[Pryr-2.2-1] Theoph. Let us now speak of Adam in
his first Perfection, created by God to be a Lord and Ruler of this
new-created World, to people it with an Host of angelic Men, till Time had
finished its Course, and all things fitted to be restored to that State, from
which they were fallen by the Revolt of Angels.
[Pryr-2.2-2] For the Restoration of all things to their first
glorious State, by making the Good to overcome the Evil, was the End which God
proposed by the State and Manner of this new Creation.
[Pryr-2.2-3] Adam was the chosen Instrument of God, to
conduct this whole Affair, to keep up this new-made World in the State in
which God had created it, not to till the Earth, which we now plough,
but to keep That, which is now called the Curse in the Earth,
covered, hid, and overcome, by that Paradise in which he was
created. For this End, he was created in a twofold Nature, of the Powers of
Heaven, and the Powers of this World. Inwardly, he had the celestial Body and
Soul of an Angel, and he had this angelic Nature united to a Life and Body
taken from the Stars and Elements of this outward World. As Paradise overcame,
and concealed all the Wrath of the Stars and Elements, and kept that
Evil, which is called the Curse, from being known or felt, so
Adam's angelic, heavenly Nature, which was the Paradise of God within
him, kept him quite ignorant of the Properties of that earthly Nature that was
under it. He knew, and saw, and felt nothing in himself, but a Birth of
Paradise, that is, a Life, Light, and Spirit of Heaven: for he had no
difference from an Angel in Heaven, but that this World was joined to him, and
put under his Feet. And this was done, because he was created by God to be the
restoring Angel, to do all that in this outward World, which God would
have to be done in it, before it could be restored to its first State. And
therefore he must have the Nature of all this World in him, because he was to
act in it, and upon it, as its restoring Angel; and yet with such
Distinction from it, with such Power upon it, and over it, as the Light has
upon and over Darkness. Does not now the whole Spirit of the Scriptures
consent to this account of Adam's first Perfection? Do not all the
chief Points of our Redemption demand this Perfection in Adam unfallen?
How else could his Fall bring on the Necessity of the Gospel-Redemption
of a new Birth from above, of the Word and Holy Spirit of God? For had
he not had this Perfection of Nature at first, his Redemption could not have
consisted in the Revival of this Birth and Perfection in him. For had it been
something less than the Loss of an angelic and heavenly Life, that had
happened to him by his Fall, had it been only some Evil, that related
to a Life of this World, nothing else but some Remedy from this
World, could have been his Redemption. But since it is the Corner-stone
of the Gospel, that nothing less than the eternal Word, which was Man's
Creator, could be his Redeemer, and that by a new Birth from above, it is a
Demonstration, that he was at first created an Angel, born from above, and
such a Partaker of the Divine Life, as the Angels are; and that his Fall was a
real Death or Extinction of his angelic Life.
[Pryr-2.2-4] Now the Letter of Moses is express for
this first Perfection of Adam. God said, "Let us make Man in our own
Image, after our Likeness." How different is this from the Creation of the
Animals of this World? What can you think or say higher of an Angel? Or what
Perfection can an Angel have, but that of being in the Image and after the
Likeness of God? But now what an Absurdity would it be, to hold that
Adam was created in the Image and Likeness of God, and yet had not in
him so much as the Image and Likeness of an Angel? Again, was not Paradise
lost, was not Evil and the Curse awakened in all the Elements,
as soon as Adam fell? And does not this prove, beyond all
Contradiction, that Adam was created by God, as I said above, to be the
restoring Angel; to have Power over all the outward World; to keep all
its Evil from being known or felt; till the Fall of Angels from Heaven had
been repaired by a Race of angelic Men born on Earth? But how could he do, and
be all this, for which he was created by God, how could he keep up the Life of
Heaven and Paradise in himself, and this new World, unless the Life of Heaven
had been his own Life? Or how could he be the Father of an Offspring that were
to have no Evil, nor so much as the Knowledge of what was Good and Evil in
this World? Could anything but an heavenly Man bring forth an heavenly
Offspring? Or could he be said to have the Life of this World opened in him in
his Creation, who was to bring forth a Race of Beings, insensible of the Good
and Evil in this World? For every thing that has the Life of this World opened
in it, is under an absolute necessity of knowing and feeling its Good and
Evil.
[Pryr-2.2-5] Secondly, that Adam, when he first
entered into the World, had the Nature and Perfection of an Angel, is further
plain from Moses, who tells us, that he was made at first both Male and
Female in one Person; and that Eve, or the Female Part of him, was
afterwards taken out of him. Now this Union of the Male and Female in him, was
the Purity, or Virgin Perfection of his Life, and is the very
Perfection of the angelic Nature. This we are assured of from our Lord
himself, who, in Answer to the Question of the Sadducees, said unto
them, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, and the Power of God; for in the
Resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in Marriage, but are as the
Angels in Heaven."{Matt. xxii. 29,30} Or, as in St. Luke, "for they are equal to the Angels of God."
Here we have a twofold Proof of the angelic Perfection of Adam: (1)
Because we are told, that that State in which he was created, neither Male nor
Female, but with both Natures in his one Person, is the very Nature and
Perfection of the Angels of God in Heaven. (2) Because everyone who shall have
a Part in this Resurrection, shall then have this angelic Perfection again; to
be no more Male or Female, or a Part of the Humanity, but such perfect,
complete, undivided Creatures, as the Angels of God are. But now this
Perfection could not belong to the Humanity after the Resurrection, but
because it belonged to the first Man before his Fall: For nothing will be
restored, but that which was first lost; nothing rise again, but that which
should not have died; nor any thing be united, but that which should not have
been parted. The short is this: Man is at last to have a Nature equal
to that of the Angels. This Equality consists in this, that as they have, so
the Humanity will have, both Male and Female Nature in one Person.
[Pryr-2.2-6] But the Humanity was thus created at first, Male
and Female in one Person, therefore the Humanity had at first a Nature
and Perfection equal to that of the Angels. Thus is the Letter of Moses
much more plain for the angelic Perfection of Adam in his Creation,
than it is for the Resurrection of the Dead; and yet we have our Lord's Word
for it, that Moses sufficiently proved the Resurrection of the Dead.
What say you, Academicus, to this Matter?
[Pryr-2.2-7] Acad. I will here just mention what my
good old Tutor says: The Author of the Appeal, says he, founds
all his Scheme of Regeneration or Redemption on a supposed threefold Life, in
which Adam was created. His sole Proof of this threefold Life is taken
from this text of Moses: "God breathed into Man the Breath of Lives,
and Man became a living Soul." From this Phrase, The Breath of Lives,
the Appeal, without any Authority from the Text, observes thus; "Here
the highest, and most Divine Original is not darkly, but openly, absolutely,
and in the strongest Form of Expression, ascribed to the Soul," &c.
A vain Assertion, says my Tutor; for the Breath of Life or Lives is
used by Moses only as a Phrase for animal Life. This is plainly
seen, Gen. vii. ver. 21. "And all flesh died, — all in whose Nostrils was the
Breath of Lives."
[Pryr-2.2-8] Behold, says he, the very Phrase, which the
Appeal takes to be so full a Proof of the high Dignity, and threefold
Life of God in the Soul, here made use of to denote the Life of every kind of
Animal. And therefore, says he, if this Phrase proves the Soul of
Adam to be a Mirror of the Holy Trinity, it proves the same of
every Breath in the Nostrils of every Creature.
[Pryr-2.2-9] Theoph. To make short work,
Academicus, with your Tutor's Confutation, as he thinks, of the capital
Doctrine of the Appeal, I shall only quote the whole Period, as it
stands in the Appeal.
"God breathed into him the Breath of Lives
(spiraculum vitarum) and Man became a living Soul. Here," says the
Appeal, "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 Jew 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 ascribed to the Soul. It came forth as
a Breath of Life, or Lives, out of, and 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."
