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
allure us May not that be justly then contemned which either afflicteth us for the present or betrayeth us for the future O how admirable is God in this piece of distributive Justice to Mankinde who having by his Providence comparted the conditions in this world into such a diversity of states as cannot admit all to the fruition of secular Delights hath commanded that none should love them by which order the lowest ranks are much compensated in this respect That it is a harder task to forbear loving such things when we enjoy them then it is to contemn them when we know we can neither expect them nor ought to love them If they who use this world must be as though they used it not those who use least of it may be said to be seated the nearest to this performance and certain it is That their state is the most conterminate to that of the true Propriator of the whole world while he was upon the earth who did himself use those things most which we use to love the least and yet alloweth us to enjoy even the most pleasing proporties of the earth provided we do not love the world in that relation All secular goods were so unworthy of the love of the God and Man Christ Jesus as they are not allowed the love even of single Mary for all the most precious and glorious things of this world are ordained to serve Man as his slave unto whose offices there can be assigned no love for this wages doth presently invert the two conditions rendring the lover the slave How reasonable then must it be to address unto him all our love who hath by his love to us subjected all these things unto us and hath so disposed it as to maintain our Prerogative there is required no Art but the contemning of what stands thus subjected Whereupon I may well press you in this point as the Apostle doth Let this minde be in you which was also in Christ Jesus his comportment towards the world was intended to give you the same minde Look then upon your Nature in the author and finisher of our Faith and you shall see Mans dominion over the World maintained by contemning it the world was so perfectly crucified to him all his life as he contemned the being crucified by the world despising as the Apostle saith even the greatest shame and confusion of this world And what could this Divine Man do more to imprint in us this aversion to the world then these two acts in not vouchsafeing to enjoy any of those things the cupidities whereof use to vitiate us to leave all them abased and vilified and in not declining the sufferance of such things whereof the terror doth likely subject us to the world to render them easie and acceptable What hath the world then left in it for Motives either of our love or fear of it that even God himself may not be said both to have undervalued and undergone And what we are enjoyned neither to love nor fear cannot seem uneasie for us to despise especially when this advantage is annexed That we gain more by contemning the whole world then we can by enjoying our own divident therein For whereas Fortune keeps many worldlings poor the Contempt of the world keeps Fortune her self wanting and indigent leaving her nothing to give to such a disposition So that in stead of incurring the reproach of the Prophet in setting up a Table to Fortune and offering libaments upon it this habit of minde sacrificeth and destroyeth Fortune upon the Altar of the Holy Spirit and thus even the feathers of Fortune to wit The vanities and levities of this Age when they are incensed and consumed by a holy Contempt of this world may make a sweet Savor in the Temple of God whereupon I may say That these sorts of feathers which while they are burning in the flame of our sensitive passions yield an odour of death unto death when they are consuming in this Sacrifical fire of a zealous Contempt and Renunciation of them afford a savor of life unto life in this act of their destruction in our mindes In the time of the Law when the Commodities of the Earth seemed to be proposed as the Salary of Mans vertue there might be some colour to love this world and so in that state God accepted the Beasts of the Earth for Holocausts But in the Gospel when no less then the enjoying of God himself and all his goods is exhibited for the term of our desires it cannot seem unequal that even the whole World should be required for a Holocaust immolated and consumed by a Religious Annihilation of it in our Mindes to the honor of such a Remunerator §. II. Motives by the property of a Christian to contemn the World VVHen we consider our selves under the notion of Members to such a Head as hath offered up as a Holocaust even the Creator of the whole Universe it seemeth not strange but rather suitable for such Members to Sacrifice the whole World to hold some proportion unto their Head especially since his offering of himself was in order to the enabling us to Sacrifice and destroy this world Doth not this our Head God and Man Christ Jesus say That even in his life the judgement of this world was given it was sentenced to Contempt by his despising it he that did not disdain to own the Infirmities of Man did notwithstanding protest against his being of this world so much hath he left it vilified to us And doth not he say If he were exalted above the earth be would draw all men unto him So that in this exaltation is proclaimed our Duty and capacity of transcending this world and treading on it with Contempt by the attractive Vertue of this our Head raised above all the Heavens And we may remember That the first Members he was pleased to unite unto him upon Earth were instantly elevated to that height of being above the world seated in this abnegation and despection May I not then fitly say with Saint Paul These things were done in a figure of us since what they left to lighten them for this transcendency is an apposite figure of what we are to do in order to this elevation namely To relinquish our Nets in this world which we may understand in two sences that comprise all our directions in this case to wit either as we are actively catching and chasing the Commodities of this Age or as we are passively taken and intangled in the love of what we enjoy In the first of these states we may be said to have our Nets in our hand and in the second to have them in our hearts so that to leave our Nets signifieth to relinquish both our solicitous Cupidities and Passions in point of pursuing the goods of this World and our Inordinate love in case of their possession And this disposition of Minde raiseth us to that exaltation
we know the way The first seemed to question onely the truth of Christs affirmation not to intend the being satisfied in his question whereas the other sought to be informed of the readyest accesse to that truth which he believed so they who shall be moved onely by the captiousnesse of the Infidel examinant in this point are like after his manner not to stay long enough upon the inquest to be enlightened in this verity but to such as with the credulity of faithfull Disciples shall make this quaere How shall we know the way to this truth you propose namely a rectifyed understanding and true use of all prosperous and adverse events in this life I may say as the Angel did to the faithfull watchers at the Sepulchre after he had strucken as it were dead the miscreant wayters Fear not you If you seek Jesus for he answereth all sincere inquirers of truth as he did Saint Thomas I am the way and the truth and none commeth to verity but by me yet this me thinks gives a fair hint for such a further demand as Saint Philips was saying Shew us the plain direct way of comming to you Lord Jesus and it will suffice us This question Christ hath also answered by this most evident direction of Ask seek and knock for every one that asketh receiveth and that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened Prayer is therefore expresly given us for our addresse to Jesus who is truth and in these three proper divisions of petition meditation and perseverance which ought to be concomitant with each of them our asking respecteth the particular suits we make seeking importeth the application of our minds unto Spiritual verityes and knocking referreth to our zeal earnestnesse and perseverance in the acts of prayer and to this sort of prosecution is annexed the promise of asseqution of truth wherefore I may answer my inquirers as Christ did some who distrusted his proposals If any man will do this wil of Jesus he shall understand of the Doctrine whether it be of God or I speak of my self So that considering aright these gratious assignations unto prayer I may say we may obtain the possession of verity even with lesse solicitude then we can neglect it for the seeking asking and knocking in this world upon such applications as divert us from this inquest are the more laborious assignments of our mind May I not therefore boldly reply to all the incredulous and disbelievers of the facility of this medium exhibited Say not in thine heart who shall thus ascend into heaven for the word is nigh thee in thy mouth and in thy heart we onely need but as the Prophet adviseth us return to our own hearts to find that happynesse which while we seek else-where we lose our hearts in that inquest True it is that the great enemy of our nature useth all his arts towards the prejudicating this belief of the alsufficiency of prayer in which designe he doth now impugne our nature by a Machination farre differing from his first slandering it to us now almost as much as he did heretofore flatter it for now to discredit to us our capacity of repairing his first breach he suggesteth the ineptitude of our present state for this perception of truth and seemeth to ask us now by way of derision Shall you be like Gods thus knowing good and evill so that he tempteth us now and often prevaileth upon us even by the disparagement of our nature thus much hath he gained upon us since his first acquaintance when he durst not attempt us by lesse then the promise of a capacity above our nature to wit of knowing like Gods whereas now he presumes to implead our right to that knowledge which is due to us as men that is the discernment of our being qualified for the penetration into truth by the beames of prayer and meditation But the holy Spirit hath left us a good caution against this delusion Resist the Devill and he will flie from you approach to God and he will approach to you This refuteth all suggestions of diffidence in this point of attaining by prayer the effect of my proposition since God promiseth to set forward to meet us as soon as our prayers do but set out towards him which is likewise aver'd by the Psalmist assuring us God is near all such as call upon him in truth Gods mercy hath so much outdone mans mischiefe as he hath not left him either the subtilty of the Devil or the infirmity of his nature to charge with the continuance of his misery there must go an accession of wilfulnesse to our weaknesse for the duration of our unhappynesse For since the Divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godlinesse we have no more colour left to diffide in the meanes of rectifying the enormities of our infirm nature then a Malefactor that were offer'd grace for asking it had reason to fall sick die for fear of his former sentence he who hath blotted out the hand-writing of the Decree against our nature hath given us his hand for such security of obtaining what we solicite by this appointed meanes and method as we can onely indanger the wanting a sufficient provision by our pretending too little by this addresse for surely this rule will hold in our asking little Spirituall light that what we have shall be rather taken away then more confer'd and the contrary disposition will likewise be answered with the more abundance What Saint Gregory conceiveth to be the case of the Saints in heaven in this point of supplicating God may be firly said to be that of us sinners upon earth in our act of petitioning for Spirituall light and verity as the Saints the more ardently they are united to God receive the more fervent impulses from him of asking what they know he is resolved to do and thus drink out of him what they thirst for in him after such a manner the more zealously our prayers are applyed to the pursuite of Spirituall illumination the more fervent desires we attract from the increated verity of begging what we are sure he will give viz the discernment of truth whereby in an admirable sort we draw from Jesus even in this life the hunger in the very food we take of them while our prayer attracting the infusion of truth doth extract conjoyntly out of those verityes fresh desires of the same illuminations May not these considerations justly silence any objection against the facility of this proposed medium of prayer for obtaining from God a sufficient communication of that truth wherein I have stated the happinesse of this life since there is no condition charged upon this grant but the sincere desiring it which is comprised in the direction of Christ prementioned and the Apostle witnesseth to the same tenor re-minding us in this particular the frequent promises of the giver of
of humane nature in her own current and in the other a draught of that constancy may be superinduced upon it by this intervention of grace which is attracted naturally by the aspirations of prayer according to what the Psalmist tells us I opened my mouth and I drew in thy Spirit I may therefore hope to have acquitted my self of such direction as was requisite for attaining the possession of that truth wherin I had constituted happinesse and my way is so accessible it lies as neer every one as their own wil which is affirmed by the holy Spirit saying Open thy mouth and I will fill it This considered I may expect the perswading some at Court to be suitors to God for Devotion concurrently with all their other suites since in all the fortunes they can make they cannot unmake fortune For the variable temper of humane felicities is not to corrected and fixed Since they cannot then stay what is transitory let them attend to arrest that which is fixable which is a good degree of peaceable acquiescence of spirit in all transitory events and as no temporalities can conferre this spirit so no contingencies can sequester it for it is the spirit of Truth that stayes our minde which partly is composed of the knowledge and expectance of alternative variations in temporalities and hence it is that in all adverse changes this spirit is rather in action and practice of his owne constant nature then in suffering or passion with the fraile nature of temporall mutations Let me then intreat all those who neede not be pressed to muster themselves at Saint Pauls summons of Rejoyce alwayes to remember that this treasure is the pay and stipend of his discipline of pray without ceasing and give thankes in every thing for this is the will of God Whereby we may make all the severall conveyances of Gods providences new deeds of joy to us when our rejoycing is seated upon his will and thus our happinesse that cannot stand still upon the fixure of our fortunes may be firme upon the confixure of our wills to that immoveable one that changes all things Without any vicissitude or shadow of change in it selfe The ninth Treatise Of the Condition of Courts Princes and Courtiers Divided into three Sect. §. I. The best Notion of Courts proposed IN the Law of Moses all the Rites and Ceremonies were not only declaratory formes of the present Religion but significative figures of a future state and howsoever most of the vulgar looked no farther then the glosse and lustre of the exterior vaile which was the beauty and decency of the forme and order that affected them yet the nobler sort passed their sight through that vaile and fixed it upon the signification and mysterie it selfe and thereby had not only their eye of sense delighted but that of their understanding enlightned by these objects In reference whereunto I may hope not improperly to apply these considerations to the Courts of Princes since all the exteriour state of Ceremony and Reverence being truly conceived is significative as referr'd to the images of God and thus all the distinguished ranks of honour which compose the formall order of Courts are figures of those different degrees of Ministers which attend their Originall the King of Kings and in this order the Glory and Majesty which exteriorly in all sorts resideth about the persons of Princes may be fitly understood to represent in such shaddowes as these materialities can make the celestiall magnificence of the King of Heaven so that one who will interpret religiously the Ceremonies of Princes Courts may say all things befall them in figures But certaine it is there are many in Courts who determine and center their thoughts upon the fronts and out-sides of these mansions which are honour riches pleasure and raise all their Devotions to the place upon those objects and such are truly the meaner sort of Courtiers though they be greatest in the measure of the world and there are some of the other party who penetrate into the religious sense of these exteriour figures and derive from them spirituall conceptions and appetities concluding by these glories which are but the shaddowes of those they signifie that the substance it self must needs be above what eye hath seene or eare heard or hath entred into the heart of Man and so by this view are quickned in their ambition towards those originall honours and these are the nobility of Courts though they be never so inferiour in office Of these two kindes of Courtiers is verified The first shall be last and the last first And likewise of the first sort we may say as the Apostle saith of the Law the Letter kils If the litterall sense of the faire text of this worlds glories take up and fix their mindes and of the latter sort the spirit quickens when out of these specious objects they extract a spirituall sense which excites in them a celestiall aspiring and emulation Such a figurative conception Saint Fulgentius framed out of these images when he was asked whether the beauty and Majesty of Rome did not worke upon his affections he answered If terrestriall Rome be so beautifull how glorious must be celestiall Jerusalem His minde was so little taken or retarded on her way as she stayd not at all in the outward Court of the Gentiles but passed on as in her way through it to the Holy of Holies and by this method who attend the offices of their mindes upon earth and waite not upon the places of their bodies concluding that they are but strangers and passengers through these courts and Fellow-citizens of the Saints and Domestikes of God make excellent use of all the lustrous and polished glories of the place for instead of looking on them as flattering glasses and mirrours which reflect only the materiall beauty of the earth they make opticke glasses of them through which they do the easilier take the height of the celestiall glories and surely the sight of our minde is much helped by such materiall instruments in the speculation of spiritualities by reason that in this her prison all the intelligence of our minde with immaterialities passeth as I may say through her keepers hands which are her senses that can carry nothing but corporeall images to her and therefore we see the Apostle Saint John drawes the image of the court of heaven in such colours as are most visible and most affecting in the Courts of the earth whereby to raise our imaginations upon these steps which they can tread upon to some proportionate conception of such fruitions as are truly all spirituall and Intellectuall And under this notion all the lusters and splendors of Courts being understood as figures of the sublimer and purer state of the Kingdome of heaven are convenient ascents for our weak apprehensions to rise up to the love and estimation of these spirituall objects for the same affections which move us so
