that no man without a special Revelation can have a special assurance of his Salvation but we have that which is as good to secure us against despair and to ground an holy and comfortable hope upon That we are redeemed by the Bloud of Christ and devoted to him in Holy Baptism and that God is our confidence and refuge always ready to help them that call upon him and to forgive them that beg for pardon with tears and contrition and a serious purpose of amendment And many more great and precious assurances we have that God hath given us eternal life and that this life is in his Son so that all his Providences are to fit us for it if we do not wilfully frustrate all his saving methods and purposes Only he would have our Election to be hid and secret that security may not breed in us pride and negligence and that he that thinketh he standeth should take heed lest he fall 2. Now therefore because the chosen are few let every true Christian live a Holy Life with the few that he may make his Calling and Election sure and be counted worthy at last to receive the Crown of Life with the few Streight is the way and narrow is the gate that leadeth unto life and few there be that find it saith our Blessed Saviour Mat. 7.13 Therefore we must walk in that narrow way and that always with care and fear even when we seem to run with most speed because no man in respect of himself is absolutely sure of perseverance Yet our fear must not proceed so far as to make us faint but only to make us wary and make us put our trust and confidence in God and with a chearful submission cast our selves upon him both for time and eternity If any one objects that he knows not how Gods will is affected towards him I answer that Gods promises are sincere and must be received as they are generally set forth in Holy Scripture to all that will obey Gods revealed will and moreover that his own will is much more uncertain so that it is much more safe to trust Gods for God we are certain is infinitely good He is extremely proud and unhappy withal that relies on himself more than upon God but happy is he that confides in that gracious Lord whose mercies and promises are sure for ever and in whom whosoever trusted was never confounded CHAP. XXXIII That Love is the Spirit of Christian Religion 1. THough it be by vertue of our Baptism and profession of the Christian Faith that we are and are called Christians yet the Life or Soul of our Religion is Charity or the Love of God whereby we are enabled to live godly as becomes Christians For as God by his great love wherewith he loved us sent his dear Son into the world to die for us that we might live through him so are we to love God most affectionately with all our heart and strength and our Neighbour as our selves for his sake In this is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins Love therefore is the first and great Commandment on which depends the Law and the Prophets Love is the foundation and excellency of our Faith to know the love of God which passeth knowledge that when we were enemies we were reconciled to him by the death of his Son Love is that fire which our Blessed Redeemer came to send in the Earth Luke 12.49 which cost him much to kindle and which burns up mens dross and impurities and cannot be put out but where iniquity doth abound And Love is the spirit of Primitive Christians who had one heart and one mind and is even the Soul of the whole Church whereby it is united and lives 2. Christ left and appointed Love as the mark whereby his followers should be known Joh. 13.35 By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another And so in the love of God consists our union with him and it is the highest perfection of the Christian life Now perfection is the work of Grace therefore we must not relie upon our own strength but we must beg of God daily and devoutly that by his good Spirit he would kindle in our hearts the fire of an holy Charity that by it we may be guided quickned and at last perfected Neither yet must we lose heart if we sometimes fall as if all our hope were in our own strength but we must acknowledge our own infirmity and rise quickly and pray more fervently and afterwards fight more couragiously Still pursuing after perfection not only in words or ineffective wishes but in hearty desires and serious indeavours manifesting our love by daily mortifying our sins and attaining to new and higher degrees of vertue And then shall a Christian be most perfect and happy when his heart shall be empty of himself and free from the love of the world but purified and burning with the love of God CHAP. XXXIV Of the right Placing and Ordering of Love 1. HE is a just and holy man who rightly values things according to their worth and also loves them proportionably for sin is duly by wise men defin'd to be a disorderly Love and vertue to be a regular and well placed Love And though there be other natural affections yet they all proceed from and depend upon love and if this be well placed and governed as it should the rest cannot be unruly It is vertue to love what deserves to be lov'd and wisdome to make choise of it and constancy to pursue it through all dangers and sufferings and to be drawn from it by no inticements is temperance and to prefer nothing to it is justice and the order of Love must follow the order of things and so God is to be lov'd infinitely more than any creature because he is infinitely better more perfect and lovely We become good and pure by loving him who is the fountain of all goodness and purity for our manners follow our affections we become either vertuous or vicious according to the nature of what we most love 2. The true object of Love is God our Neighbour and our selves God in the first place to whom all love is due and from whom it must pass to other creatures according as they are more or less like him By this we must love our Neighbour because he is or that he may be just and we must love our selves in that we are or else that we may be holy taking from God the measure of our Love to all other things that our Love may be regular and we may be happy Let no man therefore love sin for thereby he hates and destroys his Soul and let no man love himself for his own sake but upon Gods account who is the chiefest Good in whom alone we can be intirely happy For God who alone is the Author of our being
