oblig'd to observe The Divine are contain'd in the Ten Commandments and in the New Testament which contains the precepts of Faith Hope and Charity Faith obligeth all the Faithful to believe the doctrines of Christianity as they are sum'd up in our Creed By Hope we trust by the grace of God and our own sincere endeavour to obtain and use all necessary means of Grace and Eternal Life at last all which in this assurance we heartily beg in the Lord's Prayer And Charity requires of us to love God above all things and our Neighbour as our selves A Christian by these three virtues is made a new and holy creature Faith inlightens and directs his understanding Hope raiseth him up and sets his will at work for God and to God Charity unites him wholly It is also necessary to understand the necessity of Baptism and the Lord's Supper and true Repentance which are all Divine Institutions indispensably necessary to all that will be saved For except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Joh. 3.5 And Except we eat the flesh and drink the bloud of Christ we have no life in us Joh. 6.53 And as for Repentance it is the only remedy we have for the sins committed after Baptism that by it we may be made clean again 2. Lastly there are also Human Laws Enacted by the Church or the State we live in and them we are also to know and to observe with meekness and humility and for Conscience sake But no man of himself is able to keep all these Laws which God hath bound upon us none can obey them without the true light from above enlighten and guide him as it is written Psal 94.12 Blessed is the man whom thou chastnest O Lord and teachest him in thy Law For ever since sin came into the World men without the light of Faith sit in darkness and the shadow of death and take an account of good and evil not by the measures of truth but by their lusts and depraved passions We must therefore earnestly beg the divine assistance that he that commands what he wills would enable us to do what he hath commanded healing our blindness and impotency destroying self-love and filling our hearts with devout love to him for the end of the Commandment is Charity and he that truly loves God keepe his Commandments without hypocrisie or reservation CHAP. XXXIV The difference betwixt the outward and the inward man 1. OUR Christian hope is not for this World nor for this present time and we were not created to enjoy that Earthly happiness which the World only seeks but God made us for that Eternal Bliss which he hath promised and whose excellency we cannot as yet understand For eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither is it entred into the heart of man what things God hath prepared for them that love him We therefore that are called to the possession of that Kingdom which was prepared for us from the beginning of the World ought not to govern our selves only by human reasons and live by natural instincts after the common manner of men who are unacquainted with the ways of Eternity and the motions of Divine Grace But happy are they that wisely dive into the depth of things who live to God and commune with him in their hearts and suffer not their thoughts and affections to range and dwell abroad 2. These men live an inward life they are recollected and dwell at home always disposed to hear Gods voice within them and to understand his secrets Whereas they live an outward life that are most affected with outward things having fair pretences for their worldly-mindedness being greedy of news and curious sights and sensual pleasures walking saith the Apostle Eph. 4.17 in the vanity of their minds alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them For the more a man profits in carnal wisdom the more ignorant he becomes in the things of God As much as we love the creatures as much we lessen our love to the Creator CHAP. XXXV How dangerous it is to be governed by opinion and false apprehension of things 1. HE is a wise man that weighs things justly and then esteems them according to their intrinsick value for every thing in the world hath a twofold aspect or a double face the one natural and real and the other disguised and fallacious The first is what God judgeth and hath revealed it to be and the second depends on mens passions and false opinions Thus for Example the Dignity of a Bishop is in effect and according to Gods appointment a high and Angelic office of such a weight as should make human strength tremble and shrink under it it is a place of great honour but also it requires the greatest labour and diligence to watch for the Souls intrusted with the dignified Prelat who shall give a strict account for them in the day of judgment But in the Worlds account a Bishoprick is only a degree of honour in the Church which promotes the owner of it to riches and greatness and temporal advantages Hence it is that they that rightly apprehend what the office is fear and avoid it and are so far from seeking that they refuse it when offer'd and it is much to be feared that they follow the worlds judgements and seek themselves that seek it and make it their aim and the object of their passionate desires The same may be said of all other dignities and places of trust in Church and State Generally men have a wrong notion of them and understand not their definition and hence the confusions and malvorsations that are in the world that men mistake things and hate truth and will not see nor follow divine light but the darkness of their own perverse hearts 2. Such names are commonly used amongst men as are consecrated by the Bloud of Christ and the highest virtues of his greatest Saints as that some be called Bishops