Here, Academicus, behold the Falseness and Weakness of
your Tutor's Observation. — The Appeal, you plainly see, proves only
from the Text of Moses, the high Original of the Soul; and only for
this Reason, because it is the Breath of God, breathed into Man. The
Appeal makes no Use of the Expression, Breath of Lives, takes no
Notice of it, deduces nothing from it, but solely considers the
Act of God, as breathing the Spirit of the Soul from himself;
and from this Act of God, the high Birth and Dignity of the Soul is most
justly affirmed. And the Appeal makes this Observation solely to prove,
that the Soul is not created out of nothing. This is the one, sole,
open, and declared Intent of the Appeal, in all this Paragraph. But
your Tutor, overlooking all this, though nothing else is there, makes the
Author of the Appeal to affirm the threefold Life of God in the Soul,
merely from the phrase of the Breath of Lives, when there is not one
single Word about it. For the Appeal not only has not the least Hint in
this Place of any such Matter, to be proved from the Breath of Lives,
but through the whole Book there is not the smallest Regard paid to this
Expression, nor any Argument ever deduced from it. How strange is all this in
your good old Tutor!
[Pryr-2.2-10] The Matter is plainly this; the Author of the
Appeal looks wholly to the Action of God, breathing his
own Spirit into Adam; and from this Breathing, he justly affirms the
Divine Nature of the Soul; all his Argument is deduced from thence. Now if
your Tutor, or anyone else, could show, that God breathed his own
Spirit into every Animal, and with this Intent, that it might come forth in
his own Image and likeness, then the Distinction and high Birth of the Soul,
pleaded for by the Appeal, would indeed be lost. But till then, the
Appeal must, and therefore will for ever, stand unconfuted in its
Assertion of the Dignity and Divine Birth of the Soul.
[Pryr-2.2-11] Again; behold, Academicus, a still
further Weakness chargeable upon your Tutor. You have seen, that his Reasoning
upon the Breath of Lives, is meddling with something that the
Appeal meddles not with, makes no Account of: But your Tutor has
conjured it up for his own Use; and yet see what a poor Use he makes of it. He
affirms that Moses uses only the Breath of Lives, as a Phrase
for animal Life. How does he prove this? Why, truly from this Reason, because
Moses uses the same Phrase when he speaks of the Lives of all Animals.
[Pryr-2.2-12] Now does not every Englishman know, that
we make use of the same four Letters of the Alphabet, when we say the
Life of a Man, the Life of a Beast, and the Life of a Plant? That we
use the same five Letters, when we say the Death of a Man, the
Death of a Beast, and the Death of a Plant? But will it thence follow, that
the Life and Death of Men, and Beasts, and Plants, are of the same Nature and
Degree, and have the same Good and Evil in them? Yet this is full as well, as
to conclude, that the Breath of Life in Man, and the Breath of Life in
Animals, is of the same Nature and Degree, has the same
Goodness and Excellency in it, because the same Words, made up
of the same Letters, express them both. Your Tutor therefore,
Academicus, and not the Author of the Appeal, is the Person that
reasons weakly from the Phrase of the Breath of Lives: For that Author
never so much as offers to argue from it. His Proof of the threefold Life of
God in the Soul, so far as it is deduced from the text of Moses, lies
wholly in this; that it is the Breath and Spirit of the triune God, breathed
forth from this triune Deity into Man. This, sure, is no small Proof of its
having the triune Nature of God in it. And this threefold Life of the Soul,
thus plainly deducible from the Letter of Moses, is shown to be
absolutely certain, from every chief Doctrine and Institution, nay,
from the whole Nature of our Redemption: and all the Gospel is shown to set
its Seal to this great Truth, the threefold Life of God in the Soul.
Nay, every thing in Nature, Fire, and Light, and Air; every thing that we know
of Angels, of Devils, of the animal Life of this World; are all in the
plainest and strongest Manner, from the Beginning to the End of the
Appeal, made so many Proofs of the threefold Life of the triune God in
the Soul. Thus says the Appeal; 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; the Fire, and Light, and
Air of this World, must have their Birth in your own creaturely Being, or you
cannot possibly live in, or have a Life from outward Nature. 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. Again: Search to Eternity, says the
Appeal, why no Devil or Beast can possibly enter into 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. But enough of this Mistake of your good old
Tutor. Rusticus will I am afraid chide you for being the Occasion of
this long Digression from the Point we were speaking to.
[Pryr-2.2-13] Rust. Truly, Sir, I do not know what to
make of these great Scholars; they seem to have more Love for the Shadow of an
Objection, than for the most substantial Truths. I think I here see a great
Reason, why our Saviour chose poor and illiterate Fishermen to be his
Apostles. St. Paul was the only Man that had some Learning, and he was
a Persecutor of Christ, till such time as God made as it were Scales to
fall from his Eyes;—And then he became a powerful Apostle. But let us return
to your Account of the first created Perfection of Man, and the Degree of his
falling from it. It is one of the best Doctrines that I ever heard in my Life.
It not only stirs up every thing that is good, and makes me hate every thing
that is evil, in me; but it gives so good a Sense, so sound a Meaning to every
Mystery of the Gospel, that it makes every thing our Saviour has done for us,
and every thing he requires of us, to be equally necessary and beneficial to
us. But suppose now our Fall not to be a Change of Nature, not a Death
to our first Life, but only a single Sin or Mistake in the first Man; What a
Difficulty is there in supposing so great a Scheme of Redemption to set right
a single Mistake in one single Creature? Again, What could Man have to do with
Angels and Heaven, if he had not, at his Creation, had the Nature of Heaven
and Angels in him? But pray, Sir, begin again just where you left off.
[Pryr-2.2-14] Theoph. I was indeed, Rusticus, at
that Time just going to say, that Adam had lost much of his first
Perfection before his Eve was taken out of him; which was done to
prevent worse Effects of his Fall, and to prepare a means for his Recovery,
when his Fall should become total, as it afterwards was, upon the eating of
the earthly Tree of Good and Evil.
[Pryr-2.2-15] "It is not good that Man should be alone," saith
the Scripture: This shows, that Adam had altered his first State, had
brought some Beginning of Evil into it, and had made that not to be
good, which God saw to be good, when he created him. And therefore as a less
Evil, and to prevent a greater, God divided the first perfect human Nature
into two Parts, into a Male and a Female Creature; and this, as you shall see
by and by, was a wonderful Instance of the Love and Care of God towards this
new Humanity. It was at first, the total Humanity in one Creature, who should
in that State of Perfection, have brought forth his own Likeness out of
himself, in such Purity of Love, and such Divine Power, as he
himself was brought forth by God: The Manner of his own Birth from God, was
the Manner that his own Offspring should have had a Birth from him; all done
by the pure Power of a Divine Love. Man stood no longer in the Perfection of
his first State, as a Birth of Divine Love, than whilst he loved himself
only as God loved him, as in the Image, and after the
Likeness of God. This Purity of Love, and Delight in the Image of
God, would have carried on the Birth of the Humanity, in the same Manner, and
by the same Divine Power, as the first Man was brought forth: For it was only
a Continuation of the same generating Love that gave Birth to the first Man.
But Adam turned away his Love from the Divine Image, which he should
only have loved, and desired to propagate out of himself. He gazed upon this
outward World, and let in an adulterate Love into his Heart, which desired to
know the Life that was in this World. This impure Desire brought the Nature of
this World into him. His first Love and Divine Power, had no Strength left in
it; it was no longer a Power of bringing forth a Divine Birth from himself.
His first Virginity was lost by an adulterate Love, which had turned
its Desire into this World. This State of Inability, is that which is
called his falling into a deep Sleep: And in this Sleep, God divided this
overcome Humanity into a Male and Female.
[Pryr-2.2-16] The first Step therefore towards the Redemption
or Recovery of Man, beginning to fall, was the taking his Eve
out of him, that so he might have a second Trial in Paradise; in which
if he failed, another effectual Redeemer might arise out of the Seed of the
Woman. Oh my Friends, what a wonderful Procedure is there to be seen in
the Divine Providence, turning all Evil, as soon as it appears, into a further
Display and Opening of new Wonders of the Wisdom and Love of God! Look back to
the first Evil, which the Fall of Angels brought forth. The Darkness, Wrath,
and Fire, of fallen Nature, were immediately taken from them, and turned into
a new Creation, where those apostate Angels were to see all the Evil that they
had raised in their Kingdom, turned against them, and made the Ground of a new
Race of Beings, which were to possess those Thrones which they had lost. Look
now at Adam brought into the World in such an angelic Nature, as he,
and all his redeemed Sons, will have after the Resurrection; an Angel at
first, and an Angel at last; with Time, and Misery, and Sin, and Death, and
Hell, all of them felt, and all overcome betwixt the two glorious Extremes.
