grace There is another principle of misfortune in us which is the love of our souls which lives of the substance of our souls raigning in our hearts and commanding our actions This love acts for it self not for God it is so opposite to God that as another Antichrist it labours onely to destroy the works of grace in us and to ruine his divine love spirit and conduct Hence we see what a misery it is what danger there is in being withdrawn from the conduct of God to live according to our own inclinations according to humane conduct which the Apostle calls the wisdom of this world For what must his life be who submits himself to this sworn enemy of God what must his actions be who hath no other principle nor conduct then his own will onely confident in self-love who onely followes the motions inclinations and thoughts of his reason a reason deprav'd and dim falls irrecoverably I will appeal to man himself how often his prudence reason and conduct have deceived him Into how many errours have his inclinations and his passions precipitated him let him but consult his own Conscience I beseech him to see whither he goes and that in good time he renounce humane wisdom and his feeble reason as much as God requires it to follow the foolishness of the Crosse the conduct of grace for there is no other way of perfection nor meanes to arrive at God but by the power and humility of the Crosse and by the conduct of Iesus Christ our way and our life If we would know what this conduct of God is wherein it consists we must consider it two wayes The first generall and common to all when all that a Christian does is according to the rule of the Law of God Thus we say the actions of men are all submitted to the conduct of God when they are done according to the Law and conformable to his will and the maxims of the Gospel So David lived when he said Thy word is a Lamp unto my feet and a light unto my paths For the Law of God proposeth the right end the just meanes and measure of every action in particular and of all in generall The true Christian must have no other conduct of his actions then this divine Law given by God to be the rule of mans life and principle of his actions he must follow the knowledge and maxims which Iesus Christ taught upon earth as a watch-tower and light to the spirits of men who being left to themselves walk in darkness and ignorance Counsel is mine equity is mine wisdom is mine saith the spirit of God He then that will live according to prudence according to equity and justice that will follow good counsels must have them from God for true prudence and true justice belongs to God It is true there ought to be prudence in the World but it must be the prudence of God which we cannot have but by observing the Law of God Lord thou hast made me wise by thy word said David who had try'd it We must take counsel for the difficulty of affaires perplexeth all things but this counsel must come from God and be conformable to his divine Lawes So did David alwayes in his affaires of greatest importance Thy Testimonies are my delight and my Counsellors We ought indeed to uphold our selves but it must be by the justice of God not that of men but that which concurs with the law of God for all the Commandments of God are righteousness saith David So the Christian doing all things with this respect and doing nothing against the Law and Maxims of Iesus Christ shall live in the perfect conduct of God a happy estate whereto all Christians ought to aspire and wherein they ought to continue professing even to death they have no other rule or conduct of their actions then the Law of God and spirit of the Gospel a rule wherein they must maintain themselves so powerfully and so inseparably that no creature friend or Interest can make them desire or do any thing contrary to this heavenly conduct There is another conduct of God more hidden and invisible when God vouchsafes by the motions of his grace his inspirations and loving communications to conduct souls to perfection and takes a particular care of them Here the soul must take a great and vigilant care that she quench not in her these lights and resist not this divine and amorous conduct This way is for souls who give themselves to God who are wholly out of themselves devested of and severed from the Creature who have annihilated their desires inclinations and passions who are wholly abandon'd to God professing to live no longer then under the conduct of this divine spirit They who are thus happy must take great care to maintain their spirits in a neere alliance and unity with the spirit of God to do nothing but by his conduct they must take heed they admit not any thing nor receive any other spirit which may separate them from that of God In brief they must annihilate all that is of the conduct of the Creature if they will live in a perfect conduct and an intire resignation to the spirit of God which is that which is desired in a perfect Christian as being the meanes to arrive at perfection When we consider these truths we shall find it hard to comprehend and impossible to approve the method of those who would get perfection attain true Christian vertues and possess God yet in all their conducts study nothing but humane wisdom act nothing but by humane respects speak not without equivocation are nothing but outward ceremonies regard nothing but outward formality aim at nothing but advancement Let them speak what they please humane wisdom is but foolishness before God and the spirit of grace and of Iesus is a spirit of truth simplicity and sincerity Those then that guide themselves by the spirit of Iesus Christ must live and act in the spirit of truth simplicity and sincerity for no other conduct is the conduct of God Let no man abuse himself saith St. Paul if any among you think to be wise in this world let him become a fool that he may be wise for the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God 1 Cor. 3.18 19. CHAP. III. That a Christian must do all his actions for love of God and for God THe perfect Christian must not so much consider what he does as the manner of doing for men consider the face God the heart It is a maxime in Morality that it suffices not to do good actions but we must do them well as the Philosopher saith it is not enough to do just things but they must be done justly meaning that an action to be good and just must be accomplished with all these circumstances which are so necessary that if this fail all the rest will be deficient good if it be true good must