Priests Deacons Monks or Hermits Some Kings Princes and Magistrates and all together Christians but who is there that duly considers the great worth the strength and true significations of those names what virtues what perpetual care what duties they require from such as bear them the bare Titles with a vain shadow of the things remain but the reality and significancy of them is vanish'd few men are in truth what they call themselves few live according to the name of Christian because few make it their first care to follow the example of Christ This unhappy deceit is also an effect of the first and worst of evils Self-love the most crafty deceiver hardly found out by the wisest and seldome quite conquer'd by the best of men 3. The truth is that the good and evil things of this present life are so mixt and confused that if we take an exact view of the nature of them we shall hardly discern the one
Christian Life PART I. Of the Christian Life and of its end and offices CHAP. I. Of the distribution of all Christians into three ranks good middle-sort and bad 1. WHen in my meditation as from a watch-tower I consider the whole multitude of Christians in the universal Church with their manners and principles they appear to me as divided into three distinct bands or orders The first contains them who following the doctrin of Christ and his blessed example with a sincere and hearty affection and daily reaching forward towards the highest pitch of Evangelical perfection thereby approve themselves to be Christians indeed constantly serving God and meditating in his Law they crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts and are not cast down by adversity nor puft up by a prosperous fortune Now among these some are more eminent in virtue than the rest and seem to be even more than men abstaining from all delicious fare and being temperate even to a perpetual fast keeping themselves pure and unspotted even to the refusing of lawful pleasures exercising themselves in patience so as to go manfully through fire and the worst of pains mortifying and denying themselves as being their own enemies despising wealth and riches so as freely to bestow in charity all that they possess being filled with the love of God as much as is possible in this life and possessing all virtues in the highest degree so as to be the admiration rather than the example of others who with shame acknowledge their own weakness when they consider how far short they fall of these Heroick Christians But the number of these is not great and they are commonly unknown being dead and crucified to themselves and the world their conversation being in Heaven and their life hid with Christ in God 2. In the next rank are they who rest in the profession of the true faith and think that all Christian duties consist in outward acts they fear God and yet retain and worship their secret Idols they often come to the Sacrament but with so much unpreparedness and indevotion that their frequent receiving profits them not they abstain from great and crying sins and neglect lesser outward Acts of Religion they omit not but their affections are immerst in the World they are acted by Self-love and Self-interest and they are unacquainted with the inward peace and beauty of a Spiritual life they know not what it is to indeavour after Christian perfection they are and will be strangers to that Heavenly mindedness and renouncing of all things without which Christ declares none can be his Disciple and so sadly deluded they are so unhappily besotted with inconsideration that if you exhort them to a stricter and more holy life they will bid you go and preach to Monks and Hermits and remain unconcern'd and the same as before 3. In the last order come all such as are called Christians onely because born of Christian Parents and Baptized their Lives and Actions being scandalous and they themselves wicked and abominable worse than infidels of these the number is great and innumerable CHAP. II. A further Description of the Wicked and their Wickedness 1. THese are they that confess God with their mouth and constantly deny him with their deeds who so study to gratifie their appetites and so resolvedly live after the flesh and the sinful customs of the World that the revelations and laws of the Gospel can make no impression on them they being rather asham'd and almost sorry that they are Christians They daily indulge to their Lusts and their vilanies growing customary deprive them of all sense of human modesty They relish nothing but the Earth they take their account of good and evil by carnal pleasures and they so order the course of their lives that like brutes they follow nothing but their bodily senses Riches they value at a mighty rate and right or wrong seek to obtain them they esteem nothing base and unworthy that advanceth their profit or their preferment and as one said of some Greeks they build as though they were never to die and live as if they were weary of their life 2. This they do because they believe not what our blessed Lord hath reveal'd and because being unmindful of the uncertainty of our condition they promise themselves many years to live They rest satisfied with the injoyment of transitory things which soon shall be possest by others and things that abide for ever they slight and neglect because they think not of Eternity They are tormented by ambition and weakned by lust swel'd with pride and rack'd by Envy Passions and unsatiable desires toss them to and fro and they are so averse to all righteousness that they not only neglect but even hate the just laws of God Christ pronounceth them Blessed that are poor and mourn and