid and true Understanding of all that is
so variously said of God, both in the Old and New Testament
with Relation to Mankind, both as to their Creation, Fall, and
Redemption. God is to be considered throughout, as the God
of Nature, only manifesting himself to all his Creatures in a
Variety of Attributes in and by Nature ; creating, governing,
blessing, punishing, and redeeming them according to the Powers,
Workings, and Possibilities of Nature. Fire, Light, and Spirit
in harmonious Union, is the substantial Glory, the beatific
Manifestation of the triune God, visible and communicable to
Creatures formed out of it. All intelligent, holy Beings were
by God formed and created out of, and for the Enjoyment of
this Kingdom of Glory, and had Fire, and Light, and Spirit,
as the triune Glory of their created Being : And herein consisted
the infinite Love, Goodness and Bounty of God to all his
Creatures : It was their being made Creatures of this Fire,
Light, and Spirit, Partakers of that same Nature in which the
Holy Trinity had stood from all Eternity gloriously manifested.
And thus they were Creatures, Subjects, and Objects of the
Divine Love ; they came into the nearest, highest Relation to
God ; they stood in, and partook of his own manifested Nature,
so that the outward Glory and Majesty of the triune God, was

the Truths of the (gospel. 127
the very Form, and Beauty, and Brightness of their own created
Nature. Every Creature which thankfully, joyfully, and abso
lutely gave itself up to this blessed Union with God, became
absolutely fixed in its first created Glory, and incapable of
knowing anything but Love, and Joy, and Happiness in God
to all Eternity : Thus in this State, all Angels and Men came
first out of the Hands of God. But seeing Light proceeds from
Fire by a Birth, and the Spirit from both, and seeing the Will
must be the Leader of the Birth, Lucifer and Adam could both
do as they did, Lucifer could will strong Might and Power, to
be greater than the Light of God made him, and so he brought
forth a Birth of Might and Power, that was only mighty Wrath
and Darkness, a Fire of Nature broken offixom its Light. Adam
could will the Knowledge of temporal Nature, and so he lost the
Light and Spirit of Heaven for the Light and Spirit of this
World : And had Man been left in this State of temporary
Nature, without a Redeemer, he must, when the Light of this
World had left him, have found himself in the same absolute
Wrath and Darkness of Nature, which the fallen Angels are in.
20. Now, after these two Falls of two Orders of Creatures, the
Deity itself came to have new and strange Names, new and
unheard of Tempers and Inclinations of Wrath, Fury, and
Vengeance ascribed to it. I call them new, because they began
at the Fall ; I call them strange, because they were foreign to
the Deity, and could not belong to God in himself : Thus God is
in the Scriptures said to be a Consuming Fire. But to whom ?
To the fallen Angels, and lost Souls. But why, and how is he
so to them ? It is because those Creatures have lost all that
they had from God, but Fire ; and therefore God can only be
found and manifested in them, as a Consuming Fire. Now, is it
not justly said, that God, who is nothing but infinite Love, is yet
in such Creatures only a Consuming Fire, and that though God
be nothing but Love, yet they are under the Wrath and Ven
geance of God, because they have only that Fire in them, which
is broken off from the Light and Love of God, and so can know,
or feel nothing of God, but his Fire in them ? As Creatures they
can have no Life, but what they have in and from God ; and
therefore, that wrathful Life which they have, is truly said to be
a Wrath of God upon them. And yet it is as strictly true, that
there is no Wrath in God himself, that he is not changed in his
Temper towards the Creatures, that he does not cease to be one
and the same infinite Fountain of Goodness, infinitely flowing
forth in the Riches of his Love upon all and every Life ; but
the Creatures have changed their State in Nature, and so the
God of Nature can only be manifested in and to them,- according

128 An Appeal to all who doubt
to their own State in Nature : And this is the true Ground of
rightly understanding all that is said ofthe Wrathand Vengeance
of God in and upon the Creatures. It is only in such a Sense as
the Curse or Unhappiness of God may be said to be upon them,
not because any Thing cursed, or unhappy can be in, or come
from God, but because they have made that Life which they
must have in God, to be mere Curse and Unhappiness to them :
For every Creature that lives, must have its Life in and from
God, and therefore God must be in every Creature ; this is as
true of Devils, as of Holy Angels: But how is God in them ?
Why only as he is manifested in Nature. Holy Angels have the
triune Life of God in them, therefore God is in them all Love,
Goodness, Majesty and Glory, and theirs is the Kingdom of
Heaven. Devils have nothing of this triune Life left in them,
but the Fire of Eternal Nature broken offfxom all Light and Joy ;
and therefore the Life that they can have in and from God, is only
a Life of Wrath and Darkness, and theirs is the Kingdom of
Flell : And because this Life is a Strength of Life which they
must have in and from God, and which they cannot take out of
his Hands ; therefore, is their cursed, miserable, wrathful Life
truly and justly said to be the Curse, and Wrath, and Vengeance
of God in and upon them, though God himself can no more have
Wrath and Vengeance, than he can have Mischief and Malice in
him : For this is a glorious, twofold Truth, that from God con
sidered as in himself, nothing can come from Eternity to Eternity,
but infinite Love, Goodness, Happiness, and Glory ; and also that
infinite Love, Goodness, Happiness and Glory are, and will be
for ever and ever flowing forth from him in the same boundless,
universal, infinite manner ; he is the same infinitely overflowing
Fountain of Love, Goodness and Glory after, as before the Fall
of any Creatures ; his Love, and the infinite Workings of it can
no more be lessened, than his Power can be increased by any
outward Thing; no Creature, or Number of Creatures can raise
any Anger in him, 'tis as impossible as to cast Terror, or Dark
ness, and Pain into him, for nothing can come into God from the
Creature, nothing can be in him, but that which the Holy Trinity
in Unity is in itself. All Creatures are Products of the infinite,
triune Love of God; nothing zvilled, and desired, and formed
them, but infinite Love, and they have all of them all the Happi
ness, Beauty and Excellency that an infinitely powerful Love
can reach out to them : The same infinite Love continues still in
its first creating Goodness, willing, desiring, working, and doing
nothing with regard to all Creatures, but what it willed, did, and
desired in the Creation of them : This God over Nature and
Creature, darts no more Anger at Angels when fallen, than he

the Truths of the (jospel. 129
did in the Creation of them : They are not in Hell, because
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are angry at them, and so cast
them into a Punishment, which their Wrath had contrived for
them ; but they are in Wrath and Darkness, because they have
done to the Light which infinitely flows forth from God, as that
Man does to the Light of the Sun, who puts out his own Eyes :
He is in Darkness, not because the Sun is darkened towards him,
has less Light for him, or has lost all Inclination to enlighten
him, but because he has put out that Birth of Light in himself,
which alone made him capable of seeing in the Light of the Sun.
It is thus with fallen Angels, they have extinguished in them
selves that Birth of Light and Love, which was their only Capacity
for that Happiness, which infinitely, and everywhere flows forth
from God ; and they no more have their Punishment from God
himself than the Man who puts out his Eyes, has his Darkness
from the Sun itself.
21. God, considered in himself, as the holy, triune God, is not
the immediate Fountain and Original of Creatures ; but God
considered as manifesting himself in and through Nature, is the
Creator, Father and Producer of all Things. The hidden Deity
of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, is from Eternity to Eternity,
manifested, made visible, perceivable, sensible in the united Glory
of Fire, Light and Spirit ; this is the beatific Presence, the glorious
Out-birth of the Holy Trinity; this is that eternal, universal
Nature, which brings God into all Creatures, and all Creatures
into God, according to that Degree and Manner of Life which
they have in Nature : For the Life of Creatures must stand in
Nature, and Nature is nothing else but God made manifest,
visible, and perceptible ; and therefore the Life of every Creature,
be it what it will, a Life of Joy or Wrath, is only so much of God
made manifest in it, and perceptible by it, and thus is God in some
Creatures only a God of Wrath, and in others, only a God of
Glory and Goodness.
No Creature can have Life, or live, and move, and have its
Being in God, but by being formed out of, and living in this
Manifestation of Nature. Thus far Hell and Heaven, Angels
and Devils are equally in God, that is, they equally live, move,
and have their Being in that Eternal Nature, which is the Eternal
Manifestation of God : The one have a Life of Glory, Majesty,
and Love, and Bliss, the other a Life of Horror, Fire, Wrath,
Misery, and Darkness. Now, all this could not possibly be, there
could be no Room for this Distinction between Creatures standing
in Nature, the one could not possibly have a Life of Majestic
Bliss and Glory, the other of fiery Horror and Darkness, but
because the Holy, triune God is manifested in the united Glory
9

130 An Appeal to all who doubt
and Bliss of Fire, Light, and Spirit. For the Creatures could
only divide That, which there was in Nature to be divided, they
could only divide That, which was united, and divisible ; and
therefore, as sure as Heaven is a splendrous Light of blissful
Majesty, as sure as Hell is a Place oi fiery Wrath and Darkness,
so sure is it from the Scriptures, that Eternal Nature, which is
from God, or a Manifestation of God, is a Nature of united Fire,
Light, and Spirit, otherwise, some Creatures could not have the
blissful Glory of Light, and others, a horrible, fiery Darkness for
their separate Portions.
All therefore that has been said of an Eternal Nature, or
Kingdom of Heaven, consisting of united Fire, Light, and Spirit,
is not only to be looked upon as an Opinion well grounded, and
sufficiently discovered by the Light of Nature, but as a funda
mental Truth of revealed Religion, fully established by all that
is said in the Scriptures both of Heaven and Hell. For if God
was not manifested, visible, perceptible and communicable, in and
by this united Fire, and Light, and Spirit, how could there be a
Heaven oi glorious Majesty ? If this Fire of Heaven could not
be separated, or broken off from its heavenly Light, how could
there be a Hell in Nature ? Or, how could those Angels which
lost the Light of Heaven, have thereby fallen into a State of
hellish Darkness, or Fire? Is not all this the greatest of
Demonstrations, that the holy Triunity of God is, and must be
manifested in Nature, by the Union of Fire, Light, and Spirit ?
And is not this Demonstration wholly taken from the very
Letter of the most plain Doctrines of Scripture ?
Hell and Wrath could have no Possibility of Existence, but
because the Light, and Majesty, and Glory of Heaven, must of
all necessity have its Birth in and from the Fire of Nature.
An Angel could not have become a Devil, but because the
Angelic Light and Glory had, and must have its Birth in and
from the Fire of Life. And thus as a Devil was found, where
angelic Light and Glory had its Existence, so a Hell was found,
where heavenly Glory was before ; and as the Devil is nothing
but a Fire-spirit broken off from its Angelical Light and Glory,
so Hell is nothing but the Fire of Heaven separated from its
first Light and Majesty.
And here we have plainly found two Worlds in Eternity;
not possible to be two, nor ever known to be two, but by such
Creatures, as have in their own Natures, by their own Self-
motion, separated the Fire of Eternal Nature from its Eternal
Light, Spirit and Majesty. And this is also the Beginning, or
first Opening of the Wrath of God in the Creature ; which is,
in other Words, only the Beginning, or first Opening of Pain

the Truths of the (gospel. 131
and Misery in the Creature, or the Origin of a hellish, torment
ing State of Life.
22. And here, in this dark wrathful Fire of the fallen
Creature, do we truly find that Wrath and Anger and Vengeance
of God, that cleaves to Sin, that must be quenched, atoned, and
satisfied before the Sinner can be reconciled to God ; that is,
before it can have again that triune Life of God in it, which is
its Union with the holy Trinity of God, or its regaining the
Kingdom of Heaven in itself.
Some have objected, that by thus considering the fallen Soul,
as a dark, wrathful Fire-Spirit, for this Reason, because it has
lost the Birth of the Son and holy Spirit of God in it, that this
casts Reproach upon God the Father, as having the Nature of
such a Soul in Him. But this is a groundless Objection, for
this State of the Soul casts no more Reproach upon the first,
than upon the second and third Persons of the holy Trinity.
The fallen Soul, that has lost the Birth of the Son and holy
Spirit of God in it, cannot be said to have the Nature of the
Father left in it. This would be blasphemous Nonsense, and is
no way founded on this Doctrine. But such a Soul must be
said to have a Nature from the Father left in it, though a spoiledone,
and this because the Father is the Origin, Fountain and Creator oi
all kind of Existence : Hell, and the Devils have their Nature from
Him, because every Kind of Creature must have what it has of
Life and Being from its Creator ; but Hell and the Devils have
not therefore the Nature of the Father in them. If it be asked
what the Father is, as he is the first Person in the sacred
Trinity, the Answer must be, that as such, He is the Generator
of the Son and holy Spirit : This is the Nature of the Father ;
where this generating is not, there is not the Nature of the
Father. Is it not therefore highly absurd to charge this
Doctrine with ascribing the Nature of the Father to the fallen
Soul, which asserts the Soul to be fallen, for this Reason, because
it has quite lost and extinguished all Power and Ability for the
Birth of the Son and holy Spirit in it ? How could it be more
roundly affirmed, or more fully proved, that the fallen Soul hath
not the Nature of the Father left in it. But to proceed :
The Reader ought not to wonder, or be offended at the
frequent mention ofthe Word Fire, which is here used to denote
the true Nature, and State of the Soul. For both Nature and
Scripture speak continually the same Language. For wher
ever there is mention of Life, Light, or Love in the Scriptures,
there Fire is necessarily supposed, as being that in which all
Life, and Light, and Love must necessarily arise ; and therefore
the Scriptures speak as often of Fire, as they do of Life, and
9—2

32 An Appeal to all who doubt

Light, and Love, because the one necessarily includes the
other : For all Life, whether it be vegetable, sensitive, animal, or
intellectual, is only a kindled Fire of Life in such a Variety of
States ; and every dead, insensitive Thing is only so, because its
Fire is quenched, or shut up in a hard Compaction. If there
fore we will speak of the true Ground of the fallen State of Men
and Angels, we are not at Liberty to think of it under any other
Idea, or speak of it in any other manner, than as the darkened
Fire of their Life, or the Fire of their Life unable to kindle
itself into Light and Love. Do not the Scriptures strictly
confine us to this Idea of Hell ? So that it is not any particular
Philosophy, or affected Singularity of Expression, that makes
me speak in this manner of the Soul, but because all Nature
and Scripture forces us to confess, that the Root of all and every
Life stands, and must necessarily stand in the Properties of Fire.
The holy Scriptures also speak much of Fire, in the Ideas
which they give us, both of the Divine Nature, and of created
Spirits, whether they be saved, or lost ; the former as becoming
Flames of heavenly Light and Love, the latter as dark Fire
brands of Hell*
No Description is, or can be given us either of Heaven or
Hell, but where Fire is necessarily signified to be the Ground
and Foundation both of the one and of the other. Why do all
Languages, however distant, and different from one another, all
speak of the Coldness of Death, the Coldness of Insensibility ?
* Theologia fere supra omnes Sacrosanctam Ignis Figuram probasse
reperitur. Earn enim invenies non solum Retas igneas fingere, sed etiam
ignea animalia — quinetiam Thronos igneos esse dicit, ipsosq ; summos
Seraphim incensos esse ex ipso nomine declarat, eisq ; Ignis & Proprietatem
& Actionem tribuit : semperatq ; ubiq ; igneam figuram probat. Ac igneam
quidem Formam significare arbitror ccelesiium Naturarum maximam in Deo
imitando similitudinem. Theologi summam, & forma carentem essentiam
ignis Specie multis locis describunt, quod Ignis multas Divinae, si dictu fas
est, Proprietatis, hnagines ac Species prag se ferat. Ignis enim, qui sensu
percipitur, in omnibus & per omnia sine admixtione funditur, secerniturq ; a
rebus omnibus, lucetq; totus simul, & abstrusus est, incognitusq ; manet ipse
per se — Cohiberi, vinciq ; non potest — quicquid ipsi proprius quoquo modo
adhibeatur, sui particeps facit. Renovat omnia vitali calore, illustrat aperto
lumine ; teneri non potest, nee misceri. Dissipandi vim habet, commutari
non potest, sursum fertur, celeritate magna praeditus est, sublimis est, nee
humilitatem ullam ferre potest. Immobilis est, per se movetur, aliis motum
affert ; comprehendendi vim habet, ipse comprehend! non potest. Non
eget altero : clam se amplificat : in materiis quae ipsius capaces sunt, mag-
nitudinem suam declarat. Vim efficiendi habet, potens est : omnibus praesto
est ; nee videtur : Attritu autem quasi Inquisitione quadam connaturaliter
repente apparet, rursusq ; ita avolat ut comprehendi, & detineri nequeat : in
omnibus sui communionibus minui non potest — Multas etiam alias Ignis
Proprietates invenire possumus, quae propria sunt divina; actionis. S. Dionis.
Arcop. de ccelesti hierarci, 56.

the Truths of the Qospel. 133
Why do they all agree in speaking of the Warmth of Life, the
Heat of Passions, the Burnings of Wrath, the Flames of Love ?
It is because it is the Voice or Dictate of universal Nature, that
Fire is the Root or Seat of Life, and that every Variety of
human Tempers is only the various Workings of the Fire of
Life. — It ought to be no Reason why we should think grossly of
Fire, because it is seen in so many gross Things of this World ?
For how is it seen in them ? Why only as a Destroyer, a Con
sumer, and Refiner of all Grossness ; as a Kindler of Life, and
Light out of Death and Darkness. So that in all the Appear
ances of Fire, even in earthly Things, we have Reason to look
upon it as something of a heavenly, exalting, and glorious
Nature ; as that which disperses Death, Darkness, and Gross
ness, and raises up the Power and Glory of every Life.
If you ask what Fire is in its first, true, and unbeginning
State, not yet entered into any Creature, It is the Power and
Strength, the Glory and Majesty of eternal Nature ; it is that
which generates, enriches, brightens, strengthens and displays the
Light of Heaven. It is that which makes the eternal Light to
be majestic, the eternal Love to be flaming : For the Strength
and Vivacity of Fire, must be both the Majesty of Light, and
the Ardour of Love. It is the glorious Out-birth, the true
Representative of God the Father eternally generating his only
Son, Light and Word.
If you ask what Fire is in its own spiritual Nature, it is
merely a Desire, and has no other Nature than that of a work
ing Desire, which is continually its own Kindler. For every
Desire is nothing else, but its own striking up, or its own kindling
itself into some Kind and Degree of Fire. And hence it is
that Nature (though reduced to great Ignorance of itself) has
yet forced all Nations and Languages to speak of its Desires, as
cool, warm, or burning, &c, because every Desire is, so far as it
goes, a kindled Fire. And it is to be observed, that Fire could
have no Existence or Operation in material Things, but because
all the Matter of this World has in it more or less of spiritual
and heavenly Properties compacted in it, which continually
desire to be delivered from their material Imprisonment. And
the stirring up the Desire of these spiritual Properties, is the
kindling of that Heat, and Glance, and Light, in material
Things, which we call Fire, and is nothing else but their
gloriously breaking, and triumphantly dispersing that hard
Compaction in which they were imprisoned. And thus does
every kindled Fire, as a Flash or transitory opening of heavenly
Glory, show us in little and daily, but true Instances, the Triumph
of the last Fire, when all that is spiritual and heavenly in this

134 ^n Appeal to all who doubt
World, shall kindle and separate itself from that, which must be
the Death and Darkness of Hell.
Now the Reason, why there are spiritual Properties in all the
material Things of this World, is only this, it is because the
Matter of this World is the Materiality of the Kingdom of
Heaven, brought down into a created State of Grossness, Death,
and Imprisonment, by occasion ofthe Sin of those Angels, who
first inhabited the Place, or Extent ofthis material World.
Now these heavenly Properties, which were brought into this
created Compaction, lie in a continual Desire to return to their
first State of Glory ; and this is the groaning of the whole
Creation to be delivered from Vanity, which the Apostle speaks
of. And in this continual Desire lieth the kindling, and all the
Possibility of kindling any Fire in the Things of this World.
Quench this Desire, and suppose there is nothing in the Matter
of this World that desires to be restored to its first Glory, and
then all the breaking forth of Fire, Light, Brightness, and
Glance in the Things of this World, is utterly quenched with it,
and it would be the same Impossibility to strike Fire, as to
strike Sense and Reason out of a Flint.
24. But you will perhaps say, though this be a Truth, yet it is
more speculative than edifying, more fitted to entertain the
Curiosity, than to assist the Devotion of Christians. But stay
awhile, and you shall see it is a Truth full of the most edifying
Instruction, and directly speaking to the Heart.
For if every Desire is in itself, in its own Essence, the kindling
of Fire, then we are taught this great practical Lesson, that our
own Desire is the Kindler of our own Fire, the Former and
Raiser of that Life which leads us. What our Desire kindles,
that becomes the Fire of our Life, and fits us either for the
majestic Glories of the Kingdom of God, or the dark Horrors of
Hell : So that our Desire is all, it does all, and governs all, and
all that we have and are, must arise from it, and therefore it is,
that the Scripture saith, ' Keep thy Heart with all Diligence, for
' out of it are the Issues of Life.'
We are apt to think that our Imaginations and Desires maybe
played with, that they rise and fall away as nothing, because
they do not always bring forth outward and visible Effects. But
indeed they are the greatest Reality we have, and are the true
Formers and Raisers of all that is real and solid in us. All out
ward Power that we exercise in the Things about us, is but as
a Shadow in Comparison of that inward Power, that resides in
our Will, Imagination, and Desires ; these communicate with
Eternity, and kindle a Life which always reaches either Heaven
or Hell. This Strength of the inward Man makes all that is the

the Truths of the Qospel. 135
Angel, and all that is the Devil in us, and we are neither good
nor bad, but according to the Working of that which is spiritual
and invisible in us. Now our Desire is not only thus powerful
and productive of real Effects, but it is always alive, always
working and creating in us, I say creating, for it has no less
Power, it perpetually generates either Life or Death in us : And
here lies the Ground of the great Efficacy of Prayer, which when
it is the Prayer of the Heart, the Prayer of Faith, has a kindling
and creating Power, and forms and transforms the Soul into
every Thing that its Desires reach after : It has the Key to the
Kingdom of Heaven, and unlocks all its Treasures, it opens,
extends, and moves that in us, which has its Being and Motion
in and with the Divine Nature, and so brings us into a real
Union and Communion with God.
Long Offices of Prayer sounded only from the Mouth, or
impure Hearts, may Year after Year be repeated to no Advan
tage, they leave us to grow old in our own poor, weak State :
These are only the poor Prayers of Heathens, who, as our Lord
said, 'think to be heard by their much speaking.' But when the
Eternal Springs of the purified Heart are stirred, when they
stretch after that God from whence they came ; then it is, that
what we ask, wereceive, and what we seek, we find. Hence it is,
that all those great Things are by the Scriptures attributed to
Faith, that to it all Things are possible ; that it heals the Sick,
saves the Sinner, can remove Mountains, and that all Things are
possible to him that believeth ; 'tis because the Working of
Will and Desire is the first Eternal Source of all Power, that
from which every Thing is kindled into that Degree of Life in
which it standeth ; 'tis because Will and Desire in us are
Creaturely Offsprings of that first Will and Desire which formed
and governed all Things ; and therefore, when the Creaturely
Power of our Will, Imagination and Desire leaves off its
Working in Vanity, and gives itself wholly unto God in a naked
and implicit Faith in the Divine Operation upon it, then it is,
that it does nothing in vain, it rises out of Time into Eternity, is
in Union and Communion with God, and so all Things are
possible to it. Thus is this Doctrine so far from being vainly
speculative, that it opens to us the Ground, and shows us the
Necessity and Excellency of the greatest Duties of the Gospel.
25. Now, as all Desire throughout Nature and Creature is but
one and the same Thing, branching itself out into various Kinds
and Degrees of Existence and Operation, so there is but one Fire
throughout all Nature and Creature, standing only in different
States and Conditions. The Fire that is in the Light of the
Sun, is the same Fire that is in the Darkness of the Flint : That

136 An Appeal to all who doubt
Fire which is the Life of our Bodies, is the Life of our Souls ;
that which tears Wood in Pieces, is the same which upholds the
beauteous Forms of Angels : It is the same Fire that burns
Straw, that will at last melt the Sun, the same Fire that
brightens a Diamond, is darkened in a Flint : It is the same Fire
that kindles Life in an Animal, that kindled it in Angels : In an
Angel it is an Eternal Fire of an Eternal Life, in an Animal it
is the same Fire brought into a temporary Condition, and
therefore can only kindle a Life that is temporary : The same
Fire that is mere Wrath in a Devil, is the Sweetness of flaming
Love in an Angel ; and the same Fire which is the Majestic
Glory of Heaven, makes the Horror of Hell.