and accomplish them Besides we cannot doubt at all but that the Sonne of God hath his great designs and intentions worthy himself over our actions even to the smalled nay over all the moments of our life Which if it be so how we can say that our actions are indifferent On the contrary they belong all to Iesus Christ they must proceed from his spirit God will be honoured in all that is of man We shall render an account as well of the least as the greatest things and assuredly God will exercise his judgement as well for a moment of time and the least of our actions as for all the rest of our life We must therefore acknowledge there is nothing little nothing to be neglected in the state of Christianity but all therein ought to be worthy the blood and cross of the Son of God we must make use of all things conformably to the designs and spirit of Iesus who as he is always great even in the least things so also must we have great intentions even in the meanest of our actions and our first and principall must be to referr those to the glory and honour of the Son of God Iesus Christ in the time of his life upon earth did so living among us as one of us he made use of all things with a zeal to the honour of his Father and referred them to him as to his Father his principall being and life Let us do the like and by a zeal to the honour of Iesus out of a respect and homage to his greatness let us offer to him all our actions accomplish them all even to the least with a desire that they may be referred to him as to the principle of our being and life in the state of grace This he taught us by his death this disposition he inspires us with by grace this spirit he infuseth into us by the Sacraments which he hath left to his Church as himself said As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me which include in two words all that we would perswade that Christian to who seeks true piety CHAP. XII How the Christian that seeks true piety is obliged to imitate Jesus Christ. AS we are obliged to honour Iesus Christ by our life and all our actions so with much more reason are we obliged to imitate him as far as lies in our power The greatest honour we can give him is to conform our selves to his life and intentions This is the third effect which produces adherence to Iesus Christ and as this adherence is the first estate whereinto we are put when we are made Christians and the first foundation we must lay to acquire true piety so from this adherence as its centre and generall principle must be derived all the effects of grace which we bear in our souls Now that which remains to be treated of is this Imitation for our life ought to be a lively Image of the life of Iesus Christ and the first use a Christian is to make is to look upon the Son of God as the Prototype and exemplar of his life and actions not onely to imitate but to express and represent him as it were to the life As the Son of God is the Image and resemblance of his Father so must the Christian be of the Son Hence the Apostle assures us that none shall be saved or received into heaven in the number of the elect if he be not conformed to the Image of Iesus Christ. He predestined them says he to be made conformable to the Image of his Son In a word we must be by grace what Iesus is by nature It is a maxime in Christian piety that the Son of God is the true life and true model of our life it is the example shew'd us in the mountain as well as to Moses according to which we are commanded to operate Our interiour and exteriour life then must imitate and regard the exercises of the soul of Iesus Christ and the occupations of his sacred life For this reason the eternall Father gives us his Son in the mystery of the incarnation for giving his Son a new life in the mystery of love and giving it to be communicated to us he makes him thereby the principle of a new life in us and wils that as he is the principle of the life of his Son in eternall generation so his Son should be the principle of our life in the new temporall generation of our souls by Baptisme and Grace Saint Paul also teaches this when speaking of the reformation of Adam he says As we have born the image of the earthly so shall we also bear the image of the heavenly as if exhorting us to an imitation of the Son of God he should advise us that as we have born the image of Adam imitating him by sin and following him by our own inclinations we should also bear the image of Iesus Christ imitating his life and actions This Doctrine is wholly conformable to the Principles of Christianity The life of a Christian honours and regards God and imitates his life Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect saith Iesus Christ or to say better it is the life of God himself who lives in us by his Son Whence it follows that as the Father lives in the Son and the Son in the Father so we live in Iesus and Iesus in us according to that Prayer of the same Son of God to his Father full of love and affection I am in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one But how can we be one with the Son of God How can we adhere to him and be incorporated with him How can we conceive this reciprocall life of Iesus in us but in imitating him and not only imitating him but expressing and perfectly representing him since he lives in us and we in him in the mystery of the incarnation For the eternall Father giving us his Son to be man and to live with men a life common and conformable to the nature and condition of men he gives us in him a law rule and form of life and shews us in him the manner of conversation that we must follow to live Christianly that is to live a new life which the eternall Father gives us in his Son and by his Son a life singularly proper to the estate and perfection of Christianity We are then to look on the Son of God as our Law imitate and follow him as our rule which is to speak properly as the sacred Oracles foretold when speaking of the Messias and the time of his coming they said that God will make a Word abbridged upon the earth This Word is the Son of God who descending to the vile and mean estate of humane nature gives us his words and actions a model for ours This also
