makes us part of such a whole whereof the Son of God is the other part There needs nothing to keep it fast but to keep us in our wits And therefore since a will distinct from his will makes us two again we shall alwayes comprimise with his will that we may continue one I believe now you think you shall make a mighty purchase if you can but procure this Companion to go along with you It is apparent to you that this Charity will help and inable you to do all that is commanded you though it be never so much and hard to be otherwise effected And do you not think that it will make all things easie also to be done Alas it knows no difference between doing and suffering but only this that it chuses the latter many times as a noble testimony to its sincerity and truth Nothing will seem absurd nothing will be thought mis-becoming nothing will appear difficult when once you are in Love It is well compared to an Artificial Glass which when we look thorow an enemy seems a friend disgrace is rendred an honour and hardships look like a pleasure The Love of Christ you know caused him to make himself of no reputation It preserved his Majesty and made it seem no disparagement to be so low as a servant and to court his Vassals It hath this priviledge that it cannot be defamed And it hath this generosity that it cannot learn to deny Ask any thing of it and it will make no difficulty to give it Nay ask a Coat and it will give the Cloak also Ask it to go a mile with you and it will go two Ask it to forgive one injury and it will forgive an hundred Ask it to render you a service and it will serve you with its whole self So that I think one of the ancient Guides of the Church had reason who said Love and do what thou wilt Take thine own course so that thou dost but heartily Love This is a thing so powerful that it withstands our temperament and resists our most natural inclinations It claps a new Biass upon our hearts it carries us against the stream and tide of sensitive desires it breaks the chains of custom it roots up inveterate habits it is of such vast force that it makes us vanquish our selves and obliges us to destroy our own pleasures that we may please another It is strangely bountiful and liberal with all thinking it can never do enough to make it self known to those whom it loves From whence it is that whereas they who live only in a fear and dread of God have starv'd and half dead affections to him which makes them do but little and that with a pensiveness and sadness as if they desired to be excused They whose hearts burn with Love to him have all their powers excited thereby to do their best for him and they strain themselves with the greatest gladness to execute his pleasure in all things And to say the truth there is no passion of the soul but Love hath it at its full command They all owe their Original to Love and would have no being at all if it were not in the soul before them If there were no Love implanted by God in our natures there would be no desire no hatred no grief no joy no fear no despair for all these grow upon this single root or rather are but Love shooting forth in divers shapes They are I say but several motions which Love causes the different figures which it assumes according as the object and occasion requires It is Love which desires when the thing is absent which hates that which would spoil its injoyments which grieves for the loss or fears the departure which despairs of the coming or joyes in the presence of a beloved good What therefore should that be which Love cannot do seeing it carries all these along with it and leads the whole soul thither whither it goes it self It is an active and busie affection having as much Vivacity as it hath strength It s life consists in motion and like to the Heart it ceases to live when it ceases to stir It is painted you know with wings and will make you fly rather then go to Jerusalem It is like to Fire which is both a greedy and a fierce Element A very covetous affection I mean that thinks it never hath enough of that which it desires and so earnest and vehement that it never rests till it hath spent it self upon its beloved It is like the holy fire which God sent from Heaven which was found unextinguished at the return from Babylon as the Hebrews say in the bottom of a Well all covered with mudd and dirt Much water from without cannot quench it and the dulness and heaviness of our own temper cannot repress it But as fire elevates the matter to which it takes though it be never so gross and ponderous So doth Love raise the hearts wherein it makes an impression and stirs them up to actions far surmounting their Age their breeding and condition There is a certain chearfulness also in this affection like to the shining and brightness of Fire which contributes much to the augmenting of its activity It diffuseth a secret joy through the whole soul which cannot be dissembled but casts a splendor into the countenance of those in whom it resides Though Melancholy indeed is sometimes the companion of other Love yet it cannot find so easie access to Divine Charity For that which the one wants the other hath and that which the one doubts of the other necessarily supposes Is not this the common cause of such sadness that Love meets with no return from an heart to which it hath given its own or is in despair of overcoming all the obstacles of its satisfaction But these are things that cannot find a place in this heaven-born affection which is nothing else but a return of our Love to God who hath loved us first and thereby given us assurance that he is desirous to be injoyed by us All the heaviness then of pious souls is when they cannot make such returns as they wish not when they feel this flame within them for then they are strangely pleased and ravished with joy both because it is an effect of the Love of God to them and because hereby they do actually injoy him Now as Melancholy and sadness do oppress the spirits and make us lazy and unwilling to stir so this chearfulness and lightsomeness of mind which Love infuses do set them free and render us active and vigorous in our motion Melancholy is a Lethargick humour and binds up all the powers because its frozen disposition imagines all things impossible to be either done or avoided but chearfulness by its heat and warmth gives us some degree of confidence that things are not so hard to be undertaken and it thaws melts and loosens our saculties into freedom and liberty whereby we become of
to all the rest of its neighbouring parts together with the exact and admirable order of the Whole And can you imagine into what transports it will cast your soul to hear the praises of the Creator sung by all his Works of wonder And yet that is another priviledge of this blessed place by the advantage of whose holy silence you will receive the chearful hymns wherewith every creature you behold doth celebrate the wisdom power and goodness of him that made it You have heard no doubt of the Musick of the Sphaeres which they say would ravish souls from these mortal bodies should it but strongly touch their ears and therefore is almost drown'd by the noise and clatter of this lower world This is it which I am now commending to you that sweet concent which all creatures make among themselves that rare harmony which there is in the motion of all the heavenly Orbs which strikes the mind so agreeably that one cannot chuse but dance for joy together with them But it is the proper entertainment of those who dwell in that still Region in which alone it can be distinctly heard and where an everlasting song to the Creator of all doth melt their hearts to joyn in consort with that Universal harmony But yet the place is nothing so considerable as the Persons that inhabit it nor will it be so useful to draw their pictures curiously as to describe their life and manners Enquire not therefore of the vastness of this place the stateliness of its buildings the riches of their furniture and such like things but know that it is the City of the Great King the seat of the Imperial Majesty of Heaven and Earth the place where the Lord and Governour of the whole world whose Dominion is an everlasting Dominion and who reigns through all Generations keeps his Court. Do you not think it will be a pleasingly amazing sight to behold the Majesty of his Glory Or What greater happiness can you wish if you were to be the disposer of your own fortune than alway to stand before the Soveraign of the World as one of his Ministers and Attendants and to live in his blessed presence as one whom he highly favours To behold the wisdom of his Government the righteousness and goodness of his Laws the admirable contrivance of all his Works the universal care which he takes of all his Creatures the infinite extent of his Providence and the power of his Authority whereby he doth whatsoever he pleases in Heaven and Earth and Sea and all deep places To see how he brings those things together which were removed far asunder and dissolves the combinations and confederacies of those things which were closely united To contemplate how he hereby makes those designs abortive which were just bringing forth how he disappoints the devises of the crafty and confounds all the subtilty of the world and catches it in its own snares It will strangely transport you to see the beauty of his Holiness the splendor and brightness of his Understanding the largeness of his Love his uncorrupted Justice his unexhausted Goodness his immoveable Truth his uncontroulable Power his vast Dominions which yet he fills with his presence and administers their affairs with ease and is magnified and praised in them by the throng of all his creatures These things I will leave to your own private thoughts that I may have time to speak of the rest of the caelestial Inhabitants but especially of the Kings Son who is a principal ornament if I may speak in so low a phrase and a great glory to this place And of him I shall need to tell you no more than this that in his person there is to be seen at once the most illustrious Lover and Warriour that ever was His Conquests have been innumerable His Victories no History but one of his own inspiring is able to recount He hath trodden down the most potent and giantly enemies He hath triumphed over the Powers of Earth and Air. He hath trailed the greatest Tyrant that ever was seen at his Chariot-wheels And there is one universal triumph of his over all things still behind wherein there will be special marks of honour set on all the Citizens of Jerusalem who are to bear a part in it which will astonish and ravish all their hearts with Admiration Love and Joy This will be the most splendid shew the most illustrious appearance that ever the Sun saw for all Angels and all Men all that ever have been are or shall be will there be summoned to attend in some sort or other upon the Pomp of that great day Then all the Citizens of Jerusalem will be seen with Crowns of Gold on their heads which this great Prince will bestow upon them then they will appear on the Theatre of the world as so many Kings raigning together with him and then all the Heavens will ring with shouts of joy and praise to him that redeemed them as they march along in his train thorow the Air to Jerusalem For as I told you he is the most glorious Lover that ever was and the greatness of his valour and courage doth not at all extinguish his nobler flames He is owner of the most tender heart that ever was in any breast and hath rendred himself redoubtable to his greatest enemies by nothing more than this that he hath won so many hearts and triumphed over so many brave souls who were vanquished by nothing else but the power of his mighty Love Such a generous Lover he was that though he was rich he became poor that they on whom he had set his heart might be made rich He laid aside the Robes of his Glory that they might be invested with them He took upon him the shape of a servant that he might prefer them to be the Sons of God and Heirs of a Kingdom And at last he voluntarily and without any compulsion but that of his Love dyed upon a Cross to save the lives of those who were so far from having any resentments of Love to him that they had the hearts of most desperate enemies against him For you must know that he is such a Lord of Love that the hatred and malignity of men could not extinguish the fervours of his passion All the discourtesies they could do him were not able to prevail with him to lay aside his thoughts of kindness toward them The innumerable affronts which he received could not make him go back to Heaven and forsake this ill-natur'd world till he had expressed all the Love conceiveable unto it No he dyed for those who took away his life His bowels earned toward those who were ready to rake into them with their bloody hands His heart burnt with affection to those wretches that cruelly pierced it and thrust it thorow with a spear And therefore I cannot but think you would have a mind to take a journey to Jerusalem and judge your pains and travel well
because they think whatsoever you do is due to their merit They would be loved by all without loving again They will command in all companies and have every one yield to their humors They will teach all and learn of none They are incapable of gratitude and think you are honoured enough for your services if they do but receive them They would draw all to themselves and are unacquainted with that which charms all the world I mean bounty and liberality The Humble man no doubt then is the most agreeable person upon earth whom you oblige by a good word which he thinks he doth not deserve who thanks you for the smallest courtesie who had rather obey then rule who is desirous to learn of the meanest Scholler who contemns no body but himself who loves though he be not loved who thinks nothing too much to do for those that esteem him and who is afraid he hath never recompenced enough the civilities which are done unto him In short this Humility is of such great value and so good natured that there is nothing comparable to it but its twin sister Divine Charity This amiable pair are like the right foot and the left by which the traveller performs his journey There needs no more but this happy couple to carry you through all the paths of piety and bring you safe to Jerusalem Let us turn our eyes then if you please from the one to the other and look a while upon the beauty and graces of Charity whose charms are so powerful that you cannot chuse but open to it your embraces CAP. XII Of Divine Charity The Power that it hath both to establish his Resolution and furnish him with all other Requisites for his Journey ANd that which will very much inamour you at the first glance is the power which you will discover in it to establish your Resolution and to make it so firm that it shall not be shaken by all the force of all the world which is nothing so strong and mighty as Love I know this touches you with a strong inclination to it if you have any mind to offer your will to God as I advised and therefore you will not think I importune you with a tedious discourse if I make you more sensible of this following truth That Love makes one will of two and causes us to sacrifice all our own desires to the will of that we love if we esteem it better than our selves For what I pray you can we say of Love but which a wiser man than you or I hath told us who calls it that emotion of the soul whereby we joyn our selves in will and heart to that which is presented as lovely and convenient for us It is such a consent I say of the heart to some fair and inviting object that we consider our selves as joyned and united to it Insomuch that we do not look on our selves and it as remaining any longer two things which subsist asunder but we conceive a Whole whereof we think our selves but one part and the thing beloved to be the other Is it not necessary then that we have a mind to cleave to this and eternally live in dear imbraces of it Can we endure the thought of being torn from this and so dissolve the Whole which Love hath made Do not we naturally desire to conserve things especially those of our our own creating It is unavoidable then that in any contest which may arise between these parts we yield to the will of that we love for fear of a separation unless that thing be worse than our selves and so we hope to gain by the dissolution If one of these two must be displeased we shall ever chuse that it be our selves unless we esteem the other to be of less value and worth than our selves There is but that one Exception lyes against this general Truth which I shall not stick to reiterate that Love doth so tye us to that we love that we and it become but one whole consisting of two parts and that we shall sooner suffer that part which we make to be crossed in its desires than the other to which we have joyned our selves to be disgusted Do you doubt of it Observe then that Love being placed on things that differ in three degrees it comes to be divided into three sorts Either it is to things below us and then it is called a bare Affection or to things equal to us and then it is termed Friendship or to things above us and then it arrives at the name of Devotion Thus I have learnt from a wise man of my acquaintance Now the nature of Love in every one of these being such that it joyns our hearts to the thing beloved and we and it make but one whole in this only they differ that though we may consent to part and break with that which we esteem less than our selves yet we can never agree to be separated from that which we esteem greater The less part will alwayes be abandoned to the conservation of the greatest we must alwayes sacrifice that which is worst to keep intire the best And therefore though in bare Affection a man alwayes prefers himself before that he loves when one must suffer a displeasure yet it is quite otherwise in the highest Love and sometime in the second sort which we call Devotion for there a man prefers the thing he loves so much before himself that he fears not to venture his very life for the conservation of it He will sooner sever Soul and Body than consent that this and his Soul should be divided He will rather quit all the world and never see it more than forsake this and be banished from it Because as there is no compare he thinks between all the world and this so he is tyed with an incomparably stronger bond to it than to all the world Now of this sort is the Love that we call Charity which is an high Devotion to our Lord. Who since he is Lord of all the Lord of life and glory the Author of eternal Salvation the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth if it were possible for us to leave some things that are better than our selves in expectation of something better than them to which we will give that Love which they have lost yet he will make us love him eternally above all and live in inseparable union with him because there is nothing else superiour to him on which to bestow our Love if we take it from him If we once sincerely love him if we become one with him it is manifestly in the nature of this sublime affection to make us part with our selves for his sake to resign up all our own desires that his will may be done to lose whatsoever we call ours that we may keep him and his good esteem of us It is not possible that we should grant our consent to have that knot untied which