as the Wiseman telleth us The Creatures of God are become snares but to the feet of the unwise wherefore he directs us how to escape this capture by entring into other bonds of pre-ingagement to wisdome Putting our feet into her fetters and our neck into her chaine These fetters are of too solid a substance to be catched and intangled in the slight brittle snares of Courts the chaines of wisdome are made linkes of Gold which cannot hang in cobwebs The levities and nugacities of the world to those who look on them only with the pur-blind eye of sense may prove clouds and even so thick ones as their sight cannot transpierce them that is looke beyond such vanities when those that see clearly with the eye of reason discerne such slight traverses to be but like cobwebs that do not eclipse to them the light of Heaven it is not the matter of temptations in Courts which worketh like celestiall bodies upon terrestriall by a predominant impression but it is the disposition of the patients which rendereth the matter so malignant for all the vanities of Courts in a confession of their owne impotency to force our affections doe soothe and flatter our senses first and corrupt them towards the possession of our mindes Whereupon as Moses said to the children of Israel I may say to those who are called into this land of milke and honey If thou shalt say in thine heart these inhabitants of the place are more then I and how can I prevaile against them thou shalt not be afraid of them but remember what the Lord can do how many hath he carryed with a mighty hand through all these confederations of snares in Courts sundry examples of such holy victories attest to us this word of the Apostle The Lord knowes how to deliver the godly out of temptations It is related in the life of Saint Anthony the holy Hermite how in a vision he saw the world all hung over with nets and the very aire over-spead with them so that in great commiseration of their estates who lived in it he asked God how it was possible to escape in our passage and make way up to Heaven and he was answered there was no way left which was to creep under them for they were not so fastned below to the earth but they yeelded and gave way to that posture of humility And since our Head Christ Jesus did vouchsafe to be figured to us under the notion of a worm no man this lowly posture of creeping through this world could not mis-become his members Therefore to such as have their mindes laid even and levelled by this line of humility I may say while they are creeping under these snares with the Prophet Feare not thou worme Jacob I will help thee saith the Lord thou shalt thresh the mountaines and make the hils as chaâ—fe thou shalt fan them and the winde shall carry them away all the mountaines of greatnesse and power and the hiles of plenty and pleasure shall appeare to the eyes of an humble soule broken and crumbled into that dust which they consist of and their resolutions shall be able to blow them off from their affections like chaffe assisted by the winde of the holy Spirit which blowes alwayes so strongly in such soules as the levities of this world that flie about them cannot cleave and hang upon them And we must settle this principle that humility is not seated in locall depression and obscurity but in mentall purity and illumination and so conclude the scitation of Courts is not in that torrid zone of pride which some imagine to be uninhabitable for humility §. II. Reall humility recommended discerned from Court-ship and proved consonant to the state of Courtiers THis admitted the best prescription can be given a Courtier against all his infirmities is pious and discreet humility and this is so farre from being alledged by themselves incompetent with their vocation as almost every one pretends the being furnished with it as a requisite qualification though indeed most commonly it is so hollow as even the best noise it makes speakes the emptinesse of it as being but a tinkling cymball of ceremony and complement There is a slight glittering stuffe which commonly Courts are hung with which passeth there for humility and is truly but the tinsell of civility and courtship through which one may often see the walls to consist of pride and selfe-love Wherefore they who desire the reall benefit of this virtue must discerne between this superficiall colouring and the true being of humility and endeavour an acquiring the habit thereof in their minde not study the fashion of it only in their exteriour commerce Me thinkes one may properly argue with Courtiers as S. Paul did with the Hebrewes by representing to them how all the externall Ceremonies wherein they were so Religious were types and figures of that reality which he proposed to them and so their customes and observances might well dispose them sooner then the undisciplined heathen to acknowledge that bodie whose shadow was so famillar to them In like manner may not I say to Courtiers that all the civilities Ceremonies and mutuall submissions whereof they are so studious are figures of that substantiall humility which I recommend to them from whence I may argue that their habituall practices in these exteriour representations of that virtue should advance their mindes more then other lesse civilized conversations towards the acquiring of that reall humblenesse of spirit I recommend to their intentions Those of whom it is commonly said as Saint Paul said of the Pharisees that they are of the best sect of their Religion viz. they who are accompted the most accomplished in all urbanity and Courtship and are the most exquisite in all civill polishments in the purifications of their apparell and tables and all other sorts of humane neatnesse and curiosity they I say must remember not to rest so much on these traditions of men as to forget the graver and weightier parts of the Law of Christianity which is purity of heart and poverty of spirit two of our King Christ Jesus his qualifications for the Courtiers of heaven required in the order of his beatitudes instituted in the Gospell As for the other exteriour polishments and decencies which are pertinent to their condition I may say with our Saviour in the like case these things may be done but the other not omitted for civility and sincerity proprety and purity honour and humility may be fellow Courtiers and all of one party So that I may say to these of the best sort Therefore ô men you are inexcusable for you condemne your selves by these exteriour professions of those virtues if you have not the interiour signature and impression of them in so much as the immundicities of Tyre and Sidon shall be more tollerable viz. the ruder formes of life where humility and purity is not so much represented to them
shall not be so much charged with their defects in them as this Capernaum where these virtues seeme preached every day and wonders done in this Doctrine of ceremoniall purity which is a figure of a reall immaculatenesse of minde But I must speak yet plainer and declare that this humility I propose to Courtiers for their commerce with one another is farre different from that currant species of a verball imagery of this vertue which I have decryed for it is an internall habit or disposition of humblenes impressed upon our spirits by the signature and character of truth made by a lively exhibiting to our minds the intrinsique value of all specious temporalities by which perception we are disposed to dis-value really this world and our selves in the first place as knowing best our interior unworthinesse and this sincere root of Humility beares our severall engagements proportionated respectively First to the greatnesse of God then to the meannesse of our selves and next to our nearnesse and relation to our Brother And as these three divisions contain the totall summe of Christianity so is there no better Accountant to make up a just estimate of these divisions then Humility whereof they who are solidly possessed shall not be confounded in the diverse fractions and partitions of estimates either of things or persons which their condition requires them to make in the true account of this world for they can easily by this Rule of Three wherein Humility is perfect divide all their respects to each of those duties and so give God Themselves and their Brother respectively their just estimations Nor can it be answered that this degree of exactnes seemeth opposed by the offices of this Vocation for this cleare-sighted Humility is so farre from being incompetent with the condition of Courtiers as if many circumstances be fairely weighed their profession may appeare more advantaged then any towards this endowment since likely they are the sharpest and most discerning Spirits which apply themselves to this active course of life and surely this dis-abusing the object is the most fairely and most familiarly exposed in Courts viz. The ficklenesse and infidelity of all temporall advantages since what the world calls Fortune goes in other places more modestly attired and so may easily be mistaken whereas in Courts presuming on her beauty like a professed Curtizan she unveiles her selfe confident of corrupting even those to whom she proclaims her disloyaltie by continual shows triumphs of inconstancy Many private and setled states of Life do take this knowledge of the instability of humane goods but by heare-say living themselves in a calme dead water where they feele little motion of variety but Courtiers who are in this Ocean of Fortune feele continually her tides and very frequently her stormes insomuch as they living in a perpetuall fluctuation of temporalities may be said to walke Per speciem in the sight of the true nature of all mundanities and to see the variety of Fortune face to face while low obscurer lives looke upon her perfidiousnesse but through a glasse and darkely in reports of the various turbulencies and confusions of Courts The heights of Courts may in this regard be said to be the best scituations for prospect and farre sight upon the truth of the worlds constitution and so courtiers to be better placed then lower estates in order to their being undeceived in the specious fallacies of the world by as much as experience is more operative upon our nature then speculation And methinks we may account it a speciall provision of God that where our affections are in most danger to be seduced by the alluring invitation of temporalities that there our reason should be most powerfully disswaded from such adherencies by the clearest evidences of the infidelity of such confidences for here Fortune beares her own name in her forehead which is visible together with her smiles and the continuall objects of rise and ruine the frequent vicissitudes of braving and bleeding conditions show Fortune in Courts even but to indifferent good eyes not as the Sirens of the Poets the beauty and graciousnesse of her only above water but expose her just like to the Locusts of the Revelation for although on her head there seemes to be crownes of gold and her haire like the haire of Women yet her teeth appeare as the teeth of Lyons and her sting like that of Scorpions so that the deterrings and disabuses appeare together with the delectations I may therefore conclude that Courtiers by their living in this demonstration of the truth and nature of all mundanities are advantaged above others towards the acquisition of Humility which is a naturall resultancy from a true apprehending the meannesse and vility of all things so unfaithfull transitory For as all Pride riseth from the beliefe of some propriety which we rely on so the perswasion of the insecurity of our possessions must needs abate our esteem of them and consequently dispose us to a modest and humble account of our selves and our conditions I will therefore confidently commend Humility to Courtiers for their guide through all the snares of their way in the tearmes of Solomon She shall lead you by the paths of equity which when you are in your steps shall not be straitned and when you run you shall not stumble for you shall neither faint in the restines of your Fortune nor fall in the full speed of it Humility doth not decline the course of Honour and Dignity but only casts reines upon our sensitive appetite and holds that from running away with our Reason in the course Nay Magnificence and Humility are consortable in the same heart wherein the habit of this vertue may consist with acts of the other since this disposition dislodgeth no vertue and secureth all For the posture of prostration in which Humility conducts our minds may be said to carry as it were a Trench before them casting up the earth it selfe for their defence against all the fiery engines of the Prince of this World in regard the Penetration and inspection which sincere Humility makes into the bowels of our own earthinesse and mortality casts up our misery and despicablenes before us as a brest-worke of our own earth to defend our hearts against vain-glory or presumption by which any Fortune never so eminent can endanger us For indeed they who have this Parapet as I may say before their minds of Dust thou art and to Dust thou shalt returne may be said to be fortified in the nakednes and discovery of themselves Such is the ingeniousnes of Humility as it can raise defences for us out of our wants and destitutions nay it may be said to draw in them a Line of communication between heaven and earth joyning the knowledge of our own nullity and the apprehension of the immensity of God which view may keep us alwayes little in our own eyes though we have never so many false reflexes from the eyes
