god-head she could in number have made up that losse of quality she brought in all the celest all bodies into the account of Divinity serving the Militia of Heaven instead of the maker and we may call to minde that as humane bodies grew Giants mindes seemed to shrink into dwarfs when they fell in love as I may say with the daughters of men that is the conceptions of their owne naturall Reason in this point of Divinity And we may well suppose that the Giants soules in the law of nature became so by espousing this daughter of God which we may properly call Grace whereby their heads passed the skie and touched Heaven it selfe in this beliefe of the unity of the godhead and by this conjunction with grace reason produced their issue of a rectified Religion hence is it that we finde the Patriarks frequently visited by celestiall spirits as the allies as I may say of this daughter of Heaven they had espoused and most doe conclude that all those who in the law of nature continued in a rectified belief and worship of God were maintained in that state by grace supplementall to the virtue of single Reason How far humane Reason may alone finde the way to rectified Religion is a question to exercise curiosity rather then excite piety and very commonly reason in the disquisition of faith doth rather sink the deeper into the earth by falling from her over aspiring then she doth six her selfe upward in her proper station and besides this danger me thinkes there is this difference betweene them that are working upon reason to extract Religion and those that are feeding upon sincere faith that the first are labouring the ground for that fruit which the last are feasting on or that the first are plowing while the last are gathering of Manna I shall indeavour therefore to serve in this spirituall refection ready to be tasted treating of faith already digested rather then to be provided by ratiocination for devotion is faith converted into nourishment by which the soul contracting a sound active strength needs not study the composition of that aliment it finds so healthfull §. II. Treating the best habit of mind in order to the finding a rectified Religion ME thinks Religion and Devotion may be fitly resembled to the Body and the Soule in Humanity The first of which issues from an orderly procession of nature by a continuing virtue imparted all at once to mediate causes the last is a new immediate infusion from heaven by way of a creation continually iterated and repeated So Religion at large as some homage rendred to a supreme relation flows into every mind along with the current of natural causes But Devotion is like the Soule produced by a new act of grace directed to every particular by speciall and expresse infusion and in these respects also the analogie will hold that as Religion hath the office of the body to containe Devotion so Devotion hath the function of the soule to informe and animate Religion And as the soule hath clearer or darker operations according as the body is well organized or disposed so Devotion is the more zealous or remisse proportionately to the temper and constitution of the Religion that containeth it Sutable to the Apostle Saint James his intimation to us that Pure Religion keeps us unspotted from the world I shall not take upon me the spirituall Physitian to consult the indispositions and remedies of differing Religions but relying more upon the Testimony of confessed experiments then the subtilty of that litigious art I shall prescribe one receipt to all Christian tempers which is to acquire the habit of Piety and Devotion for this in our spirituall life is like a healthfull aire and a temperate diet in our naturall the best preservative of a rectified faith and the best disposition to recover from an unsound Religion for the Almes and Prayers of the Centurion were heard and answered when they spoke not the language of the Church and the Angel was sent to translate them into that tongue in which God hath chose onely to be rightly praised that which his Eternall Word Christ Jesus hath peculiarly affected and annexed to his Church this shews the efficacie of piety and the exactnesse of Gods order who hath inclosed his eternall graces within those bounds into which he brings all that shall partake of them and so doth naturalize all such strangers as he intitleth to them doth not allot any portions to aliens but reduceth all them he will endow into that qualification he requireth which is into the rank of fellow-citizens of the Saints and of the houshold of God he leaves none with a dispensation of remaining forreiners The Angel that called the Centurion directed him to the gate of the Church Saint Peter did not bring him a protection to rest in his owne house with the exercise of his naturall pieties and so for those that are straying without the inclosure of the Catholique Church if they walk by the light of naturall charity morall piety and devotion in their religious duties this is the best disposition towards the finding of the way the truth and the life of whom the Psalmist sayes He is neere to all those that seeke him and those who are thus far advanced in morality may be said to be in atriis Templi in the Church-yard which is in a congruous disposition for farther advance into the body of the church I shall endeavour then to affect every one with the love of purity and holinesse of life for to those that are already rooted and growing in the Church this disposition will be are that fruit the Apostle soliciteth for them that their love may abound more and more in knowledge and in all judgement And in those who are yet strangers and forreiners as he calls them this reverentiall feare of God seemes to chase the wax for the seale of the holy Spirit for Prayers and Almes doe as it were retaine God for their Counsel and as his Clients open their cause to him in these tearms of the Psalmist Lord cause me to know the way wherein I should walk for I lift up my soule unto thee And such may be said to be halfe way towards their end that doe worship in a zealous spirit and are likely never left there but helped on to the other part of worshipping in truth by him that hath ordained our worship to consist of Spirit and Truth so that devotion sincerity in any Religion are the best Symptomes of our designation to the true and sincere Religion Wherefore having made this generall presentation of piety and virtue to all parties I shall not stay to wrastle in the Schooles but rather strive to set such Church-musick as all parties may agree to meet at the service and this I presume may sound in tune unto most eares that where consort and harmony in faith appeareth it is a good note of that
fall away down under the Altar it self represented by their mindes from whence the fume of those fragrant Odours of Vocal and Mental Prayer is directed towards the wings of the Cherubims and so what is sweet in the Spirit ascendeth to Heaven and what is unclean in the Flesh falleth to the Earth and doth not remain as a foulness upon the Altar which is kept always bright and odoriferous And in these Temples of the Holy Ghost there is not onely a continual emission of fire from Heaven falling upon the Altar but even a fresh provision of materials to incense upon it that is to say new supplies of Meditations descending from the Father of light from whom the same beam imparteth at once the ardor of love and the light of Science so that this matter can never want that flame nor that flame ever want this fomentation O how incomprehensible is the clarity of the Divine Elsence whereof if the little light shed on us do shine so strangely even in us being as yet but dark lanthorns to carry it how much must those splendors of purity and sanctity radiate which never issue out of it self whereof we have but few or no glances in this imperfect state of Contemplation to wit little or no intelligible perception of the Mysterious light of the glorious Trinity consistent with that most simple Vnity in which the Trinity of persons is comprised and yet the simplicity of the Unity is not at all diminished In which speculative Verity the best plumed Sâ—raphins of our mortal Nature when they soar never so high on these two wings of Grace and Contemplation must cover their faces with these two other of Faith and Wonder singing with the Psalmist I shall be satisfied when thy glory appeareth and in thy light we shall see light §. II. The gradations whereby we ascend ordinarily up to this station I May well suppose