other mens Souls shining in the Acts of their Understanding throughout all Eternity and extending themselves in the Beams of Love through all Immensity and thereby transformed every one of them into a Sphear of Light comprehending the Heavens every Angel and every Spirit being a Temple of GODS Omnipresence and Perfection this alone will be a ravishing Spectacle to that Goodness which delights to see innumerable Possessors of the Same Kingdome Much more will the Perfection of the Kingdome it self which by infinite Wisdome is so constituted that every one is the Sovereign Object the First born and Sole heir and End of the Kingdome Every one the Bride of GOD every one there a King yet without Confusion or Diminution every one distinctly enjoying all and adding to each others fruition TO understand all this and not to delight in it is more miserable then not to understand it To see it without being able to enjoy it is to pine away in a prison from whence we see the Glory of a Palace and repine in our misery at the Pleasures of those that are about it To delight in these Things without being affected with them is impossible Nor is there any Affection but that of Love whereby we can enjoy them THE Angels see the Glory of GODS Kingdom and delight in it the Damned see the Joys of the Blessed and are tortured by them the Wicked upon Earth neither see nor are affected with them the Saints on Earth apprehend them in part and believe them desire and endeavour after them they wait with Expectation for the whole and by certain degrees as it were in a Glass enjoy the Image and Reflection of them As many as they comprehend they actually delight in for their love is awakened and extended to the goodness of all they understand which it feeds upon by meditation and turnes into Nourishment for the Beneffit of their Souls which are made more Great and Strong and Vigorous by their Fruitions But without Love it is easie to see that no Goodness can be at all enjoyed GOD does desire Love from us because his Wisdom very well knows that without Love the World would be in vain and the End of the Creation frustrated his Goodness is diffusive and infinitly desires to communicate it self which it cannot do unless it be Beloved To receive it is the highest service we can do unto it nothing being more agreeable to the Nature of his Goodness then that it should be enjoyed His Blessedness consisteth in the pleasure he taketh in the Felicity of others and brancheth it self out into two Parts the Pleasure of Communicating all to others and the pleasure of receiving all from others in the satisfaction which he taketh to see others Blessed in the Returns of those joys and Praises which are offered up to his Goodness and Glory His Glory desires to be seen and delighted in To be esteemed and beloved to be honored and admired is natural to Glory the Brightness of whose splendor is more Sensibly Pleasant in the Reflection of its face and in the Joy that it makes in anothers Soul His Holiness takes Pleasure in pure and upright Actions of all which Love is the fountain There is an Objective fitness and Excellency in Love for which it is infinitely valued by him It is one of the first and immediate Properties of Love to desire to be beloved to make its object most Amiable and Beautiful as well as Blessed to be united to it to have its own Goodness acknowledged its Essence approved its excellency desired admired and delighted in to see all its Actions Appearances Gifts and Tokens esteemed and to feel its own Efficacy in the Grateful Acceptance it finds in the Raptures it occasions in the flames it enkindles in anothers Soul Now Love is the fountain of all Honour Gratitude Praise and Esteem By Love the Soul is transformed into the Similitude of GOD by love made Bright and Beautiful all its Blessedness and Glory are founded in its Love it is by Love it self made Communicative and Diffusive and Great and Rich and as the Scripture speaketh fit for Delights All Obedience and service are founded in Love And if a Creature that is Beloved must freely give up it self to anothers Pleasure before it can shew its Love or intirely be enjoyed Love is of all other things in the World most fit to answer Love because the very heart and Soul is given thereby to the Person that desires it LOVE is the Fountain of all Benefits and Pleasures House Estate and Lands Authority Wealth and Power Life it self is consecrated and Devoted by a Lover to his Object So that on our side all is given to GOD by Love as well as by Love it is received from him The Heavens and the Earth and all the Creatures are Gifts and Tokens of his Love Men and Angels are a Present of his Love which he hath infinitely adorned and made endlessly serviceable to every Soul that is Beloved All these his Love would have us to receive with a due Esteem and therefore is it than of his Love he will have us to exercise our reason aright and Love them as much as their Goodness deserveth When we see and understand their Excellence and Esteem them according to the transcendent value that appeareth in them we adorn our selves with their fair Ideas we enlarge and beautifie our Souls with Bright and clear Apprehensions and which is much more with regular and well ordered Affections we enrich our selves and increase our Greatness in the fruition of his Gifts we are lively and pleasant and vigorous Creatures full of Knowledge and Wisdome and Goodness and fit to offer up all these things unto him again while we empty them as Helps and Advantages in that Service which we pay unto him For our Love to himself is enkindled by these Incentives and while we sacrifice our selves and them unto him we delight in nothing more then to see him that is so Great in Love and Bounty the Author and Possessor of all his Glories CHAP. VIII Of the Excellency of Truth as it is the Object and Cause of Vertue The Matter and form of Vertuous Actions That their form is infinitely more Excellent then their Matter and the Heathen Morality infinitely defective and short of the Christian. I do not see that Aristotle made the End of Vertue any other then a finite and temporal Felicity which is infinitely short of that felicity which is here begun and enjoyed for ever He did not make GOD the Object and End of the Soul and if all Acts are distinguished into their Kinds by their Objects and their Ends those Vertues must be infinitely base that have no other Objects or Ends but Creatures and those only Divine and Noble that flow from an infinite and Eternal Original respect an infinite and Eternal Object rest in an Infinite and Eternal End His Difinition of Felicity importeth all this but his Behavior makes me to
Christ is an incredible mystery to them that do not consider the Love of GOD towards Men in the Creation of the World But they that measure it by his Laws and works and see it in the value of their own Souls would think it very Strange if that Love which appeareth so infinite in all other things should be defective only in its Ways of Providence They easily believe it may express it self in the Incarnation Especially Since all Ages are Beautified with the Effects and Demonstrations of this verity that GOD so Loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have Everlasting Life For Love is apt to transform it self into all shapes that the necessity of its Object requires and as prone to suffer as rejoyce with it as apt to suffer for it as with it Many fathers have died for their Children many for their Country but the Love of GOD exceedeth them all To be beloved in our Guilt is exceeding Wonderful but this also is in the Nature of Love it may be provoked with the Guilt or moved with Compassion at the misery of a Sinner WHERE the Love is extreamly violent and the weak Estate of the Object fit for Compassion it is more inclined to Pity than Revenge Tho where the Object is strong and endued with all advantages it is more offended at the Outrage of its Rebellion WHETHER we consider the Nature of Man or his Estate before the Fall we have some reason to believe that he was more Beloved then the Holy Angels for there was more exquisite Care and Art manifested in the Creation of his Person and his Condition was fitted for a more curious Tenderness and Compassion if he offended IF you look into the Nature of Angels and Men you will find this mighty Difference between them Angels are more Simple Spirits Men are Images of GOD carefully put into a Beautiful Case Their Souls would seem equal to the Angels were they not to live in Humane Bodies and those Bodies are Superadded certainly for unspeakable and most Glorious Ends the visible World was made for the sake of these Bodies and without such persons as men are it would be utterly useless The Hypostatical Union of two Natures so unspeakable different as the Soul and Body are is of all things in the World most mysterious and Miraculous Man seems to be the Head of all Things visible and invisible and the Golden clasp whereby Things Material and Spiritual are United He alone is able to beget the Divine Image and to multiply himself into Millions His Body may be the Temple of GOD and when it pleased GOD to become a Creature he assumed the Nature of Man Angels are made Ministring Spirits for the sake of Man and by him alone GOD and his works are United IF you respect his Condition he was made a little lower than the Angels that he might be crowned with Glory and Honour Lower for a Time that he might be Higher for ever The Angels were placed in such an Estate that if they fell it would be with more shame yet if they stood it would be with less Glory For having the Advantages of Greater Light and strength to Sin against them was more Odious and to stand in them less Wonderful While man being more remote from GOD was more Obnoxious to Dangers and more Weak to resist them His Want of Clear Light if he fell would lessen his offence And the Difficulties wherewith he was surrounded if he stood would increase his Vertue which by consequence would make his Obedience more pleasing and much augment his Eternal Glory All which put together when Angels and Men both fell fitted Man rather to be chosen and redeemed he being the Greater Object of Compassion and Mercy THE Degrees and measures of that Mercy which was shewn to Man in his Redemption are very considerable When he was Weak and unable to help himself when he was Guilty when he was an Enemy when he was Leprous and deformed when he was Miserable and Dead before he desired or Thought of such a Thing God freely gave his Son to die for his Salvation and condescended to propose a reconciliation Which should teach us tho higher then the Cherubims and more pure then the Light tho our Enemies are never so base and injurious and ingrateful nay Obstinate and Rebellious to seek a reconciliation by the most Laborious and Expensive Endeavors to manifest all our Care and kindness toward them pursuing their Amendment and Recovery For the same Mind ought to be in us that was in Christ Jesus who being in the form of GOD thought it no Robbery to be Equal with GOD yet took upon him the Form of a Servant and being found in fashion as a man humbled himself to the Death of the Cross Wherefore GOD also hath highly exalted him and given him a Name above every Name that at the Name of Jesus every Knee might bow The very reason why we so infinitely adore him being the incomparable Height and Perfection of his Mercy expressed in his Humiliation and Abasement for us If we would enter into his Glory we must walk in the Way which he hath trod before us for that only will lead us into it THO GOD hath in his infinite Mercy redeemed us from the unavoidable Necessity of being Damned yet hath he with infinite Prudence ordered the Way and Manner of our Redemption in such sort that we are not immediately translated into Heaven but restored to a new Estate of Trial and endued with Power to do new Duties as pleasing to him as those which he required from us in Eden For he Loved a Righteous Kingdome from the Beginning wherein his Laws were to be obeyed Rewards and Punishments expected and administred in a Righteous manner THE Great and necessary Duties in this second Kingdome are Faith and Repentance introduced by his Wisdom and occasioned by Sin necessary for our Justification and Sanctification and Superadded to the former THIS Kingdome of Evangelical Righteousness being founded on the Blood of Christ is by Death and Sin and by the Supernatural Secrets of Love and Mercy made infinitely more Deep and mysterious than the former CHAP. XV. Of Faith The Faculty of Believing implanted in the Soul Of what Nature its Objects are The Necessity of Faith Its End Its Use and Excellency It is the Mother and Fountain of all the Vertues FAITH and Repentance are the Principal Vertues which we ought to exercise in the Kingdome of Evangelical Righteousness because by them alone a Sinner is restored to the Capacity and Power of living in the Similitude of GOD in the Practice of his Divine and Eternal Vertues For without Faith it is impossible to please GOD because we can never believe that he is the Rewarder of all those that diligently seek him without that Credit which is necessary to be given to the Discovery of his Love to them that are
to Love without Obligation or Reward to be the Sole Author of all Felicity and to over-flow with Goodness of himself freely without any Motive to prevent the Beauty and Existence of his Object and to Love from all Eternity in an immutable manner And this is the nature of Divine Love Howbeit even here are infinite Ends and Causes of his Love tho they are all in Himself For he Loves that he may Love and begets that Love which is his Essence His Love is the foundation of all his Treasures the Cause and End of the whole Creation and that alone by which he proceeds from himself to all his Creatures and by those to himself again for ever All his Kingdome and Greatness and Pleasure all his Wisdome and Goodness all his Life and Perfection is seated in Love which is his Beauty and his Holiness his Bounty and his Godhead He Loves therefore that he may be all Beauty and Goodness and Holiness and that he may enjoy himself and the Eternal Pleasure of his Essence in Glory and Blessedness for ever IT is GOD alone that Loves by his Essence Angels and Men may Love by Inclination but their Affection is Accidental to their nature begins in time may alter and cease It is subject to Chance Obligation and Reward and ought to be guided according to the Pleasure of an Higher Agent In this it differs from the Love of God but in many things there is a great Agreement and proportion between them For GOD has made the love of Angels and men so like his own by extending their Knowledge to all objects that infinite Perfections are contained in their love It is as GODLIKE as any Thing created is capable of being for Almighty Power and infinite Wisdome are employed in the production of it FOR the better understanding of this Love we will consider it in the power of Loving in the inclination to Love in its act and Perfection It may seem a surprizing verity but the Power of Loving is as necessary to Blessedness and Glory as life it selfe an inclination to love as necessary as the Power and the act of Love as necessary as the Inclination The world is useless without Life and Life without Love the Body without the Soul the Soul without the Power of Loving the Power of Loving without the Inclination the Inclination without the Act. IN the Power of Loving I shall note nothing at present but its Extent and Capacity In Beasts it is confined but in Men it is Endless As a Beast is unable to examine what spaces are above the Heavens so is it unable to extend its Affections beyond the memory of things perceived for a Beast cannot represent to it self the Idea's of its Progenitors nor see into Ages that are before its birth nor contemplate Objects that will be after it is Dead But man can see and know and love any object in any Age or Kingdom in the World He can look into any Region tho it be never so far removed and be as familiary conversant with any Person or Transaction there when represented once in a clear Light as with any Object in his own country He can look into Eden consider Adams Dust in its first Creation survey the Procedure of God in his Six Dayes Works pass out of Time into Eternity it self run up to the Original and fountain Head of all existence ponder the nature of GOD search in his Bosom for his Eternal Counsels pierce into the Centre of the Earth and survey the Circumference of all Immensity His Love can follow his Knowledg in all its flights while in spirit he can be present with all the Angels He is able to Love not only his Family and Relations but all the City and Country where he liveth all the Kingdom all the Cities and Kingdoms in the world all the Generations in all Kingdoms all the Spirits of Just men made perfect all the Cherubims and Seraphins and GOD blessed for ever This is the extent The capacity of Love is so alsufficient that his Affection is not diminished but the more he loves one the more he is able and the more inclined to love all that are united to him As in ordinary friendship the more we love the Father the more we love his Wife and all his children For the more we love any Person the more we love all that love him or are beloved by him As the reasons of our Love increase so may our Love it selfe the capacity of Love being so indeficient that it never can be exceeded or surmounted by its Object THE Capacity of Love being so exceeding vast multiplies and heightens in the Soul of man that is apt to overflow of its own Accord For nothing is so prone to communicate it self as that Active Principle of Love that Soul which is Generous and Divine being disposed to the exercise of Love because therein it findeth its Proper Element The very Sun is not more inclined to communicate its Beams then the Soul to love For the Soul being made in the Image of GOD who is Love by his Essence must needs be like him in Power and Inclination and is made for nothing else but the Attainment of its perfection so that it can never rest till it actually love after his similitude Some Operation it must of Necessity have For as all Life so all pleasure is founded in Action IF Love in its Perfection be considered all that is lovely is Beloved by the soul all the Capacity of Love is filled with its objects and all the Goodness of the Creator and his Creatures at once enjoyed It is the Life and pleasure and enlargment of the Soul it is the Wisdom and Goodness and Glory of the Soul I confess there be many Errors and Diseases in Love and that Love is alwayes miserable in its Effects that is vicious yet it so bewitches the Sences that the Soul being captivated by the Force of present Delight is violently carried in an irresistible appetite to those Things which Reason condemnes and advises to shun as Evil. Medea's faction most prevails in the World Video meliora proboque Deteriora Sequor LOVE is then a vice when it is irrational and illegal rebellious and Sensual Blind Defective Unjust Absurd When Evil things are beloved when Good things are preferred above the Better and the Best neglected VERTUOUS Love is that which proceedeth from a well governed understanding and is seated in a Will that is guided by Reason It renders to all things their just Due and is the Powerful Parent of all Kind of Vertues This Love may be considered either in its Properties or Effects the last of which relate to the Soul it self to the Conversation of the whole man to all its Objects when it is well understood it will be found the proper and immediate Means by which we attain our Perfection and Felicity CHAP. VII What Benefit GOD himself does receive by his Eternal Love That when our
Despair has comfort and refreshment answerable to it in infinite Hope 'T is the present food and Support of our Lives 't is the Anchor of our Souls in the midst of all the Storms and Tempests in the World 't is the foretaste of Bliss and Coelestial Glory a Glympse and Appearence of the Beatifick Vision without which to Live is to Dye and to Dye is to perish for evermore THE Great Reason for which a right Hope is accounted so Great a Vertue is because its Objects do really surpass all Imagination The fulness of the GODHEAD in the Soul of Man the Perfection of the Divine Image a Transformation for Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord Communion with the Father Son and Holy Ghost infinite Love and Bounty the Estate of a Bride in Communion with GOD the Possession of his Throne with another Kind of sweetness then the Bridegroom himself enjoys the Resurrection of the Body and Life Eternal in a Kingdome where all Occasions of Tears and Fears shall ever be removed Where all Regions and Ages and Spaces and Times and Eterternities shall be before our Eys and all Objects in all Worlds at once Visible and infinitely Rich and Beautiful and Ours Our very Appetites also being ravished with Sensible Pleasures in all our Members not inconsistent with but springing from these high and Supeperior Delights not distracting or confounding our Spiritual Joys but purely Superadded and increasing the same while our Bodies are made like to his most Glorious Body by that Almighty Power whereby he is able to subdue All Things to himself all these infuse their Value and the Hope that is exercised about these Things is a Vertue so great that all inferior Hopes which this doth Sanctifie are made Vertues by it but without this all other Hopes are Debasements and Abuses of the Soul meer Distractions and delusions and therefore Vices I Know very well that Presumption and Despair are generally accounted the Extreams of Hope and the only vices that are Opposite thereunto But I Know as well that there may be many Kinds and Degrees of Hope of which so me may be vicious and some Vertuous and that some sorts of Hope themselves are Vices When ever we make an inferior Desire the Sovereign Object of our Hope our Hope is abominable Idolatrous and Atheistical We forget GOD and magnifie an inferior Object above all that is Divine To Sacrifice all our Hopes to Things unworthy of them or to be Remiss and sluggish in Hoping for Things of infinite Importance is apparently Vicious But to be just to all our Encouragements and to lift up our Eys to the Eternal GOD with an humble Expectation to wait upon him and to hope for all that from his Bounty which his Goodness has promised to desire the most high and perfect Proofs of his Love is the Property of a most Great and Noble Soul by which it is carried above all the World and fitted for the Life of the most high and perfect Vertue CHAP. XVII Of Repentance It s Original its Nature it is a Purgative Vertue It s necessity its Excellencies The measure of that sorrow which is due to Sin is intollerable to Sense confessed by Reason and dispensed with by mercy REPENTANCE is a Sowre and austere Kind of Vertue that was not created nor intended by GOD but introduced by Sin made fair by Mercy in remitting the offence and pardoning the Sin It is a Strange Kind of off-spring which flows from Parents so infinitely different and has a mixture in its Nature answerable to either an Evil which it derives from Sin and a Goodness which flows from Mercy It s Evil is that of Sorrow Indignation and Shame Its Goodness is the usefulness and necessity of the thing considering the Condition we are now in It is highly ingrateful to Sence but transcendently convenient and amiable to Reason for it is impossible for him that has once been defiled with sin ever to be cleansed or to live after in a Vertuous manner unless he be so ingenious as to lament his Crime as to loath acknowledge and detest his Error THE Union of the Soul and Body is mysterious but that Sin and Mercy should be united as Causes so infinitely different for the production of a Child so Black and so Beautiful is the Greattest Wonder which the Soul can contemplate on this side Heaven and will continue to be remembred for ever and appear more Wonderful than before when the perfect Disparity and Opposition between them is clearly seen in the Light of Glory THE Efficient Cause of Repentance is either Remote or Immediate It s immediate Efficient Cause is the Gracious Inclination or the Will of the Penitent its remote Efficient is GOD the Father of Lights from which every Good and Perfect Gift descended It s Material Cause is Sorrow It s Formal Cause which makes it a Vertue is the Reason and Manner of that Sorrow the Equity and Piety wherewith it is attended containing many ingredients in its Nature too long a particular to be described here It s Final Cause is either immediate or ultimate the first is Amendment the last Salvation BEING thus bounded by its Causes its Definition is Easie Repentance is a Grace or Christian Vertue wherein a man confesses hates and forsakes his Sin with Grief that he hath been Guilty of it and purposes of Amendment of Life in Order to His Peace and Reconciliation with GOD that he may answer the Obligations that lye upon him discharge his Duty lay hold on the Advantages of GODS Mercy escape everlasting Damnation and be made a Partaker of Eternal Glory AMONG the Vertues some are Purgative and some are Perfective The Purgative Vertues are all Preparatory to Bliss and are occasioned only by the Disorder of the Soul the perfective are Essential to our formal Happiness and Eternally necessary by the Law of Nature Repentance is not in its own Nature If Simply and absolutely considered necessary to Bliss But in Relation to Sinners it is as necessary as Physick to the Recovery of Health or as the Change it self is by which we pass from the Distemper we are Sick of to the right and Sound Estate which we had lost by the Disease As the malady is accidental so is the Cure For the Nature of Man may be well and perfect without either this or the other He that is originally pure has no need of a Purgative Vertue but he that is faln defiled musts needs rise and wash away the filth before he can be clean FOR this Cause even among the Heathens themselves the more Knowing and Learned have a Conscience of Sin their Priests and Philosophers devised several Rites and Manners of Purgation which they taught and imposed on their Disciples with much Circumstance and Ceremony in order to their Reception Nor was there any Temple or Religion in the World that pretended not something to Diviner Mysteries Which were graced beautified
the Felicity to which we are called out of the Depth of our misery all the Advantages we receive upon our Redemption the Improvements of our miserable Estate the Degrees and Ornaments that are added to the Beauty and perfection of Gods Kingdome upon so sad an occasion as Sin is all these things take up our Thoughts in such a manner that while we are actually and fully Just to these and Loving GOD for his Eternal Love infinitely more than we Love our selves we live in him and are all in raptures of Blesseduess yet is there a Vertual Sorrow which Reason conceives as most due to Sin which being expressed only in the Humility of our Souls and seen as it were underneath the fruition of our Joys in the lowly Conceit we retain of our selves in the confession of our vileness and the deep Sence of our own unworthiness is far Greater now we are restored to the favour and Love of GOD far sweeter to be seen and deeper to be understood than the Grief for Sin would have been had we been not redeemed but Damned forever CHAP. XVIII Of Charity towards GOD. It Sanctifieth Repentance makes it a Vertue and turns it to a Part of our true Felicity Our Love to all other Objects is to begin and End in GOD. Our Love of GOD hath an Excellency in it that makes it worthy to be desired by his Eternal Majesty He is the only Supreme and Perfect friend By Loving we enjoy him REPENTANCE without Love is so far from seating us in the Felicity of Heaven that it is one of the Ingredients of the Torments in Hell a natural Effect of Sin and a great Part of the Misery of Devils Love is a genuine Affection of the Soul and so powerfully Sweet when it is Satisfied and pleased that it communicates the Relish of its own Delightfulness to every Thing near it and Transformes the most Virulent Affections into Smooth Healing Perfective Pleasures Insomuch that in Heaven our Sorrow for Sin shall perhaps be infinite yet the malignity of it so perfectly correctd that tho we continue Eternally Just in rendring our Sins that grief which is their due it shall not discompose our peace norcorrode our Delighs but increase our Repose in the Beauty of our souls and make our Joys more full of Extasie by those Melting Lively Bleeding Resentments which our Love will occasion in the very Grief where with it perfects our Felicity For as the falling out of Lovers is the Renewing of Love so is the Mercy and Kindness of the one even of him that was injured and the calm and secure Indignation wherewith the other hates himself for being guilty of so vile a miscarriage the very Grace and Beauty of the Reconciliation it is a great means of their mutual Endearment and Tenderness ever after the Compassion of him that is Innocent and the humble grief of the Guilty making the Joy of their future Correspondence more Deep and Serious more Vigorous and Enflaming more lasting LOVE is that which Sanctifies Repentance and makes it pleasant both to him that is Beloved and to him that is adored Acceptable and Delightful to him that repenteth as well as to him that had been injured For the Sinners Restauration makes it as Natural to grieve for his Fault as to rejoyce in his Felicity his fad and humble Resentments are his own Satisfaction because he sees himself Just and Rational in them he delighs in his Sorrow because it is Honourable and finds a new Kind of pleasure in his Abasement because it is relieved by the Wonder of his Happy condition and what he hath lost in himself is regained in the pefection and Goodness of his Object THAT GOD is the sovereign Object of Love I scarcely need to mention all I shall observe upon this occasion is that we are more to Love him for his Mercy and Compassion towards us as Sinners then for his Goodness and Bounty expressed at the first as we were Innocent Creatures The Bleeding Spectacle of his Incarnate Deity and the Perseverance of his Miraculous and Transcendent Love after all our Offences is another Kind of Motive to heighten our Charity of and gives it another form as much more Mysterious so much more perfect and Delightful then ever Our Sorrow for Sin infuses a New Sense into Nature a New Beauty into Love and gives as much unto it as it receiveth from it But this being better known by Experience then by description I shall refer you to the Life of Heaven and Grace for more ample satisfaction LOVE as we have shewed may be extended to all Objects in Heaven and Earth all that is Goodly and Amiable being capable of that Affection Hereupon the Word Love is generally used for that Liking and Esteem we have for any thing whether Dead or alive We can Love Life and desire to see Good Days we can Love the Sun and Wine and Oyl and Gold Love our Dogs and Horses fine Clothes and Jewels Pleasures Honours Recreations Houses Riches and as well as Love Men and Women Souls and Angels And evermore our Love expresseth it self in Tenderness and Care for the Preservation of what we Love in Esteem of its Worth and Delight in its Beauty in endeavours also to promote its Welfare as far as it is capable But there is another sort of Love towards Living Objects Divine and reasonable which we call Charity This is that Vertue of which the Apostle saith after he had spoken of all the Miracles Helps Governments Prophesies Tongues and other Gifts of the Holy Ghost that were then in the Church And Yet shew I unto you a more Excellent Way 1 Cor. 12. ult And in the next Chapter Tho I speak with the Tongues of Men and of Angels and have not Charity I am become as sounding Brass or a tinkling Cymbal And tho I have the Gift of Prophesie and understand all mysteries and all Knowledge and tho I have all Faith so that I could remove Mountains and have no Charity I am nothing and tho I bestow all my Goods to feed the poor and tho I give my Body to be burned and have not Charity it profiteth me nothing It is that concerning which our Saviour Speaketh The first of all the commandements is Hear O Israel the Lord our GOD is one Lord and thou shalt Love the Lord thy GOD with all thy heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Mind and with all thy Strength This is the first Commandement And the Second is like namely this Thou shalt Love thy Neighbour as thy self There is none other Commandement greater then those Nay perhaps it is that of which he saith to his Apostles when they had admired at his Miracles He that believeth on me the works that I do shall he do also and greater Works then these shall he do because I go to the Father For Faith worketh by Love Love is the Life of Faith and without the Works of the