of Union so familiar Subversions of all Foundations of Government and Superiority such an alternative transmutation of all pâ—ivate Fortunes from one into another as they who look but upon the Theatre of this world which needeth but History for the maker of his Scenes cannot wonder justly at any part which is put upon their particular To those then that shall repiningly lament their turns or expect their exemption I may safely apply the Prophet Jeremy's Commission against this pretence The Lord saith thus Behold that which I 〈◊〉 built I will break down and that which I have planted I will pluck up over this whole Land and seekest thou great things for thy self seek them not §. VI. Some special Meditations proposed proper for the divertisement of our Minde I Have upon my ruminating on the Stories of the world been presented often with such an imagination as may prove Instructive as well as Recreative to such Moral Chymicks as can extract a â—alt out of the freshest matters their mindes do work upon I have thought one that had the Historical Map of the world lying before his thoughts might suppose himself seated upon a high Rock and looking down upon a fair and vast prospect divided into some Cities and Palaces of the one side on the other into lovely Gardens and pleasant Groves or fruitful Fields and Pastures and suddenly seeing a Mine playing upon the Cities and all sorts of things blown up confusedly into the Ayr where Princes and People are broken and mangled indifferently the Chains of the Prisoners flying up and shivering perhaps the Crowns that laid them on and many other civil dissipations that may be adapted to the confused eruptions of Mines and being affrighted at this dismal object he turneth his Eye upon the Fields Gardens and Groves as flying into priviledged Retreats exempt from such violent distractions and presently he findeth an Earthquake playing as I may say upon all of them successively in their several turns rending the Cedars deflowering the Gardens swallowing the fruits of the Campagnes and Vineyards leaving all the pleasure of his Prospect inverted into objects of Horror and Amazement The Story of the world doth often afford such a kinde of Representation sometimes it presenteth a fair view of glorious MONARCHS and flourishing Nations symbolized by the Magnificence of Cities and Palaces high and eminent Prosperity in the Grandees of the Earth figured by the Cedars plentiful and opulent private Estates emblem'd by the pregnancy of the Fields happy and easie 〈…〉 d â—y the orderly sweetness of Gardens All these conditions the Story of every Age sheweth shattered in pieces by some violent Changes and Subversions Thus much light may be derived from our ascen 〈…〉 the upper stories of this Fabrick of the Universe whiâ—â— overlook this Earth by a narrative view onely of the condition and constitution of this world Surely the Prince of this World knew not who he carried to the top of the Mountain to tempt by the Glories of that Prospect â—e understood him better afterward when he begg'd of him not to be cast out of the world himself and â—â—ed to him but for a few Swine to whom he had before offered the whole world But when the Holy Spirit carrieth any oâ—â— up to the Mountain of Contemplation the object 〈…〉 poseth of the subjacent Earth is not onely illumiâ—a 〈…〉 but operative he doth not simply inform the understanding in the estate but rectifieth the will in the estimation of this world Saint Paul looked down upon the Earth from 〈◊〉 Mountain when he proclaimed that The figure of t 〈…〉 world passeth away And Saint John whose Spirit was 〈◊〉 were exhaled above the Earth by that heat it felt always of the Divine bosom disâ—â—rned clearly this 〈…〉 uctuant state of our Globe when he advertiseth us Thâ—s the world pass 〈…〉 away and the concupiscences thereof They who take then either of these guides Reason oâ— Grace to carry them up to this cliâ—â— of Meditation may â—ast down their thoughts in a â—alm despection of all thoâ—e shining attractives which they see to be so 〈…〉 y they that contemplate this universal undermining of all 〈◊〉 stations need noâ— wonder nor complain to â—â—â—de them 〈…〉 â—â—rn from the upper part of the world and â—unk under the earth in the playing of the Mine They who are as it were thus 〈…〉 and bâ—â—yed in a prison let them imagine themselves in that posture where in the playing of the Mine hath laid them and so be conf 〈…〉 d as involved in the general constitution of this hollow and unfaithful world and by figuring to themselves this 〈◊〉 of the Universe they may conclude That the wallâ— which inclose them are undermined also by the common instability of all Fortunes and when the time co 〈…〉 h that the Train of Change taketh fire then they are to be carried inâ—â— another position So that the impermanency of all thing◠〈…〉 y which doth deduct so much from our Tempâ—â—ary â—elicity may be by these thoughts made to 〈◊〉 proportionably the sence of our secular adversity Thus by the advice of Natural Reason we may derive much stability of minde from the infidelity of all 〈◊〉 ‑ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naâ— Philosophy proposeth to 〈◊〉 a firmer settlement of our Spirits upon our duty to Nature and â—hâ—rgeth any 〈◊〉 or 〈…〉 lousness in what state soever of distress with sedition and 〈◊〉 even against the Laws of N 〈…〉 â—â—â—ce it is by the order of the Universe we stand 〈◊〉 with all oâ—â— private grievances insomuch as to di 〈…〉 fro 〈…〉 thaâ— order see 〈…〉 an a 〈…〉 mpt of our wishes to confuse and discompose the whole frame of Nature These and many other 〈…〉 adings do the Sâ—oâ—câ—s make to intitle rectified Reason to this power of conâ—erving the minde in an estate of imperturbation amidst the changes and translations of all vicisâ—â—â—udes But to Christians these melodious voyces of the Philosophers serve but as Musique to their Church Anthemes for they are the sacred words of our Faith put into the airs of Humane Elegancy that make the Musique Religious nor the 〈◊〉 of their sweet perswasions whereunto single Philosophy doth but report I may therefore â—itly present you with this holy Lesson of the great Apostle St. Peter We have a firmer word of Prophesie which we do well to attend to as unto a light that shineth in a dark place in all the obscurities of our Fortunes we have the day-Star of Faith shining in our hea 〈…〉 in respect of which all Philosophy is but Lamp-light that giveth us a clear sight of the Providence of God in all our turnings and transportations we have this Word even of God himself organized by the voyce of the Evang 〈…〉 Prophet I form the light and create darkness I make 〈◊〉 and create evil 〈…〉 I the Lord do all these things The answer of a Christian therefore is well made for us by the Prophet
above the Earth whereunto Christians are attracted by their Head and truly they who will not Sacrifice their Nets with the Apostles in this sence do Sacrifice to their own Nets in the sence of the Prophet they Worship the World wherein they are taken and insnared Let such Worldings remember what CHRIST saith to them from his elevation above this world even while he was in it Whither I go you cannot come And the Reason followeth You are from beneath I am from above you are of this world I am not of this world And let them reflect on what was said to the relinquishers of their Nets That they shall sit with the Son of Man in Majesty upon Thrones judging the world which in some imperfect measure is fulfilled even in this Life by the most Sublimated Contemners of this World of which God saith by the PROPHET He will raise them above the altitudes of the Earth and by the APOSTLE That they have not received the Spirit of this World but the Spirit that is of God that they may know the things that are given them of God I have sufficiently delivered my self in this Point throughout all this Work not to be misunderstood now at last in this Sacrificing of our Nets which I have proposed since I have often concluded That all several Vocations have their respective capacities of Contemning this World even while they seem the most affected by it So that this Discourse doth not aim at the frighting any one out of their station in the world since those who have the most of this world using it as if they used it not may do as well in their order as those who choose to use the least they can of it for fear of abusing it For we know the Earth is familiarly and may be properly compared to a Sea in this respect as it is no place of abode but of passage through it and in their course there are no Vessels that have not somewhat more or less of them under water that is some thoughts and attentions upon this world and as they are lighter or heavier laden with the Commodities of this Life they carry the more or less of themselves above water the less their cogitations are immersed in Temporalities the higher their mindes pass through this World But as there are Vessels of several lasts so it is the property of some to draw more water then others therefore such cannot be said to be nearer sinking because they have more of them under water then lighter Barques Every condition hath his respective Fraight of Application to this World which may draw some deeper then others into the solicitudes of this Age but unless we voluntarily overcharge our Vocation every one may pass safely with his proper Weight But we must remember specially this particular in the Comparison That as in Ships the part which saileth them and carrieth them on their course is all above water so that portion of our Minde those Thoughts and Intendments that advance and carry us to Heaven are those which are Spiritual and elevated above this World the ballast of our Mortal part will keep some portions of our Thoughts in all conditions somewhat immersed in the Earth but the sails of our Immortal portion must carry on the whole Man to his Celestial Harbor I may therefore justly exhort and animate all conditions in the Contempt of this World in this voyce of the Apostle You are of God little children and have overcome it because greater is he that is in you then 〈◊〉 that is in the world The one and twentieth Treatise Of the Preheminences of a true contemplative life Divided into five Sections §. I. Contemplation defined and some excellencies thereof discoursed COming now off from this troubled Sea for the finishing touches of this perswasion I will carry your eyes a little upon the pourtraicture of such a Sea as was shewed to Saint John by the Angel for a marvelous Sign For indeed this state of Minde I purpose in this last place to expose unto you is me thinks fitly emblem'd by that Sea of glass mingled with fire on which they stand having harps in their hands that have overcome the image of the Beast And in this order may follow the application The spaciousness of their Souls that are extended in perfect contemplation is aptly figured by that property of the Sea their equanimity and clearness by the smoothness and lucidness of Glass the fervor of their Spirits is fitly symbolized by a mixture of Fire in this Sea of Glass this Spiritual ardor being as requisite to compose this temper as fire is to make Glass And farther we may say That as Glass is formed of many unconsisting parts that are consolidated and clarified by fire so is this even and clear habit of minde composed of divers intellectual Verities compacted and elucidated by the flame of Contemplation and the Harps in their hands represent the harmony and concordancy between the sensitive organs and rational powers in the mindes of devout Contemplators which keeps in tune a Spiritual joy and acquiescence It was an ingenious project of Archimedes the undertaking to remove the whole material World in case there were assigned him a Centre out of it upon which to place his Instrument This work we may say to have been effected in a Spiritual sence by the Man Christ Jesus and by such a maner as the other was contrived namely by having an Engine fixt upon a Centre out of this world which was his Humanity upon his Divinity upon which basis rested all his power wherewith he removed the whole Spiritual frame of the world and upon this Centre he stood when he said I am not of this world and even by a weak Reed fixed upon that Centre he removed and cast forth the Prince of the World for his Humane Nature was as it were the Engine or Instrument standing upon his Divine as on a Centre extrinsecal to this World and so that wrought instrumentally upon the World and was sufficient when it was exalted from the earth to draw all things to it self And why may I not say that some such capacity seemeth communicated to the Members of Christ Jesus that is of fixing their mindes though but Humane upon a Centre extrinsecal to this world viz. The contemplation of Divine Verities and by that means to remove all this World out of that place where it useth to stand in our corrupted Nature And certain it is That many have and do act this power upon the Earth by fixing their Spirits upon Contemplation which is a Centre without this world It were easie for me to point at many of these elevated Spirits which like the Constellations in the Firmament are known by Names more then the other Star 〈…〉 But to decline all shew of any particular preference I shall single none but do my obeysance in general to all ranks of such blessed Contemplators
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
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
affections but desires rather they may turne from their perversions and live and to perswade their conversion offers that to them in this life which is promised to us but in heaven namely to have our bodies changed from corruptible and passive into immortall and inpassible for Devotion offers to transfigure our affections from their impure and passive shapes into immuculate and imperishable formes raise them up from infirmity to virtue and make those desires which have beene the image of terestriall figures to beare only that of the celestiall Neverthelesse our minds seeme to be like fond mothers which are lamenting their children given over by the Physitian and will scarce hearken to the consolation of Gods Minister who promiseth so much a better state as a change from weak infants into Angels In this manner our fond and effeminate mindes seeme to bewaile this tranfiguration of their affections which Devotion proposeth according to the Apostle viz. the raising their conversation up to Heaven and changing their vile body so that it may be fashioned like unto the glorious quality of the love of God And certainly unlesse our affections be cut off from the carnall stock of our nature and set by way of ingrafting and incision upon the stem of the holy Vine they doe beare but sowre Grapes such as will set reason's teeth on edge which is their mother since our corrupted nature puts forth many sharp and unripe cupidities and fancies which are truly rather corrasive then cordiall to the minde God hath planted affections in our sensitive nature not with a purpose that they should be fixed in the earth and bear only terrene cupidities but hath rather set them there for a while only as in a seminary or nursery where he doth not meane they should take any deepe root for our reason as soon as it is able is ordained to remove and transplant our affections into spirituall scituations into that garden for which they were first planted so that although our loves grow at first while they are little tender slips only in the terrestriall part of our nature they are designed to be removed in their due season into the celestiall portion and to beare fruites spirituall and intellectuall which order is intimated by the Apostle when he saith as the first man is of earth earthly so the latter must be of heaven heavenly But because in this warfare of our lives upon earth between these two parties the sensitive and the rationall our sensitive nature is not easily perswaded to render up her affections wherein she accounts her selfe so strong unto right reason upon discretion let us examine what faire conditions grace which alwayes taketh Reason's part offereth her and indeed if the offers be well judged of there will appeare a truer freedome gained by this surrender then that which the loosenesse of our nature would maintaine when our affections being made free from sinne are become the servants of righteousnesse for if we examine the impositions and constraints our passions lay upon us it is easie to convince that to he a reall servitude which we doe familiarly but in wantonesse tearme so and thus our loose passions like the Jewes to whom our Saviour proposed freedome by the knowledge of truth will hardly confesse their inthralment but I may fitly say to them as he did while you commit sinne you are the servants of sinne If grace by Devotion set you free you shall be free indeed Therefore I will procure to manifest how grace may give nature great conditions of freedome and how the best proprieties of our affections are rather improved and secured then alienated and spoiled by this surrender to Reason and Devotion And to treate first of the interests of love which seemes to be the commander of all the strength of our passions when love renders it selfe to Devotion then is it so farre from being restrain'd as it is continued in the command of all the power of our pieties and is trusted so much as it is allowed to hold faire correspondence with beauty though that were the party love had served under against grace for then our love commerceth with the creatures only to improve his owne estate and faculty of loving which is all assigned to the honour of the creatour And surely when love by a rectified perswasion of the blessings of the creature brings beauty into the service of Devotion by a right admiration of the workes of the creatour such objects may forcibly concurre to excite us to the love of the maker in honouring of whom consists all Devotion Beauty may be truly honoured by the rights of her nature without being flattered by that meanes to be solicited against her maker for she may be confessed one of the best of all mixed creations since pure spirituall substances when they will put on a materiall vaile take beauty for their vestment The Angels expose themselves to us alwayes in the forme of beauty because that is the readiest note our sense acknowledges of Divinity and when the Son of God vouchsafed to be clothed with materiality the holy Spirit that made him this Garment exposes it and recommends it to us in this forme of being beautifull above the sonnes of men and he drawes the image of the spouse he came to take in the figure of perfect beauty as the best sensible Character can be made of her and makes this quality the object of Christs love As she is all faire and no spot to be found in her and thus as beauty is chosen for a simbol of spirituall purity the allegory of it as I may say not the letter is to be studyed by us since that attention will reflect to us the fairenesse and integrity we ought to preserve in our soules and so possesse us against that perverted sense which is often drawne out of the out-side or letter of materiall beauty In the Book of Gods Workes Saint Paul tells us the Divinity of the Author is legible by some little study of the Character and certainly there is no so faire part of this edition as that of beauty but we doe most commonly like children to whom books are given in fine prints and graced with gay flourished letters and figures they turne them over and play with them and never learne the wordes thus likely doe our childish mindes that are kept at play by our senses looke wantonly over the specious figures of beauty and seldome study them to learne Gods meaning in them which if they did seriously inquire they might learne that the excellence and perfection of their true meaning renders the perversion the more reproachable for as crimes are the greater the neerer they come to the violation of the person of the Prince so if beauty be the neerest sensible image of the soveraigne of nature the betraying it to his professed enemy must needs be the most capitall offence how this infidelity is committed is but too much
