flames of this fire not the Supremacy of the King not the holinesse of the Prophet both proved in David not the gravity of the high Priest verified in Eli to his sons not the wisdom of Solomon nor the strength of Samson all owe homage and pay their tribute to Love as unto Death When Solomon compared Loves force to the power of death he so compared it because he could finde no one thing so strong to which he might have likened it And if with the Hebrews there had been in their expressions any comparative degrees I conceive Solomon would as well he might have said That Love is stronger then Death which will easily appear if we compare the powerfull acts of Love with those of Death For the power of Death is seen in that as is before said Kings wise rich strong young all stoop and submit to the stroak of Death Nay it you say further That Death adventured upon yea and prevailed over the Son of God the Saviour and life of the world yet know that all this was done neither could it have been done but onely by the Love of Him who submitted himself to this Death For love it was and onely love that wrestled with God and overcame him in this that he should leave the Heavens and lay down his life submitting himself to that death which had no power over him but through his own unspeakable love So that I may truly say That all Deaths atchievements are but weakeness in comparison of this Love Might I not adde to this that it was love and love alone that brought down God himself from Heaven to be incarnate in the wombe of a woman to suffer all the miseries and hardnesse to which humane nature not sinfull is subject to endure weather travail hunger thirst fear yea the sadnesse of soule even unto death and to a kinde of expostulation with his Father My God why hast thou forsaken me and in conclusion of all to suffer his glorious body to be nailed to the Crosse and there by direfull long tormentings to linger out his life and what were all these sufferings but so many triumphs of his love and may I not cry out O the power of Love triumphing with reverence and in a right sense be it spoken over God himself You have in a glaunce or shadow as it were seen some glimpse of Loves power in God will you now see how it hath wrought on men where to rehearse the many great affronts disgraces persections suffered by S. Peter S. Paul and by other the glorious company of the Apostles and the noble Army of Martyrs were to write Volumes greater then have been seen yet In close of all we must conclude that all those glorious Martyrdoms were performed by the power of Faith through Love It were easie to inlarge the history of Loves power should I tell you that Love oft-times rejecteth the greatest Commands wisest Edicts and best Laws despiseth honour neglects fame wealth health life soul and all yea and perverteth the very course of nature such is the unruly and untamed disposition and power of Love It makes the weak dare and to encounter the strong and the coward the most valiant In a word it turns the hen having chickens to become an Eaglet and a timerous Doe as a couragious Lion Love by many is rightly compared to fire the most active and strongest worker of all the Elements which destroyeth houses Castles Towns Cities which melteth and consumeth the hardest Metals and such is and so oft-times works Love Which as it most takes and works by idlenesse and converse so is it best resisted by the contraries good imployment and the shunning wanton company We reade that one of Darius his servants held 1 Esdâ—aâ— 3. that the King a second that Wine and a third that a Woman is of the greatest power to perswade or overcome man But neither wine nor woman hath or can have this power over man unlesse it first prevaile and get the love of man So that it is not the beauty or inticements of woman but mans love that overcomes inthralls and destroyes man CHAP. IV. Love is silent yet active SCripture and experience teach us that they who love most make the least shew of their love and in this they resemble the most righteous the wisest the noblest and most valiant who rather let others see and judge of their goodnesse and vertue then themselves to become their own trumpets True love hath hands and no mouth whereas the false hath only a tongue to prate but no hands to act Some Ancients therefore portrayed Love with the finger on the mouth as sparing of words but naked as having distributed and given all away unto his very skin And our most blessed Saviour after his resurrection shewed unto his Disciples his side and his hands pierced that by that fountain and these chanels his love might appear to them and to all the world S. John therefore his beloved Disciple 1 Joh. 3.18 and true follower admonisheth his scholars not to love by tongue and in words but in truth and works S. Peter having made large promises though all forsake thee yet I will not and again I will lay down my life for thee Christ upon this puts Peter to it three times questioning him Lovest thou me and as often bidding him to make proof of his love by feeding his sheep Joh. 21.17 the elder and his lambs the younger sort Action and performance is the touchstone and surest triall of true love for which and the cause thereof shewed in anointing Christs head washing his feet and wiping them with her hair one M. Magdalene hath no lesse reward then the forgivenesse of all her sins and all this saith Christ because she loved much Moses the Angel and servant of the Lord had prodigious or wonder-working hands and such as with his rod could draw fountains of water out of the hard and drie rock such as could bring flies frogs and destroying armies of small beasts upon Pharaoh and all the land of Aegypt yet he was a man as it were without a tongue tongue-tied or no man of fluent speech and therefore his brother Aaron Exod. 4.10 was in his stead the mouth Exod. 4.30 and Oratour to deliver the Almighties message unto King Pharaoh Ezâ—kiels living creatures Ezâ—k 1. the representations of Gods Embassadors had wings to flie and soare aloft by contemplation and spreading glad tydings to the world but under these wings they had hands herein expressing the nature and work of true love Love wee see is best seen by works not words and the work of love is such that oft-times it disroabs or takes away that stupidity or incivility which naturally is inbred and by a gentle influence and cultivation infuseth or begets fantasie and manly deportments Plato a great Philosopher was of opinion that the strength of fantafie which was shewed in many high straines of Poësie was kindled and
Tabor did but typically prefigure the glory of his passion so that here not there the standers by and since that the Christian world proclaimed him Mat. 27.54 what before was believed but by few that he was truly the Son of God Men on earth study to blazon their coats with Dogs Hogs Cats and the like and by these means think to traduce their names as famous to posterity though themselves never in their lives did an act worthy of a Dogs-taile whereas our most blessed Lord Christ who acted all things worthy the Son of the most high God and all for the good of mankind had no other coat-armour but the Crosse which his love procured and wrought and hath thereby made him justly to be adored and worshipped as the God of the whole world CHAP. VII Love transformeth the Lover into the thing beloved NOT onely some choice Philosophers but learned Fathers of our Church have deemed and called a friend a second self the half of the soule or the same And among them one saith he that loveth intirely is dead as to his own body and liveth in that body which he loveth for that love carrieth with it if not the whole substance yet the principall vigorous acting faculties of the soule This position in some sense is made good in the divine Lover by that of S. Paul when he saith Your life is hid Col. 3 3â— with Christ in God where love to God hath mortified the Lover as to the body and to the world and makes him live by and in Christ for truly the soule cannot be thought or said to live but where it appears to move or work Hereupon some wittily have pronounced that the beloved is become an homicide and guilty of murder if he return not love for love but robs the Lover of his soul not returning his again to the Lover And some Philosophers have conceived that the soul of a dead friend by a strange transmigration hath been secretly conveighed into the body of a friend living and there kept alive and operating and all this to be effected and brought to passe by the spirituall power of love S. Augustine comes somewhat neer to these conceits when he saith My love is as the weight in a clock or the magnetick virtue in the load-stone for whithersoever I am moved or caried that it is which carieth or moveth me and my soule Every one therefore it strongly behoveth seriously to consider before he setleth upon what he intends to set his love for if on earth he becomes earthly if flesh fleshly if heaven heavenly which agreeth well with those terms given in holy Scriptures to severall kinds of affectionate lovers Our most blessed Saviour prayeth for us that we may be in him and be one with him Joh. 17.21 as Christ is in and with his Father which holy residence and blessed union must be next to Gods goodnesse the work of love S. Paul saith of himself that he is crucified with Christ Gal. 2.20 neverthelesse saith he I live and yet he adds it is not I that live but Christ liveth in me if you ask him how this can be he tells you in the words following the life which I now live I live by faith this is the instrumentall mean if you enquire into the cause of this life it is there mentioned when he saith by the son of God who loved me and gave himself and all his merits and benefits to work for and in me Our carnall and prophane loose lovers usually court their mistresses with these and the like unhallowed speeches You are my life my heart my soul which oft-times is more true then godly Divinely spoke King David O that we would imitate him God is my light and salvation Plato said that a friend is like a good looking-glasse in and by which the other friend may see himself and be seen by others for so it was in Jonathan and David that who saw the one discerned the other Or you shall find two friends united by true love to be like the mother and the child where if the child smile or weep the mother doeth the like and as the Chamelcon appeareth to be of that colour with the thing to which it is joyned so is it with good and true lovers who like Hippocrates twins looked laughed cried each as the other and were of like colour condition and passion each as other so that the union of friends made by sincere love is well compared and presented by inoculating a bud into another stock whereby it is made one with it Now in man there be three unions and each of them caused or bottomed on love the first is that of the soule and body matched together by a naturall love The second is the union of soules whether as among ordinary friends or as among Christs disciples Act. 2.1 who were of one heart and mind endevouring to keep the unity of the spirit as S. Paul speaks in the bond of peace Eph. 4.3 the former of these is wrought by a naturall the other by a spirituall love The third union is that which is betwixt God and mans soule when as S. John saith God is in the righteous 1 Joh. 4.16 and they in him and the efficient cause of this union is Divine love Which union as of all other and above all things in this world it is to be most desired estemed and preserved so is the separation or divorce the most to be feared grieved for and most carefully to be prevented for as by that blessed union we are made partakers of all the best things that earth or heaven can afford so by that separation we not only lose all the blessings by that union acquired but we purchase to our selves all the miscries vexations and torments that hell the Devils and our owne conscience can afflict us with the cutting off a finger from the hand is painfull of the hand from the arm painfull and damagefull and of the head from the body painfull grievous and deadly but the dividing or divorcing the soule of man from God the life of the soule is a pain grief and losse not to be expressed no nor to be imagined fully no not by them that suffer and feel it Of all separations and divorces O my soule be fearfull and carefull to avoid this and O thou the God of my soule be gracious and mercifull unto me that through blindnesse of understanding or hardnesse of heart I never incurre the dreadfull sentence of such a divorce or separation CHAP. VIII Vehement love causeth extasies making the Lover besides or to rob himself of himself LOve saith the Wise man is strong as death and in this comes neer to death Cant. 5.6 in that it makes the Lover oft-times not to see what he fixeth his eye on not to answer what he hears or what he is demanded and indeed oft-times to put him into such trances as that he seems