When this first human Angel, through a false, impure Love, lost the
Divine Power of generating his own Likeness out of himself, God took Part of
his Nature from him, that so the Eye of his Desire, which was turned to the
Life of this World, might be directed to that Part of his Nature which was
taken from him. And this is the Reason of my saying before, that this was
chosen as a less Evil, and to avoid a greater; for it was a less Degree of
falling from his first Perfection, to love the Female Part of his own divided
Nature, than to turn his Love towards that, which was so much lower than his
own Nature. And thus, at that Time, Eve was an Help, that
was truly and properly meet for him, since he had lost his first Power
of being himself the Parent of an angelic Offspring, and stood with a longing
Eye, looking towards the Life of this World.
[Pryr-2.2-17] But the most glorious Effect of this Division
into Male and Female is yet to come. For when Adam and Eve had
joined in the eating of the Tree of Good and Evil, and so were totally fallen
from God and Paradise, into the Misery and Slavery of the bestial Life of this
World; when this greatest of all Evils had thus happened to these two divided
Parts of the Humanity; when all the Angel was lost, and nothing but a
shameful, frightened Animal of this World, was to be seen in this divided Male
and Female; then in, and by, and through this Division, did God open and
establish the glorious Scheme of an universal Redemption to these
fallen Creatures, and all their Offspring, by the mysterious Seed of
the Woman.
[Pryr-2.2-18] Had Adam stood in his first State of
Perfection, as a Birth of Divine Love, and loving only the Divine Image and
Likeness in himself, this Love would have been itself the fruitful Parent of
an holy Offspring; no Eve had been taken out of him, nor any Male or
Female ever known in human Nature: All his Posterity had been in him secured,
and the earthly Tree of Good and Evil had never been seen in Paradise. But
though he lost this first generating Power of Divine Love, and stood as a
barren Tree, yet seeing God's Purpose of raising an Offspring from
Adam, to possess the Thrones of fallen Angels must go on and succeed,
therefore that, Adam might yet have an Offspring, God took from him
that, which is called the Female Part of his Nature, that by this means, both
a Posterity, and a Saviour, might proceed from him: For through
this Division of Man, God would, in a wonderful Manner, do that which
Adam should have done, before he was divided.
[Pryr-2.2-19] For out of this Female Part, and after the Fall,
God would raise, without the Help of Adam, that same glorious angelic
Man, which Adam should have brought forth before and without his
Eve; which glorious Man is therefore called the Second Adam: 1.
As having in his Humanity that very Perfection, which the First Adam
had in his Creation. 2. Because he was to do all that for Mankind, by a Birth
of Redemption from him, which they should have had by a Birth of Nature from
Adam, had he kept his first State of Perfection. What say you,
Academicus, to all this?
[Pryr-2.2-20] Acad. Truly, Sir, there seems to be so
much Light, and Truth, and Scripture, for all this Account that you have given
of these Matters, as must even force one to consent to it. But then all our
Systems of Divinity, to which learned Men are chained, are quite silent of
these Matters. I never before heard of this gradual Fall of
Adam, nor this angelic State of his first Creation, and Power of
bringing forth his own Offspring, and therefore can hardly believe it so
strongly as I would, and as the Truth seems to demand of me.
[Pryr-2.2-21] Rust. Pray, Sir, let me speak to
Academicus: He seems to be so hampered with Learning, that I can hardly
be sorry, that I am not a great Scholar.
[Pryr-2.2-22] Can anything be more punctually related in
Scripture than the gradual Fall of Adam? Do not you see, that he
was created first with both Natures in him? Is it not expressly told you, that
Eve was not taken out of him, till such Time as it was not good
for him to be as he then was, and yet God saw that it was good when he created
him? Is it not plain therefore, that he had fallen from the Goodness of his
first Creation, and therefore his Fall was not at once, nor total, till his
eating of the earthly Tree? Again, as to his being an Angel at his
first Creation, because of both Natures in him, is it not sufficiently plain
from his being declared to be an Angel of the same Nature at last, in the
Resurrection? For this is an Axiom that cannot be shaken, that Nothing can
rise higher, than its first created Nature; and therefore an Angel
at last, must have been an Angel at first. Do you think it possible for an Ox
in Tract of Time to be changed into a rational Philosopher? Yet this is as
possible, as for a Man that has only by his Creation the Life of this World in
him, to be changed into an Angel of Heaven. The Life of this World can reach
no further than this World; no Omnipotence of God can carry it further; and
therefore, if Man is to be an Angel at the last, and have the Life of Heaven
in him, he must of all Necessity, in his Creation, have been created an Angel,
and had his Life kindled from Heaven; because no Creature can possibly have
any other Life, or higher Degree of Life, than that which his Creation brought
forth in him.
[Pryr-2.2-23] Theoph. Marvel not, Academicus, at
that which has been said of the first Power of Adam, to generate in a
Divine Manner an holy Offspring, by the Power of that Divine Love which gave
Birth to himself; for he was born of that Love for no other End, than to
multiply Births of it; and whilst his Love continued to be one with
that Love, which brought him into Being, nothing was impossible to it. For
Love is the great Creating Fiat that brought forth every Thing, that is
distinct from God, and is the only working Principle that stirs, and effects
every Thing that is done in Nature and Creature. Love is the Principle
of Generation from the highest to the lowest of Creatures; it is the first
Beginning of every Seed of Life; every Thing has its Form from it; every Thing
that is born is born in the Likeness, and with the Fruitfulness, of that same
Love that generateth and beareth it; and this is its own Seed of Love within
itself, and is its Power of fructifying in its Kind.
[Pryr-2.2-24] Love is the holy, heavenly, magic Power of the
Deity, the first Fiat of God; and all Angels, and eternal Beings, are
the first Births of it. The Deity delights in beholding the ideal Images,
which rise up and appear in the Mirror of his own eternal Wisdom. This Delight
becomes a loving Desire to have living Creatures in the Form of these Ideas;
and this loving Desire is the generating heavenly Parent, out of which
Angels, and all eternal Beings are born. Every Birth in Nature is a
Consequence of this first prolific Love of the Deity, and generates from that
which began the first Birth. Hence it is, that through all the Scale of
Beings, from the Top to the Bottom of Nature, Love is the one Principle
of Generation of every Life; and every Thing generates from the same
Principle, and by the same Power, by which itself was generated. Marvel not
therefore, my Friend, that Adam, standing in the Power of his
first Birth, should have a Divine Power of bringing forth his own Likeness.
But I must now tell you, that the greatest Proof of this glorious Truth is yet
to come: for I will show you that all the Gospel bears Witness to that
heavenly Birth, which we should have had from Adam alone.— This Birth
from Adam is still the one Purpose of God, and must be the one Way of
all those, that are to rise with Christ to an Equality with the Angels of God.
All must be Children of Adam; for all that are born of Man and Woman,
must lay aside this polluted Birth, and be born again of a second Adam,
in that same Perfection of an holy angelic Nature, which they should have had
from the first Adam, before his Eve was separated from him. For
it is an undeniable Truth of the Gospel, that we are called to a new Birth,
different in its whole Nature, from that which we have from Man and Woman, or
there is no Salvation; and therefore it is certain from the Gospel, that the
Birth which we have from Adam, divided into Male and Female, is not the
Birth that we should have had, because it is the one Reason, why we are under
a Necessity of being born again of a Birth from a second Adam, who is
to generate us again in that Purity and Divine Power, in and by which we
should have been born of the first angelic Adam.
[Pryr-2.2-25] A Divine Love in the first pure and holy
Adam, united with the Love of God, willing him to be the Father of an
holy Offspring, was to have given Birth to a Race of Creatures from him. But
Adam fulfilled not this Purpose of God; he awakened in himself a false
Love, and so all his Offspring were forced to be born of Man and Woman, and
thereby to have such impure Flesh and Blood as cannot enter into the
Kingdom of Heaven. Is not this Proof enough, that this Birth from Adam
and Eve is not the first Birth that we should have had? Will
anyone say, How could Adam have such a Power to bring forth a Birth in
such a Spiritual Way, and so contrary to the present State of Nature?