notified May I not fitly then reproach those with S. Paul who with vaine flatteries change the truth of God into a lie for is not this done by such who corrupt the reall good of beauty by fond and false ascriptions And surely while they serve thus the creature more then the Creator they provoke God to give them up to their vile affections in which with Daniels Elders Having overthrown their sense they turn down their eyes that they may not see heaven But the perversion of this blessing doth not not interdict unto the eyes of the world a due commerce with beauty nor to our sight the being delighted with it for as the Apostle wisheth us we may be children in malice and yet men in understanding If Devotion comming to Court should declare such a war to the world as to prohibit oursenses commerce with pleasures which are the natives of this world she would find but a small party upon such a breach to follow her And indeed God doth as the Prophet sayes lead us into solitude when he speaks that language to our hearts there he sets on the wings of Seraphims to those that upon such plumes fly over their passage through the world but those whose vocations lead them through the tracts of the earth doe alwayes feele the earth they tread upon and it is not to be required of them to leave all the pleasures of the world in their following of Christ but S. John Baptist instructs them sufficiently in the lesson he gave the souldiers that they should exact no more then is appointed them and be content with those wages of innocent pleasures God allowes their senses in the duties of nature We may then justifie Devotion to be so farre from interdicting to nature the regular love of the creatures as we may assert it the only meanes whereby we can assure the continuance of our loves to them for our sensitive affections are like the hay and stubble the Apostle speaks of they are easily lighted by every spark of pleasure but they make onely a short blaze and goe out againe whereas Devotion is the Psalmists oyle of gladnesse and though it raise not so glaring and so sharp a flame of joy yet it entertains it in a more equall and durable temper for notwithstanding it doth not blaze so much in the sensitive yet it warms and recreates more the rationall part of our minds and so doth rather foment then waste the matter of our joy which the sharper flashes of our passions do quickly consume for truly our affections and passions in their owne nature are so light and volatile as beauty it selfe that works best upon them cannot fixe them nay nor stay them so long as even beauty which is so variable continues the same since the same vaine love which to day robs even Divinity for offerings to make to beauty tomorrow commits as great a fault in humanity stripping again his owne Idol meerly upon the motion of inconstancy not at all upon the complaint of conscience so that I may fitly apply this of the Prophet to such loves They weave spiders webs their webs shall not become garments neither shall they cover themselves with their works Thus are our humane passions so deceived in their commerce with the vanities of this world as they break often upon the return of their adventure it seems our fancies insure more upon fruition then the commodities are worth we traffique for and so we become losers even by the return of our adventure whereas Devotion teacheth us the true value of our desires and successes and how to adventure our hopes and how to manage the happinesse of our wishes in temporalities in such sort as to make a stock out of them for eternity according to the prudent advice given us to make friends of the felicities of this world that may provide for us in the eternall habitation By these lights we see how the love of God is not onely compatible but requisite with our love of creatures to assure and improve our true delights in them for nothing but piety can make good to humane appetite in all temporalities that abatement of their esteeme which is made by propriety and Devotion teacheth us to love them as gifts of God By which meanes fruition makes rather an endearment of them then a deduction But because I conceive this passion of love hath more friends then any other that will be interested in the cause I shall give it a fairer triall another time single by it selfe wherein the right our love hath in the creature shall be determined §. II. Ambition rightly examined and discreet condescendencies proposed respectively to diverse vocations IN the next place Ambition seemeth to claime a hearing and pleadeth a long prescription for possession of a great tenure in our nature I shall examine therefore that affection of the minde which is currant under the sinister notion of Ambition and endeavour to shew how the matter of this appetency which is temporal dignity and glory is not inconsistent with the purity of Devotion Pride is like Jeroboam who first drew Israel to sinne and indeed may be fitly said to set up golden Calves for the worship of our fancy against the true service of our reason wherefore Devotion is charged to extirpate all that house and Ambition as it is familiarly accepted is the eldest sonne of the house for it is an inordinate appetite of temporall honour and preferrence which we understand commonly under the terme of Ambition which indeed is the act of the habit of pride And so Ambition is as it were the title of the prime seignory belonging to the House of Pride which varies only the appellation of the sonne and in this sence as Ambition is the heire of Pride though bearing another name Devotion can have no confederacy with it for humility which hath the same relation to piety that Ambition hath to pride hath the commission of Jehu and is not to be tempted by Jezabel though she be never so well colour'd and painted even the little ones of this house must be dashed against the stones but humility hath no command to raze and demolish the Cities and Pallaces this ill generation lived in which are honour fame and power for piety may lawfully dwell in these commodious habitations of the world and make excellent use of all these temporall advantages So that Devotion doth not prohibit the pursuite of honour and preference it rather gives our nature a safe conduct against the dangers of the way upon which so many parties of our passions make their courses for we know honour and differencing of degrees are staires of Gods fabricke and there can be no order without degrees for order is the right disposition of parity and disparity Whereupon the severall stations in this world are designed by divine wisdome both for the ornament of the universall frame which is the naturall end of them
as also for this morall effect namely to excite and attract our mindes by these neere sensible fruitions to straine for an investing the habit of virtue which likely presseth and pincheth our loose natures at the first essayes but they indure more quietly the constraint as being conceived the meanes of some affected acquisition for all honour is primarily intended by God as a remuneration of virtue and it goes still in the world under that name though this order be never so much vitiated by the iniquity of the world all dignification retaines still the same title of the merit of some virtue and those that attend the least to virtue will not referre their temporall successes to lesse then the adeption of them by some virtue insomuch as even mans corruption attests that all honour and dignity is originally the legitimate issue of virtue which our mindes are naturally betrothed unto and confesses the generations of fortune to be spurious illegitimate since we wil not leave any of her issue under the title of her maternity but passe them all over to some virtue for the owning them For doth not every one finde out some colour of virtue to lay upon the lookes of his good fortune No body will leave it naked in that frivolous figure of bare fortune every one is ashamed to expose such a barenesse of minde and such a destitution of virtue Doth not honour and dignity appear plainly by this genuine instinct of our ascribing them to virtue to be one of Gods designments for mans appetency Wherefore they cannot be discredited by Devotion which is Gods Minister and doth decently marshall all the faculties of our minde in the order of humane actions directing every one by their severall vocations to their respective properties assigning to Courts and Cloisters their severall portions and so evidenceth that of the Apostle that God hath given every one the manifestation of the spirit according to the severall utilities he designes by them and thus as there are many mansions in our fathers house Devotion sets every one upon the right staires that lead up to their peculiar assignment Therefore piety must not be so much traduced to the Court as to be reported quarrelsome with all the family the proper attendants of the place namely glory power and riches for it is rather the steward God appoints to keep all in decent order By whose conduct the proper lustre magnificence of the place may be set off so much to the best as it may hold a pious Analogy with the Court of Heaven as well in the whole family as in the Masters persons who are so specially the images of God upon earth as not only the person of Solomon but the order of his Servants the attendance of his Ministers and their apparell may be a good image of the originall glory they represent And such a constitution or frame of temporall glory may be formed by the oeconomy of Devotion when she manageth the dignities and treasures of the world which commonly are made the subject of confusion and disorder Devotion may then say to the Court of temporall desires which passe under the notion of Ambition as Christ did to his Apostles in the temptations they were exposed to I pray not that they may be taken out of the world but that they may be kept from evill As for the prescribing a course of temperance to these appetites this present question doth not properly exact it I hope the rest of my labours will afford some competent directions for our regiment of health according to the aire and diet of the place for which they shall opine Pride is indeed that dangerous disease whereunto the constitution of the Court is most disposed and the least overheating of Ambition turnes it into pride but truly the matter of this disease is rather in the humours then in the blood for as no meannesse of birth or misery of condition are sure exemptions from pride so not any noblenesse or felicity are consequent conferrers of it for Solomon alloweth us to conclude that the want of bread doth not starve pride Christian humility doth not prohibit all pursuite of honour as malignant or prescribe poverty as not at all obnoxious for we have Christs Authority to conclude it a more blessed thing to give then to receive and the blessing he gave to poverty was to the poore in spirit and this qualification of the spirit may agree with the eminence of all qualities for Devotion doth not only carry humility with her up to all the heights and stories she ascends but retaines it also for she lookes upward still at that infinite distance she there remaines from heaven and doth not take measure by her elevation above other estates she sees below her on the ground this was King Davids prospect from the Towers of Sion where he was raised so much above the platforme of the earth Unto thee I lift up mine eyes O thou that dwellest in the heavens and that true mirrour did reflect to him humility while the polished glories of the earth might have returned him a flattering image of his condition We may then resolve that those who shall make their judgement by the Apostles perfect law of liberty will finde that the carriage of Devotion is no clog to the activenesse of their thoughts or motion of their desires but rather such a weight as is put to clocks to regulate not retard their motion and certainly our temporall desires are to be esteemed as our watches not those which goe fastest but those that goe best So that one of the chief offices of Devotion in the world is to regulate not represse all temporall desires Wherefore piety may fitly say to our humane affections in the Apostles termes to the Galatians Brethren you are called into liberty only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh but by love serve one another Devotion may have ill offices done her by her own friends by bringing her to Court in so severe and unsutable a habit and uncompleasant lookes as she may fright the infirmity of some well disposed and fire the malignity of others and thus faile of a good reception by many that would entertaine her if she were better suted for the place They never saw piety but in one dresse that thinke she cannot sute her selfe according to occasions and put her selfe so farre into the fashion as may make her the easilier occostable and yet retaine her dignity and decency her naturall visage in a Cloister may be a vizard to her in a Court And surely there is nothing recommends Devotion more to the world then to see it well suited in the exterior habit to the society wherewith it is conversant and the habit changeth no more the naturall composure of it then clothes doe the true proportions of the body wherefore Devotion may lawfully suite her selfe in such sort at her first comming to Court as
to cover that which is such an eye-sore unto our infirme nature too pressing a constraint upon our naturall affections Did not Saint James advise Saint Paul to comply with the weaknesse of the times and surely it may be truly said of Courts that there are many which believe and yet are Zealous of the law of nature of the pleasures and conveniences of the earth and not to offend such as may have innocent inclinations to such attractives those that recommend Devotion may protest against their common discredit that they doe not teach the relinquishment of all the customes of the place but doe admit many of them competent with the spirituall lawes of piety This president of Saint Paul may be prudently accommodated by those that are addressed to worke respectively upon the severall infirmities of persons and places they that can copy well Saint Pauls figure of becomming all things to all that they may gaine all shall neither avert some by the hard favour of scruple nor indanger any by the smiles of liberty The precepts of speculative purity are naturall in the element of contemplation which is reclusenesse and solitude but are not alwayes competent with society there may be a misapplication of spirituall advices where the matter proposed is excellent in quality but not adequate in proportion to the place Of such directions it may be said as Cicero said of Cato the Censour that his sense was alwayes excellent but he did sometimes indamage the state because he councelled as in the republicke of Plato not a◠in the rubbish of Romulus So there may be many that may meane excellently and advise very virtuously and yet prejudice the state of humanity when they prescribe as if it were still fresh in the purity of Eden not polluted in the dregges of Adam The fit application of actives to passives produceth the best effects in grace as well as nature so that it is sufficient for the proposers of Devotion to answer as Solon did when he was asked whether he had given his Country the best Lawes he could devise he replied that he had given the best they were likely to take by reason the usefulnesse of pious precepts consists not in the giving alwayes simply the best but relatively the properest as when we set fruit we consider the earth before we choose the plant Vpon these grounds my study hath been to fit propositions of piety to the measures I have by experience taken of the world in which worke I may be more confident of the justnesse of the measures taken by my infirmities then of the value of the matter furnished by my abilities I have by Saint Pauls advise remembred those that are in bonds as having been bound also and being still God knoweth but working upon other fetters and if there be any thing that seemes lighter colour'd then the solemnness of the argument requires let it not be taken as a voluntary indulgence to any levity but in order to the support of the feeble-minded and comfort of the weake by S. Pauls direction When Ambition then is purged from the popular malignancy imputed to that terme and refer'd only to an aspiring at dignity preferment by virtuous addresses I may conclude Devotion and Ambition may live happily together and yeeld mutuall aides to one another while Grace furnisheth order and Nature activity to our spirits When piety disciplineth Ambition the end of our pursuites is rather in prospect upon others then reflection upon our selves and truly charity and beneficence must be