whom he loved better If therefore we had such a love to God as others have to the things of this World the thoughts of them could not quite thrust out the thoughts of him But still we should be apt to write if I may so speak upon the very forehead of every earthly good God is most lovely or God is my exceeding joy the Lord is my portion O how amiable are his Courts or as an holy man who it is said could never get these words out of his mouth My God and all things Where he is there in effect are all things and where his love dwells there he will be sure to be We shall meet him every where see him in every beautiful thing and taste him before we have done in all the delightful enjoyments of this life 2. And as it comprehends in it the practice of making God present which some Masters in Divinity have said may serve instead of all other Rules for the ordering of our life aright so it contains in it likewise the very spirit of Prayer to God which all acknowledg to be not only a great part of a godly life but a great help and furtherance to us in all the rest of our Christian duty If by Prayer we understand as some have explained it the ascent or raising up of the Soul to God it is love only which continually aspires towards him and carries the heart aloft from other things to be joyned to him Or if we call it the converse of the Soul with God which are the words of Gregory Nyssen or a holy conference and discourse with the Divine Majesty as it is termed by S. Chrysostome it is manifest the love of God includes this in it for it is the nature of this passion to make us frequent the company of those whom we love Their conversation is most welcome their discourse delightful we are exceedingly desirous to impart our mind to them and especially to let them know how much we love them For which purpose it needs not alwayes the help of the tongue but can frame a language of its own and speak by the very countenance and the eyes and make use of silence instead of words to declare its inclinations According to the admirable expression of the Psalmist who setting forth the pious affections of the People to God their Deliverer saith Praise is silent for thee O God in Sion so the Hebrew hath it as your Margin tells you to Thee shall the vow be performed But let us take it simply for the desiring and requesting good things of God and then we must needs acknowledg that love being a passion full of desires cannot but comprehend in it as I said at first the very spirit of Prayer and Supplication You know how much we long for that to which we have given our hearts And therefore if they be devoted in love to God we cannot chuse but be ever breathing after more sensible apprehensions and tastes of him So much as we love him so much we shall thirst after a larger communication of his Divine Grace to us It will make us sigh for more tokens of his favour and wait for a greater power of his Holy Spirit and vehemently long to be more transformed and changed into his Image What was it but this that made David say Psal 42.1 As the Hart panteth after the Water-brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God The chased Deer in a great Forrest and in the midst of Summer did not more long after the streames of Water than this good Man being it is likely in the Wilderness of Judah and so denyed the favour of going to the Tabernacle of God did ardently desire the happiness which there he had sometime tasted in the Divine Presence He opens his mouth and pants after this with a thirst so vehement that it makes him cry out in the following words O when shall I come and appear before God It is the heat of that Creature to whose pantings David compares the longings of his Soul which is the cause of its thirst and that being a constant desire which goes not off by continuance as many inconveniences do but rather more encreases it beares the greater resemblance to this Divine passion of love whose fervours and ardent longings are perpetual and do not abate by length of time but grow still greater and greater There is nothing so likely as this to enable us to fulfil that exhortation of the Apostle Pray without ceasing and to make us importunate and unwearied in it which are the two qualifications our Saviour requires in our devout addresses to God Luk. 18.1 Where you read a Parable of his to this end that Men ought alwayes to pray and not faint It marvelously disposes us also for the Divine favour by moving us to quit all that is inconsistent with our desires in hope of that which we pray God to bestow upon us There was a Monarch you have heard perhaps who offered his Kingdome for a Cup of cold Water in a time of extreme thirst And therefore what is it which the heat of this heavenly affection will not make us resign to God and absolutely part withall that it may obtain its Petitions and have its desires satisfied Besides it hath one wonderful power in it which nothing else can furnish us withall to make our Prayers prevalent and that is by fixing our thoughts and fastning our minds to the business which we are about For love you know doth not willingly stir from the Object to which it is devoted It is this flame which keeps our heart close to the Holy Sacrifice and will not easily suffer us to wander from the Gate of Heaven It sets us in the Presence of God it keeps our eye upon him it makes us converse attentively with him and while the power of it lasts our very hearts are tyed to him and cannot go aside from him But as soon as ever it begins to dye or decay then it is that the mind steales away and gads about the World till this flame revive again and make us fly back to the Altar of God The best Soul that is I confess may feel some loosness and distraction of spirit especially at some untoward season some ashes may dim and dull the Fire but yet this love and ardent desire will keep the greater part of our thoughts together and knit our heart so to our duty that there shall be no long nor wide breaches in it but it shall still be strong and fervent and effectual with our Heavenly Father Thus you see how wisely these two are joyned together by St. Jude v. 20. Who after he had exhorted the Faithful to Pray in the Holy Ghost immediately bids them keep themselves in the love of God There is nothing comparable to this to inspire us with devout and earnest desires And it hath an equal force also to excite us to Praise and Acknowledg our great Benefactor who gives
may speak wholly unto it It participates with that supreme good to which it is united It carries in it self a great deal of the life of God it is a part of Heaven and the business of the other World But besides the solace which is inseparable from it there is this remarkable property in the passion of love that it strangely disposes us to believe all the kind expressions of our friends and makes us easily receive whatever they say for certain truth Upon which account the love of God will incline us above all other things to entertain every thing that he shall communicate of his mind unto us And there is nothing so great nothing so magnificent declared in the Gospel of his Grace but he that loves God will presently believe it and lay it up in his heart as a singular expression of his divine favour For he feels by the power and force of this affection in his own heart what God is enclined to do for those whom he loves and takes delight in though it seem incredible to other Men. And therefore as it doth not pose his belief who loves God when he hears that the Word was made Flesh for the good of men that the fulness of the God-head dwelt bodily in Jesus that he dyed for sinners and lay'd down his life for the Redemption of Enemies So the Resurrection of Christ from the dead his Ascension to Heaven the exaltation of our Nature in his Person at Gods right hand the Glory and Majesty in which he is said to shine there and in which we are told we shall at last appear together with him are no riddles nor incredible things to him No Love sees him there preparing a place for us making all ready for the joyful Marriage to be celebrated in his glorious Kingdome coming in the Clouds of Heaven to call us up thither and to advance all his Subjects to reign as so many Kings together with him This makes a man presently understand how God should design to reward our poor endeavours those services to which we stand obliged though but weakly performed with an everlasting inheritance How he should compensate our present sufferings which are but for a moment and not worthy to be named with a far more exceeding Eternal weight of Glory Hyperbole's go down easily with this Mans Faith He can believe beyond them all and see what is far beyond that far more exceeding Eternal weight of Glory as the Apostles words import 2 Cor. 4.17 He is assured the love of Heaven will enkindle a new life in our dead ashes He beholds it sublimating this earth to an Heavenly state And can well conceive this thick Clay shining as the Sun and made like to the glorious Body of Christ This Soul also as pure as the light saluting its new born Body and possessed with a mighty love rejoycing for ever in Gods bounteous kindness to it All this it sees nay feels being already filled as St. Paul speaks with all the fulness of God For it feeling First what a vast difference there is between it self now and what it was before when it was pent up in scant and narrow affection to these petty goods here below makes no doubt there may be as wide a difference between what it shall be hereafter and what it is now It presently concludes that the same powerful goodness which roused up and called forth its sleepy thoughts and drowsie desires towards it self can still further awaken and raise all its faculties to a more quick and lively sense or call forth some hidden power and vertue in the Soul which hath as yet no more appeared than those motions which now it feeles did before it was touched by his Almighty hand And Secondly finding its own nature by this touch of the Divine Love made so free and benign so abundant and overflowing in kind affection to others so open-hearted and gracious it concludes that the Almighty goodness not only can but will do more for it and confidently expects to be lifted up to an higher state of bliss proportionable to the superabundant kindness of that most excellent Nature which hath produced already such good inclinations in it It is impossible for a Man to be under the power of love to feel the huge force of its flames to perceive of what a spreading and communicative Nature it is and not conceive very magnificently of the bounty of God and have a faith in him as large and capacious as his love Love God therefore My Friend as much as ever you can with the greatest passion and most ardent affection and you shall find Heaven coming apace into you and taste the good things of the promised World to come You shall not only guess at your future state and make conjectures about it but in some measure know and feel the all-filling joy of our Lord and possess that quiet tranquillity and peace which passeth all understanding For this Divine love is the right sense whereby Heavenly things are apprehended It is that which fits the mind rightly to understand and the will firmly to believe those great and transcendent things which the Scripture reports as the portion of the Saints in light It gives us a sight of things as much differing from all other which we have meerly by dry reasoning and which we spin out by thoughtful Discourses as the sight of a great beauty before our Eyes differs from the description of it which we read in a Book or as the warmth of fire on the hearth doth from that we see in a Picture which cannot loosen and inliven our stark and benummed Joynts And if you would love God I have told you the ready way to it which is by preserving in your mind a constant and lively sense of his infinite love and good will already expressed to you for this will naturally and easily produce a reciprocal love to him and that will make you look for more of his mercy even to Eternal Life This you understand so well that I shall not say a word to you more about it but proceed to the next when I have left a few words with you to say to God A PRAYER O God how great is thy love how excellent is thy loving kindness towards us thy unworthy Creatures To whom thou takest such pleasure in communicating thy blessings that thou dost not stay till we ask them of thee but pourest them down plentifully before and beyond all our desires O the inconceivable depth of that love from whence thy Son Jesus was sent to dwell among us who hath done so much for us that he hath left us nothing to do but to consider and lay to heart thy love which hath so marvelously abounded towards us For all things I know are easie and pleasant to those that love Thee Great Peace have they that love thy Law and nothing shall offend them O possess this heart which opens it self to thy gracious influences