of the Soul and its Honour founded in the freedom of its Desire Whatsoever it does not desire and delight in tho the matter of the performance be never so excellent the Manner is spoiled and totally Blasted Now can we compel another to desire or delight in any Thing The Soul in it self hath an Inclnation to or an a version from every object The Ingennity and Worth of the Soul is expressed in the Kindness of its own Intention in the freedom of its Desire to do what is Excellent in the delight it taketh to love its Goodness is founded Now tho GOD infinitely hated Sin yet he gave us an irrevocable Power to do what we pleased and adventured the Hazzard of that which he infinitely hated that being free to do what we would we might be Honourable and delightful in doing freely and of our own Accord what is Great and Excellent For without this Liberty there can be no Love since Love is an active and free affection that must spring from the Desire and pleasure of the Soul It is the Pleasure of a Lover to promote the Felicity of his object Whatsoever Services he is compelled to do he is either meerly passive in them or Cross unto them they are all void of the Principal Grace and Beauty that should adorn them and make them pleasant and satisfactory men may be Dead and moved like stones but in such causes there is no Love neither do they act of themselves when they are over-ruled and forced by another For this cause hath it pleased God in order to our Perfection to make the most Sublime and Sovereign Creatures all Free wherein he hath expressed the greatest Love in the World As we may see by all the Displeasures and Pains it hath cost him through our Abuse of so illimited and great a perfection But where his Love is most Highly and Transcendently expressed there are we most prone to suspect it Nature is so Cross and disorderly There can be no Wisdom without a voluntary Act for in all Wisdome there is Counsel and design Where no consultation nor Election precedes the best operation in all the World is Blind and Casual Fortune and chance must have no hand in that which wisdom Effecteth no more then Force and necessity must have in that Goodness where all the kindness ought to be in the Intention of the Benefactor There is something in it which I cannot explain It is easily conceived but will never I think in Words be expressed The Will has a mighty hand in all the Divinity of perfect Goodness It is the Mind of the Doer that is the principal object of all our Desire and Expectation HAVING for these Causes made his Creatures free he has forfeited their Choise and secured their Determination as far as was possible He hath done all that can be devised to make them Love us and left nothing undone but only that which was absolutely necessary that they might Love They could not Love us if they were not left to themselves to do it freely And their Ability being provided for nay an Inclination given to make them willing he has strictly commanded enjoyned them to Love by Nature allured them ordered us so that we might be fit to be Beloved he hath made it sweet and rational to Love given them his own Example and solemnly protested that he will accept of no Love to himself but what is accompanied with Love to his friends and servants engaged them to Love or be Eternally miserable And if for all this they will not Love the fault is none of his All that he has done to let secure then Love to himself he has done to secure then Love to us and is as much or more concerned in their Love to us then in that which himself requireth and Expecteth Nay he hath made it impossible for them truly to Love themselves without doing of it And if they will neither Love GOD nor themselves we may well be despised for Company He infinitely desires their Love and would take infinite Pleasure in the Operation There is no Way to make themselves Honourable and Delightful to GOD but only by Loving us as his soul requireth And by all these Inducements and Causes are we our selves stirred up to Love freely to exert the Power of Love to others in like manner THAT which yet further commendeth this Vertue of Love unto us is that it is the only Soul of all Pleasure and Felicity in all Estates It is like the Light of the Sun in all the Kingdomes and Houses and Eyes and Ages in Heaven in Earth in the Sea in Shops and Temples in Schooles and Markets in Labours and Recreations in Theatres and Fable It is the Great Daemon of the World and the Sole Cause of all Operations It is evidently impossible for any Fancy or Play or Romance or Fable to be composed well and made Delightful without a Mixture of Love in the Composure In all Theatres and Feasts and Weddings and Triumphs and Coronations Love is the Soul and Perfection of all in all Persons in all Occupations in all Diversions in all Labours in all Vertues in all Vices in all Occasions in all Families in all Cities and Empires in all our Devotions and Religious Actions Love is all in all All the Sweetness of Society is seated in Love the Life of Musick and Dancing is Love the Happiness of Houses the Enjoyment of Friends the Amity of Relations the Providence of Kings the Allegiance of Subjects the Glory of Empires the Security Peace and Welfare of the World is seated in Love Without Love all is Discord and Confusion All Blessings come upon us by Love and by Love alone all Delights and Blessings are enjoyed All happiness is established by Love and by Love alone is all Glory attained GOD Knoweth that Love uniteth Souls maketh men of one Heart in a House filles them with Liberallity and Kindness to each other makes them Delightfull in presence faithful in Absence Tender of the Honour and Welfare of their Beloved Apt to obey ready to please Constant in Trials Patient in sufferings Couragious is Assaults Prudent in Difficulties Victorious and Triumphant All that I shall need to observe further is that it compleated the Joys of Heaven Well therefore may Wisdome desire Love well may the Goodness of GOD delight in Love It is the form and the Glory of his Eternal Kingdome And therefore it is that the Apostle saith Charity never faileth but whether there be Prophesies they shall fail whether there be Tongues They shall cease whether there be Knowledge it shall vanish away For we know in part and we Prophesie in part but when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away For now we see through a Glass darkly but then Face to Face now I Know in part but when shall I know as also I am Known And now abideth Faith Hope and Charity these three
implies Greatness and Bounty united THE Creation of the Universe was a great and Magnificent work because the lustre and beauty of the WORLD is a sublime and wonderful Gift imparted to millions The bounty of GOD in adorning all ages with Cities and Empires for the benefit and enjoyment of all the World is another piece of his Royal Magnificence The infusion of a Soul so divine and everlasting into the Body of a Man is an act of love transcendently greater than all the Aquaeducts and Trophies in the World For such a Celestial presence such a sublime and illimited power such a vast and noble Workmanship as that is which can see and comprehend all Eternity and Time together extend to all Objects in all Worlds and fill Immensity with life and joy and love and knowledge with light and beauty and glory with adorations and praises though its essence be invisible and all its splendour within is next under GOD the highest Object of all the admiration of Men and Angels It is a being as publick as the Sun the great occasion of all the extasies of the Seraphims the wonder and the rapture of all the Cherubims the glory of GOD communicated to the World in so divine a Creature a miraculous effect of his eternal Power and the resemblance of his Godhead among all the Creatures THE Incarnation of his Eternal Son and the giving of the Holy Ghost was another Magnificent effect of his almighty Power so was the preparation of his Word with the Gifts he gave unto Men in the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles adorned with all the varieties of their Labours and Vertues Wisdom Courage and Patience Lives and Examples Deaths and Sufferings Oppositions and Successes Miracles and Revelations The Jewish Nation alone is a Magnificent gift to the whole World The Apostle phraseth the Regiment of it as a matter of Bounty Now if the Fall of them be the Riches of the World and the diminishing of them the Riches of the Gentiles how much more their Fulness And again When he ascended up on high and led Captivity captive he gave Gifts unto Men some Apostles and some Prophets c. When he presented all Nations and Kingdoms as a token of his love to the Angels when he gave all those glorious Hosts in the Heavens to the vision service and pleasure of Men much more when he gave all these in their marvellous order and amity united to every Soul When he filled the Heaven of Heavens with Joyes and gave all the glory of his Kingdom to one and that one to every one he manifested the glory of his Magnificent power in that of his great and transcendent goodness And in relation to this we may cry out with the Apostle more than for the mysterious Regiment of a little Nation as he doth upon the account of GODS dealing with the Jews O the depth of the riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of GOD How unsearchable are his judgments and his waies past finding out For all things are yours Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the World or Life or Death or things present or things to come all are yours and ye are CHRISTS and CHRIST is GODS Wherefore he saith My Thoughts are not your Thoughts nor your Waies my Waies For as the Heavens are higher than the Earth so are my Waies higher than your Waies and my Thoughts than your Thoughts You give triflles and give them but to one I give Worlds and give them to every one You divide and disperse your Gifts and lessen by dispersing them I communicate and unite my Gifts and augment by giving them You think it impossible for one man to enjoy all things I think it possible for innumerable Millions You think your interest is abated and your fruition endangered by the communication of your Treasures to many I know they are increased and multiplied by the number of the Enjoyers You think Gold and Silver to be the greatest Gifts and that nothing is yours but what is shut up within such Shores and Walls and Hedges I know that Men are the greatest Treasures and that your interest is extended through all Worlds and your Possessions illimited For according to the tenour of these words and a little before he saith Thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles and make the desolate Cities to be inhabited Fear not for thou shalt not be ashamed neither be thou confounded for thou shalt not be put to shame for thou shalt forget the shame of thy Youth and shalt not remember the reproach of thy Widowhood any more For thy Maker is thy husband the Lord of Hosts is his Name c. And a little after he saith Thou shalt also be a Crown of Glory in the hand of the Lord and a royal DIADEM in the hand of thy GOD. Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken neither shall thy land any more termed Desolate but thou shalt be called Hephzibah and thy land Beulah for the Lord deligheth in thee and thy Land shall be married For as a young Man marrieth a Virgin so shall thy Sons marry thee and as the Bridegroom rejoyceth over the Bride so shall thy GOD rejoyce over thee For a Son to marry with his Mother is Incest it is Confusion also for a Child to go in unto his Fathers Wife And yet the Church of GOD shall be the lawful Bride of every one of all her Sons Here is Magnificence GOD giveth himself and his eternal Son and his Holy Spirit and his Bride and his Apostles and Prophets and all the Universe to every Soul Which justifieth that saying of St. Chrysostome GOD loveth every one with all the Love wherewith he loveth the whole World His Magnificence exceedeth all Limits Laws Imaginations Wishes Possibilities and he maketh every one Heir of the World Coheir with Christ to inherit all things every one more than the sole end of all his Kingdom For all the Ornaments and Riches of a Bride are given with her Person her Palace and Attendants are her Lovers upon the Marriage as well as she and all things that magnifie or make her amiable are subservient to his enjoyment and really his that is her Husband So that GOD giving us his Church to be our Mother and our Bride hath intended us in all the things whereby he benefited her in all kingdoms and ages and hath loved us in all the Love which he hath exercised towards her and all the fruit of all his Love to the whole World resteth in our Exaltation This is the Magnificence of Almighty GOD to every Soul in his Kingdom And for this it is that the Church is called The Assembly of the First-born because all her Children are the perfect Heirs and Kings and Bridegrooms every one compleatly and more to his satisfaction than if he were so alone For as GOD is wholly every
of Love that is unacquainted with these high and mighty bounties No man can return more Blessings than he receiveth nor can his Praises exceed the number and greatness of his Joyes A House is too little a Kingdom is too narrow for a Soul to move in The World is a confinement to the power that is able to see Eternity and conceive the Immensity of Almighty GOD He that can look into infinite Spaces must see them all full of delights or be infinitely displeased How like an Angel doth he soar aloft how divine is his life how glorious and heavenly that doth converse with infinite and eternal Wisdom intermeddle with all the delights of GOD assume the similitude of his knowledge and goodness make all his Works his Riches his Laws his Delights his Counsels his Contemplations his Wayes his Joyes and his Attributes his Perfections He that appropriates all the World and makes it his own peculiar is like unto GOD meet to be his Son and fit to live in Communion with him The Kingdom of GOD is made visible to him to whom all Kingdoms are so many Mansions of Joy and all Ages but the streets of his own City The man that sees all Angels and Men his Fellow-members and the whole Family of GOD in Heaven and Earth his own Domesticks is fit for Heaven As he hath more encouragements to believe in GOD and to delight in him so hath he more concerns to engage his fear more allurements to provoke his desire more incentives to enflame his love and more obligations to compel his obedience More arguments to strengthen his Hope more materials to feed his Praises more Causes to make him Humble more fuel for Charity to others more grounds of Contentment in himself more helps to inspire him with Fortitude more rewards to quicken his Industry more engagements to Circumspection and Prudence more ballast to make him Stable more lights to assist his Knowledge more sails to forward his Motion more employments in which to spend his Time more attractives to Meditation and more entertainments to enrich his Solitude He hath more aids to confirm his Patience more avocations from Injuries to Meekness more wings to carry him above the World and more Gates to let him into Heaven He hath more With-holders to keep him from Sin more aggravations to increase his Guilt more odious deformities in every Vice more waters to augment his Tears more motives to Repentance and more Consolations upon his Reconciliation More hopes to relieve his Prayer more bounds to secure his Prosperity more comforts in Adversity and more Hallelujah's in all Estates More delights to entertain his Friends more sweetness in his Conversation more arts to conquer his Enemies more Feasts in abstemious Fasts more and better sawce than other at his Feasts innumerable Companions night and day in Health in Sickness in Death in Prison at his Table in his Bed in his Grove in his Garden in the City in the Field in his Journy in his Walk at all times and in all places He hath more antidotes against Temptation more weapons in his Spiritual Warfare more balsom for his Wounds and more preservatives against the contagion of Worldly Customs From this Spring of Universal Fruition all the streams of Living Waters flow that refresh the Soul Upon this Hing all a mans Interests turn and in this Centre all his Spiritual Occasions meet It is the great Mystery of Blessedness and Glory the Sphere of all Wisdom Holiness and Piety the great and ineffable Circumstance of all Grace and Vertue the Magazine and Store-house of all Perfection An APPENDIX Of Enmity and Triumph Of Schism and Heresie Fidelity Devotion Godliness Wherein is declared how Gratitude and Felicity inspire and perfect all the Vertues I Should here have ended all my discourse on Vertue had it not been necessary to speak something of our Enemies Since there was never any man so Wise but he had some it is not to be expected that the most Vertuous Man living should be altogether without them Moses and David and Elijah and Daniel had Enemies so had our Lord Jesus Christ himself Joseph had some in his younger daies and Solomon some in his Old age Of all the Prophets I find Samuel the most clear and exempted from them But this I observe that Men of great and transcendent Principles of staid and well-govern'd Passions of meek and condescending Behaviours highly kind and serviceable in their Age free from the spots and blemishes of the World have frequently arrived to an universal Applause and Honour and moved in a sphere so high above the Nation in which they lived that as if they had been Creatures of another World they have enjoyed a Veneration above their Degree and been surrounded with a repose that makes them look like Angels in a kind of Heaven that that Heaven which they enjoyed upon Earth was the Work and the Reward and the Crown of Vertue Thus Moses after his long Meekness and invincible Fidelity to the Jewish Nation was in the close of his life most exceedingly honour'd by all the People and lamented after his death by a million of Persons that felt the disastre of so great a loss Joseph suffered much by the Envy of his Brethren in the beginning and the Lust and Slander of his Mistress But after he had once been the Saviour of the Land of Egypt and of his Fathers Family his Vertue being known he enjoyed a long life of Glory and Honour and of the abundance of his own peace and tranquility communicated a repose and prosperity to his Nation Joshua did run the hazard of being stoned for crossing the perverse humour of the Jews when he returned from searching the Land of Canaan but from Moses's death throughout all his life afterwards was an absolute Prince among his own People and a glorious Victor over all their Enemies Samuel was from his Infancy chosen of GOD and from Dan even to Beersheba they knew he was established to be a Prophet of the Lord. The honour of his Communion with Heaven joyned with his great Integrity and Gravity on Earth gave him a Reputation that made him Greater than all the Elders in the Land And it is very apparent that the eminent Holiness and Goodness and great Wisdom of these Men made them to prevail with GODS blessing on their Vertues and to reign like Benefactors and magnificent Patriots of their Country Solomon was by his Wisdom exceeding glorious till he revolted from GOD and those Mischiefs which befel David after he came to the Throne did spring from his Fall in the matter of Urias These things I note to encourage Men to Vertue For though our Lord Jesus Christ and his Apostles were persecuted to the Death yet two things are very considerable First that their Glory surmounted the Rage of all their Enemies and continues immortally shining throughout all Kingdoms and Ages Next That they were born to troublesome Times and were to break
Christian ETHICKS OR Divine MORALITY Opening the WAY to BLESSEDNESS By the RULES of VERTUE AND REASON By THO. TRAHERNE B. D. Author of the Roman Forgeries LONDON Printed for Jonathan Edwin at the Three Roses in Ludgate-street 1675. TO THE READER THE design of this Treatise is not to stroak and tickle the Fancy but to elevate the Soul and refine its Apprehensions to inform the Judgment and polish it for Conversation to purifie and enflame the Heart to enrich the Mind and guide Men that stand in need of help in the way of Vertue to excite their Desire to encourage them to Travel to comfort them in the Journey and so at last to lead them to true Felicity both here and hereafter I need not treat of Vertues in the ordinary way as they are Duties enjoyned by the Law of GOD that the Author of The whole Duty of Man hath excellently done nor as they are Prudential Expedients and Means for a mans Peace and Honour on Earth that is in some measure done by the French Charron of Wisdom My purpose is to satisfie the Curious and Unbelieving Soul concerning the reality force and efficacy of Vertue and having some advantages from the knowledge I gained in the nature of Felicity by many years earnest and diligent study my business is to make as visible as it is possible for me the lustre of its Beauty Dignity and Glory By shewing what a necessary Means Vertue is how sweet how full of Reason how desirable in it self how just and amiable how delightful and how powerfully conducive also to Glory how naturally Vertue carries us to the Temple of Bliss and how immeasurably transcendent it is in all kinds of Excellency And if I may speak freely my Office is to carry and enhance Vertue to its utmost height to open the Beauty of all the Prospect and to make the Glory of GOD appear in the Blessedness of Man by setting forth its infinite Excellency Taking out of the Treasuries of Humanity those Arguments that will discover the great perfection of the End of Man which he may atchieve by the capacity of his Nature As also by opening the Nature of Vertue it self thereby to display the marvellous Beauty of Religion and light the Soul to the sight of its Perfection I do not speak much of Vice which is far the more easie Theme because I am intirely taken up with the abundance of Worth and Beauty in Vertue and have so much to say of the positive and intrinsick Goodness of its Nature But besides since a strait Line is the measure both of it self and of a crooked one I conclude That the very Glory of Vertue well understood will make all Vice appear like dirt before Jewel when they are compared together Nay Vice as soon as it is named in the presence of these Vertues will look like Poyson and a Contagion or if you will as black as Malice and Ingratitude so that there will need no other Exposition of its Nature to dehort Men from the love of it than the Illustration of its Contrary Vertues are listed in the rank of Invisible things of which kind some are so blind as to deny there are any existent in Nature But yet it may and will be made easily apparent that all the Peace and Beauty in the World proceedeth from them all Honour and Security is founded in them all Glory and Esteem is acquired by them For the Prosperity of all Kingdoms is laid in the Goodness of GOD and of Men. Were there nothing in the World but the Works of Amity which proceed from the highest Vertue they alone would testifie of its Excellency For there can be no Safety where there is any Treachery But were all Truth and Courtesie exercis'd with Fidelity and Love there could be no Injustice or Complaint in the World no Strife nor Violence but all Bounty Joy and Complacency Were there no Blindness every Soul would be full of Light and the face of Felicity be seen and the Earth be turned into Heaven The things we treat of are great and mighty they touch the Essence of every Soul and are of infinite Concernment because the Felicity is eternal that is acquired by them I do not mean Immortal only but worthy to be Eternal and it is impossible to be happy without them We treat of Mans great and soveraign End of the Nature of Blessedness of the Means to attain it Of Knowledge and Love of Wisdom and Goodness of Righteousness and Holiness of Justice and Mercy of Prudence and Courage of Temperance and Patience of Meekness and Humility of Contentment of Magnanimity and Modesty of Liberality and Magnificence of the waies by which Love is begotten in the Soul of Gratitude of Faith Hope and Charity of Repentance Devotion Fidelity and Godliness In all which we shew what sublime and mysterious Creatures they are which depend upon the Operations of Mans Soul their great extent their use and value their Original and their End their Objects and their Times What Vertues belong to the Estate of Innocency what to the Estate of Misery and Grace and what to the Estate of Glory Which are the food of the Soul and the works of Nature which were occasioned by Sin as Medicines and Expedients only which are Essential to Felicity and which Accidental which Temporal and which Eternal with the true Reason of their Imposition why they all are commanded and how wise and gracious GOD is in enjoyning them By which means all Atheism is put to flight and all Infidelity The Soul is reconciled to the Lawgiver of the World and taught to delight in his Commandements All Enmity and Discontentment must vanish as Clouds and Darkness before the Sun when the Beauty of Vertue appeareth in its brightness and glory It is impossible that the splendour of its Nature should be seen but all Religion and Felicity will be manifest Perhaps you will meet some New Notions but yet when they are examined he hopes it will appear to the Reader that it was the actual knowledge of true Felicity that taught him to speak of Vertue and moreover that there is not the least tittle pertaining to the Catholick Faith contradicted or altered in his Papers For he firmly retains all that was established in the Ancient Councels nay and sees Cause to do so even in the highest and most transcendent Mysteries only he enriches all by farther opening the grandeur and glory of Religion with the interiour depths and Beauties of Faith Yet indeed it is not he but GOD that hath enriched the Nature of it he only brings the Wealth of Vertue to light which the infinite Wisdom and Goodness and Power of GOD have seated there Which though Learned Men know perhaps far better than he yet he humbly craves pardon for casting in his Mite to the vulgar Exchequer He hath nothing more to say but that the Glory of GOD and the sublime Perfection of Humane Nature are united in
Vertue By Vertue the Creation is made useful and the Universe delightful All the Works of GOD are crowned with their End by the Glory of Vertue For whatsoever is good and profitable for Men is made Sacred because it is delightful and well-pleasing to GOD Who being LOVE by Nature delighteth in his Creatures welfare There are two sorts of concurrent Actions necessary to Bliss Actions in GOD and Actions in Men nay and Actions too in all the Creatures The Sun must warm but it must not burn the Earth must bring forth but not swallow up the Air must cool without starving and the Sea moisten without drowning Meats must feed but not poyson Rain must fall but not oppress Thus in the inferiour Creatures you see Actions are of several kinds But these may be reduced to the Actions of GOD from whom they spring for he prepares all these Creatures for us And it is necessary to the felicity of his Sons that he should make all things healing and amiable not odious and destructive that he should Love and not Hate And the Actions of Men must concur aright with these of GOD and his Creatures They must not despise Blessings because they are given but esteem them not trample them under feet because they have the benefit of them but magnifie and extol them They too must Love and not Hate They must not kill and murther but serve and pleasure one another they must not scorn great and inestimable Gifts because they are common for so the Angels would lose all the happiness of Heaven If GOD should do the most great and glorious things that infinite Wisdom could devise if Men will resolve to be blind and perverse and sensless all will be in vain the most High and Sacred things will increase their Misery This may give you some little glimpse of the excellency of Vertue You may easily discern that my Design is to reconcile Men to GOD and make them fit to delight in him and that my last End is to celebrate his Praises in communion with the Angels Wherein I beg the Concurrence of the Reader for we can never praise him enough nor be fit enough to praise him No other man at least can make us so without our own willingness and endeavour to do it Above all pray to be sensible of the Excellency of the Creation for upon the due sense of its Excellency the life of Felicity wholly dependeth Pray to be sensible of the Excellency of Divine Laws and of all the Goodness which your Soul comprehendeth Covet a lively sense of all you know of the Excellency of GOD and of Eternal Love of your own Excellency and of the worth and value of all Objects whatsoever For to feel is as necessary as to see their Glory The Contents CHAP. I. OF the End for the sake of which Vertue is desired Chap. II. Of the Nature of Felicity its excellency and perfection Chap. III. Of Vertue in general The distribution of it into its several kinds It s definition Chap. IV. Of the Powers and Affections of the Soul What Vertues pertain to the estate of Innocency what to the estate of Grace what to the estate of Glory Chap. V. Of the necessity excellency and use of Knowledge Its depths and extents its Objects and its End Chap. VI. Of Love and Hatred The necessity and sweetness of Love It s general use and efficacy The several kinds of Love Of the power inclination and act of Love its extent and capacity Chap. VII What benefit GOD himself does receive by his eternal Love That when our Love is made compleat and perfect it will be like his and the benefit of it will be eternal Chap. VIII Of the excellency of Truth as it is the object and cause of Vertue The matter and form of Vertuous Actions That their form is infinitely more excellent than their matter and the Heathen Morality infinitely defective and short of the Christian. Chap. IX Wisdom is seated in the Will it attaineth best of all possible Ends by the best of all possible Means Chap. X. Of Righteousness how Wisdom Justice and right Reason are shut up in its Nature What God doth and what we acquire by the exercise of this Vertue Chap. XI Of Goodness natural moral and divine its Nature described The benefits and Works of Goodness Chap. XII Of Holiness Its nature violence and pleasure It s beauty consisteth in the infinite love of Righteousness and Perfection Chap. XIII Of Justice in general and particular The great good it doth in Empires and Kingdoms a token of the more retired good it doth in the Soul It s several kinds That Gods punitive Justice springs from his Goodness Chap. XIV Of Mercy The indelible stain and guilt of Sin Of the Kingdom which God recovered by Mercy The transcendent nature of that duty with its effects and benefits Chap. XV. Of Faith The faculty of Believing implanted in the Soul Of Nature its Objects are The necessity of Faith Its end its use and excellency It is the Mother and fountain of all the Vertues Chap. XVI Of Hope It s foundation its distinction from Faith its extents and dimensions its life and vigour its several kinds its sweetness and excellency Chap. XVII Of Repentance It s original its nature it is a purgative Vertue its necessity its excellencies The measure of that sorrow which is due to Sin is intollerable to Sence confessed by Reason and dispensed with by Mercy Chap. XVIII Of Charity towards God It sanctifieth Repentance makes it a Vertue and turns it to a part of our true Felicity Our Love to all other objects is to begin and end in God Our Love of God hath an excellency in it that makes it worthy to be desired by his eternal Majesty He is the only supream and perfect Friend by Loving we enjoy him Chap. XIX Charity to our Neighbour most natural and easie in the estate of Innocency Adams Love to Eve and his Children a great exemplar of our Love to all the World The sweetness of Loving The benefits of being Beloved To love all the World and to be beloved by all the World is perfect security and felicity Were the Law fulfilled all the World would be turned into Heaven Chap. XX. Of Prudence It s foundation is Charity its end tranquility and prosperity on Earth its office to reconcile Duty and Convenience and to make Vertue subservient to Temporal welfare Of Prudence in Religion Friendship and Empire The end of Prudence is perfect Charity Chap. XXI Encouragements to Courage It s Nature cause and end It s greatness and renown Its ornaments and Companions Its objects circumstances effects and disadvantages how Difficulties increase its vertue Its Victories and Triumphs How subservient it is to Blessedness and Glory Chap. XXII Of Temperance in matters of Art as Musick Dancing Painting Cookery Physick c. In the works of Nature Eating drinking sports and recreations In occasions of passion in our lives