suffer persecution they contrarywise esteem them blessed that are rich great and prosperous and generally honoured by men Christ declares that none can be his Disciple who is not ready chearfully to forsake all that he hath for him but these men place their affections on their wealth keep it nigardly part with it sorrowfully and are ever greedy of more ever ready to invade others right and to get what they can from them 3. Even some Professors that have chosen Christ for their portion and pretend to be devoted to him even some of these there be who unmindful of their Sacred Promises indeavour nothing more than to increase their wealth and oftentimes enjoy greater riches under Christ the great Exemplar of Poverty than they could have done in a civil Calling under the greatest Monarch of this World Neither are some of these more careful to obey than to imitate for instead of loving their Enemies and rendring good for evil to them that hate them as our Blessed Lord hath commanded us they return hatred for ill will and are ever ready and desire to revenge the least injuries Who is there that obeys Christ's counsel or injunction of turning the cheek to him that smites us and suffering him that strives for our Coat to take our Cloak also or rather who is there that doth not slight and deride it Let who will take an exact account of the Evangelical precepts and of the observers of them he shall find that they are very few that live by the Rules of the Gospel few that regard and esteem it as they should Nay few there be that care to read or hear it Fables Romances and Idle Discourses are generally prefer'd to the Word of God whereby the vain World make it appear that they belong not to him whose voice they care not to hear that they hear not God's Words because they are not of God 4. 'T is the Duty of every Christian faithfully to believe what God hath revealed to follow his Counsels and sincerely obey his Commands whence it clearly follows that he is no Christian who neglects or scorns this Duty for Faith
account They make their Glory their Felicity their Wisdom to consist in such things as the World accounts Shame Misery and Folly They detest the false Principles on which proceeds carnal prudence as that we must be Rich and Great honour'd by the World and above others and they love and heartily imbrace the Christian verity which teacheth us to despise riches to deny our selves and to glory in nothing save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ In a word their conversation is in Heaven and they so live that all their actions seem to speak aloud That their Kingdom is not of this World These things indeed are high and difficult but the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and is only to be taken by force and withall it well deserves all our labours and noblest contentions CHAP. XXII Several useful cautions how a Christian should undertake and perfect his works 1. ALL the actions of a Christian should be done in peace and meekness and he ought to consider the circumstances of time and place and persons and especially of the end of that he is about but withall let him take care of being rash and hasty of following sudden motions of nature rather than reason Grace and Religion Let not his mind be light and inconstant easily wandring after vain projects but let him attend and be ready to entertain and to obey the illuminations and motions of the good Spirit When he is about to begin any work let not his mind be too busie and distracted with other thoughts for then he must expect to want his wits and fail in many things which afterwards will grieve him when it will be too late When he first enters upon any design let him humbly beg that God would guide and assist him and let him seriously consider what share God hath in the business and how much of it is on his own account In the carrying on of his work let not self-complacency turn him from the good end he proposed and in the finishing thereof let him be cautious that all he hath done be not marr'd and spoil'd by self-applause and vain-glory above all let him be seriously intent upon this that he seeks not the praise of men but the glory of God keeping down proud thoughts in the consideration of his being nothing 2. He should not meddle with any business except God by his Providence calls him to it and then he ought to go through with it chearfully and diligently and with noble designs of charity to men specially to their souls considering that the bliss or perfection of this present life consisteth not in the full enjoyment of God but in the conformity of our will to his in the doing and suffering his pleasure Except necessity compell him let him not undertake any thing that 's above his strength that if it be possible he may lose nothing of his peace nor of the freedom of his mind for to be too intent and too much taken up with things without us commonly quencheth the Spirit of God and deprives our Souls of tranquillity Rather as the Angel which is said to have accompanied Tobit though it was always ready to serve him yet nevertheless attended to the will of God and was always present to him so should a good Christian mind the necessary concerns of this life and be outwardly troubled and imployed about them when yet his heart should be with God and his soul in Heaven there to be free from the distractions and all the affections of the World CHAP. XXIII That to discharge the duties of our station is the best thing we can do 1. TO do that which our place and calling requires of us here and that which will make us happy hereafter may be said to be one and the same thing for no man more certainly works out his