is what I design'd and endeavour'd in the whole Whether I have attain'd it or no I submit to Judgment All-Souls Coll. June 1st 1687. J. Norris THE CONTENTS OF THE PROSE-PART Of the advantages of Thinking Page 145. Of the Care and Improvement of Time. 153. Of Solitude 158. Of Courage 165. Of Seriousness 170. Of the slightness of all Secular and the importance of minding our Eternal Interest 175. A Metaphysical Essay toward the Demonstration of a God from the steddy and immutable Nature of Truth 193. The Christian Law Asserted and Vindicated Or a general Apology for the Christian Religion both as to the Obligativeness and Reasonableness of the Institution 211. A Discourse concerning Perseverance in Holiness 249. A Discourse coucerning Heroic Piety wherein its Notion is stated and its Practise recommended 275. Contemplation and Love Or the Methodical Ascent of the Soul to God by steps of Meditation 295. A Discourse upon Romans 12. 3. Not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think But to think soberly according as God has dealt to every man the measure of Faith. 333. Considerations upon the Nature of Sin accommodated to the Ends both of Speculation and Practise 361. An Idea of Happiness in a Letter to a Friend Enquiring wherein the greatest Happiness attainable by man in this Life does consist 393. A Letter of Resolution concerning some Passages in the foregoing Treatise 431. Another Letter concerning the true Notion of Plato's Ideas and of Platonic Love. 435. A Letter concerning Love and Music 446. A Letter concerning Friendship 450. A Letter of Self-Consolation occasion'd by the Death of a Friend 455. ERRATA Page 164. for ingeniously read ingenuously Page 170. for gaiety read gait Page 281. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Passion of our B. Saviour represented in a Pindarique Ode Quis talia fando Temperet à Lachrymis I. SAY bold Licentious Muse What Noble Subject wilt thou chuse Of what great Hero of what mighty thing Wilt thou in boundless numbers sing Sing the unfathom'd Depths of Love For who the Wonders done by Love can tell By Love which is it self all Miracle Here in vast endless Circles mayst thou rove And like the travelling Planet of the day In an Orb unbounded stray Sing the great Miracle of Love Divine Great be thy Genius sparkling every Line Love's greatest Mystery reherse Greater then that Which on the teeâ—ing Chaos brooding sate And hatch'd with kindly heat the Universe How God in Mercy chose to bleed and dye To rescue Man from Misery Man not his Creature only but his Enemy II. Lo in Gethsemane I see him prostrate lye Press'd with the weight of his great Agony The common Sluces of the Eyes To vent his mighty Passion won't suffice His tortured Body weeps all-o're And out of every Pore Buds forth a pretious Gem of Purple Gore How strange the Power of afflictions rod When in the Hand of an incensed God! Like the commanding Wand In Moses Hand It works a Miracle and turns the Flood Of Tears into a Sea of Blood See with what Pomp Sorrow does now appear How proud She is of being seated here She never wore So rich a Dye before Long was he willing to decline Th' Encounter of the Wrath Divine Thrice he sent for his Release Pathetic Embassies of Peace At length his Courage overcame his Doubt Resolved he was and so the bloody Flagg hung out III. And now the Tragic Scene 's displai'd Where drawn in full Battalia are laid Before his Eyes That numerous Host of Miseries He must withstand that Map of Woe Which he must undergo That heavy Wine-press which must by him be trod The whole Artillery of God. He saw that Face whose very Sight Chears Angels with its Beatific Light Contracted now into a dreadful frown All cloath'd with Thunder big with death And Showers of hot burning Wrath Which shortly must be poured down He saw a black and dismal Scroll Of Sins past present and to come With their intolerable Doom Which would the more oppress his spotless Soul As th' Elements are weighty proved When from their Native Station they 'r removed He saw the foul Ingratitude of those Who would the Labours of his Love oppose And reap no benefit by all his Agonys He saw all this And as he saw to Waver he began And almost to repent of his great Love for Man. IV. When lo a heavenly Form all bright and fair Swifter then Thought shot through th' enlight'ned Air. He who sat next th' imperial Throne And read the Councels of the Great Three-One Who in Eternity's Misterious Glass Saw both what was what is and what must come to pass He came with Reverence profound And rais'd his prostrate Maker from the Ground Wiped off the bloody Sweat With which his Face and Garments too were wet And comforted his dark benighted Mind With sovereign Cordials of Light refin'd This done in soft addresses he began To fortifie his kind Designs for Man Vnseal'd to him the Book of Gods Decree And shew'd him what must be Alledg'd the Truth of Prophecies Types Figures and Mysteries How needful it was to supply With humane Race the ruins of the Skie How this would new accession bring To the Coelestial Quire And how withall it would inspire New Matter for the Praise of the great King. How he should see the travail of his Soul and bless Those Sufferings which had so good Success How great the Triumphs of his Victory How glorious his Ascent would be What weighty Bliss in Heaven he should obtain By a few Hours of Pain Where to Eternal Ages he should Reign He spake confirm'd in mind the Champion stood A Spirit divine Through the thick Veil of Flesh did shine All over Powerful he was all over Good. Pleas'd with his successful Flight The Officious Angel posts away To the bright Regions of Eternal Day Departing in a track of Light. In haste for News the heavenly People ran And joy'd to hear the hopeful State of Man. V. And now that strange prodigious hour When God must subject be to humane Power That Hour is come The unerring Clock of Fate has struck 'T was heard below down to Hells lowest Room And strait th Infernal Powers th appointed signal took Open the Scene my Muse and see Wonders of Impudence and Villany How wicked Mercenary hands Dare to invade him whom they should adore With Swords and Staves incompass'd round he stands Who knew no other Guards but those of Heaven before Once with his powerful breath he did repell The rude assaults of Hell. A ray of his Divinity Shot forth with that bold Answer I am He They reel and stagger and fall to the Ground For God was in the Sound The Voice of God was once again Walking in the Garden heard And once again was by the guilty Hearers fear'd Trembling seiz'd every joynt and chilness every Vein This little Victory he won Shew'd what he could
of conveyance it cannot be propagated from the Intellectual part to the Sensitive Whereupon they affirm that none are capable of this sensitive passionate Love of God but Christians who enjoy the Mystery of the Incarnation whereby they know God has condescended so far as to cloath himself with Flesh and to become like one of us But 't is not all the Sophistry of the cold Logicians that shall work me out of the belief of what I feel and know and rob me of the sweetest entertainment of my Life the Passionate Love of God. Whatever some Men pretend who are Strangers to all the affectionate heats of Religion and therefore make their Philosophy a Plea for their indevotion and extinguish all Holy Ardours with a Syllogism yet I am firmly persuaded that our love of God may be not only passionate but even Wonderfully so and exceeding the Love of Women 'T is an Experimental and therefore undeniable Truth that Passion is a great Instrument of Devotion and accordingly we find that Men of the most warm and pathetick Tempers and Amorous Complexions Provided they have but Consideration enough withall to fix upon the right Object prove the greatest Votaries in Religion And upon this account it is that to heighten our Love of God in our Religious Addresses we endeavour to excite our Passions by Music which would be to as little purpose as the Fanatic thinks 'tis if there were not such a thing as the Passionate Love of God. But then as to the Objection I Answer with the excellent Descartes that although in God who is the Object of our Love we can imagine nothing yet we can imagine that our Love which consists in this that we would unite our selves to the Object beloved and consider our selves as it were a part of it And the sole Idea of this very Conjunction is enough to stir up a heat about the Heart and so kindle a very vehement Passion To which I add that although the Beauty or Amiableness of God be not the same with that which we see in Corporeal Beings and consequently cannot directly fall within the Sphere of the imagination yet it is somthing Analogous to it and that very Analogy is enough to excite a Passion And this I think sufficient to warrant my general division of the Love of God into Intellectual and Sensitive 31. But there is a more peculiar Acceptation of the Love of God proper to this place And it is that which we call Seraphic By which I understand in short that Love of God which is the effect of an intense Contemplation of him This differs not from the other in kind but only in degree and that it does exceedingly in as much as the thoughtful Contemplative Man as I hinted before has clearer Perceptions and livelier Impressions of the Divine Beauty the lovely Attributes and Perfection of God than he whose Soul is more deeply set in the Flesh and lies groveling in the bottom of the Dungeon 32. That the nature of this Seraphic Love may be the better understood I shall consider how many degrees there may be in the Love of God. And I think the Computation of Bellarmin lib. 2. de monachis cap. 2. is accurate enough He makes four The first is to love God proportionably to his Loveliness that is with an infinite Love and this degree is peculiar to God himself The second is to Love him not proportionably to his Loveliness but to the utmost Capacity of a Creature and this degree is peculiar to Saints and Angels in Heaven The third is to love him not proportionably to his Loveliness nor to the utmost capacity of a Creature absolutely consider'd but to the utmost capacity of a Mortal Creature in this Life And this he says is proper to the Religious The fourth is to love him not proportionably to his Loveliness nor to the utmost capacity of a Creature consider'd either absolutely or with respect to this Life but only so as to love nothing equally with him or above him That is not to do any thing contrary to the Divine Love. And this is absolute indispensable duty less than which will not qualify us for the enjoyment of God hereafter 33. Now this Seraphic Love which we here discourse of is in the third degree When a Man after many degrees of Abstraction from the Animal Life many a profound and steddy Meditation upon the Excellencies of God sees such a vast Ocean of Beauty and Perfection in him that he loves him to the utmost stretch of his Power When he sits under his shadow with great delight and his fruit is sweet to his Tast Cant. 2. 3. When he Consecrates and Devotes himself whollly to him and has no Passion for Inferiour Objects When he is ravished with the delights of his Service and breaths out some of his Soul to him in every Prayer When he is delighted with Anthems of Praise and Adoration more than with Marrow and Fatness and Feasts upon Alleluiah When he melts in a Calenture of Devotion and his Soul breaketh out with fervent Desire Psal 119. When the one thing he delights in is to converse with God in the Beauty of Holiness and the one thing he desires to see him as he is in Heaven This is Seraphic Love and this with Contemplation makes up that which the Mystic Divines stile the Vnitive way of Religion It is called so because it Unites us to God in the most excellent manner that we are capable of in this Life By Union here I do not understand that which is local or presential because I consider God as Omnipresent Neither do I mean a Union of Grace as they call it whereby we are reconciled to God or a Union of Charity whereof it is said he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him Jo. 4. 16. The first of these being as common to the inanimate things as to the most Extasi'd Soul upon Earth And the two last being common to all good men who indeed love God but yet want the excellency of Contemplation and the Mystic Union The Union then which I here speak of is that which is between the Faculty and the Object Which consists in some Habitude or Operation of one toward the other The Faculties here are the Vnderstanding and Will the Object God and the Operations Contemplation and Love. The result of which two is the Mystic Vnion Which according to this complex Notion of it that I have here delivered is thus most admirably represented by the excellent Bishop Taylour It is says he a Prayer of quietness and silence and a Meditation extraordinary a Discourse without variety a Vision and Intuition of Divine Excellencies an immediat entry into an Orb of light and a resolulution of all our Faculties into Sweetness Affections and Starings upon the Divine Beauty And is carried on to Extasies Raptures Suspensions Elevations Abstractions and Apprehensions beatifical 34. I make no doubt but that