they are freely given are not to be despised THAT which I desire to teach a man is How to make a Good use of all the Advantages of his Birth and Breeding How in the Increase of Riches and Honors to be Happy in their Enjoyment How to secure himself in the temptations of Affluence and to make a man glorious in himself and delightful to others in Abundance Or else if Affliction should arise and the State of Affairs change how to triumph over adverse Fortune and to be Happy notwithstanding his Calamities How to govern himself in all Estates so as to turn them to his own advantage FOR tho felicitie be not absolutely perfect in this World nor so compleat in Poverty as in a great and plentiful Estate you are not to believe that wealth is absolutely necessary because sometimes it is requisite to forfeit all for the sake of Felicity Nothing is absolutely necessary to Bliss but Grace and vertue tho to perfect Bliss Ease and Honour be absolutely necessary THERE are many degrees of Blessedness beneath the most Supream that are transcendently Sweet and delightful And it sometimes happens that what is most bitter to Sence is pleasant to Reason RATHER then make Shipwrack of a good Conscience we must do as Mariners in a storm cast our riches over board for our own Preservation It is better losing them then our selves VERTUE is Desirable and Glorious because it teacheth us through many Difficulties in this Tempestuous World to Sail Smoothly and attain the Haven CHAP. II. Of the Nature of Felicity its Excellence and Perfection THE Peripateticks so far forth as they contemplated the Nature and Estate of man in this World were Wise in defining the Goods of the Body Soul and Fortune to concur to Mans perfect Happiness For Difficulties and Conflicts are not Essential to the Nature of Bliss nor confistent with the fruition of its fulness and Perfection THERE is the Way and the journeyes end IN the Way to Felicity many things are to be endured that are not to be desired And therefore is it necessary to make a Distinction between the way to Felicity and the Rest which we attain in the end of our Journey THE Goods of the Soul are absolutely necessary in the Way to Happiness the Goods of the Body are very convenient and those of Fortune Commodious enough But the latter of these are not with too much eagerness to be pursued THE Goods of the soul are wisdom Knowledg Courage all the Virtues all the Passions Affections Powers and faculties And these you know are absolutely necessary THE Goods of the Body are Health Agility Beauty Vivacity Strength and Libertie and these shall in Heaven it self together with those of the Soul he enjoyed By which you may discern that the Goods of the Body are real Parts and Ingredients of Happiness THE Goods of Fortune are food and Rayment Houses and Lands Riches Honours Relations and Friends with all those convenient Circumstances without the Body that are subject to chance By which vertue is assisted and of which a noble use may be made in Works of Justice Hospitality Courtesie and Charity which may redound to our greater Felicity here and in heaven THE more Honor and pleasure we enjoy the Greater and more Perfect is our present Happiness Tho many times in the Way to Felicity we are forced to quit all these for the Preservation of our Innocence GALLANT Behavior in flighting all Transitory things for the Preservation of our Virtue is more conducive to our future Perfection then the greatest ease imaginable in our present condition IT is incumbent upon us as a special part of our Care to take heed that we be not ensnared by the easiness of Prosperity and that we do not set up our Rest in the Way to Happiness nor deceive our selves in thinking the Goods of Fortune Essential nor discourage our selves by thinking it impossiable to be Happy without them Our Thoughts and Affections must be always disentangled that we may run with Alacritie the Race set before us and close with the Sublimest Perfection of Bliss as our only portion and Desire FELICITY is rightly defined to be the Perfect fruition of a Perfect Soul acting in perfect Life by Perfect Virtue For the Attainment of which Perfection we must in the Way to Felicity endure all Afflictions that can befall us For tho they are not Parts of Felicity themselves yet we may acknowledge them great Advantages for the Exercise of Virtue and reckon our Calamities among our Joys when we bear and overcome them in a virtuous Manner because they add to our Honor and contribute much to our Perfection both here and hereafter FOR this purpose we are to remember that our present Estate is not that of Reward but Labour It is an Estate of Trial not of Fruition A Condition wherein we are to Toyl and Sweat and travail hard for the promised Wages an Appointed Seed Time for a future Harvest a real Warfare in order to a Glorious Victory In which we must expect some Blows and delight in the Hazzards and Encounters we meet with because they will be crowned with a Glorious and joyful Triumph and attended with ornaments and trophies fa r surpassing the bare Tranquillity of idle peace WHEN we can cheerfully look on an Army of Misfortunes without Amazement we may then freely and Delightfully contemplate the Nature of the Highest Felicity ARISTOTLE never heard of our Ascension into Heaven nor of sitting down in the Throne of GOD yet by a lucky Hit if I may so say fell in point blanck upon the Nature of Blessedness For a perfect fruition by perfect virtue is all that can be thought of It implies our Objective and our formal Happiness OBJECTIVE Happiness is all the Goodness that is fit to be enjoyed either in GOD or in his Creatures while Formal Happiness is an active Enjoyment of all Objects by Contemplation and Love attended with full Complacency in all their Perfections PERFECT Fruition implies the Perfection of all its Objects Among which GOD himself is one Angels and Saints are next the World also with all the variety of Creatures in it the Laws of GOD and his wayes in all Ages his Eternal Counsels and Divine Attributes are other Objects of our Content and Pleasure Unless all these be perfect in their Nature Variety Number Extent Relation Use and Value our fruition cannot be simply perfect because a Greater and more perfect fruition might upon the production of better Objects be contrived and no fruition can be truly perfect that is not conversant about the highest things The more Beautiful the Object is the more pleasant is the enjoyment But where Delight may be increased the Fruition is imperfect A Perfect Soul is a Transcendent Mystery As GOD could not be Perfect were it possible there could be any Better Essence then he so neither would the Soul be perfect could any more Perfect Soul be created IT is a Soul
Quality contains within it either Natural Dispositions or Habits Habits may be either Vertuous or Vicious Virtuous Habits are either Theological Intellectual Moral or Divine And these are branched into so many Kinds of Vertue as followeth THE Theological Vertues are generally divided into Three Faith Hope and Charity which are called Theological because they have GOD for their Principal Object and are in a peculiar manner taught by his Word among the Mysteries of Religion To which we may add Repentance forasmuch as this Virtue tho it be occasioned by sin is chiefly taught by the Word of GOD and respects GOD as its Principal Object For which reason we shall account the Theological Virtues to be four Faith Hope Charity and Repentance to which if we making them more we may add Obedience Devotion Godliness THE Intellectual Vertues are generally reckoned to be five Intelligence Wisdome Science Prudence Art Which forasmuch as the Distinction between them is over-nice and curious at least too obscure for vulgar Apprehensions we shall reduce them perhaps to a fewer number INTELLIGENCE is the Knowledg of Principles Science the Knowledg of Conclusions Wisdom that knowledg which results from the Union of both Prudence and Art have been more darkly explained The Objects of Wisdom are alwayes Stable Prudence is that knowledge by which we guide our selves in Thorny and uncertain Affairs Art is that Habit by which we are assisted in composing Tracts and Systems rather then in regulating our Lives and more frequently appears in Fiddling and Dancing then in noble Deeds were it not useful in Teachers for the Instruction of others we should scarce reckon it in the number of Vertues ALL these are called Intellectual Vertues because they are Seated in the Understanding and chiefly exercised in Contemplation The Vertues that are brought down into action are called Practical and at other times Moral Because they help us in perfecting our Manners as they relate to our Conversation with Men. THE Moral Vertues are either Principal or less Principal The Principal are four Prudence Justice Temperance and Fortitude Which because they are the Hinges upon which our whole Lives do turn are called * Cardinal and are commonly known by the name of The four Cardinal Vertues They are called Principal not onely because they are the chief of all Moral Virtues but because they enter into every Vertue as the four Elements of which it is compounded THE less Principal Vertues are Magnificence and Liberality Modesty and Magnanimity Gentleness of behaviour Affability Courtesie Truth and Urbanitie all these are called less Principal not because they are indifferent or may be accounted useless for then they would not be Vertues but because tho their Practice be of extraordinary Importance in their places they are more remote and less Avail in the Way to Felicity and are more confined in their Operations DIVINE Vertues which we put instead of the Heathenish Heroical are such as have not only GOD for their Object and End but their Pattern and Example They are Vertues which are seen in his eternal Life by Practicing which we also are changed into the same Image and are made partakers of the Di Knowledge and Truth in the Sublimest Height we confess to be Three but we shall Chiefly insist upon Goodness and Righteousness and Holiness All which will appear in Divine Love in more peculiar manner to be handled BESIDES all these there are some Vertues which may more properly be called Christian because they are no where Else taught but in the Christian Religion are founded on the Love of Christ and the only Vertues distinguishing a Christian from the rest of the World of which sort are Love to Enemies Meekness and Humility ALL these Virtues are shut up under one common Head because they meet in one common Nature which bears the name of Vertue The Essence of which being well understood will conduce much to the clear Knowledge of every one in particular VERTUE in General is that habit of Soul by force of which we attain our Happiness Or if you please it is a Right and well order'd Habit of mind which Facilitates the Soul in all its operations in order to its Blessedness These Terms are to be unfolded 1. VERTUE is a Habit All Habits are either Acquired or Infused By calling it a Habit we distinguish it from a Natural Disposition or Power of the Soul For a Natural disposition is an inbred Inclination which attended our Birth and began with our beings not chosen by our Wills nor acquired by Industrie These Dispositions because they do not flow from our Choise and industry cannot be accounted Virtues T is true indeed that vertuous Habits are sometimes infused in a Miraculous Manner but then they are rather called Graces then Vertues and are ours only as they are Consented to by our Wills not ours by choise and acquisition but only by Improvement and exercise Tho they agree with Virtues in their Matter and their end yet they differ in their Original and form For as all Humane Actions flow from the Will and the Understanding so do all Vertues when they are rightly understood whereas we are Passive in the reception of these and they flow immediately from Heaven AND it is far more conducive to our Felicity that we should conquer Difficulties in the attainment of Vertue study chuse desire pursue and labour after it acquire it finally by our own Care and Industry with Gods Blessing upon it then that we should be Dead and Idle while virtue is given us in our Sleep For which cause GOD ordered our state and Condition so that by our own Labour we should seek after it that we might be as well pleasing in his Eys and as Honorable and Admirable in the Acquisition of vertue as in the Exercise and Practice of it And for these reasons GOD does not so often infuse it and is more desirous that we should by many repeated Actions of our own attain it GOD does sometimes upon the General Sloth of mankind inspire it raising up some persons thereby to be like salt among corrupted men least all should putrifie and perish Yet is there little reason why he should delight in that way without some such uncouth and Ungrateful necessity to compell him thereunto FOR any man to expect that GOD should break the General Order and Course of Nature to make him Vertuous without his own Endeavours is to Tempt GOD by a presumptuous Carelesseness and by a Slothful abuse of his Faculties to fulfil the parable of the unprofitable Servant THE Powers of the Soul are not vertues themselves but when they are clothed with vertuous Operations they are transformed into Vertues For Powers are in the Soul just as Limbs and Members in the Body which may indifferently be applied to Vertues and Vices alike be busied and exercised in either AS the Members are capable of Various Motions either comely or Deformed and are one thing when they are
nor can that of the Psalmist be doubted In his Presence there is fulness of Joy and at his right hand there are Pleasures for evermore that is his Omnipresence is full of Joys and his Eternity of Riches and Pleasures nor is it to be denied that the Soul is by its Creation intended for the Throne of GOD. For it is made capable of his Omnipresence and Eternity and as the Apostle speaketh may be filled with all the fulness of GOD which fulness is adequate to the Immensity of his Eternal Power of which you will see more in the Vertues of Love Wisdom Righteousness and Holiness This only is here to be noted that Nature never made any Power in vain but ever intendeth the Perfection of what it produceth and prepareth objects for the understanding the Perfection of which Power is the actual attainment of that Knowledge of which it is capable THE principal objects of our Knowledge are GOD and a Mans self The Kingdom of GOD his Laws and Works his Ways in all Ages his Counsels and his Attributes Mans Interest and Duty Transactions of the World the Thoughts and Actions of Angels and Men are considerable which tho they may be stiled less material Objects of the understanding yet in relation to GOD and a Mans felf are of great Importance GOD as he is the Life and fountain of all Felicity the End of all Perfection and the Creator of our Being Almighty in Power infinite in Wisdom and Goodness Author of the universe and Lord of all the Creatures is most fit to be Known Plato makes him the very Light of the understanding and affirms that as three Things are necessary to Vision the Eye rightly prepared the object conveniently seated and Light to convey the Idea to the Eye so there are three things required to compleat and perfect Intelligence an understanding Eye an Intelligible Object and a Light intelligible in which to conceive it Which last is GOD. Nor is the Royal Psalmist and Divine Philosopher David far from the Notion while he saith In thy Light we shall see Light For GOD is the Light of the understanding His Nature is the Light of all the Creation Therefore it is said by Christ himself that the Knowledge of GOD is Life Eternal For his Light is the Life of men and without him we can do nothing Till we Know his Nature we cannot apprehend the Excellency of his Works For all their Goodness is derived from him and ends in him His Love moved him to create the World and the principal End for which it was made is the Glory of the Creator in the Felicity of his Creatures The Glory of the Creatures is seen in his By his Wisdom and Goodness we are guided to the Hope and Investigation of their Excellence His infinite bounty made them all our Treasures that for the Perfection of their Beauty and Worth we might celebrate his Praises HE that would not be a stranger to the Universe an Alien to Felicity and a foreiner to himself must Know GOD to be an infinite Benefactor all Eternity full of Treasures the World it self the Beginning of Gifts and his own Soul the Possessor of all in Communion with the Deity That the Business of Religion is Complacency in GOD and that GOD never laid aside his Wisdom in any Operation of his Power never forgot to make the least of his Works agreeable to his Goodness Nay rather he is so perfect that his infinite Goodness Wisdom and Power are exerted wholy and wholy Conspicuous in every Operation It is the Beauty of Truth that maketh Knowledge of such infinite Value For if all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowing be ordained for a Wise and Knowing Man if all Objects in the clear Light of Heaven and Eternity be laudable and Glorious if Divine Wisdome hath so far obtained that the number and Value of GODS Gifts is accurate and exactly answerable to the nature of its causes if every Soul that will live in his Image may be the friend of GOD and acquire the Empire of the World and be Beloved of Angels and admired of Men if fruition be the End of Knowledge and all Things made that they may be enjoyed Knowledge is the only Thing that enriches the Soul and the Knowing Man is the friend of GOD. The Exercise and Pleasure of this Divine Amity is the End of the Creation and the Perfection of the Soul The Knowledge of a Mans-self is highly conducive to his Happiness not only as it gives him Power to rejoyce in his Excellencies but as it shews him his End for which he was created For by Knowing what Inclinations and Powers are in his Soul he discerns what is agreeable with and fit for his Essence what objects and what Operations are couducive to his Welfare what means he is to use for the Attainment of his End and what that is wherein his Perfection consisteth If the Powers of his Soul are illimited his Desire infinite and his Reach Eternal if he be able to see and enjoy all Worlds and all that is above all Worlds in the Image of GOD. If his Ambition carry him to be Pleasing to all Angels and Men and to be Glorious in the Eyes of all Kingdoms and Ages if his Abilities are indeficient for the fruition of all that is Excellent in eternity it self it is a token that he is ordained for GOD and the enjoyment of his Kingdom and a wicked folly to restrain himself to the miserable Contentment of a Cell or Cottage and to delight in nothing but some fragments of the Creation that in Comparison of the whole are infinitely Defective OF all other things I would have this most deeply engraven in the mind that GOD hath exceeded all Imagination in the Works of his Hands that he that overcometh shall be the Son of GOD and inherit all Things that there is an infinite end why the secrets of all hearts shall at last be revealed that in Heaven all Thoughts and Things shall be Known that the Kingdome of Heaven is so Glorious that all the blessed are Perfect Sovereigns every one the Possessor and End of it all that all Things proceeding immediately from GOD are the Best that are possible that the best and the worst things as ordered by him are perfectly amiable and subservient to Felicity that he himself alone hath a Proper Right to all that is excellent and that GOD is in every Thing to be enjoyed that he is enjoyed only when his essence and his Works satisfie the Desires of perfect reason and exceed all Wishes in filling and delighting the soul That having filled the soul with infinite Wisdome he has laid infinite Obligations upon us and set infinite Rewards before us made Laws in finitely amiable and given us Duties infinitely Desirable for which he deserves eternal Adorations and Thanksgivings CHAP. VI. Of Love and Hatred The necessity and sweetness of Love It s General use and efficacy The several
Love is made compleat and Perfect it will be like his and the Benefit of it will be Eternal BEFORE we can fully discern the Benefit of Love or see the Glory of it in all its high and admirable Effects we must consider what Love is and doth in GOD. For as we have said The Life of GOD is Love nay the Apostle saith GOD is Love By Loving he begot his Love And if his Love be his Godhead his Essence is an infinite and Eternal Act of Love by extending which through all infinity and by Loving Eternally he begot his infinite and Eternal Essence which is the Love that filleth all Worlds with Beauty and Glory When you consider it well An Act of Love is begotten by Loving And if his Wisdome and Goodness and Blessedness and Glory be seated in Love his Love is his Wisdome which is the Son of GOD and his Goodness and his Glory and his Blessedness For all these tho we conceive them diversly are the same Thing and of the Son of GOD it is said that he is the Wisdom of the Father and the Brightness of his Fathers Glory He is the Life of the Father by whom also he made the Worlds and the Love of the Father for whom all Things were created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers all Things were created by him and for him For GOD enjoyeth all Things by his Love which is his Eternal Son and made them as perfect and delightful as it was possible for things created to be that he might take Pleasure in them As he himself is made Glorious and Delightful in the Eyes of all Angels and Men by Love so doth his whole Kingdom arise and Spring from Love the Beauty and felicity of all his Creatures their Joys and Praises their Uses and Perfections are founded in his Love ' by his Love he begetteth all his pleasures in himself by his Love he made his Treasures infinite and by that alone doth he take infinite Pleasure and Delight in himself and his Kingdome Thus useful is the Love of GOD. Had not GOD from all Eternity Loved had he never desired nor delighted in any thing he had never exerted his Almighty Power never communicated his Goodness or begot his Wisdom never enjoyed Himself never applyed himself to the Production of his Works never appeared in his Glory to any eie whatsoever Removing his Love we remove all the Properties and Effects of his Essence and are utterly unable to conceive any Idea of his Godhead For his Power tho it be Almighty yet if it be Dead and idle is fruitless and Deformed Idle Power is not the Essence of the Deity but a meer Privation and Vacuity or at least a positive Being as ignoble as it is unactive The Reason of his Works is founded in Love so are all the Obligations that are laid upon his Creatures to adore him All their Rewards are founded in Love and by Love prepared All his Laws are the Laws of Love all his Attributes and Counsels are Love in several formes acting upon several occasions When his Love communicates it self in Joys to innocent Creatures it is Goodness when it attains the most perfect End by the most perfect means it is Wisdome when it rescues guilty Creatures from Hell it is Mercy when it punishes the Rebellious it is Justice when it inspires Obedience into any obstinate Person it is Grace when it delights in the Beauty of all its Works it is Blessedness when it appears in the perfection of its works it is glory For Glory is the perfection of Beauty that ariseth from and is seated in the lustre of excellent Actions discovering the internal Properties of an excellent Agent which is by those his Properties and Actions made Delightful to all Judicious Spectators NOR is it onely in GOD but in us also that the fruits and Benefits of Love are ineffable For by loving as it ought to do the Soul acquires its own Perfection and is united to all its Objects By loving as it ought to do it is made Holy and Wise and Good and Amiable Onely by Loving does it embraces the Delights of which it is capable Love is the root and Soul of those Actions for which a Creature is desired and praised by others IT is an infinite Advantage that we are able to live in GODS Image if we please For if GOD alone be infinitely Glorious and Blessed there is no way for us to become Glorious and Blessed but by being made either by our selves or some other like unto him BY nature he hath implanted the Similitude of his power which we are to improve by Grace turning it into Act after his Similitude To be able to Love is neither Grace nor vertue but a meer Gift of GOD a natural Endowment which may be Blasted or compleated Actually to love is the Work of vertue for by that Act we enjoy our Felicity HAD GOD limited and confined our understanding our power of Loving had been shut up in Bounds Had he made it infinite but not prepared objects for the same our Love had been deluded and had lost its force Had he made some Objects but not so many as it was capable of Loving it had been Superfluous and dissatisfied Had he prepared Objects innumerable and Endless but made them evil our Love had been irrational had he commanded us to Love them Had he made more Objects then we were able to love we had been discontented But having made all Objects infinitely Amiable and Glorious and filled his Immensity and Eternity with himselfe and with the Lustre of his Actions Love is an infinite Vertue because nothing is wanting but an Act of Love to enjoy them IF they are all Amiable in all Respects they are all according to our Hearts desire in their Natures Places Durations Ends Occasions Causes Uses Service Relations Properties Operations c. All things as they immediatly proceed from him are in all respects most perfectly pleasing And if we have an Eye to see and discern this and a Soul able to resent the Benefit if our nature be so vast and perfect as to see and take pleasure in all their Circumstances it is the most unreasonable and bruitish thing in the world to withdraw our Affection from them nay it is worse then Diabolical For we Kill our selves we blast our Felicity we offend GOD we slight the Beauty of all his Creatures we break his Laws we act against nature we darken the Light and Splendor of our Souls we deface his Image we grieve his Love we do the most vicious and abominable thing that is imaginable But if we excite and a waken our Power we take in the Glory of all objects we live unto them we are sensible of them we delight in them we transform our souls into Acts of Love and Knowledge we proceed out of our selves into all Immensities
fear he did not understand it As Seneca luckily hit upon that saying Deus me solum dedit toti mundo totum Mundum mibi soli GOD gave me alone to all the World and all the World to me alone yet could not understand it For had he Known what it was he said he would have made a better use of it and been more copious and explicite in the Illustration An actual Respect had to infinite Obligations and Rewards a Desire in every action to please an infinite and eternal Lover to Glorifie a Divine and Endless Benefactor to bring forth the fruits of infinite Benefits and to be truely Grateful for all the Advantages of a mans Creation that is made to have Dominion over all the World these are higher and better Qualifications of those Vertuous Actions which Christians perform than Heathens understood And yet if nature were divested of its Corruption the Natural Man that is no Christian might by the Light of Nature be fitted to understand them And the Truth is I wonder much the World being so Beautiful and Glorious in every Eye so really deep and valuable in Worth so peculiarly applied to the use and service of every person that the Heathens did miss the fruition of it and fail to measure themselves and their Felicity by the Greatness of its Beauty and the Joy which all the Creatures ought to produce in the mind of Man by their real Services For the Earth is really better than if all its Globe were of beaten Gold the Seas are better than if all their Abysses were full of Diamonds the Air is better than if all the space between us and the Skys were full of Scepters and the Sun alone a greater Treasure then all the wealthy Mines in the Indies every man is surrounded with all the Light of their Advantages and so much served by them as if no man but himself were alive in the World So that it is a natural and easie Investigation even for Heathens themselves to discern the mystery of Bliss and to discover the misery of Humane Nature to be founded in some Disease of the Will or Understanding And to return from Inadvertency and Sloth to Truth and Righ Reason which was the ready Way to true Felicity For they Knew not the Arcanum or Hidden mystery of Divine Laws nor the Excellency and Perfection of immortal Souls which make every one a Soveraign and Transcendent Creature yet they might easily observe the miserable Effects of Eternal Solitude and in external Services how useful and comfortable men were ordained by Nature to be to one another EVERY man Loves to have many Eys fixt on his Beauty and to have many Delightful Objects and Transactions for his own Be the Theatre never so Magnificent the Actions and the Actors are more Delightful to the Spectators than the Gildings and Dead Engravings Were all other men removed out of the World to make room for one the empty Theatre would remain but the Spectacle be lost all the Cities and Kingdoms and Ages would be removed with all that was lively and rare and Miraculous in all their Occurrences Palaces and Temples had been prevented Houses and Villages Fields and Vineyards The World had been a Wilderness overgrown with Thorns and Wild Beasts and Serpents Which now by the Labor of many hands is reduced to the Beauty and Order of Eden It is by Trades and Occupations that a man gets him Corn and Wine and Oyl c. all which he would have been without had he never seen any Company but himself condemned to Idleness and melancholly Vertues and Praises had been things unknown Admiration and Honor Love and Knowledge the mysteries of Religion and Piety all the speculations of Wisdom for want of Education had been lost at least the Sence and Exercise of these Bright and Glorious Things for wont of Conversation Corrupted Nature being prone to afford no other fruits but Barbarism and Ignorance in that Solitary Condition For the Powers of the Soul are improved by Tradition and it is by the Information of others that our minds are awakened to perceive the Dignity of our own Nature the Value of all the Creatures and our Interest unto them But Religion teaches us far more the Beginning and the End of the World how highly we are honored and beloved of GOD the Manner wherein we are to converse with him the transcendent Excellency of Souls and the Divine Perfections of the Deity What his Omnipresence and Eternity is how we are to be enlarged in our Apprehensions and Desires and prepared for infinite and Eternal fruitions in what Quality and Capacity we are to live in the world and Exercise Vertue how we are to spend our Time and employ our Powers on all Objects every one as Lord of the Creation and the friend of GOD How all Angels and Men are commanded to Love us as themselves and by that Love to serve and delight us more than by all other Actions and Offices whatsoever That every Soul is a more excellent Being than the visible World more nearly allyed to God and more precious in it self than any Treasure whatsoever That it is endued with Powers Inclinations and Principles so fitly subservient and conducive to Blessedness that any one of these is more Delightful then all inanimate Things in the Contemplation and Enjoyment of which we may justly be lost in Wonder and Extasie All this by the Light of Nature is asserted but covered with so Gross a vail that we discern it not till it is newly revealed by the Ministery of Men. And upon all these Accounts are Men themselves which are generally mistaken to be Impediments Means Assistances of our Happy living BUT however familiar and near and easie these Great and evident Truths appear it so happened that the Heathen Philosophers were Blind unto them and in the midst of their Searches after Felicity failed of the Discovery they became vain in their Imaginations placing felicity in a meer Apathy or conceited 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a self-sufficiency or in a brave Contempt of all misfortunes in a forced Contentment Dark and empty or in Sensual Pleasures or in the Goods of fortune either alone or conjoyned with those of the Soul and Body which they lamely enumerated and knew not how to imploy as if the Discovery of the highest and best Truths in nature had been reserved for him that redeemed Nature and the Plainest Truths had been appointed to honor and attend that Religion which brought supernatural My steries to Light by the Preaching of the Gospel BY this last the Qualifications of an humble and pious Soul a Penitent and Grateful Person sensible at once of his infinite Guilt and Grandure were introduced Another foundation laid upon the Meritorious Death and Passion of GOD the Son of GOD a Second Love continued in the Deity to the miserable after an infinite forfeiture all the Oracles and Visions and Miracles by which the Nature of Man
