to Magistrates one of the Capitals and Honour the King is connected with Fear of God The excellent Preacher concludes his whole Argument Eccl. Chap. 10. with a strict prohibition of all hard and undutiful thoughts and risings of heart against Rulers notwithstanding their errours in Government and Corruption in living not so much as secretly in their hearts to wrong them both for Conscience and for fear of wrath as the Apostle likewise directeth Rom. 13.5 4 To the Non-Conformists in England c. whose being so and being made so is matter of grief to me I say to them study to be quiet and do your Own business Which beside what Doctor Stilling fleet in his late Sermon and others before have told you is to do what Laws do not forbid you what is most needed what you are specially qualified unto what the best of you in times past when associated for most good have recommended as great Duty and lamented past neglect as grievous Sin And what if now managed with prudence and love will as I think bring more Souls unto God and more comfort and profit to your selves than the way of exercise you are in It is Sirs to go from house to house in the Parishes where you inhabit upon the work of Personal Instruction The nature whereof the manner of performance the motive and obligation thereunto may be seen in Mr. Baxter's Reformed Pastor Christian Concord the Worcestershire and other Counties Agreements to which I refer I do not foresee what you can object hereunto neither do I think ought will happen to obstruct you therein from without but what may soon be removed by care prudence humility and love in its management My self for one and many more there are who do not receive you or contribute to you in your present way of Separation would do their utmost to strengthen and encourage you herein And those who now are joyned to you if true Christians will in no wise draw back but rather proceed for so good a work Yet if any of them who have not well learned wherein Purity Spirituality and true Christian Liberty consisteth through suspicion of your return to Egypt or to Garlick and Onions should withhold from you God will make it up in others and will if they be sincere reveal himself farther to them and bring them back with advantage to you It is now near twenty four years since the generous and pious Mr. Tho. Wadsworth now with God expressed to me at Newington-Buts to this effect When I came first to minister at this place I began to think my business lay not so much in my Pulpit as in the Houses of my Flock not to eat or drink with them or there to receive a Fleece from them but to bring them fully to God I therefore inquired who were worthy and whoso consented into their Houses I entred on some daies weekly I was yet not satisfied being I saw many Families within my Parish bounds remaining ignorant of and averse unto God And being sometime after quickned by Mr. Baxter in private Letters to me and his Gildas Salvianus I resolved upon and exercised Personal and Family Instruction through my whole Parish I found many obstinate and many dismally ignorant equal to the darkest corner in the Vniverse But I thank God my labour was not in vain They being brought by my House-ministration unto the light and life Divine I had more success in one year in this way than I could expect in twenty the other Ministers ought to seek out the bad to make them good gathering and edifying those who are made so to their hand is the less needful work I should not doubt of success herein somewhat equal to what appeared in Newington many years since God being as present and as powerful now as then But I must humbly offer this to them that they treat us not with Mint Anise and Cummin but with the weighty matters of the Law with what recommends itself to every man's Conscience And so discourse that both matter and manner thereof may manifest you design not to beget dislike to the Publick Forms c. but only to bring us more fully to God i. e. to that temper and practice which King Bishops and People cannot but see is best for the whole This I own is the Duty also of every Conforming Minister and the neglect thereof their Sin I wish you were both at it with all your might for this under God would procure such degrees of Light Life and Love that our Service to God would be serving him in Spirit and Truth and an acceptable Service unto him though it were performed in the worst form I ever yet heard of among Protestants To the pure Worshipper all these Forms are pure i. e. none of them shall prejudice a good Man or his sacrifice to God If this be so we have gained this point That to be holy is far preferrable to pure Administrations since the purest of them are not pure to the unholy Should not then the means most likely to increase Holiness be dearest unto us and such as hath been said is Personal Instruction especially if we add that this practice will be promotive of Love than which there cannot be a more purifying Grace Which brings me to the Second General Head of which I shall discourse in the next Chapter CHAP. IV. SECT I. TO Love i. e. as St. Paul I told you saith Let all your things be done in Charity If what I have hitherto wrote signifie nothing yet if King and Subjects if Pastors and People if Friends and Foes will Love our Kingdom will be holy and happy and without it were our Ordinances in Church and State the most pure or Spiritual we should yet be without Righteousness and Peace i. e. a very wicked and miserable People Let 1 Joh. 4.16 then our whole be Love let it be the temper and abode of our Souls The excellency and benefit whereof is obvious to those who dwell in God and in whom God doth dwell for God is Love those who do this are most like God and are very dear to him By the natural intimacy of Self-love by our own frame by the nature of God his love and Relation to us as Creator and in Jesus Christ Redeemer as also by the nature and end of his Ordinances c. of which many have treated we may see as our obligation and inducements thereunto so also the true nature and offices of Love By it in this Discourse I intend what our Saviour hath put together as first and second Matt. 22.37.39 Ver. 37. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind Ver. 39. Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self calling one the great Commandement and the other like unto it adding that these are the fulfilling of the Law These connext are to be our temper and practice No man truly loveth God who doth not