rather a moving trunk of flesh then a living soule and this in part excuseth the words and acts of Lovers as proceeding from men distracted rather then from men in their wits and hereupon the Romans had a law exempting such Lovers from the penalty of death holding them to be no better then mad men This holy phrensie of love hath not escaped the Saints of God on earth S. Paul was neer this when in his extreme love to his Country-men as Moses Exod. 32.32 Rom. 9.3 that wished himself blotted out of the Booke of God so he wished himself accursed from Christ unlesse the Jews his brethren might be pardoned and saved with him so that which is said of Peter ravisht with the glorious apparition on Mount Tabor the like might be spoken of S. Paul in his excessive love to the Jews he knew not what he said or as Felix said unto him Paul thou art surely besides thy self love in stead of learning hath made thee mad And if ever any exceeded in love Joh. 10.20 above all the love that ever was in the world it was Christ who so exceeded herein that the Jews once thought him mad And might not others as well as they have imagined the like of him when in the excesse of his love to his very enemies he would suffer himself to be taken delivered up and shamefully put to death for them Thus far did the love in Christ work him to go or seem to be besides himself and all that he might work us to return to and to look into our selves and up to heaven that as ravisht with the love hereof we might live here in the world as though we were out of the world and that we might so look on these delights below as men blinde and hear of them as deaf and discourse of them as not concerned but as men in part translated to heaven and here become earthly Angels S. Paul made his daily prayers unto the Father of our Lord Christ That he would grant unto the Ephesians the riches of his holy Spirit to be rooted and grounded in love Ephes 3.17 and that they might know the love of Christ which passeth all knowledge where he prayeth for the mutuall love between the head and the members their love to him but his love to them first For without this love of Christ to them they cannot love him He loved his first saith S. John and then without their love to him 1 John 4 1â— they cannot understand the power that love hath ere it is rooted in them For it is able to make things in themselves base and contemptible to be of great price and esteem Might it not seem in our blessed Saviour a blemish and dishonour to his person to be reviled scorned whipt and crucified yet the love of Christ took and accounted all as acts of glory and all that he might prove himself thereby the Saviour of the world It is registred of the wife to the Emperour Theodosius That she as a Nurse-keeper rather than an Empresse attended the sick and weak and made playsters and drest the sores of the poor Hospitallers who when she was by some nice Courtiers gently reproved her answer was That although those offices were below the person of an Empresse yet were they not able to reach and expresse the love which she bore to the poorest members of her Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus who in his unspeakable love did more saith she for me then ever I can in the least deserve or in any measure requite CHAP. IX Love exchangeth and counterchangeth all with its beloved FOr proof of this I could instance in many Lovers Registred in profane Authors as in Pylades and Orestes each of them though but one was guilty took the fact upon himself that he might thereby redeem the life of the other King David when the plague seized on and destroyed the people cries out to the Lord 2 Kings 24.17 It is I Lord that have sinned let me suffer but spare these innocent sheep for what have they done And when the Souldiers came to apprehend Jesus whom they yet knew not and some of his Disciples being present with him he asks Whom seek ye they answered We seek Jesus he roundly and readily answereth I am he And this he did Joh. 18. to the end that he might save his disciples from their arrest and therefore he addeth Ye have me whom you seek therefore let these go their way Reade and consider that of S. Paul Who is weake 1 Cor. 21.29 and I am not weake who is offended and I burn not the troubles infirmities and sufferings of the Corinthians through the Apostles love to them are all become and made his Yea but see a greater power of love manifested in the same Apostle toward the Philippians whom he tells that his death will be gain to him v. 21. Phil. 1. for thereby he shall injoy Christ whereas life to him will prove but labour and pain v. 22. and yet saith he though the difference be so great as is betwixt everlasting joy and glory being with Christ and pain and labour living with you yet my love is such to you more then to my self that I am in a strait not knowing which to choose but concludes Though it be far better for me to die and to be with Christ v. 23. neverthelesse saith he v. 24. to abide in the flesh is more profitable for you and therefore he concludes v. 25. Having this confidence I shall abide and continue with you for your furtherance and joy of faith But S. Paul writing to the Romans seems to go beyond all the bounds of love I and of common reason Rom. 9.8 when he saith I could wish that my self were accursed from Christ for my brethren my kinsmen the Jews Expositors antient and modern generally conclude that this wish or desire of S. Paul was an expression of the most transcendent power of love which might possesse any mortall man but what the full extent and force of the words may be is not so clearly agreed on for some expound the words accursed from Christ wherein all the difficulty lies to intend a temporall affliction or corporall punishment 2. others a spirituall separation or excommumcation from the Church of Christ 3. a third sort will have an eternall separation rejection or casting away from the joyes of heaven to be here understood They who imbrace the first exposition conceive this desire of the Apostle to be like that of Moses saying Lord Exod. 32.32 if thou wilt not forgive the sins of the Israelites in making the golden calf then blot me out of thy book and this blotting out of the book they expound of deposing or casting Moses from his government of that people which was as they would have this in S. Paul to be but a temporall punishment and this they would deduce and inferre from the word accursed which in the
being beloved directs the soul without any force to a return of a love reciprocall And as love mollifies the heart of the beloved drawing from it a return of love so this return of love gives ample satisfaction and reward as it were for that love that was bestowed And so the Spouse in the Canticles Can. 1.2 for her love to her beloved desires some kisses as testimonies for the assurance of his love to her again And neither the first nor the second neither an inviting nor the return'd love are purchased wonne or procured by gifts greatnesse or power These have no force on a generous heart to cause love which is onely begotten by it self through love and this may be well called the mysterie of love that the same thing and nothing else should beget it self And this love being of so rare an extraction so amiable and so much to be desired we shall finde God of all things desiring it and in comparison of it nothing else but our love and therefore useth it as a conjuration to the effecting his will and commands as when he saith John 21.16 If ye love me keep my commandments to Peter thee times as it were in a breath lovest thou lovest thou lovest thou me Peter and then follows three times Peter feed feed feed For this thou canst not chuse but do and keep my 〈…〉 Love as we say breaks through stone walls intimating that nothing is hard to a loving heart but that this tender love as is said of the milke of the Goat is able to mollifie and soften the hardest Adamant God willing to draw man to himself first used his power shewed in the great deluge of the world after that he used his goodnesse bringing his people out of Egypt into a goodly and plentifull Land but when neither power nor goodnesse prevailed he takes the ready course if any could prevail to shew his love unto them in sending his onely Son into the world there to suffer so ignominious a death for them And if this did not he never meant to use other means to draw them to him For if love such love could not then nothing in heaven earth or hell can work or move their conversion Charit as Christi urget nos saith S. Paul 2 Cor. 3 14. the love of Christ this this or nothing doth or can with a sweet delightfull force as it were constrain us Christ sheweth this in the parable of the Creditor and Debtor concluding that to whom most was forgiven that he should and must love most For love freely shewed to the well beloved may be resembled to the depositing or trusting a great Treasure in a friends chest or Cabinet which friend if he return it not when desired deserves the note and estimation not of ungratefull alone but of a false and most wicked man and no friend CHAP. XII The Love of God is not to be parallel'd THe essence or being of God is pure and simple and the infinity of his attributes and perfections are single so that his omnipotency is his mercy his mercy is his justice his justice his goodnesse his goodnesse his love neither is there in these any distinction reall or formall onely mans apprehension conceiteth a variety in this simple unity Now the love of God differeth from the love of man as in many other things so in this that mans love oft times wants power to effect what it loves and desires whereas Gods love is both operative and effective it both works and accomplisheth whatever it will so that to love with God is the same thing as to do us good And this is so large as to do that beyond which nothing more can be done Isaiah expresseth this in Gods person saying Isa â— 4 What could have been done more that I have not done so that if we would enter into and consider all the works of Gods love in creating redeeming sanctifying and glorifying man how can they be fathomed mans soule cannot apprehend it in the least degree To help mans weakensse in this and by shadows as it were to make some appearance of this love Isa 49.15 the Prophet Isaiah tells us of the love of a mother to her childe when he asks the question Can a mother forget her sucking childe that she should not have compassion on the sonne of her wombe Which can she is as much as she cannot but saith God If she could yet such is my love to man that I will not I cannot my love is my self and therefore I may be said as well to forget my self as to forget or deny my love to mine own Image man The Prophet Isaiah seems to go a little farther by a similitude to set forth Gods love when he compares it to the love of a Bridegroome 〈◊〉 62.5 married to a Virgin in whom he is delighted and rejoyceth saith the text where it addeth and so shall thy God rejoyce over thee Nay the Prophet Jeremiah goes farther yet saying If a man put away his wife for her lewdnesse and adultery shall he return unto her again â—eâ— 3.1 But thou Judah lift up thine eyes unto the high places and see where thou hast not been lien with in the waies thou hast sate for them and thou hast polluted the Land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickednesse and yet heare the husband of this wife which is God notwithstanding all this crying out and proclaiming thou hast played the harlot with many lovers yet returne againe to me saith the Lord. Tell me now whether a greater love can be exprest than this in God As the love of God is infinite so might I be in the prosecution of this argument but I contract my self and wish you to remember that as God in holy Writ is parabolically called King Father Husband Physician Shepherd Head of his Church so under all these and many other names and notions his love is manifest unto us for as the head he governs as the Shepherd he leads us to good pastures and defends us from destroying beasts as the Physician he cures and heals our infirmities and soares as an husband he imbraceth and delighteth in and rejoyceth over us as a Father he nourisheth and provideth for us and as a King he not onely protects us from oppression and danger but gives us honours yea makes us heires with his onely begotten Son Christ Jesus to reigne with him in his heavenly Kingdom for ever And is there any love that can be compared to this All that I will adde for close is this love requires love And O my soule though thou wilt not love this thy Father this thy King first yet when he hath so super abounded in his love to thee too flinty hearted I must needs say thou art if thou shalt refuse to return all the love thy heart can affoord or conceive to him again for that infinite and endlesse love which he hath bestowed on thee Chap. XIII By the
forces yet no lesse doth she abhor and resist all other sins of the lower rank S. Paul when he saith Charity suffereth long 1 Cor. 13.4 what saith he lesse than that as the impatient man acts against the long suffering Charity so Charity works against all impatience and as Charity that envieth not is assaulted by the envious so Charity fighteth against envy and as Charity that vaunteth not nor is puffed up is opposed by pride so Charity labours to beat down pride And what from S. Paul I have said of those sins mentioned is alike true of those other sins instanced by S. Paul and of all other sins committed in the world And therefore not onely the Apostles but their and our Lord and Master Christ hath taught us this lesson that Charity is the fulfilling of the Law Insomuch as Rom. 13.10 so far as Charity can prevail to the killing of sin Mat. 22.40 which is the transgression of the Law she may well be called the fulfilling of the Law And so high an esteem had our Lord Christ of the great virtue and power which Charity hath in the work of our salvation that when he had largely preached of the whole duty of man and given him many precepts and expositions of the Decalogue necessary to be understood and followed by old and young learned and illiterate for the relief of mans memory and the greater incouragement to his proceeding he summes up all and tells us all the Law and all that God requires of man is nothing else but Charity that is love to God and for his sake love to thy neighbour S. Augustine addeth that as God calls himself Love who is all in all 1 John 4.8 for all things are from him by him and for him so the like in a quailfied and reverend sense we may speak of Love or Charity we say he that hath not houses nor Vineyards nor Lands yet if he hath Money he hath potentially all so may we say of Charity in respect of other graces and endowments of the soul In the place before cited S. Paul speaks that of himself 1 Cor. 13.1 which the best of men may say of themselves with the like truth that could I preach as though I spoke with the tongue of Angels yet this without Charity will make me but like an empty sound of brasse or like the bell in the sleeple that calls others to the Church and so to Heaven while it self hangs without doors Nay do I give all my goods to the poore and my body to martyrdome for the truth and have no charity these will profit me nothing Yea if I understand all the mysteries of God and have all faith saith he and have not Charity observe this he saith not of this last as of the former gifts of preaching martyrdome or goods that these without Charity profit nothing but he saith that although he hath all understanding all knowledge and all saith yet these without Charity make him not onely as a sound or which profiteth nothing but he saith that having these and not having Charity he is plainly nothing nothing as in Gods acceptance and nothing as appertaining to the Kingdome of Heaven The Prophet Isaiah tells the people that God regards not Isa 1. but abhors the sacrifices which he requires of them and that when they lift up their hands to Heaven he will hide his eyes and not see them and when they