and Eternal Reason The similitude of which Reason being the Essence of the Soul all these things fall out for our glory and satisfaction also NOW if GOD himself acquired all his Joyes by Temperance and the glory of his Kingdom is wholly founded in his Moderation We may hope that our Moderation and Temperance in its place may accomplish Wonders and lead us to the fruition of his by certain steps and degrees like those that are observed in the Womb towards Manhood and in the School of our Childhood towards perfect Learning TOO much Rain or too much Drought will produce a Famine the Earth is made fertile by a seasonable mixture of Heat and Moisture Excess of Power may overwhelm but moderation is that which perfecteth and blesseth the Creation ALMIGHTY Power is carried far beyond it self or really is made Almighty by vertue of that Temperance wherein Eternal Wisdom is eternally Glorified IF any thing be wanting to the full demonstration of the perfection of GODS Kingdom it is the consideration of his Delay for we are apt to think he might have made it Eternally before he did But to this no other Answer is necessary though many might be made then that all Things were from all Eternity before his Eyes and he saw the fittest Moments wherein to produce them and judged it fit in his Wisdom first to fill Eternity with his deliberations and Counsels and then to beautifie Time with the execution of his Decrees For were there no more to be said but this his Empire is eternal because all Possibilities nay and all Impossibilities are subject to his Will But if it be confessed that Eternity is an everlasting Moment infinite in duration but permanent in all its parts all Things past present and to come are at once before him and eternally together Which is the true Reason why Eternity is a standing Object before the Eye of the Soul and all its parts being full of Beauty and Perfection for ever to be enjoyed IF any man be disposed to cavil further and to urge that GOD might at the very first have placed Angels and Men in the state of Glory the Reply is at hand that GOD very well understandeth the beauty of Proportion that Harmony and Symmetry springs from a variety of excellent Things in several places fitly answering to and perfecting each other that the state of Trial and the state of Glory are so mysterious in their Relation that neither without the other could be absolutely perfect Innumerable Beauties would be lost and many transcendent Vertues and Perfections be abolished with the estate of Trial if that had been laid aside the continual appearance and effect of which is to enrich and beautifie the Kingdom of GOD everlastingly That GOD loveth Man far more than if he had placed him in the Throne at first and designeth more Glory and Perfection for him than in that dispensation he could have been capable of all which springeth from the Restraint of his Power in some occasions that it might more fully be exerted in the perfection of the whole and of all things that were possible to be made might end in the Supream and most absolutely Blessed Therefore upon the whole Matter we may conclude with solomon Happy is the man that findeth Wisdom and the man that getteth Understanding For the Merchandize of it is better than the Merchandize of Silver and the Gain thereof than of fine Gold She is more precious than Rubies and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared with her Length of Daies is in her right hand and in her left hand Riches and Honour Her Waies are waies of Pleasantness and all her Paths are Peace She is a Tree of Life to them that lay hold upon her and happy is every one that retaineth her The LORD by Wisdom hath founded the Earth by Understanding hath he established the Heavens My Son let not them depart from thine Eyes Keep sound Wisdom and Discretion Wisdom is the principal Thing therefore get Wisdom and with all thy Getting get Understanding For the same Wisdom which created the World is the only Light wherein it is enjoyed CHAP. XXIV Of Patience It s Original How GOD was the first Patient Person in the World The Nature and the Glory and the blessed Effects of his Eternal Patience The Reason and Design of all Calamities Of Patience in Martyrdom The extraordinary Reward of ordinary Patience in its meanest obscurity PATIENCE is a Vertue of the Third estate it belongs not to the estate of Innocence because in it there was no Affliction nor to the estate of Misery because in it there is no Vertue but to the estate of Grace it appertains because it is an estate of Reconciliation and an estate of Trial wherein Affliction and Vertue meet together In the estate of Glory there is no Patience THIS is one of those distastful Vertues which GOD never intended It received its bitterness from Sin its life and beauty from GOD's Mercy If we dislike this Vertue we may thank our selves for we made GOD first to endure it And if all things are rightly weighed no Creature is equal to GOD in Sufferings We made it necessary for the Eternal GOD-HEAD to be Incarnate and to suffer all the Incommodities of Life and the bitter Torments of a bloody Death that he might bear the Penance of our Sins and deliver us from eternal Perdition THE Corporeal Sufferings of our Saviour are not comparable to the Afflictions of his Spirit Nor are there any Sufferings or Losses so great as those we cast upon the GOD-HEAD He infinitely hateth Sin more than Death and had rather be Crucified a thousand times over than that one Transgression should be brought into the World Nothing is so quick and tender as Love nothing so lively and sensible in resenting No loss is comparable to that of Souls nor any one so deeply concerned in the loss as GOD Almighty No Calamity more peircing than to see the Glory of his Works made Vain to be bereaved of his Desire and frustrated of his End in the whole Creation He had rather we should give him the Blood of Dragons or the cruel Venom of Asps to drink than that we should pollute our selves or his Kingdom with a Sin Nay it were better if without a Sin it could be done that the whole World should be annihilated than a Sin committed For the World might be Created again with ease and all that is in it be repaired with a word but a Sin once committed can never be undone it will appear in its place throughout all Eternity Yet is so odious and so infinitely opposite to the Holiness of GOD that no Gall or Wormwood is comparable thereunto To see his Beloved blasted his Love despised and his Son rebellious to see the most amiable Law in the World broken his Kingdom laid waste and his Image defaced to see all his Labour marred and spoiled his Benefits slighted
it He so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son and with him all the Laws and Beauties of his Kingdom but unless we love him unless we are sensible of his Love in all these and esteem it we do not enjoy our Souls or Bodies Angels or Men Heaven or Earth Jesus Christ or his Kingdom Rather we trample upon all and despise all and make our selves deformed All these do but serve to increase our Damnation and aggravate our Guilt unless we love and delight in their Author and his Love it self will eternally confound us So that we gain and enjoy the Love of GOD by ours Now Love returned for Love is the Soul of Gratitude In that act and by it alone we gain all that is excellent And beside all these become illustrious Creatures It is more to our avail to be Divine and Beautiful than to see all the World full of Delights and Treasures They would all be nothing to us without our Love Nothing does so much alienate and estrange the Soul from any Object as want of Affection All the Kingdom of Heaven is appropriated and made ours by Love alone The inferiour perfections of our own Essence are gained by Love and by it we accomplish the end of our Creation We receive and enjoy all the benevolence of GODS former Love by ours are made excellent in our selves and delightful to GOD which can never be brought to pass any other way but by our Love alone By Loving him as we ought to do we enable him to take pleasure in us And this is of all other the greatest benefit We cloath our selves with the similitude of all his Attributes and shine in his Image by Love alone Our Love as it acquires crowns our Perfections with his infinite Complacency This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased is a voice that can be directed to none but him only that loveth GOD with an eternal Love He cannot rest satisfied in any that hate or despise him The eternal complacency and delight of GOD whereby we are crowned with eternal Glory is acquired and receives its Being in a manner by Love alone NOW to love GOD is to desire Him and his Glory to esteem him and his Essence to long for him and his Appearance to be pleased with him in all his Qualities and Dispositions or more properly in all his Attributes and Perfections to delight in all his Thoughts and Waies It is to love him in all his Excellencies And he that is not resolved to love every Excellency in him as much as it deserveth does not love GOD at all for he has no design to please him But he that purposes to do it must of necessity love GOD more than himself because he finds more Objects for his Love in GOD than in himself GOD being infinitely more excellent than he But if this seem a grievous task it is not a matter of Severity but Kindness We mistake its nature the Duty does not spring from any disorder in GOD not from any unreasonable or arrogant Selfishness as base and foolish men are apt to imagine but from his Excellency it naturally springeth from the greatness of his Worth And it is our freedom when we see his infinite Beauty to love it as it deserveth When we so do we shall infinitely love it more than our selves because it is infinitely better And indeed shall find it so conveniently seated in the Deity for us that could it be transposed or remov'd it would no where else be fit for our fruition It is that eternal act of Love and Goodness that made all the Kingdom of Glory for us that Care and Providence that governs all Worlds for our Perfection that infinite and eternal Act that gave us our Being That Beauty is it self the Deity and wherever it appeareth there GOD is The GOD HEAD is the Beauty in which we are all made perfect And because we were nothing we must be infinitely pleased that he is Eternal because it is his eternal Act that gives us a Being and the Act Oh how Divine It is his Beauty and Glory Can we chuse but love that Act which is all Goodness and Bounty Which prepares for and gives to us infinite felicity If we love our selves we must needs love it for we cannot forbear to love the fountain of all our delights and the more we love it the more ardently we delight in it the sweeter and more transporting will all our Raptures be the more feeling and lively the more divine and perfect will our Souls and our Joyes be When we know GOD we cannot but love him more than our selves and when we do so his Blessedness and Glory will be more than ours we shall be more than Deified because in him we shall find all our Perfection and be eternally Crowned We must of necessity sit in his Throne when we see him enjoying all his Glory because his Glory is his Goodness to us and his Blessedness our Felicity Because in the acts of our Understanding we shall eternally be with him and infinitely be satisfied in all his Fruitions That Excellency which obliges us will enable us to love him more than our selves and while we delight in him for our own sakes we shall steal insensibly into a more divine and deeper Delight we shall love him for his And even in point of Gratitude adore his Glory To Adore and Maligne are opposite things to Envy and Adore are inconsistent Self-love is apt to leap at all advantages and the more we love our selves the more prone we are to covet and wish whatsoever we see Great and Excellent in another But he hath conquered our Envy by his infinite Bounty and made us able to adore him by the Perfection of his Essence To cover the Perfections of him we adore is impossible It is impossible to adore him whom we would spoil and rob of his Perfections For Adoration is a joyful acknowledgment of the infinite Perfections of an Adorable Object resting sweetly in them with acquiescence and rejoycing It is prone to add and to offer more An adoring Soul is in the act of sacrificing it self to the Deity and with infinite Complacency admiring and adoring all his Glories HIS Glories will be inspired into the Soul it self for the healing of that Envy to which it is otherwise addicted And instead of Robbery and Discontentment and Blasphemy and Covetousness the Soul shall be full of Honour and Gratitude and Complacency and be glad to see its GOD the full and eternal act of Perfection and Beauty It was from all eternity impossible there should be any other but he and he from all eternity has so infinitely obliged us that were it possible for any other to have been it would not be desirable He hath obliged us and we love him better than any other Should we fancy or conceive another a Power from all Eternity acting should we suppose it possible that a Power besides
when we see all these Virtues in their several Places and Offices their Objects and their Uses the Ends for which and the occasions on which they were introduced all are Delightful to the Reason of mans Soul and highly Eligible while GOD is adored and admired for the depth of his Wisdom and Goodness and beloved for the Equity and Excellency of his Proceedings For all these Occasional Vertues are but Temporary when our Life and this present World are past and gone as a Dream Love and Joy and Gratitude will be all that will continue for ever in which Estate Wisdom and Knowledge Goodness and Righteousness and True Holiness shall abide as the Life and Glory into which the Souls of all that are Blessed will be transformed Repentance shall be gone and Patience cease Faith and Hope be swallowed up in fruition Right Reason be extended to all Objects in all Worlds and Eternity in all its Beauties and Treasures seen desired esteemed enjoyed Let it be your Care to dive to the Bottom of true Religion and not suffer your Eyes to be Dazled with its Superficial Appearance Rest not in the Helps and Remedies that it bringeth but search for the Hidden Manna the substantial Food underneath the Satisfaction of all Wishes and Desires the true and Coelestial Pleasures the Causes of Love and Praise and Thanksgiving founded in the Manifestations of Gods Eternal favour especially in the Ends for the sake of which all Helps and Remedies are prepared For it is exceeding true that his Laws are Sweeter then the Hony and the Hony Comb and far more precious then thousands of Gold and Silver CHAP. V. Of the Necessity Excellency and Use of Knowledge its Depths and Extents its Objects and its End KNOWLEDGE and Love are so necessary to Felicity that there can be no Enjoyment or Delight without them Heaven and Earth would be Dark and obscure Angels and Men vain and unprofitable all the Creatures base and unserviceable Felicity impossible were there no Knowledge Nay GOD himself without Knowledge and Love could not well exist for his very Essence is seated in infinite Knowledge GOD is Light and in him is no Darkness at all He is Love by nature and there is no hatred in his Essence His very Godhead is all Perfection by the infinite Knowledge and Love in his Nature THE Original of our Knowledge is his Godhead His Essence and his will are the Fountain of it and the stream so excellent that in all Estates it is for ever to be continued as the Light and Glory of the whole Creation THE understanding Power which is seated in Soul is the Matter of that Act wherein the Essence of Knowledge consisteth Its form is the Act it self whereby that Power of knowing apprehendeth its Object IT S nature is invisible like that of all other Spirits so simple and uncompounded that its form and matter are the same For all Powers when transformed into Act are Acts themselves And the faculty of understanding in a Compleat and Perfect Act of Knowledge attains its Perfection and is Power exerted or an Act in its Exercise For every Act is Power exerted THE Power of Knowing is vain if not reduced into Act and the Soul a melancholly and Dreadful Cave or Dungeon of Darkness if void of Knowledge Had GOD himself a Power of Knowing Distinct from its Operation if he never exercised that Power it would be useless to him His Glory and Blessedness are seated in the Light of that Knowledge whichto us upon Earth appeaeth Inaccessible IF we would be perfect as our Father which is in Heaven is perfect our Power of knowing must be transformed into Act and all Objects appear in the interior Light of our own understanding For tho all Eternity were full of Treasures and the Whole World and all the Creatures in it transformed into Joys and our Interest to all never so perfect yet if we are Ignorant of them we shall continue as poor and Empty as if there were nothing but Vacuity and Space For not to be and not to appear are the same thing to the understanding WERE a Man a Seraphim by his Essence or something by nature more Glorious and Divine then the Highest Order of the most Blessed Angels nay the greatest Creature that Almighty power was able to produce his Soul and Body would signifie nothing if he were unknown to himself and were not aware of his Excellence IF you would have a solid Prospect of any Vertue you must understand that Vertues are Powers transformed into right wise and regular Acts avoiding all extremes of remissness on the one hand and excess on the other The Extreams of Knowledge are Ignorance and Error FOR ought you know Heaven and Earth are as full of Treasures as Almighty Power was able to create them and you by Nature the best and highest of all possible Creatures made like GOD for the highest and best of all possible Ends and called to live in Communion with him in all his fruitions but being vilely corruptted you have lost the sence of all these Realities and are ignorant of the Excellences of your own Estate and Nature I am sure that GOD is infinite in Wisedom Goodness and Power and nothing is wanting on his Part to perfect your Desires But yet you may be blind and idle and ignorant and dead in a manner while you are wanting to your self and have need of nothing but clear and perfect apprehensions but because they are Sottish and Erroneous at present they may make you miserable and Poor and Blind and Naked IF Sin had been like Circe's Cup and changed the shape of Mans Body to that of a Swine or Dragon the Depravation of his Nature had been plain and visible yet without knowing what kind of Form he had before it would not appear because we should be unsensible of his first Form and unable to compare the one with the other But Sin is a Moral Obliquity and the change it produceth in the Soul is Spiritual It makes a man to differ far more from himself than any alteration of Body can do but withal so blinds his Understanding that he does not remember what he was in his first Parent Tho the first Man who had experience of both Estates was able to compare them because in his Corruption he might possibly retain a Sence of that Nature and Life which he enjoyed in his integrity Yet all his Posterity that are born Sinners never were sensible of the Light and Glory of an Innocent Estate and for that cause may be wholy ignorant both of GOD and themselves utterly unable to conceive the Glory of the World or of that Relation wherein they should by Nature have stood towards all the Creatures IT is impossible to conceive how great a change a slight Action may produce It is but pressing the Wick a little with ones Finger and a Lamp is extinguished and Darkness immediately made to overspread the Room The Glory and
Riddles in the midst of all which to think so well of GOD as he deserveth is the most acceptable thing in the World for it argues a great confidence of his Worth and a Love that is founded on Substantial Causes never to be removed It feedeth the Soul with a lively hope and fair Expectation of great Things from him by which alone we do right to His GODHEAD in acknowledging the Perfection of his Love and Goodness and by which alone we are made able to adore him and to live in Union and Communion with him THERE is great Talk of Friendship it is accounted the only Pleasure in the World Its Offices are highly magnified of all Kindness of Behaviour a through and clear communication of Souls a secure Reliance upon each others Fidelity a perfect Discovery of all our Thoughts Intentions and Resentments an ardent willingness to impart Lives and Estate for the Benefit of our Friend the Reposing of all our Secrets in each others Bosomes to do all services and suffer all afflictions for each others sakes to prefer the Concerns of our Friend upon all Occasions above our own these are the Magnalia Amicitiae Arcana mutuae Benevolentiae the Great and mighty Effects for which Friendship is admired But all these without a good Opinion of our Friend are nothing worth they are but Externals of Friendship the greatest Secret in its Nature is the mutual agreement of Souls and Spirits the Delight which either taketh in the other the honour and esteem they give and receive the Approbation and Love of each others Dispositions the Sence and Admiration of each others Vertues the continual Desire of being alwayes together peculiar Extasie which the Beauty of either occasioneth in the other when of all other Treasures in the World their Persons are the greatest to one another Either is the proper Element and Refrigerium of the others Soul Their Bosomes are the mutual Receptacles and Temples of each others accomplishments whereinto they are received in all their Desert and have Justice done to every degree and Perfection in their Nature their Hearts are the Thrones where they are exalted and magnified and live at Ease are honoured and worshipped extolled and reign as absolute in each others Souls There are some slight aims and Adumbrations of this Friendship on Earth but the best and highest Degree of it here beneath is but a rude and imperfect shadow only GOD is the Sovereign friend all Adoration paid to any one beside is meer Idolatry Our Hearts can be absolutely Sacrificed to none but him because he alone is immutable in Goodness We cannot infinitely honour and delight in any but Him it is he alone that can infinitely honour and delight in us All our Lives Estates and Services are Due to him his Will alone is to be wholly ours because no other Will is infallibly Right Wise Holy but his alone THE Union of our Wills is a Perfection of Love but that at which he aimeth by all his Labours and Gifts and Benefits is our Right and Good Opinion of his Excellencies and Perfections That we should see and discern his interior Properties admire his Graces adore his Perfections adore and magnifie his Beauty and Glory this is the End for which he communicates himself in all his Works and Ways unto us it is the End of the Whole Creation and of all the Excellent Things in the universe for by this he establisheth his Empire in our souls and makes us Pleasing to himself in all our Operations And for this Cause it is that the Apostle plainly tells us that tho we give our Body to be burned and all our Goods to feed the poor without Charity it profiteth nothing To render to GOD the Honour that is due to his Name to receive and admire all his Bounties to rejoyce in all his Operations to adore him in all his Ways to take pleasure in all his Works to fill Heaven and Earth with our Joys and Praises is a Work which cannot but be agreeable by its Nature to his Eternal Essence And if this be the Work of Love it is that which is most Excellent because he is therein both pleased and enjoyed GOD and all his Creatures are united together by Love alone and in the Eternal Exercise of pure and perfect Love all Blessedness and Glory consisteth IF you require what it is to love GOD you will find it worthy of his Highest desire because thereby all our souls nay all his Creatures and his whole Kingdome are perfected for to Love GOD as we ought to do is to Honour him as our Father Benefactor Bridegroom and King to contemplate him as our Cause with Complacency and to rest in him as our End to delight in him as our Creator Preserver Lawgiver and Redeemer to dedicate our selves wholly to that Service whatever it be wherein he is chiefly pleased and delighted It is to love him in himself in all his Works in all his Ways in all his Laws in all his Attributes in all his Thoughts and Counsels in all his Perfections It implies the Knowledge of all Objects the Use of all Means the Attainment of all Ends all Wisdome and Goodness all Obedience and Gratitude all Righteousness and Holiness all Joy and Praise all Honour and Esteem all Blessedness and Glory For it is to Love him with all our Heart and with all our Soul with all our Strength and with all our Might with all our Understanding with all our Will with all our Affection with all the Powers of our soul with all our Inclinations and Faculties in all his Creatures in all his Appearances in Heaven and Earth in Angels and Men in all Kingdoms and Ages It is to see and desire to Esteem and delight in his Omnipresence and Eternity and in every Thing by which he manifesteth himself in either of these so that all Enlargement and Greatness and Light and Perfection and Beauty and Pleasure are founded in it and to Love him to Perfection implies all Learning and Attainment because we must necessarily be acquainted with all Things in all Worlds before we can thorowly and compleatly do it Which here upon Earth to do by Inclination and Endeavour to the utmost of our Power is all that is required of us And if we do it to our utmost it shall be rewarded in the Beatifick Vision with a full and Blessed Pefection with an actual Love exactly resembling his and fully answerable to it in the Highest Heavens THERE are two common Motives of Love among Men the one the Goodness and Excellency of the Person the other his particular Kindness and Love to us And both these are in the Highest Degree in GOD. He is of infinite Goodness and and Excellency in himself for there is nothing Good in the world but what hath received all its Goodness from Him His Goodness is the Ocean and all the Goodnesses of Creatures little Streams flowing from that Ocean Now you would think
of the Soul and its Honour founded in the freedom of its Desire Whatsoever it does not desire and delight in tho the matter of the performance be never so excellent the Manner is spoiled and totally Blasted Now can we compel another to desire or delight in any Thing The Soul in it self hath an Inclnation to or an a version from every object The Ingennity and Worth of the Soul is expressed in the Kindness of its own Intention in the freedom of its Desire to do what is Excellent in the delight it taketh to love its Goodness is founded Now tho GOD infinitely hated Sin yet he gave us an irrevocable Power to do what we pleased and adventured the Hazzard of that which he infinitely hated that being free to do what we would we might be Honourable and delightful in doing freely and of our own Accord what is Great and Excellent For without this Liberty there can be no Love since Love is an active and free affection that must spring from the Desire and pleasure of the Soul It is the Pleasure of a Lover to promote the Felicity of his object Whatsoever Services he is compelled to do he is either meerly passive in them or Cross unto them they are all void of the Principal Grace and Beauty that should adorn them and make them pleasant and satisfactory men may be Dead and moved like stones but in such causes there is no Love neither do they act of themselves when they are over-ruled and forced by another For this cause hath it pleased God in order to our Perfection to make the most Sublime and Sovereign Creatures all Free wherein he hath expressed the greatest Love in the World As we may see by all the Displeasures and Pains it hath cost him through our Abuse of so illimited and great a perfection But where his Love is most Highly and Transcendently expressed there are we most prone to suspect it Nature is so Cross and disorderly There can be no Wisdom without a voluntary Act for in all Wisdome there is Counsel and design Where no consultation nor Election precedes the best operation in all the World is Blind and Casual Fortune and chance must have no hand in that which wisdom Effecteth no more then Force and necessity must have in that Goodness where all the kindness ought to be in the Intention of the Benefactor There is something in it which I cannot explain It is easily conceived but will never I think in Words be expressed The Will has a mighty hand in all the Divinity of perfect Goodness It is the Mind of the Doer that is the principal object of all our Desire and Expectation HAVING for these Causes made his Creatures free he has forfeited their Choise and secured their Determination as far as was possible He hath done all that can be devised to make them Love us and left nothing undone but only that which was absolutely necessary that they might Love They could not Love us if they were not left to themselves to do it freely And their Ability being provided for nay an Inclination given to make them willing he has strictly commanded enjoyned them to Love by Nature allured them ordered us so that we might be fit to be Beloved he hath made it sweet and rational to Love given them his own Example and solemnly protested that he will accept of no Love to himself but what is accompanied with Love to his friends and servants engaged them to Love or be Eternally miserable And if for all this they will not Love the fault is none of his All that he has done to let secure then Love to himself he has done to secure then Love to us and is as much or more concerned in their Love to us then in that which himself requireth and Expecteth Nay he hath made it impossible for them truly to Love themselves without doing of it And if they will neither Love GOD nor themselves we may well be despised for Company He infinitely desires their Love and would take infinite Pleasure in the Operation There is no Way to make themselves Honourable and Delightful to GOD but only by Loving us as his soul requireth And by all these Inducements and Causes are we our selves stirred up to Love freely to exert the Power of Love to others in like manner THAT which yet further commendeth this Vertue of Love unto us is that it is the only Soul of all Pleasure and Felicity in all Estates It is like the Light of the Sun in all the Kingdomes and Houses and Eyes and Ages in Heaven in Earth in the Sea in Shops and Temples in Schooles and Markets in Labours and Recreations in Theatres and Fable It is the Great Daemon of the World and the Sole Cause of all Operations It is evidently impossible for any Fancy or Play or Romance or Fable to be composed well and made Delightful without a Mixture of Love in the Composure In all Theatres and Feasts and Weddings and Triumphs and Coronations Love is the Soul and Perfection of all in all Persons in all Occupations in all Diversions in all Labours in all Vertues in all Vices in all Occasions in all Families in all Cities and Empires in all our Devotions and Religious Actions Love is all in all All the Sweetness of Society is seated in Love the Life of Musick and Dancing is Love the Happiness of Houses the Enjoyment of Friends the Amity of Relations the Providence of Kings the Allegiance of Subjects the Glory of Empires the Security Peace and Welfare of the World is seated in Love Without Love all is Discord and Confusion All Blessings come upon us by Love and by Love alone all Delights and Blessings are enjoyed All happiness is established by Love and by Love alone is all Glory attained GOD Knoweth that Love uniteth Souls maketh men of one Heart in a House filles them with Liberallity and Kindness to each other makes them Delightfull in presence faithful in Absence Tender of the Honour and Welfare of their Beloved Apt to obey ready to please Constant in Trials Patient in sufferings Couragious is Assaults Prudent in Difficulties Victorious and Triumphant All that I shall need to observe further is that it compleated the Joys of Heaven Well therefore may Wisdome desire Love well may the Goodness of GOD delight in Love It is the form and the Glory of his Eternal Kingdome And therefore it is that the Apostle saith Charity never faileth but whether there be Prophesies they shall fail whether there be Tongues They shall cease whether there be Knowledge it shall vanish away For we know in part and we Prophesie in part but when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away For now we see through a Glass darkly but then Face to Face now I Know in part but when shall I know as also I am Known And now abideth Faith Hope and Charity these three