in the Subject whether as to person state or condition which may render it capable of Friendship according to the foremention'd Idea Now I say what these are may be easily collected from the Idea it self as will appear if we consider it distinctly according to those three Modifications and by applying the genus to each of them For 1st whereas Friendship is said to be Charity in a special manner intense hence I collect 1st that it cannot be but between good men because an ill man cannot have any true Charity much less such an intense degree of it as is requisite to Friendship So that Vertue in general is one Requisite 2ly hence I collect that a Friend must not be only according to the Character Lucan gives of Cato rigidi servator honesti rigidly vertuous and honest but he must be also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of a liberal sweet obliging temper one of those good men of whom 't is said in Scripture by way of contradistinction to the Righteous or rigidly honest that some would even dare to dye for them For tho I may have common Charity nay more a great Esteem for a man of plain honesty and integrity yet I can never love him with that special intenseness of Affection which belongs to Friendship unless he be also of a beneficent kind and obsequious temper So that good nature is another requisite 3ly hence I collect that there must be also at least in a competent proportion an agreeableness of humours and manners for unless the materials be of an apt and correspondent figure the building can neither be compact nor lasting so that likeness of disposition is another Requisite 4. hence I collect that true Friendship cannot be among many For since our faculties are of a finite energy 't is impossible our love can be very intense when divided among many No the rays must be contracted to make them burn So that another Requisite is that the Terms of this Relation be few in Number 4. These are all the Requisites that I can think of at present deducible from the first part of the Idea viz. Charity in a special manner intense As for fidelity in retaining secrets constancy of Adherence and the like I think they are vertually included in the first Requisite it being hardly conceivable how a man can be good and vertuous that wants them But if you think the Reduction not so obvious you may if you please add them here in the fifth place as distinct Requisites 't will be all one Thus far of the Requisites deducible from the first part 5. To proceed Whereas it is further said that Friendship is a Benevolence that 's Mutual there is but one general Requisite deducible from this which is that all the other be found in both or if more in all the persons supposed to be Friends The third of which importing Relation will of necessity be so for all Similitude is mutual Lastly whereas 't is said that Friendship is a Benevolence mutually known all that will be Requisite upon this head is that the Persons who are to be confederated in this union have such opportunities of Converse or Correspondence that they may be satisfy'd of the Degree and Reality of each others love 6. Having thus stated the Idea of Friendship and from thence deduced all the necessary qualifications in the subject for its entertainment I think I may now from the Premises venture to affirm that there may be strict Friendship between Man and Wife For which of these Requisites is it that they must necessarily want As for your Objection taken from their inequality I grant Equality is wanting both as to Sex and as to Conjugal Relation but neither is all Equality necessary 'T is not absolutely necessary that Friends should stand upon a Level either in respect of Fortune State or Condition This sort of Equality I grant is a good Preparative for a more easy Introduction of Friendship and 't is also advantagious to the lastingness of it but yet 't is dispensable 'T is like levelling the ground betwixt two rivers it makes way for a more easy union but yet 't is possible from Earthquakes Floods or other contingencies they may be united without it The only equality that is necessary is an equality of dispositions an harmony of affections but this may be in persons of unequal fortunes and conditions I confess there can be no such thing as Friendship between persons of different quality if the Superiour takes advantage of his preheminence or Authority for then 't is true what the Poet says Si vis Sexte coli non amabo 7. But then 't is not the being invested with superiority that is inconsistent with Friendship for then Kings who have no equals but those of other Kingdom 's with whom they cannot intimately converse would be the miserablest Creatures alive but the habitual use and exercise of it and the standing upon its priviledges 8. But there is no necessity that it should be so Friendship may level those whom Fortune has made unequal and the greatest Monarch in the world may find Opportunities to descend from the throne of majesty to the familiar Caresses of a dear Favorite and unking himself a while for the more glorious title of Friend 'T is but to apply this to the particular case in hand and you have a Solution to your Question And now Sir from the Theory of Friendship I shall most readily descend to the Practise of it when ever you please to employ the service of Dear Sir Your most real Friend and Servant J. Norris The Copy of a Letter written to my Friend F. B. concerning the death of my dear Neece M. C. My dear Friend 1. SInce 't is one of the happinesses of Friendship to Communicate sorrow as well as to share in joy that the one may be increas'd and the other diminish'd I cannot but betake my self to this easy refuge being at present in such a condition as will need more relief and support than I can either give to my self or receive from others 2. The truth is should I indulge my passion I might find perhaps as much cause as he that did it to curse the day of my Nativity My pretty little dear Neece and Scholar she whom I loved admired and delighted in she for whose sake I once thought life as now I think death a Blessing she how shall I bring out that dismal word is dead 3. She is and has left a strange emptiness in my Soul so large was the room she took up there which nothing of this world 's good can ever fill I must needs own that I never was so deeply affected with any trouble in my life nor did I ever think that it could be in the power of any temporal loss so much to discompose and unspirit my Soul. It is not a transient gust of passion which like a little cloud would either soon blow over or spend it self in a
Darkness is his Pavilion From that his radiant Beauty but from thee He has his Terrour and his Majesty Thus when he first proclaim'd his sacred Law And would his Rebel subjects awe Like Princes on some great solemnity H' appear'd in 's Robes of State and Clad himself with thee V. The Blest above do thy sweet umbrage prize When Cloy'd with light they veil their eyes The Vision of the Deity is made More sweet and Beatific by thy Shade But we poor Tenants of this Orb below Don't here thy excellency's know Till Death our understandings does improve And then our Wiser ghosts thy silent night-walks love VI. But thee I now admire thee would I chuse For my Religion or my Muse 'T is hard to tell whether thy reverend shade Has more good Votarys or Poets made From thy dark Caves were Inspirations given And from thick groves went vows to Heaven Hail then thou Muse's Devotion 's Spring 'T is just we should adore 't is just we should thee sing The Invitation Come my Beloved let us go forth into the Field let us lodge in the Villages Cantic 7. 11. I. COme thou divinest object of my love This Noisy Region don't with us agree Come let us hence remove I cannot here enjoy my self or thee Here Vice and Folly keep their Court Hither their chiefest Favourites resort Debauchery has here her Royal Chair This is her great Metropolis What e're we see or hear Contagion is Their Manners are polluted like the air From both unwholsom vapours rise And blacken with ungrateful steams the neighboring skies II. Come we 'l e'n to our Country Seat repair The Native home of Innocence and Love. There we 'l draw purer air And pitty Monarchs sitting in our grove Here Vertue has her safe retreat Abandon'd by the Many and the great Content does here her peacefull Scepter sway Here Faithfulness and Friendship dwell And Modesty has here her humble Cell Come my Beloved Come and let 's away Be thou My Angel good and kind And I 'l ne'r look at Sodom which we leave behind III. In fields and flow'ry meadows woods and groves The first and best delights of humane kind There we 'l enjoy our loves All free and only to our selves confin'd Here shall my eyes be fixt on thee 'Till every Passion be an extasy Each hour to thee shall be Canonical The Sweets of Nature shall not stay My Soul but only shew to thee the way To thee Thou Beauty's great Original Come My Beloved let 's go prove These sweet Advantages of Peace Content and Love Sitting in an Arbour I. THus ye good Powers thus let me ever be Serene retir'd from Love and Business free The rest of your great World I here resign To the Contentions of the great I only ask that this Retreat This little Tenement be mine All my Ambition's to this point confin'd Others inlarge their fortunes I my mind II. How Calm how happy how serene am I How satisfy'd with my own Company To few things forreign my Content I owe But in my self have almost all Which I dare good or pleasing call Or what 's as well I fancy so Thus I come near my great Creator's state Whose whole Bliss in himself does terminate III. Pleas'd with a various Scene of thought I lie Whil'st an Obliging Stream slides gently by Silent and Deep as is the Bliss I chuse All round the little winged Quire Pathetic tender thoughts inspire And with their strains provoke my Muse With ease the Inspiration I obey And Sing as unconcern'd and as well pleas'd as they IV. If ought below deserve the name of Bliss It must what e're the great ones think be this So once the travelling Patriarch doubly blest With dreams divine from Heaven sent And his own Heaven of Content On 's rocky pillow took his rest Angels stood smiling by and said were we our Bliss To change it should be for a state like his V. 'T is strange so cheap and yet so great a good Should by so very Few be understood That Bliss which Others seek with toil and sweat For which they prodigally wast Their treasures and yet miss at last Here I have at an easy rate So those that Costly Physic use in vain Somtimes by some Cheap by Receipt their health obtain The Complaint I. WEll 't is a dull perpetual Round Which here we silly mortals tread Here 's nought I 'l swear worth living to be found I wonder how 't is with the Dead Better I hope or else ye Powers divine Vnmake me I my immortality resign II. Still to be Vex'd by joys delai'd Or by Fruition to be Cloy'd Still to be wearied in a fruitless Chase Yet still to run and lose the race Still our departed pleasures to lament Which yet when present gave us no Content III. Is this the thing we so extoll For which we would prolong our breath Do we for this long life a Blessing Call And tremble at the name of Death Sotts that we are to think by that we gain Which is as well retain'd as lost with pain IV. Is it for this that we adore Physitians and their art implore Do we bless Nature's liberal supply Of Helps against Mortality Sure 't is but Vain the Tree of Life to boast When Paradise wherein it grew is lost V. Ye Powers why did you man create With such insatiable desire If you 'd endow him with no more estate You should have made him less aspire But now our appetites you Vex and Cheat With reall Hunger and Phantastic meat A Pastoral Vpon the B. Virgin gon from Nazareth to visit Elizabeth Wherein the sadness of the Country Nazareth is described during the absence of the Virgin. Translated out of Rapin. The speakers are Asor Alphaeus and Zebede Asor ANd why Alphaeus in this sweet shade dost thou Make songs which are not seasonable now Since we of fair Parthenia are bereft Parthenia has our fields and mountains left Alph. Ay something 't was my Pipe was t'other day So strangely out of tune and in so hoarse a Key Zeb And I too this misfortune might have known By some late signs had my thoughts been my own My little Goats as I to Pasture led When the grass rises from its dewy bed I wonder'd why the new born flowers hung down Their languid heads as if scorch'd by the Sun. The Lilly and the Rose to droop were seen And so did the immortal Evergreen Parthenia alas was gon For thee sweet Maid Lilly and Rose did grieve The Evergreen thy absence did perceive Asor There grows a shady Elm in our yon grove Where Philomel would constantly repair Sweet Philomel of all the Joy and Love And with melodious Accents fill the air When Parthenis was here this shady tree Was never never from her Music free But now divine Parthenia is gon Silent and sad she wanders up and down And among thorns and lonely hedges makes her moan Alph. Whil'st thou fair Nimph didst bless us
have not done amiss For so the Ingenious Platonist Boethius Huc te si reducem referat via Quam nunc requiris immemor Haec dices memini patria est mihi Hinc ortus hic sistam gradum 'T is one immense and everflowing light My business was here to give a Compendious description of God. Now among all the representations we have of him I thought none so agreeable to the Genius of Poetry as a sensible one and of all those I could not find a better in all the Inventory of the Creation than this of Light. I shall not here endeavour a Parallel It may suffice to say that the Representation is warranted by Authority both human and Divine The School of Plato describes the nature of God by an immense light or Lucid Fountain ever flowing and diffusing its refreshing beams And Holy Scripture goes further and says in express terms that God is light and in him is no darkness at all John I. 5. The Curiosity I. UNhappy state of mortals here below Whom unkind Heaven does inspire With such a constant strong desire And with such slender facultys to know And yet we not content to bear the pain Of thirst unquencht and fruitless love With one more curse our ills improve And toil and drudge for what we ne're can gain II. With what strange Frenzy are we all possest Contented Ignorance to refuse And by laborious search to lose Not the enjoyment only but our Rest Something like Oar does on the surface shine We taken with the specious shew With pains dig in the flattering Mine But all alas in vain Truth lies more low III. The greatest Knowledge we can ever gain From studying Nature Books or men Serves just t' employ dull hours but then It yields less Pleasure than it costs us pain Besides so short and treacherous is our age No sooner are we counted Wise But envious Death shuts up our eyes Just our part is learnt we quit the Stage IV. Could I among the nobler spirits find One that would lay aside his State And be my kind confederate That suddainly I might inrich my mind 'T would be some pleasure this if happy I Could once at ease sit and survey And my great victory enjoy And not as now still labour on and dye The 114 Psalm Paraphrased I. WHen conquer'd by the Plagues of Moses Rod Th' Egyptian Tyrant gave command That Israel should depart his Land Israel the chosen Family of God. Among them dwelt the Holy One Juda his Sanctuary and Israel was his Throne II. The Sea beheld this Scene and did admire Each wave stood silently to see The Power of the Divinity They saw and fled the dreadful guide of Fire Aud Jordan too divided stood The Priests the sacred Ark bore through the yielding Flood III. Mount Sinai with great Horrour struck and dread Forgot her weight and in a trance Like a light Ram did skip and dance She fear'd and fain would hide her Palsy Head. The Hills their Mother Mountain saw The little Hills and like young sheep they stood in awe IV. What made thee to retreat thou Mighty Sea Tell me for never any shore Knew such a wondrous Tide before And thou great Jordan say what ailed thee Say sacred Mount what meant thy trance And you small under-hills why did you skip and dance V. You need not think it shame to own your fear What you dismaid the same would make The universal Fabrick shake The cause was great for Jacob's God was there That God who did the Rock subdue And made it melt in tears tho harder far than you The 148 Psalm Paraphrased I. O Come let all created force conspire A general Hymn of Praise to sing Join all ye Creatures in one solemn Quire And let your Theme be Heaven's Almighty King. II. Begin ye blest Attendants of his Seat Begin your high Seraphic lays 'T is just you should your Happiness is great And all you are to give again is Praise III. Ye glorious Lamps that rule both night and day Bring you your Allelujahs too To him that Tribute of Devotion pay Which once blind superstition gave to you IV. Thou first and fairest of material kind By whom his other works we see Subtile and active as pure thought and mind Praise him that 's Elder and more fair than thee V. Ye Regions of the Air his praises sing And all ye Virgin waters there Do you advantage to the Consort bring And down to us the Allelujah bear VI. In chaunting forth the great Jehovah's Praise Let these the upper Consort fill He spake and did you all from nothing raise As you did then so now obey his will. VII His will that fix'd you in a constant state And out a track for Natures wheel Here let it run sayd he and made it fate And where 's that Power which can this Law repeal VIII Ye Powers that to th' inferiour world retain Join you now with the Quire above And first ye Dragons try an higher strain And turn your angry hissings into Praise and Love. IX Let fire hail snow and vapours that ascend Unlock'd by Phoebus searching rays Let Stormy winds ambitiously contend And all their wonted force imploy in Praise X. Ye sacred tops which seem to brave the skies Rise higher and when men on you Religious rites perform and Sacrifice With their Oblations send your Praises too XI Ye Trees whose fruits both men and beasts consume Be you in Praises fruitful too Ye Cedars why have you such choice perfume But that sweet Incense should be made of you XII Ye Beasts with all the humble Creeping train Praise him that made your lot so high Ye Birds who in a nobler Province reign Send up your Praises higher than you â—ly XIII Ye sacred heads that wear Imperial gold Praise him that you with power arrays And you whose hands the Scale of Justice hold Be Just in this and pay your Debt of Praise XIV Let sprightly youth give vigour to the Quire Each Sex with one another vie Let feeble Age dissolv'd in Praise expire And Infants too in Hymns their tender voices try XV. Praise him ye Saints who Piety profess And at his Altar spend your days Ye seed of Israel your great Patron bleâ—s 'T is Manna this for Angels food is Praise A Pastoral On the death of his Sacred Majesty King CHARLES the Second Menalcas Thyrsis and Daphnis Thyr. WHat sad Menalcas Sure this pleasant shade Was ne're for such a mournful Tenant made All things smile round thee and throughout the Grove Nature displays a Scene of Joy and Love. But Shepherd where 's thy flock Sure they in some forbidden pastures stray Whilest here in sighs thou number'st out the day Men. Ah Thyrsis thou could'st witness heretofore What strange Affection to my flock I bore Thou know'st my Thyrsis the Arcadian Plain Could not afford a more industrious Swain But I no longer now that mind retain Thyr. What change so great but what Love's power