Chapter III.
The true Ground of all the Doctrines of
the Gospel discovered. Why Adam could
make no Atonement for his Sins. Why,
and how fesus Christ alone could make this
Atonement. Whence the Shedding of Blood
for the ^{emission of Sins. What Wrath
and Anger it is, that is quenched and
atoned by the Blood of Christ. Of the
last Sufferings of Christ. Why, and how
we must eat the Flesh and drink the Blood
of Jesus Christ.
WE have now, Worthy Reader, so far cleared the
Way, that we have nothing to do, but to rejoice
in the most open Illustration, and full Proof of
all the great Doctrines of the Gospel, and to see
all the Objections, which Deists, Arians, and Socinians have
brought against the first Articles of our Faith, dashed to
Pieces : For as soon as we but begin to know, that the holy,
triune Deity from Eternity to Eternity manifests itself in
Nature, by the triune Birth of Fire, Light and Spirit, and that
all Angels and Men must have been created out of this Nature ;

the Truths of the (gospel. 137
there is not a Doctrine in Scripture concerning the Creation,
Fall, and Redemption of Man, but becomes the most plainly
intelligible, and all the Mysteries of our Redemption are proved
and confirmed to us, by all that is visible and perceptible in all
Nature and Creature.
Here we have the plain Foundation of the whole Economy of
all Religion from the Beginning to the End of Time, why the
Incarnation of the Son of God, who is the Light of the World,
must have before it the fiery Dispensation oi the Father delivered
from Mount Sinai ; and after it, the pouring out, or proceeding
forth of the Holy Spirit upon all Flesh ; it is because the triune
Life of the fallen race must be restored according to the triune
Manifestation of the Holy Deity in Nature.
Here we know what the Love, and what the Anger of God is,
what Heaven and Hell, an Angel and a Devil, a lost and a
redeemed Soul are. The Love, and Goodness, and Blessing of
God known, found, and enjoyed by any Creature, is nothing else
but the Holy Trinity of God known, found, and enjoyed in the
blissful, glorious, triune Life of Fire, Light and Spirit, where
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost perpetually communicate their own
nameless, numberless, boundless Powers, Riches and Glories to
the created Image of their own Nature. The Hell in Nature,
and the hellish Life in the Creature, the Wrath of God in
Nature and Creature, is nothing else but the triune, holy Life
broken and destroyed in some Order of Creatures, it is only the
Fire of Heaven separated from its heavenly Light and Spirit.
This is that Eternal Anger, and Wrath, and Vengeance, that
must be atoned, satisfied, and removed, that eternal Fire that
must be quenched, that eternal Darkness that must be changed
into Light, or there is no Possibility in Nature, that the Soul of
fallen Man should ever see the Kingdom of God : And here all
the Doctrines of the Socinians are quite torn up by the Roots.
For in this Ground appeareth the absolute Necessity of the Incar
nation, Life, Sufferings, Death,, Resurrection and Ascension of
the Son of God. Here lieth the full Proof , that through all
Nature there could no Redeemer of Man be found, but only in
the Second Person of the adorable Trinity become Man. For
as the Light and Spirit of Eternal Life, is the Light and Spirit
of the Son and Holy Ghost manifested in Heaven, so the Light
of Eternal Life could never come again into the fallen Soul, but
from him alone, who is the Light of Heaven. He must be again
in the Soul, as he was in it, when it was first breathed forth
from the Holy Trinity, he must be manifested in the Soul, as he
is in Heaven, or it can never have the Life of Heaven in it.
The Socinians therefore, or others, who think they pay a just

138 An Appeal to all who doubt
Deference to the Wisdom and Omnipotence of God, when they
suppose there was no absolute Necessity for the Incarnation of
the Son of God ; but that God, if he had so pleased, could as
well have saved Man some other Way, show as great Ignorance
both of God and Nature, as if they should have said, that when
God makes a blind Man to see by opening or giving him Eyes,
there was no Necessity in the Thing itself, that Sight should be
given in that particular Way, but that God, if he had so pleased,
could have made him become a seeing Man in this World with
out Eyes, or Light of this World.
For if the Son of God is the Light of Heaven, and Man only
wants to be redeemed, because he has lost the Light of Heaven ;
is it not absolutely impossible for Him to be redeemed any other
Way, or by any other Thing, than by a Birth of this Son of God
in him. Is not this Particularity the one only Thing that can
raise fallen Man, as seeing Eyes are the one only Thing that can
take away Blindness from the Man ?
li Adam had been able to undo in himself all that he had done,
if he could have gone back into that State from whence he was
fallen, if he could have raised up again in himself that Birth of
the Holy Trinity, in which he was created, no, Saviour had been
wanted for him ; but because he could not do any Thing of this,
but must be That which he had made himself to be, therefore the
Wrath of Nature, or the Wrath of God manifested in Nature,
abode upon him, and this Wrath must of all necessity be appeased,
atoned, and satisfied, that is, it must be kindled into Light and
Love, before he could again find, and enjoy the God of Nature,
as a God of Light and Love.
Could Adam himself have done all that which I have just now
mentioned, then his own Actions had atoned and satisfied the
Divine Wrath, and had reconciled him to God : For nothing lost
him the Love of God, but That which separated him from God ;
and nothing did, or ever can separate him from God, but the
Loss of that triune Life, in which alone the Holy Trinity of
Divine Love can dwell. If therefore Adam could have raised
again in himself that triune Life, then his Sin, and the Wrath of
God upon him, had been only transitory ; but because he did
That, which according to all the Possibilities of Nature, was un
alterable ; therefore he became a Prisoner of an eternal Wrath,
an Heir of an everlasting, painful Life, till the Love of God, who
is greater than Nature, should do That for him and in him, which
he could by no Powers of Nature do for himself, nor the highest
of Creatures do for him.
3. And here we see in the plainest Light, that there was no
Anger in God himself towards the fallen Creature, because it was

the Truths of the (gospel. 139
purely and solely the infinite Love of God towards him, that did,
and alone could raise him out of his fallen State : All Scripture,
as well as Nature, obliges us to think thus of God. Thus it is
the whole Tenor of Scripture, that ' God so loved the World,
' that he sent his only-begotten Son into it, that the World,
' through him, might be saved :' Is not this saying more than if
it had been said, that there was no Angerin God himself towards
fallen Man ? Is he not expressly declared to be infinitely flowing
forth in Love towards him ? Could God be more infinite in
Love, or more infinitely distant from all Possibility of Anger
towards Man, when he first created him, than when he thus re
deemed him ? God out of pure and free Love gave his Son to
be the Life of the World, first, as an inspoken and ingrafted
Word of Life, as the Bruiser of the Serpent given to all Man
kind in their Father Adam. This Word of Life, and Bruiser of
the Serpent, was the Extinguisher of that Wrath of God that
lay upon fallen Man. Now, will the Scriptures, which tell us
that the Love of God sent his Son into the World, to redeem
Man from that hellish Wrath that had seized him, allow us to
say, that it was to extinguish a Wrath that was got into God
himself, or that the Bruiser of the Serpent was to bruise, suppress,
or remove something that Sin had raised in the Holy Deity
itself? No surely, but to bruise, alter, and overcome an Evil
in Nature and the Creature, that was become Man's Separation
from the Enjoyment of the God of Love, whose Love still ex
isted in its own State, and still followed him, and gave his only
Son to make him capable of it. Do not the Holy Scriptures
continually teach us, that the Holy Jesus became incarnate to
destroy the Works of the Devil, to overcome Death and Hell that
had taken Man captive? And is not this sufficiently telling us,
what that Wrath was, and where it existed, which must be
atoned, satisfied, and extinguished, before Man could again be alive
unto God, or reconciled unto him, so as to have the triune Life
of Light and Love in him ? It was a Wrath of Death, a Wrath
of Hell, a Wrath of Sin, and which only the precious, powerful
Blood of Christ could change into a Life of Joy and Love : And
when this Wrath of Death and Hell are removed from Human
Nature, there neither is, nor can be any other Wrath of God
abiding on it. Are not the Devils and all lost Souls justly said
to be under the eternal Wrath of God, and yet in no Wrath but
that which exists in Hell, and in their own Hellish Nature.
4. They therefore, who suppose the Wrath and Anger of God
upon fallen Man, to be a State of Mind in God himself, to be a
political kind oi just Indignation, a Point of Honourable Resent
ment, which the Sovereign Deity, as Governor of the World,

140 An Appeal to all who doubt
ought not to recede from, but must have a sufficient Satisfaction
done to his offended Authority, before he can, consistently with
his Sovereign Honour, receive the Sinner into his Favour, hold
the Doctrine of the Necessity of Christ's atoning Life and Death
in a mistaken Sense. That many good Souls may hold this
Doctrine in this Simplicity of Belief, without any more Hurt to
themselves, than others have held the Reality of Christ's Flesh
and Blood in the Sacrament under the Notion of the Transub
stantiation of the Bread and Wine, I make no Manner of Doubt:
But when Books are written to impose and require this Belief of
others, as the only saving Faith in the Life and Death of Christ,
it is then an Error that ceases to be innocent : For neither Reason
nor Scripture will allow us to bring Wrath into God himself, as
a Temper of his Mind, who is only infinite, unalterable, overflow
ing Love, as unchangeable in Love, as he is in Power and
Goodness. The Wrath that was awakened at the Fall of Man,
that then seized upon him, as its Captive, was only a Plague, or
Evil, or Curse that Sin had brought forth in Nature and Creature :
it was only the beginning of Hell : It was such a Wrath as God
himself pitied Man's lying under it ; it was such a Wrath as God
himself furnished Man with a Power of overcoming and ex
tinguishing, and therefore it was not a Wrath that was accord
ing to the Mind, Will, and Liking, or Wisdom of God ; and
therefore it was not a Wrath that was in God himself, or which
was exercised by his Sovereign Wisdom over his disobedient
Creatures : It was not such a Wrath, as when Sovereign Princes
are angry at Offenders, and will not cease from their Resentment,
until some political Satisfaction, or valuable Amends be made
to their slighted Authority. No, no ; it was such a Wrath as
God himself hated, as he hates Sin and Hell, a Wrath that the
God of all Nature and Creature so willed to be removed and ex
tinguished, that seeing nothing less could do it, he sent his only
begotten Son into the World, that all Mankind might be saved
and delivered from it. For seeing the Wrath that was awakened
and brought forth by the Fall, and which wanted to be appeased,
atoned, and quenched, was the Wrath of eternal Death, and eternal
Hell, that had taken Man captive ; therefore God spared not the
precious, powerful, efficacious Blood of the Holy Jesus, because
that alone could extinguish this eternal Wrath of Death and Hell,
and re-kindle Heaven and Eternal Life again in the Soul. And
thus all that the Scriptures speak of the Necessity and powerful
Atonement of the Life and Death of Christ, all that they say of
the infinite Love of God towards fallen Man, and all that they
say of the Eternal Wrath and Vengeance to which Man was be
come a Prey, have the most solid Foundation, and are all of

the Truths of the Qospel. 141
them proved to be consistent, harmonious Truths of the greatest
Certainty, according to the plain Letter of Scripture.
5. It is the Foundation of the Law and the Gospel, that with
out shedding of Blood, there is no Remission of Sins ; and that
the precious Blood of Christ could alone do this, could alone
reconcile us to God, and deliver us from the Wrath to come.
How, and why Blood, and only the Blood of Jesus Christ could
do this, will appear as follows : Adam was created with a two
fold Respect, to be himself a glorious, living, eternal Image of
the Holy, triune God, and to be a Father of a new World of
like Beings, all descended from himself: When Adam fell, he
lost both these Conditions of his created State ; the Holy Image
of God was extinguished, his Soul lost the Light and Spirit of
Heaven, and his Body became earthly, bestial, corruptible Flesh
and Blood, and he could only be a Father of a Posterity partly
diabolical, and partly bestial.
Now, if the first Purpose of God was to stand, and to take
Effect ; ii Adam was still to be the Father of a Race that were
to become Sons of God, then there was an absolute Necessity
that all that Adam had done in and to himself, and his Posterity,
by the Fall, should be undone again ; the Serpent and the Beast,
that is, the Serpentine Life, and the bestial Life in Human
Nature, must both of them be overcome, and driven out of it.
This was the one only, possible Salvation for Adam, and every
Individual of his Posterity.
Adam had killed that which was to have been immortal in
him, he had raised that into a Life which never should have
been alive in him, and therefore that which was to be undone
and altered both in himself and his Posterity, was this, it was
to part with a Life that he had raised up into Being, and to get
another Life, which he had quite extinguished.
And here appears the true, infallible Ground of all the Sacrifice,
and all the Blood-shedding that is necessary to redeem and
reconcile Man to God. 'Tis because the earthly, fleshly, bestial,
corruptible Life under the Elements of this World, is a Life
raised and brought into Man by the Fall, is not that Life which
God created, but is an Impurity in the Sight of God, and there
fore cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven ; 'tis a Life, or
Body of Sin, brought forth by Sin, and the Habitation of Sin,
and therefore it is a Life that must he given up, its Blood must
he poured out, before Man can be released from his Sins: This
is the one only Ground of all the Shedding of Blood in Religion.
Had not a Life foreign to the Kingdom of God, and utterly
incapable of it, been introduced by the Fall, there had been no
possible Room for the Death of any Creature, or the pouring out

142 An Appeal to all who doubt
any Blood, as serviceable and instrumental to the raising fallen
Man. 6. But now, this bestial, animal Life which is thus to be
given up, and its Blood poured out, is but the half, and lesser
half of that which is required to deliver Man from all that the
Fall has brought upon him. For the heavenly Life, the Birth
of the Light and Holy Spirit of God which Adam had quite
extinguished, was to be kindled or regenerated again ; also his
first, glorious, immortal Body was to be regained, before he
could become an Inhabitant of the Kingdom of Heaven : But
for all this Adam had no Power. See here again the true and
dreadful State of the Fall, it was the Fall into such a Life, as
must be slain and sacrificed before the fallen Soul could come
to God ; and yet this Death and Sacrifice of the Body, which
was thus absolutely necessary, was the most dreadful Thing that
could happen to Man, because his own Death, come when it
would, would only remove him from the Light of this World
into the Eternal Darkness, and hellish State of fallen Angels :
And here we find the true Reason, why Man's own Death,
though a Sacrifice necessary to be made, had yet nothing of
Atonement ox Satisfaction in it ; it was because it left the eternal
Wrath of Nature, and the Hell that was therein, unquenched
and unextinguished in the Soul, and therefore made no Recon
cilement to God, no Restoration to the Creature of its first State
and Life in God, but left the Soul in its dark, wrathful Separa
tion from the Kingdom of Light and Love.
But here the amazing Infinity of Divine Love appeared, such
a Mystery of Love as will be the universal Song of Praise to all
Eternity. Here God, the second Person in the holy Trinity,
took human Nature upon him, became a suffering, dying Man,
that there might be found a Man, whose Sufferings, Blood and
Death had Power to extinguish the Wrath and Hell that Sin
had brought forth, and to be a Fountain of the first heavenly
Life to the whole Race of Mankind.
It was human Nature that was fallen, that had lost its first
heavenly Life, and got a bestial, diabolical Life in the stead of
it. Now if this human Nature was to be restored, there was
but one possible Way, it must go back to the State from whence
it came, it must put off all that it had put on, it must regain all
that it had lost : But the human Nature that fell, could do
nothing of this, and yet all this must be done in and by that
human Nature which is fallen, or it could never, to all Eternity,
come out of the State of its Fall ; for it could not possibly come
out ofthe State of its Fall, but by putting off 'all that, which the
Fall had brought upon it. And thus stood Man, as to all the

the Truths of the Qospel. 143
Powers of Nature and Creature, in an utter Impossibility of
Salvation, and had only a short Life of this World betwixt him
and Hell.
7. But let us now change the Scene, and behold the Wonders
of a new Creation, where all Things are called out of the Curse
and Death of Sin, and created again to Life in Christ Jesus ;
where all Mankind are chosen and appointed to the Recovery of
their first glorious Life, by a new Birth from a second Adam,
who, as an universal Redeemer, takes the Place of the first
fallen Father of Mankind, and so gives Life and Immortality,
and Heaven to all that lost them in Adam.
God, according to the Riches of his Love, raised a Man out
of the Loins of Adam, in whose mysterious Person, the whole
Humanity, and the Word of God was personally united ; that
same Word which had been inspoken into Adam at his Fall, as
a secret Bruiser of the Serpent, and real Beginning of his Salva
tion ; so that in this second Adam, God and Man was one
Person. And in this Union of the Divine and human Nature
lies the Foundation and Possibility of our Recovery. For thus
the holy Jesus became qualified to be the second Adam, or
universal Regenerator of all that are born of Adam the first.
For being himself that Deity, which as a Spark or Seed oi Life
was given to Adam, thus all that were born of Adam had also
a Birth from him, and so stood under him, as their common
Father and Regenerator of a heavenly Life in them. And it
was this first inspoken Word of Life which was given to Adam,
that makes all Mankind to be the spiritual Children of the
second Adam, though he was not born into the World till so
many Years after the Fall. For seeing the same Word that
became their perfect Redeemer in the Fulness of Time, was in
them from the Beginning, as a Beginning of their Redemption,
therefore he stood related to all Mankind as a Fountain and
Deriver of an heavenly Life into them, in the same universal
manner as Adam was the Fountain and Deriver of a miserable
Mortality into them.
And seeing also this great and glorious Redeemer had in
himself the whole Humanity, both as it was before and after the
Fall, viz., in his inward Man the Perfection of the first Adam,
and in his outward the Weakness and Mortality of the fallen
Nature ; and seeing he had all this, as the Undoer of all that
Adam had done, as the Overcomer of Death, as the Former and
Raiser of our heavenly Life, therefore it was, that all his Con
quests over this World, Sin, Death, and Hell, were not the
Conquests of a single Person that terminated in himself, but
had their real Effect and efficacious Merit through all human

144 d-n Appeal to all who doubt
Nature, because he was the appointed Father and Regenerator of
the whole human Nature, and as such, had that same Relation
to it all as Adam had : And therefore as Adam's Fall, Sin and
Death, did not, could not terminate in himself, because he was
our appointed Father, from whom we must have such a State
and Condition of Life as he had ; so the Righteousness, Death,
Resurrection and Ascension of Christ into the Kingdom of
Heaven did not terminate in himself, but became ours, because
he is our appointed second Adam, from whom we are to derive
such a State and Condition of Life as he had ; and therefore
all that are born again of him, are certainly born into his State
of Victory and Triumph over the World, Sin, Death and Hell.
8. Now here is opened to us the true Reason of the whole
Process of our Saviour's Incarnation, Passion, Death, Resurrec
tion and Ascension into Heaven : It was because fallen Man was
to go through all these Stages as necessary Parts of his Return to
God; and therefore, if Man was to go out of his fallen State,
there must be a Son of this fallen Man, who, as a Head and
Fountain of the whole Race, could do all this, could go back
through all these Gates, and so make it possible for all the
Individuals of human Nature, as being born of him, to inherit
his conquering Nature, and follow him through all these Passages
to eternal Life. And thus we see, in the strongest and clearest
Light, both why and how the holy Jesus is become our great
Redeemer. Had he failed in any of these Things, had he not been all that
he was, and did all that he did, he could not have made one full,
perfect, sufficient Atonement and Satisfaction for the Sins ofthe
whole World, that is, he could not have been and done that, which
in the Nature of the Thing was absolutely necessary, and fully
sufficient to take the whole human Race out ofthe Bondage and
Captivity of their fallen State. Thus, had he not really had the
Divine Nature in his Person, he could not have begun to be our
second Adam from the Time of the Fall, nor could we have stood
related to him as Children, that had received a new Birth from
him. Neither could he have made a Beginning of a Divine Life
in our fallen Nature, but that he was that God who could make
Nature begin again where it had failed in our first Father.
Without this Divinity in his Person, the Perfection of his
Humanity would have been as helpless to us as the Perfection
of an Angel. Again, had he not been Man, and in human
Nature overcome Sin and Temptation, he could have been no
Saviour of fallen Man, because nothing that he had done had
been done in and to the fallen Nature. Adam might as well
have derived Sin into the Angels by his Fall, as Christ had

the Truths of the Qospel. 145
derived Righteousness into us by his Life, if he had not stood
both in our Nature, and as the common Father and Regenerator
of it ; therefore his Incarnation was necessary to deliver us from
our Sins, and accordingly the Scripture saith, 'he was manifest
'in the Flesh to destroy the Works of the Devil.' Again, if
Christ had not renounced this Life, as heartily and thoroughly as
Adam chose it, and declared absolutely for another Kingdom in
another World ; if he had not sacrificed the Life he took up in
and from this World, he could not have been our Redeemer, and
therefore the Scripture continually ascribes Atonement, Satisfac
tion, Redemption, and Remission of Sins to his Sufferings and
Death. Again, had not our Lord entered into that State of
eternal Death which fallen Man was eternally to inherit ; had he
not broken from it as its Conqueror, and rose again from the
Dead, he could not have delivered us from the Effects of our
Sins, and therefore the Apostle saith, ' If Christ be not risen, ye
'are yet in your Sins.' But I must enlarge a little upon the
Nature and Merits of our Saviour's last Sufferings. It is plain
from Scripture that that Death, which our blessed Lord died on
the Cross, was absolutely necessary for our Salvation ; that he, as
our Saviour, was to taste Death for every Man — that as the
Captain of our Salvation, he was to be made perfect through
Sufferings— -that there was no Entrance for fallen Man into
Paradise till Christ had overcome that Death and Hell, or that
first and second Death which stood between us and it.
Now the absolute Necessity of our Saviour's doing and suffering
all this, plainly appears, as soon as we consider him as the second
Adam, who, as such, is to undo all the Evil that the first Adam
had done in human Nature ; and therefore must enter into every
State that belonged to this fallen Nature, restoring in every State
that which was lost, quickening that which was extinguished, and
overcoming in every State that by which Man was overcome.
And therefore as eternal Death was as certainly brought forth in
our Souls, as temporal Death in our Bodies, as this Death was
a State that belonged to fallen Man, therefore our Lord was
obliged to taste this dreadful Death, to enter into the Realities
of it, that he might carry our Nature victoriously through it.
And as fallen Man was to have entered into this eternal Death
at his giving up the Ghost in this World, so the second Adam, as
reversing all that the first had done, was to stand in this second
Death upon the Cross, and die from it into that Paradise out of
which Adam the first died into this World.
Now when the Time drew near that our blessed Lord was to
enter upon his last great Sufferings, viz., the Realities of that
second Death through which he was to pass, then it was that all
10

46 An Appeal to all who doubt

the anguishing Terrors of a lost Soul began to open themselves
in him ; then all that eternal Death which Adam had brought into
his Soul, when it lost the Light and Spirit of Heaven, began to
be awakened, and stirring in the second Adam, who was come to
stand in the last State of the fallen Soul, to be encompassed with
that eternal Death and Sensibility oi Hell, which must have been
the everlasting State of fallen Man.
The Beginning of our Lord's Entrance into the terrible Jaws
of this second Death, may be justly dated from those affecting
Words, ' My Soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto Death, tarry
' ye here with me and watch.' See here the Lord of Life reduced
to such Distress as to beg the Prayers, Watching, and Assistance
of his poor Disciples ! A plain Proof that it was not the Suffer
ings of this World, but a State of dreadful Dereliction that was
coming upon him. O holy Redeemer, that I knew how to
describe the anguishing Terrors of thy Soul, when thou wast
entering into eternal Death, that no other Son of Man might
fall into it.
The Progress of these Terrors are plainly shown us in our
Lord's Agony in the Garden, when the Reality of this eternal
Death so broke in upon him, so awakened and stirred itself in
him, as to force great Drops of Blood to sweat from his Body.
This was that bitter Cup which made him withdraw himself,
prostrate himself, and thrice repeat an earnest Prayer, that if it
were possible, it might pass from him, but at the same Time
heartily prayed to drink it according to the Divine Will.
This was that Cup he was drinking from the sixth to the
ninth Hour on the Cross, nailed to the Terrors of a two-fold
Death, when he cried out ' My God, my God, why hast thou for-
' saken me ?'
We are not to suppose that our Lord's Agony was the Terrors
of a Person that was going to be murdered, or the Fears of that
Death which Men could inflict upon him ; for he had told his
Disciples, not to fear them that could only kill the Body, and
therefore we may be sure he had no such Fears himself. No,
his Agony was his Entrance into the last, eternal Terrors of the
lost Soul, into the real Horrors of that dreadful, eternal Death,
which Man unredeemed must have died into when he left this
World. We are therefore not to consider our Lord's Death
upon the Cross, as only the Death of that mortal Body which
was nailed to it, but we are to look upon him with wounded
Hearts, as fixed and fastened in the State of that two-fold Death,
which was due to the fallen Nature, out of which he could not
come till he could say, ' It is finished ; Father, into thy Hands I
* commend my Spirit.'

