as making one coexistence whereby we may the better understand the nature of the subject we discourse upon and reflecting on man's consisting of two so diverse portions as spirit and materiality we shall wonder the lesse at those so discordant qualities which are found in this compound nature of Man If Faith did not oblige us to beleeve our own originall integrity we have scarce vertue enough left to own it our reason is so degenerated as she hath no mind to claime by that prescription the dominion of our sensitive appetites which are her naturall subjects she seemes so much better pleased to yeeld unto their government but let us move Reason by the dignity of her prerogative and the debasement of her condition in submitting to the rule of our passions to endeavour the recovering as much of her Rights as can stand with the forfeiture of her first state God made man so noble a creature as even in his obnoxiousnesse to misery there was an excellence of nature For the freedome of his will was one of the chiefe prerogatives of his state and the abuse of this power declares the dignity of it by the severity of God's vindication since upon the first defection of mans will from him God did teare and divide the Kingdome he had given him rending the sensitive powers from the dominion of the rationall And in this breach he left mans reason though not wholly deposed yet so much distressed by the powers of the other revolted Tribes as she needs now a forrein succour not onely prevenient but actually concomitant for her support in this continuall warfare against her naturall subjects our affections and sensitive appetites which have set up idols of their own making like Jeroboams calves the delights of the senses to maintaine this division and independencie upon the soveraignty of reason to which they were at first subjected looking alwayes up with the eyes of the Hand-maid upon the eyes of the Mistresse sincere and rectified reason This first happy state of man we are bound to beleeve even in this deplorable condition we now find him for the spirit of his Creator assures us that God made man upright he intangled himself in all his perplexities We may therefore well ask the Prophets question O how didst thou fall in this Morning light when there was but one block in all the earth to stumble at Thou wert made to tread upon the earth onely as on a stage beautified and adorned for thy passage over it in triumph up to heaven not to sink into it and be wrapp'd up in it in this foule and dark conveyance of thee whereunto thou art now sentenced Thou wast created to have been served onely by the mutations of all creatures not to have suffered with them by any change which should have been in thee onely a translation of thy earth to heaven not a resolution of it into dust for mans soule as having never been offended by his body should never have put it away and left it to his owne vility but should have gratified the services thereof with an immediate preferment to glory and impassibility O! what can be answered by man for this selfe-destruction Me thinks Man replyes that the weight of the then greatest of all created substances falling from heaven fell upon him and thus shiver'd him into dust indeed this is all can be said to move compassion for him and this prevailed so much with his Maker as Man's fall was commiserated and redressed and he that fell upon him was left fastned to the abisse of his own precipitation What a sad contemplation is this that the morning star who was created to feed onely on the increated light was so soone condemned to feed on dust as being falne from an Angel to a Serpent and Man who was to rise up to the Purity of Angels and to know no foulenesse by the way was quickly sentenced to the becomming dust so that by this commerce with the Serpent Man is become his food O then as the Wise-man sayes sure it is the tongue of the Serpent while he fed first upon thee that infused the poyson of pride into all thy corruption For mans nature savours so of this venome by which it was first tainted which came from the Serpent who retains his pride in all his debasement as even through all the veines of mans infirmities there runs still this mortal spirit of self-love and presumption though he be reduced daily to plead the misery and infirmity of his nature in defence of his reproachable imperfections There seemes to be no better Character of the infelicity of humane nature then is made by those who inveigh against the weaknesse of it yet claime that as an authority for all their faults making the propensity to ill the patronage of it as if the forbidden fruit were now become medicinall for a weak conscience That is as if our inward frailty might serve for a purgation of most of our faults This is a confection the Serpent offers us often which his tongue may be said to make against the venome of his teeth For how familiar is it to accept this prescription and to apply thisreceipt of it is not I but sin that dwels in me for the cure of all the stings of conscience as if the accusation of the wretched man were sufficient for the acquittance of him before God For how many when they are ingenuous in this confession think they are dispensed with for many grosse infidelities so as even the discovery of the nakednesse of our nature passeth often to our sense for the cover of all her deformities how familiar this selfe deception is I need not argue but rather complain directly in these tearmes of the Gospel since the light that is in thee is darknesse how great is that darknesse This being our case when the knowledge of our infirmity becomes the despaire of our recovery This considered may not we say that the Serpent while he feeds upon our dust that is prevaileth upon our frailties blowes part of it into our eyes to blind us raising this cloud out of our infirmities that we may see no way out of them which subtilty prevaileth so much as despairing often of our constitution we consult our poysoner for receipts onely to give us a fair and easie passage through this life and for allaying the disquiets of our nature he gives us such remedies as are pleasant for our senses to take which are variety of sensible fruitions that rock our childish nature into some rest by the motions of her owne infirmities Thus commonly our life is but a continued slumber in which our reason lies bound up and our fancie is the onely loose and living faculty of our soule which raiseth to us but dreames and similitudes of good and evill sometimes vaine images of joyes and other amazing phantasmes of fears and in this dream of opinion and imagination we usually passe our lives seldome