the Wicked and their Wickedness 4 CHAP. III. That Original Sin is the spring whence all Evil proceeds 8 CHAP. IV. Of the Occasion and Drift of this Book 10 CHAP. V. The Cause why so many learn the Rules of Christianity and follow them not 12 CHAP. VI. That the Rules of Evangelical Perfection are intended for all Christians 14 CHAP. VII Of the Vsefulness of this Book with an Exhortation to follow after Perfection 17 CHAP. VIII Of the Folly of them that neglect their last End and how necessary it is to consider it seriously 19 CHAP. IX The Reasons why all men are not happy being they all desire it 22 CHAP. X. That with an upright intention we must use all things and refer all our Actions to God 24 CHAP. XI That men trifling about things Eternal and being so earnest about the World is the cause why so many attain not their main end 26 CHAP. XII How men suffer themselves to be deceiv'd by a fair out-side and false appearance of good 29 CHAP. XIII How men spend themselves and their time and abuse all things to their own Ruin 31 CHAP. XIV That the right way to Heaven is every one to remain in the station Providence hath appointed him and therein bear the Crosses which he meets withal 33 CHAP. XV. How man 's last end or supreme happiness is qualified and how so many mistake and miss it 35 CHAP. XVI Another Reason why so many miss of their End their living too much by Sense 38 CHAP. XVII That we being the Children of God ought to be guided by his Spirit and by the example of Christ 41 CHAP. XVIII The Just liveth by faith not by the laws of flesh and bloud 43 CHAP. XIX That Faith works in a Christian self-denyal and contempt of the World 46 CHAP. XX. Of the desperate folly of men who willingly run to ruin by their inconsideration 48 CHAP. XXI The Character of a true Christian 50 CHAP. XXII Several useful cautions how a Christian should undertake and perfect his works 53 CHAP. XXIII That to discharge the Duties of our station is the best thing we can do 56 CHAP. XXIV How Christians are to live and to be sincere 57 CHAP. XXV That a hearty affection is the life of good actions 60 CHAP. XXVI Whence the goodness of our works proceeds 62 CHAP. XXVII How useful and comfortable is the consideration of God being always present 63 CHAP. XXVIII Why the Imitation of Gods Saints appears difficult 66 CHAP. XXIX How we should in all things aim at Gods Glory 68 CHAP. XXX Self-Love is the Root of all Evil. 70 CHAP. XXXI That Self-Love is that Babylon out of which God hath called us 72 CHAP. XXXII How men naturally seek themselves even in their best works 74 CHAP. XXXIII Things which every Christian is bound to know in order to Obedience 77 CHAP. XXXIV The difference betwixt the outward and the inward man 79 CHAP. XXXV How dangerous it is to be governed by Opinion and false apprehension of things 81 CHAP. XXXVI Three things very profitable and necessary to every Christian 84 CHAP. XXXVII That Repentance is necessary to all Christians 86 CHAP. XXXVIII Of the signs and effects of true Repentance 88 CHAP. XXXIX Remedies against ordinary failings and greater sins 90 CHAP. XL. Clergy-men have some special obligations though all are bound to endeavour after perfection 93 CHAP. XLI That Prayer is necessary to all and what dispositions are requisite to make it acceptable 96 CHAP. XLII Why many are not profited by Prayer and that we should study to Pray well and frequently 100 CHAP. XLIII How to Pray and avoid distractions and fix the intention 103 CHAP. XLIV The great advantages of Prayer 106 THE CONTENTS OF THE SECOND PART PART II. Of the moderation of our affections and the study and endeavour after true Virtue CHAP. I. That Voluptiousness and Vanity are to be avoided and Truth sought for in things Eternal after Christ's Example Pag. 1 CHAP. II. That to attain Perfection nothing must be neglected 4 CHAP. III. That Self-denyal and the Cross is absolutely necessary to all Christians 7 CHAP. IV. That Self-denyal is the Character and the principal duty of a Christian 10 CHAP. V. How we must fight our corrupt nature and depraved affections 13 CHAP. VI. Of the right use and moderation of our outward senses 16 CHAP. VII Of denying our Sensual appetites especially Intemperance 19 CHAP. VIII Of Talkativeness and Silence 22 CHAP. IX Of true and false delights and of self-complacency in virtue 25 CHAP. X. That we are led too much by Opinion 27 CHAP. XI That the Doctrine of Salvation is much slighted even by some who pretend to it 30 CHAP. XII That Self-will is a great Evil and must be renounc'd 32 CHAP. XIII Of the advantages of Solitariness and Retirement 34 CHAP. XIV Of the Danger of Riches and that the desire of them is to be mortified 36 CHAP. XV. Of the use of Riches and how to know we love them not 39 CHAP. XVI Of Poverty in Spirit and the contempt of the World 41 CHAP. XVII Of the Necessity and the Measures of Alms-giving 44 CHAP XVIII Of Patience in Bearing and Forbearing 48 CHAP. XIX Adversities are occasions of Virtue and must be Patiently indur'd 51 CHAP. XX. That we must bear patiently the little Vexations that happen daily 53 CHAP. XXI That we should Rejoyce in Triublations 56 CHAP. XXII That Detractions and Derisions must be indur'd and derided 59 CHAP. XXIII Remedies against Discontent and Anger for what abuses we receive 61 CHAP. XXIV Remedies against Impatience 64 CHAP. XXV Of Humility the proper Vertue of Christians 66 CHAP. XXVI From God we turn'd away by Pride to him we must return by humility 69 CHAP. XXVII The Character of a proud man 72 CHAP. XXVIII Motives and Reasons for Humility 75 CHAP. XXIX That the Humble man judgeth himself and not others with a Character of him 79 CHAP. XXX Of the Conformity of our Will to Gods 83 CHAP. XXXI Of the Resignation of our selves to God in all things 87 CHAP. XXXII That the Hope of our Salvation must rest upon God 91 CHAP. XXXIII That Love is the Spirit of Christian Religion 93 CHAP. XXXIV Of the right Placing and Ordering of Love 96 CHAP. XXXV Of the Necessity and Measures of Loving our Neighbour 98 CHAP. XXXVI True Friendship and the true Offices of it 101 CHAP. XXXVII Of the several Acts of Charity to our Neighbours 105 CHAP. XXXVIII Charity is also due to our Enemies 107 CHAP. XXXIX That the love of the Supreme Good comprehends all goodness 109 CHAP. XL. Wherein consists the Love of God 112 CHAP. XLI That there is more of Love in Practical Knowledge than in Speculation 115 CHAP. XLII That by Love Holiness is to be perfected 117 CHAP. XLIII That the Consideration of the fewness of the Chosen ought to make us very wary and diligent 120 PRECEPTS AND Practical Rules FOR A truly
shake off the thoughts and the comforts of Gods presence because it puts a restraint upon our appetites And when at any time Spiritual joys are denyed us we presently seek for Earthly pleasures because we open not the eyes of our Faith to see God present and we embrace him not with devout affection and we care not to converse with him This is the way to Perfection which God himself shewed to Abraham to have always a sense of the Divine presence Gen. 17.1 I am the Almighty God walk before me and be thou perfect Holy David likewise made a great use of this to be always mindful that God is with us Psal 16.8 I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved He can never but be happy that dwells with the Author of all happiness CHAP. XXVIII Why the imitation of Gods Saints appears difficult 1. WE think it a matter of great difficulty to follow the example of those Christian Worthies that have gone before us because we represent them to our selves as being now of another nature freed from the body inhabitants of the mansions of bliss whence anger lust and all temptations are for ever banish'd and where they enjoy peace and joy and eternal felicities But if we really desire to follow their steps and to conform our lives to theirs then are we to consider that as we are so were they mortal men cumbred with the uneasie burthen of the flesh infected with sin tempted by sinful affections and exposed to miseries and dangers but that by Faith they overcame all these subdued Kingdoms wrought Righteousness and by fighting obtain'd the Crown 2. Elias saith St. James 5.17 was a man subject to the like passions as we are and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it