The Chief Interest of Man, Section 7
SECT. VII. The advantage which we have by Religion in reſpect of our Souls. Firſt, in being thereby reſtored to the image of God, and that ſpiritual beauty which hath been defaced by ſin.
I Now come yet nearer to our ſelves, to that Divine part whereby we hold intelligence with the upper World, have our Converſation in Heaven, with God and Angels, to theſe our bodies are but as a box, a caſe to a precious Jewel, and the advantages which I have hitherto ſpoken of are not worthy to be compared with theſe that Godlineſſe brings to the Soul. And I will firſt ſpeak of what a Godly Man hath thereby in enjoyment and poſſeſſion, then of what he hath in hopes and reverſion, and I will begin with the reſtoration of man to the condition from which he fell, or the renewing of the image of God in him. To have ſeen that great Monarch. Dan. 4. in the greateſt Glory, priding himſelf in his Majeſty, and after to have ſeen him not only deveſted of his Glory, degraded from his dignity, but deprived of his reaſon, and putting on the manners of Beaſts of the Field, and converſing amongſt them, would have moved a Mans compaſſion; though he, it is likely was no more ſenſible of his own unhappineſſe, (being bereaved of humanity) than thoſe in the fable, that being by the enchantments of Circe turned into Beaſts, diſdained the offer of Ʋlyſſes to have them reſtored to their former ſhape, being debaſed in their ſouls, as well as metamorphoſed in their bodies, and ſo not underſtanding the felicity of the rational life; but ſuch were the more to be pityed, by how much the leſſe they could pity themſelves. This is the condition of Mankind. We are all of a good houſe, well deſcended, of a noble ſtock and Divine Original: but are fallen into decay, have loſt the luſtre of that Family from which we came, (being the off-ſpring of God) and we are become like the Beaſts which periſh, Pſal. 49.21. So ſome underſtand that place, Man being in honor continued not, ſoon fell from his Eſtate of dignity and happineſs, and became bruitiſh in his knowledge and affections. Satan, that old Magician, by his enchantments hath bewitched us from that form wherein we were at firſt created, into the form of Beaſts; ſo that Men are become Lions for rage, cruelty, oppreſſion; Foxes for ſubtilty in evil; Swine for ſilthineſſe and uncleanneſs; Dogs for envy and malice; Wolves for rapine; yea, as the wild Aſſes Colt for folly and ſtupidity: the Scripture accounts it neither incivility nor calumny to deſcribe Men by ſuch compellations. Now it is only true Godlineſſe, and that regeneration, (which miſerable Man doth as little underſtand, and much deſpiſe, as thoſe even now mentioned, did the offer of Ʋlyſſes) which muſt reſtore us to our former ſtate. The Goſpel (as a ſpiritual charm) brings us to that ſhape and form which our firſt Parents loſt. And though poor ignorant Men neither underſtand their own deformity, nor that beauty of holineſſe which adorns the ſouls of thoſe who are renewed, according to the Image of God, (as the Jews deſpiſed Chriſt, and eſteemed him not, as ſeeing no form nor comlineſs in him, though he was to thoſe who had a ſpiritual diſcerning, and an eye of Faith to ſee that Divine excellency and perfection that was in him, the chiefeſt of ten thouſands, and altogether lovely) yet there is an inward beauty of the Soul, obvious only to the eyes of God that regards the hidden Man of the heart, and thoſe who have a ſpiritual diſcerning to diſcern ſpiritual things, which (as the beauty of the outward man conſiſts in colour, proportion, and perfection of parts) ſtands in a due regard of every faculty and affection of the ſoul to its proper object, and a juſt ſubordination to each other, the ſuperior irradiated by a Divine light to judge of every thing as the matter requires, and accordingly to command the inferior, which by an obſequious ſubjection yields to the authority, and executes the commands of the ſuperior, (and is not like a bone out of a joynt, which is not ſubject to the commands of the locomotive faculty) and the whole tinctured with a Divine holineſs, juſtice and goodneſs. It would be a ſad ſpectacle to behold a Man bowed together, that he could not look up, his eyes cloſed up with filthy putrid matter, his lips black, and ſwelled as if they were poyſoned, his breath ſtinking, to the offence of all that come near him, Lame of his feet, that he could not go, his bowels hanging out. In a word, from head to foot full of bruiſes and putrifying ſores, thus is man by nature to the eyes of God, bowed down to the earth, minding earthly things, his underſtanding darkened, and the eyes thereof cloſed by vile and corrupt affections, his lips breaking out with filthy communication, as if the poyſon of Aſps were under them, his throat like an open Sepulchre, ſending forth ſuch unſavory diſcourſe as is offenſive to pure ears, that knows not how to tread a right ſtep in the way of Gods commandments, void of the bowels of pity and compaſſion, and the plague of his heart, (his natural in-bred corruption) breaking forth daily into ſinful actions which are as ſo many botches and ſores to render a Man loathſom in the ſight of God, to whom our inward Man is as naked and open as our outward Man to eyes of fleſh. A form of Godlineſs and the paint or varniſh of an outward profeſſion, may help to conceal ſome of this deformity from the eyes of Man, but it is only that Fountain ſet open to the houſe of David, and the Inhabitants of Jeruſalem to waſh in for ſin, and for uncleaneſs, that will reſtore to Man his primitive ſoundneſs and beauty, as Naamans fleſh by waſhing in Jordan was reſtored as the fleſh of a young Child. This is the immediate effect of Regeneration, and though the work is not perſected at once as to degrees, yet it will be as the light that ſhines clearer and clearer till the perfect day, we being transformed daily more and more into the Image of God, from Glory to Glory by his Spirit.