is magnified and Ages enlightned the Ministry of Angels and the Dispensations of Providence by which the Care and Tenderness of GOD is shewn the infinite measures and Violences of his Love the infinite Variety and Number of Obligations the present Advantages and Benefits the Eternal Rewards the Relation of GOD to Man as a Father and a friend a Bridegroom and a King a Light and Example the sweetuess of our Union and Communion with him and the Gift of the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven all these Things which the Angels desire to look into were by the Christian Religion with the rest before mentioned plainly revealed with our victory over Death the Resurrection of our Bodies and Life Eternal IN the Light of these Circumstances the Interior form of Vertuous Acts more evidently appears For to exercise Vertue in the Quality and Capacity of a Son of GOD is another sort of Business than to exercise Vertue as an ordinary Mechanick and to do all things being clothed with a Sence of our Coelestial Grandeur as we are Heirs of the World infinitely Beloved of GOD ordained for his Throne Delightful in the Eyes of all Angels and Men Beloved and honored by all the Creatures made Partakers of the Divine Nature intending and designing to Please all Spectators in Heaven and Earth by the excellency of our Actions This makes every little Deed as it were infinite within while the Matter of the Action seemeth nothing it renders the Form Divine and Blessed THE best Actions of the prophaner Heathen fell under the notion of Dead Works By which name the Apostle calleth all wicked Deeds to intimate the Privation of all that excellency that ought to be in Humane Actions Every Deed and Thought of ours ought to be Inspired with Life from Heaven The Light of the Understanding and the vigor of the Will is the Soul that informes it When it is void of Knowledge and springs not from that series of GODS infinite Love that ought to animate it nor regardeth those Eternal Joys that are set before us nor at all considers those Obligations that are laid upon us it is bereaved of its Vital and Essential form it is like a fair Carcase without a Soul unsensible of those Interests and Concerns that ought chiefly to be valued and promoted And by this you may see clearly that the Matter of a Good act falles infinitely short of that Perfection wherewith it ought to be inspired if this Soul or Form be wanting which tho less visible to the Eye of flesh is of as much greater Excellence and Importance as the Soul in nature is above Body THUS when a Heathen giveth to the Poor the matter of the Act is the very self same which a Christian man does So is an Act of Courage or Patience in encountring Death the subduing of the Appetite and the Denial of a Lust a piece of Justice against Interest and friendship an Act of Prudence Temperance or Fidelity In all these if we respect the Matter of them Heathens have acted in a manner as high as any Christian and consequently appear to vulgar Apprenhensions as Heroick and Stupendious But consider the inside the Heathen did it that he might satisfie his Conscience and and please the GODS that he might acquire honor and immortal fame or please the generous Inclination of his own Soul which delighted in Honor and Worth or assert his own Principles or five his friends or preserve his Country And doubtless these are Great and brave considerations but they are limited and finite and Sick of two Defects for the most part that are incurable They were Sacrifices of Obedience to false Gods plain Idolatry and attended with an ignorant Loftiness and Height of Mind that confided in them and besides this they aspired to little more then a Glorious name in following Ages WHEREAS the Christian makes all Kind of Graces to meet and concentre in every Action Wisdom Goodness Justice Courage Temperance Prudence Humility Penitence Patience Meekness Liberality Cheerfulness Gratitude Joy in the Holy Ghost Devotion Piety Faith Hope Charity all Kind of Holiness And his Action extends to all the Objects of these Graces and includes their Causes He remembers the infinite Obligations that are laid upon him by that Deity which infinitely Loves him the Benefit of the Creation and the Glory of the Divine Image the Guilt of fall and that blot and misery that lyes upon him the Wonder of his Redemption and the Love of Christ his Death and Passion the Miraculous Pains and Endeavors of GOD in all Ages to reclaim him the Giving of the Holy Ghost and his holy Baptism the New Covenant which he is in with GOD the Height and Glory of his Place and station the Beauty of the World and his Dominion over all the Living Creatures the Joy and Amity of all the Angels the Benefit and Welfare of all his Neighbours the Joy and Prosperity of future Ages the Glory of GOD the Honour of his Church and the Propagation of Religion the Salvation of others Souls and the Eternal State and condition of his own the Acquisition of a Coelestial and Eternal Kingdom and the Delight he taketh in an infinite Sphere of Eternal Joys the fervent Desire he has to be Grateful to the Almighty all these by the Light of his Divine and Coelestial Knowledge enter into the Act for want of which the other work that is wrought by an Ignorant Heathen is in a Manner rightly called a Work of Darkness I do not speak this as if I would discourage a Heathen from doing the Best that he is able or condemn those reasons upon which he proceedeth in his Vertuous Deeds No nor as if all this were necessary to the Acceptance of an Action But to shew how highly Christianity does ennoble the Soul of Man how far more sublime its Principles are and how far more perfect it makes his Actions When they are what they may be And withal to provoke Christians to a more Intelligent and lofty Practice of Christian Vertues lest they differ not in their Morals from the better sort of Heathens All these things are necessary to the perfection of an Action tho not to its Acceptance And GODS Omnipresence and Power and Wisdom and Love ought to be considered in all places among all Persons upon all occasions And the Blood of Christ and the infinite Glory of Eternal Bliss But that which above all I chiefly intend is to shew what influence the great Perfection of Felicity hath upon all our Vertues not only to stir us up to do them but by entering their Constitution to inspire them with their Beauty and form for their fuller Lustre Glory and Perfection That we may see also how Great and Transcendent that Life must be wherein every Act is capable of so much Majesty and Magnificence if I may so speak by reason of the variety of its Ends and Causes And how abominable and absurd they are all that
Blessedness By it he is capable of all their Affections and of the Services which his Laws require By it all Angels and Cherubims are moved to admire and adore his Glory By it all Creatures visible and invisible are made his Treasures By it he is multiplied and magnified in every Soul as the same Object is in several Mirrors being intirely represented in every living Temple of his Eternal essence By it he becometh his own end and the Glorious Author and the King of Heaven By it he liveth a Divine and a Blessed Life and by it he is what he is for ever By it all the Graces Exaltations and Vertues of all his Creatures are made his Joys and their Persons and Praisers are Delightful to him Of all his Laws and Decrees and Counsels his Goodness is the fountain It is the Original and final Cause of all our Thanksgivings Our ease and repose and Satisfaction our Bliss and enjoyment are founded in it and caused by it For its own Pleasure all our Delights are made exquisite in their place and the most of them Eternal For its own Glory it maketh all its Creatures Glorious and prizeth its own Glory because it is the Sovereign Delight of all its Creatures It is every way compleat and perfect as infinitely Convenient as it is Great in Bounty as Good to it self as to all others There is no End of all its Perfection and for that Cause it is Incomprehensible TO be made Partaker of the Divine Nature without having the Goodness of Almighty GOD is impossible Nor can we enjoy his Goodness or bear the similitude of his Glory unless we are good in like Manner We enjoy the Goodness of GOD and may be said to have it either when we have its Similitude in our selves or the Pleasure of it in others Since the Goodness of GOD is the great Object of our Joy its Enlargment is our Interest and the more there are to whom he is Good and the more he communicates his Felicity to every one the Greater Pleasures he prepares for us and the more is our goodness therein delighted To see innumerable Millions in Communion with him and all of them made Glorious and Blessed and every one seated in his throne is the greatest Elevation of our Souls and the highest Satisfaction in the World When our Goodness meeteth his in all Places and congratulates the Felicity of every person we may then use the Words of our Saviour because we are endued with the same Mind and Affection And as he accepts all the Good that is done to his Members as done to himself saying Inasmuch as ye have done it to the least of these my Brethren ye have done it to me Our Souls will reply Inasmuch as thou hast done all this to the least of these my Brethren thou hast done it to me for loving our Neighbours as our selves all Angels and Men will be our fellow Members our Brethren our other selves As we delight in all Acts of Goodness for their own sakes that are done to us so shall we delight in all the Bounties of GOD for theirs who are the partakers of them and in GOD for this very reason Because he is good to all We shall be as Happy in others as in our selves and Esteem the Goodness of GOD our Felicity because it hath prevented our Goodness and done all for them which were it undone we should desire to do our selves because our Goodness is a principle that carries us to delight in their perfect Felicity VVhich that we may do the more Sweetly and with more full Satisfaction and perfect Reason his Goodness to all others is but the Perfection of Goodness to us for they are all made Blesed for our fuller and greater Felicity HAD GOD withheld or withdrawn his Goodness from all others it had not been Greater to us but less The Stars are no hindrance to our Enjoyment of the Skie but the Light and Beauty of the place which we contemplate Were they all annihilated the Heavens would be obscure They do us many Services of which we should be bereaved by their Absence and Destruction GOD by giving Beams and influences to them made our Treasures more rich and fair which are increased and multiplied by their Beauty and Number Did the Sun shine upon us and upon Nothing else it would be less beneficial to us than now it is Its Beams that are scattered seem to be lost yet were they contracted upon one his Body would be consumed and all the rest of the World be dark about him those Rays which fly from the Sun to the utmost parts of the World illuminate all Objects and from them more conveniently return to the Eye with their Beauty and Glory which by those Rayes that are dispersed become visible and Profitable They fall not all upon every single man but work for him in other places begetting Herbs and Fruits and Flowers and Minerals and Springs and Trees and Jewels with all that is rich and delectable in the VVorld for his fruition It serves Beasts and Fowles and Fishes for my sake and for my sake does it serve even Men and Angels That they being more Divine and Glorious Creatures might adorn Heaven and Earth with their Persons which without them would be void and Empty For we all desire to be seen and Known and Beloved and for that Cause without Living Agents should be very Desolate and discontented THUS you see if GOD had given all Eternity and Immensity to a man if he had made no other Creatures but him alone his Bounty had been defective Whereas by the Creation of these he hath filled Eternity and Immensity with Treasures All which he hath made ours by commanding them to Love us as themselves fit to be enjoyed and beloved by us by filling them with his Goodness and making them in his Image For every one of them is to Love all his Creatures as he does and to delight in the Beauty and Felicity of all and to be the joy and Delight of all as as he is And the Greater and the Richer and the fairer they are the more Great and Happy are we because they are made our Lovers and Friends our Brides and Brethren our Sons and Daughters our Fathers and our Servants which the more Honourable and Excellent they are the more Delightful the more Glorious and Blessed these are their Love is the more precious and Acceptable True Goodness removes all Envy and Contention out of the VVorld and introduces nothing but Peace and Bounty and Joy unspeakeable and full of Glory WE Love nothing more then to be Delightful to others and to have our Glory seen is a natural Desire which our Saviour has countenanced by his own Petition It is our Interests that the Eys should be innumerable that see and admire the Glory which we had with the Father in some Sense before the VVorld was that they should see I mean how much we are Beloved of GOD
Imperfection of ours NOR is the reason of his Love to the utmost Perfection less then infinite You Know that all impure Things upon Earth are dull and Obscure as Vile in Esteem as Base and faint in their Operations Neither will a Lump of Dirt shine like the Sun nor a Mudwall be Resplendent like polisht Marble All Glorious Things have a Height of Intensness in them and owe most of their Beauty to the Motion of their Strength and Activity But GOD is a more High and Necessary Thing than these Perfection is his Essence and he could not be himself upon any Abatement It is a great Wonder I But the smallest Thing in the world may spare somewhat of it self rather than that which is infinite Upon the least substraction that which is infinite is made finite and the Loss is infinite We cannot be at all Beloved by Almighty GOD unless we are infinitely Beloved For to Love and neglect us at the same time is impossible and to be able to do infinite Things for us and yet to do but some of them is to Love and neglect us at the same time T is Love in what it does neglect in what it leaveth undone The Reason why it is our duty to Love him infinitely is because he infinitely Loved us Did he not exert all his Power himself he would never command us to exert ours The Love of all Perfection is his Essence and must be infinite for its own Perfection The least flaw in a Diamond abates its Price one Tooth awry or wanting in a Clock doth make it useless Dead flies corrupt the Apothecaries Oyntment so doth a little folly him that is in Reputation for Wisdome and Honour The Greater his Reputation and Wisdome is the more Grievious a Disparagement is any Srain Nor is GOD above these Rules for his Essence it self is the Ruled of ours and the Higher his Divinity is the more Exquisite is its Care of its own Perfection There is no Danger of being Severe in our Expectations for GOD does infinitely hate any Defect in himself more then we tho we infinitely hate it and enjoys himself only as he is an Object Worthy of his own infinite Love and Honour FROM GODS Love of Righteous Action it proceedeth that he made ours so compleatly capable of becoming Righteous and that he adventured a Power into our Hands of offending It is a strange thing that the Excess of the Hatred of all Sin should make Sin possible and that the most perfect Righteousness should be the Accidental Cause of Unrighteousness But yet it is so an infinite Love to the Best of all possible Things made the worst of all things that could be possible excepting those that are impossible which yet we need not except TO read these Riddles aright you must vnderstand that even Impossibles themselves are conceiveable Things and may be compared with Possible and Actual That the Highest and Best of all that are Possible are the most Easie with GOD and most near to his Nature that inforior Possibles are more remote and only thought on in the second place that Things Impossible are the worst of Evils and Things Actual the Best of GOODS For nothing is impossible but that GOD should lye or Dishonour or displease or deny himself or abuse his Power or suspend his Goodness or injure his Creatures or do some such thing which is contrary to his Nature yet very conceiveable because he is a free Agent and has a kind of Power were it not prevented by his Eternal Act whereby he is able to do these Impossible things Nothing is Eternally Actual but the Goodness and Wisdome and Holiness of GOD or some such Thing as his Righteousness and Blessedness and Perfection All which spring from his Will and are Eternally his pleasure as well as his Essence In the idle Power of being and doing all Excellent Things there is much Hazzard and danger but he freely and voluntarily became all these from all Eternity He wrought all Righteousness and Wisdom and Goodness from everlasting and by so doing became the fountain of all that is Glorious from all Eternity The Worst of all Possible Evils are the Sins of Men Which have an infinite Demerit and Vileness in them yet are truely possible And the reason of their Possibility is thus accounted Impossible which are worst of all are Sins in GOD. TO make Creatures infinitely free and leave them to their Liberty is one of the Best of all Possible Things and so necessary that no Kingdome of Righteousness could be without it For in every Kingdome there are subjects capable of Laws and Rewards and Punishments And these must be free Agents There is no Kingdome of Stones nor of Trees nor of Stars only a Kingdome of Men and Angels Who were they divested of their Liberty would be reduced to the Estate of Stones and Trees neither capable of Righteous Actions nor able to Honor or to Love or praise without which Operations all inferior Creatures and meer Natural Agents would be totally Useless So that all the Glory of the World depends on the Liberty of Men and Angels and therefore GOD gave it to them because he delighted in the Perfection of his Creatures tho he very well knew there would be the Hazzard of their abusing it and of Sin in that abuse when they had received it The abuse of it he infinitely hated yet could not prevent it without being Guilty of a Greater Evil. He infinitely hated it because those Actions of Love and Honor which should spring from the right use of it were the onely fair off-spring for the sake of which the whole World was made and without the right right use of their Liberty all Creatures Angels and Souls would be in vain he could not Prevent it without being himself Guilty of what in them he abhorred FOR himself to be Guilty was the worst of Evils and absolutely impossible T was better let them make their Power vain themselves then do so himself For the Author of that vanity be it who it will is the Author of the Sin If they would make it vain He could not help it for him to divest them of the use of Liberty after he had given it was as inconsistent with himself as it was with their Beauty to abuse it the Act of giving it by taking it away being made vain He infinitely hated that the Liberty should be frustrated which he gave unto men for their more perfect Glory he laid all Obligations upon them to use it well and deterred them as much as was possible from abusing it but would not transfer their fault upon himself because he fore saw they were about to do it which he certainly had done had he made their Power vain himself after he had given it Either to refuse to give the Power or Having given it to interpose and determine it without their Consent was alike detrimental to the whole Creation For indeed it is
impossible that he by determining their Wills should make them the Authors of Righteous Actions which of all things in the World he most desired There is as much Difference between a Willing Act of the Soul it self and an Action forced on the Will determined by another as there is between a man that is dragged to the Altar whether he will or no and the man that comes with all his Heart with musick and Dancing to offer sacrifice There is Joy and Honour and Love in the one fear and constraint and shame in the other That GOD should not be able to deserve our Love unless he himself made us to Love him by violence is the Greatest Dishonour to him in the World Nor is it any Glory or Reputation for us who are such sorry Stewards that we cannot be entrusted with a little Liberty but we must needs abuse it GOD adventured the possibility of sinning into our hands which he infinitely hated that he might have the Possibility of Righteous Actions which he infinitely Loved Being a voluntary and free Agent he did without any Constraint Love and desire all that was most high and Supreamly Excellent of all Objects that are possible to be thought on his own Essence which is a Righteous Act is the Best and the Righteous Acts of Saints and Angels are the Highest and Best next that which Creatures could perform The very utmost Excellence of the most noble Created Beings consisted in Actions of piety freely wrought which GOD so Loved that for their sake alone he made Angels and Souls and all Worlds These Righteous Actions he so Loved that for their sake he prepared infinite Rewards and Punishments All the Business of his Laws and Obligations are these Righteous Actions That we might do these in a Righteous Manner he placed us in a mean Estate of Liberty and Tryal not like that of Liberty in Heaven where the Object will determine our Wills by its Amiableness but in the Liberty of Eden where we had absolute Power to do as we pleased and might determine our Wills our selves infinitely desiring and Delighting in the Righteous use of it hating and avoiding by infinite Cautions and Provisions all the unjust Actions that could spring from it If we Love Righteous Actions as he does and are holy as he is holy in all manner of Wisdome and Righteousness then shall we delight in all Righteous Actions as he doth shall Love Vertue and Wisdome as he doth and prefer the Works of Piety and Holiness above all the Miracles Crowns and Scepters in the World every Righteous and Holy Deed will be as pleasing to us as it is to him all Angels and Men will be as so many Trees of Righteousness bearing the fruit of Good Works on which we shall feast in Communion with GOD Or if our Righteous Souls be vexed as Lots Soul in Sodom was in seeing and hearing the unlawful Deeds of the wicked they shall be recreated and revived with the sight of GODS most Righteous Judgments and with the Beauty of his holy Ways by which he rectifies the Malignity of the Wicked overcomes the evil of their Deeds and turnes all the vices of men into his own Glory and ours in the Kingdome of Heaven The Delights of Wisdome and Righteousness and Holiness are suitable to their Nature as those of Goodness are to the nature of Goodness Which no man can enjoy but he that is qualified for them by the Principles of Goodness and Holiness implanted in his Nature For as he that has no Eys wanteth all the Pleasures of sight so he that has no Knowledge wanteth all the pleasures of Knowledge he that is void of Holiness is void of the Sence which Holiness inspires and he that is without Goodness must needs be without the Pleasures of Goodness for he cannot delight in the Goodness of GOD towards other Creatures To be Good to be Holy to be Righteous is freely to delight in Excellent Actions which unless we do of our own Accord no External Power whatsoever can make us Good or Holy or Righteous because no force of External Power can make us free whatever it is that invades our Liberty destroys it GOD therefore may be infinitely Holy and infinitely desire our Righteous Actions tho he doth not intermeddle with our Liberty but leaves us to our selves having no Reserve but his Justice to punish our ofences CHAP. XIII Of Justice in General and Particulars The Great Good it doth its Empires and Kingdoms a Token of the more retired Good it doth in the Soul It s several Kinds That GODS Punitive Justice Springs from his Goodness THO following the common Course of Moralists in our Distribution of Vertues we have seated Justice among the Cardinal Moral yet upon second Thoughts we find reason to reduce it to the number of Divine Vertues because upon a more neer and particular Inspection we find it to be one of the Perfections of GOD and under that notion shall discover its Excellence far more compleatly then if we did contemplate its Nature as it is limited and bounded among the Actions of Men. THE Universal Justice of Angels and Men regards all Moral Actions and Vertues whatever It is that Vertue by which we yield Obedience to all righteous and Holy Laws upon the Account of the Obligations that lye upon us for the Publick Welfare of the whole World Because we Love to do that which is Right and desire the fruition of Eternal Rewards There is much Wisdome and Goodness as well as Courage and Prudence necessary to the Exercise of this Vertue and as much need of Temperance in it as any For he that will be thus just must of necessity be Heroical in despising all Pleasure and Allurements that may soften his Spirit all fears and dangers that may discourage and divert him all inferior Obligations and Concernes that may intangle and ensnare him he must trample under foot all his Relations and friends and particular Affections so far as they incline him to partiality and sloth he must be endued with Great Wisdome to discern his End great Constancy to pursue it great Prudence to see into Temptations and Impediments and to lay hold on all Advantages and Means that may be improved he must have a Great Activity and Vigor in using them a Lively sence of his Obligations a transcendent Love to GOD and felicity a mighty Patience and Long-suffering because his Enemies are many his Condition low his Mark afar off his Business manifold his Life tho short in it self yet long to him his undertaking Weighty and his nature corrupted THEY otherwise define Justice to be that Vertue by which we render unto all their Due Which is of large Extent if the Apostles Commentary comes in for Explication For this Cause pay you Tribute also for they are GODS Ministers attending continually on this very thing Render therefore to all their Dues Tribute to whom Tribute is Due Custom to whom Custom Fear to
Things which we certainly Know and those which we are perswaded to believe what Authority the Relation is of what is the Design and integrity of the Relators what is the Use and End of the things revealed whether they are important or frivolous absolutely necessary meerly convenient or wholy Superfluous things to be abhorred or things to be desired Absurd or Amiable what Preparations went before what Causes preceded their Existence what Effects followed what Concomitants they had what Monuments of them are now left in the world How the Wise and Learned judge of them what Consent and Unity there is in all the Relations and Histories and Traditions of the Things reported WHERE there is no Repugnance between the Objects offered to our Faith and the Things we already know no Inconsistance in the Things themselvs no difference no Contention between the Relators no fraud in promoting nor folly discernable in the first Embracing of the Things that are published no Want of Care in Sifting and examining their Reality nor any want in the Hearers of Industry Skill and Power to detect the Imposture there is a fair Way laid open to the Credible of such Objects attested and revealed with such Circumstances But if the Things attested were openly transacted in the face of the World and had Millions of Spectators at the first if they were so publick as to be taken notice of in all Kind of Histories of those times and places if they were founded on great and weighty causes if they were pursued by a constant Series and succession of affairs for many Ages if they produced great and publick alterations in the World if they overcame all suspicious oppositions obstacles and impediments if they changed the state of Kingdoms and Empires if old Records and Monuments and Magnificent Buildings are left behind which those Occurrences occasioned our Reason it self assists our Belief and our Faith is founded upon Grounds that cannot be removed Much more if the Things be agreeable to the Nature of GOD and tend to the Perfection of Created Nature if many Prophesies and long Expectations have preceded their Accomplishment if the misteries revealed are attested by Miracles and painted out many Ages before by Types and Ceremonies that can bear no other Explication in Nature nor have any Rational use besides if all the Beauty of former Ages is founded in and compounded by their Harmony if they fitly answer the Exigencies of Humane Nature and unfold the True Originals of all the Disorder and Corruption in the world if the Greatest and Best Part of Learning it self consists in the Knowledge of such affairs if the Doctrines on which they attend be the most pure and Holy and Divine and Heavenly if the most of them are rooted in Nature it self when they are examined and considered but were not discerned nor Known before if they supply the Defects of our Understanding and lead us directly to felicity if they take off our Guilt and are proper Remedies to heal the Distempers and Maladies of our Corruption if they direct and quiet the passions of Men and purifie their Hearts and make men Blessings to one another if they exterminate their vices and Naturally tend to the Perfection of their Manners if they lead them to Communion with GOD and raise up their Souls to the fruition of Eternity enlarge their Minds with a Delightful Contemplation of his Omnipresence enrichâ—â— them with infinite varieties of Glorious Objects fit to be enjoyed if they perfect all the Powers of the Soul and Crown it with the End for which it was was prepared Where all these Things meet together they make a Foundation like that of the Great Mountains which can never be moved But if there be any flaw or Defect in these Things if any of them be wanting our Faith will be so far forth lame and uncertain as our Reason shall discern its Cause to be failing NOW of all the Thingsthat the World doth afford the Christian Religion is that alone wherein all these Causes of Faith perfectly concur Insomuch that no Object of Faith in all the World is for Certainty Comparable to that of Religion Never had any Truth so many Witnesses never any Faith so many Evidences they that first taught and published it despised all the Grandeurs and Pleasures in the World designed nothing but their Eternal Felicity and the Benefit of men trampled all Honours and Riches under feet attested the Truths they taught and revealed by Miracles wrought not in obscure Corners but in the Eye of the Sun many Nations far distant from each other were in a Moment reduced and changed at a time Millions of Martyrs were so certain of the Truth of these Things that they laught at Persecutions and Flames and Torments The Jews that are the great enemies of Christianity confess those Histories and Prophesies and Miracles and Types and Figures upon which it is founded They reverence the Book wherein they are recorded above all the Writings in the World confess that they had it before our Saviour was born and glory that it was theirs before it was ours Their whole Faith and Religion is made up of Such Materials which being granted it is impossible the Christian Religion should be false Turks acknowledge the Historical Part. The Artifices of Corruptors have been all detected and must of necessity so be as long as there are inquisitive Men in the World All Schismaticks and Hereticks have cavilled and disputed about the true Interpretation of certain Texts but never so much as Doubted much less shaken the foundation Nay when you look into Matters well the very Certainty of the one was the occasion of the other The great Moment of what they took for granted made the strife the more Eager THIS Advantage our Faith has above all it is suspected only by Lazy and Profane half witted men that are as Empty as self conceited as rash as Wanton and as much Enemies to Felicity and Vertue as to Truth and Godliness But the more you search into it the more Light and Beauty you shall discern in the Christian Religion the Evidences of it will appear still more deep and abundant as endless in Number force and Value as they are unexpected AMONG other Objects of Felicity to be enjoyed the Ways of GOD in all Ages are not the least considerable and Illustrious Eternity is as much Beautified with them as his Omnipresence is with the Works of the Creation For Time is in Eternity as the World is in Immensity Reason expects that the one should be Beautiful as well as the other For Since all Time may be Objected to the Eye of Knowledge altogether and Faith is prepared in the Soul on purpose that all the Things in Time may be admitted into the Eye of the Soul it is very Displeasing to Humane Reason that Time should be horrid and Dark and empty or that he that has expressed so much Love in the Creation of the World should