can make Menalcas does his kids and tender lambs forsake So I when slave to Galatea's eyes Did neither City nor the Country prize But all their sports and my flock too despise Hang thou my Pipe sayd I on yonder tree For then alas I had no tast for melody Obscurely in thick woods I sate alone And sigh'd in consort to the Turtle 's moan Men. 'T is not fond love that causes my distress No Thyrsis you 'r mistaken in your guess The glorious Prize I have in Triumph born I am no longer now Alexis scorn Or if I were I now could be unmoved At every scornful glance nor care where e're he loved A nearer grief preys on my spirits now And I beneath a heavier burthen bow The gentle god of the Arcadian plains Pan that regards the sheep Pan that regards the Swains Great Pan is dead Throughout the fields the doleful tidings ran A swoon seiz'd all the Shepherds at the death of Pan. Of Pan But see the rest that Tree will shew Which wears the sad inscription of my woe Where with the bark my sorrows too will grow Thyr. How Shepherd is it by Fames trumpet said That Pan the best of all the gods is dead Whom oft w'adored and whom because we knew As good as they we thought him as immortal too 'T is strange but Omens now I find are true In yonder Copse a shady Oak there stood Stately well rooted and it self a wood Her branches o're the inferiour trees were spread Who all adored her as their soveraign head Hither when heated by the guide of Day While their young wanton goats did skip amd play Hither the Swains would constantly repair Here sing and in the ample shade drink fresher air This Tree when I my goats to pasture drove While all was clear above and still throughout the grove Struck by some secret force fall down I saw The wood-Nymphs all were seiz'd with wonder grief awe Nor had I left this ruin far behind When lo strange sight a Nightingal I find Which from brisk airs enlivening all the grove Coo'd on a suddain like the mournful dove Amazed I stand and on my pipe estay With some brisk song her sorrows to allay But all in vain She from the lofty tree Kept on her sad complaint and mourn'd and droop'd like thee Men. And why these slighter things dost thou relate Nature her self perceiv'd Pan's mighty fate She fainted when he drew his latest breath And almost sympathized with him to death Each Field put on a languid dying face The sheep not minding food with tears bedew'd the grass The Lions too in tears their grief confest And savage Bears ê‘an's enemys profest The Nymphs all wept and all the noble train Of Deitys that frequent the Court of Pan. Eccho that long by nought but voice was known In sounds repeated others woes but wept her own Th' Arcadians mourn'd and press'd beneath the weighty care With cruelty they charg'd the gods and every star Thyr. And well they might Heaven could not shew a Deity More mild more good t' his Votarys than he He was all Love all Peace all Clemency H' allur'd the Love and melted down the hate Of all he had no enemy but Fate Pan kept the Fields from wolves secured the Stall He guarded both the humble Shrubs and Cedars tall The Summers heat obey'd Pan's gentle hand And Winter winds blew soft at his command He blest the Swains with sneep and fruitful made their land Weep Shepherds and in pomp your grief express The ground with flowers your selves with Cypress dress Let the Arcadians in a solemn train March slowly on let mournful accents fill the plain Do this at least in Memory of Pan. Daph. But why this vain expence of tears breath D' ye think Pan lost and swallow'd up in death He lives and with a pleas'd and wondring eye Contemplates the new beautys of the sky Whence on these Fields he casts propitious rays Now greater than our Sorrow greater than our Praise I saw for why mayn't I rehearse the sight Just as the Stars were kindled by the Queen of night Another new-made milky way appear I saw and wonder'd what event it might prepare When lo great Pan amazed my trembling sight As through th' Aethereal plains he took his flight Deck'd round with rays and darting streams of light Triumphant was his March a sacred throng Of gods inclosed him Pan was all their song The sky still brighten'd as they went along Men. Thy vision be all truth But who shall now the royal sheep-crook hold Who patronize the fields who now secure the fold Daoh Discharge that care the royal stock does yield Another Pan to patronize the field An Heir of equal conduct does the Scepter sway One who long nurtured in the Pastoral way In peace will govern the Arcadian plains Defend the tender flocks and chear the drooping Swains Thyr. Come then let 's tune the pipe t' a brisker Key Let 's with a dance our sorrows chase away And to new Pan in sports devote the day Satiety I. HAst on dull Time thy winged minutes hast I care not now how soon thou bring'st my last By what I 've liv'd I plainly know The total Sum of all below The days to come altho they promise more I know will be as false as those that went before II. The best of life tho once enjoy'd is vain And why ye Powers the self same o're again The Comedy's so dull I fear 'T will not a second acting bear No I 've enough I cannot like the Sun Each day the self same stage and still unwearied run III. What cruel laws are these that me confine Thus still to dig in a deceitful Mine Be just ye Powers my Soul set free Give her her native liberty 'T is ' gainst the Stage's law to force my stay I 've seen an Act or two and do not like the Play. The Reply I. SInce you desire of me to know Who 's the Wise man I 'll tell you who Not he whose rich and fertile mind Is by the Culture of the Arts refin'd Who has the Chaos of disorder'd thought By Reason's Light to Form and method brought Who with a clear and piercing sight Can see through nicetys as dark as night You err if you think this is He Tho seated on the top of the Porphyrian tree II. Nor is it He to whom kind Heaven A secret Cabala has given T' unriddle the mysterious Text Of Nature with dark Comments more perplext Or to decypher her clean-writ and fair But most confounding puzling character That can through all her windings trace This slippery wanderer and unveil her face Her inmost Mechanism view Anatomize each part and see her through and through III. Nor he that does the Science know Our only Certainty below That can from Problems dark and nice Deduce Truths worthy of a Sacrifice Nor he that can confess the stars and see What 's writ in the black leaves of Destiny
That knows their laws and how the Sun His dayly and his annual stage does run As if he did to them dispense Their Motions and there sate supream Intelligence IV. Nor is it he altho he boast Of wisdom and seem wise to most Yet 't is not he whose busy pate Can dive into the deep intrigues of State. That can the great Leviathan controul Menage and rule 't as if he were its soul The wisest King thus gifted was And yet did not in these true Wisdom place Who then is by the Wise man meant He that can want all this and yet can be content My Estate I. HOw do I pity that proud wealthy Clown That does with scorn on my low state look down Thy vain contempt dull Earth-worm cease I won't for refuge-fly to this That none of fortune's Blessings can Add any value to the man This all the wise acknowledge to be true But know I am as rich more rich than you II. While you a spot of earth possess with care Below the notice of the Geographer I by the freedom of my Soul Possess nay more enjoy the whole To th' universe a claim I lay Your writings shew perhaps you 'l say That 's your dull way my title runs more high 'T is by the Charter of Philosophy III. From that a firmer title I derive Than all your Courts of Law could ever give A title that more firm does stand Than does even your very Land. And yet so generous and free That none will e're bethink it me Since my possessions tend to no man's loss I all enjoy yet nothing I ingross IV. Throughout the works divine I cast my eye Admire their Beauty and their Harmony I view the glorious Host above And him that made them Praise and Love. The flowry meads and fields beneath Delight me with their odorous breath Thus is my joy by you not understood Like that of God when he said all was good V. Nay what you 'd think less likely to be true I can enjoy what 's yours much more than you Your meadow's beauty I survey Which you prize only for its hay There can I sit beneath a tree And write an Ode or Elegy What to you care does to me pleasure bring You own the Cage I in it sit and sing The Conquest I. IN Power or Wisdom to contend with thee Great God who but a Lucifer would dare Our strength is but infirmity And when we this perceive our sight 's most clear But yet I will not be excell'd thought I In Love in Love I 'll with my Maker vy II. I view'd the glorys of thy Seat above And thought of every Grace and Charm divine And further to encrease my love I measured all the Heights and Depths of thine Thus there broke forth a Strong and Vigorous flame And almost melted down my mortal frame III. But when thy Bloudy Sweat and Death I view I own Dear Lord the conquest of thy love Thou dost my highest flights outdo I in a lower orb and slower move Thus in this strife's a double weakness shewn Thy Love I cannot equal nor yet bear my own The Impatient I. WHat envious laws are those of Fate Which fix a gulph Blest Souls 'twixt us and you How 't wou'd refresh and chear our Mortal state When our dejected looks confess The emptiness of earthly bliss Could we in this black night your brighter glorys view II. Vain comfort when I thus complain To hear the Wise and Solemn gravely say Your grief and curiosity restrain Death will e're long this Bar remove And bring you to the Blest above Till then with this great Prospect all your longings stay III. But ah the joy peculiar here Does from the greater excellence arise 'T will be worth nothing in an equal Sphere Let me your noble converse have Blest Spirits on this side the grave I shall hereafter be as great as you as wise IV. Besides when plung'd in bliss divine I shall not tast or need this lesser joy What comfort then does from this Prospect shine 'T is just as if in depth of night You robb a Traveller of his light And promise to restore't when 't is clear day Content I. I Bless my stars I envy none Not great nor wealthy no nor yet the Wise I 've learnt the Art to like my own And what I can't attain to not to prize Vast Tracts of Learning I descry Beyond the Sphere perhaps of my Activity And yet I 'm ne're the more concern'd at this Than for the Gems that lye in the profound Abyss II. Should I my proper lot disdain As long as further good eclipses mine I may t' eternity complain And in the Mansions of the Blest repine There shall I numbers vast espy Of Forms more excellent more wise more Blest than I. I shall not then lament my unequal fate And why should larger Prospects now molest my state III. Where all in equal stations move What place for Harmony can there be found The lower Spheres with those above Agree and dance as free and briskly round Degrees of Essences conspire As well as various notes t' accomplish heaven's Quire. Thus would I have 't below nor will I care So the Result be Harmony what part I bear Against Knowledge I. WEll let it be the Censure of the Wise That Wisdom none but Fools despise I like not what they gravely preach And must another Doctrin teach Since all 's so false and vain below There 's nought so indiscreet as this to know II. The thoughtless dull and less discerning mind No flaws in earthly joys can find He Closes with what Courts his sight All Coin will pass by his dim light Though often baulkt he hopes for rest Sleeps on and dreams and is in Errour Blest III. But he that has refin'd and high-rais'd sense Can nothing tast but excellence Nor can he nature's faults supply By Fancy's happy Imag'ry He sees that all Fruition's vain Can't tast the present nor yet trust again IV. Our Joys like Tricks do all on cheats depend And when once known are at an end Happy and Wise two Blessings are Which meet not in this mortal Sphere Let me be ignorant below And when I 've Solid good then let me Know. Seeing a great Person lying in State. I. WEll now I needs must own That I hate greatness more and more 'T is now a just abhorrence grown What was Antipathy before With other ills I could dispence And acquiesce in Providence But let not Heaven my patience try With this one Plague left I repine and dye II. I knew indeed before That 't was the great man's wretched fate While with the living to endure The vain impertinence of State. But sure thought I in death he 'll be From that and other troubles free What e're his life he then will lye As free as undisturb'd as calm as I. III. But 't was a gross mistake Honour that too officious ill Won't even his breathless corps forsake But