the last terme of a Christians exaltation according to the patterne of our head CHRIST JESUS our ascending up on high must be coupled with giving gifts unto men We may then resolve that when Ambition moves without Devotion this is an earthly motion moving upon his owne Center for then Ambition turnes commonly at best upon selfe-love and private cupidities but when it moves with Devotion then it is a celestiall motion upon anothers Center that is upon the designe of a charitable influence on the inferior positions of the earth which is that activenesse all Christian Ambition should have in order to communication of the good whereunto it aspires And this as it is a heavenly so is it a circular motion which unites all at last unto it selfe that it toucheth in the whole circulation For as a circle hath every point made in the whole circumference contained in the perfection of the figure so this circle of charity hath every portion of good it hath done returned into it selfe at the compleatment thereof which is in the closure of the circle of our lives For then the Charities which power hath circumferr'd to others doe all returne and become her owne againe in the perfection of Charity wherein consists the consummation of all power when by the pious exercise of our temporall power we are preferr'd to an eternall domination By these discussions I hope to have shewne without any levity or indecency how love and Ambition are compatible with Devotion and piety and me thinkes these two are the two great lights of our passions the one ruling over the day the other over the night in our sensitive appetite so that I shal not need to bring any of our lower affections in question which like lesser stars derive their lights from hence for when once love and ambition which are as it were the heads of the faction against the spirit are reduced to the service of Devotion the other meaner popular affections are easily regulated This premised we may conclude Nature hath so little reason to complaine of any restraint made upon her faculties by grace as her affections may justly make this acknowledgment of the Apostle unto Devotion which is Graces minister that it delivers them from the powers of darknesse and makes them worthy to be partakers of the inheritance of light The sixt Treatise Of disabuse to the Rationalists and the Sensualists concerning temporall happinesse and Devotion proposed for security of a happy life In three Sect. §. I. The vertue of Devotion exalted and the vanity of some Philosophers detected THis inscription may seem to many to speak like a Mountebanks Bill that discrediteth the common Schoole of Nature and promiseth by one receipt the cure of all diseases and I pray God this offer may obtaine what the large undertakings of their Bills familiarly do which by speaking so faire invite many that believe not fully the promises to trie the experiment of their medicines for if this my plausible prescript gaine but so much either upon the curiosity or the beliefe of any as to draw them to an essay of this my receipt in that order I have indited it I need not feare the discredit thereof by the operation since they who are drawne by any motive to follow this voice of the Psalmist to come and see how sweet the Lord is do quickly make this confession with him Even the fables sinners have told me
are not like thy 〈◊〉 for even the speculations of our own inventions do not so much as create that reall peace of mind which is concluded by devotion This metaphor of Physick suggesteth to me the carrying it a little further on to my purpose for me thinks I may truly say of the spirit of devotion what some curious Naturalists have vented of a medicinall extraction they call the spirit of the world which giveth vegetation to all bodies they affirme it to have the vertue of restoring nature from decay to integrity and to preserve mans body long in an indeficient vigour and propose contrary effects produceable by this spirit respectively to divers constitutions but still to the benefit and redintegration of nature in each individuall whereunto it is ministred I may without questioning or signing this position make this application of it and affirme that these properties are really verified in the virtue of this supernatural spirit which I call Devotion so that I need not feare what I promise to perswade the taking it in that manner I have formerly receipted it whereupon I propose to every regular user thereof no lesse benefit then the conferring on them their finall desire in this life which is comprized under this notion of happinesse by which terme we understand the resting and quieting our mindes in the fruition of goods convenient and agreeable to our nature in which state I propose to shew that Devotion doth establish the minde of man in order whereunto I may well prefix this Axiome of Saint Augustine Lord thou hast made the heart of man for thy selfe and therefore it is alwayes restlesse untill it requiesce in thee Nothing hath so perplexed the wit of man as to determine the supreame felicity of this life The Phylosophers have been so divided about it as they seeme to have passed their lives in a continuall warre upon one another in the very treaty of this generall peace they sought to establish it seemeth Almighty God in revenge of the partitions and fractions they made of his unity broke their opinions into so many pieces as they could never joyâ—ne in one uniforme conclusion but as Saint Paul saith of them They grew vaine in their imaginations and in the darknesse of their hearts every Sect had a severall Phantasme of happinesse appearing to it Surely God who saw with what presumption they were building up the designe of their security in this life by the modell of their owne naturall Reason sent this confusion of opinions like that of the tongues amongst them to ruine that structure of humane felicity the wisdome of the world was raising for her refuge shelter against the stormes of Heaven And so these bricklayers of humane happinesse which they may be properlytermed in respect they wrought only upon the matter of the earth tempered by humane wisdome and with that stuffe thought to build up their forts of felicity were struck from Heaven into this confusion of language and dispersed into severall Sects in which every one spake a different tongue and never concurr'd in an intelligence to constitute one unanimous position touching the supreame felicity This point of mans constant happinesse seemeth to be in Morall Philosophie the great secret in search whereof most of the speculative Sages have imployed their studyes and have advanced no further then the naturall Philosophers have done towards finding the famous Elixir for the Moralists have made many usefull discoveries by the way whereby they have composed diverse excellent medicines for the infirmities of the minde but never any of them though they have much boasted it did attaine unto that consummate virtue which could settle the minde in a perfect tranquillity and invariable temper This virtuous power in morality as it answereth adequately to those properties the Chymicks attribute to their great worke so is there this Analogy betweene them that they both seeme much more feisable by their speculative rules then they are found by practicall experiment The swelling science of the Ancients which had never heard of the fall of Humane Nature grew too well conceited of her sufficiency thinking the perversity and wrynesse of the superiour part of the minde to grow only by an ill habit of stooping and bending towards the lower portion which is the sensitive appetite thus the Stoiks concluded that single reason might by the reflex of discourse see this indecent posture whereunto custome inclined her and so by degree rectifie and erect her powers to such a point of straightnesse as neither the delights nor the distresses of the lower and sensitive part of nature should ever bowe or decline the evennesse and rectitude of the minde and by this means they arrogated no lesse to mans sufficiency then even the power of remaining in a calme apathy and impassivenesse in all offensive emergencies But alas the wisdome of the world knew nothing of that inward bruise our nature had in her fall which keepeth her too infirme to be reduced to that perfect activity whereunto pure speculation might designe her we understand that repugnant law in our members by which all their imagined tenures of security were voyded when they came to their triall but they understood so little this law as what we know to be the defect of frail title namely our nature they took for the security of their estate of peace Me thinkes the Ancient Philosophers with all their wisdome and precaution were served by their owne nature as children use to doe one another at a certaine schoole-play when he that hides striketh him he holdeth blinded who being thought out of play is never guessed at and thus did our corrupted Nature while she her selfe held them blinded strike them and she was never suspected of the blow but the accidents of fortune were only taken for the strikers with which singly those Sages thought their mindes were exercising themselves for they never misdoubted this infidelity in Humane Nature they thought her intirely sound and selfe-sufficient to afford this consummate tranquillity of spirit in all seasons and thus they were like children kept blinded and strucken by the same hand which they never suspected charging fortune as a forreine actor with all those blowes that provoked their passions Upon which ground they presumed on the sufficiency of naturall Reason even to extinguish all passion or distemperance in their mindes but to these presumptions the Apostle answereth While they accounted themselves wise they became fooles And surely these Morall Ideas conceived by the Stolkes may well be coupled with the naturall Ideas supposed by the Platonikes out of which principle there may be some light drawne towards the inquiry into the nature of formes abstracted from matter although the position be erroneous After this sort we may derive much clarity towardes our discerning the latitude and power of morall virtue by these maximes of the Stoiks which are not sincerely true in their conclusions I may therefore justly bring in this
the earth is thine In this verity he rejoyced extracted out of all his transitory felicity And King Ezekias having his treasury and cabinets filled with all pretious stores might have rejoyced in the truth of those blessings without deriving from them vanity and presumption as much as he boasted of them to the Babylonians so much untruth he found in that felicity whereof he seemed to have forgot the changeable property and was quickly instructed by the Prophet in the insecurity of such goods whereby he discerned how he had rejoyced in the untruth of his temporal happines out of which he might have extracted matter of a true and sincere rejoycing for Gods Spirit attesteth to us that he doth not cast away the mighty whereas he himself is mighty All the attainders lying upon great and rich men in the Scripture are brought against such as rejoyce in the errours and deceits of temporall goods such as either sacrifice all their wealth to the Idols of their fancy or such as make an Idol of their wealth and offer up all their thoughts unto it The voluptuous or the avaritious are those that fall under the sentence of the Gospell and their crime is not what they possesse but what possesseth them when they doe not rejoyce in the truth of their goods but delight themselves in contriving errours and fallacies out of them and as the Apostle sayes Change the Truth of God into a lie So that the defectivenesse of their happinesse ariseth out of their degression from Truth and whence doth all the blessednesse which Christian faith annexeth to sufferance issue but from this spring of verity which streameth out that joy and exultation is proposed to us in the afflictions of this life How come the thorns of sufferance to beare grapes the wine whereof rejoyceth the heart while our senses are prickedct wounded with this spinous or thorny matter Surely this cordiall is made of the Spirit of Truth which may be extracted out of all the asperities of this life first by considering the true state of Humane Nature designed to sufferings not only by sentence but by Grace in order to the aversing us from the love of this world next by contemplating the truth of those glorious promises which are made to a virtuous correspondency with Gods Order in his disposure of his creature so that both the materiall goods and evills of this life afford no legitimate joy but what the mind beareth when she is teeming with Truth we may therefore resolve with King David that when Truth doth spring out of the earth righteousnesse shall looke downe from Heaven §. III. The fallacies of some Objections solved and rejoycing in Truth concluded for our reall Happinesse BUt now me thinkes having determined the happinesse of this life in the loving and rejoycing in Truth many that thinke themselves unhappy wonder at this conclusion and conceive me disproved by their defeatures perswading themselves to have beene alwayes suitors and lovers of Truth when the Truth is that they doe not first seeke verity for the object of their love but conclude they have found it in what they have placed their love Supposing their opinions of such joyes as they pursue to be sincere and solid truthes insomuch as I may well resolve such sonnes of men that They love vanity and seek after lies In that region of the world which I have travelled the most I may reflect to the inhabitaints of it one raigning error which may convince many of insincerity in their addresses to Truth for the ground of their happinesse this it is the trusting the infidelity of fortune to others for our owne felicity designing our stock out of the spoiles of our fellowes and in this course doe we not fixe the hopes of our happinesse upon what can never passe to us but by such an infidelity as must assure us we are in continual danger of a like dispossession this must needs be our case when the expectance of the unfaithfulnesse of fortune is made the assignment of our prosperity And yet we see how Courts are commonly divided into these two partyes of some that are Sacrificing to their owne nets and others that are fishing for such nets the first is the state of such as are valuing themselves for what they have taken the second of those who are working and casting out how to catch what the others have drawne and in this manner there are many who pretend to be lovers of Truth that make these fallacies the very ground of that web of happinesse they have in hand This is so preposterous a course for ingenious spirits in order to true felicity as surely there is much of a curse in this method and God warranteth my beliefe both by the Prophets and Apostles when speaking by the voyce of Esay to this case he saith They have chosen their owne wayes wherefore I also will chuse their delusions and by Saint Paul the holy Spirit saith Because they received not the love of Truth for this cause God sends them strong delusions that they should beleeve a lie Let the worlds darlings examine what they confide in for the security of their joyes and they will finde it is the Father of lies they trust for the truth of their felicity who being not able to diminsh the increated verity sets all his art to deface all created Truthes which worke in this region of the world I now treat of he designeth by such a course as he used with the Person of Truth it selfe when he was upon earth for he carryeth up our imagination to the highest point of esteeme he can raise it of earthly possessions from whence he exposeth to our fancies the glories and beauties of this world in deceitfull apparencies as if they were permanent and secured fruitions and our wills are commonly perswaded to bowe downe and reverence such false suggestions whereof the infidelity augmenteth by the degrees of our Devotion in that beliefe since the more we confide in their stability the more falshood doe we admit for our happinesse and thus are we abused in the possession of Truth while we affect all our delights under that notion by the subtilty of the great enemy of Truth we are as Saint Augustine saith elegantly brought to hate Truth by loving those things which we love only as we imagine them to be true for the impermanency of this worlds goods is odious to us which is the truth of their nature and we affect in them their assurance as a truth without which we would not love them and yet that opinion is a meere delusion This may satisfie many who account themselves unhappy by the mutations of fortune and the dispossessions of their secular commodities for they shall finde themselves unfortunate but in the same measure they misapprehended the true nature of such fruitions by as much as they over-loved them so much are they distressed by their losses so the