that there will be many who being dazled by the radiancy of the faces of these Moses's we have exposed will with the people turn their heads away from this object And I may imagine that some as being taken with the beauty of this light will conclude with the Apostles That it is good to live upon this Mount and may perchance think of making Tabernacles for their abode in this place that is design all the powers of their mindes to the forming in themselves such a state of Contemplation wherefore it may be pertinent to look a little downward upon such subjacent stations as are the direct way up to the top of the Mountain whereunto the nearest conterminate part is that of Speculation and the next to that Lecture and after that Mortification which lieth indeed as the basis of all the elevation and as it hath this property of the ground-work to consist of the most gross matter so hath it this likewise of being the support of the whole erection and in that order I will re-ascend to the summity from whence I have dismounted While the Soul of Man receives no intelligible species but such as are raised from sensible matter and acteth onely by corporeal organs by Natural Reason it is evident why Mortification is requisite for the best extent of her intellectual powers as rendring these passages the clearer through which all images enter into our discursive faculty and also keeping that power the more free and active in all her exercises The purer the glass is the better we see all things in the room and the farther we may see out of the room when we look outward through the glass so both the species that enter into our mindes through clean and unobstructed organs are the clearer and the acts also of our discourse and speculation looking outward towards immaterialities are the more sharp and penetrating I shall not need to argue how much corporeal pleasures and sensualities do obscure the light received by the apprehensive faculty and clog the operations of the reasoning power of the Minde Wherefore even in this Natural respect a convenient suppression of the appetites of the Flesh seemeth the platform of all Spiritual exaltation but we have a firmer supernatural ground whereupon to raise this Conclusion of the requisiteness of Mortification towards speculative gifts the word of the Holy Ghost saying They that are in the flesh cannot please God and if they be removed even from Gods favor they must needs be very distantial from that grace and familiarity which is imparted to Contemplation Saint Paul was allowed so little to think of his body when he was raised to his highest point of illumination as he knew not whether he had any body about him or no at that time And we finde that he took the best course he could all his life to feel the least he might possibly of his body in order whereunto he saith He did not onely chastise his body and keep it in subjection but affirmeth likewise That he did dye daily It seemeth he found no means of clearing the operations of the Soul but by making as it were a quotidian separation between her and the Flesh And me thinks we may say of all Saint Pauls converted life notwithstanding his humility in owning infirmities that which he himself said of some part of it namely Whether this man in Christ lived in his body or out of his body we know not God knoweth so little sense we finde him to have had of his body in point of Mortification and so little impediment by it in Contemplative operations And doth he not say himself That it is not he that liveth but Christ in him and referring to us he declares the requisiteness of Mortification telling us That they that be Christs have crucified their flesh with the vices and concupiscences and if this kinde of crucisixion be requisite even for the practical part of Christianity whereunto all are called much more must it be pertinent to the perfect speculative state thereof to which so few are chosen I am therefore well warranted to lay Mortification as the ground or foot of this Mount of Moria which signifieth the Land of Visions whereunto all such as shall despise ascensions in their heart must take their rise from this foot and remember what was figured by Abrahams leaving his Servants and his Ass afar off when he saw the Mountain and the prohibition of any Beast to come near to Mount Sinai to wit that no carnal or sensual dispositions might presume to approach towards the mysterious lights of God So that whosoever aspired to go up to this mount Moria of Contemplation must be advised to follow Abrahams order to leave afar off all voluptuous and sensual appetites figured by the Servants and the Ass and carry in his hand the Fire and the Sword that is Zeal and Activity for the sacrificing of his Flesh and Blood to the honor of God This is the Fire that he who was typified by Isaac brought into the earth and
see Christ promiseth us in expresse termes the company of the Father and his residence in us Wherefore Now O happy man that thou art look not down upon the stage of the Serpent where he lyeth still hissing at thee to call thy thoughts to the earth since thou didst first hearken to him But raise thy lookes upward to the throne of Heaven where the splendor of thy humanity at the right Hand of God reflecteth to thee thy owne dignity for even in the mirrour of the word wherein God the Father seeth himselfe man may now see his own image there man may see not only his nature made after Gods image but God himselfe in the image of his nature Correspond with thy own worthynesse then O exalted creature and live as if thou had'st never seene thy selfe in any other glasse for here is that eminence truly conferred on thee which thou did'st at first so vainly affect of being like God and the holy Spirit is thy councellour in this claime of thy divinity and thy comforter against the disswasions of thy first projector who would now divert thee from the aspiring to the consort and participation of the divine nature which is offered to thy aspiring This premised and ponder'd man may say I rejoyce even in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me and triumph in me for my strength is made perfect in weaknesse and may consort the harp of David to the same tune of praysing mans condition professing thy friends O Lord are become exceeding honourable their principality is exceeding strengthened for when mans infirmities appear in temptations and suggestions to deface the image and Character of the holy Ghost in him then hath he the holy Spirit to second him in the defence of his own image So that by the adjunction of these helpes even all mans infirmities may be converted into his glories and man hath nothing left to undeifie him now but his owne preferrence of degeneration and flavery to the enemy of his nature before his adherence to her Author Finally upon all these representations I may justly re-extoll and magnifie the dignity of humane nature which we may consider sent down at first from Heaven as Gods image and next as a state to which God himselfe did vouchsafe to come down in person and taking it upon him will inhabit therein eternally and then that the holy Spirit of the Father and the Son abideth in it as in his Temple which he sanctifies incessantly nay more that it is designed to partake the same glory which the whole Trinity injoyeth by being promised to be made like him who hath it all the God and man Christ Jesus O then he that may hope this let him never plead his frailty or infirmity in discredit of his nature let him not in a dejection of spirit seek to cover his pusilanimity with O wretched man I finde a Law reluctant in me against all these motives and incentives of my aspiring to divinity but rather let him boldly pronounce in such a holy confidence as is prescribed him I can doe all things in him that strengthens me for since God is in so many sorts with us who shall prevaile against us Therefore in all these reluctances let us aspire to be more then conquerors by him who so much loveth us The Third Treatise Of Religion §. I. Considering it under the generall Notion of some reference to a Divine Power REligion riseth in the first dawning of the light of nature for the soul as soon as she doth but see her selfe by the reflex of any discourse discernes her own relation to some superiour cause to which she assigneth some present reverence and reason as it riseth and ascendeth breaketh the day a little further but leaveth the mind still in such a twy-light as the understanding doth hardly distinguish