haunts and waits about him still Strange persecution when the grave Can't the distressed Martyr save What Remedy can there avail Where Death the great Catholicon does fail IV. Thanks to my stars that I Am with so low a fortune blest That what e're Blessings fate deny I 'm sure of privacy and rest 'T is well thus long I am content And rest as in my Element Then Fate if you 'l appear my friend Force me not ' gainst my nature to ascend V. No I would still be low Or else I would be very high Beyond the state which mortals know A kind of Semi-deity So of the Regions of the air The High'st and Lowest quiet are But 't is this middle Height I fear For storms and thunder are ingender'd there Second Chap. of the Cant. from the 10. verse to the 13. I. 'T Was my Beloved spake I know his charming voice I heard him say Rise up my Love my fairest one awake Awake and come away II. The Winter all is past And stormy winds that with such rudeness blew The heavens are no longer overcast But try to look like you III. The flowers their sweets display The Birds in short praeludiums tune their throat The Turtle in low murmurs does essay Her melancholy note IV. The fruitful Vineyards make An odorous smell the Fig looks fresh and gay Arise my Love my fairest one awake Awake and come away To a Friend in Honour I. SOme thoughtless heads perhaps admire to see That I so little to your titles bow But wonder not my Friend I swear to me You were as great before as now Honour to you does nothing give Tho from your worth much lustre she receive II. Your native glory does so far outdo That of the Sphere wherein you move That I can nothing but your self in you Observe admire esteem or love You are a Diamond set in gold The Curious the rich stone not this behold III. All that to your late honour you can owe Is only that you 're brought in view You don't begin to have but men to know Your Votarys are increas'd not you So the Sun's height adds not t' his light But only does expose him more to sight IV. To some whose native worth more dimly shin'd Honour might some improvement give As metals which the Sun has less refined A value from their Stamp receive But you like gold pass for no more Tho Stamp'd than for your weight you wou'd before A divine Hymn on the Creation I. AWake my Lyre and thy sweet forces joyn With me to sing an Hymn divine Let both our Strains in pleasing numbers flow But see thy strings with tediousness and pain Arise into a tuneful strain How can'st thou silently The universe is Harmony Awake and move by sympathy My heart 's already tuned O why art thou so slow II. Jehovah is our Theme th' eternal King Whose Praise admiring Angels sing They see with steddy and attentive eyes His naked Beautys and from Vision raise To wondrous heights their Love and Praise We mortals only view His Back-parts and that darkly too We must fall short what shall we do But neither too can they up to his grandeur rise III. No power can justly praise him but must be As great as infinite as he He comprehends his boundless self alone Created minds too shallow are and dim His works to fathom much more him Our Praise at height will be Short by a whole Infinity Of his all glorious Deity He cannot have the full and stands in need of none IV. He can't be less nor can he more receive But stands one fix'd Superlative He 's in himself compendiously blest We acted by the weights of strong desire To good without our selves aspire We 're always moving hence Like lines from the Circumference To some more in-lodg'd excellence But he is one unmov'd self-center'd Point of Rest V. Why then if full of bliss that ne're could cloy Would he do ought but still enjoy Why not indulge his self-sufficing state Live to himself at large calm and secure A wise eternal Epicure Why six days work to frame A monument of Praise and Fame To him whose bliss is still the same What need the wealthy coyne or he that 's Blest Create VI. Almighty Love the fairest gem that shone All-round and half made up his throne His Favorite and darling excellence Whom oft he would his Royal vertue stile And view with a peculiar smile Love moved him to create Beings that might participate Of their Creator's happy state And that good which he could not heighten to dispence VII How large thy empire Love how great thy sway Omnipotence does thee obey What complicated wonders in thee shine He that t' infinity it self is great Has one way to be greater yet Love will the method shew 'T is to impart what is 't that thou O soveraign Passion can'st not do Thou mak'st Divinity it self much more divine VIII With pregnant love full-fraught the great Three-one Would now no longer be alone Love gentle love unlockt his fruitful breast And ' woke th' Ideas which there dormant lay Awak'd their Beautys they display Th' Almighty smil'd to see The comely form and harmony Of his eternal Imag'ry He saw 't was good and fair and th' infant platform blest IX Ye seeds of Being in whose fair bosoms dwell The Forms of all things possible Arise and your Prolific force display Let a fair issue in your moulds be cast To fill in part this empty wast He spake The Empty space Immediatly in travel was And soon brought forth a formless mass First matter came undress'd she made such hast t' obey X. But soon a Plastic spirit did ferment The liquid dusky element The Masse harmoniously begins to move Let there be Light said God 't was said and done The Masse dipt through with brightness shone Nature was pleas'd to see This feature of Divinity Th' Almighty smiled as well as she He own'd his likeness there and did his First-born love XI But lo I see a goodly frame arise Vast folding Orbs and azure skies With lucid whirle-pools the vast Arch does shine The Sun by day shews to each world his light The stars stand sentinel by night In midst of all is spread That ponderous bulk whereon we tread But where is its foundation laid 'T is pompous all and great and worthy hands divine XII Thy Temple 's built great God but where is he That must admire both it and thee Ope one Scene more my Muse bless and adore See there in solemn Councel and debate The great divine Triumvirate The rest one Word obey'd 'T was done almost before 't was said But Man was not so cheaply made To make the world was great but t' epitomize it more XIII Th' accomplish'd work stands his severe review Whose judgment 's most exactly ture In natures Book were no Errata's found All things are good said God they answer well Th' Ideas which within me dwell Th' Angelic
Another Spring of tears begins to flow A barbarous hand wounds his now senseless side And death that ends the Son 's renews the Mother's woe XII She sees now by the rude inhuman stroke The Mystic river flow and in her breast Wonders by what strange figure th' Angel spoke When amongst all the Daughters he pronounc'd her Blest XIII Thus far did Nature pity grief and love And all the Passions their strong efforts try But still tho dark below 't was clear above She had as once her Son her strengthning Angel by XIV Gabriel the chiefest of th' Almighty's train That first with happy tidings blest her ear Th' Archangel Gabriel was sent again To stem the tide of grief and qualify her fear XV. A large Perspective wrought by hands divine He set before her first enlightned eye ' 'T was hewn out of the heaven Christalline One of whose ends did lessen th' other magnify XVI With that his sufferings he exposed to sight With this his Glorys he did represent The weight of this made th' other seem but light She saw the mighty odds adored and was content Damon and Pythias Or Friendship in perfection Pyth. I. 'T Is true my Damon we as yet have been Patterns of constant love I know We have stuck so close no third could come between But will it Damon will it still be so Da. II. Keep your love true I dare engage that mine Shall like my Soul immortal prove In friendship's Orb how brightly shall we shine Where all shall envy none divide our love Pyth. III. Death will when once as 't is by fate design'd T' Elysium you shall be remov'd Such sweet Companions there no doubt you 'l find That you 'l forget that Pythias e're you lov'd Da. IV. No banish all such fears I then will be Your Friend and guardian Angel too And tho with more refined Society I 'l leave Elysium to converse with you Pyth. V. But grant that after fate you still are kind You cannot long continue so When I like you become all thought and mind By what mark then shall we each other know Da. VI. With care on your last hour I will attend And lest like Souls should me deceive I closely will embrace my new-born friend And never after my dear Pythias leave The Indifferency I. WHether 't is from stupidity or no I know not but I ne'r could find Why I one Thought or Passion should bestow On Fame that gaudy Idol of mankind Call me not Stoic no I can pursue Things excellent with as much zeal as you But here I own my self to be A very luke-warm Votary II. Should thousand excellencys in me meet And one bright Constellation frame 'T is still as men's phantastic humours hit Whether I 'm written in the book of Fame So tho the Sun be ne're so fair and bright And shine with free uninterrupted light 'T is as the Clouds disposed are E're he can paint his image there III. The world is seldom to true merit just Through Envy or through Ignorance True worth like Valour oft lies hid in dust While some false Hero's graced with a Romance The true God's Altar oft neglected lies When Idols have Perfumes and Sacrifice And tho the true one some adore Yet those that do blaspheme are more IV. Yet grant that merit were of fame secure What 's Reputation what is Praise who 'd one day's toil or sleepless night endure Such a vain Babel of esteem to raise Pleas'd with his hidden worth the great and wise Can like his God this forreign good despise Whose happiness would ne're be less Tho none were made to praise oâ— bless V. Even I who dare not rank my self with those Who pleas'd into themselves retire Find yet in great Applauses less repose And do Fame less less than my self admire Let her loud trumpet sound me far and near Th' Antipodes will never of me hear Or were I known throughout this ball I've but a Point when I have All. VI. Then as for glory which comes after Fate All that can then of me be said I value least of all it comes too late 'T is like th' embalming of the sensless dead Others with pleasure what me labour cost May read and praise but to me all is lost Just as the Sun no joy does find In that his light which chears mankind VII Or should I after Fate has closed my eyes Should I my living glorys know My wiser improved Soul will then despise All that poor Mortals say or think below Even they who of mens ignorance before Complain'd because few did their works adore Will then the self same Censure raise Not from their silence but their praise VIII Or grant 't wou'd pleasure bring to know that I After my death live still in Fame Those that admire me too must shortly dye And then where 's my Memorial where my name My Fame tho longer-lived yet once shall have Like me its Death its Funeral its Grave This only difference will remain I shall that never rise again IX Death and Destruction shall e're long deface The World the work of hands divine What Pillars then or Monuments of brass Shall from the general ruin rescue mine All then shall equal be I care not then To be a while the talk and boast of men This only grant that I may be Prais'd by thy Angels Lord and thee The Infirmity I. IN other things I ne'r admired to see Men injured by extremity But little thought in Happiness There might be danger of excess At least I thought there was no fear Of ever meeting with too much on 't here II. But now these melting sounds strike on my sense With such a powerful excellence I find that Happiness may be Screw'd up to such extremity That our too Feeble facultys May not be said t' enjoy but suffer Bliss III. So frail 's our mortal state we can sustain A mighty bliss no more than pain We lose our weak precarious breath Tortured or tickled unto death As sprights and Angels alike fright With too much Horrour or with too much light IV. Alas I 'm over-pleas'd what shall I do The painful joy to undergo Temper your too melodious song Your dose of bliss is much too strong Like those that too rich Cordials have It don't so much revive as make me rave V. What Cruelty 't wou'd be still to confine A mortal ear to Airs divine The Curse of Cain you have on me Inverted by your Harmony For since with that you charm'd my ear My Bliss is much too great for me to bear VI. Relieve this Paroxysm of delight And let it be less exquisite Let down my Soul 't is too high set I am not ripe for Heaven yet Give me a Region more beneath This Element's too fine for me to breath The Arrest I. WHither so fast fond Passion dost thou rove Licentious and unconfined Sure this is not the proper Sphere of Love Obey and be not deaf as thou
or pine Since 't is thy pleasure Lord it shall be mine III. Thy Med'cine put 's me to great smart Thou 'st wounded me in my most tender part But 't is with a design to cure I must and will thy Soveraign touch endure All that I prized below is gone But yet I still will pray thy will be done IV. Since 't is thy sentence I should part With the most pretious treasure of my heart I freely that and more resign My heart it self as its Delight is thine My little All I give to thee Thou gav'st a greater gift thy Son to me V. He left true Bliss and Joys above Himself he emptied of all good but love For me he freely did forsake More good than he from me can ever take A mortal life for a divine He took and did at last even that resign VI. Take all great God I will not grieve But still will wish that I had still to give I hear thy voice thou bid'st me quit My Paradise I bless and do submit I will not murmur at thy word Nor beg thy Angel to sheath up his sword To my guardian Angel. I. I Own my gentle guide that much I owe For all thy tutelary care and love Through life's wild maze thou 'st led me hitherto Nor ever wilt I hope thy tent remove But yet t' have been completely true Thou should'st have guarded her life too Thou know'st my Soul did most inhabit there I could have spared thee to have guarded her II. But since by thy neglect or heavens decree She 's gone to increase the pleasures of the Blest Since in this Sphere my Sun I ne're shall see Grant me kind Spirit grant me this request When I shall ease thy Charge and dye For sure I think thou wilt be by Lead me through all the numerous host above And bring my new-flown Soul to her I love III. With what high passion shall we then embrace What pleasure will she take t' impart to me The Rites and Methods of that sacred place And what a Heaven 't will be to learn from thee That pleasure I shall then I fear As ill as now my sorrow bear And could then any Chance my life destroy I should I fear then dye again with Joy. The Defiance I. WEll Fortune now if e're you 've shewn What you had in your power to do My wandring love at length had fix'd on one One who might please even unconstant you Me of this one you have deprived On whom I stay'd my Soul in whom I lived You 've shewn your power and I resign But now I 'll shew thee Fortune what 's in mine II. I will not no I will not grieve My tears within their banks shall stand Do what thou wilt I am resolv'd to Live Since thee I can't I will my self command I will my passions so controul That neither they nor thou shalt hurt my Soul I 'll run so counter to thy will Thy good I 'll relish but not feel thy Ill. III. I felt the shaft that last was sent But now thy Quiver I desy I fear no Pain from thee or Discontent Clad in the Armour of Philosophy Thy last seiz'd on me out of guard Vnarm'd too far within thy reach I dar'd But now the field I 'll dearly sell I 'm now at least by thee Impassible IV. My Soul now soars high and sublime Beyond the Spring of thy best bow Like those who so long on high mountains climb Till they see rain and thunder hear below In vain thou 'lt spend thy darts on me My Fort 's too strong for thy Artillery Thy closest aim won't touch my mind Here 's all thy gain still to be thought more blind Superstition I. I Care not tho it be By the preciser sort thought Popery We Poets can a Licence shew For every thing we do Hear then my little Saint I 'll pray to thee II. If now thy happy mind Amidst its various joys can leasure find T' attend to any thing so low As what I say or do Regard and be what thou wast ever kind III. Let not the Blest above Engross thee quite but sometimes hither rove Fain would I thy sweet image see And sit and talk with thee Nor is it Curiosity but Love. IV. Ah what delight 't wou'd be Would'st thou sometimes by stealth converse with me How should I thy sweet commerce prize And other joys despise Come then I ne'r was yet denyed by thee V. I would not long detain Thy Soul from Bliss nor keep thee here in pain Nor should thy fellow-Saints ere know Of thy escape below Before thou' rt miss'd thou should'st return again VI. Sure heaven must needs thy love As well as other qualitys improve Come then and recreate my sight With rays of thy pure light 'T will chear my eyes more than the lamps above VII But if Fate 's so severe As to confine thee to thy blissfull Sphere And by thy absence I shall know Whether thy state be so Live happy but be mindful of me there The complaint of Adam turn'd out of Paradise I. ANd must I go and must I be no more The Tenant of this happy ground Can no reserves of pity me restore Can no attonement for my stay compound All the rich Odours that here grow I 'd give To Heaven in incense might I here but live Or if it be a grace too high To live in Eden let me there but dye II. Fair place thy sweets I just began to know And must I leave thee now again Ah why does Heaven such short-lived Bliss bestow A tast of pleasure but full draught of pain I ask not to be chief in this blest state Let Heaven some other for that place create So 't is in Eden let me but have An under-gardener's place 't is all I crave III. But 't will not do I see I must away My feet profane this sacred ground Stay then bright Minister one minute stay Let me in Eden take one farewell round Let me go gather but one fragrant bough Which as a Relique I may keep and shew Fear not the Tree of Life it were A Curse to be immortal and not here IV. 'T is done Now farewell thou most happy place Farewell ye streams that softly creep I ne'r again in you shall view my face Farewell ye Bowers in you I ne'r shall sleep Farewell ye trees ye flow'ry beds farewell You ne'r will bless my tast nor you my smell Farewell thou Guardian divine To thee my happy Rival I resign V. O whither now whither shall I repair Exil'd from this Angelic coast There 's nothing left that 's pleasant good or fair The world can't recompence for Eden lost 'T is true I 've here a universal sway The Creatures me as their chief Lord obey But yet the world tho all my Seat Can't make me happy tho it make me great VI. Had I lost lesser and but seeming Bliss Reason my sorrows might relieve But when the loss