the Truths of the (gospel. 147
In that Instant he gave up the Ghost of this earthly Life;
and as a Proof of his having overcome all the Bars and Chains
of Death and Hell, he rent the Rocks, opened the Graves, and
brought the Dead to Life, and triumphantly entered into that
long shut up Paradise, out of which Adam died, and in which
he promised the Thief, he should that Day be with him.
When therefore thou beholdest the Crucifix, which finely
represents to thy Senses the Saviour of the World hanging on
the Cross, let not thy Thoughts stay on any Sufferings, or
Death, that the Malice of Men can cause ; for he hung there in
greater Distress than any human Power can inflict, forsaken of
God, feeling, bearing, and overcoming the Pains and Darkness of
that eternal Death which the fallen Soul oi Adam had brought
into it. For as Adam by his Fall, or Death in Paradise, had
nothing left in his Soul, but the Nature, Properties and Life of
Hell, all which must have awakened in him in their full
Strength, as soon as he had lost the Flesh, and Blood, and
Light of this World, as this eternal Death was a State that
belonged to Man by the Fall, so there was an absolute Necessity
that the Saviour of Man should enter into all these awakened
Realities of the last eternal Death, and come victoriously out of
them, or Man had never been redeemed from them. For the
fallen Nature could no way possibly be saved, but by its own
coming victoriously out of every Part of its fallen State ; and
therefore all this was to be done by that Son of Man, from whom
we had a Power of deriving into us his victorious Nature.
Lastly, if our blessed Lord was not ascended into Heaven,
and set on the Right Hand of God, he could not deliver us
from our Sins ; and therefore the Scripture ascribes to him, as
ascended, a perpetual Priesthood in Heaven : ' If any Man Sin,'
saith St. John, ' we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus
' Christ the Righteous, and he is the Propitiation for our Sins.'
All these Things therefore are so many equally essential
Parts of our Saviour's Character, and he is the one Atonement,
the full Satisfaction for Sin, the Saviour and Deliverer from the
Bondage, Power, and Effects of Sin. And to ascribe our
Deliverance from Sin, or the Remission of our Sins more to the
Life and Actions, than to the Death of Christ, or to his Death
more than to his Resurrection and Ascension, is directly contrary
to the plain Letter and Tenor of the Scripture, which speaks of
all these Things as jointly qualifying our Lord to be the all-
sufficient Redeemer of Mankind ; and when speaking separately
of any of them, ascribes the same Power, Efficacy, and redeem
ing Virtue to one as to the other.
And all this is very plain from the Nature of the Thing ; for
10 — 2

48 An Appeal to all who doubt

since all these Things are necessary Parts or Stages of our
Return to God, everyone of them must have the same necessary
Share in delivering us from our sinful State ; and therefore what
our Saviour did, as living, dying, rising from the Dead, and
ascending into Heaven, are Things that he did as equally
necessary, and equally efficacious to our full Deliverance from
all the Power, Effects, and Consequences of our Sins.
And here we may see, in the plainest Light, how Christ is
said to bear our Iniquities, to be made Sin for us, and how his
Sufferings have delivered us from the Guilt and Sufferings due
to our Sins, and how we are saved by him. It is not by an
arbitrary, discretionary Pleasure of God, accepting the Suffer
ings of an innocent Person, as a sufficient Amends or Satisfaction
for the Sins of Criminals. This is by no means the true Ground
of this Matter. In this View we neither think rightly of our
Saviour, nor rightly of God's receiving us to Salvation through
him. God is reconciled to us through Jesus Christ in no other
Sense than as we are new born, new created in Christ Jesus. This
is the only Merit we have from him. Jesus Christ was made
Sin for us, he bore our Iniquities, he saved us, not by giving the
Merit of his innocent unjust Sufferings as a full Payment for our
Demerits, but he saved us because he made himself one of us,
became a Member of our Nature, and such a Member of our
Nature, as had Power to heal, remove, and overcome all the
Evils that were brought into our Nature by the Fall. He bore
our Iniquities and saved us, because he stood in our Nature as
our common Father, as one that had the same Relation to all
Mankind as Adam had, and from whom we can derive all the
conquering Power of his Nature, and so are enabled to come
out of our Guilt and Iniquities by having his Nature derived
into us. This is the whole of what is meant by having our
guilty Condition transferred upon him, and his Merit transferred
upon us : Our Guilt is transferred upon him in no other Sense
than as he took upon him the State and Condition of our fallen
Nature, to bear all its Troubles, undergo all its Sufferings, till
he had healed and overcome all the Effects of Sin. His Merit ox
Righteousness is imputed or derived into us in no other Sense
than as we receive from him a Birth, a Nature, a Power to
become the Sons of God. Hence it appears, what vain Disputes
the World has had upon this Subject, and how this edifying,
glorious Part of Religion has been perplexed and lost in the
Fictions and Difficulties of scholastic Learning. Some People
have much puzzled themselves and others with this Question
How it is consistent with the Goodness and Equity of God to
permit, or accept the Sufferings of an innocent Peison as a

the Truths of the QospeL 149
Satisfaction for the Guilt and Punishment of criminal Offenders ?
But this Question can only be put by those, who have not ye t
known the most fundamental Doctrine of the Gospel Salvation ;
for according to the Gospel, the Question should proceed thus,
How it is consistent with the Goodness and Equity of God, to
raise such an innocent, mysterious Person out of the Loins of
fallen Man, as was able to remove all the Evil and Disorder that
was brought into the fallen Nature ? This is the only Question
that is according to the true Ground of our Redemption, and at
once disperses all those Difficulties which are the mere Products
of Human Invention. The Short of the Matter is this :
Man considered as created, or fallen, or redeemed, is That
which he is, because of his State in Nature ; he can have no
Goodness in him when created, but because he is brought into
such a Participation of a Goodness that there is in Nature ; he
can have no Evil in him when fallen, but because he is fallen
from his good State in Nature ; he can no way be redeemed, but
by being brought into his first State of Perfection in Nature ;
and therefore, this is an eternal, immutable Truth, that he can
be redeemed by the God of Nature, only according to the Possi
bilities of Nature : And here lies the true Ground, the whole
Reason of all that our Saviour was, and did, and suffered on our
Account : It was because in and through all Nature there could
be no other Relief found for us : It was because nothing less
than such a Process of such a Mysterious Person could have
Power to undo all the Evils that were done in and to the
Human Nature ; and therefore it is not only consistent with the
Goodness and Equity of God to bring such a Mysterious Person
into the World, but is the most infinite Instance of his most
Infinite Love to all Mankind, that can possibly be conceived and
adored by us. To proceed :
9. By the Fall of our first Father we have lost our first,
glorious Bodies, that eternal, celestial Flesh and Blood which had
as truly the Nature of Paradise and Heaven in it, as our present
Bodies have the Nature, Mortality and Corruption of this World
in them : If therefore we are to be redeemed, there is an absolute
Necessity that our Souls be clothed again with this first paradisaical,
or heavenly Flesh and Blood, or we can never enter into the
Kingdom of God. Now, this is the Reason, why the Scriptures
speak so particularly, so frequently, and so emphatically of the
powerful Blood of Christ, of the great Benefit it is to us, of its
Redeeming, Quickening, Life-giving Virtue ; it is because our
first Life, or heavenly Flesh and Blood is born again in us, or
derived again into us from this Blood of Christ.
Our Blessed Lord, who died for us, had not only that outward

150 An Appeal to all who doubt
Flesh and Blood, which he received from the Virgin Mary, and
which died upon the Cross, but he had also an holy Humanity
of heavenly Flesh and Blood veiled under it, which was
appointed by God to quicken, generate, and bring forth from
itself, such an holy Offspring of immortal Flesh and Blood, as
Adam the first should have brought forth before his Fall.
If our Lord Christ had not had a heavenly Humanity, con
sisting of such Flesh and Blood as is not of this World, he had
not been so perfect as Adam was, nor could our Birth from him,
raise us to that Perfection, which we had lost, nor could his
Blood be said to purchase, ransom, redeem, and restore us ;
because, as it is heavenly Flesh and Blood that we have lost, so
we can only have it ransomed and restored to us, by that Blood
which is of the same heavenly and immortal Nature with that
which we have quite lost. Our common Faith, therefore, obliges
us to hold, that our Lord had the Perfection of the first Adam's
Flesh and Blood united with, and veiled under that fallen
Nature, which he took upon him from the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Had he not taken our fallen Nature upon him, nothing that he
had done, could have been of any Advantage to us, or brought
any Ransom or Redemption to our fallen Nature ; and had he
not taken our Nature as it was before the Fall, he could not have
been our second Adam, or a Restorer to us of that Nature, which
we should have had from Adam if he had not fallen.
Now, what our Common Faith thus fully teaches, concerning
a heavenly, as well as earthly Humanity, which our Lord had, is
also plainly signified to us by several clear Texts of Scripture ;
as where he saith of himself, ' I am from above, ye are from
' beneath ;' again, ' I am not of this World ;' and further, ' No
' one ascends into Heaven, but he that came down from
' Heaven, even the Son of Man, who is in Heaven :' These and
other Texts of the like Nature, which plainly speak ot something
in our Blessed Lord, which can neither be understood of his
Divinity, nor of that Flesh and Blood which he received from
the Virgin Mary, has forced some Scholastic Divines to hold the
Pre-existence of our Saviour's Soul, which is an Opinion utterly
inconsistent with our Redemption ; for it is as necessary that
our Lord should have a Soul as well as a Body derived from
Adam, in order to be the Redeemer of Adam's Offspring : But
all these Texts, which a Learning, merely literal, has thus mis
taken, do only prove this great, necessary, and edifying Truth,
that our Blessed Lord had a heavenly Humanity, which clothed
itself with the Flesh and Blood of this World in the Womb of
the Virgin ; and from that heavenly Humanity, or Life-giving
Blood it is, that our first heavenly, immortal Flesh and Blood is

the Truths of the Qospel. 151
generated and formed in us again ; and therefore his Blood is
truly the Atonement, the Ransom, the Redemption, the Life of
the World ; because it brings forth, and generates from itself
the paradisaical, immortal Flesh and Blood, as certainly, as
really, as the Blood of fallen Adam brings forth and generates
from itself the sinful, vile, corruptible Flesh and Blood of this
Life. Would you further know, what Blood this is, that has this
atoning, Life-giving Quality in it ? It is that Blood which is to
be received in the Holy Sacrament. Would you know, why it
quickens, raises and restores the inward Man that died in
Paradise ? The Answer is from Christ himself, ' He that eateth
' my Flesh and drinketh my Blood, dwelleth in me, and I in
' him, that is, he is born of my Flesh and Blood.' Would you
know, why the Apostle saith, ' That he hath purchased us by
' his Blood,' Acts xx. 28. ' That we have Redemption through
'his Blood,' Ephes. i. 7. Why he prays 'the God of Peace —
'through the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant, to make us
' perfect in every good Work to do his Will ;' 'tis because the
Holy Jesus saith, ' except we drink his Blood, we have no Life
' in us,' and therefore the drinking his Blood, is the same Thing
as receiving a Life of heavenly Flesh and Blood from him : And
all this is only saying, that our Saviour, the second Adam, must
do that for us and in us, which the first Adam should have done ;
his Blood must be that to us by way of Descent, or Birth from
him, which the Blood of our first Father, if he had not fallen,
would have been to us ; and as this Blood of an immortal Life
is lost by the Fall, so he from whom we receive it again by a
secondary Way, is justly and truly said, to purchase, to redeem,
and ransom us by his Blood.
Now, there is but one redeeming, sanctifying, Life-giving Blood
of Christ, and it is that which gave and shed itself under the Veil
of that outward Flesh and Blood that was sacrificed upon the
Cross ; it is that Holy and Heavenly Flesh and Blood which is
to be received in the Holy Sacrament ; it is that holy, immortal
Flesh and Blood which Adam had before the Fall, of which
Blood, if we had drank, that is, if we had been born of it, we
had not wanted a Saviour, but had had such Flesh and Blood as
could have entered into the Kingdom of Heaven ; had we
received this holy, immortal Flesh and Blood from Adam before
his Fall, it had been called our being born of his Flesh and
Blood ; but because we receive that same Flesh and Blood from
Jesus Christ, our second Adam, by our Faith, our Hunger and
Desire of it ; therefore it is justly called our eating and drinking
his Flesh and Blood.

52 An Appeal to all who doubt

And here we have another strong Scripture Proof, that our
Saviour had heavenly Flesh and Blood veiled under that which
he received from the Virgin Mary. For does not the Holy
Sacrament undeniably prove to us, that he had a heavenly Flesh
entirely different from that which was seen nailed to the Cross,
and which was to be a heavenly, substantial Food to us ; that
he had a Blood entirely different from that which was seen to
run out of his mortal Body, which Blood we are to drink of, and
live for ever ?
Now, that Flesh and Blood cannot enter into the Kingdom of
God, is a Scripture Truth ; and yet it must be affirmed to be a
Truth according to the same Scriptures, that Flesh and Blood
can, and must enter into the Kingdom of God, or else, neither
Adam, nor any of his Posterity could enter in thither; therefore,
it is a Scripture Truth, that there is a Flesh and Blood that has
the Nature, the Likeness, and Qualities of Heaven in it, that is
as wholly different from the Flesh and Blood of this World, as
Heaven is different from the Earth. For if the Flesh and Blood
that we now have, cannot possibly enter into the Kingdom of
Heaven, and yet we must be Flesh and Blood, and Christ our
Lord must be Flesh and Blood, for ever in Heaven ; then it
follows, that there is a real Flesh and Blood that has nothing of
this World in it, that neither arises from it, nor is nourished by
it, but will subsist eternally, when this World is dissolved and
gone. Now, if this Flesh and Blood is lost by the Fall of our
first Father, and if the Blood which we derive from him is the
Cause, the Seat, and Principle of our mortal, corruptible, impure
Life ; if from the Blood of this first Father, all our Unholiness,
Impurity and Misery is derived into us, then we may clearly
understand what is meant by our being redeemed by the Blood
of Christ, and why the Scriptures speak so much of his atoning,
quickening, Life-giving, cleansing, sanctifying Blood ; it is because
it is to us the Reverse ofthe Blood oi Adam, it is the Cause, the
Seat, the Principle of our Holiness and Purity of Life ; it is that
from which we derive an immortal, holy Flesh and Blood in the
same Reality from this second Adam, as we inherit a corrupt,
impure, and earthly Flesh and Blood from our first Adam : And
therefore that which would have been done to us by our Birth,
if we had been born of the holy Blood oi Adam unfallen, that
we are to understand to be done to us, in and by the Holy Blood
of Christ. For the Blood of Christ is that to us in the Way of
Redemption, which the Blood of our first Father should have
been to us in the Order of the Creation ; for the Redemption has
no other End, but to raise us from our Fall, to do that for us,
which we should have had by the Condition of our Creation, if

the Truths of the Qospel. 153
our Father had kept his State of Glory and Immortality ; and
this is a certain Truth, that there would have been no eating the
Flesh, and drinking the Blood of Christ in the Christian Scheme
of Redemption, but that the Flesh and Blood which we should
have had from Adam, must of all necessity be had, before we
can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.
10. Here therefore is plainly discovered to us, the true
Nature, Necessity and Benefit of the Holy Sacrament of the
Lord's Supper ; both why, and how, and for what End, we must
of all necessity, eat the Flesh, and drink the Blood of Christ.
No figurative Meaning ofthe Words is here to be sought for, we
must eat Christ's Flesh, and drink his Blood in the same Reality ,
as he took upon him the real Flesh and Blood of the Blessed
Virgin : We can have no real Relation to Christ, can be no true
Members of his mystical Body, but by being real Partakers of
that same kind of Flesh and Blood, which was truly his, and was
his, for this very End, that through him, the same might be
brought forth in us : All this is strictly true of the Holy Sacra
ment, according to the plain Letter of the Expression ; which
Sacrament was thus instituted, that the great Service of the
Church might continually show us, that the whole of our
Redemption consisted in the receiving the Birth, Spirit, Life
and Nature of Jesus Christ into us, in being born of him, and
clothed with a heavenly Flesh and Blood from him, just as the
whole of our Fall consists in our being born of Adam's sinful
Nature and Spirit, and in having a vile, corrupt and impure
Flesh and Blood from him.
But what Flesh and Blood are we to eat and drink ? Not
such as we have already, not such as any Offspring of
Adam hath, not such as can have its Life and Death by,
and from the Elements of this World ; and therefore, not
that outward, visible, mortal Flesh and Blood of Christ,
which he took from the Virgin Mary, and was seen on the
Cross, but a heavenly, immortal Flesh and Blood, which came
down from Heaven, which hath the Nature, Qualities, and Life
of Heaven in it, according to which our Lord said of himself,
that he was a ' Son of Man come down from Heaven,' that 'he
'was not of this World,' that 'he was from Above,' &c, that
very Flesh and Blood which we should have received from
Adam, if we had kept his first glorious and immortal Nature.
For as the Flesh and Blood which we lost by his Fall, was the
Flesh and Blood of Eternal Life, so it is the same Flesh and
Blood of Eternal Life which is offered to us in the Holy Sacra
ment, that we may eat, and live for ever : This is the adorable
Height and Depth of this Divine Mystery, which brings Heaven

154 *An Appeal to all who doubt
and Immortality again into us, and gives us Power to become
Sons of God. Woe be to those who come to it with the Mouths
of Beasts, and the Minds of Serpents! who, with impenitent
Hearts, devoted to the Lusts of the Flesh, the Lusts of the
Eyes, and the Pride of Life, for worldly Ends, outward Appear
ances, and secular Conformity, boldly meddle with those
Mysteries that are only to be approached by those that are of a
pure Heart, and who worship God in Spirit and in Truth. Justly
may it be said of such, that they eat and drink Damnation to
themselves, not discerning, that is, not regarding, not reverencing,
not humbly adoring the Mysteries of the Lord's Body.
If you ask how the eating and drinking the Body and Blood
of Christ, is the receiving that Flesh and Blood of Eternal Life,
which we should have had from Adam himself, it is for this plain
Reason, because the same kind of Flesh and Blood is in Christ,
that was in Adam, and is in Christ as it was in Adam, for this
very End, that it might be derived into all his Offspring : So that
we come to the Sacrament of the Blessed Body and Blood of
Christ, because he is our Second Adam, from whom we must now
receive that eternal, celestial Flesh and Blood which we should
have had from our first Father ; and therefore it is, that the
Apostle saith, the ' first Adam was made a living Soul,' that is,
had a Life in himself, which could have brought forth an eternal,
ever-living Offspring ; but having brought forth a dead Race,
the last Adam, as the Restorer of the Life that was lost, was
made a quickening Spirit, because quickening again that Life
which Adam as a living Soul, should' have brought forth.
And thus we have the plain and full Truth of the most
mysterious Part of this Holy Sacrament, delivered from the
tedious Strife of Words, and that Thickness of Darkness which
learned Contenders on all Sides have brought into it. The
Letter and Spirit of Scripture are here both preserved, and the
Mystery appears so amiable, so intelligible, and so beneficial, as
must needs raise a true and earnest Devotion in everyone that
is capable of hungering and thirsting after Eternal Life. And
this true and sound Knowledge of the Holy Sacrament could
never have been lost, if this Scripture Truth had not been over
looked ; namely, that Christ is our second Adam, that he is to do
that for us, which Adam should have done ; that we are to have
that Life from him, as a Quickening Spirit, which we should
have had ixom Adam as a living Soul ; and that our Redemption
is only doing a second Time, or in a second Way, that which
should have been done by the first Order of our Creation : This
plain Doctrine attended to, would sufficiently show us, that the
Flesh and Blood oi Eternal Life, which we are to receive from

the Truths of the Qospel. 155
Christ, must be that Flesh and Blood of Eternal Life which we
lost in Adam. Now, if we had received this immortal Flesh
and Blood by our Descent from Adam, we must in the Strictness
of the Expression have been said to partake of the Flesh and
Blood of Adam ; so seeing we now receive it from Christ, we
must in the same Strictness of the Expression, be said to be real
Partakers of the Flesh and Blood of Christ, because he hath the
same heavenly Flesh and Blood which Adam had, and for the
same End that Adam had it ; namely, that it may come by and
through him into us. And thus is this great Sacrament, which
is a continual Part of our Christian Worship, a continual Com
munication to us of all the Benefits of our Second Adam; for in
and by the Body and Blood of Christ, to which the Divine
Nature is united, we receive all that Life, Immortality, and
Redemption, which Christ, as living, suffering, dying, rising from
the Dead, and ascending into Heaven, brought to Human
Nature; so that this great Mystery is that, in which all the
Blessings of our Redemption and new Life in Christ are
centred. And they that hold a Sacrament short of this Reality
ofthe true Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, cannot be said to
hold that Sacrament of Eternal Life, which was instituted by
our Blessed Lord and Saviour.

FINIS.

SOME
ANIMADVERSIONS UPON
Dr. Trapp's late Reply.

h

AD I the Spirit of an Adversary, or were inclined to
find Entertainment for the Satirical Reader, it
would not be easy for me to overlook the Oppor
tunity which Dr. Trapp' s Reply has put into my
Hands ; but as I don't want to lessen any Appear
ance of Ability which the Doctor has shown on this Occasion,
or have any Wish that his Pen had not all its Advantages ; so
whatever personally concerns him, either as a Writer, a Scholar,
a Disputant, a Divine, or a Christian, shall have no Reflection
from me ; and though by this means, some sort of Readers may
be less pleased, yet, the more Christian Reader will be glad to
find, that thus I must leave two Thirds oi his Reply untouched ;
and as I neither have, nor (by the Grace of God) ever will have
any personal Contention with any Man whatever, so all the Triumph
which the Doctor has gained over me by that Flow of Wrath
and Contempt which he has let loose upon me, I shall leave him
quietly to enjoy.
It would be no Pleasure to me, nor Benefit to the World, to
discover that Malignity of Spirit, that undistinguishing Head,
that diabolical Calumny, that shameful Ignorance, that unthinking
Temper, that blundering Mind, that perverse Disposition, that
indecent Sufficiency, that unbecoming Presumption, that nauseous
Dulness, that Ignorance of Logic, that Insensibility of Argument,
that Want of Grammar, which he has so heartily laid to my
Charge ; and if he has any Readers that thank him for this, I
shall make no Attempt to lessen their Number.
As I desire nothing for myself, or the Reader, but good Eyes,
and a good Heart, seriously attentive to Things useful and
edifying, and always open to the Light and Influence of the
Holy Spirit of God, so I shall endeavour to say nothing but
what is suitable to such a State of Mind, both in myself and the
Reader. The Doctor, by way of Plea for a certain Freedom in Drink-

*Dr. Trapp' s late 1fyply> 157
ing, had appealed to our Saviour's Miracle at the Marriage
Feast, where he turned Water into Wine, at a Time when the
Guests had already drank enough, and had indulged something
to Pleasure and Cheerfulness. Therefore more Wine, or a Con
tinuance of Drinking, when Man have already indulged some
thing to Pleasure and Cheerfulness, has Authority from our
Saviour's Conduct at the Feast.
One would imagine no one need be helped to look with a
just Indignation at this Abuse and Profanation of our Lord's
Miracle. Did the Saviour of the World mean, or intend to
teach any Thing like this in what he did ? Was this the Spirit
of his Mind when he thus timed this Miracle, did he intend to
convey this Instruction to them ? Now, if our Lord had not
this Spirit, did not mean thus to instruct the Feasters by thus
timing his Miracle, Is it not a great Profanation of it to appeal
to it for that Instruction, which was not meant or intended by
it ? Had any one of those Guests then present, come up to our
Lord and said, Sir, we have heard indeed a Report that you
require a Man to deny himself, to hate even his own Life in
this World, and to forsake all that he hath in order to be your
Disciple, but now we perceive, not by Words, but by your
miraculous Actions, that you are no Enemy to these kind of
Pleasures and Indulgences, since you have worked a Miracle
to help us to more Wine, when we had already drank enough,
and had indulged something to Pleasure and Cheerfulness. What
would our Lord have said to so sagacious an Observer ? Would
he have told him, that Flesh and Blood had not revealed so great
a Truth unto him ? Would he have acquiesced in the Propriety
and fustness of his Observation, and pronounced him rightly
disposed to by one of his Disciples ? But if such an Observation
could not have been approved by our Lord as a Sign of a good
Mind, how is the Doctor to be excused, who not only looks thus
at it himself, but proposes it to the World to be considered in
that View ? In order to vindicate our Saviour's Conduct in
this Matter, I ventured, without any Help from Commentators
or Schoolmen, to tell the Doctor, ' That the Wine here spoken
' of, was not common Wine, and therefore had no Relation to
' our common Drinking — that it was not Wine from the Juice of
* the Grape — that it had nothing in it but what came from a
' heavenly Hand — that it must have in it the Purity and Virtue
' of him that made it — that it had as good Qualities in it, and
' was fitted to have the same Effect upon some that drank it as
' the Clay which he moistened with his Spittle had upon the
' Eyes of the Blind — that it was Water only so altered, and
' endued with such Qualities, as he pleased to put into it ; and

158 Some Animadversions upon
' therefore we may be sure it was Water as highly blessed for their
' Use as they were capable of; we may be sure it was fitter to
' allay the Heat and Disorder of their Drinking, than if it had
' been Water unaltered by our Saviour. How suitable was this
' Miracle to a Feast ? How worthy of so Divine a Person !
' to make them cooler by giving them Water made fitter for
' that Purpose, and to raise their Faith by its miraculously
' seeming to be the best of Wine.'*
Now how can it be proved that this Interpretation is not a
true one, not a safe one, not a good one ? That our Saviour
could do all this which is here mentioned, that he could convert
Water into a Wine of this Nature, is undeniable ; therefore if it
had not this Nature and Qualities in it, it could only be because
he chose to make it as bad as that Wine, which has the Curse
of the Earth in it. But who will undertake to prove that Wine
thus brought forth by a Divine Power, must have the Nature
of Wine that is squeezed from the Grape under the Curse of
Sin ?
The Doctor confutes my Interpretation, by calling it a sense
less, impious, profane, ridiculous Nostrum, a Whimsy of my own
Brain, diluting the glorious Miracle into nothing. He has also
accepted the Help of a learned Assistant, one Philoclericus, who
backs this Confutation by saying, that it has evaporated the
Miracle into nothing. They both agree that I have brought it
to nothing, and only differ in my manner of doing it. The one
holds it to be by Dilution, and the other by Evaporation.
To set this Matter therefore in a clear Light, let it be sup
posed, that the Ruler of the Feast should have come to our
Saviour, and said, Sir, having been surprised at the extra
ordinary Difference between the last Cup of Wine that was
brought to me, and that which had been used in the Feast
before, I called the Bridegroom to tell him my Wonder at that
extraordinary Wine which he had kept to the last ; but being
since informed by them that drew it, that this Wine was by thy
Word of Power drawn from Vessels brim full of Water, I now
come to fall down before thee, and confess that thou art come
from God, and hast given me a Wine that has not the Nature
of the earthly Grape in it : But as God gave our Fathers Manna
to eat, which was justly called Angels' Food, and Bread from
Heaven, so this Wine, which thou by a Divine Power has given
us, must be looked upon, not as the poor fuice of the Grape, but
as Wine given us from Heaven.
Now had the Doctor and his learned Assistant been there, and

* Serious Answer, etc., page 48.