rained not on the Earth by the space of three years and six months and again he prayed and the Heaven gave rain and the Earth brought forth her fruit The same may be said of any other Saints that have done the greatest wonders they were like us made of the same clay and subject to the same passions and temptations while they were on Earth They were only above us in this that with great and assiduous pains they conquered pride and lust and escaped the snares of the Devil by diligent care and invincible resolution Why then do we draw back and make delays to them that are truly resolved and willing 't is not difficult to become Saints by the imitation of those that have gone before us if shaking off our sloth and laziness we would seriously endeavour we might by the help of Divine Grace arrive to the same height of Sanctification and bliss as they have For he hath proceeded far towards holiness that sincerely desires to be holy CHAP. XXIX How we should in all things aim at Gods Glory 1. IT is the precept of St. Paul that God should be the end of all our works that they may be good and acceptable 1 Cor. 10.31 Whether ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do do all to the Glory of God and again Col. 3.17 Whatsoever ye do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God and the Father by him For a good work which is not done upon Gods account doth become evil it being the nature of virtue to receive its form from the end rather than from the act And if we cleave to the creatures and love them for their own sake without reference to God this is that lust or sinful love which Saint John condemns 1 Ep. 2.15 Love not the World neither the things that are in the World love them not so as to rest in them For here we are Pilgrims Travellers going home to our Fathers house to our God and so what creatures we meet in our way we may use them as conveniences to carry us forward towards him but we may not dwell with them as if we were at our journeys end God alone is to be lov'd for himself he alone being infinitely good and the last and best end we can propound to our selves in him alone our appetites shall rest satisfied our enjoyment shall be secure and our joys undisturb'd for ever Whosoever knows not and pursues not this end knows not why he lives nor how to live well but he that knows it knows whither to direct his intentions and whither to tend in all his actions 2. It is granted that some natural actions as to walk to eat to sleep and such like are of themselves neither good nor evil yet all Divines teach that they become sin if we do them not to some further and better end that is to live to serve God whose glory should be the ultimate design of all mens actions because as he is the beginning so should he be the end of all things The light of the Body is the Eye saith our Blessed Saviour Mat. 6.22 if therefore thine Eye be single thine whole Body shall be full of light but if thine Eye be evil thine whole Body shall be full of darkness This Eye is the intention of every man in his actions if it be not good they become works of darkness and good it cannot be except it be refer'd to God the supreme goodness Every good thing comes from God and whatever returns not to him is evil CHAP. XXX Self-love is the root of all evil 1. AFter our first Parent by preferring himself to God committed that grievous transgression whereby all mankind became obnoxious to death lust and ignorance darkness and evil propensities seiz'd upon our nature man forsook God and turn'd to seek himself and having lost all sense of spiritual comfort ran dissolutely after carnal pleasures Hence Self-love the greatest Enemy to virtue came to tyrannize over men who to comply with it seek nothing now but wealth honours and sensual delights And now saith the Apostle Rom. 8.7 The carnal mind is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be for all its instincts and impulses have a tendency to sin and to sin only 2. And yet self-love which seeks so much our own ease and satisfaction is indeed its chiefest hinderance for God having created us for his glory and enjoyn'd us to design it always when by self-love we seek only our selves and our own advantage we do nothing whereby to obtain Gods favour and eternal life but rather fall into a wretched state of damnation We are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh saith Saint Paul Rom. 8.13 For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Now to this mortification we are strongly oblig'd by Christian Religion its great design is to bring us out of our selves to God that as we yielded our members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity even so now we should yield them servants
who have overcome divers temptations and mortified their other lusts yet fall here and cannot bridle their unruly tongue the last gin the Devil sets to catch Souls and it hath been observ'd by men of great piety and great experience that a great talker was never very good or never persever'd to be so 2. Silence therefore which sequesters us from mens vain converse that we may entertain our selves with God silence which sanctifies all our persecutions sorrows and infirmities must needs be highly advantageous to every one that makes a right use of it For when in any case we suffer wrongfully and yet hold our tongues we then offer to God our Souls and Bodies goods and good names as a sacrifice we follow the example of Christ who opened not his mouth but was led as a lamb to the slaughter and we possess our Souls with patience and free our selves from clamours and perturbations Sometimes indeed a just defence of our selves may be requisite but we must be very cautious that we exceed not the due bounds of Christian meekness and humility And yet this can happen but seldome as when we are called to answer by the Magistrate when the slander would make us uncapable of exercising or useless in the exercise of a publick office or when it would be others detriment in these cases we may speak with truth and meekness in others we had best hold our tongue And that it may be to purpose we must also refrain and quell our inward passions that the tumult within make not the outward peace insignificant I kept silence even from good words saith the Psalmist if from good words sometimes we must refrain much more always from vain and ill language He is a wise man that can hold his tongue for 't is less difficult to knâ—â— how to speak well than how to be silent CHAP. IX Of true and false delights and of self-complacency in virtue 1. VIrtue alone is the true and lasting pleasure of rational creatures other things are pleasant but in appearance and for a short uncertain time and according to mens various opinions for worldly pleasures proceed not from reason which is constant and common to all but from corrupt appetites which always do change and differ As a sick Palat cannot rightly discern of the relish of meats no more can a vicious man feel and understand what is true pleasure which proceeds only from virtue to which he is too much a stranger Sensible delights indeed by natures instinct are pleasing to all and few justly know how to use and when to refuse them But man was created to a nobler end than only to gratifie sense he was made for the sight and the fruition of God the last and sovereign