example not to fear because he has overcome the World we may safely sing O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy Victory And challenge all the powers of Heaven Earth and Hell to the combat Which for one single person to do against all the Creation is the most Glorious Spectacle which the universe affords Who shall separate us from the Love of Christ shall Tribulation or Distress or Persecution or Famine or Nakedness or Peril or Sword as it is writen for thy sake we are Killed all the day long we are accounted as Sheep to the slaughter Nay in all these things me are nore then Conquerors through him that loved us For I am perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor Height nor Depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the Love of GOD which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. A REMARK To be Couragious is the Easiest thing in the World when we consider the certain success which Courage founded on Goodness must needs attain For he that makes his Fortitude subservient onely to the excess of his Love has all the Powers of Heaven and earth on his side and the Powers of Hell that are already subdued are the only foes that are to be vanquished by him To dare to be Good is the Office of true and Religious valour And he that makes it his Business to oblige all the world he whose design it is to be delightful to all mankind has nothing to overcome but their error bitterness which by meekness and Kindness and Prudence and liberality will easily be accomplished For they all love themselves and cannot chuse but desire those that are kind and Serviceable to them and must so far forth as they love themselves honor delight in their Benefactors So that Courage thus guided by Prudence to the works of Charity and goodness must surely be safe and prosperous on earth its Admirableness and its Beauty being a powerful Charm an Invincible Armour CHAP. XXII Of Temperance in Matters of Art as Musick Dancing Painting Cookery Physick c. In the works of Nature Eating Drinking Sports and Recreations In occasions of Passion in our Lives and Conversations It s exercise in Self-denial Measure Mixture and Proportion Its effects and atchievments PRUDENCE giveth Counsel what Measure and Proportion ought to be held in our Actions Fortitude inspires Boldness and Strength to undertake and set upon the Work but it is Temperance doth execute what both of them design For Temperance is that Vertue whereby the actions of Prudence and Power are moderated when they come to be exerted IT is the Opinion of some that as Patience respects Afflictions so Temperance is wholy taken up in moderating our Pleasures and hath no employment but in the midst of Prosperities But since there are certain bounds which Fear and Sorrow ought not to exceed Temperance hath its work in the midst of Calamities and being needful to moderate all our Passions hath a wider sphere to move in than Prosperity alone its Province is more large and comprehensive including all estates and conditions of Life whatsoever OTHERS there are that admit of its use in all Conditions but confine it to one particular employment even that of enlarging or bounding the Measure of every Operation but in real truth it has another Office and that more deep perhaps and more important than the former For Actions are of two kinds either Mixt or Simple Where the work is single and but one it is exprest in nothing else but the Measure of the Action that it be neither too short nor too long too remiss nor too violent too slow nor too quick too great nor too little But where many things are mixt and meet together in the Action as they generally do in all the affairs of our Lives there its business is to consider what and how many things are to enter the Composition and to make their Proportion just and convenient As in preparing Medicines the skill whereby we know what is to be put in and what left out is of one kind and that of discerning how much of every Ingredient will serve the turn of another The skill of Mingling is like the vertue of Prudence but the actual tempering of all together exhibits the vertue of Temperance to the Life because it reduces the Skill to its operation It s End is the beauty and success of our Endeavours OF what use and value Temperance is in our Lives and Conversations we may guess by its necessity force and efficacy on all Occasions THE fit mixture and proportion of the four Elements in all Bodies is that upon which their Nature Form and Perfection dependeth Too much of the Fire too much of the Water too much of the Air too much of the Earth are pernicious and destructive There is an infinite wisdom exprest in the Mixture and Proportion in every Creature BEAUTY and Health Agility Repose and Strength depend upon the due Temperament of Humane Bodies The four Humors of Choler Melancholy Flegm and Blood are generally known But there are many other Juyces talkt of besides by the discreet and accurate mixture of which the Body of a Man or Beast is perfected Some great inconvenience alwaies follows the excess or defect of these Disorder and Disproportion go hand in hand and are attended by Sickness and Death it self IN matters of Art the force of Temperance is undeniable It relateth not only to our Meats and Drinks but to all our Behaviours Passions and Desires All Musick Sawces Feasts Delights and Pleasures Games Dancing Arts consist in govern'd Measures Much more do Words and Passions of the Mind In Temperance their sacred Beauty find A Musician might rash his finger over all his strings in a moment but Melody is an effect of Judgment and Order It springs from a variety of Notes to which Skill giveth Time and Place in their Union A Painter may daub his Table all over in an instant but a Picture is made by a regulated Hand and by variety of Colours A Cook may put a Tun of Sugar or Pepper or Salt in his Dishes but Delicates are made by Mixture and Proportion There is a Temperance also in the Gesture of the Body the Air of the Face the carriage of the Eye the Smile the Motion of the Feet and Hands and by the Harmony of these is the best Beauty in the World either much commended or disgraced A Clown and a Courtier are known by their Postures A Dancer might run into Extreams but his Art is seen in the measure of his Paces and adorned with a variety of sweet and suitable Behaviours A Physician may kill a man with the best Ingredients but good Medicines are those wherein every Simple hath its proper Dose and every Composition a fit admixture of good Ingredients A Poem an Oration a Play a Sermon may be too tedious
and his infinite Goodness abused and undervalued all Obligations imposed and all Rewards prepared in vain is worse than to see ones Palace on fire as soon as it is builded or ones Wife smitten with Leprosie and ones only beloved Son run mad For a Child to trample on his Fathers Bowels is nothing in Comparison He therefore that feels what he made GOD to endure what Grapes of Sodom and Clusters of Gomorrah he offered to his Teeth how evil a thing and bitter it is to forsake GOD how the Scripture saith He was grieved at the Heart when he saw the Corruption and Impiety of the Earth and how the Sorrow inflicted was so sore as to make him repent that he had made Man in the World he surely will be more concerned at the Evil he hath done than at any Evil he can otherwise suffer and his Godly Sorrow as Moses's Rod did eat up all the Rods of the Egyptians will devour all other Sorrows whatsoever TO consider that GOD was the first Patient Person in the World must needs sweeten the Bitterness of Patience and make it acceptable unto us to consider that we alone brought it upon our selves and may thank our selves for the folly of its Introduction must make us out of very Indignation against our selves contented to suffer and in pure Justice quietly to digest it but to consider yet further that GOD by bearing our Offences with Patience took off the trouble of them from us and by refusing to ease himself of the greatness of his displeasure in pouring it back again on our own heads digested it so as to turn our eternal Torments into transitory Woes nay into his own Agonies and Pains on the Cross this will help our Reason to rejoyce at our light Afflictions which are but for a moment especially since they work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory The first Impression of that abominable Mischief which occasioned Patience in GOD made it a Calamity but not a Vertue Detestation and Grief in themselves are but Sufferings and meer Sufferings have no Vertue nor so much almost as Action in them If his detestation and grief had broken out in Impatience we had all been destroyed Anger and Fury had been poured down upon us That which made it a Vertue was the great and mighty Continence whereby it was kept in and governed for all our Benefit For it was full of Goodness and Compassion and Mercy and Love and that was indeed the vertue of Patience in which so much Magnanimity and Government did appear so much Wisdom and Stedfastness and Immutability and upon this vertue of that Act whereby he retained his displeasure the whole Kingdom of Grace and the glory of his Mercy and Love and the blessedness and exaltation of his Church is founded it depended upon it and from his Patience it proceeded PATIENCE then is that Vertue by which we behave our selves constantly and prudently in the midst of Misfortunes and Troubles That Vertue whereby we do not only forbear to break out in Murmurings and Repinings or support our selves from sinking under Afflictions or suppress our Discontentments and refrain from Anger and Disquiet but whereby we retain our Wisdom and the goodness of our Mind notwithstanding all the Confusions and Disorders that would disturb us and demean our selves in a serene and honourable manner surmounting the Pains and Calamities that trouble us and that would otherwise overwhelm us While we move in a quick and vigorous manner under our Burthen and by a true Courage improve our Afflictions and turn them into the Spoils of Invincible Reason IT is an easie Observation that Troublous Times are the Seasons of Honour and that a Warlike-Field is the Seed-Plot of great and Heroical Actions Men that live in quiet and peaceful Ages pass through the World as insensibly as if they had all their daies been asleep Hazards and Calamities and Battles and Victories fill the Annals with Wonder and raise Great Men to an eminent degree of Fame and Glory It is Saint Chrysostoms opinion That a Man shews far greater Bravery that grapples with a Disease or surmounts his evil Fortune or behaves himself with Courage in distress bears the burning of his House or the loss of his Goods or the death of his Children with an equal Spirit in the midst of all Calamities retains his Integrity with Humility and Patience and Blesses GOD chearfully submitting with Resignation to his Will and shews himself Constant in all Estates then he that in the midst of a prosperous Condition buildeth Hospitals and Temples shineth in the exercise of Bounty and Magnificence and obligeth all the World without any other Expence than that of his Monies A Pelican that feeds her young ones with her Blood is a more Noble Bird than an Eagle that fills her Nest with Ravine though taken from the Altar For though that of a Sacrifice be the more Sacred food that of ones own Blood is more near and costly TIMES of Affliction are Seed-times for a future Harvest We are made perfect through Sufferings though the Way be mysterious and the Manner almost incomprehensible whereby the Sufferings we endure conduce to our Perfection Consider the Patience of Job how great a spectacle his Sufferings made him to GOD Angels and Men and how glorious he became by his Patience to all Generations THIS Vertue has an Appearance by reason of its Objects and Materials so cross to its disposition that if any thing be difficult in all Nature to be understood Patience is one it being a thing of the most deep and obscure value It s Nature and Effect seem contrary to each other It raises a Man by depressing him it elevates by overwhelming it honours by debafing it saves by killing him By making a Man little and nothing it magnifies and exalts him No Act of Love is attended with such bleeding Circumstances as that of Cruel Resolution in exposing our selves to all Calamities that can befal our Souls for our Beloved's sake It is the glory of the good Shepheard that He laies down his life for the Sheep And for this very Cause is our Saviour honoured by GOD and Men because being in the form of GOD he made himself of no Reputation but took on himself the form of a Servant and died the most cursed Death of the Cross for the sake of the World Wherefore saith the Text that is For which very Cause GOD also hath highly exalted him and given him a Name which is above every Name that at the Name of JESUS every Knee should bow of things in the Heaven things in the Earth and things under the Earth Nor is this Gift of GOD so purely Arbitrary but that it has a foundation in Nature Angels and Men do not bow their Knees only because they are commanded but because they see Reason to incline them to bow their Knees There is something in our Saviours Nature Action and Merit that deserves
its own Light the felicity of the Enjoyment becomes its own fortress and security For he that is throughly Happy has so much work to do in Contemplation and Thanksgiving that he cannot have while to be concerned with other mens disorders he loves his Employment too well to be disturbed and will not allow himself the thoughts of Revenge or Anger IN two things Meekness is greatly profitable to a Mans self Possession and Triumph He that permits the Tumult of the World to enter into his Soul and suffers the Temple of the Holy Ghost to be defiled with Rage and Anger makes it an unfit habitation for the Blessed Spirit Doves will not dwell in Pigeon-Houses disturbed or haunted with Vermin nor can Felicity be enjoyed but by serene and quiet Thoughts that are full of tranquillity For where Envying and Strife is there is Confusion and every evil Work But the Wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of Mercy and good Fruits And the fruit of Righteousness is sown in Peace of them that make Peace Which must of necessity precede fruition as Triumph followeth WERE I for my life to interpret that Text of our Saviour The Meek shall inherit the Earth I should in the first place say that every Knowing man may enjoy the beauty and glory of the whole World and by sweet Contemplations delight in all the abundance of Treasures and pleasant Varieties that are here upon Earth especially since by the Ordinance of Nature all men are to be his peculiar Treasures This he might do I say did all men love him and fill the World with Glory and Vertue But since all is confounded by their perverseness and disorder his Fruition is utterly lost unless he will forgive all Injuries and by the vertue of Meekness maintain the quiet of his own Soul in the midst of their distempers The Meek man is not fretted nor disturbed but may enjoy all Still and the unspeakable Joy which all the Glories of Gods Kingdom do afford him shall make him more meek and able also to pacifie and rule and heal the minds of his Enemies and even by the love of Sinners to recover his Right and ancient Fruitions TO be able to live at quiet and enjoy the felicity of Heaven and Earth notwithstanding all the attempts of our Enemies makes them mad when they see they cannot fret us and so by Consequence a greater Revenge is seated in Meekness than in Revenge it self For our Repose is their punishment and torment that hate us Their vexation falleth on their own head when they see they miss of their aim and cannot molest us but it is a joy to see our selves seated in a throne of Repose clean out of their reach it breeds a kind of triumph and ovation in the Soul The secret Conscience of its own Power is a glory and satisfaction unimaginable HE that masters his own Passion is master of anothers mans and seldom falls into those Broils and Inconveniencies that are the destruction of ungoverned and hasty Spirits Which made Solomon to say He that is slow to Anger is better than the Mighty and he that ruleth his Spirit than he that taketh a City HE that troubleth his own house shall inherit the Wind he that is nice and exquisite in exacting all Faults shall never be beloved They are disobliging angry testy men that are hated and the Revengful that do frequently fall into mischief But to be kind to the Unthankful and the Evil and to deal with all men better than they deserve is the way to be beloved by the worst of men and admired by the best MEEKNESS is the retreat of Goodness and the only force in the rear of Liberality He that does one Injury after forty Kindnesses blots out the memory of all his Courtesies and he that revenges an Injury seems to do one For he that did the Wrong seems innocent to himself because he felt it not and seeming innocent takes the Revenge as an undeserved Injury and is lost for ever Now some Injuries we must expect from our best Friends which are alwaies lost for want of Meekness So are all the Benefits we do unless we will forgive as well as give But an Injury forgiven is forgotten by him that did it and the Friendship continues at the expence and to the honour and comfort of the Pardoner as if no Offence had ever been committed Nay if afterwards he comes to see the Candor of his abused Friend he that did the Injury loves him better than before because he pardoned the Wrong MEEKNESS as it preserves Friendship between two makes Goodness invincible and unalterable in one He shall not be good long whose Goodness dependeth on others Merits He is a miserable weak man that is of an Exceptious humor he is a trouble to his own flesh and subject to the power of every Wasp whether he shall be good or no. He is quickly stopt in his Careir of Vertue and easily turned out of the way that is apt to be infected with anothers Malice He carries no Antidotes about him and for want of a Preservative is in danger of the Contagion Meekness is a means of the health of the Soul a Passionate man being all over sore is covered with hot and angry Boils which cannot be touched IT preventeth much mischief in Families An occasion of Anger is like a spark of Fire it is of great Consequence where it falleth If it falls into barrels of Gunpowder it blows up the World if into green Wood or watery places it does no harm Penitent Tears and the verdure of Humility prevent such flames and extinguish the quarrel If Wild-fire be thrown I will put it out with my foot and not by throwing it back give my Enemy the advantage of retorting it upon me A soft Answer pacifieth much Wrath but virulent Speeches are a fire-ball tossed to and fro of them that love Death BY Revenge a man at best can but preserve himself by killing his Enemy but Meekness well managed destroys the Enmity preserves the Person and turns the Enemy into an excellent Friend MEEKNESS is not the way to Peace and Repose and Victory only but to Honour and Glory As it is the strength it is the Glory of a man to pass over a Transgression He that is lightly angered is quickly lost and a fickle Friend is not worth a farthing A straw and a feather shall forfeit all the Obligations in the World in some Tempers Nay he that is Revengful is a dangerous Person and with an Angry man thou shalt not go He has the Plague upon him and is prohibited Company All this is dishonourable But a man that is a resolved and stable Friend that cannot be alter'd that will not change though he be wronged but forgive and pity and continue to serve and love his Friend though he shews him some dirty Tricks he that will surmount all by invincible
extream disgrace before all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth that look upon it and behold its Unworthiness No Toad has so much deformity or poyson or malignity as Pride in its nature It is the ruine of all that is great and turns the brightest of the Seraphims into the most abominable of Devils NOW if Pride be so pernicious and be by nature though a meer Phantasie so destructive what shall Humility be which is full of truth and reality How forcible how divine how amiable how full of truth how bright and glorious how solid and real how agreeable to all Objects how void of errour and disparity how just and reasonable how wise and holy how deep how righteous how good and profitable how mightily prone to exalt us in the esteem of GOD and Man How agreeable to all its Causes and Ends how fit and suitable to all the circumstances of Mans Condition I need not say more It bears its own evidence and carries Causes in it that will justifie our Saviours words He that humbleth himself shall be exalted He that is puffed up has but a counterfeit glory but Humility is full of solid glory It s beauty is so amiable that there is no end of counting its proportions and excellencies The Wise man that saw into the nature of all things very clearly said long before our Saviour was born Pride goeth before a fall but before Honour is Humility He that exalteth himself must needs be humbled because the Colours are envenomed wherewith he painteth his face which in a little time is discerned and at the very first instant the Painting begins to turn into a Canker THE Amiableness of Humility appeareth by its Excellency on these two the greatness of its beauty and success is founded It is so agreeable to all the principles of Nature and Grace and Glory to all the desires of Angels and Men to all the designs of GOD himself and to all the interests and concerns of the Soul that it cannot but be the most advantagious Vertue in the vvhole World It is strange that a man should look with the same Eye upon two Objects so infinitely distant and different from each other But at the same time he seeth GOD and Nothing Heaven and Earth eternal Love and Dust to be his Original Self-love and Justice Wisdom and Goodness Joy and Gratitude have the same Objects but look upon them in a several manner and are very differently affected with them Humility regards all Objects high and low Good and Evil but with a peculiar remark and notice of its own It takes them in in another light and discerns them all with another kind of sence It is in some manner the taste of the Soul Their Truth appeareth to the eye of Knowledge their Goodness is apprehended by the â—â—fe of Love the perfection of their serviceableness to the most perfect End is discerned by Wisdom the benefit which all Spectators receive is the delight of Goodness the incomprehensible depth and mysterious intricacy of their frame and nature is the peculiar Object of our Wonder and Curiosity they help our Faith as they shew a Deity and the truth of all Religion and Blessedness As they are the gifts of GOD they are the provocations of Gratitude and as they are aggravations of Sin they are respected by Repentance As they are the means of our Glory and our proper Treasures they are the Objects of Contentment but Humility looks upon them in relation to its Unworthiness compares them with it self and its own deserts and admires the disproportion that is between them It useth them all as grounds of a deeper and profounder Lowness in the esteem which it ought to have of it self and as the incentives to Love and Gratitude which it paies in the depth of a more profound Acknowledgment and Adoration THIS habit or affection of the Soul is not inconsistent with its Joy and Glory as by some foolish people that are by Ignorance and Errors far from GOD is generally supposed but highly conducive and subservient to its perfection It gives us the tenderest and greatest sence it passeth thorow all things embraceth the Poles and toucheth all Extreams together The Centre it self is but the middle of its profundity it hath a Nadir beneath it a lower point in another Heaven on the other side opposite to its Zenith In its own depth it containeth all the height of Felicity and Glory and doubles all by a mystery in Nature It is like a Mirror lying on the ground with its face upwards All the height above increaseth the depth of its Beauty within nay turneth into a new depth an inferiour Heaven is in the glass it self at the bottom of which we see the Skie though it be not transplanted removed thither Humility is the fittest Glass of the Divine Greatness and the fittest Womb for the conception of all Felicity for it hath a double Heaven It is the way to full and perfect Sublimity A man would little think that by sinking into the Earth he should come to Heaven He doth not but is buried that fixeth and abideth there But if he pierceth through all the Rocks and Minerals of the inferiour World and passeth on to the end of his Journey in a strait line downward in the middle of his way he will find the Centre of Nature and by going downward still begin to ascend when he is past the Centre through many Obstacles full of gross and subterraneous Darkness which seem to affright and stifle the Soul he will arrive at last to a new Light and Glory room and liberty breathing-place and fresh-air among the Antipodes and by passing on still through those inferiour Regions that are under his feet but over the head of those that are beneath him finally come to another Skie penetrate that and leaving it behind him sink down into the depth of all Immensity This he cannot do in his Body because it is gross and dull and heavy and confined but by a Thought in his Soul he may because it is subtile quick aiery free and infinite Nothing can stop or exclude it oppress or stifle it This local descent through all the inferiour Space and Immensity though it brings us to GOD and his Throne and another Heaven full of Joyes and Angels on the other side the World yet is it but a real Emblem of the more spiritual and mysterious flight of Humility in the mind We all know that the way to Heaven is through Death and the Grave beyond which we come to another Life in Eternity but how to accommodate this to the business of Humility few understand By this Vertue we are inclined to despise our selves and to leave all the garish Ornaments of Earthly bliss to divest our selves of the splendors of Temporal prosperity and to submit to all Afflictions Contempts and Miseries that a good Cause can bring upon us In the eyes of other men we are beneath their feet and so
Communion with him can be its satisfaction The Terrours Allurements and Censures of men are the dust of its feet their Avarice and Ambition are but feebleness before it Their Riches and Contentions and Interests and Honours but insignificant and empty trifles All the World is but a little Bubble Infinity and Eternity the only great and soveraign things wherewith it converseth A Magnanimous Soul is alwaies awake The whole globe of the Earth is but a Nutshell in comparison of its enjoyments The Sun is its Lamp the Sea its Fishpond the Stars its Jewels Men Angels its Attendance and GOD alone its soveraign Delight and supream Complacency The Earth is its Garden all Palaces its Summer houses Cities are its Cottages Empires its more spacious Conrts all Ages and Kingdoms its Demeans Monarchs its Ministers and publick Agents the whole Catholick Church its Family the eternal Son of GOD its Pattern and Example Nothing is great if compared to a Magnanimous Soul but the Soveraign Lord of all Worlds Mistake not these things for arbitrary flourishes of Luxuriant fancy I speak as I am inspired by Felicity GOD is the Cause but the knowledge of a Mans self the Foundation of Magnanimity Trismegistus counteth thus First GOD secondly the World thirdly Man the World for Man and Man for GOD. Of the Soul that which is sensible is Mortal but that which is reasonable Immortal The Father of all things being full of Light and Life brought forth Man like unto himself whom he loved as his proper Off-spring for he was all Beauteous having the Image of his Father This in his Poemander Again he saith Man is a divine and living thing not to be compared to any Beast that lives upon the Earth but to them that are above in the highest Heavens that are called Gods Nay rather if we shall be bold to speak the truth he that is a MAN INDEED is above them He is infinitely greater than the gods of the Heathen And a God like unto himself as the Wise Man observes he cannot make At least saith Trismegistus they are equal in Power For none of the things in Heaven will come down upon Earth and leave the limits of Heaven bur a Man ascends up into Heaven and measures it He knoweth what things are on high and what below And that which is the greatest of all he leaveth not the Earth and yet is above so mighty and vast is the greatness of his Nature Wherefore we must be bold to say that an Earthly Man is a Mortal God and the Heavenly GOD is an Immortal MAN THIS is the Philosophy of the ancient Heathen wherein though there be some Errors yet was he guided to it by a mighty sence of the interiour Excellency of the Soul of Man and the boldness he assumes is not so profane but that it is countenanced here and there in the Holy Scripture GOD himself said unto Moses Lo I have made thee a God to Pharoah Again he telleth him concerning Aaron He shall be to thee instead of a Mouth and thou shalt be to him instead of God And again concerning all the Great men of the World in general I have said ye are Gods but ye shall die like Men. But let us see the Reason of the Heathen a little on which he foundeth his great Opinions In one place he maketh his Son Tatius to say I conceive and understand not by the sight of mine Eyes but by the intellectual Operation c. I am in Heaven in the Earth in the Water in the Air I am in the living Creatures in Plants in the Womb every where Whereupon he asketh him Dost thou not know O my Son that thou art born a God and the Son of The One as I am And the ground of this Question he unfoldeth in another place thus Consider him that contains all things and understand that nothing is more Capacious than that which is Incorporeal nothing more swift nothing more powerful but of all other things it is most Capacious most swift and most strong And judge of this by thy self Command thy Soul to go into India and sooner than thou canst bid it it will be there Bid it pass over the Ocean and suddenly it will be there not as passing from place to place but suddenly it will be there Command it to flie into Heaven and it will need no wings neither shall any thing hinder it not the fire of the Sun nor the AEther nor the turning of the Sphears nor the bodies of any of the Stars but cutting through all it will flie up to the last and furthest Body And if thou wilt even break through the Whole and see those things that are without the World if there be any thing without i.e. if the World be confined thou maist Behold how great Power how great swiftness thou hast Canst thou do all these things and cannot GOD After this manner therefore contemplate GOD to have all the whole World in himself as it were all Thoughts or Intellections If therefore thou wilt not equal thy self to GOD thou canst not understand GOD. For the like is intelligible by the like Increase thy self to an immeasurable Greatness leaping beyond every Body and transcending all Time become ETERNITY And thou shalt understand GOD. If thou belive in thy self that nothing is impossible but accountest thy self Immortal and that thou canst understand all things every Art every Science and the manner and custom of every living thing become higher than all Height and lower than all Depth comprehend in thy self the qualities of all the Creatures of the Fire the Water the Dry and the Moist and conceive likewise that thou canst at once be every where in the sea in the Earth at once understand thy self not yet begotten in the Womb Young Old Dead the things after Death and all these together as also all Times Places Deeds Qualities Quantities thou maist or else thou canst not yet understand GOD. But if thou shut up thy Soul in thy Body and abuse it and say I understand nothing I am afraid of the Sea I cannot climb up into Heaven I know not who I am I cannot what I shall be what hast thou to do with GOD For thou canst understand none of those fair and good things but must be a lover of the Body and Evil. For it is the greatest evil not to know GOD. But to be able to Know and to Will and to Hope is the strait Way and the divine Way proper to the Good It will every where meet thee and every where be seen of thee plain and easie when thou dost expect or look for it It will meet thee Waking Sleeping Sailing Travelling by Night by Day when thou speakest and when thou keepest silence For it is nothing which is not the Image of GOD. His Close is most divine And yet thou sayest GOD is Invisible but be advised for who is more manifest than he For therefore he made all things that thou by
all things mightst see him This is the Good of GOD his Vertue is this to appear and be seen in all Things This is the bottom of all other Greatnesses whatsoever GOD is infinitely communicative infinitely prone to reveal himself infinitely Wise and able to do it He hath made the Soul on purpose that it might see him And if the Eye that was made for the World being so little a ball of Earth and Water can take in all and see all that is visible if the sight of the Eye be present with all it beholdeth much more is the Soul both able to see and to be present with all that is Divine and Eternal I know very well that a Man divided from GOD is a weak inconsiderable Creature as the Eye is if divided from the Body and without the Soul but united to GOD a Man is a transcendent and Celestial thing GOD is his Life his Greatness his Power his Blessedness and Perfection And as the Apostle saith He that is joyned to the Lord is one SPIRIT His Omnipresence and Eternity fill the Soul and make it able to contain all Heights and Depths and Lengths and Breadths whatsoever And it is the desire of the Soul to be filled with all the fulness of GOD. Magnanimous desires are the natural results of a Magnanimous Capacity The desire of being like Gods knowing Good and Evil was the destruction of the World Not as if it were unlawful to desire to be Like GOD but to aspire to the Perfection in a forbidden way was unlawful By Disobedience and by following our own Inventions by seeking to the Creature to the stock of a Tree to make us Like GOD that is erroneous and poor and despicable but to know our selves and in the strait and divine Way to come immediately to GOD to contemplate him in his Eternity and Glory is a right and safe Way for the Soul will by that means be the Sphere of is Omnipresence and the Temple of the God-head It will become ETERNITY as Trismegistus speaketh or ONE SPIRIT with God as the Apostle And then it must needs be present with all things in Heaven and in the Earth and in the Sea as GOD is for all things will be in it as it were by Thoughts and Intellections A Magnanimous Soul then if we respect its Capacity is an immovable sphere of Power and Knowledge far greater than all Worlds by its Vertue and Power passing through all things through the Centre of the Earth and through all Existencies And shall such a Creature as this be contented with Vanities and Trlfles Straws and Feathers painted Butterflies Hobby-horses and Rattles These are the Treasures of little Children but you will say a Man delighteth in Purses of Gold and Cabinets of Jewels in Houses and Palaces in Crowns and Scepters Add Kingly Delights and say he delighteth in Armies and Victories and Triumphs and Coronations These are great in respect of Play-things But all these are feeble and pusillanimous to a great Soul As Scipio was going up to Heaven the Earth it self seemed but a Nutshel and he was ashamed of all his Victories and Triumhs amazed at his madness in Quarrelling and fighting about Territories and Kingdoms contracted to a Star and lost into nothing the whole Earth is but one invisible Point when a man foareth to the height of Immensity and beholdeth and compasseth its everlasting Circumference which is infinite every way beyond the Heavens It is the true and proper Immensity of the Soul Which can no more be contented with the narrow confinement of this World no more rest in the Childishness of all the noise of the Interests of Men be no more satisfied with its Earthly Glories than the SUN can be shut up in a Dark-Lanthorn It is true indeed it would desire to see as the Angels do the least and lowest of all the Creatures full of the Glory and Blessedness of GOD all Wisdom and Goodness in every thing and is apt to complain for want of some eternal and Celestial Light wherein to behold them but if all the expansions of Time and Eternity should be void and all the extents and out-goings of Infinity empty round about them though things upon Earth nay and things in the Heavens should be never so Rich and divine and beautiful yet such is the Magnanimity of a Great Soul that it would hugely be displeased its loss and its distaste would be alike Infinite Infinite Honours infinite Treasures infinite Enjoyments things endless in number value and excellency are the Objects of its Care and Desire the greatness of its Spirit leads it to consider and enquire whether all the spaces above the Heavens and all the parts of GOD's everlasting Kingdom be full of Joyes whether there be any end or bound of his Kingdom whether ther there be any defect or miscarriage any blemish or disorder in it any vile and common thing any remissness or neglect any cause of complaint or deformity As also whether all the Ages of the World are Divine and Sacred whether after they are gone they abide in their places whether there be anything in them to entertain the Powers of the Soul with delight and feed them with satisfaction What end what use what excellency there is in Men Whether all the waies of GOD are full of beauty and perfection all Wisdom Justice Holiness Goodness Love and Power What Regions eternal Blessedness is seated in What Glory what Reason what Agreeableness and Harmony is in all his Counsels Whether those durations of Eternity before the World is made are full or empty full of bright and amiable Objects or dark and obscure Whether the government of the World be perfect whether the Soul be Divine in it self whether it be conducive to its own felicity or to the happiness of all those in whom it is concerned Whether the World shall end If it shall after what manner whether by Design or Accident Whether All Ages and Nations shall rise from the Dead Whether there shall be a general Doom or a day of Judgment Whether I am concerned in all the transactions and passages at that day Whether all Mankind shall be united into one to make up one compleat and perfect Body whereof they all are the fellow-Members What shall be after the End of the VVorld Whether we shall live for ever Whether we shall see GOD and know one another Whether we shall reign in eternal Glory Whether in the Confusions of Hell there be any Beauty and whether in the Torments of the damned we shall find any joy or satisfaction Whether all the Riches Customs and Pleasures of this World shall be seen Whether in the World to come any fruit shall appear and arise from them for which they shall be esteemed to have been not in vain but profitable in relation to all Eternity What kind of Life we shall lead and what kind of Communion and fellowship Angels and Men shall have with each other