may justly be noted as Malignants which legally in Religion ought to be sequestered nay even friendship it selfe with persons to be feared lyeth under some cloud as requiring a continual suspitious eye upon it to keepe it safe from all intelligence with sensual appetites in so much as when it is sincerest it must be watched with great prudence to be kept safe for which cause in stead of all these perillous commerces of our love I will preferre so secure an object to it as Saint Augustine saith of it Love but and do what you will this is the increated beauty of God in which there is not only no feare to be had of our over-loving it but even there is no fear of our not being out-loved by it and so our love is alwayes secured to us Therefore O Soule Why doest thou halt and hesitate about the loving him who must needs love thee faithfully and art so prone to love that which if it love thee at all must do it perfidiously either deceiving thee or some other thou shalt alwayes be unhappy in loving such which if another love thou shalt be offended or if they love another thou shalt be tormented The love of God is exempted from all griefe or care for in his loving of others thou shalt joy and that all may be in love with him thou shalt wish This is the transcendent sufficiency of Gods good that he may love all and be beloved of all without any detriment or diminution of either the lover or the beloved but with a fuller joy of both All other things are infirme scanted and indigent which are not sufficient for the loving of two or the being beloved by two without defrauding of one of them You then that by love seeke contentment why do you love that which even the loving of is disquiet O love him who even in the necessary disquiets of this life can make you happy how idle is it to love such goods which by loving thou deservest to want and not to love that good where the act of loving is the fruition of it for God being beloved becommeth yours other goods when you love you become theirs and so indeed you want even your selfe by such loves God is only to be wanted by not being loved and all other things which you leave for God you find again in his Love O then love that only which alone is all things To conclude all you who have much to be forgiven for other loves transferre betimes all your affections upon him where you may hope with the blessed Penitent To have much forgiven you for loving much Thus only you can hope to attain to the state Saint Paul prescribeth to abstain from all appearance of evill that your whole spirit and soule and body may be preserved blamelesse to the comming of our Lord Jesus Christ and God grant that our soules may meet him with the lamps of the wise Virgins only lighted in them and then we shall be no more in danger of ceasing to love what we should when we enter into our masters joy which is eternall love The fourteenth Treatise The Test and Ballance of Filiall and Mercenary Love In five Sections §. I. Of the value of Love and Gods tolerating some mixture of selfe-respects in it WHen Esdras had cleared to the seduced people that the Law of God could not dispense with their retaining of such strange women of the Land as lay in their bosomes they pleaded for some time to make this painfull divorce saying It was not the worke of a day or two So methinks many who are convinced in this point of the prohibition of this alien and strange conjunction of our Love which is the child of God with vain passion the daughter of the earth pretend that by degrees they will sever this impurity from their loves because it requireth some time and much grace to make this division I confesse it is not the worke of a few good motions or remorses it asketh as it were a melting and liquefaction of our hearts to separate this drosse from the pure substance of love but we are so much furthered towards this operation as the fire we must worke it in costeth nothing but the asking It is that which the Spouse saith are coales of fire and have a vehement flame and hath a speciall vertue to purge and calcine our affections according to the Prophets advice of separating the pure from the impure and we may confidently call for this fire downe from heaven by the Spirit of our master to consume these his enemies the concupiscence of the eye and the concupiscence of the flesh that are the opposers of this purgation and refinement of our hearts which he demandeth of us as silver seven times tryed Reflecting upon the exactnes of this receiver of hearts if we resolve to trade with our loves for the Kingdome of heaven we must examine sincerely what temper of purity is currant with God for as passion doth both lighten and vitiate them in one kind so is there another sort of drossines in our nature which doth often too much imbase our love by an over-allay of selfe respect that rendereth it too mercenary and of too low a value it is very requisite then to be rightly enformed of the Standard by whose purity all our love that passeth for the purchase of the Kingdom of heaven must be tryed tested In our contract for heaven there is a strange singularity since both the paiment and the purchase are one and the same thing differing only in degrees of intension and purification for infirme and imperfect love is our price and love perfected and consummate is our possession namely God who is love is all as love is the best thing even in heaven as well as in earth it is consonantly appointed for the chiefe commerce between them wherefore God asketh but the heart of man even for all himself knowing that the heart in the most entire transaction of it selfe in this life can remit but imperfect and defective love we must examine severely what rates of imperfectnes God admitteth in our affections for in favour of our poverty he accepteth some part of our payment in that which is as I may say the base money of our nature mercenary love which he alloweth for the conveniency of our indigent and decayed estate Methinks by this allusion we may appositely explain what degree of allowablenes mercenary love may be accepted at for as base money is a meanes of commerce between the rich and the poore and is not commonly allowed in payments above some low summe so God in condescendence to the poverty and incommodity of our nature permitteth mercenary love in some proportion to be currant between his plenty and our penury but will not accept our totall discharge in it we may have some selfe-respect in our affections to God that may represent to us our rewards as a beneficiall traffique
which they forge themselves so as commonly when the possession thereof cometh to be questioned before God it indureth not the tryal In this case we cannot recuse our Enemies for our Jury since they are more proper then indifferent persons for this tryal which is to be judged upon the testimonies of our humble and patient sufferings few will protest against flexibleness under the depression of Gods hands but most would fain hold the screw themselves whereby they are let down for fear of falling too violently or too low but true Humility abandoneth it self to the supreme hand under which all other move but instrumentally not excepting against any violent motions of secondary hands whereinto it is delivered to be exerâ—ised And if upon the pain we feel from our Enemies hand we would with the eye of Humility look strictly inward upon our selves we should for the most part discern that it is dressing some defect we apprehended not before as either the cancer of Self-love which we have all in our breasts or some tumor rising in Prosperity or the Ulcer of Sensuality or the vertigo and giddiness of youth or the drowsiness and tepidity of Ease and Accommodation All which may be said to be like worms to Ships that breed in us eating and consuming us under water most when we lie still in the harbors of temporal rest and security so that perfect Humility understanding the unsoundness of Humane Nature apprehendeth Enemies as Gods Surgeons making all their operations rather Cures of some Infirmity then woundings of any vertuous quality I may then safely propose to you the study of Humility as the best qualification for the discharge of this precept since he who commandeth us to take this yoke upon us biddeth us learn of him to carry it because he is meek and humble of heart therefore by the same disposition we must needs be the best enabled in his method to fulfil all righteousness Nor doth this precept of Loving enemies and Forgiving offences any way slack or retard the exercise of Justice whose sword though it draw blood yet it sheddeth none for it striketh onely in application to Gods order not mans passion Princes therefore who are but Gods sword-bearers by the right of their offices when they are provoked by any personal injury as Ingratitude or any other infidelity not legally criminal should remember That though they have many other arms about them yet they are warranted to strike with none but the sword of Justice Revenge is justice that Nature would do her self whereby that power which hath the command of regular Justice may easily be deceived by our Nature which when it is checked by the Law of God in this point of self-righting seeketh to slip in this appetite under the cover of the Law of Man Thus the animosity which powerful persons have in their hearts easily runs through their veins into their hands which hold and deliver out the publike Justice into which private interests do so commodiously insinuate themselves as it requireth a great attention of grace to discern this surreption and reject this intrusion of Revenge into the train and comitancy of Justice Me thinks Princes not being exposed so much as others to personal irritations have it discounted to them in the equal imposition of this duty on them of Forgiving private offences and repressing the sence of particular displeasures since this Bridle must needs set the most uneasily upon their heads the Crown seeming to take up so much room as there is little left for the reins of this Command In others the violence of their Nature is often easily staid and repulsed by the steepness of the rise up to Revenge but they are put to hold it pressing downhil so that unless Grace bear the reins very hard Nature will easily run away in this precipitate passion but as this difficulty maketh the restraint of this impetus the more painful so the mastery thereof becometh more meritorious to them then it is to less tempted Conformists Certainly Princes who faithfully observe this command make more of their provocations then they do of most of their bounties for by this subjection they lay up their power in Heaven in stead of laying it out on Earth and at that day when all the Treasures of their Civil Liberalities shall be melted and dissolved these their Sufferings and Self denials shall remain impassible in that fire which the Apostle saith shall try all our works Blessed then are onely those who while they live here in greatness and authority build their Monuments of such materials as may endure the fire of that day when even the light affections of this life shall prove hay and stubble about their owners passing through a flame and the heavy passions of Anger and Malice shall sink their bearers into such flames as are never to be passed Wherefore the best Monuments Princes can erect for their eternity are arches of these solid Vertues of Humility Patience and Charity which are the more strengthned the more they are charged with the remission of injuries and the dilection of enemies These will out last all their Pyramides of secular Ostentation and Magnificence the King of Heaven Earth hath left them the model of this arch in his life who was then in the strongest point of his Oharity when he was bowed into this triumphant arch of Humility bearing his Cross under which as his body sunk so his love to his enemies grew the more erected none then can be so great as to be exempted from this conformity nor any so miserable as not be solaced by this association I may well then cast up all my divisions respecting several conditions and different provocations into this total That whosoever confess they have any sins whereof they expect a forgiveness from God must resolve to forgive their Brother what offences soever shall require their remission since this condition is expresly set upon their own pardons If you forgive not men neither will your Father remit unto you your offences And our Savior Christ at his remove from his Disciples left them this specifical distinction from the worlds dependants The loving one another so as we may say That our suffering King and Master hath set his Arms upon this Precept for all his followers to wear and to be discerned by O let us then cast off our old Badges of Envy and animosity which are indeed but the Cognizances of Cain and let us put on his Livery to whom we rightfully belong remembring we are not our own having been bought by a great price to glorifie and bear God in our body And when we carry Christ crucified in our thoughts along with our own Crucifiers the pretensions of our Nature to her resentments will be out of countenance in that company and drawing all the grievances and aversions of our Nature as coupled in the yoke with Christ we shall easily confess That even the burthen of this
have happened to me have faln out to the furtherance of my liberty in Christ Philippians Chapter the first Verse the twelfth I shall not then endeavor to write the Laudative but rather the Life of Solitude in which the intermixtures of Good and Ill are co-incident to one another And though I do not pretend the measures of my minde should exactly fit many others yet the matter of my propositions which is Vertue and Piety will endure the taking to pieces and translating into many good Forms according to the sizes of several Dispositions In God there is this inexplicable Mystery there is Unity and Singleness without Solitude for out of the Singularity of the Divine Essence there is a Natural Fecundity and Emanation of a Plurality of Persons in which consists Gods incapacity of solitariness for without this connatural Society Divines affirm God might be said to be solitary even in the middest of all his Creations as Man was said to be alone among all the Creatures of Paradice before he had a Consort of his own Nature We need not stay any longer in this Mountain of the Divine Essence clouded and overshadowed with this Mystery of a TRINITY in UNITY it is sufficient that it afford us but so much Light as to shew That Solitude is not consonant to the Nature of Man as he is GODS Image and so provision was quickly made for that supply after the singleness of his Creation We must resort then to some Supernatural intervention that may mediate between Mans Nature and the Nature of Solitude when he is reduced to it and thereby acquaint him with another kinde of society when he is sequestred from that which is so familiar to him Thus as it were rather translating his communication into another language then razing out the impression in him of the love of company And this is to change the nature of his society and not the sociableness of his Nature §. II. Solitude divided into three sorts and the first discoursed of ME thinks all the states of Solitude may be pertinently divided into these three sorts of Voluntary Violent and Neutral The first is the operation of a Super natural agent upon Mans Will which works upon it as the Wise man says Forcibly and sweetly drawing our mindes out of the world in such a gentle soft separation as vapors are extracted out of the earth while the vertue of the heavenly Spirit attracts our Will out of grosser immersions in the earth unto the pure speculation of Divine objects the grace of such evocations falling as the Psalmist saith like dew upon a fleece So as this egress out of the society of the world may be nominated supernatural in the means though voluntary in the act The next is when any exterior natural agent forcibly deprives us of the liberty of all society and this may often be just in order to the general society of the world which is maintained sometimes by violences exercised on particulars but is always offensive to the nature of Man And so I term this sort of Solitude Violent The third which I state as Neutral is a mixture and compound between the aptness and constitution of particular natures and some exterior intervention of violence and offence to that humor by which we are most affected to the world as a defeature of some hope whereunto our mindes were most applyed or some loss of what our affections had made an intire transaction of themselves unto or some injury above our reach of any reparation and many the like violations of our mindes in the world upon which we break off correspondence with it And this condition of Solitariness I call Neutral as having somewhat of both the other states of Voluntary and Violent for both these qualities concur to the composure of this kinde of separation from Society For the first sort of these Solitudes which I call Voluntary that part of it which is disagreeable to the instinct of Nature is reconciled by the mediation of the Author of Nature who nourisheth the mindes he calls ouâ— into this Desert with lighter and more Spiritual society which he showers down from Heaven upon them as the Psalmist says Man feeds upon the bread of Angels Prayer and Meditation which associates his Spirit to such company as he thinks he hath rather one body too much with him then want of any There are many of the children of Abraham whom God calls as he did their Father summoning them by his voyce to come out of their Countrey from their Kindred and from their Fathers house unto a Land that he will shew them and to this citation many do faithfully answer quitting the Native Region of all their Inclinations the habitudes of Flesh and Blood which are so near of kin to them and all the sweetnesses of communication and solaces of company which are the domesticks of their Fathers house and the familiars of our Humane Nature and separating themselves from all these in 〈…〉 e appâ—tencies take their journey into the strange Region of Solitude privacy and recluseness and when the Soul like the Psalmists Spouse shall thus forget her own people and her fathers house then the King shall be in love with her beauty and then this delectation of the Soul in our Lord confers all the petitions of the heart upon it When God makes these extraordinary selections and vocations to this passage through the Desert unto the Land of Promise he spreads a Cloud over them by day which shadows them from all the ardors of their sensitive appetite and sets up a pillar of Fire before them in the night of that fire which Christ came to bring into the earth that illuminateth all the obscurities whereunto our Nature is subject in the ecclipâ—e of Society and warmeth and cherisheth that shivering chilness wherewith our Nature is so apt to be benumb'd in the privation of the elementary light and heat of our Nature which is Communication and Society This holy fire that accompanies them doth not onely as the Psal mist says Make their night as day to them but even the devesture of themselves their solace and delectation and by the same degrees that they are severed and discharged of themselves they are replenished with that Society which entertaineth them with that joy wherein the fingleness is the universality of it for it is never all things to any heart but when it is there alone This is the peace of Christ exulting in our hearts And in Colloss 3. 15. this Society is the whole Trinity which as the Prophet says Leads first into solitude and then speaks to the heart as though it would have nothing but the heart it self present at this entertainment Such passengers as are truly led by this conduct have for their Viatick that hidden Manna given them which is promised in the Revelation in which they finde the several tastes of all their inclinations the relish of the