on fire with these words and at last found means to vent himself and burst out in such expressions as these O Sir what have you done I feel the Love of Jesus burn so vehemently in my breast that I shall be devoured by it if it last a moment longer in this force I have scarce any breath left to tell you that you have made me love your self also with a violent passion I have no power no more then desire to resist this Almighty Lover of Souls I render my self his prisoner and wish to be eternally held in his chains You have linkt me to your self too so fast that I am at once become his slave and your servant I would go to the worlds end to seek these two Companions Humility and Charity if they were not already become my guests by your means You have given me a greater treasure then I thought to find in those few words which I received from you and methinks I feel already that I am nought and I have nought and I desire nought but Jesus and Jerusalem If it be not absurd to speak in such terms I am in love with this Love which you have described I see methinks Humility and all things else in its armes I embrace them both with all my soul I welcome them with my best affections into my heart And if I had more hearts then one I would offer them all to the Humble Love of my sweetest Saviour Go on Sir as long as you please if you have not taught me all my lesson in teaching me to Love You have tyed my ears to your tongue and they cannot but listen to your speech Nor shall I ever feel any weariness in hearing of you for you have made me in Love with your discourse by breathing the Love of my Lord into my heart Here he making a little rest the Guide had leave to resume his office though he was so fill'd with joy to see the good effects of what he had said that it was not easie on a sudden to find room for any other thoughts The desire also that he felt of speaking something extraordinary on this occasion had like to have imposed silence on him and denyed a passage to his words But his Prudence telling him how necessary it was to keep himself now from such transports he soon reduced himself to his usual temper and thus began to renew his discourse It is no wonder to find that Jesus captivates hearts and that the Love of a dying Saviour is so powerful as to inthral them to his service All that surprises me is no more then this that such feeble words as mine should so sensibly touch your inclinations to him and with such speed excite so high a degree of Love in your heart It gives me great incouragement to continue my instructions and affords no less incouragement to your self to continue your attention For if you are already under the power of Love by what hath been now delivered I shall make you love unmeasurably before I have finished this discourse You have seen but half of the riches of that golden sentence and there are greater secrets still behind in those two pretious words which are at the conclusion of it For I pray you satisfie me in this demand Have you well considered what Jerusalem is to which you now direct your face I will not stay for your answer but proceed to tell you that I am now going to give you such an Idaea of it that if you keep it fresh in your mind you cannot imagine how it will snatch you from the world and heighten your love unto your Saviour and lift you quite out of your own will if you had a mind to fall into it back again And truly I cannot think that you should have any great list to travel long or that you should not soon feel a weariness to invade your members if you go you know not whither and carry not along with you a true information of the happy repose you are like to meet withall at your journies end Let Jerusalem then be the subject of our next discourse and suffer your eyes to be drawn to that blessed place which I believe you have often heard commended as the Perfection of Beauty and the Joy of the whole earth CAP. XIII A Description of the City Jerusalem and of the happiness be should there meet withall I Have no faculty it must be confessed of making good descriptions of those places which I have seen and therefore it must not be expected that I paint you exactly a place which I know but by report It is sufficient that I tell you nothing but the truth and do not imitate them who fill their Maps with Chimaera's of their own brain though I do not compleatly delineate every part of it but leave many spaces void to be filled up by your self when you shall have the happiness to arrive there Know then that as to the scituation of this City it is agreed by all to be incomparably sweet beyond the fairest place that this world of ours doth afford For it is seated on a very high mountain loftier then Olympus it self which yet is said to lift its head above the clouds and to be obnoxious to none of our storms and tempests and to be deprived of the Sun beams by nothing else but only the night it self It is advanced I say far above the highest part of this heavy earth and foggy air aspiring into the purer sky where the Sun never withdraws its rayes and where there is not the least shaddow of mist or vapour either to obscure its light or to offend the most delicate sense that can be conceived There are nothing but pure and fragrant odors which perfume that happy climate there is a perpetual calm and quiet which reigns in that noble region there is no noise but that which infinitely delights and charms the soul into still and quiet meditations But that which is of greatest remark and most to be remembred is the glorious Prospect which a place of this advantage yields All the world here presents it self before ones eyes and makes them the center in which the beauty and glory of it conspires to meet I would not have you think I mean a world so small as that which we inhabit upon this Globe of Earth but one which comprehends the Sun and Moon and all the other adjoyning orbs which are there beheld to move in comely measures about that Prince of lights Those balls of Fire also which you see fixed in the firmament so remote from you will fall into your better view who though they seem here but like blinking candles and sickly flames will there appear most noble lights designed for some greater end then to lend us a feeble comfort in the night It will be infinitely contenting to see the beauty and fair proportions of every part of this vast frame the fitness usefulness and correspondence of it
where you thought there was nothing but horrid deserts salvage souls and barbarous customs they may produce you many worthy minds whose renowned acts it will give you an infinite joy to have rehearsed But there is nothing I believe will touch you with a greater inclination to their converse than the knowledge of the singular love and friendship that is between all the Inhabitants of that City provided you be already touched with any sense of the pleasure of that noble passion They are a people I told you of the most excellent nature and the sweetest disposition in the world They are void of all deceit and guile of all hatred and envy of all covetousness and self-love of all anger and peevishness with whatsoever other things there are that disturb our peace and spoil our converse here below So that they make the most agreeable society that ever was and interchange to each others such pleasures as my tongue hath not expressions powerful enough to paint them forth There is no strangeness at all among them You can meet no body there but they will entertain you with as much kindness and sincerity as if they had known you many years And when many come together in one place there is no danger of their jarring by reason of their different sentiments but they bring a great addition of pleasure and make the most delicious harmony that ever moved the heart of man There they entwine in the dearest embraces There they open to each other their very hearts There they study to increase not to diminish their mutual happiness There they think all that another injoyes is as if they did injoy it themselves And what they have of their own it is not for themselves alone but for every body else There you shall meet with no pale fears no anxious cares no fruitless wishes no tormenting jealousies and no amorous sighs neither for every one will love others as much as they desire and wish for no return again but only Love If there be any particular Friendships there they do not at all spoil the universal kindness of the place Others will not be loved the worse for them but rather loved better because they will teach those united hearts the greatest Love They may be esteemed also one of the beauteous spectacles of the place and be reckoned among the grateful varieties which will entertain us When after the pleasures of a more general and large conversation every one may retire to the company of those he loveth most There you will be met with such great and shining lights as St. Paul who set all the world on fire with the flames of their love You will fall into the company of those burning hearts who were martyr'd first by their own Love and then by their Persecutors fury for the good of the world And do you think they have put off their affections when they laid aside their rags of flesh Did all their fire go out when they suffered a dissolution of their house of earth Or shall we imagine that this generous passion is the off-spring of our body and ows its being birth and strength to this corporeal nature We may not so defame and asperse the Love of our Lord who no doubt hath a more tender heart in the heavens then he had upon the earth We may expect to find there more Love in the breasts of these holy Lovers who followed him then here they were owners of though they had then so much that it was large enough to embrace the whole world They have not left their nature but only its imperfections They have not changed their affections but only heightned and improv'd them And therefore judge how happy you will be in the acquaintance of such persons and how much more happy in their excellent friendship Your Love will be raised to a strange pitch when you approach such intense and vastly increased flames Your heart will be all Fire when you come near to such huge furnaces the heat of whose Love in this cold region was so strong that it would have forced a sensible soul to expire with them And is the joy think you conceivable which you will feel when you find your self in the arms of those mighty Lovers For my part I can imagine nothing but an Ecstasie when we shall be placed in such great Hearts which are nothing else but Love and Joy to see us at Jerusalem I cannot propound to my desires a pleasure more charming then this unless it be to joyn both heart and voice with the whole number of those glorious friends to chaunt the praises of our Creator and Redeemer And indeed it is beyond the measure of my poor skill to invent any words that can tolerably describe the Melodies which will then be made when the glorious company of the Apostles the goodly fellowship of the Prophets the noble Army of the Martyrs the glittering Troops of Confessors and the innumerable Hosts of triumphant Souls shall compose but one Quire to sing their Anthems and Hallelujahs to the God of Love But yet I am apt to think that their Musick will receive no small part of its graces from hence that there will be no discord in their hearts nor jarring in their affections but that Love will exactly tune them to a perfect harmony Nay this seems to be the sum of what we can say of the happiness of that estate that it consists in a rapturous Love of God and a most passionate Love of one another And truly this is a thing so inviting and I have such a particular affection to this Vnity of Spirit among Brethren that I should be tempted here to speak a little of that Charity which you ought to have to your neighbour as I have already instructed you about that you owe to God but that I have assigned another time and place for that discourse CAP. XIV The manner of their life who live at Jerusalem and that all things concur to make it the most pleasant of all other YOU have great incouragement then to make haste to Jerusalem for you see they pass their time there more delightfully then in any other place and lead a life so much to their content that one may truly say their imployment is to please themselves and to do according to their desires The most vigorous Soul that this earth affords is but a drone in compare with the sprightly air of them that inhabit those Caelestial Regions You would say the most pleasant dayes that here we lead and study to prolong to an hundred years are but like a sleep and a dream a meer image and shaddow of life if you could but be raised for one minute to the strength and activity of those happy people and receive but the sleightest taste of those lively and essential delights which force the whole soul to attend unto them The briskness and chearfulness of our youthful time doth not so much excell the flat and
or rather we need not ask at all for he will but present himself before us and force us to love and rejoyce without any measure And seeing it is a place of such full satisfaction you will not question its tranquillity and repose especially since it is as you heard before you came hither the very Vision of Peace The life which they lead there is so full of content that they are not disturbed by any passion nor disquieted by the violence and disorder of any unruly affection A life it is void of all sadness free from all grief quit of all care and rid of all anxiety of mind Where there is no adversary to assault no forbidden fruit to tempt no impetuous desire of the flesh to molest them and no fear neither that ever they shall be haunted with these enemies of their peace and contentment O how happy should we find our selves if we were but come to the top of that high Mountain which will seem the more clear and quiet because so many clouds have here so often overcast us and so many sudden blasts have ruffled and discomposed us There we shall not accuse one another of any injuries because we shall not do the least nor be troubled to pursue our right because we shall not be wronged There we shall live without jealousies and converse as I have told you without suspition and pass Eternity without any difference of opinion or debates and controversies in Religion which now are no small disease and bring no little burden upon our hearts Nay the very actions of Piety many of them will be of a different kind from what they now are unattended with those passions to which we are now moved which make us suffer evil while we do good Here as the forenamed person well observed to me we do good works when we deal our bread to the hungry and receive the distressed stranger and clothe the naked which is a kind of affliction and tribulation which we indure by our sympathy with them to whom we pay our Charity For we find miserable persons on whom to exercise our Mercy and the misery which we see they lye under makes us compassionate that is to suffer with them How much better then shall we be when we shall find no hungry mouth to feed no stranger to entertain no naked body to cast our garments over no sick men to attend no prisoner to visit no tormented person to commiserate no differences to compose no contenders to reconcile but our Love shall be of another sort all joy all pleasure in the good and in the perfect happiness of every one that we behold And if there were nothing else there to entertain us but the comforts of that friendship I told you of and the delights we shall interchange by a constant amity and good will to one another it were sufficient to recommend this life to any wise mans affection and make him willing to forsake this world to go to a place of such endless love and kindness And doth there now need any demonstration that this is a place of great safety and security environ'd on all sides with the power of God against the attempts of all the enemies of our happiness No sure for then we should be in danger of some disturbance If we should conceive indeed any forces could be gathered against it and that it were not impregnable in it self we might easily imagine that so many troops of illustrious friends so many bands of holy Lovers as here inhabit would perform strange things against the most puissant Invaders There is nothing I told you so strong as Love by the force of which in one single person incredible things have been atchieved and therefore much greater would the united power of it appear in so many hosts of noble spirits all inspired with the highest degree of this affection who would do their utmost for the service and safety of one another But yet we need not have recourse to such fancies as these for the assurance of our peace in that blessed place It is impossible that any thing should wound the quiet of such happy souls or make the least breach in any of their enjoyments There cannot be so much interruption given to them as the scratch of a pin among us amounts unto because they are out of the reach of the evil one and placed in such still and calm Regions where nothing breathes but only that love and dear affection for ever Upon which account also it is that there can be no intermission of their injoyments no more than there will be interruption and disturbance It being a full and perfect happiness there will no time pass wherein they will not be happy The dayes there have no nights The life hath no sleep which is but the Image of death There will not be so much diversion there from the proper exercises of that life as meat and drink now creates which are the present support of our infirm bodies Much less will there be any disease or decay of strength or the incumbrance of any of those imployments which ingage so great a part of our time and thoughts Our Love therefore shall never languish or stand in need of any refreshment our charity shall not cool and abate its heat our joy shall not exhaust our spirits and leave us dull by the excess of it as here it sometimes doth But as I said before we shall rather gather strength and grow more apt to receive an increase of joy by the greatness and force of that which we have already received I need but just remember you it being a thing you have heard no doubt an hundred times that this life of theirs is without any death An eternal life as the Holy Books call it where we shall not have so much sadness as the thoughts of its having an end would beget But we shall rejoyce first that we have so much and next of all that we shall never have less and then that we shall still injoy more and above all that what we do enjoy shall live as long as God who is the cause of it that is for ever I believe you are not weary of so delightful a discourse yet lest I should keep you too long from the rest of my Instructions I shall shorten it as much as I can and shut up this description with a meditation of that devoute person who as I told you long ago undertook the Guidance of men to Jerusalem How different saith he is the life of those in that place from that of ours here Here there is falshood there is truth Here is perturbation there is a faithful possession Here is bitterness and hatred there is dilection and eternal love Here is dangerous elation of mind there is secure exultation of spirit Here we are in doubt whether they that love us may not change their thoughts there is perpetual friendship and no possibility of being enemies Here