make many long and loud prayers unto him yet he will not hear them And how or why is God become so averse to his own commands and ordinances the Prophet tells us the cause is want of Charity when he saith Your hands are full of blood your works are full of evill injustice and oppression In a word I see not I hear not saith God but I abhor you and your works because both want Charity Much like this hath the same Prophet Isa 58. taxing the falshood of the Israelites who hypocritically cried out saying Have we not held our Fasts and have we not afflicted our souls yet thou O Lord seest not neither takest thou knowledge of our holy acts To whom the Lord in truth makes answer T is true I neither see nor take knowledge nor pleasure in your sounds and shews of holinesse For in or by these saith God ye exact your labours or things wherewith ye grieve others And ye fast for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickednesse and call ye this your fasting saith God no saith he the fast that I have chosen is to loose the bands of wickednesse to undo the heavy burdens and to let the oppressed go free and that ye break every yoak of Taxes Excize and the like these these and not praying preaching fasting with murder robbery and oppression are the works of Charity well pleasing to and required of God Without which no man by his crying Lord Lord Mat. 7.23 shall enter into the Kingdome of Heaven CHAP. XVIII Our love to God is to precede all other loves SUch was the exceeding goodnesse of God to his people that he knowing the many delights and enticements of the world the flesh and the Devill to withdraw mans love from his God that he not onely wrote in the heart of man that he was to love his Creator but that he might never forget it he gives him this as a spirituall Law written in the Tables of stone Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart Deut. 6. with all thy soul and with all thy might In which words not onely the precept is exprest to love him but the reason is annexed because he is the Lord of all and thy God in speciall And that thou mayest keep this commandment it shall be in thy heart And because from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh therefore thou shalt talk of it sitting walking lying rising that thy children thereby may learne the same and thou shalt binde it on thine hand and between thine eyes and shalt write it upon the posts of thine house and on thy gates I do not remember that any law or precept was so largely and strongly injoyned as this binding heart tongue eyes and all the faculties of the soul to love God Probably some may demand wherefore the Almighty should so earnestly and desirously require our love before or more then any or all things else that are in mans power In answer whereunto I may say that man hath nothing else to present that is so much his own or that is so much worthy of Gods acceptance nor so easie and beneficiall to himself for man to give as his love And therefore that which is least painfull or chargeable and most easie and beneficiall to the giver man and which withall is most pleasing to the Receiver God God the Receiver in his infinite goodnesse hath required of man the giver onely his love If a man were in danger to lose
Leviticall Law we read that God finding the Jews to be hard hearted and merciless to incline them to better and more loving dispositions he gave them severall Laws wherein he forbids them to eate bloud and to boyle the kid in the milke of the damme and injoyns them to leave the gleanings after harvest for the poor and some grapes for the passenger and that every seventh year the land should have rest and the benefit thereof to accrew unto the poor And although Christ was a zealous and strict observer of the Sabbath as consecrated to Gods service Mat. 12.27 yet for the necessary reliefe of man he is content to dispense with some part of that days service and therefore concludes that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath And according to this law of God and Christ Moses under the law and S. Paul under the Gospel were so zealous in their loves to their brethren that the former desires to be blotted out of Gods book rather then his countreymen should be destroyed Exod. 32 and the latter rather then his brethren in the flesh should not be saved he could wish himself to be separated from Christ Rom. 9. or excommunicated from the Church Some ancient Fathers are of opinion that when Elijah laboured to draw the Israelites from their Idolatry to God 1 King 17.6 and that himselfe was there involved and driven near to famme that God sent Ravens a kind of bird which leaves her young featherlesse and meatlesse to feed him that thereby he might mollifie the heart of the Prophet to be more tender to his countrey-men and by his prayer to obtain rain and the fruits of the earth for them And without conjectures the text is plain that the widow of Zarephah her compassionate love in feeding the Prophet out of her small remainder of her little meal and oyle is recompensed with such an increase 1 King 17.16 that neither her oyle nor her meal failed so long as the famine continued So true is that of our Saviour Be mercifull as your heavenly Father is mercifull and Give Luke 6.37 38. and it shall be given unto you good measure as to the widow last mentioned pressed down shaken together and running over for with the same measure that you mete with all it shall be measured to you again A sixt reason for this law of love is drawn from the end of all good laws which are made that we may live in security enjoy our peace which is accomplished principally by this love to our neighbour The old law given to the Jews by which they conceived that they might hate and kill their enemies Gal. 5.1 S. Paul calls servitude or bondage but the law of grace which commands love to all he terms liberty because as by that law slavery so by this liberty is acquired to every state Again S. Paul building upon the same foundation raiseth his work by bowels of mercies Gol. 3.12 kindnesse humblenesse of mind forbearing one another if any man have a quarrell against any even as Christ also forgave you even so doe ye and above all these things put on Charity which as it is the foundation of all so it is the bond of all perfection S. Jerome writes of S. John that being through age grown so weak that he was carried by his disciples to the Church he ever and anon repeated this saying of our Saviour Love one another and being asked by them why so often he commemorated this text rather then any other he answered that in this they should fulfill the whole law insomuch as none could love God unlesse he loved his neighbour In which others agree saying that the love of God is the center of all our true love on which the heart as on a point of the Compasse being set the other point moves about the whole circumference of the world and indeed he that carefully observeth the tenor of the Epistles of that beloved and loving disciple S. John he shall finde this often insisted upon that the love of God and of our neighbour are so inseparable that he that doth the one cannot but doe the other for that the love of God necessarily produceth the love of our neighbour And therefore when our Saviour before his departure out of the world would set a mark of distinction whereby his disciples should be known from all others the note or mark was not preaching or prophecying for happily Judas Hymeneus Philetus Diotrephes or others might say as those of whom Christ speaks Lord Lord have not we prophecied in thy name Mat. 7.21 22 23 nor was the note of distinction the working miracles or casting out devills for Simon Magus and others in Christs name did the like and of those and such like Christ saith I take you not for my disciples Depart hence I know you not Joh. 13.35 for my mark is love and by this men shall know that ye are my disciples and such as for whom I have prepared a place in my kingdome CHAP. XXII The manner how we are to love our neighbour THe Scripture hath given us three rules by which we are taught how to love our neighbour The first is that of our Saviour Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Mat. 22.33 the second is that which Christ likewise prescribes as I have loved you Joh. 13.34.1 Cor. 12 12. so shall ye love one the other the third is that of S. Paul comparing the members of Christs mysticall body to the parts of mans body naturall The loving our neighbour as our selfe is to be understood first as desiring the same graces spirituall and eternall to thy brother as to thy selfe secondly wishing in all things else the like to be done to thy neighbour as thou wishest to be done to thy self And against this first rule of love we find in the world two offenders the one in the excesse the other in the defect and among the former besides some others whom I might touch I may not amisse place some preachers in our times who as some Physitians through covet of gain or other respects so much intend the cure of others that they neglect the health of their own bodies so these by their preaching raise others and lye still themselves in their own sins of whom and such like I may use S. Pauls words Thou art inexcusable O man Rom. 2.1.21 for thou that teachest another teachest thou not thy self ' and likewise wise that of our Saviour Physitian thou that professest to cure others heal thy self The Defective Lover hath one scale wherein to weigh himself and another for his Neighbour which Moses tells us is an abomination before God yet too many such there are Deut. 25. who looking into their neighbors vertues or miseries they see them with diminishing-glasses whereby they seem little or not considerable the first as not to be commended and the latter as not
against themselves nor what they do against me yet Father for this and for this cause that their malice hath so blinded them O Father forgive them And if this cannot work and perswade you to love and not to hate and revenge your selves upon your enemies I know not what to say but to leave you to Gods judgement or which I rather desire upon your repentance to his mercy CHAP. XXVI Of Friendship OUR Saviour Christ commands us to love our neighbours Ioh. 15. and Matth. 5. to love our enemies but I read not that he ever counselled us to love our friends not that he thought them unworthy to be loved as more especially comprised under the title of neighbour but he omitted this precept or counsel for that every one would as most bound love them of their own accord and indeed Christ himself expresseth so much when be saith the Heathen Publicans who are ranged with sinners Mat. 5. â—6 these love their friends But because friendship hath been used and worn as a Cloak to do and cover much deceit and iniquity I will therefore follow the method of the Psalmist Psal 1. where from describing the wicked he makes his way to the godly so here I shall first note the disguises and falsities of counterfeit friends that avoiding these we may the better choose and love the true and good ones And the first rank of these are like Simeon and Levi Gen. 49.5 Brethren or friends so made and joyned together by the cords as the Prophet calls them of iniquity such are they of whom Solomon speaks who cry Come let us lye in wait for blood come let us fill our selves with strong drink and come let us take our fill of lust the world hath and ever will be too full of such conspirators not friends Such were Josephs brethren when they sold him such were the Scribes and Pharisees Herod and Pilate Jews and Romans made friends in a most wicked conspiracy to murther the annointed of the Lord of these I may say as Jacob O my soul Gen. 49.6 come not thou into their secret cursed be their wrath for it was cruel divide them therefore O Lord in Jacob and scatter them in Israel Another rank of false friends are such who under the cover of sheepskins get in and play the Wolves to the spoil and destruction of the simple and innocent-minded man and of this sort was Cain who as some Rabbies spake Gen. 4. â— kindely entreated his brother to walk into the fields and when he had him there alone he flew him and such was Absalom to his brother Ammon Joab to Abner the Pharisees and Judas to our Lord Christ all which under the pretext and colour of love betrayed and murthered the innocent With this rank of men as King David was too well acquainted so he often complains of and prayes against them as being of his counsell and eating of his bread Psa 94. yet while they had butter and oyle in their lips their hearts and tongues were spears swords and very poyson These to David were more dangerous then his publick enemies for of those saith he I could have taken heed but the others I mistrusted not The Thief that robbed in the day if he were killed Exod. 22.3 4. the blood of the killer was to be shed for him but if he robbed in the dark and was slain the killer was not to dye for it so much are the disguises and works of darkness abominable in the sight of God more then apert and open villany Of these I might counsel as the Philosophers and wise-men have done Try before you trust and lâ—â—rn to distrust and seeing all is not gold that glisters eat a bushell of salt with that man whom you purpose to make your friend Sâ—chem paid dear for trusting Simeon and Levi's friendship so did Sampson in relying on the love of Delilah and Abner on the fidelity of Joab The counsel given by the Prophet is seasonable and proper Jer. 5.4 Take heed every one of his neighbour and trust not any brother for they will deceive V. 7. they will tell lies and commit iniquity therefore I will melt and try them saith the Lord. There is a third sort of false friends who make shew of love when all tends to their own benefit or advantage Such are they spoken of by the Prophet Isa 1.23 Every one loveth gifts and followeth after rewards Such were Jobs friends such the Prodigals lovers in the Gospel who like Mice Whores and Swallows make love and frequent your house in the summer of prosperity but in the end prove like Acteons hounds to be your destroyers The wise-man distinguisheth and rangeth this kinde of friendship into a friend for his occasion Ecclus. â— v. 7. v. 10 11. and to a friend at thy table and to a friend in prosperity these are to be tryed as metals not by colour nor weight these are deceitful but by fire and the hammer by the fire of danger and adversity and by the hammer of trouble and persecution If they will endure and burnish and look bright under these take and hold them for good if not reject them as counterfeit The fourth kinde of false friends is that who loves for his own delight be it of thy beauty feature or other outward parts or gifts and these are not unlike to Lice which so long as the body hath sweat and foul matter they continue but no longer and their love is like the Apple of Sodom or the beast called Acucena which in twice handling yields an ill savour We have Gardens Parks and Chambers full of these I would I could not truly say Churches full of such whose love is most seen in being seen touched and tasted But as the flowers of the Garden hold not long their colour or sent so nor this love They cry Let its crown our selves with roses let us eat drink take our fill of love and suddenly they as their love is vanished and their place no where to be found Psa 37. Betwixt these false vitious loves and the true moral friendship there is a natural love engendered fostered and encreased by a similitude in the outward shape or inward qualities and such is that whereof we say Like loves its Like and Birds of a feather will fly together But this being in it self simply neither good nor ill but may prove either as it is applied and used I will pass it by And tell you what the true moral love or friendship is and what is required to the birth and growth thereof Some Philosophers have called a friend another self understanding thereby that although friendship be betwixt two yet that these two had but one soul that is but one will and affection in two bodies so that Tully hath more largely described friendship to be a mutual and reciprocal will and desire betwixt two in all good things divine and humane by