that though the disproportion between them and their Assurance or Hope or Desire seem infinite and the end which they aim at by their Magnanimity is judged impossible though their attempt appear a ridiculous madness to them to whom the Verities of Religion appear incredible yet they are no whit discouraged or disheartened at the matter but stoutly march on being animated by the alarum of such a Trumpet such a Drum as Magnanimity is His Faith is more Divine by conquering the discouragements of the World than if he met with no censure or opposition IF you would have the Character of a Magnanimous Soul he is the Son of eternal Power and the Friend of infinite Goodness a Temple of divine and heavenly Wisdom that is not imposed upon by the foul and ragged disguises of Nature but acquainted with her great Capacities and Principles more than commonly sensible of her interests and depths and desires He is one that has gone in unto Felicity and enjoyed her beauties and comes out again her perfect Lover and Champion a Man whose inward stature is miraculous and his Complexion so divine that he is King of as many Kingdoms as he will look on One that scorns the smutty way of enjoying things like a Slave because he delights in the Celestial way and the Image of GOD. He knows that all the World lies in Wickedness and admires not at all that things palpable and near and natural are unseen though most powerful and glorious because men are blind and stupid He pities poor vicious Kings that are oppressed with heavy Crowns of Vanity and Gold and admires how they can content themselves with such narrow Territories yet delights in their Regiment of the World and paies them the Honour that is due unto them The glorious Exaltation of good Kings he more abundantly extols because so many thousand Magnanimous Creatures are committed to their Trust and they that govern them understand their Value But he sees well enough that the Kings glory and true repose consists in the Catholick and eternal Kingdom As for himself he is come unto Mount Sion and to the City of the living GOD the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable Company of Angels to the General Assembly and Church of the First-born which are written in Heaven and to GOD the Judge of all and to the Spirits of Just men made perfect and to JESUS the Mediatour of the New Covenant And therefore receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved he desires to serve GOD acceptably with reverence and godly fear And the truth is he can fear nothing else for GOD alone is a consuming fire He very well understands what the Apostle saith and dares believe him I cease not to give thanks for you making mention of you in my Prayers that the GOD of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Glory may give unto you the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of him the eyes of your Understanding being enlightened that ye may know what is the HOPE of his Calling and what the RICHES of the GLORY of his INHERITANCE in the Saints And what is the EXCEEDING GREATNESS of his POWER to us-ward who believe according to the WORKING of his Mighty Power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own RIGHT HAND in the HEAVENLY places far above all Principality and Power and Might and Dominion and every Name that is named not only in this WORLD but in that also which is to come And hath put ALL THINGS under his feet and he gave him to be HEAD over all Things to the CHURCH which is his BODY THE FULNESS OF HIM THAT FILLETH ALL IN ALL. Now to him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the Power that WORKETH in us Unto him be Glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all AGES World without end Amen A great and a clear Soul knoweth that all these intimations must needs be true for it is an amazing Miracle that they should be otherwise Infinite Love and Eternal Blessedness are near allyed and that these should cease is contrary to all Nature in GOD in the Soul of Man in Heaven in Earth in the order of the Universe and contrary to all that VISIBLE GLORY which in the World appeareth CHAP. XXIX Of Modesty It s Nature It s Original Its Effects and Consequences MODESTY is a comely Grace in the Behaviour of a Man by which he piously dissembleth his own Perfections and blusheth at his Praises It springeth from a certain fear and sence of his Imperfection 'T is the shadow of Guilt and a beautiful cover of Original Corruption It is sometimes Natural and which is contrary to all other Vertues more truly vertuous for being so For then it is Simple Genuine and Real but studied Modesty is affected and artificial yet where Nature has not been so obliging as to give the endowment 't is not altogether to be condemned since it is agreeable to the best of our conditions in this World and supplies a defect in his Nature that is born without it IT is akin to Shame yet increases the honour of him that wears it it is the shade of Vertue yet makes it brighter It is a tincture of Humility visible in a vermilion and deeper die and the more natural and easie the more sweet and delightful IT charms the Envy of those that admire us and by seeming to extinguish our worth gives it a double beauty It reconciles a man to the Enemies of his Grace and Vertue and by a softness irresistible wins a Compassion in all Spectators It is a Vertue which by refusing the honour that is due unto it acquireth more a real Counterfeit and the only honest and true dissimulation It is an effeminate yet a laudable quality a spice of Cowardice more prevalent than Courage a Vertue by which we despise all meaner Honours while we are ambitiously carried to the highest Glory It seemeth inconsistent with Magnanimity yet is her youngest Sister IT hath not many Objects nor are its Aims apparent nor its Ends conspicuous It is the Mother of fine and delicate Resentments its strength consisteth in tenderness and fear He that is Magnanimous in one respect may be modest in another Praises and Commendations are the fuel of its Nature it feedeth upon them while it grows by rejecting them It delights in what it feareth and is full of discords but more full of harmonies It is pleased in its displeasure and alwaies fighteth with its own Repugnancies It is a Vertue mixt of Sence and Reason its region is in the Body more than in the Soul and in all its Spiritual motions it is attended with Corporeal impressions The Blood and Spirits dance in the Veins as if Nature were delighted with its own Confusions By captivating the favour of Men upon Earth it affecteth the very Angels in Heaven with much of pleasure It
the Soul of Liberality Paradice and Heaven are better to be given than Gold and Silver And every Good man will imitate the Apostle who was ready not to impart the Gospel of GOD only but his own Soul to the benefit of those for whom Christ died THIS one thing further I desire you to note He that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly but he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully In the Kingdom of Heaven every man receiveth his Penny because all their Joyes are common and equal Their Treasures shall be the same but they will differ in Glory The same GOD the same Angels the same Men all the same Objects shall be round about every man Every man shall see and enjoy all the Glory of his eternal Kingdom because every ones life and felicity shall be perfect But yet their works follow them and every man shall be cloathed in the beauty of his own actions Vertues and Graces There may be twenty Children in the same family yet all of several Features There may be a thousand Trees in the same Orchard yet all of different kinds The same brightness and glory may be round about them the same skie cover them the same Earth support them the same Stars serve them the same Sun shine upon them the same Sea the same Dew the same Air and Nourishment feed them and yet the one be more fair and honourable and excellent than the other All the World does know that a Tree laden with Fruits and Blossoms is far more beautiful than a Tree that is barren and unfruitful And the degrees of Beauty are according as the Fruits are more or less And as the Fruits they bring forth adorn them so do their own works praise them in the Gates Heaven as it is a Kingdom of Light and Knowledge is a Kingdom of Perfection Righteousness and Justice flourish there in their fulness and every several degree of excellence is entertained with an answerable degree of esteem according to the number and greatness of their Vertues every one is honoured by Saints and Angels NOW least these Fruits should receive any impediment by the Vices and Corruptions of men order is taken that we should love our Enemies bless them that curse us do good to them that hate us pray for them that despightfully use and persecute us By which means it is that a Liberal man surmounts all obstacles whatsoever lives among Dragons as if he were surrounded with Doves and though he be environed with Devils is as if he were conversant with Angels Because he takes no notice of any Vice in any man to stop him but is as Liberal as if all were full of worth and vertue Nay he is more good and more miraculous Their Vices their Provocations their Disorders cannot stain or imbitter his Nature but he will be alwaies chearful and bright and fair and free and perfect To love the amiable and be kind to the beautiful is natural and easie It is not given to the Angels but to visit the Faithful and the Penitent But to love the Evil to be kind and good and serviceable to the Deformed and the Odious to the Injurious and Ungrateful is somewhat more than Angelical We learn it not of them but of GOD and of his eternal Son who hath commanded us to be the Children of our Father which is in Heaven for he maketh his Sun to rise on the Evil and on the Good and sendeth rain on the Just and on the Unjust Even Publicans and Sinners do in some manner as much as Angels love them that love them In Heaven they have no malignity or malice or wrong to overcome all that they love is Beauty and Goodness unless they learn of Jesus Christ and imitate him here on Earth towards us Sinners But our duty is far greater and our opposition more Which is intimated also in our Saviours words For if ye love them which love you what reward have you Do not even the Publicans the same And if ye salute your Brethren only what do ye more than others Do not even the Publicans so Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect In the Close of all I beseech you to consider this one most cogent and weighty expostulation It is the beloved Disciples If a man say I love GOD and hateth his Brother he is a Liar for he that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen Our Neighbours are not only the representatives of GOD but they are here upon Earth are visible are present with us are Corporeal as we are and alwaies near us our actions among them are palpable and our Conversation with them real GOD is invisible and absent from us he is afar off in the highest Heavens Incorporeal and Incomprehensible If we are remiss and careless in our duty towards our Neighbour all our devotion towards GOD will be but imaginary our Religion will degenerate into an idle and vain Chimera become a weak and feeble shadow be seated in the fancy and dwindle away into an aiery Speculation The reality of Religion consists in the solid practice of it among the Sons of men that are daily with us The difficult and serious actions of our Lives abroad feed our Meditation in all our retirements and infuse a reality and strength into our Devotions which make them solid and substantial CHAP. XXXI Of Magnificence in GOD. Its resemblance in Man The chief Magnificence of the Soul is Spiritual It is perfectly expressed in the outward Life when the whole is made perfect and presented to GOD. GOD gives all his Life to us and we should give ours all to him How fair and glorious it may be GOD being proposed as the Pattern of our Liberality and Kindness by our Saviour the nature of his Bounty is sit to be considered for our Information which is great and publick and advantagious to many In some of his private dispensations it walks under the notion and form of Liberality as it giveth food and Rayment Gold and Silver Houses and Lands to particular persons But in other effects of his eternal love which are great and publick its nature is changed into the highest Magnificence MAGNIFICENCE is a Vertue scarcely to be found but in Kings and Emperours It is busied in erecting Temples and Triumphal arches Magnificent Theatres Colledges and Universities Aquaeducts and Palaces Royal Momuments and Pyramids Marts Havens Exchanges and all those other great and mighty things wherein the glory of Imperial Power is made conspicuous and whereby whole Nations are benefited and Kingdoms adorned GREAT Power Riches Wisdom and Goodness must concur in the effect which is truly Magnificent It must be of great lustre and glory as well as of publick use and benefit and as it is wrought with great labour and expence be imparted by a great Soul and freely given to the good of the People For Magnificence
implies Greatness and Bounty united THE Creation of the Universe was a great and Magnificent work because the lustre and beauty of the WORLD is a sublime and wonderful Gift imparted to millions The bounty of GOD in adorning all ages with Cities and Empires for the benefit and enjoyment of all the World is another piece of his Royal Magnificence The infusion of a Soul so divine and everlasting into the Body of a Man is an act of love transcendently greater than all the Aquaeducts and Trophies in the World For such a Celestial presence such a sublime and illimited power such a vast and noble Workmanship as that is which can see and comprehend all Eternity and Time together extend to all Objects in all Worlds and fill Immensity with life and joy and love and knowledge with light and beauty and glory with adorations and praises though its essence be invisible and all its splendour within is next under GOD the highest Object of all the admiration of Men and Angels It is a being as publick as the Sun the great occasion of all the extasies of the Seraphims the wonder and the rapture of all the Cherubims the glory of GOD communicated to the World in so divine a Creature a miraculous effect of his eternal Power and the resemblance of his Godhead among all the Creatures THE Incarnation of his Eternal Son and the giving of the Holy Ghost was another Magnificent effect of his almighty Power so was the preparation of his Word with the Gifts he gave unto Men in the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles adorned with all the varieties of their Labours and Vertues Wisdom Courage and Patience Lives and Examples Deaths and Sufferings Oppositions and Successes Miracles and Revelations The Jewish Nation alone is a Magnificent gift to the whole World The Apostle phraseth the Regiment of it as a matter of Bounty Now if the Fall of them be the Riches of the World and the diminishing of them the Riches of the Gentiles how much more their Fulness And again When he ascended up on high and led Captivity captive he gave Gifts unto Men some Apostles and some Prophets c. When he presented all Nations and Kingdoms as a token of his love to the Angels when he gave all those glorious Hosts in the Heavens to the vision service and pleasure of Men much more when he gave all these in their marvellous order and amity united to every Soul When he filled the Heaven of Heavens with Joyes and gave all the glory of his Kingdom to one and that one to every one he manifested the glory of his Magnificent power in that of his great and transcendent goodness And in relation to this we may cry out with the Apostle more than for the mysterious Regiment of a little Nation as he doth upon the account of GODS dealing with the Jews O the depth of the riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of GOD How unsearchable are his judgments and his waies past finding out For all things are yours Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the World or Life or Death or things present or things to come all are yours and ye are CHRISTS and CHRIST is GODS Wherefore he saith My Thoughts are not your Thoughts nor your Waies my Waies For as the Heavens are higher than the Earth so are my Waies higher than your Waies and my Thoughts than your Thoughts You give triflles and give them but to one I give Worlds and give them to every one You divide and disperse your Gifts and lessen by dispersing them I communicate and unite my Gifts and augment by giving them You think it impossible for one man to enjoy all things I think it possible for innumerable Millions You think your interest is abated and your fruition endangered by the communication of your Treasures to many I know they are increased and multiplied by the number of the Enjoyers You think Gold and Silver to be the greatest Gifts and that nothing is yours but what is shut up within such Shores and Walls and Hedges I know that Men are the greatest Treasures and that your interest is extended through all Worlds and your Possessions illimited For according to the tenour of these words and a little before he saith Thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles and make the desolate Cities to be inhabited Fear not for thou shalt not be ashamed neither be thou confounded for thou shalt not be put to shame for thou shalt forget the shame of thy Youth and shalt not remember the reproach of thy Widowhood any more For thy Maker is thy husband the Lord of Hosts is his Name c. And a little after he saith Thou shalt also be a Crown of Glory in the hand of the Lord and a royal DIADEM in the hand of thy GOD. Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken neither shall thy land any more termed Desolate but thou shalt be called Hephzibah and thy land Beulah for the Lord deligheth in thee and thy Land shall be married For as a young Man marrieth a Virgin so shall thy Sons marry thee and as the Bridegroom rejoyceth over the Bride so shall thy GOD rejoyce over thee For a Son to marry with his Mother is Incest it is Confusion also for a Child to go in unto his Fathers Wife And yet the Church of GOD shall be the lawful Bride of every one of all her Sons Here is Magnificence GOD giveth himself and his eternal Son and his Holy Spirit and his Bride and his Apostles and Prophets and all the Universe to every Soul Which justifieth that saying of St. Chrysostome GOD loveth every one with all the Love wherewith he loveth the whole World His Magnificence exceedeth all Limits Laws Imaginations Wishes Possibilities and he maketh every one Heir of the World Coheir with Christ to inherit all things every one more than the sole end of all his Kingdom For all the Ornaments and Riches of a Bride are given with her Person her Palace and Attendants are her Lovers upon the Marriage as well as she and all things that magnifie or make her amiable are subservient to his enjoyment and really his that is her Husband So that GOD giving us his Church to be our Mother and our Bride hath intended us in all the things whereby he benefited her in all kingdoms and ages and hath loved us in all the Love which he hath exercised towards her and all the fruit of all his Love to the whole World resteth in our Exaltation This is the Magnificence of Almighty GOD to every Soul in his Kingdom And for this it is that the Church is called The Assembly of the First-born because all her Children are the perfect Heirs and Kings and Bridegrooms every one compleatly and more to his satisfaction than if he were so alone For as GOD is wholly every
The fall from so great a height would fill the Soul with a cruel remembrance and the want of its former glory and bliss be an infinite torment Now if it loved nothing but it self it could endure all this rather than forsake it self or lose or be bereaved of its essence it would endure any misery whatsoever Or to speak more correct and accurate sence it would be incapable of any Passion Patience or Misery but only that which flow'd from its abolition Nothing could prejudice it but the change of its Being THAT is not likely to love it self after the way which some conceive proper to Self-love which is willing to forsake it self upon any Misery and apt to forget it self upon any great felicity It loves it self that it might enjoy such a pleasure but loves that pleasure so much beyond it self that it is ready to go out of it self and is almost beside it self for the fruition of it Loving it self only for that end and that chiefly and for its own sake it loves that far more than it loves it self And there is no limit nor bound when it once begins to love any thing more than it self it may proceed eternally and provided its Object be infinitely more excellent it will easily and greedily love it infinitely more than it can it self and value the continuance of its own life only for the sake of that which it so infinitely esteems and delights in It is true indeed it presupposes its Capacity but what would that capacity be worth were it not for Objects WERE there no SUN it were impossible for so fair an Idea to be conceived in a Mirror as is sometimes in a Glass when it is exposed to the skie The Mirror is in it self a dark piece of Glass and how so much fire and flame and splendor should come from it while it is a cold Flint or piece of Steel how it should be advanced by any Art whatsoever to so much beauty and glory as to have a Sun within it self and to dart out such bright and celestial beams no man could devise Yet now there is a Sun the Matter is easie 't is but to apply it to the face of the Sun and the Glass is transformed And if GOD dwelleth in the Soul as the Sun in a Mirror while it looketh upon him the love of GOD must needs issue from that Soul for GOD is love and his love is in it The impression of all his Beauty swallows up the Being of the Soul and changes it wholly into another nature The Eye is far more sensible of the Day and of the beauty of the Universe than it is of it self and is more affected with that light it beholds than with its own essence Even so the Soul when it sees GOD is sensible only of the glory of that eternal Object All it sees is GOD it is unmindful of it self It infinitely feels him but forgets it self in the Rapture of its Pleasure BUT we leave Illustrations and come to the reason of the thing in particular The Soul loving it self is naturally concerned in its own happiness and readily confesseth it oweth as much love to any Benefactour as its bounty deserveth And if the value of the Benefit be the true reason of the esteem and Reason it self the ground of the return A little Kindness deserveth a little love and much deserveth more Reason it self is adapted to the measure of the good it receiveth and for a shilling-worth of Service a shilling-worth of Gratitude is naturally paid For a Crown or a Kingdom the Soul is enflamed with a degree of affection that is not usual Now GOD created and gave me my self for my Soul and my Body therefore I owe him as much as my Soul and Body are worth and at the first dash am to love him as much as my self Heaven and Earth being the gifts of his Love superadded to the former I am to Love him upon that account as much more as the World is worth and so much more than I love my self If he hath given all Angels and Men to my fruition every one of these is as great as my self and for every one of those I am to love him as much as that Angel or Man is worth But he has given me his Eternity his Almighty Power his Omnipresence his Wisdom his Goodness his Blessedness his Glory Where am I Am I not lost and swallow'd up as a Centre in all these Abysses While I love him as much as all these are worth to which my Reason which is the essence of my Soul does naturally carry me I love him infinitely more than my self unless perhaps the possibility of enjoying all these things makes me more to esteem my self and increases my Self-love for their sake more than for my own Thus when I see my self infinitely beloved I conceive a Gratitude as infinite in me as all its Causes Self-preservation is made so natural and close a Principle by all the hopes and possibilities to which I am created Those Hopes and Possibilities are my tender concern and I live for the sake of my infinite Blessedness Now that is GOD And for his sake it is that I love my self and for the glory and joy of delighting in him I desire my continuance and the more I delight in him my Continuance is so much the more dear and precious to my self Thus is GOD infinitely preferred by Nature above my self and my Love to my self being thoroughly satisfied turns into the Love of GOD and dies like a grain of Corn in the Earth to spring up in a new and better form more glorious and honourable more great and verdant more fair and delightful more free and generous and noble more grateful and perfect The Love of GOD is the sole and immediate Principle upon which I am to act in all my Operations NOW if you enquire what Advantages accrue by this Love to the Soul of the Lover we are lost again in Oceans of infinite Abundance The strength and brightness and glory of the Soul all its Wisdom Goodness and Pleasure are acquired by it founded in it derived and spring from it as we have before declared upon the Nature of Love The solution of that one Question will open the mystery Whether we gain more by his Love or our own All that we gain by his Love amounts to the Power of Loving the Act of Loving we gain by our own and all that depends upon it BY his Love he existeth eternally for our Enjoyment as the Father of GLORY which is begotten by it self but we do not gain all this by his Love but by our own Some man would say We gain our Souls and Bodies by the Love of GOD all Ages and Kingdoms Heaven and Earth Angels and Men infinite and eternal Joyes because all these were without our care or power prepared by him and his love alone They were prepared indeed by his Love but are not acquired or enjoyed by
Vertue By Vertue the Creation is made useful and the Universe delightful All the Works of GOD are crowned with their End by the Glory of Vertue For whatsoever is good and profitable for Men is made Sacred because it is delightful and well-pleasing to GOD Who being LOVE by Nature delighteth in his Creatures welfare There are two sorts of concurrent Actions necessary to Bliss Actions in GOD and Actions in Men nay and Actions too in all the Creatures The Sun must warm but it must not burn the Earth must bring forth but not swallow up the Air must cool without starving and the Sea moisten without drowning Meats must feed but not poyson Rain must fall but not oppress Thus in the inferiour Creatures you see Actions are of several kinds But these may be reduced to the Actions of GOD from whom they spring for he prepares all these Creatures for us And it is necessary to the felicity of his Sons that he should make all things healing and amiable not odious and destructive that he should Love and not Hate And the Actions of Men must concur aright with these of GOD and his Creatures They must not despise Blessings because they are given but esteem them not trample them under feet because they have the benefit of them but magnifie and extol them They too must Love and not Hate They must not kill and murther but serve and pleasure one another they must not scorn great and inestimable Gifts because they are common for so the Angels would lose all the happiness of Heaven If GOD should do the most great and glorious things that infinite Wisdom could devise if Men will resolve to be blind and perverse and sensless all will be in vain the most High and Sacred things will increase their Misery This may give you some little glimpse of the excellency of Vertue You may easily discern that my Design is to reconcile Men to GOD and make them fit to delight in him and that my last End is to celebrate his Praises in communion with the Angels Wherein I beg the Concurrence of the Reader for we can never praise him enough nor be fit enough to praise him No other man at least can make us so without our own willingness and endeavour to do it Above all pray to be sensible of the Excellency of the Creation for upon the due sense of its Excellency the life of Felicity wholly dependeth Pray to be sensible of the Excellency of Divine Laws and of all the Goodness which your Soul comprehendeth Covet a lively sense of all you know of the Excellency of GOD and of Eternal Love of your own Excellency and of the worth and value of all Objects whatsoever For to feel is as necessary as to see their Glory The Contents CHAP. I. OF the End for the sake of which Vertue is desired Chap. II. Of the Nature of Felicity its excellency and perfection Chap. III. Of Vertue in general The distribution of it into its several kinds It s definition Chap. IV. Of the Powers and Affections of the Soul What Vertues pertain to the estate of Innocency what to the estate of Grace what to the estate of Glory Chap. V. Of the necessity excellency and use of Knowledge Its depths and extents its Objects and its End Chap. VI. Of Love and Hatred The necessity and sweetness of Love It s general use and efficacy The several kinds of Love Of the power inclination and act of Love its extent and capacity Chap. VII What benefit GOD himself does receive by his eternal Love That when our Love is made compleat and perfect it will be like his and the benefit of it will be eternal Chap. VIII Of the excellency of Truth as it is the object and cause of Vertue The matter and form of Vertuous Actions That their form is infinitely more excellent than their matter and the Heathen Morality infinitely defective and short of the Christian. Chap. IX Wisdom is seated in the Will it attaineth best of all possible Ends by the best of all possible Means Chap. X. Of Righteousness how Wisdom Justice and right Reason are shut up in its Nature What God doth and what we acquire by the exercise of this Vertue Chap. XI Of Goodness natural moral and divine its Nature described The benefits and Works of Goodness Chap. XII Of Holiness Its nature violence and pleasure It s beauty consisteth in the infinite love of Righteousness and Perfection Chap. XIII Of Justice in general and particular The great good it doth in Empires and Kingdoms a token of the more retired good it doth in the Soul It s several kinds That Gods punitive Justice springs from his Goodness Chap. XIV Of Mercy The indelible stain and guilt of Sin Of the Kingdom which God recovered by Mercy The transcendent nature of that duty with its effects and benefits Chap. XV. Of Faith The faculty of Believing implanted in the Soul Of Nature its Objects are The necessity of Faith Its end its use and excellency It is the Mother and fountain of all the Vertues Chap. XVI Of Hope It s foundation its distinction from Faith its extents and dimensions its life and vigour its several kinds its sweetness and excellency Chap. XVII Of Repentance It s original its nature it is a purgative Vertue its necessity its excellencies The measure of that sorrow which is due to Sin is intollerable to Sence confessed by Reason and dispensed with by Mercy Chap. XVIII Of Charity towards God It sanctifieth Repentance makes it a Vertue and turns it to a part of our true Felicity Our Love to all other objects is to begin and end in God Our Love of God hath an excellency in it that makes it worthy to be desired by his eternal Majesty He is the only supream and perfect Friend by Loving we enjoy him Chap. XIX Charity to our Neighbour most natural and easie in the estate of Innocency Adams Love to Eve and his Children a great exemplar of our Love to all the World The sweetness of Loving The benefits of being Beloved To love all the World and to be beloved by all the World is perfect security and felicity Were the Law fulfilled all the World would be turned into Heaven Chap. XX. Of Prudence It s foundation is Charity its end tranquility and prosperity on Earth its office to reconcile Duty and Convenience and to make Vertue subservient to Temporal welfare Of Prudence in Religion Friendship and Empire The end of Prudence is perfect Charity Chap. XXI Encouragements to Courage It s Nature cause and end It s greatness and renown Its ornaments and Companions Its objects circumstances effects and disadvantages how Difficulties increase its vertue Its Victories and Triumphs How subservient it is to Blessedness and Glory Chap. XXII Of Temperance in matters of Art as Musick Dancing Painting Cookery Physick c. In the works of Nature Eating drinking sports and recreations In occasions of passion in our lives