sayes and Faces are but a Gallery of Pictures and Talk but a Tinkling Cymbal where there is no love Nay so natural is this to us and withall so sweet that I believe there is no man in the World who for all the wealth in it would be bound to love no body and to be beloved of none He was going on to some further discourses on this subject when the other cryed out Hold do not wholly impoverish this argument but leave something for me to say who am abundantly satisfied that there is nothing comparable to this which hath been the cause of my trouble I will never blame my self more for exceeding too much in this sort of love I plainly see that Mediocrity which every where else is counted a Vertue doth here become a Vice I am more then converted by your excellent discourse I must turn Proselyte to him who said That he would have the Affection of Friends appear rather a Passion then a Vertue That Friendship hath nothing more excellent in it then excess and that it doth rather offend in the Moderation then in its Violence and extremity And here he began to invent all the Praises he could of Friendship which he called The top and perfection of Love the Soul of the World the Spirit of Nature the bond of Society the marriage and happy union of agreeing minds the life and joy of mankind the relief of our sorrows the Physitian of all our secret griefs our Buckler in all assaults our Oracle in our doubts the Governor and Tutor of a prosperous condition the Comforter of a declining fortune without which the greatest happiness would be irksome to us and in whose company the greatest affliction cannot make us miserable He reflected also very happily on this that it was one of the last things that Jesus himself did in this world to make a Friendship between two great persons his blessed Mother and his beloved Disciple These he remembred our Lord would have to live together like Mother and Son which he thought imported such a dearness between them as would justifie the height of his affection And then he cryed out Thou O Divine Love art the nature of God the life of Angels the employment of Heaven By knowing thee I know what it is that I owe to God and I now also know Jerusalem better where they exercise the Noblest Friendships I will never fear thee any more for I see thou wilt secure my duty to God and it will be strange if my Neighbours be not better for thee who art alwayes instigating me to do good What though I be chained more to one person then another you need not think O sons of men that I shall thereby become less charitable to you For my love finding here a continual employment and constant exercise for it self I am the more disposed and ready when occasion serves to express it to you all My retirements cannot work its decay but in the greatest privacy this friendship keeps any rust from growing over it and preserves it pure and bright for the use of others too I love you all wheresoever you dwell on the face of the whole earth I stretch out my hands to you from one Pole to the other wishing I could do you good And though I cannot reach you every one yet my love gives me the comfort of this assurance that God is with you who as he hath a greater love so a greater ability to help you all But his Guide who was better acquainted with his duty then himself thought it best to bring him out of this Rapture because he saw that he would immerse himself too far in the pleasure of this contemplation and likewise thought it was not safe to gratifie themselves with too much of this Honey at once He prayed him therefore to lay aside this discourse a while and to divert himself with the observation of some of those flowers and plants wherewith they saw the earth strewed as they went along For sure said he these were not made for us to tread upon nor only to feed our eyes with their grateful Variety or to bring a sweet odor to our Noses but there is a more internal beauty in them for our minds to prey upon did we but let them penetrate beyond the surface of these things into their hidden properties You are a Christian it is confessed but doth that make you cease to be a Man You read the Gospel of our Saviour but must that give a discharge to all our rational inquiries into the Book of Nature Doth the new Creation intend to destroy the old Or because we behold God in the face of Christ must we look upon him no where else No such matter there is a more antient obligation upon you to study the Works of God of which you ought to quit your self while you study his Word It is an honour to the School of Christ when his Disciples are skill'd in all Wisdom He is such a Master as would not have us know other things the less but the more by knowing him And so they began to pry into many curiosities which several of the Creatures they met withall presented to them not without a great astonishment at that infinite understanding that was the Contriver of them And having once tasted of this kind of Learning he often wished that it was in his power to understand more of his own Body of the motions of the Sun Moon and other Stars with many things besides in this great Fabrick wherein he knew God had hid great treasures of Wisdom and ingraven a fair Image of himself Yea he conceived the whole World sometimes a great Temple and himself one of the Priests that God had placed therein to offer up the Praises of all the Creatures and acknowledge his Wisdom his Power his Goodness which are conspicuous in the frame of them And though he could acquire but a very small knowledge of some of them yet it was a great pleasure to see that there were many more intelligent Priests then himself and more acquainted with Natures Mysteries who rendred to God continually better Praises and called upon all his works in all places of his Dominion to bless his Holy name CAP. XXXVII How after this the Pilgrim fell into a conceit that he did not profit in Vertue and how his Guide rid him of it That we must not make too much haste to perfection but go leisurely in our way How afterward he feared that he should never hold out to the end of his journey Of the confident zeal which some men are possessed withall A beginning of a new discourse about Faith AND now would you think after he had gone thus farr that he should be troubled with such an odd fancy as this That he did not profit at all in Vertue Yet so it was that one day he seriously told his Friend He could not perceive that he had done any thing worthy of himself or
that you may bestow it upon a better Master Do not we say that every Christian must give himself to God and is it not that which I have now perswaded you to resolve But how shall a man give that which he hath not And he hath not himself as I have proved that hath let out his heart to the world It is necessary then that you take it home again in order to your being his You must be your own that so you may give your self to him You must be restored into your own hand that so you may have something to offer up to his uses And did you never think in any sickness that you was near to the gates of Death I beseech you tell me whether it was not a great trouble to you to find your self so much in the power of other things that you could not resign your self to God What misery is there like to this to be so out of our own hands while we live that we cannot yield our selves to our Maker when he would have us dye To be tyed so fast to other things that we cannot go to him when he calls us To feel that this thing holds us and that pulls us and the other even clasps about us and sayes You must not leave us If there were nothing else to thrust you forward in your design the thoughts of this misery would be a sufficient spur to you to quicken the execution of it Restore your self presently to liberty again and be a servant of the world no longer if it be but for this reason only that you may be free to dye Leave the world as you found it And seeing you must go naked as you came do not stay for Death to pluck off your clothes but strip your self and owe your liberty to your own hands It will not be long you are well assured ere that debt to nature must be paid and then there cannot be a greater contentment than to feel that you are your own at that hour That you can dispose of your self to God without any lett or hindrance and that you can dye in the freedom wherein you were born If you stand ingaged to the world it will be sure to put in its claim and challenge an interest in you at that time It will let you know that it is your Mistris and still requires your service And therefore follow your resolution and forsake it betime that so it may not give you any trouble then but suffer you to go out of it as quietly and with as little care as you came into it He spake these words with a great deal of heat and with a tone expressing so much vehemency that he could not have been more earnest if he had been disputing the liberty of his Country with those who intended to betray it But on a sudden repressing himself and letting his voyce fall a little he told him that he would spare the rest of his discourse on this argument for some body that stood in greater need of it For I perceive said he that I have now to deal with an heart that hath already began its own deliverance and whose weariness of the Worlds service hath brought it hither to find out a better Master Besides added he it will not be prudent I think to burden you with many things at once and we are admonished also by the darkness which comes upon us that it is time to take a short repast and so commit our selves to rest I have an empty Bed which will be glad to receive a Pilgrim or any one that hath set his face toward Jerusalem being dedicated long ago to Charity And therefore if you intend to be ruled by me in all things let me lay my injunctions upon you not to stir a foot to seek a lodging in any other place but in my house It was a thing of no difficulty you may easily think to perswade a man to accept of that which he much desired and had already prepared himself to beg And therefore having made him his hearty acknowledgments for that offer and for all the good counsels he had bestowed upon him together with a promise to be obsequious to them they sate down to a frugal supper and a while after commending themselves to God they parted and went to Bed I say to Bed for they did not both betake themselves to Rest The poor stranger's mind being tossed with a thousand thoughts and travelling all night very hard to Jerusalem He had no sooner put off his clothes but he thought that this was a lively embleme of the condition to which he was to be reduced and it put him in mind how he ought to strip himself of all affections to the world He took there a solemn leave of it and bad it eternally farewell And think not said he to meet me again in the morning and that I will put on my love to you as I do my garments No I vow that I would go stark naked if the one could not be resumed without the other Then he revolved in his mind all that he had heard of the way to Jerusalem together with the difficulties therein which in the silent darkness of the night he mused upon more deeply then perhaps he would have done at another time There being a resemblance he thought between the darkness and the afflictions he was to indure and between the silence and the patience he was to use These and such like reflections succeeded so fast one upon another that they would not suffer him to close his eyes till towards the morning light When a weak slumber laying all his senses asleep and chaining up his reason left only his imagination at liberty to rove about And it had not pressed many of the footsteps of things which his memory was imprinted withall before the image of an ancient pious friend of his dead long ago and who had often perswaded him to quit the world presented it self before him He was clothed in white rayment and his countenance was very bright but he approached him with the very same smiles in his face wherewith he used heretofore to run into his imbraces This person he fancied he was going to meet as soon as he saw him come in at the door but before he could stir he thought he found him at his bed-side praying him not to arise For said he I must soon leave you and am come only to express to you the joy I have to find you in this Good mans house Happy is he that hath met with a faithful Guide but far happier is he who follows his Advice Make not too much haste to be gone stir not from hence till you be dismissed And then I hope we may one day meet never to part again But now I cannot be permitted to make a long stay with you This sight but especially his speech gave him such a sentiment of joy that he hath often since professed he never felt
a lively forward and ready disposition Love therefore being of this pleasant and chearful nature you see must needs both quicken your spirit and facilitate your work Nay it is apt to excite and inspire others who come near us and therefore much more our selves Chearfulness and the love from whence it springs makes our countenance smooth and clear and invites others into our Society When this passion stirs in the heart the face is all over touched with the sweetness of it which both intices and inlivens those that approach us How is it possible then that we should not feel these effects of it our selves that are so sensible to others or what heart is there so cold and indifferent that would not be possessed with this affection which is as useful as delightful and whose benefits redound to our neighbours and stay not in our selves It will not let us be a terrour to our own souls nor appear with such a dismal aspect that we should scare and affright others It will not drive others from Piety while it carries us unto it It will not suffer us to put Religion on the rack that we may look severe And it is far from making us appear so as though we imagined we could not be saved unless we make an ugly face What shall I say more need I tell you that Love is full of imitation and forces us to conform our selves to the humour and disposition of him whom we Love There is a stranger property by far then this which will make you open your heart to it and that is a singular Sagacity which it is Master of whereby it knows what is fit to be done without any teaching If you were fully in the power of it it would go near to render me of no use being it self instead of twenty Masters It knows what will please before it be told and sees what is acceptable without a director It hath eyes of its own to find out its way and by its innate wisdome would lead you streight to Jerusalem It is very skilfull to spy out its duty and hath a quick perception of what is befitting in every passage of life In so much that when a man begins to Love he begins to know how to guide himself His Love will suggest unto him many things which he ought to do and be instead of a thousand Monitors to put him upon the doing of them It will make a man descry the least faults in himself though it hide them in others It notes an undecency with as much severity as another marks a gross impurity It labours to overcome the smallest infirmity and weeps more for a mote in its eye then others do for a beam Nay it is afflicted for those things which no body sees save only it self It blushes more for a vain thought then the rest of the world do for a monstrous act It hath a curiosity about those little circumstances which all men are wont to oversee or neglect It s niceness and delicacy is so great that it abhors the very shadow of all evil And it every way strives to adorn it self with such accuracy that there may not be the least speck to render it less fair and beautiful in the eyes of God Love therefore I beseech you Love as much as ever you are able if you mean to be happy Make your heart ready as an Altar for this Fire from above to descend upon it Prepare your self as a Sacrifice to be offered up in this Holy flame to the Lord of Love Let all the world know that you are a consecrated thing tell it that you cannot entertain its sute nor unhallow the place where heaven is pleased to dwell Yield your self a captive to this mighty Conquerour whereby you will be inabled to conquer all things else Subject your self to the power of that which will bring the Devil the World and the Flesh under your feet Let it take away your liberty of doing what you please that it may make you free to do as you ought Possess it of your soul intirely and suffer it to inspire all your desires and to order all your motions and it will not fail to possess you of that blessed place to which you wish to be conducted And is this any difficult thing that I require of you I should rather think that we are highly obliged to God for making the way to Jerusalem so easie and our arriving there so certain as it is For Love is the most natural and pleasant thing in the world which will certainly bring us thither and God being so lovely and having loved us so much one would think it should be an easie thing to beget it in our hearts Do you not mark how a Dog loves you if you do but throw him a bone or some such thing which to you is of no use or worth at all For this he fawns upon you for this he stayes in your house and keeps your door and defends your goods this makes him follow you at the heels if you please to travel with you long journies to forsake all other Masters for your service and many times to dye with you though it be a poor thing which you know not what to do withall unless you cast it unto him How can you chuse then but love Jesus and be at his command and follow his steps and leave all others for his sake and even give your life to him who hath given you not a thing of no value not that which cost him nothing or that which he could not tell what to do withall but himself his holy blood his pretious promises which it cost an infinite deal of pain to seal and ratifie unto you Are you still insensible of his favours when you think of this Are you still to learn to Love when such a weight of Love as this doth press your heart If such a thought could enter my mind I would send you to the brutes to be their Scholler I would call your Spaniel and bid him teach you I would cease to be your instructer any longer and put you there to learn the affection you owe to your dearest Lord and Master But your blushes bid me spare this language and seem to assure me both that you are ashamed to owe your vertue to such examples and that you feel already this flame inkindled in your heart Feed it I beseech you continually and let it increase unto greater ardors of Love as it will infallibly if you do but consider what great things your Saviour hath done for you and that he is still busie in procuring your good and in short that there is not an hour not a moment wherein you do not stand indebted to him for eternal blessings or for the means of them or for the grace to help you to attain them And indeed the poor Pilgrims heart did beat at such a rate that it seemed to knock against his ribs He was set all