God in Christ Let as many therefore 〈◊〉 be perfect be thus minded and those who are otherwise I beseech God to reveal this unto them The twentieth Treatise Of the Contempt of the VVorld Divided into two Sections §. I. Arguments to discredit all the Attractives of this Earth and Gods contribution thereunto produced I Have in effect shot all my Quiver at this one Head viz. The love of this World and have set such points to my Arrows as I conceived most proper to enter those Helmets of Perdition wherewith the Prince of this World commonly armeth his Militia in this quarter I aim at namely Presumption or Inconsideration Wherefore now me thinks I may say to this Age with the Psalmist Childrens Arrows are made thy wounds relating either to my former Alliance to the world or to the present weakness of the hand that hath made these Ejacuâ—ations But surely the Head that hath been my Mark may be fitly compared to that of the Beast in the Revelation which having been wounded as it were to death was afterwards healed and Worshipped the more upon this Cure For the love of this world seemeth very often mortified and lying as it were dead in our mindes being wounded by the Sword of the Spirit and yet 〈◊〉 viveth and grows stronger then ever in our Affections And as these two Heads do not differ much in their Allegories since all the Heads of the Beast may be said to signifie several mundanities so are they consorted in this point of having both the same Surgeon the old Serpent who venteth all his Art upon the recovery of this Head namely The love of mundanity wherein do indeed reside the vital Spirits of the body of Sin the onely Subject of the Prince of this Ages Empire So that considering the dangerous convalescence of this wounded Head I have conceived it requisite to do my best not onely to kill it outright by playing Jael's part driving this Nail that is this express Tract directly through the temples of it but also to endeavor the burying it as I may say in this holy ground of Spiritual Joy and Acquiescence which is the safest course to prevent the revival of it for the alacrity of the Spirit keepeth the inferior appetites as it were under ground and in this figurative interment the Balms and Spices of contemplative Solaces contrary to material ones have this vertue quickly to consume and dissolve this matter when they are applied unto it I shall therefore endeavor to draw out of the inclosed Garden of the Spouse such precious Spices as may work these two different effects to dissipate and consume the love of this world as well as preserve and persume the love of Heaven One Sin infected our whole Humane Nature by reason that all succeeding individuals had then their voyces comprised in one person Representative of the whole Species And when we see the whole Mass of the Earth accursed at once me thinks we may speculate this to have been some part of the reason that in the little portion of Earth composing the body of Man the whole Globe thereof seemed represented and consequently all tainted by the inquination of that one parcel for the sensitive part of Man consisting of Earth that may well be charged as a Complice in the Crime since that portion of Man although it were not Principal was yet an accessory in the Crime the body having acted the transgression This may give an ingenious reason for the Condemnation of the whole Earth to bear onely Thorns and Bryers naturally and fruits not without induring wounds and violences to wit the contamination of the whole in the vitiousness of this first ungrateful portion of Earth which in the person of Woman may be said to have put forth some Bryers to catch the Soul of Man even before it was accursed This I presume to be a better Reason for the sentencing of the whole Earth then can be given for the Soul of Man's adhering to this Earth by his affections forasmuch as this convinceth us of the terrestrial parts of conspiration of our ruine and so may well averse the Soul from such an adherency How evident is it that God never intended that the Soul of Man after this first injury should set her affections upon the Earth since Man was presently removed from the most lovely part thereof and that was fenced against his access to it not onely to shorten his time upon Earth but also as we may suppose to abridge his Delights and Solaces in that short time since no other part of the World could afford such a complete deliciousness as the earthly Paradice out of which Man was excluded whereby God seemeth to have provided against Mans having the strongest Motives the Earth might offer him to draw down his affections upon it and hath left him a continual quarrel as it were with the Earth to wit the Contention of his labors against her sterility to entertain this disagreement between it and the love of Man since the Earth alloweth him nothing but at the price of his sweat and â—atigation This might seem sufficient considering our lazy Nature to admit no kinde or friendly correspondence between us nay there are many who suppose the world long since not to have had so much invitation left for Man to love it as the containing the terrestrial Paradice This at least is very probable That even since the Flood the beauty fecundity and pleasantness of that portion of the Earth is utterly deflowered and â—faced But this is positively true That God did not expulse Man out of Paradice to allow him the making another Paradice for himself out of the Earth These speculations do as Saint Paul saith speak after the maner of men to implead all title this Earth can claim to the affections of a reasonable Soul and through all the body of this Miscellany there run veins enough of disparagement to this world so that they may well terminate in this Centre of Contempt and despection The Apostle of love whose fiery tongue casts forth as many Scintillations of love as he doth lines in that Work which may be fitly called An Epistle commendatâ—ry of Love to Christians doth not allow the world so much as one spark of it he rather straineth his breath to blow out and extinguish every flash of affection to it enjoyning us expresly Not to love the world nor the things that are in it And it is remarkable That he alleageth not the miseries and disgusts of the world to discredit it but bringeth even the most amiable alluremonts thereof for Reasons against our affecting it arguing upon the worlds having nothing in it but the concupiscence of the eye and of the flesh and the pride of life in which consist the most powerful Attractives the world hath for our love And if all these which are acknowledged the worlds Proprieties are turned against the valuation thereof what hath it left whereby to