The whole Nature of the Gospel is a full Answer to this Question. For are we
not all to be born again in the same Spiritual Way, and are we not,
merely by a Spiritual Power, to have a Birth of heavenly Flesh and Blood? The
Strangeness of such a Power in the first Adam, is only just so strange,
and hard to be believed, as the same Power in the second Adam; and who
is called the second Adam for no other Reason, but because he stands in
the Place of the first, and is to do That, which the first
should have done. And therefore our having from him a new heavenly Flesh and
Blood raised in us by a Spiritual Power, superior to the common Way of
Birth in this World, is the strongest of Proofs, that we should have been born
of Adam in the same Spiritual Power, and so contrary to the
Birth of Animals into this World. For all that we have from the second
Adam, is a Proof that we should have had the same from Adam the
first:—A Divine Love in Adam the first, was to have brought forth an
holy Offspring. A Divine Faith now takes its Place, in the second
Birth, and is to generate a new Birth from the second Adam, is to eat
his Flesh, and Drink his Blood, by the same Divine Power, by which we should
have had a Birth of the angelic Flesh and Blood of our first Parent. Thus,
Academicus, is this Birth from Adam alone no Whimsy, or
Fiction, or fine-spun Notion, but the very Birth that the Gospel absolutely
requires, as the Substance of our Redemption. There is no Room to deny it,
without denying the whole Nature of our Redemption. On the other hand, the
Birth that we have from Adam divided into Male and
Female, is through all Scripture declared to be the Birth of
Misery, of Shame, of Pollution, of sinful Flesh
and Blood; and is only a Ground and Reason, why we must be born again of other
Flesh and Blood, before we can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. This Truth
therefore, that we were to have had an heavenly Birth from Adam,
depends not upon this, or that particular Text of Scripture, but is affirmed
by the whole Nature of our Redemption, and the whole Spirit of Scripture,
representing our Birth from this World as shameful, as that of the wild Ass's
Colt, and calling for a new Birth from above, as absolutely necessary, if Man
is to have a Place amongst the Angels of God. And therefore it may be
affirmed, that so sure as it is from Scripture, that Christ is become our
second Adam, to help us to such a Birth, so sure is it from
Scripture, that we should have had the same Birth from our first
Parent, who, if not fallen, could have wanted no Redeemer of his Offspring,
and therefore must have brought forth that same Birth, which we have
from Christ, but could not have from the Birth of Man and Woman. I must now
only just mention to you a Passage much to the Matter in Hand, taken from the
second Epistle of St. Clemens, a Bishop of Rome, who lived in
the very Time of the Apostles. He relates, that Christ being asked, when his
Kingdom should come, gave this Answer: "When two Things shall become one, and
that which is outward be as that which is inward, the Male with the Female,
and neither Man nor Woman." There wants no comment here: I shall only observe,
that the Meaning of the Words, "When that which is outward shall be as that
which is inward," seems plainly to be this, when the outward Life or Birth
is come to be as the inward angelic Life is, then the Birth will be one, the
Male and Female in one, and then the Kingdom of God is come. These Words were
in the next Century quoted by Clemens of Alexandria, though with
some Alteration. The same Author also relates another Answer given by our
Lord, to much the same Question, put by Salome, where our Lord's answer
was thus: "When ye shall have put off, or away, the Garment of Shame and
Ignominy, and when two shall become one, the Male and the Female united, and
neither Man nor Woman." The Garment of Shame and Ignominy, is plainly that
Clothing of Flesh and Blood, at the Sight of which both Adam and
Eve were ashamed.
[Pryr-2.2-26] Acad. I am fully satisfied,
Theophilus, with the Account you have given of the first Perfection,
and Divine State of our first Parent. And I think nothing can be plainer, than
that we were to have been born of him to the same heavenly Birth, which we now
are to receive from Christ, our second Adam. But I must still say, that
I am afraid, your critical Adversaries will here find some Pretense, to charge
you with a Tendency, at least, to that Heresy, which held Marriage to be
unlawful, since you here hold that it came in by Adam's falling from
his first Perfection.
[Pryr-2.2-27] Theoph. I own, my Friend, that there is
no knowing when one is safe from Men of that Stamp. But as for me my Eye is
only upon Truth; and wherever that leads, there I follow; they, if they
please, may persecute it with Objections. Here is not the least Pretense for
the Charge you speak of: for here is no more Condemnation of Marriage, as
unlawful, than there is a Condemnation of God, for keeping up the
State, and Life of this World. The Continuation of the World, though fallen,
is a glorious Proof and Instance of the Goodness of God, that so a Race of
new-born Angels may be brought forth in it. Happy therefore is it, that we
have such a World as this to be born into, since we are only born, to be born
again to the Life of Heaven. Now Marriage has the Nature of this fallen World;
but it is God's appointed Means of raising the Seed of Adam to its full
Number. Honourable therefore is Marriage in our fallen State, and happy is it
for Man to derive his Life from it, as it helps him to a Power of being
eternally a Son of God.
[Pryr-2.2-28] Nor does this Original of Marriage cast the
smallest Reflection upon the Sex, as if they brought all, or
any Impurity into the human Nature. No, by no means. The Impurity lies
in the division, and that which caused it, and not in either of the divided
Parts. And the female Part has this Distinction, though not to boast of, yet
to take Comfort in, that the Saviour of the World is called the Seed of the
Woman, and had his Birth only from the female Part of our divided Nature.
But Rusticus, I see, wants to speak.
[Pryr-2.2-29] Rust. Indeed, sir, I do. But it is only
to observe to you, what a System of solid, harmonious, and great Truths are
here opened to our View, by this Consideration of the first angelic State of
Adam, and his falling from it into an earthly animal Life of this
World; created at first an human Angel, with an host of Angels in his Loins,
and then falling from this State, with this particular Circumstance, that he
had not only undone himself, but had also involved an innocent, and almost
numberless Posterity in the same Misery, who now must all be born of him in
his fallen Condition. Thus looking at this Creation of so noble and high a
Creature, and his Fall, as introducing so extensive a Train of Misery, how
worthy of God, how becoming a Love and Wisdom that are infinite, does all the
stupendous Mystery of our Redemption appear! It was to restore an Angel, big
with an angelic Offspring, an Angel that God had created to carry on the great
Work of his new Creation, to bring Time with all its Conquests back into
Eternity, an Angel in whom, and with whom, were fallen an innocent, numberless
Posterity, that had not yet begun to breathe.
[Pryr-2.2-30] What a Sense and Reasonableness does this State
of Things give to all those Passages of Scripture, which bring a God incarnate
from Heaven, to remedy this sad Scene of Misery, that was opened on Earth!
What less than God, could awaken again the dead angelic Life! What less than
God's entering into the human Birth itself, and becoming one of it, and with
it, could generate again the Life of God in every human Birth? The
Scripture saith, "God so loved the World";—"God spared not his only
Son";—"Christ laid down his Life for us"; &c. How glorious a Sense
is there in all these Sayings, when it is considered, that all this was done
for so high and Divine a Creature, created by God for such great Ends, and
full of a Posterity, that was to have filled an Heaven restored? In this
Light, every Part of our Redemption gives a Glory, a Wisdom, and Goodness to
God, which far surpasses every other View we can possibly take of them:
Whereas if you lessen this angelic Dignity of the first Man, if you
suppose his Fall to be less than that of falling, with all his
Posterity, from an angelic Life, into the earthly, animal Life
of this World, Slaves to Sin and Misery, all the Fabric of our Redemption is
full of such Wonders, as can only be wondered at. Thus, if you consider this
World, and Man its highest Inhabitant made out of nothing, and with only the
Breath of this earthly Life breathed into his Nostrils, what is there to call
for this great Redemption from Heaven?
[Pryr-2.2-31] Again, if you consider the Fall of Man, only as
a single Act of Disobedience to a positive, arbitrary Command of
God, this is to make all the Consequences of his Fall unexplicable. For had
the first Sin been only a single Act of Disobedience, it had been more
worthy of Pardon, than any other Sin, merely because it was the first, and by
a Creature that had as yet no Experience. But to make the first single Act of
Disobedience, not only unpardonable, but the Cause of such a Curse and
Variety of Misery entailed upon all his Posterity, from the Beginning to the
End of Time; and to suppose, that so much Wrath was raised in God at this
single Act of Disobedience, that nothing could make an Atonement for it, but
the stupendous Mystery of the Birth, Sufferings, and Death, of the Son of God;
is yet further impossible to be accounted for. In this Case, the supposed
Wrath, and Goodness of God, are equally inexplicable. And from hence alone,
have sprung up the detestable Doctrines, about the Guilt and
Imputation of the first Sin, and the several Sorts of partial, absolute
Elections, and Reprobations, of some to eternal Happiness, and others to be
Firebrands of Hell to all Eternity. Detestable may they well be called, since
if Lucifer could truly say, that God from all Eternity determined, and
created him to be that wicked hellish Creature that he is, he might
then add, Not unto him, but unto his Creator, must all his
Wickedness be ascribed. How innocent, how tolerable is the Error of
Transubstantiation, when compared with this absolute Election and Reprobation!