but the good are best instructed by their enjoyments Ingrateful People think of God when he takes away his blessings from them but ingenuous and thankful minds have a great regard to him when his favours are in their hands Nor do they only think it a duty but feel it a pleasure to reflect on the bounty of their great Benefactor which endeares the practise of it and makes it still both more facile and more frequent In so much that in the use of all these outward and carnal things a pious heart may soon learn to turn its thoughts and raise up its affections to a more spiritual good and nobler fruitions Do you not observe how the Holy Ghost is wont to express the joyes of the World to come by such pleasures as are most acceptable to us here What is the reason of it if it be not in compassion to the weakness of our apprehensions and to let us see that all bodily delights administer occasion for pious thoughts and holy desires after diviner enjoyments God would preserve us from sinking into a fleshly sense by our daily conversation with and use of fleshly things He shows us how we may lift up our minds even by those things which are apt to depress them and take an advantage from these inferiour comforts to climb up towards those higher satisfactions Hence it is that the happy enjoyments of the other World are compared so often to the pleasures of eating and drinking whereby our hunger and thirst is asswaged and our bodily life supported Yea to a Feast which is a more liberal entertainment of that kind and is the meaning of that phrase in the Gospel which represents Lazarus carried by Angels into Abrahams bosome placed that is in the uppermost Room at that Heavenly Feast and treated as the noblest and most beloved guest Yea to a Marriage-Feast which being a time of the greatest joy Men are wont to make the largest provision of good chear that their friends may rejoyce together with them And lastly to a Marriage-Feast made by a King a Royal entertainment such as a Monarch would make at the Wedding of his Son All which may serve to provoke good minds to look up above such things as these which are most enticing in this World and to be so far from being swallowed up in sensual pleasures as to give themselves thereby a more lively taste of that excessive joy which God will impart unto them when they shall live with him and be feasted by him in his Heavenly Kingdom The like benefit you may reap from all other things which you converse withall and though the World will attract your thoughts to it and imploy a great many of your hours yet you may draw at last something from thence which will pay you well for the time which you have spent upon it As for Example when you look about you and behold the delightful Objects wherewith you are inviron'd on every side which present themselves continually to your Eyes or your Eares or your Tast or other of your Senses you may think with your self 1. If God have provided such a multitude of pleasant things for the entertainment of this poor body in this present life What are the joys and delights which he hath prepared for my better part in the life which is to come This is the World of Bodies the other of Souls and Spirits Therefore if this little Carkase which is but as the Grass of the Field be so well accomodated if there be so many rare things in the Earth and the Sea and the Air for its refreshment and pleasure What may I not expect hereafter for my mind in those Celestial those spacious Regions which I see above O the inconceivable felicity which is provided in the Paradise of God for this more wide and capacious Spirit which beares his own Image and like himself is to live for ever 2. Again you may think with your self if there be such pleasure to be found in a Creature O what is there then in the Creator of all If the sight of the Sun the Moon the Stars and all the rest of the beauties of this World be so glorious What will it be to see my God to be filled with that wisdom which contrived and with that goodness which produced this vast this goodly and comely Fabrick If the melodies of Musick be so charming O what an ecstasie of joy will it cast me into to hear God himself say I love thee I delight in thee for ever If the love of a true Friend do so much ravish and transport my Spirit what pleasure is it that I shall feel when my Soul shall love him as much as its most enlarged Powers will enable it and know how much I am beloved by him There is a delicious Meditation in St. Austin to this effect who thus speaks to God in one of his Confessions Lib. 10. Cap. 6. I love thee O my God thou hast smitten my heart with thy Word and I have loved thee Nay the Heavens and the Earth and all things contained therein admonish me on every side that I should love thee and they cease not to say the same to all Men else so that they are inexcusable if they do not love thee But what do I love when I love thee Not the beauty of a Body not the grace and comeliness of time not the brightness of light and yet O how friendly and agreeable is that to these eys not the sweet melodies of well-composed Songs not the fragrant odors of Flowers or unguents or costly Spices not Manna not Honey not the embraces of the dearest and most lovely Person these are not the things that I love when I love my God And yet I love a certain light and a certain voice and a certain grateful odor and a certain food and a kind of embracement when I love my God the true light the melody the food the satisfaction and the embracement of my inward man Where that shines to my Soul which no place can contain where that sounds which no time can snatch away where that scents which no Wind can disperse and scatter abroad where I taste that which eating cannot diminish where I cleave to that which no fulness no satiety can force away This is that which I love when I love my God And what is this I askt the Earth and it said I am not I askt the Sea and the Deeps and all living Creatures and they answered We are not thy God look above us and enquire after him for here he is not I askt the Air and all its Inhabitants yea the Heavens the Sun Moon and Stars and they confessed We are not him whom thy Soul seeketh And I spake to all things whatsoever that stand round about the Gates of my Flesh saying Ye tell me that ye are not my God but tell me something of him And they all cried out with a loud voice He made
with such a mighty love to thee as may set Thee alway before me and carry forth my Soul in ardent desires after thee and fill me with an humble confidence in thee and make me watchful active and zealous in my duty and never suffer me to distrust thy pitty and indulgence when I unwillingly offend thee and assure me of thy kind intentions in all the cross accidents of this life which are most offensive to me I doubt not O Lord of a power from above continually to attend me now that I feel thy love so strong and powerful in me I believe thou wilt do more for me both here and eternally than heart can conceive O how great things hast thou laid up for those that fear thee O the heighth of that joy which thou hast set before us to encourage us in our Christian race O the comfort of those gracious words which promise us after our short pains and trouble here a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory How pleasant is it to wait for thy Son Jesus from Heaven to give a Crown of righteousness to me and to all those that love his appearing Preserve I beseech thee this holy love and faith most fresh and lively in my heart to my great increase in all the fruits of righteousness which are by Christ Jesus unto thy glory and praise Maintain in me such chearful thoughts of thee that Religion may be my delight as much as it is my duty and I may alway approach unto Thee with a joyful heart being glad to leave the company of all other things to go to thee my God my exceeding joy Reconcile me so perfectly to every other part of my Christian duty that all the actions of an holy life may be but so many motions of hearty love to thee and I may so feel the ease and satisfaction of all well doing as to love and delight the more in thee whose wayes are wayes of pleasantness and all whose paths are Peace I am sensible of the uncertainty of all things else but only of thy love which will inspire me I hope to behave my self worthy of the greatness of it in every state and condition of life O that in prosperity I may think I have an opportunity to show how much I love Thee above the World by exercising humility heavenly-mindedness charity temperance and purity and in adversity how much I love thee more than my self by expressing all patience meekness forgiveness of others chearful submission to Thee and confidence in Thee with thankfulness for all thy past and remaining mercies Be they always acknowledged and never forgotten by me For which end I again consecrate my Soul to be thy holy Temple wherein may dwell continually pious and religious thoughts devout Meditations of Thee and remembrance of thy loving kindness intire love to Thee sending up perpetual Hymnes of Praise and Thanksgiving together with the constant sacrifice of an humble and obedient heart That so I may be filled with the comfort and joy of the Holy Ghost at present and hereafter be admitted into the fellowship of Saints and Angels with them to rejoyce and praise Thee in fulness of love World without end Amen IV. BUT as I would have you exceedingly in love with Religion so I must advise you not to charge your self with too many or too long exercises of Devotion For Honey it self will cloy us and a perpetual scent of Roses may become offensive to us Observe therefore what you can do with ease and a pleasantness of Spirit And when you find your self to be free and forward then you may be the longer and more enlarged in your Devotions But when you are very heavy and straitned then it is not fit to tire your spirits and drag them along with you whither they have no strength to accompany you nor any disposition to comply with your desires Our Body is such a beast and sometimes so dull and restife that if we spur it on to a faster pace it not only quite tires but will have no list to travel any more Whereas if we bait it a while and suffer it to take some repast and give it some rest it will go along with us to the end of our Journey When our spirits are dull already we make them more dull by our restless importunity to do as we would have them As a Child you may have observed when he cannot think of his Lesson the more his Teacher chides and calls upon him the more blockishly he stands and the further it is beat out of his memory so it is very frequently with the natural spirits of every one of us They are so oppressed and stupid at certain seasons that if we labour to set them in motion it doth but dispose them the more to stand stock-still But if we let them alone and for that time leave them they will be like the same Child who in a short time comes to himself and is able to say his Lesson perfectly They will go whither we would have them and perhaps run before us We must do then with our selves as one that is weak and going up an high and steep Hill When he feels his Legs begin to fail him and complain that they are weary he rests a while and sits him down to recruit himself And it will not be long before he hear his mind calling on him to try if he hath not gathered some new strength with which he marches a little further according as it will carry him And if he hath any cordial spirits in his Pocket a little taste of them may much revive him in this languishing condition Yea the pleasant prospect of the Fields round about him and the various Objects that gratefully entertain his eyes if he cast them on every side will be a fit divertisement for his mind to turn it from thinking of his weariness Thus I say My Friend it is adviseable for you to do rest your self a while and make a pause when you perceive your spirits begin to flag Break your Devotions into little parts and take not the Journey you have set your self all at once When your mind tels you that now you are better able or prompts you to try your strength then up again and go forward And between whiles turn your mind aside to something or other that is wont to please you much Think of some good Friend of the many fair accommodations that God hath afforded you of the pleasant Meadows as I may call them and the still Waters by which he leads you or betake your self to some Divine promise and take a taste of the love of God contained therein which is as a Cordial to chear and refresh the Spirits or run to the extract or quintessence that you have drawn as I shall direct you anon out of former Meditations and some of these its possible may make you quite forget that you were faint and weary And truly for the most