Spouse such is true love was at little rest while absent from her beloved the whole book of Canticles proves this Where Ch. 1.7 O where art thou whom my soul loveth and Ch. 3.1 2. by night I sought thee whom my soul loveth and I will rise and go about the city in the streets and in the broad wayes I will seek him whom my soul loveth and seeking but not finding how she bemoans her self to the watch-men and having found him she holds him fast V. 4. and will not let him go until she had brought him where she might enjoy him whom she so much loved and desired Absence and silence in friendship are like frost to the waters which deprives them of their flowing and yielding their comfort to those that need them whereas the presence and speech of a friend is to a friend like the light and heat of the Sun I end the conditions requisite to friendship with this That friendship should be without end Enmities among all but especially among friends and Christian friends ought to be mortal every day dying but their loves must be if true and from God immortal Such was Christs love to us Joh 15. as himself professeth saying Whom I love I love unto the end and then as it were by way of Application he saith This Commandment give I unto you That as I have loved you so ye love one another and where he findes not love thus long-lived but temporising he blames it as in the Church of Ephesus with which Church as he begins so in it the onely thing he findes fault with Rev. 2.4 is That she had left her first love for this is the love that he shews to man as by his Prophet he speaks Jer. 31.3 I have loved thee with an everlasting love In conclusion True love most not be like those Creatures spoken of by Naturalists that live and dye in a day or like your Pinks or Tulips flowers of sight and smell delightful but for a few hours but like the Oak the Hart the Elephant which are long lived In a word it should be as our wives till death us depart CHAP. XXVII The comfort and benefit of Friendship TO set forth the good redounding from friendship Tully and others as it were in the manner of proverbiall speeches used these That we had not greater need or use of fire and water then of friendship and to take this away were all one as to take the Sun out of the firmament intimating thereby That man cannot live without friendship Insomuch as what is generally spoken of health may as truly be spoken of friendship That it is such a good as without which nothing can seem good And this good among many others alleviates and lessens our griefs and enlargeth and extends our joyes by the participation and communication of each of them with a friend The wise-man therefore saith Pro. 18. that a friend is better then a brother and according hereunto Christ calls not his disciples brethren but friends And God himself to express the great love he bore unto Moses though his servant saith that he talked with him as a friend To sum up all Exod. 33. Ecclus. 6.14 the wise-man saith A faithful friend is a strong defence and he that hath found such a one hath found a great treasure and in the next verse A faithful friend is the medicine of life V. 15. and his excellency is so unvaluable that nothing doth countervail it But the same wise-man in the same Chapter having pointed out many kinds of counterfeit friends at the 7th verse counsels If thou wouldst get a friend prove him first that is saith another Translation Try and prove him in the time of trouble and be not hasty to credit him that is untill thou hast tryed him And one thing wherein thou art to try thy friend is his goodness and vertue For as the Prophet saith There is no peace to the wicked so may I say Ifa 57 2â— There is no good lasting peace nor agreement with the wicked no more then with a tempestuous Sea to which the wicked is there compared which is never at rest within it self nor suffers others to rest that sail in it There were Nations with whom God forbade his Israel to have any peace or league of friendship And some sins there are which more especially and neerly strike at and destroy the root of true godly love so that we cannot covenant or unite with them In the first Table the breach of the first and third Precept and in the second Table the violation of the sixth seventh ninth and tenth But in brief beware of the man decyphered by the Prophet who walketh in the counsell of the ungodly and standeth in the way of sinners Psa 1.1 and sitteth in the seat of the scornfull that man I say whose study and counsel is sin and maketh it a piece of his trade so that he scorns all just reproof that man avoid as in no condition fit to be a friend Now as Wisdom Humility and Meekness are the vertues in which as in good soils we may sow the seed of love and friendship so Folly Pride and Anger are grounds that will never receive the seed of love to any good encrease not Folly for as a fool cannot judge or rightly value the hidden parts of a wise man thereby to make him his friend so neither can the wise man see any thing in the fool wherefore he should choose to love him A fool may so may a wise man play and make sport with a fool but a fool cannot love a fool much less can a wise man for the Moon changeth not so often as the fool doth for his thoughts are as the spokes in the wheel of a Cart ever moving up and down and the secrets which thou shalt commit unto him are as the wise-man speaks Ecclus. 19.12 as an arrow that sticketh in a mans thigh with which he travels to be delivered of as a woman in labor of a childe Nor Pride for this is apt to beget hate envy and malice whereas Humility as the low and fertile valley is the best ground for friendship Again Pride rejoyceth in it self and as the Pharisee despiseth others if he see a mountain or beam of vertue good in another he would make it appear but as a mote or as a mole-hill whereas on the contrary the humble soul either seeth no faults in his friend or he lessens it all he can to the world and thereby would make his friends errors to be but motes and his vertues beams And when the proud man speaks of his friends good qualities or endowments he doth it with â—n if or a but then the humble doth it categoâ—â—cally and affirmatively but never forgetting how our Saviour commended John the Baptist which was not to his face for this is the mark of a Sycophant or Flatterer but in his
incorruptible What is Musick but an harmony or consonancy of various discordant sounds What 's health but a temper or accord of the elements and parts of the body Some write that the stone Tuces if broken though then lesse weighty sinketh but so long as it is one whole and intire then and so long it swimmeth and keeps from sinking under water and the like power hath love and unity in all other bodies Consider and know that if the Almighty Architect of the world had not breathed or infused a spirit of unity into the upper and celestiall parts with the inferiour elementary that these had soon been scorched and indeed consumed by those Again the inferiour parts ever stand in need and crave the help benefit or influence of those above them as the earth of the water the water of the aire the aire of the fire and the fiery element of the Heavens in which if one Sphere should thwart and not gently yeeld to the others influence or motion they as the inferiour world would suddenly perish and be consumed The great Creator of these and all things in and under them Genesis 1.31 gave not the high praise and title of very good unto them untill himself by his most admirable power and goodnesse Gen. 1.31 had united them by love and so made them all one I cannot but acknowledge the saying of that Philosopher to be good and wise who called this kinde of love the Soul of the world For as the soule gives life and motion unto the body so doth love unto all other things and as the soule cherisheth and enlightens the bodie so doth love beautifie and inrich the world In a word there is no creature nor part of the world either great or small but hath if not all yet the greatest part of its perfection subsistence or continuance from this love But besides this kinde of love hitherto spoken of which in unreasonable creatures may more strictly be called inclination there is a love properly so termed which hath its working in the will both of God Angels and men Parmenides though an Heathen could say That love in God preceded the Chaos or the creation of the world as causing and making both Take this love as in man and then hear another Philosopher call it the Pilot a second the Sun a third the guide and director of the will of man and of all his choice actions CHAP. II. What love is and how it is the cause of all passions THings high and immense having some resemblance to infinity hardly come under the limits of a strict definition which hath caused the ancients to set forth love by Emblemes and Hieroglyphicks Yet so that some have in generall described it by negatives as that it is a thing which is I know not what affecteth and worketh I know not in what manner and which hurteth I know not how S. Gregorie calls it the fire in mans heart which according to the working thereof either cherisheth or destroyeth the Tabernacle of its residence and it may well be conceived that when the holy Ghost descended in the figure or shew of fire Act. 2.3 that that fire signified the love and accord to be amongst the holy Apostles being assembled together in one place which is the complement and blessing of all good Assemblies when they are all of one minde and one heart in a godly innocent love The fire which came from Heaven to consume the Sacrifice God commanded ever to be continued Levit. â— 13 that so it might never be extinguished or put out Isaiah saith Isa 31.9 That God hath his fire in Sion and his furnace in Jerusalem each Symbols of Gods love burning in the temple of our souls Now Philosophy teacheth that love is a passion both of complacency and such as fasteneth the thing or person beloved in the heart of the lover and it addeth That this love is the originall cause of all other passions in man according as they please or displease suit with or are contrary to our love and desire For the soule of man hath two great powerfull faculties called by Philosophers the concupiscible and the irascible In that are love hate desire fear joy and sorrow arising from the presence or absence of something or other which is either truly or apparently good And according as the concupiscible part is affected with grief want or losse of that which is desired so more or lesse the irascible part is inflamed or incensed to the prosecution or revenge of the affronts or bereavings of the souls desire S. Basil compared this passion unto the Shepherds dog more valued by him then many of his sheep not for that the dog hath any wooll or gives any milk but because by his watchfulnesse and barking he defendeth the flock from the wolf and so the concupiscible faculty or part of the soule proposeth to it self matter of delight and content and the irascible removeth or converteth the inconveniences and difficulties which crosse or oppugne this desire And these are the two wings wherewith mans soule flyeth in the pursuit of great Acts and without which she appears as a Galley unoared and a bird unwinged each unable to move or help it self A certain Philosopher hath compared the body of a man to a Coach drawn with two horses Conceive them to be love of good and hatred of evill But considering that they are disorderly and oft-times unruly God hath assigned them a discreet guide that is reason to rule and govern them Seneca the Philosopher calleth this the Guardian and S. Augustine termeth it the Author and Mover of all our actions be they good or evill as having tied at its girdle the keyes of all our wills and affections Betwixt love and concupiscence some put this difference 1. That concupiscense aimeth at a supposed good that is absent but love both at the absent and present 2. Concupiscence after the having and enjoying the thing desired as being satisfied groweth cold or ceaseth for the present to desire whereas love by possessing and injoying increaseth and is more ardent towards the thing beloved For the possession or enjoyment of the thing beloved serveth as fuell to continue and increase the flame or fire whereas things desired by a concupiscence being injoyed die and are often resolved into the smoak of disgrace or the ashes of hate CHAP. III. The power and force of Love SOlomon saith Love is strong as death But if we examine the strength of each we shall finde love to be the stronger â—antic â— 6 T is true that all earthly things submit to the power of death the young as the old the King as the Peasant the rich as the poor the wise as the fool Scepters and spades are both alike to death All know this truth would we did but half so well consider and prepare for it And as the jurisdiction of death so is that of love universall None ever escaped the