singularity in the supremacy discryed above it selfe for reason doth but as it were feele out her way to Divinity by a kinde of palpation and sensible touches upon materiall creatures and cannot by an immediate elevation of her faculties to immateriall notions raise her selfe up to the speculation of any spirituall substance much lesse to the supreme spirituall Essence So that by the meere light of nature the mind oftner scatters and breakes the object of Divinity then singleth it into unity This deficiency appeareth in the speculations of most of the Philosophers who all looked naturally upward for some supream reference and asscription of their being but unto most of them Heaven like a crack'd mirrour broken by their various imaginations reflected multiplyed images of the Divinity whereby we may discerne that the perception of unity in the divine Essence is not derived so much from the emission of the rayes of naturall Reason as from a reception of a supernaturall light whereby reason is rather illuminated from above it selfe then singly producing this selfe-illustration and this forrein clarity diffused upon our reason is the Grace of the Divine essence which elucidates to our minde the simplicity and indivisiblenesse of the object from whence this gracious splendour issueth upon our understanding Grace thus inspired worketh by the soule as light doth by the sense not inducing the faculty but only the exercise of sight for grace doth not conferre any new faculty to the soul but only perfecteth the capacity of naturall reason in this act of singling the notion of the Diety and settling the unity of a Creator in our beleef And this first position alwayes suggesteth some Religion taken largely as a recognition by some exteriour homage of one Supreamacy above our Nature but this estate admits of much diversity in Religious beliefs in which even the wise men of the World as Saint Paul termeth them did stray and lose themselves growing vain in their own imaginations for by a seeming pretext of piety namely of making religious addresses enough to God they made many Gods under the colour of one Supream addresse By this Errour we may perceive that naturall reason needeth still a further conduct from grace to lead it to a rectified Religion Certaine it is that the materiall and visible species of this world afford some notion of the invisible producer as in mines whereof the specificall matter is of a much meaner substance there are found some veines of Gold and Silver so out of the grosse masse of nature those that work upon it by single reason may easily extract some Spirituall ore of Religion for through the elemented body of the universe there run some veines of intimation of a spirituall nature independent on all matter which reason may discerne and so resolve some Religious acknowledgment of a Divine principle as the producer of subordinate causes and effects but how apt humane reason is to sever and disunite this principle we may easily judge when we remember how soone reason forgot her owne origine and as if having lost the unity of the
nature and over-pay by good security of sincere secular joy what may seeme taken away in that adulterate species wherein our fancies use to accept the receites of our contentment For surely Devotion doth assigne the minde a rectified joy in the use of temporall goods instead of that vitious and counterfeit which our three enemies pretending to be our stewards bring into our fancy that is prone to take all whatsoever hath but the image of sensible pleasure without examining the substance which facility to be deceived the Prophet reproacheth in us saying We sell our selves for nothing Should a traveller passing through a forreign countrey finding the coyne of the place raised to an excessive value exchange into it all the good species of his own thinking to make gain by this traffique because the coyne is currant in his passage as soon as he were passed that dominion he would quickly repent his inconsiderate mistake This seemeth to be the familiar case of man who while he is in his transition and passage through this world findeth the temporalities thereof which are the currant species of the place cried up to such an over-value as he is perswaded to turne all his affections into that species of joy and at its issue out of this forreign region he findeth the irreparable losse he hath made by the debatement of his talents in this exchange And it is against this delusion not against all commerce with secular joy in our journey that Devotion issueth to us her inhibitions lest by this ill husbandry in their way when they come to account with their great Creditor they be reduced to give a worse answer then he who brought back his talent unimproved I shall therefore exhibite to our minds which must needs negotiate in their passage through this world the true Intrinsique value of those joyes uttered in the commerce with the creatures that taking none but such as are allowed in their last audict their traffique may bring home into their native countrey not their Bonds forfeited but rather Bils of exchange payable upon their Masters joy In answer then of the desire of having the truest happynesse of this life specially determined I declare that the felicity of this life consisteth in a constant rejoycing in truth This is the assertion of Saint Augustine and is easily verified to all rationall dispositions The first reply the world is like to make to this proposition is Pilates question What is truth to which I answer Truth is a perfect and edequate similitude or likenesse imprinted in our understanding of the nature of the thing we conceive So that when our conception is just equall to the being and property of the thing we conceive we are said to understand truth Wherefore the truth of knowing is as it were the mould cast off from the truth of being or the print of that seal and so the image of the true being of a thing is the figure of truth seated in our minds But this which may seem a fair impression of the nature of truth may perchance appear but a dark Character of the form of happynesse to my auditory unto whom indeed I do not intend to assigne onely the speculative notions of verities for the subject of their satisfactions but I will open farther this store of joy the rejoycing in truth and shew how it containeth the Prophets wine and milk which he offereth to all for fetching it From hence the contemplative life draweth that wine whereof King David saith My chalice inebriating how goodly is it and the active sucketh that milk which the Apostle saith is proper for their vocation which nourisheth their minds with more sensible delectation issuing from the true use and ordinate love of the creature And this is that I may not unpleasantly call the milk which these Gentiles love best to whom I present my breast The preference of the contemplative life before the active is inferred from this respect of affording a more clear and serene light for the perception of Supernatural verityes For contemplation is a fixure of the mind on the aspect and presents of truth and although this act of contemplating be purely Intellectuall yet the terme and end thereof rests in the affections as the possession of our pursuits induceth joy whereby this is demonstrated that the happynesse of the contemplative life consisteth in the rejoycing in truth This sensible delight in contemplation flowing from the Superior portion of the mind down upon the Inferior is a good Image of mans consummate Beatitude in Heaven where the glory of the body is derived from the excesse and redundancy of the joy and blessednesse flowing from the soul and in this order the delight imparted to our affections by contemplation fals from a superfluence of truth in our understanding And thus what may be said to be light in the Superior region of the Soul seemeth fire in the lower The first reporting to truth and the latter to joy which as it is a passion in our nature may be said to be more materiall then the other in the same degree as flame is lesse pure then the radiancy of the Sunne but the comparative degrees of purity between the acts of our Intellect and our affections are not our Theam Certaine it is that all the sensible delectation of the contemplative life streameth from the springs of Supernatural verities we will therefore stay no longer on the top of Mount Sinai which may seem all cloud to those that are below while the Moseses that are upon it find all splendor and clarity and may not unfitly be said to see the hinder parts of that verity in seeing the face whereof consists the consummate rejoycing Comming then down into the Camp of the active life it will be no hard task to prove the happinesse of that state likewise seated in the rejoycing in truth which hath so gratefull a savour even to our sensitive appetite as I may say none wish for quailes but they desire to tast this Manna in them I mean no body affecteth any sensible fruition but as it is under the form of a true good For as Saint Augustine reasoneth let any be asked whether he had rather joy in truth or in falsity and the answer will bear no doubt For although there be many would deceive others in their happinesse there are none would be deceived themselves in it there is such a signature of the light of the countenance of verity stamped upon the reason of man as his understanding can propose nothing to his affections as matter of joy but under the colour at least of truth So that the object of all our affections is true delight though the errour be never so great in the subject of our joy For no body can rejoyce under this notion of being deceived the instinct of man is such in order to truth as he must present that object to his Imagination even out of the