not so obliged will evidently appear from the proof of this one single Proposition That every one is not bound to do what is best The reasonableness of which Proposition appears from the very nature of the thing for since that which is Best is a Superlative it necessarily supposes the Positive to be good And if so then we are not bound to that which is best for if we were then that which is only good would be evil it being short of what we are bound to which is contrary to the supposition 8. This Argument I take to be Demonstrative and therefore 't would be a kind of Supererogation in me to alledge any more But however for the clearer eviction and stronger confirmation of this Assertion I farther consider that the Scripture consists of Counsels as well as Commands Now if some things are matter of Counsel onely 't is obvious to conclude two things 1. From their being counsell'd that they are good nothing being matter of Counsel but what is so and secondly from their being only counsell'd that they do not oblige and consequently that there are some degrees of good that we are not obliged to 9. It is farther observable that in Scripture there is mention made of a threefold Will of God. Rom. 12. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Will which is good that which is well-pleasing and that which is perfect The first of these denotes absolute Duty the two last the various degrees of Perfection and Heroic Excellence Thus for St. Paul to preach the Gospel to the Corinthians was an Act of strict Duty which he could not leave undone without incurring that woe which he annexes to the omission of it 1 Cor. 9. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But to preach without charging them was an instance of Generosity and in that respect there was room for boasting Thus again for a Jew to allot the tenth part of his Revenue every third year toward the relief of the Poor was an act of express Duty and in doing of that he would but satisfie the obligation of the Law But now if in his charitable contributions he should exceed that proportion according to the degrees of the excess so would the degrees of his Perfection be Thus again in the matter of Devotion daily Prayer is generally concluded to be a Duty and by some Criticks that it be twice perform'd in proportion to the returns of the Jewish Sacrifices Morning and Evening But now if a more generously disposed Christian should add a third time or out of abundance of zeal should come up to the Psalmist's resolution of Seven times a day will I praise thee this would be a free-will Offering well pleasing and of sweet savour but not commanded 10. From these and many other instances which if necessary I could easily produce it plainly appears that Religion does not consist in an indivisible point but has a Latitude and is capable of more and less and consequently there is room for voluntary Oblations and Acts of Heroic Piety 11. I know it is usually objected here that what is supposed to be thus Heroically perform'd is inclusively enjoyn'd by vertue of those comprehensive words Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy Soul c. But I conceive that all which is intended by that phrase will amount to no more than First a sincere love of God as 't is opposed to that which is partial and divided and secondly such a degree of loving him as admits of nothing into Competition with him And thus far reach the Boundaries of indispensable Duty it being impossible that he who does not love God in this sense and degree should keep his Commandments But beyond this there are higher degrees which because we may fall short of without sin are the more excellent when attain'd So that in this Precept of loving God as in all other instances of Religion there is a great latitude it being very possible for two Persons to love God sincerely and with their whole Soul and yet in different measures which is observ'd even among the Angels the Seraphins having their name from their excess of Love nay for the same Person always to love God sincerely and yet at some times to exceed himself and with his Saviour who to be sure never fail'd of necessary Duty to pray yet more earnestly 12. There is another Objection yet behind which I think my self concern'd to answer as well in my own defence as that of my Argument Some perhaps may be so weak to imagine that by asserting such a thing as Heroic Piety and that a Christian may do more than he is commanded I too much favour the Doctrine of Supererogation But I consider that for a Man to do more than he is commanded is an ambiguous expression and may denote either that he can perform the whole Law of God and more or that tho he fail of his Duty in many Instances and consequently with the rest of Mankind is concluded under Sin Yet in some others he may exceed it by pressing forward to some degrees of excellency he is not obliged to I do not assert the former of these but the latter And I think I have sufficiently proved that there are certain degrees in Religion which we are not obliged to under Pain of Sin and consequently that he who arrives so far does according to the latter notion of the Phrase do more then he is commanded 13. Having in the foregoing Periods stated the Notion of Heroic Piety and demonstrated that there is such a thing I proceed now to my third and last undertaking which was to offer some Perswasives to recommend the Practise of it First then I consider that Religion is the Perfection of a Man the improvement and accomplishment of that part of him wherein he resembles his Maker the pursuance of his best and last end and consequently his Happiness And will a man set bounds to his Happiness Will he be no more happy than he is commanded no more than what will just serve to secure him from a miserable Eternity Is not Happiness desirable for it self as well as for the avoiding of Misery Why then do we deal with it as with dangerous Physic weighing it by Grains and Scruples and nice Proportions Why do we drink so moderately of the River of Paradise so sparingly of the Well of Life Are we afraid of making too nigh advances to the State of Angels of becoming too like God of antedating Heaven Are we affraid our Happiness will flow in too thick upon us that we shall not bear up against the Tide but sink under the too powerful enjoyment Hereafter indeed when we are blest with the Beatific Vision and the Glories of the Divine Brightness shall flash too strong upon our Souls so that our Happiness begins to be lessen'd by its greatness We may then with the Angels that attend the Throne veil our Faces and divert some
its own circumference 3. For besides Acts of self-complacency whereby I delight and please my self in the perfections of my Nature and turn as it were upon my own Axis I find in me a great deal of Extatical Love which continually carryes me out to good without my self which I endeavour to close and unite with in hopes of bettering my present state and of supplying from without what I seek but cannot find within 4. Hence therefore I conclude that I am not whatever complacencies I may somtimes take in my self a Central or self-terminative Being it being as impossible that what is so should love any thing without as love is taken for Desire or Aspiring to good as that a Body should gravitate in the Center That which loves any thing without wants somthing within If therefore I gravitate I am off from the Center consequently not my own Center 5. And that I cannot ever Center in my self and be my own End is yet further evidenc'd to me when I contemplate the great Disproportion between my Appetitive and all my other Perfections whether of Body or of Mind I desire both more kinds of pleasure than they all can afford and more Degrees of pleasure in the same kind Which must necessarily be because my Desires are extended to all possible good but my reall endowments and perfections are infinitely short of that extent And by consequence my Desires cannot be cramp'd within the narrow bounds of my own Sphere but will of necessity run out farther even as far as there is good without it 6. And as there is a manifest disproportion between my stock of self-perfection and my Appetitive as to its objective Latitude viz. the kinds and degrees of Happiness so is there no less as to the intenseness of its Acts. This Appetitive of mine as was remark'd in the preceding Contemplation is always in an equal invigoration and burns with an even and uniform heat but I have not within my self fuel enough to maintain this flame in an equal height I always equally desire but I am not always equally desirable partly because I am somtimes even in my own partial judgment in a Condition of less excellence both as to my Morals and Intellectuals than at other times and partly because the stock of my Perfections tho 't were possible they could be always alike as my Desires are yet being both Finite in Nature and Few in Number cannot bear a long and uninterrupted enjoyment and appear still equally grateful under it any more than a short Poem tho in it self equally excellent can please equally after a Million of Repetitions 7. Hence it comes to pass that I do not always take an equal Complacency in my self but am oftentimes especially after long retirements apt to be melancholy and to grow weary of my own company so that I am fain to lay aside my self as it were for a while and relieve the penury of Solitude with the variety of Company and so whet my appetite toward my self as I do toward my meat by Fasting and abstemiousness 8. Since therefore I always desire equally but not my self being not upon the two accounts before mention'd always equally desirable it follows that the steddiness and evenness of this my Flame must depend upon some other Fuel good which is without me And consequently I do not terminate in my self and so am not my own End. The Prayer MY God my Creator who hast in thy great wisdom furnish'd me with Desires too large and vehement for the other Perfections of my Nature and hast thereby made it impossible that I should ever be my own End grant me effectually to consider the Barrenness and insufficiency of my own Nature and how unable I am upon my own solitary stock to satisfy the importunity of my Soul that so I may not be transported with vain complacencies nor endeavour to bottom my self upon such a Center as will moulder away under me and deceive me Let me ever weigh my self in a true Ballance and be as observant of my imperfections as of my excellencies Let me be ever thankfull for the one and humble for the other What ever else I am ignorant of O grant me a true understanding of my self that I may not to the vanity of my Nature add levity of Spirit nor become despicable in thy eyes by being too pretious in my own Amen Amen Contemplation the Third That 't is impossible that any other Created good should be the end of man. 1. HAving by the light of Contemplation discover'd the necessity of man's having some end and the utter impossibility of his ever being his own End I am now concern'd to look beyond the Orb of my own Perfections and to consider whether the whole Latitude of the Creation can afford any good that will terminate the Amorous Bent of my Soul and wherein I may sweetly and securely rest as in my end or Center 2. And this I am the more induced to enquire into first because I observe that the generality of men and those some of the most sagacious thinking and inquisitive do persue many interests in this visible and sublunary world which yet is the most cheap and inconsiderable part of the Creation with as much fervency vigour and assiduity as they could possibly do were it the true End of man. So that one would think by the quickness of their motion they were nigh the Center 3. Secondly because I observe concerning my self that there are some few things in the world which I love with great passion and delight in with somthing like satisfaction and acquiescence Such as are Conversation with select Friends or men of harmonical and tunable dispositions reading of close and fine-wrought Discourses solitary walks and Gardens the magnificence of the Heavens the Beauty of the Spring and above all majestic and well composed Music Which last could I enjoy it in its highest perfection and without interruption would I am apt to fancy terminate my desires and make me happy at least I am well assured I should pity more than I should envy 4. Thirdly because I consider that the great Author of Nature is brought in by Moses commending upon a deliberate review all the works of his hands That which before the divine Incubation was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Solitude and inanity after the Spirit had moved upon the waters he pronounc'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Superlatively good So very Superlatively good that even the glory of Solomon in the judgment of him who was both greater and wiser than he was not comparable to one of Nature's meanest flowers And if the Beauty and variety of the Creature was so considerable as to merit approbation from him that made it what is there of our Love and Complacency that it may not challenge That which can but please God may well be suppos'd able to satisfy man That wherein the Creator delights the Creature one would think might fully rest and acquiesce