Or in the words of St. Paul Coloss 3. ver 12 13 14 15. Put on therefore as the elect of God holy and Beloved bowels of mercy kindness humbleness of mind meekness long-suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another if any man hath a quarrel against any even as Christ forgave you so do ye And above all these things put on Charity which is the Bond of perfectness And let the Peace of God rule in your hearts to the which also you are called in one body and be ye thankful By all which we shall be as the pictures and resemblances of God prized and valued by him we shall shew his Spirit hath sanctified us and is given unto us and by the most excellent Bond we shall be united indissolubly one to another and tyed to the exercise of all Graces not only as our duty but delight We shall hereby be perfectly skilled in all necessary and perfecting knowledge particularly the unspeakable Love of Christ the knowledge of which is a Science of great concernment to us far beyond all other Sciences for hereby our hearts will be enflamed with Love to God will be fortified against temptation to evil and will be filled with the Vertues which are most Divine Now the God of Peace or which delighteth in the Peace and Unity of Christians that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepheard of the Sheep through the Blood of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and eternal Spirit three Subsistences or Persons and but one God be glory for ever and ever Amen Postscript I Am not ignorant of Exceptions the more Curious may make against the management of this Discourse being wrote by one who is more willing than able to do well As 1 That I have started many things but have not pursued them as I ought 2 That I have insisted too little on the Explication of things i. e. as Divines are wont to say The Doctrinal part Answ 1 I intended to have delivered my whole mind in two or three Sheets to make it as little labour to me and charge to others as I could 2 I conceive that they who under God are to help us do fully understand the matters I do here only point to So that it may be here if ever said A word is enough to the Wise 3 I more doubt the Rectitude of the Will in applying or choosing unto Practice than the capacity of the Meanest to understand the things I have proposed unto 4 The Nature of some things required my stop to farther proceedure into them and others are explicated or fully stated already by some of greatest comprehension and ability in our Church In special the late excellent Bishop Wilkins in his Discourse of Natural Religion out of which I took one part of the Analysis pag. 31. and Isaac Barrow D. D. in his Sermons Mr. Baxter in his Cure of Church Divisions c. and the most Worthy Citizen of London Mr. William Allen in several of his Treatises Also that Great Man Edw. Stillingfleet D. D. now Dean of St. Pauls in his Irenicum From whom I expect de novo as great a Healer as was his Weapon Salve His Temper his Wisdom and Goodness I know are disposing thereto rather than to self-Vindication or Conquest over his Antagonists 5 Which is enough alone I have not the ability or leasure of other men and do reach in great part my design if I hereby excite some of Ability to be doing that so it may be well done Lastly The Pair of Extreams in our Church may see their Sin and their Recovery from it by what I have wrote in the first and third Chapters Provided they afford them more thoughts as they ought if they will give any than I have given words to them The like may I say to the Pair of Extreams in our State For thereby men may see their station in this Kingdom the Constitution they are under and their duty therein part of which is to be Faithful and Constant thereunto King-Flatterers and Republicans or Self-Designers know themselves to be so and a Prince needs no more to find them out than his own Observation of them in their daily mean towards his Person or Government To the latter more especially in two things 1 In Suggestions to a Variation in that Constitution Wherein the Prince is already Supream and unto which he hath sworn Adhesion 2 In Proposals to Things less acceptable to his People and which the King cannot but see if he looks into any thing are not necessary to the maintenance of the Government or his true Greatness therein These two or such are alwaies Casts of the Office of the Flatterer or Leveller in his Kingdom So that a more particular account of this matter would have been as too tedious so almost needless Sincere Obedience to God and Charity or as I have said Doing our own Business and Love have Natural and Moral tendancy to Knowledge and Wisdom i. e. to the seeing and to the well-managing of all things so that he who is Upright shall not fail of Science requisite to the knowing and doing of his duty in the station God hath set him He hath Infallibility nearer or more secured in God's Promises to him than the Pope and Conclave at Rome have they being not so good Men. Besides so far as any one proposeth to Vertue or Grace he doth propose as to all Wisdom and Knowledge as hath been said so unto all that is neceslary to cure all Maladies For Vertue in the Blossom and Fruit being of the same nature with that in the Root Peace and every thing prosperous or truly desirable thence must come Contrary hereunto is Sin of which St. James saith Chap. 1.14 15. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own hearts lust and enticed Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death Most fully to this purpose is Prov. 14.14 The Backslider in heart shall be filled with his own waies and a Good-man shall be satisfied from himself In short Men must have and Nations will find as they are corrupted and lapsed or as they be restored and renewed by Grace I will conclude with the words of St. Paul Gal. 6. ver 7. Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap Which is most true of Kingdoms and Societies of Men. Now of Obedience to God of vigour or sincerity therein and of Love I have spoken though little yet I hope what may be understood and what a good Heart will improve to every needful purpose in his Converse with God or Man If the Antidoter or any for him be displeased at me I will not be overcome of that Evil but endeavour to overcome
love Man and he who rightly loveth Man must love God Now what I would establish in mens minds is the conduciveness of this connected and comprehensive Love to the worthy and happy estate of all Societies be they Kingdoms Churches or Families c. which I shall endeavour to do by representing the matter as it stands 1 In the Ordination of God 2 In the Government of God 3 In its own nature and effects By all which it will appear that the Society and no other but that where love presides is worthy and happy 1 As it stands in the Ordination of God Gen. 20.4 Exod. 20.5 Deut. 7.9.19 and 11.13 c. and 30.6 c. Joshua 23.11 c. Judges 5.31 Psal 14.7 and 29.11 and 33.11 and 85.8 and 94.14 and 105.24 43 and 122.6 and 125.2 and 145.15 20 and 148.14 and 149.4 and 119.132.165 Prov. 14.34 and 8.17 21 and 15.17 Isai 26.1 2 3 and 51 and 58.12 and 60.12 and 65.8 to 25 and 66.10 14. Jer. 18.7 9. Rom. 8.28 God hath settled the matter past all peradventure as will appear if you consult the fore-cited and other Scriptures 2 God's righteous Government requires that good success and happiness should attend such Communities because there being no Kingdoms or States c. hereafter there are no rewards there for them so that they would go without recompence should it be omitted in this life which is inconsistent with God's righteous and gracious Government to admit therefore it is here if any where that Nations are thereby exalted Prov. 14.34 3 The nature and effects of love Happiness is connatural with love they are inseparable Whilst love presides the Nation must cease to be before it can be other than happy by it Societies are so formed that all their parts are made blessed thereby For what is it that settleth a Nation or makes it prosperous but what results from or is the contrivance of Love and the things which reproach and ruin a Kingdom are contrary thereunto Where a Kingdom is founded and governed by Love how pleasant looks it even like the description given Psal 133. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for Brethren to dwell together in Vnity c. which the aforesaid Poet thus Paraphraseth I. Blest day wherein I live to see The Tribes like Brethren all agree Like Brethren striving who shall my best Subjects be II. God has by them restor'd my Crown And they secur'd what was their own For what on me they pour'd upon themselves fell down III. Th' Anointing Oil they on me spent On them in Acts of Favour went As if for them as much as me the Oil was meant IV. Like that which on the High-Priest shed At first it only wet his Head But then o're Beard and Clothes and all was quickly spread V. Or like those Mists which from the Main The Sun draws up to send again In Dews first on the Hills and then the humble Plain VI. With such th' Almighty loves to dwell And Souls agreed his Praise can tell How on them blessings when on others vengeance fell Where Love disposeth to associate with what pleasant gusts do they go thereto and so soon as they be gathered it binds them fast together so united as none dare to offend them and so inoffensive as not to provoke others The foundation of their Concord is the root or stock of Peace yea Isai 30.27 of quietness and assurance for ever being An Obediential Faith and Affiance in God as he in Christ is reconciling the World to himself extended in great Righteousness true Charity Purity and Humility these good things they learn of God these are their business and delight and by these they continually walk with him Micah 6.8 They establish their Union by such Principles and Rules as will make all concerned in the State understand that their interest is cared for The Union appears to be Common Benefit so settled as fore-seeing the whole cannot be happy where any part is miserable In a word they unite and abide as Members one of another Therefore if any be afflicted they like good blood run to the wounded parts relief Their Magna Charta is to love God above all and to love others as themselves Their Petition of Right to do as they would be done unto and on these hang all their Precepts Which alwaies are no more than are needful and are such as every man's Conscience and Reason