to viz. whether they make that cozening advantage by them or no with the creature they must answer for as much to the Creator as they projected to make of them and thus as the Prophet saith As much Wind as they have sowed so much Tempest they shall reape §. VI. Presumption upon our vertue discussed and the danger thereof remonstrated THere are many Lovers who when they find no direct design of impurity at first in their passions conclude them competent with their salvation and care not how neare the wind they steere nor how many boards they make as long as they believe they can reach the Port with this wind which is so faire for their senses therefore they pretend they need not stand so strait a course as making Jobs covenant with their eyes nor setting Davids watch over their lips provided they set a guard over their heart that no foule possession enter upon that seate thus do they expose many faire models of their love which in speculation may seem designed according to the square of Religion but how hard it is to build adequately to the speculative measures in this structure none can tell that presume to know it our senses are not inanimate materials that obey the order of the spirits designe but rather labourers which are easily debauched to worke contrary to the measures and rule of the Spirit hence it is that they who will undertake in this case all they can argue possibly for humane nature render it impossible by their undertaking it for they reckon not their presumption as any impediment which in the practise as being an irritation of God out-weighs all the other difficulties and the more alwayes the lesse it is weighed in the designe therefore as Solomon saith The wise man declineth evil and the foole heapes on and is confident The beliefe of impossibility is the most prudent supposition in such experiments as cannot be essayed without some desperate exposure of our selves it may be demonstrate by reason that we may have halfe of our body over a precipice so the centre of the weight be kept in an exact aequilibrium that part which is pensile can never weigh down the other which is supported but we should thinke one mad that would try this conclusion when the least motion changeth the Position and consequently destroyeth the practicer of this speculation so those that pretend to keept their soules equally poised in the just measures between piety and prophane love their eyes hanging over the precipice of temptations which do so easily turne their heads and then alter all the positions of their mind adventure upon just such a spirituall experiment He that seeketh danger shall perish in it is attested by the unhappy president of the wisest of men and it is superfluous to instance other testimonies of this truth When David and Solomon the two brazen pillars of the Temple being the direction and fortitude of the Princes of Israel were melted and poured out like water as David himselfe confesseth by the ardors of his flesh and so they seem to stand in holy record as two high eminent markes set upon these sands to advertise the strongest vessels not to venture to passe over them and if Saint Paul that vessel of election after his having seen the beauty of Heaven to possesse his heart thought himselfe hard matched with the Angell of Sathan and cryed out to heaven for helpe against him shall any presume to entertain and cherish this ill Angell and hope to overcome him with flattery and civility for they make this tryall who lodge in their thoughts and serve with their fancies strong impressions of humane beauty and propose to keepe their body in order even by the vertue of such a guest pretending that the very object infuseth a remembrance and reverence of purity With this and the like glittering conceipts do many vain Lovers fondly satisfy and abuse themselves which is to answer the question of the Holy Spirit that the fire they carry in their bosomes preserveth them from being enflamed by it we may fitly say to such in answer from the Prophet God laughs at you when all Gods advices are that there is no security against this bosome enemy but violence and diffidence there is no meane between the flesh's being slave or master this treaty of Friendship between it and the spirit proves but Dalilahs kind holding of Sampsons head in her lap while she is shaving him How often do we see the Spirit thus betraid and lye bound by this confidence And truly all those chaines which vain Lovers forge for the figuring out the powerfulnesse of beauty may be said to be those irons the flesh hath cast off and set upon the Spirit which is truly captivated alwayes by the others liberty This considered let none presume that while they deny the 〈…〉 eyes nothing which they covet they can deny their hearts any undue cupidity for this seemeth such an experiment as if one of the children of Israel should have carryed a fiery Serpent in his bosome presuming that while he looked upon the Brazen Serpent he could not be stung sure such a perverted confidence would not have proved safe to the projector So those who believe while they have the love of God before their eyes they may expose them to all the fiery darts of lustfull eyes seem to tempt God by such a vain presumption these are such of whom we may fitly say with the Apostle that Erring themselves they lead others into errour and have a forme of Godlinesse but deny the Power of it being lovers of pleasure more then lovers of God Let no body then trust to any confederacy between the flesh the spirit which is of humane loves making for of all reconciled enemies the flesh is least to be trusted after the accord and love the least for the arbitration therefore let none believe their souls out of danger because in the first paces of their passion they meet no insolent temptations that face them and declare the danger of their advance for the Devill keepes likely his first Method still with those he findeth in the state of innocence he taketh the shape of the serpent and creeps up by insinuation and then changeth his shape into the figure of his power and this transmigration of the evil spirits from one body into another is truer then the fancy of Pythagoras for we find often this Metamorphosis of the devill from the form of a dove unto a serpent from a lamb into a lion since it is the same spirit that moves in the poetical doves of Venus as was acting in Eves serpent thus what hath at first in our love an innocent form passeth quickly into a venemous nature Wherefore severe caution and repulse of the first motions of our sensitive appetite is the onely guard our soules can trust against our bodyes in this case for certainly many lovers sink into temptations in