My Friend what it was that first begat devotion and lively affections in you towards God and Goodness for that will be most effectual to continue them It is an ordinary Maxime in Physick that we are nourished out of the same things of which we consist Liquid things agree best with a Child while its Flesh is soft and but newly come from swimming in its Mothers Womb. Every Lamb runs to the Ewe that yean'd it and layes hold of her teates which are near the place where it lately lay And so may we hope to suck both most sweetness and most proper sustenance from those truths which first affected our hearts and wherein we have been wont to find the greatest rellish It is observable that Iron which naturally moves towards the Load-stone when it hath once saluted it and hath been received into its embraces is more possessed with a magnetick love and grows more sensible of its attractions and more desirous of an union with it than it was before that touch which made it feel how it could awaken and enliven it Even just so it is with our hearts which when they feel the kind influence and invigorating power of any thing upon them are the more disposed to receive the touches and impressions of it again and naturally open themselves and wish for it with greater passion than they did before they had that acquaintance with it If it was the loveliness and beauty then of the Divine Nature and Perfections which first awakened your Heart think of that and turn your eyes towards it for it is not at all withered or decayed How doth a fair Image sometimes slip through a Mans eyes into his heart and ingrave it self so deeply there that it is past his power to rase it out And will not a sense of God and the light of his countenance if it shine upon us leave such a lasting remembrance of it in our Souls that we shall like him and love him longer than a Day And if the first glance of him be so surprising and make us that we cannot easily forget how amiable he is O how infinitely more affecting will a serious and constant contemplation of him prove If a little ray from his face that glided into our hearts we know not how was so striking and glorious how shall we be inamoured when we stedfastly and on purpose fix our minds and affection on Him desiring to be better acquainted with his Excellencies It is impossible but you should find your heart more powerfully stirred toward Him when you consider likewise that you can never discover all of him but new beauties will every Day present themselves and shine upon you while you feelingly converse with him You will not endure your self if you should love him the less because he admits of your love and every day appears more lovely and desirable But it was a sense of his love to you perhaps which is far more common that begat in you the affection of love to him Then there cannot be a more delightful subject for your thoughts nor can Religion commend it self by any thing more than this that it is love begot by love And there is nothing surer than that you shall be constant and unwearied in your duty if Gods mercies and kindnesses can affect your heart for they are constantly and unweariedly poured forth upon you The new ones you enjoy daily are so many that you may know by them the old ones are innumerable You can turn your eyes no way but you see your self incircled with them and hear something calling for your love All his works declare not only the excellence of his Nature but his goodness likewise and bounty towards you For every one of them doth you some office of love They all wait upon you at the command of your Heavenly Father and they would instantly deny their Service did not he continue it by the Word of his Power He must be blind and never saw the Sun who sees not God and his goodness every where What beauties doth not that great Luminary create What fruits and flowers doth it not produce What Liquors doth it not generate How doth it cherish all Creatures How doth it fill your eyes and eares and all your Senses with its Heavenly influences And how many of those good things which you behold by its light hath God bestowed on you for your portion Rather than not love some higher Being one would be tempted to fall down and worship this The poor Persians of old knowing nothing more glorious had their hearts wounded with the Raies of the Sun and the light and warmth of its beames seemed so admirable that they adored and loved it as their God Shall not we then love him most heartily who made that and all things else who hath opened to us also another World as I have told you by our Lord Jesus far more beautiful and glorious than this to make us love him You can never want matter to feed your thoughts and to recreate your mind with delightful Meditations and your heart with Heavenly affections when his goodness is so largely diffused beyond the bounds of all things visible Or if when you would meditate on his innumerable favours you find that your thoughts stand still and will not stir or that they go backward and start aside to something else Your heart will even then burst forth into admiration and great expressions of love to think that his goodness should be so great to us who can scarce thank him for it or consider it But suppose it was a sense of sin and the evil of it which most startled your mind when you began to be Religious then every thing you see every thing you can think of will help to aggravate it And the more you heighten its malignity and represent to your self its formidable nature or reflect only on its baseness and disingenuity together with its pride and arrogance the more you will unavoidably be roused out of the sin of slumber and stupidity Or if it was the promise of Heaven and the belief of immortal life that I may name no more inducements which first invited you to od that is a thing so vast that your desires and hopes of enjoying it will not let you be weary of thinking of it Immortal Life What a good is that will you say to your self On what should I fix my eyes so much and with so much pleasure as on that blessedness Who would lose his Portion in Immortal Life for all the dying pleasures and possessions of this World though he could be sure to enjoy them to the end of his days Immortal Life I am not yet awake sure or else the very Name of it would make my Heart leap and quicken this dull and sluggish Spirit to the most earnest and chearful pursuit of it in all the exercises of Christian godliness What should make me move so heavily in the ways of God unless it be that
ADVICE TO A FRIEND DEPRESSA RESVRGO ECCLUS xiv 13. Do good unto thy Friend before thou dye GREG. NYSSEN 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 London Printed for R. Royston Book-seller to His most Sacred Majesty MDCLXXIII AN ADVERTISEMENT FROM THE PVBLISHER TO THE READER Reader I Have nothing to say either of this Boâ—k or of its Author But only desire the Reader if he like the Counsels which are here given for the promoting and better ordering of Devotion and for the preserving of a pious Soul in peace and chearfulness that he would be so kind and faithfull to himself as to follow them And the hope I have that after a perusal they will invite him so to do makes me secure the Author will not be displeased to see that exposed to publique view which was at first intended only for a private Persons use For if the Advice be good the more common it grows so much the better it is and it will not be the less mine when it is gone into other hands Plato I am told calls Love the Ornament of all both of the Gods and of Men the fairest and most excellent Guide whom every man ought to follow and celebrate with Hymnes and Praises And what is there in which we can better express and declare it to others than in communicating to them that which we hold in highest esteem our selves It was that which first produced this Treatise and from thence it comes abroad That which the same Person saith is the Father of delights of mirth of whatsoever is gracefull and desirable was the Parent of this Book And therefore let it be accepted with the same kindness wherewith it was writ and is now Printed Let all the faults if you find any be overlookt with a friendly eye and do not discourage so excellent a vertue as Friendship to which we owe the best things in the World by severe and harsh censures of any thing that it produces But I need not I think be solicitous about this the pious design of the Book being sufficient to give it protection if it cannot gain it approbation It hurts no body and therefore may pass it self with more safety and it offers its service to do every body good which me thinks should be taken kindly even by those who stand in no need of it As for those who shall make use of it and find any benefit by it they will complain perhaps only of the Author's thriftiness and wish he had been more liberal of his Advice And so it 's like he would if he had not consulted his Friends ease more than his own and considered rather what would be usefull than what would make a great show You will take a wrong measure of his kindness if you judg of it by the bulk of the Book which was purposely contracted into a little room that it might be a constant Companion and as easie to carry in mind as it is to carry in ones hand And let the defects of it be what they will they may be supplied out of one of the Rules you here meet with if you please to make use of it which is to chuse a good Guide from whom you may receive further Advice in any thing that is necessary for your Progress in Piety or for the setling your Conscience in peace And that we may none of us ever want such a faithful and skilful Person to conduct us and that we may receive a benefit by these and all other good Counsels let us heartily joyn in that Prayer to God which is the Collect for this Day and add it often to the ensuing Devotions Leave us not we beseech Thee destitute of thy manifold Gifts nor yet of Grace to use them alway to thy Honour and Glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen St. Barnabie's Day 1673. IMPRIMATUR Sam. Parker R. Rmo in Christo Patri ac Domino D no Gilberto Divinâ Providentiâ Archi. Ep. Cant. à Sacris Domesticis Maii 14. 1673. Ex Aed Lambeth ADVICE TO A FRIEND My Friend MAN bears some resemblance and may not unfitly be compared to a Diamond or such like precious stone whose darker parts confess that it is of the earth but the brighter look as if it had borrowed some rayes from the Sun or Stars He is a substance I mean consisting of a terrestrial Body and celestial Spirit with his Feet he touches the earth but with his Head he touches Heaven Though the neighbourhood knows whence his Body came and remembers the time perhaps when it lay in the dark Cell of his mothers womb yet his Soul doth absolutely deny that it is of so mean extraction And casting its eyes upward calls to mind its high descent and parentage and takes it to be no presumption to affirm that we are the off-spring of God He cannot therefore but find in himself propensions and desires not only different from but contrariant to each other For since two worlds meet in him and he is placed in the confines of heaven and earth his will must needs hang between two widely distant goods the one propounding pleasures to his body and the other to his mind And though once there was a time when these two preserved such a friendship and gave such due satisfaction to one anothers just interests and inclinations that they did not break out into an open war yet this peace lasted not so long as to let us feel the blessings and happiness thereof But that part whose kindred and acquaintance was in this world apprehended the first occasion that offered it self to quarrel with the other whose native countrey was not so visible through walls of flesh and denying to consent unto it plainly rebelled and entred into a state of hostility against it This it might do with the more ease because two parts of those three into which the Soul is ordinarily divided stand very much affected to the Body and its concernments The Desiring part that is always ready to run to any thing and embrace it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which hath the appearance of a bodily good the Angry part that is no less forward to shun and to make defence against whatsoever seems to be a bodily evil to the Rational is committed the direction and government of these which that it may manage aright it is to maintain a constant conversation with an higher good to which all the lower desires and passions ought to be subordinate and subject These are handsomely compared by a noble Greek Philosopher to the Three Ranks or Orders of men that are in a City 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proclus L. 1. in Timaeum The Servants the Souldiers and the Magistrates The first of which are to do all the work and make such provisions as are necessary for its support The second serve for a guard to protect and defend it from all dangerous assaults And the third sits in Counsel pronounces Judgment issues out Orders makes Rules and gives