of whom I may say with the Apostle That in the midst of a perverse generation they have shined as lights in the world their mindes seeming to be kindes of Spiritual fixed Stars which never altered their distances from the Earth and intended onely the finishing their course at the same time imparting light unto the world by divers irradiations respective to their positions therein either of Prayer or other Edifications Wherefore of such habits of minde the Holy Spirit saith The path of the just is as the shining light that proceedeth even to perfect day which is Contemplation consummated when the day-Star whereby Saint Peter expresseth it shall be risen in our hearts whereof these acts of our intellect seem to be some inchoative or imperfect rays and to give you as fair a view as I can of this abstruse object I shall set it in the most luminous definition I can deliver it out of the mouth of S. Augustine Contemplation is a clear in t 〈…〉 on and a delightful admiration of perspicuous Verities so that the minde in that state may be said to walk in the meridional light of Faith towards the incomprehensible clarity of perfect vision and this light of Grace wherein a pure Contemplative Soul inhabiteth may me thinks be said to hold some such proportion to the purer light of glory she expecteth as the sight which the three Apostles had of Christs Body transfigured on Tabor holds to that they are to have of it glorified in Heaven for as the brightness of Lightning and the cand or of Snow did in some measure represent to them the far transcending lustre and beauty that was to be looked for in his Body beatified so these admirable intellectual Verities which are the objects of a true Contemplative Soul in this life do in some degree figure to it the unexpressible notions rising out of a fruitive Contemplation of the increated Verity insomuch as these elevated Spirits may be conceived to have such a kinde of advantage over others who may also be faithful in lower stations of Christianity as the three Disciples called up to Tabor had of them that were left below the Mountain For certainly this sight must have imprinted in their mindes a more lively and affecting image of the amiableness of glorified Bodies then the others could apprehend But as Christ admitted few even of his Apostles to this sight of him so doth God vouchsafe to select and elevate but very few to this superlative pitch of Contemplation of whom we may say with the Psalmist This is the generation of them that seek the face of the God of Jacob who we know was one of the most eminent in this high vocation feeding on this bread of Angels and having this Spiritual Manna showâ—red down upon him while he was feeding the flocks of others in a servile obligation And holy David in all his exterior bitternesses tasting of this Spiritual reflection saith as it were this Grace to it How great is the multitude of thy sweetness O Lord which thou hast hid for them that fear thee thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy face from the disturbance of men This expresseth well their state of minde which is covered from the sight of the world in the secret of Gods face that is in his most private and reserved kindenesses and as God hideth himself in his own inaccessible light so such Souls adhering unto God and becoming as the Apostle â—aith one Spirit are hid to the world in the excessive light of their Graces which common apprehensions cannot penetrate of such mindes we may most peculiarly say Who knoweth the things of such men save the Spirit that is in them which searcheth the deep things of God while their apprehensive faculty perfecteth it self by extracting the pure species of Truth and their affecting power is perfected by transmitting it self exteriorly upon the object that attracteth it Thus the understanding is never satiated by a continual receiving nor the affection ever diminished by an incessant issuing it self out upon the object but doth rather acquire by this perpetual Self-alienation In this admirable commerce doth the true Contemplative Soul negotiate with her own Maker while what is imported from him into the Understanding obligeth the Will to export unto him her faculty of loving and thus knowledge infused draweth forth love and love efused remitteth back fresh illuminations This Angelical correspondence with God the Contemplative Man entertaineth and hath in proportion to his Nature the same priviledge that Angels have when they assume apparent Bodies for their ministery on Earth namely to finde no intermission of their seeing God So in all the exterior offices which the Soul acteth by the ministery of the Body in such persons the Minde doth not remove out of that apprehended presence of God whereof her transitory state is capable insomuch as a profound Contemplator may be said to be never so much alive to this life as when he seemeth to be the most dead to it For in the image of Death when the other powers of his Minde cannot controul his Fancy that may introduce imaginations into him superfluously relative to this life and removed from the scope of all his reasonable cogitations which never move but in a presential reverence of God So that the Natural Man may be said to live in him no longer by the strength or power of his Nature but meerly by the infirmity of it that requireth such a suspension of the Spiritual Man which lives so powerfully in such a person as he seems fully in possession of Christs promise of his Fathers and his coming and making his abâ—de with him which according to the division made by the Holy Ghost of the whole Man may be conceived to be done in this maner The Father residing in that portion called the Soul as it importeth the Origine of all vital operations the Son resting in the Minde as that is the seat of our actual intelligence or understanding and both of them may be said to expirate and breathe forth the Holy Ghost into the Heart as that is taken for the continent of our affections and by this means the whole Man cometh as near the loving God with all his Soul with all his Minde and with all his Heart as this traverse and interposed vail of Flesh and Blood can admit him forgetting with Saint Paul the things that are behinde and stretching forth himself to those that are before by this constant Application preserving the whole Spirit Soul and Body without blame to the coming of our Lord Christ Jesus Considering then the properties of these golden vessels of Charity placed within the outward vale of the Temple and looking continually towards the Propitiatory seated within the inward vale which figured the beatifical vision even their Bodies may be well compared to the grate upon the Altar of Incense from which all the ashes of carnal appetites