It indeed cannot be reconciled to our Senses and Reason, but then it leaves
God, and Heaven, possessed of all that is holy and good; but this
Reprobation-Doctrine, not only overlooks all Sense and Reason, but confounds
Heaven and Hell, takes all Goodness from the Deity, and leaves us nothing to
detest in the Sinner, but God's eternal irresistible Contrivance to make him
to be such.
[Pryr-2.2-32] But now, when we take this Matter of the
Creation, and Fall of Man, as Truth, and Fact, and Scripture, plainly
represent it, every Thing that can awaken in ourselves a Love, and Desire to
be like unto God, is to be found in it. Whilst Man stood in his first
Perfection, unturned from God, this World was under his Feet; Paradise was the
Element in which he lived; the Spirit of God was his Life; the
Son of God was his Light; he was in the World, as much above it, and
with as full Distinction from it, as incapable of being hurt by it, as an
Angel, that only comes with a Divine Commission into it. The whole World was a
Gift, put into his Hands; the Standing, or Fall of it was left to him; as his
Will and Mind should work so should either Paradise, or a cursed Earth
overcome. God, by this new Creation, had so altered the wrathful State of
Lucifer's fallen Kingdom, that the Evil that had been raised in it, was
hid and overcome by the Good. It was thus created, and put into this new
State, for this sole End, that a human Angel might keep Paradise alive, and
bring forth a paradisiacal Host of Angels, in the very Place, where the fallen
Angels had brought forth their Evil. But all these great Things, depended upon
Adam's conforming to the Designs of God, and living in this World in
such a State, as God had created him in. He could not conform to the Designs
of God any other Way, than by the rectitude of his Will, willing that which
God willed, both in the Creation of him, and the World.
[Pryr-2.2-33] Whilst his Will stood thus inclined, the new
Creation was preserved, himself was an Angel, and the World a Paradise. No
Evil would have been known either in Plant, or Fruit, or Animal, nor could
have been known, but by the declining Will, and Desire of Man calling
it forth. His first longing Look towards the Knowledge of the Life of
this World, was the first loosening of the Reins of Evil.— It began to
have Life, and a Power of stirring, as soon as his Desire began to be earthly;
hence the Curse, or Evil, hid in the Earth, could begin to show itself, and
got a Power of giving forth an evil Tree, whose Fruit was the
Key to the Knowledge of Good and Evil; a Tree which could not have grown, had
he willed nothing, but that which God willed in the Creation of him.
[Pryr-2.2-34] He was not the Creator of this bad Tree, no more
than he was the Creator of the good Trees, that grew in Paradise. But as the
heavenly Rectitude of his Will kept up the heavenly Powers of
Paradise in the Earth, so when his Will began to be earthly, it opened a
Passage for the natural Evil; that was hid in the Earth, to bring forth a Tree
in its own Likeness. The Earth as now, had then a natural Power of bringing
forth a Tree of its own Nature, viz., Good and Evil, but Paradise was that
heavenly Power, which hindered it from bringing forth such Productions:
but when the Keeper of Paradise turned a Wish from God, and Paradise,
after a bad Knowledge, then Paradise lost some of its Power, and the Curse, or
Evil, hid in the Earth, could give forth a bad Tree. But see now the Goodness,
and Compassion of God towards this mistaken Creature; for no sooner had
Adam, by the abuse of his Power and Freedom, given occasion to
the Birth of this evil Tree, but the God of Love informs him of the
dreadful Nature of it, commands him not to eat of it, assuring
him, that Death was hid in it, that Death to his angelic Life, would be
found in the Day that he should eat of it. A plain Proof, if anything can be
plain, that this Tree came not from God, was not according to his own
Will and Purpose towards Adam, but from such a natural Power in the
Earth, as could not show itself, till the strong Will and Desire of
Adam, beginning to be earthly, worked with That, which was the
Evil hid in the Earth. But pray, Theophilus, do you now speak
again.
[Pryr-2.2-35] Theoph. The short of the Matter then, my
Friend, is this: neither Adam, nor any other Creature, has at its
Creation, or Entrance into Life, any arbitrary Trial imposed upon it by
God. The natural State of every intelligent Creature is its one
only Trial; and it cannot sin, but by departing from that Nature, or
falling from that State in which it was created. Adam was created an
human Angel in Paradise, and he had no other Trial but this, whether he
would live in Paradise, as an Angel of God, insensible of the Life, or the
Good and Evil, of this earthly World. This was the Tree of Life, and the Tree
of Death, that must stand before him; and the Necessity of his choosing either
the one, or the other, was a Necessity founded in his own happy Nature.
[Pryr-2.2-36] The true Account therefore of the Fall of
Adam, is a gradual Declension, or Tendency of his will, from the
Life of Paradise into the Life of this World, till he was at last wholly
fallen into it, and swallowed up by it. The first Beginning of his Lust
towards this World, was the first Beginning of his Fall, or Departure from the
Life of Heaven and Paradise; and his eating of the earthly Tree, was his last
and finishing Step of his Entrance into, and under the full Power of this
World. This was the true Nature of his Fall. On the other hand, all that we
see on the part of God, is a gradual Help, administered by God to this
falling Creature, suitable to every Degree of his falling, till at
last, in the Fullness of his Fall, an universal Redeemer of him, and
his Posterity, was given by a Second Adam, to regenerate again the
whole Seed of Adam the First.
[Pryr-2.2-37] Thus, the first Degree of his Lust towards this
World had some Stop put to it, by the taking his Eve out of him;
that so his Desire into the Life of this World, might be in some measure
lessened. When his Lust into this World still went on, and gave Occasion to
the Birth of the evil Tree, a suitable Remedy was here given by God; for God
laid a Prohibition upon it, and declared the Death that must be
received from it. When he was further so overcome by his lusting Desire, as to
eat of the Tree that had the Nature of this World in it, and so lost his first
Life, and angelic Clothing, then God, even then all Goodness and Mercy to him,
only told him of the Curse and Misery that was opened in Nature;
that himself and Posterity must be sweating, labouring Animals, in a fallen
World, till their sickly, shameful, naked, new-gotten Bodies mixed and
mouldered in the Corruption of that Earth, whose Fruits they had chosen to
know, instead of those of Paradise.
[Pryr-2.2-38] Now all this is Nothing of a Penalty
wrathfully inflicted by God, but was the natural State of Adam, as
soon as his own Lust had led him out of an heavenly Paradise, into the earthly
Life of this World. God brings no Misery upon him, but only shows the
Misery that he had opened in himself, by not keeping to the State in
which he was created. And no sooner had God informed this miserable Pair of
the State they had brought upon themselves, but, in that Moment, his eternal
Love begins a Covenant of Redemption, that was to begin in them, and in
and through them extend itself to all their Posterity. A Beginning of a new
Birth, called the Seed of the Woman, was, like the first Breath of
Life, breathed or inspoken again into the Light of their Life,
which, as an Immanuel, or God with them, should be born in all
their Posterity, and be their Power of becoming again such Sons of God, as
should fulfill the first Designs of the Creation of Adam, and fill
Heaven again with that Host of Angels which it had lost. Thus from the
Creation of Adam, through all the Degrees of his Fall to the Mystery of
his Redemption, everything tells you, that God is Love. Nay the very
Possibility of his having so great a Fall, gives great Glory to the Goodness
and Love of God towards him. He was created an Angel, and therefore had the
highest Perfection of an Angel, which is a Freedom of Willing.
Secondly. He was created to be the restoring Angel of this new
Creation. Now these two Things, which were his highest Glory, and greatest
Marks of the divine Favour, were the only Possibility of his falling.