Greek they say may here as elswhere among sacred and profane Writers signifie a separation or setting apart the person of man and beast to suffer death or the like as a sacrifice thereby to expiate the offence of others and if this sense may be admitted then much more cannot be inferred then that S. Paul preferred his Countrey-mens spirituall and eternall estates before his own temporall or before his life which shewes that which we allege for to prove the transcendency of his love Others conceive the words anathema or accursed from Christ to mean Excommunication and this to be like that casting out of Cain Gen. 4.14 where it is said and from thy face shall I be hid Gods face noting typically the Church or visible congregation of Gods servants and this wish or desire in the Apostle though it goe farre yet because it includes not an everlasting separation but such as by Gods mercy and the Apostles repentance may be relaxed it is not so scrupulous and dangerous as The third sense of the words viz that S. Paul hereby should wish his eternall disherisance from heaven for his brethren and Countrey-men which curse separation or disherisance if it be the sense of the words then some answer that the word is I could have wished it So that S. Paul doth not expresly and plainly say I do wish this but I could or my love is such that rather then my Countreymen to whom the Promise and the Covenant is made should perish and they lose the benefit thereof I could finde in my heart to wish that I might be separated But say they he doth not explicitely and in the indicative mood say I do wish But if this answer be not admitted as satisfactory but that S. Paul seems to wish as a dear friend and tender father to be kept from eternall joyes rather then want the company of his children and Countrymen whom he calls by a neer relation brethren the question then will be as it is generally made how far forth this desire may be held justifiable or be accounted sinfull as to himself to wish the privation of his own eternall blisse Which question or difficulty some thus assoile 1. That for the greater promotion and exaltation of Gods glory this may be desired being that this is the first main principall end of mans being made or redeemed to advance the glory of God and that Gods glory should the more appeare by the restoring and saving of the Jews cannot be denied or doubted by any 2. Or as before the Text speaks not that I do wish but that I could so wish and that I could wish may imply that this wish in the Apostle is not so absolute as simply to desire his own damnation for his Countrymens salvation but that it may well comprehend under it at least a tacite condition as Lord I wish it if so it agree with thy will decree and good pleasure for whatever is agreeable to this must be and is justifiable and no waies sinfull 3. S. Paul may be construed thus to meane if for any cause under Gods glory I may desire mine own exclusion from Heaven then I could wish it for my Countrymens benefit and salvation such was the heighth and depth of the love of this blessed Apostle which desires at least to translate all its own good to his beloved CHAP. X. The Causes and Motives of Love I Shall not yet here touch upon the prime and principall cause of Love which is God but of that which is neerest unto God goodnesse which is the true proportionate object of the will and so of our love Insomuch that if the will at any time makes choice of the contrary which is evill this comes to passe by the wills being deceived by a false object and counterfeit colour in appearance of some seeming good For the will in its pure constitution doth not cannot affect or desire that which in it self simply is and so appears to be evill A man blinded in his reason and deceived by the pleasancy of wine or the beauty of women may will the unlawfull company of the one and the inordinate use of the other yet in neither doth he will or desire fornication or drunkennesse as they are evils but as he is ashamed to be termed a fornicator or a drunkard so though he become or be both yet he desires not drunkennesse or fornication but onely the base delight and pleasure in them which hath deceived and cousened his desire under a shew of that which seemed then unto him good For God which made all by weight and measure hath given to our understanding and will certain naturall inclinations which as laws cause them to affect their proper objects which are truth to the understanding and goodnesse to the will So that who is perverted or willingly perverteth the truth this is done by the false colour and shadow of truth and so it comes to passe in the matter of our will which ever desires that which is good and if deceived it is by that which appears at that time so to be Aristotle hath ranged Love into three kinds according to the three severall objects alluring the will and desire The one is love of pleasure and delight which too commonly follows and is entertained by youth Another is the love of wealth and is the servant mostly of old age A third is the love of that which is comely and honest which I fear hath the least part or predominancy in mans will where private interest bears the sway We have read that in ages before us vertue honour and beauty had the mastery in the will but those objects are laid aside and are past away with those times Some ancient Fathers give a reason why our Saviour openly proclaimed his gift of paradise to the Thiefe on the Crosse rather than to the Patriarchs and Prophets and it was say they because he at that time when Christ was publickly disesteemed and contemptuously used by all that he then proclaimed him to be the Messias and the Saviour of the world This singular bounty therefore of our Saviour accompanied that rare piece of faith and love in the Thief to whom at that time when the Thief profest him Christ had shewed no miracle nor done him savour Whereas now adaies few serve or worship Christ unless he honour or serve their turns so that were it not for the benefits he daily bestows on us he might for us live as retired in the contemplation of his own infinite goodnesse with little or no love of the world Next to goodnesse not onely Philosophers but the holy Scriptures have assigned knowledge to be an especiall worker of love Our Saviour saith This is life eternall Joh. 17. â— to know the Father and the Son for from this knowledge ariseth our love and by them both we attain to life everlasting Unbelief ignorance or the forgetfulnesse of this principle as to say with the foole there is
himself under the Law and the Gospell Deut. â— 5 Thou love him with all thy heart and with all thy soule with all the strength and faculties thereof For as a great Prince coming to an Inne takes up all the rooms in the house not holding it to stand with his state to have any stranger a sharer with him so is it and much more with God And that again because as S. John saith 1 John 3.20 God is greater then thy heart so that all is too little for him though he hath all And if he will not endure that one Temple shall receive both his Ark and the Idoll Dagon will he be content 1 Sam. 5 in his bed-chamber which is mans heart to endure his enemies the World the flesh and the Devill to have their abode or to lodge there No one saith Christ cannot serve two Masters I am sure not two such that are so contrary and opposite as God is to the Devill the World and the Flesh neither saith S. Paul 1 Cor. 6.14 can light dwell with darknesse nor Christ with Belial The Prophet Elijah saith unto the people 1 Kings 18.21 How long halt ye between two opinions if the Lord be God serve him but if Baal then follow him God will not cannot endure any corrivall much lesse any bedfellow with him in the heart of man Moses tells Pharaoh Exod. â—â— that God will not suffer him to leave so much as an hoof behinde in Egypt when he goes to sacrifice to God for the least possession is a kinde of engagement against God The world or the Devill like the counterfeit mother cries divide it let me have a part t is no matter which living or dead so God hath not all to himselt alone whereas the true mother of the living child â— Kin. 3. will admit of no division but she will have all or none and such is Gods desire for if the heart be divided as Hâ—sea speaks of Israel â—os 10. it is as the childe divided which cannot live to the true Parent But O man consider how reasonable and just God is in requiring thy whole soule and how unjust and unreasonable thou art in denying it him entire or dividing it in parts betwixt him and his enemies Consider I say when he created the goodly universe of this world and so gloriously adorned and furnished it not onely with the fruitfull plants and fragrant flowers but with those bright Lamps in Heaven that he made all this and gave it entire to thee alone making thee the sole Lord thereof in respect of any other creatures over all which also he gave thee temporall power and dominion and as though in this he had shewed but half or indeed but the least part of his love consider that God himself gave himself wholly to thee was incarnate suffered died rose and all onely for thee and not for any other And is not this argument sufficient that the least thou canst return in gratitude should be thy heart entire not to be cut into parcels or shreds some whereof to be given to the giver of all and the rest to his and thine own enemies But some perchance may say though this is just and reasonable which is required yet it is most difficult for man clothed with flesh to performe this duty so strictly commanded to love God with all the affections and thoughts of the soul and these ever to be fixed on him and nothing else neither on parents friends or things of this life In answer hereunto I must tell you that God knoweth what we are and whereof we are made and therefore in this strict command or absolute request of all our love he prohibits us neither to love parents children friends no nor the things of this world so we love them with these two rules or cautions 1. That we love neither friends nor things on earth with such a degree of affection as may alienate or divide our fouls from God And therefore God himself hath not onely commanded us to love our neighbours all our neighbours of what rank or distance soever so they be men and to seek in the second place things necessary for the life and well being of our selves and those who depend on us and for whom we are to provide but hath figured the fame in proportioning our heart which though it hath a large and broad superficies upward to look and dilate it self to Heaven yet it hath but a cone or small point downwards to the things beneath The second caution in our love to any thing besides God is that whatever we thus love it must virtually tend and move to the service and glory of God And in this our love resembles the point of the needle in the Sea-mans Card or the Geometricians paire of compasses the former of which though it be ever moving and as it were casting about to severall parts yet it still returns and reteins its whole setled course to the true pole star and the latter though the one foot of the Compasse circuit and surround the circumference or globe of the earth yet the other stands ever firm and constant to the point which point here as that star before in this our application is God So that God who without any shew of covetousnesse in himself or wrong to thee might require all thy substance all thy actions and all thy time wholly to be dedicated and spent on his immediate holy service yet grants rhee the fruits of thy honest labour thy wealth and bids thee give his poore onely th t which thou mayest well spare and of the fruits of thy increase he takes onely a tenth and from thy worldly travails onely a seventh part and that Love which he wholly and entirely calls for is the affection and love of thy heart Shall I summe up all There is none so ungodly in this world but assents to this generall doctrine that God is to be so loved as he requires but all the question and difference lies in the performance and manner of loving for the most wicked in some sort may be said to love God But how and why for it is but with a carnall or worldly minde and to their own end and behoof as by him to enjoy life health wealth pleasure and delight and so they love God for these things that if he would confirm his letters patents unto them that these they might perpetually enjoy they would readily release unto him all the grant and interest made to them in Heaven On the other side the true lovers of God so love the world as that thereby and therewith they may the better serve him and promote his glory without which they desire neither the things of the world nor long to continue in it They love these things so as a man doth his horse his cloak or garment the one to carry him through his journey to his Inne and the other to keep him warm and