part in the connexion though they seem the onely rings and links whereof it is framed Hence is it we so often see unruly and disorderly activity and pursuit of some appropriation occasion a separation from the world as falling out with it upon the rejection of some unduly affected propriety And upon these terms many do often break with the world and retire in defiance of all other company after this defeature of their particular pretence and so in effect they rather flie from the world upon a repulse in their assault then leave it in neglect of what it possesseth Wherefore in this quarrel with the worlds party many do often change their side at first in despight rather then their minde in a sincere distance of their affections from it yet on our first estrangement from the world upon difference with it God is so Divinely compassionate as he doth not upbraid us with our first infidelity in adhering so firmly to the advers party in all our successfulnesses which we take as the pay of his enemies All which truly understood are but the excesses of Gods plenitude who can afford even to his enemies as his waste and redundancy these his temporal Bounties since The earth is his and the fulness thereof Insomuch as the infiniteness of the Divine goodness is very often manifested most in the reception of such as come in to him upon the worlds cashiering of them For God accepts even his enemies Reformado's and preferreth them often to great Trusts in his house We cannot therefore discountenance this breach with the world though at first it be not in direct order to the following of Christ for he to whom St. John forbade the casting out of Devils because he was not of Christs train was notwithstanding authorized by Christ himself God resolveth often in this case of an indirect address to him as Christ answered St. John in the forecited occasion He taketh those to be for him who are not against him for many of such who are but so near Christs side as a declaration against the world he doth often retain and setle in his service S. Pauls Charity was a copy of this his Masters who rejoyced at an accession to Christ whether it were either by pretence or in truth So God is glorified in some degree in many such relinquishments of the world which have at first more animosity then sincerity of Devotion because this defiance hath always some apparence of victory over the world which still gives a kinde of alarm to the worlds party and shews them the contempt of the world standing before them in such a posture as stirs up some reflexion upon the despicableness of it or at least upon the distresses and dangers in it and so moves in some measure towards a consultation on their estates Yet do I not upon this foundation advise any hasty inconsiderate Sequestration of our selves from the world though there are many who like some criminal and Banditi retiring into the the Sanctuary onely for safety have by the frequenting Gods domesticks been sincerely converted into the family and have taken up the arms of the Spirit with which they have combated onely the rest of their life against themselves by continual mortification In this maner many upon civil enmities with the world have in their retreat out of it and taking the Sanctuary of Solitude found by degrees that Sanctification which at first they did not chiefly seek as God said to the Prophet I am sought of those that asked not for me before and I am found of them that sought me not This was the case of many who sought Christ at first meerly for recoveries from incurable diseases by the worlds Art which had given them over and found Spiritual reparations of their Souls above what they projected Many such bedrid Palâ—ies benumb'd and stupified in their passions which are fain to be carried out of the world by the violent hands of divers afflictions being brought to Christ into such solitudes wherein he doth most manifestly reside receive not onely the cure of their passions which they sought chiefly at first but are often staid and scaled with a Divine impression of the contempt of the whole world and a sincere consecration of themselves to Spiritual affections This happeneth when God in some rare cases useth instrumentally the worlds sharp tools as fit and proportionate to work on some stony hearts wherein his Image is much defaced which he hath notwithstanding from all eternity designed for figures to stand in his house But such are precedents of Gods Mercy to reverence onely not to relie upon for God as the Prophet saith doth often take out a stony heart and put one of flesh in the room of it whence the Apostle telleth us He hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardeneth yet he will harden none but such as like fire-stones resist and grow harder by the heat of his love or the flames of his judgements which he hath first applyed to soften them They who study Gods hand in all the various designs and colourings of his Works shall discern it even in all those pieces of Providence which are of such different maners as have made many mistakes in the world upon this Conclusion §. III. How God worketh and how the Devil countermineth in this vocation wherein a safe course is directed THere is no notion under which we can more apply look upon God then as a Physician to our weak Nature He who knows all the properties of Actives and Passives applyes to all constitutions their proper remedies and as some Medicines are not proper both for Beasts and Man in regard of their different tempers So for brutish sensual persons there are required stronger Drugs then to more reasonable and ingenious dispositions The Word of God makes this difference often between voluptuous and sensual habitudes and between pious and vertuous constitutions calling the one Dogs and the other Children wherefore as the Physicians minister to some tempers onely such Drugs which they call Benedicta blessed simples which work kindly and yet effectually upon them to others they are fain to prescribe Minerals and more violent Ingredients to move them So there are some such insensible habits of minde as Gods Benedicta his Blessings and his gentle voyce of vocation doth not move but their strong Nature rather works upon them and alters them turning them into the nourishment of their passions while all their temporal Benedictions are converted into aliment of their sensualities Therefore to such indurate tempers God ministers often rude and violent Minerals so unprepared as they seem to the world to be poysons these we may call Affronts Losses Dishonors and all kinde of Disappointments and these violent compositions work upon their Natures and alter it by which their cure is performed so that oftentimes the worlds Injuries prove Râ—ceits ministred when it intends ruines For while the enemies of our
ill an odour as their former Sacriledge If these Animadversions meet likewise with any such as are not urged by the pressure of their Consciences but rather solicited so much by their natural temper and disposition to privacy and retiredness as upon the least provocation of the world they are apt to break with it these humors are desired to stay and pause â—â—riouâ—ly and long on this suggestion for this may often be the operation of Melancholy which works this hasty promptitude And as Melancholy is the highest degree of choler in the Humors so in these hasty sallies out of the society of the world there may well be more Natural Humor then Spiritual Disposition and so this be rather a Disease then a devout Constitution Wherefore like sick men that forbear food long while the Humor is consuming these retreaters may for some time live quietly as long as this Humor of the worlds disrelish is wasting and spending it self but after that is digested the appetite of the world returns and likely gnaws upon their peace they having no natural food for it Hence is it that such complexions ought to be very advised in this their assigning of themselves according to the propensity of their Humors which perswades them often that what is indeed but the Ecâ—ho of their own voyce of Nature which speaks in them is a Spiritual vocation For their Natural Constitution raifeth that desire in their imaginative part which causeth a little repetition and answer of it in the Judiciary and Rational power of their minde but it is rather from the hollowness of their reason then the solidity of it that this Eccho is returned The result therefore of all these Examinations of several Cases must be Not to conduct our selves by the precedents of special extraordinary vocations of some whom Christ hath sent for out of the streets and by-ways of the world that is immediately from the foulness and immundicity of their lives and by his Messengers of Crosses and Afflictions compelled them to come into his house For these Cases are prerogatives of Gods Grace which do not alter the known Laws that are enacted by him by which Laws we ought to try our vocations to wit by the mature advice of those Judges he hath seated in his Tribunal upon Earth his Church and by their Sentences to make the tryal of all our own private impulses or motions of our Spirit to this dispossession and abnegation of the world Christ himself hath ruled this case in an excellent Parable of one that builds a Tower which is properly adopted to the design of a contemplative life as it is the erection of a frame of life raised high above the other parts of the Earth and intended for prospect and discovery so that none must undertake this edifice but after computation of the pertinencies requisite for the finishment lest they expose themselves to the reproach of having begun what they were not able to finish and this reckoning and account of our provision must be made by the consulting of a prudent Spiritual Surveyor not trusting to the Architecture of our own Spirit in which we must zealously often and humbly consult the eternal Architect of all Spiritual frames for a sincere discernment of his order in the regulating our own designs with this address of the cautious Spirit of Holy David Lord grant me to know the way wherein I should walk for I have lifted up my soul to thee This parting and separation from our own Will is the first leave we must take in our valediction to the world and this is not to be done by a hasty dismission of it for so it is but a weight thrown upward which is fastened to us and falls quickly back again therefore it must be loosened and severed by degrees and steeped as it were in the fresh springing water of Prayer and Mortification whereby it will peel and fall away the easilier Some perseverence in this disposition is requisite to blanch and whiten the intention perfectly St. Pauls advice for our preparation for the Holy communion is me thinks very properly applicable to this our preparation for participating of this Spiritual food for Religious Solitude is the Table of the Holy Ghost Therefore let a man examine himself and then eat of this bread of life for he that presumes to taste of it unworthily may be truly impeached as guilty of much irreverence to the Holy Spirit in venturing to come to the Communion of his Gifts and Graces rashly without a due consulting of his invitation I need not urge our precaution and advisedness in this case farther since our temerity in it is brought to be a kinde of Sin against the Holy Ghost Whereupon I will close up this Advertisement in St. Johns words Beloved believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God for many false promises of this Spirit of an happy Solitude are current in the world it being truer in no case then in this It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God who sheweth mercy The nineteenth Treatise Of Violent Solitude or Close Imprisonment Divided into eight Sections §. I. How unwillingly our Nature submits to the loss of Liberty and Society IN the case we treated last the Will needed a premonition against the deception of sight for our Will in fits of Melancholy looketh commonly through the glass of our Imagination upon such objects as flatter that humor most This Perspective of our Fancy is often cut into such angles as represent various and false colours of perswasions wherewith the Will is inveigled such species proving not real when our Reason cometh strictly to oversee them Therefore in the election of Solitude the elective faculty was to be instructed against the falacies of discourse upon which the Resolution is to be grounded but this case requireth a different direction For here the best course the Will can take to rectitude is to be totally blinded and cieled that she may make the straighter mount upward to the eternal Will and not amuse or perplex her self by looking about with a solicitous inspection into second causes but may pitch at the first flight upon the primary cause of all Contingencies Our Nature requireth much precaution in this aptitude to intangle us under the pretext of infranchisement by the liberty of reasoning out the Causes of all advers Accidents for in this case of loss of Liberty and Company our Nature likely seizeth on curious disquisitions of all Humane Reasons as the next thing she takes hold on to make company out of them and the contrivement of issues out of these straights is a sort of freedom our Nature takes as some imaginary reparation in her necessity by reason wherof these are coÌ„monly the first occupations wherein our Fancy seeketh some divertisement and this entertainment may lighten the weight a little by removing it to and fro in our Fancy not