bestowed if it were for nothing else but to see this Illustrious Person especially to behold him in all his glory and his highest exaltation who is the Patron of all good souls the great Protector of all Pilgrims the Guide and Rest too of all noble Travellers and who bears a particular affection to your self who hath suffered so much for you who hath sent you so many messages of his Love who hath endeared himself to you by a thousand favours and was never contented till he brought you to himself that you might be there where he is and behold the glory which his Father hath given to him There he intends to entertain all pious men with an everlasting Supper to make them a never-ceasing Jubilee and treat them with such sumptuous magnificence that there will not be tongues enough among them all to publish his praises and their own thankfulness Only you must remember that the entertainment he will give them is himself and that they will feast eternally upon his blessed face Their happiness will be to see God to behold the glory which is given to our Lord that is to know him and to be filled with his Wisdom Love and Likeness And here lest I should not be understood and you should imagine the happiness of seeing God and his Son to be less than it is let me stop a while to explain this part of my description to you before I pass unto the rest You must not then conceive that the pleasure of Jerusalem is to sit whole Ages and meerly to gaze upon the Divinity or that they who enjoy the repose of that happy place do nothing else but feed their eyes with the beauties of our Saviours face No these are the fancies of low and uninstructed minds who know no higher enjoyments than those of sense To see God will be to have such a knowledge of him as gives our hearts a powerful touch and strikes them with such a lively sense of him that he turns them perfectly into his nature and transforms them into the likeness of his divine excellencies This glorious object doth as I may so speak diffuse and spread it self all over inamour'd souls and by a living heat doth animate them into the same disposition with it self The beauty on which they fix their eyes doth imprint its own form upon their hearts and makes them fair and beautiful with the same lovely qualities which they delight to behold They do not busie themselves there as men imagine in gaping upon the splendor and the many ornaments of that place but they themselves become a part of its glory and are changed into that on which they fasten their eyes They do not spend their time only in looking upon God and curiously prying into him but they receive him into their hearts and he enters into their souls He doth not guild them with his beams but they themselves become Light in the Lord. There is not a glory only cast about them but they receive such rayes of light from his face as dart into their very hearts and shine thorow their whole souls so that they also become luminous and bright They are so ravished with his Goodness that they are made Good They are so affected with his Wisdom that they become Wise The sense they have of his incomparable Purity renders them more Holy and his dear Love so over-masters their souls that they conform in all things to his hearts desire and it seems as if both their hearts had but one and the same motion In short my meaning is that they are not happy at Jerusalem by any external injoyment of God which is all the vulgar conceit doth reach when we speak of seeing his glory but they are inwardly moved by a powerful efflux from him which quickens them into the same thoughts will and desire with himself Their souls are not outwardly painted with him and some colours as it were of his Wisdom living Images of God and really changed into a true resemblance of that which they behold It is not some glory that appears before them which makes them blessed but they are made all glorious within and become themselves God-like creatures They do not behold the Divinity only without themselves but they see God within them and looking into their own souls there they find him and are happy in him And let me add this by the way as I pass to other things that such a knowledge and participation of God you must pursue in this world if you mean to come to Jerusalem You must here be partakers of a Divine Nature and now be transformed by the renewing of your mind proving what is that good and perfect and acceptable will of God But I think it is time to lead you to other Spectacles which are worthy your sight and to tell you that in this City all the glorious Ministers of State to the King of Kings have their Mansion-houses and Noble Palaces All the Heroes of ancient daies do here make their abode Nay all the spirits of just men that are made perfect do here inhabit and have their constant residence And all those glittering Angels and those brave minds that ever flourish in this heavenly Court I believe you will think sufficient of themselues if there were nothing else to render this a very splendid place The Laws indeed of which are such that none can be permitted to live there but Noble men persons of high birth and illustrious descent for they are all called the Sons of God But that which gives them this Nobility and stamps such an honourable title upon them is not such poor things as swell the men of our world into an aiery and imaginary greatness but the height of their minds the purity of their hearts and the excellent qualities wherewith they are endowed which intitle them to the kindred of God Insomuch that the meanest Pilgrim on the earth that is found worthy by reason of his virtuous disposition and generous spirit to be admitted a Citizen of Jerusalem instantly becomes Noble and is inrolled among the Princes of heavenly Progeny Into this blessed society then when once you are received How delightful do you think their company and acquaintance will prove Are you not highly pleased now with a rare History and could you not lend your ears for a whole day to hear the adventures of some one famous person And yet these are nothing to the pleasures that they can entertain you withall There were never such things yet reported as the Inhabitants of Jerusalem will be ready to impart and communicate with you Who can tell you a long story of the Love of God and make a never-ceasing relation an endless history of all the rare passages of his providence throughout the whole world They can present you with a thousand Abrahams and as many Josephs whose adventures were so strange that fiction is not able to invent any thing so surprising Nay out of those Countries
a spiritual sense This therefore breeds an absolute necessity of constant holy Meditation and devout Prayers By the one of which our mind being abstracted from and elevated beyond the things of corporeal sense is brought to a converse and familiarity with heavenly notions and by the other our Will is possessed with spiritual inclinations nay ravished into the embraces of a Divine Good Meditation furnishes our Understanding with right opinions and noble thoughts and Prayer carries our Will to the love of them and joyns our affections fast unto them By the one we are tyed in our mind and by the other in our choice to the better World This it is manifest is the natural and true use of these devout exercises to dispose our souls by drawing them away from these inferiour enjoyments to receive communications from above and to be made partakers of a Divine Nature There is no question to be made of it that God loves to impart himself to rational Beings But in what manner I beseech you can he do it unless it be by our Understandings and Wills rightly disposed And what other end therefore can these two have which put us in a fit disposition and capacity for him than to bring us to that true knowledge and love of him whereby we partake of his nature In these you must employ your self and they are to be thought more necessary than any other business but yet you see they are but the means and way to a Divine State and have something beyond themselves which they are to effect and that is the bringing of us to the life of the blessed Jesus If Prayer be not thus designed and do not produce such fruit it is so far from procuring us acceptance with God though it be top full of that Faith which relyes upon Christ that it proves a thing very fulsome and displeasing unto him It is a meer noise and clamour in his ears than which there cannot be any thing more troublesome and offensive He loves not to be disturbed with such sounds as have nothing in them but flattery and nauseous commendations of him He cares not for being extolled by such unhallowed mouths It is a great injury to him to be praised and magnified by evil doers He hates the pretences of their Friendship and loathes the complements which they load him withall He cannot indure to have his Courts filled with these impudent people lest he should be thought such an one as themselves As the Sacrifices of old were esteemed no better than Murders and all the offerings but so many butcheries which were committed when they left themselves behind and brought not their hearts and affections to be offered up to God So are all mens confident Prayers and Devotions now no better than prophanations of his Name and a kind of blasphemy or evil-speaking of him while they are enemies to the Life of God and despisers of good works They do most basely reproach him in the world by taking upon them the title of his greatest Favourites They expose him to scorn by appropriating to themselves the name of his servants There cannot be a greater wrong to him than to make men believe that he is a lover of such filthy Hypocrites You have observed no doubt that the Sacrifices in ancient times were called the Meat of God and the Food or provision that was made for his House And yet in the company of evil works they are said to be an Abomination to him and he professes that he had as lief they had brought him a Dog as offer a Lamb and that a Swine would have been as acceptable as the fattest of their Bullocks He protests that his soul abhorred their New Moons and solemn Assemblies that their Incense was an unsavoury stink and that the Fat and Blood of their Beasts were no better than their Dung and Ordure He bids them bring him no more vain oblations He saith that he was full of them and nauseated the Table that they spread for him And in plain terms he lets them know that it was to no purpose to multiply their Prayers for he could not hear them And so truly may you assure your self that though pious Prayers are now most prevalent and forcible with him yet the grunting of Swine or the howling of Wolves are altogether as welcome as the clamorous petitions of those who sue for his Love without any thorow amendment of their lives He detests those bawling worshippers who intend nothing else but to drown the cry of their sins and to make him deaf to the accusations which their iniquity brings against them Their breath is an unwholesome and infectious vapour which poisons the World and is the Pest of Religion Their meetings and assemblies are so many conspiracies against the Authority and Life of God Their words do but wound his ears and their loud cryes are but so many assaults and batteries against Heaven He hates to see those hands lifted up unto him which will instantly be lifted up against him He cannot indure they should lay hold on him and esteems such rude attempts to be the committing of a rape upon his mercy and an indeavour to force his favour He hath opened no way for such bold access unto him He rever intended to incourage such impudence Their zeal is a strange fire which kindles another in Heaven against them And notwithstanding all their fawnings upon him the Dogs which follow them to the place of their assemblies shall as soon be accepted as themselves And therefore be sure to make your Prayers touch your own heart before you expect they should reach Heaven Let them work upon your self before you assume a considence that they will have the desired effect upon God And now I have little to say concerning the hearing of Sermons reading of the Bible and other good Books which you say there are many think do compose the whole of a Religious life for it is plain enough they can have no other end than to furnish your mind with pious Meditations and dispose your will to Prayer and all other holy duties You cannot well think that these have any other place in the godly life than that of Instruments and Helps whereby to arrive at it And it is very easie to know from what hath been discoursed what Sermons are most to be regarded Not those which give your fancy a pleasure and tickle your imagination but those which powerfully enlighten your understanding and move your will to the choice of that which is right and Good There are too many of those frivolous Hearers who are more pleased with little gingles and the tinkling of words than with the most perswasive arguments which the most piercing reason in the world can urge upon their hearts But their punishment is heavy enough for this levity they being condemned for ever to be fools or children whose minds are inchanted with the Rhiming of words or with their countermarching and the ringing of
changes upon them or other such like adulterate Ware which would fain pass for wit and elegance Next to the love of Gibberish and of canting phrases there is no greater dotage than this of courting the diseases corruptions and the rotten carkase of eloquence and sleighting the life and spirit of it One would wonder that reasonable souls should delight in toying and playing with letters and syllables There is nothing more strange unless it be this that there are a company of men to be found who are at a great deal of pains to trim themselves with these tinsel ornaments and with much curiosity study to speak absurdly It is not their negligence but they take a care to trifle They do not slip unawares into childish expressions but they fall into them by design But if you would be wise and good you must open your ears to plain words and strong sense to proper and significant language which brings along with it powerful and convincing arguments to that which strikes and penetrates into the soul and doth not meerly glide smoothly over the surface of it You must not come to be tickled but to be taught not to be pleased but to be made better not that a man may speak to your gust but to your necessities You must not think you have spent your time well when the Truth peeps into your soul but stops at the door or when your will is sleightly moved and then stands still but when the light pierces into your mind and makes a broad day there when a secret fire creeps into your veins and continues to burn in your heart when all your affections are carried away and remain in the possession of Truth And for this purpose you must read the Holy Scriptures themselves not to store your mind with high notions or to replenish it with a large furniture and matter of discourse or to find support for some of your opinions but to get a stock of efficacious reasons for well doing and to over-power your heart by the force of them to consent unto it And let this be your Rule also in reading other pious Books For there are too many who regard only the lightest things in any discourse the fringes the lace and other ornaments more than they do the body it self They note the pretty stories the apt similitudes and here and there a small sentence which smites their fancy but mind not the clear reasons the nervous arguments and much less the whole scope and design of the treatise which they read Much like some Writers we have seen who reporting the History of their times take notice of little more than of Justings and Tornaments of Bear-baitings and lanching of Ships and such like frivolous matters which are of no moment Or like those Beggars who travelling many Countries behold a great number of fair buildings but know nothing either of the persons or the furniture or the order and regular form which is to be observed in them I think it is not amiss to add that this likewise is the end you ought to propound to your self in all your conferences with wise and pious souls who may give you great assistance in your journey to Jerusalem Not to breed in your self an opinion that you are Religious because you frequent their company but to receive greater illumination of mind from their Torches and to have your heart warmed with a greater love to God at their holy Fires And here it will be seasonable at the conclusion of this discourse to admonish you of a thing which may do you very much service and save you abundance of trouble which else may arise in your mind There are many things as you see that will further you in well doing viz. Prayer Reading and Hearing the Word of God Meditation Conference with good men and such like some of these you must understand will serve your purpose at one time and some at another according as you are disposed and they shall be found efficacious for the end to which they are designed There is a great variety also in these of which you may make an advantage if you chuse that use and practice of them which you shall find to have most power in it at the present to withdraw your mind from worldly vanities to mortifie your passions and to establish your will in the Love of Jesus As for instance sometimes it will be fit for you to Meditate and sometimes to Pray and sometimes to Converse with your friends and it is not so much to be askt which of these you shall chuse as which of them will best at that instant advance you in your way and move your will with the greatest force to virtuous actions And then in Meditation there is the Life of Christ and his Death his Resurrection and his Glory his Coming again to Judgment and the Life of the World to come the long Experience you have had of his Goodness the Instances which he daily gives of his Providence the Example of all his Saints and an hundred things besides to exercise your thoughts and have a great virtue in them to make you do your duty toward God and Man In like manner there are sundry Books in the reading of which you may imploy your time though I would rather have you chuse the best than a multitude and several waies of praying and addressing your Petitions to God which may every one of them have their places and seasons according as you shall be disposed to serve your soul of them And therefore if you perceive that some of them through custom and long use do in time lose their Savour and their Power to increase the Love of God in you and it seems to you there may be more profit in another way take that new course and leave the former without any scruple For that Meditation which will not now affect you at another time will prove more efficacious than any else and that way of opening your soul to God which now you forsake will come about again to be in use Only of this you must take a great care to stir up your self to a continual attendance upon the Publick Service of God For that is a necessary acknowledgment of his Supreme Authority and Dominion in the World and though you feel your self indisposed dull and heavy at certain times in these addresses yet there is this good alwayes done that by your very presence there you have paid part of your homage to him have owned him to be your Lord and Governour and confessed that he is worthy of all Honour and Service But as for the rest though the inclination and resolution of your heart to love Jesus and to be like to him must be unchangeable nevertheless the wayes and means which are to be imployed to the nourishing and strengthning of your resolution may and ought to be changed according as you feel your self disposed and find them to be effectual But especially