live by Accident and never to pursue any Felicity at all is neither Angelical nor Brutish nor Diabolical but Worse then any Thing in some respect in the World It is to act against our own Principles and to wage war with our very Selves They that place their Ease in such a Carelessness are of all others the greatest Enemies and Disturbers of themselves IT is Madness and folly to pursue thâ— first object that presents it self undâ—â—â— Notion of felicity And it is 〈◊〉 to content ones self in the Enjoymeâ—â— of a mean estate upon a suspicion there is no true happiness because the nature thereof is so much doubted in the World The Disputations concerning its nature argue its existance And we must cease to be Men before we can extinguish the desire of being Happy He only is truely Generous that aspires to the most perfect Blessedness of which God and Nature have made him Capable BY how much Greater the Uncertainty is by so much the more Heedful ought we to be lest we should be seduced and deceived in the Choice of Happiness For the Danger is the Greater And by how much the more Eager Men are in their Disputations concerning it by so much the more weighty is the Nature of the Theme to be presumed HASTINESS in catching at an unexamined Felicity is the great Occasion of all the Error about it among the Vulgar who are led like Beasts by their Sense and Appetite without discerning or improving any other faculty The lip of the Cup is annointed with Hony which as soon as they taste they drink it up tho the liquor be nothing but Gall and Poyson Being deluded with a shew instead of Pleasure they rush hand over head on their own Destruction IT is as natural to Man to desire happiness as to live and breath Sence and Instinct carry him to Happyness as well as Reason onely Reason should rectifie and direct his Instinct inform his Sence and compleat his Essence by inducing those perfections of which it is capable THINGS Good in themselves when they stand in Competition with those that are better have the notion of Evil Better Things are Evil if compared with the Best especially where the Choice of the one hinders the Acquisition of the other For where Good Better and Best are subservient to each other the one is the better for the others sake but where they interfere and oppose each other the Good are bad in comparison of the Better and the Better worse than the Best of all This is the Cause why Reason cannot acquiesce in any Felicity less than the Supreme which must needs be infinite because Almighty Power which made Reason active is illimited in its Operations and never rests but in the production of a Glorious Act that is infinite in Perfection IF Felicity be infinite the Loss is as great that attends our Miscarriage and the misery intolerable that follows our Loss For our eyes being open a Loss that is incomprehensible must needs produce a Greif unmeasurable an Anguish as infinite as our Damage ALL inferiour felicities are but Miseries compared with the Highest A farthing is good and pleaseth a Beggar in time of distress but a piece of Gold is Better An Estate of a thousand pounds a year is better than a Piece of Gold but our Ambition carries us to Principalities and Empires An Empire is more desirable than a Province and the Wider the Richer the Better it is the more Desirable But the Empire of all the Earth is a Bubble compared to the Heavens And the Heavens themselves less than nothing to an infinite Dominion PERFECT Felicity is not Dominion nor Pleasure nor Riches alone nor Learning nor Virtue nor Honour but all in Perfection It requires that every Soul should be capable of infinite Dominion Pleasure Learning and Honor for the full and perfect attainment of it IF all these be infinite and Eternal in that Felicity which is prepared for Man those Actions are of inestimable Value by Virtue of which his Felicity is gained and it becomes his Wisdom and Courage to suffer many Things for so noble an End Especially if in this Life it may in any measure be thereby acquired and enjoyed THE Great Reason why GOD has concealed Felicity from the Knowledge of man is the enhancement of its nature and value but that which most conceals it is the Corruption of Nature For as we have corrupted so have we blinded our selves Yet are we led by Instinct eagerly to thirst after things unknown remote and forbidden The truth is our Palates are vitiated and our Digestion so Corrupted that till our Nature be purified by a little Industry to make felicity Known is but to Expose it to Contempt and Censure It is too Great and Pure for perverted Nature THE Concealment of an object whets our Appetite and puts and Edge upon our endeavours and this carries some thing of Mystery in it For whereas the Maxime is Ignoti nulla Cupido All Love comes in at the Eye we affect an Object to which we are Blind and the more Blind we are the more restless We are touched with an unknown Beauty which we never saw and in the midst of our Ignorance are actuated with a Tendency which does not abate the value of our Virtues but put Life and Energy into our Actions THO Felicity cannot perfectly be understood because it is incomprehensible to Men on Earth yet so much of it may be discerned as will serve to meet our Instinct and feed our Capacity animate our Endeavour encourage our Expectation to hope for more then we enjoy enable us to subdue our Lusts support us in temptations and assist us in overcoming all obstacles whatsoever INFINITE Honors and Pleasures were there no more in Felicity are enough to allure us but the fruition of all in the Best of Manners in Communion with God being full of Life and Beauty and Perfection in himself and having the certain Assurance that all shall be included in his Bliss that can be thought on it is a Thing so Divine that the very Hope of it fills us with Comfort here and the Attainment with perfect Satisfaction hereafter HE that can enjoy all Things in the Image of GOD needs not covet their fruition in a Baser Manner Man was made in GODS Image that he might live in his Similitude I am not so Stoical as to make all Felicity consist in a meer Apathy or freedom from Passion nor yet so Dissolute as to give the Passions all their Liberty Neither do I perswade you to renounce the Advantages of Wealth and Honor any more then those of Beauty and Wit for as a Man may be Happy without all these so may he make a Happy use of them when he has them He may be happy with Difficulty without them but Easily with them If not in Heaven yet certainly on Earth the Goods of fortune concur to the Compleating of Temporal Felicity and therefore where
in which no Defect or Blemish can be discerned perfect in the variety and Number of its Powers in the fitness and Measure of every power in the use and value of every Endowment A perfect Soul is that whereunto nothing can be added to please our Deâ—â—re As all its Objects are perfect so 〈◊〉 it self It is able to see all that is to be seen to love all that is Lovely to hate all that is Hateful to desire all that is Desirable to honour all that is Honorable to esteem all that can be valued to delight in all that is Delightful and to enjoy all that is Good and fit to be enjoyed If its Power did fall short of any one Object or of any one Perfection in any Object or of any Degree in any Perfection it would be imperfect it would not be the Master piece of Eternal Power PERFECT life is the full exertion of perfect power It implies two things Perfection of Vigour and perfection of intelligence an activity of life reaching through all Immensity to all Objects whatsoever and a freedome from all Dulness in apprehending An exquisite Tenderness of perception in feeling the least Object and a Sphere of activity that runs parallel with the Omnipresence of the Godhead For if any Soul lives so imperfectly as to see and know but some Objects or to love them remisly and less then they deserve its Life is imperfect because either it is remisse or if never so fervent confined PERFECT Fruition as it implieâ— the Perfection of all objects more nearly imports the intrinsick Perfection oâ— it s own Operations For if its Object be never so many and perfect in themselves a Blemish lies upon the Enjoyment if it does not reach unto all their Excellence If the Enjoyment of one Object be lost or one Degree of the enjoyment abated it is imperfect PERFECT Vertue may best be understood by a consideration of its Particulars Perfect Knowledg is a thorow compleat understanding of all that may be Known Perfect Righteousness is a full and adequate Esteem of all the value that is in Things It is a Kind of Spiritual Justice whereby we do Right to our selves and to all other Beings If we render to any Object less than it deserves we are not Just thereunto Perfect Wisdome is that whereby we chuse a most perfect end actualy pursue it by most perfect Means acquire and enjoy it in most perfect manner If we pitch upon an inferiour end our Wisdom is imperfect and so it is if we pursue it by feeble and inferior Means or neglect any one of those Advantages whereby we may attain it And the same may be said of all the Vertues NOW if all Objects be infinitely Glorious and all Worlds fit to be enjoyed if GOD has filled Heaven and earth and all the Spaces above the Heavens with innumerable pleasures if his infinite Wisdome Goodness and Power be fully Glorified in every Being and the Soul be created to enjoy all these in most perfect Manner we may well conclude with the Holy Apostle that we are the children of GOD and if Children then Heirs Heirs of GOD and joynt heirs with Christ if so be that we suffer with him that we may also be glorified together That our light Affliction that is but for a Moment worketh out for us a far more exceeding and eternal Weight of Glory That beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord we shall at last be transformed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. For all his Works of which the Psalmist saith They are worthy to be had in remembrance and are sought out of all them that have pleasure therein are like a Mirror wherein his Glory appeareth as the face of the Sun doth in a clear fountain We may conclude further that Vertue by force of which we attain so great a Kingdome is infinitely better then Rubies all the Things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her So that with unspeakable comfort we may take Courage to go on not only in the study but the Practice of all kind of Vertues concerning which we are to treat in the ensuing Pages For as the Apostle Peter telleth us He hath given to us all things that pertain to Life and Godliness through the Knowledge of him that hath called us to Glory and virtue whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious Promises that by these you might be Partakers of the Divine Nature having escaped the Corruption that is in the World through List. And besides this saith he giving all diligence adde to your Faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness Charity For so an Entrance shall be Ministred to you abundantly into 〈◊〉 everlasting Kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Which Kingdom being so Divine and Glorious as it is we have need to bow our Knees to the GOD and father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named that he would grant us according to the Riches of his Glory to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inward Man that Christ may dwell in our Hearts by Faith that we being rooted and grounded in Love may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the Breadth and Length and Depth and Height and to know the love of Christ which passeth Knowledg that we may be filled with all the fulness of GOD. TO be Partaker of the Divine nature to be filled with all the Fulness of GOD to enter into his Kingdom and Glory to be transformed into his Image and made an Heir of GOD and a joynt Heir with Christ to live in Union and Communion with GOD and to be made a Temple of the Holy Ghost these are Divine and transcendent things that accompany our Souls in the Perfection of their Bliss and Happiness the Hope and Belief of all which is justified and made apparent by the explanation of the very nature of the Soul its Inclinations and Capacities the reality and greatness of those Vertues of which we are capable and all those objects which the Univers affordeth to our Contemplation CHAP. III. Of Vertue in General The Distribution of it into its several Kinds its Definition BEfore we come to treat of particular Vertues it is very fit that we speak something of VERTUE in General VERTUE is a comprehensive Word by explaining which we shall make the way more easy to the right Understanding of all those particular Vertues into which it is divided Forasmuch as the Nature of Vertue enters into knowledge Faith Hope Charity Prudence Courage Meekness Humility Temperance Justice Liberality c. Every one of these hath its essence opened in part by the explication of that which entreth its Nature which is VERTUE in General THE Predicament of
Love is made compleat and Perfect it will be like his and the Benefit of it will be Eternal BEFORE we can fully discern the Benefit of Love or see the Glory of it in all its high and admirable Effects we must consider what Love is and doth in GOD. For as we have said The Life of GOD is Love nay the Apostle saith GOD is Love By Loving he begot his Love And if his Love be his Godhead his Essence is an infinite and Eternal Act of Love by extending which through all infinity and by Loving Eternally he begot his infinite and Eternal Essence which is the Love that filleth all Worlds with Beauty and Glory When you consider it well An Act of Love is begotten by Loving And if his Wisdome and Goodness and Blessedness and Glory be seated in Love his Love is his Wisdome which is the Son of GOD and his Goodness and his Glory and his Blessedness For all these tho we conceive them diversly are the same Thing and of the Son of GOD it is said that he is the Wisdom of the Father and the Brightness of his Fathers Glory He is the Life of the Father by whom also he made the Worlds and the Love of the Father for whom all Things were created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers all Things were created by him and for him For GOD enjoyeth all Things by his Love which is his Eternal Son and made them as perfect and delightful as it was possible for things created to be that he might take Pleasure in them As he himself is made Glorious and Delightful in the Eyes of all Angels and Men by Love so doth his whole Kingdom arise and Spring from Love the Beauty and felicity of all his Creatures their Joys and Praises their Uses and Perfections are founded in his Love ' by his Love he begetteth all his pleasures in himself by his Love he made his Treasures infinite and by that alone doth he take infinite Pleasure and Delight in himself and his Kingdome Thus useful is the Love of GOD. Had not GOD from all Eternity Loved had he never desired nor delighted in any thing he had never exerted his Almighty Power never communicated his Goodness or begot his Wisdom never enjoyed Himself never applyed himself to the Production of his Works never appeared in his Glory to any eie whatsoever Removing his Love we remove all the Properties and Effects of his Essence and are utterly unable to conceive any Idea of his Godhead For his Power tho it be Almighty yet if it be Dead and idle is fruitless and Deformed Idle Power is not the Essence of the Deity but a meer Privation and Vacuity or at least a positive Being as ignoble as it is unactive The Reason of his Works is founded in Love so are all the Obligations that are laid upon his Creatures to adore him All their Rewards are founded in Love and by Love prepared All his Laws are the Laws of Love all his Attributes and Counsels are Love in several formes acting upon several occasions When his Love communicates it self in Joys to innocent Creatures it is Goodness when it attains the most perfect End by the most perfect means it is Wisdome when it rescues guilty Creatures from Hell it is Mercy when it punishes the Rebellious it is Justice when it inspires Obedience into any obstinate Person it is Grace when it delights in the Beauty of all its Works it is Blessedness when it appears in the perfection of its works it is glory For Glory is the perfection of Beauty that ariseth from and is seated in the lustre of excellent Actions discovering the internal Properties of an excellent Agent which is by those his Properties and Actions made Delightful to all Judicious Spectators NOR is it onely in GOD but in us also that the fruits and Benefits of Love are ineffable For by loving as it ought to do the Soul acquires its own Perfection and is united to all its Objects By loving as it ought to do it is made Holy and Wise and Good and Amiable Onely by Loving does it embraces the Delights of which it is capable Love is the root and Soul of those Actions for which a Creature is desired and praised by others IT is an infinite Advantage that we are able to live in GODS Image if we please For if GOD alone be infinitely Glorious and Blessed there is no way for us to become Glorious and Blessed but by being made either by our selves or some other like unto him BY nature he hath implanted the Similitude of his power which we are to improve by Grace turning it into Act after his Similitude To be able to Love is neither Grace nor vertue but a meer Gift of GOD a natural Endowment which may be Blasted or compleated Actually to love is the Work of vertue for by that Act we enjoy our Felicity HAD GOD limited and confined our understanding our power of Loving had been shut up in Bounds Had he made it infinite but not prepared objects for the same our Love had been deluded and had lost its force Had he made some Objects but not so many as it was capable of Loving it had been Superfluous and dissatisfied Had he prepared Objects innumerable and Endless but made them evil our Love had been irrational had he commanded us to Love them Had he made more Objects then we were able to love we had been discontented But having made all Objects infinitely Amiable and Glorious and filled his Immensity and Eternity with himselfe and with the Lustre of his Actions Love is an infinite Vertue because nothing is wanting but an Act of Love to enjoy them IF they are all Amiable in all Respects they are all according to our Hearts desire in their Natures Places Durations Ends Occasions Causes Uses Service Relations Properties Operations c. All things as they immediatly proceed from him are in all respects most perfectly pleasing And if we have an Eye to see and discern this and a Soul able to resent the Benefit if our nature be so vast and perfect as to see and take pleasure in all their Circumstances it is the most unreasonable and bruitish thing in the world to withdraw our Affection from them nay it is worse then Diabolical For we Kill our selves we blast our Felicity we offend GOD we slight the Beauty of all his Creatures we break his Laws we act against nature we darken the Light and Splendor of our Souls we deface his Image we grieve his Love we do the most vicious and abominable thing that is imaginable But if we excite and a waken our Power we take in the Glory of all objects we live unto them we are sensible of them we delight in them we transform our souls into Acts of Love and Knowledge we proceed out of our selves into all Immensities
and Eternities we render all Things their Due we reap the Benefit of all we are Just and Wise and Holy we are Grateful to GOD and Amiable in being so We are not divided from but united to him in all his Appearances Thoughts Counsels Operations we adorn our souls with the Beauty of all objects whatsoever are transformed into the Image of GOD live in communion with him nay live in him and he in us are made Kings and Priests unto GOD and his sons forever There is an exact and pleasant Harmony between us and all the Creatures We are in a Divine and spiritual Manner made as it were Omnipresent with all Objects for the Soul is present only by an Act of the understanding and the Temple of all Eternity does it then becom when the Kingdom of GOD is seated within it as the world is in the Eye while it lives and feels and sees and enjoyes in every object to which it is extended it s own its objects Perfection IF by our voluntary Remisness or Mistake or Disorder we dote upon one Object or suffer some few things to engage our Souls so intirely as to forget and neglect all the rest we rob all those we desert of their due Esteem and abridge our selves of that Liberty and Extent wherein the greatness of our soul consisteth As if the Sun that is made to shine upon all the World should withdraw its Beams from the Stars and the Heavens and chuse to shine upon nothing else but a Spire of Grasse a grain of Dust or a little sand We lose innumerable Objects and confine our selves to the Love of one by sacrificing all our Affection to that become guilty of Idolatry in one respect of Atheism in another For we elevate that Creature which we love alone into the place of GOD and we rob the Creator of that supream affection which is due unto him And in so doing bereave our selves of the Sovereign Object in the fruition of which all the rest are happily enjoyed Thus when a man so Loveth his Wife or Children as to despise all mankind he forfeits his Interest in all Kingdoms and the Beauty of all Ages is taken from his Eys his Treasures are contracted and his Felicity is maimed and made Defective When a Covetous man doteth on his Bags of Gold the Ambitious on Titles of Honor the Drunkard on his Wine the Lustful Goat on his Women the foolish Hector on his Dice and Duels they banish all other Objects and live as absurdly as if a King should relinquish his Crown and confine his Thoughts and Care to a Country Mannor I will not deny but that there are many Disorders and Evils in the World many Deformities Sins and Miseries but I say two things first that in the Estate of innocency wherein all things proceeded purely from GOD there was no Sin nor sickness nor Death nor Occasion of Complaint or Calamity Secondly that all the Evils that are now in the world men brought on themselves by the Fall And there is great need of distinguishing between the works of GOD and the works of men For all that GOD did is Lovely and Divine nothing is bitter and distasteful but what we have done himself surveyed the whole Creation and pronounced concerning every Thing that it was exceeding Good So that he was in all his Works an Object of Complacency To these we add two Considerations more That of all the Evils and Mischeifs which men have introduced there is not one left uncorrected in his Kingdome Secondly that GOD bringeth Order out of Confusion Light out of Darkness Good out of Evil and by a Providence irresistable and a Power infinite so limiteth and divideth all that even Evils themselves become the Matter of his Victory the Ground of his Triumph They are all improved and he makes the Greatest Evils Objects of Joy and Glory NOW if all Things before GOD are fit to be enjoyed all Good Things perfect all Evil overcome if without any Change of Place or Scituation all Things are naked and open before his Eyes and there be no Walls to exclude or Skreens to hide no Gulph to pass nor Distance to over come but all things equally neer and fair there is some Hope that the same Felicity is prepared for the soul which is made in his Image and that every thing being fit for GOD is full of infinite Depth and Beauty For which Cause St. John being in Spirit saw all the Kingdomes of the World become the Kingdomes of the Lord and of his Christ and heard every Creature which is in Heaven and on the Earth and under the Earth and such as are in the Sea and all that is in them saying Blessing and Honor and Glory and Power be unto him that Sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb for evermore This we are the rather induced to believe because the Faithful Servant is commaned to enter into the Joy of his Lord and our Masters Joys are the Rewards of Believers Our Savionr telleth us his Lord will make his Wise Servant Ruler over all his Goods in one-place and over all that he hath in another TO see beyond all Seas and through all interposing Skreens and Darknesses is the Gift of the Understanding and to be able to Love any Object beyond the Skies any Thing that is Good from the Centre of the Earth to the Highest Heavens is the Property of the Soul which it exerciseth here by Parts and Degrees but shall at once exert at the Day of Consummation The Infinity of the Father in the Son the Godhead of the Son in the Holy Ghost will entirely be enjoyed IT is the Glory of man that his Avarice is insatiable and his Ambition infinite that his Appetite carries him to innumerable Pleasures and that his Curiosity is so Endless that were he Monarch of the World it could not satisfie his Soul but he would be curiously inquisitive into the original and End of Things and be concerned in the Nature of those that are beyond the Heavens For having met with an infinite Benefactor he would not be sit for his Bounty could any finite Object satisfie his Desire and for this Cause is his Reason so inquisitive to see whether every thing be Delightful to his Essence which when he findeth agreable to his Wish and to exceed his Imagination it is impossible to declare how his Avarice and Ambition will both rejoyce how much his Appetite will be satisfied and his Curiosity delighted To sit in the Throne of GOD and to enjoy Communion with him in those Things which neither Eye hath seen nor Ear heard nor hath it entered into the Heart of Man to conceive is no mean thing the Advancement is infinitely Greater then we are able to understand No young man can gaze upon a Beauteous face with greater Pleasure no Epicures Sence he ravished with more Delight than that which he apprehends in so Glorious a fruition THE very sight of
other mens Souls shining in the Acts of their Understanding throughout all Eternity and extending themselves in the Beams of Love through all Immensity and thereby transformed every one of them into a Sphear of Light comprehending the Heavens every Angel and every Spirit being a Temple of GODS Omnipresence and Perfection this alone will be a ravishing Spectacle to that Goodness which delights to see innumerable Possessors of the Same Kingdome Much more will the Perfection of the Kingdome it self which by infinite Wisdome is so constituted that every one is the Sovereign Object the First born and Sole heir and End of the Kingdome Every one the Bride of GOD every one there a King yet without Confusion or Diminution every one distinctly enjoying all and adding to each others fruition TO understand all this and not to delight in it is more miserable then not to understand it To see it without being able to enjoy it is to pine away in a prison from whence we see the Glory of a Palace and repine in our misery at the Pleasures of those that are about it To delight in these Things without being affected with them is impossible Nor is there any Affection but that of Love whereby we can enjoy them THE Angels see the Glory of GODS Kingdom and delight in it the Damned see the Joys of the Blessed and are tortured by them the Wicked upon Earth neither see nor are affected with them the Saints on Earth apprehend them in part and believe them desire and endeavour after them they wait with Expectation for the whole and by certain degrees as it were in a Glass enjoy the Image and Reflection of them As many as they comprehend they actually delight in for their love is awakened and extended to the goodness of all they understand which it feeds upon by meditation and turnes into Nourishment for the Beneffit of their Souls which are made more Great and Strong and Vigorous by their Fruitions But without Love it is easie to see that no Goodness can be at all enjoyed GOD does desire Love from us because his Wisdom very well knows that without Love the World would be in vain and the End of the Creation frustrated his Goodness is diffusive and infinitly desires to communicate it self which it cannot do unless it be Beloved To receive it is the highest service we can do unto it nothing being more agreeable to the Nature of his Goodness then that it should be enjoyed His Blessedness consisteth in the pleasure he taketh in the Felicity of others and brancheth it self out into two Parts the Pleasure of Communicating all to others and the pleasure of receiving all from others in the satisfaction which he taketh to see others Blessed in the Returns of those joys and Praises which are offered up to his Goodness and Glory His Glory desires to be seen and delighted in To be esteemed and beloved to be honored and admired is natural to Glory the Brightness of whose splendor is more Sensibly Pleasant in the Reflection of its face and in the Joy that it makes in anothers Soul His Holiness takes Pleasure in pure and upright Actions of all which Love is the fountain There is an Objective fitness and Excellency in Love for which it is infinitely valued by him It is one of the first and immediate Properties of Love to desire to be beloved to make its object most Amiable and Beautiful as well as Blessed to be united to it to have its own Goodness acknowledged its Essence approved its excellency desired admired and delighted in to see all its Actions Appearances Gifts and Tokens esteemed and to feel its own Efficacy in the Grateful Acceptance it finds in the Raptures it occasions in the flames it enkindles in anothers Soul Now Love is the fountain of all Honour Gratitude Praise and Esteem By Love the Soul is transformed into the Similitude of GOD by love made Bright and Beautiful all its Blessedness and Glory are founded in its Love it is by Love it self made Communicative and Diffusive and Great and Rich and as the Scripture speaketh fit for Delights All Obedience and service are founded in Love And if a Creature that is Beloved must freely give up it self to anothers Pleasure before it can shew its Love or intirely be enjoyed Love is of all other things in the World most fit to answer Love because the very heart and Soul is given thereby to the Person that desires it LOVE is the Fountain of all Benefits and Pleasures House Estate and Lands Authority Wealth and Power Life it self is consecrated and Devoted by a Lover to his Object So that on our side all is given to GOD by Love as well as by Love it is received from him The Heavens and the Earth and all the Creatures are Gifts and Tokens of his Love Men and Angels are a Present of his Love which he hath infinitely adorned and made endlessly serviceable to every Soul that is Beloved All these his Love would have us to receive with a due Esteem and therefore is it than of his Love he will have us to exercise our reason aright and Love them as much as their Goodness deserveth When we see and understand their Excellence and Esteem them according to the transcendent value that appeareth in them we adorn our selves with their fair Ideas we enlarge and beautifie our Souls with Bright and clear Apprehensions and which is much more with regular and well ordered Affections we enrich our selves and increase our Greatness in the fruition of his Gifts we are lively and pleasant and vigorous Creatures full of Knowledge and Wisdome and Goodness and fit to offer up all these things unto him again while we empty them as Helps and Advantages in that Service which we pay unto him For our Love to himself is enkindled by these Incentives and while we sacrifice our selves and them unto him we delight in nothing more then to see him that is so Great in Love and Bounty the Author and Possessor of all his Glories CHAP. VIII Of the Excellency of Truth as it is the Object and Cause of Vertue The Matter and form of Vertuous Actions That their form is infinitely more Excellent then their Matter and the Heathen Morality infinitely defective and short of the Christian. I do not see that Aristotle made the End of Vertue any other then a finite and temporal Felicity which is infinitely short of that felicity which is here begun and enjoyed for ever He did not make GOD the Object and End of the Soul and if all Acts are distinguished into their Kinds by their Objects and their Ends those Vertues must be infinitely base that have no other Objects or Ends but Creatures and those only Divine and Noble that flow from an infinite and Eternal Original respect an infinite and Eternal Object rest in an Infinite and Eternal End His Difinition of Felicity importeth all this but his Behavior makes me to
is magnified and Ages enlightned the Ministry of Angels and the Dispensations of Providence by which the Care and Tenderness of GOD is shewn the infinite measures and Violences of his Love the infinite Variety and Number of Obligations the present Advantages and Benefits the Eternal Rewards the Relation of GOD to Man as a Father and a friend a Bridegroom and a King a Light and Example the sweetuess of our Union and Communion with him and the Gift of the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven all these Things which the Angels desire to look into were by the Christian Religion with the rest before mentioned plainly revealed with our victory over Death the Resurrection of our Bodies and Life Eternal IN the Light of these Circumstances the Interior form of Vertuous Acts more evidently appears For to exercise Vertue in the Quality and Capacity of a Son of GOD is another sort of Business than to exercise Vertue as an ordinary Mechanick and to do all things being clothed with a Sence of our Coelestial Grandeur as we are Heirs of the World infinitely Beloved of GOD ordained for his Throne Delightful in the Eyes of all Angels and Men Beloved and honored by all the Creatures made Partakers of the Divine Nature intending and designing to Please all Spectators in Heaven and Earth by the excellency of our Actions This makes every little Deed as it were infinite within while the Matter of the Action seemeth nothing it renders the Form Divine and Blessed THE best Actions of the prophaner Heathen fell under the notion of Dead Works By which name the Apostle calleth all wicked Deeds to intimate the Privation of all that excellency that ought to be in Humane Actions Every Deed and Thought of ours ought to be Inspired with Life from Heaven The Light of the Understanding and the vigor of the Will is the Soul that informes it When it is void of Knowledge and springs not from that series of GODS infinite Love that ought to animate it nor regardeth those Eternal Joys that are set before us nor at all considers those Obligations that are laid upon us it is bereaved of its Vital and Essential form it is like a fair Carcase without a Soul unsensible of those Interests and Concerns that ought chiefly to be valued and promoted And by this you may see clearly that the Matter of a Good act falles infinitely short of that Perfection wherewith it ought to be inspired if this Soul or Form be wanting which tho less visible to the Eye of flesh is of as much greater Excellence and Importance as the Soul in nature is above Body THUS when a Heathen giveth to the Poor the matter of the Act is the very self same which a Christian man does So is an Act of Courage or Patience in encountring Death the subduing of the Appetite and the Denial of a Lust a piece of Justice against Interest and friendship an Act of Prudence Temperance or Fidelity In all these if we respect the Matter of them Heathens have acted in a manner as high as any Christian and consequently appear to vulgar Apprenhensions as Heroick and Stupendious But consider the inside the Heathen did it that he might satisfie his Conscience and and please the GODS that he might acquire honor and immortal fame or please the generous Inclination of his own Soul which delighted in Honor and Worth or assert his own Principles or five his friends or preserve his Country And doubtless these are Great and brave considerations but they are limited and finite and Sick of two Defects for the most part that are incurable They were Sacrifices of Obedience to false Gods plain Idolatry and attended with an ignorant Loftiness and Height of Mind that confided in them and besides this they aspired to little more then a Glorious name in following Ages WHEREAS the Christian makes all Kind of Graces to meet and concentre in every Action Wisdom Goodness Justice Courage Temperance Prudence Humility Penitence Patience Meekness Liberality Cheerfulness Gratitude Joy in the Holy Ghost Devotion Piety Faith Hope Charity all Kind of Holiness And his Action extends to all the Objects of these Graces and includes their Causes He remembers the infinite Obligations that are laid upon him by that Deity which infinitely Loves him the Benefit of the Creation and the Glory of the Divine Image the Guilt of fall and that blot and misery that lyes upon him the Wonder of his Redemption and the Love of Christ his Death and Passion the Miraculous Pains and Endeavors of GOD in all Ages to reclaim him the Giving of the Holy Ghost and his holy Baptism the New Covenant which he is in with GOD the Height and Glory of his Place and station the Beauty of the World and his Dominion over all the Living Creatures the Joy and Amity of all the Angels the Benefit and Welfare of all his Neighbours the Joy and Prosperity of future Ages the Glory of GOD the Honour of his Church and the Propagation of Religion the Salvation of others Souls and the Eternal State and condition of his own the Acquisition of a Coelestial and Eternal Kingdom and the Delight he taketh in an infinite Sphere of Eternal Joys the fervent Desire he has to be Grateful to the Almighty all these by the Light of his Divine and Coelestial Knowledge enter into the Act for want of which the other work that is wrought by an Ignorant Heathen is in a Manner rightly called a Work of Darkness I do not speak this as if I would discourage a Heathen from doing the Best that he is able or condemn those reasons upon which he proceedeth in his Vertuous Deeds No nor as if all this were necessary to the Acceptance of an Action But to shew how highly Christianity does ennoble the Soul of Man how far more sublime its Principles are and how far more perfect it makes his Actions When they are what they may be And withal to provoke Christians to a more Intelligent and lofty Practice of Christian Vertues lest they differ not in their Morals from the better sort of Heathens All these things are necessary to the perfection of an Action tho not to its Acceptance And GODS Omnipresence and Power and Wisdom and Love ought to be considered in all places among all Persons upon all occasions And the Blood of Christ and the infinite Glory of Eternal Bliss But that which above all I chiefly intend is to shew what influence the great Perfection of Felicity hath upon all our Vertues not only to stir us up to do them but by entering their Constitution to inspire them with their Beauty and form for their fuller Lustre Glory and Perfection That we may see also how Great and Transcendent that Life must be wherein every Act is capable of so much Majesty and Magnificence if I may so speak by reason of the variety of its Ends and Causes And how abominable and absurd they are all that