be Unmindful of our Concerns in the Dispensations of his Providence Especially Since the World how Glorious soever it is is but the Theatre of more Glorious Actions and the Capacity of Time as Great and Large as that of the Universe Ages are as long and as Wide as Kingdoms Now if GOD have altogether neglected the Government of the World all Time will be Dark and vain and innumerable Bright and Delighful Objects which were possible to be desired denied to the Soul and the better half of GODS Love be removed But if GODS Will and Pleasure be Uniform in his Operations and Time it self Beautified by this Wisdome Goodness and Power as well as the World our Faith will have a peculiar Excellency because it is that by which all the Beauties in Time and Providence are enjoyed Especially if it be able to see and feel them in clear Light and in as lively a manner as the Reason of the Soul can do when most fully informed It is evident that without this Faith the Greater half of our Felicity can never be enjoyed TO Know that we are Men encompassed with the Skies and that the Sun and Moon and Stars are about us with all the Elements and Terrestrial Creatures is matter of Sence and Reason as it is also that we have the Dominion and use of them and that such Excellencies and Degrees of Goodness are Connatural to them But their utmost Perfection is discovered only by the Truth of Religion that alone discloses their first Cause and their last End without which all their Intermediate uses are Extremely Defective It is for more Pleasant to see the Infinite and Eternal GODHEAD from the incomprehensible Height of his Glory shooping down to the abyss of Nothing and actually making all these Transcenent Things out of Nothing for our sakes then to see our selves at present surrounded with them This is the first Act of all the Ornaments of Time and Nature Which tho it be founded on clear Reason yet is it an Object of our Highest Faith as it is revealed by the Word of GOD and therefore it is said Through faith we understand that the Worlds were made For Faith and Reason are not so divided but that the formally Distinct they may enter into each others Nature and Materially be the same The very same Object I mean that is Known to Reason may by Faith be believed Reason not destroying but confirming Faith while it is Known upon one account and believed on another For there is a Mutual Convenience between these two Faith is by Reason confirmed and Reason is by Faith Perfected TO see GOD stooping down to Create the World and Nothing follow is not so Beautiful as to see him afterward in the Act of making Man and Giving him Dominion over all the Creatures It is more pleasant to see Man made in GODS Image then to see the World made for the use of Man For the End of the Creation is that upon which all the Perfection of its Glory does depend and the more Noble Man is for whose use the World was made the more sublime and Glorious its End is To see him placed in the Estate of Innocency Light and Glory wherein he was secure from Death and Sin and Sickness and Infelicity if himself pleased is very Delightful so it is to see that Nature never intended any of those Abortive Errors that now so confound us But to see the End why man was placed in such an Estate to be his Trial and the End of that his freindship with GOD whose Exercise consisteth in voluntary Acts of Gratitude and Amity and the End of those the Beauty of his Life and his fuller Exaltation to Bliss and Glory this is far more Pleasant then the other To see him fall is infinitely Displeasing but the fault is intirely charged on himself And had GOD Eternally destroyed him tho we perhaps had never lived to see it yet we confess it would have been just in it self and the Justice Adorable But to see GOD exalting his mercy in pardoning the offence and for all our sakes redeeming Man by the Death of his Son is sweet still as it is also to see his infinite Justice and Holiness in the Manner of our Redemption To see him lay the foundation of our Hope on a certain Promise seconded with his Long-suffering yet defer the Accomplishment of it for our greater Benefit wisely forbearing to send his Son till the fulness of Time is very transporting but the Reason of it is very Difficult to understand His foresight of our Obstinate Blindness and Incredulity was the Cause of His Dealy That he might gain Time before our Saviour came to speak of him to paint him forth to make him the expectation of the World and the Hope of all Nations To see him for that End reveal himself to Abraham Isaac and Jacob and bringing down their Posterity into the Land of Egypt that he might make that Nation out of which our Saviour was to spring Famous by Miracles and by his Conduct and Government of them more Glorious then all Nations to appear himself among them and give his Oracles unto them and to make them conspicuous to the Eye of all the World by mighty Signes and Wonders and Judgments punishing them for their offences yet Graciously continuing a Seed among them that christ might be raised up according to the Prophesies that went before concerning him To see all the Mysteries of the Gospel painted out in so Lively a Manner in all the Types and Figures of the Ceremonial Law and that Service with so much splendor and Glory continued before he came by the Space of two thousand years wherein all the mysteries of his Kingdome are exhibited to see the Volumen of the Book in which it was written of him so highly magnified and exalted by them that crucified him after it was written and that now continue so much to oppose him as the Jews do To see the Prophets at various Times and in Divers manners so clearly to describe all the particulars of his Life and Doctrine his Eternity his Godhead the Hypostatical Union his Incarnation in the Virgins Womb his Poverty his Meekness his Miraculous Life his Death and Passion his Resurrection and Ascention into Heaven the Sudden and Miraculous Conversion of the Gentiles compared to a Nation 's being born at once the very Town where he should be born and the City from whence the Law should go forth into all the World and the Temple in which the Gospel should begin to be preached To see the Accomplishment of all these Things attended with so many Glorious and Transcendent Wonders and the utter subversion of that Nation for their Incredulity when they had slain him To see Kings and Queens become the Nursing Fathers and Mothers of the Church and so many Glorious Empires receive his Law that was hanged on a Tree To see Temples erected over all the World to a Crucified GOD
again divided into two For some of them are Laws that teach us our Duty some of them Propositions only or bare and Simple Affirmations which we call Articles guiding our Apprehensions in the Truth of those Things which are meet to be Known Speculation is intended in the one and Practice in the other NATURAL Doctrines are Objects of Divine Faith only as they are revealed by the Word of GOD. For the Authority of the Witness is that which maketh our Faith Divine They are called Natural because how ever Blind any man is in his present condition upon a diligent Search those Things may be clearly discerned by the Light of Nature Those Doctrines which are Objects of Divine Faith and yet may be found out by the Investigation of Reason are such as these That there is a GOD that the World was made that man was created in GODS Image that he hath Dominion over the works of his Hands that he is or ought to be tenderly Beloved of all mankind that he is to be good and full of Love to others that he is to render all Objects their Due Esteem and to be Grateful for the Benefits he hath received of his great Creator that the first Estate of the Worlds Creation was pure and perfect that Sin came in by the Accidental abuse of the Creatures Liberty that Nature is Corrupted that Death was introduced as the Punishment of Sin that the Soul is Immortal that GOD is infinitely Just and Wise and Holy that he will distribute Rewards and Punishments according to Right that there is such a Thing as Eternity and Immensity that the Body is frail and subject to Diseases that we receive all Things from GOD and depend in the fruition of all upon his Power and Providence that it is Wife to please him and foolish to displease him that Punishment is due to Sin and that GOD hateth it that Reward is due to Vertue and GOD delighteth in it that there is a Conscience in the Soul by which it feels and discovers the Difference between Guilt and Innocence That man is a Sinner that he is prone to Evil and Obnoxious to GODS Wrath that nevertheless he is spared by the Long-suffering of GOD and that GOD Loveth him and desireth his Salvation That there is a felicity and a Supream Felicity appointed for man that he is a free Agent and may lose it if he pleases that misery is the Consequent of the Loss of Felicity that GOD delighteth in all those that Love and practice Vertue that he hateth all those that drown their Excellencies in any Vice that Sorrow and Repentance are necessary for all those that have offended GOD that there is Hope to escape the Punishment of Sin if we endeavour to live as piously as we ought All these things are evident in themselves by the Light of Nature because they may either be clearly deduced from the principles of Reason or certainly discerned by plain Experience And are therefore taught by the Word of GOD either because they had need to be revived and raised up to light from under the Rubbish of our Fall or because GOD would sanctifie Nature by his express Consent or make its Dictates more remarkable and Valid by his Approbation and confirm all by the Seal of his Authority or because a fair Way is laid open by these to more retired and Coelestial Mysteries FOR when we know these Things we are prone to enquire what GOD hath done what Way there is to recover our ancient Happiness what Remedies are prepared for the corruption of Nature how the Guilt of Sin may be removed how we may be aided and assisted in the works of Virtue by what Means our Reconciliation with GOD is wrought and in what manner we ought to demean our selves that we may be accepted of him for the knowledge of our former health is necessary for the clear apprehension of our present Sickness and the sense of our Infirmitie fits us for the Physician When we know all that Nature can teach and see something needful that Nature cannot unfold when we are condemned by our Conscience yet feel our selves beloved find that we have forfeited all yet see the Glory of the creation continued for our use and service stand in need of an Atonement yet Know not where to get it our Exigency meeting with the grace of GOD the sence of our Misery and Hope united our own Guilt and GODS Mercy of both which we have the feeling and experience adopts us for the Reception of the Holy Gospel wherein those thing are revealed that come in most fitly to answer our Expectations Satisfaction for Sin by the Death of Christ and the Incarnation of his GODHEAD above the course of Nature for that End His active and passive Obedience in our Stead our Justification thereby the application of his Merits to our souls by faith the Glory which we owe him for so great an undertaking the coming down of the Holy Ghost to Sanctifie our Nature and the dignity of Both these Persons by reason of their Unity in the eternal Essence for the manifestation of which the Mysterie of the Trinitie is largly revealed these supernatural Points come in so suitably and are so agreeable to Nature so perfectly fit in their places so marvellously conducive to the perfection of the Residue that the very Harmony and sweetneess of altogether is enough to perswade us of their Credibility and then the Matter of fact comes in with the Testimony and Authority of GODS Word assuring us that these Things are so by History and Prophesie The Miracles at our Saviours Birth alone one would think enough to clear the business much more if we take in all the Miracles of his life wherein his Glory appeared as of the only begotten of the Father more fully yet if we take in the Miracles of his Death and abundantly more if the Glory of his Resurrection and Ascension be added But especially the Coming down of the Holy Ghost and the Power the Apostles received from heaven all the Prophesies that went before and all the successes that followed after all the Faith and Learning of the Fathers all the Canons and Decrees of Councils all the Transactions of the World drawn down to our own Age in a continued series illustrate and confirm all that is revealed BUT you will say How shall we know such Histories to be true and that such Prophesies and Prophets were in their several Ages Since we never saw the same with our eyes and there are many sleights and Fables in the World How dost thou know there are any Antipodies Thou didst never see them Or that there is any Sea which thou didst never behold Or that the next River has a Fountain Head Is not the Universal Tradition of all the world wherein the Church of Rome nay the Catholick Church is but a little Part a clear Light for a matter of Antiquitie attended with a Stream of Effects and
with Preparatory Washings Humiliations Fashions Attirs Watchings Retirements Shavings Sprinklings Anoyntings Consecrations Sacrifices or some other Disciplines like unto these to be endured and past thorow before their Votaries could be admitted to their mysteries All which Rites as they made a great shew because they were sensible so were they apt to put a magnificent face on their Religion to dispose the Persons exercised by them to a more complying Obedience and to beget a Reverence mixt with Awful Admiration in their ignorant Spectators All which nevertheless were but Emblematical Ordinances signifying something invisible that was necessary to be done of which the Priests themselves knew not the meaning They had the name of Paenitentia in their Common Conversation but applied it to profane and Trivial occasions But Repentance in Religion which is the Soul and substance of those mystical Observations a broken and Contrite Heart an internal Sorrow for their sin was a thing unknown so that all their Appearances how magnificent soever were but Empty shells REPENTANCE alone though never so simple and short in its name being of such value that GOD accepts one contrite Groan above all the Ceremonies even of his own Law And therefore he saith Thou desirest not sacrifice else would I give it thou delightest not in Burnt offering The Sacrifices of GOD are a Broken Spirit A broken and a contrite Heart O God thou wilt not despise FOR tho Repentance be not in it selfe a desirable Vertue nor so much as a Vertue till there be a sphere and Occasion for it wherein to be exercised tho Repentance in it selfe be far worse then obedience yet upon the Account of our Saviours Merits and GODS Love to Sinners it is preferred above the Greatest Innocency and Purity whatsoever For there is more Joy in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth then over Ninety and nine Just persons that need no Repentance If the Soul be of greater value than the whole World if the loss of any Thing we esteem increaseth the sence of its excellency if our Saviour justly and rationally compareth himself to a Shepheard that leaveth Ninety and nine sheep in the wilderness to seek one that is gone astray if he rejoyceth when he hath found it more for that one that was lost then for the ninety and nine which he had in safety if his Delight in the success of his Labours be answerable to their Greatness if the frustration of all his Desires and painful endeavours in seeking it be infinitely Grievious and the Vertues more Amiable and Wonderful which sinners exercise after their Redemption if their Love and their joy and their praise be increased by the extreamity of their Distress and the multitude of the sins that are forgiven them if their Communion with GOD be more sweet and their Happiness more exalted and the Kingdom of GOD it selfe made more sublime and Glorious thereby Repentance hath something more in it then Perfection had before the fall and as sinners have made themselves more infinitly Indebted so are they infinitly more subject to the Arbitrary Disposal of Almighty Power infinitly more Capable of Obligations and Rewards infinitely more Obliged for Pardon and deliverance as well as infinitly more Obnoxious to Divine Justice their Fear and Danger is infinitly Greater they stand in need of infinite Grace and Mercy which when they receive and enjoy their Love and Gratitude are proportionably greater their Delights are more quick and vigorous and full and so are their praises BUT before a sinner can atchieve all this or GOD enjoy the fruit of his Salvation he must needs repent for Repentance is the true and substantial Preparation of the Soul the only Purgative Vertue by which it is fitted for these Divine Attainments It is we confess in outward Appearance a slight invisible Act but as Great within as Wide and Comprehensive as the Heavens It receiveth the Vertue of the Divine Essence of the whole Creation of infinite Mercy of the Blood of Christ of his Humiliation Merit Exaltation Intercession and glory of all the Work of Redemption into it self and having fed it self digested them it receiveth strength by the Influence of these to dispence all their Vertue again in the Production of those Fruits for the sake of which GOD hath filled all the World with miracles the Verdure and Maturity and Perfection of which shall with their beauty and sweetness continue in life and Florish for ever IF we respect Man alone and the things that are done in himself by Repentance it seemeth a Vertue of infinite value It divests him of all his Rebellion Pride and vain Glory strips him of all his Lust and Impiety purges him of all his corruption Anger and Malice pares off all his Superfluities and excesses cleanseth his Soul of all its filthiness and pollution removeth all that is so infinitly Odious to GOD and makes him amiable and Beautiful to the holy Angels It sits and prepares him for all the exercises of Grace and Piety introduces Humility and Obedience into his Soul makes him capable of a Divine Knowledge and makes way for the Beauty of his Love and Gratitude inspires Fortitude and Prudence and Temperance and Justice into his soul renues his Nature and makes â—im a meek and patient Person restores him to that Wisdom and Goodness he had lost cloaths him with rightteousness and true Holiness and seats him again in the Favour of GOD. By Repentance he recovers the Divine Image and by Consequence it extends to all that Blessedness and Glory which is for ever to be enjoyed REPENTANCE is the Beginning of that Life wherein all the sweat Labour of the Martyrs all the Persecutions and Endeavours of the Apostles all the Revelations of the Prophets all the examples of the Patriarchs all the Miracles of old Time all the Mysteries of the Law all the Means of Grace all the Verities of the Gospel begin to take full force and Effect in obtaining that for which they were intended Which sufficiently intimates the value of the Grace and how highly well pleasing it must be to GOD It is the Conception of Felicity and the New Birth of the Inward Man the Dereliction of the Old and the Assumption of a New and more coelestial Nature It is the Gate of the Heavenly Kingdome which they that refuse to enter at can never enjoy It is one of the Keys of Death and Hell by which the Gate of the Prison is unlockt nay the very knocking off the Chains and Manacles of Satan the very Act wherein we regain our Liberty and become the Sons of GOD and Citizens of Heaven It was fitly Typisied in the old Law by the Laver that was set at the Door of the Tabernacle for the Priests to wash in before they entred into the Sanctuary to walk in the Light of the Golden Candlesticks to offer their Devotions at the the Incense Altar and to partake of the shew bread on the Golden Table In
one the other is Dead The Works of Love are the End of all Miracles and more Blessed then they Nay Love is the End of Faith as well as it is of the Law for the Apostle saith The End of the Commandment it Charity out of a pure Heart and of a good conscience and of Faith unfeigned It is the End of the very Creation of the World of all Gods Labors and Endeavours of all his Ways in all Ages all the faculties and powers of the Soul the very End of the Redemption of Mankind the End of the Jewish Oeconomy under the Law the End of all the Dispensations of Grace and Mercy under the Gospel the End of our Saviours coming down into the World the End of all his Miracles Tears and Blood the End of the Holy Ghosts appearing upon Earth the End of all the Means of Grace and in some sort the very last End of all Rewards and Punishments whatsoever The everlasting Continuance of this Love is the End of Eternity it self in a manner and if our Love be not the End of GODS Love his is of ours And if the Truth be deeply inquired into the Intermixture is so sweet that his is the End of ours ours of his For he Loveth us with the Love of Benevolence that we may Love him and he desires to be beloved of us that he may Love us with another Kind of Love distinct from the former even that of Complacency Which Love of Complacency is the Crown of ours and so Delightful to us that it is the very End of our Desire and begetteth in us a new Love of Complacency fitly answering his unto us NOW if Love be the End of all the laws Works and Ways of GOD of all our Saviours Labours and sufferings of our souls and Bodies of the whole Creation of all the Endeavours and Desires of the Deity in all the Dispensations of his Grace and Providence there must be something in its Nature Equivalent to all these Transcendent Undertakings to justifie the Wisdom that selected Love for its Sovereign Object for it is the office of Wisdome to suit the means and their End together so that the Excellency of the one may be worthy of all the Cost and Difficulty of the other For it is a foolish thing to pursue a base and feeble End by Glorious and Wonderful Methods because its Vileness will Disgrace the Design and with it their Beauty their very Grandure will be absurd where their Issue is but contemptible The Apostle therefore telleth us that Love is the fulfilling of the Law and that it is the Bond of Perfectness And pursuing its properties a little more Ample he saith Charity suffereth long and is kind Charity envyeth not Charity Vaunteth not it self is not puffed up doth not behave it self unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no evil rejoyceth not in iniquity but rejoyceth in the Truth beareth all Things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things Charity never faileth c. IT is one noble Effect of Charity that it suffereth afflictions cheerfully and patiently for the sake of its Beloved Another is its Kindness to its Object its sweet and Courteous inclination to do all manner of Good Another for which it is highly valuable is that it envieth not the Felicity or Glory of its Beloved but taketh Pleasure to see it far higher and greater then its own is not apt to vaunt and brag of its Perfections but hath an humble Esteem of all its Atchievments doth not behave it self in distasteful manner but studies and designes the Honour Benefit and satisfaction of its Object But that which of all other is its greatest Perfection is that it seeketh not its own it is not Mercenary or self ended but truly Generous and Heroick in its Performances It Sacrificeth it self and all its interests to the Advantage of its Object it preferreth the person it Loveth above it self desires its Exhaltation and delights in its Glory more then its own It is not easily provoked because it puts the best sence upon all that is done by its Object Thinketh no evil is not suspicious or malevolent or censorious but frameth honourable and fair Ideas of all that is thought or done by its Beloved Hateth all Impurity that may displease its Object all black and crooked Apprehensions that may wrang and disguise it beareth all with Hope and Equanimity because it believeth its Object to be Good and Wise till it must of necessity change its Opinion and entertain a Judgement tending to its condemnation It is no longer Charity then but dislike and aversion when it ceaseth to think well of its Object for it is another Principle or distinct in Nature from Love as its Actions are from the Actions of Love the diversity of the Effects evidently proving a Difference in their Causes THE Quality by which Charity rejoyceth in the Truth is an incomparable excellence and commendation of its Nature Because the Truth is GODS infinite Goodness and Love and Providence which are exercised in preparing Delights and Treasures for his Beloved The truth is the Felicity and Glory of the Soul And if it be true that all Eternity is full of Joys and all the World enriched with Delights that a man is infinitely beloved of GOD and made in his Image on purpose that he might enjoy all the Best of all possible Treasures in his similitude he may well rejoyce in the Truth because no Truth can be greater or more delightful than that himself is exalted to the Throne of GOD and ordained to live in Communion with him BUT that Quality by which the Soul believeth and hopeth all things that concern the Honour and Fidelity of its Beloved is yet more acceptable and delightful than the former For a good opinion of the Nature and Intention of the Person with whom we are united is the Basis and Foundation of all our Respect the Cement of our Peace and the Life and Soul of all that Honour that is paid unto him The very Grace and Beauty of all our Conversation dependeth upon it and if it be true that we are more to love GOD for the intrinsick Perfections of his Essence then for all his Gifts the chief Business of our Knowledge is to Frame glorious Apprehensions of his Nature and to Believe him in all things so Kind and Wise that he is True and Faithful in all his Declarations and most fit to be Honoured in all the Dispensations of his Providence because he is ever mindful of his Protestations and Promises For then we can believe that all things shall work together for our Good can safely trust our selves and all that is ours in his hands resign our selves up to his Disposal with Joy and say Thy Will be done for it is Holy Good and acceptable Thy Will alone is of all other Wilis most Perfect and Desirable There are on Earth indeed more nice Emergencies many Obscurities and
Riddles in the midst of all which to think so well of GOD as he deserveth is the most acceptable thing in the World for it argues a great confidence of his Worth and a Love that is founded on Substantial Causes never to be removed It feedeth the Soul with a lively hope and fair Expectation of great Things from him by which alone we do right to His GODHEAD in acknowledging the Perfection of his Love and Goodness and by which alone we are made able to adore him and to live in Union and Communion with him THERE is great Talk of Friendship it is accounted the only Pleasure in the World Its Offices are highly magnified of all Kindness of Behaviour a through and clear communication of Souls a secure Reliance upon each others Fidelity a perfect Discovery of all our Thoughts Intentions and Resentments an ardent willingness to impart Lives and Estate for the Benefit of our Friend the Reposing of all our Secrets in each others Bosomes to do all services and suffer all afflictions for each others sakes to prefer the Concerns of our Friend upon all Occasions above our own these are the Magnalia Amicitiae Arcana mutuae Benevolentiae the Great and mighty Effects for which Friendship is admired But all these without a good Opinion of our Friend are nothing worth they are but Externals of Friendship the greatest Secret in its Nature is the mutual agreement of Souls and Spirits the Delight which either taketh in the other the honour and esteem they give and receive the Approbation and Love of each others Dispositions the Sence and Admiration of each others Vertues the continual Desire of being alwayes together peculiar Extasie which the Beauty of either occasioneth in the other when of all other Treasures in the World their Persons are the greatest to one another Either is the proper Element and Refrigerium of the others Soul Their Bosomes are the mutual Receptacles and Temples of each others accomplishments whereinto they are received in all their Desert and have Justice done to every degree and Perfection in their Nature their Hearts are the Thrones where they are exalted and magnified and live at Ease are honoured and worshipped extolled and reign as absolute in each others Souls There are some slight aims and Adumbrations of this Friendship on Earth but the best and highest Degree of it here beneath is but a rude and imperfect shadow only GOD is the Sovereign friend all Adoration paid to any one beside is meer Idolatry Our Hearts can be absolutely Sacrificed to none but him because he alone is immutable in Goodness We cannot infinitely honour and delight in any but Him it is he alone that can infinitely honour and delight in us All our Lives Estates and Services are Due to him his Will alone is to be wholly ours because no other Will is infallibly Right Wise Holy but his alone THE Union of our Wills is a Perfection of Love but that at which he aimeth by all his Labours and Gifts and Benefits is our Right and Good Opinion of his Excellencies and Perfections That we should see and discern his interior Properties admire his Graces adore his Perfections adore and magnifie his Beauty and Glory this is the End for which he communicates himself in all his Works and Ways unto us it is the End of the Whole Creation and of all the Excellent Things in the universe for by this he establisheth his Empire in our souls and makes us Pleasing to himself in all our Operations And for this Cause it is that the Apostle plainly tells us that tho we give our Body to be burned and all our Goods to feed the poor without Charity it profiteth nothing To render to GOD the Honour that is due to his Name to receive and admire all his Bounties to rejoyce in all his Operations to adore him in all his Ways to take pleasure in all his Works to fill Heaven and Earth with our Joys and Praises is a Work which cannot but be agreeable by its Nature to his Eternal Essence And if this be the Work of Love it is that which is most Excellent because he is therein both pleased and enjoyed GOD and all his Creatures are united together by Love alone and in the Eternal Exercise of pure and perfect Love all Blessedness and Glory consisteth IF you require what it is to love GOD you will find it worthy of his Highest desire because thereby all our souls nay all his Creatures and his whole Kingdome are perfected for to Love GOD as we ought to do is to Honour him as our Father Benefactor Bridegroom and King to contemplate him as our Cause with Complacency and to rest in him as our End to delight in him as our Creator Preserver Lawgiver and Redeemer to dedicate our selves wholly to that Service whatever it be wherein he is chiefly pleased and delighted It is to love him in himself in all his Works in all his Ways in all his Laws in all his Attributes in all his Thoughts and Counsels in all his Perfections It implies the Knowledge of all Objects the Use of all Means the Attainment of all Ends all Wisdome and Goodness all Obedience and Gratitude all Righteousness and Holiness all Joy and Praise all Honour and Esteem all Blessedness and Glory For it is to Love him with all our Heart and with all our Soul with all our Strength and with all our Might with all our Understanding with all our Will with all our Affection with all the Powers of our soul with all our Inclinations and Faculties in all his Creatures in all his Appearances in Heaven and Earth in Angels and Men in all Kingdoms and Ages It is to see and desire to Esteem and delight in his Omnipresence and Eternity and in every Thing by which he manifesteth himself in either of these so that all Enlargement and Greatness and Light and Perfection and Beauty and Pleasure are founded in it and to Love him to Perfection implies all Learning and Attainment because we must necessarily be acquainted with all Things in all Worlds before we can thorowly and compleatly do it Which here upon Earth to do by Inclination and Endeavour to the utmost of our Power is all that is required of us And if we do it to our utmost it shall be rewarded in the Beatifick Vision with a full and Blessed Pefection with an actual Love exactly resembling his and fully answerable to it in the Highest Heavens THERE are two common Motives of Love among Men the one the Goodness and Excellency of the Person the other his particular Kindness and Love to us And both these are in the Highest Degree in GOD. He is of infinite Goodness and and Excellency in himself for there is nothing Good in the world but what hath received all its Goodness from Him His Goodness is the Ocean and all the Goodnesses of Creatures little Streams flowing from that Ocean Now you would think
of all his Creatures We shall honour our Parents for his sake and preserve the Life of our Neighbour We shall not rob him of his happiness in his Wife nor wrong him in her Chastity and Fidelity towards him We shall not steal from him nor diminish his Possessions We shall not defame him nor hurt him by Lies but vindicate and preserve his Reputation it will be our joy and Satisfaction to see his honour clear and unblemished We shall not injure him so much as in a thought nor covet ought that is his either for necessity or pleasure but study to add to his Contentments WERE all the World as full of this Love as it ought to be Paradice would still continue and all Mankind would be the Joy and Glory of the whole Creation The Love of GOD towards all would dwell and abide in every Soul and the Felicity of all would be the particular Joy of every person All the Earth would be full of Repose and Peace and Prosperity nothing but Honour and Kindness and Contentment would replenish the World Which leads me now to that other Branch of Love which is Charity to our Neighbour CHAP. XIX Charity to our Neighbour most natural an Easie in the Estate of Innocency Adams Love to Eve and his children a great Examplar of our Love to all the World The Sweetness of Loving The Benefits of being Beloved To Love all the World and be beloved by all the World is perfect security and Felicity Were the Law fulfilled all the World would be turned in Heaven CHARITY to our Neighbour is Love expressed towards GOD in the Best of his Creatures We are to Love GOD in all the Works of his Hands but in those especially that are most near unto him chiefly those in which he manifesteth himself most clearly and these are they that are most like him most exalted by him most loved of him and most delightful to him ANGELS and Men are so distinct from the residue of the Creation that all the Works of GOD as if they were Things of another Kind are put in Subjection under their feet They were made in his Image and are often called the Sons of GOD. They are the Sovereign Objects of his Eternal Love every one of them considered a part is so Glorious as if he were the Sole individual friend of GOD and King of the Universe so that they are to be treated in another Manner as High and Sacred Persons elevated a-above the Race of ordinary Creatures as a Progeny of Kings that are all of them friends to the King of Kings Ambassadours representing his Person in whom he is injured or Obliged I confess there are many Disguises that overcast the Face of Nature with a vail and cloud these Sovereign Creatures the Excellency the Absence and Distance and unknown Nature of Angels the Perversness of Nature the Ignorance and Unkindness and Disorders of Men Darken and Eclipse this Glorious Duty and make it uncouth and difficult to us But all these Disorders came in by Sin and it is expedient to remove the Confusions that blind us in our miserable Estate and to look upon this Vertue of Charity in the Naked Beauty which appeareth to us in the Light of Eden IN the Purity of Nature Men are Amiable Creatures and prone to Love To great Advantages of which Sin and misery hath bereaved us and to which we are restored but in Part even then when we are Sanctified Where the Beauty of the Object is intire and perfect and the Goodness of the Spectator clear and undefiled to Love is as Natural and Easie as for fire to enflame when applied to convenient matter For the Beauty of the Object is Oyl and Fuel to the affection of the Spectator It is not more Easie to delight in what is pleasant than it is to desire what is Good and Amiable To be commanded to take pleasure in it is Liberty not Constraint To be forbidden would be hard A Prohibition would be the Severest Law and the most cruel Bondage There was no Possitive Law in Eden that required a Man to Love his Neighbour it was a Law of Nature The Nature of the Object required it and our Nature prompted it self thereunto The Service that Law required was perfect freedome Adam was commanded to Love Eve by a silent Law Surprized by her Beauty and captivated by the Chains of Nature He was amazed at so fair a Creature her Presence was so Delightful that there was no need of a Law an injunction had imported some Sluggishness in the zeal of his Affection His Appetite and Reason were united together and both invited him to lose himself in her Embraces She was as acceptable a Present of the Love of GOD as Wisdome and Goodness could invent for him He was too apt to admire her had not her Soul been as worthy as her Symmetry was transcendent He admired the Bounty of the Donor in so Great a Gift and Great Part of his Life was to be spent in the Contemplation of his Treasure He had a Noble Creature made in the Image of GOD for him alone Her soul was far more excellent in Beauty then her Face a Diviner and more Glorious Object than the whole world Her Intelligence and Vivacity Her Lofty and clear Apprehensions Her Honour and Majesty Her Freedome of Action her Kindness of Behaviour her Angelical Affections Her fitness for Conversation Her sweet and Tender Principles a million of Graces and Endowments conspiring to enrich Her Person and Perfection made all the World to serve Adam with one Degree of Pleasure more in serving and pleasing her The Universe seemed to be Nothing but the Theatre of their mutual Love as if all the World were made for nothing else but to minister to her for his sake and to make him happy in the Enjoyment of Her While the fruition was sanctified by a Just acknowledgement and Thanksgiving to the Author WE produce Eve only for a President this first sweetness is but a Pattern and Copy of what follows fair Prologue to a more magnificent scene and used by us as a meer Introduction Adam was able to Love Millions more and as She was taken out of his side so were they to spring from his Bowels All to be as Great and fair and Glorious as she as full of Soul and as full of Love As the Woman was the Glory of man so were their Off-springs the Glory of both I mean they had been so by the Law of Nature had not the due course of it been disturbed Which Accident is wholy to be fathered on Adams fondness to please his Wife and to be mothered upon her Lightness and Credulity But we being here to disclose the Felicity which is hid in the fulfilling of GODS Laws and to justifie his Love in commancing this Charity to our Neighbors must not regard the Malevolence of Men but look upon the pure Intention of the Law and the success that would have