that which God will bestow in the Life to come though it be a free gift yet is called a Reward and Recompence praise and commendation you may well think it will be very illustrious when you consider how rich in mercy he hath been to us before we could do any thing praise-worthy 8. And you may consider again how that excellent Princes when they give rewards are not wont to have respect so much to the Persons on whom they are conferred who may be but mean and of low condition as to the greatness of their own Persons by whom they are bestowed whom it doth not befit to give any thing mean and below the name and the Authority which they bear From whence you may conclude how inconceivably great that reward will be which the Majesty of Heaven and Earth will honour us withall If a Prince do but send his Charity to the Poor it is not like one of us but like himself and therefore such will the favours of God be which he intends to deal to all his Servants Though they are but servants though they are but unprofitable servants and have done no more than was their duty to do yet he will reward them like a King like the King of all the World like the blessed and only Potentate the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords who only hath immortality He will feast and entertain them sutably to the excellence of his own Infinite Majesty and not proportionably to the poverty of their Persons or of their deserts 9. For you may consider again that it is the reward which the Lord Jesus hath received to give us for all his pains and tears and sweat and blood It is the purchase of the blood of the Son of God the recompence of his obedience to the death and therefore must needs be of great and inestimable price 10. Nay it is the glory of Christ himself the same happiness which he enjoys according to his own words The glory which thou gavest me I have given them and enter thou into the joy of thy Lord and according to that of St. Paul We are Heirs of God Co-heirs with Christ Jesus who is gone into the Heavens as he told his Apostles to prepare a place for us To prepare a place for us you may say How long will it be a fiting When shall we come to it 11. Truly from thence you may take some estimate of it by considering the time you must stay and wait till your happiness be compleated and that is till the Day of his appearing again unto Salvation They are great things which are long in preparing And therefore the longer your Life is hid with God in Christ as St. Paul speaks the more glorious will it appear when it shall be manifested The longer your body sleeps in the dust to the greater dignity shall it be raised God will pay us if I may so speak principal and use and all The Treasure multiplies the longer it lies in his hands If he should give us our reward now it could be but little but it increases infinitely beyond all our thoughts by being deposited with him till the Lord Jesus shall come from Heaven with all his mighty Angels to be admired in his Saints and glorified in all them that believe 12. And now in Conclusion think with your self what a pleasure these short and little thoughts have given you how delightful that minute is in which you have had a glance of your future happiness and say to your self if a small tast be so sweet O what will the full draughts be when he makes me drink of the Rivers of his Pleasure Are not Men of contemplation wonderously transported with some few discoveries which they have made of the secrets of nature Are they not perpetually thirsting and seeking after more Do they not spend their time and their estates in such enquiries though they never hope to find out all What would not these Men give were it in their power if the earth or any other part of this world would reveal all the Treasures that are hid in it What a satisfaction would they esteem such a vast discovery when some little scraps of knowledge are so surprizing The same you may think of the other World and raise your spirit by such Meditations as these to expect an inconceivable joy when all the glory of that shall be opened which now darts such chearful Rayes of Light into your mind Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us saith St. John that we should be called the Sons of God Beloved we are now the Sons of God but it doth not yet appear what we shall be But we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is What that will be we cannot tell but we feel now how delicious it is to resemble him though but a little in his Wisdome in his Goodness in his Love and Charity in his Meekness and Patience and such like Heavenly qualities And if in a drop of Honey that distills from above there be such sweetness what satisfaction what fulness of joy shall we find in an Ocean of pleasure If the morning star be so bright then what is the Sun it self in its greatest lustre It is one of the Meditations of St. Austin O God if thou dost such great things for us in the Prison what wilt thou do for us in the Palace If thou grantest such solace in the day of our tears what wilt thou give us on the day of our marriage When we shall not only behold Jesus in all his glory but live with him and live with him for ever and receive the utmost effects of his mighty love and be preferred to sit with him in Heavenly places and have a Crown of Righteousness set on our Heads which he the righteous Judg will give to all those who love his appearing And is there not great reason My Friend that we should love it and set our hearts on this as the most desirable good which so far surpasses all others that they have no power at all to tempt us from it while we keep in mind its incomparable greatness Perswade your self therefore as strongly as you can that Jesus lives and that because he lives you shall live also and that you shall live with him in inconceivable bliss according to his gracious promises Believe them heartily fix them deeply in your mind and by such arts as these represent to your self as sensibly as you can how exceeding precious they are for it is neither the certainty nor the goodness nor the greatness of any thing but the lively faith which we have of it implanted in our Souls that will make us seek and labour for it If our faith be superficial we shall be no more moved by it than if it were a thing of little moment or but a devised tale and some idle fancy You must settle in your
Soul therefore I say again an unmoveable belief of Christs great and precious promises and present them to your heart that it may be affected with them and value them according to their worth Then you will not be unwilling to do nor backward to suffer any thing that he would have you This will give you a great spirit and courage and joy in both You will take a great pleasure in godliness which hath such a recompense of reward Nay all the afflictions of this present time will seem inconsiderable in compare with the glory that shall be revealed Can any heart think much to abstain a while from sinful pleasures when he believes nay tastes the pleasures he shall shortly enjoy at Gods right hand Will not any covetous desires be content to be denied when you see it is for a Kingdom and a Crown of Life Of what should a Soul be ambitious beside whose desires are pitcht upon so noble a good as honour glory and immortality with Christ Who would not watch and pray unweariedly that he may come to this Celestial Rest with the People of God Can there be any higher pleasure than to lift up our mind to our heavenly Country and to think of the happiness which there expects us In what can we better spend our time than in meditating of the great love of God which hath prepared such excellent things for those that love him It is a good thing sure to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing praises unto his high and holy Name There can be no more delicious life than this which will conclude in his everlasting praises And suppose we must sometime take up a cross where is the mischief of it what should render it intolerable if we look at Jesus who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross and despising the shame is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God From thence he stretches forth his hands to call us there his Armes are open to embrace us and there he would gladly see us Out of that glorious place he holds forth a crown of life to us saying Follow me and let none of these things dismay you Behold the Majesty wherein I am enthroned see the glory to which I am promoted Do not faint in your mind nor be weary of well-doing but press on towards the mark for the prize of the high-calling of God in me your Saviour There is nothing sure can hinder us or pull us back unless we cease to look at Jesus and turn away our Eares from hearkning to his gracious voice For do you not see what power a worldly faith hath over Mens hearts How fast one rides to take possession of an Estate of which he hears he is left the Heir How another sailes through dreadful dangers because he believes he shall arrive at a rich Country which will send him home laden with precious Commodities at the last Why should we think then the Christian Faith is less powerful or fancy that we are in truth indued with it unless our belief of the other World have the same effects Let it lay its commands upon all the powers of our Soul and engage them to do their several works Let it excite our minds and our wills and our affections and our endeavours to a constant pursuit of these Heavenly enjoyments that we may know indeed that we believe to the saveing of the Soul Look upon that faith which was built on weaker grounds and lesser evidences and darker promises See how it wrought in Abraham Isaac and Jacob and in the rest of the ancient Patriarchs whose belief of the Word of God made them forsake their own Countries quit all their Possessions when he required it live as Pilgrims and strangers in the Earth and depend meerly on the love and care of his never failing providence By faith they slighted the pleasures of Kings Courts the Honour of a Throne and the Riches of Egypt By Faith they wrought Righteousness subdued Kingdomes stopped the mouths of Lyons indured all reproaches and afflictions would not accept of deliverance and life it self that they might obtain a better Resurrection Now since the Christian Belief relies upon better Promises a clearer Revelation and stronger grounds of hope by the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead what a shame will it be if we do nothing worthy the name of Men much less of the Disciples of Christ and of the Sons of God To what cause can it be imputed but because there is no Faith in the Earth or it rests only in the brain and floats in the imagination but never descends to touch the heart and affections Bring it down then My Friend and stir up your self to a serious and affectionate belief of the life to come Spare no pains to consider and lay to heart that which is the greatest comfort of your life all the glorious things which you read of in the Gospel of Gods grace which Christ hath sealed by his blood and God confirmed by his Resurrection and hath been attested by signs and wonders of the Holy Ghost and by the Life and Death of a number of great Souls who have followed Jesus even to his Cross and declared their belief of those things by sacrificing all that was dear unto them here to win his favour in another World Look often upon their constancy upon their zeal upon their contempt of Riches and Pleasures and Life it self when it came in competition with the will of Christ for whose sake they rejoyced that they were accounted worthy to suffer especially since he had assured them their present troubles should work for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory And then in imitation of them you will put on their resolution and lifting up your Eyes to Heaven will be moved to speak to this effect O blessed God how much am I beholden to thee that thou hast shewed me such things as these How much am I beholden to thee that thou hast inclined my heart to make them my choice I would not be as I was before for all the World Away you frivolous temptations you vain delights you unprofitable labours Never renew your importunities for I will not hearken I tell you I will not listen to you any more I am resolved to proceed in this holy course to the end of my days You will but make me meditate the more and pray the more and lay to heart the more the love of my God I shall but fix my Eyes the more stedfastly on that blessed place where Jesus my Saviour is at Gods right hand At his will I hold my riches my honours yea and my life also Let him dispose of them as he pleases And let it please the Lord of life and glory to accept of this most hearty oblation which I make of all I have unto him Let it please him to strengthen me in my holy resolutions to open my eyes that I
when you go into your Closet and betake your self to your private retirements I am going to God my exceeding joy to my happiness to my hearts delight Welcome beloved hour which hast more of eternal life in Thee than of Time Rejoyce my Soul that thou art among Angels now and not among men Yea let my flesh be glad to become of a poor Souls Cottage the Temple of the most High God! Look upon Prayer as that which brings down Heaven to you and upon Praise and Thanksgiving as that which lifts you up to Heaven and upon Meditation as that which is the bond of the two Worlds and ties Heaven and Earth together Yea let every other good action seem a favour rather than a charge a recreation rather than a work And then for your notions of God do not look upon him as a rigid and unmerciful exactor of your labours but as a loving Father who is easily pleased and makes a most gracious allowance for your weaknesses and unavoidable impediments and is ready to forgive your many oversights and frequent neglects When we represent him to our selves as exceeding angry at every little indisposition and dulness that seises on us that very thought makes us more dull and indisposed because we imagine that we shall never be able to please him Or if we deem him though not implacable yet much in love with revenge and ready to strike upon every offence that we give him I know no readier way to render his service a most tedious task unto us because we shall go in perpetual fear of thunderbolts hanging over our heads and ready to fall down to do some mischief or other to us As we ought to have a great and scrupulous care to avoid all that is evil so we must believe when we commit a fault against our will and design that there is an Advocate with our Father who is a propitiation for our sins And when we look upon him thus as one ready to forgive that had rather do us all good than any harm and desires rather to see his commands better observed than the penalties for the breach of them inflicted this will incourage us to address our selves with a fresh chearfulness to his service and breed in our hearts a great love to him which above all other things hath a most powerful hand upon our obedience The more you heighten your love to God the more motion and activity will the heat of it give you and the more you heighten his love to you the greater flames will there arise in your heart to him Just as you see the Sun in its nearest approaches to us when its beames are directly over our heads produces a vigorous heat and life in all Creatures but when it is in the Southern Countries and looks upon us with an oblique aspect is not able to make us warm by its rayes So it is with the Divine Goodness which is the life and comfort of our hearts If we think that he looks asquint