and Kill them that will not do it And what is it that must perswade us to all this Why meerly a Hoc est corpus meum as expounded by the Councils of Laterane and Trent And is not Davids I am a Worm and no Man Psal 22.6 as plain yea and that in a Prophecy of Christ Must we believe therefore that neither David nor Christ was a Man but a Worm Is not I am the Vine and ye are the Branches Joh. 15.1 2. as plain Must Sense be renounced and ordinary Miracles believed for such words as these And doth not Paul call it Bread after consecration three times in the three next verses And is not he as good an expositor of Christs Words as the Council of Trent And when did God work Miracles which were meer objects of belief against sense Miracles were done as sensible things thereby to confirm Faith and that which no sense perceived was not taken for a Miracle To conclude when the Apostle saith that Flesh and Blood cannot enter into the Kingdom of God plainly speaking of them formally as now called and not as they signify Sin and consequently that Christs Body is now in Heaven a Spiritual Body and not formally Flesh and Blood yet must the Bread and Wine be turned into his Flesh and Blood on Earth when he hath none in Heaven And by their Doctrine no Baker nor Vintner is secured but that a Priest may come into his Shop or Celler and turn all the Bread and Wine in it into Christs Body and Blood yea the whole City or Garrison may thus be deprived of their Bread and Wine if the Priest intend it and yet it shall not be so in the Sacrament it self if the Priest intend it not But I have staid too long in this XIV Next to the Act of Cogitation and Volition itself and to the most certain Objects of Sence there is nothing in all the World so Certain that is so Evident to the Intellect as the Being of God He being that to the Mind which the Sun is to the Eye certainliest known though little of him be known and no Creature comprehend him XV. That God is True is part of our knowing him to be perfect and to be God and therefore is most certain XVI That Man is made by God and for God that we owe him all our Love Obedience and Praise that we have all from him and should please him in the use of all with many such like are Notitiae Communes Certain Verities received by Nature some as Principles and some as such evident conclusions as are not to be doubted of XVII That the Scripture is the Word of God is a certain Truth not sensible nor a Natural Principle but an Evident conclusion drawn from that Seal or Testimony of the Spirit Antecedent Concomitant Impressed and Consequent which I have oft opened in other Treatises XVIII That the Scripture is True is a Certain Conclusion drawn from the two last mentioned premises viz. That God is True Verax and that the Scripture is his Word XIX Those Doctrines or sayings which are parts of Scripture evidently perceived so to be by Sense and Intellective perception are known to be True by the same Certainty as the Scripture in general is known to be true XX. To conclude then there are two sorts of Certain Verities in Theology 1. Natural Principles with their certain consequents 2. Scripture in General with all those assertions which are Certainly known to be its parts And all the rest are to be numbred with uncertainties except Prophetical certainty of Inspiration which I pass by Chap. V. Of the several Degrees of Certainty 1. AS Certainty is taken for Truth of Being it admitteth of no Degrees All that is True is equally True. 2. But Certainty of Evidence hath various degrees none doubteth but there are various degrees of Evidence all the doubt is whether any but the highest may be called Certainty And here let the Reader first remember that the question is but de nomine of the name and not the thing And next the Evidence is called Certain because it is Certifying aptitudinally It is apt to certify us 3. And then the question will be devolved to subjective Certainty whether it have various degrees For if it have so then the Evidence must be said to have so because it is denominated respectively from the Apprehensive Certainty And here de re it must be taken as agreed 1. That Certainty is a certain Degree of apprehension 2. That there are various degrees of apprehension 3. That no Man on Earth hath a perfect Intellectual apprehension at least of things Moral and Spiritual For his apprehension may be still increased and those in Heaven have perfecter than we 4. That there are some degrees so low and doubtful as are not fit to be called Certainty 5. That even these lowest degrees with the greatest doubting are yet often True apprehensions and whenever they are True they are Infallible that is not deceived Therefore this Infallibility which is but not to be deceived is indeed one sort of Certainty which is so denominated Relatively from the natural Truth or Certainty of the object But it is not this sort of Certainty which we enquire after 6. Therefore it followeth that this subjective certainty containeth this Infallible Truth of perception and addeth a degree which consisteth in the satisfaction of the mind 7. But if the mind should be never so confident and satisfied of a falshood this deserveth not the name of Certainty because it includeth not Truth For it is a Certain perception of Truth which we speak of and Confident erring is not Certainty of the Truth 8. As therefore the degrees of doubting are variously overcome so there must needs be various degrees of Certainty 9. When doubting is so far overcome as that the mind doth find rest and satisfaction in the Truth it may be called Certainty But when doubting is either prevalent and so troublesome as to leave us wavering it is not called Certainty 10. It is not the