delight the owners of it shewing what a reall blessing beauty hath by being made by God one of the best opticke glasses for the helpe of mans spirituall eye by report from his corporeall in the speculation of divinity for by this inference of the Wise-man he may argue If we are delighted with these materiall beauties we may judge how much more beautifull and lovely is the Lord and Creator of them adding that by the greatnesse of the beauty of the creatures the heathens were inexcusable that they did not find the truth of one Creator We may remarke a speciall providence of God in the order of nature providing against the pervertiblenesse of this great blessing of beauty for the most vehement cupidity of our nature ariseth not before the use of reason the abuse of beauty and the use of reason are both of an age whereby we have a defence coupled with the time of temptation and our reason when it is seriously consulted for our safety hath the voyce of the holy cryer in the desart and directeth us to a stronger then her selfe which was before her though it appeared after her this is Grace which we may call in to our succour in all the violencies of our nature so as with these pre-cautions I propose beauty to be truly honoured in that highest degree of nobility which God hath been pleased to rank it among his materiall creatures preserving religiously the Prerogative Rights of the Soveraign of our hearts who demandeth not the putting out of the right eye as the Ammonites did for a mark of slavery but proposed it onely as a medicine in case of scandall when the liberty of the whole body is indangered by it whereby we see devotion doth not infringe any of the rights of humanity in the valuation of materiall blessings for in not admitting vain passion it doth rather defend then diminish the liberties of humane nature which are truly inslaved by the tyrannies of passion Now in answer to that question concerning friendship with women I professe to intend so little the discrediting of reall friendship with them as I approve it for an excellent preservative against the contagiousnesse of passion for as passion hath been well said to be friendship runne mad so friendship may be properly styled sober passion since it hath all the spirit and cordiality of the wine of love without the offensive fumes and vapors of it and so doth the office of exhilarating the heart without intoxicating the braine Insomuch as we finde that our friendship with the proprietor of what we are tempted to covet doth often even by the single virtue of morality suppresse those unruly appetites Therefore when the power of Christianity is joyned to re-inforce it we may expect it should much the easilier correct frailty of nature It hath been well said of friendship that it is the soule of humane society and if our friendship hold this Analogy with the soul to be equally intire in every part of the body it is very safe with women if the love be no more in the face then in the feet as long as it is like a soule thus spiritually distributed equally in the whole compound of body and mind it is not in danger of the partiality of passion which never maketh this equall communication of it selfe but lodgeth solely in the externall figure of the body and friendship thus regularly spirituall may find a sensible as well as a lawfull delight in the beauty and lovelynesse of the person for beauty hath somewhat that affecteth and taketh our nature which methinks is somewhat like to that we call the fire or the water in diamonds which are certain rayes of luster and brightnesse that seem the Spirit of the whole matter being equally issued from all parts of it and so there may be a kind of spirit and quicknesse of joy and delight that may shine upon us from the object of a beautifull person whom we may love so spiritually as to consider nothing in the person severed from the whole consistence and virtuous integrity of soul and body no more then we do the fire of a diamond apart from the whole substance Thus beauty may innocently raise the joy of friendship whiles sincere friendship doth suppresse the danger of beauty which is onely the kindling of passion wherefore if it be rightly examined passion which pretendeth to honour beauty more then friendship will be found but to vilifie and debase it for passion useth this diamond but as a flint to strike materiall sparkles of lust out of it whereas friendship lookes upon the fire of this diamond as delighted only with the luster of nature in the substance of it which reflects alwaies the splendor of the Creator unto a Pious ' and religious love But this high Spirituall point of friendship with women where we have no defence by consanguinity against the frailty of flesh and blood is not so accessable as we should presume easily to reach it many loves have stray'd that pretended to set out towards it therefore we cannot be too cautious in this promise to our selves of security in such difficulties for our spirit can make no such friendship with our flesh as to rely upon the fidelity thereof without his own continuall vigilancy wherefore S. Peters advise is very pertinent in these intelligences Converse in feare in this time of your sojourning for otherwise I may presage to you in the termes of the Prophet Evil shall come upon you and you shal not know from whence it riseth for friendship doth often when it is too much presumed upon rob upon the place it did first pretend to guard being easily tempted by the conveniency our senses finde in that trust And as those theeves are the hardliest discovered that can so handsomely change their apparencies upon the place as they need not flie upon it so friendship when it is debaushed into passion is very hardly detected For when it is questioned by Gods authorized examinants it resumeth the lookes and similitude of innocent friendship and so remaineth undiscovered not onely by the exterior inquest but very often it eludeth a slight interior search of our own conscience thereby proving the most dangerous theef in the familiarities with women For this reason I must charge this admission of friendship towards women with this clause of Saint Paul While you stand by saith presume not but feare for in this case we may warrantably invert the rule of Saint John and say that perfect love bringeth in feare wherefore I will conclude this case with Solomons sentence Blessed is the man who feareth alwayes he that hardneth his heart shall fall into mischiefe § VIII The Conclusion framed upon all the premised Discourse and our Love safely addressed NOw then upon these evidences we may fairely cast passion in this charge of Treason against the Soveraign of all our love and consequently all libertine discourse and familiarities with women
may justly be noted as Malignants which legally in Religion ought to be sequestered nay even friendship it selfe with persons to be feared lyeth under some cloud as requiring a continual suspitious eye upon it to keepe it safe from all intelligence with sensual appetites in so much as when it is sincerest it must be watched with great prudence to be kept safe for which cause in stead of all these perillous commerces of our love I will preferre so secure an object to it as Saint Augustine saith of it Love but and do what you will this is the increated beauty of God in which there is not only no feare to be had of our over-loving it but even there is no fear of our not being out-loved by it and so our love is alwayes secured to us Therefore O Soule Why doest thou halt and hesitate about the loving him who must needs love thee faithfully and art so prone to love that which if it love thee at all must do it perfidiously either deceiving thee or some other thou shalt alwayes be unhappy in loving such which if another love thou shalt be offended or if they love another thou shalt be tormented The love of God is exempted from all griefe or care for in his loving of others thou shalt joy and that all may be in love with him thou shalt wish This is the transcendent sufficiency of Gods good that he may love all and be beloved of all without any detriment or diminution of either the lover or the beloved but with a fuller joy of both All other things are infirme scanted and indigent which are not sufficient for the loving of two or the being beloved by two without defrauding of one of them You then that by love seeke contentment why do you love that which even the loving of is disquiet O love him who even in the necessary disquiets of this life can make you happy how idle is it to love such goods which by loving thou deservest to want and not to love that good where the act of loving is the fruition of it for God being beloved becommeth yours other goods when you love you become theirs and so indeed you want even your selfe by such loves God is only to be wanted by not being loved and all other things which you leave for God you find again in his Love O then love that only which alone is all things To conclude all you who have much to be forgiven for other loves transferre betimes all