(Dr. Trapp' s late Ifypfy- 159
had been such Christians as they are now, they must both have
fallen upon the Ruler of the Feast, as a senseless, impious, profane,
ridiculous Wretch, that had diluted and evaporated our Lord's
glorious Miracle into nothing: Though it was impossible in the
Nature of the Thing, for all the Disciples of our Lord, though
ever so full of Faith in him, to make higher Profession of the
Reality of this glorious Miracle than the Ruler here has done;
and yet he has said nothing but what is said in the Account
which I have given of the Wine. And indeed it must be strangely
absurd for any one to suggest, that the Reality of the Miracle is
hurt by this Account of the Wine. For is not as great a Divine
Power required to change Water into a Wine, that has a better
Nature and Qualities than common Wine, as to make it have
no more Goodness and Virtue in it than is in the ordinary f nice
from the Grape? Or is it not rightly called Wine by those that
drew it, or by him that drank it, because it was Wine in Perfec
tion, in such Perfection, as the Grape could never give since
Adam brought the Curse into the World.
The Doctor says, he believes it was just the same sort of Wine
as if it had been from the Juice of the Grape, and his Reason is,
' because it is a Part of his Faith that our Saviour had the Power
' of creating,' p. 56. Now this is the very worst Reason the
Doctor could possibly have thought of. For the Doctor, I will
venture to say, is so orthodox a Schoolman as to hold the
common Notion of Creating, viz., that it is a Power of making
something to be out of nothing. But Wine thus created is the
last Thing the Doctor should have had Recourse to ; first,
because it is directly contrary to the Letter of the Text, which
expressly saith, the Water was made Wine, therefore not a created
Wine. Secondly, because Wine so created, could not possibly be
just the same Sort of Wine, as if it had been from tlie Juice of the
Grape, because as the Grape and every earthly Thing stands in
a State of Evil, Corruption, and Curse through the Sin of the
fallen Creatures, it is absolutely impossible that any Thing
immediately created by God out of Nothing, should have any-
Thing of that Evil, Corruption, or Curse in it which Sin alone
has brought into the Creatures.
The Truth of the Matter is, here was no more a Creation of
Wine in this Miracle, than Wine is created every Time the Vine
has ripe Grapes upon it. Water, together with Earth, is every
Year turned into the Juice of the Grape by the Power of the Sun,
from God's eternal Word, first saying, ' Let the Earth bring forth,
' the Fruit-tree yielding Fruit,' &c.
This same eternal, ever speaking, ever operating Word of God,
being become Man, could as well turn Water into Wine in a

160 Some Animadversions upon
quicker Way by his own Power, as by the Help of the Vine once
in a Year. Seeing therefore this Wine was not raised from Water
and Earth, according to the common Course of Vegetation in
fallen Nature, but by the immediate Agency of the God of
Nature upon Water alone, it is reasonable and absolutely neces
sary to suppose, that it was Wine very much freed from all that
Evil, Wrath, and Curse, which is inseparable from the ordinary
Workings of the present State of Nature. Hence it appears,
that the Interpretation here given, is so far from being a profane,
impious, senseless Nostrum, is so far from having any Thing of
Force, or Fiction in it, that it is the first, most easy, natural, and
direct Sense, in which the Miracle can be justly understood.
And therefore every sober Christian ought to reject the Doctor's
Use of this Miracle as inconsistent with Piety. Great In
temperance, we all know, is carried on by such as pretend not
to exceed the lawful Bounds of Pleasure and Indulgence. And
is it consistent with Christian Piety, or Prudence, to furnish such
People with a Pretext for what they do, from our Saviour's
Example and Conduct ? Or is he to be blamed, who by a just,
innocent, and safe Interpretation of the Miracle, leaves such
People no Claim to its Authority ? Surely it is a sad Mistake
to draw Arguments for sensual Indulgence from him, who came
to teach and save the World by every Kind and Degree of
possible Self-denial.
But I shall add but one Argument more, which is sufficient of
itself to show how unjustly the Doctor draws an Argument from
our Saviour's turning Water into Wine, when more than was
necessary had been already drank, and something, as he says,
had been indulged to Pleasure and Cheerfulness ; and my Argu
ment is this : It is undeniably plain from the whole Story of this
Matter, that there was no more Water turned into Wine than
that one Cup, which was carried to the Ruler of the Feast, and
therefore neither Foundation nor Excuse for the Doctor's Argu
ment from it.
When the Vessels were empty, our Lord ordered them to be
filled, and to be filled up to the Brim with Water. Such an
Order as this must, at least in the Execution of it, draw the
Eyes and Attention of many that were present. Not a Syllable
is ever mentioned of any Wine in the Vessels ; they are only
represented to us as standing brimful of Water. Our Lord
only bids a Servant to draw from these Pots thus full of Water,
and what he drew and carried to the Ruler from Vessels full of
Water, was such Wine as strangely surprised him with its peculiar
Excellency. The Wine was only found in that Cup into which
our Saviour ordered the Servant to draw, and bear to the Ruler,

T>r. Trapp' s late l^epfy. 161
and as he gave this Command but once, so it is certain there
was but this one Cup of miraculous Wine. A hasty Reader, that
has his Eye upon the Increase of the Liquor, and wants to have
an Argument for his Purpose from it, may hurry himself into
a Fancy, that our Saviour made all the Water Pots stand brim
ful of Wine. But the Story itself plainly represents quite
another Matter, and is only a Relation of one Cup of miraculous
Wine. The Care that our Lord took, that all the Vessels should
be filled with Water up to the Top, was not, that the Guests
might have all the Wine these Vessels could hold, but that all
the Vessels being filled up to the Top, and made visible to all
Beholders, might be so many plain Proofs that the Wine which
he ordered to be drawn, could only be drawn from one of those
Vessels which so many Beholders saw to be brimful of Water,
both before and after the Drawing of the Cup of Wine. And
herein lay the Strength, and Certainty, and Glory of the Miracle ;
that so many Witnesses were forced to see and own, that by the
Word of our Lord, Wine was drawn from Pots just filled, and
still remaining full to the Top with Water. And when this
Miracle had thus incontestably manifested itself, the whole
Affair was over, and the Guests were left, not to rejoice over
full Pots of Water turned into Wine, but to make sober Reflec
tions upon the Divinity of that Person, who had put such an
astonishing End to their Drinking. Great and holy Jesus ! How
like thyself, the Saviour of the World, hast thou acted at this
Feast ! How couldst thou more sink the Value, extinguish the
Desire, suppress all Thoughts of Pleasure and Indulgence in
earthly Wine, than by showing the Feasters, that from the
poorest of the Elements thou couldst call forth such Wine as
no Grape could give ? How couldst thou more effectually take
from them their sensual Joy, or more powerfully call them to
deny themselves and come after thee, than by thus miraculously
showing them, that the richest Delights of sensual Gratifications
were far short of what thou couldst give to those, that would
leave all earthly Delights for thee.
The next Thing of Importance which I shall speak to, shall
be with Regard to what I have said to the Clergy. The miser
able State of Religion, and the great Corruption of Manners, so
incontestably apparent in this Island, gave me a just Occasion
to desire all the Clergy, from the highest to the lowest in the
Order, to consider their Conduct, and see how free they were
from the common Corruption, and how justly every one could
clear himself from having any Share in this general Depravity
of Manners. I was not insensible that this was a dangerous
Attempt, that would expose me to the Resentment of not a few
n

1 62 Some Animadversions upon

of my Brethren : But as I wrote for no other End but to do as
much Good as I could to those who were capable of it, so I had
no Care but how to speak disagreeable Truths, in as Christian
and inoffensive a manner as I could ; how I have succeeded in
this, is left to the World to judge. And as it is but too
apparent, that the Root of all the Evil, which but too much
spreads itself through the whole Body of the Clergy, is owing to
a worldly, trading Spirit, too visible from the Top to the Bottom
of the Order, so I pointed at it in the softest and most affecting
manner that I could, in the following Words, grounded on a
plain Apostolical Doctrine and Practice.
St. Paul, I had observed, had said, it was lawful for those that
preach the Gospel to live by the Gospel, and yet makes it
Matter of the greatest Joy and Comfort to himself that he had
wholly abstained from this lawful Thing; and declares, it were
better for him to die than that this Rejoicing should be taken
from him. He appeals to his daily and nightly working with
his own Hands, that so he might preach the Gospel freely, and
not be chargeable to those that heard him. And this he said he
did, not for want of Authority to do otherwise, but that he
might make himself an Example unto them to follow him.
Here, I say, ' What fine and awakening Instructions are here
' given to us of the Clergy, in a practical Matter of the greatest
' Moment ? How ought every one to be frighted at the Thoughts
' of desiring or seeking a second Living, or of rejoicing at great
' Pay where there is but little Duty, when the Apostle's rejoicing
' consisted in this, that he had passed through all the Fatigues
' and Perils of preaching the Gospel without any Pay at all ?
' How cautious, nay, how fearful ought we to be, of going so far
' as the secular Laws permit us, when the Apostle thought it
' more desirable to lose his Life, than to go so far as the very
' Law of the Gospel would have suffered him ?
' It is looked upon as lawful to get several Preferments, and
' to make a Gain of the Gospel, by hiring others to do Duty for
' us at a lower Rate. — It is looked upon as lawful to quit a Cure
' of Souls of a small Income, for no other Reason, but because we
'can get another of a greater. — It is looked upon as lawful for a
' Clergyman to take the Revenues of the Church, which he
' serves, to his own Use, though he has more than a sufficient
' Competency of his own, and much more than the Apostle could
' get by his Labour. — It is looked upon as lawful for the Clergy
' to live in State and Equipage, to buy Purple and fine Linen
' out of the Revenues of the Church. — It is looked upon as
' lawful for Clergymen to enrich their Families, to bring up their
' Children in the fashionable Vanities, and corrupting Methods

T>r. Trapp' s late Ifyply. 163
1 of a worldly and expensive Life, by Money got by preaching
' the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But now, supposing all this to be
'lawful, what Comfort and Joy might we treasure up to our-
' selves, what Glory and Honour might we bring to Religion,
' what Force and Power might we give to the Gospel, what
'Benefit and Edification should we do to our Neighbour, if we
'wholly abstained from all these lawful Things? Not by work-
' ing Day and Night with our own Hands, as the great Apostle
'did, but by limiting our Wants and Desires according to the
' plain Demands of Nature, and a religious Self-Denial.'
Now, there are but two possible ways of justly replying to
this ; first, either by showing that these Observations are falsely
drawn from the Apostle's Doctrine and Practice, that I have
mistaken the Spirit of St. Paul, and the Genius of the Gospel,
that I am here doing what the Apostle would not do, was he
here in Person, and representing such Things as Corruptions,
which the Apostle would be glad to see flourishing in the
Church of Christ : Or, secondly, that though these Things are
plainly condemnable from the Apostle's Doctrine and Practice,
yet they are not chargeable upon the Spirit, Temper and Practice
of the Clergy of this Land. Now, though not a Word to the
Purpose could possibly be said, but by one of these two Ways,
yet the Doctor shuts his Eyes to both of them, and then
pronounced the following Sentence upon Me, That a Quaker, or
Infidel, could not zvell have reflected with more Virulency upon the
Clergy of our Church, than I have done in these Expressions.
Must I then suppose, that the Doctor in his Sermons, never
mentions any Failings that concerns his Auditors, or lays before
them any of their unchristian Ways of Life ? If he does, I
desire to know how he clears himself from virulently reflect
ing upon them and their Christianity ? The Quakers, and
Infidels, are ready enough, and able enough to show, that most
Congregations of Christians are sadly fallen away from the
Religion of the Gospel; and does the Doctor forbear this
Charge, is he ashamed to call his Flock to a more Christian
Life, or afraid to remind them of their Departure from the
Gospel, lest he should seem to join with Quakers and Infidels,
who make great Complaints of the Corruptions of Christians ?
Or, how can the Doctor desire to be thought to have any true
Love or just Esteem for those Christians, whom he is so often
reminding of the Corruption and Depravity of their Manners, so
contrary to the Religion of Jesus Christ? Now, if the Doctor
knows how to untie this Knot, and to extricate himself from the
Charge of virulent reflecting upon his Parishioners, as Quakers
11 — 2

164 Some Animadversions upon
and Infidels do, then he has dissolved his Charge against me
into a mere nothing.
If it was a Thing required of me I know no more how to raise
in myself the least Spark of Rancour, or Ill-will towards the
Clergy, as such, than I know how to work myself up into a
Hatred of the Light of the Sun. It is as natural to me, to wish
them all their Perfection, as to wish Peace and Happiness to
myself both here and hereafter ; and when I point at any
Failings in their Conduct, it is only with such a Spirit as I would
pluck a Brother out of the Fire.
In that Part of my Answer, which is addressed to the younger
Clergy, I said, ' Lay this down for an infallible Principle ; that
' an entire, absolute Renunciation of all worldly interest, is the
' only possible Foundation of that exalted Virtue, which your
' Station requires ; without this, all Attempts after an exemplary
' Piety are in vain : [and then, by way of Limitation and Explication
' ofthis, it thus immediately follows :) It you want any Thing from
'the World by way of Figure and Exaltation, you shut the
'Power of your Redeemer out of your own Souls, and instead
' of converting, you corrupt the Hearts of those that are about
'you. Detest therefore, with the utmost Abhorrence, all Desires
'of making your fortunes, either by Perferments, or rich
'Marriages, and let it be your only Ambition, to stand at
' the Top of every Virtue, as visible Guides and Patterns to all
' that aspire after the Perfection of Holiness,' p. 61.
Now, one would imagine there was no Part of the Christian
World, however corrupted by Division, where this Doctrine
would not be admitted at least in Theory ; or, that the Gospel
of Christ should be thought to be reproached, where such Advice
as this was given to young Divines : And yet it is of this very
Advice, that Dr. Trapp says, ' he hopes they will have more Grace
' and Sense than to follow it : That it is false Doctrine, tending
' to the Reproach and Scandal of the Christian Religion,' p. 87.
Is it then come to this, that unless young Divines choose to
serve Mammon as well as God, their Profession is a renouncing
of Grace and Sense, and a Reproach to Religion f And must they
that pretend to act in Christ's Name, as Successors in his Office,
take Care that they renounce not the Politics of the Kingdom of
this World ? For my part, I thought it as safe, as Christian as
consistent with the Honour of the Gospel, to give this Advice
thus to suppress all worldly Views, as to resist all the Tempta
tions of the Devil. v
Had Martin Luther, when he gave his Reasons and Motives
for withdrawing from Communion with the Pope, been able to
have added this : that the Advice here given, had 'been formally •

T^r. Trapp' s late T^eply- 165
condemned by the Pope in a great Council, the Defenders of that
Church would have found it as hard to have made such a Decree
consistent with the Gospel, as the selling of Indigencies : And
it may well be supposed, that no Protestant writer, when setting
forth the Marks of Antichrist, and the Beast in that Church,
would have forgot to have made this Condemnation to be one of
them. For who can show it to be so contrary to the whole Spirit of
the Gospel, to call in the Assistance of the Saints, or to deny
the Cup to the Laity in the Manner the Church of Rome does,
who can show this to put so entire a Stop to the Salvation by
the Gospel, as to condemn the Advice here given to young
Divines as a Scandal and Reproach to Christianity ? For all
the Ends and Designs of the Gospel may be pursued, and Men
may arise out of the Corruption of their Nature, notwithstand
ing these two Mistakes : But to condemn it as an Error incon
sistent with Grace and Sense, a Scandal and Reproach to
Christianity, for young Divines to renounce worldly Views, and
devote themselves wholly to God, is striking at the whole Root
of all Holiness of Life, and no less than a Denial of the whole
Spirit of the Gospel. e
Our Church requires all its Candidates for Holy Orders, to
make Profession of their being moved and called by the Holy
Ghost to enter into the Service of the Church : This, I should
think, is Proof enough, that the Spirit of this World ought not
to be alive in them, when they make this Profession ; and yet, if
any young Persons should come to be ordained, thus dead to all
worldly Views, thus wholly devoted to God, as I have here
recommended, they ought, according to the Doctor, to be rejected
by the Bishop, of being led by a Spirit that has lost all Grace and
Sense, and is a Scandal and Reproach to the Christian Religion.
It is needless to quote particular Texts of Scripture, teaching
the same that I have here taught ; as, that our Saviour assures
us, that we 'cannot serve God and Mammon' : That St. Paul
requires us, having Food and Raiment, to be therewith content, for
this Reason, because they that witl be rich, fall into divers Tempta
tions of the Devil: That St. fohn forbids us to 'love the World,
' or the Things of the World,' for this Reason, because all that is
in the World, the ' Lust of the Flesh, the Lust of the Eyes, and
'the Pride of Life, is not ofthe Father, but is ofthe World.' _ It
is needless to have Recourse to particular Texts of this kind,
because the whole Nature and Reason of our Redemption is a
standing, plain Proof of the same Thing ; for we want to be
redeemed for no other Reason, but because we are born Children
of this World, and have by Nature only the Life, Spirit and

1 66 Some Animadversions upon
Temper of this World in us : This is our Fall, our Curse, our
Separation from God ; and therefore we can have no Redemp
tion, but by a Renunciation of all the Workings of the Life of
this World in us, by a total dying to, and denying ourselves ;
because all that we are, as to our State, Spirit and Life in this
World, is a Life that carries us from God, a Life that should not
have been raised up in us ; 'tis a Life begun by the Fall, a Life
of Sin and Corruption, which cannot enter into Heaven. The
Life that we have in this World, from the Fall of Adam, is not
to be naturally destroyed or murdered, nor are the Necessaries
and Conveniences of Life to be rejected, nor is anyone to
renounce his Share in the Employments that are necessary and
useful to Social Life : The Renunciation of this World reaches
no further than the renouncing the Spirit, Temper, and Inclina
tions of this worldly Life : We may stand in our Stations, when
we stand in them as the Servants of God, as Citizens of the new
Jerusalem, who have amongst earthly Things, our Conversation
in Heaven : We may keep our Possessions, when we possess
them as the Things of God, and use them not as Nature, but as
the Spirit directs us ; when we do thus, we have the Poverty of
Spirit, which the Gospel requires, and come up to the very Letter
of that Command given to the young Man, ' to sell all that he
'had, and give to the Poor.'
But now, if our natural Life in this World, is a corrupt,
impure, disorderly, bestial, diabolical Life brought forth by the
Fall, if we want to be redeemed because we have this State of
Life in and from this World, if we want to be born again ofthe
Son of God, born again of the Holy Spirit, because our natural
Birth is according to the Spirit of this World ; if nothing of the
Beast, or the Devil, no kind or degree of Selfishness, Envy,
Pride and Vanity can enter into the Kingdom of God, then it is
plain from the Nature of the Thing, that all religion which
leaves this Nature alive and unrenounced, which lets Selfishness,
Pride, Wrath, and Vanity subsist in us, which bring us to our
Graves in the same Nature in which we were born, is not the
Religion that can save us. If this Nature in all its most secret
Workings is not renounced and denied, it matters not what we
are, or what we have been doing, it signifies little in what Chair
we have sat, whether in Italy, or England, how long we have
been Preachers, how many heretics and Schismatics we have
opposed, or how many Books we have written in Defence of
Orthodoxy ; it is as vain to appeal to this, as to our having
preached and prophesied in the Name of Christ, in the Streets
and Fields : For if this Nature is allowed to live in us, all our
good Works have been governed by it, they have sprung from

'Dr. Trapp' s late 1fypfy> 167
Selfishness, are animated with Pride, and only serve to gratify
our own natural Passions. When therefore the Doctor calls
upon young Divines to have more Grace and Sense than to be
driven from Thoughts of advancing themselves by Preferments
and rich Marriages, he would do well to consider, how little
short this is of calling them to break their very Baptismal Vow,
of renouncing the Pomps and Vanities of the World. And if
young Candidates for Holy Orders, looking only at their Bap
tismal Vow, should be led into this Degree of Self-denial and
Detachment from the World, does the Doctor think, that the
Apostles, from whom this Baptismal Vow is descended, will rise
up in the Day of Judgment, and condemn such gross Ignorance
and Abuse of it ? Does he think, that there are any departed
Saints that will join with him in saying, that such a Spirit is a
Scandal and Reproach to the Gospel ? What more favourable
Disposition could the Adversary of Mankind wish to see, either
in young or old Divines, than a wanting and desiring to have
Figure in the World, either by Preferments or rich Marriages ?
Would he find it difficult to enter into those Hearts, where the
Lust of the Flesh, the Lust of the Eyes, and the Pride of Life
had thus entered ? Or would he look upon such as but half
fitted for him, in Comparison of those who entered into holy
Orders in a Spirit of Self-denial, and Renunciation of the Pomps
and Vanities of the World ? Does the Doctor think that these
gross Instances of worldly Ambition have no Affinity with those
Pomps and Vanities, which must be renounced in Baptism ?
John the Baptist was but the Preparer of the Way for evan
gelical Purity of Life ; but does the Doctor think that if the
Baptist was now to come amongst us, as some have thought he
will come again before the End of the Church, that he would
look at Things as the Doctor does, that he would see such
Perfections and such Corruptions, such Orthodoxy and such
Enthusiasm as the Doctor sees ; that this burning and shining
Light would see no Generation of Vipers but where the Doctor
sees them ; that he would preach nowhere but in Churches ; that
he would spare no Clergy, nor any Church, but that which is
established in this Island ; that he would complain of the
Hardships of our Clergy, and the suffering Spirit which they
are forced to practise, as the Doctor does ; that he would plead
for a priestly Liberty of coveting Preferments and rich Marriages,
as the Doctor doth ; that he would condemn the Treatise upon
Christian Perfection amongst the most pernicious Books of the
Age, that he would recommend Wharton's Defence of Pluralities,
and the Doctor's Discourse of the Folly, Sin, and Danger of
being righteous over-much, as the true Fruits of that Spirit which

1 68 Some Animadversions upon

first preached the Gospel? He that can believe this, must
believe that the Baptist was come to confess the Errors and
Mistakes of his first Appearance in the World.
I shall therefore proceed to tell young Divines, that a total
Renunciation of the Spirit, Temper, and Inclinations of this
Life, is the one Thing necessary to consecrate them to their holy
Office ; that as sure as the Church of Christ is not a Kingdom
of this World, as sure as Jesus Christ came to deliver us from
this evil World, as sure as he requires us to be born again from
above, to hate even our own Life in this World, and to forsake
all and follow him, so sure is it that no one has the Call of the
Holy Spirit to the Ministry of the Gospel, nor the least Ground
of hoping to be led and governed by it in his Ministry, till he at
least prays, desires, and heartily endeavours to have all that
Disregard of worldly Prosperity, Figure, and Distinction, which
the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Maxims of the Gospel, and the
Practice of the Apostles set before him. Till this Renunciation
of the World is made, we cannot enter into the Ministry at its
own Door, but, like Thieves and Robbers, climb over its Walls ;
and then it will be no Wonder if we do no more Good to the
Church than Thieves do the House they break open and
plunder. If a young Minister wants to act the Part, and have
the Appearance of a fine Gentleman, to go on in the common
Spirit of the World, to cover a secular Spirit with an ecclesiastic
Garb, and make his Fortunes in the Church, he must be told,
that it is much safer to be a Publican and a Sinner, than to be a
Trader in spiritual Things ; that he who with unsanctified Hands
attends at the Altar, is further from the Kingdom of God, than
he who has not yet made one Step towards it.
Covetousness is Idolatry ; it is a heathenish, Anti-christian
Vice, though only trafficking in worldly Matters ; but when it
takes Possession of the Altar, and makes a Trade of the
Mysteries of Salvation, and turns Godliness into Gain, it has a
Blackness of Vice and Depravity which much exceeds that of
the worldly Miser. The Spirit of an Ecclesiastic should be the
Spirit of Heaven, knowing nothing of this World, but how to
escape its Snares and Temptations, burning in the Love of God,
and holding out Life and Direction to all that aspire after every
Perfection of the Christian Life.
'Tis too commonly thought, that when a young Student has
taken his Degree, and shown some Signs of a Genius for
Learning, that he is well prepared to enter into the Service of
the Church. But alas ! all the Accomplishments of human
Learning are but the Ornaments of the Old Man, which leave
the Soul in its Slavery to Sin, full of all the Disorders and