patience and resignation by these intervening trials of our temper and likely the thoughts we have in temptations to frowardness are the copies of our minde upon which God judgeth their proficiency in the school of patience which he hath put them to There are diverse forms in prisons to which God preferreth our mindes by degrees and the highest seemeth to be the remaining humbly patient in a destitution of all sensible consolation from the Spirit of God to which we rise not but after some experiments of such desolations so that the best advice to this case is in our propensions to frowardness and petulancy to conclude That we are then set to bring in those exercises of vertue that must prefer us to a higher form all the Saints have passed by this examâ—n insomuch as David saith in this case My soul refused to be conforted I was mindfull of God and was delighted here you see the storm and the passing of it over by remembring the qualities of such blasts and stresses of temptations He is then the best scholler that studieth the least by his own arguings to clear to himself these obscure interjections of displicence and ill humor and cieling up his thoughts flieth directly to the top of the Cross resting there with the Man of sorrow where his minde finding My God why hast thou forsaken me may easily be answered in all her own perplexities and desolations and in stead of fearing her self to be forsaken may suppose she is following of Christ in this anxiety to which he was voluntarily subjected to solace by his Society our Nature in this infirmity whereunto that is necessarily exposed so as in these disquiets when the book of our Spirits seemeth closed up to us and we are ready to weep for our not being worthy to open it we may suppose our good Angel doing the office of the Elder to St. John bidding us not to be dismaid for the man of sorrow hath opened all these sealed anguishes by his taking the same impression upon his Spirit and indeed when our mindes are well died in the blood of the Lamb these aspersions of disquiets do not at all stain our Soul though there may seem some refractariness in our Spirits in these overcast intervals But to secure us from incurring any irregularity by this Spiritual Contention in the Temple of the Holy Ghost the safest way is not to seek a defence by the power of our Reason but to yield up our Spirits to suffer under this indisposition as long as it shall please the Holy Spirit to remain withdrawn even within our own Spirit beyond our discernment and many times in this ariâ—ity of our Devotion when our hearts are as I may say parched and cracked in this drought of Divine Refreshment if our wills are faithfully resigned to this exercitation of our Faith every such crack or overture in our hearts caused by the shutting up of Heaven proveth a mouth opened and calling for that holy dew which never fails to be showered down in due season upon such necessitous fidelities insomuch as this aridity and desolation interposed for some time doth often prove more fruitful then a common kindely season of repose and acquiescence I desire therefore to recommend specially this Advice to this state of Solitude which is very liable to these obscure interjections not to expect peace of minde onely from what we do sensibly receive from God but also from what we do sensibly give unto him for in this our commerce with Heaven there is this Supernatural way of Traffique we do not onelâ— pay God with his own gifts but we may give him even what we want and do not receive from him that is we may present him with our privation of his sensible Graces by our acceptance of this poverty and destitution And this offering of our emptiness is no less propitiatory then the first fruits of our Spiritual abundances This Advertisement I conceive very pertinent to my design of furnishing my fellow Soldiers with the armor of God that they may resist in the evil day and in all things stand perfect for it may be properly said of their condition that they are to wrastle not onely against flesh and blood but against the Rulers of the darkness of this world the Flesh shooting all her sharpest darts in the privation of Liberty and the Spirit his in the destitution of the most humane sympathy of Conversation This resignation then which I have proposed includeth a disswasion of any anxious solicitude concerning the cause of our sufferance for the ranging of our thoughts to spring second causes may keep us too much upon the scent of the earth the Apostle's advice is properer in this case Seek upward and not upon the earth which was the first point from whence this circle of my discourse did set forth and to allay this feaverish disquiet in our Patient I may fitly apply this Opiaâ—e of the Apostle If you are dead to the elements of this world why do you yet decree as living in the world This perplexing your selves with the thoughts of the world is to lose the benefit of this your civil death whereby you may rest from the labors of the living This you may rest upon in general That in this life there is no sort of Suffering but may be converted into Sanctification If you lie under a just sentence you may by an humble conformity to Gods Justice make it a release of a greater penalty then you feel in all your deprivements If you suffer injuriously for your engagement in a righteous Cause your Consolation is so much supposed as you have a command to rejoyce in 〈…〉 tion in view of the glory of your reward And if every imprisoned Christian may be said to be a rough draught of Christ since he avoweth his personation in them they who suffer for the Defence of Justice and Vertue may be said to be Christs Images coloured and more exactly finished wherefore such may expect to be readily received with I know you easily your scars and wounds which you bring with you coming out of my service have finished the figure of my similitude And we may resolve That such Champions shall be set near Christ where the number of their wounds shall be so many marks of their Consanguinity with the bleeding Lamb and the weight of their Chains shall be the estimate of their Crowns All sorts of Christians then may fill their several measures of Confort out of this Fountain of Christian Doctrine that all they who do not directly suffer for Christ may yet suffer as Christians and so attain the reward of a Prophet I will then close up my Present to them with this Seal of the Bands of our fellow Prisoner and Master Doctor Let us forget thâ—se things which are behinde and reaching forth 〈◊〉 thâ—se things which are before press forward to the mark for the priâ—â— of the high calling of
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
fall away down under the Altar it self represented by their mindes from whence the fume of those fragrant Odours of Vocal and Mental Prayer is directed towards the wings of the Cherubims and so what is sweet in the Spirit ascendeth to Heaven and what is unclean in the Flesh falleth to the Earth and doth not remain as a foulness upon the Altar which is kept always bright and odoriferous And in these Temples of the Holy Ghost there is not onely a continual emission of fire from Heaven falling upon the Altar but even a fresh provision of materials to incense upon it that is to say new supplies of Meditations descending from the Father of light from whom the same beam imparteth at once the ardor of love and the light of Science so that this matter can never want that flame nor that flame ever want this fomentation O how incomprehensible is the clarity of the Divine Elsence whereof if the little light shed on us do shine so strangely even in us being as yet but dark lanthorns to carry it how much must those splendors of purity and sanctity radiate which never issue out of it self whereof we have but few or no glances in this imperfect state of Contemplation to wit little or no intelligible perception of the Mysterious light of the glorious Trinity consistent with that most simple Vnity in which the Trinity of persons is comprised and yet the simplicity of the Unity is not at all diminished In which speculative Verity the best plumed Sâ—raphins of our mortal Nature when they soar never so high on these two wings of Grace and Contemplation must cover their faces with these two other of Faith and Wonder singing with the Psalmist I shall be satisfied when thy glory appeareth and in thy light we shall see light §. II. The gradations whereby we ascend ordinarily up to this station I May well suppose that there will be many who being dazled by the radiancy of the faces of these Moses's we have exposed will with the people turn their heads away from this object And I may imagine that some as being taken with the beauty of this light will conclude with the Apostles That it is good to live upon this Mount and may perchance think of making Tabernacles for their abode in this place that is design all the powers of their mindes to the forming in themselves such a state of Contemplation wherefore it may be pertinent to look a little downward upon such subjacent stations as are the direct way up to the top of the Mountain whereunto the nearest conterminate part is that of Speculation and the next to that Lecture and after that Mortification which lieth indeed as the basis of all the elevation and as it hath this property of the ground-work to consist of the most gross matter so hath it this likewise of being the support of the whole erection and in that order I will re-ascend to the summity from whence I have dismounted While the Soul of Man receives no intelligible species but such as are raised from sensible matter and acteth onely by corporeal organs by Natural Reason it is evident why Mortification is requisite for the best extent of her intellectual powers as rendring these passages the clearer through which all images enter into our discursive faculty and also keeping that power the more free and active in all her exercises The purer the glass is the better we see all things in the room and the farther we may see out of the room when we look outward through the glass so both the species that enter into our mindes through clean and unobstructed organs are the clearer and the acts also of our discourse and speculation looking outward towards immaterialities are the more sharp and penetrating I shall not need to argue how much corporeal pleasures and sensualities do obscure the light received by the apprehensive faculty and clog the operations of the reasoning power of the Minde Wherefore even in this Natural respect a convenient suppression of the appetites of the Flesh seemeth the platform of all Spiritual exaltation but we have a firmer supernatural ground whereupon to raise this Conclusion of the requisiteness of Mortification towards speculative gifts the word of the Holy Ghost saying They that are in the flesh cannot please God and if they be removed even from Gods favor they must needs be very distantial from that grace and familiarity which is imparted to Contemplation Saint Paul was allowed so little to think of his body when he was raised to his highest point of illumination as he knew not whether he had any body about him or no at that time And we finde that he took the best course he could all his life to feel the least he might possibly of his body in order whereunto he saith He did not onely chastise his body and keep it in subjection but affirmeth likewise That he did dye daily It seemeth he found no means of clearing the operations of the Soul but by making as it were a quotidian separation between her and the Flesh And me thinks we may say of all Saint Pauls converted life notwithstanding his humility in owning infirmities that which he himself said of some part of it namely Whether this man in Christ lived in his body or out of his body we know not God knoweth so little sense we finde him to have had of his body in point of Mortification and so little impediment by it in Contemplative operations And doth he not say himself That it is not he that liveth but Christ in him and referring to us he declares the requisiteness of Mortification telling us That they that be Christs have crucified their flesh with the vices and concupiscences and if this kinde of crucisixion be requisite even for the practical part of Christianity whereunto all are called much more must it be pertinent to the perfect speculative state thereof to which so few are chosen I am therefore well warranted to lay Mortification as the ground or foot of this Mount of Moria which signifieth the Land of Visions whereunto all such as shall despise ascensions in their heart must take their rise from this foot and remember what was figured by Abrahams leaving his Servants and his Ass afar off when he saw the Mountain and the prohibition of any Beast to come near to Mount Sinai to wit that no carnal or sensual dispositions might presume to approach towards the mysterious lights of God So that whosoever aspired to go up to this mount Moria of Contemplation must be advised to follow Abrahams order to leave afar off all voluptuous and sensual appetites figured by the Servants and the Ass and carry in his hand the Fire and the Sword that is Zeal and Activity for the sacrificing of his Flesh and Blood to the honor of God This is the Fire that he who was typified by Isaac brought into the earth and
errour it self he rejoyceth in so Essentiall is truth for the terme of his acquiescence Supposing we do thus generally aim at truth for our felicity I may well be asked how it commeth to passe that the subject of our joyes is oftener apparence and falsity then the real good of this life's benedictions the cause surely is the partiality of our imagination towards our sensitive appetite rather then in favour to our reason and thus Opinion which is but a changeling introduced by Sense passeth commonly for the right child and certainly Opinion may well be said to be the mean issue of sense and Verity the noble child of Reason but by this unjustice of our imagination it followeth that all the delights which are touched but at our senses are commonly accepted by our will for the true species of joy from the credit of that test without examining their nature in the fire of Ratiocination whereby it happens that when we are the trulyest deceived we are most believing in the truth of our happynesse for when we misapprehend the most the nature of secular pleasures having the least suspition or scruple of the mutability of such fruitions our joy seemeth the most sincere which proveth clearly that truth is but mistaken in the colouring not unintended in the designe of our felicity In redresse of this error Devotion taketh off the deceitfull colours of good and evill which Opinion layes upon the creature and presenteth to our understanding a naturall image both of the worth as well as the vanity which may be found in the rectified or vitious apprehension of all temporalities possessing us with the true nature of all our possessions directeth us how to rejoyce in the truth of such blessings and thereby satisfyeth that instinct of the mind with the reality and doth not amuse it with the meer colour of verity Certaine it is that temporall blessings as health beauty wealth and honour are indued with a true and sincere goodnesse wherein their owners may vertuously rejoyce the point is the discernment of this Truth and the selecting that only for subject of our delectation because just as much as we stray from this principle so much we remove from our happinesse which depending on the satisfaction of our opinion if that be unsound in apprehending the nature of such goods as are the objects of our affections we are in danger of being unhappy by their being but true to their owne nature while we are untrue to ours For their true instinct is mutation and instability and ours the perception and use of that verity whereby our understanding may sort an affection proportioned to the nature of secular benedictions §. II. Sacred examples shewing what may be said to be a rejoycing in the truth of temporall goods and how even secular evils afford joy by the same method of a right understanding them THe states of many the dearest friends of God testifie that temporall felicity affordeth a sincere matter of joy which is commensurate to the true sense conceived of the nature of such happinesse Abrahams wealth was thought worthy the holy Ghosts mentioning as a blessing as his peregrination was fitted with great accommodations so that state of unsettlednesse was a fixing in his minde the true nature of all he possessed In proof whereof it may well be observed that the only purchase Abraham made upon earth with his riches was a grave from whence we may inferre how rightly he understood the truth of their transitory nature and his owne mutable condition whereupon he chose to take possession of the Land promised him by a marke of his parting with it rather then of his possessing it thus did he understanding the true goodnesse of his worldly commodities derive from them both exercises of charity and notions of mortification while he imployed his wealth in the accommodations of strangers and passengers and in provision of his owne lodging as a traveller at the end of his journey and remaining in this rectified sense of his tempoporall fruitions all their effects proved a constant rejoycing in Truth By this method Abraham extracted the same Spirit of Truth out of his plentifull substance that Lazarus did out of his penury and indigence and surely if Dives had rejoyced but in the truth of his abundance and not set his heart upon the false part thereof he would have taken Lazarus into his breast in this life then they might have been bed-fellowes in Abrahams Bosome For I may truly affirme that there is no Lazarus in this world who hath not an Abraham in his Bosome that shall get to the being in Abrahams Bosome in the next And likewise conclude that there is no Dives in this life who hath a Lazarus in his bosome that shall not attaine to Abrahams Bosome in the other world For there is no necessitous body wanting fidelity of heart and poverty of spirit that can be qualified for that state meerely by his misery and there is no so splendid or opulent person indued with true Christian poverty of spirit that is not thereby intitled to eternall felicity and surely as there are many Lazarusses who want this kind of Abraham I have explained in their heart so there are diverse Abrahams in this life as I may terme them who carry this sort of Lazarus in their bosome being both rich humble and faithfull contriving all their temporary joy out of the perception and dilection of the true blessing intended in the Creature and deduce their satisfaction from Gods order not their owne exaltation in which respect they may be proved to rejoyce in verity Did not holy Job rejoyce in the truth of his worldly goods when he assigned the most of them to sacrifices either expiatory for his children or propitiatory for himselfe to purge the excesses of feasting in his owne family or to provide against the exigences of fasting in the houses of his neighbours acting this part which the holy Spirit gives the potent saying the portion of the poore is in the rich mans hands and surely we may conceive that in the latter part of his life which I may call his temporall resurrection his estate rising againe to more glory then it had expired with his piety was also exalted in proportion to a higher state of perfection so that truth being found and acknowledged in any splendid condition will keepe Peace and righteousnesse in the family kissing each other Was not King Davids vast treasure well managed by the superintendency of truth when he assigned all the most pretious materialls the earth affordeth to their true use some as it were converted into vocall instruments of Gods prayses others into visible memorialls of his presence and designed in a Temple as good a sensible figure as he could of the truth he conceived of all materiall substances which was of the earths belonging to God and all the plenitude thereof which confession he made in these words thine are the heavens and