followed had it been as it might have been perfectly observed ALL Adams Children had been himself divided and multiplied into millions and every one a Greater Treasure to him than the whole world The Stars had not been by a thousand Degrees so great an Ornament to the skies as they to the Earth an ofspring of Incarnate Angels an assembly of corporeal Seraphims a Race of Celestial Kings every one loving and Honouring Adam as the Fountain of their Being and the Author of their Well being of the one in begetting them of the other by standing and abiding in his Integrity They had all been so many Pledges of his Wives Affection Monuments of love New and Powerful Endearments Enlargements of their Parents Being Mirrors and Memorials of both their perfections For all had been made for every one and every one had been the Joy nay and the Beauty of all All had been every ones Objects and every one the Spectator of all every one would have delighted in the Beauty of all and all had conspired and strived together in the love of every one their concurrence infulfilling the Law would have banished all sin and Oppression Discontentment and sorrow Wrong and Injury Theft and Murder and Adultery and Lying out of the World there had been no noise of War or Contention or anger or Envy or Malice or Revenge this accursed the Black Guard had never appeared but all would have been Delightful to one another Affections Honours Benefits and Services Pleasures Praises and Prosperities these alone had filled the World with Beauty Security Peace and Glory Wisdome Goodness Love and Felicity Joy and Gratitude had been all that had been Known had Love been intirely and inviolably observed BUT where GODS Laws are broken there is confusion and every Evil Work Which nevertheless does more highly commend the excellency of his Nature and reflect a Praise upon that Authority which must first be despised before any Misery can come into the World If the Duty which the Law requires be all sweetness and Felicity and Glory Compleatly good and on every side Advantageous and Profitable we that fail in the Discharge of our Duty may be condemned but GOD is to be admired and still to be confessed most Glorious and Holy because he delights in the welfare of his Creatures and makes Religion so desireable a Mystery and enjoynes such admirable Things as would make all transcendently Blessed and Good and Perfect were they perfectly observed He designes that all should be amiable whom we are commanded to Love and that we should be not only prone to Love but actually full of it and the reason why he consistutes Love as the Sovereign Law is because as our Saviour saith There is none other greater Commandement none more Blessed or Divine or Glorious none more conducive to our Bliss his pleasure the perfection of his Kingdome Removing the Law of Love it is impossible to put another Law in its Place which can answer the Designs of his Wisdome and Goodness of comply with the Exigencies of our Estate and condition It is as easie to change the Nature of GOD and devise another deity as Good and convenient as to invent a better Law then this which is plainly of all other the most Divine and Holy If we ascend up into Heaven and take a perfect account of all the Opperations and Effects of Love as they appear in Glory we may first give our selves the Liberty of Wishing and consult what of all Things possible is most fit to be desired Had we a Power to chuse what Kind of Creatures would our selves be made could we desire to be any thing more great and Perfect then the Image of GOD In the full extent and utmost height of its Nature it is the Resemblance of all his Blessedness and Glory To have Beings without Power or power without Operations will never make us like GOD because by an infinite and Eternal Act of Power he is what he is Actions are so necessary that all Felicity and Pleasure is continually founded in some act or other and no Essence is of any value but as it employs it self in a delightful manner What Law then would we have to regulate our actions by Since Actions are of different Kinds some good some Evil some convenient some Hurtful some Honourable and some Delightful some Base and Odious some are Miserable and some are Glorious we would chuse such a Law to guide our Actions by as might make them honourable and delightful and good and Glorious All these are with Wisdome and Blessedness shut up in Love And by Love it is that we make our selves infinitly Beautiful and Amiable and Wise and Blessed while we extend that Delightful and Blessed Affection to all objects that are Good and Excellent so that on this side we have all we can desire Essences Laws and Actions that most tend to our full and compleat perfection If on the other side we look after objects for this Affection and desire to have some Creatures most Excellent and fit for their Goodness to be Beloved what Creatures can we wish above all other that can be made to satisfie and please us Can any thing be more high and perfect then the similitude of GOD GOD is LOVE and his Love the Life and Perfection of Goodness There is no Living Goodness so sweet and amiable as that alone none so Wise none so Divine none so Blessed VVhat Laws can we desire those Creatures to be guided by but the Laws of Love By Love they are made Amiable and delightful to us by Love they are made Great and Blessed in themselves All Honour and Praise Benevolence and Good-will Kindness and Bounty Tenderness and Compassion all Sweetness and Courtesie and Care and Affabilitie all Service and Complacency are shut up in Love It is the Fountain of all Benefits and Pleasures whatsoever All Admiration Esteem and Gratitude all Industry Respect and Courage are shut up in Love and by Love alone doth any object of ours Sacrifice it self to our Desire and Satisfaction So that on that side our Wishes are Compleated too while the most High and Blessed and Glorious Creatures love us as themselves For thereby they are as much our Felicity as their own and as much take pleasure and Delight therein As for GOD his Way is perfect like curious needle work on either side compleat and exquisite ALL that we can fear or except against is his Omission in forbearing to compell his Creatures to love whether they will or no. But in that Liberty which he gave them his Love is manifested most of all In giving us a Liberty it is most apparent for without Liberty there can be no Delight no Honour no Ingenuity or Goodness at all No action can be Delightful that is not our Pleasure in the Doing All Delight is free and voluntary by its Essence Force and Aversion are inconsistent with its nature Willingness in its operation is the Beauty
example not to fear because he has overcome the World we may safely sing O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy Victory And challenge all the powers of Heaven Earth and Hell to the combat Which for one single person to do against all the Creation is the most Glorious Spectacle which the universe affords Who shall separate us from the Love of Christ shall Tribulation or Distress or Persecution or Famine or Nakedness or Peril or Sword as it is writen for thy sake we are Killed all the day long we are accounted as Sheep to the slaughter Nay in all these things me are nore then Conquerors through him that loved us For I am perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor Height nor Depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the Love of GOD which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. A REMARK To be Couragious is the Easiest thing in the World when we consider the certain success which Courage founded on Goodness must needs attain For he that makes his Fortitude subservient onely to the excess of his Love has all the Powers of Heaven and earth on his side and the Powers of Hell that are already subdued are the only foes that are to be vanquished by him To dare to be Good is the Office of true and Religious valour And he that makes it his Business to oblige all the world he whose design it is to be delightful to all mankind has nothing to overcome but their error bitterness which by meekness and Kindness and Prudence and liberality will easily be accomplished For they all love themselves and cannot chuse but desire those that are kind and Serviceable to them and must so far forth as they love themselves honor delight in their Benefactors So that Courage thus guided by Prudence to the works of Charity and goodness must surely be safe and prosperous on earth its Admirableness and its Beauty being a powerful Charm an Invincible Armour CHAP. XXII Of Temperance in Matters of Art as Musick Dancing Painting Cookery Physick c. In the works of Nature Eating Drinking Sports and Recreations In occasions of Passion in our Lives and Conversations It s exercise in Self-denial Measure Mixture and Proportion Its effects and atchievments PRUDENCE giveth Counsel what Measure and Proportion ought to be held in our Actions Fortitude inspires Boldness and Strength to undertake and set upon the Work but it is Temperance doth execute what both of them design For Temperance is that Vertue whereby the actions of Prudence and Power are moderated when they come to be exerted IT is the Opinion of some that as Patience respects Afflictions so Temperance is wholy taken up in moderating our Pleasures and hath no employment but in the midst of Prosperities But since there are certain bounds which Fear and Sorrow ought not to exceed Temperance hath its work in the midst of Calamities and being needful to moderate all our Passions hath a wider sphere to move in than Prosperity alone its Province is more large and comprehensive including all estates and conditions of Life whatsoever OTHERS there are that admit of its use in all Conditions but confine it to one particular employment even that of enlarging or bounding the Measure of every Operation but in real truth it has another Office and that more deep perhaps and more important than the former For Actions are of two kinds either Mixt or Simple Where the work is single and but one it is exprest in nothing else but the Measure of the Action that it be neither too short nor too long too remiss nor too violent too slow nor too quick too great nor too little But where many things are mixt and meet together in the Action as they generally do in all the affairs of our Lives there its business is to consider what and how many things are to enter the Composition and to make their Proportion just and convenient As in preparing Medicines the skill whereby we know what is to be put in and what left out is of one kind and that of discerning how much of every Ingredient will serve the turn of another The skill of Mingling is like the vertue of Prudence but the actual tempering of all together exhibits the vertue of Temperance to the Life because it reduces the Skill to its operation It s End is the beauty and success of our Endeavours OF what use and value Temperance is in our Lives and Conversations we may guess by its necessity force and efficacy on all Occasions THE fit mixture and proportion of the four Elements in all Bodies is that upon which their Nature Form and Perfection dependeth Too much of the Fire too much of the Water too much of the Air too much of the Earth are pernicious and destructive There is an infinite wisdom exprest in the Mixture and Proportion in every Creature BEAUTY and Health Agility Repose and Strength depend upon the due Temperament of Humane Bodies The four Humors of Choler Melancholy Flegm and Blood are generally known But there are many other Juyces talkt of besides by the discreet and accurate mixture of which the Body of a Man or Beast is perfected Some great inconvenience alwaies follows the excess or defect of these Disorder and Disproportion go hand in hand and are attended by Sickness and Death it self IN matters of Art the force of Temperance is undeniable It relateth not only to our Meats and Drinks but to all our Behaviours Passions and Desires All Musick Sawces Feasts Delights and Pleasures Games Dancing Arts consist in govern'd Measures Much more do Words and Passions of the Mind In Temperance their sacred Beauty find A Musician might rash his finger over all his strings in a moment but Melody is an effect of Judgment and Order It springs from a variety of Notes to which Skill giveth Time and Place in their Union A Painter may daub his Table all over in an instant but a Picture is made by a regulated Hand and by variety of Colours A Cook may put a Tun of Sugar or Pepper or Salt in his Dishes but Delicates are made by Mixture and Proportion There is a Temperance also in the Gesture of the Body the Air of the Face the carriage of the Eye the Smile the Motion of the Feet and Hands and by the Harmony of these is the best Beauty in the World either much commended or disgraced A Clown and a Courtier are known by their Postures A Dancer might run into Extreams but his Art is seen in the measure of his Paces and adorned with a variety of sweet and suitable Behaviours A Physician may kill a man with the best Ingredients but good Medicines are those wherein every Simple hath its proper Dose and every Composition a fit admixture of good Ingredients A Poem an Oration a Play a Sermon may be too tedious
and Eternal Reason The similitude of which Reason being the Essence of the Soul all these things fall out for our glory and satisfaction also NOW if GOD himself acquired all his Joyes by Temperance and the glory of his Kingdom is wholly founded in his Moderation We may hope that our Moderation and Temperance in its place may accomplish Wonders and lead us to the fruition of his by certain steps and degrees like those that are observed in the Womb towards Manhood and in the School of our Childhood towards perfect Learning TOO much Rain or too much Drought will produce a Famine the Earth is made fertile by a seasonable mixture of Heat and Moisture Excess of Power may overwhelm but moderation is that which perfecteth and blesseth the Creation ALMIGHTY Power is carried far beyond it self or really is made Almighty by vertue of that Temperance wherein Eternal Wisdom is eternally Glorified IF any thing be wanting to the full demonstration of the perfection of GODS Kingdom it is the consideration of his Delay for we are apt to think he might have made it Eternally before he did But to this no other Answer is necessary though many might be made then that all Things were from all Eternity before his Eyes and he saw the fittest Moments wherein to produce them and judged it fit in his Wisdom first to fill Eternity with his deliberations and Counsels and then to beautifie Time with the execution of his Decrees For were there no more to be said but this his Empire is eternal because all Possibilities nay and all Impossibilities are subject to his Will But if it be confessed that Eternity is an everlasting Moment infinite in duration but permanent in all its parts all Things past present and to come are at once before him and eternally together Which is the true Reason why Eternity is a standing Object before the Eye of the Soul and all its parts being full of Beauty and Perfection for ever to be enjoyed IF any man be disposed to cavil further and to urge that GOD might at the very first have placed Angels and Men in the state of Glory the Reply is at hand that GOD very well understandeth the beauty of Proportion that Harmony and Symmetry springs from a variety of excellent Things in several places fitly answering to and perfecting each other that the state of Trial and the state of Glory are so mysterious in their Relation that neither without the other could be absolutely perfect Innumerable Beauties would be lost and many transcendent Vertues and Perfections be abolished with the estate of Trial if that had been laid aside the continual appearance and effect of which is to enrich and beautifie the Kingdom of GOD everlastingly That GOD loveth Man far more than if he had placed him in the Throne at first and designeth more Glory and Perfection for him than in that dispensation he could have been capable of all which springeth from the Restraint of his Power in some occasions that it might more fully be exerted in the perfection of the whole and of all things that were possible to be made might end in the Supream and most absolutely Blessed Therefore upon the whole Matter we may conclude with solomon Happy is the man that findeth Wisdom and the man that getteth Understanding For the Merchandize of it is better than the Merchandize of Silver and the Gain thereof than of fine Gold She is more precious than Rubies and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared with her Length of Daies is in her right hand and in her left hand Riches and Honour Her Waies are waies of Pleasantness and all her Paths are Peace She is a Tree of Life to them that lay hold upon her and happy is every one that retaineth her The LORD by Wisdom hath founded the Earth by Understanding hath he established the Heavens My Son let not them depart from thine Eyes Keep sound Wisdom and Discretion Wisdom is the principal Thing therefore get Wisdom and with all thy Getting get Understanding For the same Wisdom which created the World is the only Light wherein it is enjoyed CHAP. XXIV Of Patience It s Original How GOD was the first Patient Person in the World The Nature and the Glory and the blessed Effects of his Eternal Patience The Reason and Design of all Calamities Of Patience in Martyrdom The extraordinary Reward of ordinary Patience in its meanest obscurity PATIENCE is a Vertue of the Third estate it belongs not to the estate of Innocence because in it there was no Affliction nor to the estate of Misery because in it there is no Vertue but to the estate of Grace it appertains because it is an estate of Reconciliation and an estate of Trial wherein Affliction and Vertue meet together In the estate of Glory there is no Patience THIS is one of those distastful Vertues which GOD never intended It received its bitterness from Sin its life and beauty from GOD's Mercy If we dislike this Vertue we may thank our selves for we made GOD first to endure it And if all things are rightly weighed no Creature is equal to GOD in Sufferings We made it necessary for the Eternal GOD-HEAD to be Incarnate and to suffer all the Incommodities of Life and the bitter Torments of a bloody Death that he might bear the Penance of our Sins and deliver us from eternal Perdition THE Corporeal Sufferings of our Saviour are not comparable to the Afflictions of his Spirit Nor are there any Sufferings or Losses so great as those we cast upon the GOD-HEAD He infinitely hateth Sin more than Death and had rather be Crucified a thousand times over than that one Transgression should be brought into the World Nothing is so quick and tender as Love nothing so lively and sensible in resenting No loss is comparable to that of Souls nor any one so deeply concerned in the loss as GOD Almighty No Calamity more peircing than to see the Glory of his Works made Vain to be bereaved of his Desire and frustrated of his End in the whole Creation He had rather we should give him the Blood of Dragons or the cruel Venom of Asps to drink than that we should pollute our selves or his Kingdom with a Sin Nay it were better if without a Sin it could be done that the whole World should be annihilated than a Sin committed For the World might be Created again with ease and all that is in it be repaired with a word but a Sin once committed can never be undone it will appear in its place throughout all Eternity Yet is so odious and so infinitely opposite to the Holiness of GOD that no Gall or Wormwood is comparable thereunto To see his Beloved blasted his Love despised and his Son rebellious to see the most amiable Law in the World broken his Kingdom laid waste and his Image defaced to see all his Labour marred and spoiled his Benefits slighted
it at their Hands The wonderful Love wherewith he loved us is the Root the Soul and Glory of his Passion It is wonderful as it made him willing to become Death and Sin and a Curse for us But the height of our Extasie is in the Reality of his Passion and in the full accomplishment of all its Purposes IT is the Vertue of Love which is infused into Patience and the chief Elixir of its Nature is founded in the Excellency of a Spirit that Suffers for anothers sake This therefore we ought ever to remember That Patience when it is a Vertue springs from Love and that this Love is chiefly towards GOD and next that to our Neighbour When we suffer any thing for GOD's sake or for our Neighbours good we suffer in a Wise and Vertuous manner And the Honour which follows such a Suffering is the Crown of Glory which it shall for eyer wear It is a vain and insipid thing to Suffer without loving GOD or Man Love is a transcendent Excellence in every Duty and must of necessity enter into the Nature of every Grace and Vertue That which maketh the solid Benefit of Patience unknown its Taste so bitter and comfortless to Men is its Death in the separation and absence of its Soul We Suffer but Love not Otherwise Love to the Person for whose sake we Suffer is its own support and comfort It makes the Action to be valuable and insuses a sweetness into all the Affliction it can make us endure A Sweetness answerable to the Welfare and Pleasure which is either caused or secured to our Object thereby Our own growth in the approbation and esteem of the Person we love is the desirable Greatness which we covet to attain which can no way be confirmed and increased so perfectly as by Suffering for him For our Fidelity Sincerity Reality Vigour Life and Industry can never be made so fair and apparent as when we pursue our love and are carried by it to the utmost extremities of Death and Misery and labour through all disasters Persecutions and Calamities to obey and honour and please and glorifie the Object which in times of quiet we pretend to love In an easie and prosperous Estate there is little difference between Friendship and Flattery but he that sticks firm in Calamity is a Friend indeed The Trial of Love consists in the difficulties it endures for its Beloved AND for this Cause it is that GOD will expose us to so severe a Trial himself ordaining some Trials in the beginning but permitting more when we brought them upon our selves Many also he suffereth to come which we daily bring upon our own heads by our own folly Some he inflicteth perhaps himself for the Chastisement of our Sins or the Medicine of our Souls to abate our Confidence and to excite our Care to awaken us out of our Lethargy and to quicken our sence both of our Miserable Condition and our need of his Favour to humble our Rebellion to heal and purge our Corruptions to moderate our Passions to heighten our Penitence to abate our Pride to increase our Ardour in Devotion and Prayer to make our subjection to and dependance on him Clear to stir us up to a more strict Examination of our selves in our Thoughts Words and Deeds least some Jonas or other should lie in the Ship that continues the Tempest upon us to enkindle our Compassion towards our afflicted Brethren and to enflame us with more perfect Zeal and Love towards GOD It is like Wormwood that imbitters the Nipple to wean us from the World and augment our desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ to make us groan after our Eternal Rest and long for the glorious Liberty of the Sons of GOD. Sometimes he suffereth Tribulations and Trials to come upon us by the Perverseness of Men who being left at Liberty in their dominion over the World are the principal Authors of all the Troubles and disorders in it To know the several springs and sources of Affliction is very expedient for our Patience and Contentment much dependeth upon it A confused Apprehension makes us blind but a clear Sight distinguisheth between the Will of GOD and the Corruption of Nature which in our selves and others is the principal Cause of all our disturbances BE it by which of all these Occasions it will or for which of all these Ends it can befal us it is evermore to increase our Conquest and to make us like the King of Sufferings pure and perfect And the Consideration of Gods over-ruling Power and Providence therein which makes all these Things work to together for our good begetteth a grateful Admiration in us as well as a sence of our dependance on his Goodness which increaseth the Fear of GOD in our Souls and animates us with great Wonder that he should put his hand to touch the vile and evil Off-spring of our Sin and turn all into Good and make it to rest in our Exaltation and Glory by his Wisdom and Mercy Concerning GOD's End in bringing and permitting all these Evils the Scripture is very frequent It was one of Job's Contemplations What is Man that thou shouldest magnifie him and that thou shouldst set thine Heart upon him and that thou shouldst visit him every Morning and try him every Moment Man is magnified by his Trials It was David's Observation The LORD is in his holy Temple the Lords Throne is in Heaven his Eyes behold his Eye-lids try the Children of Men. The Lord trieth the Righteous but the Wicked and him that loveth Violence his Soul hateth It was Daniel's Prophesie And some of them of Understanding shall fall to try them and to purge and to make them White even to the time of the End GOD himself expresseth his own Resolution I will bring part of them through the fire and will refine them as Silver is refined and try them as Gold is tried They shall call on my Name and I will hear them I will say It is my People and they shall say The LORD is my GOD. THE meaning of all which places is not as if GOD did stand in need of all these Trials to know what is in us for he knoweth what is in Man from all Eternity before these Trials come he searcheth the Heart and trieth the Reins and discerneth the thoughts and purposes of the Soul He seeth every Inclination in the seed every Grace in the secret habit of the Mind and every Vertue in the Root They lie in the Seed but yet he seeth a mighty difference between quiet Habits and effectual Operations for they differ as much as the Root and the Blossom or the Blossom and the Fruit. For Vertues to lie asleep in the Soul and for Vertues to be actually and fully perfected is as great a difference as for a Vine to be of a generous kind and prone to bear but to remain without Fruit or for a Vine to bring forth
Unbelief Enmity against GOD Fear and Cowardice Barrenness in good and praise-worthy Employments Weariness and Complaint hatred of Retirement Spiritual Idleness and Ignorance are its Companions followed by Debaucheries and all the sorts of vile and wicked Diversions For Man is an unwelcome Creature to himself till he can delight in his Condition and while he hates to be alone exposeth himself to all kind of Mischiefs and Temptations because he is an active Creature and must be doing something either Good or Evil TRUE Contentment is the full satisfaction of a Knowing Mind It is not a vain and empty Contentment which is falsely so called springing from some one particular little satisfaction that however Momentany it be does for the present delight our Humour but a long habit of solid Repose after much study and serious Consideration It is not the slavish and forced Contentment which the Philosophers among the Heathen did force upon themselves but a free and easie Mind attended with pleasure and naturally rising from ones present Condition It is not a morose and sullen Contempt of all that is Good That Negative Contentment which past of Old for so great a Vertue is not at all conducive to Felicity but is a real Vice for to be Content without cause is to sit down in our Imperfection and to seek all ones Blis in ones self alone is to scorn all other Objects even GOD himself and all the Creation It is a high piece of Pride and stiffness in a man that renders him good for nothing but makes him Arrogant and Presumptuous in the midst of his blindness his own slave and his own Idol a Tyrant over himself and yet his only Deity It makes a man to live without GOD in the World and cuts him off from the Universe It makes him incapable either of Obligation or Gratitude his own Prison and his own Tormâ—ntour It shuts up the Soul in a Grave and makes it to lead a living Death and robs it of all its Objects It mingles Nature and Vice in a confusion and makes a man fight against Appetite and Reason Certainly that Philosopher has a hard task that must fight against Reason and trample under foot the essence of his Soul to establish his Felicity Contentment is a sleepy thing If it in Death alone must die A quiet Mind is worse than Poverty Unless it from Enjoyment spring That 's Blessedness alone that makes a King Wherein the Joyes and Treasures are so great They all the powers of the Soul employ And fill it with a Work compleat While it doth all enjoy True Joyes alone Contentment do inspire Enrich Content and make our Courage higher Content alone 's a dead and silent Stone The real life of Bliss Is Glory reigning in a Throne Where all Enjoyment is The Soul of Man is so inclin'd to see Without his Treasures no mans Soul can be Nor rest content Uncrown'd Desire and Love Must in the height of all their Rapture move Where there is true Felicity Employment is the very life and ground Of Life it self whose pleasant Motion is The form of Bliss All Blessedness a life with Glory Crown'd Life Life is all in its most full extent Stretcht out to all things and with all Content The only reason why a Wise and Holy man is satisfied with Food and Rayment is because he sees himself made possessour of all Felicity the image of the Deity the great Object of his eternal Love and in another way far more Divine and perfect the Heir of the World and of all Eternity He knows very well that if his honour be so great as to live in Communion with GOD in the fruition of all his Joyes he may very well spare the foul and feeble Delights of men And though the Law be not so severe as to command him to be Content without Food and Rayment yet if for GOD's sake he should by the wickedness of Men be bereaved of both he may well be Patient nay and die with glory And this indeed is that which maketh Contentment so great a Vertue It hath a powerful influence upon us in all Estates to take off our Perplexity Sollicitude and Care and to adorn our lives with Liberty and Chearfulness by which we become acceptable and admirable to the Sons of Men. It makes us prone to be Kind and Liberal whereby we become Obliging and full of good Works For it delivers us from all servile Fear and gives us Courage and Confidence in GOD. For well may we dare to trust him in such little Matters who has manifested his Friendship and Bounty in such infinite good things and made it impossible for us to be Miserable if we are pleasing to him An intelligent and full Contentment elevates the Soul above all the World and makes it Angelical it instills a Divine and Heavenly Nature enflames the Soul with the love of GOD and moves it to delight in Devotion and Prayer The sweetness of his Thoughts and the beauty of his Object draws a Lover often into Solitudes And a Royal Man in a strange Country especially when he has heard tidings of his Fathers Death and the devolving of his Crown and Throne on himself desires to be alone that he may digest these Affairs in his Thoughts a little He delights in being retired because he can find nothing worthy of himself in Company Magnanimous Souls are above Garlands and Shepherds And there is no greatness of Soul like that which perfect Contentment inspires BUT that which above all other things makes me to note the Vertue of Contentment is its great influence efficacy and power in confirming our Faith For when I see the Beauty of Religion I know it to be true For such is its excellency that if you remove it out of the World all the things in Heaven and Earth will be to no purpose The business of Religion is the Love of GOD the Love of Angels and Men and the due esteem we owe to inferiour Creatures Remove this Love this Charity this Due Esteem this delight that we should take in all amiable Objects Life and Pleasure are extinguished I see Nature it self teaching me Religion And by the admirable Contexture of the Powers of my Soul and their fitness for all Objects and Ends by the incomparable Excellency of the Laws prescribed and the worthiness and Beauty of all the Objects for which my power are prepared see plainly that I am infinitely Beloved and that all the cross and disorderly things that are now upon Earth are meer Corruptions and depravations of Nature which free Agents have let in upon themselves All which since they are reducible to the Government of Reason and may be Wisdom be improved to my higher happiness I am sure I am redeemed and that there is some eternal Power that governs the World with so much Goodness for my felicity since I my self was not able to do it That all Ages are beautified by his Wisdom for my