Salvation than he that honestly and diligently works in his proper sphere Therefore the Devil commonly lays this snare in our way to Christian perfection to make us aspire after the doing of great matters which are no parts of our office thereby to busie and distract our mind that we may not attend to our proper duty which lies before us and the doing whereof is our greatest virtue 2. He therefore greatly deceives himself that would fain change his condition imagining he could better serve God if he were here or there or so or so after Providence or a prudent choise have otherwise determin'd it It doth but make him lazy and negligent in doing what he should whilest he thinks of what belongs not to him it makes him to sit idle and do nothing in the place where he is whilest he projects to do great feats where he is not Whereas the unblameable integrity or perfection at which a Christian should aim depends upon particular actions they that are negligent and incurious to do them well set themselves backward and make no progress for their heart being absent and their thoughts employ'd somewhere else they do but little where they are and yet that little is done after a dreaming careless way Such men are always beginning or about to begin to live well they contrive many things but bring nothing to perfection they are all leaves and no fruit Like Trees that are often remov'd they no where take firm root and so remain every where useless CHAP. XXIV How Christians are to live and to be sincere 1. CHristians should not indulge to the Lusts of the lower belly or to the pleasures of a nice or gluttonous palat they should abstain from all vanity and undecency in their Apparel and from all idle sports that are too expensive of time and their life should be free from sloth and negligence from ambition and pride and from covetousness and desire of riches Anger ought not to lodge in their breast and they should never do that to others which they would not have done to themselves They should do nothing carelesly nor yet rashly least of all deceitfully and hypocritically Christian duties and acts of virtue that are not done in Spirit and Truth with attention and a good intention are meer dissembling and pageantry In some places where Religion is made a Theatrical representation you shall often find men of wicked lives act the highest virtues of the greatest Saints one the constancy of Martyrs another the modesty of the Blessed Virgin or perhaps the heroick actions of Christ and his Apostles but the end of the play puts an end to their fine dissembling they no longer appear those holy men they were but presently return to their nature to their prophaneness and impurity Just so are they that have a fair specious out-side appearing precise and godly to be seen and praised or drive an interest they are meer jugglers and stage-players they put a fair vizard over an ugly face holiness outwardly inwardly unmortified lusts and perverse passions Their lives are nothing but a Comedy that will have a Tragical end 2. For indeed this is
but because they will not trust God for their reward they have none at all they lose their labour and themselves Many others there be that complain that their affairs and necessary employments abroad keep them from minding what is good by depriving them of their inward peace but the things that disturb the tranquillity of the Soul are from within because we will not break with our selves because we are too sensual and too much seek our ease and advantage From hence proceeds that inward and vexatious war betwixt the Spirit and the Flesh which can never cease till Reason and Religion reign in us and the inferior appetites be brought to obedience and perfect subjection to the higher rational faculties 3. If a man had a friend so dear and intimate that he could not eat nor rest nor live one day without him and a faithful and creditable Monitor should tell him that his pretended friend is false and treacherous and designs to ruin and to murther him would not his love presently cease and be turned to hatred and thoughts of revenge Christian Reader such a friend is our flesh we gratifie and indulge it and use it with the greatest kindness and at the same time under pretence of friendship it deceives us and designs to deprive us of immortal life and to bring to Eternal death Yet this false friend sleeps in our bosome we are not to war with strangers and with far distant Enemies but with one that dwells with us at home and accompanies us wherever we go and always lies in wait to take advantage of us and do us mischief Let a man forsake himself and come out of himself and then he will find no obstacles in his way to Heaven CHAP. V. How we must fight our corrupt nature and depraved affections 1. WE must be very careful to observe what is the object of our love or fear and what of our joy or sorrow for these four affections have the absolute power of our heart and God by them is the master of it when we love and fear nothing but him and for him and when he is the cause and the measure of our joy or sorrow When these motions of our mind are disorderly and tend where they should not we become unruly like beasts but when they are ordered and directed right then they are highly serviceable and they make us holy and happy like Angels For in this consisteth the perfection and happiness of man to have his affections and desires guided by truth and reason for then his love and his joys become instruments of bliss and virtue whereas the same affections when guided by corrupt nature alone become pernicious and vexatious degenerate into wild lusts monsters which we must always fight and with our