good 'T is true indeed we cannot contemplate truth and spiritual things but by the help of those Ideas and representations which we have from sense and our rational faculties cannot well discharge their function when the organs of the body are discomposed and therefore we must have such care of our bodies as may render them fit instruments for our souls and preserve them so 2. But we sin grievously and pervert the order which God and nature have appointed if we make bodily pleasure the end of our natural actions whereas we should design them and make them subservient to those nobler offices for which we were created after God's Image I confess we cannot long subsist without some pleasure corporal or spiritual and we cannot divide our Souls equally betwixt both but then this obligeth us to aspire the more after heavenly joys and to delight our selves so much the more in God in the sense of his favour and the hope of his glory that we may despise and disrelish the pleasures of sense and vanity 3. But let it be observ'd also that some love vertue more for its glory than its goodness sake they aspire after God because it is a thing high and transcendent they live a strict and severe life because it denotes a brave and generous spirit they preserve inward peace because it is pleasant they inquire after the way to Heaven and to that purpose consult many Books that they may enlarge their knowledge and satisfie their curiosity and they walk in the narrow way to perfection that they may delight in themselves and admire their own excellencies All this these men do for to please and magnifie themselves when they think most of all to serve God they only serve to their own pride and when at last they shall expect great rewards they shall find their hands empty of good works and their hearts full of nothing but self-Self-love God is therefore to be sought with humility with singleness of heart and a sincere Spirit he is to be lov'd above all things and for his own sake This life is the valley of the shadow of death a state of warfare a place of perpetual labour rest and peace and joys eternal are reserv'd for a better life CHAP. X. That we are led too much by Opinion 1. THat we generally live by opinion is known and acknowledg'd but how great is the force and the prevalency of it is not perhaps so well understood Opinion in many cases and after a strange way doth exercise a great power or rather tyranny over men It makes them as it pleaseth healthy or sickly poor or rich miserable or happy for no man is either of these but as he thinks himself Opinion brings joy or sorrow not so much according to the reality of good and evil as according to the fancy for experience tells us that what we wish'd or fear'd was nothing so pleasant or grievous as we imagined More than that Opinion not only gives a kind of present being to things that are future but also unites together things that are far distant and makes us feel in one moment the goods or evils of many years to come and which perhaps shall never be Opinion alone for the most part brings credit and praise to men and their actions and if all the dignities and the riches of the world were united together they could not content one single man except his opinion were also satisfied Hamans wealth was exceeding great and he was first in the Court of King Ahasuerus and yet he thought himself the unhappiest of men because Mordecai a poor Captive would not stand up and honour him when he came into the Palace 2. Another great mischief of opinion is this that it lengthens the present time and makes its duration in some manner interminable as if our life and worldly enjoyments were to have no end and that contrariwise it contracts Eternity and lessens to almost nothing those incomprehensible amazing everlasting ages that follow this uncertain life Men also commonly take an account of moral good and evil by the measures of opinion and whilst they seek to avoid one extreme they too often fall into another As some from a dull lazy life become
the cause why so many are not so perfect and holy as their Christian faith requires and would enable them to be that they are not sincere but want truth in the inward parts The false opinions of the World are of greater power with them than the precepts and the examples of Christ and those moral virtues which nature it self recommends are commonly made sin or subservient to it by the depraved judgments and customs of men We therefore that live in a crooked and perverse generation among corrupt and deceived persons ought seriously and often to make this inquiry whether we our selves do know the right way and whether we truly follow it Now that way which is the way of truth is one and altogether unchangeable and they that will keep it without change must not look to the World but up to Heaven must not follow the example of men but must directly follow God who alone is the way the truth and the life CHAP. XXV That a hearty affection is the life of good actions 1. WE must have a special care that the sensitive part of us have not the principal concern in our good works and that we be not led by sense in our actions for sense is the great deceiver the fountain of error therefore 't is said that the mortification of sense is the life of truth And hence it is that we cannot be confident ever to have done any thing perfectly good and without defect because that we bear a part in our best works and as far as they proceed from us they are stain'd with imperfection although they be done upon Gods account and by the impulse and assistance of divine Grace Thus it was said to the Angel or Bishop of Sardis Rev. 3.2 I have not found thy works perfect before God and thus it might be said to any other For our Prayers Fastings and Alms and such like good works though they may appear complete before men who see nothing but the outside yet before God who searcheth the heart they are defective and cannot be acceptable in the least except they be done with a pure and sincere intention to please him 2. Of ten Virgins mentioned in the Gospel five foolish were excluded from the wedding not but that they were Virgins and had lamps that is works but because they wanted the oil of good intentions and holy affections This may well be the case of every one of us our works will be dead before God and unpleasing to him except we breath life into them by our inward sanctified spirit and fervent love to God In outward acts and appearance all Christians are almost alike but as the hand of a watch is mov'd by the hidden springs and as the colour of the face depends on the secret constitution of the body so the good are distinguisht from the bad by their inward spirit or the hidden man of the heart for the Kingdom of God is within us CHAP. XXVI Whence the goodness of our works proceeds 1. AS many that eat much yet are feeble and infirm and lean because they overcharge their stomach so that their nourishment is not well concocted and as many that eat very moderately yet because they digest well are strong and healthy and long-liv'd So likewise some Christians there are that do many good things and yet themselves become little better because they go not the right way to work They think that by doing much they must become great proficients though they do it remisly and incuriously whereas to do