that men usually think the morality of their actions sufficiently secured if the End proposed be not in its own nature specifically evil Whereas indeed there is yet another way whereby an End may become evil namely by being rested in when 't is not the last without any further respect or reference By this undue and ill-plac'd Acquiescence an End that is otherwise in its own intrinsic nature good upon the whole commences evil For tho it be good to be chosen it is yet ill to be rested in 3. For indeed 't is against the order and oeconomy of things as well as against the perfection of Religion that any End should be ultimately rested in but what is truly the last Now the last end of action can be no other than that which is the last end of the will which is the Spring of action This therefore being God as appears from what I have already contemplated it follows that he ought to be the ultimate End of all our actions that we ought not in any of our motions to stop short of this Center but in all our actions to make a further reference either actual or habitual and according to that of the Apostle whether we eat or drink to do all to the glory of God. 4. For what can be more absurd and incongruous than to turn the Means into the End and the End into the Means to enjoy what ought to be only used and to use what ought to be enjoyed God is our last End and therefore must not be desired for any thing but himself nor used as a means to accomplish any other Design Which also concludes against all those who make Religion a Point of Secular interest and a tool of State-policy whereas that ought to prescribe and not receive measures from any Human affairs The Prayer MY God my Happiness who art the last end of my Desires the very utmost of all Perfection and beyond whom there is no good be thou the last end of my Actions too and let them all meet and unite in thee as lines in their Center Grant I may set thee before me in all my thoughts words and actions let my eye of Contemplation be always open and whatever intermedial designs I may have let my last aim be thy glory And O let me never be so low sunk base and wicked as to make Religion an instrument of worldly policy nor to dishonour thee and my own Soul by such a mercenary Piety But do thou always possess my mind with such a due value for thy infinite excellency that I may refer all things to thee and thee and thine to nothing but love and embrace thee for thy own self who in thy self alone art altogether lovely Amen Amen A DISCOURSE UPON ROMANS 12. 3. Not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think But to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of Faith. 1. THERE is nothing wherein men are so much divided from one another as in Opinions and nothing wherein they more unanimously conspire than in thinking well of themselves This is a Humour of so Catholic a Stamp and universal Empire that it may seem to challenge a place among those Elements of our Constitution those Essentials of our nature which run throughout the whole Kind and are participated by every Individual For should a man take the Wings of the Morning and travel with the Sun round the Terrestrial Globe he would hardly find a man either of a Judgment so difficult to be pleas'd or of accomplishment so little to recommend him that was not notwithstanding sufficiently in love with himself however he might dislike every thing else about him And without question that arrogant and peevish Mathematician who charged the grand Architect with want of skill in the Mechanism of the World thought he had play'd the Artist well enough in himself and as to the Harmony of his own frame acquitted the Geometry of his Maker 2. And as men are thus naturally apt to think well of themselves in general so there is nothing wherein they indulge this Humour more than in the Opinion they have of the Goods of the Mind and among these there is none which has so great a share of their Partiality as their Intellectual faculty The Desire of Knowledg is not more natural then the Conceit that we are already furnish'd with a considerable Measure of it and tho a particular Sect were Characteriz'd by that Appellation yet all mankind are in reality Gnostics For as t is ingeniously observ'd by the excellent Cartesius nothing is more equally distributed among men than the Intellectual Talent wherewith every one fancies himself so abundantly stockt that even those who have the most unsatiable Desires and whom Providence could not satisfy in any one thing else are notwithstanding as to this Dispensation of Heaven well enough content complain not of the dull Planet that influenc'd their Nativity or wish their minds more richly endow'd than they are And altho there are a generation of men who use to be very eloquent in setting out the degeneracy of human nature in general and particularly in decyphering the Shortness of our Intellectual Sight and the defects of our now diminish'd understanding yet should a man take them at their word and apply that Verdict to themselves in particular which they so freely bestow upon the whole Species no men in the world so full of resentment and impatience as they and I dare affirm notwithstanding their Harangues upon the Corruption of Human Nature could all mankind lay a true claim to that Estimate which they pass upon themselves there would be little or no difference betwixt laps'd and perfect Humanity and God might again review his image with paternal Complacency and still pronounce it good 3. Nor is it at all to be wonder'd that Self-Conceitedness should be of such an unlimited and Transcendental Nature as to run through all Sorts and Classes of men since the cause of it Self-love has such an universal Jurisdiction in our hearts 'T is most natural and necessary for every man and indeed for every Intelligent Being to be a Lover of himself and to covet whatsoever any way tends to the perfection of his Nature And as 't is necessary for every man to be thus affected towards himself so is this the only Disposition of mind wherein Man acts with Constancy and Vniformity Our other Passions have somtimes their total intermissions and at best their increases and decreases but this is always at Full and stands drawn out to the utmost Stretch of its Capacity No man loves himself more at one time than at another and that because he always loves himself in the highest Degree that is possible More than all good he cannot wish to himself and less than all he will not nay I had almost pronounc'd it impossible for Omnipotence it self which stays the proud waves of the Ocean and blocks up its
violent efforts with barrs and doors to say unto this Passion hitherto shalt thou come but no further or to set any other bounds to it besides those of all possible good 4. Now Man being such an infinite Lover of himself is easily brought to believe that he is really Master of many of those excellencies and perfections which he so passionately wishes among the inventory of his possessions For there is this notorious difference betwixt self-Self-love and the Love of others that whereas the Love of others supposes an opinion of their excellency the love of our selves begets it We love others because we think well of them but so preposterous is the method of self-Self-love we think well of our selves because we first love our selves So that now upon the whole considering how necessarily and vehemently every man is carried on to the love of himself and what a natural product Self-conceit is of self-Self-love 't is much to be fear'd that as we cannot set any bounds to the love of our selves so we shall hardly set due ones to our Opinions of our selves and consequently the most mortify'd and resign'd Man of us all has no reason to think himself unconcern'd in this Admonition of the Apostle Not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of Faith. 5. 'T is supposed that the Apostle in these words had respect to the then prevailing Heresy of the Gnostics a sort of men that pretended to great Heights of divine Knowledg to close intimacies and familiarities with God and upon that presumption grew so haughty and insolent as to despise dominions and speak evil of dignities and withall so careless and secure as to defile the flesh and indulge themselves all manner of Sensuality as you may see their Character in the Epistle of St. Jude Nay of such turbulent ungovernable Principles and profligate manners were these men that some of the Learned and particularly an eminent Divine of our own Church have adventured to write upon their Fore-heads Mystery and to place them in the Chair of Anti-Christ As an Antidote therefore against this Poison the Apostle who through the Abundance of Revelation had himself been in danger of being exalted above Measure and experimentally knew how prone human nature is to swell and plume upon a Conceit of its own excellencies thought it expedient to advise his Charge at Rome the place which Simon Magus the Author of that proud Sect had as Eusebius tells us made choice of to be the Scene of his Magical Operations to moderate and sober thoughts of themselves and being to teach them a Lesson of Humility he modestly ushers it in with a Preface of his Commission and Authority For I say says he through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you not to think of himself more highly c. 6. The Discourse which I design upon these words shall be comprized within these limits First I observe that we are not at our own liberty to entertain what Opinions we please concerning our selves but that we ought to regulate them by some Standard Which I collect from the former part of the Text Not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but to think soberly 7. Secondly I observe that the Standard whereby we are to regulate our Opinions concerning our selves are those excellencies and perfections which we are really indow'd with which I collect from the latter part of the Text according as God has dealt to every man the measure of Faith. 8. And in the third place I shall consider the Absurdities and ill Consequences of transgressing this Standard whereby it shall appear how highly reasonable this Admonition of the Apostle is and so conclude with a practical Application of the whole in relation to our selves and the present occasion 9. I begin with the first Proposition That we are not at our own liberty to entertain what Opinions we please concerning our selves but that we ought to regulate them by some Standard 10. The Acts of the understanding are by some men thought as free from all Law as the Acts of the will are from all necessity and accordingly they give every one a Toleration to abound in his own sense and provided his actions be conformable to the Rule to think what he please Now since a Man cannot be accountable for an Opinion of himself in particular unless it be first granted that he is under a Law as to the Acts of his understanding in general before I can proceed any farther I find it necessary to lay down this Preparatory Position That we are under an Obligation as to the Acts of our understanding or which is all one that we are accountable for them Nay I believe I may venture higher and affirm that the understanding is not only under Obligation but that 't is the Primary and immediat Subject of it For the proof of which Paradox I desire the Patrons of the Intellectual Libertinism to consider that that must be the Primary and immediat subject of all Obligation which is so of Liberty Now that this cannot be the Will I suppose will be acknowledg'd a clear consequence if the Will necessarily follows the Practical Dictate of the Understanding And that it does so I think there is Demonstration 11. 'T is an unquestionable Axiom in all the Schools of Learning in the world that the Object of the Will is apparent good Now apparent good in other words is that which is apprehended or judg'd to be good and if so then it follows that the Will cannot but conform to the Dictate of the Understanding because otherwise somthing might be the object of the Will that is not apprehended good which is contrary to the supposition In short the Will as Aquinas has well expressed it is the Conclusion of an Operative Syllogism and follows as necessarily from the Dictate of the Understanding as any other Conclusion does from its Premises and consequently cannot be the immediat subject of Liberty and consequently not of Obligation 12. But then are we not involv'd in the same difficulty as to the understanding Does not that act with equal if not more necessity than the Will So I know it is ordinarily taught But if this be absolutely and universally true I must confess it above the reach of my Capacity to salve the Notion of Morality or Religion or to find out an expedient how the Foundations of the Intellectual world should not be out of course For since 't is evident both from the preceding Demonstration and from experimental Reflection that the Will necessarily acts in Conformity to the Dictates of the Understanding if those very Dictates are also wholly and altogether necessary there can be no such thing as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the man is bound hand and foot has nothing left whereby to render him a Moral Agent to