Had he not had an angelic Freedom of Will, he could not have had a false Will;
had he not had all Power given unto him over this World, he could not
have fallen into it? It was this Divine and high Power over it, that opened a
Way for his Entrance, or falling into it.—Thus, Academicus, from this
View of Man, we come to the utmost Certainty of a threefold Nature or Life in
him. 1. He is the Son of a fallen Angel. 2. He is the Son of a Male and Female
of this bestial World. 3. He is a Son of the Lamb of God, and has a Birth of
Heaven again in his Soul. Hence we see also, that all that we have to fear, to
hate, and renounce; all that we have to love, to desire, and pray for; is
all within ourselves. No Man can be miserable, but by falling a Sacrifice
to his own inward Passions and Tempers; nor anyone happy, but by
overcoming himself. How ridiculous would a Man seem to you, who should torment
himself, because the Land in America was not well tilled? Now
everything that is not within you, that has not its Birth and Growth in your
own Life, is at the same Distance from you, is as foreign to your own
Happiness or Misery, as an American Story. Your Life is all that you
have; and nothing is a Part of it, or makes any Alteration in it, but the Good
or Evil that is in the Workings of your own Life. Hence you may see why our
Saviour, who, though he had all Wisdom, and came to be the Light of the World,
is yet so short in his Instructions, and gives so small a Number of Doctrines
to Mankind, whilst every Moral Teacher, writes Volumes upon every single
Virtue. It is because he knew what they knew not, that our whole Malady lies
in this, that the Will of our Mind, the Lust of our Life, is
turned into this World; and that nothing can relieve us, or set us right, but
the turning the Will of our Mind, and the Desire of our Hearts to God,
and that Heaven which we had lost. And hence it is, that he calls us to
nothing, but a total Denial of ourselves, and the Life of this
World, and to a Faith in him, as the Worker of a new Birth and Life in us. Did
we but receive his short Instructions with true Faith, and Simplicity of
Heart, as the Truth of God, we should not want anyone to comment or enlarge
upon them. A Traveller that has taken a wrong Road, does not want an Orator to
discourse to him on the Nature of Roads, but to be told, in short, which is
his right Way. Now this is our Case; it was not a Number of things that
brought about our fall; Adam only took up a wrong Will; that
Will brought him, and us into our present State, or Road of Life; and
therefore our Saviour uses not a Number of Instructions to set us right; he
only tells us to renounce the false Will, which brought Adam
into the Life of this World, and to take up that Will, which should
have kept him in Paradise. Observe now, my Friend, the great Benefit that we
have from the foregoing Account of Man's original Perfection, and the Nature
of his Fall. It opens the true Ground of our Religion, and the absolute
Necessity of it; it forces us to know, that our whole natural Life is a
mistaken Road, and that Christ is alone our true Guide out of it. It teaches
us every Reason for renouncing ourselves, and loving the whole Nature of our
Redemption, as the greatest Joy and Desire of our Hearts. We are not only
compelled, as it were, to hunger after it, to run with Eagerness into its
Arms, but are also delivered from all Mistakes about it, from all the
Difficulties and Perplexities, which divided Sects and Churches have brought
into it. For, from this View of things, we see, not uncertainly, but with the
fullest Assurance, that our Will, and our Heart is all, that
nothing else either finds or loses God; and that all our Religion is only the
Religion of the Heart. We see with open Eyes, that as a Spirit of
Longing after the Life of this World, made Adam and us to be the
poor Pilgrims on Earth that we are, so the Spirit of Prayer, or the
longing Desire of the Heart after Christ, and God, and Heaven, breaks all our
Bonds asunder, casts all our Cords from us, and raises us out of the Miseries
of Time, into the Riches of Eternity. Thus seeing and knowing our first and
our present State, everything calls us to Prayer; and the Desire of our Heart
becomes the Spirit of Prayer. And when the Spirit of Prayer is born in us,
then Prayer is no longer considered, as only the Business of this or that
Hour, but is the continual Panting or Breathing of the Heart after God. Its
Petitions are not picked out of Manuals of Devotion; it loves its own
Language, it speaks most when it says least. If you ask what its Words are,
they are Spirit, they are Life, they are Love, that unite
with God.
[Pryr-2.2-39] Acad. I apprehend, Sir, that what you
here say of the Spirit of Prayer, will be taken by some People for a Censure
upon Hours and Forms of Prayer; though I know you have no such
Meaning.
[Pryr-2.2-40] Rust. Pray let me speak again to
Academicus: His Learning seems to be always upon the Watch, to find out
some Excuse for not receiving the whole Truth. Does not Theophilus here
speak of the Spirit of Prayer, as a State of the Heart, which is
become the governing Principle of the Soul's Life? And if it is a
living State of the Heart, must it not have its Life in itself, independent of
every outward Time and Occasion? And yet must it not, at the same Time, be
that alone which disposes and fits the Heart to rejoice and delight in Hours,
and Times, and Occasions of Prayer? Suppose he had said, that Honesty
is an inward living Principle of the Heart, a Rectitude of the Mind,
that has all its Life and Strength within itself: Could this be thought
to Censure all Times and Occasions of performing outward Acts of Honesty? Now
the Spirit of Prayer differs from all outward Acts and Forms of Prayer,
just as the Honesty of the Heart, or a living Rectitude of Mind,
differs from outward and occasional Acts of Honesty. And yet should a Man
overlook, or disregard Times and Occasions of outward acts of Honesty, on
Pretence that true Honesty was an inward living Principle of the Heart, who
would not see that such a one had as little of the inward Spirit, as of the
outward Acts of Honesty? St. John saith, "If any man hath this World's
Goods, and seeth his Brother hath need, and shutteth up his Bowels of
Compassion to him, how dwelleth the Love of God in him?" Just so, and with the
same Truth, it may be said, if a Man overlooketh, neglecteth, or refuseth,
Times and Hours of Prayer, how dwelleth the Spirit of Prayer in him?
And yet, its own Life and Spirit is vastly superior to, independent of, and
stays for no particular Hours, or Forms of Words. And in this Sense it is
truly said, that it has its own Language, that it wants not to pick Words out
of Manuals of Devotion, but is always speaking forth Spirit and Life, and Love
towards God. But pray, Theophilus, do you go on, as you intended.
[Pryr-2.2-41] Theoph. I shall only add, before we pass
on to another Point, that, from what has been said of the first State and Fall
of Man, it plainly follows, that the Sin of all Sins, or the
Heresy of all Heresies, is a worldly Spirit. We are apt to
consider this Temper only as an Infirmity, or pardonable Failure; but it is
indeed the great Apostasy from God and the Divine Life. It is not a
single Sin, but the whole Nature of all Sin, that leaves no Possibility of
coming out of our fallen State, till it be totally renounced with all the
Strength of our Hearts. Every Sin, be it of what kind it will, is only a
Branch of the worldly Spirit that lives in us. There is but one that is
good, saith our Lord, and that is God. In the same Strictness of
Expression it must be said, there is but one Life that is good, and
that is the Life of God and Heaven. Depart in the least Degree from the
Goodness of God, and you depart into Evil; because nothing is good but his
Goodness.
[Pryr-2.2-42] Choose any Life, but the Life of God and Heaven,
and you choose Death; for Death is nothing else but the Loss of the Life of
God. The Creatures of this World have but one Life, and that is the
Life of this World: this is their one Life, and one Good.
Eternal Beings have but one Life, and one Good, and that is the
Life of God. The Spirit of the Soul is in itself nothing else but a Spirit
breathed forth from the Life of God, and for this only End, that the Life of
God, the Nature of God, the Working of God, the Tempers of God, might be
manifested in it. God could not create Man to have a Will of his own, and a
Life of his own, different from the Life and Will that is in himself; this is
more impossible than for a good Tree to bring forth corrupt Fruit. God can
only delight in his own Life, his own Goodness, and his own Perfections; and
therefore cannot love or delight, or dwell, in any Creatures, but where his
own Goodness and Perfections are to be found. Like can only unite with Like,
Heaven with Heaven, and Hell with Hell; and therefore the Life of God must be
the Life of the Soul, if the Soul is to unite with God. Hence it is, that all
the Religion of fallen Man, all the Methods of our Redemption, have only this
one End, to take from us that strange and earthly Life we
have gotten by the Fall, and to kindle again the life of God and Heaven in our
Souls; Not to deliver us from that gross and sordid Vice called
Covetousness, which Heathens can condemn, but to take the whole Spirit
of this World entirely from us, and that for this necessary 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 of the Father, that is, is not that Life, or
Spirit of Life, which we had from God by our Creation, but is of this
World, {1 John 2:16} is
brought into us by our Fall from God into the Life of this World. And
therefore a worldly Spirit is not to be considered, as a single Sin, or as
something that may consist with some real Degrees of Christian Goodness, but
as a State of real Death to the Kingdom and Life of God in our Souls.