upon us and cares very little for us we shall be cold and frozen like so many dead Creatures in our affections to him but if we think his face is towards us and that his eye and the light of his countenance as the Scripture speaks is full upon us that he highly favours us and his heart is very desirous to pour down a world of blessings into us it will make our Souls leap for joy our love will spring up apace and the odors of it will be like the smell of Spices sweet both to God and to our selves We love God commonly if not always in the beginning of our friendship with him because of the good that he doth or that we think he will do to us and though afterward this breeds a strong inclination in us to love that most excellent Nature from which all good comes yet that inclination will still grow stronger by the continued thoughts of his kindness to us And therefore this belief is by all means to be nourished and preserved in our hearts especially considering that the stronger our love and inclination towards him grows by frequent reflecting upon his love and good will to us the more chearful and constant obedience shall we pay to him I have represented this so largely in another Discourse which you know very well that it may seem unnecessary to add any thing to it it here But it will not be unprofitable I am sure to recommend to you this one consideration more That the hearty love of God which naturally springs out of a stedfast and unmovable belief of his love to us is a thing so comprehensive and so powerful that it includes in it all the means which are necessary for the accomplishment of our end and contains the force of all those rules helps and furtherances which are commonly prescribed for the better observing of Gods commands Let me instance in these Five great Exercises to which you are often exhorted both in Sermons and good Books for the preserving you in his Obedience First To live as in Gods sight Secondly To pray continually Thirdly To watch Fourthly To depend on God for his assistance And Fifthly To look for his mercy to Eternal Life and plainly show you that they are all comprehended in Divine Love and cannot be separated from it For the first it is well known that this passion is not wont to let the Object on which it is fixed be absent from it but at whatsoever distance it be removed love brings it near and sets it ever before the eyes of him to whom it is dear And therefore if our hearts be full of love to God we cannot be without his Presence but shall live as in his sight Or to speak in the language of David Psal 16.8 We shall set the Lord always before us Whatsoever we do we shall think of him and consequently do it well and exactly we shall study purity of heart and the greatest clearness in our intentions because he sees us and penetrates into our secret thoughts There is no more easie observation than this that nothing makes a Man so diligent so curious so circumspect so decent and comely in all his behaviour as to be continually under the eye of one whom he loves to whom he desires every way to approve himself And it is as certain that ardent love makes a Person ever present to us and will not let us be divided from him When Phidias the famous statuary made the Image of Jupiter Olympius one of the goodliest that ever was he could not forbear but he must privately ingrave upon his little Finger the Name of one whom he dearly loved in these words PANTARCES IS FAIR 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For it was not Jupiter saith Clemens Alexandrinus from whom I have this story who was fair in Phidias his eyes but the youth whom he loved The thoughts of his God could not put out of his mind the thoughts of him
us so many good things even before we desire them Do you not see how Men delight to commend extol and magnify that they love And how lavishly they are wont sometime to bestow those praises There is not any thing in this World so excellent but they will borrow a Metaphor from it wherewith to adorn their beloved They go to the precious stones and to the stars nay to the Sun it self to fetch some lustre from them for their expressions And more than this it 's usual with love as every one may observe to go beyond the nature and value of things and to make those hyperboles not uncomely which in other cases are ridiculous And as for gratitude we are all sensible that nothing is so acknowledging as love Every favour it esteems a Treasure and studies all means to express its resentments So that if it become a divine passion you may learn from King David how much it will dispose our hearts to admire and extol the perfections of God and excite us to give him thanks because he is good and his mercy endureth for ever Do but read the beginning of the 103. Psal and observe how he calls up all the faculties of his Soul to assist in this Holy Duty of praising and blessing the Name of God And then being conscious to himself of his own disability to offer him the praises that are due unto his Great and Glorious Name you may take notice how in other places he goes to all his Friends and begs of them that they would joyn in consort with him saying Psal 33.23 O love the Lord all ye his Saints and 34.3 O magnifie the Lord with me and let us exalt his Name together Let Israel now say Psal 118. that his Mercy endureth for ever Let the house of Aaron now say that his Mercy endureth for ever Let them now that fear the Lord say that his Mercy endureth for ever O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his Mercy endureth for ever And lest all these should not be able to make this joyful sound loud enough he invites all strangers to come and help them to the discharge of this debt saying Psal 100. and 117. O make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye Lands Serve the Lord with gladness and come before his Presence with singing O praise the Lord all ye Nations praise him all ye People For his merciful kindness is great towards us and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever Praise the Lord. Yea it is frequent with him to extend his entreaties to the Angels that they would lend him their help to acquit himself 103.20 and he calls Psal 148. upon all the lower Hosts of God who are in the Heavens nearer us and in the Earth also that if they can do any thing they would bear a part in his Song of Praise which he composed in honour of him And in the very conclusion of his Heavenly Book that he might say all he could he thus bespeaks the voice of all things which either by Nature or Art are framed for delight and pleasure Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. All which Observations I thought good to annex to this Discourse of the Power of Love in Prayer because when we have said all we can there is nothing so prevalent for a new favour as praising God and being heartily thankful for the benefits we have already received To which the love of God disposing us so effectually that it never thinks it can praise or acknowledg him enough it must needs obtain much of the Divine Grace for us and consequently secure our obedience to him above all other things Especially since 3. Love is ever Watchful which is another means to be joyned with Prayer to keep us from entering into temptation It always hath its light burning and its loynes girded It is ready and forward to apprehend and imbrace any occasion of serving him to whom it is engaged It is jealous of every thing which would rob it of that good which it ardently desires And therefore hath its eyes always open and by reason of its heat will not easily fall asleep nor suffer that dulness and weariness to infest it wherewith others are usually surprised I need not pursue this Argument any further it being so apparent that fervent love and affection chases away all drowsiness of Spirit and makes a Man slip no opportunity to do that which is pleasing in the eyes of God And I am the more willing to quit it because I have been so long in the former and have two other Considerations still to add 4. One of them is which I shall but briefly touch that it will breed in us a pious confidence of the succours of Gods holy Spirit in the power of which we shall be able to undertake any thing that he commands It is impossible to have any heart to do well if we have not this hope rooted in us and it is as impossible to doubt of it if we feel the love of God burning in our hearts Which is both a testimony of his Divine Power already working in us and an argument that he is as willing to do any thing further for us as we find thereby that we are to do any thing for him It doth not only widen the heart to impart but also to receive And the very same motion which carries it out towards God and towards others in sincere affection brings home large assurances that he will abundantly communicate himself to it on all occasions for the encouraging and assisting of its faithful endeavours to do his will in every thing 5. The other is this which shall put an end to this part of my discourse that it hath no less power to make us fully assured both of the blessed rewards I spoke of in the other World and of the greatness of them which are the strongest Motives to our obedience There is nothing so sharpens the sight to discern or enlarges the heart to conceive the things of God as this doth For God is love as St. John tells us and therefore he that dwells in love dwells in God and God in him Among all the goods of this World we find no where such repose and quiet as in hearty love and true friendship Nothing give us such a taste of pleasure and if the Object be worthy such satisfaction Of two it makes one so that they communicate in each others happiness And this satisfaction is wont to make them forget all other things at that instant For love is of such a nature that it endeavours to take up all the room in the heart and would leave none for any thing else that it may be intirely and wholly possessed of that which it loves And therefore when it is turned towards God and settles it self in him it must needs give us a lively sense of future bliss by uniteing our hearts and gathering up our minds as I
I forget to look continually towards this Immortal Life And what is that should make me forget it How come I to lose that sense and let go my hopes of Immortal Life O wonderful Love O patient goodness which still waits and attends upon me to remind my Soul of its everlasting bliss May I after so long a time of sleep and such forgetfulness be favoured with a sight of it Will my love and free obedience be yet accepted Awake awake then all the hidden powers of my Soul rise up and call him blessed Who can with-hold his heart from devoting it self affectionately to him With what pleasures can I entertain my self comparable to those which grow out of the hope of Immortal Life Or what service can be unpleasant which is undertaken for so great an happiness The thoughts of it make my Soul light and aërial even under the burden of this Body I feel it drawing me up above from whence when I look down upon all the men of this lower World how do they appear but as so many little Ants busily creeping on a Mole-hill while I sit upon the holy Hill of God O that my mind could dwell there Or since I cannot reach so high a felicity it may never descend from thence but with a lively remembrance of the joys of that Celestial Hope which may bear me up above all the petty temptations of this World For what is it that I labour and toil with such restless thoughts and desires For what am I troubled and discontented Can any thing make him absolutely unhappy who hopes to live for ever with God No I will rejoyce in my Lord always again I say I will rejoyce I will bear at least even all my dulness and listlesness to my duty with a quiet and composed mind in hope one day to be more full of life Here my Pen is very forward and would be running on further than my design will allow And therefore I must restrain it and abbreviate also the remaining Counsels having been so long in some of the foregoing lest instead of a little Book to carry about with you and refresh you I should send you a tedious Volume that will quite tire you Let me only annex before I leave this a Prayer to God which relates to what hath been now said and with which you are not unacquainted A PRAYER O Most Holy and blessed for ever more Who art the most excellent Nature the Perfection of beauty happy in thy self alone and needest not the Company of any of thy Creatures to make thee happier than thou art It is we poor beggarly things that stand in need of thy continued grace and love who art the Father of our spirits the only hope and stay of our hearts the joy and comfort of our life that filling and satisfying good in whom alone our desires can meet with perfect rest and repose The most glorious of all the Heavenly Host can find no higher pleasures than those of loving and praising and obeying thee whose Ministers they are and delight to be in executing the commands of thy holy will in every thing For thy will is guided by the best and most excellent reason and is so propense we see to goodness benignity and charity that all its commands must needs be reasonable and good too and intend the greatest kindness to those that are obedient to them Every Creature in Heaven and Earth and under the Earth and in the Sea obeys thy Almighty Word declaring thee to be as good as thou art great Rev. 5.13 and giving not only glory and power but blessing and honour unto thy Divine Majesty and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Yea that blessed Son of thy love when he came into the World