forgetting or neglect of a difficulty or doubt nor yet the wills rejecting it which is properly called Certainty This quieteth the mind indeed but not by the way of ascertaining Evidence Therefore ignorant people that stumble upon a truth by chance with confidence are not therefore Certain of it And those that take it upon trust from a Priest or their Parents or good peoples Opinion are not therefore Certain of it Nor they that say as some Papists Faith hath not evidence but is a Voluntary reception of the Churches Testimony and meritorious because it hath not Evidence Therefore though I see no cogent Evidence I will believe because it is my duty Whether this mans Faith may be saving or no I will not now dispute but certainly it is no Certainty of apprehension He is not Certain of what he so believeth This is but to cast away the doubt or difficulty and not at all
for loving others also 2. As he rendereth himself more congruous and obliging to you by chusing you for the special object of his love by which he taketh the advantage of your natural self-love to make your love to him both due and easie as is said of the reflection of the Sun-beams before 2. But two things you must take heed of 1. That you under-value not your Neighbours good but love another for loving your Neighbours also and doing them good and he that arriveth at that impartial Unity as to make the smallest difference between his Neighbour and himself doth seem to me to be arrived at the state that is likest to theirs that are One in Heaven 2. And you must not over-love any man by a fond partiality for his love to you as if that made a bad man good or fitter for your love They that can love the worst that love them and cannot love the best that set light by them deservedly or upon mistake do shew that self-love overcometh the love of God. But God cannot be loved too much though he may be loved too selfishly and carnally His greatest Amiableness is his Essential Goodness and Infinite Perfection The next is his Glory shining in the Universe and so in the Heavenly Society especially Christ and all his Holy Ones and so in the publick blessings of the World and all Societies And next his goodness to your selves not only as parts of the said Societies but as Persons whose Natures are formed by God himself to a capacity of Receiving and Reflecting Love. Who findeth not by Experience that God is most loved when we are most sensible of his former love to us in the thankful review of all his Mercies and most assured or perswaded of his future love in our Salvation Therefore make the renewed Commemoration of Gods Mercies the incentives of your love Direct 5. But yet could you get a greater Union and Communion not only with Saints as Saints but with Mankind as Men it would greatly help you in your Love to God For when you love your neighbours as your selves you would love God for your neighbours mercies as well as for your own And if you feel that God's Love and special mercies to one person even your selves can do so much in causing your Love what would your Love amount to if thousand thousands of persons to whom God sheweth mercy were every one to you as your selves and all their mercies as your own Thus graces mutually help each other We love Man because we love God and we love God the more for our love to Man. Direct 6. Especially dwell by Faith in Heaven where Love is perfect and there you will learn more of the work of Love. To think believingly that Mutual Love is Heaven it self and that this is our Union with God and Christ and all the holy ones and that Love will be an everlasting employment pleasure and felicity this will breed in us a desire to begin that happy life on Earth And as he that heareth excellent Musick will long to draw near and joyn in the consort or the pleasure so he that by Faith doth dwell much in Heaven and hear how Angels and blessed Souls do there praise God in the highest fervours of rejoycing Love will be inclined to imitate them and long to partake of their felicity Direct 7. Exercise that measure of Love which you have in the constant Praises of the God of Love. For exercise exciteth and naturally tendeth to increase and Praise is the duty in which pure Love to God above our selves and all even as good and perfect in himself is exercised As Love is the Highest Grace or Inward Duty so praise is the Highest Outward Duty when God is praised both by Tongue and Life And as Soul and Body make one Man of whose existence Generation is the cause so Love and Praise of Mouth and Works do make one Saint who is Regenerated such by Believing in the Redeemer who hath power to give the Spirit of Holiness to whom he pleaseth But of this more afterwards Direct 8. Exercise your Love to Man especially to Saints in doing them all the good you can and that for what of God is in them For as this is the fruit of the Love of God and the evidence of it so doth it tend to the increase of its cause Partly as it is an exercise of it and partly as it is a duty which God hath promised to the reward As it is the Spirit of Christ even of Adoption which worketh both the lovâ— of our Father and our Brethren in us so God will bless those that exercise Love especially at the dearest rates and with the fullest devotedness of all to God with the larger measures of the same Spirit Chap. XIX Exh. V. Place your Comforts in health and sickness in Mutual Divine Love. 2. See that you sincerely love God. How known Doubts answered IT is of greatest importance to all Mankind to know what is best for them and in what they should place and seek their comforts To place them most with the Proud in the applauding thoughts or words of others that magnifie them for their wit their