Dominion and throughout all his Immensity to act and do what he will So that in one Instant he can fill both Eternity and Time with enjoyments Every Part and Particle of which shall be infinitely Delightful because of the vigor of his Eternal Power in very Operation Thus is he intirely Acting in Heaven and Earth and Hell at the same time and at all conceivable Distances beyond all Heavens ever Acting because he is Willing Decreeing seeing and ruling there and every where accomplishing his Counsel and Pleasure His Essence and his Will are both the same his Essence is his Act and his Act his Pleasure BY exerting his Almighty Power he begot that Act which is the Means and End of all his Endeavors An Act of Wisdome infinite and Eternal is his Blessedness and Glory We must take heed of conceiving GOD to be one Thing and his Act another for all his Wisdom and Goodness all his Blessedness and Life and Glory are in the Act by which he became the Fountain and the End of all Things He became so freely and yet was so by his Essence from everlasting for Eternity is an infinite Length of Duration altogether present in all its parts in a Stable manner To fill one part of space with Treasures and leave another Empty was not Wise. Common Reason will instruct us that it is better to have all spaces full of Delights than some sew or none And by his infinite Wisdome it is that he Knows how to enjoy what he never needed and to improve his Enjoyments by giving them away INFINITE and Eternal Wisdom does not onely imply the Possibility but the certain Reality and Existence of Eternal Treasures Where least you should wonder how such should be infinite you must needs be informed that God is his own best and most perfect Treasure For if Treasures are by nature those precious Things which are Means whereby we acquire our Ends or those Things which we most Esteem as the Sovereign Objects of our Joy GOD is in both those respects his own Wealth because his Essence is the Means by which he atchieveth all his ends and the Sovereign End of all those Means which he by his Wisdom useth for his Ends. For of him and by him and to him are all things As the Scripture witnesseth Matter is the Dreg of Nature and Dead without Power Power is the Abyss of Nature but void without act Act is the Top and Perfection of Nature it is the fulness of Power the fountain and the means of all that is for Power by transforming it self into Act becometh an act and by that Act produceth and perfecteth all its Works both outward and in ward so is it the Means of all its Productions being so infinitely Simple and various together that nothing but Power exerting it self is in the Nature of the Act by which it is exerted All the Essence of that Act is the compleat Exertion of Eternal Power and yet to it alone we ascribe the Original and Means of all it is the Cause and Means and End of it self as well as of other Things which for its own sake are Produced by it For idle Power can do nothing Meer Power is neither the Cause nor the Means nor the End of any thing Power not Idle but exerted and throughly employed is all Act And this is the Cause of all its Productions because of this Power exerting it self they spring and the Means of all because by this Power exerting it self they are and the End of all because it did all that it might be not Idle but Power Exerting it self or a Glorious Act in its full Perfection IT was an effect of infinite Wisdom wherein GOD by one Act acquired himself and all his Dominion prepared his own and his Creatures blessedness made himself and all his Kingdome Glorious But this is scarcely intelligible because the manner of his Life is incomprehensible we cannot tell how to conceive what the Learned constantly affirm that all Eternity is at one Time All I shall observe in Order to the explaining of this Mystery is onely this that tho the World begins and Ends with Time yet Eternity does immutably include Time and the Operations of Divine Wisdome are various and exactly fitted to their several Seasons yet all the parts of Eternity are filled with Operations which tho they are one in GOD like that of shining in the Sun are manifold in Effects as the Beams of the Sun in their different Works among all the Creatures IT is a natural Effect of infinite Wisdome to make every of its Treasures suitable to its own excellence And that the Wisdome of GOD has done by making every the smallest Thing in his Kingdome infinitely serviceable in its Place and station for the manifesting of his Wisdom Goodness and Glory to the Eye of a clear Beholder And this he hath done by making all his Kingdome oneIntire Object and every Thing in it a Part of that Whole Relating to all the innumerable Parts receiving a Beauty from all communicating a Beauty to all even to all objects throughout all Eternity While every one among Millions of Spectators is endued with an Endless Understanding to see all and enjoy all in its Relations Beauties and Services I cannot stand to enlarge on this otherwise I might illustrate it by a familiar Example No single Part of a stately Monument is so Beatutiful out of its Place as it is in its Place because if it be seen alone it is not understood for the Beauty that results from all consists in Order and Symmetry which by any Division is broken to pieces He Knoweth nothing as he ought to Know who thinks he Knoweth any thing without seeing its Place and the Manner how it relateth to GOD Angels and Men and to all the Creatures in Earth Heaven and Hell Time and Eternity IT is an Act of Wisdome to prize and enjoy what is by Wisdome prepared and Because infinite Wisdome includeth all Wisdome infinite Wisdome at once Knoweth Chuseth Doth Esteemeth and Enjoyeth all that is Excellent It is an Act of Wisdome to make ones self Good and Delightful to others because Honor and Peace and Amity are founded therein It is infinite Wisdome to become infinitely Good and Delightful to others and for that cause to be infinite in Bounty For what is infinitely Good is infinitely Glorious And therefore is it that GOD needing Nothing in himself gives all Things to others Gives them in enjoying them enjoys in Giving them while his Goodness delights in the Felicity of others and in being the Felicity of others For by making them Great and Blessed he magnifieth himself and by replenishing them increaseth his Treasures HOW little soever of this you are able to conceive you may understand that to be like GOD is the way to be Happy And that if GOD hath put it in your Power to be like him it is the extremest Madness in the VVorld to abuse
your Power and to neglect his Treasures but it is infinite VVisdome by the best of all possible Means to embrace and enjoy them Because an infinite End is thereby attained even GOD himself who is thereby made the portion of the Soul and its Reward forever THE best of all possible Means whereby we can acquire his Eternal Treasures is to imitate GOD in our Thoughts and Actions to exert our Powers after his Similitude and to attain his Image which is after GOD in Knowledg Righteousness and true Holiness For by Knowing all Things as GOD Knoweth them we transform our Souls into an Act of Knowledge most Bright and Glorious By Loving all Things as GOD Loveth them we transform our VVills into an Act of Love which is most Sweet and Blessed VVe enrich and Beautifie our selves with the Image of his Goodness while we communicate our Souls in our Powers to all Objects in his whole Eternity VVe magnifie our selves by magnifying Him in all his Works We do right to our selves by doing right to GOD and all other Things VVhich for as much as we must here on Earth learn by Degrees and can never perfectly accomplish the VVork till it is given us in Heaven it is VVisdome to walk in the Paths of Righteousness as far as we are able and to do those Things here tho small and defective which he will recompence with a Reward so perfect hereafter IF ever we be so happy as to come to Heaven his VVisdome shall be our VVisdom his Greatness our Greatness his Blessedness our Blessedness his Glory our Glory All his Joys and Treasures shall be ours his Life and Love ours and Himself ours for evermore HIS VVisdome is made ours because it is the Light in which we shall see Light and learn thereby to inherit all Things the Exemplar and Original of our VVisdome the Fountain and Patern of all our Joys the Author and Inventor of all our Delights the End and Sum of all our Desires the Means of all our Felicity our very Blessedness and Glory CHAP. X. Of Righteousness How Wisdome Justice and Right Reason are shut up in its Nature What GOD doth and what we acquire by the Exercise of this Vertue RIGHTEOUSNESS and VVisdome are neer allyed For to be Just towards all Objects is to render them their spiritual Due their Due Esteem It is VVisdome because thereby we attain our End and enjoy their Excellency It is Right Reason because to value all Things just as they are tendering to them neither more nor less then they deserve is to do Right to our selves and them it is a Vertue because by force thereof we attain our Happiness For the better understanding of this Vertue we must Know that there is a Righteousness of Apprehension a Rightteousness of Esteem a Righteousness of Choise and a Righteousness of Action Righteousness of Thought is that Habit by Vertue of which we think aright forming and framing within our selves aright Apprehensions of all Objects whatsoever This tho it be the First and smallest Part of Righteousness is of Great importance because no man can use that aright the Nature of which he does not apprehend He that mistakes his Hand for his Meat will rise hungry from Table He that mistakes a Fiddle for an Axe will neither cut Wood well nor make good Musick The Misapprehension of Great and Transcendent Objects whether visible or Spiritual is not perhaps so Gross but more pernicious and Destructive He that apprehends GOD to be a Tyrant can neither honour GOD nor Love him nor enjoy him He that takes Vertues to be vices and apprehends all the Actions of Religion unpleasant will loath and avoid them He that conceits Nothing in the World to be his own but his low Cottage and course diet will think it needless to praise his Maker and will deny himself to be happy in those narrow and Mean enjoyments He that thinks all the wealth is shut up in a Trunk of Gold will little regard the Magnificence of the Heavens the Light of the Sun or the Beauty of the Universe RIGHTEOUSNESS in esteem is that Habit by Vertue of which we value all things according as their Worth and Merit requires It presupposes a right Apprehension of their Goodness a clear Knowledge of all their excellencies It is a Virtue by which we give to every thing that place in our Soul which they hold in Nature It is wonderful both for its extent and Value For there is Room enough for all Objects in the esteem of the Soul and it is by esteem that they are honored perfected and enjoyed A wise man will actually Extend his Thoughts to all Objects in Heaven and Earth for fear of losing the Pleasure they afford him which must necessarily spring from his esteem of their excellency HONOUR and Esteem are neer a kin How the Creatures are honoured by esteem needeth not to be unfolded but how they are perfected by it is a little Misterious A thing is then perfected when it attains its End Now the End for which all things were made is that they may be seen and enjoyed They are seen that they may be esteemed and by an intelligent and right esteem are all enjoyed In our esteem therefore they find and attain their end and by attaining that are consequently perfected The Application of Actives to Passives is a mystery in Nature of very great and General Importance In all Pleasures Cures and Productions All satisfactions Joys and Praises are the happy off-spring of Powers and Objects well united Both the one and the other would lie void and barren if they never met together and when they meet their Union must be regular wise and holy GOD is an Object of Mans Esteem Which unless it were able to render him his Due and Quadrat with his Excellencies a man could never be Righteous towards GOD. For that Esteem is void of Righteousness that either exceeds or falles short of its Object If it becometh us to fulfil all Righteousness it becometh GOD to endue us with the Power of Esteeming all that is Good and Excellent according to the Worth and Value thereof For which cause he enables us to Esteem all that we can see in Heaven and Earth and in the Heaven of Heavens For this Esteem is the Foundation of that choise which is the Original Spring of all excellent Actions Even GOD himself meeteth his Honour in the esteem of our Souls He is injured by the Sacrilegious Impiety that robs him of his Esteem being infinitely Quick and Tender in apprehending he is more jealous of his Honour and more grieved when he loseth it then any other His Wisdom and his Love are infinitly offended when they are slighted and profaned but pleased extreamly when they are sanctified and honored and that they are by a just Esteem And for this cause he hath made us able to attend him in all his Works and in all his ways and to have Communion with him in
Blessedness By it he is capable of all their Affections and of the Services which his Laws require By it all Angels and Cherubims are moved to admire and adore his Glory By it all Creatures visible and invisible are made his Treasures By it he is multiplied and magnified in every Soul as the same Object is in several Mirrors being intirely represented in every living Temple of his Eternal essence By it he becometh his own end and the Glorious Author and the King of Heaven By it he liveth a Divine and a Blessed Life and by it he is what he is for ever By it all the Graces Exaltations and Vertues of all his Creatures are made his Joys and their Persons and Praisers are Delightful to him Of all his Laws and Decrees and Counsels his Goodness is the fountain It is the Original and final Cause of all our Thanksgivings Our ease and repose and Satisfaction our Bliss and enjoyment are founded in it and caused by it For its own Pleasure all our Delights are made exquisite in their place and the most of them Eternal For its own Glory it maketh all its Creatures Glorious and prizeth its own Glory because it is the Sovereign Delight of all its Creatures It is every way compleat and perfect as infinitely Convenient as it is Great in Bounty as Good to it self as to all others There is no End of all its Perfection and for that Cause it is Incomprehensible TO be made Partaker of the Divine Nature without having the Goodness of Almighty GOD is impossible Nor can we enjoy his Goodness or bear the similitude of his Glory unless we are good in like Manner We enjoy the Goodness of GOD and may be said to have it either when we have its Similitude in our selves or the Pleasure of it in others Since the Goodness of GOD is the great Object of our Joy its Enlargment is our Interest and the more there are to whom he is Good and the more he communicates his Felicity to every one the Greater Pleasures he prepares for us and the more is our goodness therein delighted To see innumerable Millions in Communion with him and all of them made Glorious and Blessed and every one seated in his throne is the greatest Elevation of our Souls and the highest Satisfaction in the World When our Goodness meeteth his in all Places and congratulates the Felicity of every person we may then use the Words of our Saviour because we are endued with the same Mind and Affection And as he accepts all the Good that is done to his Members as done to himself saying Inasmuch as ye have done it to the least of these my Brethren ye have done it to me Our Souls will reply Inasmuch as thou hast done all this to the least of these my Brethren thou hast done it to me for loving our Neighbours as our selves all Angels and Men will be our fellow Members our Brethren our other selves As we delight in all Acts of Goodness for their own sakes that are done to us so shall we delight in all the Bounties of GOD for theirs who are the partakers of them and in GOD for this very reason Because he is good to all We shall be as Happy in others as in our selves and Esteem the Goodness of GOD our Felicity because it hath prevented our Goodness and done all for them which were it undone we should desire to do our selves because our Goodness is a principle that carries us to delight in their perfect Felicity VVhich that we may do the more Sweetly and with more full Satisfaction and perfect Reason his Goodness to all others is but the Perfection of Goodness to us for they are all made Blesed for our fuller and greater Felicity HAD GOD withheld or withdrawn his Goodness from all others it had not been Greater to us but less The Stars are no hindrance to our Enjoyment of the Skie but the Light and Beauty of the place which we contemplate Were they all annihilated the Heavens would be obscure They do us many Services of which we should be bereaved by their Absence and Destruction GOD by giving Beams and influences to them made our Treasures more rich and fair which are increased and multiplied by their Beauty and Number Did the Sun shine upon us and upon Nothing else it would be less beneficial to us than now it is Its Beams that are scattered seem to be lost yet were they contracted upon one his Body would be consumed and all the rest of the World be dark about him those Rays which fly from the Sun to the utmost parts of the World illuminate all Objects and from them more conveniently return to the Eye with their Beauty and Glory which by those Rayes that are dispersed become visible and Profitable They fall not all upon every single man but work for him in other places begetting Herbs and Fruits and Flowers and Minerals and Springs and Trees and Jewels with all that is rich and delectable in the VVorld for his fruition It serves Beasts and Fowles and Fishes for my sake and for my sake does it serve even Men and Angels That they being more Divine and Glorious Creatures might adorn Heaven and Earth with their Persons which without them would be void and Empty For we all desire to be seen and Known and Beloved and for that Cause without Living Agents should be very Desolate and discontented THUS you see if GOD had given all Eternity and Immensity to a man if he had made no other Creatures but him alone his Bounty had been defective Whereas by the Creation of these he hath filled Eternity and Immensity with Treasures All which he hath made ours by commanding them to Love us as themselves fit to be enjoyed and beloved by us by filling them with his Goodness and making them in his Image For every one of them is to Love all his Creatures as he does and to delight in the Beauty and Felicity of all and to be the joy and Delight of all as as he is And the Greater and the Richer and the fairer they are the more Great and Happy are we because they are made our Lovers and Friends our Brides and Brethren our Sons and Daughters our Fathers and our Servants which the more Honourable and Excellent they are the more Delightful the more Glorious and Blessed these are their Love is the more precious and Acceptable True Goodness removes all Envy and Contention out of the VVorld and introduces nothing but Peace and Bounty and Joy unspeakeable and full of Glory WE Love nothing more then to be Delightful to others and to have our Glory seen is a natural Desire which our Saviour has countenanced by his own Petition It is our Interests that the Eys should be innumerable that see and admire the Glory which we had with the Father in some Sense before the VVorld was that they should see I mean how much we are Beloved of GOD
abundantly more clear and apparent herein for in all those Creatures that perfect themselves by the Service which they do the Service it self is a sufficient Recompence while those upon which we feed being more Corruptible are exalted in their Beings by being turned into ours And the Trade of Bees in the Hony they make for us and the Warmth of sheep in the fleeces they bear for us the Comfort of Birds in the feathers they wear and the Nests they build for us and the pleasures of Beasts in the off-spring they beget and bring up for us these things shew that GOD is Good to all and that his mercy is over all his Works And if any perish in our Service the Bloody Characters of his Love and Goodness are the more Stupendious All Nature is sacrificed to our Welfare and all that we have By pure Nature to do till Sin marres all is to admire and enjoy that Goodness to the Delight of which we sacrifice our selves in our own Complacency And in real truth if it be a great Wonder that any Goodness should be thus infinite the Goodness of all other Things without that Goodness is a far Greater If it be Wonderful admire and adore it CHAP. XII Of Holiness Its Nature Violence and Pleasure It s Beauty consisteth in the infinite Love of Righteousness and Perfection THE infinite Love of his own Goodness is the Holiness of GOD. There are infinite Pleasures and perfections in its Nature that Merit an infinite Esteem and Desire His Goodness is all Beauty and his Holiness all Fire and flame in pursuing it His Holiness is all Beauty and his Goodness all Fire and flame to enkindle it The infinite Excess of his Eternal Goodness is its own Holiness and the Beauty of Holiness is Excess of Goodness For if Righteousness and Holiness be well distinguished Righteousness is that Vertue by which GOD doth apprehend affect and Esteem all Excellent Things according to their value and chuse and do always the Best and most Excellent Holiness is the Love which he beareth to his own Righteousness Which being infinite makes him infinitely enflamed with the Love of the most perfect Actions and carries him with an infinite Ardor to the performance of them For tho it be a Righteous Thing to esteem the Righteousness of GOD in an infinite manner yet there is as much difference between Righteousness and the Love of Righteousness as between an Object and the Affection embracing it Tho here also the Affection the Object are the same Thing For this Holy Esteem and Love of Righteousness is Righteousness it self for it does but render Righteousness its due tho the Affection be infinite which it bears unto it HOLINESS if it be strictly defined is that Vertue in GOD by which he Loveth the most Perfect Things and infinitely delighteth in them For by Vertue of this Affection he shunneth and hateth all that is profane pursuing and delighting in all that is Holy For the Object of Holiness may be Holy as well as the Affection Whereupon it followeth that Holiness is of two kinds either the Holiness of the Affection or the Holiness of the Object They bear a Relation to each other yet are absolute Perfections in themselves For the Hatred of all Defects Imperfections Blemishes and Errors is a Glorious thing in itself yet relates to the Perfection of those Objects from which it would remove those odious Imperfections The Perfection of all Objects when they are free from all Blemishes is a Glorious Thing in it self too yet is Acceptable to that Affection that desires to see a Compleatness and Perfection in every Object And all is resolved into the same Goodness of which we have been speaking FOR infinite Goodness must needs desire with an infinite violence that all Goodness should be compleat and Perfect and that Desire which makes to the Perfection of all Goodness must infinitely avoid every slur and Miscarriage as unclean and infinitely aim at every Grace and Beauty that tends to make the Object infinitely perfect which it would enjoy It cannot desire less then infinite Perfection nor less then hate all Imperfection in an infinite Manner All Objects are made and Sanctified by the Holiness of GOD. It is the measure and strength and Perfection of Goodness THE Holiness of GOD is sometimes called in his Oracle The Beauty of Holiness As if all the Beauty of GOD were in this It extends to all Objects in Heaven and Earth from the Highest to the Lowest from the Greatest to the Meanest from the most Pure to the most profane with a Goodness and Wisdome so infinitely perfect disposing all that some way or other every Thing might answer its infinite Affection It infinitely hates all that is Bad and as infinitely desires to Correct the same The Influence of that Affection by which GOD abhorreth the least Spot in his Kingdome reaches to the Perfection of every Object and the is real proper fountain of all the Perfection of Life Glory And for this Cause in all Probability do the Angels so continually cry Holy Holy Holy Lord GOD of Hosts because the Brightness of his Infinite Glory and Perfection appeareth in his Holiness the violence of his Eternal Love and the Excess of Goodness It may be also because all the Heights of Created Perfection owe themselves to this Holiness all the Raptures and Extasies of Heaven depending on the Zeal wherewith GOD is carried to perfect Blessedness All which are occasioned by those pure and Quintessential Joys those most sublime and Perfect Beauties which they see and feel every where effected by the irresistible Strength of that Eternal Ardor SINS of Omission have an unknown Guilt and Demerit in them They unsensibly bereave us of infinite Beauty To let alone that Perfection which might have been infinite to pass by or neglect it to exert Almighty Power in a remiss and lazy manner is infinitely Base and Dishonourable and therefore unclean because so Odious and Distastful Lukewarmness is Profane as well as Malice And it hath pleased GOD to brand it with a worse and more fatal Censure No folly or iniquity can dwell with him Omission is both To be hated is to be rejected but to be beloved Lukewarmly is to be embraced with polluted and filthy Armes And for this Cause the fire of his Jealousie burns most devouringly about the Altar He will be sanctified in all them that draw nigh unto him and but to touch his Ark irregularly is to be consumed Nor is this any other then a concomitant of his Holiness and an evident Testimony of his Love to perfection For it First shews that on his own Part he maketh our Powers Perfect that we may be able to see and adore him worthily and next that he delights in no Adoration but the most Worthy It moreover shews that he infinitely delights in the Perfection of his own Actions for otherwise he would not be so severe against the
the Outward Court they enjoyed the society of the visible Church the sight of the Bloody Altar which answers out Saviors Cross erected in the World and the Benefit of their Outward Profession which consisted in their Admission to the Visible Ordinances and exterior Rites of Religion But that Court was open over head obnoxions to showers in Token that a bare Profession is not Enough to shelter us from the Dangers and Incommodities that may be rained down in Judgments upon us from the wrath of GOD whence the face of Heaven is overcast with Clouds and Covered with black and Heavy Displeasure till we wash and be clean and enter by penitence into the Invisible Church of which the Second Court is a Figure wherein we are illuminated by the Holy Ghost and offer up the sweet Perfumes of our Thanksgivings and Praises being admitted to feed upon the Heavenly Feast represented by the Shew-bread Table we are never received into the Society of the Saints and Angels bainted out in the Cheruhims and Palm Trees round about on the inside of its Walls nor Covered over head with a vail to protect us A vail of Blew to represent the inferior Heaven wherein Cherubims were interwoven to represent the Angels looking down upon us a vail of Goats-hair concealed and unseen above that of Blew to signifie the fruits of our Saviour Life and another of Rams-skins died Red to signifie the Blood of Christ by which we are secured from all the Displeasure which otherwise for Sin was due to us The Goats hair fitly resembles the Active Obedience or the Righteousness of Christ for as much as Hair may be clipped off and a Covering made of it while the Beast is alive For so might Christ have been perfectly Righteous tho his Life had never been Taken away But red is the Color of blood the Skin importeth Death for as much as it cannot be fleyed off without the destruction of the Creature These vails therefore as they were above the other were of higher and more mysterious importance And spread over the inclosed and invisible Court into which none but Priests and Levites entered that washed at the Laver to intimate the security only of those that are washed in the Laver of Regeneration and make Kings and Priests unto God being purged from their old sins and sanctified and illuminated in a secret Spiritual manner For as they only that tarried in their Houses were under the protection of the Paschal Lamb whose Blood was sprinkled on the Lintils of their Gates and Doors when the destroying Angel past through the Land of Egypt to kill the First-born of Man and Beast So onely they that keep within the Pale of the Invisible Church are under the Shaddow of the Almighty because they only dwell in the secret place of the most High and they alone are under the Coverture of that Powerful Blood which speaketh better things than the Blood of Abel but pleads for the preservation of them onely that repent and believe and is therefore effectually spread over the Invisible Church alone Which in another Type is exhibited by the mixture of the Blood and Oyl which was sprinkled upon the Priests and Lepers that were cleansed Sanctification and Justification moving alwayes together hand in hand the Unction of the Holy One or the Oyl of Love and Gladness annointing all those that are washed and only those are washed in clean and pure water they alone being effectually sprinkled with the Blood of Christ who of GOD is made unto us Wisdome and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption FOR if God should take Pleasure in us before we were pure his Complacency would be false and his Delight unrighteous Till we are Delightful to him we can never be Honorable nor Glorious before him Nor ever be pleasing to that Goodness which is indelible tho latent in our own Souls till we feel our selves clean and Beautiful IF any thing in the World can commend the value of Repentance or discover the infinite use and necessity of it this will certainly be a consideration Effectual That tho GOD love us with an infinite and eternal Love tho he magnifies his Mercy infinitely over all our Deservings tho Jesus Christ loved us so as to sacrifice himself in our places tho he made infinite satisfaction to the Justice of God for our Sins tho the Holy Ghost came down from Heaven for our sakes may tho we ourselves were taken up into Heaven all this would he of little avail and we should quickly be tumbled down again if only Sin were Delightful to us and our Wills so obstinate that there was no place for Repentance in our Hearts no sorrow nor Contrition for the Offences we had committed It is not the Love of GOD to us so much as our love to him that maketh Heaven It may surprize you perhaps but shall certainly instruct you for the Love of GOD may be infinite yet if it be unseen breed no delight in the Soul if it be sleighted and despised it shall increase our Cuilt Shame and Deformity and make us the more Odious which it must needs do when we are impenitent For so long it is manifest that we are neither Sensible of his Love nor Just unto it The taste of its sweetness and the Pleasure we take in his infinite Love is the Life of Blessedness and the Soul of Heaven It is the Concurrence of our Love and His when they meet together that maketh Heaven HERE upon Earth we ought actually to grieve and repent for our Sins But should GOD require a measure in our Grief answerable to its Causes our Repentance it self would be an Hell unto us For the Grief would be Endless and insupportable Right Reason requires that we should be infinitely afflicted for the infinite folly and madness of Sin But the Mercy of GOD dispenseth with our Grief so far that it takes off the Pain which its infinitâ— Measure would inflict upon our sense and accepts of an Acknowledgement made by our Reason that it ought to be infinite if strict Justice were exacted at our Hands Our intention is in the Course of Reason to be infinitely and Eternally grieved for the Baseness of the Act and the Vileness we have contracted and so we should be dâ—d its Effects continue and abide forever for then we should be hated of GOD and become his Enemies World without End But the Removal of that Hatred and the infinite Mercy whereby we are forgiven hath a kindly Operation on the Soul of every Penitent and the Joy it infuseth restrains and limits the Excess of our Sorrow it leaves the Intension of Grief and its inclination in the Mind yet stops the persecution and relieves our Reason by diverting the stream of its Operations and Exercises it engageth its actual Resentments upon other Objects which turn it all into Love and Adoration Praise and Thanksgiving Joy and Complacency For the Love of God continued after our fall and