in the enjoyment 16. From these and the like Considerations I think it will evidently appear that this perfect Happiness is not to be found in any thing we can enjoy in this Life Wherein then does it consist I answer positively in the full and entire Fruition of God. He as Plato speaks is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Proper and Principal end of Man the Center of our Tendency the Ark of our Rest He is the Object which alone can satisfy the appetite of the most Capacious Soul and stand the Test of Fruition to Eternity And to enjoy him fully is perfect Felicity This in general is no more than what is deliver'd to us in Scripture and was believ'd by many of the Heathen Philosophers But the manner of this Fruition requires a more particular Consideration Much is said by the Schoolmen upon this Subject whereof in the first place I shall give a short and methodical account and then fix upon the Opinion which I best approve of The first thing that I observe is that 't is generally agreed upon among them that this Fruition of God consists in some Operation and I think with very good Reason For as by the Objective part of perfect Happiness we understand that which is best and last and to which all other things are to be referr'd So by the Formal part of it must be understood the best and last Habitude of Man toward that best Object so that the Happiness may both ways satisfy the Appetite that is as 't is the best thing and as 't is the Possession Use or Fruition of that best thing Now this habitude whereby the best thing is perfectly possess'd must needs be some Operation because Operation is the ultimate perfection of every Being Which Axion as Cajetan well observes must not be so understood as if Operation taken by it self were more perfect than the thing which tends to it but that every thing with its Operation is more perfect than without it 17. The next thing which I observe is that 't is also farther agreed upon among them that this Operation wherein our Fruition of God does consist is an Operation of the Intellectual part and not of the Sensitive And this also I take to be very reasonable First because 't is generally receiv'd that the Essence of God cannot be the Object of any of our Senses But Secondly Suppose it could yet since this Operation wherein our perfect Happiness does consist must be the perfectest Operation and since that of the Intellectual part is more perfect than that of the Sensitive it follows that the Operation whereby we enjoy God must be that of the Intellectual part only 18. But now whereas the Intellectual part of man as 't is opposed to the Sensitive is double viz. That of the Vnderstanding and that of the Will there has commenced a great Controversy between the Thomists and the Scotists in which Act or Operation of the Rational Soul the Fruition of God does consist whether in an Act of the Vnderstanding or in an Act of the Will. The Thomists will have it consist purely in an Act of the Vnderstanding which is Vision The Scotists in the Act of the Will which is Love. I intend not here to launch out into those Voluminous Intricacies and Abstrusities occasioned by the management of this Argument It may suffice to tell you that I think they are both in the extream and therefore I shall take the middle way and resolve the perfect Fruition of God partly into Vision and partly into Love. These are the two arms with which we embrace the Divinity and unite our Souls to the fair one and the good These I conceive are both so essential to the perfect Fruition of God that the Idea of it can by no means be maintained if either of them be wanting For since God is both Supream Truth and infinite Goodness he cannot be entirely possess'd but by the most clear knowledg and the most ardent love And besides since the Soul is happy by her Faculties her Happiness must consist in the most perfect Operation of each Faculty For if Happiness did consist formally in the sole Operation of the Vnderstanding as most say or in the sole Operation of the Will as others the Man would not be compleatly and in all respects Happy For how is it possible a Man should be perfectly Happy in loving the greatest good if he did not know it or in knowing it if he did not love it And moreover these two Operations do so mutually tend to the promotion and conservation of one another that upon this depends the perpetuity and the constancy of our Happiness For while the Blessed do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Face to Face contemplate the Supream Truth and the infinite Goodness they cannot chuse but love perpetually and while they perpetually love they cannot chuse but perpetually contemplate And in this mutual reciprocation of the Actions of the Soul consists the perpetuity of Heaven the Circle of Felicity 19. Besides this way of resolving our fruition of God into Vision and Love there is a famous Opinion said to be broacht by Henricus Gandavensis who upon a Supposition that God could not be so fully enjoy'd as is required to perfect Happiness only by the Operations or Powers of the Soul fancied a certain Illapse whereby the Divine Essence did fall in with and as it were penetrate the Essence of the Blessed Which Opinion he endeavours to illustrate by this Similitude That as a piece of Iron red hot by reason of the Illapse of the fire into it appears all over like fire so the Souls of the Blessed by this Illapse of the Divine Essence into them shall be all over Divine 20. I think he has scarce any followers in this Opinion but I am sure he had a leader For this is no more than what Plato taught before him as is to be seen in his Discourses about the refusion of the Souls of good men into the Anima Mundi which is the self-same in other terms with this Opinion And the Truth of what I affirm may farther appear from an expression of that great Platonist Plotinus viz. that the Soul will then be Happy when it shall depart hence to God and as another and no longer her self shall become wholly his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having joyn'd her self to him as a Center to a Center 21. That such an intimate Conjunction with God as is here described is possible seems to me more than credible from the Nature of the Hypostatic Union but whether our Fruition of God after this Life shall consist in it none know but those happy Souls who enjoy him and therefore I shall determine nothing before the time This only I observe that should our Fruition of God consist in such an Union or rather Penetration of Essences that would not exclude but rather infer those Operations of Vision and Love as necessary to Fruition but on the
other hand there seems no such necessity of this Union to the Fruition but that it may be conceiv'd entire without it And therefore why we should multiply difficulties without cause I see no reason For my part I should think my self sufficiently happy in the clear Vision of my Maker nor should I desire any thing beyond the Prayer of Moses I beseech thee shew me thy Glory 22. For what an infinite Satisfaction Happiness and Delight must it needs be to have a clear and intimate perception of that Primitive and Original Beauty Perfection and Harmony whereof all that appears fair and excellent either to our Senses or Vnderstandings in this Life is but a faint imitation a pale Reflection To see him who is the Fountain of all Being containing in himself the perfection not only of all that is but of all that is possible to be the Alpha and Omega the beginning and the ending the first and the last which is and which was and which is to come the Almighty To see him of whom all Nature is the Image of whom all the Harmony both of the visible and invisible World is but the Eccho To see him who as Plato divinely and magnificently expresses it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The immense Ocean of Beauty which is it self by it self with it self uniform always existing This certainly will affect the Soul with all the pleasing and ravishing Transports of Love and Desire Joy and Delight Wonder and Amazement together with a settled Acquiescence and Complacency of Spirit only less infinite than the Loveliness that causes it and the peculiar Complacency of him who rejoyces in his own fulness and the Comprehensions of Eternity We see how strangely our Sense of Seeing is affected with the Harmony of Colours and our sense of Hearing with the Harmony of Sounds insomuch that some have been too weak for the enjoyment and have grown mad with the Sublimate of Pleasure And if so what then shall we think of the Beatific Vision the pleasure of which will so far transcend that of the other as God who is all over Harmony and Proportion exceeds the sweetest Melody of Sounds and Colours and the perception of the Mind is more vigorous quick and piercing than that of the Senses This is perfect Happiness this is the Tree of Life which grows in the midst of the Paradise of God this is Heaven which while the Learned dispute about the Good only enjoy But I shall not venture to Soar any longer in these Heights I find the Aether too thin here to breath in long and the Brightness of the Region flashes too strong upon my tender Sense I shall therefore hasten to descend from the Mount of God lest I grow giddy with speculation and lose those Secrets which I have learnt there the Cabala of Felicity 23. And now Sir I come to consider your Question viz. Wherein the greatest Happiness attainable by Man in this Life does consist Concerning which there is as great variety of Opinions among Philosophers as there is among Geographers about the Seat of Paradise The Learned Varro reckons up no less than 288 several Opinions about it and yet notwithstanding the number of Writers who have bequeath'd Volumes upon this Subject to Posterity they seem to have been in the dark in nothing more than in this and excepting only a few Platonists who placed Man's greatest End in the Contemplation of Truth they seem to have undertaken nothing so unhappily as when they essay'd to write of Happiness Some measure their Happiness by the high-tide of their Riches as the Egyptians did the Fertility of the Year by the increase of the River Nile Others place it in the Pleasures of Sense others in Honour and Greatness But these and the like were Men of the common Herd low groveling Souls that either understood not the Dignity of Human Nature or else forgot that they were Men. But there were others of a Diviner Genius and Sublimer Spirit Queis meliore luto finxit praecordia Titan. Who had a more generous blood running in their Veins which made them put a just value upon themselves and scorn to place their greatest Happiness in that which they should blush to enjoy And those were the Stoics and the Peripatetics who both place the greatest Happiness of this Life in the Actions of Vertue with this only difference that whereas the former are contented with Naked Vertue the latter require some other Collateral things to the farther accomplishment of Happiness such as are Health and Strength of Body a Competent Livelyhood and the like 24. And this Opinion has been subscribed to by the hands of eminent Moralists in all Ages And as it is Venerable for its Antiquity so has it gain'd no small Authority from the Pen of a great Modern Writer Descartes who resolves the greatest Happiness of this Life into the right use of the Will which consists in this that a Man have a firm and constant purpose always to do that which he shall judge to be best 25. I confess the Practice of Vertue is a very great instrument of Happiness and that there is a great deal more true satisfaction and solid content to be found in a constant course of well living than in all the soft Caresses of the most studied Luxury or the Voluptuousness of a Seraglio And therefore I have oftentimes been exceedingly pleased in the reading of a certain Passage in that Divine Moralist Hierocles where he tells you that the Vertuous Man lives much more pleasantly than the Vicious Man. For says he all Pleasure is the Companion of Action it has no Subsistence of its own but accompanies us in our doing such and such things Hence 't is that the worser Actions are accompanied with the meaner Pleasures So that the good Man does not only excell the wicked Man in what is good but has also the advantage of him even in Pleasure for whose sake alone he is wicked For he that chuses Pleasure with Filthiness altho for a while he be sweetly and deliciously entertain'd yet at last through the Eilthiness annexed to his Enjoyment he is brought to a painful Repentance But now he that prefers Vertue with all her Labours and Difficulties though at first for want of use it sits heavy upon him yet by the Conjunction of good be alleviates the Labour and at last enjoys pare and unallay'd Pleasure with his Vertue So that of necessity that Life is most unhappy which is most wicked and that most pleasant which is most vertuous 26. Now this I readily submit to as a great truth that the degrees of Happiness vary according to the degrees of Vertue and consequently that that Life which is most Vertuous is most Happy with reference to those that are Vicious or less Vertuous every degree of Vertue having a proportionate degree of Happiness accompanying it which is all I suppose that excellent Author intends But I do not think the most Vertuous
Life so the most Happy but that it may become Happier unless somthing more be comprehended in the Word Vertue then the Stoics Peripatetics and the generality of other Moralists understand by it For with them it signifies no more but only such a firm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or habitude of the Will to good whereby we are constantly disposed notwithstanding the contrary tendency of our Passions to perform the necessary Offices of Life This they call Moral or Civil Vertue and although this brings always Happiness enough with it to make ample amends for all the difficulties which attend the practise of it Yet I am not of Opinion that the greatest Happiness attainable by Man in this Life consists in it But there is another and a higher Sense of the Word which frequently occurs in the Pythagorean and Platonic Writings viz. Contemplation and the Vnitive way of Religion And this they call Divine Vertue I allow of the distinction but I would not be thought to derive it from the Principle as if Moral Vertue were acquired and this infused for to speak ingeniously infused Vertue seem'd ever to me as great a Paradox in Divinity as Occult qualities in Philosophy but from the nobleness of the Object the Object of the former being Moral good and the Object of the latter God himself The former is a State of Proficiency the latter of Perfection The former is a State of difficulty and contention the latter of ease and ferenity The former is employ'd in mastering the Passions and regulating the actions of common Life the latter in Divine Meditation and the extasies of Seraphic Love. He that has only the former is like Moses with much difficulty climbing up to the Holy Mount but he that has the latter is like the same Person conversing with God on the serene top of it and shining with the Rays of anticipated Glory So that this latter supposes the acquisition of the former and consequently has all the Happiness retaining to the other besides what it adds of its own This is the last Stage of Human Perfection the utmost round of the Ladder whereby we ascend to Heaven one Step higher is Glory Here then will I build my Tabernacle for it is good to be here Here will I set up my Pillar of Rest here will I fix for why should I travel on farther in pursuit of any greater Happiness since Man in this Station is but a little lower than the Angels one remove from Heaven Here certainly is the greatest happiness as well as Perfection attainable by Man in this State of imperfection For since that Happiness which is absolutely perfect and compleat consists in the clear and intimate Vision and most ardent Love of God hence we ought to take our Measures and conclude that to be the greatest Happiness attainable in this State which is the greatest participation of the other And that can be nothing else but the Vnitive way of Religion which consists of the Contemplation and Love of God. I shall say somthing of each of these severally and somthing of the Vnitive way of Religion which is the result of both and so shut up this Discourse 27. By Contemplation in general 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we understand an application of the Understanding to some truth But here in this place we take the word in a more peculiar sense as it signifies an habitual attentive steddy application or conversion of the Spirit to God and his Divine Perfections Of this the Masters of Mystic Theology commonly make fifteen Degrees The first is Intuition of Truth the second is a Retirement of all the Vigour and Strength of the Faculties into the innermost parts of the Soul the third is Spiritual Silence the fourth is Rest the fifth is Union the sixth is the Hearing of the still Voice of God the seventh is Spiritual Slumber the eighth is Ecstacy the ninth is Rapture the tenth is the Corporeal Appearance of Christ and the Saints the eleventh is the Imaginary Appearance of the Same the twelfth is the Intellectual Vision of God the thirteenth is the Vision of God in Obscurity the fourteenth is an admirable Manifestation of God the fifteenth is a clear and intuitive Vision of him such as St. Austin and Tho. Aquinas attribute to St. Paul when he was wrapt up into the third Heaven Others of them reckon seven degrees only viz. Taste Desire Satiety Ebriety Security Tranquility but the name of the seventh they say is known only to God. 28. I shall not stand to examine the Scale of this Division perhaps there may be a kind of a Pythagoric Superstition in the number But this I think I may affirm in general that the Soul may be wound up to a most strange degree of Abstraction by a silent and steddy Contemplation of God. Plato defines Contemplation to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Solution and a Separation of the Soul from the Body And some of the severer Platonists have been of Opinion that 't is possible for a Man by mere intention of thought not only to withdraw the Soul from all commerce with the Senses but even really to separate it from the Body to untwist the Ligaments of his Frame and by degrees to resolve himself into the State of the Dead And thus the Jews express the manner of the Death of Moses calling it Osculum Oris Dei the Kiss of God's Mouth That is that he breath'd out his Soul by the mere Strength and Energy of Contemplation and expired in the Embraces of his Maker A Happy way of Dying How ambitious should I be of such a conveyance were it practicable How passionately should I joyn with the Church in the Canticles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let him Kiss me with the Kisses of his Mouth Cant. 1. 2. 29. But however this be determin'd certain it is that there are exceeding great Measures of Abstraction in Contemplation so great that somtimes whether a Man be in the Body or out of the Body he himsel can hardly tell And consequently the Soul in these Praeludiums of Death these Neighbourhoods of Separation must needs have brighter glimpses and more Beatific Ideas of God than in a state void of these Elevations and consequently must love him with greater Ardency Which is the next thing I am to consider 30. The love of God in general may be considered either as it is purely intellectual or as it is a Passion The first is when the Soul upon an apprehension of God as a good delectable and agreeable Object joyns her self to him by the Will. The latter is when the motion of the Will is accompany'd with a sensible Commotion of the Spirits and an estuation of the Blood. Some I know are of Opinion that 't is not possible for a man to be affected with this sensitive Love of God which is a Passion because there is nothing in God which falls under our imagination and consequently the imagination being the only Medium