to defend him from the hurt or violence of the weather so that the love of the first is like that of the Strumpets all for reward or what will ye give me and by these means he makes the principall of what he should love God but the accessory to the thing he loves and the accessory indeed the things of the world and flesh he makes the principall part of his love Whereas the true lover makes God the prime originall principall cause and mover of all his love and all things else but subordinate and subservient to this love The regenerate and unregenerate children of God in this world make use of Gods blessings and so return their love to God as Isaac blessed his two sons Jacob and Esau where the father in blessing Jacob ver 28. begins with heaven Gen. 27. God give thee of the dew of heaven yet he after adds the fatnesse of the earth but in blessing Esau ver 39. he begins with the earth Behold thy dwelling shall be of the fatnesse of the earth and of the dew above In like manner God gives his truly beloved Israel the dew the desire and love of heaven in the first place but to the Edomite first the fatnesse of the earth and according as their desires are set so also are their loves this mans to the world and the others to God And by these their loves as by certain and infallible rules ye may know and discerne what they are CHAP. XX. The love of the heavenly Angels unto man IN this Chapter of Angels my Authour is very large and attributes mare unto Angels then I can finde sufficient ground for therefore I shall abbreviate and deliver no more from him then I conceive is warrantable Which is In Scripture we have no mention of an Angel untill the world was above nineteen hundred years old Gen. 16.7 and who that Angell was that appeared and talked with Hagar is questioned By the learned among which many are of opinion that it was God himself for that he said ver 10. I will multiply thy seed and that she answered v. 13. and called the name of the Lord that spake unto her Thou God seest me But if this were not God but a created Angell the question may be wherefore Moses so faithfully and fully speaking of Gods works in that great Creation neither then nor in all the time since till this of Genesis hath any word of an Angell Some are of opinion that Moses writing more especially to his Countrymen the Jews omitted the history of the Angels creation lest the Jews over apt as the most simple people are to Idolatry might by it have fallen into such an esteem of them as to have adored them Or Moses writing his history of the Creation in brief exprest onely what more directly concerned man to know concerning his duty and service to God yet when he finds a just and necessary cause he then omits not to speak of them as in this story of Hagar Now what they are though we have not in Scripture any exact discourse or definition of their natures yet the Psalmist hath exprest the end and office why they are created when he saith God shall give his Angels charge over thee Psame 91.11 to keep thee in all thy waies and this that they may the better do he adds in another Psalme He maketh his Angels Spirits Psalme 114.4 his Ministers a flaming fire or a flame of fire as the Apostle renders it Which summed up the result will be Heb. 1.7 that Gods good Angels are created for the good and benefit of Gods good servants on earth to whom under and from God they are in a kinde of ministery or service as is expresly spoken by the Apostle Are they not all ministring Spirits Hebr. 1.14 sent forth to minister for them who shall be heires of salvation And Psa 34.8 The Angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that feare him and delivereth them And that they may do God service for mans good God hath made them for their activenesse agile and swift as Spirits and for their fervency and zeale in discharge of their office as a flame of fire The Scripture is plentifull in the confirmation thereof therefore when Hagar is blessed in the promise of a great issue Gen. 16. it is done by an Angell and when she and her son were in a famiâ—hing distresse they receive their comfort by an Angel Gen. 21.17 and they were Angels that brought and delivered Lot out of the fire in Sodome Gen. 19. â—15 When King Hezekiah and the people of Judah were in eminent danger to be swallowed up and destroyed by the vast and potent army of the Assyrians 2 Kings 19. then the Angel of the Lord smote of the Assyrians in one night 185000. And we finde the three servants of God cast into the fiery Furnace when God sends his Angell and delivered them that trusted in him then Daniel cast into the Lions Den Dan. 3.28 we see in the same place the Angel of God shutting the Lions mouths Dan. 6.22 that they cannot hurt him And the blessed Babe Christ his Mother and supposed Father being in jeopardy of their lives by that blood-sucker Herod Matth. 2.13 behold the Angell of the Lord counsels and guides them forth from the malice and rage of that tyrant And an Angel of the Lord did as much for Peter Act. 12.8 when he was cast into prison and ready the same night to have been destroyed by another Herod Many rare examples have we of the deliverances of Gods servants out of great and imminent dangers and of other their helps and comforts in time of need and distresse by the hand and help of Gods ministring Spirits the good Angels To shut up all they were Angels who pronounced John the Baptist to be the light and forerunner of the Messias 〈◊〉 1.13 Mat. 1.10 They were Angels who proclaimed the birth of the Son of God Mat. 4.11 our for ever most blessed Saviour Angels they were that ministred unto him after his long fasting Luk. 22.43 and that comforted him in his sad passion Matth. 28.5 and Angels that preached the joy of his resurrection Joh. 20.12 Thus farre we may safely go and with the warranty of Sacred writ pronounce to Gods glory and his mercy the loving offices performed by Angels to Gods dear servants but to say as my Authour and diverse otherwise learned Divines do that every particular man hath his Tutelar guardian Angel to attend guide and protect him I cannot say for the two places by them cited to prove this where it is said of the little Ones Mat. 18 1â— Their Angels in heaven do behold the face of God which is in heaven and that where it is said of Peter It is his Angel Act. 12.15 confirme not their Tenet For by their Angels and his Angel in those two
upon this Christ by way of satisfaction to the Lawyers question demands of the Lawyer whom he took to be neighbour to the wounded Jew whether the Jew who passed by not helping him or the Samaritan who hated the Jew and the Lawyer as convinced in judgement and conscience readily and roundly answered The Samaritan who helped the Jew whom otherwise he hated was neighbour to the Jew and upon that verdict thus given by the Jewish Lawyer Christ inferreth this doctrine by way of exhortation Go and do likewise that is have mercy and love ' thine enemy And what Christ preached here he practised to the full for had Christ any so great enemies unto him as the Jews who notwithstanding all the good works that he did among and for them yet hated and persecuted him to his death and when they cryed loudly to the Judge Crucifie him he more fervently prayes to his Father to forgive them and when they madly wished that his blood might be upon them and their children he mildly pronounced that his blood should be shed for them and their posterity Could there be any greater signs of the Jews enmity to Christ and could there be any greater evidence of Christs love to the Jews and according to his practice he gives his law As I have loved you even so love ye your neighbour though he be your enemy Notwithstanding this so plain and evident truth there have not wanted who have urged reasons against this position as the Rabbies masters or expounders of the Mosaical Law who feign that though the Commandment of loving our neighbour was written by God in the Tables of Stone delivered unto Moses yet it was written in the heart of man to hate his enemy 2. They urge that of our Lord God to Solomon 1 Kings 3.11 saying Because thou hast not asked long life nor riches nor the life of thine enemies I have given thee a wife heart whence they would infer that revenge on our enemies is as justifiably desired as long life 3. They adde that David of whom not onely himself but God pronounced that he had walked according to his Commandments yet David used many and bitter curses and imprecations against his enemies 4. To perswade us that this is natural to man they will tell us that a childe being offended with any will soon be pleased if another will but strike and revenge him upon the person that gave him the offence 5. They urge some passages of ancient Fathers who deem this hate of enemies to have been permitted to the Jews as that of Divorce for the hardness of their hearts To the first argument I may say That such a Tradition as is alleaged by the Rabbies is not to be regarded but to be rejected as frivolous and falfe But if any adde that it should seem by the words of Christ himself that in Moses's time or at least before Christ there was such a Tradition among the the Jews as that it was permitted to them to hate their enemies for Christ saith Ye have heard that it hath been said of old Mat. 5.43 Thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemie To this I may answer That the words of Christ It hath been said of old might relate to the perverse interpretation of the Scribes who argued That seeing we are to love our neighbors that is say they our friends therefore we may hate our enemies or because God commanded to make no peace with nor to spare the Canaanites but destroy them therefore we might do the like to all our enemies But to this or that old saying we need say no more then what Christ hath said Ye have heard it said of old V. 44. Thou shalt hate thine enemy but I say unto you Love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you But notwithstanding this they urge That by the Law of Moses as much is implyed as the hate of our enemies for it is said Thou shalt not hate thy brother Lev. 19.17 Deut. 15.7 and ver 18. Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people from which Texts and the like they would infer That they may hate and avenge themselves on all but their brethren and the children of their own people which were the Jews onely and therefore all the rest they might hate as their accounted enemies But to this we answer That it is an implication of their own making without ground from the Text which may be proved from other Texts which command the love of our enemy and the Spirit of God doth not cannot command contradictions Now God commands If thou meet thine enemies beast straying Exod. 23.4 Prov. 25.21 thou shalt bring it back to him that is to thine enemy and Solomon which words S. Paul Rom. 12.20 urgerh to our Saviours sense If thine enemy be hungry give him bread to eat and if he be thirsty give him to drink and the Lord will reward thee Here is no sign nor tittle of hate or revenge to our enemy but quite contrary to shew him the fruits of our love in doing him good And if to any the hate of our enemies seem natural I must say It must be to such as are of a perverse corrupted Jewish disposition and not to the nature of a true Christian for can any man conceive that God who is love and is most delighted with mercy and love should infuse into the heart of man created after his own image hatred and revenge and that against his neighbour his brother who likewise bears the image of his Maker who is Love That David used imprecations against many is not to be denyed but denyed it must be that it was against them because simply his enemies but rather against them as Gods enemies not his 2. The imprecations were not against their persons directly as to the destruction of their soul or body but against them as they were sinners 3. It was for the conversion of sinners and that Gods glory might appear either by their conversion or destruction and not to the satisfying his own revenge Observe I pray with me That David in his Psalms is often said to hate but what sin not the man for so Psal 101. v. 3. I hate the work of them that turn aside Psal 119. v. 104. I hate every false way Ver. 113. I hate vain thoughts Ver. 163. I hate lying and if once as Psal 139. v. 21. he be found to hate them the persons yet observe v. 22. he is said to hate them with a perfect hatred which hate can onely be such when it is against that which God hates the sin but not the person of the man which is an imperfect hatred and against charity and such an hatred God abhorreth Hear David speak as to his rebellious Son Absolom his treacherous Cousin Joab and foul-mouth'd Shimei Psal 7.4 5. If I have rewarded evil to mine enemy let him persecute
my soul tread down my life and lay mine honour in the dust And to that of Solomon because God commended and blessed him for not desiring the blood of his enemies from hence to conclude that he might have hated or revenged himself upon his enemies is all one as to say God loves and blesseth the humble the chaste and the sober therefore a man may be proud lascivious a glutton or a drunkard But passing by what is or may be argued in desence of hate or revenge to our enemies it is easie to shew and prove that it is unnatural and against the law of God so to do and that the contrary to love them is not onely commanded and praised as natural but easie to be performed even by the Heathen The royal Prophet David saith Thy law is sweeter and more pleasant to me then honey Psa 19.10 or the honey-comb and our Saviour Christ speaking of his Law which is this to love and not hate our enemies Matth. 11.30 he calls it though a yoke and a burthen yet such as he professeth to be easie and light But we must consider to whom it is such not to the carnal worldling and meer natural man but to his disciple whom he understands to be a new creature born and begotten by the Spirit of grace and then to such a nature it is as natural to love his enemy as it is natural to the other to hate him The reason is for that as the Elements of Earth and Water though of themselves ponderous and heavy yet while they are in their own place they press not nor are burthensom So is the love of an enemy in an heart spiritual And as the armour of Saul before David was exercised in bearing arms was cumbersom unto him but after much use and practise in the war he could wield the great Sword of the Giant Goliah and say as he did to Abimelech There is none like unto that 1 Sam. 21.9 even so fareth it with him who hath practised and exercised himself in this holy duty of loving an enemy which an humble spiritual use and exercise will make not onely tolerable but joyous and delight-full May not this and much more be confirmed by the examples of Joseph who being sold treacherously by his brethren Gen. 45. wept over them feasted them and plentifully provided for them of Moses who being murmured against by his Subjects and grosly slandered by Corah Numb 16. Dathan and Abiram who endevoured to disgrace and dethrone him yet then even then he ceased not to labour with God to preserve them whom otherwise the Lord in his just anger would have consumed of David who not onely would not suffer his Soldiers to knock down that railing Shimei but forgave him and when his unnatural rebellious Son Absolom conspired not only the deposing but the killing him yet he then cryes Spare the life of the yong-man who being slain against his will he with floods of tears bewails his death and as desirous to have saved his life by the loss of his own cryes out Absolom my son my son Absolom 2 Sam. 18. would God I had dyed for thee O Absolom my son my son Now can we conceive that more love then this in Joseph Moses and David to their greatest enemies could have been shewed by any other to their dearest friends So true is this that love of an enemy in a soul purified and exercised with patience proves not onely connatural to it but most easie and