Management, Prudence, or an artful Trimming betwixt God and Mammon, are here
all in vain; it is not only the Grossness of an outward, visible, worldly
Behaviour, but the Spirit, the Prudence, the Subtlety,
the Wisdom of this World, that is our Separation from the Life
of God.
[Pryr-2.2-43] Hold this therefore, Academicus, as a
certain Truth, that the Heresy of all Heresies is a worldly
Spirit. It is the whole Nature and Misery of our Fall; it keeps up the
Death of our Souls, and, so long as it lasts, makes it impossible for us to be
born again from above. It is the greatest Blindness and Darkness of our
Nature, and keeps us in the grossest Ignorance both of Heaven and Hell. For
though they are both of them within us, yet we feel neither the one, nor the
other, so long as the Spirit of this World reigns in us. Light and Truth, and
the Gospel, so far as they concern Eternity, are all empty Sounds to the
worldly Spirit. His own Good, and his own Evil, govern all his Hopes and
Fears; and therefore he can have no Religion, or be further concerned in it,
than so far as it can be made serviceable to the Life of this World.
Publicans and Harlots are all born of the Spirit of this World;
but its highest Birth, are the Scribes, and Pharisees, and
Hypocrites, who turn Godliness into Gain, and serve God for the Sake of
Mammon; these live, and move, and have their Being, in and from the Spirit of
this World.— Of all Things therefore, my Friend, detest the Spirit of this
World, or there is no Help; you must live and die an utter Stranger to
all that is divine and heavenly. You will go out of the World in the same
Poverty and Death to the Divine Life, in which you entered it. For a worldly,
earthly Spirit can know nothing of God; it can know nothing, feel nothing,
taste nothing, delight in nothing, but with earthly Senses, and after an
earthly Manner. The natural Man, saith the Apostle, receiveth not
the Things of the Spirit of God, they are Foolishness unto him. He cannot know
them, because they are spiritually discerned; that is, they can only be
discerned by that Spirit, which he hath not. Now the true Ground
and Reason of this, and the absolute Impossibility for the natural Man
to receive and know them, how polite, and learned, and acute soever he be, is
this; it is because all real Knowledge is Life, or a living
Sensibility of the Thing that is known. There is no Light in the Mind,
but what is the Light of Life; so far as our Life reaches, so far we
understand, and feel, and know, and no further. All after this, is only
the Play of our Imagination, amusing itself with the dead Pictures of
its own Ideas. Now this is all that the natural Man, who hath not the Life of
God in him, can possibly do with the Things of God. He can only contemplate
them, as Things foreign to himself, as so many dead Ideas, that
he receives from Books, or Hearsay; and so can learnedly dispute and quarrel
about them, and laugh at those as Enthusiasts, who have a living Sensibility
of them. He is only the worse for his hearsay, dead Ideas of Divine
Truths; they become a bad Nourishment of all his natural Tempers: He is proud
of his Ability to discourse about them, and loses all Humility, all Love of
God and Man, through a vain and haughty Contention for them. His Zeal
for Religion is Envy and Wrath; his Orthodoxy is Pride and Obstinacy;
his Love of the Truth is Hatred and Ill-will to those who dare to
dissent from him. This is the constant Effect of the Religion of the natural
Man, who is under the Dominion of the Spirit of this World. He cannot know
more of Religion, nor make a better Use of his Knowledge, than this comes to;
and all for this plain Reason, because he stands at the same Distance
from a living Sensibility of the Truth, as the Man that is born blind,
does from a living Sensibility of Light. Light must first be the
Birth of his own Life, before he can enter into a real Knowledge
of it. Yet so ignorant is the natural Man with all his learned Acuteness, that
he does not so much as know, that there is, and must be, this great
Difference between real Knowledge, and dead Ideas of Things; and that a
Man cannot know anything, any further than as his own Life opens the
Knowledge of it in himself.
[Pryr-2.2-44] The Measure of our Life is the Measure of our
Knowledge; and as the Spirit of our Life worketh, so the Spirit of our
Understanding conceiveth. If our Will worketh with God, though our natural
Capacity be ever so mean and narrow, we get a real Knowledge of God, and
heavenly Truths; for every thing must feel that in which it lives.
[Pryr-2.2-45] But if our Will works with Satan, and the Spirit
of this World, let our Parts be ever so bright, our Imaginations ever so
soaring, yet all our living Knowledge, or real Sensibility, can go no higher
or deeper, than the Mysteries of Iniquity, and the Lusts of Flesh and
Blood. For where our Life is, there, and there only, is our Understanding; and
that for this plain Reason, because as Life is the Beginning of all
Sensibility, so it is and must be the Bounds of it; and no Sensibility
can go any further than the Life goes, or have any other Manner of
Knowledge, than as the Manner of its Life is. If you ask what Life is,
or what is to be understood by it? It is in itself nothing else but a
working Will; and no Life could be either good or evil, but for this
Reason, because it is a working Will: Every Life, from the highest
Angel to the lowest Animal, consists in a working Will; and therefore as the
Will worketh, as that is with which it uniteth, so has every Creature its
Degree, and Kind, and Manner of Life; and consequently as
the Will of its Life worketh, so it has its Degree, and Kind,
and Manner of Conceiving and Understanding, of Liking and Disliking.
For nothing feels, or tastes, or understands, or likes, or dislikes, but the
Life that is in us. The Spirit that leads our Life, is the Spirit that forms
our Understanding. The Mind is our Eye, and all the Faculties of the Mind see
every thing according to the State the Mind is in. If selfish Pride is
the Spirit of our Life, every thing is only seen, and felt, and known, through
this Glass. Every thing is dark, senseless, and absurd to the proud Man, but
that which brings Food to this Spirit. He understands nothing, he feels
nothing, he tastes nothing, but as his Pride is made sensible of it, or
capable of being affected with it. His working Will, which is
the Life of his Soul, liveth and worketh only in the Element of Pride; and
therefore what suits his Pride, is his only Good; and what contradicts
his Pride, is all the Evil that he can feel or know. His Wit, his
Parts, his Learning, his Advancement, his Friends, his Admirers, his
Successes, his Conquests, all these are the only God and Heaven, that he has
any living Sensibility of. He indeed can talk of a Scripture-God, a
Scripture-Christ, and Heaven; but these are only the ornamental Furniture of
his Brain, whilst Pride is the God of his Heart. We are told, that God
resisteth the Proud, and giveth Grace to the Humble. This is not to be
understood, as if God, by an arbitrary Will, only chose to deal thus
with the proud and humble Man. Oh no. The true Ground is this, The
Resistance is on the Part of Man. Pride resisteth God, it rejecteth
him, it turneth from him, and chooseth to worship and adore something else
instead of him; whereas Humility leaveth all for God, falls down before him,
and opens all the Doors of the Heart for his Entrance into it. This is the
only Sense, in which God resisteth the Proud, and giveth Grace to Humble. And
thus it is in the true Ground and Reason of every Good and Evil that rises up
in us; we have neither Good nor Evil, but as it is the natural Effect
of the Workings of our own Will, either with, or against God; and God
only interposes with his Threatenings and Instructions, to direct us to
the right Use of our Wills, that we may not blindly work ourselves into Death,
instead of Life. But take now another Instance like that already mentioned.
Look at a Man whose working Will is under the Power of Wrath. He
sees, and hears, and feels, and understands, and talks wholly from the
Light and Sense of Wrath. All his Faculties are only so many
Faculties of Wrath; and he knows of no Sense or Reason, but that which his
enlightened Wrath discovers to him. I have appealed, Academicus, to
these Instances, only to illustrate and confirm that great Truth, which I
before asserted, namely, that the working of our Will, or the State of
our Life, governs the State of our Mind, and Forms the Degree and
Manner of our Understanding and Knowledge; and that as the Fire
of our Life burns, so is the Light of our Life kindled: and all this only to
show you the utter Impossibility of knowing God, and Divine
Truths, till your Life is Divine, and wholly Dead to the Life and
Spirit of this World; since our Light and Knowledge can be no better, or
higher, than the State of our Life and Heart is. Tell me now, do you feel the
Truth of all this? I say feel, because no Truth is possessed, till you have a
Feeling and living Sensibility of it.