Saint Paul explains where he says that God spoke to the world four thousand years and conducted and taught men after divers manners and sent Angels he gave a Law writ with his own hand he prescribed many Ceremonies and in all ages caused Prophets to speak But in the Law of Grace he speaks to us by his Sonne who teacheth us supernaturall truths till then unknown to the World and reserved for the Excellency of the state of Christianity The Angels now guide us no more but attend us the written Law doth not oblige us the Ceremonies are now limited and the Prophets speak no longer It is Iesus the Word and the Sonne of the eternall Father who becoming man and conversing among men speaks to us and teaches us He is our Angel to inlighten us our Law to direct us our Prophet to speak to us and our Master to teach us He is the abridg'd word and by the condition that he hath made with his Father he conducts us by his spirit he illuminates us by his grace he directs us by his providence and he is the word of the Father so he teaches us not onely by his words but also by the holy and adorable actions of his life the rule the Law and modell of our life Now if Iesus be the rule and law of our life it is manifest that we ought to imitate him if we would live Christianly and if by the exercises of a solid piety we desire to attain a perfection suitable to the vocation and estate we profess we must choose none but those which imitate the Sonne of God holding it a maxime in all kindes of exercises that the Christian is so much the more devout and perfect the more conformable his life and actions are to those of Iesus Christ and that he is neither devout nor perfect but as far as he imitates the life and actions of Iesus Christ for true piety and Christian perfection if rightly understood consisteth onely in this point This Principle and Precept we have also from Iesus Christ where he sayes If any man serve me let him follow me and where I am there my servant shall be also the servant of God must imitate Iesus Christ. To serve is nothing else but to follow to follow according to St. Austine is to imitate so that the devotion whereby we should serve God is not devotion but illusion if it be not in the exercises which cause us to follow and imitate the life of Iesus Christ. Here we may see how much they are deceived who dare call him rash and accuse him of presumption that would imitate Iesus Christ who say it is to soar too high and that it is impossible man should imitate his God and blinded with this ignorance are content to employ themselves in some good morall exercises The Apostle condemns this errour saying Iesus Christ suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps St. Paul confesses that his study and principall care was to imitate Iesus Christ to which end he writ to the Corinthians Be ye followers of me as I am of Iesus Christ. In a word we are not made Christians nor participate of the graces of the Sonne of God but to be put into a capacity and obligation to imitate him This is his intention when he sayes who doth not follow him is not worthy of him To say the contrary is to oppose the opinions of the Fathers a truth more manifest then day By these Principles we discover another blindness greater then the other a deceit more dangerous in many Christians who onely study to perfect their reason and think they do much to follow that in every point wherein they are much deceived For they believe it sufficient to live reasonably and Christianly and in this belief forget or neglect the rest thinking they are arrived to an estate perfect enough But is quite contrary for by the use of reason onely we live as perfect men or at most but as good Philosophers but if we would live and operate as good Christians and Children of God we must advance our selves above Reason to live not a humane but a divine life that is the life that the Sonne of God liv'd upon Earth and communicated to true Christians the life of the new man To live this life we make use not of reason but of grace which is farre above reason and must be the principle of Christian actions For onely grace can bring us to God and render us worthy of God that is of God considered as the object of our Faith and Religion The foundation of all consisteth in this that a humane spirit and reason is not our conduct nor the rule of our life as Christians Iesus Christ is the onely rule law and principle thereof wherefore in our exercises of piety we must have this continually before our eyes if we would be devout viz. we must follow him if we would be saved and we must imitate him if we will follow him Which we are now to consider how it is to be done CHAP. XIII The Practise of what hath been proposed in the imitation of Jesus Christ. WHen we speak of imitating the Sonne of God we mean not doing of miracles as he did we are not commanded to walk upon the Sea to raise up the dead to life and to give sight to the blind We mean not the being elevated to an intuitive knowledge of the secrets of the Divinity this is onely for Iesus these are the effects of his almighty power and the marks of his Mission We are not called to come into competition with him but as he was humbled to