utmost strength indeavor to conquer 2. But to this purpose it will not suffice that we in general indeavour to reform and keep under our appetites and unruly passions for corrupt nature is well enough pleased with all the apparel and formalities of mortification self-denyal and victory over sinful passions and Philosophers grow in love with the fair Ideas of virtue in this pompous attire and many in this have deceiv'd themselves and boasted of conquest over their evil inclinations because they find not in themselves an aversion to vertue and good desires But when it comes to tryal indeed and they are no longer to fight with the notion of sin in general but with a present urging lust with a pressing uneasiness and necessity with some provocations to anger or to impatience then it appears how vain how weak and insignificant were their great thoughts and fine resolutions Better it is therefore carefully attend to every particular occasion of vanquishing our selves and restraining our depraved appetites and to do it seriously and to purpose for so by degrees we shall rectifie and amend every defect and bring all our passions and desires under the power of right reason or Christian Religion 3. But this is not to be done without an ever-watching diligence an unwearied patience a great application and a persevering courage and labour that by offering a perpetual violence to our evil propensities as they shew themselves we may go to the root of them and quite pull them up For now in our state of depravation every holy affection and the lifting up of our Soul to God is violent being against nature against the bent of our sensual appetites so that we must renew our indeavours and add new vigor to them every moment else we fall down and nature easily prevails and we soon return to our selves 4. As weeds in gardens may be pull'd up and yet not hindred from growing again of themselves so by care and by keeping a strict hand over our vicious affections we may so keep them under that we shall think they are quite destroy'd but do what we can the ground of our corrupt nature will always be apt to produce ill weeds and sin of it self will be growing again so that we must never give over fighting never cease to mortifie and purifie our selves whilst we live And yet if by God's assistance we can once do some one noble act of Christian vertue report one noted victory over our selves that alone may be sufficient to assert and enlarge our liberty and obtain us grace whereby we shall afterwards easily overcome all our aversions to vertue Some holy men have been so encouraged and strengthned by one great and difficult triumph that afterwards without fear and with little trouble or danger they have overcome all enemies and oppositions So great a thing it is to fight with fortitude and maintain once a noble contention till we have conquer'd CHAP. VI. Of the right use and moderation of our outward Senses 1. BEcause the eyes commonly are an inlet to sin we ought to turn them from tempting objects with the same care and quickness as a man would remove out of a house infected with the Plague Now human eyes wherewith created things are beheld may be said to be of three sorts The first altogether Sensual or natural when viewing the outward beauty of an object we are pleased with it and consider no farther The second may be call'd Rational or Philosophical when we making reflections upon the symmetry and other properties of things visible are moved thereby to search and to know the nature of them And the third we may say are Christian or Religious when by the beholding of creatures we raise up our Souls to the love and contemplation of the Creator With these eyes pious Souls viewing the beauties of the universe are led to the consideration of its glorious maker who is the fountain of all beauty and perfection as the author of all subsistence and being 2. Now as the life of the body depends upon its union with the Soul so doth in some manner the life of our senses depend on the presence of their proper objects as things visible to the eyes
too restless and busie from prodigality many fall to covetousness and from superstition to profaneness and irreverence The last cheat of Opinion I shall now reckon is that it generally makes us judge and esteem our selves not according to our own sense and consciousness but according to the vain thoughts and talk of other men We defer so much not only to our own but also to others opinions that except they will count us happy we cannot be so We are not contented to live to our selves but we must also entertain a troublesome imaginary life to please we know not whom people that perhaps know us not and to be sure care not for us whose judgment we our selves slight in other things Thus neglecting that true and real life which we our selves enjoy we make it our care and indeavour to preserve and adorn that life which depends on others and hath no subsistence but in ours and other mens fancy and so far doth this delusion prevail that what we our selves feel and know is nothing to us except others be acquainted with it From all these mischievous errors and deceptions of opinion we cannot be freed by the power of natural reason without the supernatural light of the Divine Grace enlighten our minds For our opinions become true or false according as is the light that guides us CHAP. XI That the Doctrine of Salvation is much slighted even by some that pretend to it 1. ALL knowledge is good that agrees with truth but he that would work out his salvation with fear and trembling had need learn first what concerns it because our time is short and great learning in other things is great