the Felicity to which we are called out of the Depth of our misery all the Advantages we receive upon our Redemption the Improvements of our miserable Estate the Degrees and Ornaments that are added to the Beauty and perfection of Gods Kingdome upon so sad an occasion as Sin is all these things take up our Thoughts in such a manner that while we are actually and fully Just to these and Loving GOD for his Eternal Love infinitely more than we Love our selves we live in him and are all in raptures of Blesseduess yet is there a Vertual Sorrow which Reason conceives as most due to Sin which being expressed only in the Humility of our Souls and seen as it were underneath the fruition of our Joys in the lowly Conceit we retain of our selves in the confession of our vileness and the deep Sence of our own unworthiness is far Greater now we are restored to the favour and Love of GOD far sweeter to be seen and deeper to be understood than the Grief for Sin would have been had we been not redeemed but Damned forever CHAP. XVIII Of Charity towards GOD. It Sanctifieth Repentance makes it a Vertue and turns it to a Part of our true Felicity Our Love to all other Objects is to begin and End in GOD. Our Love of GOD hath an Excellency in it that makes it worthy to be desired by his Eternal Majesty He is the only Supreme and Perfect friend By Loving we enjoy him REPENTANCE without Love is so far from seating us in the Felicity of Heaven that it is one of the Ingredients of the Torments in Hell a natural Effect of Sin and a great Part of the Misery of Devils Love is a genuine Affection of the Soul and so powerfully Sweet when it is Satisfied and pleased that it communicates the Relish of its own Delightfulness to every Thing near it and Transformes the most Virulent Affections into Smooth Healing Perfective Pleasures Insomuch that in Heaven our Sorrow for Sin shall perhaps be infinite yet the malignity of it so perfectly correctd that tho we continue Eternally Just in rendring our Sins that grief which is their due it shall not discompose our peace norcorrode our Delighs but increase our Repose in the Beauty of our souls and make our Joys more full of Extasie by those Melting Lively Bleeding Resentments which our Love will occasion in the very Grief where with it perfects our Felicity For as the falling out of Lovers is the Renewing of Love so is the Mercy and Kindness of the one even of him that was injured and the calm and secure Indignation wherewith the other hates himself for being guilty of so vile a miscarriage the very Grace and Beauty of the Reconciliation it is a great means of their mutual Endearment and Tenderness ever after the Compassion of him that is Innocent and the humble grief of the Guilty making the Joy of their future Correspondence more Deep and Serious more Vigorous and Enflaming more lasting LOVE is that which Sanctifies Repentance and makes it pleasant both to him that is Beloved and to him that is adored Acceptable and Delightful to him that repenteth as well as to him that had been injured For the Sinners Restauration makes it as Natural to grieve for his Fault as to rejoyce in his Felicity his fad and humble Resentments are his own Satisfaction because he sees himself Just and Rational in them he delighs in his Sorrow because it is Honourable and finds a new Kind of pleasure in his Abasement because it is relieved by the Wonder of his Happy condition and what he hath lost in himself is regained in the pefection and Goodness of his Object THAT GOD is the sovereign Object of Love I scarcely need to mention all I shall observe upon this occasion is that we are more to Love him for his Mercy and Compassion towards us as Sinners then for his Goodness and Bounty expressed at the first as we were Innocent Creatures The Bleeding Spectacle of his Incarnate Deity and the Perseverance of his Miraculous and Transcendent Love after all our Offences is another Kind of Motive to heighten our Charity of and gives it another form as much more Mysterious so much more perfect and Delightful then ever Our Sorrow for Sin infuses a New Sense into Nature a New Beauty into Love and gives as much unto it as it receiveth from it But this being better known by Experience then by description I shall refer you to the Life of Heaven and Grace for more ample satisfaction LOVE as we have shewed may be extended to all Objects in Heaven and Earth all that is Goodly and Amiable being capable of that Affection Hereupon the Word Love is generally used for that Liking and Esteem we have for any thing whether Dead or alive We can Love Life and desire to see Good Days we can Love the Sun and Wine and Oyl and Gold Love our Dogs and Horses fine Clothes and Jewels Pleasures Honours Recreations Houses Riches and as well as Love Men and Women Souls and Angels And evermore our Love expresseth it self in Tenderness and Care for the Preservation of what we Love in Esteem of its Worth and Delight in its Beauty in endeavours also to promote its Welfare as far as it is capable But there is another sort of Love towards Living Objects Divine and reasonable which we call Charity This is that Vertue of which the Apostle saith after he had spoken of all the Miracles Helps Governments Prophesies Tongues and other Gifts of the Holy Ghost that were then in the Church And Yet shew I unto you a more Excellent Way 1 Cor. 12. ult And in the next Chapter Tho I speak with the Tongues of Men and of Angels and have not Charity I am become as sounding Brass or a tinkling Cymbal And tho I have the Gift of Prophesie and understand all mysteries and all Knowledge and tho I have all Faith so that I could remove Mountains and have no Charity I am nothing and tho I bestow all my Goods to feed the poor and tho I give my Body to be burned and have not Charity it profiteth me nothing It is that concerning which our Saviour Speaketh The first of all the commandements is Hear O Israel the Lord our GOD is one Lord and thou shalt Love the Lord thy GOD with all thy heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Mind and with all thy Strength This is the first Commandement And the Second is like namely this Thou shalt Love thy Neighbour as thy self There is none other Commandement greater then those Nay perhaps it is that of which he saith to his Apostles when they had admired at his Miracles He that believeth on me the works that I do shall he do also and greater Works then these shall he do because I go to the Father For Faith worketh by Love Love is the Life of Faith and without the Works of the
of all his Creatures We shall honour our Parents for his sake and preserve the Life of our Neighbour We shall not rob him of his happiness in his Wife nor wrong him in her Chastity and Fidelity towards him We shall not steal from him nor diminish his Possessions We shall not defame him nor hurt him by Lies but vindicate and preserve his Reputation it will be our joy and Satisfaction to see his honour clear and unblemished We shall not injure him so much as in a thought nor covet ought that is his either for necessity or pleasure but study to add to his Contentments WERE all the World as full of this Love as it ought to be Paradice would still continue and all Mankind would be the Joy and Glory of the whole Creation The Love of GOD towards all would dwell and abide in every Soul and the Felicity of all would be the particular Joy of every person All the Earth would be full of Repose and Peace and Prosperity nothing but Honour and Kindness and Contentment would replenish the World Which leads me now to that other Branch of Love which is Charity to our Neighbour CHAP. XIX Charity to our Neighbour most natural an Easie in the Estate of Innocency Adams Love to Eve and his children a great Examplar of our Love to all the World The Sweetness of Loving The Benefits of being Beloved To Love all the World and be beloved by all the World is perfect security and Felicity Were the Law fulfilled all the World would be turned in Heaven CHARITY to our Neighbour is Love expressed towards GOD in the Best of his Creatures We are to Love GOD in all the Works of his Hands but in those especially that are most near unto him chiefly those in which he manifesteth himself most clearly and these are they that are most like him most exalted by him most loved of him and most delightful to him ANGELS and Men are so distinct from the residue of the Creation that all the Works of GOD as if they were Things of another Kind are put in Subjection under their feet They were made in his Image and are often called the Sons of GOD. They are the Sovereign Objects of his Eternal Love every one of them considered a part is so Glorious as if he were the Sole individual friend of GOD and King of the Universe so that they are to be treated in another Manner as High and Sacred Persons elevated a-above the Race of ordinary Creatures as a Progeny of Kings that are all of them friends to the King of Kings Ambassadours representing his Person in whom he is injured or Obliged I confess there are many Disguises that overcast the Face of Nature with a vail and cloud these Sovereign Creatures the Excellency the Absence and Distance and unknown Nature of Angels the Perversness of Nature the Ignorance and Unkindness and Disorders of Men Darken and Eclipse this Glorious Duty and make it uncouth and difficult to us But all these Disorders came in by Sin and it is expedient to remove the Confusions that blind us in our miserable Estate and to look upon this Vertue of Charity in the Naked Beauty which appeareth to us in the Light of Eden IN the Purity of Nature Men are Amiable Creatures and prone to Love To great Advantages of which Sin and misery hath bereaved us and to which we are restored but in Part even then when we are Sanctified Where the Beauty of the Object is intire and perfect and the Goodness of the Spectator clear and undefiled to Love is as Natural and Easie as for fire to enflame when applied to convenient matter For the Beauty of the Object is Oyl and Fuel to the affection of the Spectator It is not more Easie to delight in what is pleasant than it is to desire what is Good and Amiable To be commanded to take pleasure in it is Liberty not Constraint To be forbidden would be hard A Prohibition would be the Severest Law and the most cruel Bondage There was no Possitive Law in Eden that required a Man to Love his Neighbour it was a Law of Nature The Nature of the Object required it and our Nature prompted it self thereunto The Service that Law required was perfect freedome Adam was commanded to Love Eve by a silent Law Surprized by her Beauty and captivated by the Chains of Nature He was amazed at so fair a Creature her Presence was so Delightful that there was no need of a Law an injunction had imported some Sluggishness in the zeal of his Affection His Appetite and Reason were united together and both invited him to lose himself in her Embraces She was as acceptable a Present of the Love of GOD as Wisdome and Goodness could invent for him He was too apt to admire her had not her Soul been as worthy as her Symmetry was transcendent He admired the Bounty of the Donor in so Great a Gift and Great Part of his Life was to be spent in the Contemplation of his Treasure He had a Noble Creature made in the Image of GOD for him alone Her soul was far more excellent in Beauty then her Face a Diviner and more Glorious Object than the whole world Her Intelligence and Vivacity Her Lofty and clear Apprehensions Her Honour and Majesty Her Freedome of Action her Kindness of Behaviour her Angelical Affections Her fitness for Conversation Her sweet and Tender Principles a million of Graces and Endowments conspiring to enrich Her Person and Perfection made all the World to serve Adam with one Degree of Pleasure more in serving and pleasing her The Universe seemed to be Nothing but the Theatre of their mutual Love as if all the World were made for nothing else but to minister to her for his sake and to make him happy in the Enjoyment of Her While the fruition was sanctified by a Just acknowledgement and Thanksgiving to the Author WE produce Eve only for a President this first sweetness is but a Pattern and Copy of what follows fair Prologue to a more magnificent scene and used by us as a meer Introduction Adam was able to Love Millions more and as She was taken out of his side so were they to spring from his Bowels All to be as Great and fair and Glorious as she as full of Soul and as full of Love As the Woman was the Glory of man so were their Off-springs the Glory of both I mean they had been so by the Law of Nature had not the due course of it been disturbed Which Accident is wholy to be fathered on Adams fondness to please his Wife and to be mothered upon her Lightness and Credulity But we being here to disclose the Felicity which is hid in the fulfilling of GODS Laws and to justifie his Love in commancing this Charity to our Neighbors must not regard the Malevolence of Men but look upon the pure Intention of the Law and the success that would have
in force and Extent but the fewer in Number Their perfect sufficiency is to be measured by the ends for which they are prepared and their Beauty Consists like that of an Army with Banners in the Proportion and Symmetry of the entire Body the mutual Supplies and Succors they afford to one another the Unity of such a Great Variety of things in order to the Attainment of the same great and ultimate end the full and compleat Number of Offices and inferior Ends and the Extream Providence wherewith they are reducible to one supream End which is most High and Excellent It is enough for the Ear if it can hear well tho it is no more able to See or Taste than a Stone it is enough for the eye to see well tho it is no more sensible of Noise then a Rock or a Tree The Office of the Tongue is to Tast well of the Nostril to smell well c. and there is no Defect in any of these because they are every one sufficient for its own immediate end and also tempered and united together that the rest are Supplies to make up the Defect of every single Sence and Organ and altogether perfectly subservient to the whole Man for whose sake they were prepared that he might enjoy the benefit of them all The eye sees for the Ear and the Tongue and all the rest of the Members of the Body the foot supports and carries the eye the hand defends and feeds the Eye the Ear instructs and Counsels the Eye the Nostrils smell for the eye and the Tongue tasts and talks for the Eye which the eye cannot do for it self because it was made to need the assistance of the rest the eye directs all these in Liew of their Services and is of far greater Value then if a man had no other Member but an eye alone For the Eye is the Light of all the members and Great in its Relation to the whole man It sees for the Ear and the Hand and for all and is to all these after some manner Beneficial but without these would be to no purpose There is an infinite Excellency in every Vertue but it is to be sought in its Relation to all the Rest. It is Good for nothing in its Place but for that Particular End to which it is assigned in attaining that end it is subservient to all other Vertues and while it serves all is aided by all The other Virtues remedie the inconveniences to which this doth expose us and being all joyned together earry us safely and securely to our Last end Because the Influence of every one passeth thorow all every single Vertue is Pleasing to God and a means in its place of our whole Felicity The Beauty of all the Vertues is to be sought in Prudence for there they meet in an intire Body their Correspondence and convenience their Symmetry and proportion their Unity and Variety their ful and perfect Harmony makes up the features of the Soul and compleats its Graces just as the Diversity of Members perfects the Body Knowledge gives Light to Love but Love gives Warmth and Feeling to Knowledge Love may perhaps like a Separate Soul dwell in Heaven alone and yet even then it must include all Knowledge and Righteousness and Wisdome and Holiness for if Love know not how to guide it self it will never attain its End nor be a perfect Vertue But here upon Earth t is like the Soul in the Body it must Eat and Drink and see and hear as a thousand Works to do and therefore standeth in need of many Vertues Love without Goodness is perhaps a Thing impossible because it always designs well But Love without Wisdome is a Common Thing for such is all that mistakes its End Love without Discretion is a mischievious Thing Love without Prudence an Helpless Thing Love without Courage a feeble and Cowardly Thing Love without Modesty an impudent and Troublesome Thing Love without the Fear of GOD is Lust and Wantonness and if the most Great and Glorious of all the Vertues stands in need of all its Companions The less and inferior must needs be lame and maimed without the residue especially without the Superior UPON this account it is that so much Care and Study goes to the making up of a Vertuous man All kind of Vertues must concur to Compleat his Perfection The Want of any one Denominates a Vice and makes him Vicious Nay the Want of any one destroys the form and Essence of the rest Vertue is not Vertue but in order to felicity If it hath lost its force it hath lost its Nature As a little Poyson turnes the best Meat from Nourishment into Poyson so doth one Vice cherished and allowed corrupt and viciate all the Vertues in the whole World Hence it is that the Phylosophers say all the Vertues are linked together in the golden Chain of Prudence And that a Thing is made Good by all its Causes Evil by the least Defect For as one Tooth wanting in a Clock makes all the other wheels and Materials Useless tho the frame be never so Elaberate and Curious so doth the abscence of the smallest Vertue make void and frustrate all the residue A man of a Kind and Bountiful Disposition that is loose and intemperate may ruine his Estate and dye like a Prodigal and vain-glorions fool A stout Couragious person that is proud and debauched will be little better then a Souldierly Russian and Live if not like a Thief for Want of Honesty yet like a Swaggering Hector for Want of Discreetion A Man endued with all Kind of Learnning may be Morose and Covetous and by one Vice lose all the Benefit of his Education A Religious Votary that is Splenetick and Revengeful brings a Disgrace upon his whole Profession But he that is Wise and Learned and Holy and Just and Temperate and Couragious and Kind and Liberal and Meek and Humble and Affable and Cheerful and Prudent and Industrious shall be serviceable and Honourable and delightful to others profitable to himself and alwayes Triumphant Especially if he be so discreet and Prudent as to make all these Vertues move like the Stars in their Courses and knows how to apply and manage their Excellencies in their due and proper places upon all occasions for they are so many different in nature that some of their Influences will hit every business and all of them together pass a Grace and Lustre upon each other so Divine and Heavenly that they will make their owner Venerable in the Eys of the World and correct the Malignity of the most injurious and Censorious Which moved our Saviour to exhort us to be Wise as Serpents Innocent as Doves to joyn many Vertues together And occasioned that of the Apostle He that will love Life and see good Days let him refrain his Tongue from Evil and his Lips that they speak no Guile let him eschew Evil and do Good let him seek Peace and
and sees the Face of GOD to turn away to any vanity from so Divine and Strong a Blessedness To Love GOD in the clear and perfect Light is a cheap and Easie Thing The Love that is shewed in a more weak Estate to an absent Object is more remiss perhaps and Black in appearance but far Deeper if in the Lovers Weakness and its Objects absence it be Faithful to the Death constantly Solicitous and Careful to please Laborious and Industrious Wakeful and Circumspect even and immutable and freely springing from its own Desire not out of bare pleasure but humble Obedience to the Laws of its Benefactor All the Courage which it shews in such Occasions is more full of Mystery and Divinity then is imaginable far more Moving and full of Vertue while it struggles with Impediment Disadvantages and Difficulties then if without any such Occasion of shewing its Vertue it did smoothly and Peaceably proceed in the Highest Rapture Add to that the mysteriousness of its Beauty in all the varieties of its Operation and the Different Sweetnesses that still appear in all its several Effects upon new occasions The very Representation of Love upon the stage in its Conflicts and Agonies produces another kind of sence in the Spectator then that of Embraces It is more Tender and endearing touches the Soul of its Beloved especially in a more Vigorous and lively manner it makes all fruitions afterward more precious by Fidelity Courage and Immoveable Perfection it maketh the Lover more Honourable and Effects far more Serious Alterations in the Soul solid Joys and tender Compassions moving and Bleeding Resentments all which End in satisfactions heightened with more Perfect Complacencies THUS you see Courage in the Root made more Glorious by a Persons Exposure and Abasement In the fruit and Exercise it is otherwise to be considered Where there is no Evil to be endured or no Strength to be resisted there can be no Courage or Vertue at all Where the conflict is more sharp the Victory is more pleasant and the success of the fight is far more Honourable Where a Giant is to fight with a Gnat or a Dwarf the Disproportion of his Strength takes away the Pleasure of its Trial and a Glory of the Combate There is no Room or occasion for its Exercise And tho it might without any Trial be known by him that sees all things in their hidden Essences yet without its Exercise it remaineth unexcrted is wholly vain especially when there is no occasion for it in Nature The Pleasure of the Spectacle springeth from its Operation TO see a Seraphim surmount one of our Difficulties in the midst of all his Strengths and Advantages is no more then to see a Giant destroy a Gnat or subdue a Grass hopper But in Man there is a certain Degree of strength that makes him a fit Match for the appointed Encounter In the Estate of Innocency indeed his Enemies and Difficulties were very few just as many as were needful for the trial of his Obedience Gratitude Fidelity All the Hardship he was to undergo was to cross his Appetite in an Apple and and tho he did not as yet see which way it was reserved for him to be so Couragious as to hope well so Grateful to GOD as to dare to confide in him rather let go the Knowledge he might gain by eating it than break his Commandement All other Duties were his Pleasure and Felicity here lay his Trial and his Obedience should have been crowned with infinite Reward All which would in some Measure have risen out of the Duty discharged by him For by this Resignation and Self-Denial he had manifested his Obedience and acquitted himself and shewed his Love and his Prelation of his Makers Pleasure above all other Concernes wherein he had been approved and Wise and Holy and well pleasing to GOD he would have put the Crown upon all Gods Works in accomplishing the End for which he was made and been very Delightful to all the Angels He had been crowned with Glory and Honour in all their Complacency If that were too little because he had then no enemy but his Appetite the Dimness of his Sight maketh up the Mystery If his Clarity was too Great and there was no Proportion between his Strength and the Temptation that proceeded of the Tenderness of GODS Love which feared to adventure him too far and had rather something of Honour should be endangered then his Soul lost or thrust upon the Hazzard of too great a Temptation When the Angels fell the Devil was let loose upon man for the increase of his Honour and Dominion Yet like a Dog in his Chain so far and no further He had but one Way and that was to perswade our first Parents to do what was forbidden Perswade he might and try his Skill to deceive but could not compell nor otherwise afflict or hurt him in the least He had not Power so much as to diminish the least Hair of his Head yet so Gracious was Almighty GOD that upon this Trial of his Prudence and Courage the Exercise of these Vertues had been infinitely pleasing to his Eternal Love because he infinitely delighted in the Welfare and Preservation of what was so precious to himself as a Soul is that is infinitely Beloved In that Complacency Adam had found little less then infinite Glory It did not become the tenderness of GODS Love to expose him to any Severer Trial. For there are certain Periods and fit Bounds Which he that passeth all his Work confouds But when Adam fell and brought more Hazzards and Difficulties on himself GOD might justly leave him to them for his greater Trial and more perfect Glory Now we are more blind and Weak by Nature yet infinitely Beloved and more Precious For the price of the Blood of the Eternal Son of GOD is laid upon the Soul as an Addition to its interior Value We are even in our corruption to Grapple with Sin and Hell and Death and Sickness and Poverty and Fear and all the Devils and Afflictions in the World nay which is worse then all with our own Errors Lusts and Passions more neer and Bitter Enemies A poor Clod of Earth is to overcome all the World to fight as the Apostle speaks with Principallities and Powers with the Rulers of the Darkness in this World with spiritnal Wickednesses in high places And to return laden with Victories and Trophies into the Kingdome of Heaven Nor is the Combat so unequal but that there is a mighty Hope and Assurance of triumphing tho Lucifer and all his Angels are to be trampled under fect For under the Disguise of this apparent Clod there lies concealed a mighty Great and Coelestial Personage a Divine and Glorious Creature Miraculous and Mâ—sterious even the Image of the Deity that can derive Strengths and Succours from all eternity and being aided by the Conduct of so great a Captain as our Lord Jesus Christ who has taught us by his
Enjoyment Amazed at its own Nothingness and Vileness yet ravished with wonder and the height of its Felicity For the lower it is in its own Eyes the more Great doth the Goodness of GOD appear and the more transcendently Sweet is its Adoration and Satisfaction By its Gratitude it sacrifices it self Eternally to the Deity and taketh more pleasure in his Glory than its own It is all Godliness and Contentment All these Vertues are exercised together in the state of Glory not so much by our own Temperance as by the Infusion of his most Heavenly Grace who fills us with his own Fulness and Perfection by way of Reward and causing us to enter into his Eternal Rest maketh us to cease from our own Works as he also did from his by inspiring us with his own Wisdom Life and Strength and actuating all our Powers by his own for ever That we by vertue of his Grace infused may live in the Image of his Eternal Moderation and attain that extremity of Bliss and Glory which he hath exceeding his Almighty Power by an exquisite and mysterious Temperance in all his Operations Divinely attained CHAP. XXIII Of Temperance in GOD. How the Moderation of Almighty Power guided in its Works by Wisdom perfecteth the Creation How it hath raised his own Glory and our Felicity beyond all that Simple Power could effect by its Infiniteness IF Moderation hath such happy effects in Men where the Strength is small the Wisdom little the Matter base the Occasion low as in divers Instances it is manifest it hath how glorious must this Vertue be where the Power is Almighty the Wisdom Infinite the Subject-Matter Perfect the End and the Occasion most Divine and Glorious IT would seem a strange Paradox to say That Almighty Power could not exist without Infinite Wisdom but it is infinitely true For the Wisdom and Power of GOD are one No Blind Power can be Almighty because it cannot do all that is Excellent That Power would without Wisdom be Blind is as evident as the Sun the want of that being as great an impediment to its Operations as the lack of Eyes is to a Man upon Earth which so Eclipseth and darkneth his Power that he cannot perform those excellent Works to which Light is necessary There is no Blind Power in GOD and therefore no Power distinct from his Understanding By his Wisdom he made the Heavens by his Understanding be established the Earth By his knowledge the Depths are broken up and the Clouds drop down the Dew Wisdom is the Tree of Life which beareth all the fruits of Immortality and Honour Inartificial Violence will never carry it There is a Mark to be hit and that is in every thing what is most fair and eligible It may be miss'd as much by shooting over it as by falling short of it Naked Power cannot tell what to propose as its Aim and Object Only that which is able to contrive is able to effect its Desire in the Work it conceiveth most fit and excellent for its Power to perform IT is a stranger Paradox yet That Power limited is Greater and more Effectual than Power let loose for this importeth that Power is more infinite when bounded than Power in its utmost liberty But that which solveth the Riddle and removeth the Inconvenience is our Assurance of this That GOD can do nothing but what is Wise and that his Wisdom therefore is all his Power And of this it followeth That nothing is possible with GOD but what is infinitely Excellent for to do any thing less than the Best is unwise and being so is contrary to the Nature of Wisdom which is his Power THE Will of GOD is his Wisdom By the meer Motion of his Will he Created all things and therefore it is his Power his Power and his Wisdom meet in his Will and are both the same By his Word he made the Worlds and his Eternal Word is his Eternal Wisdom ALL this I speak because it is the Office of Wisdom to propose the most excellent End and to pursue it by the most efficacious Means And because the Wisdom of GOD will be found one with his Eternal Moderation THE utmost End of all that is aimed at is indeed illimited It is the Best and Greatest Thing that infinite and Eternal Wisdom could conceive but being out of all measure High and Excellent it includeth innumerable Varieties that are shut up in bounds for their greater Perfection Whereupon it followeth that GOD hath attained a more excellent Effect than if he had made any one Thing singly infinite HIS Love being Infinite and Eternal in sacrificing it self in all its Works for its Objects welfare became an infinite and eternal Act Which was not contented unless in all its Works it added Art unto Power and exerted its Wisdom in all its Productions Had it made one Infinite some are of Opinion it had exceeded it self at least done all that was possible both for it self and for its Object and that one Infinite being so Created must be its only Object For more than Infinite what can be We are apt to think that nothing can be beside But to shew that GOD is infinitely more than what we conceive while we think him infinite and that we infinitely wrong him while we limit his Essence to one single Infinity Who is every way Infinite in Himself in all his Works in all his Waies in all his Counsels in every one of his Perfections He hath made every thing either Infinite or better than so For by variety of Effects he hath attained an End in the Beauty and Correspondence of all his Productions far more Amiable and Divine than any one Effect is capable of being All Things by a kind of Temperance are made and ordered in Number Weight and Measure so that they give and receive a Beauty and Perfection every thing to and from all the residue of inestimable value in relation to the Goodness and Love of their Creator I doubt not but GOD would his Wisdom have permitted such a thing could have made an infinite Object For whereever GOD is he is able to Act and his Omnipresence is infinite Wisdom and Power which filling Infinity is able to exert it self beyond all the bounds of Space in an infinite Manner all at once If it so do it cannot rest in a less Attainment than one that answers the measure of its Operation if it did that Attainment would be infinitely defective For infinite Wisdom could certainly conceive one infinitely Better But this I will aver that GOD hath wrought abundantly more than if he had made any one single Effect of his Power infinite He hath wrought a Work that pleaseth him infinitely Better and so will it please us when we are Wise as he is HAD he made any one single Infinite it must be either Corporeal or Spiritual Be it either there is room enough in his Understanding and Omnipresence to receive it Empty