Dr. Trapp' s late T^eply. 169

Corruptions of the fallen Nature, and under the Blindness and
Perverseness of some of its Passions. If it were not thus, how
could the Errors of all Churches have the greatest Scholars for
their Champions f All the learned Catholic World is amazed at
the Prejudice, the Blindness, the Perverseness, the Partiality,
the Weakness, the Sophistry, the Unfairness of Protestant
Critics. All the Protestant World is in the same Degree of
Wonder at the same Disorders in Catholic Disputants. Is not
this a Demonstration of the Nature, Power, and Place of human
Learning ? Of its great Usefulness and Benefit to Religion ?
Does not this enough show, that it is the Effect and Offspring of
the old Man, has his Nature and Qualities, dwells in him, and is
governed by him ? Is not this a Demonstration, that the
greatest Degrees of historical, verbal, critical Knowledge are no
real Hindrance of spiritual Blindness ? Is not this a Demon
stration, that human Learning is as different from Divine Light
as Heaven is from Earth, the new from the old Man ; and that
considered in itself, it leaves us in our first State of Slavery to
blind and corrupt Passions ? Now nothing can deliver a Man
from this State, but a Spirit born into him from above, a Light
from the Spirit of God derived into his Soul, which alone can bring
forth a new Man created in Christ Jesus. Nothing can make
way for this new Birth from above, but a total Renunciation and
Dying to all that we are by our natural Birth in this World.
'Tis only this Separation from Things below, that can make us
Partakers of the Truth and Light that comes from above. Take
away all Selfishness from the Papist and the Protestant, or let
them both be dead to the Workings of this Spirit, and then they
will be as fully agreed about Gospel Truths, as they are in the
Form of a Square and a Circle. For nothing stands in the way
of Divine Truths, or hinders its plain and full Entrance into us,
but this Partiality or Selfishness, which adheres to everyone who
does not make it his first Maxim, Prayer, and Endeavour to die
to, and deny himself in all the Tempers and Inclinations of our
fallen Nature. This Self-denial is the continual Doctrine of our
Lord ; it is by him made the Beginning of all Conversion to
God, and he that cannot, or will not begin there, can make no
Beginning of that Life, Light, and Salvation to which he is
called in Christ Jesus : Therefore he that offers himself for holy
Orders, without this Spirit of Self-denial, is a miserable Intruder
into the Mysteries of Salvation ; he only hardens and fixes
himself in the Corruptions of his own Nature, and instead of
becoming an Instrument of saving others, his very Office makes
his own Salvation more dangerous.
I doubt not but some will here charge me with pleading for

170 Some Animadversions upon

Poverty in the Ministry, and with Enmity to that Maintenance-
which they have both from the Law and the Gospel. But this
is so far from being true, that I wish every good Minister, whom
the Spirit of God has called to his Office, and governs in it, had
much more of this World's Goods than are needful for his own
reasonable subsistence ; because it is certain, that such a one's
Money would all be put into the Poor's Bag, and he would^ as
gladly and liberally administer to their temporal as to their
spiritual Necessities. I write against nothing but Avarice,
Selfishness, Pride, and Ambition, and the making the Provisions
ofthe Church subservient to these Tempers. A Provision arising
from the Gospel, is consecrated by the Gospel, and is profaned by
being touched and used by a worldly Spirit. And he who turns
this Provision of the Gospel into a Support and Gratification of
worldly Passions, sins against the Nature and Law of the Gospel
more than he that pays his Tithes with Reluctance.
I can easily believe there are Clergy in this Land, who labour
in the Gospel, without having a sufficient Subsistence from it ;
but if much of this Evil was to be charged upon Pluralities,
Commendams, and such like spiritual Trading, there would be
no Injustice in it. And if the inferior Clergy had their Labours
only undervalued by the Laity, they would be in much better
Condition than they are.
When it is complained by what shameful Qualifications, empty
Titles, and unworthy Pretences, Numbers of Persons get loaded
and dignified with Variety of Preferments ; it is answered, in
Excuse of this great Evil, That if Preferments might not be thus
crowded together, great Learning, distinguished Abilities, and
eminent Labours for the Service of Religion, must go unre
warded. As this Answer is not fetched from the Gospel, or the Primitive
Church, so I shall show, that it is a little supported by Reason.
For if this great Learning is truly Gospel Learning, if this
eminent Labour is truly pious Labour, what State of Life can
so little want to be rewarded ? How can Imagination itself place
a Man more above the Thoughts and Desires of worldly Advance
ment? If such a one is full of the Light and Spirit of the
Gospel, if his Labours have been like those of an Apostle, must
he not like an Apostle be dead to the World ? Can such a one
look upon his Labour as a Hardship, because it has left him as
low, and as far from the Pomp of the World as it found him ?
Can he repine because the Gospel has not proved a good worldly
Bargain to him ? If the Spirit of God has begun, and directed
all his Labours, animated all his Studies and Designs, can such

Dr. Trapp' s late Ifyply. 171
a one think it hard, that he has not by such Labours purchased
to himself a Share in the State and Pride of Human Life ?
If by a great Divine, is only meant a Person well skilled in
Critical Contention, who can artfully, plausibly, scholastically
defend a Set of Notions, amongst which he happened to be
born, and bred, such a Divine, I own, may be very impatient, and
much cooled in his Zeal, unless he finds himself well rewarded ;
but if an eminent Divine is to be understood in a Sense suitable
to the Gospel, he is that particular Person that must needs have
the greatest Contempt and Dislike of every Thing, that has but
the Appearance of the Pomp and Vanity of this World in it. If
therefore it was urged, that this Conjunction of Preferments and
dignifying Rewards was necessary to bring ambitious Scholars
into the Church, or to keep them in it, there would be some
Sense, though no Gospel in the Pretence ; but to talk of them
as necessary to be the Rewards of eminent Piety and Apostolic
Labour, is as absurd, as to say, that those who have truly put
on Christ, who stand in the highest Degree of a renewed Nature,
who best know and feel the Blessing of a mortified, heavenly
Spirit, have less Reason to be content with Food and Raiment,
than those who stand in a lower Degree of the Christian Life ;
'tis saying, that a Bishop, because having most of the Spirit and
Office of an Apostle in him, may well desire more of the Pride
and Figure of this World, than the lower Clergy, who have less
of the Apostolical Spirit and Perfection in them.
To want to stand in some Degree of worldly Figure, is the
State of a Babe in the Christian Life, that hath hardly tasted the
Milk of Evangelical Nourishment, and therefore can no way
become those, who are to lead and compel others to the Perfec
tion and Fulness of the Stature in Christ Jesus.
A great Divine is but a cant Expression, unless it signifies a
Man greatly advanced in the Divine Life, whose Experience and
Example is a Demonstration of the Reality of all the Graces
and Virtues of the Gospel. No Divine has any more of the
Gospel in him, than that which proves itself by the Spirit,
Actions, and Form of his Life, the rest is but Hypocrisy, not
Theology : If therefore Poverty of Spirit, a Disregard of worldly
Figure, a total Self-denial is any Part of the Gospel, an eminent
Divine, or one advanced in the Spirit and Life of Jesus, can have
no Wish with regard to the Figure, Pride and Pomp of this Life,
but to be placed out of every Appearance of it : And if the first
and highest in Divine Knowledge are not the foremost in
Poverty of Spirit, and the outward Humility of Christ and his
Apostles; if eminent Divines want and desire to have a Dignity
of worldly Figure, to have Respect by any other Means than by

172 Some Animadversions upon
the Divine Virtues and Graces of an Evangelical Spirit and Con
versation, and are not content with all the Contempt that such
a Life can expose them to, they may be great Scholars, but they
are little Divines, and must be thought to be much wanting in
that which is the chief Part of the Ministers of Jesus Christ.
But to proceed :
The next Thing I said to the young Clergy, was this ; ' Con-
' sider yourselves merely as the Messengers of God, that are sent
' into the World solely on his Errand ; and think it Happiness
' enough that you are called to the same Business for which the
' Son of God was born into the World,' p. 81.
Now, I thought what I here said, was as unexceptionable, as
pious, as unfit to be condemned by a Professor of Christian
Theology, as if I had only recommended the loving of God with
all our Heart and Soul, and Mind and Strength ; and that if
any Clergyman disliked it, he would be forced to keep his Dis
like to himself : But the Doctor is very open in his Indignation
at it ; the same Answer, he says, is to be given here, as before,
viz., ' that it is false Doctrine, tending to the Scandal and
' Reproach of the Christian Religion. '
Our Blessed Lord, when he sent the first Preachers of the
Gospel into the World, said unto them, 'As my Father hath sent
' me, so send I you  go ye and teach all Nations  and lo
' 1 am with you to the End of the World.' Now let it be sup
posed, that these first Preachers of the Gospel fully believed,
that from the Time of their Appointment to this high Office,
they were to consider themselves merely as the Messengers of God,
sent into the World solely on his Errand, and that it was Happi
ness enough for them to be called to that Business, for which the
Son of God was born into the World; if they had this Belief,
what follows? Why, according to the Doctor, it follows, that
they set out from the very first in one ofthe greatest Errors, had
mistaken the Nature and Intent of their Mission, and had gone
into the World upon a Principle that was false in itself, and
scandalous and reproachful to the Christian Religion.
But if this Belief is not to be condemned in the first Clergy, as
a false Opinion of their Office, scandalous and reproachful to the
Christian Religion, I desire to know why those Clergy, who
claim their Succession from the first, and expect the Presence of
Christ in and with their Ministry, are not to be called upon to
be ofthe same Spirit and Belief with the first of their Order; or
how it can be a Scandal to the Gospel, for the modern Clergy to
be as wholly devoted to the Service of God, as the Apostles
were : Surely there is something so extravagant in the Doctor's
Condemnation of the Advice here given to young Divines, as

Dr. Trapp' s late l^eply. 173

must shock even the common Reader ; and if it could be sup
posed, that there are others amongst the learned Clergy, who are
in this like minded with the Doctor, and glad to see this Advice
condemned in this manner, if it could be supposed, that there
are not Numbers amongst them of Rank and Eminence that
want and desire to bear their Testimony against it, have we not
too much Reason to fear that, which God threatened to the
Angel of the Church at Ephesus, namely, the Removal of our
Candlestick out of its Place ?
The Doctor sets it out as an extraordinary Presumption in
such a Man as I am, to pretend to give advice to young Divines,
when it is so sufficiently done already by the ' Offices of our
' Church, the Charges, Instructions and Exhortations of our
' Bishops at their Visitation, and so many excellent Ordination
• and Visitation Sermons,' p. 87. Now, granting the Plenty and
Excellency of all these, yet I have some hope, that my Pre
sumption may be found to be only like that of the poor Widow,
who after so many rich Oblations of great People, presumed to
put her little Mite into the Treasury. And if it be true, that the
Things here suggested by me, are only such as have been already
fully set forth by so many great Bishops and excellent Preachers,
how will the Doctor come off for condemning it, as false Doctrine,
scandalous, and reproachful to the Christian Religion ?
Dr. Trapp gives a Reason for his condemning this Advice,
which is thus expressed : ' It is,' says he, ' false to say, that
'Clergymen ought to mind nothing, in any Degree, but their
* Profession and Duty, as Clergymen ; they are Husbands,
' Parents, Men, as well as Clergymen, and must in some measure
' be concerned in the Affairs of the World,' p. 88.
Part of this I own to be very true, viz., that they are Men, and
have the Wants of Human Nature which must be supplied ; and
for a full Proof of this, the Doctor might have justly appealed to
St. Paul, who, though miraculously called to be an Apostle, and
separated from the World to be merely a Messenger and Apostle
of Jesus Christ ; yet, after this high Apostleship, worked at his
Trade, and often spent some Part of the Day and the Night in
making Tents : Therefore, if all those whom I have exhorted to
consider themselves as so highly set apart for the sole Service of
God, should show such a Degree of worldly Care as St. Paul
did.flwhen he worked at his Trade, they might yet justly be said
to act suitably to their Station, as the Ministers of God, that are
wholly devoted to his Service ; for if they should refuse to live,
how could it be their Desire to live wholly to the Service of
God ; or, who can say that St. Paul departed from his Character,
as a 'Minister of God, when he laboured with his own Hands,

174 Some Animadversions upon

that he might gloriously and freely preach the Gospel ? For it
was for the Sake of the Gospel, to promote and recommend the
Gospel, to make his Preaching the more successful ; it was to
show that he had fully renounced the World, desired nothing
from it, but for the Glory and Love of God, would preach Sal
vation freely to the World : And thus have all the Ministers of
the Gospel an Example in St. Paul, how they may make their
Care of a Livelihood a Part of their Service to God.
But when the Doctor says, that Clergymen are Husbands and
Parents, I must object a little ; because no Scripture, or Anti
quity shows me, that these Characters must belong to a Preacher
ofthe Gospel ; and therefore, when a Clergyman excuses himself
from any Heights of the Ministerial Service, by saying, he has
married a Wife, and therefore cannot come up to them ; it seems
to be no better an Excuse, than if he had said, he had hired a
Farm, or bought five Yoke of Oxen.
I know very well, that the Reformation has allowed Priests
and Bishops not only to look out for Wives, but to have as
many as they please, one after another : But this is only to be
considered as a bare Allowance, and perhaps granted upon such
a Motive, as Moses of old made one to the fezvs, for the Hardness
of their Hearts, though from the Beginning it was not so ; and
therefore when Elogiums are sometimes made from the Pulpit
on this Matter, I think they had better been spared ; an Allow
ance granted to Weakness, is but an indifferent Subject to be
made a Matter of Glory.
The Doctor should also have observed, that my Address was
made to the young Clergy, and such as are only upon entering
into holy Orders, nine in ten of which, may be supposed to be
neither Husbands nor Fathers. He should also have remem
bered that our Universities are full of Clergy, who are obliged
to live unmarried, that they may have proper Leisure and
Freedom to attend their Studies without Impediment from
worldly Cares. And therefore if I pointed at such a Dedication
of the Clergy to the Service of God, as Husbands and Fathers
cannot enter into, yet the Matter is not blamable, because there
are so many that have not yet entered into this State of Sub
jection to the World, but are at Liberty to devote themselves
wholly to the Service of the Gospel. And therefore if to such
as these, I can so represent the Weight, the Duties, the heavenly
Nature of the Priesthood, as to prevent or extinguish in them
all Thoughts and Desires of being thus married to the World,
what hurt have I done them, or the married Clergy, or the
Gospel of Jesus Christ?
Virginity or Celibacy, when entered into from a Principle of

Dr. Trapp's late Ifyply- 175

divine Love, from a Heart burning with the Desire of living
wholly and solely to God, is a State that gives Wings to all our
Endeavours, and truly fits the Soul for the highest Growth of
every heavenly Virtue : And if he that is consecrated to the
Service of the Altar, desires not to keep his Heart from carnal
Love ; if he feels not such an Ascent of his Soul towards
Heaven, as to have no Wish, but that his whole Body, Soul, and
Spirit, may be presented to God in its utmost Degree of Purity,
he must be said to have his Lamp much less kindled, than many
of the Laity, both Men and Women have had, in all Ages of the
Church. Custom and common Practice has too great a Power
over our Judgments, and reconciles us to any Thing ; but if a
Christian, who lived when Christianity was in its Glory, when
the first Apologists for it, appealed to the Numbers ot both Sexes,
devoted to the Chastity of the single Life, as an invincible Proof
of the Power, and Divinity of the Gospel ; if a Christian of those
Days was now to come into the World, he must needs be much
more shocked at Reverend Doctors in Sacerdotal Robes, making
Love to Women, than at seeing a Monk in his Cell, kissing a
wooden Crucifix.
The Knowledge and Love of the Virgin State began with
Christianity, when the Nature of our Corruption, and the Nature
of our Redemption were so fully discovered by the Light of the
Gospel. Then it was, that a new Degree of heavenly Love was
kindled in the human Nature, and brought forth a State of Life
that had not been desired, till the Son of the Virgin came into
the World. John the Baptist may be looked upon as the
Beginner of the Gospel Dispensation ; this burning and shining
Light was in his Person, the Figure of Judaism ending in
Christianity. In his outward Birth and State he was a Jew, in
his inward Spirit and Character he belonged to the Gospel. He
came out of the Wilderness burning and shining, to preach the
Kingdom of Heaven at Hand. This may show us that Heat
and Light from above, kindled in a State of great Self-denial
are necessary to make us able Ministers of the Gospel ; and that
if we pretend to the Ministry with these Qualifications, and
come only burning and shining with the Spirit of this World,
we are only as well fitted to hinder, as the Baptist was to
prepare the Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. Look at this
great Saint, all ye that desire to preach the Gospel. He came
forth in the highest Degrees of Mortification and Chastity of Life.
But why did he so come ? It was to show the World that these
two great Virtues must form the Spirit of every Preacher of the
Gospel. His Character does not call you to a Wilderness
beyond Jordan, or to be clothed with Camels' Hair, &c. Such

176 Some Animadversions upon

Circumstances are particular to himself; but it calls you to his
inward Spirit of Self-denial, to stand in his State of Death to
the World, and all carnal Love, if you would not only preach,
but prove the Perfection of the Gospel : For if the Baptist was
to be thus dead to the Flesh and the World, that he might only
preach thus much, that the Kingdom of heaven was at Hand ;
can a less Self-denial be required of those, who are to preach
that which is much more, namely, that the Kingdom of Heaven
is come ?
Now if this holy Baptist, when he came to Jerusalem, and had
preached awhile upon Penitence, and the Kingdom of Heaven
at hand, had made an Offering of his Heart to some fine young
Lady of great Accomplishments, had not this put an End to all
that was burning and shining in his Character ? And if those
Clergy who date their Mission from Jesus Christ himself, who
claim being sent by him as he was by his Father, to stand as his
Representatives, applying the Means and Mysteries of Salvation
to all that desire to be born again from above, if they, whether
they be Vicars, Rectors, Arch-Deacons, Deans, or Bishops, should
look upon their Office to be as sacred, and their Station as high,
in the Kingdom of God, as the Baptist's was ; if they should
look upon Love-Addresses to the Sex, as unbecoming, as foreign,
as opposite to their Character, as to the Baptist's ; could anyone
say, that they took too much upon them, or paid too great a
Reverence to the Holiness and Purity of that Priesthood, which
they derived from the very Person and Office of Jesus Christ ?
Our blessed Lord improved upon these two Articles of
Mortification and Chastity, and sets them before every Preacher
of the Gospel in a yet fuller Light. It is needless to show how
much he speaks of the Nature and Necessity of a total Self-
denial ; but what he says of the Virgin-Life, as to be chosen by
those who are able to choose it, for the Kingdom of Heaven's
sake, Matt. xix. 12, is more than a Volume of human Eloquence
in Praise of it. What Wonder is it, if after this great Numbers
both of Men and Women were found in the first Ages of the
Church, that chose to know no Love, but that of God in a
single Life ?
St. Paul has done everything to hinder a Minister of Jesus
Christ from entering into Marriage, except calling it a sinful
State, when he says : ' He that is married, careth for the Things
' of the World, how he may please his Wife ;' and how could he
more powerfully press the Virgin Life upon the Clergy, than
when he says, ' He that is unmarried, careth for the Things that
' belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord ' ? Now, who
would imagine, that after this Determination of the Matter, by

Dr. Trapp' s late l^eply. 177

so great an Apostle, there should be any need of Church
Authority to restrain anyone in Holy Orders, from seeking
after a Wife ? Yet it must be supposed, that even in the
primitive Church there was some Fear at least, that such a
Restraint would soon be needful ; because the twenty-seventh
Apostolical Canon orders, that none amongst the Clergy be
permitted to enter into Wedlock, except those, who have no
higher an Office in the Church, than that of mere Singers and
Readers. When our Blessed Lord sent the first Preachers of the Gospel
into the World, he took them from amongst married Men, Fisher
men, Publicans, and Tenlmakers ; and there was no more Reason
to look upon a Person as unfit to be an Apostle, because he
had a Wife, than because he had a Trade : And therefore, St.
Paul does not tell Timothy and Titus to ordain no married
Person, for then no Elders could have been ordained in the
Church, but he only enjoins them to lay Hands only on such as
were in the most perfect Condition of the married Life, who had
been the Husbands but of one Wife, and whose whole Family
was a Proof of their Wisdom and Piety.
Hence it was, that the primitive Church made so great a
Difference between a married Clergyman, and a Clergyman that
married ; the former was allowed for the Reasons above-
mentioned, but the latter always censured as a thing highly
reproachful, as a departing from that Self-denial, Devotion and
Consecration to God, in which everyone in Holy Orders ought
to live : But when Christianity had breathed a while in the
World, there soon became less Occasion to ordain Persons that
were married ; for the Apologists appeal to the Numbers of both
Sexes consecrated to God in a Virgin Life, as one great Proof
of the Divinity of the Christian Religion. But when such
Arguments as these were used, to set forth the Glory of the Gospel,
need anyone be told, that it must have been highly shameful in
those Days, for a Priest of such a Religion, to be looking out for
a Wife ? There is scarce a Saint, or eminent Father of the first
Ages, who did not write set Discourses, and preach entire
Homilies in Praise of this Virgin Perfection of Life ; but surely
this was enough telling the World, that that Order of Men who
officiated in the Mysteries of this Divine Religion, and were
Teachers of its Perfection, were Persons devoted to God in a
Holy Virginity of Life : And if it be asked, why amongst all our
modern fine Sermons, we have none upon the Perfection and
Advantage of a holy Virginity ; the Reason can be only this,
because our Priests and Bishops marry as often, as the Common
People of the World. In the Primitive Church, if a Subdeacon 12

178 Some Animadversions upon
married a Widow, he was degraded from his Office; and the
Reason was, because he who tempted a Woman to marry a
second Time, was looked upon to be a Corrupter of Human
Nature : These were the Sentiments of the Church, when it
might be truly called the Spouse of Jesus Christ.
I shall conclude this Matter with a Passage taken from the
' Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life '; it is a Quotation
from the great and learned Eusebius, who lived at the time of
the first general Council, when the Faith of our Nicene Creed was
established : His Words are these, ' There hath been, saith he,
' instituted in the Church of Christ, two ways or Manners of
' Living ; the one raised above the ordinary State of Nature,
' and common Ways of Living, rejects Wedlock, Possessions, and
' Worldly ^ Goods, and being wholly separated and removed from
' the ordinary Conversation of Common Life, is appropriated
' and devoted solely to the Worship and Service of God, through
' an exceeding Degree of heavenly Love : They who are of this
' Order of People, seem dead to the Life of this World, and
' having their Bodies only upon Earth, are in their Minds and
' Contemplations dwelling in Heaven ; from whence, like so many
'heavenly Inhabitants, they look down upon Human Life,
' making Intercessions and Oblations for the whole Race of Man-
' kind ; and this, not with the Blood of Beasts, or the Fat, or
' Smoke and burning of Bodies, but with the highest Exercises
' of true Piety, with cleansed and purified Hearts, and with a
' whole Form of Life strictly devoted to Virtue : These are their
' Sacrifices, which they are continually offering unto God, and
' implore his Mercy and Favour for themselves and their fellow
' Creatures. Christianity receives this as the perfect Manner of
' Life. ' The other is of a lower Form, and suiting itself more to the
' Condition of Human Nature, admits of chaste Wedlock, the
' Care of Children and Families, of Trade and Business,' and
' goes through all the Employments of Life, under a Sense of
' Piety and Fear of God : Now, they who have chosen this
'Manner of Life, have their set Times for Retirement and
' Spiritual Exercises, and particular Days are set apart for their
' hearing and learning the Word of God : And this Order of
' People are considered as in the second State of Piety.'* Here
you see the Perfection of the Christian Life plainly set out, and
how it was, that Numbers of private Persons, Men and Women
who had no Share in the Ecclesiastical Office, yet, by this Per
fection of Life, made themselves holy and heavenly Intercessors
* Serious Call, &>c., page 134.