trouble and great vanity It is the saying of S. James that to him that knows to do good and doth it not to him it is sin 4.17 As if he should say that it is ill to eat and not digest For as indigested meat nourisheth not but rather hurts so much knowledge not concocted and converted to use by the fire of holy charity fills men with pride and such peccant humors and at last ends in death These two things men are to care for whilst they are in this World first to keep the life of the Soul which consists in the grace and the favour of God and secondly to preserve their temporal life but for the first many are unconcern'd let what will become of the Soul their study and all their labour is that it may be well with the body And so they run blindfold after their lusts and sensual enjoyments being wise indeed as children of this world but having none of that wisdom which makes men wise unto Salvation 2. They that speak doubtfully and deceitfully are odious to men saith the Son of Sirach much more are they odious to God that live so whose very life is a lie as well as their words They pretend to know God and his holy ways and vainly boast to follow them when yet they go quite contrary they reprove and tutor others not themselves they cunningly dissemble their vices and make a shew of those virtues they are strangers to But they cannot deceive God who searcheth the heart and their hypocrisie cannot be hid from him who seeth the things that are in secret and at the last day will bring all to light And O that men would view their stains and imperfections in the great and eternal light of that terrible day for then they could easily discern and as easily cleanse and amend them We have but these two ways to take notice of our defects and deformities either in the light of our own reason comparing them to our selves or in the light of Divine Revelation bringing them forth before the bright and glorious presence of the most holy God The first is like a winter days light dim and cold but the second is the sun-shine of a summer-day so clear as to make the least mote visible and hot enough to burn and consume all our dross But to see this saving divine light a man must come out of himself and go to God in whom alone is truth and wisdome and out of whom all things are meer impostures and follies CHAP. XII That Self-will is a great Evil and must be renounc'd 1. ALL our actions contrary to God's will and in compliance to our own are the fewel for that fire which is unquenchable For self-will may be said to be the maker of Hell and the leader to it the Author of all the evils which eternally afflict all the wicked that rebell'd against God As likewise even in time the less a man follows his own will the farther he is from being miserable the nearer he comes to true happiness And he that hath wholly renounc'd to his own desires and inclinations hath the greatest assurance that can be had here of being eternally happy hereafter How this is to be done our Blessed Saviour taught us when he said follow me for he himself as he testified came not into the world to do his own will but the will of the Father that sent him so that to follow him we must follow his obedience forsake our own will to comply with his to follow him we must take up and bear his yoke and his Cross which to the flesh is indeed hard and afflictive but to the Spirit is comfortable and delicious 2. This our Christian profession doth require from us that in all our works and undertakings we may heartily say Not my will but Gods will be done This also is the design of the supreme eternal will of God in creating and preserving mens wills that they may freely serve him and in all things fulfil his good pleasure And truly it is the greatest and most blessed freedom to be in subjection to God to be able from our hearts to say in all events Even so Father for so it hath seemed good before thee My only will is Gods will may be done He is infinitely good and wise I freely resign my self to him and desire evermore to have an entire dependence on him and to be contented with all the disposals of his Providence and that in all things his blessed name may be glorified All mens troubles and vexations proceed from their unwillingness to submit to God for there is not a greater pain or grief than to be what we would not be CHAP. XIII Of the advantages of Solitariness and Retirement 1. TO be much alone in quiet silence and there to examine and instruct ones self is the way to have our senses and our thoughts well compos'd Therefore a wise man hates much talk and much company keeps his eyes close to curiosities and his ears to flying reports and cumbers not himself with too much of the world remembring the saying of wise Ben-Sirach that he shall become wise that hath little business Ecclus. 38.24 God is but one and he can best commune with God that dwells by himself And if a wise man be called