all things mightst see him This is the Good of GOD his Vertue is this to appear and be seen in all Things This is the bottom of all other Greatnesses whatsoever GOD is infinitely communicative infinitely prone to reveal himself infinitely Wise and able to do it He hath made the Soul on purpose that it might see him And if the Eye that was made for the World being so little a ball of Earth and Water can take in all and see all that is visible if the sight of the Eye be present with all it beholdeth much more is the Soul both able to see and to be present with all that is Divine and Eternal I know very well that a Man divided from GOD is a weak inconsiderable Creature as the Eye is if divided from the Body and without the Soul but united to GOD a Man is a transcendent and Celestial thing GOD is his Life his Greatness his Power his Blessedness and Perfection And as the Apostle saith He that is joyned to the Lord is one SPIRIT His Omnipresence and Eternity fill the Soul and make it able to contain all Heights and Depths and Lengths and Breadths whatsoever And it is the desire of the Soul to be filled with all the fulness of GOD. Magnanimous desires are the natural results of a Magnanimous Capacity The desire of being like Gods knowing Good and Evil was the destruction of the World Not as if it were unlawful to desire to be Like GOD but to aspire to the Perfection in a forbidden way was unlawful By Disobedience and by following our own Inventions by seeking to the Creature to the stock of a Tree to make us Like GOD that is erroneous and poor and despicable but to know our selves and in the strait and divine Way to come immediately to GOD to contemplate him in his Eternity and Glory is a right and safe Way for the Soul will by that means be the Sphere of is Omnipresence and the Temple of the God-head It will become ETERNITY as Trismegistus speaketh or ONE SPIRIT with God as the Apostle And then it must needs be present with all things in Heaven and in the Earth and in the Sea as GOD is for all things will be in it as it were by Thoughts and Intellections A Magnanimous Soul then if we respect its Capacity is an immovable sphere of Power and Knowledge far greater than all Worlds by its Vertue and Power passing through all things through the Centre of the Earth and through all Existencies And shall such a Creature as this be contented with Vanities and Trlfles Straws and Feathers painted Butterflies Hobby-horses and Rattles These are the Treasures of little Children but you will say a Man delighteth in Purses of Gold and Cabinets of Jewels in Houses and Palaces in Crowns and Scepters Add Kingly Delights and say he delighteth in Armies and Victories and Triumphs and Coronations These are great in respect of Play-things But all these are feeble and pusillanimous to a great Soul As Scipio was going up to Heaven the Earth it self seemed but a Nutshel and he was ashamed of all his Victories and Triumhs amazed at his madness in Quarrelling and fighting about Territories and Kingdoms contracted to a Star and lost into nothing the whole Earth is but one invisible Point when a man foareth to the height of Immensity and beholdeth and compasseth its everlasting Circumference which is infinite every way beyond the Heavens It is the true and proper Immensity of the Soul Which can no more be contented with the narrow confinement of this World no more rest in the Childishness of all the noise of the Interests of Men be no more satisfied with its Earthly Glories than the SUN can be shut up in a Dark-Lanthorn It is true indeed it would desire to see as the Angels do the least and lowest of all the Creatures full of the Glory and Blessedness of GOD all Wisdom and Goodness in every thing and is apt to complain for want of some eternal and Celestial Light wherein to behold them but if all the expansions of Time and Eternity should be void and all the extents and out-goings of Infinity empty round about them though things upon Earth nay and things in the Heavens should be never so Rich and divine and beautiful yet such is the Magnanimity of a Great Soul that it would hugely be displeased its loss and its distaste would be alike Infinite Infinite Honours infinite Treasures infinite Enjoyments things endless in number value and excellency are the Objects of its Care and Desire the greatness of its Spirit leads it to consider and enquire whether all the spaces above the Heavens and all the parts of GOD's everlasting Kingdom be full of Joyes whether there be any end or bound of his Kingdom whether ther there be any defect or miscarriage any blemish or disorder in it any vile and common thing any remissness or neglect any cause of complaint or deformity As also whether all the Ages of the World are Divine and Sacred whether after they are gone they abide in their places whether there be anything in them to entertain the Powers of the Soul with delight and feed them with satisfaction What end what use what excellency there is in Men Whether all the waies of GOD are full of beauty and perfection all Wisdom Justice Holiness Goodness Love and Power What Regions eternal Blessedness is seated in What Glory what Reason what Agreeableness and Harmony is in all his Counsels Whether those durations of Eternity before the World is made are full or empty full of bright and amiable Objects or dark and obscure Whether the government of the World be perfect whether the Soul be Divine in it self whether it be conducive to its own felicity or to the happiness of all those in whom it is concerned Whether the World shall end If it shall after what manner whether by Design or Accident Whether All Ages and Nations shall rise from the Dead Whether there shall be a general Doom or a day of Judgment Whether I am concerned in all the transactions and passages at that day Whether all Mankind shall be united into one to make up one compleat and perfect Body whereof they all are the fellow-Members What shall be after the End of the VVorld Whether we shall live for ever Whether we shall see GOD and know one another Whether we shall reign in eternal Glory Whether in the Confusions of Hell there be any Beauty and whether in the Torments of the damned we shall find any joy or satisfaction Whether all the Riches Customs and Pleasures of this World shall be seen Whether in the World to come any fruit shall appear and arise from them for which they shall be esteemed to have been not in vain but profitable in relation to all Eternity What kind of Life we shall lead and what kind of Communion and fellowship Angels and Men shall have with each other
that though the disproportion between them and their Assurance or Hope or Desire seem infinite and the end which they aim at by their Magnanimity is judged impossible though their attempt appear a ridiculous madness to them to whom the Verities of Religion appear incredible yet they are no whit discouraged or disheartened at the matter but stoutly march on being animated by the alarum of such a Trumpet such a Drum as Magnanimity is His Faith is more Divine by conquering the discouragements of the World than if he met with no censure or opposition IF you would have the Character of a Magnanimous Soul he is the Son of eternal Power and the Friend of infinite Goodness a Temple of divine and heavenly Wisdom that is not imposed upon by the foul and ragged disguises of Nature but acquainted with her great Capacities and Principles more than commonly sensible of her interests and depths and desires He is one that has gone in unto Felicity and enjoyed her beauties and comes out again her perfect Lover and Champion a Man whose inward stature is miraculous and his Complexion so divine that he is King of as many Kingdoms as he will look on One that scorns the smutty way of enjoying things like a Slave because he delights in the Celestial way and the Image of GOD. He knows that all the World lies in Wickedness and admires not at all that things palpable and near and natural are unseen though most powerful and glorious because men are blind and stupid He pities poor vicious Kings that are oppressed with heavy Crowns of Vanity and Gold and admires how they can content themselves with such narrow Territories yet delights in their Regiment of the World and paies them the Honour that is due unto them The glorious Exaltation of good Kings he more abundantly extols because so many thousand Magnanimous Creatures are committed to their Trust and they that govern them understand their Value But he sees well enough that the Kings glory and true repose consists in the Catholick and eternal Kingdom As for himself he is come unto Mount Sion and to the City of the living GOD the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable Company of Angels to the General Assembly and Church of the First-born which are written in Heaven and to GOD the Judge of all and to the Spirits of Just men made perfect and to JESUS the Mediatour of the New Covenant And therefore receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved he desires to serve GOD acceptably with reverence and godly fear And the truth is he can fear nothing else for GOD alone is a consuming fire He very well understands what the Apostle saith and dares believe him I cease not to give thanks for you making mention of you in my Prayers that the GOD of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Glory may give unto you the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of him the eyes of your Understanding being enlightened that ye may know what is the HOPE of his Calling and what the RICHES of the GLORY of his INHERITANCE in the Saints And what is the EXCEEDING GREATNESS of his POWER to us-ward who believe according to the WORKING of his Mighty Power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own RIGHT HAND in the HEAVENLY places far above all Principality and Power and Might and Dominion and every Name that is named not only in this WORLD but in that also which is to come And hath put ALL THINGS under his feet and he gave him to be HEAD over all Things to the CHURCH which is his BODY THE FULNESS OF HIM THAT FILLETH ALL IN ALL. Now to him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the Power that WORKETH in us Unto him be Glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all AGES World without end Amen A great and a clear Soul knoweth that all these intimations must needs be true for it is an amazing Miracle that they should be otherwise Infinite Love and Eternal Blessedness are near allyed and that these should cease is contrary to all Nature in GOD in the Soul of Man in Heaven in Earth in the order of the Universe and contrary to all that VISIBLE GLORY which in the World appeareth CHAP. XXIX Of Modesty It s Nature It s Original Its Effects and Consequences MODESTY is a comely Grace in the Behaviour of a Man by which he piously dissembleth his own Perfections and blusheth at his Praises It springeth from a certain fear and sence of his Imperfection 'T is the shadow of Guilt and a beautiful cover of Original Corruption It is sometimes Natural and which is contrary to all other Vertues more truly vertuous for being so For then it is Simple Genuine and Real but studied Modesty is affected and artificial yet where Nature has not been so obliging as to give the endowment 't is not altogether to be condemned since it is agreeable to the best of our conditions in this World and supplies a defect in his Nature that is born without it IT is akin to Shame yet increases the honour of him that wears it it is the shade of Vertue yet makes it brighter It is a tincture of Humility visible in a vermilion and deeper die and the more natural and easie the more sweet and delightful IT charms the Envy of those that admire us and by seeming to extinguish our worth gives it a double beauty It reconciles a man to the Enemies of his Grace and Vertue and by a softness irresistible wins a Compassion in all Spectators It is a Vertue which by refusing the honour that is due unto it acquireth more a real Counterfeit and the only honest and true dissimulation It is an effeminate yet a laudable quality a spice of Cowardice more prevalent than Courage a Vertue by which we despise all meaner Honours while we are ambitiously carried to the highest Glory It seemeth inconsistent with Magnanimity yet is her youngest Sister IT hath not many Objects nor are its Aims apparent nor its Ends conspicuous It is the Mother of fine and delicate Resentments its strength consisteth in tenderness and fear He that is Magnanimous in one respect may be modest in another Praises and Commendations are the fuel of its Nature it feedeth upon them while it grows by rejecting them It delights in what it feareth and is full of discords but more full of harmonies It is pleased in its displeasure and alwaies fighteth with its own Repugnancies It is a Vertue mixt of Sence and Reason its region is in the Body more than in the Soul and in all its Spiritual motions it is attended with Corporeal impressions The Blood and Spirits dance in the Veins as if Nature were delighted with its own Confusions By captivating the favour of Men upon Earth it affecteth the very Angels in Heaven with much of pleasure It
is full of musick in his words of a sweet and pleasing behaviour agreeable in his deeds and fraught with the Honour which he imparteth so freely A Liberal man is cloathed like the Sun with the Raies of his own glory and establishes himself in the hearts of his Neighbours and reigns like a King by the sole interest of Vertue and Goodness Every man is a Friend to him that giveth many Gifts He may be as holy and as temperate and as wise as an Angel no man will be offended at him because he beautifies his Religion with so much goodness He enjoys himself and his Riches and his Friends and may do what he will with perfect liberty because he delights in the felicity of all that accost him He puts embroideries on Religion by the chearfulness of his Spirit and carries a light wherever he goes that makes men to reverence his Person and esteem his Censures He moves in a sphere of Wonders his life is a continual stream of Miracles because he is alwaies sacrificing himself and his Possessions to the benefit of the World and the comfort of others Benefits and Blessings are his Life-guard like his guardian Angels alwaies attendant on him His House is the habitation of joy and felicity and yields a spectacle of Contentment to every beholder His Neighbours are his Security not his Suspicion and other mens Houses the forts and ramparts about his own No man will hurt him because they extinguish their own contentment and benefit in him Theytender him as the apple of their eye because he is a greater comfort and advantage than that unto them The ancient custome of Paradice so long since lost and forgotten in the World revives in its Family where all men are entertained as Brothers and Sisters at the expences of GOD and Nature He taketh care because Thrift is the suel of Liberality and is Frugal that he may be Bountiful All his aim and labour is that he may maintain Good Works and make his light so shine before men that they seeing his good works may glorifie his Father which is in Heaven There is a generous Confidence discovered in all his Actions and a little glimpse of Heaven in his Behaviour for he lives as if he were among a company of Angels All mens Estates are his and his is theirs If he had them all he would impart them and restore them to supply their Wants perhaps not with so much wisdom as GOD hath done but with as much pleasure and contentment as his goodness can inspire in the exercise of power so kindly and well employed But because the designs of GOD are infinitely deeper than he can well apprehend and laid all in eternal Wisdom he is pleased and delighted that his Care is prevented and that GOD hath done that for other men to which his own inclination would readily prompt him were it left undone If it were permitted him to wish whatsoever he listed of all other things he would chiefly desire to be a Blessing to the whole World and that he is not so is his only discontentment But for that too there are remedies in Felicity when he knows all his desire is granted For a Life beautified with all Vertue is the greatest gift that can be presented to GOD Angels and Men. And when all Secrets shall be revealed all hidden things brought to light his life shall be seen in all its perfection and his Desires themselves be the enjoyments and pleasures of all the Creatures There is a certain kind of sympathy that runs through the Universe by vertue of which all men are fed in the feeding of one even the Angels are cloathed in the Poor and Needy All are touched and concerned in every one Like the Brazen Pillars in the Temple of Minerva if one be smitten all resound the blow throughout the Temple or like the strings of several Lutes skrewed up to Unisones the one is made to quaver by the others motions If Christ himself be fed in the Poor much more may Angels and Men. At the last day we find no other scrutiny about Religion but what we have done or neglected in Liberality Come ye blessed of my â—ather inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the World for I was hungry and ye gave me meat thirsty and ye gave me drink naked and ye cloathed me a Stranger and ye took me in I was sick and ye visited me I was in Prison and ye came unto me Inas much as ye have done it to the least of these my Brethren ye have done it unto me LOVE it seems will sit in Judgment on the World and the Rule of Trial shall be the fulfilling of its Laws Love shall be the glory too of all the Assâ—ssors And every act of Cruelty and Oppression infinitely odious in all their eyes THERE was a certain King which would take account of his Servants and when he had begun to reckon one was brought unto him that ought him 10000 Talents But for asmuch as he had not to pay his Lord commanded him to be sold and all that he had and payment to be made The Servant therefore fell down and worshipped him saying Lord have patience with me and I will pay thee all Then the Lord of that Servant was moved with Compassion and loosed him and forgave him the Debt But the same Servant went out and found one of his fellow-Servants which ought him 100 pence and he laid hold on him and took him by the throat saying Pay me that thou owest And his fellow-Servant fell down at his feet and besought him Have patience with me and I will pay thee all And he would not but went and cast him into Prison till he should pay the Debt So when his fellow-Servants saw what was done they were very sorry and came and told to their Lord all that was done Every neglect and contempt of our fellow Brethren is injurious and grievous to GOD Angels and Men for there is one common Principle in all Nature to hate evil Deeds and especially those of Rigour and Severity when we our selves stand in need of Mercy and have received Favour This common principle of Sympathy and Compassion intitles us to all the good that is done to any Man in the World The love of Equity and Reason and the natural inclination that carries us to delight in excellent Deeds gives us an interest in all that are performed The beauty of the one is as sweet and blessed as the deformity of the other is odious and distastful And if we our selves are infinitely obliged and live by the bounty and goodness of another after we have forfeited the Kings favour have received it again with pardon and forgiveness nay and with more and greater benefits if we shall not be liberal to one another it is a strange inequality But the discharge of our duty will make us amiable and delightful That the King of Glory is so concerned in
where and the more here for being in other places and infinitely here because he is Omnipresent So does he wholly see and intend every one as if him alone and love him far the more by loving every one for his Love being infinite it is expressed towards him in all the parts of his Kingdom and the more rich and glorious he maketh all things the more great and happy he maketh Him according to the immeasurable All-sufficiency of his infinite Wisdom THERE is in the Goodness of GOD an infinite Greatness that makes it Magnificent for he gives Himself When a Queen gives her self whether it be to a Beggar or to one of her Courtiers or to another King if it proceed from an ardent Love the Gift is full of sweetness within but it is alwaies attended with great Magnificence without together with her self she gives him her Palace her Exchequer Gardens of Pleasure her Crown and Throne her Soveraignty her Nobles Attendants and all her Kingdom GOD doth infinitely more He gives himself by Loving and with himself gives us all his Wisdom Goodness and Power by making them full objects of Complacency by doing with them for us all that we could devise or desire or effect with them had they been our own and seated in our selves His bounty in giving himself is attended with infinite advantages innumerable wonders of love and goodness a care to make himself as a Bridegroom does exceeding amiable and glorious a care to purifie and fit his Queen for himself with all kind of greatness and beauty a care to adorn his Palace with all kind of delectable things Riches Pleasures magnificent Furnitures Perfumes Musicians Pictures Jewels Dainties Feasts Attendants Nobles c. In all which he infinitely exceedeth all the Monarchs of the World His Kingdom is celebrated by David with great Exultation Psal. 145. NOW if we would be Magnificent as GOD is we must have a love within our Souls that is willing to impart all these incomprehensible Treasures and Glories to every Soul and to all his Hosts and if it be possible to out-do all this to give all these Worlds nay GOD himself and every Soul to all with greater ardour and joy and gratitude Angels and Men our selves to all and all to every one For that Love which is the fountain of all is greater than all a greater Gift and a greater Treasure And that love which imitates the first is in its place the only desirable and excellent thing that is possible GODS love in its place is infinitely better then all Removing it you shake and abolish all But in such a Creature he desires to be beloved He made him free that he might be capable of Loving for it is impossible to love by constraint or necessity and having made him free and left him to himself infinitely desires to be beloved of him All his own love unto him and all the glories of Heaven and Earth which are prepared for him are means for the obtaining of that end Obligations Motives Allurements Incentives of that Love which GOD desires If he will not return Love all are imbittered and made distastful Infinite Love infinitely desires to be beloved and is infinitely displeased if it be neglected GOD desires to take Complacency in all to see the beauty of his Bride and the accomplishment of his design in the Love of his Beloved And nothing in all Worlds but the love of that Person can be his satisfaction For nothing can supply the absence or denial of that Love which is his end For in its place it is the only needful and proper thing far more desired than all that went before All that went before was but the Means this is the thing designed and endeavoured by them For upon this Return all the sweetness of the rest dependeth All is made sweet and compleat and delightful if this Soul doth love GOD in all these things if not they are all made vain and his love is turned into sour displeasure All the other things are so far from alleviating that they increase his displeasure the glory and abundance of them is so far from making him to despise this Love that in respect of these things he the more desires it because he would not have his labour vain and his own infinite Love makes him more to esteem the love of this Creature which is in its place his Soveraign object and for that very cause so beloved and admired by all Angels and Men. Is not then the Love which a man returneth a Magnificent thing Certainly if it answers all these preparations and obligations as their end and be lookt upon as that without which all the Creation is vain and frustrate it is the most great and marvellous thing in all the World and is in its own place of all other things most highly desired by all Angels and Men and is the greatest Gift which in and by that Soul can possibly be given It is esteem of honour paid to and delight in all these great and most glorious things It contains in it self a desire to see GOD pleased with more than the fruition of all Worlds and of becoming it self the greatest Treasure to his eternal essence of all that is possible And if this desire be not satisfied all the grandeurs of his eternal Kingdom are to no purpose But the desire satisfied is a Tree of Life What the Sun is to the Eye that is Love to the Desire GODS infinite desire of our Love makes it infinitely delightful to him Davids purpose to build the Temple was more accepted than Solomons performance And if one Contrite groan be better than all Sacrifices to love GOD with all the Soul and Understanding is better than to give him all Worlds We sacrifice all by Loving him as we ought We see the Beauty and Glory of all and offer it all up to him with infinite Desire our selves also with infinite Gratitude Could we make millions of Worlds infinitely greater and more perfect than this they should all be his No delight no joy no pleasure can be greater to us than to see him reigning He gives all to us that we might give it all to him In our Affection and with our Love it is most delightful Our Affections are the flames and perfumes that enrich the Sacrifice He is a Spirit to be served in a Spiritual manner all that we would do we do Infinite desires and intentions of Pleasing him are real objects to his Eye The Goodness of the Soul and the Greatness of his Goodness consisteth in them A Will enlarged with an infinite Fancy is a prodigious depth of goodness when it is all Love It would do millions of things for its Object But GOD is incapable of more Worlds and all that are possible he can make himself our Magnificence must be shewn in something he cannot do unless he were in our Circumstance and which of all things in the World he knows most fit to be
done were he in our places He cannot be the Soul of any of his Creatures but would be the Soul of that Soul the joy and delight of that Soul the life and glory of that Soul and that he cannot be unless that Soul will delight in him and love and honour him It is not he must honour himself but that Soul His desire is that that Soul would freely turn and delight in him freely of its own accord would incline it self to consider his Excellencies and dedicate it self to love and honour him This is one way for the Soul to be Magnificent towards Men too who by Nature delight to see GOD beloved and satisfied in a point of such infinite importance IT is true indeed that GOD can be full of Indignation and punish but for love to turn into anger is no compensation for the pleasure it lost by our miscarriage and to punish is a strange and troublesome work in which Love is extinguished or else afflicted Infinite Love puts an infinite value on the Gift And I think it is Magnificence to give a Gift of infinite value OUR Magnificence towards Men must be laid on a deep and eternal foundation We must be willing to give our selves to their comfort and satisfaction And that we cannot do but by imitating GOD in all his Goodness studying their felicity and desiring their love with the same earnestness to the utmost of our power doing in all places in all things in all Worlds the things they desire supposing them to be what they ought to be like Gods themselves THE best Principle whereby a man can stear his course in this World is that which being well prosecuted will make his Life at once honourable and happy Which is to love every man in the whole World as GOD doth For this will make a man the Image of GOD and fill him with the mind and spirit of Christ it will make every man that is the Representative of GOD and of all the World unto him It will make a man to reverence GOD in all Mankind and lift him up above all Temptations Discouragements and Fears It will make him to meet the love of GOD Angels and Men in every Person It will make a man truly glorious by making him pleasing to GOD and universally good to every one diffusive like the Sun to give himself to all and wise to enjoy their compleat Felicity If there were but one the Case is evident supposing more than one his duty is to love every one the more for all their sakes For since he must love all and they are all to love one and every one he must please them all by gratifying their love to one and by doing so to every one they are all concerned in the welfare of one and pleased in the love that is born to every one This in the state of Glory will be clear where every one like the Sun shall be clearly seen extending his love to all though here upon Earth where our estate is imperfect by reason of the imperfection of our Knowledge it doth not appear Our actions are limited for being finite in our outward demeanour they must needs be regulated by Justice and Wisdom But two things come in here to the assistance of Magnificence whereof the first is the inferiour perfection of our Love to all the second is the universal Satisfaction which the beauty of our outward life will afford at last Concerning the last two things are fit to be considered First that as GOD has communicated the Sun by making it visible to all and there is not a Star but is seen by all Nations and Kingdoms so has he communicated the Soul by making it visible to all and there is not a Thought that shall remain uncovered nor an action but it shall be seen by all for ever Secondly that as GOD himself is admired for his Inward Love so is he for the operations of his Outward Life I mean for his Works and Judgments When they saw his Works finished The Morning Stars sang together and all the Sons of GOD shouted for joy The Elders are represented before his Throne casting down their Crowns and saying Thou art worthy O Lord to receive Glory and Honour and Power for thou hast created all these things and for thy pleasure they are and were created Where the perfection of GODS Pleasure in the GLORY of the Creation is evidently discovered to be one of the Joyes of Heaven a great matter of their Contemplation an eternal cause of their Praises His infinite and eternal Love is that by which he is All Glorious within all the sweetness of his Essence and all the perfection of the Soul is there but yet his Saints in the Church Triumphant sing the Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb saying Great and Marvellous are thy WORKS Lord GOD Almighty Just and True are thy WAYES thou King of Saints His Works are the substantial Creatures in Heaven and in Earth his Waies are his proceedings and dispensations among them in all ages For all shall appear together for ever the one being Great and Marvellous the other beautified with Truth and Justice So that neither of these doth swallow up the other but both are distinct and perfect Our Love may be infinite on the Inside and yet our Life be diversified with many limited and particular actions Now if our Life be like GODS eternally to be seen and our Actions in passing pass not away but in the sphere of our life abide for ever our Life all at once is a mysterious Object interwoven with many Thoughts Occurrences and Transactions and if it be to be presented to GOD like a Ring or a Garland we had need to be very choice in the mixture of our Flowers and very curious in the Enammel of so rare a Token Perhaps it is his Crown nay our own His and our Royal Diadem It shall shine like a glory about our Souls for ever That there should be any dirt or blemish in it is inconsistent with our Felicity but it is a Magnificent Present if it be enchased with Jewels well chosen and curiously set I mean with the most pure and fit elections the most Wise and Just and excellent Actions the most bright and clear Apprehensions the most divine and ardent Affections The last are like Gold the ground work of the Crown but the work it self is a mixture of elaborate Distinctions that sparkle in their lustre like Gems of several cuts and colours An imperial Crown is a Magnificent Present from a King to a King But a Life like GODS in a sphere for which Time was lent that it might be well wrought and presented before him when made perfect as far surpasseth the most glorious Crown that did ever sit upon Monarchs brows as that can be supposed to excel a dull Clod of Earth or a piece of Rusty Iron There all Obligations and Laws and Duties and Occasions are