approves and are also for Publick good Being 1 Such as stop the main Springs of Calamity 2 Such as direct or assist to growth in Vertue and Peace The former is done by prohibiting and watchfully suppressing all Vice especially those which are most noxious to Publick Order and Interest Such as Atheism Prophaneness Contempt of God and Religion Covetousness Ambition Peevish moroseness and Flattery Also Revenge excepting that of Forgiveness if the Injury be private and when publick that prosecution publick Justice and general Good requires to bring Traytors against King or State to just punishment Yet herein so as if one part of the Government differ in desire or opinion as to the execution of just vengeance on Persons they will charitably compound taking in full satisfaction for the blood of the Traytor such Laws as will sufficiently secure against or put an end unto like Treasons for future the gentlest way so it effectually secure the Government and promote the ends thereof they alwaies choose There is one other evil they prohibit and carefully suppress viz. Suspicion and though about this they have some explanatory Proviso's to prevent unreasonable Credulity and Supineness c. especially when the Head and thereby the whole Body is in apparent or immanent danger yet their general Rule is this To believe our Neighbour is good or to hope he will be so As they thus prohibit to stop Vice so 2 They enact for growth in Vertue This is done by commanding two things 1 Personal Inspection Reformation and Watchfulness And then 2 Neighbourly in order to this latter They bear their Infirmities and cover their Faults until they can be shewn them in private and there they do it with greatest sweetness They never reprove Sinners publickly but for most weighty causes and then so do it that the Guilty may see their love is fervent and may be awakened not through lowdness and noise but by the smart though yet sweet penetration of Reason and Love which shines so clearly in his Corrections that the Offender cannot but grieve for himself when he sees the Reprover was sorry for him first They command Seriousness without Morosity and enjoyn Chearfulness without Levity They prescribe Patience whereby to secure Self-possession against Moral-slavery and loss And that no excellencies may escape their notice and aspirings they have one act which hath more than ordinary Sanction you will find it Verbatim thus Finally Phil. 4.8 Brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things
are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue if there be any praise think on these things These are some hints at the State of Love which may suffice to prove that whereever it doth preside or prevail it settleth and secureth happiness It is true the number who inhabit this Canaan are too few yet this is to be said they are all choice i. e. Chosen Ones and though not as an Earthly or Temporal state yet as single Inhabitants who are to live for ever they have in their eye and go step by step daily towards an exalted place and to a more numerous Company which in perfection and glory excel Humane conception One caught up thither for a moments view or some other like him hath told us so far as he could of these unutterable things that it is Mount Sion and the City of the living God Heb 12.22 23 24. the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable Company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the first-born which are written in Heaven and to God the judge of all and the Spirits of Just men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant and to the blood of Sprinkling that speaking better things than that of Abel To this they move not in uncertainty for they are on the foundation of God 2 Tim. 2.19 which standeth sure having this Seal the Lord knoweth them to be his and they depart from iniquity Beside there the fore-runner is for them entred Heb 6.19 20. 1 Cor. 15. Joh. 14.1 2 3. Acts 1.11 1 Thess 4.14 c. even JESVS who became a-kin to them to purchase it and was the first-begotten from the dead as to assure them of it so to go before to make the way accessible to them and to prepare a place for them And hereafter as an Harbinger to come back again and meet them in most glorious manner and so lead them thither Which hope they have and use as an anchor of the Soul Heb. 6.19 both sure and stedfast i.e. keeps them from being tost or shipwreckt with the billows of the World and which entreth into that within the Veil as being able thereby to see through afflictions and to see beyond them daies of Peace and release here and further to see into the eternal and far more exceeding weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.16 17 18. that holy and happy place whereinto none but the true Christian enters One would forego any Lust and use the utmost diligence to be imbodied with these men who practise and hope as you have heard See how in troops they march Woodford Psal 84. till all at length To Sion come and there renew their strength Object But do we not find the contrary Are not the Religious and Vertuous oft despised oppressed c. Answ 1 True they are so but with it they have to over ballance it to weigh it down so that those you call Oppressions c. are light and as but for a moment to them for they are chosen of God Jam. 2.5 1 Cor. 1.20 27 c. rich in Faith supported and comforted by invisible and Divine assistances as St. Paul was 2 Cor. 4.8 c. Answ 2 So far as they for Vertues sake are afflicted they gain thereby having therefore those supports and strong Consolations here and the farther degrees of glory hereafter which without them