let me remember you of this Advice which was long since given me by a good man NOT TO BIND YOUR SELF UNALTERABLY TO VOLUNTARY CUSTOMS Since these are imposed upon us by our selves we may grant our selves a release when we we see it most convenient and not tye our selves unto them as if there were an indispensible obligation lying upon our conscience The rigorous observance of these doth alwayes hinder the freedom of the heart in the Love of Jesus when a better course to promote us in it doth present it self to our choice And therefore do not think there is any necessity that you should alwayes pray in the same way or pray so long or read so many Chapters in a day or study such a Book whereby you have reaped much benefit or think every day of the very same things but you are at liberty to do in these matters as shall most conduce to the ends for which they serve and that is The quickning of you to live agreeably to the Rules of Sobriety Righteousness and Godliness Be not timerous and fearful of stepping aside out of your ordinary course when you only leave what you have bound upon your self by your own will and go to do the Will of God If we can do well what matter is it though it be not in the form that we have prescribed If our business be effected why should we trouble our heads because it was not done in the order and method that we appointed Is it not a madness to deny our selves a natural happiness because we cannot have it according to the precepts of Art It is just as if a man would not speak nor hear Reason unless it be in mode and figure or as if a man would not be saved from drowning unless a friend would bring a Boat to fetch him out of the water or as if a captive Prince should refuse to satisfie his hunger unless all his servants and attendants were admitted to wait upon him What a sottish obstinacy is this thus to adhere to our Rules What a rigorous Justice is it that makes us unjust to our selves What shall we do with this scrupulous Piety which claps fetters and bolts upon our own leggs We should wonder if a man to observe some unnecessary terms of Law should suffer all Laws to perish and it is no less strange if to maintain some free impositions we sustain a loss in the most necessary improvements of our souls This extreme right is an extreme injury It would be an offence against reason not to offend here against a form And we should very much depart from God if we did not here depart a little from our selves To this let me add another thing which it will be profitable to you to be advised of which is that when you are following Jesus in acts of Justice or Charity or any of the rest you do as strongly attract and draw down the blessing of Heaven upon you as by the best devotions which you perform upon your knees You do not think I believe that they are the words which you speak that have any virtue to charm the caelestial Powers but that the Love to God which is expressed in Prayer invites him to come and dwell with you Now this Love is testified as much in other actions of an Holy Life especially when we deny our selves any sensible good in the performance of them and therefore they cannot chuse but re-inforce our Prayers and redouble our Petitions and call still for new Grace to make us able to do better Besides it is to be considered that doing of good being the use and improvement of that Grace of God which we obtain by our Prayers it must needs intitle us to the right which the Promise of God gives us of more Grace to be added unto that which we have already received We render to God hereby his own with Usury and Increase and so cannot miss of procuring more Talents to be lent unto us And indeed if you enter into a strict Examination of things you will find that every act of Virtue hath the very same effect upon the Understanding and Will which I attributed to Prayer it self For there is nothing more inlightens the Mind in the knowledge of good than the experience and taste which the practice of it gives us and the Will is so effectually determined hereby to the choice of it that it gets an habit and naturally propends unto it There is nothing can more dispose the soul to well doing than the doing well and we are never more secure of the help of Gods good Spirit than when we follow the motions of it Behold then what a dangerous Rock doth here discover it self upon which many have dasht and split themselves and perished Men think there is no Communion with God but what is held by Prayer and such like holy duties Nay as if this was all we have to do for maintaining friendship with him it hath ingrossed the name of duty and inclosed the greatest part of Religion in it self A strange conceit As if in the constant exercise of an Holy Life we did not keep a fellowship with him by doing the same that he doth and shewing forth his Virtues to the World Is there any thing more visible than that by Righteousness Charity Patience and such like we approach to God and are made partakers of him Do we not feel him by these things Are we not made one Spirit and Nature with him Doth not he dwell in us and we in him What is the reason then that men confine Divine Communion to Prayer and receiving of the Sacrament as if we never enjoyed him but in these immediate addresses to him What is it that makes them imagine God is here to be found and no where else They know not sure what it is to pray and partake of those holy My steries They fancy it is but the pouring out such a number of words or the stirring of some devout affections in them These they conceive wil put them in the favour of God and secure them there without any further labor Which hath caused it is like the corrupted Church to increase the number of Sacraments and create a great many more than God hath made For it is an easie matter to receive these Seals of Grace and there is no such repugnance to them in our fleshly nature as there is to the life of Jesus Hence it is that men would have the whole summ of Religion to be contained in these small volumes They would have all Piety cloistered up in these narrow walls and are loath to give it a larger compass Within these limits they would willingly have it confined and not have it walk abroad in our common conversation in the World But if they had any true rellish of vertue they would soon discern that these Holy Duties are preparations for whatsoever else we have to do They are so far from excluding all the
rest that they include them every one and carry them in their Bosome All the Vertues resort hither at the time when these are to be perform'd Here they all agree to meet and as I may speak to keep their General Rendevouz the better to strengthen and advance each other At these holy retirements they all come together to consult for the preserving of their common interest There is not one of them absent when we pray as we ought or address our selves in due manner to the Table of the Lord. Then they assemble themselves to joyn in one Band in order to the making a more powerful impression upon their enemies and to increase their strength the better to incounter them at all times else They are all in Action at once upon these occasions And by their united force do more mightily ingage the will to the love of them at all other seasons When we pray we make a solemn acknowledgment of God in all his attributes We confess him to be the Cause of all things We extoll his Soveraign power and Supremacy over all creatures We acknowledge his Independency and our selves to live and move and have our being in him We ascribe to him Liberty and Freedom in that it is in his will and choice what and when and how much we shall injoy We give him the Glory of his Fulness and Alsufficiency of his Immensity his Omnisciency his Eternity and Immutability his Goodness and Bounty and of whatsoever other excellencies belongs unto him We humble our selves also before him We profess our Faith and confidence in him for all that he hath promised We hope in his Mercy and resign our Souls and Bodies into his Hands to be governed by his Holy Laws Prayer is the Silence of our Souls the stilness and calm of all our Passions the satisfaction and contentment of our Desires and in one word it is the Union of our Wills with the Divine And if you turn your eye from hence to the Holy Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood there you will find the very same concourse of all the Graces to assist at that solemn time They all conspire to be present then to wait upon our Lord and to improve themselves by exerting their utmost vigor and strength in that Holy Action The very business and imployment of a Christian soul at that Feast is to celebrate the Divine Goodness with our highest praises to profess our selves the Disciples and followers of the Crucified Jesus to express the greatest passion of Love to him to offer our Souls and Bodies to his service to accept of his yoke and take his Cross upon our shoulders to embrace each other with a fervent Charity to open our hearts unto all the World to excite our selves to the doing of good and to proclaim forgiveness to all that have done us evil Here all our troublesome Passions are laid asleep and dare not so much as stir being now in the presence of our Lord. They are all husht and still out of the Reverence they bear to him and his Soveraign Authority Here we can neither be careful nor angry nor fearful nor desirous of any other thing but only Him and his Love Nay here all the inordinacy of them is quelled subdued and brought under the Government of his Laws They are not only cast into a sleep but mortified and slain at the sight of the Passion of our Lord. Anger and hatred give up the Ghost and yield themselves victims to his conquering Love All our care for the World expires into the Bosome of God All Fear vanishes and turns into Faith and trust in his Providence All Pride and Vainglory dyes at the feet of his Humble Majesty The Impure desires of the Flesh receive their mortal wound when we feel the pangs and agonies and travel of His soul There is nothing left but an indignation at our sinful selves a care to please him an holy fear to offend him an hatred of the very garment spotted with the flesh a love of Piety and an ambition to be like to this Holy Saviour It would be too long if I should tell you how all the life of Jesus was at once expressed in his death and how as he hung upon the Cross he acted all the Vertues which he had so long preached and practised But you will soon discern by your own observation if you please but to look upon him in that last Scene of his Tragedy that he never gave greater instances of his Humility Charity Meekness Patience Confidence in God and contempt of the World then when he left it in those shameful and ignominious torments And therefore since this Crucified Jesus is so lively set before our eyes in this Holy Sacrament we must either shut our eyes or else he will imprint such an Image and draw such a Picture of himself upon our hearts that all those Graces will shine together there CAP. XVIII Of the many enemies he was to expect that would assault his Resolution Some from within some from without Of their subtilties and various arts to deceive HEre the Good man made a pause the Other seeming as if he had a mind to interpose some doubt or to make some observation upon what had been said But he modestly praying him to proceed and telling him that he had no desire to do any thing but only to hearken to his Instructions which would sooner tire the Giver then the Receiver it was no long stop to his speech which thus continued I am so desirous you should think it is easier to understand then to follow the Christian course which leads to Jerusalem that I would have you know there remains not much more to be added then what relates to those things which have been already spoken But you having thus disposed of your affairs and put your self in such good order as I have directed it will be time to begin your journey in Gods Name thither Only be sure at your setting out that you confirm the Vow you have made by setting to it the Seal of that Holy Sacrament of which I have now discoursed It will be a very good Viaticum for you and in the strength of this Food you may travel many dayes still looking at Jesus whom you beheld there so feelingly represented And truly you will find there is great need of fortifying your self very well for I must let you know that at your first stepping out of doors before you have gone many paces you will be incountred with a World of enemies of several sorts that will beset you round about and boldly assault your resolution of going to Jerusalem We are told indeed as I have heard some relate out of Diodore of Sicily that among the ancient Indians there were certain officers appointed on purpose to take care of Travellers and Strangers and to see that no body did them any wrong And if it chanced that any such person did fall sick they provided a Physitian
things more evident in any man except it was in another of the same sort who came to cheat us as a neighbour of mine said in the shape of an Angel of light This Person after a great many godly expressions whereby it is like he deceived himself into an opinion of his Saintship fell into a kind of Christian compassion and seemed to have his Bowels yerning over his Teacher saying Alas poor man my soul is grieved for him He is so weak and unquallified for the work he hath undertaken He is utterly void of the Spirit and understands not the workings of it in the hearts of Gods people I can never think of him but it pitties me to see how much he is in the dark a stranger to the power of Godliness and the mysteries of the Covenant of Grace Poor Soul who puts us upon doing and they say is careful of that himself but knows not what it is to believe Is it not a great happiness Sir that we have the teachings of the Spirit and that the vail is taken from our eyes which still hangs before the men of the World Hath not Christ done much for us who hath made us wiser then our Teachers I could not for my heart but here interrupt him knowing that the person whom he thus undervalued was a true lover of our Saviour and excellently skill'd in his Religion or else I think we should have heard as much in his own praise as we had in the others discommendation But the truth is I never heard any thing so fulsome from the mouth of man and found my self far more impatient of such filthy stuff than he could be of the Sermons at which he expressed so great dislike And to say nothing at all of the man I cannot but think that this Spirit is the very First-born of the Devil the eldest of all the daughters of Pride the Prince of Darkness in the garments of Light the dregs of Christian Pharisaism which now as much despises Christs Ministers as the Jewish did Christ and his Apostles God I hope will never suffer you to suck in this poison of the Serpent nor lick up this vomit of the old Scribes and Pharisees I discern me-thinks that you are as far from it as they were from the Kingdom of Heaven or else I should bestow more time upon you to season you against this leaven which will sowre the whole lump of your Religion and render it as offensive to God as it self is to all sober Christians But I need not have said so much I must suppose you as empty of all humanity as this disposition is of Christianity as far from Reason as it is from the Spirit of God or else hope that this Spiritual Pride this devout Devil shall never possess you For what is it but madness even in the opinion of those men for one that was never bred in the mysteries of that profession to come into an Apothecaries shop and there to condemn all his Drugs and Medicines for rotten and corrupt to spit upon his compositions and offer to throw them all out of doors as fit to be mingled with the dirt And yet there is not more sense in the humour of those persons that use the Sermons they hear after that fashion which evidently proves that they deserve not the name of Sober much less of Wise and understanding Christians Though the matter of such discourses have been long considered and duly weighed and diligently composed out of the Word of God yet these men who do not ponder them so many Minutes as their Instructers do dayes and have no more skill in those matters then in their neighbours trades which they never professed reject them at first hearing bespatter them with their ignorant censures and as if they were in a frantick fit cast them out as they would fain do their Authors like unsavoury salt that is good for nothing but to be troden under feet It will seem a wonder perhaps unto you that such men as these should esteem themselves Religious How is it possible will you be ready to say that such a notorious want of Modesty and Humility of Spirit should not make them suspect their want of true Christianity I know indeed that nothing is more confident then Ignorant heat but I marvel that in their cool moods they do not accuse themselves at least of rashenss and inconsiderate zeal And truly I should stand amazed at it too did I not know that there is such a fair counterfeit of Religion in the World that not only deceives others but those also in whom it is You behold every day many Images which have all the outward parts and proportions of men to whose similitude they are exactly formed And perhaps you have heard of a Statue that walked and that spoke also wherein the Artist indeavoured to express the motions of inward life Which may serve as a resemblance to you of such an Artificial Religion that not only the outside and the garb of Piety is represented by it but there is an imitation also of the inward motions of the soul in such affections of fear and love and joy as are in truly Religious hearts Do not think it strange nor wonder at this which I now tell you for it is a very great truth which I thought not safe to conceal from you And if you will have so much patience I will discover to you the trick of it and show you by what mechanical powers this liveless Engine for it is no better is stirred and acted in the wayes of God You know the force that Colours and Sounds and other such material Objects have upon our senses and how they excite a great many motions in our animal spirits without asking our leave or staying for our consent You cannot be ignorant neither that these motions are in the soul it self which hath resentments according to the quality of those objects that it is impressed withall And again you cannot but perceive by my discourse with you that the figures and images of things may be raised in your fancy by that means as well as conveighed by the doors of sense Suppose then that the beauty and loveliness of Christ were described to a company of men in very fresh colours and fair lineaments That he was painted before their imagination by some sweet-ton'd Orator as white and ruddy the chiefest often thousand That this speech of him should be trim'd with nothing but gems and pretious stones rayes and glories odors and perfumes crowns and diadems wherewith he saith this Prince of Glory and Woer of Souls is perpetually adorned And then he should tell them that his heart stands open to them that he intends to lay them in his very bosome that he would fain embrace them in his arms and will wash them in his blood make them amiable and fair as well as himself put upon them the robes of his righteousness cover with his glorious garments to hide
hath deputed those who are in need to receive from us that which is due to him and imploy it to their own uses He hath communicated as I may say all his claim to them and bids them demand in his Name that which we cannot give much less forgive to him So that you exercise Justice and Charity both together when you do good to your Neighbour and there is a double Charity in it also one to Him and another to them They have good done them upon his account and he takes it so much as done to himself that he acknowledges an obligation and binds himself to pay us again Nay let me tell you that there is nothing in all the world can render you so divine and heavenly as to do much good This puts us in the place of God to our poor Brethren to whom he sends relief and help by our hands Is not this a very high honour And is not that a very noble quality which so differences us from all others that it makes us like to the Most High The Mechanical Christian will here find himself to be dead and void of God it being nothing but a Spirit of Life and that very Divine too which will carry us out of our selves and fill us with perpetual ardors of Love to others and instigate us to be doing of good to all This is the very Character of the Deity for God is Love and he that loveth dwelleth in God and God in him And therefore if you covet to excel all others study to be indued with the most profitable Gifts as the great Apostle adviseth and yet saith he I shew you a more excellent way and that is Charity For this causes us to make use of all those Gifts for the benefit of Mankind This is the rarest way of excelling others because it makes us excell our selves and likens us to God The Angels you know had the ambition of being like to God in Power and Majesty aspiring as is conceived to the Throne of the Most High Our first Parents were soon infected with the like vanity and they rubbed their Leprosie upon them for they affected to resemble God in wisdom and knowledge But by this means you know that both of them lost what they enjoyed instead of adding more unto it What must we do then who see their falls must we be content not to be like to our Creator Not so neither but we must indeavour to imitate him in Love and Goodness in which there is no danger This admits of no excess as wise men observe but only of error We cannot love too much though we may be imprudent in the communications of it Though Angels and Men suffered so much by the desire of other things in excess yet in Charity there can be none nor shall either of them suffer any damage by it And therefore it was that God sent his Son Jesus into the world that by looking on him we may know how to become Divine All his acts of power were acts of Love All his Miracles were Mercies to men He never imployed his Might but to do benefits To teach us that they are truly great who are little in themselves as he was and great in Charity That they are indued with most power who can do most good and that they are nearest to God and most highly exalted who are nearest to their neighbours and most deeply humbled You know that if a Circle be made and you draw lines from the circumference to the middle point or Center where they all meet the further these lines are in any place one from the other the farther they are from the Center and the nearer they come to that the nearer also and the clofer their approaches are to each other This may be a resemblance if you please of our condition here in this World where we are all in our way to God the Center of our Rest and travelling to Jerusalem where we hope to meet in him We are desirous now to draw as nigh to him as we can and many fancy that their musings meditations and prayers are the chiefest if not the only things that bring them near unto him But as I have told you heretofore so let me now repeat it again That God and our Brethren are so inseperable that we cannot touch the one but we must be joyned to the other also The further any of us is removed from his neighbour as you see in that similitude at the greater distance he is from God He cannot go away from the former but he goes away in the same proportions from the latter too And the nearer and closer he is joyned in the affection of Charity to his neighbour the nearer he is unto God the more doth he approach to his excellencies and to an union with him If you will be a follower of God then as a dear child of his Walk in love You cannot chuse sure to do otherwise when you have so glorious a pattern before you It is an honourable thing now you see to love since God himself is become a Lover You may have imagined perhaps that some offices of Charity are ignoble and disparage a person of honour As most men of condition think it below them to go into a poor mans house to come near the stinking wounds and the dirty beds of the meaner sort and there are very few who do not account it a sneaking quality to put up injuries and pass by affronts But you cannot be of this mind if you look upon God who by loving us hath also taught us how honourable and glorious all these things are They are not below us since they are not below himself There is no man so much our inferiour as we are all beneath Him And yet he condescended to them He comes and dwells in this perishing flesh of ours He despises not our poor cottages he dresses our wounds he takes care of our sores he heals our sicknesses he passes by our transgressions yea he prayes us to be friends and intreats us to be reconciled And that is a thing which men think to be so poor and mean that no great spirit can indure to submit unto it To go to others who have offended us and beseech them to lay aside their enmity is thought to savour of baseness and to be an argument of a low and cowardly mind But God will give us leave to think so no longer He hath shown us that it is the effect of a most generous and noble disposition and so far from being a blemish to us that we should glory in it to be the first in making peace and offering terms of reconciliation Others may think to give proofs of their gallantry by standing in defiance to all those who will not submit themselves and lye at their feet yea by trampling on them who shall in the least offend them but God teaches us by his own example that there is no greater height of