Space is an infinite Object in his understanding But for the Glory of his Moderation it is evident that he hath attained a far greater and more perfect End HAD he made an Infinite Object of a Spiritual Nature it must be a Spirit endued with illimited Power to see his Omnipresence and Eternity And had he made no more but only this it is to be feared that the Spectator would be displeased for want of Objects in preparing which the Love of GOD should have glorified his Wisdom and Goodness for its fruition IF you say the Omnipresence and Eternity of GOD had been filled with that Creature it is evident that Spirits fill no Room though they see all things and that it had been much better if Objects had been prepared for its Enjoyment HAD he prepared any one Corporeal Object for the fruition of that Creature any Corporeal Object if infinite in Dimensions would be wholly useless nay pernicious and destructive for it would exclude all other Beings to which it might be serviceable out of place and have nothing whereto to be beneficial IF you say it would be Beneficial to GOD or to that Spectator or that Intelligible Power that Spirit for whom it was made It is apparent that no Corporeal Being can be serviceable to a Spirit but only by the Beauty of those Services it performeth to other Corporeals that are capable of receiving them and that therefore all Corporeals must be limited and bounded for each others sake And for this Cause it is that a Philosophical Poet said As in a Clock 't is hinder'd-Force doth bring The Wheels to order'd Motion by a spring Which order'd Motion guides a steddy Hand In useful sort at Figures just to stand Which were it not by Counter-ballance staid The Fabrick quickly would aside be laid As wholly useless So a Might too Great But well proportion'd makes the World compleat Power well-bounded is more Great in Might Than if let loose 't were wholly Infinite He could have made an endless Sea by this But then it had not been a Sea of Bliss A Sea that 's bounded in a finite shore Is better far because it is no more Should Waters endlesly exceed the skies They 'd drown the World and all whate're we prize Had the bright Sun been Infinite its Flame Had burnt the World and quite consum'd the same That Flame would yield no splendor to the Sight 'T would be but Darkness though 't were Infinite One Star made Infinite would all exclude An Farth made Infinite could ne're be view'd But all being bounded for each others sake He bounding all did all most useful make And which is best in Profit and Delight Though not in Bulk he made all Infinite He in his Wisdom did their use extend By all to all the World from End to End In all Things all Things service do to all And thus a Sand is Endless though most small And every Thing is truly Infinite In its Relation deep and exquisite THIS is the best way of accommodating things to the Service of each other for the fruition of all Spectators MODERATION is not so called from Limiting and Restraining but from Moderating and Ruling If Reason require that a Thing should be Great it is the part of Temperance to make it so Where Reason requires it is a point of Moderation to enlarge and extend Power Nay to stretch it out to the utmost of its Capacity if Wisdom order it is but equal To moderate Almighty Power is to limit or extend it as Reason requires Reason requires that it should be so limited and extended as most tends to the perfection of the Universe IF it be more Wise and more tends to the perfection of the Universe that Millions of intelligible Spirits should be Created and every one of them be made in finite in Understanding it shall be done If not Temperance forbears If Sands and Atoms tend more to the perfection of the World than Angels there where they do so Sands and Atoms shall be made and Angels there where they tend more to the perfection of the World So that every thing is best in its proper place Were there no Sands or Atoms there would be no Universe For the Earth the Sea the Skie the Air all Bodies consist of these either united or divided If they had been lest unmade and Angels had been created in their Places there had been no visible World at all TO make Visible Objects useful it was necessary to enshrine some Spirits in Corporeal Bodies and therefore to make such Creatures as Men that might see and feel and smell and taste and hear and eat and drink by their Bodies and enjoy all the Pleasures of the World by their Souls And by their Souls moreover know the Original and End of all understand the design of all and be able to celebrate the Praises of the Creator For by this means pure Essences abstracted from all Corporeity might enjoy the World while they delight in the glory of its Uses and especially in those compleat and amiable Creatures for whom it was prepared IT was expedient also to make their Bodies finite that they might converse together but their inward Intelligences of endless reach that they might see the holy Angels delight in them and by their Love be delightful to them that they might also be able to search into the depth of all Things and enjoy Eternity Nay that they might be fit Recipients for the infinite Bounty and Goodness of GOD which is infinite in its Communications THAT they should be subject to his Laws and depend upon him was necessary in like manner For by that distinction an infinite difference was between him and them that disparity being laid in the foundation though the benefits they receive are altogether infinite the distance is still the more infinite between them for the greater the Bounty is the deeper is the Obligation The Love and Service they owe is infinite and so is the Gratitude TO see all his Glory is to be able to admire it and to adore it with infinite amazement and joy which is to be compleatly just unto it and perfectly blessed There is but one thing more wherein Almighty Power was by Wisdom infinite to restrain it self for the perfection of his Kingdom And that is to create them free that were made to enjoy it Not to determine their Wills by a fatal Necessity but to make their esteem and fruition of GOD and his Works their duty and to leave them to themselves for the more free and voluntary discharge of their duty For by that means it would make them capable of Rewards and Punishments in the Righteous distribution of which the nature and the glory of a Righteous Kingdom consisteth THUS did GOD by infinite Moderation and by a sublime and transcendent Temperance prepare his Kingdom and make every Thing exquisite in his whole Dominion to the praise of his Glory and the satisfaction of his infinite
Kindness he is a solid and weighty Friend a rare Treasure and exceeding precious Neither my Errors nor Misfortunes are able to change him that loveth me purely because he will love me When his Excellency be found out he will more highly be esteemed not only by his Friend but by all that see him and note his Fidelity INJURIES well forgiven are the highest Obligations in the World especially if a man has been injured after many Benefits A Friend that will so oblige is more to be preferred than the Gold of Ophir MEEKNESS brings a man into respect with his Servants and into power with his Neighbours Anger resteth in the bosom of Fools but Meekness hath alwaies this advantage it is attended with Wisdom and other Vertues as Goodness and Courage A man that is prudent in Affairs and zealous of Good Works faithful in retaining Secrets and so full of Love that he is prone to do all manner of Good with industry and is couragious to expose himself to any Hazard for the benefit of his Neighbours shall keep his Servants in awe and yet be beloved of them He shall be able to do among his Neighbours what he pleaseth He shall when known well become the Father of all their Families they will entrust their Wives and Children in his hands as I have often experienced their Gold their Bonds their Souls their Affairs their Lives their Secrets Houses Liberties and Lands and be glad of such a Friend in whom to be safe and by whom to be assisted But though you have all the Vertues in the World the way to the use of them is blockt up without Meekness for your Neighbours are few of them Wise or Good and if you will be provoked by Injuries you will upon forty occasions so distaste them that they will never trust you You will look as like a Trifle a Knave or a Fool as one of them and be as very a Mad man He that will not do good but to deserving Persons shall find very few to do good to For he shall not be acquainted with Good men and from doing good to others he excludes himself But if all his other Vertues are beautified by Meekness such a man will be like an Angel and live above all his Neighbours as if he were in Heaven So that Meekness is his real exaltation And this made our Saviour to cull out that Blessing for the Meek The Meek shall inherit the Earth Even here upon Earth the Meek are they that are most blessed TO do good to an innocent Person is Humane but to be kind and bountiful to a man after he has been Injurious is Divine Philanthus gave Laws and Countries to the Parthenians and was disgraced and banished But he did them good after the Injury and was made their God as Justine recordeth THE very nature of the Work encourageth us to its exercise because it is GOD-like and truly Blessed But there are many other Considerations moving us unto it Mankind is sick the World distemper'd lies Opprest with Sins and Miseries Their Sins are Woes a long corrupted Train Of Poyson drawn from Adam's vein Stains all his Seod and all his Kin Are one Disease of Life within They all torment themselves The World's one Bedlam or a greater Cave Of Mad-men that do alwaies rave The Wise and Good like kind Physicians are That strive to heal them by their Care They physick and their Learning calmly use Although the Patient them abuse For since the Sickness is they find A sad Distemper of the Mind All railings they impute All Injuries unto the sore Disease They are expresly come to ease If we would to the Worlds distemper'd Mind Impute the Rage which there we find We might even in the midst of all our Foes Enjoy and feel a sweet Repose Might pity all the Griefs we see Anointing every Malady With precious Oyl and Balm And while our selves are Calm our Art improve To rescue them and shew our Love But let 's not fondly our own selves beguile If we Revile ' cause they Revile Our selves infected with their sore Disease Need others Helps to give us ease For we more Mad then they remain Need to be cut and need a Chain Far more than they Our Brain Is craz'd and if we put our Wit to theirs We may be justly made their Heirs But while with open eyes we clearly see The brightness of his Majesty While all the World by Sin to Satan sold In daily Wickedness grows old Men in Chains of Darkness lye In Bondage and Iniquity And pierce and grieve themselves The dismal Woes wherein they crawl enhance The Peace of our Inheritance We wonder to behold our selves so nigh To so much Sin and Misery And yet to see our selves so safe from harm What Amulet what hidden Charm Could fortifie and raise the Soul So far above them and controul Such fierce Malignity The brightness and the glory which we see Is made a greater Mystery And while we feel how much our GOD doth love The Peace of Sinners how much move And sue and thirst intreat lament and grieve For all the Crimes in which they live And seek and wait and call again And long to save them from the pain Of Sin from all their Woe With greater thirst as well as grief we try How to relieve their Misery The life and splendour of Felicity Whose floods so over flowing be The streams of Joy which round about his Throne Enrich and fill each Holy One Are so abundant that we can Spare all even all to any Man And have it all our selves Nay have the more We long to make them see The sweetness of Felicity While we contemplate their Distresses how Blind Wretches they in bondage bow And tear and wound themselves and vex and groan And chase and fret so near his Throne And know not what they ail but lye Tormented in their Misery Like Mad-men that are blind In works of darkness nigh such full Delight That they might find and see the sight What would we give that they might likewise see The Glory of his Majesty The joy and fulness of that high delight Whole Blessedness is infinite We would even cease to live to gain Them from their misery and pain And make them with us reign For they themselves would be our greatest Treasures When sav'd our own most Heavenly Pleasures O holy JESUS who didst for us die And on the Altar bleeding lie Bearing all Torment pain reproach and shame That we by vertue of the same Though enemies to GOD might be Redeem'd and set at liberty As thou didst us forgive So meekly let us Love to others shew And live in Heaven on Earth below Let 's prize their Souls and let them be our Gems Our Temples and our Diadems Our Brides our Friends our fellow-Members Eyes Hands Hearts and Souls our Victories And Spoils and Trophies our own Joyes Compar'd to Souls all else are Toyes O JESUS let them be Such unto us
Unbelief Enmity against GOD Fear and Cowardice Barrenness in good and praise-worthy Employments Weariness and Complaint hatred of Retirement Spiritual Idleness and Ignorance are its Companions followed by Debaucheries and all the sorts of vile and wicked Diversions For Man is an unwelcome Creature to himself till he can delight in his Condition and while he hates to be alone exposeth himself to all kind of Mischiefs and Temptations because he is an active Creature and must be doing something either Good or Evil TRUE Contentment is the full satisfaction of a Knowing Mind It is not a vain and empty Contentment which is falsely so called springing from some one particular little satisfaction that however Momentany it be does for the present delight our Humour but a long habit of solid Repose after much study and serious Consideration It is not the slavish and forced Contentment which the Philosophers among the Heathen did force upon themselves but a free and easie Mind attended with pleasure and naturally rising from ones present Condition It is not a morose and sullen Contempt of all that is Good That Negative Contentment which past of Old for so great a Vertue is not at all conducive to Felicity but is a real Vice for to be Content without cause is to sit down in our Imperfection and to seek all ones Blis in ones self alone is to scorn all other Objects even GOD himself and all the Creation It is a high piece of Pride and stiffness in a man that renders him good for nothing but makes him Arrogant and Presumptuous in the midst of his blindness his own slave and his own Idol a Tyrant over himself and yet his only Deity It makes a man to live without GOD in the World and cuts him off from the Universe It makes him incapable either of Obligation or Gratitude his own Prison and his own Tormâ—ntour It shuts up the Soul in a Grave and makes it to lead a living Death and robs it of all its Objects It mingles Nature and Vice in a confusion and makes a man fight against Appetite and Reason Certainly that Philosopher has a hard task that must fight against Reason and trample under foot the essence of his Soul to establish his Felicity Contentment is a sleepy thing If it in Death alone must die A quiet Mind is worse than Poverty Unless it from Enjoyment spring That 's Blessedness alone that makes a King Wherein the Joyes and Treasures are so great They all the powers of the Soul employ And fill it with a Work compleat While it doth all enjoy True Joyes alone Contentment do inspire Enrich Content and make our Courage higher Content alone 's a dead and silent Stone The real life of Bliss Is Glory reigning in a Throne Where all Enjoyment is The Soul of Man is so inclin'd to see Without his Treasures no mans Soul can be Nor rest content Uncrown'd Desire and Love Must in the height of all their Rapture move Where there is true Felicity Employment is the very life and ground Of Life it self whose pleasant Motion is The form of Bliss All Blessedness a life with Glory Crown'd Life Life is all in its most full extent Stretcht out to all things and with all Content The only reason why a Wise and Holy man is satisfied with Food and Rayment is because he sees himself made possessour of all Felicity the image of the Deity the great Object of his eternal Love and in another way far more Divine and perfect the Heir of the World and of all Eternity He knows very well that if his honour be so great as to live in Communion with GOD in the fruition of all his Joyes he may very well spare the foul and feeble Delights of men And though the Law be not so severe as to command him to be Content without Food and Rayment yet if for GOD's sake he should by the wickedness of Men be bereaved of both he may well be Patient nay and die with glory And this indeed is that which maketh Contentment so great a Vertue It hath a powerful influence upon us in all Estates to take off our Perplexity Sollicitude and Care and to adorn our lives with Liberty and Chearfulness by which we become acceptable and admirable to the Sons of Men. It makes us prone to be Kind and Liberal whereby we become Obliging and full of good Works For it delivers us from all servile Fear and gives us Courage and Confidence in GOD. For well may we dare to trust him in such little Matters who has manifested his Friendship and Bounty in such infinite good things and made it impossible for us to be Miserable if we are pleasing to him An intelligent and full Contentment elevates the Soul above all the World and makes it Angelical it instills a Divine and Heavenly Nature enflames the Soul with the love of GOD and moves it to delight in Devotion and Prayer The sweetness of his Thoughts and the beauty of his Object draws a Lover often into Solitudes And a Royal Man in a strange Country especially when he has heard tidings of his Fathers Death and the devolving of his Crown and Throne on himself desires to be alone that he may digest these Affairs in his Thoughts a little He delights in being retired because he can find nothing worthy of himself in Company Magnanimous Souls are above Garlands and Shepherds And there is no greatness of Soul like that which perfect Contentment inspires BUT that which above all other things makes me to note the Vertue of Contentment is its great influence efficacy and power in confirming our Faith For when I see the Beauty of Religion I know it to be true For such is its excellency that if you remove it out of the World all the things in Heaven and Earth will be to no purpose The business of Religion is the Love of GOD the Love of Angels and Men and the due esteem we owe to inferiour Creatures Remove this Love this Charity this Due Esteem this delight that we should take in all amiable Objects Life and Pleasure are extinguished I see Nature it self teaching me Religion And by the admirable Contexture of the Powers of my Soul and their fitness for all Objects and Ends by the incomparable Excellency of the Laws prescribed and the worthiness and Beauty of all the Objects for which my power are prepared see plainly that I am infinitely Beloved and that all the cross and disorderly things that are now upon Earth are meer Corruptions and depravations of Nature which free Agents have let in upon themselves All which since they are reducible to the Government of Reason and may be Wisdom be improved to my higher happiness I am sure I am redeemed and that there is some eternal Power that governs the World with so much Goodness for my felicity since I my self was not able to do it That all Ages are beautified by his Wisdom for my
the welfare of his Subjects were there nothing else in the Duty but that consideration is an infinite encouragement He that receiveth you receiveth me is such an obligation that as it is all Goodness in it self so is it all Motive unto us Eternity will scarce be sufficient to fathom its depth Do we feed GOD himself in feeding the Poor and his eternal Son Jesus Christ Are these Needy persons the Representatives of the GODHEAD in whom we are to shew all our affection love and gratitude to the fountain of all Life and Happiness How infinite ought our Liberality to be when we consider the excellency of our Bliss and Benefactour Are they beloved are they all his Sons the very express image of himself all disguised and concealed Kings all Temples of eternal Glory What measure can confine or shut up our bowels Are the Spectators so innumerable so divine so blessed so nearly allyed to our selves so rich and great and beautiful are they so deeply concerned in the welfare of others and does every act of Charity extend to all shall we appear in the very act it self eternally before them What a vast ambition of pleasing all these glorious Persons should be exprest in every operation of the Soul As every Thought is seen throughout all eternity and every Word that is spoken here on Earth heard in the utmost extents of immensity so is there a kind of Omnipresent greatness in the smallest action for it is vertually extended through all the omnipresence of Almighty GOD even as every Centre wherein it can be done is eternally near nay and within him in the remotest part of his omnipresence 'T is dilated in a moment and fills the immensity of GOD with its nature According to its kind it affecteth all his Essence in all spaces whatsoever YET is there a Rule for the bounding of all external acts of Charity and another for improving it Intelligence is the light wherein Alms-deeds ought to shine and attain their glory Love is the soul of Compassion and Zeal the fervour of Perfection without which though a man bestow all his Goods to feed the Poor and give his Body to be burned it profiteth nothing Where this great abyss of goodness is Prudence may dispence it as it seeth occasion All other Vertues attending upon it it is impossible to destroy it self here on earth unless the case be so urgent that it is better die than to live in the World For a good man sheweth favour and lendeth but it is added He will guide his affairs with discretion The first Rule is to secure the life and growth of the tree by causing it so to bear one year that it may bring forth fruit another It is no good husbandry to cut it down nor any charity to make it wither and expire And on this very account a Charitable man must preserve himself that he may do more good by continuing longer able to do it HE that will examine the proportions and measures of his Liberality may take this Rule for the second Let thy Superfluities give place to other mens Conveniencies thy Conveniencies to their Necessities thy Necessities to their Extremities A third Rule is this Our Riches must be expended according to the several Circumstances and occasions of our lives A Liberal man will not pinch and starve his Servants For it is contrary to the nature of Bounty to oppress any to hurt any to trample upon any He will be good to all and to those most that are near unto him GOD hateth robbery for burnt Offering or that Strangers should eat the Childrens meat or that Beggars or Riotous persons should devour the right of a mans Servants He that does brave acts abroad but is a Niggard within doors has a glorious train spread abroad like a Peacock but stands upon black feet and may bear that unlucky bird for his Crest which is the emblem of Pride and Vain-glory. So is it with young Prodigals that oppress poor Tradesmen by defrauding them of their Debts yet are lavish enough to the Poor and Needy This is a defect with which Goodness is inconsistent and it blasteth their Charity It is better take off 100 pound a year from ones benevolence to the poor than wrong a Servant or Creditour of a shilling The Rule therefore is this First secure the works of Necessity have food and rayment for thy self keep out of debt Next render to every man his due in point of Justice and employ no man thou canst not pay rather perish thy self than oppress another If thou art able and hast any thing to spare then let the miseries of the Needy be supplied in the works of Compassion and Charity but let not all be swallowed up here thy Neighbours and Acquaintance and Friends and Kindred claim a share and thou must secure something for the works of Courtesie and Hospitality So order all both in thy Estate and Life that the kindness of GOD may shine in all So doing thy Stewardship shall be acceptable to the whole World and thy Memory blessed among men and Angels Our Saviour when he wrought his Miracles as he opened the eyes of the blind healed the sick cast out Devils raised the dead gave food to the hungry tongues to the dumb ears to the deaf and legs to the lame so did he give advice to the ignorant and interpret all his design by those Parables and Sermons which attended his Cures Good Counsel is oftentimes a greater gift than a Trunk of Mony While the Iron is hot it is time to strike Good Counsel is like a bitter Pill that must be gilded with Liberality If the Word of GOD be like good seed the heart in which it is sown is softened by Sorrow and ploughed up by affliction and prepared to receive it by the husbandry of Providence And the properest Season that can be chosen for Instruction is the time of Obliging He that intendeth the welfare of the Soul by all the good works he doth to the Body is deep and perfect in Charity A wise man will improve his advantages and enrich his Gifts with pious discourses A Benefactour has authority to talk what he listeth and bribes his Auditor to patience by his Bounty Since He that winneth Souls is wise a profound Liberality will not let slip a golden Opportunity nor suffer his Gift to be dark and insignificant He will make mention of the glory of GOD and the Love of Christ the guilt of Sin the danger of Hell and the hope of Heaven and alwaies endeavour to make his Love apparent to that GOD for whose sake he pities the Poor and is kind towards all For as much as man hath two parts and his Body is without the Soul but a putrid Carkass he will put life into his Mony and inspire his Munificence with all his Reasons that his Bounty may consist of two parts in like manner and have a Soul for its Interpreter Liberality to the Soul is
where and the more here for being in other places and infinitely here because he is Omnipresent So does he wholly see and intend every one as if him alone and love him far the more by loving every one for his Love being infinite it is expressed towards him in all the parts of his Kingdom and the more rich and glorious he maketh all things the more great and happy he maketh Him according to the immeasurable All-sufficiency of his infinite Wisdom THERE is in the Goodness of GOD an infinite Greatness that makes it Magnificent for he gives Himself When a Queen gives her self whether it be to a Beggar or to one of her Courtiers or to another King if it proceed from an ardent Love the Gift is full of sweetness within but it is alwaies attended with great Magnificence without together with her self she gives him her Palace her Exchequer Gardens of Pleasure her Crown and Throne her Soveraignty her Nobles Attendants and all her Kingdom GOD doth infinitely more He gives himself by Loving and with himself gives us all his Wisdom Goodness and Power by making them full objects of Complacency by doing with them for us all that we could devise or desire or effect with them had they been our own and seated in our selves His bounty in giving himself is attended with infinite advantages innumerable wonders of love and goodness a care to make himself as a Bridegroom does exceeding amiable and glorious a care to purifie and fit his Queen for himself with all kind of greatness and beauty a care to adorn his Palace with all kind of delectable things Riches Pleasures magnificent Furnitures Perfumes Musicians Pictures Jewels Dainties Feasts Attendants Nobles c. In all which he infinitely exceedeth all the Monarchs of the World His Kingdom is celebrated by David with great Exultation Psal. 145. NOW if we would be Magnificent as GOD is we must have a love within our Souls that is willing to impart all these incomprehensible Treasures and Glories to every Soul and to all his Hosts and if it be possible to out-do all this to give all these Worlds nay GOD himself and every Soul to all with greater ardour and joy and gratitude Angels and Men our selves to all and all to every one For that Love which is the fountain of all is greater than all a greater Gift and a greater Treasure And that love which imitates the first is in its place the only desirable and excellent thing that is possible GODS love in its place is infinitely better then all Removing it you shake and abolish all But in such a Creature he desires to be beloved He made him free that he might be capable of Loving for it is impossible to love by constraint or necessity and having made him free and left him to himself infinitely desires to be beloved of him All his own love unto him and all the glories of Heaven and Earth which are prepared for him are means for the obtaining of that end Obligations Motives Allurements Incentives of that Love which GOD desires If he will not return Love all are imbittered and made distastful Infinite Love infinitely desires to be beloved and is infinitely displeased if it be neglected GOD desires to take Complacency in all to see the beauty of his Bride and the accomplishment of his design in the Love of his Beloved And nothing in all Worlds but the love of that Person can be his satisfaction For nothing can supply the absence or denial of that Love which is his end For in its place it is the only needful and proper thing far more desired than all that went before All that went before was but the Means this is the thing designed and endeavoured by them For upon this Return all the sweetness of the rest dependeth All is made sweet and compleat and delightful if this Soul doth love GOD in all these things if not they are all made vain and his love is turned into sour displeasure All the other things are so far from alleviating that they increase his displeasure the glory and abundance of them is so far from making him to despise this Love that in respect of these things he the more desires it because he would not have his labour vain and his own infinite Love makes him more to esteem the love of this Creature which is in its place his Soveraign object and for that very cause so beloved and admired by all Angels and Men. Is not then the Love which a man returneth a Magnificent thing Certainly if it answers all these preparations and obligations as their end and be lookt upon as that without which all the Creation is vain and frustrate it is the most great and marvellous thing in all the World and is in its own place of all other things most highly desired by all Angels and Men and is the greatest Gift which in and by that Soul can possibly be given It is esteem of honour paid to and delight in all these great and most glorious things It contains in it self a desire to see GOD pleased with more than the fruition of all Worlds and of becoming it self the greatest Treasure to his eternal essence of all that is possible And if this desire be not satisfied all the grandeurs of his eternal Kingdom are to no purpose But the desire satisfied is a Tree of Life What the Sun is to the Eye that is Love to the Desire GODS infinite desire of our Love makes it infinitely delightful to him Davids purpose to build the Temple was more accepted than Solomons performance And if one Contrite groan be better than all Sacrifices to love GOD with all the Soul and Understanding is better than to give him all Worlds We sacrifice all by Loving him as we ought We see the Beauty and Glory of all and offer it all up to him with infinite Desire our selves also with infinite Gratitude Could we make millions of Worlds infinitely greater and more perfect than this they should all be his No delight no joy no pleasure can be greater to us than to see him reigning He gives all to us that we might give it all to him In our Affection and with our Love it is most delightful Our Affections are the flames and perfumes that enrich the Sacrifice He is a Spirit to be served in a Spiritual manner all that we would do we do Infinite desires and intentions of Pleasing him are real objects to his Eye The Goodness of the Soul and the Greatness of his Goodness consisteth in them A Will enlarged with an infinite Fancy is a prodigious depth of goodness when it is all Love It would do millions of things for its Object But GOD is incapable of more Worlds and all that are possible he can make himself our Magnificence must be shewn in something he cannot do unless he were in our Circumstance and which of all things in the World he knows most fit to be
done were he in our places He cannot be the Soul of any of his Creatures but would be the Soul of that Soul the joy and delight of that Soul the life and glory of that Soul and that he cannot be unless that Soul will delight in him and love and honour him It is not he must honour himself but that Soul His desire is that that Soul would freely turn and delight in him freely of its own accord would incline it self to consider his Excellencies and dedicate it self to love and honour him This is one way for the Soul to be Magnificent towards Men too who by Nature delight to see GOD beloved and satisfied in a point of such infinite importance IT is true indeed that GOD can be full of Indignation and punish but for love to turn into anger is no compensation for the pleasure it lost by our miscarriage and to punish is a strange and troublesome work in which Love is extinguished or else afflicted Infinite Love puts an infinite value on the Gift And I think it is Magnificence to give a Gift of infinite value OUR Magnificence towards Men must be laid on a deep and eternal foundation We must be willing to give our selves to their comfort and satisfaction And that we cannot do but by imitating GOD in all his Goodness studying their felicity and desiring their love with the same earnestness to the utmost of our power doing in all places in all things in all Worlds the things they desire supposing them to be what they ought to be like Gods themselves THE best Principle whereby a man can stear his course in this World is that which being well prosecuted will make his Life at once honourable and happy Which is to love every man in the whole World as GOD doth For this will make a man the Image of GOD and fill him with the mind and spirit of Christ it will make every man that is the Representative of GOD and of all the World unto him It will make a man to reverence GOD in all Mankind and lift him up above all Temptations Discouragements and Fears It will make him to meet the love of GOD Angels and Men in every Person It will make a man truly glorious by making him pleasing to GOD and universally good to every one diffusive like the Sun to give himself to all and wise to enjoy their compleat Felicity If there were but one the Case is evident supposing more than one his duty is to love every one the more for all their sakes For since he must love all and they are all to love one and every one he must please them all by gratifying their love to one and by doing so to every one they are all concerned in the welfare of one and pleased in the love that is born to every one This in the state of Glory will be clear where every one like the Sun shall be clearly seen extending his love to all though here upon Earth where our estate is imperfect by reason of the imperfection of our Knowledge it doth not appear Our actions are limited for being finite in our outward demeanour they must needs be regulated by Justice and Wisdom But two things come in here to the assistance of Magnificence whereof the first is the inferiour perfection of our Love to all the second is the universal Satisfaction which the beauty of our outward life will afford at last Concerning the last two things are fit to be considered First that as GOD has communicated the Sun by making it visible to all and there is not a Star but is seen by all Nations and Kingdoms so has he communicated the Soul by making it visible to all and there is not a Thought that shall remain uncovered nor an action but it shall be seen by all for ever Secondly that as GOD himself is admired for his Inward Love so is he for the operations of his Outward Life I mean for his Works and Judgments When they saw his Works finished The Morning Stars sang together and all the Sons of GOD shouted for joy The Elders are represented before his Throne casting down their Crowns and saying Thou art worthy O Lord to receive Glory and Honour and Power for thou hast created all these things and for thy pleasure they are and were created Where the perfection of GODS Pleasure in the GLORY of the Creation is evidently discovered to be one of the Joyes of Heaven a great matter of their Contemplation an eternal cause of their Praises His infinite and eternal Love is that by which he is All Glorious within all the sweetness of his Essence and all the perfection of the Soul is there but yet his Saints in the Church Triumphant sing the Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb saying Great and Marvellous are thy WORKS Lord GOD Almighty Just and True are thy WAYES thou King of Saints His Works are the substantial Creatures in Heaven and in Earth his Waies are his proceedings and dispensations among them in all ages For all shall appear together for ever the one being Great and Marvellous the other beautified with Truth and Justice So that neither of these doth swallow up the other but both are distinct and perfect Our Love may be infinite on the Inside and yet our Life be diversified with many limited and particular actions Now if our Life be like GODS eternally to be seen and our Actions in passing pass not away but in the sphere of our life abide for ever our Life all at once is a mysterious Object interwoven with many Thoughts Occurrences and Transactions and if it be to be presented to GOD like a Ring or a Garland we had need to be very choice in the mixture of our Flowers and very curious in the Enammel of so rare a Token Perhaps it is his Crown nay our own His and our Royal Diadem It shall shine like a glory about our Souls for ever That there should be any dirt or blemish in it is inconsistent with our Felicity but it is a Magnificent Present if it be enchased with Jewels well chosen and curiously set I mean with the most pure and fit elections the most Wise and Just and excellent Actions the most bright and clear Apprehensions the most divine and ardent Affections The last are like Gold the ground work of the Crown but the work it self is a mixture of elaborate Distinctions that sparkle in their lustre like Gems of several cuts and colours An imperial Crown is a Magnificent Present from a King to a King But a Life like GODS in a sphere for which Time was lent that it might be well wrought and presented before him when made perfect as far surpasseth the most glorious Crown that did ever sit upon Monarchs brows as that can be supposed to excel a dull Clod of Earth or a piece of Rusty Iron There all Obligations and Laws and Duties and Occasions are