beauty their wealth or their pomp and power in the world is to chuse somewhat less than a shadow for felicity and to live on the Air even an unconstant Air And will such a life be long or happy Should not a man in misery rather take it for a stinging deriding mockery or abuse to be honoured and praised for that which he hath not or for that which is his snare or consisteth with his calamity Would not a Malefactor at the Gallows take it for his reproach to hear an Oration of his happiness Will it comfort them in Hell to be praised on Earth This common reason may easily call An empty Vanity To place our Comforts in the delights of Sensuality had somewhat a fairer shew of Reason if Reason were made for nothing better and if these were the noble sort of pleasures that advanced man above the brutes and if they would continue for ever and the end of such mirth were not heaviness and repentance and they did not deprave and deceive mens Souls and leave behind them disappointment and a sting But he is unworthy the honour and pleasures of Humanity who preferreth the pleasures of a beast when he may have better To place our Comforts in those Riches which do but serve this Sensuality with provisions and leave posterity in as vain and dangerous a state as their progenitors were is but the foresaid folly aggravated To place them in Domination and having our Wills on others and being able to do hurt and exercise revenge is but to account the Devils happier than men and to desire to be as the Wolf among the Sheep or as the Kite among the Chickens or as the great Dogs among the little ones To place them in much Knowledge of Arts and Sciences as they
a wary humble man should offend but few and better keep both his own and the Churches peace than others Can Persecutors for shame Hang and Burn men for meer Ignorance who are willing to learn and will thankfully from any man receive information What if in Queen Marys days the poor Men and Women had told my Lords of Winchester and London We are not persons of so good understandings as to know what a spiritual body is as Paul describeth it 1 Cor. 15. And seeing most say that the Sun it self is a body and not a spirit and late Philosophers say that Light is a substance or body which yet from the Sun in a moment diffuseth it self through all the surface of the Earth and Air we know not how far locality limitations extension impenetrability divisibility c. belong to the body of Christ and consequently how far it may be really present we can say nothing but that we know not Would my good Lord Bishops have burnt them for I know not Perhaps they would have said You must believe the Church But which is the Church my Lord Why it is the Pope and a General Council But alas my Lord I have never seen or heard either Pope or Council Why but we have and you must believe us Must we believe you my Lords to be Infallible or only as we do other men that may deceive and be deceived Is any Infallible besides the Pope and his Council Truly my Lords we are ignorant people and we know not what the Pope and Councils have said and we are uncertain whether you report them truly and uncertain whether they are Fallible or not but we are willing to hear any thing which may make us wiser Would their Lordships have burnt such modest persons Suppose in a Church where men are put to profess or subscribe to or against the Opinions of Free-will or Reprobation or Predetermination or such like a humble man should say These are things above my understanding I cannot reach to know what Free-will is nor whether all Causes natural and free be predetermined by Divine Premotion c. I can say neither It is so nor It is not They are above my reach would they silence and cast out such an humble person and forbid him to preach the Gospel of Christ Perhaps they would But there are not so many hardened to such inhumanity as there are men that would deal sharply with one that is as confident as they are on the other side And those few that were thus silenced would have the more peace that they procured it not by self-conceited singularities and the silencers of them would be the more ashamed before all sober persons that shall hear it Other Instances I pass by Chap. 14. The Aggravations of this sin of Prefidence THough there be so much evil in this sin of Presumption as I have noted yet is it not in all alike culpable or unhappy But differeth in both respects as I shall tell you I. For culpability it is worst in these sorts and cases following 1. It is a great sin in those who have least reason to think highly of their own understandings and greatest reason to distrust themselves As. 1. In those that are young and unexperienced and must be miraculously wise if they are wiser than old experienced persons caeteris paribus 2. In the unlearned or half-learned who have had but little time or helps for study or at least have made but little use of them 3. In duller wits and persons that in other matters are known to be no wiser than others 4. In those that take up their prefidence upon the slightest grounds as bare surmises and reports from others that were uncertain 5. In those that have been oft deceived already and should by their sad experience have been brought to humble self-suspicion 2. And it is an aggravated sin in those whose place and condition obligeth them to learn from others As for the Wife to be self-conâ—eited of all her apprehensions against her Husband unless he be a fool For the Servant to set his wit against his Masters where he should obey him For Children to think that their wits are righter than their Parents or Masters and Apprentices and Learners to think that they know more than their teachers And for the ignorant people