Dr. Trapp' s late l^eply. 179
for the whole Race of Mankind. Now, are we not here oblige d
to suppose, that in this Father's Days, the Clergy were in this
Number of People, that were thus heavenly in the whole Form
of their Life, thus devoted to God and the Edification of the
Church, by embracing the perfect Life of Christianity? If they
were not, do they not stand plainly condemned by the Religion
of the Gospel, since this Father assures us, that Christianity
held this to be the perfect Manner of Life ? I shall only add
thus much here, that till such a Degree of heavenly Love, such
a Sense of the Purity, Holiness and heavenly Nature of the
sacred Calling, till such a Desire of Perfection is awakened in
the Clergy, as shuts out all carnal Love and worldly Tempers
from their Hearts, they cannot be such Priests and Intercessors
with God, such Patterns of Purity and Holiness, such Kindlers
of Divine Love and heavenly Desires amongst Men, as the
Nature of their Office both intends and requires of them.
If a Candidate for Holy Orders dares not make this total
Donation of himself to God, to be an Instrument of his good
Pleasure only in the Service of the Gospel, if it is not the real
State of his Heart, to wish nothing for himself in this World,
but the most perfect Purification of his Nature, the highest
Advancement in all Divine Virtues ; if he desires anything in
and by his Office, but a Concurrence with Jesus Christ in the
Salvation of Souls ; if he has any Reserves of Self-seeking, or
Self-advancement in the World, any fleshly Passions which he
hopes to make consistent with the Duties of his Profession ; if
he is not separated in Will and Desire from all that is not God,
and the Service of God, he must be said to want the best Proofs
of his being called by the Holy Ghost.
Dr. Trapp's violent Condemnation of what I said to the
young Clergy, and Candidates for Holy Orders, made it neces
sary for me to enter thus far into this subject. If anything
that I have said to these Persons, concerning the Excellency,
the Advantage, the Purity, the Necessity of a Virgin Life, in
order to their own Perfection, and the full Edification of the
Church, gives Offence to any of the married Clergy, it can only
be to those, who don't wish to see the Church in a better State,
than that, in which they found it ; and to such there need no
Apology be made.
But to turn to another Matter ; I had said, that ' Salvation
' wholly consists in the Incarnation of the Son of God in the
' Soul or Life of Man ; that that which was done and born in the
' Virgin Mary, must be done, and born in us : As our Sin and
' Death is Adam in us, so our Life and Salvation is Christ in us —
' As we are earthly, corrupt Men, by having the Nature and Life
12 — 2

180 Some Animadversions upon

' of Adam the first propagated in us, so we must become new and
'heavenly Men, by having the Life and Nature oi Adam the
'second regenerated in us: But if we are to be like him in
' Nature, as we are like to Adam in Nature, then there is an
'absolute Necessity, that that which was done and born in the
'Virgin Mary, he also by the same Power of the Holy Ghost,
'done and born in us. The Mystery of Christ's Birth must be
' the Mystery of our Birth, we cannot be his Sons but by having
' the Birth of his Life derived into us : The new Paradisaical Man
' must be brought forth in the same Manner in every individual
' Person. That which brought forth this Holy Birth in the first
' Adam at his Creation, and in the second Adam in the Virgin
' Mary, that alone can bring it forth in any one of their Offspring.'*
Now, there seems to be nothing in all this, but what is easily to
be apprehended, and fully believed by everyone, that knows
anything of the Christian Life ; but the Doctor makes two
Replies to this Doctrine : The first is this, ' Were such Words,*
says he, 'ever heard amongst Christians before ?'t Yes, good
Sir, they have often been heard before, by such as have Ears to
hear ; for they are the very Words which Christ, and his Apostles
have as plainly spoken, as they have spoken any one Article of
the Apostles' Creed : They are only as different from the Words
of Christ and his Apostles, as the English Words of the Bible,
are different from those GreekWoxds, in which the Gospels were
written. When the Scripture saith, that Christ must be formed
in us, doth it not say, that Christ must be born, or become
incarnate to us ? When it saith, Christ was born of the Virgin
Mary, does it not say, that Christ was incarnate of the Virgin
Mary? Or is there anything to fright a learned Divine, who
has for forty Years been told, that Christ must be formed in us,
revealed in us, that he must put on Christ, to be told, that Christ
must become incarnate in us, that he must bring forth himself in
us, and have such a Birth in our Soul and Life, as he had in- the
Virgin Mary ? For wherever he is born, must he not be born
in the same Manner? Was it not the Word of God, that by the
Power of the Holy Ghost became Man in the Virgin Mary?
And is there any Thing in this Birth on this wise that is incon
sistent with the Birth of our new Man in Christ Jesus? Must
not the same Word of God, by the same Operation of the Holy
Spirit, bring forth that in us, which is the new Man in Christ
Jesus, or Christ formed in us? When our Lord saith, that we
must be born again from Above, of the Word of God, is it more
or less than saying, that that Word which was born in the Virgin
* Serious Answer, page 41. f Reply, page 47.

Dr. Trapp' s late Tfeply. 181
Mary, and was incarnate in her, must be born and incarnate in
us ? When the Apostle saith, that we must be born again of the
incorruptible Seed of the Word, is not this expressly saying, that
that must be done and born in us, which was done and born in the
Virgin Mary? If he says, that Christ must be formed in us,
does he not say, that he must have such a Birth and Form in us,
as he had in the Virgin Mary ; only with this Difference, that
in the Birth of Christ, the Fulness of the Deity, or eternal Word
became Man, and dwelt personally in him ; but in us, only a
Spark, or Seed of the Word is formed and raised up into a new,
heavenly Man. Is there now any Thing in all this, but the most
comfortable, substantial Part of our Redemption set out in the
plainest Words of Scripture ? Reject this Doctrine, say that you
cannot, you will not, you desire not to have Christ thus born and
formed in you, and then you reject all that Salvation, which the
Word of God, born of a Virgin, hath brought into the World.
For the Scripture is absolutely plain in telling us, that lost Man
cannot be made alive again unto God, but solely by this way, by
being born again of the Word and holy Spirit of God ; if there
fore we desire not, but reject such a Birth, as was brought forth
by the Word and holy Spirit of God in the Virgin Mary ; do
we not plainly reject that Birth in which all our Salvation
consists ? And therefore to say that that must be done and
born in us, which was done and born in the Virgin Mary, is as
plain, as scriptural, as to say, that we must be born again of the
Word and holy Spirit of God. And on this Ground it is, that
Christ in us, is said to be our Hope of Glory. — And that the
Kingdom of Heaven is within us — that we must be in Christ new
Creatures — that we must put on Christ — that he must be formed
in us, revealed, manifested in us — that he is our Life — that he
brings us forth out of himself, as the Vine does its Branches —
that unless we eat his Flesh and drink his Blood we have no Life
in us. These, and many other the like Sayings of Scripture,
which are the strongest, deepest Expressions of the Nature and
Manner of our Salvation, are all grounded on this Truth, viz..
That the Mystery of Christ's Birth is the Mystery of our New
Birth ; that that must be done and born in us, which was done
and born in the Virgin Mary, namely a New Man brought forth
in the Likeness of Christ, by a, Birth from the Word, and holy
Spirit of God.
But the Doctor has a second Reply to this Matter, which stands
thus expressed. Whether, says he, you consider the Divinity, or
the Sense of this, could George Fox himself have outdone it?
p. 48. This Reply, considered in itself, might have its Place
amongst those algebraic Quantities, that are some Degrees less

1 82 Some Animadversions upon

than nothing ; but with Regard to the Doctor's Purpose it has
something in it, for it is an Appeal to that which is very powerful,
which has suppressed many a good Truth ; it is an Appeal to
vulgar Prejudice, and shows that the Doctor is not without his
Expectations from that Quarter. And thus it is, that the Catholic
Artist in his Country, plays a Martin Luther, when he wants to
reproach that, which he knows not how to confute. What Degree
of Sense, or Divinity George Fox was possessed of, I cannot pre
tend to say, having never read any of his Writings ; but if he
has said any good and Divine Truths, I should be as well pleased
in seeing them in his Books, as in any of the Fathers of the
primitive Church. For as the Gospel requires me to be as glad
to see, Piety, Equity, strict Sobriety, and extensive Charity in a
Jew, or a Gentile, as in a Christian ; as it obliges me to look with
Pleasure upon their Virtues, and be thankful to God, that such
Persons have so much of true and sound Christianity in them ; so
it cannot be an unchristian Spirit, to be as glad to see Truths in
one Party of Christians, as in another ; and to look with Pleasure
upon any good Doctrines, that are held by any Sect of Christian
People, and be thankful to God, that they have so much of the
genuine, saving Truths of the Gospel amongst them. For if we
have no Anger or Complaint against those that are divided from
us, but what proceeds from a Christian Fear, that what they hold
and practise will not be so beneficial to them, as our Religion will
be to us, must we not have the utmost Readiness and Willingness
to find, own, and rejoice in those good Doctrines and Practices
which they still retain and profess ? Ifa poor Pilgrim, under a
Necessity of travelling a dangerous and difficult Road by himself,
had through his own Perverseness lost the Use of a Leg, and the
Sight of one Eye, could we be said to have any charitable Concern
for his Perverseness and Misfortune, unless we were glad to see,
that he had one good Leg, and one good Eye still left, and unless
we hoped and desired they would bring him at last to his
Journey's End. Now let every Part of the Church which takes
itself to be sound and good, and is only angry at every other
Part, because they have lessened the Means of their own Salvation ;
let her but have thus much Charity in her Anger, and then she
will be glad to see, in every perverse Division, something like the
one good Leg, and the one good Eye of the Pilgrim, and which
she will hope and wish may do them the same Good.
Selfishness and Partiality are very inhuman and base Qualities,
even in the Things of this World, but in the Doctrines of
Religion they are of a baser Nature. Now this is the greatest
Evil that the Division of the Church has brought forth ; it
raises in every Communion a selfish, partial Orthodoxy, which

Dr. Trapp' s late Tfypfy. 183
consists in courageously defending all that it has, and con
demning all that it has not. And thus every Champion is
trained up in Defence of their own Truth, their own Learning,
and their own Church, and he has the most Merit, the most
Honour, who likes every Thing, defends every Thing amongst
themselves, and leaves nothing uncensured in those that are of
a different Communion. Now how can Truth, and Goodness,
and Union, and Religion be more struck at, than by such
Defenders of it ? If you ask why the great Bishop of Meaux
wrote so many learned Books against all Parts of the Reforma
tion, it is because he was born in France, and bred up in the
Bosom of Mother Church. Had he been born in England, had
Oxford, or Cambridge been his Alma Mater, he might have
rivalled our great Bishop Stilling fleet, and would have wrote as
many learned Folios against the Church of Rome as he has done.
And yet I will venture to say, that if each Church could
produce but one Man apiece that had the Piety of an Apostle,
and the impartial Love of the first Christians, in the first
Church at Jerusalem, that a Protestant and a Papist of this
Stamp, would not want half a Sheet of Paper to hold their
Articles of Union, nor be half an Hour before they were of one
Religion. If therefore it should be said, that Churches are
divided, estranged, and made unfriendly to one another, by a
Learning, a Logic, a History, a Criticism in the Hands of
Partiality, it would be saying that, which every particular
Church too much proves to be true. Ask why even the best
amongst the Catholics are very shy of owning the Validity of
the Orders of our Church, it is because they are afraid of
removing any Odium from the Reformation ? Ask why no
Protestants anywhere touch upon the Benefit or Necessity of
Celibacy in those, who are separated from worldly Business to
preach the Gospel, 'tis because that would be seeming to lessen
the Romish Error of not suffering Marriage in her Clergy ? Ask
why even the most worthy and pious amongst the Clergy of the
established Church, are afraid to assert the Sufficiency of the
Divine Light, the Necessity of seeking only to the Guidance and
Inspiration of the holy Spirit, 'tis because the Quakers, who
have broken off from the Church, have made this Doctrine their
Corner Stone.
If we loved Truth as such ; if we sought it for its own Sake ;
if we loved our Neighbour as ourselves ; if we desired nothing
by our Religion but to be acceptable to God ; if we equally
desired the Salvation of all Men ; if we were afraid of Error
only because of its hurtful Nature to us, and our Fellow-
Churches, then nothing ofthis Spirit could have any Place in us.

184 Some Animadversions upon

There is therefore a Catholic Spirit, a Communion of Saints in
the Love of God and all Goodness, which no one can learn from
that which is called Orthodoxy in particular Churches, but is
only to be had by a total Dying to all worldly Views, by a pure
Love of God, and by such an Unction from above, as delivers the
Mind from all Selfishness, and makes it love Truth and Goodness
with an Equality of Affection in every Man, whether he be
Christian, few, or Gentile. He that would obtain this Divine
and Catholic Spirit in this disordered, divided State of Things,
and live in a divided Part of the Church without partaking of its
Division, must have these three Truths deeply fixed in his
Mind : First, that universal Love, which gives the whole
Strength ofthe Heart to God, and make us love every Man as
we love ourselves, is the Noblest, the most Divine, the God-like
State of the Soul, and is the utmost Perfection to which the
most perfect Religion can raise us ; and that no Religion does
any Man any Good, but so far as it brings this Perfection of
Love into him. This Truth will show us, that true Orthodoxy
can nowhere be found, but in a pure disinterested Love of God,
and our Neighbour. Secondly, That in the present divided State
of the Church, Truth itself is torn and divided asunder ; and
that therefore he can be the only true Catholic, who has more of
Truth, and less of Error, than is hedged in by any divided Part.
This Truth will enable us to live in a divided Part, unhurt by its
Division, and keep us in a true Liberty and Fitness to be edified
and assisted by all the Good that we hear or see in any other
Part of the Church. And thus uniting in Heart and Spirit with
all that is holy and good in all Churches, we enter into the true
Communion of Saints, and become real Members of the holy
Catholic Church, though we are confined to the outward
Worship of only one particular Part of it. It is thus, that the
Angels, as ministering Spirits, assist, join, unite, and co-operate
with every Thing that is holy and good, in every Division of
Mankind. Thirdly, he must always have in Mind this great
Truth, that it is the Glory of the Divine Justice to have no
Respect of Parties or Persons, but to stand equally disposed to
that which is right and wrong, as well in the few as in the
Gentile. He therefore that would like as God likes, and
condemn as God condemns, must have neither the Eyes of the
Papist nor the Protestant ; he must like no Truth the less
because Ignatius Loyola, or fohn Bunyan were very zealous for
it ; nor have the less Aversion to any Error, because Dr. Trapp or
George Fox had brought it forth. Now if this universal Love,
and impartial Justice, is the Spirit which will judge the World
at the last Day, how can this Spirit be too soon, or too much in

Dr. Trapp' s late Tfypfy. 185
us ; Or what can do us more Hurt than that which is an
Hindrance of it ? When I was a young Scholar of the
University, I heard a great Religionist say in my Father's
House, that if he could believe the late King of France to be in
Heaven, he could not tell how to wish to go thither himself.
This was exceeding shocking to all that heard it : Yet some
thing of this kind of Temper must be supposed to be more or
less in those, who have, as a Point of Orthodoxy, worked them
selves up into a hearty Contempt and Hatred of those that are
divided from them. He that has been all his Life long used to
look with great Abhorrence upon those whom he has called
superstitious Bigots, dreaming Visionaries, false Saints, canting
Enthusiasts, &c, must naturally expect they will be treated by
God as they have been by him ; and if he had the Keys of the
Kingdom of Heaven, such People would find it hard to get a
Place in it. But it stands us greatly in Hand to get rid of this
Temper before we die ; for if nothing but universal Love can
enter into the Kingdom of God, what can be more necessary for
us, than to be full of this Love before we die ?
We often hear of People of great Zealand Orthodoxy, declaring
on their Death-beds their strict Attachment to the Church of
England, and making solemn Protestations against all other
Churches; but how much better would it be, if such a Person
was to say, ' In this divided State of Christendom, I must con-
'form to some outwardly divided Part of it, and therefore I have
'chosen to live and die in outward Communion with the Church
' of England ; fully believing, that if I worship God in Spirit
' and in Truth in this divided Part of the Church, I shall be as
'acceptable to him, as if I had been a faithful Member of the
'one whole Church, before it was broken into separate Parts.'
But ' as I am now going out of this disordered Division into a
'more universal State of Things, as I am now falling into the
' Hands of the great Creator and Lover of all Souls ; as I am
' going to the God of all Churches, to a Kingdom of universal
' Love, which must have its Inhabitants from all People, Nations,
1 and Languages of the Earth ; so in this Spirit of universal
' Love, I desire to perform my last Act of Communion in this
'divided Church, uniting and joining in Heart and Spirit with
'all that is Christian, Holy, Good, and Acceptable to God in all
' other Churches ; praying, from the Bottom of my Soul, that
'every Church may have its Saints ; that God's Kingdom may
' come, his Will be done in every Division of Christians and
' Men,' and that every Thing that hath Breath may praise the
'Lord' Need anyone now be told of the superior Excellency of this

1 86 Some Animadversions upon

Spirit, or its Fitness to be admitted into the Kingdom of uni
versal Love ? Need we any Proof that nothing but this Catholic
Spirit will carry us unhurt by Schism, through all those Divisions
which the Devil, the World, and fleshly Wisdom have brought
into the Church ? Again, We have often seen learned Protes
tants very zealous in pulling to Pieces the Lives of the Saints of
the Romish Church, and casting all the Reproach and Ridicule
they can, upon their wondrous Spirit ; though the Lives of the
Saints of the primitive Church, written by the Fathers of the
greatest Name and Authority, are as fit for to be exposed in the
same Manner. Now, whence does this proceed ? Why, from
a secret Touch of that Spirit which could not bear to have the
late King oi France in Heaven ; it proceeds from a partial, selfish
Orthodoxy, which cannot bear to hear, or own, that the Spirit
and Blessing of God are so visible in a Church from which it is
divided, and against which it has so much preached : But if a
Person be of this Spirit, what does it signify where he has his
outward Church ? If a Romish Priest in the North of England
could not bear the Splendour of a Life so devoted to God, so
fruitful in all the Works of Piety and Goodness, as was that of
the late Lady Elizabeth Hastings, if he should want to sully the
Brightness of her Christian Graces, and prove her to have been
no Saint, lest it should appear, that the Spirit of God was not
confined to the Romish Church, would not such a Zeal show a
worse Spirit, than that of Superstition, a greater Depravity of
Heart, than the saying now and then an Ave Mary.
The more we believe, or know of the Corruptions and
Hindrances of true Piety in the Church of Rome, the more we
should rejoice to hear, that in every Age so many eminent
Spirits, great Saints, have appeared in it, whom we should thank
fully behold as so many great Lights hung out by God, to show
the true Way to Heaven, as so many joyful Proofs that Christ is
still present in that Church, as well as in other Churches, and
that the Gates of Hell have not prevailed, or quite overcome it?
Who that has the least Spark of Heaven in his Soul, can help
thinking and rejoicing in this manner at the Appearance of a
St. Bernard, a Teresa, a Francis de Sales, &c, in that Church?
Who can help praising God, that her invented Devotions, super
stitious Use of Images, Invocation of Saints, &c, have not so
suppressed any of the Graces and Virtues of an Evangelical
Perfection of Life, but that amongst Cardinals, fesuits, Priests,
Friars, Monks and Nuns, Numbers have been found, who seemed
to live for no other End, but to give Glory to God and Edifica
tion to Men, and whose Writings have every Thing in them, that
can guide the Soul out of the Corruption of this Life into the

Dr. Trapp' s late ^Reply. 187
highest Union with God. And he who through a partial Ortho
doxy is diverted from feeding in these green Pastures of Life,
whose just Abhorrence of Jesuitical Craft and worldly Policy
keeps him from knowing and reading the Works of an Alvares
du Pas, a Rodrigues, a Du Pont, a Guilloree, a Pere Surin, and
such like Jesuits, has a greater Loss than he can easily imagine :
And if any Clergyman can read the Life of Bartholomeus a
Martyribis, a Spanish Archbishop, who sat with great Influence
at the very Council of Trent, without being edified by it, and
desiring to read it again, I know not why he should like the
Lives of the best of the Apostolical Fathers : And if any
Protestant Bishop should read the Stimulus Pastorum wrote
by this Popish Prelate, he must be forced to confess it to be a
Book, that would have done Honour to the best Archbishop,
that the Reformation has to boast of. O my God, how shall
I unlock this Mystery of Things ; in the Land of Darkness, over
run with Superstition, where Divine Worship seems to be all
Show and Ceremony, there both amongst Priests and People,
thou hast those, who are fired with the pure Love of thee, who
renounce everything for thee, who are devoted wholly and solely
to thee, who think of nothing, write of nothing, desire nothing
but the Honour, and Praise, and Adoration that is due to thee,
and who call all the World to the Maxims of the Gospel, the
Holiness and Perfection of the Life of Christ. But in the
Regions where Light is sprung up, whence Superstition is fled,
where all that is outward in Religion seems to he pruned, dressed,
and put in its true Order ; there a cleansed Shell, a whited
Sepulchre, seems too generally to cover a dead Christianity.
The Error of all Errors, and that which makes the blackest
Charge against the Romish Church, is Persecution, a religious
Sword drawn against the Liberty and Freedom of serving God
according to our best Light, that is, against our worshipping the
Father in Spirit and in Truth: This is the great Whore, the
Beast, the Dragon, the Antichrist. Now, though this is the
frightful Monster of that Church, yet, even here, who, except it
be the Church of England, can throw the first Stone at her ?
Where must we look for a Church that has so renounced this
persecuting Beast, as they have renounced the Use of Incense, the
Sprinklings of Holy Water, or the extreme Unction of dying
Persons ? What Part of the Reformation abroad has not prac
tised and defended Persecution ? What Sect of Dissenters at
home have not, in their Day of Power, dreadfully condemned
Toleration ?
When it shall please God to dispose the Hearts of all Princes
in the Christian World entirely to destroy this Antichristian

1 88 Some Animadversions upon

Beast, and leave all their Subjects in that religious Freedom
which they have from God ; then the Light of the Gospel, the
Benefit of its Faith, the Power of its Ministers, the Usefulness of
its Rites, the Benediction of its Sacraments will have proper
Time and Place to show themselves; and that Religion which
has the most of a Divine Power in it, whose Offices and Services
do .most good to the Heart, whose Ministers are most of all
devoted to God, and have the most Proof of the Power and
Presence of Christ with them, will become, as it ought to be, the
most universal ; and by this Destruction of the Beast, nothing
but the Errors, Delusions, Corruptions and Fictions of every
Religion, will be left in a helpless State. All that I have said
on this Matter, has been occasioned by the Doctor's Appeal to
vulgar Prejudice ; and all that I have said is only to intimate
this much, that the greatest Evil which the Division of the
Church brings forth, is a Sectarian, selfish Spirit, that with the
Orthodoxy of the Old fews, would have God to be only their
God, and themselves only, his chosen People. If therefore we
would be true Christians of the Catholic Church, we must put off
this Selfishness and Partiality of the carnal Jew, we must enter
into a Catholic Affection for all Men, love the Spirit of the
Gospel wherever we see it ; not work ourselves up into an
Abhorrence of a George Fox, or an Ignatius Loyola; but be
equally glad of the Light of the Gospel wherever it shines, or
from what Quarter it comes ; and give the same Thanks and
Praise to God for an eminent Example of Piety, wherever it
appears, either in Papist or Protestant.
To return. Dr. Trapp supposing the World running into a
Charity that would ruin Wife and Family, asks his charitable
Half-thinker thus : ' Did you never hear that Charity begins at
'home? Did you never read that of St. Paul, If any provide
'not for his own, and especially those of his own House, he hath
"denied the Faith, and is worse than an Infidel.' The Doctor's
Proverb I meddled not with, but the Text of St. Paul I rescued
from his gross Misapplication of it. That Text has no more
Relation to an excessive Charity, the Sin the Doctor was oppos
ing, than to an excessive Fasting. The Apostle neither thought
of this Sin in this Place, nor in any other Part of his Writings ;
nor does he ever give the smallest Hint ofthe Danger of falling
into it. The one Thing in Question was this, whether poor
Widows, who had near Relations, that could supply their Wants,
should be maintained by the Charity of the Church : The
Apostle determines the Matter thus ; that if such Persons, who
were thus able, did not thus provide tox, that is, supply the Wants
of their poor Kindred, they were so far from having the Faith

Dr. Trapp' s late T^eply. 189
of Christians, that they wanted a Goodness that was to be found
amongst Infidels : This is the whole of the Apostle's Doctrine in
this Text. He speaks of providing for those of our own House
or Family, in no other Sense, than as it signifies our Charity to
them, when they fall into Distress : But the Doctor, either led
away with, or trusting to the Sound of the English Word,
provide, grafts all these following Errors upon this plain Text.
When it is said, a Person has provided well for his Family,
everyone supposes that he has laid up well in Store, or got an
Estate to be divided amongst them for their future Subsistence,
from this Use of the English Word, provide, in the Text, the
Doctor would have it believed, that the Apostle teaches every
Head of a Family to be carefully and continually laying up in
Store, and making some fixed Provision for the future Mainten
ance of his Kindred. But the Apostle is as infinitely distant
from this Thought or Direction, as from teaching them to get
their Cellars well filled with strong Liquors : When he here says,
provide, he says only this, Shut not your Eyes to the Wants of
your poor Kindred, but provide them with what they have need
of, and don't let them fall to the Charge of the Church. The
Doctor's second Error is this ; that, according to this Text, a
Christian ought not to hinder himself from thus laying up in
Store for his Family, or leave them to live by their Labour and
Industry, through an Extent of Charity to his poor Neighbours.
Though the Apostle has not one single Syllable about this
Matter ; and is as far from saying any Thing like it, as from
saying, that a Christian, when he makes a Feast, should only
invite his rich Kindred and Acquaintance. The one has as
much of the Apostle and the Gospel for it, as the other. The
Doctor's third Error is this ; that, according to this Text, he,
who by a daily, continual Charity, has incapacitated himself to
lay up in Store, a fixed Provision for the future Maintenance of
his Family is condemned by the Apostle, as denying the Faith,
and worse than an Infidel: Though the Apostle speaks no more
here of such a Person, or any more condemns him, than he
speaks in the Praise of Ananias and Saphira, who kept back
Part of the Price ofthe Land they had sold.
The Person here condemned, is not he, who through a con
tinual Charity, or loving his Neighbour as himself, is hindered
from laying up in Store ; not he, who, through a Christian Love
of relieving" the distressed Members of Christ, is content with
helping his own Family to Food and Raiment, such a Person is
not thought of, much less condemned by the Apostle; but it is
that Christian, who being able, is yet unwilling to support his
near Relations, that are fallen into Poverty, but through a sordid

190 Some Animadversions upon

Selfishness, leaves them to be maintained by the Church ; this
is the only Christian the Apostle here condemns, as having put
off the Piety of the Gospel, and wanting even the Virtue of
good-natured Infidels.
I said further, Had the Apostle known a Parent in his Days,
who, through his great Charity for others, had reduced his own
Family to a want of Relief, he would have been so far from
rebuking him as an half-thinking Fool, or exposing him to others,
as guilty of Madness, that he would have told them, that such a
one had consecrated himself and Family to the Church, as the
proper Objects of their Care. To which the Doctor gives this
Answer, This he affirms, and this I deny ; and as he produces no
other Proof, so I give no other Answer, p. 69. Had the Doctor
said, as his Affirmation has no Sense in it, so there need be no
Sense in my Denial of it, he had answered as well as he has
here done. What I affirmed, did not consist, as the Doctor's
Denial doth, only of two Words ; but was, a large Proposition
that carried its own Proof along with it, because I said nothing
of the Apostle, but what the Nature of the Thing obliged me to
say of every sober Christian. For if any Christian could be
supposed to want Compassion and Affection for such a Sufferer,
from his own Charity to others, he must be such a one as the
Apostle affirms to have denied the Faith, and to be worse than an
Infidel. But to show the Doctor what I said, has its Proof from
the common Voice of Christianity in the Apostle's Days, may
sufficiently appear from the following Passage of St. Clement,
who was a Companion and Fellow-labourer of the Apostle, and
Bishop of no less a Church than that of Rome. ' We have
* known many amongst us, (says St. Clement) who have delivered
' themselves into Bonds and Slavery, that they might restore
* others to their Liberty ; many who have hired out themselves
' Servants unto others, that by their Wages they might feed and
' sustain them that wanted.'*
Will the Doctor now say, that this is no Proof of that which I
affirmed of the Apostle, that he would have had a Love for those
who were become Sufferers by their own Charity to others ?
Does not this Apostolical Bishop make it his Boast, and the
Glory of Christianity ; not that they had some, but many such
amongst them ?
It was not only in the first Church at ferusalem, that the
Christians had all things common. For St. Barnabas writing to
some converted fews, teaches them to have all Things common,
to call nothing their own in this World, because they were called
* 1 Epist. ad Cor.