interwoven all our Vertues and Graces and Vices all our Tears and Devotions and Prayers our Servants the Poor the Rich our Relations Parents Friends Magistrates and Ministers are set and exhibited in their proper places they appear to the life with all our Behaviors towards them and though we did deny a Poor mans Request for the sake of another and this and that and the other particular action did not at present extend to all but the Soul was feign to use much wisdom in contracting its operation for the greater advantage in finding out its Duty in moderating its Behaviour in ballancing its occasions and accounts yet in the result of all it will be found full of Bounty and Goodness to all by taking care to be just and pleasing to all in the beauty of its Conversation When two things it desires to do are incompatible to each other it studies which of the two was more just and fit and necessary which tends most to the full and final perfection of its Life the interest of a Child sometimes carries it from another man a debt of Necessity is paid with that we would give for a work of Charity yet when all is Obedience Duty and Love that life is a most Magnificent Gift A Wife a Sister must be respected in her place a Son a Servant a Friend before a Stranger if the case be such that one of them only can be relieved All in the Family being made in the Image of GOD as well as the Beggars without doors are Objects of our Charity But so much Goodness being in the bottom of the design and so much Prudence and Justice in the denial Where his Gold and Silver faileth his affection may be infinite and the restraints he sets upon his Actions be the several cuts and distinctions in the Work the very true Engravings that make the Jewel or the Crown Glorious It s Matter is Life it self yet the Workmanship far excess the Matter when it is as Accurate and Divine as it ought to be This great and deep Thought makes every little act of Life magnificent and glorious a better Gift to GOD in its place than the Creation of all Worlds before him While a mans Love is really infinite towards all and he is ready to sacrifice himself with Moses and St. Paul for the good of the World but is fain to set a restraint upon himself for the sake of others The very grief which true Goodness conceives at the deficiency of its power and the force that lies upon it in so ungrateful a Necessity where it must be an Umpire and a Judge between its Bowels and its Children is a molestation which he endures in the midst of his duty filling all Spectators with as much pleasure as him with pain All shall be remembered and all these things which are now so grievous shall themselves become a part of our future Glory REMEMBER alwaies thou art about a Magnificent work and as long as thou dwellest here upon Earth lay every action right in its place Let not Patience only but every Vertue have her perfect work Let Wisdom shine in its proper sphere let Love within be infinite and eternal in the light of true Knowledge it is impossible to exceed be right in all thy Conceptions and wise in all thine Elections and righteous in all thy Affections and just in all thy Actions let the habits of Compassion and Mercy appear and break out fitly upon all occasions and the severity of Justice too for the preservation of the World Let all be underlaid with solid Goodness and guided with Prudence and governed with Temperance ordered with Care and carried on with Courage lay hold on thy Incentives by a lively Faith and on all the strengths of Eternity by a glorious Hope let all be sweetened with a gracious Charity fortified and secured with invincible Meekness and profitably concealed and vail'd over with Humility let thy Contentment put a lustre and grace upon all let Magnanimity and Modesty appear in thy actions Magnificence and Liberality act their part let Resignation to the Divine Will and Gratitude come in to compleat all these and thy Life be beautified with the sweet intermixture of Obedience and Devotion Thy GODLINESS will be so divine that all Angels and Men will be perfectly pleased especially when thou hast wiped out the Miscarriages by the bloud of the Lamb which in a little chrystal Vial pure and clear thou ought'st alwaies to carry about with thee when thou hast washed away the defilements contracted in the work with the Tears of Repentance Those Tears too he putteth in his Bottles and they will turn into Jewels There is not one drop so small but it shall turn into a Precious Stone and continue for ever as it were frozen into a Gem. Many O Lord my GOD are thy wonderful Works which thou hast done and thy Thoughts which are to us ward they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee If I would declare and speak of them they are more than can he numbered how precious also are thy Thoughts O GOD how great is the sum of them if I should count them they are more in number than the Sand When I awake I am still with thee And with whom else can I be for thou only art infinite in Beauty and Perfection O my GOD I give my self for ever unto thee CHAP. XXXII Of Gratitude It feeds upon Benefits and is in height and fervour answerable to their Greatness The Question stated Whether we are able to love GOD more than our selves It is impossible to be grateful to GOD without it A hint of the glorious Consequences of so doing WHAT GOD has made us able to do by way of Gratitude you must see in the Chapter of Magnificence The Love wherewith all these things ought to be done shall be so great in the estate of Perfection our Charity and Wisdom so directly intend all Angels and Men and especially GOD above all blessed for ever our Gratitude and Goodness make us so zealous for their satisfaction that no pleasure in the whole World shall be comparable to that of being Delightful to them To receive all is sweet but to communicate all adorned thus within the sphere of our own lives is infinitely beyond all that can be sweet in the reception both for our glory and satisfaction There is ever upon us some pressing want in this World and will be till we are infinitely satisfied with varieties and degrees of Glory Of that which we feel at present we are sensible when that want is satisfied and removed another appeareth of which before we were not aware Till we are satisfied we are so clamorous and greedy as if there were no pleasure but in receiving all When we have it we are so full that we know not what to do with it we are in danger of bursting till we can communicate all to some fit and amiable Recipient and more delight
in the Communication than we did in the Reception This is the foundation of real Gratitude and the bottom of all that Goodness which is seated in the bent and inclination of Nature It is a Principle so strong that Fire does not burn with more certain violence than Nature study to use all when it hath gotten it and to improve its Treasures to the acquisition of its Glory THE Holiness of all the work consists in the Fervour wherewith it is done and if our Love shall in Heaven answer all its Causes it will be equal to all its Obligations and Rewards and as infinite in a manner as the excellencies of its objects the very love of GOD towards all things will be in it our Love shall be in all his and his in ours And if we love GOD Angels and Men all Vertue Grace and Felicity as they deserve we shall so delight in excellent actions and in appearing amiable and glorious before them that we would not for all Worlds miscarry in a tittle And therefore every defect even after pardon will be an infinite disaster as well as blemish This is one effect of Gratitude in Nature And if it were not for the Satisfaction of Jesus Christ and the efficacy of Faith and Repentance in his Blood the least Sinner in all Nature would be eternally miserable notwithstanding the advantages of Christs blood It is the desire of the Soul to be spotless in it self And if it be so prophane as to build upon these advantages without taking care to be as excellent as it is able it is the most ungrateful Creature in the World and is too base and dirty to appear in Glory TO talk of overflowing in the disbursments and effusions of Love and Goodness till our emptiness and capacity be full within is as impertinent and unseasonable as to advise a Beggar to give away a Kingdom or a dead man to breath or one that is starving to give Wine and Banquets to the Poor and Needy But when a man is full of blessedness and glory nothing is so easie as to overflow unto others to forbid or hinder him is to stifle and destroy him Breath with the same necessity must be let out as it is taken in A man dies as certainly by the confinement as the want of it To shut it up and deny it are in effect the same When a man hath the glory of all Worlds he is willing to impart the delights wherewith he is surrounded to give away himself to some amiable Object to beautifie his Life and dedicate it to the use and enjoyment of Spectators and to put life into all his Treasures by their Communication To love and admire and adore and praise in such a case are not only pleasant but natural and free and inevitable operations It is then his supream and only joy to be amiable and delightful For the actions of Love and Honour belong in a peculiar manner to a plentiful estate Wants and Necessities when they pinch and grind us in a low condition disturb all those easie and delicate Resentments which find their element in the midst of Pleasures and Superfluities Hence it is that high-born Souls in Courts and Palaces are addicted more to sweet and honourable excesses than Clowns and Peasants The one spend their life in Toil and Labour the other in Caresses and soft Embraces Amities and Bounties Obligations and Respects Complements and Visits are the life of Nobles Industry and Care is that of the meaner People Honours and Adorations are fit for the Temple not for the Market Soft and tender Affections are more in the Court than in the Shop or Barn There is some difference in this respect even between the City and Country But Heaven is the Metropolis of all Perfection GOD is a mighty King and all his Subjects are his Peers and Nobles Their life is more sublime and pleasant and free because more blessed and glorious Their very Palaces and Treasures are infinite Incentives to the works of honour and delight and they cannot rest either day or night but continually cry Holy Holy Holy Lord GOD of Hosts Heaven and Earth are full of the Majesty of thy Glory Their Beauties and Perfections enflame one another Their very Joyes inspire them with eternal Love and as all Care and Labour are removed so are all delights and extasies established Ravishments and Caresses Adorations and Complacencies all the force and violence of Love Charms Allurements high Satisfactions all the delicacies and riches of sweet Affection Honours and Beauties are their Conversation Towards GOD towards themselves towards each other they are all Harmony and Joy and Peace and Love they flie upon Angels wings and trample upon Spices Aromatick Odeurs and Flowers are under feet the very ground upon which they stand is beset with Jewels Such you know were the foundations of the Walls of the New Jerusalem and the pavement of the Street was beaten Gold GOD and the Lamb were the Light and the Temple of it THAT we are to Enjoy all Angels and Men by communicating our selves unto them is a little mysterious but may more easily be understood than a thing so obscure as The Enjoyment of GOD by way of Gratitude That we are to love GOD more than our selves is apparently sure at least we ought to do it but whether it be possible is a question of importance That we gain infinitely by his Love is certain but that we gain more by our own is prodigiouslâ— It is our duty to love him more than our selves but whether it be our Nature or no is doubtful It is impossible to ascend at the first step to the top of the Ladder Even Jacobs Ladder will not bring us to Heaven unless we begin at the bottom Self-love is the first round and they that remove it had as good take away all For he that has no love for himself can never be obliged He that cannot be obliged cannot delight in GOD He that cannot delight in him cannot enjoy him He that cannot enjoy him cannot love him He that cannot love him cannot take pleasure in him nor be Grateful to him Self-love is so far from being the impediment that it is the cause of our Gratitude and the only principle that gives us power to do what we ought For the more we love our selves the more we love those that are our Benefactors It is a great mistake in that arrogant Leviathan so far to imprison our love to our selves as to make it inconsistent with Charity towards others It is easie to manifest that it is impossible to love our selves without loving other things Nature is crippled or if it has her feet has her head cut off if Self-preservation be made her only concern We desire to live that we may do something else without doing which life would be a burden There are other principles of Ambition Appetite and Avarice in the Soul And there are Honours and Pleasures and Riches
in the World These are the end of Self-preservation And it is impossible for us to love our selves without loving these Without loving these we cannot desire them without desiring canot enjoy them We are carried to them with greater ardour and desire by the love of our selves Preservation is the first but the weakest and the low'st principle in nature We feel it first and must preserve our selves that we may continue to enjoy other things but at the bottom it is the love of other things that is the ground of this principle of Self-preservation And if you divide the last from the first it is the poorest Principle in the World TO love another more than ones self is absurd and impossible In Nature it is so till we are obliged or perhaps till we see it our interest and find it our pleasure It is a surprize to an Atheistical fool That it should be ones interest to love another better than ones self yet Bears Dogs Hens Bees Lions Ants do it they die for their young-ones Nurses Fathers Mothers do it Brides and Bridegrooms frequently do it and so do Friends All valiant Hero's love their Country better than themselves Moses would have his Name blotted out of the Book of Life rather than the Israelites destroyed St. Paul could wish himself accursed from Christ for his Brethren the Jews and they both learnt it of their Master who made himself a Curse and even Sin for us And it was his interest to do it If we are immortal and cannot but be blessed it must needs be our interest to love him that is more blessed than we better than our selves because by that love we enjoy his blessedness which is more than our own and by that Love it is made ours and more than ours Is not all our Glory and Vertue and Goodness seated in the excess of this perfect love Do not all brave and heroical deeds depend upon it and does not the man deserve to be burnt as an enemy to all the World that would turn all men into Knaves and Cowards and destroy that only principle which delivers them from being Mercenary Slaves and Villains which is the Love of others That alone which renders a man useful to the World is the Love of others He that destroyeth this would pluck up all Gratitude by the roots all Worth Goodness and Honour No wonder therefore he should be an Atheist since Nature is so base and abominable before him But its Principles are oftentimes so generous in Truth that they are too great for themselves Nothing is so ordinary in the false way as that of loving others better than our selves Even Dogs have starved themselves to death upon the absence of their Masters How many Fathers have gone down with sorrow to their Graves and lost all the comfort of their lives in the death of their Sons How many Mothers have broken their hearts for the death of their Children How many Widows have buried themselves alive for the loss of their Husbands I mean by sequestring themselves from all the delights and pleasures of the World How many Lovers dote and wax pale and forget their Meat Sleep and Employment and run mad for their Mistresses Are there no such Examples or is there no strength in such Examples as these But to love GOD better than ones self seemeth more unnatural Ah vile the more base and more wicked we How we should love GOD better than our selves is easie to unfold by the principles of Self love and Self exaltation Take it in the manner following and when you have seen its possibility consider the glory of doing it the benefit and felicity and honour that is in it For it is all worth and pleasure goodness and beauty Gratitude and Vertue wisdom and security perfection and excellency We love our selves more in doing it than it is possible to do without it IT is natural to all them that love themselves to love their Benefactors and all those things that are conducive to their welfare pleasure satisfaction And the more they love themselves the more apprehensive they are of the benefit they receive and the more prone to love that which occasions it The more goodness we find in any thing the more we are prone to love it and the more we love it the more to take pleasure in it And if we find it highly convenient and extreamly delightful we had not seldom rather die than part with it we love our selves only that we might live to enjoy that glory or delight or beauty or convenience that we find so agreeable It often falls out for want of acquaintance with delightful things that we think nothing so powerfully sweet as to engage our Soul beyond the possibility of retrieving it self and that nothing can cleave so strangely to our minds as to be nearer and dearer than Life it self Yet oftentimes we find men of this opinion changing their minds when they have chanced to taste some sweetness in Nature they were not aware of and then to become such miraculous Converts that they love not themselves but for the sake of that delight which they have found in the World I make it a great Question would men sink into the depth of the business Whether all Self-love be not founded on the love of other things And whether it be not utterly impossible without it Only the love of those things is so near and close to the love of our selves that we cannot distinguish them but mistake them for one and the same If the Sun were extinguished and all the World turned into a Chaos I suppose there are few that love themselves so but they would die which plainly shews that the love of the World is inseparably annexed with the love of our selves and if the one were gone the other would be extinguished especially if the sweetness of the Air and its freedom and ease were changed into fire and torment For then we would surely desire to die rather than endure it which shews that the love of ease and repose is greater than the love of our very Beings though not so perceivable till we have examined the business But if there be any pleasure or goodness or beauty truly infinite we are apt to cleave unto it with adhaesion so firm that we forget our selves and are taken up only with the sence and contemplation of it The ravishment is so great that we are turned all into extasie transportation and desire and live intirely to the object of our fruition The power of infinite delight and sweetness is as irresistible as it is ineffable And if GOD be all beauty and delight all amiable and lovely truly infinite in goodness and bounty when we see him and taste the grace of his excellency the blessedness and glory wherewith we are amazed possesseth us intirely and becometh our sole and adaequate concern After that sight it is better perish and be annihilated than live and be bereaved of it
The fall from so great a height would fill the Soul with a cruel remembrance and the want of its former glory and bliss be an infinite torment Now if it loved nothing but it self it could endure all this rather than forsake it self or lose or be bereaved of its essence it would endure any misery whatsoever Or to speak more correct and accurate sence it would be incapable of any Passion Patience or Misery but only that which flow'd from its abolition Nothing could prejudice it but the change of its Being THAT is not likely to love it self after the way which some conceive proper to Self-love which is willing to forsake it self upon any Misery and apt to forget it self upon any great felicity It loves it self that it might enjoy such a pleasure but loves that pleasure so much beyond it self that it is ready to go out of it self and is almost beside it self for the fruition of it Loving it self only for that end and that chiefly and for its own sake it loves that far more than it loves it self And there is no limit nor bound when it once begins to love any thing more than it self it may proceed eternally and provided its Object be infinitely more excellent it will easily and greedily love it infinitely more than it can it self and value the continuance of its own life only for the sake of that which it so infinitely esteems and delights in It is true indeed it presupposes its Capacity but what would that capacity be worth were it not for Objects WERE there no SUN it were impossible for so fair an Idea to be conceived in a Mirror as is sometimes in a Glass when it is exposed to the skie The Mirror is in it self a dark piece of Glass and how so much fire and flame and splendor should come from it while it is a cold Flint or piece of Steel how it should be advanced by any Art whatsoever to so much beauty and glory as to have a Sun within it self and to dart out such bright and celestial beams no man could devise Yet now there is a Sun the Matter is easie 't is but to apply it to the face of the Sun and the Glass is transformed And if GOD dwelleth in the Soul as the Sun in a Mirror while it looketh upon him the love of GOD must needs issue from that Soul for GOD is love and his love is in it The impression of all his Beauty swallows up the Being of the Soul and changes it wholly into another nature The Eye is far more sensible of the Day and of the beauty of the Universe than it is of it self and is more affected with that light it beholds than with its own essence Even so the Soul when it sees GOD is sensible only of the glory of that eternal Object All it sees is GOD it is unmindful of it self It infinitely feels him but forgets it self in the Rapture of its Pleasure BUT we leave Illustrations and come to the reason of the thing in particular The Soul loving it self is naturally concerned in its own happiness and readily confesseth it oweth as much love to any Benefactour as its bounty deserveth And if the value of the Benefit be the true reason of the esteem and Reason it self the ground of the return A little Kindness deserveth a little love and much deserveth more Reason it self is adapted to the measure of the good it receiveth and for a shilling-worth of Service a shilling-worth of Gratitude is naturally paid For a Crown or a Kingdom the Soul is enflamed with a degree of affection that is not usual Now GOD created and gave me my self for my Soul and my Body therefore I owe him as much as my Soul and Body are worth and at the first dash am to love him as much as my self Heaven and Earth being the gifts of his Love superadded to the former I am to Love him upon that account as much more as the World is worth and so much more than I love my self If he hath given all Angels and Men to my fruition every one of these is as great as my self and for every one of those I am to love him as much as that Angel or Man is worth But he has given me his Eternity his Almighty Power his Omnipresence his Wisdom his Goodness his Blessedness his Glory Where am I Am I not lost and swallow'd up as a Centre in all these Abysses While I love him as much as all these are worth to which my Reason which is the essence of my Soul does naturally carry me I love him infinitely more than my self unless perhaps the possibility of enjoying all these things makes me more to esteem my self and increases my Self-love for their sake more than for my own Thus when I see my self infinitely beloved I conceive a Gratitude as infinite in me as all its Causes Self-preservation is made so natural and close a Principle by all the hopes and possibilities to which I am created Those Hopes and Possibilities are my tender concern and I live for the sake of my infinite Blessedness Now that is GOD And for his sake it is that I love my self and for the glory and joy of delighting in him I desire my continuance and the more I delight in him my Continuance is so much the more dear and precious to my self Thus is GOD infinitely preferred by Nature above my self and my Love to my self being thoroughly satisfied turns into the Love of GOD and dies like a grain of Corn in the Earth to spring up in a new and better form more glorious and honourable more great and verdant more fair and delightful more free and generous and noble more grateful and perfect The Love of GOD is the sole and immediate Principle upon which I am to act in all my Operations NOW if you enquire what Advantages accrue by this Love to the Soul of the Lover we are lost again in Oceans of infinite Abundance The strength and brightness and glory of the Soul all its Wisdom Goodness and Pleasure are acquired by it founded in it derived and spring from it as we have before declared upon the Nature of Love The solution of that one Question will open the mystery Whether we gain more by his Love or our own All that we gain by his Love amounts to the Power of Loving the Act of Loving we gain by our own and all that depends upon it BY his Love he existeth eternally for our Enjoyment as the Father of GLORY which is begotten by it self but we do not gain all this by his Love but by our own Some man would say We gain our Souls and Bodies by the Love of GOD all Ages and Kingdoms Heaven and Earth Angels and Men infinite and eternal Joyes because all these were without our care or power prepared by him and his love alone They were prepared indeed by his Love but are not acquired or enjoyed by
it He so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son and with him all the Laws and Beauties of his Kingdom but unless we love him unless we are sensible of his Love in all these and esteem it we do not enjoy our Souls or Bodies Angels or Men Heaven or Earth Jesus Christ or his Kingdom Rather we trample upon all and despise all and make our selves deformed All these do but serve to increase our Damnation and aggravate our Guilt unless we love and delight in their Author and his Love it self will eternally confound us So that we gain and enjoy the Love of GOD by ours Now Love returned for Love is the Soul of Gratitude In that act and by it alone we gain all that is excellent And beside all these become illustrious Creatures It is more to our avail to be Divine and Beautiful than to see all the World full of Delights and Treasures They would all be nothing to us without our Love Nothing does so much alienate and estrange the Soul from any Object as want of Affection All the Kingdom of Heaven is appropriated and made ours by Love alone The inferiour perfections of our own Essence are gained by Love and by it we accomplish the end of our Creation We receive and enjoy all the benevolence of GODS former Love by ours are made excellent in our selves and delightful to GOD which can never be brought to pass any other way but by our Love alone By Loving him as we ought to do we enable him to take pleasure in us And this is of all other the greatest benefit We cloath our selves with the similitude of all his Attributes and shine in his Image by Love alone Our Love as it acquires crowns our Perfections with his infinite Complacency This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased is a voice that can be directed to none but him only that loveth GOD with an eternal Love He cannot rest satisfied in any that hate or despise him The eternal complacency and delight of GOD whereby we are crowned with eternal Glory is acquired and receives its Being in a manner by Love alone NOW to love GOD is to desire Him and his Glory to esteem him and his Essence to long for him and his Appearance to be pleased with him in all his Qualities and Dispositions or more properly in all his Attributes and Perfections to delight in all his Thoughts and Waies It is to love him in all his Excellencies And he that is not resolved to love every Excellency in him as much as it deserveth does not love GOD at all for he has no design to please him But he that purposes to do it must of necessity love GOD more than himself because he finds more Objects for his Love in GOD than in himself GOD being infinitely more excellent than he But if this seem a grievous task it is not a matter of Severity but Kindness We mistake its nature the Duty does not spring from any disorder in GOD not from any unreasonable or arrogant Selfishness as base and foolish men are apt to imagine but from his Excellency it naturally springeth from the greatness of his Worth And it is our freedom when we see his infinite Beauty to love it as it deserveth When we so do we shall infinitely love it more than our selves because it is infinitely better And indeed shall find it so conveniently seated in the Deity for us that could it be transposed or remov'd it would no where else be fit for our fruition It is that eternal act of Love and Goodness that made all the Kingdom of Glory for us that Care and Providence that governs all Worlds for our Perfection that infinite and eternal Act that gave us our Being That Beauty is it self the Deity and wherever it appeareth there GOD is The GOD HEAD is the Beauty in which we are all made perfect And because we were nothing we must be infinitely pleased that he is Eternal because it is his eternal Act that gives us a Being and the Act Oh how Divine It is his Beauty and Glory Can we chuse but love that Act which is all Goodness and Bounty Which prepares for and gives to us infinite felicity If we love our selves we must needs love it for we cannot forbear to love the fountain of all our delights and the more we love it the more ardently we delight in it the sweeter and more transporting will all our Raptures be the more feeling and lively the more divine and perfect will our Souls and our Joyes be When we know GOD we cannot but love him more than our selves and when we do so his Blessedness and Glory will be more than ours we shall be more than Deified because in him we shall find all our Perfection and be eternally Crowned We must of necessity sit in his Throne when we see him enjoying all his Glory because his Glory is his Goodness to us and his Blessedness our Felicity Because in the acts of our Understanding we shall eternally be with him and infinitely be satisfied in all his Fruitions That Excellency which obliges us will enable us to love him more than our selves and while we delight in him for our own sakes we shall steal insensibly into a more divine and deeper Delight we shall love him for his And even in point of Gratitude adore his Glory To Adore and Maligne are opposite things to Envy and Adore are inconsistent Self-love is apt to leap at all advantages and the more we love our selves the more prone we are to covet and wish whatsoever we see Great and Excellent in another But he hath conquered our Envy by his infinite Bounty and made us able to adore him by the Perfection of his Essence To cover the Perfections of him we adore is impossible It is impossible to adore him whom we would spoil and rob of his Perfections For Adoration is a joyful acknowledgment of the infinite Perfections of an Adorable Object resting sweetly in them with acquiescence and rejoycing It is prone to add and to offer more An adoring Soul is in the act of sacrificing it self to the Deity and with infinite Complacency admiring and adoring all his Glories HIS Glories will be inspired into the Soul it self for the healing of that Envy to which it is otherwise addicted And instead of Robbery and Discontentment and Blasphemy and Covetousness the Soul shall be full of Honour and Gratitude and Complacency and be glad to see its GOD the full and eternal act of Perfection and Beauty It was from all eternity impossible there should be any other but he and he from all eternity has so infinitely obliged us that were it possible for any other to have been it would not be desirable He hath obliged us and we love him better than any other Should we fancy or conceive another a Power from all Eternity acting should we suppose it possible that a Power besides