they have his Word and hear him speaking to them But they must have a greater communication with them both than this amounts unto They must set their affections on things above they must have their conversation in Heaven they must be like to God and made partakers of a Divine Nature They must be renewed after the Image of him that created them in Wisdom in Righteousness in Purity in Charity and Love so that God may dwell in them and they in him No less Good than this must you design for your Souls You do not act like reasonable Beings till you seek by all means this conformity with your Original from whence you spring Do you doubt at all of what I say Let me send you then to that Philosopher again that you may blush once more to see your selves in greater Ignorance than those whom you reproach with the name of Infidels Diogenes saith he hearing a Sophister once making a vain-glorious declamation L. 3. c. 2. put forth his middle finger and pointed at him saying See there is the man behold him for that is He now you may look upon him and know him if you will At which words there being a great stir and tumult excited he proceeded thus in his speech unto them Do you think that I shew you a man as we do a stone or a log only with the indicatian of my finger No I have no such meaning it is a folly to think of distinguishing a man from his neighbour by such an Instrument But when one hath shown you his opinions that he hath of things when he hath demonstrated to you what are his great concerns then he hath shown him to you as he is a man And from thence now you may take this mans Character whom you have heard speaking to you He hath told you what he thinks and what he most desires I only bid you to mark and observe him Let us see thy opinions and notions also saith the Philosopher who makes application of this story Let us behold thy sentiments that we may be acquainted with thee Discover to us what thou lovest and chusest above all other things Dost thou place thy happiness without thy self Dost thou value all things more than thy self Thou readest the best Philosophers thou studiest Chrysippus and such good Authors and this is all Why then we see very well who thou art Hast thou not discovered to us in what esteem we are to hold thee A poor-spirited Creature angry and furious fearful and distrustful querulous and complaining of every thing proud and conceited of thy self covetous and voluptuous desirous of glory and popular applause accusing all things and never quiet nor at rest These things thou shewest us and by these we are to esteem thee It is not thy Books nor thy Masters and Tutors nor any thing else but such as these that shew the man And what I beseech you can be more proper to be spoken in the ears of most Christian Auditories You read the Bible you have the Books of Christian Learning in your hands Do these denominate you Christian men and women Must we call you the Disciples of our Saviour because you sit before us and hear our Sermons No such matter Shew us O man thy thoughts shew us thy decrees and opinions of things Let us see thy understanding thy will thy choice thy affections that we may know whether thou art a Christian or no. And where shall we see these but in the actions of thy life Covetousness love of pleasure tell us plainly what thou art Pride and study to be admired in the World proclaim thee to us more than all that we see beside If thou wilt give a proof thy Humanity and of thy Christianity too if thou wilt have us believe that thou art not yet turned an unreasonable creature live according to thy reason practise thy Religion preferr thy Soul before thy Body the concernments of an immortal Being before the trivial injoyments of a few moments Do not tell us of thy professions nor of thy belief when we see with our eyes that which better declares thee to us Let thy Soul recover its command again let it be restored to its Empire and Dominion let it rule all the passions and affections of the lower part that we may know thou art a Man and not degenerated into a Beast And now by this time you may well think these Pilgrims were awakened unless they meant to snort eternally And indeed the poor men were so warm'd or rather inflamed with this discourse that they could refrain themselves no longer but burst forth into a passionate weeping first for their fault and then for joy that God had sent them so faithful a Monitor They gave him most hearty thanks for his excellent Sermon as they could not chuse but call it and promised most solemnly to think more of the value of their Souls and thereby excite themselves to use their best diligence to save them We will go said they to the Father of our Spirits we will make it our constant endeavour to reconcile our selves to him We will say Father we have sinned against Heaven and against thee we have sinned against our selves We have wronged our own Souls we are no more worthy to be called thy Sons no not worthy of so much as to be called the Sons of men We have lived like Brutes we have spoiled thy Workmanship and miserably effaced and mangled thine Image But we repent and remember from whence we are faln We are desirous now of nothing so much as to be conformed to thy self O let us be thy servants if we are not worthy to be called thy children Admit us but into the lowest place in thy family to the meanest degree of thy Love And if that be too good a name for us to be stiled thy servants we are willing to be thy Vassals thy Bonds-men any thing that thou wilt have us For we are the Captives of thy Mighty and All-conquering Love and we shall think our selves happy if we may sit in the most inferiour rank of those that shall eternally sing thy Praises CAP. XXXI How the Pilgrim was falling into the contrary Extreme and was prevented by his Director Of the Necessity of Discretion And the assistance which one Vertue gives another How he was troubled that he should have any passions Of the use of them That it is fit for us for us to love our friends passionately and to take great delight in their company IN such ardent effusions as these they a long time unloadned themselves of the passions which they felt in their hearts Which being all vented there still remained a very great one for this Good man which they were not able to utter Very sorry they were that it was not possible for them alwayes to accompany him and when they took their leave it was with so many fresh tears and vows of never forgotting his instructions that he thought
more than two or three are able but by Friends we may talk with all and be able to effect innumerable things for they will be sure to speak and do for us all that which is conducible to our good But that which is most incredible is that when a man hath friends he may do many things at the same time and consult about divers affairs at once and see and hear nay more then that he may be in many places at the same moment His pleasures are multiplied as he multiplies his friends for all that delights them touches him with a sense of joy as much as what concerns himself If he give any thing to them it rejoyces him as much as if he had gained a great deal of Wealth If he receive any thing it rejoyces him too because his friends are pleased Though he be very fond of his kindred yet he thinks friendship a greater good then Consanguinity for without any kindred between men this is a strict and profitable relation but without this there is no comfort at all in the greatest nearness of blood And therefore we may well conclude with our Wise man that this is the greatest treasure the strongest defence an invaluable Jewel the very Balsome and comfort and only preserver of our life A man is scarce himself till he have found a friend or at least he is but half a man For as another wise man saith Nuptial love produces men but it is friendly love which gives them perfection It may well be called the salt and seasoning of our Pilgrimage Without this life it self would be unsavoury and all the pleasures of it insipid It is the most agreeable pleasure that a person of Vertue can enjoy It is an holy chaste and innocent pleasure a Voluptuousness which riseth higher then sense and seeks the superiour part It acts on the mind without causing it to suffer a change It moves it with so much sweetness that it stirs not out of its seat Or it ravishes it from it self only to remove it to a better place When he had done they all agreed he did illustrate his Author as much as he had done the Son of Sirach For said they we have read now this Writer by the benefit of your eyes and you have so happily transported us out of our selves that we find indeed we are better then where we were before But yet added another that Wise man you spoke of gives us this advice in the same place If thou wouldst get a friend prove him first and be not hasty to credit him For some man is a friend for his own occasion and will not abide in the day of trouble Some friends will be thy companions at thy table but in the time of affliction they will not continue In thy prosperity they will be as thy self and will be bold over thy servants But if thou be brought low they will be against thee or hide themselves from thee Separate thy self from thine enemies and take heed of thy friends How therefore shall we know the faithful friend whom he so much praises or by what Marks shall we distinguish him from these pretenders I would be loath to stay till the day of trouble before I know these counterfeit Lovers and would be glad to impart my joyes to one that deserves them It is a very necessary Question said a Third and therefore with your consent I will undertake his Character or at least his description You shall not only have our leave said a fourth in the name of the rest but our thanks which we give you beforehand for so good an offer The world is full of false hearted friends Towns and Kingdoms are made up of these honest kind of Cheats as one whom you know is wont to call them Into whatsoever place you come you will find very little of that which you have brought hither I mean affection without interest fidelity without stain with all the goodness and freedome of the Age of Innocence There are many saith he that had rather lose an hundred Friends then so many Crowns They value them no more then they do men in Turky that are to be sold And I know some that would easily forgoe their most dear and faithful Intimates at the rate of ten or twenty pound a piece Men they are if we honour them not too much with that name who as the Wise Man you spoke of suggests to us come but to drink and return back again when the Bottles are empty And therefore it will oblige us very much if you will be at the pains to let us know the qualities of a man that is fit to be admitted into our Society A Friend then replyed he that is worthy of our bosome love is a person that is equally good and intelligent That can neither deceive nor easily be deceived that can seldome do ill out of weakness and never out of design He is one that will serve you without Vanity but with all imaginable zeal without any interest but with the exactest care and diligence That will engage himself most passionately in your defence when you are absent or unfortunate or dead That will follow you with his love to the other World and serve those when you are dead whom you would have served if you had been alive He is one that never conceals his own secret from you nor reveals yours to others That will freely reprove you and never back-bite other men That can see your faults and yet easily pardon them And that as readily acknowledges merit as he espies and pardons faults That cannot tell how to do any thing without your knowledge unless it be a good turn That would have you see all he doth except the friendly offices which he is every where rendring to you That loves to entertain you with pleasant discourse but howsoever with wholesome and profitable That will follow you to all dangers though to no sins That can vary perhaps with your humour but not with your fortune That can make you a feast where there is no good chear besides himself That can serve as sauce to excite your appetite and save you the charge of Wine to exhilarate your spirits That will divert you without the prejudice or offence of any body else That will make you more sensible of his tenderness by small things then others can do by greater services He is one that thinks all the praises of others importune if you complain To whom even his own merit seems odious if it receive not your approbation One that loves no pleasure so much as complacence to you To whom all places are alike so you be not absent He can deny himself any thing and his friend nothing He can bear himself company in Solitude but is never weary of the company of those he loves He hath a sense of honour equal to his sense of love He hath no vulgar thoughts but yet stoops to the most vulgar actions for the
command himself never so much And so they sacrifice their own ease to the popular opinions They vainly employ their time to satisfie other men rather than themselves They consider more what will be said of them if they be not in such or such an estate than they do their own quiet and repose And is it possible can we think that a man should be well-pleased who refusing to comply with reason alone desires to give content to that famous Chimaera called Opinion It cannot be especially since it is the Opinion of others and not his own only which he follows and this is a thing so infinite and withall so mutable and uncertain that it will never give him any rest who is led by it But then after all this let us consider what it is that makes men desirous to content the World in order to content themselves Is it not their Pride and desire to be esteemed Is it not a vain study to be admired and to have a great Name in the World Let us be Humble then and we shall be contented Let us have a mean esteem of our selves and we shall not be troubled that other mens thoughts are conformable to our own Let us think we have more than we deserve and we shall at the most but study to be worthy still to have it Let us thus endeavour to make our selves happy and we shall not care whether other men think us happy or no. And then for Charity or the Love of God it hath this particular Charm that it renders all conditions alike agreeable unto us because we never consider any thing therein but only him alone When we are so full of him as to love him with all our heart and all our soul and all our strength there can be but little room for any thing else Some troublesome thoughts may intrude themselves but they cannot dwell in us because the love of him will thrust them out Besides the love of him is very powerful to beget in our souls a perswasion that he loveth us Our Love is but the product of his and there is nothing more comfortable then to think that we are beloved of so great a Good And then again Love is apt to make us well pleased with all that they do whom we entirely love We can take nothing ill at their hands but alwayes perswade our selves that they mean well It pleases us much that they should please themselves And therefore if we love God it will produce the same satisfaction in all his Providences we shall love them every one because we are in love with him Especially since we are satisfied by this love of his good affection to us it will not let us suspect him of any unkindness We shall alwayes rest assured of his good will and so have no more to say but only this Thy will O Love be done And I may add also that the Love of God being just opposite to our self-love which is the root of all our troubles must needs be the foundation and root of all our contentment For what is Contentment but the stability as it were of the Soul whereby it stands in one unmoveable temper It is a kind of indifferency an unconcernedness in all things but only God And how is that to be purchased but only by such a strong affection to him as destroyes the inordinate love of our selves and all other things As long as that love of our selves reigns it carries us headlong to every thing that pleases our carnal appetites It make us range up and down the World after every trifle that we have a fancy unto It makes us vex if we be crossed in the least of our desires It sets us in a restless motion without any possibility of ever fixing our selves It makes us as passionately concern our selves for a toy as if it touched our very life And therefore till this be destroyed we are not likely to find the contentment which we seek Now the Love of God that is just contrary to it and cannot stand together with it That concenters and unites all our thoughts and affections in one Good which we may alwayes have and in which we may alwayes have satisfaction That settles our souls in one place out of which we need not stir to seek our happiness That carries our hearts continually above and sets us out of the reach of these worldly things It raises us beyond our selves and makes us feel him who is infinitely better who also we know rules and disposes all things in the world according to that excellent goodness which we feel in him Let us love him therefore now as much as we can and in this let us place our happiness So shall we never fail to be well pleased because every thing will make us more to love him I thank you most heartily said the Pilgrim for the seasonable remembrance you have given me of that excellent lesson It hath done me so much good that I cannot see how any thing should trouble me unless it be this to see so little Love of God in the world and that I can do no more good upon men whom I love for Gods sake It is very well replyed the Father if you have no more to trouble you then this for it is only the fruit of a great Love which sometime is wont to make us sick if it meet with unkind entertainment in those on whom it is bestowed And besides let me tell you this for your better satisfaction that you must content your self to see the world so imperfect as it is You will never have any quiet if you vex your self because you cannot bring mankind to that exact Idaea of things which you have formed in your mind You desire I perceive above all things that there might be peace on earth and that Christian people might live in a sweet agreement together But be not Ignorant I pray you of this that you do but trouble your self and the world too if you think to attain this happiness by making all so perfect as your self As it is too commonly seen that Good men hinder peace by insisting over vehemently upon lesser truths which might well stand aside to make way for unity in greater things so an unseasonable and violent indeavour to correct some faults and root out some abuses and to take away some imperfect institutions hath too frequently driven peace away from the Church of God All which proceeds from want of prudence and discreet consideration of things with which an honest and well meaning zeal had need to be tempered We must well weigh the nature and moment of things When it is impossible to have all we honestly desire we must take what we can rather then want the chiefest thing that is in our desires We do not live in a world that is composed of complete Christians All is weak all is sick and distempered in the Societies of men They are in a state of