our duty every day with greater fervency and exactness is the right way to perfection a few things well done profit more than heaps of works done negligently 2. For so there are others that compared to these first do but little and yet increase much in the love of God because they endeavour always to work with greater affection and a more upright intention so that at the end of every good action they may in some manner use that expression of Christ on the Cross Joh. 19.30 It is finished I have in this as far as was possible done what God required of me as perfectly as my infirmity would allow and his free grace enabled me who gives us to will and to do and without whom we can do nothing They so spend each day that at night they can say It is finished and they so spend their whole life that when 't is ended they can say with an holy and humble confidence I have now perfected that work which God had appointed me to do He that lives so lives like a Christian and he shall not fear in the evil day CHAP. XXVII How useful and comfortable is the consideration of God being always present 1. NOthing will more prevail to make perfect our works as much as is possible than to consider that God is present every where and that from him and in him all things have their being power and motion This is the most pressing Argument why we should always act with the greatest circumspection that God sees the things that are in secret and we can never be hid from his eyes that in him we live and move and have our being and that he never forsakes us till we forsake him to turn our affections upon the creatures For this is the unhappy effect of our original corruption that our senses are so affected and pleased with material things present that our mind is drawn from the contemplation of Gods presence and things as yet invisible whereas if the love of this world did not bear too great a sway in our heart we could see God in every place holy affections would always see him who is the Author of all holiness according to the saying of our Blessed Saviour Mat. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God 2. For indeed 't is not to be exprest how sweet and comfortable is the goodness of God which he hath laid up for them that fear him but laid up it is none have a sense of it but they that love God they alone taste and see how gracious the Lord is For 't is not enough to have a treasure we must know we have it before we can be rich and we must know the use and the worth of it Now such a treasure we have within us as is of an inestimable infinite value and yet we seem not to know it for we run after motes and shadows and catch at painted drops that cannot quench our thirst as the Psalmist saith O ye sons of men how long will ye love vanities and seek after lies Thus we are cheated and understand not our own happiness for God is present to us every moment and we could always enjoy him we are rich and we know it not 3. We could if we would anticipate the joys of Heaven we could now have a taste of the felicity of beatified Saints but that we indulge Sense to the prejudice of the Soul we
to righteousness unto holiness as it is written Be ye holy for I am holy saith the Lord. Lev. 11.45 3. Now as Christianity checks and restrains self-self-love so doth self-love keep men from understanding and approving the Christian doctrines for how can he that seeks and loves himself rightly apprehend that whatever the world dotes upon is meer vanity that Estates and Honours bring great vexations and great slavery that to forgive Enemies and do good to them that hate us is the part of a noble and generous mind that 't is better to despise than to possess riches that 't is more honourable to be subject where God commands than to bear rule and to domineer that for a man to restrain his appetite and conquer himself is more glorious than to win battels and take fenced Cities These are Paradoxes hard and incredible sayings to the self-lover whose fondness of himself ties him fast to this earth to whatever can be useful and any ways pleasant to the flesh whereas the Children of God live to God being not led and govern'd by the flesh but by the spirit they live in the flesh but not after the flesh some of their actions are natural whilest they are in the body yet they proceed from a supernatural principle and are designed to a nobler end for they continually deny themselves and mortifie all sensual unruly desires Self-lovers hold a great regard should be had to the flesh 't is true but it must be such as Christ hath taught us to keep it under otherwise Saint Paul hath declar'd that to be carnally minded is death CHAP. XXXI That Self-love is that Babylon out of which God hath called us 1. GOD at first placed man in Paradise but Adam in whom we all sinned transported us into this world out of Paradise out of Jerusalem into Babylon out of our freedom into slavery out of integrity into corruption out of our countrey into banishment and out of life into death Thus from truth and perfection we fell into vanity we are now like unto vanity nay every man is but vanity as the Psalmist saith Psal 39.6 Man is vain in his body which ends in death and corruption vain in his soul which being inslav'd to sin is obnoxious to death eternal and vain in all his outward enjoyments which all perish or must be forsaken when he dies Yet man strangely dotes on this vanity he passionately runs after these transitory things which are all cheats and lies whereby he is drawn into thousands of pernicious errors and out of the Heavenly Jerusalem into a Hellish Babylon 2. Now these two Cities are built by two sorts of love to love God so as to despise our selves makes the City of God and to love our selves so as to despise God makes the Devils Babylon the City of this World The way to this is broad and short to that is streight difficult and long because dull and earthly as now we are we more easily fall on the earth and descend down to Hell than we can raise up our selves and ascend to Heaven Let every man therefore examine himself and find out what he chiefly loves for if he loves God so as to deny himself he is doubtless a Citizen of the Jerusalem which is from above but if he loves himself so as to prefer his own desires to God 't is plain he belongs to that Babylon out of which God hath called his Children For thus the Scripture cries aloud Go ye forth of Babylon and remove out of the midst of her Isa 48.20 Jer. 50.8 and again the Psalmist Psal 137.8 O Daughter of Babylon who art to be destroyed happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones We come out of Babylon when we leave the confusion of sin forsaking our disorderly course of life and we dash the children of Babylon against the stone when our love to Christ overcomes our ill desires and ill inclinations Self-love is the death of the Soul and the love of God is its life therefore he doth not truly love himself who by self-love destroys himself CHAP. XXXII How men naturally seek themselves even in their best works 1. IT may seem strange to observe that whereas mens opinions and inclinations are so various and different yet all men are agreed in this that none appears vile to himself none is willing to yield and submit to others none though never so mean but thinks himself somebody and is desirous to be taken