your affections upon him where you may hope with the blessed Penitent To have much forgiven you for loving much Thus only you can hope to attain to the state Saint Paul prescribeth to abstain from all appearance of evill that your whole spirit and soule and body may be preserved blamelesse to the comming of our Lord Jesus Christ and God grant that our soules may meet him with the lamps of the wise Virgins only lighted in them and then we shall be no more in danger of ceasing to love what we should when we enter into our masters joy which is eternall love The fourteenth Treatise The Test and Ballance of Filiall and Mercenary Love In five Sections §. I. Of the value of Love and Gods tolerating some mixture of selfe-respects in it WHen Esdras had cleared to the seduced people that the Law of God could not dispense with their retaining of such strange women of the Land as lay in their bosomes they pleaded for some time to make this painfull divorce saying It was not the worke of a day or two So methinks many who are convinced in this point of the prohibition of this alien and strange conjunction of our Love which is the child of God with vain passion the daughter of the earth pretend that by degrees they will sever this impurity from their loves because it requireth some time and much grace to make this division I confesse it is not the worke of a few good motions or remorses it asketh as it were a melting and liquefaction of our hearts to separate this drosse from the pure substance of love but we are so much furthered towards this operation as the fire we must worke it in costeth nothing but the asking It is that which the Spouse saith are coales of fire and have a vehement flame and hath a speciall vertue to purge and calcine our affections according to the Prophets advice of separating the pure from the impure and we may confidently call for this fire downe from heaven by the Spirit of our master to consume these his enemies the concupiscence of the eye and the concupiscence of the flesh that are the opposers of this purgation and refinement of our hearts which he demandeth of us as silver seven times tryed Reflecting upon the exactnes of this receiver of hearts if we resolve to trade with our loves for the Kingdome of heaven we must examine sincerely what temper of purity is currant with God for as passion doth both lighten and vitiate them in one kind so is there another sort of drossines in our nature which doth often too much imbase our love by an over-allay of selfe respect that rendereth it too mercenary and of too low a value it is very requisite then to be rightly enformed of the Standard by whose purity all our love that passeth for the purchase of the Kingdom of heaven must be tryed tested In our contract for heaven there is a strange singularity since both the paiment and the purchase are one and the same thing differing only in degrees of intension and purification for infirme and imperfect love is our price and love perfected and consummate is our possession namely God who is love is all as love is the best thing even in heaven as well as in earth it is consonantly appointed for the chiefe commerce between them wherefore God asketh but the heart of man even for all himself knowing that the heart in the most entire transaction of it selfe in this life can remit but imperfect and defective love we must examine severely what rates of imperfectnes God admitteth in our affections for in favour of our poverty he accepteth some part of our payment in that which is as I may say the base money of our nature mercenary love which he alloweth for the conveniency of our indigent and decayed estate Methinks by this allusion we may appositely explain what degree of allowablenes mercenary love may be accepted at for as base money is a meanes of commerce between the rich and the poore and is not commonly allowed in payments above some low summe so God in condescendence to the poverty and incommodity of our nature permitteth mercenary love in some proportion to be currant between his plenty and our penury but will not accept our totall discharge in it we may have some selfe-respect in our affections to God that may represent to us our rewards as a beneficiall traffique
letting a sad apprehension setle upon our mindes but all this agitation of discourse as long as it is but in circumference about this world and in the element of secondary Causes is still but a circular motion which maketh no progression to our end for till our mindes are risen and fixed upon the supreme Cause all the various projects and motions of our Fancy are but cooling a Feaver with â—anning upon the distemper'd patient where the ayr may afford some exterior refreshment which may be an inflaming of the disease but if our Will be 〈…〉 eled at first with the Dove of the Psalmist she flyeth up immediately to her rest The sooner then we spread our thoughts upon the wings of Faith the more haste we make to be lodged in rest and tranquility of Spirit Liberty and Society are two so dear Proprieties of Humane Nature as natural Reason can give no equivalent exchange in satisfaction for them The Author of Nature can onely recompence this privation of two of the best Functions of our being and this by a communication of no less then his own Nature which is by filling up these breaches with his own Spirit otherwise our Spirits will certainly remain empty and destitute of peace and consolation For God who made Mans Society out of Man himself hath left the love of Company so inviscerated in him as that deprivement seemeth now to take more then a rib out of him even the better half of his Minde seems intrenched from him insomuch as his Reason seemeth to be left but one-handed to minister to him in this Exigence which would require a reduplication rather for his support But Nature is so unable to make this supply as for the redintegrating of his minde he must resort to a Supernatural suppeditation §. II. The deficiency of single Natural Reason argued for Consolation in this case and the validity of Grace asserted WHen I consider the strange undertakings of the Philosophers me thinks they have charactered to us the power of Natural Reason in a fabulous figure or Romance setting it out as vanquishing all corporeal sensibleness armed with never so many strong afflictions dissolving and disinchanting all the Charms and Spells of Passions although their characters be set never so powerfully against the efficacy of Reason which they exhibite in this predominancy dispersing all Errors rectifying all oblique Opinions thus have they fancied the superior part of the minde inthroned in such power as may easily blow away all ayr even of any Sedition that riseth in the inferior Regions of the imaginative or sensitive faculties Reason remaining in the posture of the Queen of the Revelation proclaiming I sit Queen and am no Widow and shall see us sorrow But they who account upon this Self-sufficiency shall quickly finde how impracticable these strong speculations will prove when they are bound and the Philistines are upon them that is inclosed in Solitude and assailed by Natural distresses and vexations if they shall then expect such a Hercules of their Reason as they have seen painted by the Stoicks that should break through all these Monsters and remain fortified by all these labors they will soon perceive their projected securities had more of Poetry then of Prophesie And sure I believe one that trusteth to the power of Natural Reason upon the word of Philosophy to deliver him from all faintness or deficiency of Spirit in this state of Violent Solitude doth as if one should perswade himself inspired with the vertue of some fabulous Heroe with whose character he had been strongly affected by reading his Romance for when he comes to combat his vitiated Nature in this Spiritual atchievement he will finde such a vanity in his speculation The Fable of Ixion is a good figure of this kinde of presumption for projecting to enjoy Juno that is some celestial Prerogative they do but embrace a cloud and by this mixture they beget nothing but Chymera's Certain it is that Christianity doth afford such Spiritual Samsons as carry the gates of their Prisons away upon their shoulders up to the Mountains and break all their chains as flax raising their mindes with the Psalmist up to the mountains contemplating Gods Providence and his design upon them in so high a degree of resignation as even their Prison and their Solitude are rather Marks to them