and well-being hath set these bounds to our affections that we should love him with all our heart and with all our Soul that we should consecrate to the service of that Love our understanding our life and all our powers and that if we love any thing else it be in reference and in subordination to him that deserves all our Love and should be the master and disposer of it The love of God must therefore lead the way to what else we should love it must always prevail and be the rule of all our affections and then we cannot love nor do amiss CHAP. XXXV Of the Necessity and Measures of Loving our Neighbour 1. WE cannot love God as we should without we love our Neighbour neither can we love our Neighbour except we love God If any man saith 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 and this commandment have we from him that he who loveth God loveth his Brother also 1 Joh. 4.20 The Commandment makes no exception though the man be poor though he be a stranger nay though he be vicious and thine enemy yet he is thy Neighbour and thy Brother and he must be lov'd The expressions of thy love may vary according to his needs and thine opportunities Yet they must be hearty real and effective for The End of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure heart and of a good Conscience and of Faith unfained 1 Tim. 1.5 And we must not love in word neither in tongue but in deed and in truth 1 Joh. 3.18 2. As Christ loved us and gave himself for us not that we deserv'd any love but because he lov'd God and us in God to whom he purchast us so must we love all men not for ours or their sakes but for God's sake having no further regard to what is good in them than only as it relates to God True Christians are so strictly united together by love that what one hath not in himself he with joy finds it in others and what one hath more than the rest he willingly imparts it to all As by our love to God we are united and in some manner become one spirit with him so by the mutual love of men of Christians especially they become one among themselves so that what one hath to himself is for the good of all and what one hath not in himself he hath and enjoys in others Thus love is the fulfilling of the Law and the fulfilling of all Righteousness According as is the mans Charity in the beginning progress or perfection so is his goodness and his righteousness and then most perfect in this life when even life it self is parted with for love 3. The modus or measure of love to our Neighbour is twofold positive and negative First To do to him as we would he should do to us Secondly And not to deal with him any otherwise than as we would he should deal with us Every one therefore in the sight of God to whom all things are known must consider seriously what he would others should do or not do to him and if he desires others should he patient towards him and bear with his faults and infirmities and speak well of him c. Then let him be careful to do so to others 'T is a sure indication of a perverse heart for a man in a private capacity to do that to another which he should be sorry to suffer himself A good Christian doth not inquire into the manners and faults of others but leaves them to his view and correction to whom all judgment is given He examines judgeth and punisheth himself and makes self-reformation his serious and constant business Whatever he sees or hears his mind is undisturb'd and abides in peace for if it be good he praiseth God if evil he turns it to good by turning his mind from it towards God in Prayers and Resignation 4. If his Office and Charity obligeth him to reprove and to correct others he doth it with a zeal sweet and benign and compassionate to his Brothers infirmity for roughness and ungovern'd passion cannot consist with Charity If the ill actions of others are capable of an excuse he excuseth them however he censures not knowing that nothing human is so perfect and holy but may be ill interpreted and at the best may be some way defectuous enough to be liable to reprehension if carping men let loose their censorious humors Whilst men are men they will have some imperfections and to be zealous against them is under pretence of preciseness to give way to peevish impatience or proud censoriousness He that is too busie to tax and judge others will never grow better himself CHAP. XXXVI True Friendship and the true Offices of it 1. FRiendship is the communion of good things and therefore it follows the nature of those things which friends have common Now there being nothing truly good but things supernatural and eternal true friendship must consist in the communication of these mutually Hence it is that carnal friendship is soon dissolved because things of sense cannot last nor always confine the spirit whereas spiritual friendship is never broken for though it may seem to be interrupted by little angers and contentions yet true piety and the love of God sweetens the harshness of them and keeps the knot indissoluble As for that friendship which too much sets our hearts upon any person and may be called Doting it should be stifled and avoided as being mischievous and it is to be known by these tokens when the party belov'd is always in our thoughts and we can never be well without him when we fear his displeasure above all things when in him we rest as in our center and we sacrifice to him all our actions and most important concerns And let none flatter themselves that this is pure innocent friendship without any self-interest for it is altogether sensual it depraves the heart and affections it is an enemy to all wisdom and true Religion and it begins and ends in the flesh and 't is to be observ'd that this kind of friendship is never betwixt persons truly good and vertuous 2. Men of real worth are always well composed grave and of a sweet deportment they are courteous to all but they are familiar to few and they flatter none in their conversation modesty discretion an exact justice and an unaffected severity is to be observed They seek not to make a shew outwardly their life is inward and secret they live to God and to their own conscience They fairly converse with men outwardly when it is fitting but their heart cleaves to God and they will not disturb themselves with the silly impertinencies or petty concerns of the world Their designs and affections differ much from the vulgar multitude and therefore their words and actions are guided with