of a Courtiers profession 121 TREAT 11. Of Medisance or detraction in 2. Sections 125 Sect. 1. The true nature of the crime of detraction and the subtilty of it in disguising it self ib. 2. Some rules whereby to square our discourse and an expedient offered towards the correction of Medisance 131 TREAT 12. Concerning scurrility or foulness of speech 〈…〉 three Sections 〈…〉 Sect. 1. Of the dangerousness of these liberties and the familiar ex 〈…〉 made for them 〈…〉 2. Some special causes of the growth of this licentiousness and some 〈◊〉 pedient proposed towards the suppression thereof 1â—0 3. What circumstances augment these faults and women incharged 〈…〉 severity in opposition to them â—4â— TREAT 13. Whether to be in love and to be devout are consistent in eight Sections Sect. 1. The nature of love and devotion compared 〈◊〉 2. Some subtle temptations detected and liberties reproved 1 〈…〉 3. The errors of prophane jealousie argued and a pious jealou 〈…〉 proposed 1â—â— 4. The deceit of passion in promise of mercy and power of resistiâ—g temptations 1â—â— 5. The faultiness of flattery to women discovered and disswaded 1 〈…〉 6. Presumption upon our vertue discussed and the danger thereof remoâ—strated 1â—6 7. Some scruples resolved about the esteem of beauty and the friendshiâ— of women 17â— 8 The conclusion framed upon the premised discourse and our love safe 〈…〉 addressed 179 TREAT 14. Concerning the test and ballance of filial and mercinary love in five Sections 181 Sect. 1. Of the value of love and Gods tolerating some mixture of self respects in it ib. 2. Mercinary love defined and the relying much on it disswaded 184 3. Filial love described and some strong incentives presented to kindle it in us 187 4 Motives to filial love drawn from our several relations to God as also from the dignity and advantage of this sort of love 191 5. Advices in order to the preserving this sort of love and fraternal dilection represented as a gracious rule whereby to judge of our rectitude in filial love 194 TREAT 15. Of the duties of a Christian towards enemies in five Sections 265 Sect. 1. The precept of loving enemies sweetned by many reasons drawâ— from Christs injoyning and his acting it ib. 2. The avâ—rsness to this duty riseth from our corrupted nature promoted by divers subtle temptations of our great enemy 270 3. The relation wherein all enemies are to be loved and what Offices are indispensably due to them the omission whereof can be redeemed by no other sort of piety 274 4. The inordinateness of our love difficilitateth this duty dissimulation in this conformity reproached and many benefits derivable from a sincere compliance represented as also presumption upon the Theory of this duty disswaded 282 5 The best preparatory disposition for the acting this duty the which maketh no obstruction in the course of justice as also powerful persons admonished of their temptation in this point of revenge and animated by their exceeding merit in this â—idelity 287 TREAT 16. Of considerations upon the unsuccesfulness of a good cause in six Sections 291 Sect. 1. That much Religion is requisite to assist us in this probation ib. 2. Motives to constancy after a prudent election of our cause 294 3. The variableness of the vulgar upon eventâ— and a prudent conduct proposed 297 4. An information of what kinde of conformity we owe Gods declared will in adverse events 299 5. The infirmity of our nature comforted by examples holy and prophane and the acquiesâ—ence to Gods order with constancy perswaded 302 6. The conclusion regulating all humors in this probation 310 TREAT 17. Of Solitude in two Sections 315 Sect. 1. The most useful order in describing the nature of solitude ib. 2. Solitude divided into three sorts and the first discoursed of 318 TREAT 18. Of a mixed sort or of Neutral solitude in three Sections 324 Sect. 1. Explaining this term by exhibiting the state of mans will in his elections 324 2. Treating divers motives that solicite this vocation 327 3. How God worketh and how the devil countermineth in this vocation wherein a safe course is directed 330 TREAT 19. Of violent solitude or close imprisonment in eight Sections 338 Sect. 1. How unwillingly our nature submitteth to the loss of liberty and society ib. 2. The deficiency of single natural reason argued for consolation in this case and the validity of grace asserted 340 3. Great benefit acknowledged to moral Philosophy and the right use thereof directed in order to our solacing 345 4. The disposure of our time treated and advised for improvement as well as easing of our minde 350 5. A method proposed in point of study and the use may be derived from story towards a right understanding of Divine providence 355 6. Some special meditations proposed for the divertisement of our minde 361 7. Some speculations suggested to recreate our spirits in sufferance and to invigorate our Faith 365 8. The final and most solid assignment of comfort for this condition 370 TREAT 20. Of the contempt of the world in 2. Sections 375 Sect. 1. Arguments to discredit all the attractives of this earth and Gods contribution thereunto produced ib. 2. Motives by the property of a Christian to contemn the world 384. TREAT 21. Of the preheminence of a true contemplative life in five Sections 385 Sect. 1. Contemplation defined and some excellencies thereof discoursed ib. 2. The gradations whereby we do ordinarily ascend up to this station 385 3. The requisitenes of lecture in order to this spiritual elevation 39â— 4. Speculation placed aâ— the last-step in this ascent of the soul 39â— 5. Of the sensible delight springing from this head of contemplation 401. The first Treatise A Map of HUMANE NATURE divided into two Sections §. I. Treating the Originall rectitude of Mans nature and the present obliquity thereof AS in Navigation Cosmographie is no lesse usefull then Astrologie by reason it is by some relation to the earth that all measures are taken and all reckonings are made in the severall courses of our saylings even so in our spirituall voyage through this life it seems no lesse requisite to study the Map of our own Earth we carry about us then to speculate the Globe of heaven whereunto we are steering in regard the constitution of our infirme Nature ought to be understood in order to the conducting of the Vessell to her supreme and heavenly designation And the knowledge of our selfe is as it were the Compasse whereby we must set our course since it is out of divers knowne properties of humane nature that we forme points of direction by which we judge how neere our actions and designs stand to the right course of a rational nature And as the soule and bodie in man hold an analogie with the firmament and the earth in point of constituting but one world of these so differing substances So shall we doe well to consider the spirituall and corporeall substances in man