to censure over-hastily the Doctrine and Practice of their Pastors as if they were wiser than they Perhaps they are But it must be some rare person who is fit to be a Teacher himself or the Teacher some sot that hath intruded into the Office or else it must be a wonder For God usually giveth men Knowledge according to the Time and Means and Pains that they have had to get it and not by miraculous infusions without means Doth not the Apostle expresly tell you this Heb. 5.11 12. When for the Time you ought to have been Teachers c. Men should be wise according to Time and Means of Wisdom which they have had 3. It is the greater crime when men will seem wisest in other mens matters and concernments When the Subject will know best what belongeth to a King or Governor and the people will know best how the Pastor should teach them and when he faileth and whom he should receive into the Church or exclude When the Servant will know best his Masters duty and every man his Neighbours and least his own 4. It is the greater crime when men will be the Judges of their own understandings and think highly of them in cases where they should be tryed by others As if an Empyrick or Woman do think that they know better how to cure a disease than the ablest Physicians why do they not offer themselves to the Tryal and before them make good their Skill by reason If an unexperienced young student think himself able to be a Physician he is not to be Judge but must be Tryed and Judged by Physicians If a self-conceited Professor or a young Student think himself fit for the Ministry he must not presently contrive how to get in and how to shift off Examination but freely offer himself to be tried by able Godly Ministers and then by the ordainers who are to judge But when such Persons can think themselves sufficient if no body else do or if but a few ignorant persons do that are unfit to judge this proves their Pride and Presumption to be a great and heinous sin 5. And it is yet more heinously aggravated when to keep up the reputation of their own understandings they use to depress and vilify the wiser even those whom they never knew As he that affecteth to be a Preacher and dare not pass the Examination hath no way to hide his shame but 1. By crying down the Learning which he wanteth as a humane carnal thing And 2. By reproaching those that should judge of him and ordain him as poor carnal persons who understand not the things of the Spirit as he doth
themselves to be how easy were it for them to agree among themselves and equally to distribute the charge of two or three Armies which might quickly shake in pieces the Turks Dominions and recover Constantinople and free the Greek Church from their Captivity XII And what need we more than every days miscarriages to tell us of our folly Do we not miss it in one degree or other in almost all that we take in hand Hence cometh the ruine of Estates the ill education of Children the dissentions among Neighbours and in Families Parents have scarce wit enough to breed and teach a Child Nor Husbands and Wives to live together according to their Relations nor Masters to teach their Servants If I write a Book how many can find folly and errour in it And I as easily in theirs If I Preach how many faults can the silliest Woman find in it And I as many perhaps in other mens Do we live in such weakness and shall we not know it XIII And the uncureableness of ancient errours is no small evidence of our folly If our ancestors have but been deceived before us though their errour be never so Palpable we plead their venerable antiquity for an honour to their Ignorance and mistakes The wisdom of wise ancestors almost dieth with them But the errours of the mistaken must be Successive lest they be dishonoured We will deny reason and deny Scripture and deny sense for fear of being wiser for our Souls than some of our forefathers were XIV The self-destroying courses of mankind one would think should be enough to evince mans folly Who almost suffer but by themselves Few sicknesses befall us which folly brings not on us by excess of Eating or Drinking or by sloth or some unwise neglect Few ruines of Estates but by our own folly Few calamities in Families and Relations but by our selves What Churches distracted and ruined but by the Pastors and Children of the Church themselves What Kingdom ruined without its own procurement It need not be said Quos perdere vult Jupiter hos dementat It is enough to say Insaniam eorum non curat If he cure not our madness we shall certainly destroy our selves Whose hands kindled all the flames that have wasted the Glory Wealth and Peace of England in State and Church except our own Were they Forreign Enemies that did it and still keep open our wounds or is it our selves And yet are we wise men XV. But the greatest evidence in all the world of the madness of Mankind is the obstinate self-destruction of all the ungodly Consider but 1. The weight of the Case 2. The plainness of the Case 3. The means used to undeceive them 4. And yet the number of the madly erroneous and then bethink you what man's Understanding is 1. It is their Souls and everlasting Hopes that are cast away It is no less than Heaven and Endless Happiness which they reject It is no better than Hell and Endless Misery which they run into and are these men in their wits 2. It is themselves that do all this neither Man nor Devils else could do it They do it for nothing What have the wretches for their Salvation a few cups of drink a filthy Whore a little preferment or provision for a corruptible flesh which must shortly lie and rot in darkness The applause and breath of flatterers as silly as themselves O profane persons worse than