many an honest Pious Soul arrives to the heavenly Canaan who is not fed with this Manna in the Wilderness But though every one must not expect these Antepasts of Felicity that is vertuous yet none else must Paradise was never open but to a State of Innocence But neither is that enough No this Mount of God's Presence is fenced not only from the profane but also from the moderately vertuous 'T is the Priviledge of Angelical Dispositions and the Reward of eminent Piety and an excellent Religion to be admitted to these Divine Repasts these Feasts of love And here I place the greatest Happiness attainable by Man in this Life as being the nearest Approach to the State of the Blessed above the outer Court of Heaven 35. These Sir are my thoughts concerning Happiness I might have spun them out into a greater length but I think a little Plot of ground thick-sown is better than a great Field which for the most part of it lies Fallow I have endeavour'd to deliver my Notions with as much Perspicuity and in as good Method as I could and so to answer all the ends of Copiousness with the advantage of a shorter Cut. If I appear singular in any of my Notions 't is not out of an industrious affectation of Novelty but because in the composing of this discourse the Meditation of a few broken hours in a Garden I consulted more my own experimental Notices of things and private Reflections than the Writings of others So that if somtimes I happen to be in the Road and somtimes in a way by my self 't is no wonder I affect neither the one nor the other but write as I think Which as I do at other times so more especially when I subscribe my self SIR Yours most affectionately J. N. All-Souls Colledge Apr. 18. 1683. A Letter of Resolution concerning some Passages in the foregoing Treatise to the same Person SIR 1. THE kind Entertainment which you gave my Idea of Happiness does not only incourage but oblige me to endeavour the satisfaction of that Scruple which the Perusal of it has occasion'd I cannot but highly commend your searching Curiosity in desiring farther satisfaction concerning a matter of so sublime and excellent a Nature for the Tree of Paradise is good for food pleasant to the Eye and a Tree to be desired to make one wise tho you must give me leave to wonder that you would not enquire at a better Oracle But since you are pleas'd to be of the Opinion that few have made this Subject so familiar to their Meditation as I have I cannot with any pretence decline your Request tho perhaps by my performing it I shall work you into a contrary persuasion 2. Sir You say you should like my Notion concerning the râ—ality of that which is usually call'd Imaginary Happiness that is as you well explain both your own and my meaning that although the Object may be an Imaginary Good yet the Happiness which consists in the Fruition of that Object will not be Imaginary too but real and consequently that 't is impossible for a man to seem to himself to be happy and not to be really so all Happiness consisting in Opinion This Notion you say you should like rarely well could you free your self from one difficulty which it engages you upon viz. That hereafter in the state of Glory either one Saint shall think himself as happy as another or not if not this must needs occasion Envy or Discontent but if one shall think himself as happy as another then according to my Hypothesis that Opinion is the Measure of Happiness 't will follow that he will really be so and this brings in Equality of Happiness which you look upon and I think justly too as another absurdity 3. I confess Sir this Argument is pretty subtle and surprizing but I conceive the Knots of it may be untied by this Answer First it may be justly question'd whether the first part of your Dilemma be necessarily attended with the appendant absurdity 'T is true indeed not to think ones self as happy as another is the Spring of Envy or Discontent among Men in this World but whether this be he genuin and constant effect of that Consideration or whether it ought not rather to be ascribed to the present Infirmities and Imperfections of Human Nature may admit Dispute But in case this absurdity does inseparably cleave to the first part then I be take my self to the latter and affirm that in Heaven one Saint shall think himself as happy as another Then according to my own Notion say you it will follow that he is really so No I deny the consequence the invalidity of which will plainly appear by distinguishing the ambiguity of the Phrase For this Expression One Saint thinks himself as happy as another may be taken in a double sense either that he thinks himself as happy as he himself thinks that other or that he thinks himself as happy as that other thinks himself I grant should one Saint think himself as happy as another in this latter sense of the Phrase he would according to my Hypothesis really be so so that this would bring in equality And therefore in this Sense I deny the Proposition and that without the least danger of splitting upon the first absurdity But for the former Sense that has no such levelling quality for to say that I think my self as happy as I think another amounts to no more than this that in my apprehension another does not exceed me in Happiness but tho he does not in my apprehension yet he may in reality for tho my Opinion gives measures to my own Happiness yet it does not to another Mans. So that one Saint may be said to think himself as happy as another in the former sense without equalling the Happiness of the Blessed tho I confess I should much rather adhere to the contrary proposition viz. that one shall not think himself as happy as another in case such an Opinion be not necessarily attended with Envy or Discontent Because it seems unreasonable to make them ignorant of the degrees of one anothers Bliss unless that ignorance be necessarily required to prevent the alledg'd absurdities But I determin nothing in this point my business was only to break the force of your Dilemma and to shew that my Notion does not involve you in the difficulty supposed This Sir is all that I think necessary to say to a Person of your apprehension and therefore I end these nice Speculations with this profitable reflection that altho the Notion of Happiness be intricate and obscure yet the means of attaining it are plain and therefore 't would be most advisable both for you and me chiefly to apply our selves to the latter here and we shall understand the former with the best sort of Knowledge that of Experience hereafter Yours J. N. Another Letter to the same Person concerning the true Notion of Plato's Ideas and
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Counterpart whereof in English is Conceptive and Exhibitive By the Mind of God Exhibitive is meant the Essence of God as thus or thus imitable or participable by any Creature and this is the same with an Idea By the Mind of God Conceptive is meant a reflex act of God's Understanding upon his own Essence as Exhibitive or as thus and thus imitable Now if you consider the Divine Understanding as Conceptive or Speculative it does not make its Object but suppose it as all Speculative Understanding does neither is the Truth of the Object to be measured from its Conformity with that but the Truth of that from its Conformity with its Object But if you consider the Divine Understanding as Exhibitive then its Truth does not depend upon its Conformity with the Nature of things but on the contrary the Truth of the Nature of things depends upon its Conformity with it For the Divine Essence is not thus or thus imitable because such and such things are in being but such and such things are in being because the Divine Essence is thus and thus imitable for had not the Divine Essence been thus imitable such and such Beings would not have been possible And thus is Plato to be understood when he founds the Truth of things upon their Conformity with the Divine Ideas and thus must the Schools mean too by that foremention'd Axiom concerning Transcendental Truth if they will speak Sense as I noted above 6. And now Sir from Plato's Ideas thus amiably set forth the Transition methinks is very natural to Love. And concerning this I shall account in the same Method first by pointing out the popular Misapprehensions about it and then by exhibiting a true Notion of it Platonic Love is a thing in every bodies Mouth but I find scarce any that think or speak accurately of it The mistakes which I observe are chiefly these Some of the grosser Understanders suppose that Plato by his Love meant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Love of Males but the Occasion of this Conceit was from a passage in his Convivium where he brings in Aristophanes speaking favourably that way But he that shall from hence conclude Plato a prostitute to that vile Passion may as well conclude a Dramatic Poet to be an Atheist or a Whore-master because he represents those of that Character But that Divine Plato intended nothing less than to countenance any such thing is evident from the whole scope and purport of that Dialogue and from other places where he expresly condemns it and rejects it with great abhorrence particularly in the first of his de legibus where he calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an unnatural attempt Others by Platonic Love understand the Love of Souls and this indeed has somthing of truth in it only it is much too narrow and particular 7. Others take Platonic Love to be a desire of imprinting any excellency whether moral or intellectual in the Minds of beautiful young men by Instruction and so likewise of enjoying your own Perfections reflected from the Mind of another mix'd with and recommended by the Beauty of the Body According to the usual saying Gratior è Pulchro c. And thus Socrates was said to love his beautiful Pupils Phaedrus and Alcibiades Others measure the Nature of Platonic Love not from the Object to which they suppose it indifferent but from the manner of the Act. And according to these that man is said to love Platonically that does Casso delectamine amare love at a distance that never designs a close fruition of the Object what ever it be whether Sensual or Intellectual but chooses to dwell in the Suburbs pleasing himself with remote Prospects and makes a Mistress of his own Desire And this is the receiv'd Notion and that which People generally mean when they talk of Platonic Love. But this too is far enough from the right for tho Platonic Love does not aim at the fruition of sensual Objects yet it designs the fruition of its own Object as much as any other Love does That therefore which distinguishes Platonic Love is not the manner of the act above-mention'd but the peculiarity of the Object And what that is must be collected from the Design of Plato in that Dialogue where he treats purposely of it his Convivium Which is briefly to shew the manner of the Souls ascent to God by love For Plato makes the Happiness of Man to consist in the Contemplation and Love of God whom he calls the Idea of Beauty But now because this Idea of Beauty God is of too sublime and refined excellency to be immediatly fastned upon by our Love he recommends to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Method of Ascent which is from loving the Beauty we see in Bodies to pass on to the Love of the Beauty of the Soul from the Beauty of the Soul to the Beauty of Vertue and lastly from the Beauty of Vertue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the immense Ocean of Beauty c. For so have I observ'd a tender Infants Eye not enduring to gaze directly upon the too powerful Excellence of the Meridian Sun chuse to entertain it self with the abatements of corrected and reflected Light and take up with the feebler refreshments of lesser Beauties for a while till at length the faculty grows more confirm'd and dares encounter the Sun in his Strength And these are the Steps of the Sanctuary So that Platonic Love is the Love of Beauty abstracted from all sensual Applications and desire of corporal contract as it leads us on to the Love of the first original Beauty God or more plainly thus The Ascent of the Soul to the Love of the Divine Beauty by the Love of abstracted Beauty in Bodies This Love of abstracted Beauty in Bodies he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Celestial Love in opposition to that which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the same with that Passion commonly signify'd by the name of Love viz. a desire of corporal contact arising from the sight of Beauty This last indeed is a very vile brutish unmanly affection and such as considering the vileness of our Bodies one would think a man could never be charm'd into without the Magic of a Love-potion But the former is an Angelical Affection for certainly Beauty is a Divine thing It is as the Platonic Author says of Wisdom the pure Influence flowing from the Glory of the Almighty and the Brightness of the Everlasting Light or in Plato's own Words A Ray of God. And therefore the Love of abstract Beauty must needs be a very generous and divine Affection Sir I could be more large in my account but I consider what 't is I write and to whom and therefore I think it high time to remit you to your own Thoughts some of which I hope will be that I am in a very eminent degree of Friendship Yours J. Norris