Churches service being set by the hand of that great Master who in this last lesson of his owne voyce did concert this symphony in the musick of the Church and even ingaged his father to preserve this unity and consort by these words Holy Father keepe through thy owne name those whom thou hast given me that they may be one as we are one This cleereth to us the marke of concordancy in faith to be one of the most respondent unto Christs signature on his Church And as one may without arrogating to himselfe much of the science of a Physitian venture to pronounce what is the best temper to be composed of so may I safely affirme that Religion to be of the best constitution which consisteth the most perfectly of these two divine elements well intermixed Zeale and Charity the which may be said to make a good complexion in the face of Religion the first relating to the colour of the blood and the last to the fairnesse of the skin through which the good tincture of zeale is transparent in the works of charity wherefore the well tempering of these two qualities make that beauty in the Spouse of which the Bridegroome saith Behold how faire is my Love there is no spot in her And as the face although it be not an infallible yet is one of the best indications of the bodies health for although there be not any so secure symptomes in it as conclude against all infirmities yet there are some so resolving marks of unhealthfulnesse in the face as cannot mislead a prognostike of some infirmity So may we make a probable judgement of the foundnesse of a Religion by the faire and healthful aspect thereof and by the ill looks and disfigurements of some Religions we may warrantably sentence the unsoundnesse of them for there are some that have such marks of uncleannesse on their skin as not onely the Priest but even the People may discern the Leprosie This considered the most advised judgement touching Religion for the generality of men is the preferrence of that which hath the most promising countenance of this perfect constitution of unity in faith of orderly zeale and of active charity for out of these materials onely that flame is raised which our glorious high Priest came to kindle upon the earth The Fourth Treatise Of Devotion In two Sect. §. I. Devotion regularly defined and some accidents that raise it explicated THere is nothing seems more requisite towards the sincere practice of it then the sound definition of Devotion for it is much easier to copie well then to designe perfectly this worke Neverthelesse it is the familiar presumption of the world to passe themselves Masters by drawing the expressions of their piety by their own imagination rather them to work then by the Churches draughts and patterns and thus many are mistaken in the manner more then in the meaning of their religious duties for devotion consists more of conformity to order in pious applications then in contrivement of them wherefore this prescription of some spirituall director is given by God Obey them that rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your soules And herein is provided a rest as I may say for our zeale to discharge it selfe upon for when it is shot without that stay it often falls very wide of the right mark which the holy Spirit hath set up to us by the Psalmist in Not unto us O Lord but unto thy Name give glory So that this is the safest principle for all good inclinations to build upon viz. the right notion and understanding of devotion taken from some prudent director for even the steadiest hands draw straighter lines stayed and guided by a rule then left to their own loose motion And I may without presumption undertake to shape a generall good rule by the Model of the Churches doctrine whereby to take the right dimensions of rectified Devotion for this may be done by an unskilfull hand in the practicall part as good instruments may be made by Mechanicks who want the science of using them Devotion is a fervour infused into our soule by Grace which breatheth out continually an alacrity promptitude in regular and ordinate performances of all such religious duties as are ordained by God for the exteriour testimony of the interiour love and reverence we owe him This good habit of the mind is the fierie spiration of the holy Ghost taking in such sort upon our wills as it raiseth a flaming evidence of our love to God in all our actions and this is properly to be baptized with the Spirit and with fire to have all our affections turned Christian by the accension of that holy fire in our hearts which Christ said he came to cast into the earth and required the kindling and ardencie of it in us so that the activity of this spirituall fire in our soules is that we tearme our devotion which implyes a conformity of our affections in morality and our opinions in religion to the revealed will of God our appetites we conforme in acquiring such habits of virtue as are expresly enjoyned us by God in his commandments and our own conceptions we submit in our conformity to such acts of religious worship as are directed to us by the Church which God hath invested with power of direction by these words of his commission They that heare you heare me and they that despise you despise me promising also the spirit of truth to rectifie all the executions of this power and the residence of that spirit to the end of the World In order to the preservation of that capacity imparted hence is it that there is no zeale or fervour of spirit which may properly passe for Devotion that is not touched at the test of the sanctuary which is obedience to the Churches regulations for many may thinke themselves in Saint Pauls discipline in the ferrour of the spirit when they are neerer Saint Judes commination of perishing in the contradiction of Core for as Saint John sayes The Spirit of Truth and of Errour is discerned by hearing the voyce of the Church not by singing loud in it therefore it is not the straining our notes but the singing in tune that makes the musick of Devotion wherewith God is delighted But supposing the flame of our Devotion to be lighted by a coal from the Altar the higher it riseth the neerer it cometh to Heaven for there must not be only interiour heat but exteriour light in it Saint John Baptist is a perfect image of Devotion in that Character Christ gives of him he was a burning a shining light which signifieth internall sincerity and active exemplarity and our Saviour intimates these two requisitions in our Devotion when he gives us this order Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good workes and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven wherefore