Esau who will fell their birth-right for so poor a morsel Come see the madness of Mankind It is a doubt to them whether God or a filthy lust should be more loved and obeyed It is a doubt with them whether Heaven or Earth be better worth their labour Whether Eternity or an inch of Time whether a Soul or a perishing Body should be more cared for Are these wise men Did I say It is a doubt yea their choice and practice sheweth that at the present they are resolved Vanity and shadows and dreams are preferred Heaven is neglected They are lovers of pleasure more than God They set less than a Feather in the ballance against more than all the world and they chuse the first and neglect the latter This is the wise world 3. And all this they do against common reason against daily teaching of appointed Pastors against the Judgment of the Learnedest and Wisest men in the world against the express Word of God against the obligation of daily mercies against the warnings of many afflictions against the experience of all the world who pronounce all this Vanity which they sell their Souls for even while men die daily before their Eyes and they are certain that they must shortly die themselves while they walk over the Church-yard and tread on the Graves of those that went before them yet will they take no warning but neglect God and their Souls and sin on to the very death 4. And this is not the case only of here and there one we need not go to Bedlam to seek them Alas in how much more honoured and splendid habitations and conditions may they be found In what reverend and honourable garbs And in how great numbers throughout the world And these are not only Sots and Idiots that never were told of better things but those that would be accounted witty or men of Learning and venerable aspect and esteem But this is a subject that we use to Preach on to the people it being easie by a multitude of arguments to prove the Madness of all ungodly persons And is this nothing to humble us who were naturally like them and who so far as we are sinners are alas too like them still XVI And the fewness of wise men in all Professions doth tell us how rare true Wisdom is Among men whose Wisdom lieth in Speculation where the Effects of it do not openly difference it much from Prefidence the difference is not commonly discerned A prating Speculator goeth for a wise man But in Practicals the difference appeareth by the Effects All men see that among Physicians and Lawyers those that are excellent are few And even among the Godly Preachers of the Gospel O that it were more easie and common to meet with men suited to the majesty mystery greatness necessity and holiness of their works that speak to God and from God like Divines indeed and have the true frame of found Theology ready in their Heads and Hearts and that in publick and private speak to sinners as beseemeth those that believe that they and we are at the door of Eternity and that we speak and they hear for the life of Souls and that are uncertain whether ever they shall speak again Alas Lord thy Treasure is not only in Earthen Vessels but how ordinarily in polluted Vessels and how common are empty sounding Vessels or such as have Dirt or Air instead of holy Treasure And as for Philosophers and Judicious Speculators in Divinity do I need to say that the number is too small
yet the true ultimate end of all things is God himself And the love of God is the highest love And Gods Justice is not without that love of himself and tendeth to that good which he is capable of receiving which is but the fulfilling or complacency of his own will which is but improperly called his Receiving 2. And we little know how many in another World or in the renewed Earth are to be profited by his Justice on the damned as Angels and Men are by his Justice on the Devils 1. LOVE is the Life of Religion and of the Soul and of the Church And what can be a just pretence for any to destroy or oppose the very Life of Religion the Life of Souls and the Life of the Church of Christ Physick Blood-letting and Dismembring may be used for Life But to take away Life except necessarily for a Good that is better than that life is Murder And what is it that is better than the Life of Religion in all matters of Religion Or than the life of the Church in all Church affairs Or than the life of mens Souls in all matters of Soul concernment 2. LOVE is the great command and summary of all the Law And what can be a just pretence for breaking the greatest command yea and the whole Law 3. LOVE is Gods Image and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God who is LOVE and God in him And what can be a pretence sufficient for destroying the Image of God which is called by his name 4. There is nothing in man that God himself loveth better than our love And therefore nothing that as better can be set against it And yet alas what enmity is used in the World against the Love of God and Man and many things alledged as pretences to justify it Let us consider of some few of them 1. The great Tyrants of the World such as in several ages have been the Plagues of their own and neighbour Nations care not what havock they make of Religion and of mens lives by Bloody Wars and Cruel Persecutions destroying many thousands and undoing far more thousands of the Country Families where their armies come and sacrificing the lives of the best of their subjects by butcheries or flames And what is the pretence for all this Perhaps they would be Lords of more of the World and would have larger Kingdoms Or more honour Perhaps some Prince hath spoken a hard word of them or done them some wrong Perhaps some subjects believe not as they bid them believe or forbear not