freely chose to do thy will and not his own saying I delight to do thy will O my God yea thy Law is within my heart Psal XL. 7. What is there then in Heaven or Earth that I can wish but to be united in hearty devout and chearful affection together with my dearest Saviour and all the Saints and Heavenly Host to that most holy will of thine by a free and constant obedience to it It is infinitely fit and desirable I am sure that we above all the rest of thy Creatures should take a perfect contentment and pleasure in serving thee who hast not only gratified all our senses with great and delightful variety of good things in this World but also sent thy Son from Heaven to entertain our Spirits with joyful hopes of having our weak and short obedience here rewarded with great and endless pleasures at thy right hand in the World to come Lord what is man that thou shouldest have such a regard unto him And what hearts have we if after all thy grace we should delight in any thing more than thee or be weary and faint in our minds while we are doing thy blessed will O how deeply should we have been indebted to thee if thou hadst only admitted us to the happiness of knowing and loving thee and complying with thy good will while we dwell in this body But that thou shouldest design when we expire to recompense the meer discharge of our duty here with the continued happiness of being with thee and enjoying thee for ever is an expression of thy bounty that exceeds all our wonder and admiration If a full sense of this thy stupendious goodness should now possess our spirits they would grow I believe too big and large for our bodies and bursting forth in passionate love would make their way into Eternity which only is wide and long enough to admire and love and praise thee in But be pleased O Lord of love in thy infinite goodness to give me at present such a true and lively feeling of it as may make me think of nothing so much or with so much delight and satisfaction of heart and as may inflame me with such a fervent love unto thee that it may melt and dissolve my will into thine and consume all my corrupt desires and abate at least the chilness and indifference of my spirit and offer me up a whole burnt Sacrifice to thee my God And then stay I most humbly beseech thee for the fulness of my love and praises and joyful acknowledgments till I come to that happy liberty of having nothing else to do but to love and thank and magnifie thy Name for ever and ever It is my daily and repeated desire according as our Lord hath taught us that thy will may be done in Earth as it is in Heaven to which both now and ever I say most heartily Amen O purge and refine my nature to such a degree of vertue and goodness that I may at least delight to do thy will as those heavenly Creatures do O that those little little acts of Piety and Charity which I am able to exercise in this World may never want this complacence in the performance of them
travel together And the Beast as some Philosophers call our Body which we carry along with us will not be so soon tired if we let it have some to follow and bear it company Whether it be that the forwardness of others spurs us up to mend our pace or whether it be that love to them makes us like them I know not but so it is that they who have the goodness of others to help and incourage them are wont to find themselves better disposed than otherwise they should have been if they had lived alone It is Solomon's Observation XIII Prov. 20. that He who walketh with wise men shall be wise but a Company of Fools shall be the worse for it We have an example of the former part of it saith R. Eliezer in Lot who by the pious Example of Abraham with whom he lived became a good Man imitating his works and walking in his steps For as Abraham when he dwelt in Charran was wont to exercise hospitality and to receive strangers So did Lot when he dwelt in Sodom whereby he had the happiness to entertain Angels As a Man saith he who goes into the Shop of one that sells Spices though he cheapen and buy nothing yet receives a grateful odor and carries away a refreshment So does he that converses with the just partake of their good manners and carries away a sweet remembrance of their works Therefore either society or death is a common Proverbial wish among the same Hebrews One cannot tell which is the greater desert as Nausiclides was wont to speak as Athenaeus tells us a place where there is no spring or where there are no good Neighbours He must be more than a Man whose spirits do not fail him if he want this refreshment He will soon be gone to another World if he have no society in this It is a thing so necessary that company not so good as we would wish proves now and then better than none at all if it be but to make us more contented when we are alone and the more to prize our solitary opportunities And if we cannot have the society of many yet we may find great use of one special Friend if well chosen Nay it is the advice of the wise Son of Syrach VI. Ecclus 6. Be in peace with many nevertheless have but one counsellour of a thousand O how great a good is this for a Man to meet with a well-prepared Heart wherein to lay up his secrets more safe than a Jewel in his Cabinet whose conscience and fidelity he shall stand in less fear of than his own whose discourse shall lenifie his carefulness whose Opinion shall dispatch his Counsels whose chearfulness shall dissipate his sorrowâ—â— and whose very aspect is delightful This is a Jewel worth ones seeking and he that hath him not is but half a Man A man without a Friend is like the left hand without the right as one of the Jewish Doctors speaks He is an imperfect Creature and according to this Man's Opinion wants the better part of Himself But howsoever we may take Solomon's word for it that two are better than one If we have the use of another Mans parts time and labours it is as if we had two Souls and as many Bodies and did see with four Eyes and think with two understandings He illustrates this in that place IV. Eccles 9 10 c. by putting three Cases which may be easily applied to our spiritual concernments wherein the benefit of a vertuous friendship plainly appears First In the case of inward weakness he saith if the one fall the other will lift up his fellow When we slip a good Friend will support us or if we be down he will presently restore us to our selves again Secondly In case of dulness if the one be cold the other may communicate some heat to him If any Person think himself so strong that he is not in danger to fall yet the best grown man may feel some chilness spiritual numbness creep upon his Soul for alas we are at a great distance from the Sun in compare with those who are above and it is as it were a Winter with us while we are here in this lower World Now how can one saith he be warm alone But if two lie together then they have heat As two Fire-sticks will singly cast no warmth but let their Flame dye whereas both together will make a good Fire in the Chimney so will two Friends that lie close to each others hearts keep themselves from that coldness which separated would seise upon them both And Thirdly In the case of worldly troubles and violent enemies that outwardly assault them though they may prevail against one yet two he saith shall withstand them When we have a second we may venture to go into the Field and by a double strength we may take up the Bucklers and hope to overcome when we might justly doubt of our own single valour But I cannot better represent the truth of all this than in the words of Simplicius In Epict. Cap. 37. an excellent Philosopher who hath briefly but fully demonstrated the many happy advantages of pure and hearty Friendship in a discourse to this effect There is a truth in what is commonly said that when a Man hath got a Friend he hath no longer one but two Souls and Bodies And then who can doubt but that they who are possessed of each others Persons will have a communion in their external goods But what is this in compare with that great light of truth which shines in united Souls and with that compleat vertue which arising out of what excels in each and being brought as it were into one common stock is countenanced by the Heavenly Powers who shine upon it because of its perfection They are safer than other Men in their Counsels they are less apt to trip in their actions which are corroborated both by Prudence and by Power Nay suppose a Mans occasions call him into a far Country he is present by his faithful Friend to all the relations he leaves behind him at home Nay not only while he lives but when he is dead and departed to another World he is as secure of their happiness during the life of his Friend as if he still remained himself and conversed among them And what is there more pleasant than the sight of a Friend What more grateful than to hear his voice and to behold his worthy actions And as for trust and confidence neither Kindred nor alliance to great Persons nor Riches nor any thing else can so much assure it as generous friendship And therefore Alexander was not ill advised who pointed to his Friends when some asked where was his Treasures There is no such Instructor and Tutor as a Friend None can perswade us with so much ease nor can any Man reprove us with so little offence nor do we fear to offend and do amiss upon the account
though a Slave or a Servant be ours yet they are so but in part The first gives us power over him out of fear and the second for reward But it is a power over their Bodies only and not over the men Because neither fear of punishment will tye up a Slave from rebellious thoughts nor hope of reward oblige a Servant to a chearful obedience in his will He only hath intirely gain'd a man and so added to himself something better than any possession in this World who enjoys a Friend and hath won an absolute power over the heart and affection of another Person This is a rich man indeed especially when the Person he enjoys is one of real worth having a mind stored with the Treasures of Divine wisdom and an heart full of the love of God Otherways it must be confessed a Man loses by this gain and hath the less by this accession of seeming riches It was an audacious fancy of Boccalin's and an unjust estimate which he made when in his Ballance wherein he weighs all the States of Christendom he supposes England which he throws into the Scales for a counterpois to France to weigh the lighter upon the addition of Scotland to it But if we conceive the like Ballance for our purpose we shall find it too true that he who contracts a Friendship with a prating Companion or a Person of no inward worth and value will feel himself the poorer and the weaker when he comes to weigh what he hath got for his pretended increase and the annexing of a Friend will be an heaviness and not a refreshment to his mind Whoso feareth the Lord therefore shall direct his friendship aright as the Son of Syrach speaks VI. Ecclus. 17. for as he is so shall his Neighbour or Familiar be also God loves ever as the ancient Greek saying was to bring like to like He will guide a good man in his choice and lead him by the hand to one that is good In whom he will make account he hath found such a plentiful fortune that he will not be content to forgo it and take his portion in some other goods For you may trust the same wise man Nothing doth countervail a faithful Friend and his excellency is unvaluable v. 15. It is a great comfort to us but to think that we have such a treasure for we receive no small benefit by him even when he is only the companion of our thoughts and is not otherwise present with us And therefore change not a Friend for any good by no means neither a faithful Brother for the Gold of Ophir VII 18. Covet his company above all others and do not think you can press too near him or be too familiar with him Love him exceedingly and be not willing on any occasion to be divided from him There can be no danger you should clash by being ever together For as one of the Hebrews excellently expresses it A Needles eye is not too strait for two Friends and all the World is not wide enough for two Enemies And if you must live at a distance from him be not jealous of him nor suspect his constancy For solid love whose root is vertue can no more dye than vertue it self as Erasmus excellently speaks in a Letter of his to one of our Country-men When covetousness saith he Lib. 9. Epist 12. makes Men Friends their love and their gain must needs end together And they whom pleasure allures to friendship will make an end of loving when they are satiated with it And lastly they who have a great kindness one for another out of a childish forwardness or a juvenile heat will forsake one another with the same levity that they embraced Our kindness relies on stronger Pillars for it was neither hope of gain nor pleasure nor youthful affection but an honest love of wisdome and our common studies which joyned us together For good men are linkt and chained to each other by their admiration and esteem of the same things And since the study of vertue is not subject to those alterations and changes of fortune that other things undergo the benevolence of good men must needs be perpetual and is not in danger to suffer that decay which is wont to be the fate of vulgar friendship But that it may be the better preserved and maintained it is necessary that Friends frequent the company and conversation of each other as much as they can For as Themistius well notes Exercise is all in all things and mutual conversation Orat. 3. or correspondence is the exercise of