certainly such a temper is apter for a right conversion then a harsh and sowre constitution of the mind the first is a good mould of earth with ill seed cast into it and so the fruit may be ill while the pregnancy of the earth is good the other is a heath naturally unfruitfull and requires much more manuring to make it beare Wherefore that nature which hath not a kindly pregnancy in it to beare love is not the best mould for the seed in the Gospell for though it may render thirty it can hardly yeeld the increase of a hundred fold in Devotion Certainly we may then very religiously preferre the constitution of such mindes whose powers are best disposed for the act of loving for love as it is the greatest treasure of our soules so is it the only security stands bound to God for all our debts all the other faculties of man seeme to be receivers only and this the discharger of all their accounts but love hath this extraordinary blessing the greater expense it makes upon this occasion the richer it growes for the more our love payes God the more it improves the same estate but we can assigne nothing but this pure species of love to the receipt of heaven Wherefore all empty formalities and unsincere affectations in exteriour exercises that would passe for Devotion are me thinkes like servants that have got on fine clothes of their Masters by which strangers may mistake their quality but their Masters are not deceived by them so these garments and coverings of Devotion may abuse the eye of the world but we know the master of all sanctity distinguishes dissimulation in all the specious similitudes it weareth And I should beleeve a varnished hypocrite may be more offensive to the sight of God then a zealous unvailed idolater for this is but mistaken in God and the other seemeth to suppose God may be mistaken in him and certainly there is nothing more capitall against the lawes of Heaven then counterfeiting the coyne which piety may not improperly be tearmed as being the price and measure of all exchanges between heaven and earth of these false coyners King David sayes They slatter God with their mouth lye unto him with their tongues and he gives them Gods answer thus The Lord shall laugh them to scorn We may conclude then that the sincere love of God is the spirit and soul of Devotion and therefore is to be intire in every severall part of our religious exercises when God dignifies man with similitude to his own image it is the soul not the body that hath this Divine relation so in the service of God which is a consistence of two such parts united of spirit and of matter the spirit and breath of life doth not reside in the materiall part which is sensible religious offices but in the informing and animating part which is Devotion the which answereth to the soule in humanity as I have endeavoured to demonstrate And thus I hope that I have not indecently apparell'd Devotion in the habit of the place it is recommended to clothing it in this soft rayment of passion being to come unto the houses of Kings But now me thinkes I heare some sensuall and voluptuous persons cry out to warne their passions to stand upon their guard objecting that I like a pyrat have thus put up friends colours while I am in chase calling devotion love and passion that it might the easilyer enter our hearts which when it hath done it takes and imprisons all our humane delights To these I may answer that I have put up these colours indeed that those vessels I would speak with might not fly from piety at first sight as from an enemy to pleasure that speaking with them I might shew them how Devotion comming and possessing our mindes doth rather compose the munity then infringe the true liberty of our affections For grace findes Humane Nature like a vessell richly fraught for commerce with Heaven most commonly in a mutiny where the affections that should saile her rise up against their Commander resolving to make spoile of their commodities and to turne to the piracy of sense taking all whereof sensuality can possesse it selfe and if Devotion enter and compose this sedition and convey the affections cheerefully to their direct commerce with Heaven this may be rather thought a delivery then a violation And surely our senses cannot more justly complaine of Devotion as a dispossessor of their properties then wilde people can call a Law-giver a tyrant For piety doth but regulate the functions not ruine the faculties of our senses and licentiousnesse cannot more rightly be called the mindes liberty then nakednesse the bodies freedome For lawes and apparell doe both in their kinds cover natures nakednesse and lawes like clothes impart conveniencies the one to the minde as the other to the body without impeaching the decent and proper exercises of either and so Devotion doth but reduce the wild multitude of humane affections and passions under the Monarchall Government of the love of God under which they may enjoy a more convenient freedome then let loose in their owne confused Anarchy which they confesse when they are converted by God to this belief of their condition that to serve God is to raigne The Fift Treatise Discoursing whether sensible pleasure may consort with Devotion In two Sections §. I. The rectifying our Affections chiefely our love in the sense of beauty UPon the title of this Chapter me thinkes I see our humane affections stand with the same perplexed attention as a condemn'd multitude at the reading of a Proclamation of Grace to some particular specified names each one watching and praying for his owne Thus doe our humane passions seeme now concerned believing themselves all condemn'd by piety each one me thinkes in a frighted and tacit deprecation of their censure is expecting with anexity to know whether Devotion will allow them life and consistence with her edicts The answer to this must be that I shall only put to death the blind and the lame whch are commonly set to keep the strong hold of our corrupted nature against virtue As they were upon the walls of Sion to keep out David Such Devotion must destroy for they are hated by her Soule and are not to be admitted into the Temple Secular justice is allowed a latitude in mercy to which this spirituall judge cannot extend his favour viz. rather to save diverse guilty then to cut off one innocent for Devotion must rather put to death many innocent affections then save one criminall by reason that in this case mercy renders the judge a complice of the crime so that our Devotion must not looke upon the face of any of our affections but judge by the testimony our conscience brings in against them Yet piety is not so inhumane as many may apprehend that know not the nature thereof for it delighteth not in the death of our