Dr. Trapp' s late T(eply. 191
to the common Enjoyment of the Things of Eternity. ' Com-
' municabis in omnibus rebus proximo tuo ; nihil dices quicquam
'tibi proprium, si enim Communicatis in Vicem, in bonis, incor-
' ruptibilibus, quanto magis in corruptibilibus.'*
An Age after this, fustin Martyr thus glories of the Power of
the Gospel-Faith ; ' We,' says he, ' who before were become
' Christians, loved our Wealth and Possessions above all Things,
' now give up all Property in them, that they may be in common
'for all that want them. Qui Pecuniarum & Possessionum
' Fructus ac Proventus prae rebus omnibus adamabamus, nunc
' etiam quae habemus in Commune conferimus, & cum indi-
'gentibus quibuscunque communicamus.'t What a lean,
heathenish Figure must the Doctor's Proverb of Charity begin
ning at home, have made in the Days of St. Barnabas, Clement,
ox fustin Martyr? Or who durst then have made such a Use of
the Text of St. Paul, as the Doctor has done, or coupled it with
such a Proverb ? Were any of these first Saints to judge of this
Matter, the Doctor might, for aught I know, have a worse
Reprimand from them for so doing, than if he had only coupled
Cardinals with Pluralists.
In order to show the Doctor that he was very unseasonably
preaching against the Sin and Folly of an excessive Charity,
when yet every Part of the Church wanted to be shown how
they were fallen from the Gospel-degree of it, I set before him
an imaginary Bishop of Winchester, yet drawn according to the
Model of the Holy Bishops of the first Ages. I supposed this
Bishop so born again from Above, so filled with the Spirit of Jesus
Christ, that he looked upon all the Revenues of his See, with no
other Eyes, than as our Saviour looked at that Bag that was
carried along with him by his Disciples, as so much for his own
Necessities, and the Necessities of others. I supposed that in
this Spirit, he so expended his yearly Income, that he chose to
bring up his Children as much Strangers to all worldly Figure,
and in as low a State of Labour as that to which our Lord and
his Apostles had been used. I supposed, that by a Piety of Life
and Conversation, equal to this exalted Charity, he had instilled
such a heavenly Spirit into his Wife and Children, as made
them highly thankful for their Condition, and full of Praise to
God for the Blessing of such a Relation. Dr. Trapp, though an
ancient Divine, seems to start back with Fright, at the Sight of
this Apostolical Bishop, and supposes, that if such a Monster of
a Man was now to get into a Bishopric, he must needs make his
Children extraordinary wicked, fill them with Abhorrence of his

* Epist. Bar. N. 10. t 2 APo1-

192 Some Animadversions upon
Memory, and spread Infidelity in the World, by making Chris
tianity a Jest to Infidels, p. 71.
' I say,' says the Doctor, very clearly and plainly, that ' such a
' Bishop must be a Madman/ p. 70. Now, if the Doctor will
prove from the Scriptures this Bishop to be a Madman, it must
be for the following Reasons ; First, because he had so mean a
Spirit, as to suffer the Son of a Bishop to work under a Car
penter, as the Redeemer of Mankind had done. Secondly, because
he taught himself and his Family to believe that which St. Paul
believed, that 'having Food and Raiment, we ought to be there-
' with content.' Thirdly, because he came up to the very Letter
of the great Commandment, of 'loving our Neighbour as our-
' selves/ Fourthly, because he seemed to imitate the Spirit of
the first Christians at fcrusalem, who accounted 'nothing to be
' their own that they possessed.' Fifthly, because he had turned
himself and Family from all the Vanity of this World, the Lust
of the Flesh, the Lust of the Eyes, and the Pride of Life.
Sixthly, because he seemed to have this of the Apostle fixed in
his mind. ' He that saith, he abideth in Christ, ought so to walk,
' as he walked.' Seventhly, because his Life was fashioned
according to this Doctrine of the Holy Jesus, ' Learn of me, for
' I am meek, and lowly of Heart : I am among you, as he that
' serveth : Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your
' Minister ; even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered
' unto, but to minister.' For it may be said with the greatest
Certainty, that if the Doctor will have any Proof from the
Scripture ofthe Madness of this Bishop, it must be as absurd as
the Reasons here alleged.
Come we now to consider this Bishop according to the Spirit,
Practice and Laws of the Church in all Ages. Anyone versed
ever so little in the History of the Church, must see at the first
Sight, that this supposed Bishop is a true Copy of the first Apos
tolical Fathers. And if this Bishop was to be accounted a
Madman, because of the Manner of his Life, we must come
down several Ages after Constantine, to the Mitre and Triple
Crown, before we could find a Bishop in his Senses. The
Clements, the Polycarps, the Ignatius's, the Iren&us's, the
Cyprians, the Gregorys, the Basils, the Ambroses, the Chry-
stostoms, the Hillarys, the Augustins, and a Number that have
long graced our Calendars, as Saints, must take their Place
among Bedlamites ; for they were all of them to a Tittle, the
very Man I have supposed at Winchester. They considered
every Penny that was brought in by the Gospel, as a Provision
for the Poor, and themselves as only entitled to their common
Share out of it. They durst no more raise any of their Relations

Dr. Trapp' s late l^eply. 193
into a Splendour of Life, or give them any Figure from the
Revenues of the Church, than commit Sacrilege. They gloried
as much in their own strict Poverty and Want of worldly Figure,
as in their having totally renounced Idols.
But we have much more than primitive Example for our
Bishop of Winchester ; the Doctrine and Laws of the Church
have unanimously from Age to Age, to the very Council of
Trent, required every Bishop to be of the same Spirit of which
we have supposed him. The Church, both by the Doctrine of
Fathers, and the Canons of Councils constantly maintains ;
First, that the Clergy are not Proprietors, but barely Stewards
of the Benefices they enjoy ; having them for no other End, but
for their own necessary, frugal Subsistence, and the Relief of the
Poor. Secondly, that a Clergyman using his Benefice for his
own Indulgence, or the enriching his own Family, is guilty of
Sacrilege, and is a Robber and Murderer of the Poor. Thirdly,
that if a Clergyman has a reasonable Subsistence of his own, and
is not in the State of the Poor, that then, let his Benefice be
what it will, he has no Right to use any Part of it for himself,
nor for his Kindred, unless they be fit to be considered amongst
those Poor that are to be relieved by the Church. Fourthly,
that every Bishop and Clergyman is to live in an humble, lowly,
frugal, outward State of Life, seeking for no Honour or Dignity
in the World, but that which arises from the Distinction and
Lustre of his Virtues. Fifthly, that a Beneficed Clergyman
using the Goods of the Church for his own Indulgence, or
raising Fortunes for his Children, or their expensive Education,
is sacrilegious, and a Robber of the Poor. Sixthly, that every
Clergyman is to die out of the Church as poor as he entered into
it. Seventhly, that a Clergyman dying, cannot leave or bequeath
any Thing to his Children or Friends, but barely that which he
had independently of the Church.*
* (a) Nihil ecclesia nisi Fidem possidet — Possessio ecclesia est Egenorum
sumptus, Amb. Ep. 31. (6) Si Pauperum Compauperes sumus, & nostra
sunt & \llorum. Si autem privatim quae nobis sufficiunt, possidemus, non
sunt' ilia nostrum, sed Pauperum Procurationem gerimus, non Proprietatem
nobis Usurpatione damnabili vindicamus, Angus. Ep. 50, ad Bonif. (c) Quo
niam quicquid habent Clerici, Pauperum est— Qui bonis Parentum & opibus
sustentari possent, si quod Pauperum est, accipiunt Sacnlegium frofectb
committunt & per Abusionem Talium, Judicium sibi manducant, & bibunt,
Hieron Ej> ad D amas. id) Episcopus vilem Siippellectilem, & Mensam, ac
Victum Pauperem habeat, & Dignitatis sua Authontatem Fide & Vitae
meritis quaerat, Concil. Carthag. 4- (*). Memento quod Pauperein Vitam
Sacerdos gerere debet, & ideo si superbiam habet, si magno gaudet Bene-
ficio prater Victum & Vestitum quod superest, Paupenbus dare non differat,
quia omnia Pauperum sunt. Aug. Serm. 37. ad Fratres. (/) Hujus tu e
vicino sectare Vestigia, & casterorum, qui Virtutum illius simihes sunt, quos
13

194 Some Animadversions upon
May it not therefore well be wondered what could provoke
Dr. Trapp to censure our Bishop as a Madman, whose whole
Form of Life, and Use of his Bishopric, is not only after the
Model of the first and greatest Saints that ever were Bishops,
but also such as the whole Church from the Beginning, both in
Council and out of Council, from Age to Age, hath absolutely
required of every beneficed Clergyman, who would not be con
demned by her, as sacrilegious, and a Robber of the Poor?
They who would see the whole of this Matter set in a clear
Light, may read an excellent Treatise of the learned Dupin,
wrote near the End of his Life, where this Truth is by him
asserted and incontestably proved, viz., That whatever Changes
have been made in the Nature and Tenure of the Goods and
Revenues of the Church, or however they have been variously
divided amongst Ecclesiastics, yet this has remained always
unchangeable and undeniable, That a Clergyman was no Pro
prietor of his Benefice ; that he could only take so much of it
to his own Use, as was necessary to his Subsistence, and then
the Remainder, be it what it would, belonged to the Poor.
This, says he, is strictly maintained by the Canons of Councils,
Sacerdotium & humiliores facit, & pauperes. Hieron. Ep. 4. ad Rustic.
(g) Prsecipimus ut in potestate sua Episcopus Ecclesiae Res habeat — ex iis
autem quibus indiget, (si tamen indiget) ad suas necessitates percipiat.
Canon. Apost. 40. — eas veluti Deo contemplante dispenset ; nee ei liceat ex
iis aliquid contingere, aut Parentibus propriis (quae Dei sunt) condonare.
Quod si Pauperes sunt, tanquam Pauperibus subministret, ne eorum occasione
Ecclesiae Res depredantur, Can. Apost. 39. (/z) Manifesta sint quae pertinere
videntur ad Ecclesiam cum Notitia Presbiterorum & Diaconorum, ut si conti-
gerit Episcopo migrare de Seculo, nee Res Ecclesice depereant, nee quae pro
pria probantur Episcopi, sub Occasione Rerum Ecclesiae pervadantur : justum
enim est ut sua Episcopus quibus voluerit, derelinquat, & quae Ecclesiae
sunt, eidem conservantur Ecclesia. Concil. Antioch, chap. 24. (z) Qui-
cunque Clerici, qui nihil habentes ordinantur, & tempore Episcopatus, vel
Clericatus sui, agros, vel qusecunque predia nomine suo comparant, tanquam
Rerum dominicarum Invasionis Crimine teneantur obnoxii, nisi admoniti,
Ecclesia eadem ipsa contulerint. (N.B.) Si autem ipsis proprie aliquid
liberalitate alicujus, vel Successione Cognationis obvenerit, faciant inde quod
ipsorum Proposito congruit. {k) Sacerdotes ipsis quoque Filiis suis, quibus
paterna debetur Hasreditas, nihil debent derelinquere, nisi quod sibi a
Parentibus derelictum est : Ergo qui ditior est Sacerdos, quam venit ad
Sacerdotium, quicquid plus habuerit, non filiis debet dare, sed Pauperibus, &
Sanctis fratribus, ut reddat ea quae Domini sunt, Domino suo. Hieron. in
Ezech., chap. 46. (I) Timeant Clerici, timeant Ministri Ecclesia, qui in
terris Sanctorum quas possident, tam iniqua gerunt, ut Stipendiis quae
sufficere debeant, minime contend, Superflua quibus egeni sustendandi
forent, impie, sacrilege, sibi retineant, & in usus suae Superbiae atque
Luxuriae victum Pauperum consumere non vereantur, duplici profecto Ini-
quitate peccantes, quod & aliena diripiunt, and Sacris in suis vinitatibus
abutuntur. St. Bernard, Serm. 23, in Cantic. Vide, lege, & relege. S.
Prosperum de Viti contemplativa.

Dr. Trapp' s late l^eply. 195

both before and after the Division of ecclesiastical Revenues.
' C'est ce que portent precisement les Canons, & avant, & apres la
' Partition des Biens ecclesiastiques.'*
But now if this be the Case, if this be an incontestable
Doctrine, supported by every Authority that can be brought
for any one Doctrine of the Gospel, have we not here an utter
Condemnation of Pluralities ? Is it not an Affront to the Gospel,
to the plainest Maxims of Right and Wrong, the whole Authority
of the Church, to offer one single Word in Defence of them ?
Logical, scholastic Distinctions and Definitions of the Nature
of Parishes and Residence, can signify no more here, where the
whole Nature of the Thing is to be avoided, than the same Art
of Words, when used by fesuitical Casuists, can justify the
Violation of moral Duties. And if Dr. Trapp was only to look
at this one Doctrine, he would have no reason to think it so
sad a Thing, to see Pluralists coupled with Cardinals. ' See,'
says the learned Dupin, ' Rules which appear hard to many of
' the beneficed Clergy, but yet,' says he, ' they are true, con-
' formable to natural Equity, the Laws, Custom, and Tradition
' of the Church, and the Practice of the most holy Bishops ; and
' woe be to those that observe them not.' Malheur a Ceux qui
ne les suivent pas.t And therefore he concludes thus, ' There
' may be many amongst the beneficed Clergy who err in this
' Matter, through an Ignorance of that which is required of
' them ; therefore what I have said ought to be taken in good
' Part, as proceeding from Charity, and a sincere Love of Truth.'
I come now to that which the Doctor says of Enthusiasm and
Enthusiasts. Speaking to the younger Clergy of the Means of
attaining Divine Knowledge, I had these Words, ' The Book of
' all Books is your own Heart, in which are written the deepest
' Lessons of Divine Instruction ; learn therefore to be deeply
' attentive to the Presence of God in your Hearts, who is always
' speaking, always instructing, always illuminating that Heart
' that is attentive to him.' Now can any Thing be conceived
more scriptural, or more inoffensive than all this ? Is there
anything to suppress or hurt the Piety and Devotion of that
Heart, which would place its all in God ? Which desires to be
moved and guided in all Things by his holy Spirit. How can
we worship God in Spirit and in Truth, how can we pray unto
him, turn to him, how can we raise any Act of Faith or Hope in
him, Resignation unto him, or Dependence upon him, but by
thus thinking of him ? Take any Thing from God that I have
* Traite Philos. & Theolog. sur l'amour de Dieu, page 415.
f Ibid., page 442.
13—2

196 Some Animadversions upon
here ascribed to him, suppose him not to be thus inwardly speak
ing, instructing, illuminating, and then tell me why my Heart
should seek him, or how it can find him ? A Page or two after
this, to show the deep and intimate Union the Soul has with
its Creator, I said, ' God is an all-speaking, all-working, all-
' illuminating Essence, possessing the Depth, and bringing forth
'the Life of every Creature according to its Nature. Our Life is
' out of this Divine Essence, and is itself a creaturely Similitude
'of it ; and when we turn from all Impediments, this Divine
' Essence becomes as certainly the true Light of our Minds here,
'as it will be hereafter! Now is there any Thing here to
shock, or fright, or delude the Piety of any Christian ? Is' it a
monstrous Thing to be told, that the Light of Heaven reaches
us in this World, that we have this Communion with God ; that
when we turn rightly to him, he dwells in us and we in him ;
that we receive his Operation and Light upon us in this Life, as
we shall do in the next, only with this Difference, that now what
is done in Faith will then be in open Vision ? How can we
believe anything that is said of the Light and holy Spirit of
God in the Scripture, without believing this ? If this be not
true, how can we believe that Jesus Christ is the Light which
lighteth every Man that cometh into the World ? Or is there
any Thing here more said of God, than when the Apostle saith,
that ' in him we live, move, and have our Being '? If the Word
of God was not an ever-speaking Word, how could Nature and
Creature speak forth any Thing? If God was ^wr silent could
any Thing else speak ? Again, if Nature is constantly at Work ;
if there could be no Nature but because there is a continual
stirring and working which cannot cease ; is not this a sufficient
Proof that there is an all-working Deity ? And if we are told,
that, in the Kingdom of Heaven, there shall be no Sun, nor
Moon, but the Lamb shall be the Light thereof, is not this telling
us, that God himself is the uncreated Light, always in the same
State of Infinity, and therefore an all-illuminating Being ? And
if there is always Light in Nature, a Light that cannot be
extinguished, must it not come from the all-illuminating Being ?
Yet Dr. Trapp says, all this ' is Enthusiasm, if ever there was any
' in the World ' ; that they are the ' Words of Falsehood and
' Frenzy.'* If the Doctor had been clear in this Matter, it had
been very easy for him to have shown his Reader wherein this
Enthusiasm and Frenzy lay ; and it was also very necessary for
him to have here said something very plain and clear concerning
the Nature and Ground of Enthusiasm : For if his Reader,
* Page 86.

Dr. Trapp' s late 1{eply. 197

without any clear and distinct Notion of Enthusiasm, is taught
to cry out against a Doctrine, which only teaches, that God is
always speaking, instructing, and illuminating that Heart that is
in great Purity turned to him ; if he is taught boldly and blindly
to condemn this as Enthusiasm and Frenzy, how shall such a
one be able to defend himself, when he is told by others, that
two Thirds of the New Testament is Enthusiasm ? As where
it is said, 'I am the Light and Life of the World : The King-
' dom of Heaven is within you : Except ye eat my Flesh and
' drink my Blood, ye have no Life in you : If any Man love me,
' my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make
' our Abode with him : No Man can come unto me, except the
' Father draweth him : The natural Man cannot receive and know
' the Things of the Spirit of God : He breathed on them, and
' said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost : The Spirit of Truth, he
' dwelleth in you, and shall be with you : No Man can say, Abba
' Father, or that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost : As
' many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of
'God.' hi our Liturgy we pray that God would prevent us in
all our Doings, and further us with his continual Help : That we
may obey the godly Motions of the Spirit in Righteousness and
true Holiness : That by his holy Inspiration we may think those
Things that be good, and by his merciful Guiding may perform
the same : That his holy Spirit may in all Things direct and rule
our Hearts, &c. Now what must the unlearned Reader, or the
learned Doctor himself do with these and the like Places of
Scripture, and Prayers of the Church, if it be Enthusiasm, False
hood, and Frenzy to say, that God is intimately present in the
Depth of our Souls, always speaking, instructing, enlightening
that Heart, which is truly turned to him ? Or how can these
Scriptures and Prayers have the least Truth or Reasonableness in
them, but upon this Supposition, that God is an all-speaking,
all-knowing, all-illuminating Being, out of whom we are born,
and in whom we live, and move, and have our Being. But I
shall here speak a Word or two of the true Ground, and Nature
of Enthusiasm.
In Will, Imagination, and Desire, consists the Life, or fiery
Driving of every intelligent Creature. And as every intelligent
Creature is its own Self-mover, so every intelligent Creature has
Power of kindling and inflamingits Will, Imagination and Desire
as it pleases, with Shadows, Fictions, or Realities ; with Things
carnal or spiritual, temporal or eternal. And this kindling of
the Will, Imagination, and Desire, when raised into a ruling
Degree of Life, is properly that which is to be understood by
Enthusiasm : And therefore Enthusiasm is, and must be of as

198 Some Animadversions upon

many Kinds as those Objects are, which can kindle and inflame
the Wills, Imaginations, and Desires of Men. And to appro
priate Enthusiasm to Religion, is the same Ignorance of Nature,
as to appropriate Love to Religion ; for Enthusiasm, a kindled,
inflamed Spirit of Life, is as common, as universal, as essential to
human Nature, as Love is ; it goes into every Kind of Life as
Love does, and has only such a Variety of Degrees in Mankind
as Love hath. And here we may see the Reason, why no People
are so angry at Religious Enthusiasts, as those that are the
deepest in some Enthusiasm of another Kind.
He whose Fire is kindled from the Divinity of Tully s
Rhetoric, who travels over high Mountains to salute the dear
Ground that Marcus Tullius Cicero walked upon ; whose noble
Soul would be ready to break out of his Body, if he could see a
Desk, a Rostrum from whence Cicero had poured forth his
Thunder of Words, may well be unable to bear the Dulness of
those, who go on Pilgrimages only to visit the Sepulchre, whence
the Redeemer of the World rose from the dead, or who grow
devout at the Sight of a Crucifix, because the Son of God hung
as a Sacrifice thereon.
He whose heated Brain is all over painted with the ancient
Hieroglyphics ; who knows llow and why they were this and that,
better than he can find out the Customs and Usages of his own
Parish; who can clear up every Thing that is doubtful in
Antiquity, and yet be forced to live in Doubt about that which
passes in his own Neighbourhood ; who has found out the
Sentiments of the first Philosophers with such Certainty, as he
cannot find out the real Opinion of any of his Contemporaries ;
he that has gone thus high into the Clouds, and dug thus deep
into the Dark for these glorious Discoveries, may well despise
those Christians, as brain-sick Visionaries, who are sometimes
finding a moral and spiritual Sense in the bare Letter and
History of Scripture-Facts.
It matters not what our Wills and Imaginations are employed
about ; wherever they fall and love to dwell, there they kindle a
Fire, and that becomes the Flame of Life, to which every Thing
else appears as dead, and insipid, and unworthy of Regard.
Hence it is that even the poor Species of Fops and Beaux have
a right to be placed among Enthusiasts, though capable of no
other Flame than that, which is kindled by Tailors and Peruke-
Makers. All refined Speculatists, as such, are great Enthusiasts ;
for being devoted to the Exercise of their Imaginations, they are
so heated into a Love of their own Ideas, that they seek no other
sum mum bonum. The Grammarian, the Critic, the Poet, the
Connoisseur, the Antiquarv, the PhilosopJier, the Politician, are

Dr. Trapp' s late T^eply. 199
all violent Enthusiasts, though their Heat is only a Flame from
Straw, and therefore they all agree in appropriating Enthusiasm
to Religion. All ambitious, proud, self-conceited Persons,
especially if they are Scholars, are violent Enthusiasts, and
their Enthusiasm is an inflamed Self-Love, Self-Esteem, and
Self-Seeking. This Fire is so kindled in them, that every Thing
is nauseous and disgustful to them, that does not offer Incense
to that Idol, which their Imagination has set up in themselves.
All Atheists are dark Enthusiasts ; their Fire is kindled by a
Will and Imagination turned from God into a gloomy Depth of
Nothingness, and therefore their Enthusiasm is a dull burning
Fire, that goes in and out, through Hopes and Fears of they
know not what that is to come. All professed Infidels are
remarkable Enthusiasts, they have kindled a bold Fire from a
few faint Ideas, and therefore they are all Zeal, and Courage,
and Industry to be constantly blowing it up. A Tyndal and a
Collins are as inflamed with the Notions of Infidelity, as a St.
Bennet and St. Francis with the Doctrines of the Gospel.
Enthusiasts therefore we all are, as certainly as we are Men ;
and consequently, Enthusiasm is not a Thing blamable in
itself, but is the common Condition of human Life in all its
States ; and every Man that lives either well or ill, is that which
he is, from that prevailing Fire of Life, or driving of our Wills
and Desires, which is properly called Enthusiasm. You need not
then go to a Cloister, the Cell of a Monk, or to a Field Preacher,
to see Enthusiasts, they are everywhere, at Balls and Mas
querades, at Court and the Exchange: They sit in all Coffee
houses, and cant in all Assemblies. The Beau and the Coquette
have no Magic, but where they meet Enthusiasts. The Mercer,
the Tailor, the Bookseller have all their Wealth from them ; the
Works of a Bayle, a Shaftesbury, and Cicero, would lose four
Fifths of their astonishing Beauties, had they not keen Enthusiasts
for their Readers.
That which concerns us therefore, is only to see with what
Materials our prevailing Fire of Life is kindled, and in what
Species of Enthusiasts it truly places us. For either the Flesh or
the Spirit ; either the Wisdom from above, or the Wisdom of
this World, will have its Fire in us ; and we must have a Life
that governs us either according to the Sensuality of the Beast
the Subtlety of the Serpent, or the Holiness of the Angel.
Enthusiasm is not blamable in Religion, when it is true
Religion that kindles it. We are created with Wills and Desires
for no other End, but to love, adore, desire, serve and co-operate
with God ; and therefore the more we are inflamed in this
Motion of our Wills and Desires, the more we have of a God-