our meanness and was cloathed with our nature becoming man and taking a new being and estate so he takes also a new manner of life conformable to ours which we ought to imitate after which we are to form the interiour of our Consciences and the procedure of our actions He annihilated himself in the Incarnation saith the Apostle he humbled himself in all the Mysteries of his life he made himself poor in all his estates he was obedient even to the Crosse he suffered even to death he hath shewed his love in all his works In a word he practised all manner of vertues in the progress of his life Let us do the like he was born for our sakes and all that he did was onely that he might imitate him as the modell of our life For this reason he chose a kind of life full of various estates and practised severall actions that all sorts of persons in all manner of estates should find in him the Idaea of their actions and the prototype of their life Thus to imitate Iesus Christ is an Obligation belonging to the state of Christianity When we receive Baptisme we are incorporated into him as members this incorporation doth not onely bind us to adhere to him as members to their head but to be like
him and to have as much conformity in our actions to those of Iesus as there is between the head and the members of the same body So that this imitation must not be indifferent but most holy and perfect All as many of you saith the Apostle as are baptized into Ie. Christ have put on Christ that is ye bear his Livery and as the Doctors interpret it ye are made like unto him ye imitate his vertues and are followers of his life and actions For it is but reason that where the head is there the members should also be and that there be a resemblance and conformity of the one to the other To imitate then the Sonne of God implies two things the one is that we do what he hath done the other that we do it with the same spirit and dispositions wherewith he did it He was humbled for us he shewed his love and clemency towards us Let us also learn of him to be gentle and humble of heart He was obedient even to death the death of the Crosse let us imitate his obedience preferring the accomplishment of his divine Ordinances and holy will before all things even our own life He was born in a stable layd in a manger he took poverty for the companion of his life he condemned the World and despised its pride shewing us that all is vanity and a meer nothing in the eyes of God Let us do the same and though we are in the World condemn its vanity in a word so use it that all our life interiour and exteriour may be a continuall imitation of the life of Iesus This is the true piety that a Christian must exercise the onely meanes to be perfect In this imitation and resemblance consisteth the perfection of the soul as well in the state of grace as of glory We know that when we appear we shall be like him we shall see him as he is saith Saint Iohn If then we shall be like him in glory we must also be like him in grace for glory is nothing but grace consummated grace glory commenced But we must not rest here it is not enough to do barely what the Son of God hath done we may deceive our selves herein believing we do much when we do nothing of value because Iesus Christ being man as we are and conversing amongst us no doubt but we may find some conformity and resemblance to him even among the wicked in the common states of men many suffer and are oppressed many poor and humbled many sequester themselves from the pomp of the Court and live in the obscurity of a solitary life many fast and pray and do almost all the exteriour actions that the Son of God exercised upon earth He was man as we are we are men as he was but this does not perfect us this is no imitation of him the reason is because it is not enough to do as he did but we must do it with the spirit in the dispositions and by the principle that he operates which few persons mind It is not enough to do but we must do it by a principle of grace not of generall grace comprised under the common and generall name we give to all the gifts of God which is an usuall way of speaking but of grace which giveth us Iesus Christ communicateth to us his spirit and puts us into the holy dispositions of his soul. So that doing all things by this principle we perfectly imitate the Son of God so far that our naturall common actions are withdrawn from their meanness and elevated and united to those of the Son of God after a particular manner as being operated by the same principle and with the same dispositions This manner of acting is peculiar to the state of Christianity and in all circumstances conformable to the state of grace for by Christian grace we are new creatures creatures in Iesus Christ as the Apostle saith and consequently we have a new being and life Which if we have we must also have new inclinations another goodness and all our actions must be conformable to this new estate seeing that according to the ordinary maxims the work is according to the being Now as the being we have by Christian grace is wholy divine elevated and entirely in Iesus Christ it followes that all our actions must be elevated and done in Iesus For this the Son of God humbled himself to all practices and exercises to ennoble and sanctify them for according to the Fathers Iesus entring into the waters in the day of his Baptisme by his touching them he sanctifies the waters of our Baptisme and as Saint Augustine saith he sanctified the world and blessed it by his conversation So by the use he hath made of humane nature wherewith he hath clothed himself and of all the exercises and functions proper thereto he sanctify'd ours shewing that we may imitate him seeing he became man to be the rule law and model of our actions and not onely imitate him but express and represent him to the life and be so many Christ's as members of the Son of God We must be one with him and consequently must not operate but with him and in