of their liberties then Manacles of their Spirits but the strength of such Samsons is derived from the vow not from the veins or sinews of Nature Is it by their offering up and consecrating their Reason to that Spirit whose breath overthrows all the strong holds and destroyeth all the councels of Self-sufficiency and replenisheth the evacuation which is made of our own Reason to make room for that infusion therefore such victorious Spirits profess That the weapons of their warfare are not carnal but such as are mighty to the destroying of all the counsels of humanity and bring into captivity all understanding unto the obedience of Christ for as he himself assureth us If the Son of man make you free you shall be free indeed So that all such infranchised mindes are convinced of the incapacity of their single Nature to preserve this immunity and acknowledge this condition to that Spirit which ima 〈…〉 this freedom by the degrees of restriction â—o putteth upon them of his own bands for where the Spirit of our Lord is there is liberty This Spirit made St. Peter sâ—eep soundly in his chains between his two guards that is hold him reposing in a perfect stilneâ—s of minde in all his ex 〈…〉 disquiets and preserved him in as much freedom of Spirit before his irons were struck off as after the iron gates of 〈◊〉 City flew open before him even while he lay in his Dungeon he was surely in the same freedom of minde bound in his chains as sitting on his chairs of Rome and A 〈…〉 and the Centurion that fell down before him at Cesâ—â—ea constrained his Spirit more then the Soldiers between whom he was laid down at Jerusalem The Soul of man then is capable of a state of much peace and equanimity in all exterior bands and ag 〈…〉 ions but this capacity is rather an effect of the expropriation of our Reason then a vertue resulting from her single capacity for it is the evacuation of all self sufficiency that a 〈…〉 h a replenishment from that Divine plenitude from whose fulness we receive grace for grace so that it is a super ve 〈…〉 gift not a native graft in our Reason And this tranq 〈…〉 of Spirit he that led captivity captive hath given as a gift unto men whereby we become partakers of his Divine Nature in this calm and serenity of minde which he pa 〈…〉 out to us in all his several postures Wherefore in our copying of this equality and imperturbation we must protest with the Apostle We have not received the Spirit of the World but the Spirit
patience and resignation by these intervening trials of our temper and likely the thoughts we have in temptations to frowardness are the copies of our minde upon which God judgeth their proficiency in the school of patience which he hath put them to There are diverse forms in prisons to which God preferreth our mindes by degrees and the highest seemeth to be the remaining humbly patient in a destitution of all sensible consolation from the Spirit of God to which we rise not but after some experiments of such desolations so that the best advice to this case is in our propensions to frowardness and petulancy to conclude That we are then set to bring in those exercises of vertue that must prefer us to a higher form all the Saints have passed by this examâ—n insomuch as David saith in this case My soul refused to be conforted I was mindfull of God and was delighted here you see the storm and the passing of it over by remembring the qualities of such blasts and stresses of temptations He is then the best scholler that studieth the least by his own arguings to clear to himself these obscure interjections of displicence and ill humor and cieling up his thoughts flieth directly to the top of the Cross resting there with the Man of sorrow where his minde finding My God why hast thou forsaken me may easily be answered in all her own perplexities and desolations and in stead of fearing her self to be forsaken may suppose she is following of Christ in this anxiety to which he was voluntarily subjected to solace by his Society our Nature in this infirmity whereunto that is necessarily exposed so as in these disquiets when the book of our Spirits seemeth closed up to us and we are ready to weep for our not being worthy to open it we may suppose our good Angel doing the office of the Elder to St. John bidding us not to be dismaid for the man of sorrow hath opened all these sealed anguishes by his taking the same impression upon his Spirit and indeed when our mindes are well died in the blood of the Lamb these aspersions of disquiets do not at all stain our Soul though there may seem some refractariness in our Spirits in these overcast intervals But to secure us from incurring any irregularity by this Spiritual Contention in the Temple of the Holy Ghost the safest way is not to seek a defence by the power of our Reason but to yield up our Spirits to suffer under this indisposition as long as it shall please the Holy Spirit to remain withdrawn even within our own Spirit beyond our discernment and many times in this ariâ—ity of our Devotion when our hearts are as I may say parched and cracked in this drought of Divine Refreshment if our wills are faithfully resigned to this exercitation of our Faith every such crack or overture in our hearts caused by the shutting up of Heaven proveth a mouth opened and calling for that holy dew which never fails to be showered down in due season upon such necessitous fidelities insomuch as this aridity and desolation interposed for some time doth often prove more fruitful then a common kindely season of repose and acquiescence I desire therefore to recommend specially this Advice to this state of Solitude which is very liable to these obscure interjections not to expect peace of minde onely from what we do sensibly receive from God but also from what we do sensibly give unto him for in this our commerce with Heaven there is this Supernatural way of Traffique we do not onelâ— pay God with his own gifts but we may give him even what we want and do not receive from him that is we may present him with our privation of his sensible Graces by our acceptance of this poverty and destitution And this offering of our emptiness is no less propitiatory then the first fruits of our Spiritual abundances This Advertisement I conceive very pertinent to my design of furnishing my fellow Soldiers with the armor of God that they may resist in the evil day and in all things stand perfect for it may be properly said of their condition that they are to wrastle not onely against flesh and blood but against the Rulers of the darkness of this world the Flesh shooting all her sharpest darts in the privation of Liberty and the Spirit his in the destitution of the most humane sympathy of Conversation This resignation then which I have proposed includeth a disswasion of any anxious solicitude concerning the cause of our sufferance for the ranging of our thoughts to spring second causes may keep us too much upon the scent of the earth the Apostle's advice is properer in this case Seek upward and not upon the earth which was the first point from whence this circle of my discourse did set forth and to allay this feaverish disquiet in our Patient I may fitly apply this Opiaâ—e of the Apostle If you are dead to the elements of this world why do you yet decree as living in the world This perplexing your selves with the thoughts of the world is to lose the benefit of this your civil death whereby you may rest from the labors of the living This you may rest upon in general That in this life there is no sort of Suffering but may be converted into Sanctification If you lie under a just sentence you may by an humble conformity to Gods Justice make it a release of a greater penalty then you feel in all your deprivements If you suffer injuriously for your engagement in a righteous Cause your Consolation is so much supposed as you have a command to rejoyce in 〈…〉 tion in view of the glory of your reward And if every imprisoned Christian may be said to be a rough draught of Christ since he avoweth his personation in them they who suffer for the Defence of Justice and Vertue may be said to be Christs Images coloured and more exactly finished wherefore such may expect to be readily received with I know you easily your scars and wounds which you bring with you coming out of my service have finished the figure of my similitude And we may resolve That such Champions shall be set near Christ where the number of their wounds shall be so many marks of their Consanguinity with the bleeding Lamb and the weight of their Chains shall be the estimate of their Crowns All sorts of Christians then may fill their several measures of Confort out of this Fountain of Christian Doctrine that all they who do not directly suffer for Christ may yet suffer as Christians and so attain the reward of a Prophet I will then close up my Present to them with this Seal of the Bands of our fellow Prisoner and Master Doctor Let us forget thâ—se things which are behinde and reaching forth 〈◊〉 thâ—se things which are before press forward to the mark for the priâ—â— of the high calling of