delightful Nay further if any shall say these indeed were rare examples of men extraordinarily endowed with heavenly gifts of faith love and patience and to these and such as these it was no hard matter thus to love their enemies To this let me reply and tell you that Heathens who as S. Paul speaks of them know not God yet by the light of reason and by the help of humane patience alone have come near to these most illightned and sanctified men and therefore the art of loving your enemies is not so hard a thing to the naturall man if he would give his minde to it Augustus Caesar that great Conqueror and Commander of the World being in the open streets called Tyrant by an unworthy fellow returned no more then this If I were as thou callest me thon couldst not live to call me so a second time Zino a Conspirator against Julius Caesar was pardoned by him and his estate restored and when he had fallen into the like again yet Caesar again pardoned him saying I will see which of us two shall be soonest weary thou in procuring thy own death or I in pardoning thy life I confess there are ingraffed by God in mans sensitive Soul the concupiscible and irascible faculties the one whereof is soon provoked and the other as soon desires and delights in revenge but on the other side you must know That God hath placed in the reasonable Soul the Understanding and Will so that be thy Passions as wilde horses or curst and cruel as mastiff Dogs yet these two the reasonable Spiritual Soul like the skilful Rider or the Master of the dogs can with the whistle or bridle retrain and keep them in if they will use their own power and authority over them If any ask me May I not sue my neighbour or mine enemy who hath taken or kept away my goods or may I not implead him who hath robbed me of my good name I briefly answer Yes so it be for restitution of the one or reparation of the other and without hate or revenge to his person Nay this thou art bound to do in a triple obligation the one to God for the honour of his Power and Justice in punishing violence and iniquity the second to thy self who art bound to love thy self before thy neighbour the third to thy neighbour be he in this case as in place of an enemy yet thou are bound to sue and implead him that by a moderate and lawful chastisement he may see his faults repent and do no more so and hereby thou shalt in part and as much as in thee is save his soul which is no piece of hate but a great part of love that thou shouldest bear to thy neighbour If it be yet urged that the voyce of the blood of Abel cryeth to God for vengeance Gen. 4.10 and that the Souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held cry with a loud voyce saying How long O Lord holy and true Rev. 6.9 10. dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth The general answer to the cryes of Gods Saints or holy ones living or dead to God for vengeance is That these as holy ones and Saints desire nothing against but according to his will 2. Not so much or not directly to the torture of their persons as to the destruction of their violence rapine and
which will and desire each studieth the others good as earnestly and affectionately as his own yea and so far oft-times than he preferreth the outward good of his friend before his own And that such friendship hath been found they tell us of Pylades and Orestes Damon and Pythias Theseus and Pirithous who took upon them to be the persons of their friends imprisoned and in danger of life thereby to hazard their own liberties and lives for the freedome and preservation of their friends To the setling and confirming of this friendship I shall lay down some conditions as necessarily requisite First that there be a kinde of equality betwixt friends which though the learned Roman Tully allows not yet with some Grecians it passed as a Proverb that Amity is Equality which is to be understood not so much in the outward estate and place of wealth honour and office as in the condescension and submission of the reason and will of the one to the other with a due observation to the place and dignity of the other And so Jonathan though the eldest Son of King Saul became a friend to David a shepherd for saith the Text the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David 1. Sam. 1â— and Jonathan loved him as his own soul and in this respect may a King be a friend to his Subject for Christ himself thus calleth his disciples and true followers friends Joh. 15. â—4 15. who although he never did nor could devest himself of the glorious Deity yet to the making good his friendship he became in all things as man sin onely excepted yea as he called these his friends Servants in the Text before so that he might prove himself the more their friend he not onely was found in fashion as a man and as they to be a man of no reputation but more he took upon him the form of a servant â—hil 2. and accordingly shewed it before his passion when he humbled himself to the washing his Apostles feet A second condition requisite to this confirmation of friendship is a community of all communicable goods Plato the great Philosopher held this so necessary not only for friendship betwixt private men but for the general peace in a State that he banished from his Common-wealth this thing called Mine and Thine as the onely bane both of friendship and publick peace which opinion some wise men have approved with this small distinction of possession and use So that though the one friend according to the Law be the Lord and Proprietary of his Lands and Moneys yet the use and benefit thereof in case of necessity or conveniency shall be enlarged to his friend And surely as the Apostle speaks if we have Christ with him we have all things for all things are his so he that hath the soul and the heart of a friend with and by these he cannot but command for his necessary use his temporal goods which as before he that shall deny in so doing he denies himself to be a friend And this condition hath a great part of its ground from this That betwixt friends there must be as before I spake of Jonathan to David but one soul or the soul of the one so knit to tho other that each loveth the other as it were with the same soul This love is exprest to be betwixt the bridegroom and the bride Christ and his Church where she saith My beloved is mine Cant. 2.16 and I am his where first he is made hers by the love of his soul and then I am my well-beloved c. 6.3 and my beloved is mine she first returns her soul and love to him and confirms his to her self and when love hath thus united their souls all the affections and actions of the soul to say will and do the same thing will follow It is storied of two twins That when the one laughed or cried or the like the other did the same and so it should be betwixt friends and such friendship or love is commended unto us in holy Writ not onely by the example of Christs disciples who were said to be of the same minde Acts 2. 4. Rom. 12.15 but by their precept to us as when it is said Rejoyce with them that do rejoyce and weep with them that weep and then in the next words which causeth this mutual compassion Be of the same minde one towards another And not onely have we this precept but Christ hath prayed that we be enabled to the performance hereof when he speaks to his Father Holy Father Joh. 17.11 keep those whom thou hast given me that they may be one as we are one and thus the heart of friends being made one in an honest holy love the one shall not will nor ever bear the sway but they will in some things so submit to the judgement and will of the other that neither shall seem to over-rule the other but at the most they shall seem to rule by turns And love being thus preserved by the unity of an holy soul the fourth condition must take its place That friends must will and desire nothing but that which is just and honest Just betwixt man and man and from man to God and honest that is of good report I have read of one Pericles who being desired by his friend to speak in his cause more then was truth he answered True I am your friend but no further then to the Altar which afterwards become a Proverb among the Grecians and had this sense that when they spake as Witnesses they laid their hands on the Altar which no friend should dare do no not for his friend in a matter of untruth 'T is true that many held this too strict in friendship when they say So much you will do for every man and will you do no more or have you not a case for a friend To which I must briefly say He deserves not to be accounted a friend who of a friend requires more then what is honest and just And from hence ariseth another condition in friendship That the acts and desires of a friend must not solely tend to his own interest and behoof for this is not just but equally or by turns mutually to the good and benefit of each other A picture well drawn looks from its self casting his eyes and countenance and as it were with them following the beholder which way foever he turns and a friend being the image or picture of his friend should in all good desires wishes and actions shew himself like this picture for otherwise he that loves another for himself loves himself and not the other for the end of his love looks inward to himself and not outward to him whom he professeth to love To the better cherishing friendship this sixth condition is somewhat requisite That there should be as much and as often as well may be a mutual interview and conference between friends The
be Martyrs or suffer for any May I not say and say truly self-love was the mother of all If you ask me how it came to pass that Diotrephes so loved to have the preeminence among the Christians that he received not the Apostles that he esteemed or reverenced them not as they were indeed Bishops set over and above him Can I or you give any better reason for it then his self-love And if I yet be demanded What stirred up Absalom Jeroboam and Jehu to rebel against their lawful Kings and by treachery or force to usurp the royal power Can I give any other answer then that it was their self-love Now if you ask me how it should come to pass that self-love should so far blinde and besot men that by it they should fall into such horrid enormous sins the reason is at hand and plain we say oft-times that a man stands in his own light which makes him that he cannot see no not the Sun and if a man puts his hand upon his eyes no marvel if he cannot see either the object or his hand All this and more doth self-love to the eye of the souls reason for it presents nothing to reason but what it self desires and reason seeing nothing else it offers nothing else to be desired and sought by the will but that which self-love affecteth Self-conceit or an opinion of self-wit knowledge or excellency works in man many and several errors follies and enormities so that the wise-man truly said There is more hope of a fool then of such a man who is wise in his own conceit for he thinking himself wise enough of himself never desires or studies to know more but much more may be said of self-love then of self-conceit insomuch as the Will which is the Captain-General and Commander under Love is stronger then Opinion which is but a lackey to the Soul And from this poysoned spring of self-love we have our eyes so blinded vitiated or bewitched that what we should see as to judge our selves we caÌ„nnot will not or do not and what we should not see that is to judge and condemn others that we do So that love spred abroad which by the Apostles rule should cover a multitude of sins in our neighbour this love being locked up in our own breasts covers onely that which is within our selves The righteous man saith the wise-man is the accuser of himself but the man that loves himself is never so just and upright to himself as to accuse or condemn himself This judgement he keeps and executes wholly upon others Judah David and the Pharisees while the case was put in the third person of their neighbour they are for the law that woman that man that adulterer must suffer without mercy Such was Judah his judgement Gen. 38.24 such was Davids 2 Sam. 12. such the Pharisees who brought the woman taken in adultery in the act to Christ But when David was found to be the person and that the Prophet told him Thou art the man and when Judah by his ring and staff was discovered to be the sinner as was David I warrant you have not the like sentence given as 〈◊〉 fore but the case must be said to be altered 〈◊〉 the person and it cannot be deemed otherwise when the same person who commits the fact shall be Judge And as self-self-love is no upright Judge so it is ever querulous and complaining of other mens justice and good dealing to him The Judge never does him right enough but either he takes that from him which was his or gives him not so much as was due unto him True love and charity saith the Apostle envieth not 1 Cor. 13.4 5. seeketh not her own thinketh no evil but self-love clean contrary thinks no good of others envieth other mens good and seeketh not onely her own but all that is anothers thinking all too little for her self To sum up all I will conclude with that of the Apostle and judge ye how it concerns us in these our Times 2 Tim. 3.2 Know saith he in the last dayes perillous times shall come for men shall be lovers of their oven selves where before I proceed I pray mark that the Apostle in those perillous times wherein charity is grown cold as our Saviour speaks and sin aboundeth hath reckoned up twenty sins some against God such are blasphemers unholy lovers of pleasures more then of God hypocrites having a form of godliness yet denyers of the power thereof 2. Other sins against themselves such are proud without natural affection boasters incontinent heady high-minded lovers of pleasures 3. Sins against their neighbour disobedient unthankful truce-breakers false accusers fierce despisers of others traytors Of these nineteen sins my question is Whether there be any one root or cause and what that cause or root should be and I cannot uprightly say that there is any other sin so properly and naturally the cause of all the ninetine sins meâ—tioned as that Self-love which is set as it wâ—â—â— on purpose in the first place which justly she may challenge as being the mother or originall of all the nineteen in this Chapter to Timothy and of all the seventeen fruits of the flesh Gal. 5.19 reckoned up by S. Paul to the Galatians or of all the sins that have been or ever shall be committed from the beginning to the end of the world CHAP. XXIX Temporall goods cannot content and therefore deserve not mans love THe temporall things wherewith man is delighted as being good are many almost infinite out as all sublunary compounded bodies are made of the four elements so all the goods we speak of may be reduced to these four heads 1 life under which we understand health strength and beauty of body c. 2 honour under which may be comprised titles offices priviledges pompe and retinue 3 Wealth where lands monies revenues have place 4 Pleasure which is as various as there be objects of our senses pleasing to our eye tast touch hearing and smell Now though all these in their kinds ordinately desired and moderately used may be both usefull and lawfull yet in that they are not able 〈◊〉 content and satisfie the soul longer then a â—â—nd or lightning which vanisheth with the appearance man should not indeed truly he cannot set his love upon them What wanted Salomon of all the desirable things under heaven He had 700 wives and 300 concubines he built himself stately palaces orchards gardens he had attendants answerable to his wealth and glory which exceeded any King in those parts yet when he weighed all instead of proclaiming himself happy in these he concludes which are the words of the Preacher and the wisest man on the earth that all is but vanitie of vanities Eccl. 1.2 vanitie of vanities all is vanitie Will you examine King David the man after Gods heart and ask him now thou hast strength to kill the Beare the Lion and the Giant art thou satisfied