they would not have had Answ 3 Sometime their Troubles come on them through their own defect in Religion In that case Vertue is not to be charged but Sin as the culpable and procuring cause of them Answ 4 This objected is not to my Argument being directable only to single persons I challenge any to name the time wherein any People were distressed or despised who were united to God and to each other as I have described a Nation to be whose temper is Love Section II. Of such force is Love's tendancy to Happiness though there be many in a State who in temper are as Spirits created or used for Vengeance to punish or destroy yet if one Principal therein be Goodness or Love he soon changeth or soon subdueth them under him Psal 47.9 One Shield of the Earth of this temper in his Dominion will quench in a moment all the fiery darts of the wicked Of these Impiety and Ill-will are not the least which like poysonous Darts inflame the parts that are wounded with them and once removed comes ease and pleasure in their stead Oh happy Nation when thus cured and most blessed of God is the Royal Physician who so healeth us Having spoken this I purpose to make it good i.e. to prove it true so well as with my designed brevity I can And in truth I think it needs no forreign aid Behold the sense of the Proposition and it will confirm it self I am well assured no one of Mr. Serjants Self-evidencing Principles comes near this Self-evident thing No other appearance now in Flesh can be more a God and is it hard to come at this Notion that Almighty and all Goodness and all Bliss is in him I am most satisfied that this is the Thing which shall go on conquering and to conquer if God use any thing Humane to bring in Everlasting Righteousnes and Peace unto the Nations For what below God can do more thereto in the Kingdoms of Men than a King 1 Sincerely Pious without the enforcement either of Adversity or of some regard of State 2 Preferrer of the Publick weal before all other respects whatsoever Like the Saviour of the World who though he was rich yet became poor that we through his poverty might be made rich I presume my Reader to be a Man i.e. one who takes in the sense and not the sound of these words I intend not to put meanness or poverty into his Character but that of Grace like to what St. Paul saith we know to be in Christ 1 Cor. 8.9 a King who is forward and sincere in Love always giving testimony thereof in his dealings towards his Subjects who is disposed to exhaust himself when necessary to common salvation whereby his love becomes his liberality and bounty to them He that finds this King is come to the procurer of general peace and quiet He may as one saith err and must die but Fame will free him from both errour and from death both with and without the help of Time Because Generals may not sufficiently impress I will come to particular evidence hereof 1 From the Ordination of God 2 The Government of God 3 Happiness is connatural to his temper and practice who as Head causeth it to be so unto the whole Body To the two first of these enough hath been said already I will more particularly though very briefly discourse the latter But before we enter thereon let us refresh our selves a little by singing with tuneable hearts to God's glory and in
praise of this Prince some part of the XLV Psalm I. Prophetick Fancy doth my heart With glorious Raptures fill 'T is of the King I speak my tongue Prevents the Writer's quill II. Fairer than fairest Sons of men Grace on thy lips is pour'd God therefore hath on thy lov'd head Immortal blessing shour'd The Rhime is not bad and the Reason very good to our purpose for you may therein see Happiness and Love in a perpetual connexion within him and how far it thence descends to all his Dominions we may see anon in the other part of that Psalm for I guess it will not be long ere we be disposed again to sing in his praise who is so good in himself and so good to us in whom also we must be blest because his temper and his practice are founded upon or are streams issuing from as the best moral so the most natural grounds or springs of Happiness All which will be most manifest when you have heard me speek to these three things 1 The foundation on which he is built 1. Supream 2. Subordinate 2 The principle or spring in him of action 1. Divine Love 2. Good-will 3. Knowledge and Internal sense 3 His practice or tenour of actions 1. Publick to God 2. Private to Man Of which I will speak but very briefly and therefore too promisenously in the next Section Section III. 1 His Supream foundation is Vnion to God in being most affectionate unto Religion which he alwaies establisheth and promotes in his Dominions and unto the true Professours and Practisers thereof in his Kingdoms I will for once spoil the Poesie though not the sense of Doctor Woodford on Psalm 15. ver 4. IV. Whose heart against a wicked man does rise And shews true scorn yet pity by his eyes The good he honours counts them dear Worthy his love and favour too All who in truth God's Sacred Name do fear And when he to his Word does swear What he has sworn though he is sure to lose will do 2 His subordinate foundation is Vnion to his People to their Persons and Interests whereby they are his own and in his opinion or sense but one Soul in sundry bodies himself in divers Skins 2 The principle or spring in him of action is Divine Love i. e. the Love of God prevalent in him Good-will i. e. Benevolence to Man tenderness of Compassion as of a Parent to her Infant hanging on the breast Benignity of Nature like that in God spoken of 1 Pet. 2.3 If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious or how sweet the Lord is From these as also lastly from knowledge and sense that God hath raised him for the Peoples good he considers them as he doth himself and so extendeth the same liberality and kindness to them that stand in need of it also the same care and protection that in the like case he would wish to himself He apprehends himself as the mean between God and the People i.e. that he is debtor to both and accordingly all his practice is Piety towards the one and Beneficence to the other He abuseth not himself by thinking he is his own man or by tying himself to himself He acts as he is the States and not as if the State were his That these and such like are the spring will appear by what is alwaies issuing from him in the third thing proposed 3 The course of action or practice he is in 1 Publick in which 1 By improving and securing his Peoples enjoyments by redressing their real grievances and relieving their necessities he doth what is possible to make all Orders of Men under him so happy as the condition of this World will bear He considers what hath been done and what is begun to be done that nothing be imperfect or ill executed 2 He with diligence or care rules his Subjects by Law I mean here though I except not God's the Laws himself with his People in their Representative as one have made Those being especially if they be for Common good alwaies most sacred or dear to him In Mean towards the People rather a Guardian or Surety than their Lord or Master 3 He ascends unto the hearts of his Subjects as to the safest the highest and most desirable Throne and by constant goodness and seasonable bounty like God he gains that gift from them Which when he hath gotten neither Wife nor Brother nor any other importuning thing can dispose him to hazard or forfeit but secure it he doth to himself and to his for ever in applying alwaies thereto what gained them at first choosing rather to be loved than to be adored by them 4 He will not make Evil daies or confederate with or assist those who do so by Blood by Rapin by Truce-breaking or by being without natural affection to his People or such like mentioned by St. Paul to Timothy 2 Epist 3. 2 His Practices more private are of like Nature For 1 He chooseth such Ministers of State and Law whose temper is sound and most sutable to Law and who will unmoveably adhere thereto He judgeth of their temper by their conforming in practice to God's and to his own Laws 3 Prerogative and Will he shuns as less Divine and most Inhumane He deems Tempters thereto Imps of Hell well knowing that no other Prince than he who is the Prince of Darkness leads men captive at his will He therefore carefully avoids as the occasion so the appearance of this evil By which he appears to be no mean spirited thing as it is felicity to have power to do what a man will so is it true greatness to will that a man should Hereby in temper he is a-kin to the Greatest Majesty in Heaven who therefore commands because the things are for our good Deut. 10.12 13. Micah 6.8 and who sometimes proposeth to reason the matter out with us Also frequently appeals to Sense or Conscience within us about the equity and the abundant and the condescending kindness he hath done us saying oft Isal 5.3 4. Are not my waies equal O house of Israel Or this And now O Inhabitants of Jerusalem and Men of Judah Judge I pray you betwixt me and my Vineyard What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it There is indeed one sort of Prerogative which in imitation of God he is sometimes in i.e. to perform acts of Goodness and to scatter abroad or disperse what is gracious to the deservers of Evil. These he may do because he will do them for herein is no hurt so Prudence direct as it alwaies doth in him But when the thing to be done will be pain or punishment to any that it then shall be done because I will I find not with God nor with Good men I was about to say only with men as such 4 He admits none to come to places in Church or State by unworthy means nor hinders them in the discharge
him with trembling and with fear rejoyce VIII Lest he be angry kiss the Eternal Son Happy are they who thus have done And there have plac'd their chief desire Vnto your selves and him return For if his Anger once take fire Those Flames which should but only warm will burn Good Poesie and sense are quickning things therefore not amiss in me now and then to call in the Doctor who excels therein to help where there is so great need One Psalm more there is I cannot part with being most apposite to my purpose it is that for or of Solomon who you know was a King Which Psalm our Poet in his Paraphrase hath contrived to express my hearts desire i.e. the happiness and glory of our King's Kingdom it is Psalm 72. I. Great God Thy Judgments to our Sovereign give And let his Throne like thine abide May the Young Prince before thee live And on his Enemies Necks in Triumph ride Put on his Head thy Righteous Crown And to the Father's glories add Thy own II. Then shall He judge the People and dispense That Justice which he has receiv'd To him the Poor shall look and thence Have both their Miseries pitty'd and reliev'd The Needies cause He shall maintain And on their Enemies turn their wrongs again III. So shall the barren Cliffs with shouts resound And all the little Hills rejoyce The Vallies from the lower ground Shall thence receive the Image of the Voice Sweet Peace on every Hill shall reign And Justice once more guide the humble Plain IV. Whilst time can measure it His Rule shall last And when even that shall be no more When Time it self expir'd is cast I'th'Vrne