to worship God in a manner which they forbid them Perhaps Daniel will not give over praying for a time or the Apostles will not give over preaching or the three Confessors will not fall down to the Golden Image and so Nebuchadnezzar or the other Rulers seem despised And their wills and honour are an Interest that with them seemeth to warrant all this But how long will it seem so I had rather any friend of mine had the Sins of a Thief or Drunkard or the most infamous Sinner among us to answer for than the Sins of a Bloody Alexander Caesar or Tamerlane 2. The Roman Clergy set up Inquisitions force men by cruelties to submit to their Church Keys whose very nature is to be used without force and they silence yea torment the faithful Ministers of Christ and have murdered thousands of his faithful people raised rebellions against Princes and Wars in Kingdoms and taught men to hate Gods Servants as Hereticks Schismaticks Rebels Factious and what not And what pretence must justify all this Why the Interest of the Pope and Clergy called in ignorance or craft by the name of the Holy Church Religion Unity and such other honourable name But must their Church live on Blood and holy Blood And be built or preserved by the destruction of Christs Church Must their doctrine be kept up by silencing faithful Ministers and their worship by destroying or undoing the true worshippers of Christ Are all these precious things which die with Love no better than to be sacrificed to the Clergies Pride and Worldly lusts 3. Among many Schismaticks and Sectaries that are not miscalled so but are such indeed their Discipline consisteth in separating from most other Christians as too bad and that is too unlovely to be of their Communion and their Preaching is much to make those seem bad that is unlovely that are not of their way and their worship is much such as relisheth of the same envy and strife to add affliction or reproaches to their Brethren or to draw the people from the Love of others unto them And their ordinary talk is back-biting others for things that they understand not and reporting any lie that is brought them and telling the hearers something of this Minister or that person or the other that is unlovely as if Satan had hired them to Preach down Love and prate and pray down Love and all this in the name of Christ And the third chapter of James is harder than Hebrew to them they do not understand it but though they tear it not out of the Bible they leave it out of the Law in their Hearts as much as the Papists leave the Second Commandment out of their Books And it is one of the marks of a good man among them to talk against other parties and make others odious to set up them And what are the Pretences for all this Why Truth and Holiness 1. Others have not the Truth which they have And 2. Others are not against the same Doctrines and Ceremonies and Bishops and Church Orders and ways of worship which they are against and therefore are ungodly antichristian or men of no Religion But Truth seldom dwelleth with the Enemies of Love and Peace They that are Strangers and Enemies to it indeed do often cry it up and cry down those as Enemies to it that possess it The wisdom that hath bitter envying and heart-strife is from beneath and is earthly sensual and devilish I admonish all that care for their Salvation that they set up nothing upon love killing terms If you are Christs disciples you are taught of God to love each other you are taught it as Christs last and great Commandment You are taught it by the wonderful example of his life and specially Joh. 13.14 By his washing hiâ— disciples feet You are taught it by the Holy Ghosts uniting the hearts of the disciples and making them by Charity to live as in Community Acts 3. and 4. You are taught it by the Effective operation of the Spirit on your own hearts The new nature that is in you inclineth you to it And will you now pretend the necessity of your own Interest Reputation your Canons and things indifferent your little Church orders of your own making yea or the positive institutions of Christ himself as to the present exercise against this Love Hath Christ commanded you any thing before it except the
body or the fruit of 3. This life of Love is the perfection of mans faculties as to their intended end and use As all the operations of the lower faculties Vegetative and Sensitive are subordinate to the use and operations of the Intellectual part which is the higher so all the Acts of the Intellect itself are but subservient and Dirigent to the Will or Love and Practice The understanding is but the Eye by which the Soul seeth what to love and choose or refuse and what to do or to avoid Love is the highest act of our highest faculty And complacency in the highest infinite good is the highest of all the acts of Love. This is the State of the Soul in its Ripeness and Mellow Sweetness when it is delightful embracing its most desired object and is blessed in the fruition of its ultimate end All other Graces and Duties are Servants unto this They are the parts indeed of the same new creature but the Hands and Feet are not the Heart 4. For Love is the very foretast of Heaven the beginning of that felicity which shall there be perfect In Heaven all Saints shall be as One and all united to their glorious Head as he is united to the Father disparities allowed Joh. 17.24 And what more uniteth Souls than Love Heaven is a state of Joyful Complacence and what is that but Perfect Love The Heavenly work is perfect Obedience and Praise And what are these but the actions and the breath of Love 5. Therefore they that live this life of Love are fitter to die and readier for Heaven than any others Belief is a foresight