notice of every one seeks to be higher than others every one is indulgent to himself and severe to others all men will have their will and their saying all applaud to their own inventions and conceits and censure others they count their own follies wisdome and notwithstanding their great ignorance there is nothing but what they think to know They carefully hide their own faults and pretend to those virtues they know they have not And what is most of all to be wonder'd at even good men who endeavour to please God and seem to aim at nothing but his honour and glory Even they sometimes in their best actions by a secret and natural instinct almost unknown to themselves seek their own comfort and complacency most of all and the more excellent are their works the more subtil and undiscernable is this snare which self-love sets to the most spiritual 2. What better than to obey God to read his Sacred Word and preach it to receive and administer his Holy Sacraments Yet these duties are commonly stain'd with some secret desire of praise and except the Christian be very watchful over his own heart he may easily lose his better reward Though I speak with the tongues of men and Angels saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 13.1 and have not Charity I am become like sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal And though a man should give all his goods to the Poor and even his Body to be burnt yet without Charity without the love of God hath purified his heart it will profit him nothing According to the saying of the Prophet Haggai 1.6 Ye eat but ye have not enough ye drink but ye are not filled with drink and he that earns wages earneth wages to put into a bag with holes for thus good works avail nothing if done out of respect to our selves and not to please God This being therefore the bent of our corrupt nature to draw us to our selves we ought carefully to examine our selves and search the hidden corners of our hearts that there lurk not in them some ill purpose of vain-glory or self-interest to mix with our best actions either first or last This is the Rule of a true Christian Life always to seek and love the things of God and never his own CHAP. XXXIII Things which every Christian is bound to know in order to obedience 1. EVery Disciple of Christ ought to know those Divine and Human Laws under which he lives and the which he is
oblig'd to observe The Divine are contain'd in the Ten Commandments and in the New Testament which contains the precepts of Faith Hope and Charity Faith obligeth all the Faithful to believe the doctrines of Christianity as they are sum'd up in our Creed By Hope we trust by the grace of God and our own sincere endeavour to obtain and use all necessary means of Grace and Eternal Life at last all which in this assurance we heartily beg in the Lord's Prayer And Charity requires of us to love God above all things and our Neighbour as our selves A Christian by these three virtues is made a new and holy creature Faith inlightens and directs his understanding Hope raiseth him up and sets his will at work for God and to God Charity unites him wholly It is also necessary to understand the necessity of Baptism and the Lord's Supper and true Repentance which are all Divine Institutions indispensably necessary to all that will be saved For except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Joh. 3.5 And Except we eat the flesh and drink the bloud of Christ we have no life in us Joh. 6.53 And as for Repentance it is the only remedy we have for the sins committed after Baptism that by it we may be made clean again 2. Lastly there are also Human Laws Enacted by the Church or the State we live in and them we are also to know and to observe with meekness and humility and for Conscience sake But no man of himself is able to keep all these Laws which God hath bound upon us none can obey them without the true light from above enlighten and guide him as it is written Psal 94.12 Blessed is the man whom thou chastnest O Lord and teachest him in thy Law For ever since sin came into the World men without the light of Faith sit in darkness and the shadow of death and take an account of good and evil not by the measures of truth but by their lusts and depraved passions We must therefore earnestly beg the divine assistance that he that commands what he wills would enable us to do what he hath commanded healing our blindness and impotency destroying self-love and filling our hearts with devout love to him for the end of the Commandment is Charity and he that truly loves God keepe his Commandments without hypocrisie or reservation CHAP. XXXIV The difference betwixt the outward and the inward man 1. OUR Christian hope is not for this World nor for this present time and we were not created to enjoy that Earthly happiness which the World only seeks but God made us for that Eternal Bliss which he hath promised and whose excellency we cannot as yet understand For eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither is it entred into the heart of man what things God hath prepared for them that love him We therefore that are called to the possession of that Kingdom which was prepared for us from the beginning of the World ought not to govern our selves only by human reasons and live by natural instincts after the common manner of men who are unacquainted with the ways of Eternity and the motions of Divine Grace But happy are they that wisely dive into the depth of things who live to God and commune with him in their hearts and suffer not their thoughts and affections to range and dwell abroad 2. These men live an inward life they are recollected and dwell at home always disposed to hear Gods voice within them and to understand his secrets Whereas they live an outward life that are most affected with outward things having fair pretences for their worldly-mindedness being greedy of news and curious sights and sensual pleasures walking saith the Apostle Eph. 4.17 in the vanity of their minds alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them For the more a man profits in carnal wisdom the more ignorant he becomes in the things of God As much as we love the creatures as much we lessen our love to the Creator CHAP. XXXV How dangerous it is to be governed by opinion and false apprehension of things 1. HE is a wise man that weighs things justly and then esteems them according to their intrinsick value for every thing in the world hath a twofold aspect or a double face the one natural and real and the other disguised and fallacious The first is what God judgeth and hath revealed it to be and the second depends on mens passions and false opinions Thus for Example the Dignity of a Bishop is in effect and according to Gods appointment a high and Angelic office of such a weight as should make human strength tremble and shrink under it it is a place of great honour but also it requires the greatest labour and diligence to watch for the Souls intrusted with the dignified Prelat who shall give a strict account for them in the day of judgment But in the Worlds account a Bishoprick is only a degree of honour in the Church which promotes the owner of it to riches and greatness and temporal advantages Hence it is that they that rightly apprehend what the office is fear and avoid it and are so far from