200 Some Animadversions upon
like, Divine Nature, and Perfection in us. Religious Enthusiasm
is not blamable, when it is a strong Persuasion, a firm Belief of
a continual Operation, Impression, and Influence from above,
when it is a total Resignation to, and Dependence upon the
immediate Inspiration, and Guidance of the holy Spirit in the
whole Course of our Lives ; this is as sober, and rational a
Belief, as to believe that we always live, and move, and have our
Being in God. Both Nature and Scripture demonstrate this to
be the true Spirit of a Religious Man. Nature tells everyone,
that we can only be heavenly by a Spirit derived from Heaven,
as plainly as it tells us, that we can only be earthly, by having
the Spirit of this World breathing in us. The Gospel teaches
no Truth so constantly, so universally as this, that every good
Thought and good Desire is the Work of the holy Spirit. And
therefore both Nature and Scripture demonstrate, that the one
only Way to Piety, Virtue and Holiness, is to prepare, expect, and
resign ourselves up wholly to the Influence and Guidance ofthe
holy Spirit, in every Thing that we think, or say, or do. The
moment anyone departs from this Faith, or loses this Direction of
his Will and Desire, so far, and so long he goes out of the one
only Element of all Holiness of Life. There is nothing that so
sanctifies the Heart of Man, that keeps us in such habitual Love,
Prayer, and Delight in God ; nothing that so kills all the Roots
of Evil in our Nature, that so renews and perfects all our
Virtues, that fills us with so much Love, Goodness, and good
Wishes to every Creature, as this Faith, That God is always
present in us with his Light and Holy Spirit. When the Heart
has once learnt thus to find God, and knows how to live every
where, and in all Things in this immediate Intercourse with
him, seeing him, loving him, and adoring him in every Thing,
trusting in him, depending upon him for his continual Light and
holy Spirit ; when it knows that this Faith is infallible ; that by
thus believing, it thus possesses all that it believes of God ; then
it begins to have the Nature of God in it, and can do nothing
but flow forth in Love, Benevolence, and good Will towards
every Creature ; it can have no Wish towards any Man, but
that he might thus know, and love, and find God in himself, as
the true Beginning of Heaven, and the heavenly Life in the
Soul. On the other hand, no Error so hurtful to the Soul, so destruc
tive of all the Ends of the Gospel, as to be led from this Faith
and entire Dependence upon the holy Spirit of God, or to place
our Recovery in any Thing else, but in the Operation of the
Light and holy Spirit of God upon the Soul. It is withdrawing
Men not only from the earliest, the most natural, the most fruit-

Dr. Trapp' s late ^eply. 201

ful, but the only possible Source of all Light and Life. For
every Man, as such, has an open Gate to God in his Soul, he is
always in that Temple, where he can worship God in Spirit and
Truth : Every Christian, as such, has the first Fruits of the
Spirit, a Seed of Life, which is his Call and Qualification to be
always in a State of inward Prayer, Faith, and holy Intercourse
with God. All the Ordinances of the Gospel, the daily sacra
mental Service of the Church, is to keep up, and exercise, and
strengthen this Faith ; to raise us to such an habitual Faith and
Dependence upon the Light and holy Spirit of God, that by thus
seeking and finding God in the Institutions of the Church, we
may be habituated to seek him and find him ; to live in his Light,
and walk by his Spirit in all the Actions of our ordinary Life.
This is the Enthusiasm in which every good Christian ought to
endeavour to live and die.
I come now to an Enthusiast, which the Doctor has acci
dentally met with, from whom, it seems, ' I have borrowed some
rof my strange Notions, and would put them off as my own,'
p. 119. The Doctor has this Intelligence from his trusty Assis
tant, who says, ' what else can be expected from those, Who
' read Jacob Behmen, Dr. Pordage, and Mrs. Lead, with almost
' the same Veneration and implicit Faith, that other People read
' the Scripture,' ibid. Two of these Writers I know very little
of, yet as much as I desire to know ; but J. Behmen, called the
Teutonic Theosopher, I have read much, and much esteem : But
the Design of putting off some of his strange Notions, as my own,
is as well grounded, as if the Doctor had charged me with a
Design of picking his Pocket.
The illustrious Sir Isaac Newton, when he wrote his Principia,
and published to the World his great Doctrine of Attraction, and
those Laws of Nature by which the Planets began, and continue
to move in their Orbits, could have told the World, that the true
and infallible Ground of what he there advanced, was to be found
in the Teutonic Theosopher, in his three first Properties of Eternal
Nature ; he could have told them, that he had been a diligent
Reader of that wonderful Author, that he had made large Ex
tracts out of him, and could have referred to him for the Ground
of what he had observed of the Number Seven. Now why did
not this great Man do thus ? Must we suppose that he was loth
to have it thought, that he had been helped by any Thing that
he had read ? No : It is an unworthy Thought. But Sir Isaac
well knew, that Prejudice and Partiality had such Power over
many People's Judgments, that Doctrines, though ever so deeply
founded in, and proved by all the Appearances of Nature, would
be suspected by some as dangerous, and condemned by others,

202 Some Animadversions upon
even as false and Wicked, had he made any References to an
Author that was only called an Enthusiast.
Dr. Trapp may take himself for an eminent Example and Proof
of this. He has here shown with what Speed Matters may be
determined by Prejudice. For here a Stranger, a Layman, not
so much as known to the Doctor by Name, who, for aught he
can tell, may be some small Retailer of Infidelity, or Snuff-
Candle in the Playhouse, who has gained upon the Doctor by
no other Marks of Ability and Judgment, but his Compliments
to him, and his Scurrility upon me ; from the Authority of this
Informer, the Doctor immediately puts /. B. into his List of
Enthusiasts. Is not this a Proof of what Sir Isaac Newton must
have met with from some great Scholars, and to what a speedy
Confutation he must have exposed himself, and the plainest
Appearances of Nature, had he ever referred to the Teutonic
Theosopher ? Now am I here to suppose, that this Censure of
the Doctor's relating to J. B. is a Rashness that has hexe first
seized upon him by Chance, that he never before in his Life
allowed himself to treat any Man, or any Book in this manner ;
that if he took the Judgment of another, it was of somebody that
he knew ; if he condemned an Author, he always stayed till he
had read something of him, at least an Index, or a Title Page or
two of his Works ? Or am I to suppose, that this has been the
Doctor's Method upwards of thirty -seven Years ; calling one Man
an Enthusiast, another a Fanatic, this a monstrous, that the most
pernicious Book of the Age, as rashly, as hastily, regarding no
more of Right or Wrong in that which he affirms of these Matters,
than he has here done with regard to f. B. ? But I hope the
Doctor is singular in this Spirit ; for if it could be supposed, that
it was common amongst learned Men, to get their Knowledge
of ancient and modern, foreign and domestic Enthusiasts, as
hastily and slightly as the Doctor here doth ; must it not be very
dangerous for the Unlearned to take any Opinions of this kind
from them ? Must it not be said, that one Gram of Equity, good
Sense, and real Knowledge, is more to be desired, than an
hundred Weight of such Learning ?
When I considered the fallen Soul, as a Fire-Spirit, deprived
of its proper Light, and therefore become of a Diabolical Nature,
I could have directed to J. B. for the deep and infallible Ground
of it ; but what need was there for that, when I could make the
plainest Principles of Nature, the plainest Doctrines of Scripture,
everything that was said of the Fall, of Heaven, of Hell, and the
like, to be undeniable Proofs of it ? What I said in the Second
Proposition of the Discourse upon Regeneration, concerning the
Holy Triunity of God in Man, stands not in that Form of

Dr. Trapp's late l^eply. 203

Expression anywhere that I know of; but for the true Ground
and Certainty of it, I could have referred to the Teutonic Theo
sopher, to many ancient and modern Writers of the greatest
Name, and_ to a venerable Record of Antiquity, ascribed even to
St. Peter himself ; where he asserts, even upon the same Ground
as I have done, that because we were created in the Image and
Likeness of God, therefore the triune Life arises in us, as it does
in God, and we have in us, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit*
But what Occasion was there for these References, when I
had so much better Proof, when I could show, that all which
the Scriptures say of the whole Nature and Manner of our Re
demption, of the whole Nature and Form of Baptism, all that
they say of the Necessity of the Word, and Holy Spirit of God
having again a Birth in us, are absolute, decisive Proofs of it ?t
I knew also very well, that the most essential, fundamental,
and joyful Doctrines of the Gospel would be questioned, or
received with Difficulty, had I referred to a poor Shoemaker for
any Proof of them : And it may well be believed, that the
Doctor would have been amongst the first and loudest of those,
who would have cried out at my Folly and Presumption in direct
ing to an Author, whom all the World knew to be an illiterate
Enthusiast ; and yet, if all the World knows it as the Doctor
knows it, all the World may be said to know nothing about it.
Dr. Trapp has a Fling at my Want of Taste for his Virgil's,
Horace's, and Terence's : I own, when I was about Eighteen, I
was as fond of these Books as the Doctor can well be now,
and should then have been glad to have translated the Sublime
Milton, if I had found myself able ; but this Ardour soon went
off, and I think it as good a Proof of the Sublime, to desire the
Death of all that is Diabolical and Serpentine in my own Nature,
as to be charmed with those Speeches which the Devils make in
Milton. Had the Doctor been more conversant in the Writings
of a Set of Men called Mystical Divines, than he appears to
have been, he had been better able to have charged me with
humble Plagiary than he is at present, and might have done
more Service to what he calls the Noble Science of Theology,
than by all that Light which he has got from his Poets, which
he acknowledges to have somewhat of Wantonness in them,
p. 38. Of these Mystical Divines, I thank God, I have been a
* Rationalis Homo, factus ad Imaginem, & Similitudinem Dei, fert in
se Symbolice Factoris sui Imitationem. Habet enim in se Patrem, Filium
& Spiritum. Mens quidem locum Patris obtinet, Filii vero, qui ex mente
gignitur, Sermo Interior, at quae auditur Vox Prolationis, Spiritum reprae-
sentat, &°c, Coteler, S. S. Patr., pages 595 — 1719.
f See Regeneration, pages 22-33.

204 Some Animadversions upon
diligent Reader, through all Ages of the Church, from the
Apostolical Dionisius the Areopagite, down to the great Fenelon
Archbishop of Cambray, the illuminated Guion, and M. Bertot.
Had the Doctor read St. Cassian, a Recorder of the Lives, Spirit
and Doctrine of the Holy Fathers of the Desarts, as often as
he had read the Story ot yEneas and Dido, he had been less
astonished at many Things in my Writings : But I apprehend
the Doctor to be as great a Stranger to the Writers of this kind,
with which every Age of the Church has been blessed, and to
know no more of the Divine Rusbrochius, Thaulerus, Suso,
Harphius, fohannes de Cruce, &c, than he does of J. B. For
had he known any Thing of them, he had known that I am as
chargeable with the Sentiments of all of them, as with those of
J. Behmen. For though I never wrote upon any Subject till I
could call it my own, till I was so fully possessed of the Truth
of it, that I could sufficiently prove it in my own Way, without
borrowed Arguments ; yet, Doctrines of Religion I have none,
but what the Scriptures and the first-rate Saints of the Church
are my Vouchers for.
Writers, like those I have mentioned, there have been in all
Ages of the Church, but as they served not the Ends of Popular
Learning, as they helped no People to Figure and Preferment
in the World, and were useless to scholastic, controversial Writers,
so they dropped out of public Use, and were only known, or
rather unknown, under the Name of Mystical Writers, till at
last some People have hardly heard of that very Name. Though
if a Man was to be told what is meant by a Mystical Divine,
he must be told of something as heavenly, as great, as desirable,
as if he was told, what is meant by a real, regenerate, living
Member of the Mystical Body of Christ. For they were thus
called, for no other Reason, than as Moses and the Prophets,
and the Saints of the Old Testament may be called the Spiritual
Israel, or the true Mystical fews. These Writers began their
Office of Teaching, as fohn the Baptist did, after they had passed
through every kind of Mortification and Self-denial, every kind
of Trial and Purification, both inward and outward. They were
deeply learned in all the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God,
not through the Use of Lexicons, or meditating upon Critics,
but because they had passed from Death unto Life. They highly
reverence and excellently direct the true Use of everything
that is outward in Religion, but like the Psalmist's King's
Daughter, they axe all glorious within : They are truly Sons of
Thunder, and Sons of Consolation ; they break open the whited
Sepulchres ; they awaken the Heart, and show it its Filth and
Rottenness of Death, but they leave it not, till the Kingdom of

Dr. Trapp' s late T^eply. 205
Heaven is raised up within it. If a Man have no Desire but to
be of the Spirit of the Gospel, to obtain all that Renovation of
Life and Spirit, which alone can make him to be in Christ a
new Creature, it is a great Unhappiness to him to be un
acquainted with these Writers, or to pass a Day without reading
something of what they have written. For though the Scriptures
are an inexhaustible Source of Spiritual Instruction, leading the
Heart to the deepest Knowledge of all the Mysteries of the
inward, new Life in God, with the greatest Plainness and Open
ness of Expression, yet a worldly Spirit, the Schools, Criticism,
and Controversy have so dried, and deadened every Thing into
an outward Letter and figurative Expression, that much of
their Use is lost, till these Holy Writers, who interpret them
by the same Spirit which wrote them, guide us to the true Use
and Understanding of them ; for in these Writers, the Spirit
of God speaks a second Time, and every Thing that can awaken,
convert, instruct and inflame the Heart with the Love of God,
and all Holiness and Purity of Life, is to be found in the most
irresistible Degree of Conviction. You will perhaps say, Do I
then call all the World to these Spiritual Books ? No, by no
means. But I call all those, whom our Saviour called to him
self in these Words : ' Come unto me all ye that labour, and
' are heavy laden, and I will refresh you.'
But to return to the Doctor's Enthusiast.
facob Behmen, in his natural Capacity and outward Condition
of Life, was as mean and illiterate as anyone that our Lord
called to be an Apostle, but as a chosen Servant of God, he
may be placed amongst those who had received the highest
Measures of Light, Wisdom and Knowledge from Above. He
was no more a human Writer, spoke no more from Opinion,
Conjecture, or Reason, in what he published to the World, than
St. John did, when he put his Revelation into Writing. He has
no Right to be placed amongst the inspired Penmen of the
New Testament, he was no Messenger from God of any Thing
new in Religion, but the Mystery of all that was old and true
both in Religion and Nature was opened in him. This is the
Particularity of his Character, by which he stands fully dis
tinguished from all the Prophets, Apostles, and extraordinary
Messengers of God. They were sent with occasional Messages,
or to make such Alterations in the Economy of Religion as
pleased God ; but this Man came on no particular Errand, he
had nothing to alter, or add, either in the Form, or Doctrine
of Religion ; he had no new Truths of Religion to propose to
the World, but all that lay in Religion and Nature, as a Mystery
unsearchable, was in its deepest Ground opened in this In-

206 Some Animadversions upon
strument of God. And all his Works are nothing else but a
deep Manifestation of the Grounds and Reasons of that which
is done, that which is doing, and is to be done, both in the
Kingdom of Nature, and the Kingdom of Grace, from the
Beginning to the End of Time. His Works therefore, though
immediately from God, have not at all the Nature of the Holy
Scriptures, they are not offered to the World, as necessary to be
received, or as a Rule of Faith and Manners? and therefore no
one has any Right to complain, either of the Depths of his
Matter, or the Peculiarity of his Style : They are just as they
should be, for those that are fit for them ; and he that likes
them not, or finds himself unqualified for them, has no Obliga
tion to read them.
The whole System of Christianity has generally been looked
upon as a Mystery of Salvation, solely founded in the Divine
Pleasure ; and to be such a Scheme of Redemption, as is wholly
to be resolved into the Contrivance of the Will and Wisdom
of God ; and therefore Men can think as differently of it, can
fall into as many Opinions about it, as they can of the Will and
Wisdom of God. Hence has arisen all the speculative Opposition
to the Gospel : It is because Reason, human Speculation, and
Conjecture, is always imagining it can form a Religion more
worthy of the Wisdom and Designs of the Supreme Being than
the Christian is ; and would be thought to oppose the Gospel
only for the Honour of God, and the Divine Attributes. This
is the great, prevailing Idolatry of the present Heathen World,
or that Part of Mankind who are Infidels, or Deists. Hence
also is risen another Species of Idolatry, even amongst Chris
tians of all Denominations ; who, though receiving and pro
fessing the Religion of the Gospel, yet worship God not in
Spirit and in Truth, but either in the Deadness of an outward
Form, or in a Pharisaical, carnal Trust and Confidence in their
own Opinions and Doctrines. This Body of People, whether
they be Clergy or Laity, are but nominal Christians ; because
they have little more than the Name of every Mystery of the
Gospel : Historical Christians, because satisfied with the History
of Gospel-Salvation : Literal Christians, because looking only
to, and contending only for, the Letter of the Institutions and
Mysteries of Jesus Christ. For the Letter, for the federal Rite,
and the figurative Expression of Regeneration, they are all Zeal
and Industry ; but the Reality of it, the true Life of the New
Birth, they oppose and reject as heartily as the Deist does the
outward Form and Letter. Now this twofold Idolatry of the
present Heathen and Christian World has its full Discovery
and Confutation in the Mystery opened in /. B. which, when

Dr. Trapp' s late Ifyply. 207
understood, leaves no Room for any Man either to disbelieve
the Gospel, or to content himself with the Letter of it. For, in
the Revelation made to this Man, the first Beginning of all
Things is opened, the whole State, the Rise, the Workings, and
the Progress of all Nature is revealed, and every Doctrine,
Mystery, and Precept of the Gospel is found, not to have sprung
from any arbitrary Appointment, but to have its eternal, un
alterable Ground and Reason in Nature ; and God appears to
save us by the Methods of the Gospel, because there was no
other possible Way to save us in all the Possibility of Nature.
And therefore the idolatrous Confidence of the Deist in his own
Reason, and of the nominal Christian in the outward Letter of
their Religion, have equally their full Confutation.
To those who confine Idolatry to the Worship of such Idols as
the old Heathens and fews worshipped, it may seem a Paradox,
to talk of the Idolatry of the present World, either amongst Deists
or Christians. But if we consider Things more than Words, we
shall find, that Idolatry is nowhere, but where the Heart has set
up Something in the Place of God ; and therefore is everywhere,
and in every Thing, where the Heart places that Repose, Trust,
and Delight, which should be placed in God alone. For God is
only owned, and confessed to be our God, by these Acknowledg
ments and Dispositions of our Hearts towards Him. It is an
infallible Truth, That all Sin has its Beginning and Continuance
in and from Idolatry : This alone debauched the former and the
later Ages of the World, and is the one Source of all the Corrup
tion of Manners, from the Beginning to the End of Time. You
don't make a Golden Calf, as the fews did, to worship it ; but if
Mammon is your God, if your Life is devoted to Pride, Ambition,
and Sensuality, your Idolatry is not so sensible, but it is as real as
theirs, who danced about a Golden Calf. You fancy that Venus
is not your Goddess, because you are not worshipping a figured
Image of her, in a Temple called by her Name ; but if you look
at the Odes, the Hymns, the Songs, which you love, which Lust
has inspired, then you may know that Venus is the Goddess of
your Heart. It is thus with every Object, and in every Course
of Life, that which possesses and governs our Heart, has usurped
the Right and Place of God in it, and has that Worship, Trust,
and Devotion of the Heart, which is due to God alone : And
therefore the Idolatry of the present World, is only of a different
Kind from that of the ancient, it is less seen, and less confessed,
but not less real, than when carved Images, and figured Idols
were adored.
Deism, or the Religion of human Reason, set up in Opposition
to the Gospel, is direct Idolatry, and has every Grossness and

208 Some Animadversions upon
Vanity of Image Worship. For to put our Trust in our own
Reason, to be content with its Light, to resign ourselves up to it,
and depend upon it as our Guide, is a Mistake that has every
Grossness and Vanity of the Adoration of an Idol. Now this
Kind of Idolatry has overrun all the last Ages of the World ; it
is the last Effort of human Vanity ; it is the utmost that Idolatry
can do, both to hide and propagate itself, and is the Devil under
the Appearance of an Angel of Light. The Gospel has no
Enemy but this Idolatry, and it is as visible in the Church, as
out of it : Hence it is, that the State of the Church is so sadly
described in the Revelation of St. fohn, for so many Ages, as a
spiritual Whoredom. When the old Jews left off the Idols of
the Heathens, they fell into an Idolatry of another kind, which
was this, they idolized the Rites and Ceremonies of their own
true Religion ; they placed that Confidence in the outward Letter,
and expected that Good from their outward Rites, which they
should have placed, sought, expected from God alone. This is
the Idolatry of the rational Deist, and the nominal Christian.
But when the Mystery of all Nature and Grace, which by the
Mercy of God has opened itself in the Writings of J. B. shall
find its Children, every Idolatry, both within and without the
Church, will be ashamed to show itself.
But it may be asked by some, what warrant I have for all that
I have said oi J. B. or how I can prove to the World, that his
Writings are the Work of the holy Spirit ? It is answered, I
neither intend, nor desire to prove this to the World. And if
anyone will dispute or deny every Thing that I have said of
him, he will meet with no Opposition from me. I have given
notice of a Pearl, if anyone takes it to be otherwise, or has
neither Skill or Value for Pearls, he is at Liberty to trample it
under his Feet. Nothing passes with the World for Proof of a
divinely inspired Writer, but Miracles ; if People can see no
other Proof but this, it is not in my Power to give them better
Eyes. I suppose the Gospel, and all the Writings of the New
Testament, have internal Characters of their Divine Original, for
those that can see them ; but if they had been left to those
internal Characters, I am apt to think, that the Sons of Cicero,
the Disciples of a Bayle, or those who stand the highest in such
like Literature, would, of all Men, be the most indisposed and
unwilling to see and own them.
Had we no Miracles for Proof of the Inspiration of the
Scriptures, they would be still what they are, the true Word, and
Wisdom of God, and there would be the same Benefit in believ
ing and receiving them as such. But to whom could they be
proved to come from the Spirit of God ? Not to a Ciceronian,

Dr. Trapp's late T^eply. 209
because it is the Character, the Genius, the Greatness of Cicero,
to dissemble and personate ; and as an Orator, a Statesman, and
a Philosopher, to affirm or deny as he pleases, without any
Regard to his own Sentiments. And therefore to the Sons of
Cicero nothing can be proved, because they depart from his
Character, if they discover their own Sentiments, and don't
either, as Philosophers, Orators, or Statesmen, affirm and deny
as they please, or as suits the Character which they choose to act
under. Again ; It cannot be proved to a Disciple of Bayle ; because,
though he was a Man, 'whose Strength and Clearness of
* Reasoning can be equalled only by the Gaiety, Easiness, and
' Delicacy of his Wit ; who, pervading human Nature with a
' Glance, struck into the Province of Paradox,  and had
' not enough of real Greatness, to overcome the last Foible of
' superior Geniuses, the Temptation of Honour, which the
'Academic Exercise of Wit is supposed to bring to its Pro-
' fessors.'* And therefore to a true Disciple oi Bayle, nothing that is just,
sober, or true, can be sufficiently proved ; because it is his
Genius, his Honour, his Ambition, to maintain the Paradox.
The next Question is, How this can be proved, viz., That the
Scriptures have internal Characters of their Divinity. Now this
can only be, by an honest Simplicity, and Love of Truth, by
Humility and Prayer, and Conversion of the Heart to God in
the reading of them. These are the only Dispositions that
could possibly bring any Man into a Sense and Belief of their
Divine Original : and therefore, all those critical Scholars, and
rationally wise Men, whose Enquiries are animated with a Love
of Glory and personal Distinction, and who looked into those
Writings for such Ends, and with such Views as they read other
Books, would be of all Men the most unable to see, and un
willing to own the very best Truths of the Holy Scriptures ;
because it is the very Nature and End of the Scriptures, to dis
cover the Vanity and Falseness of that Light and Knowledge,
which is got from human Reasoning, and to subdue that Self-
sufficiency, which is so inseparable from certain Kinds and
Degrees of human Learning.

"£>'

FINIS.

* Divine Legation of Moses, B. I., page 33.

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