Wherefore it must needs lye as a heavier charge upon men then they usually account it the breaking this bruised Reed by pressing so much flattery upon it for the aptnes which beauty hath to raise selfe-love may be reputed an allay of the naturall blessing thereof it may be this propensity to selfe-deceiving is set as another Fine upon womans head for her first fault and the facility of her minds conceiving and the pleasure of bearing this spirituall issue of selfelove is another kind of judgement upon her first credulity and to be thus endangered in her soule by the pleasure of her best materiall property which is beauty seemeth a greater penalty then the sorrow of her other labour Upon which ground Lovers do likely treate at first by Parly to introduce selfe-love into the heart by the Presents of flatteries and certainly more are betrayed by Natures intelligence with the subtilty of adulation then taken by the breach of interest For indeed selfe-love in woman hath a strange quality the more it perswades her to over-value her selfe the more it tempteth her to cast her selfe away and so men cheapen their bargain most by commending what they would have Therefore let not even those who without any designe do suffer their tongues to ruâ—ne loose by fashion in the praises of Womens graces and beauties thinke this aymelesse roving of their fancies altogether innocent though they pretend only to spring and put up their good humours and not to set and take their affections for convertly they undermine vertue though they lay not a Traine to blow it up The Tempter never wanteth ministers that watch hearts as they grow hollow and void of humility to fill them up with vanity and then the Mine is too easily sprung so many may be guilty of filling of hearts with Pride and selfe-love while they meant only to empty their own fancy and thus their wits serve the Tempter as Jonathans Page did his master for they carry Arrowes which the Devill shootes upon Design though they are not privie to the intention It is no wonder that fraile woman should be so much deceived in the colours and features of all their good qualities since the Devill and Man joyne and study nothing so much as to make them flattering reflexes of their persons and powers of their mind and so woman is entertained commonly in her first manner of delusion for that is still taken from her which shee believeth is given her the being like God for her innocence is a much better resemblance of God then mans vain adoration But let not men thinke they have an easie account to make for all those levities which they expose so handsomely as womens eyes are deceived by those false lights for that which will prove an aggravation of mens faults will serve as an extenuating circumstance for womens defence their wit and dexterousnes may deduct somewhat from the guilt of womans trespasses for she may plead now some commiserablenes by saying the man who was given me as my sentence to obey deceived me and as one of the reasons given why God did compassionate the fall of Man and not of Angels is that they sinned without any exteriour sollicitation so certainly abused woman shall find this circumstance as some intercession for her the being assaulted by a forreigne power of temptation which may move God the easilyer to call such to him as Christ did the Woman who had a spirit of infirmity so long upon her that tyed her from looking upward and Christ giveth this reason for his calling her when she did not it seemeth thinke on him that she was bound by Sathan and she is a good figure of the infirmity of her Sex which is easily overcome and bound by the violence of exterior temptations wherefore God doth more easily commiserate their fallen frailties and calleth them with more pitie then he doth the stronger Sex which have the crime of abusing their strength towards the others defection Wee can but hope that the Samaritane Lover was comprised in the conuersions of her towne we are sure of her sanctification and we have little reason to hope of the adulterers remission when the Woman found such commiseration in Christ so as we may conclude God is more indulgent to the infirmity of woman extenuated and modified by the exterior pressure of temptation then he is to the infidelity of man who is as it were trusted with a charge of superiority rather to succour then supplant the weaknes of that Sex Admitting this they who are so licentious in all their entertainments of Women should remember sometimes the penalty Christ hath set upon the scandalizing of little ones for there are few women that are not alwayes children in this point of being able to beare fond praises and adulations without enfeebling and lightening their minds so as all those levities which the fancies of men vapour out in their conversation with these little ones are Mill-stones which they are insensibly hanging upon their own necks while they are thus scandalizing them that is while they are leaning and pressing upon the infirmity of nature that way it standeth already bowed And since humane nature is of so fraile a constitution as the purest blood of it is the easilyest tainted we ought to be the more sober and temperate in treating and entertaining the most infirme part of it which is Beauty with the delicacies of praises since by nature it is so apt to make excesses upon such diet If we consider how profuse and inordinate even the most reserved Lovers are in this entertainment we may easily sentence even this light riot to be poyson to piety and devotion which saith with the Psalmist I will take heed to my wayes that I sinne not with my tongue what can then be answered for them who take care of their tongues only to make way for their sinne and since we are to account for idle words methinks that order should easily determine never so slight a passion to be inconsistent with Religion for we know they are the aliment and life of all such excesses and certainly no idle words are so hard to answer for as upon this subject of vain love Upon other occasions many vapouring extravagancies are like squibs thrown up and breake in the aire above the heads of the company and so offend no body but upon this purpose they are likely Traines laid to take fire and worke some ill effect so that idle words upon the ground of passion grow not as Weeds wild out of the pregnancy of the earth but are set as poysonous plants with design of making venemous compositions How heavy these light words will lye upon them let every one judge by this rule that they are to be accounted for at the same price each one setteth upon them for just as much as they would have them passe whether they be taken or no at that rare by those they would put them off