his person not in our own For this cause he gives us his spirit whereby we act or to say better he acts all in us It follows that they are not so much our vertues as those of Iesus in us Herein appears the great difference between Christian vertues and morall or humane For instance The love God requires of a Christian must not be that of a Pagan who loves them that love him nor that of a Politician who loves according to his humour or interest much less that of a Iew who loves not but out of an hope of reward promised or a fear of Iudgments The love of a Christian must be the same with that of Iesus that is he must love with the same love wherewith Iesus loves he must love with the love of Iesus as he must live the life of Iesus Walk in charity saith Saint Paul as Iesus Christ hath loved you The Son of God himself in the Eve of his passion speaks thus to his Apostles I give you a new Commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you To love is no new Commandment this law was imprinted in our hearts from the beginning of the world but the manner of loving is new we must love by the same love wherewith Iesus loved us his love must be in us O how great is this love how pure how free from self-interest how strong and powerfull since according to the Apostle it is the same love which made Iesus to be born and die for us even then when we were his enemies and sin raigning in us The Son of God gives us a cleer testimony of this truth speaking to his Father I have declared to them thy Name and will declare it that the love
end is no other then God whom man must possess Thus by Creation man is not onely in a capacity to love God a most singular favour but hath also for his end the possession of God himself Whence we must conclude that as every thing seeketh its perfection and by a naturall and necessary instinct runs to its last end to enjoy it and repose there so man being created to possess God his ultimate end carries an instinct that drawes him to God and by the same Law whereby he is naturally obliged to seek perfection he is obliged to love and seek God in love and possession in whom consists his perfection This instinct is naturall and proper to him as it is naturall to a stone to tend downward and to fire to mount upward whereby it is evident that we must promise our selves not onely in Heaven the fulfilling of this Law but we must begin it upon earth and from the first use of our reason observe this precept Indeed this capacity of Love is fulfilled and perfected in Heaven onely in the state of glory but we must begin to love here We must resign to God who is our end if in the end we will possess him for whatsoever a Man soweth that shall he also reap saith the Apostle To this God invited us by the benefit of Creation to this he obliges us by an eternall Law a Law which he hath engraved in the Center of our being a Law which can by no meanes be defaced during our life a Law indispenceable For man was onely created to love God and hath no capacity more naturall then that of Love his onely business both in Earth and Heaven is to love God and possess him wherein consisteth perfection Considering these truths it is impossible to conceive to what blindness the corruption of times have reduced the spirits of men who being born for Heaven onely spend all their thoughts on Earth and separating themselves from their God are so strongly fetter'd to the Creature that they know not what perfection is believing they have power to dispence with so holy a Law But can this Law of Love be blotted out of our hearts Can we despise it notwithstanding the many reasons that oblige us to it Is there any thing more reasonable then to love them that love us what greater love could God testifie to us then to make us capable to love him and to create us to possess him even nature obliges us hereto this benefit is an act of Love God loving us to be beloved again we can do no lesse in acknowledgement of this benefit of love but perfectly love him we can never deny we are obliged to this acknowledgement if we would not be convinced of ingratitude nor can we acknowledge it but by loving him God who is all fulness and self-sufficiency can receive nothing of us but love and therefore by the same Law whereby we are obliged to acknowledge him our Creator we are obliged to love and consequently to be perfect since perfection cannot be without love God himself hath engraved this design imprinted this Law of Love in the Center of our souls and bottom of our hearts Therefore as Thomas of Aquin observes the form of our heart beares the image of this Love it is large at the top and pointed at the bottom open to Heaven shut to Earth to shew us that we live onely for Heaven that our heart the seat of Love is open onely to receive and bear the influences of Heaven and not capable to have any besides him who reignes in the Heavens and the form of our body straight and tall tells us that Heaven onely is the object of our sight the subject of ous love The soul by its most sensible inclinations is carried on to this love By the same necessity that the part loves the whole the sonne his Father man is obliged to love his God by Creation his Father his all and were it not that the soul ruines these motions by strange love whereto she tyes her self she would feel her self so powerfully attracted thereby that she would not be able to restrain the violence or to stop the course thereof This is so true that do she what she can though she do suffer her self to be transported with the love of Creatures to the prejudice of the love of God yet can she not root out these resentments of God so deep this Law of acknowledging her God is engraved in her being For when she hath loved all but God she sees that she hath loved nothing she knowes that there is neither firm content assured repose nor true perfection but in the love of her Creator Now though we would disingage our selves from this Obligation yet is it impossible for God