thought to find every thing to his desire The difficulties of his Journey seemed now to be overcome and every step he saw would bring him to a new pleasure There was nothing to be done but what promised to gratifie him with repeated joyes and to reward his labours with abundance of content in the doing of it And there was nothing to be suffered which threatned any harm but seemed to have lost it prickles and thorns and to court men into its embraces Now he thought he should be so happy as to live more above and hold a constant communication with Heaven He expected to surmount the clouds wherein he had been wrapped and to live in a purer light and enjoy a greater serenity of mind Now he hoped to pass his time in sublimer Meditations in a steadier Faith in a more ardent Love in more comfortable Expectations in quicker tasts of the good things to come and so in more perfect Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost In short he discovered on all sides both present satisfactions and future hopes with larger Assurances also that they would not make him ashamed Being thus then spurred by the admonitions of his Friend and the invitations of the Way on he went again together with the happy Companion of his Travels sometimes casting his eye upon Jerusalem and sometimes upon his Way which now became more easie and more delightful to him than ever before But having descended a little from the Head of that lofty Hill where they had stayed thus long the young Pilgrim observed that he had lost that fair sight of Jerusalem which he so much admired At which he began to be surprised with a little quivering and coldness in his Body till his Old Comforter told him that this ought to be the cause of no troublesome thoughts For the whole way said he to that place consists much of Hills and Dales and as now you are going down from the heights wherein you have been so shall you advance again in due time and be presented not only with a fresh but with a fairer sight of it He told him also how impossible it was for any Traveller to remain long upon those Mountains where the Air is so quick and piercing that it would make them quit their earthly Mansions And withall he discoursed of the advantage of those Vallies and shewed him the Silver Brooks full of the Waters of Life which ran in those humble places together with all the pretty flowers wherewith the verdant banks of those streams were crowned In fine he represented to him that they were so far from descending now into any dismall shades that they were but going to ease their minds with a little variety in these cool levels which were almost spent and exhaled by so long a fight of Jerusalem in those superiour Regions Not omitting also to let him know that it was not so impossible as he imagined to meet with something of it in those low Meadows into which they were now entring which spread so goodly a Carpet for their feet to tread upon that the Hill which they had left seemed to bow its Head to look upon the richness of it And thereupon he shewed him how those Crystal Waters which he heard murmuring and inviting his thirst to quench it self in their streams came down from a Spring on the brow of that Mountain where they had lately been And can you believe said he that any thing can flow from thence which brings no tydings with it from Jerusalem Tast and see if their rellish be not such as tells you from whence they come and makes this place happy which flows with such contentment Believe not me but your self if it be not too much for you to stoop down and drink that these Vallies are watred from above and receive at second hand what the more rising ground at the first enjoyes The Young man heard him very obediently and soon satisfied himself in the truth of what he said by tasting of the Waters which had a strong tincture of Jerusalem For the Rayes that come from it and beat continually upon that aspiring Hill had indued the whole body of it with some of their Vertue which might constantly be communicated to the neighbouring though lower places He was immediately inspired I mean with a great heat of Divine Love in which he found not a little of Heaven He saw that Meditation Prayer and such like holy imployments do but dispose the will to acts of Charity and doing good to all according as God hath done to us The clearer sight he perceived that any one hath of the Glory to come the more powerfully is his heart touched with a fervent desire and endeavour to be thus imployed This is the natural issue of a right belief of what Christ hath promised There is nothing so naturally flows from it when raised to its highest pitch as and easiness and pleasure in doing good than which nothing can come nearer to the life of them that dwell above He saw now that Jerusalem might be found in the houses of the sick in Hospitals and the meanest places where Humility and Charity can find themselves any work If he met with a poor Stranger that moved his compassion it was as if he had met with an Angel If any differences came in his way which he could compose it was as if Jesus had spoken peace unto him When the Orphans and Widows gave him their Blessing it was as if he had received one from Heaven And all this gave him the greater satisfaction because he was afraid he should have met with it no where else save only on such Mountains as they had newly left But yet I must not forget to tell you that there was none for whom he felt such a particular kindness as this person who had so charitably conducted him and made every condition so pleasing to him He had no sooner drunk off one Cup of the waters named and began some actions of Charity to others but he felt himself all over in a flame of love to him Whatsoever he did the end of it still was to think how much he was beholden to his love which had directed him to this most happy life of doing good One would have thought by the effects that it had been such a potion as they call a Philtrum which hath a power it s said to fascinate Souls and draw them by a sweet inchantment to that party who administers it to them And to tell you the very truth had not the wisdom of his Friend again prevented it this had proved one of the sorest temptations which he had hitherto encountred notwithstanding all the good counsel wherewith with he had been armed For as he was wont to report of himself his heart was so much glewed to this Friend of his that sometimes he could not think of Jesus or Jerusalem meerly for thinking of him He thought it was very sad that any one should
be too greedy of so innocent a pleasure but yet he fancied sometimes that he was and that nothing else pleased him but only the society of this person Who now therefore thought himself concerned to have a more then ordinary care of his Patient because he had made him sick or at least been an occasion of his present disease And so quick he was in his Applications that it could scarce be called by that name but by the Vertue of his remedies was rather turned into a cure of other distempers which had some root within him It is not strange said the Old man that I should creep so far into your heart if you do but consider how wide we open our breasts to those things which are of great use and advantage to us There was no other cause but this that made men Deifie certain Creatures which they found to be very high benefactors unto them Have you never heard any body call the Sun a Visible God And what was it I beseech you that procured him so many adorers but the sense that men had of the benefit of his fires which enamoured them of his beauty and inflamed their love to the height of Devotion to him Wonder not then at your self that you perceive such a fervour in your soul to me your poor friend whom you esteem though alas unworthy of such a name to be no less then your Treasure This will justifie an high degree of affection towards me And there is no danger I 'le warrant you of proving an Idolatrous Lover if you will but let me shew you how easily you may make me become what you call me and improve this Affection so as to be a very great gainer by it But first I must reveal to you this secret which you have not hitherto discovered that of this affection I my self have a larger share then yet hath appeared yea to your own person I have not been so cold as you may perhaps imagine And yet I am so far from thinking my self the worse for what I feel of it that I take my self to be much the better and would not for all the world have a less portion of it then I perceive you find in your own heart Now that you may not think I make use of Rhetoricall figures and launch out a great deal beyond the truth let me beg so much of your patience who as you confess have imployed much of mine till I relate what benefit I have found by loving you For then I hope you will think it possible for your self to reap the same and not be troubled for the excess of love you bear to me since thereby you receive no greater hurt then to become capable of enjoying a more exceeding advantage And God being the Chiefest Good the highest object of our Understandings the satisfaction of our Wills the Centre of all rational desires what greater commendation can there be of Friendship than that it is apt to bring our Souls into a fuller possession of this Beeing who is the cause of all other and of all happiness Will you not confess that it is a thing of great Use and great Value which shall indear him unto you who is of more use and worth then the Sun or all the World Now if you can give any credit to me you may be assured that my Friendship with you hath taught me not only that God is Love but what it is to love God better then any thing else perhaps could have done And what is this Love but as you have often heard the whole Duty of man all that God requires of us that we may enjoy eternal felicity with him This if I can demonstrate I suppose you will no longer complain of an excess of this excellent affection which may so easily be converted without much Art or contrivance into one so Divine that that God himself will love it very much And if you would know by what Chymistry it was that I turned this Baser affection as you are apt to call it into that which is so noble and sublime it will be a matter of no difficulty to make you understand it for there was no longer operation in it then this I used to observe what it was that my love caused me to do to you and that I concluded was farr more due to God And so it taught me 1. To think often of him and to keep him in Mind for this I found a necessary effect of the Friendship I have with you If there be something in your Idea that is grateful to me which makes me to hugg it so much and carry it about with me then there must needs be a great deal more in that Idea I have of God who ought therefore ever to bear me company and to go along with me as my Joy where ever it be that my occasions lead me And so 2. I learnt by loving you to take a delight in conversing with him and to embrace or rather seek all opportunities of frequenting his company And then 3. For I must not stay to enlarge these things into long discourses but leave that for your work I was instructed hereby to desire his acquaintance more to thirst after an intimate familiarity with him and to be more perfectly united to him 4. To be highly pleased also in him was another fruit of this Amity To rest so satisfied in his enjoyment as to want nothing to compleat my contentment And 5. To study withal how to be pleasing to him or rather to be able without any study by a meer likeness of Nature to do all things agreeably to his mind For I must take so much liberty by the way as to tell you that there is no anxious labour in love nor any carefulness to find what is grateful to our Beloved but we have a natural inclination to do just as they would have us From hence 6. I proceeded to like well of whatsoever He doth and to be pleased with all his Providences For we alwayes feel our selves inclined to find no fault with our Friends to interpret every thing to the best sense and rather to excuse that which is ill then think that they can do it And 7. To receive all his kindnesses with a singularly great gratitude as proceeding only from the goodness of his own nature and not from any desert of mine 8. To keep in Memory also his Benefits and to think of them as I would of the tokens of your love which I could not but look upon when I did not see you And 9. as for his Holy word which one of the Antient Guides used to call the Epistle of God to man I cannot but read it as I do your Letters with a great deal of pleasure and transport And 10. Likewise I read it over and overagain as I am wont to do your Letters not being content with a single pleasure not thinking that I can espy all your affection at once that breathes
there And 11. Do you think that I can live and not long to hear from him or that I can be so patient as not to desire to see him No I am ever saying as the holy Psalmist O when wilt thou come unto me You have taught me to contrive all wayes that I may enjoy him and to think my self more happy in it then all the world can make me And 12. then I cannot but contrive how I may most serve him and be glad of any occasion which is offered of so doing For you may be confident I should suspect my love if it did not excite me to render you all the services that are in my power and make me study to be able to do that which is now out of the compass of it And 13. another thing for which I stand indebted to your love is that I am taught thereby to be very tender of his Honour and to be troubled that any body should speak evil of him or do any thing against him Nay 14. Since you have given me leave to love you I find that I am desirous every Body should love him that is so amiable in my eyes just as I wish that you may be acceptable to all and never meet with any unkindness 15. I have learnt also to consult and advise with him upon all occasions and to open as it were my very Heart to him 16. And then to be confident of his help and to expect undoubtedly to receive it whensoever I have occasion for it To which 17. if I should not add that I have learnt never to be weary of his Company but still to take a fresh delight in it I should much forget my self for that is a most sensible effect of your Friendship And 18. so is this To be loath to part with it and to hold him so fast as not to be willing to let him go As also 19. To be impatient of his absence at least not to be so well any where else as I am with him And 20. in fine To long ever to be with him and to be put into such a condition that I may never have the trouble of parting with his company which alas in this world I am forced too oft to suffer And you need not wonder that I have learnt this last Lesson by our Friendship for if you and I could now leave these pleasant Plains wherein we are and strip our selves of this flesh I formy part would willingly consent unto it if I had assurance but of this happiness that I should take you by the hand and we should wander up and down in the Air together I had almost forgot to tell you another happy fruit of this passion and that is when I desire any thing of him to leave it to his choice and disposition knowing that his wise Love will do that for me which is most requisite and conducing to my welfare Nay more then this I feel such an inclination to you that I cannot but be ashamed if I am not carried with such a Natural affection unto God I did not begg of my Will to love you for I was surprised at first sight with that affection and felt such a propension to you as the Iron doth to the Loadstone which cannot chuse but be ravished and attracted by it From which you may be confident that now it is out of my Power to forbear to love you and that it is not a business to be referred to choice but which Nature commands which will not be disobeyed or controuled But then me thinks my Soul cannot be so dull finding it self thus disposed to you as to stay to ask it self a reason why it should love God or whether it will love or no. I am forced to love him and carried to him by such a strong inclination as hath no Cause but only Nature At least this state I am reaching after and it seems very unhandsome that I should be ever telling my self that there is this and that cause why I should love God for I would be so impressed by him that out of an innate tendency of mind I might run to him or rather might still be with him and have him continually before mine eyes I have heard it I remember affirmed by some that this Love of Inclination comes only from a Reminiscence or calling to mind such things as have been before Such souls say they have been acquainted in some other World and they do not now commence a new love but only continue an old And truly if I might judge of the truth of what they say by the love I find to God me-thinks they are not without the countenance of some reason For my soul seems but to renew an antient acquaintance with him My love to him is so natural and easie that it is just as if once we knew one another before It doth not seem to be the birth of an affection which was not but only the awakening of that which lay asleep For there are no pangs no difficulty in bringing forth this Love but we open our eyes and see that glorious object which our Souls would have and cannot but fasten themselves upon And if I should add an heap of observations to these of another sort and show you how hereby we come to be perswaded of Gods Love to us and to have such high thoughts of it as to believe he is ready to grant us any thing that we ask to pass by our faults to come and visit us to send his servants the Angels to see us and wait upon us c. and all because he is our Friend you would see a further use of this divine affection and be convinced that we cannot but live uncomfortably without it And indeed if any one should think that it is put into our Souls for so poor an End as to tickle us with a little pleasure in civil conversation and to help us to pass away the time more merrily without any regard to these Heavenly uses it would be as absurd a conceit as to imagine the Sun was made for no other purpose but to colour the cheeks of our Apples and enlarge the Sphaere of our Cabbages No nature will not let us depress so far this darling of hers to which she is inclined above all other things That must needs be implanted by the hand of God to which all men have a propensity and since it is very strong overweighing all other inclinations we must needs think that it was planted in them to do them some great benefit and to be the instrument above all other things of their happiness Now what is there to which we have a more imbred inclination then to love and to desire to be beloved There is no man but hates to be alone and can as little indure to be with those for whom he hath no love For still he is alone if that be not there A crowd is not company as a Wise man