that had all dust but his before No Ages left to count it by It shall be measur'd by Eternity VI. Peace and Her fruits shall prosper in his daies And under his Auspicious Reign The Palm shall flourish and the Bayes And Justice to the Earth return'd again To Heav'n no more be forc'd to go But with him keep her residence below VII His far-stretch'd sway Nature alone can bound Which shall from Sea to Sea extend As far as there is any ground And only where the World finds hers have end Then up to Heav'n his Fame shall flie And fill the Mighty Circle of the skie VIII Black Ethiopia at his Feet shall bow Her neck for him to tread upon Honour'd enough if thus he shew Acceptance of the Footstool for his Throne Down in the dust his Foes shall lie With Heads more low than once their thoughts were high IX The Western Continent and farthest Isles And both the Indies Gifts shall bring To him they shall present the Spoils Of Sea and Land as Vniversal King All Kings before him shall bow down And do for Theirs just Homage to his Crown X. Kingdoms opprest shall his Protection crave And needy States unto him sue Th' Opprest he with his arms shall save And with the Needy his Old League renew Redeem their Slaves defend their Right And shew their Blood was precious in his sight XI Thus shall he live and reign and thus receive The Tributes which to him are paid Some Myrrh some Frankincense shall give And Gold which shall like Stones be common made And the due service of each day Shall be to praise that King for whom we pray XIII And when to God he shall resign his breath Yet in his Name he still shall live Above the Pow'r of Grave or Death And to the Immortal Verse a Subject give Which of his happy Reign shall sing And count that Land so which has such a King XIV Bless Him whose Words these Miracles obey And who must all these gifts bestow To Israel's God let Israel pray That from his Spring such streams may ever flow For ever bless his holy Name Nor bound with less than Heaven his mighty Fame There is no hurt I hope in this Transcription it is edifying unto me as is all his Book and what I thereof bring is the more pleasing because so far I am sure I offer what is worthy of thy acceptance I am now near concluding my Discourse having no other remain in my thoughts than some few Directions which shall be given in the next Chapter CHAP. VI. SECT I. IN order to our being what I have hitherto designed in this Discourse I shall propose to some Directions 1 More general 2 More special 1 The General Direction shall be to Four things 1 Look we diligently lest any root of bitterness be springing up in us These are so opposite to what I have been proposing that they be the only troubling and defiling things these will occasion any man to fail of the Grace of God for they be poyson and death to Love What natural name they have St. Paul and St. James will tell you the one names it the law in our members the other Rom. 7. James 4.1 our lusts in the one is pointed to us its Commanding power in the other its being Brutish and in both that it is a warring thing in war against Reason and against the Soul of Man against the direction of God's Spirit and then against every body else The looking diligently and honestly within you will soon inform you what it is and what names I should here give them Of all these bitter roots none to a Nation are so certainly and so speedily mortal as those of affecting to be flattered Revenge and being without natural affection in the Ruler or the Governours subordinate to him Suspicion Jealousies or Fears and affectation of Change and an Opinion of having Political Science in the People I descend not to other particulars and say no more of these because the next Direction if followed will surely cure all at once 2 Let us be willing to be truly Religious or Divine in Intellect and Will in Affection and Practice i.e. that the whole of us tend to God and be given to him So that upon All which is either Naturally or Providentially ours we write with our own hand i.e. most heartily This is the Lord's I know God works in us both to will and to do but how so as that we likewise refuse not to work He stands and knocks and we must open or he comes not in Psal 24. Lift up your heads O ye Gates and be ye lift up ye everlasting Doors and the King of Glory shall come in View this King of Glory until ye be enamour'd of his Divine perfections search or seek until you find him within your selves i. e. to be so far as we can like unto God and out of the real sense of this likeness in our selves to love and admire him This is the true and the highest Worship Man can exhibite to his Maker And to be pure in this of Religion our Will is also requisite i. e. that we throughly consent to be in due moderation and rule over all the joys and pleasures of our Members to bear a strict hand