friendship But it is time to make an end of this which I have the longer continued for the reason now named because the writing of all this is a good exercise of my Friendship to you Let me only cast in this one Rule at the bottom of it It is good to observe when any chilness and heaviness creeps upon you from what quarter it comes I mean you must follow the stream backward to the Fountain and inform your self of the cause of the alteration If it be too much company then as soon as you can seek retirement and betake your self to private Meditation If too much solitariness then find out some agreeable company or run to your Friend If the change of weather then wait if there be no other relief till it change again If you know not what then believe you shall find a remedy in Gods goodness you know not how And it may give you some pleasure perhaps when you are most indisposed as to think of your Friend so to send up this short Prayer to Heaven for him and for all those that heartily love you and to hope that they also are making the same address upon your account I put them all together indistinctly it is in your power at any time to make it as particular as you please A PRAYER THou art love O God and art to be infinitely loved above all things Blessed be thy goodness who wouldst have us dwell in love that we may dwell in Thee and Thou in us Blessed be thy goodness that I am capable of such happiness especially of loving so great a good as thy self who art the fountain of all other good from whom comes every good and perfect gift To thee I owe my Health my Peace my Plenty my Wit and all other Indowments either of my body or of my mind I am exceedingly indebted to Thee for the inconceivable felicity which thou hast put me in hope of in the other World and that thou art pleased to let me begin it here in the company and society of good men especially in the love of kind and faithful Friends I thank thee again O God and can never thank thee enough for this and all other thy gifts wherewith thou hast enriched me Beseeching thee that my love may grow more fervent by the daily consideration of thy love to us all and that I may have
grace to improve and make the best use of this blessing to my further increase in Wisdom and Goodness which are the greatest treasures of all O that I may feel my heart disposed and enclined by a particular love to some to be kind and loveing to all other men and especially to love thee and our blessed Lord the more my best and my eternal Friend Bestow upon those to whom I am united in friendly affection all that I can desire for my self An healthful body a long life a clear understanding a ready apprehension an exact prudence a vertuous will an unwearied diligence a constant chearfulness a sweet and obliging behaviour an useful conversation and good success in all their undertakings Requite all their kindnesses to me in multitude of blessings and above all with a sense of thy Divine favour and with the perpetual joy and comfort of the Holy Ghost O blessed Lord hear all their own Prayers Hear them for themselves and for me also And stir us up all to pray with greater ardency with a more zealous affection to thy Honour and each others good and with a most inflamed desire to be as like thee as possibly we can That after a constant and hearty friendship here in this World we may have a comfortable departure out of it and rest in a joyful hope to meet together in the other life and embrace in the bosome of our blessed Lord Christ Jesus Amen Amen XI IN the next place I must exhort you to exercise a great faith in Gods good Providence which rules in all affairs This is of great force to banish all perplexing thoughts and consequently to make you of a chearful spirit and to be good company for your self when you are alone or about your necessary employments And it hath not only this oblique aspect upon our Souls to defend them from that heaviness sadness which is too apt to oppress them but is of a more direct and manifest influence to comfort and enliven them on all occasions By removing that is those impediments out of the way which are a clog and a burden to our spirits and by begetting likewise an higher faith in Gods goodness to our better part which takes such care of our lower concernments For what is it that makes our heart unwilling to go to God and to wait upon him as Mary sate at our Saviours Feet but the multitude of businesses wherewith like Martha we incumber and trouble our selves We imagine we can never take care enough about those things and when we have done our best still we remain solicitous about the success And so our Souls being already filled crowded with these thoughts there is no room left to admit of any other till they be thrust out And suppose now our own Conscience begin in this case to reprove us and bid us go to our God yet if it be that only which urges us and not a quiet faith in his good providence how do we hear those things calling us off again and inviting nay drawing our hearts to them as being indeed their own It is nothing else that distracts us but these cares which are not ejected by faith but only silenced and stilled a little by natural conscience which tells us we do amiss Or if they have lain quiet a while and given us leave to pray to God and think of better things how easily do they thrust out all our good Meditations and pious affections when they return again Nay how do they eat up and prey on the very Soul it self as well as on all the good notions which are within it If we be necessarily engaged then in more affairs than willingly we would it is as necessary we should be strongly perswaded of the Care which God takes of all things that they shall go well with those who trust in him That so we may use but a moderate diligence and not trouble our selves about issues and events and that we may save abundance of time for better thoughts and that these affairs may not take up our hearts both while we are in them and when we are out of them too That 's too much familiarity with them when they will never let us alone And we ought to endeavour that though they employ our minds for many Hours yet when we have done our work they may not then ingross our time also The care of Religion is great enough we need not take upon us the care of the World too With what reason do we complain that we find it difficult to govern our selves when it seems we think our selves meet to govern this World and all No wonder that we are weary of our work when we have not only our own to do but will needs undertake Gods work likewise We may well sigh and be discouraged when we carry such a vast burden upon our Shoulders There is no end of these Cares which intermix themselves not only with our particular businesses but trouble us continually with sad and fearful thoughts about the affairs of Nations and the state of the publique wherein our private wealth is embarqued And this is the mischief of it that when we are discouraged by this means it is a sin and not meerly our misery because we will meddle with more than belongs unto us We put our selves to an unnecessary pain to put our selves out of the favour and care of him who would ease us of this burden by casting it upon his merciful providence It is an uncomfortable and a sinful condition which is aggravated by this that it is a needless and a bold intrusion into his business who governs the World It is as if I should be very solicitous whether the Sun will shine to morrow or not when I have occasion to stay all Day about my affairs at home Let us do what concerns us and leave God to dispose of all the rest And let us believe that he will assist us in our dispatches and a great deal the more if we will not stretch our selves to meddle beyond our line He will help us to do what we ought when we do no more than we should When we are not oppressed I mean with fear that we shall not be able to go thorough our employments and when we are not too careful what will become of them after we have finished our work God will take care that we shall do them and that they shall have the best success when they are done Look upon your self as a part of the World and upon God as the Governour of the whole And then by faith in him make your self as it were a part of himself that so he may have a particular concernment in your affairs Look upon your self not only as one of his Family and therefore under his General Providence but also as one of his Children for whose good he will more than ordinarily provide And be always confident he will provide the better for you because
into timorousness and hurt your Soul And this indeed is the skill we should all learn to behave our selves with such caution and evenness in the exercise of fear that it do not make us Superstitious nor through a despondency of Spirit cast us into that dulness and weakness which we are striving to avoid You must let your Fear therefore be tempered with so much of a Divine Faith that like heat and moisture they may make up one healthful constitution Faith in God I say is another thing that you must carefully and daily foster in your Soul if you would be constant in his Service Be verily perswaded that he loves you infinitely more than you love him and therefore is more desirous than you can be to see you do well and continue in well doing to the end Think that his eye is upon you that his arm is under you that he is as near to you as you are to your self for in all regards we live and move and have our Being in Him Think therefore that you behold Him the Father of Lights sending in rayes of light into your mind as you see the Sun looking in at your Windows and filling the room with its chearful beams and that you feel Him pouring in life constantly into your will as the Heart spurts out blood into all the Arteries of the Body Never entertain such a thought of Him as though he was willing to desert you and cast you out of his friendship now that he hath done so much for you and you have been so long acquainted By no means hearken to any jealous thoughts that are but whispered of his goodness whatsoever the jealousies be which you have of your own inconstancy Was it not He that called us when we were in horrid darkness and forgetfulness of him bending all our thoughts and desires to our own ruine and his dishonour Was it not He that assisted us to get the victory over so many Enemies Who but He is it that hath hitherto enabled us in our study to live vertuously and please Him in all things What should now move him to alter his mind After such numerous tokens of his love what is it should make him hate us Will he bear with no weaknesses or shall a fault that we have committed wholly alienate his affection from us If when we lay in our filthiness he took pitty on us pulled us out of the Mire and laid us in his bosome now that we are washed all over will he shake us off and cast us out of his embraces because our Feet as our Lord speaks still need some washing He that invited us so kindly when we were strangers and took us into his house and made us become not his servants only but his Children will he now turn us out of doors presently and thrust us into the wide world again because we have offended Him When we had no strength did he inspire us and hath he thus long tenderly followed us and trained us up in his service and will he now forsake the conduct of us and abandon us to the mercy of our Enemies Why did He then with so much labour purchase our love Why hath He been at such vast expence on our account Why would He take such incredible care to lose us when we might have perished by his no care of us O unworthy thoughts of so gracious a Master so loving a Father so tender a Husband Rather let us think the Sun may refuse to rise and shine upon us or the Sea may be dryed up than imagine that He should be willing to cast us into our former darkness and not let the current of his grace still run towards us Let us at least make him as good as an ordinary Mother who not only suckles her Child when it is young and indures many tedious Days and wearisome Nights in the midst of its cries and froward humours but likewise loves and looks after it when it can go alone and make some provision for its own good and safety Far be it from us to make him like the silly Birds that attend their young no longer than they are in the Nest and leave them to shift for themselves when they have once taught them to use their Wings Will not the Divine love think you indure far more untowardness peevishness and waywardness in our hearts when our grace is but in its infancy and childhood than a tender Mother indures in her little one before it can speak and tell its mind And will he not bear then with some indiscretions or faults afterwards but cast us out as Sarah did Ishmael and the Handmaid into a Wilderness where there is no provision for us Nay will He that took compassion on that poor outcast and his Mother to whom he sent his Angel for their preservation leave his dear Children to become a prey to the wild Beasts of the Desert Far be it from the Father of Mercies the God of love and all comfort to deal so with us And let me tell you that the more confidence we repose in his love the more he hates to use us so unkindly What man is there so hard-hearted that seeing his Neighbour ready to fall and hurt himself will deny him his help and with-draw his support especially when he falls into his armes and desires wholly to lean Himself on his Breast Who can indure to fail a Man and let him be undone that comes and puts his estate and his life into his hands though otherwise he be undeserving If a poor Bird fly to us for protection from the ravenous Kite that persecutes it Can we find in our hearts to throw it into its Enemies claws Who can then suspect that God who hath declared himself otherwayes willing to do us good should then cast us off and forsake us when we altogether rely upon his goodness clemency wisdom and power to help and relieve us When we fly to none else for shelter when we say as David doth LXII Psal 1 2 5. Truly my Soul waiteth upon God from Him cometh my Salvation He only is my rock and my salvation he is my defence The rock of my strength and my refuge is in God Who can let it enter into his thoughts that then He will turn away from us and suffer us to be greatly moved But more than this there is no Man among us unless he will make himself most infamous can fail and desert another who upon his earnest invitation and kind proffers of security comes and puts Himself wholly under his Wing and trusts to his Covert for safe protection Men are not arrived yet at such inhumanity but are ashamed to be so barbarous as to inveigle Men with fair promises and shows of kindness to come and take Sanctuary with them and then betray them Let the Lord of Heaven then never be held in the least suspicion of such unfaithfulness as well as unkindness to us whom he hath invited