also And he that hath begun a good work in you will perfect it no doubt till he come to give you his rewards I know you will tell me that you do not question his faithfulness and stedfastness to his friends but you have been unkind to him and so have forfeited his good esteem and Love And let it be so since it is your pleasure that you have not behaved your self so gratefully as you ought But is he of such a disposition that he can never be won to a Reconciliation I pray have a care what you say for fear you make good men better than God who are wont to forgive their Brother when he repents not only seven times but seventy times seven And say I beseech you hath he not pardoned you heretofore very lovingly when you humbly and obediently intreated him to pass by your offences When you were one of the World did he not then draw you to himself without your desire and over-matched your sins by his infinite omnipotent Goodness What should hinder then his kindness and clemency towards you now that you are become a man separate from the World If the Mire and Dirt wherein we wallowed could not hinder but he would needs take us in his arms and place us in his bosome will he shake us off and throw us out from thence now that we are washed and made clean Will he not rather wipe off a speck of Dirt that hath light upon us than cast us down into the Mire again Can you think that he who took in strangers to his house and gave them kind entertainment will turn his Children out of doors After we have done him so many services and laboured for his Love will he thrust us out in an heat of anger and quite casheere us his family O absurd suspition A jealousie unworthy of such an excellent Father and unbecoming Sons that have so nobly and tenderly been brought up by him If you were to treat with a person like your self you must first think him very bad or else you would not be so injurious as to harbour such thoughts of him You must judge him very froward who will fall out with you upon every sleight occasion and never return with you into grace any more Do not impute then a thing so unnatural unto God nor so much wrong his infinite Goodness as to take Him to be of so harsh a disposition that we must never expect his favour more if we chance but to offend him No if you can but believe that he loves himself you need not fear that he should thus abandon you You have cost him too much that he should so easily part with you He hath bought you at so excessive a rate that you may be assured he will not willingly lose you The breeding of you hath stood him in so much care that he will not spare a little more to keep you And if you are thus secure of God's Love I pray tell me what you think should separate you from him Can you really think that you your self shall have a mind to leave him and return back to the World from whence you came You cannot I am confident remain two minutes in this perswasion if you be not forsaken of your Reason and left to the impostures of Fancy and wild Imagination For what is that can dissolve that league of Friendship that is so solemnly and religiously sworn betwixt you Is there any thing in him that can disgust you and make him seem less amiable in your eyes Can you fear that his conversation may grow tedious and prove a burden to you in the conclusion or what prejudice can you receive by loving of him seeing you believe that All Good is in him and that he calls us to his own Kingdom and Glory I am verily perswaded you think that you cannot cease to love me to whom you profess your self so much beholden And yet what am I in compare with Him or what obligations have you received from me that can be so strong to hold you as those that he hath laid upon you I may change and not be so good as I am or not so full of love to you Some damage may appear that you may be in danger to receive by loving me which I can never be able to repair But there is not so much as a shadow of turning in him He is alwayes the same Fulness and the same Love infinitely desirous of our Happiness And as for any loss that we may possibly sustain for his sake it cannot be so great but he can make us a recompence for it incomparably greater Do not hold your self then in such suspition unless you can think that you have taken a wrong measure of him especially since you are of opinion that you cannot but love me to the end and also have so lately told me that you was satisfied the love of me would teach you to love God the better I should proceed to remember you also that the wayes of Vertue which you have to tread are so pleasant that you will not be inclined to relinquish them and divert into any other path and that you can never think sit so to disparage this noble life as to leave it after you have made a very long trial of it and that you will not endure to retreat with so much shame as you will necessarily draw upon your self by abandoning a course which you have so highly commended All this I say and much more I should call to your mind but that you seem to discharge me of that trouble by the chearfulness which I observe to return into your countenance I see that you begin to believe that you shall persevere and that you recover your antient comfort That stronger is he who dwelleth in you then he who dwelleth in the world The Devil begins already to fly from you and by the light of these truths we have chased away the cloud that hung over you Carry them therefore I intreat you ever in your mind and let me hear no more of these dejections of spirit which are as unreasonable as they are uncomfortable both to your self and others I 'le say no more of this matter after I have told you a story of an antient Pilgrim in the way to Jerusalem to which therefore you had best attend It is St. Peter I mean who you know had a mind to walk with our Saviour upon the water which was no easie thing to do and yet by the power of his Master was indued with such a vertue as to tread safely upon that yielding element He went a pretty way while the face of the water was smooth and even and it seemed nothing different from the solid earth Untill the wind began to be loud and the plain way upon the water was turned into Hills and Dales we hear of no shrikes but then he cryed out and his heart and his feet began to sink together But was
their thinking and speaking of it This they lookt upon as a common friend to both that would translate them to those happy regions where friendship is in its Kingdom and raigns over every heart All the favour they would have beg'd if it were wont to grant any petitions was that with one stroke it would arrest them both and carry them thither together And if any body could have made good the Paracelsian promise of spinning out the life of man to a length equal with the clue of time and making our vital oil of the same durable temper with that which feeds the Lamps of Heaven All things were so in common between them that I verily think one of them would not have accepted of such a courtesie on condition to injoy it alone without the other No they rather desired as I said that the one might not see the other expire but that the same hand might cut off both their threds at once and that one moment might put out those Lamps which were not willing to burn asunder All the wishes that our Pilgrim made besides this was only that they might live so long till he could give some remarkable proof of his affection to his Guide For though he knew that he loved him above all things and could contradict even his former wishes by dying for him yet it did sometimes a little discontent him that he was in no capacity to show his tenderness but only by words and protestations Though the wisdom of his Conductor had stood him in so great stead and he could not well spare any of it yet he was so foolish now and then as to think that if he had been less wise he himself had been more happy Because then he might have stood in need to receive those counsels which now he only gave and been requited for those courtesies which now he made him a pure debtor for Many other benefits also that are usually communicated between friends he found himself utterly destitute of all means to confer they being either not in his power or his Guide in no need of them This sometimes raised a small disquiet in his mind and one day I remember he could not contain himself but he began a discourse to this purpose which shall put an end to this present Relation I should think my self said he the happiest man alive was I but able to correspond with you in the duties and offices of friendship and were I not constrain'd to return you only a weak and fruitless passion for that efficacious love which hath done me so many services It troubles me a little to find that my passion is as useless as it is extream and as void of benefit to you as it is violent in it self It is no less barren then I doubt it may be burdensome and hath as little profit as I see it hath brought you much trouble Though the honour be very great you have done me in bestowing such a place upon me in your heart yet I know not sometimes whether I should not complain in the enjoyment of a favour which as it was not in my hands to deserve so I cannot possibly requite True indeed it is that I have given my self to you but that is no more than strict Justice exacts since I have received your self as a gift to me Friendship they say is a commutation of hearts and therefore it is but fit that you should have mine in room of your own And yet alas mine is of such small value that I doubt you will be wholly a loser by the change Is there no means for me to do you service or to rest content with a will to serve you Cannot you either shew me how I may be useful to you or shew your self a disposition to it in that heart which I have given you I should be satisfied I think if you knew my will as well as my self It remains in your power not my own to settle my mind in peace if you will first believe I love you and then set a value upon that Love which you know is the cause of all well-doing and ought not to be blamed for want of power Very true said his Guide who laid hold of that word I think that I have found a treasure in your Love and I will have it pass for currant payment though it cannot express it self in such sensible effects as you would have it It is enough to me that you have such a passionate affection for me though it could never find the means to do any thing but only tell me how hearty it is I am pleased with the intentions and desires which you have to do me any good It is an extraordinary contentment to me to contemplate the imaginations which are in your mind of what you would do for me could power be courted by your will to come and joyn it self unto it They are the Vulgar who call nothing benefits but what they can feel with their fingers It is the portion of gross Souls to be insensible unless your courtesies to come at their hearts pass through their hands The purer and more refined Spirits touch the very Souls of their Friends and feel the kindness which lyes in their breasts They are so subtil as to see a courtesie while it is so young as to be but only in design They touch it before it be cloathed in matter or have passed beyond the confines of thoughts They meet it in the first rudiments and embrace it while it is only in meaning and drawn in the imagination They receive these inward acts of Love as most pure and spiritual being separate from all the terrestrial part which affect the vulgar minds And in one word there is not any thing dearer to them than those motions of the Soul which finding nothing they can do correspondent to their own greatness and force do terminate in themselves They are pleased to see them stay there and go no further because there is nothing fairer than themselves to be met withall wherein to end and rest Do not depretiate your affection therefore nor vilifie it in that manner you are wont as though it were not worthy my acknowledgement Do not tell me any more that it is no valuable Love which doth not serve our Friends for this service depends upon occasions and they depend on an higher Being and are only in the dispose of Providence All that I can be beholden to you for I have received already from you and for the rest if it could be bestowed I must make my acknowledgements to something else Be contented then that you give all that is in your hands and that if it were in them to make occasions you would still let those be wanting which most of all prove a friend Nay let me tell you I am so favourable in my opinion to your affection and so apt to give it the best advantage that I am not yet resolved but there may be
as much nobleness in the handsome acknowledgement of a kindness as there is in the conferring of that which deserves such acknowledgement But besides all this let me ask you a Question for I am resolved to ferret this scruple out of the bottom of your heart should you not love me unless I had done you benefits Tell me the truth is there any great dearness think you created in peoples hearts towards each other by this means For my part I have often found the observation true that the remembrance of benefits wears out of mens minds as grief doth out of the heart of afflicted persons from which every moment steals a part Time hath power over the one as well as the other and it diminishes the affection which is the fruit of favours as it doth the sorrow which is produced by losses and calamities Nay so little power have benefits to make a friend that they sometimes make a foe There are some men the more they owe the more they hate A little debt makes a man a debtor but a great one makes him an enemy What is it then that produces a durable Friendship Nothing sure but worth and desert together with the agreeableness of a person to our humour and his resemblance to our disposition The impression which these make can never be blotted out Time which wipes away the remembrance of benefits can never efface the sense of worth and merit We alwayes carry in our minds the amiable perfections and accomplished qualities of worthy persons We alwayes think of those who have touched our inclinations by their agreeable nature And I appeal to you whether you could refuse me your Love though you were not so much beholden to me as you now acknowledge And whether all the kindnesses in the world would produce a Friendship with me if you saw not something else to woe your affection No no my Friend it is Gratitude not Friendship which is the proper effect of benefits They ought to dispose us to suitable returns and an hearty acknowledgement but they cannot oblige us to entertain him for a Friend who is bountiful toward us They may possibly make our Friendship grow but they cannot beget it They may give it some nourishment but they cannot produce and bring it forth It depends upon an higher cause it owes its Original to some nobler thing to that from whence all benefits and good offices ought to come I mean a great love and a sincere affection which if deserts be not wanting is more powerful to move than all the gifts in the world and is able without them all to tye us fast to a worthy person Be so just then to your self and to me as to think that I am your Friend though you do not bestow those benefits on me which you desire since they can serve only as I said to make me thankful but not your Friend I esteem you very highly for your self and upon the account of your own proper worth which I am sure doth put me into the next disposition to be your Friend And since you have added to your own desert a very great Love to me that cannot but compleat it and make me perfectly yours This Love alone hath been thought sufficient to make a Friend and indeed is more powerful than any benefits According to that of Hecaton Wouldst thou know how to get a Friend I will shew thee and thou shalt use neither Medicament Herb or Inchantment to produce the affection thou desirest If thou wilt be beloved Love When Vertue then and it have made a league and shews it self in a subject whose qualities also are worthy to be embraced its force must needs be irresistible and leave us no power to withstand its desires The poor Pilgrim remained astonished a while at the kindness of this discourse And finding himself overwhelmed with the weight of such Love was fain to strive very much to recover a power of making this short reply unto it I am utterly ignorant said he what worth it is that you ascribe to me which hath brought me into your good esteem and obtained me the noble title of your Friend I see that I please you but I know not what it is that should give you that pleasure I find my self very happy but what hath advanced me to this felicity I cannot define And truly since it is your will to have me so I will not be too busie and curious in examining the causes of my good fortune nor will I seek to lessen my worth lest in so doing I should upbraid you with a bad foundation of your Love No I will rather think I am worth something than render your judgement nothing worth I will think of my self as you would have me that you may not seem to be mistaken There is nothing else can make me of any value unless it be that I had the wit to judge of the deservings of such a person as your self It is a mark they say of some sufficiency to be able to discern an able person from a flashy wit It is a note I have heard of great wisdom to chuse an excellent Friend By this I am told a man is known to others and I have little else whereby to know my self This is the chiefest thing that makes me see I am not so unfortunate as I thought I perceive I am worthy of some esteem because I had the judgement to set such an esteem upon your self For I must needs confess that though your favours could have imposed a greater necessity upon me of loving than you will allow yet I feel that I am not beholden to them for my Inclination to love you That is something more antient than any benefits you can bestow and depends only on your own merits And let it not be judged an amplification to say that they are so great that they will not leave it to my choice either whether I will love you or no or how much I will love you but they constrain me to love you as much as I can It is a constraint indeed to which I am very willing there being no violence offered but of what my own judgement is the cause yet it is irresistable and I can never be of any other mind nor have a will to dispose of my affections otherwayes Nay I cannot for my life but think that your favours are a part of your deserts and that there is something peculiar in them to merit mine affection They flow purely from your own goodness and owe not themselves so much as to my entreaties You have not put me to the trouble of begging your kindnesses but they ran to me of their own accord I did but ask and you were pleased to open your heart and make me a liberal gift I did but shew my need and you instantly inriched me with your self And ever since I have not had so great a care to conceal my griefs as you have taken to find them out Nor have you suffered my troubles to speak before you saw them in my looks All your favours likewise have flowed so freely from you that there was no hope they should return again They have brought me a great deal of happiness but could not be thought to come to fetch any to him that sent them This adds exceeding much to the esteem I have conceived for you This will ever make me to propound you as the pattern of an excellent Friend And if I were now to dye it would be one of the last words I should speak to those that love me Remember that those will be your worst enemies not to whom you have done evil but who have done evil to you and those will be your best Friends not to whom you have done good but who have done good to you The End