of it but Love is a foretast the first fruits and our earnest and pledge He that Loveth God and Christ and Angels and Saints and perfect Holiness and Divine Praise is ready for Heaven as the Infant in the womb is ready for birth at the fulness of his time But other Christians whose Love is true but little to their fears and damped by darkness and too much love of the body and this world do go as it were by untimely birth to Heaven and those in whom the love of the body is predominant come not thither in that state at all The God of Grace and Glory will meet that Soul with his felicitating embracements who panteth and breatheth after him by Love And as Love is a kind of Union with the Heavenly Society the Angels who love us better than we love them will be ready to convey such Souls to God. As the living dwell not in the graves among the dead and the dead are buried from among the living so holy Souls who have this life of Love cannot be among the miserable in Hell nor the dead in sin among the blessed 6. Therefore this life of holy Love doth strengthen our Belief it self Strong Reasons that are brought for the Immortality of Souls and the future Glory are usually lost upon unsanctified hearers yea with the Doctors themselves that use them When they have perswaded others that there is a Heaven for Believers and that by Arguments in themselves unanswerable they have not perswaded their own hearts but the predominant Love of Flesh and Earth doth byass their understandings and maketh them think that they can confute themselves Their gust and inclination prevaileth against Belief And therefore the greatest Scholars are not always the strongest Believers But holy Love when it is the Habit of the Soul as it naturally ascendeth so it easily believeth that God that Glory to which it doth ascend The gust and experience of such a Soul assureth it that it was made for Communion with God and that even in this life such Communion is obtained in some degree and therefore it easily believeth that it is Redeemed for it and that it shall perfectly enjoy it in Heaven for ever Though Glory be here but seminally in Grace and this world be but as the womb of that better world for which we hope yet the life that is in the Embrio and seed is a confirming Argument for the perfection which they tend to O that men knew what holy Love doth signifie and foretel As the seed or Embrio of a man becometh not a Beast or Serpent so he that hath the habitual Love of God and Heaven and Holiness is not capable of Hell no more than the Lovers of worldliness and sensuality are capable of present Communion with God and of his Glory God doth not draw mens Hearts to Himself nor kindle Heavenly desires in them in vain He that hath the Spirit of Christ hath the Witness in himself that Christ and his Promises of Life are true 1 John 5.10 11 12. And what is this Spirit but the Habit of Divine and Heavenly Love and its concomitants May I but feel my Soul inflamed with the fervent Love of the Heavenly Perfection surely it will do more to put me quite out of doubt of the certainty of that blessed state than all Arguments without that Love can do 7. And holy Love will be the surest Evidence of our Sincerity which many old Writers meant that called it The Form of Faith and other graces As means as means are informed by their aptitudinal respect unto the End so Love as it is the Final Act upon God the Final Object thus informeth all subordinate Graces and Duties as they are means And as all Morality is subjected in the Will as the proper primary seat and is in the Intellect executive power and senses only by participation so far as their acts are imperate by the Will so Love and Volition being really the same thing it may accordingly be said that nothing is any further acceptable to God than it is Good and nothing is morally Good any further than it is voluntary or willed and to be willed as Good as End or as Means and to be Loved are words that signifie the same No preaching praying fasting c. no fear of punishment no belief of the Truth c. will prove us sincere and justified any further than we can prove that all this either cometh from or is accompanied with Love that is with a Consenting Will. With the heart man believeth unto righteousness Rom. 10. And If thou believe with all thy heart thou mayest be baptized saith Philip to the Eunuch Acts 8. My Son give me thy heart is Wisdom's invitation All 's nothing without the heart that is without willingness or Love. They that love most are sureliest forgiven and have most holiness or grace how unskifull soever they may be in their expressions The sealing Spirit of Adoption is the Spirit of Love and the Abba Father and the unexpressed groans of filial Love are understood and acceptable to God. A Loving Desire after God and Holiness is a better Evidence than the most taking Tongue or largest Knowledge 8. This life of Holy Love will make all our Religion and Obedience easy to us It will give us an alacrity to the performance and a