who wills that we love him maketh use of all things yea even of our self-love to attract us to his love In loving our selves we love naturally what is good our own good Now God is not onely the true Soveraign good but by creation he would be the onely good of our souls that we might love him in this quality for what is more to man then God The Lord is my heritage and my portion saith David If naturally every thing loves his particular good why should not a man be obliged to love his God who is his true his onely good and if he be obliged to love him he is by consequence obliged to possess him and in possessing him to be perfect which is the scope of this first Motive The second Motive CHAP. V. That Man in as much as he is a Sinner and the child of Adam is obliged to seek God as the only remedy to his evils WE are Criminals the children of death guilty Laesae Majstatis Divinae the World understood aright is but a Prison where we are detained during the excution of the Sentence pronounced against the children of Adam the Offender we being such have forfeited our right we are deprived and made unworthy of all sorts of graces forfeited our priviledges for as children of Adam as sinners as culpable before God we have no more any right our selves to our life to our actions to the world or to any creature but having lost all by Sin we are left wholly to the Iustice of God who by reason of our offence hath reason to dispoyl us of all the gifts of grace and nature and to do with us as pleases him according to the rigour of his equitable Iustice. Moreover as children of Adam we are so miserable that we may truly say there is nothing more unworthy more unprofitable more uncapable then man his unworthiness is so great that he cannot think one thought of God be it never so little if God of his mercy doth not infuse it into him he is unworthy to present himself before his Creator to appear before the Throne of his soveraign Majesty even to demand grace and pardon for his sins This unworthiness arrived
to such a point that it was necessary the Son of God should be made man that God immortall should be clothed with our mortality to purchase for us by his blood and death a power to serve him to merit for us by his life and sufferings the graces necessary for us to produce good thoughts to obtain for us permission to present our selves to God and before him to re-instate us with a hope of pardon and trust in his Grace Man as a Sinner is so unprofitable and uncapable that without Gods particular grace without an effect of his divine mercy he can do no good work nor hope for any blessing or favour and if he receive any if he find himself replenished with love and hope or capable of any good it is onely by the bounty of God who though justly provoked stayes the effects of his Iustice that we might tast the fruits of his inexhaustible goodness Considering these motives and truths let us stand here before God as guilty of divinae Magistatis laesae Let us look upon our selves as sinners and we shall clearly see that by this estate we are left to Gods Iustice that we must of necessity leave our selves to his conduct and divine will For if for civil crimes men worthy of death are left to the Lawes of Iustice and the will of their Prince who will dispose of their life and goods as pleases him certainly man as a sinner worthy of death ought to be left to the will of his God to do with him according to the rigour of his Iustice or effects of his mercy This is the first practick to be learned from this Motive for the soul in the consideration of these truths ought to do that in love humility and choyce which she cannot avoid upon constraint A Christian as the child of Adam and so a sinner must put himself before God resign himself wholly to him and with an humble submission and contentment of spirit receive from his most wise hand all the effects of his divine conduct and accept with a resignation good and evill privation and enjoyment all that may happen unto him Above all he must be careful to continue in a profound humility before God exposing himself to the raies of his divine mercy to move him to pardon From this Principle we draw a second practise seeing the need we have of God For considering our selves to be so wretched and miserable we are obliged to seek a remedy for our evills Now as this cannot be found but in God the repairer of our faults the freer of our souls it will follow that by the knowledge of our miseries and the weight of the iniquities which oppress us we are driven to have recourse unto God even by the same exigence whereunto sinne hath reduced us and are obliged to seek out God Every way that man considers himself he finds himself in a want of God and consequently obliged to seek God as the onely happiness of his soul the onely remedy of his evils The better to understand this we must remember that by sinne man is equally miserable in two considerations the rigour and violence of sinne which oppress him and the evills and disorders whereinto sinne precipitates him from which two states he cannot get but by possessing of God For the first faith teaches us that man cannot get out of sin do whatsoever he can if God himself come not to relieve and deliver him Man of himself may lose himself may plunge himself may sell himself may enslave himself but he cannot free himself nor bestow himself but by the mercy of God who gave us his Son to re-establish all things in us as the Apostle affirms Now this re-establishment is done only by the spirit of love and charity which is the spirit of God in us given to us From whence we see that he that will avoid his miseries and shake off the yoke of sin must necessarily possess God who onely can free him Hence we may observe what a work the conversion of a soul to God is and the freeing of a sinner by what way soever it is wrought in man To apprehend properly the importance of this work of grace we must say that he that would be converted and delivered