in the Communication than we did in the Reception This is the foundation of real Gratitude and the bottom of all that Goodness which is seated in the bent and inclination of Nature It is a Principle so strong that Fire does not burn with more certain violence than Nature study to use all when it hath gotten it and to improve its Treasures to the acquisition of its Glory THE Holiness of all the work consists in the Fervour wherewith it is done and if our Love shall in Heaven answer all its Causes it will be equal to all its Obligations and Rewards and as infinite in a manner as the excellencies of its objects the very love of GOD towards all things will be in it our Love shall be in all his and his in ours And if we love GOD Angels and Men all Vertue Grace and Felicity as they deserve we shall so delight in excellent actions and in appearing amiable and glorious before them that we would not for all Worlds miscarry in a tittle And therefore every defect even after pardon will be an infinite disaster as well as blemish This is one effect of Gratitude in Nature And if it were not for the Satisfaction of Jesus Christ and the efficacy of Faith and Repentance in his Blood the least Sinner in all Nature would be eternally miserable notwithstanding the advantages of Christs blood It is the desire of the Soul to be spotless in it self And if it be so prophane as to build upon these advantages without taking care to be as excellent as it is able it is the most ungrateful Creature in the World and is too base and dirty to appear in Glory TO talk of overflowing in the disbursments and effusions of Love and Goodness till our emptiness and capacity be full within is as impertinent and unseasonable as to advise a Beggar to give away a Kingdom or a dead man to breath or one that is starving to give Wine and Banquets to the Poor and Needy But when a man is full of blessedness and glory nothing is so easie as to overflow unto others to forbid or hinder him is to stifle and destroy him Breath with the same necessity must be let out as it is taken in A man dies as certainly by the confinement as the want of it To shut it up and deny it are in effect the same When a man hath the glory of all Worlds he is willing to impart the delights wherewith he is surrounded to give away himself to some amiable Object to beautifie his Life and dedicate it to the use and enjoyment of Spectators and to put life into all his Treasures by their Communication To love and admire and adore and praise in such a case are not only pleasant but natural and free and inevitable operations It is then his supream and only joy to be amiable and delightful For the actions of Love and Honour belong in a peculiar manner to a plentiful estate Wants and Necessities when they pinch and grind us in a low condition disturb all those easie and delicate Resentments which find their element in the midst of Pleasures and Superfluities Hence it is that high-born Souls in Courts and Palaces are addicted more to sweet and honourable excesses than Clowns and Peasants The one spend their life in Toil and Labour the other in Caresses and soft Embraces Amities and Bounties Obligations and Respects Complements and Visits are the life of Nobles Industry and Care is that of the meaner People Honours and Adorations are fit for the Temple not for the Market Soft and tender Affections are more in the Court than in the Shop or Barn There is some difference in this respect even between the City and Country But Heaven is the Metropolis of all Perfection GOD is a mighty King and all his Subjects are his Peers and Nobles Their life is more sublime and pleasant and free because more blessed and glorious Their very Palaces and Treasures are infinite Incentives to the works of honour and delight and they cannot rest either day or night but continually cry Holy Holy Holy Lord GOD of Hosts Heaven and Earth are full of the Majesty of thy Glory Their Beauties and Perfections enflame one another Their very Joyes inspire them with eternal Love and as all Care and Labour are removed so are all delights and extasies established Ravishments and Caresses Adorations and Complacencies all the force and violence of Love Charms Allurements high Satisfactions all the delicacies and riches of sweet Affection Honours and Beauties are their Conversation Towards GOD towards themselves towards each other they are all Harmony and Joy and Peace and Love they flie upon Angels wings and trample upon Spices Aromatick Odeurs and Flowers are under feet the very ground upon which they stand is beset with Jewels Such you know were the foundations of the Walls of the New Jerusalem and the pavement of the Street was beaten Gold GOD and the Lamb were the Light and the Temple of it THAT we are to Enjoy all Angels and Men by communicating our selves unto them is a little mysterious but may more easily be understood than a thing so obscure as The Enjoyment of GOD by way of Gratitude That we are to love GOD more than our selves is apparently sure at least we ought to do it but whether it be possible is a question of importance That we gain infinitely by his Love is certain but that we gain more by our own is prodigiouslâ— It is our duty to love him more than our selves but whether it be our Nature or no is doubtful It is impossible to ascend at the first step to the top of the Ladder Even Jacobs Ladder will not bring us to Heaven unless we begin at the bottom Self-love is the first round and they that remove it had as good take away all For he that has no love for himself can never be obliged He that cannot be obliged cannot delight in GOD He that cannot delight in him cannot enjoy him He that cannot enjoy him cannot love him He that cannot love him cannot take pleasure in him nor be Grateful to him Self-love is so far from being the impediment that it is the cause of our Gratitude and the only principle that gives us power to do what we ought For the more we love our selves the more we love those that are our Benefactors It is a great mistake in that arrogant Leviathan so far to imprison our love to our selves as to make it inconsistent with Charity towards others It is easie to manifest that it is impossible to love our selves without loving other things Nature is crippled or if it has her feet has her head cut off if Self-preservation be made her only concern We desire to live that we may do something else without doing which life would be a burden There are other principles of Ambition Appetite and Avarice in the Soul And there are Honours and Pleasures and Riches
which is taken in the communication of our Bounties And in this there is founded a certain sympathy of Delight which carries us to feel and be affected with anothers Joy and makes it an Object and a Caufe of ours nay almost the very Form aud Essence of ours when we are the Authors of it A Grateful Soul holds Intelligence with GOD as it receives his Bounties it delights in his Complacencies THE great effect of Obligation and Gratitude is Amity and Communion A Grateful Soul is deeply concerned in the Honour of his Benefactor in his Benefactors Pleasure Life and Safety in all his Successes Prosperities Advancements in all his Felicity and Glory He is afflicted in all his Afflictions he is delighted in all his Enjoyments he is crowned in all his Promotions he is wronged and injured in all his Affronts he is touched with the least Displeasure that can befal him Nay he is more tender of his Benefactors Repose than his own The apple of his Eye is the tenderest part in himself yet he had rather have it touched than the Person of his Benefactor No wounds can wound him more than those which his Benefactor receiveth and he in him His own wounds may kill his Body but these destroy his Contentment A thousand Injuries and Calumnics against himself he can forgive and is never provoked but when his Friend is offended He slights himself and prefers his Benefactor He would make his Face a Stepping stone to his Benefactors Glory He exposes his body to Swords and Spears and Arrows for his Benefactors safety He would rather be torn to pieces and suffer a thousand Deaths than permit his Benefactor to be slain or dishonoured Now all this in time of Trial and distress would seem disadvantagious But besides the Obligation there is Sence of Honour that compâ—â—â— a man thereunto and a certain beauty in the act of Gratitude distinct from the goodness of the Benefit that is so naturally sweet to the goodness of the Soul that it is better to die than renounce it And a certain Baseness on the other side an odiousoess in Ingratitude in the very act so abominable that it blasts any Safety and Repose that can be gotten by it WHERE the Benefits are small the Vertue of Gratitude is less powerful and perfect for its strength depends upon its food and nourishment A thin and spare diet is not very healthful for it Though all the benefits that are done upon the Earth by Men to Men are infinitely mean if compared to those which the Godhead does to the least of his Creatures yet the World is full of the praise of this Vertue and an Ingrateful man is the most hateful Object living Former Ages afford us many rare and glorious Examples of the power of Gratitude and its sacred Zeal for and tenderness of its Object The union between the Body and the Soul is nothing comparable to the union of Love and its Beloved though the Causes are but slight upon which it is founded The Soul will often forsake its mansion to dwell with its beloved It esteems all its beauties and Members only for its Beloloveds sake Yet Colours and Features a little red and white a sparkling Eye a brisk Conversation and a delectable Humor are all that breed it all that produce this mighty effect this prodigy of Nature There is something more where the Life and Honour of a man has been saved by the kindness of a Benefactor especially if he be rich and amiable that has delivered us If he be great and honourable that was the Author of the benefit the obligation is the greater For the Worth of the Person enters into the nature of the act and enhances its value Yet all this put together is exceeded by the Gratitude of a worthy Soul because his own Worth inclines him to be more Generous than the Cause requires and to magnifie the benefit by the mighty addition of his own goodness It is the natural property of Goodness to communicate it self any occasion of doing it is instead of a Cause But when there is a Cause it is like a spark to Powder it enkindles a flame in his Inclination All acts of Gratitude have a great deal of sweetness in their own nature and for the sake of that beauty which is seated in themselves will not be rigorous and exact in their proportions since it is a beautiful thing to exceed in Goodness It s own disposition prompts it to do more than is deserved by the Kindness it receives and if not to conceive it self more obliged than it is yet to be more honourable in its Returns than the meer goodness of its Benefactor can exact because it conceives it self by its own Vertue obliged to be Noble and Munificent in all its acknowledgments BUT however slow Gratitude may be in the Returns which it maketh for smaller benefits it is infinitely prone to exceed all measure when it is infinitely obliged Praises are not fed by mean Contentments but by sublime ones The acknowledgment is cool where the benefits are small and the Contentments imperfect where they are limited and restrained Full Satisfaction hath another kind of influence on the Soul of Man than single Kindnesses or some few particular Supplies An infinite Bliss produces more vigorous and joyful efforts than bare Acknowledgments Here upon Earth there are disquiets and destres and expectations and Complaints and defects and imperfections fears and interests to be still secured that lame and darken our Contentment and Gratitude But in Heaven all these admixtures of alloy are remov'd The glory of the light in which our Gratitude appeareth adds lustre and beauty to the increase of its Perfection In the utmost height of our Satisfaction there is such an infinite and eternal force that our Gratitude breaks out in exulting and triumphing Effusions all our Capacities Inclinations and Desires being fully satisfied we have nothing else to do but to Love and be Grateful An infinite and eternal Kingdom given to him that was taken out of Nothing by a King that is infinite in greatness and beauty all his Joyes and all his Treasures it makes the Soul a fountain of Delights whole nature is to receive no more but overflow for ever When the Soul cometh once to love GOD so infinitely above it self as the cause requireth its only delight is to magnifie him and to see him blessed The beauty and sweetness of its own Gratitude is as rich and divine as all his Gifts It is tempted here infinitely more to exceed its Causes than ever before Amazements Admirations Affections Praises Hallelujahs Raptures Extasies and Blessings are all its delights The pleasure of Loving is its only business it is turned all into flame and brightness and transportation and excess It infinitely passes Light and Fire in quickness and motion all Impediments are devoured and GOD alone is its Life and Glory The more Great the more high the more excellent he is the more
of Love that is unacquainted with these high and mighty bounties No man can return more Blessings than he receiveth nor can his Praises exceed the number and greatness of his Joyes A House is too little a Kingdom is too narrow for a Soul to move in The World is a confinement to the power that is able to see Eternity and conceive the Immensity of Almighty GOD He that can look into infinite Spaces must see them all full of delights or be infinitely displeased How like an Angel doth he soar aloft how divine is his life how glorious and heavenly that doth converse with infinite and eternal Wisdom intermeddle with all the delights of GOD assume the similitude of his knowledge and goodness make all his Works his Riches his Laws his Delights his Counsels his Contemplations his Wayes his Joyes and his Attributes his Perfections He that appropriates all the World and makes it his own peculiar is like unto GOD meet to be his Son and fit to live in Communion with him The Kingdom of GOD is made visible to him to whom all Kingdoms are so many Mansions of Joy and all Ages but the streets of his own City The man that sees all Angels and Men his Fellow-members and the whole Family of GOD in Heaven and Earth his own Domesticks is fit for Heaven As he hath more encouragements to believe in GOD and to delight in him so hath he more concerns to engage his fear more allurements to provoke his desire more incentives to enflame his love and more obligations to compel his obedience More arguments to strengthen his Hope more materials to feed his Praises more Causes to make him Humble more fuel for Charity to others more grounds of Contentment in himself more helps to inspire him with Fortitude more rewards to quicken his Industry more engagements to Circumspection and Prudence more ballast to make him Stable more lights to assist his Knowledge more sails to forward his Motion more employments in which to spend his Time more attractives to Meditation and more entertainments to enrich his Solitude He hath more aids to confirm his Patience more avocations from Injuries to Meekness more wings to carry him above the World and more Gates to let him into Heaven He hath more With-holders to keep him from Sin more aggravations to increase his Guilt more odious deformities in every Vice more waters to augment his Tears more motives to Repentance and more Consolations upon his Reconciliation More hopes to relieve his Prayer more bounds to secure his Prosperity more comforts in Adversity and more Hallelujah's in all Estates More delights to entertain his Friends more sweetness in his Conversation more arts to conquer his Enemies more Feasts in abstemious Fasts more and better sawce than other at his Feasts innumerable Companions night and day in Health in Sickness in Death in Prison at his Table in his Bed in his Grove in his Garden in the City in the Field in his Journy in his Walk at all times and in all places He hath more antidotes against Temptation more weapons in his Spiritual Warfare more balsom for his Wounds and more preservatives against the contagion of Worldly Customs From this Spring of Universal Fruition all the streams of Living Waters flow that refresh the Soul Upon this Hing all a mans Interests turn and in this Centre all his Spiritual Occasions meet It is the great Mystery of Blessedness and Glory the Sphere of all Wisdom Holiness and Piety the great and ineffable Circumstance of all Grace and Vertue the Magazine and Store-house of all Perfection An APPENDIX Of Enmity and Triumph Of Schism and Heresie Fidelity Devotion Godliness Wherein is declared how Gratitude and Felicity inspire and perfect all the Vertues I Should here have ended all my discourse on Vertue had it not been necessary to speak something of our Enemies Since there was never any man so Wise but he had some it is not to be expected that the most Vertuous Man living should be altogether without them Moses and David and Elijah and Daniel had Enemies so had our Lord Jesus Christ himself Joseph had some in his younger daies and Solomon some in his Old age Of all the Prophets I find Samuel the most clear and exempted from them But this I observe that Men of great and transcendent Principles of staid and well-govern'd Passions of meek and condescending Behaviours highly kind and serviceable in their Age free from the spots and blemishes of the World have frequently arrived to an universal Applause and Honour and moved in a sphere so high above the Nation in which they lived that as if they had been Creatures of another World they have enjoyed a Veneration above their Degree and been surrounded with a repose that makes them look like Angels in a kind of Heaven that that Heaven which they enjoyed upon Earth was the Work and the Reward and the Crown of Vertue Thus Moses after his long Meekness and invincible Fidelity to the Jewish Nation was in the close of his life most exceedingly honour'd by all the People and lamented after his death by a million of Persons that felt the disastre of so great a loss Joseph suffered much by the Envy of his Brethren in the beginning and the Lust and Slander of his Mistress But after he had once been the Saviour of the Land of Egypt and of his Fathers Family his Vertue being known he enjoyed a long life of Glory and Honour and of the abundance of his own peace and tranquility communicated a repose and prosperity to his Nation Joshua did run the hazard of being stoned for crossing the perverse humour of the Jews when he returned from searching the Land of Canaan but from Moses's death throughout all his life afterwards was an absolute Prince among his own People and a glorious Victor over all their Enemies Samuel was from his Infancy chosen of GOD and from Dan even to Beersheba they knew he was established to be a Prophet of the Lord. The honour of his Communion with Heaven joyned with his great Integrity and Gravity on Earth gave him a Reputation that made him Greater than all the Elders in the Land And it is very apparent that the eminent Holiness and Goodness and great Wisdom of these Men made them to prevail with GODS blessing on their Vertues and to reign like Benefactors and magnificent Patriots of their Country Solomon was by his Wisdom exceeding glorious till he revolted from GOD and those Mischiefs which befel David after he came to the Throne did spring from his Fall in the matter of Urias These things I note to encourage Men to Vertue For though our Lord Jesus Christ and his Apostles were persecuted to the Death yet two things are very considerable First that their Glory surmounted the Rage of all their Enemies and continues immortally shining throughout all Kingdoms and Ages Next That they were born to troublesome Times and were to break
the Ice for all their Followers For their business was extraordinary to change the state and condition of Kingdoms to alter the publick Rites of Religion both among Jews and Gentiles and therein to shake and dissetile the Secular Interests of Millions as well as to touch and offend the Conscience in defaming that for which so many Ages had so great a Veneration This created all the difficulty in their Lives But where the publick Rites of Religion are approved and a Man is born in peaceable and quiet Times I do not see but the most Vertuous Men inherit all the Honour and Esteem of the People and whatever estate and degree they are of reign in the fullest and freest Prosperity Nor has the Death of Christ of little prevailed upon Earth but that all the World does now take notice of the Glory of his Doctrine and far better understand the excellency of Vertue than they did before They feel and admire its influences Insomuch that as fome Vertuous Men grow contemptible by their Vices so do the most debanched and vicious Men find a Necessity of appearing Vertuous if they mean to be Honourable for as all Errours receive their strengths from some Truths professed by Hereticks so do all Vices and vicious Persons owe their supports to the powerful strengths of those Vertues on which they lean and which they use though in a wicked manner for their own security For they cannot rise and thrive in the World without some Vertue or shew of Vertue at least to cover and help out their Vices Three things I desire you to note seriously when you have first observed that it is a very hard matter to hate an Excellent Man or contemn him when he is known The one is that Enmities and Disgraces are like the pangs and throws of the New-Birth they fall like Storms and Showers upon budding Vertues in their spring and greeness When a Man first begins to be Vertuous he is despised suspected unknown it may be censured and hated But when he has made himself eminent and conspicuous is a man of tried and approved Vertue well known for a Person of Honour and Worth the first Envies and Censures abate and if he constantly exercise all Honesty and Goodness with great activity courage and prudence he shall conquer all his Enemies and inherit the benefit of his own Vertues in the peace and tranquility of his happy Condition Note also that it is not so much the Malignity of the World as some Vice of the Proficient or some occasion that Religious men give the World to blaspheme Religion by some Infirmity or other that makes them to be hated And this I note because I would have you not cry out of other Mens Corruptions so much as of your own There is a little Pride or Covetousness or Laziness or Scorn or Anger or Revenge some one Deformity or other that gives Men advantage against us when they deride at our Profession but under the Name and Notion of Vertue no Man was ever yet upbraided As a Fool perhaps and a Coward but not as a Wise and gallant Man he may be scorned Thirdly Some Secular Interest may put People together by the Ears but no Man is hated for being perfectly Vertuous Misapprehensions Slanders Injuries Quarrels about Estates and Possessessions may arise but where the Land is at peace and the True Religion established no Man is hated for being Wise and Good and Holy and Chaste and Just and Liberal and Honest and Merciful and Meek and Couragious but the more admired for being Holy and Blessed when he joyns all GODS Vertues together A man may be perverse and turbulent a Schismatick and a Heretick and by a rash and erroneous Zeal bring many Enemies and Penalties on himself while he rails against the Magistrates and reviles the Bishops and Pastours of the Church breaks the Laws and disturbs the Kingdom prophanes and blasphemes GODS publick Worship and endeavours to overthrow the established Religion and Discipline among us But all the Troubles which a man brings on himself by any such means as these are not to be fathered on Vertue but rightly to be ascribed to their proper Causes Had he that suffered them been more Vertuous he had been less miserable And truly this I may say for the glory of Christianity Where it is freely and purely Professed in any Nation or Kingdom as at present in Ours a Man may be as divine and heavenly as an Angel And if he be Liberal and Kind and Humble and Cheerful especially if withal he be Undaunted and Couragious most exceedingly Honest and Faithful in his dealings the more Holy and Divine he is the more he is commended and valued in the Land but if he have any flaw the greater stir he makes in Religion the more he is hated He loses his Credit and undergoes the Censure of a supercilious Hypocrite AS for all the Enemies which Strife and Contention about Worldly Goods occasion to a Vertuous Man he is no more liable to them than other persons And yet when he meets them he has far more advantages over his Enemies than other Men. For being full of Courage he dares do any thing that is fit against them and that sparkle of the Lion makes them to dread him whereas a Coward is baffled and run over in a moment Being full of Temper and Humility he is not apt to exasperate them and make them mad as hot and angry Spirits are apt to do By Kindness he obliges and wins and softens them By Prudence he knows how to manage them and all his other Vertues come in as so many strengths against them Being Just he never quarrels but in a Good Cause being Good and Merciful he is not apt to make an Enemy Being Wise and Holy his Soul is in another World and it is no trivial Injury that can make him contend Being Liberal and Magnanimous he is prone to do Heroical things and to make himself Venerable to his very Adversary And above all to tender and to love his Soul and to steer all the Contention to both their benefit We rail on the World when the fault is in our selves The most of Men professing Vertue are but Children in Worth very weak and very defective And too timorous too GOD knows They neither trust GOD enough nor carry Vertue to the height Vertue is base and not Vertue while it is remiss It never shineth gloriously and irresistibly till it be acted almost in a desperate manner He only is the Great Man that contemns Danger Life and Death and all the World that he may be supreamly and compleatly Vertuous ENEMIES may sometimes spring from Envy And indeed there alone lies the Core of the Matter when some Men imperfectly Vertuous abhor others for being more Excellent than themselves at least for being more Honoured and more Prosperous Here again Temporal Interest is the ground of the Enmity For thus our Saviour was hated by the
one the other is Dead The Works of Love are the End of all Miracles and more Blessed then they Nay Love is the End of Faith as well as it is of the Law for the Apostle saith The End of the Commandment it Charity out of a pure Heart and of a good conscience and of Faith unfeigned It is the End of the very Creation of the World of all Gods Labors and Endeavours of all his Ways in all Ages all the faculties and powers of the Soul the very End of the Redemption of Mankind the End of the Jewish Oeconomy under the Law the End of all the Dispensations of Grace and Mercy under the Gospel the End of our Saviours coming down into the World the End of all his Miracles Tears and Blood the End of the Holy Ghosts appearing upon Earth the End of all the Means of Grace and in some sort the very last End of all Rewards and Punishments whatsoever The everlasting Continuance of this Love is the End of Eternity it self in a manner and if our Love be not the End of GODS Love his is of ours And if the Truth be deeply inquired into the Intermixture is so sweet that his is the End of ours ours of his For he Loveth us with the Love of Benevolence that we may Love him and he desires to be beloved of us that he may Love us with another Kind of Love distinct from the former even that of Complacency Which Love of Complacency is the Crown of ours and so Delightful to us that it is the very End of our Desire and begetteth in us a new Love of Complacency fitly answering his unto us NOW if Love be the End of all the laws Works and Ways of GOD of all our Saviours Labours and sufferings of our souls and Bodies of the whole Creation of all the Endeavours and Desires of the Deity in all the Dispensations of his Grace and Providence there must be something in its Nature Equivalent to all these Transcendent Undertakings to justifie the Wisdom that selected Love for its Sovereign Object for it is the office of Wisdome to suit the means and their End together so that the Excellency of the one may be worthy of all the Cost and Difficulty of the other For it is a foolish thing to pursue a base and feeble End by Glorious and Wonderful Methods because its Vileness will Disgrace the Design and with it their Beauty their very Grandure will be absurd where their Issue is but contemptible The Apostle therefore telleth us that Love is the fulfilling of the Law and that it is the Bond of Perfectness And pursuing its properties a little more Ample he saith Charity suffereth long and is kind Charity envyeth not Charity Vaunteth not it self is not puffed up doth not behave it self unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no evil rejoyceth not in iniquity but rejoyceth in the Truth beareth all Things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things Charity never faileth c. IT is one noble Effect of Charity that it suffereth afflictions cheerfully and patiently for the sake of its Beloved Another is its Kindness to its Object its sweet and Courteous inclination to do all manner of Good Another for which it is highly valuable is that it envieth not the Felicity or Glory of its Beloved but taketh Pleasure to see it far higher and greater then its own is not apt to vaunt and brag of its Perfections but hath an humble Esteem of all its Atchievments doth not behave it self in distasteful manner but studies and designes the Honour Benefit and satisfaction of its Object But that which of all other is its greatest Perfection is that it seeketh not its own it is not Mercenary or self ended but truly Generous and Heroick in its Performances It Sacrificeth it self and all its interests to the Advantage of its Object it preferreth the person it Loveth above it self desires its Exhaltation and delights in its Glory more then its own It is not easily provoked because it puts the best sence upon all that is done by its Object Thinketh no evil is not suspicious or malevolent or censorious but frameth honourable and fair Ideas of all that is thought or done by its Beloved Hateth all Impurity that may displease its Object all black and crooked Apprehensions that may wrang and disguise it beareth all with Hope and Equanimity because it believeth its Object to be Good and Wise till it must of necessity change its Opinion and entertain a Judgement tending to its condemnation It is no longer Charity then but dislike and aversion when it ceaseth to think well of its Object for it is another Principle or distinct in Nature from Love as its Actions are from the Actions of Love the diversity of the Effects evidently proving a Difference in their Causes THE Quality by which Charity rejoyceth in the Truth is an incomparable excellence and commendation of its Nature Because the Truth is GODS infinite Goodness and Love and Providence which are exercised in preparing Delights and Treasures for his Beloved The truth is the Felicity and Glory of the Soul And if it be true that all Eternity is full of Joys and all the World enriched with Delights that a man is infinitely beloved of GOD and made in his Image on purpose that he might enjoy all the Best of all possible Treasures in his similitude he may well rejoyce in the Truth because no Truth can be greater or more delightful than that himself is exalted to the Throne of GOD and ordained to live in Communion with him BUT that Quality by which the Soul believeth and hopeth all things that concern the Honour and Fidelity of its Beloved is yet more acceptable and delightful than the former For a good opinion of the Nature and Intention of the Person with whom we are united is the Basis and Foundation of all our Respect the Cement of our Peace and the Life and Soul of all that Honour that is paid unto him The very Grace and Beauty of all our Conversation dependeth upon it and if it be true that we are more to love GOD for the intrinsick Perfections of his Essence then for all his Gifts the chief Business of our Knowledge is to Frame glorious Apprehensions of his Nature and to Believe him in all things so Kind and Wise that he is True and Faithful in all his Declarations and most fit to be Honoured in all the Dispensations of his Providence because he is ever mindful of his Protestations and Promises For then we can believe that all things shall work together for our Good can safely trust our selves and all that is ours in his hands resign our selves up to his Disposal with Joy and say Thy Will be done for it is Holy Good and acceptable Thy Will alone is of all other Wilis most Perfect and Desirable There are on Earth indeed more nice Emergencies many Obscurities and