or watchful eye over their enticements To have such a firm and loyal affection to Righteousness or Holiness in us that pain of body profit or riches and the pleasures of the Animal life shall not work us from it or abate it in us Also it being a part of pure Religion we must see that our Bodies and lower Faculties of mind be not only uncorrupted but meet for God's Spirit to dwell in and act in by enlightning sanctifying and animating of us to inward duties of Holiness Such Religion as I have here in part described where it is consented unto and prevalent putteth an end to all squabbles about Forms or Administrations in Religion for it brings us to God in Christ I say in Christ for now we are Sinners when we mention God it is alwaies to be in him where we see and enjoy what makes Terrene things so crucified to us as we are by him crucified to them Bishopricks and Ornaments or Splendor in a Church Praying with or without a Form more or less pure Administration are all dead-things to us unless as they be made to subserve Piety or Charity Let us then exalt that life that hath lain dead and buried for these many Ages under a vast heap of Humane Inventions useless and cumbersom Ceremonies and unpeaceable Opinions not at all doubting but that if the Life of Christ were once awakened in the World he that cloaths the Lillies of the field and adorns the Birds with their several comely and orderly disposed Colours will not be wanting to such a Church as hath the principle of life in it self but that it will grow up into such an external form and comliness in all points as most befits and are the most proper results of those vital operations in it Whenas the best Externals without these are but as the skin of an Animal stuffed with Wool or Straw saith an excellent Doctor †H. More Preface to Mystery of Godliness 3 Be affectionate and constant in Prayer to God as for what I have said in the preceding Directions and for all other good so especially that he would give us the Spirit of Love and of a * Sobriety 2 Tim. 1.7 sound mind i.e. the Spirit of a true Christian and as it is in Prov. 18.14 the Spirit of a man which sustains infirmity be it his own or anothers whenas the wounded spirit cannot bear 4 Avoid all prejudice against ought of the Creation of God i.e. despise no man nor enter into dissatisfaction so as to bar your observing what of God is in him or your hope of good from him or your acceptance of it when it cometh Be made up of perfect kindness to each other and of good-will and hope to the worst of men Be not base of disposition infusing hatred or variance secretly into any not Reproachers of others nor boasters or exalters of self not inventors or carriers of Stories which disparage or bear ill to any especially to Rulers and to the Government you are under Remember what Noah's Son Cham did and received therefore and the commendable practice of Shem and Japhet contrary thereunto Rulers also ought so to be and do unto their Subjects Behold God is mighty and despiseth not any Job 36.5 saith Elihu and Job 31.13 14 15. is fit to be in their thoughts If I did despise the cause of my Man-servant or of my Maid-servant when they contended with me What then shall I do when God riseth up and when he visiteth what shall I answer him Did not he that made me in the womb make him and did not one fashion us in the womb Accept what is good and what is truth from the worst of Enemies or meanest of Men. Consider what is said c. rather than him who speaketh or the times past when the like hath been spoken be it 40 to 48 c. what speech at one time is Treason or Sedition may at another be Loyal and necessary duty because what was falsly said in 42 c. may be truly said now and what is falsly said now might have been truly said then Since Anno 1647 though I was then very young I have not altered my sense of things done before or after but I am God be thanked better affected towards Persons I heretofore beheld men only in their Infirmities in their Sins and distances from be but now I look on them as they be in the formation of God by which I keep more abundant Peace have avoided many Errors rectified sundry Mistakes and escaped out of divers snares and lusts especially that of Ill-will than which there is no greater corruption or torment incident to humane Nature Hereby also I have long enjoyed a comfortable and advantagious Friendship with those I formerly hated as it were or dis-esteemed some because they countenanced the Republicans others because differing from me in Opinions in lesser Doctrines or in Church Form or Discipline In these Four which I term the General Directions I have represented to you things proper to a Creature to whom God communicates of his own Nature so far as it is capable of receiving it and of his assistances and grace so far as its need requireth It therefore is of most import to us that we give all diligence thus to be The next in order are the Directions more special While I was forming of them there occurred to my sight an excellent discourse of the Love of God and our Neighbour The Author is he who in one Sermon upon Bounty to the Poor shut up the Spittle i.e. left nothing for others to say there after him on that Argument but what he had spoken better before them It is the late Doctor Isaac Barrow to whom I refer thee for what remains unsaid here as I had also done for that already spoken had not my beginning and intentions taken Air so as to fall into Circumstances whence I could not well retrieve them from being made so publick as now they are like to be Having thus far done so well as I can and pointed to where better is for you I shall soon dismiss you after I have given you a taste of Bathynous's skill on the Theorbo A solemn Lesson on which I find to be a very composing thing It is an excellent Lute he plays on of sweet and mellow and yet of Majestick sound and the Song he will sing with it is not impertinent to our present purpose I pray you let us hear if not all yet part of it Sing aloud Bathyn His Praise rehearse Who hath made the Vniverse God is good Divine Dialogues p. 552. is wise is strong Witness all the Creature-throng Is confess'd by every Tongue All things back from whence they sprung As the thankful Rivers pay What they borrow'd of the Sea Now my self I do resign Take me whole I all am thine Save me God from Self-desire Death's-pit dark Hells-raging Fire Envy Hatred Vengeance Ire Let not Lust my