seeking that they refuse it when offer'd and it is much to be feared that they follow the worlds judgements and seek themselves that seek it and make it their aim and the object of their passionate desires The same may be said of all other dignities and places of trust in Church and State Generally men have a wrong notion of them and understand not their definition and hence the confusions and malvorsations that are in the world that men mistake things and hate truth and will not see nor follow divine light but the darkness of their own perverse hearts 2. Such names are commonly used amongst men as are consecrated by the Bloud of Christ and the highest virtues of his greatest Saints as that some be called Bishops Priests Deacons Monks or Hermits Some Kings Princes and Magistrates and all together Christians but who is there that duly considers the great worth the strength and true significations of those names what virtues what perpetual care what duties they require from such as bear them the bare Titles with a vain shadow of the things remain but the reality and significancy of them is vanish'd few men are in truth what they call themselves few live according to the name of Christian because few make it their first care to follow the example of Christ This unhappy deceit is also an effect of the first and worst of evils Self-love the most crafty deceiver hardly found out by the wisest and seldome quite conquer'd by the best of men 3. The truth is that the good and evil things of this present life are so mixt and confused that if we take an exact view of the nature of them we shall hardly discern the one
and well-being hath set these bounds to our affections that we should love him with all our heart and with all our Soul that we should consecrate to the service of that Love our understanding our life and all our powers and that if we love any thing else it be in reference and in subordination to him that deserves all our Love and should be the master and disposer of it The love of God must therefore lead the way to what else we should love it must always prevail and be the rule of all our affections and then we cannot love nor do amiss CHAP. XXXV Of the Necessity and Measures of Loving our Neighbour 1. WE cannot love God as we should without we love our Neighbour neither can we love our Neighbour except we love God If any man saith I love God and hateth his Brother he is a liar for he that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen and this commandment have we from him that he who loveth God loveth his Brother also 1 Joh. 4.20 The Commandment makes no exception though the man be poor though he be a stranger nay though he be vicious and thine enemy yet he is thy Neighbour and thy Brother and he must be lov'd The expressions of thy love may vary according to his needs and thine opportunities Yet they must be hearty real and effective for The End of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure heart and of a good Conscience and of Faith unfained 1 Tim. 1.5 And we must not love in word neither in tongue but in deed and in truth 1 Joh. 3.18 2. As Christ loved us and gave himself for us not that we deserv'd any love but because he lov'd God and us in God to whom he purchast us so must we love all men not for ours or their sakes but for God's sake having no further regard to what is good in them than only as it relates to God True Christians are so strictly united together by love that what one hath not in himself he with joy finds it in others and what one hath more than the rest he willingly imparts it to all As by our love to God we are united and in some manner become one spirit with him so by the mutual love of men of Christians especially they become one among themselves so that what one hath to himself is for the good of all and what one hath not in himself he hath and enjoys in others Thus love is the fulfilling of the Law and the fulfilling of all Righteousness According as is the mans Charity in the beginning progress or perfection so is his goodness and his righteousness and then most perfect in this life when even life it self is parted with for love 3. The modus or measure of love to our Neighbour is twofold positive and negative First To do to him as we would he should do to us Secondly And not to deal with him any otherwise than as we would he should deal with us Every one therefore in the sight of God to whom all things are known must consider seriously what he would others should do or not do to him and if he desires others should he patient towards him and bear with his faults and infirmities and speak well of him c. Then let him be careful to do so to others 'T is a sure indication of a perverse heart for a man in a private capacity to do that to another which he should be sorry to suffer himself A good Christian doth not inquire into the manners and faults of others but leaves them to his view and correction to whom all judgment is given He examines judgeth and punisheth himself and makes self-reformation his serious and constant business Whatever he sees or hears his mind is undisturb'd and abides in peace for if it be good he praiseth God if evil he turns it to good by turning his mind from it towards God in Prayers and Resignation 4. If his Office and Charity obligeth him to reprove and to correct others he doth it with a zeal sweet and benign and compassionate to his Brothers infirmity for roughness and ungovern'd passion cannot consist with Charity If the ill actions of others are capable of an excuse he excuseth them however he censures not knowing that nothing human is so perfect and holy but may be ill interpreted and at the best may be some way defectuous enough to be liable to reprehension if carping men let loose their censorious humors Whilst men are men they will have some imperfections and to be zealous against them is under pretence of preciseness to give way to peevish impatience or proud censoriousness He that is too busie to tax and judge others will never grow better himself CHAP. XXXVI True Friendship and the true Offices of it 1. FRiendship is the communion of good things and therefore it follows the nature of those things which friends have common Now there being nothing truly good but things supernatural and eternal true friendship must consist in the communication of these mutually Hence it is that carnal friendship is soon dissolved because things of sense cannot last nor always confine the spirit whereas spiritual friendship is never broken for though it may seem to be interrupted by little angers and contentions yet true piety and the love of God sweetens the harshness of them and keeps the knot indissoluble As for that friendship which too much sets our hearts upon any person and may be called Doting it should be stifled and avoided as being mischievous and it is to be known by these tokens when the party belov'd is always in our thoughts and we can never be well without him when we fear his displeasure above all things when in him we rest as in our center and we sacrifice to him all our actions and most important concerns And let none flatter themselves that this is pure innocent friendship without any self-interest for it is altogether sensual it depraves the heart and affections it is an enemy to all wisdom and true Religion and it begins and ends in the flesh and 't is to be observ'd that this kind of friendship is never betwixt persons truly good and vertuous 2. Men of real worth are always well composed grave and of a sweet deportment they are courteous to all but they are familiar to few and they flatter none in their conversation modesty discretion an exact justice and an unaffected severity is to be observed They seek not to make a shew outwardly their life is inward and secret they live to God and to their own conscience They fairly converse with men outwardly when it is fitting but their heart cleaves to God and they will not disturb themselves with the silly impertinencies or petty concerns of the world Their designs and affections differ much from the vulgar multitude and therefore their words and actions are guided with