able than we are And particularly I would advise you on such occasions to lift up your Soul frequently to God in earnest desires beseeching Him to preserve you from cheating your self and that he would help you to discern clearly when it is the flattery and when it is the meer weakness of Flesh and Blood that hinders you from doing as you were wont When you cast a glance I say towards Heaven and send up a sigh thither now and then as you are able let this be one of your desires that God would be so gracious as to give you to feel plainly when meer necessity requires your attendance on your Body and when it calls for more than it needs For he loves that in every thing we should make known our requests to Him and will certainly some way or other satisfie your mind in such concernments And when you have used the best judgment you have and can procure together with your Prayers about them then I hope you will be chearful and let your thoughts trouble you no more Or if a thought should happen to start up and strike your mind telling you that you are lazy yet believe I beseech you your more deliberate and not these suddain conclusions There is one case I know of this kind wherein though it be certain that it is impossible for us to do as we were wont and that we are not hindred by any fault in our will but by the meer indisposition of nature yet it may be hard sometime to avoid dejected and complaining thoughts upon this account It is in sickness when the Mind necessarily languishes with the Body You may chance then to imagine that some sin or other is the cause of this Correction and so you have drawn this disability upon your self for which you cannot now be humbled as you desire But I hope My Friend that you take such an exact view of your life that sickness will not let you see any fault that was not visible to you before And I know you to be wiser than to torment your self with a fancy that there is some sin lurking in you though you cannot find it out But if any thing should discover it self to you which was not so evident before let me beseech you not to pass any hard censure upon your self But to remember that this hath been bewailed whensoever you lamented the general infirmity of your nature and that now perhaps it is represented to you more ugly than it doth deserve or if it be not yet it is sufficient only to beg of God to accept your hearty confession and your promise of amendment when you are able and to desire your spiritual guide to be the witness of your sincere resolution and to give you absolution and his blessing and so rest satisfied But there may be another reason likewise assigned of our heaviness at certain seasons which I have noâ— yet named and that is the withholding in a great measure of thaâ— strength and power which was upon us from the Holy-Ghost to raise and elevate us to an high pitch of love activity and joy in well doing For as the help of that doth lift us up above our selves so when it much abates we are apt to fall as much below our selves and to be surprised with sadness and dejection of spirit to see our selves so strangely changed And this may be denyed us for several causes either because we have not improved it so well as we might or because our Lord sees that our Nature cannot bear always such extraordinary motions or that he may make us more sensible of his favours and raise their price and value in our esteem or that he may try our strength as a Mother le ts go her hold of the Child to make it feel its Feet or that he may thereby bow our wills more absolutely to his and break our self-self-love which desires nothing but pleasure or that he may prove whether we will love him for himself and not for the delicate entertainments which he gives us or for some such cause unknown to you and me and every body else And shall we not yield submission quietly to a thing for which there may be so many reasons and those not at all to our prejudice but to our profit Let me say a few words concerning the two last things mentioned and show you that if our Patience be exercised upon those accounts it will prove very beneficial to our Souls I cannot say as some have done that we ought not to desire goodness for our own good but meerly because it is pleasing to God No this seems to me a very absurd doctrine and utterly impossible that we should separate these two Piety and our own good We cannot so much as desire to be good but we shall feel a satisfaction in it For the very Name of good carries a respect in it to something in us to which it is agreeable and convenient We do not mean when we bid you love God for himself that you should not therein love your self and seek your own contentment for you cannot chuse but be pleased in the love of God and vertue But this I may affirm with safety that there may be sometimes too much of self-love in our vehement desires after the extraordinary pleasures and joyes of piety and that if we could be content after we used due diligence with our driness and barrenness of spirit with our dulness and want of vigour nay with our frailties and faults too meerly out of submission to God and because he thinks not fit to give us the pleasure of being wholly without them it would be highly acceptable to him and no less advantageous to us If in all things I mean we could rest satisfied that God's will is done though ours be denyed if we could forbear to prosecute our own will even in those matters and desire him to give us as much Life and Spirit and chearfulness and joy as he pleases we should be so far from offending him that he would take it for a very grateful piece of service to him This is not to teach any remisness in your desires and endeavours but it supposes you do your best and only advises you that if notwithstanding you cannot be as you would you do not let your spirit fall into any impatience or fretfulness For this is to prefer God's pleasure above your own It is a subjection of your will to his in those points wherein you are most desirous to have it gratified It is an unusual instance of resignation to him which declares there is nothing so dear to you but you are willing to quit it so you may but do well and be accepted with Him And here remember these two things First that our solid comfort doth not depend upon doing every thing so readily easily and delightfully as we would but in accomplishing Gods will however it be done And 2dly That Humility Patience and Submission to God
Believe this and it will never let you despond in the worst condition nor suffer you to be jealous of any of his commands or fancy that he will lay impossible tasks upon you And you will have as little cause to be suspicious of his Providence or to take too heavily any thing that he doth but will still believe notwithstanding any objections or contrary appearances that all things shall work together for your good And whatsoever there is that might dishearten you this will make you persist in a resolute perswasion that GOD is willing and desirous to receive your Petitions and will grant a gracious answer He cannot envy his blessings to any nor loves he to suppress his kindness within himself For envy proceeds from weakness and from want which incline a Person to seek how he may ingross every thing and appropriate it to his own particular being But he who in his own Nature is so perfect that he can want nothing is inclined no doubt to let others participate with him in his happiness since he will still remain as full as he was You think it is impossible as Proclus well sayes that darkness should approach the Sun who is the Parent of Light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But it is more impossible that any envy should touch God whose Nature is so excellent that he hath given to all what they have What is there left for him to envy who hath already all that can be For what want can there be in Infinite Fulness What Weakness and Infirmity in the Omnipotent Deity Who is there that can share and go halfs with the Fountain of all Good Let Us not therefore look upon GOD as if we thought Him afraid that we should be too good or enjoy too much good or as if He were unwilling we should be exceeding happy For He is such a Good that He hath filled and replenished all things and doth good and bestows Benefits continually upon them all And why should you think your self excluded out of the vast compass of his Love or imagine after He hath done so much for you that his Bounty is exhausted Do you not feel what kindness GOD hath implanted in our Hearts towards each other How free how diligent how unwearied a Friend is in serving a Person whom he loves intirely And what is there better natur'd than that Religion which Christ hath taught Us the top of which is Love and Charity and that is both a Bountiful and a Meek and a Patient Vertue For it suffers long and is kind so St. Paul begins its Character it beares all things and indures all things so he ends it And is it possible do you think that GOD should give Us that which is not in Himself Or that He should command Us to accomplish our Souls with that Perfection which is not eminent in his own most excellent Nature We are sure that our loving kindness is but a weak imitation of His. And therefore may conclude that He will have Patience with Us and not be easily provoked but bear with our Infirmities and be exceeding kind in bestowing his Blessings and Pardoning our Offences and delight in doing both because there is nothing He so much delights to see in Us as this Image of His loving kindness So the greatest Men in the Church of CHRIST have resolved Some empty their Bags saith Gregory Nazianzen others macerate their Flesh Orat. 17. and there are those who quite abandon the World and retire out of it and some who have consecrated their dearest pledges to GOD. But thou needest do none of these there is one thing thou mayest bring and offer to Him in stead of all and that is loving kindness forgiving of Injuries and doing Benefits in which God rejoyces more than in all the rest put together A proper Gift an unspotted Gift a Gift that provokes the Divine Bounty to be still more Liberal in His Favours to Us. For it is impossible that He should be out-done by Us or that we should equal Him in tenderness and compassion of which He hath given Us such a surprising and glorious instance in the Son of his love Christ Jesus that we should be very unjust as well as ungrateful and unkind if we should not expect more from him than we would do from the best Friend in the World We see in our Lord what the Divine Love will incline Him to do We are satisfied beyond all reasonable cause of distrust how propitious and gracious He is So that you ought to be confident whatsoever defects you find in your self that He who hath begun a good work in you will peâ—form it unto the Day of CHRIST JESUS It is but handsome and becomeing that you should have this Opinion of Him Judge by your self and your own good inclinations whether you ought not to have such high thoughts of Infinite Love You owe to Him all the good you have and there is more Reason as I told you that He should perfect his own work than there was that He should begin it And therefore let your Eyes be ever towards the Lord. Commit your Self to Him in assured hope of His continued Love to you Beseech him to fulfill in you all the good pleasure of his goodness and that according to the trust you have reposed in Him He would keep you from falling and present you faultless before the Presence of his Glory with exceeding joy I cannot tell you how oft I have said AMEN to this nor how much I am inclined to continue this Discourse further than I have designed For Wisdome it self as the same Gregory Nazianzen hath observed which give measures to all things else sets none to Friendship which ought to know no bounds nor be confined within any limits Orat. 12. But I shall contain my self within the compass which I prescribed my self at first and add no more unless it be that Prayer of R. ElieZar with which he is said to have concluded Daily all his other Prayers Let it be thy good pleasure O Lord that Love and Brotherly kindness may dwell in our lot For why should I prolong this Letter in making any needless declarations how much I am where or how-soever our lot falls Yours in love unfeigned S. P. THE END