from sin must not onely go out of his sin but must also possess God and consequently by the same Motive that he desires to go out of his sin he is obliged to dispose himself to possess God and to become worthy of so holy an heritage for to confess his sin to turn to God to be delivered from his sin and to possess God is all one thing wherein appears the need we have to seek God and how seriously a Christian ought to labour in an affaire wherein his eternal safety doth consist The second state of our miseries doth no lesse oblige us to seek God then the former for by the effect of sinne and the Tyranny it exercises over us we are continually tossed about disorder'd made vagabonds and precipitated from imperfection to imperfection from sin to sin from trouble to trouble This evil hath no remedy what resolution soever the soul takes what diligence soever it useth what habit soever it assumes it will never find calme rest or deliverance till it hath found and possesses God and be possessed of him Never shall she be in true liberty Christian liberty the liberty of the children of God until she possesses the spirit of God wherein they deceive themselves who to acquire the peace of the soul and true liberty of the spirit use a thousand practises and a multitude of exercises peace and true Christian liberty being not to be found but in the possession of God Many things indeed that we speak and do serve to lessen our trouble and thraldom but not one can give true liberty or the peace of the spirit but the possession of God The reason is demonstrative nothing can have peace liberty and repose but in its proper Centre God is the Centre of the soul therefore in God alone is her peace liberty and repose and as long as she is with God and possesses him she is in liberty and repose no longer Whence we evidently conclude that while the soul is separated from God she is tyrannized over by the malice of sin continually drawn into circumstances terms and subversions And souls that make shew to search after the truth and to live in the purity of Christianity if they seek not God purely and seriously if he dwelleth not in the bottom of their hearts shall never live but in disquiet and in trouble in scruples and in Pannick terrours For it 's an infallible maxime That man can never rest but in the possession of God the contre of his soul. In this we see the strict Obligation that we have to seek God and to study Christian perfection which consists in the possession of God This is the resentment the desire and demand of the
in the year 1641.1643 faithfully extracted out of the said Statutes from Magna Charta to the said time by Edmond Wingate Esq. Artamenes or the grand Cyrus an excellent new Romance in five volumes in folio Written by the famous Wit of France Mounsier De Scudery in English by F. G. Esquire Clelia an excellent new Romance in four volumes in folio by Mounsier De Scudery The illustrious Bassa a compleat Romance in fol. by Mounsier De Scudery Astrea an excellent and compleat Romance in three volumes in fol. translated by a person of Honour The History of Polinder and Flostela a Romance in verse by James Harrington Esq. The third Edition revised and much enlarged The History of the lives of the Philosophers with their Figures in two volumes in fol. by Thomas Stanley Esquire The History of the Wars between Swedeland and Poland which occasioned the expulsion of Sigismundus the third King of those Kingdoms with his heirs for ever from the Swedish Crown with a continuation of those Wars utill the trace An. 1619. Also a Narration of the daily passages at the last and great Treaty of pacification between these two Kingdoms concluded at Stumbsdorf in Prussia An. 2635. concluding with a brief commemoration of the life and death of Sir George Duglas Kt. Ambassadour extraordary from the late King of Great Britain by John Fowler Secratary to his Lordship for that Embassy in folio An Historicall Discourse of the City of London with the History of Westminster and the Courts of Iustice Antiquities and new buildings thereunto belonging by James Howel in fol. The History of the Goths Swedes and Vandals by the Bishop of Upfall in fol. The History of Masiniello The second part with a continuation of that tumult and the end of it in octavo by J. A. Esquire The naturall and experimentall History of Winds written in Latine by the Right Honourable the Lord Bacon in English by R. G. in 12. printed 1653. The life and death of Freeman Sands Esquire by R. Boremon in quarto Things New and Old or a Store-house of above two thousand Similies and Sentences Allegories Apophthegmes Adigies Apologues Divine and Morall politicall and Historicall with proper applications a Book that will furnish the Reader with rarities for the adornment of his Discourse upon any subject whatsoever in large folio Anti-Socinianism or ae Confutation of Socinian Heresie with a Description of their lives and deaths of the chief Authours of that Sect and when it was brought into England by N. Chewny M. A. in Quarto The Arraignment of the Anabaptists wherein the Antiquity universality and succession of Infant Baptisme since the Apostles dayes is maintained and Necessity of Dipping refuted by J. Cragge M. A. the last Edition in Octavo A Sermon preached at the Assizes at Huntington by J. Gaule M. Sands Paraphrase upon the Psalms in large Octavo Good thoughts for every day of the moneth by M. D. S. in twenty four Gods House with the nature and use thereof as it ought to be understood and respected by Christians under the Gospel by Simon Gunton M. A. in twelves Eight Sermons of Mr. Craggs with a Treatise of the lawfulnesse of Tithes and the lawfulnesse of Marriage by the Minister in Octavo An Exhortation for Desperate sinners written by the Right Honourable the Lord Grandison Prisoner in the Isle of White in twelves Sapientia Justificata a Vindication of the fifth Chapter of the Romans or an answer to Dr. Jeremy Taylor 's Deus Justificatus by