inflamed and increased by the beauty comely proportion of the body and gracefull demeanor of the woman which hath been and so proved as a letter of recoramendation and superscription of favour to man and not only Christians but heathens have called this a divine gift as arising from the most excellent temper of the soul created and infused by God and thereupon they conjecture the internall disposition of the soul from the outward beauty of the body as judging Moses David Daniel Rachel Judith Esther all spoke in Scripture to be fair and godly accordingly to be fitted for great atchievements or severall excellent uses And this holds oft times so true that not only Poets seigned Ganymede the beautifull to be the cup-bearer and favorite of their great God Jupiter but the heathens as the Lacedemonians held their great sights like those of the Greek Olympiads in defence of their greater esteemed beauties and both Greece and Troy can speak much to this which lost so much blood about the beauty of one loose Helena The Civilians have gone so farre in the esteem of this beauty that they say if a man promise marriage to a fair woman and she prove deformed before the contract that he may forsake her as though she were not now the same woman although only changed in countenance and complexion and they add that beauty with gracefull proportion and demeanor in a poor man or woman is portion and estate sufficient to couple them to the less handsome though rich And this with other private thoughts and considerations hath taught women to amend that by filthy art which hath been denyed them by God or Nature and accordingly to bestow much care and cost in waters plasters and paintings to cure colour and daube over scurvy faces If you ask me how this comes to pass that beauty hath gained such a powerfull working upon men and women I confess I cannot readily say whether this ariseth from some secret disposition in the soul some temper in the brain or eye but certain it is that the man who hath the whole parts of a man is delighted with the beauty and comely composure of any creature but especially of a woman though but pictured in lively colours but then much more if her beauty and motion be living for her gracefull moving her warbling tongue and her sparkling eye oft times gives heare fire and life to this beauty but above all the eye Philosophers searching how the sight is made whether by the sending forth light and spirits from the eye or by taking the species and representations of the thing to be seen into the eye they conclude that it is done both wayes and so indeed in this case of beauty and love the eye is the witch and the thing bewitched it is the inlet and outlet the giver and taker of love upon beauties score In one word it is as dry wood to take fire and in an other like fire to set the wood on burning Some have gone so far in the extolling of beauty as to call it the image of God which is true of the souls beauty but cannot be so of the beauty corporally save only in a double reflexed sense But many and these not of inferiour rank in the Church of Christ have been of opinion that the words in Genesis The sons of God saw the Daughters of men that they were fair Gen. 6.2 and they took them wives of all that they chose were spoken of the Angels who fell by the sight of womans beauty and hence they conclude how hard the resistance of this temptation is and teach us the more strongly to stand and labour against it Now although we cannot say that by the sons of God in this text are understood the created spirits in heaven but the sons of Seth who serving God are called his sons and that these saw and married the Daughters of men that is of those who sprang from Cain and earthly ungodly men yet this we may and do say that if sight alone for the text speaks no more wrought so much and so strongly upon the sons of God as to make such marriages as soon after brought the deluge and drowning of the whole world Then what may we conceive that talking walking conversing dancing touching and other dalliances with faire women may work with the cumbustible matter or touchwood of fleshly man my counsell is resist the beginning shut the door or the windowes for Death Jer. 9.21 as the Prophet speaks enters in at the windowes the eyes and it hath been the complaint of thousands I had never sumed had I not seen Thus fell our first parents and their whole race have tript stumbled and fallen in the like manner And to strengthen thy self against this temptation consider that as under fair and sweet flowers you oft times have found a venemous creature and under gilded pills a dram of poison so under beauty there may be as much which is more to be shunned and avoided then to be desired and imbraced For first consider that though as Poets feigned fair Narcissus and so women have fallen in love with their own beauty which hath cost them dear loss of modesty reputation honesty life and soul so it is of no worth or use to the possessor or to the beautifull but is as a picture or pageant made and set only for the Spectator so that if there be any reall good in it we may speak of it as of that good for which all creatures sensate and insensate were made which was for others and not for themselves But when both man and woman the possessor and beholder of this beauty shall consider the frailty and sodain fading thereof he may as well fall in love with a flower or shadow as with it for as it is like a tulip which is of no use but only for sight so is it oft times of as small a continuance So that we may speak of it as the Psalmist doth of mans life Ps 90. in the morning about the age of sixteen or eighteen yeares it is green about noon thirty years of age it begins to wither but at night at or before fifty it is out down and cast into the black smoaky oven that some in pity more in scorn may say as of Jezebel dead Is this Jezebel or is this that lately admired piece of beauty 2 King 9.37 so frail so vain a thing is beauty or a beautifull woman And not only is the beautifull woman fraile herein but as weak and frail to that which is good though strong and too strong to that which is evill For the eldest child of this fair mother beauty commonly is pride which is as a skin blowen up with self-delight and scorn of others the two naturall brats or attendants of pride as pride is of beauty And yet besides these fruits of beauty there are others not a sew like them For beauty seldome begets the best housewives but
that all things considered as premised I would not wish the man to marry that woman that is confident of her wit beauty or birth nor the woman to match with him that presumes on his wisdome honour or power for where these are overvalued in either man or woman each is apt to undervalue the other to contempt or discontent In a word the durable contractor in marriage is the harmonious consent of soul manners and love and this will make and continue the mariage happy always provided that as in purchasing land or lending your money you look well to get good security and the best is the honesty of the person with whom we deal and good sureties that will see all performed as it is agreed Now the first part of this security in marriage is the grace and virtue of the espoused man or woman of which the wise Salomon speaks Prov. 18.22 He that findeth a good wise findeth a good thing which good thing is her inward goodness and this as in the words following is the favour of the Lord. And of all the virtues in a woman most to be desired Prov. 19.14 prudence and discretion are the chief for this will keepe her chast and modest this will teach her reverence to her husband and to give every one their due both within and without dores And this prudence saith the wise man here is the gift of the Lord. therefore let the wise sell all as the Merchant in the Gospel to purchase this pearle For without this jewell wealth beauty and such like are as I before cited but as a ring of gold in a Swines snout The other part of the security for a good wife or husband rests on the Surety and this is he that is the only best match-maker God the Lord. Therefore be sure before and at the consummating the mariage to invite and get Christ as he was at Cana to the wedding and then be as sure that if all the vessels be filled up to the brimme with water which in Scripture signifies afflictiton and sorrow yet this guest Christ will miraculously turn them all into wine that makes the heart merry which is consolation Which great change is instrumentally wrought by that great Mystery Ephes 5. v. 31. as S. Paul calls it where the conjunction is such that t is said the man shall be joyned the Greek is as much as he shall be glewed to her so that they two shall be as it were made into or be but one flesh and this is a great mystery or secret that as Christ and his Church so man and his wife shall of two be made one The Philosophers went further in their expressions when they said man and wife are not only one flesh 1 Cor. 7.4 so that each hath power over the others body but that they are but as one soul and but one fortune common to them both one fortune in good and bad insomuch that the Civill law holds that if the husband prove bankrupt and be cast into prison the wife may be sold if she be worth it to pay and release her husband and as it was in the primitive Christian Church Acts â— so here especially between husband and wife all things are to be common and this is partly signified on the mans part who is the chief proprietor when in our leiturgie the husband tells her with all my worldly goods I thee endow where we must note that although the Apostle and our Church speake it only of the man that he shall be so joyned to the woman and he shall endow her with all yet this is as truly and more necessarily intended to be true of the woman who is as it were a subject to her Lord her husband But expresly charged on the husband to take away all scruple from Jew and Gentile who gave themselves a greater liberty and indulgence herein then Christ doth But yet the greatest spirituall mystery in this mariage is that between the man and his wife who shall be but one soul that is though two in substance to animate two bodies yet but one in affection and desire or but one to desire and dislike to will and to nill the same things so that what the Holy Ghost spoke and made good of the Apostles Acts. 2. Râ—m 12. v. 10.15 16. that they were of one minde and what the Apostle commands Christians to be kindly affectionate one to the other in love and to rejoyce and weepe together and to be of one minde each to other this and more if more can be is here required in this conjunction and mutuall love betwixt man and wife and this completes the great mystery spoken of S. Paul in marriage which mystery though it held good and true from the beginning of the creation in the law and gospel and so is to continue as long as there shall be man and wife on earth yet as at the beginning that Envious one so he is called in the Gospel the Devil seduced our firsts parents so soon after the Sun-shine of the Gospel and to this day afresh he works both on man and wife infusing into them foul and dangerous doctrines which S. Paul therefore called doctrines of Devils For in the Apostles times be taught Simon Magus Acts 10. and in and by him he taught all Simons scholars therefore called Simoniani that women may be used promiscuously and without difference or respect had to Gods precept relating to man and wife after which filthy sect succeeded the Saturninians followers of Saturninus who profest and practised the like then followed the Nicolaitans Rev. 2. who used each others wife in commune then came the Gnosticks living among and glanced at by the Apostles after these the Adamites who both male and female read prayed and administred the Sacraments all naked Soon after the Apostolicks called by themselves Eucratites or Abstinents who admitted none into their assemblies who had wives After these were the Manichees called also Catharists the Eunomians Priscillianists Jovinianists and the Paternians who holding that the lower parts of man and woman were â—â—de by the Devil indulged to themselves all licence of uncleanness in those parts These and some more though professors of Christ grosly and filthily erred either in the prohibition of marriage or in the allowance of a beastly usage or gross community of women wives or single persons insomuch that I cannot say that there have been so many severall sects or heresies since the Apostles times erring so grosly about any one subject as these named about marriage and fleshliness such and so great a power the Devil hath over man tempting him in his weakest and most sensuall part of the flesh which in the most is so predominant that some Divines think that this was that which S. Paul meant by the thorn in the flesh and for that cause he bewayled his estate in those words Wretched man that I am 2 Cor. 12.7 who