believer to think that GOD IS Even that such a perfect glorious being is existent As if we heard of one man in another land whom we were never like to see who in wisdom love and all perfections excelled all men that ever were in the world the thoughts of that man would be pleasing to us and we should love him because he is amiable in his excellency And so doth the holy Soul when it thinketh of the infinite amiableness of God. 6. But the highest Love of the Soul to God is in taking in all his amiableness together and when we think of him as related to our selves as our Creater Redeemer Sanctifier and Glorifier and as related to all his Church and to all the world as the cause and end of all that is amiable and when we think of all those amiable works which these Relations do respect his Creation and Conservation of the whole world his Redemption of mankind his Sanctifying and Glorifying of all his chosen ones his wonderful mercies to our selves for Soul and Body his mercies to his Church on earth his unconceivable mercies to the glorified Church in Heaven the Glory of Christ Angels and Men and their perfect Knowledge Love and joyful praises and then think what that God is in himself that doth all this This Complexion of considerations causeth the fullest Love to God. And though unlearned persons cannot speak or think of all these distinctly and clearly as the Scripture doth express them yet all this is truly the Object of their Love though with confusion of their apprehensions of it But I have not yet done nor indeed come up to the point of tryal It is not every kind or degree of Love to God in these respects that will prove to be saving He is mad that thinks there is no God And he that believeth that there is a God doth believe that he is most powerful wise and good and therefore must needs have some kind of Love to him And I find that there are a sort of Deists or Infidels now springing up among us who are confident That all or almost all men shall be saved because say they all men do love God. It is not possible say they that a man can believe God to be God that is to be the Best and to be love itself and the cause of all that is good and amiable in Heaven and Earth and yet not love him The will is not so contrary to the understanding nor can be And say the same men he that loveth his neighbour loveth God for it is for his goodness that he loveth his Neighbour and that goodness is Gods goodness appearing in man He that loveth Sun and Moon and Stars Meat and Drink and pleasure loveth God for all this is Gods goodness in his works and out of his works he is unknown to us and therefore they say that all men Love God and all men shall be saved or at least all that love their Neighbours for God by is us no otherwise to be loved For answer to these men 1. It is false that God is no otherwise to be loved than as in our Neighbour I have told you before undeniably of several other respects or appearances of God in which he is to be loved And he that is not known to us as separate from all Creatures is yet known to us as distinct from all Creatures and is and must be so loved by us Else we are Idolaters if we suppose the Creatures to be God themselves and love and honour them as God Even those Philosophers that took God for the inseparable Soul of the World yet distinguished him from the World which they thought he animated and indeed doth more than animate 2. And it is false that every one loveth God who loveth his Neighbour or his Meat Drink and fleshly Pleasure or any of the accommodations of his sense For Nature causeth all men to love life and self and pleasure for themselves And these are beloved even by Atheists that believe not that there is a God! And consequently such men love their Neighbours not for God but for themselves either because they are like them or because they please them or serve their interest or delight them by society and converse as Birds and Beasts do love each other that think not of a God. And if all should be saved that so love one another or that love their own pleasure and that which serveth it not only all wicked men but most Brute Creatures should be saved If you say they shall not be damned it 's true because they are not Moral Agents capable of Salvation or Damnation nor capable of Moral Government and Obedience and therefore even the Creatures that kill one another are not damned for it But certainly as man is capable of Salvation or Damnation so is he of somewhat more as the means or way than Brutes are capable of and he is saved or damned for somewhat which Brutes never do Many a thousand love the pleasure of their sense and all things and persons which promote it that never think of God or love him And it is not enough to say that even this natural good is of God and therefore it is God in it which they love for it will only follow that it is something made and given by God which they love while they leave out God himself That God is Essentially in all things good and pleasant which they love doth not prove that it is God which they love while their thoughts and affections do not include him 3. But suppose it were so that to love the Creature were to love God is not then the hating of the Creature the hating of God If those same men that love Meat and Drink and sensual Delight and love their Neighbours for the sake of these or for themselves as a Dog doth love his Master do also hate the holiness of Gods Servants and the holiness and justice of his Word and Government and that holiness and order of Heart and Life which he commandeth them do not these men hate God in hating these And that they hate them their obstinate aversation sheweth when no reason no mercy no means can reconcile their Hearts and Lives thereto 4. I therefore ask the Infidel Objector whether he shall be saved that loveth God in one respect and hateth him in another That loveth him as he causeth the Sun to shine the Rain to fall the Grass to grow and giveth Life and Prosperity to the World but hateth him as he is the Author of those Laws and Duties and that holy Government by which he would bring them to a voluntary right order and make them holy and fit for Glory and would use them in his holy Service and restrain them from their inordinate Lusts and Wills How can love prepare or fit any man for that which he hateth or doth not love If the love of fleshly interest and pleasure prepare or fit them to