[Pryr-2.2-46] Acad. Oh! Sir, you have touched every
String of my Heart; and I now wish, with the Psalmist, that I had the
Wings of a Dove, that I might flee away, and be at Rest; flee away from the
Spirit of this World, to be at Rest in the sweet Tranquillity of a Life born
again of God. You know, Sir, that in the Morning you told me of a certain
first Step, that of all Necessity must be the Beginning of a
spiritual Life; you gave me till To-morrow to speak my Mind and Resolution
about it. But you have now extorted my Answer from me, I cannot stay a Moment
longer: With all the Strength that I have, I turn from every Thing that is not
God, and his holy Will; with all the Desire, Delight, and Longing of my Heart,
I give up myself wholly to the Life, Light, and Holy Spirit of God; pleased
with nothing in this World, but as it gives Time, and Place, and Occasions, of
doing and being that, which my heavenly Father would have me to do, and
be; seeking for no Happiness from this earthly fallen Life, but that of
overcoming all its Spirit and Tempers. But I believe,
Theophilus, that you had something further to say.
[Pryr-2.2-47] Theoph. Indeed, Academicus, there
is hardly any knowing, when one has said enough of the evil Effects of a
worldly Spirit. It is the Canker that eateth up all the Fruits of our
other good Tempers; it leaves no Degree of Goodness in them, but transforms
all that we are, or do, into its own earthly Nature. The Philosophers
of old, began all their Virtue in a total Renunciation of the Spirit of this
World. They saw with the Eyes of Heaven, that Darkness was not more contrary
to Light, than the Wisdom of this World was contrary to the Spirit of Virtue;
therefore they allowed of no Progress in Virtue, but so far as a Man had
overcome himself, and the Spirit of this World.
[Pryr-2.2-48] This gave a Divine Solidity to all their
Instructions, and proved them to be Masters of true Wisdom. But the Doctrine
of the Cross of Christ, the last, the highest, the most finishing Stroke given
to the Spirit of this World, that speaks more in one Word than all the
Philosophy of voluminous Writers, is yet professed by those, who are in more
Friendship with the World, than was allowed to the Disciples of Pythagoras,
Socrates, Plato, or Epictetus.
[Pryr-2.2-49] Nay, if those ancient Sages were to start up
amongst us with their Divine Wisdom, they would bid fair to be treated by the
Sons of the Gospel, if not by some Fathers of the Church, as dreaming
Enthusiasts.
[Pryr-2.2-50] But, Academicus, this is a standing
Truth, The World can only love its own, and Wisdom can only be justified of
her Children. The Heaven-born Epictetus told one of his Scholars, that
then he might first look upon himself, as having made some
true Proficiency in Virtue, when the World took him for a Fool; an
Oracle like that, which said, The Wisdom of this World is Foolishness with
God.
[Pryr-2.2-51] If you were to ask me, What is the Apostasy of
these last Times, or whence is all the Degeneracy of the present Christian
Church? I should place it all in a worldly Spirit. If here you see open
Wickedness, there only Forms of Godliness; if here superficial Holiness,
political Piety, crafty Prudence, there haughty Sanctity, partial Zeal,
envious Orthodoxy; if almost everywhere you see a Jewish Blindness, and
Hardness of Heart, and the Church trading with the Gospel, as visibly, as the
old Jews bought and sold Beasts in their Temple; all these are only so
many Forms and proper Fruits of the worldly Spirit. This is the great
Net, with which the Devil becomes a Fisher of Men; and be assured of
this, my Friend, that every Son of Man is in this Net, till through and
by the Spirit of Christ, he breaks out of it.
[Pryr-2.2-52] I say the Spirit of Christ, for nothing
else can deliver him from it. Trust now to any Kind, or Form of religious
Observances, to any Number of the most plausible Virtues, to any Kinds of
Learning, or Efforts of human Prudence, and then I will tell you what your
Case will be; you will overcome one Temper of the World, only
and merely by cleaving to another. For nothing leaves the World,
nothing renounces it, nothing can possibly overcome it, but singly and solely
the Spirit of Christ. Hence it is, that many learned Men, with all the rich
Furniture of their Brain, live and die Slaves to the Spirit of this World; and
can only differ from gross Worldlings, as the Scribes and
Pharisees differ from Publicans and Sinners: It is
because the Spirit of Christ, is not the one only thing that is the
Desire of their Hearts; and therefore their Learning only Works in, and
with the Spirit of this World, and becomes itself, no small Part of the
Vanity of Vanities. Would you further know, Academicus,
the evil Nature and Effects of a worldly Spirit, you need only look at the
blessed Power and Effects of the Spirit of Prayer; for the one goes
downwards with the same Strength, as the other goes upwards; the one betroths
and weds you to an earthly Nature, with the same Certainty, as the other
espouses, and unites you to Christ, and God, and Heaven. The Spirit of Prayer,
is a pressing forth of the Soul out of this earthly Life; it is a
stretching with all its Desire after the Life of God; it is a leaving, as far
as it can, all its own Spirit, to receive a Spirit from above, to be
one Life, one Love, one Spirit with Christ in God. This Prayer, which is an
emptying itself of all its own Lusts, and natural Tempers, and an opening
itself for the Light and Love of God to enter into it, is the Prayer in the
Name of Christ, to which nothing is denied. For the Love which God bears
to the Soul, his eternal, never-ceasing Desire to enter into it, to dwell in
it, and open the Birth of his Holy Word, and Spirit in it, stays no longer,
than till the Door of the Heart opens for him. For nothing does, or can keep
God out of the Soul, or hinder his holy Union with it, but the Desire
of the Heart turned from him. And the Reason of it is this; it is because the
Life of the Soul is in itself nothing else but a working Will;
and therefore wherever the Will worketh or goeth, there, and there only, the
Soul liveth, whether it be in God, or in the Creature.
[Pryr-2.2-53] Whatever it desireth, that is the Fuel of
its Fire; and as its Fuel is, so is the Flame of its Life. A Will, given up to
earthly Goods, is as Grass with Nebuchadnezzar, and has one Life with
the Beasts of the Field: For earthly Desires keep up the same Life in a
Man and an Ox. For the one only Reason, why the Animals of this World have no
Sense or Knowledge of God, is this; it is because they cannot form any other
than earthly Desires, and so can only have an earthly Life. When therefore a
Man wholly turneth his working Will to earthly Desires, he dies to the
Excellency of his natural State, and may be said only to live, and move, and
have his Being, in the Life of this World, as the Beasts have.— Earthly Food,
&c., only desired and used for the Support of the earthly Body, is
suitable to Man's present Condition, and the Order of Nature: But when the
Desire, the Delight, and longing of the Soul is set upon earthly Things, then
the Humanity is degraded, is fallen from God; and the Life of the Soul is made
as earthly and bestial, as the Life of the Body: For the
Creature can be neither higher nor lower, neither better nor worse, than as
the Will worketh: For you are to observe, that the Will hath a Divine and
magic Power; what it desireth, that it taketh, and of that it
eateth and liveth. Wherever, and in whatever, the working
Will chooseth to dwell and delight, that becomes the Soul's
Food, its Condition, its Body, its Clothing, and
Habitation: For all these are the true and certain Effects and Powers
of the working Will.
[Pryr-2.2-54] Nothing doth, or can go with a Man into Heaven,
nothing followeth into Hell, but that in which the Will dwelt, with
which it was fed, nourished, and clothed, in this Life. And this is to be
noted well, that Death can make no Alteration of this State of the Will; it
only takes off the outward, worldly Covering of Flesh and Blood, and forces
the Soul to see, and feel, and know, what a Life, what a state, Food,
Body, and Habitation, its own working Will has brought forth for
it. Oh Academicus, stop a while, and let your Hearing be turned into
Feeling. Tell me, is there any thing in Life that deserves a Thought, but how
to keep this Working of our Will in a right State, and to get that
Purity of Heart, which alone can see, and know, and find, and possess
God? Is there any thing so frightful as this worldly Spirit, which turns the
Soul from God, makes it an House of Darkness, and feeds it with the Food of
Time, at the Expense of all the Riches of Eternity?
[Pryr-2.2-55] On the other hand, what can be so desirable a
Good as the Spirit of Prayer, which empties the Soul of all its own
Evil, separates Death and Darkness from it, leaves Self, Time, and the
World, and becomes one Life, one Light, one Love, one Spirit with
Christ, and God, and Heaven?
[Pryr-2.2-56] Think, my Friends, of these Things, with
something more than Thoughts; let your hungry Souls eat of the Nourishment of
them as a Bread of Heaven; and desire only to live, that with all the
Working of your Wills, and the whole Spirit of your Minds, you
may live and die united to God: and thus let this Conversation end, till God
gives us another Meeting.