this the Sword which he saith he came to send and not Peace Wherefore this hostility declared against our Flesh must be remembred to be the first Article of that peace of the Spirit which is concluded in Contemplation §. III. The requisiteness of Lecture in order to this Spiritual elevation THe next Stage whereby we are to rise is pious Lecture which subject calls back my thoughts upon the first state of mans knowledge wherein we may consider That the first Humane Soul came into this world perfect in the intellectual part by Science infused and needed not stay for the help of her corporeal organs to acquire any for those instruments whereby she was to act were ready in their perfection before she was seated in them since Gods forming perfectly the body of man preceded his breathing into it the breath of Life And so we finde that he was able to reade presently in the book of Gods works wherein he read the character of Gods hand in every creature that was set before him and as I may say superscribed their names upon them by the secret impression he read of their Nature But not being satisfied with this excellent degree of intelligence he began to affect the reading even in Gods own increated book The knowing like God himself Upon this presumption the rational soul of Man was cast down from this high form and set so much backward as ever since both the Vegetative and Sensitive souls precede her long in the perfection of their acts and she is obliged to stay their leisure before she can act her best according to her faculty which must cost her also pains and care to reduce it unto the best extent thereof Thus is now the rational Soul sentenced to feed her self by her kinde of sweat and labor so that she is not onely to acquire most of her natural knowledges by a laborious industry but she is also set to work by study and attention even upon those supernatural Principles that are infused into her as those of Faith Hope and Charity even these infused habits will not so much as remain in her without her own study and solicitude to preserve them much less can they be improved to their best degree without much intendment and application And to facilitate the perfection of the Soul in this life God hath been pleased to make his own Character and to leave it legible under his own Hand his holy Scriptures wherein all his attributes are penn'd in the fairest maner to affect our understandings and to take our affections insomuch as of the holy Writ it may be well said to God The light of thy countenance is impressed upon it This living spring of Verities the Holy Ghost hath left upon the earth from whence all the rivelets of pious Books derive their waters which are so proper to refresh and see undate the minde of Man as the Holy Ghost doth but rarely use his own power of impregnating and replenishing Souls with immediate inspirations but vouchsafeth for the most part to be conveyed into our mindes by the mediate spirations into them of vertuous notions from his subalternate instruments the pens of his holy Ministers which he doth certainly inspire with qualities â—o well proportioned to our capacities as they deliver Divine Truths unto our mindes under such familiar and agreeable forms as are most apt to work upon our affections This is the design of the Holy Ghost in all pious Books wherein his Spirit remaineth covered in the elements of mans conceptions for words may be said to be a kinde of body to thoughts as the Divinity of Christ did under the vails of Flesh and Blood In like maner it is the Divine vertue of the Holy Spirit that worketh all those devout effects which are produced by the instrumental conceptions of pious Writers Wherefore as the Scriptures are to be read with perswasion that God is presentially speaking to us so all Books of Devotion are to be used with this opinion of their speaking to us as delegated and deputed from God The minde of Man abhorreth vacuity and though her Nature tend upward to be replenished with Spiritual notions yet if she be void of them she sinketh presently to earth to take in any grosser furniture so that if she be not provided with such pure species as may keep her pointing at her own Centre in stead of being elevated as it were above her self in Contemplation she will fall below her self into some terrene amuzement Wherefore a habit of pious Lecture is most necessary in order to the replenishing her with Spiritual Images that may keep her eye always erected up upon them and may we not well infer the requisiteness of reading for the support of the Spiritual Man since Saint Paul doth not onely advise his so elevated Disciple Timothy to attend unto reading but chargeth him with great solicitude to bring him some Books even after he had told him he had consummated his course and the time of his revolution was near If he who had been in Paradice already in a transcient state and was so near his going thither to a permanent did still make use of Books how necessary must they be for all such as aspire to any Spiritual exaltation §. IV. Speculation placed as the last step in this ascent of the Soul THis last station carrieth us up to the top of this Mount Moria from whence we have descended and so is the steepest part and the uneasiest mounting of all the rest as it is nearest the vertical point of our fixure This last step then is Speculation or Meditating which act of our discursive faculty is commonly taken as univocal with this other of our minde fixed in Contemplation but when they are rightly distinguished there appeareth such a diversity as is between the last strains of motion and the term of acquiescence For Speculation is properly the busie attention of the minde in the inquest of truth ranging and casting out all ways to bring in conclusions for the Spirit to fix and rest upon in Contemplation which as I have said is a fruitive possession of Verities which flowers the minde doth no longer gather or collect but rather hold in her hand ready made up in nosegays that she is smelling to Me thinks these two different states of the Minde may be rendred very intelligible by a conception my Fancy hath sprung while it is ranging for some fit expression of this very act which my Minde is now exercising and I may say That Speculation and Contemplation differ â—ust so as my present writing of their differences doth from my reading them anon when I have finished them For now my imagination is beating and casting all ways for some well suited similitude whereby to illustrate the diversity of these two acts and my memory is sifting and sorting apposite words to express my conceptions and thus by degrees I shall by means of this studious Application of