therefore the evils men can do to us but those we do against our selves by an angry impatient and revengeful Spirit Let us but pray and labour for Christian Charity and it will make us invincible it will make us conquer and overcome all wrongs and afflictions Many waters cannot quench love neither can the flouds drown it Cant. 8.7 The waters of Calamities and Persecutions cannot put out that bright and ever-burning flame kindled by God in pious hearts CHAP. XXXIX That the love of the Supreme Good comprehends all goodness 1. GOD is our true and sovereign good him we must love with all our soul and strength and to him we must direct all our ways For the love of God comprehends all vertue and godliness it is temperance whereby we despise the pride and delights of the World that God may have our whole hearts to himself it is constancy whereby we patiently bear any cross for and from God It is justice whereby we serve and obey God alone and with due moderation command his creatures it is prudence and the highest wisdom whereby we diligently avoid the obstacles and use the means to come to God it is all that can make us good and make us happy Now God must be lov'd for himself for nothing can be better than God he is infinitely good and the beginning and end of all goodness Therefore other things must be lov'd only for his sake and in such proportion as they are more or less related to him but he must be lov'd on his own account as much as is possible without bounds or measures for his perfections are vast enough to swallow up all our affections nay they infinitely exceed them so that nothing must share our love with him it is all infinitely more than due to him 2. It much concerns us therefore to be very careful that those lower sensible goods wherewith we converse in this Earth do not steal our hearts from God the giver of them For though we set the greater value upon things Spiritual and Eternal yet because now they are out of our sight and we cannot reach them our affections to them are dull and heavy and must be forc'd and listed up whereas they are brisk and swift to such things as are the object of sense and we naturally fall down to our sensual nature and without great care we cannot avoid to be by it cheated into self-love If we would therefore be replenish'd with the Holy and Beatifying Love of God we must first cast the World out of our hearts for as a full vessel cannot receive better liquor except it be emptied no more can our hearts love the Creator if they are possest by creatures Therefore saith Saint John the beloved Apostle of Jesus Love not the world neither the things that are in the world for if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him 1 Joh. 2.15 Worldly things are made for our use and there is in them some beauty but how much more beautiful is he that made them and made us for the enjoyment of himself He that seeks for happiness out of God shall never find it but if we love him above all things then we are certainly happy for he also loves us and his favour is all CHAP. XL. Wherein consists the Love of God 1. IT consists chiefly in joyfully suffering for God for Love is a passion and he therefore loves most that is most patient as the Blessed Apostles returned from the Council rejoycing that they had been worthy to suffer shame and stripes for the name of Jesus There may be much of nature in that tenderness of devout affection and those tears that proceed from it which are observ'd in some but true vertues and solid joys do proceed from a Love practical and obediential For he that truly loves obeys in all things cheerfully for savour not for fear and if any burthen unpleasant to the flesh be laid upon him Love makes it light and acceptable too Therefore the Scripture saith that Gods Commandments are not grievous to let us know we are not yet perfect in Love when we find them grievous and difficult and that we should pray and labour for an increase of Charity The keeping of Gods Commandments is doubtless very hard to them that are acted by fear but Perfect Love casteth out Fear and as it fulfills the Law so it makes it easie and delightful to us For there is no trouble nor difficulty in that service which Love obligeth to what duties it binds on a good servant are ever thought pleasant and readily discharg'd whereas the same imposed by fear will make subjection grievous and obedience to be cavill'd at and by some means eluded 2. By this they are convinc'd to want the Love of God who complain of the strictness of Gospel-precept and count morality a needless burthen and by pretences and objections seek to loosen the yoke that they may shake it off Such are they that have itching ears and heap to themselves teachers after their own heart such as may more comply with their humor and inlarge their wanton liberty by restraining Gods Laws and the injunctions of his Church For men now adays will not be held in by duty but will range according to their will they have disputed themselves out of meekness and Charity and now that their actions are not govern'd by plain precepts but by opinions and parties they may be warranted to do in a manner whatever they lust But alass before Christs dreadful Tribunal we shall not he judged by vulgar opinions nor by the exceptions of contentious men but by truth and by divine Laws There mens fancies and relaxations and the doctrine of probability as some do teach it will be found to hare been only pernicious cheats whereby men sought to warrant their looseness and disobedience 3. But these things are not weighed nor understood but by them that sincerely love God and are therefore ready always to obey him in all things he requires For 't is by Love that the Soul gives up her self to God and by cleaving to him becomes one will and one spirit with him for God is Love saith the Scripture and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him 1 Joh. 4.16 And from this union flows an holy peace and a delicious joy when by love we are subject to our Beloved and are possest of him in whom and by whom are all things and who is the fountain of all happiness and the satisfaction of all our desires Now by this shall a man know whether he truly loves God and adheres to him if God be the last end of all his purposes and actions if his thoughts and desires always run after him and if above all things he seeks to please and to obtain him CHAP. XLI That there is more of Love in Practical Knowledge than in Speculation 1. TO desire knowledge is natural to man and still the more