John Gaul M. A. in twelves The Soliloquies of St. Bonaventure containing his four mentall exercises and also his Treatise called the Bundle of Myrrh Concerning the passion of our Saviour with thirteen spirituall exercises of the said Bonaventure in twentie four A Catalogue of the Lords Knights and Gentlemen that have compounded for their estates with the sums that paid their Compositions in Octavo A Panagyrick of the Queen of Swedeland in Octavo Letters of affaires Love and Courtship written to severall persons of Honour and Quality by the exquisite Pen of Mounsieur de Voyture A member of the famous French Academy established at Paris by Cardinall de Richlieu in Octavo A Trance of Newes from Hell or Mercurius Acheronticus by James Howel Esquire in Quarto Modern Policy taken from Machiavel and Borgia by an eye-witness a most incomparable piece in twelves the seventh Edition The Accomplished Courtier Consisting of Institutions and Examples by which Courtiers and Officers of state may square their Transactions prudently and in good order and method by H.W. Gentleman in Octavo The Minister of State wherein is shewn the true use of Modern Policy by Monsieur de Sithon Rendered into English by Sir Henry Harbert Knight in folio An Apologie for Paris for rejecting of Juno and giving of her Golden Ball to Venus by R. Barron Gentleman in Octavo Pocula Castaliana or Castalian Cups by Robert Barron in Octavo Mirza a Tragedy really acted in Persia by R. B. Gentleman in Octavo Choice Poems being Amorous Morall Lusory c. by Edward Sherburn Esquire in Octavo Five Playes by Richard Brome in Octavo Select Poems by William Hammond in large Octavo The Romaines of Monsieur de Balzack or his last Letters written to severall grand and eminent persons in France whereunto are annexed the Familiar Letters of Monsieur de Balzack to his Friend Monsieur Chaplin never before in English in Octavo 1658. Wit Restored being Select Poems never before in Octavo The Learned man defended and reformed by the happy Pen of R. Daniel Bartolus Arnaldo or the injured Lover an excellent new Romance now extant FINIS Mat. 5.48 1 Joh. 1.3 Revel 12. John 15.19 Joh. 7.16 1 Cor. 6.19 20. Rom. 8.15 16. Jo. 1.12 1 Joh. 3. â— Rom. 8.9 Tit. 3.5 2 Cor. 5.17 John 3.3 Eph. 5.1 Joh 18.36 Rom. 8.17 Eph. 5.1 Rom. 11.36 Rom. 8.16 Ephes. 4.1 Rom. 5.20 Jo. 17.24 Mat. 28.30 Joh. 1.14 1 Jo. 1.1 Phil. 3.20 1 Pet. 1.15 Exod. 7.1 Psal. 82.1 6. Rom. 8.3 Mat. 20.28 Jo. 17.14 Phil. 3.8 Col. 3.3 Jo. 10.18 Eph. 4.22 23 24. Col. 3.9 Psa. 49 1â— 1 Cor. 2.14 Joh. 4.23 v. 24. Phil. 4.13 Hebr. 13.18 Phil. 4.13 Eph. 1.23 Mat. 11.27 Jo. 14.6 Joh. 15.5 Eph. 2.3 Mat. 12.30 Gal. 5.6 Jo. 8.36 Gal. 6.7 Psal. 142.5 Cant. 1.7 Psal. 34.14 Gen. 6.5 Rom 9.29 Jo. 15.4.5 Rev. 2.10 Joh. 15.5 Jam. 1.17 Job 4.10 1 Cor. 1.30 Gal. 14.1 Eph. 5.30 Col. 1.18 Eph. 4.25 1 Cor. 6.15 Joh. 1.16 Jer. 31.3 Matth. 5.48 Mat. 22.37 Col. 3.14 1 Joh. 3.2 Luk. 10.42 Luke 7 34 Joh. 20.13 Rom. 11.16 Rom 11.16 Jam. 1.5 Gal. 3.27 Col. 3 9 10. 1 Cor. 15.47 1 Joh 3.8 Col. 3.3 Mat. 13.46 1 Cor. 1.30 Col. 2 3. Rom. 8.32 Heb. 13.21 Rom. 5.5 Rom. 5.20 Joh. 1.16 Rom. 13.14 2 Cor. 5.17 1 Joh. 5.12 Luk. 12.47 Joh. 15.4 1 Pet. 2 9. 1 Cor. 6. Gal. 4.19 Mat. 25.12 Mat. 7.21 1 Cor. 4.5 Heb. 11.6 Act. 17.28 Rom. 9.8 2 Cor. 5.7 2 Cor. 10.5 Mat. 11.25 Heb. 11.1 Jo. 18.37 Heb. 10.38 Joh. 11.26 Joh. 14.6 Mat. 11.29 Mat. 23.12 Mat. 11.25 Isa. 57.15 Isa 40 15. Acts 17.28 Jo. 14.23 1 Cor. 6.19 Psal. 22.4 Prov. 23.26 1 Cor. 4.4 Phil. 3.12 Hos. 13.3 Exod. 3.14 Gal. 2.20 Mat. 16.24 Phil. 2.8 Rom. 12.1 Col. 3.3 Rom. 6.4 Tit. 1.11 Phil. 2.25 Mat. 18.3 1 Cor. 3.18 19. Rev. 3 17. Isa. 29.13 Mat. 22.12 13. Gal. 6.7 8 Mat. 3.15 Mat. 7.18 Gal. 5.25 Rom. 8.4 Eccles. 2.14 Cant. 2.16 Rom. 14.8 1 Cor. 6.19 201 1 Thes. 2.12 Mat. 5.16 2 Cor. 2.15 Jo. 14.6 Rom. 8.7 Rom. 8.6 Isa. 30.1 Psal. 81.11 12. Rom. 1.24 1 Cor. 1.20 1 Cor. 1.23 Psal. 119.105 Psal. 119.24 Psal. 119.172 Col. 1.10 Joh. 14.21 Isa. 66.1 1 Sam. 2.30 Joh. 17.4 2 Cor. 5.15 Matth. 6.9 10. Mat. 6.23 Psal. 119.34 Gal. 1.10 Rom. 1.21.24 Gal. 2.14 Isa. 26.12 Phil. 2.13 Eph. 2.10 Eph. 1.4 Luke 14.26 Eph. 2.3 Esa. 66.2 Prov. 1.24 Mat. 25.18 Mat. 8 21. Pro. 1.26 Mat 25.28 v. 30. Luke 9.62 Mat. 13.12 Heb 10.29 Psal. 55.6 Jo. 15.16 1 Cor. 10.23 Matth. 22. Luke 14.18 v. 24. 1 Cor. 10.31 Col. 3.17 Wisd. 8.1 Luke 12.4 Eph. 4.1 Eccles. 2.1 2 Tim. 3.12 1 Cor. 15.49 Rom 8.17 Acts 14.22 Cant. 5.8 Joh. 14.31 Gal. 5.24 Rom. 8.9 Joh. 12.25 Rom. 8.8 Heb. 6.1 Matth 5.29 30. Mat. 10.38 Cant. 1.5 Cant. 1.13 Cant. 2.5 Psal. 39.6 1 Cor. 1.6 1 Thes. 3.3 Mark 10.29 30. Wisd. 3.6 Tob. 12.13 Wisd. 3.6 Rom. 8.23 Jo. 4.34 Mar. 26.43 1 Pet. 2.20 21. Eph. 5.30 Col. 1.24 Acts 5.41 Heb. 10.34 James 1.2 Gen. 29.20 Gal. 6.17 2 Cor. 12.9 2 Cor. 1.5 1 Pet. 4.13 Phil. 1.29 2 Thes. 3.5 Isa. 53.5 Luke 23.31 Dan. 4.25 Psal. 119.137 Psal. 26.2 Rom. 6.19 Luk. 7.47 Luk. 13.3 2 Cor. 8.9 1 Pet. 4.14 2 Tim. 4.7 Mat. 5.10 1 Sam. 24.20 Joh. 15.5 Eph. 5 30. 2 Pet. 1.4 Luk. 9 23. 1 Joh. 1.3 Rom. 5.20 Gal. 2.20 2 Cor. 5.6 Phil. 1.21 1 Tim. 4.7 v. 8. 2 Tim 3.5 Sess. 14. cap. 8. 1 Joh. 5.12 Isa. 29.13 Mark 7.7 Mat. 23.27 Joh. 14.6 Col 3 9.10 1 Cor. 1.30 Joh. 15.4 5. Joh. 15.6 Joh. 6.44 v. 45. Joh. 6.44 v. 45. 1 Cor. 6.17 Eccles. 1.7 Rom. 11.36 1 Cor. 6.19 2 Cor. 5.15 1 Cor. 12.3 Eph. 1.23 Luk. 11.23 Joh. 3.35 Heb. 1.2 Rev. 5.13 1 Cor. 6.19 20. Gen. 2.17 Rom. 7.14 Col. 2.14 Col. 1.13 Joh. 8.34 Heb. 9.24 Luk. 12.48 Eph. 3.19 Joh. 4.24 Col. 1.13 Jer. 48.10 Rom. 8.26 27 1 Cor. 6.17 2 Cor. 8 9. Eph. 1.10 1 Cor. 12.11 â— 12 c. 2 Cor. 5.15 Rom. 8.15 Jo. 9.23 Heb. 1.6 Psal. 72.11 Joh. 17.5 Phil. 2.21 Joh. 6.17 Rom. 8.29 1 Cor. 15.49 Mat. 5.48 Jo. 17.23 Heb. 1.1 2 Joh. 12.26 1 Pet 2.21 1 Cor. 11.1 Mat. 10.38 Phil. 2.8 Gal. 3.27 2 Cor. 5.19 Ephes. 5.2 Joh. 13.34 Col. 1.21 22. Jo. 17.26 Acts 17.28 Rev 3.20 Gen. 6.5 Rom 8.8 Ioh. 7.7 2 Tim. 3.12 Mat. 26.41 Rom. 8 20. Heb. 2.18 1 Pet. 5.8 Exod. 32. Eph. 6.12 2 Cor. 12.9 1 Cor. 9.27 1 Cor. 9.25 Iam. 4.7 Mat. 8.24 Ephes. 6.13 v. 18. Job 1.21 Eph. 6.16 1 Cor. 10.13 1 Sam. 3.18 Heb. 13.20.21