God in Christ Let as many therefore 〈◊〉 be perfect be thus minded and those who are otherwise I beseech God to reveal this unto them The twentieth Treatise Of the Contempt of the VVorld Divided into two Sections §. I. Arguments to discredit all the Attractives of this Earth and Gods contribution thereunto produced I Have in effect shot all my Quiver at this one Head viz. The love of this World and have set such points to my Arrows as I conceived most proper to enter those Helmets of Perdition wherewith the Prince of this World commonly armeth his Militia in this quarter I aim at namely Presumption or Inconsideration Wherefore now me thinks I may say to this Age with the Psalmist Childrens Arrows are made thy wounds relating either to my former Alliance to the world or to the present weakness of the hand that hath made these Ejacuâ—ations But surely the Head that hath been my Mark may be fitly compared to that of the Beast in the Revelation which having been wounded as it were to death was afterwards healed and Worshipped the more upon this Cure For the love of this world seemeth very often mortified and lying as it were dead in our mindes being wounded by the Sword of the Spirit and yet 〈◊〉 viveth and grows stronger then ever in our Affections And as these two Heads do not differ much in their Allegories since all the Heads of the Beast may be said to signifie several mundanities so are they consorted in this point of having both the same Surgeon the old Serpent who venteth all his Art upon the recovery of this Head namely The love of mundanity wherein do indeed reside the vital Spirits of the body of Sin the onely Subject of the Prince of this Ages Empire So that considering the dangerous convalescence of this wounded Head I have conceived it requisite to do my best not onely to kill it outright by playing Jael's part driving this Nail that is this express Tract directly through the temples of it but also to endeavor the burying it as I may say in this holy ground of Spiritual Joy and Acquiescence which is the safest course to prevent the revival of it for the alacrity of the Spirit keepeth the inferior appetites as it were under ground and in this figurative interment the Balms and Spices of contemplative Solaces contrary to material ones have this vertue quickly to consume and dissolve this matter when they are applied unto it I shall therefore endeavor to draw out of the inclosed Garden of the Spouse such precious Spices as may work these two different effects to dissipate and consume the love of this world as well as preserve and persume the love of Heaven One Sin infected our whole Humane Nature by reason that all succeeding individuals had then their voyces comprised in one person Representative of the whole Species And when we see the whole Mass of the Earth accursed at once me thinks we may speculate this to have been some part of the reason that in the little portion of Earth composing the body of Man the whole Globe thereof seemed represented and consequently all tainted by the inquination of that one parcel for the sensitive part of Man consisting of Earth that may well be charged as a Complice in the Crime since that portion of Man although it were not Principal was yet an accessory in the Crime the body having acted the transgression This may give an ingenious reason for the Condemnation of the whole Earth to bear onely Thorns and Bryers naturally and fruits not without induring wounds and violences to wit the contamination of the whole in the vitiousness of this first ungrateful portion of Earth which in the person of Woman may be said to have put forth some Bryers to catch the Soul of Man even before it was accursed This I presume to be a better Reason for the sentencing of the whole Earth then can be given for the Soul of Man's adhering to this Earth by his affections forasmuch as this convinceth us of the terrestrial parts of conspiration of our ruine and so may well averse the Soul from such an adherency How evident is it that God never intended that the Soul of Man after this first injury should set her affections upon the Earth since Man was presently removed from the most lovely part thereof and that was fenced against his access to it not onely to shorten his time upon Earth but also as we may suppose to abridge his Delights and Solaces in that short time since no other part of the World could afford such a complete deliciousness as the earthly Paradice out of which Man was excluded whereby God seemeth to have provided against Mans having the strongest Motives the Earth might offer him to draw down his affections upon it and hath left him a continual quarrel as it were with the Earth to wit the Contention of his labors against her sterility to entertain this disagreement between it and the love of Man since the Earth alloweth him nothing but at the price of his sweat and â—atigation This might seem sufficient considering our lazy Nature to admit no kinde or friendly correspondence between us nay there are many who suppose the world long since not to have had so much invitation left for Man to love it as the containing the terrestrial Paradice This at least is very probable That even since the Flood the beauty fecundity and pleasantness of that portion of the Earth is utterly deflowered and â—faced But this is positively true That God did not expulse Man out of Paradice to allow him the making another Paradice for himself out of the Earth These speculations do as Saint Paul saith speak after the maner of men to implead all title this Earth can claim to the affections of a reasonable Soul and through all the body of this Miscellany there run veins enough of disparagement to this world so that they may well terminate in this Centre of Contempt and despection The Apostle of love whose fiery tongue casts forth as many Scintillations of love as he doth lines in that Work which may be fitly called An Epistle commendatâ—ry of Love to Christians doth not allow the world so much as one spark of it he rather straineth his breath to blow out and extinguish every flash of affection to it enjoyning us expresly Not to love the world nor the things that are in it And it is remarkable That he alleageth not the miseries and disgusts of the world to discredit it but bringeth even the most amiable alluremonts thereof for Reasons against our affecting it arguing upon the worlds having nothing in it but the concupiscence of the eye and of the flesh and the pride of life in which consist the most powerful Attractives the world hath for our love And if all these which are acknowledged the worlds Proprieties are turned against the valuation thereof what hath it left whereby to
of whom I may say with the Apostle That in the midst of a perverse generation they have shined as lights in the world their mindes seeming to be kindes of Spiritual fixed Stars which never altered their distances from the Earth and intended onely the finishing their course at the same time imparting light unto the world by divers irradiations respective to their positions therein either of Prayer or other Edifications Wherefore of such habits of minde the Holy Spirit saith The path of the just is as the shining light that proceedeth even to perfect day which is Contemplation consummated when the day-Star whereby Saint Peter expresseth it shall be risen in our hearts whereof these acts of our intellect seem to be some inchoative or imperfect rays and to give you as fair a view as I can of this abstruse object I shall set it in the most luminous definition I can deliver it out of the mouth of S. Augustine Contemplation is a clear in t 〈…〉 on and a delightful admiration of perspicuous Verities so that the minde in that state may be said to walk in the meridional light of Faith towards the incomprehensible clarity of perfect vision and this light of Grace wherein a pure Contemplative Soul inhabiteth may me thinks be said to hold some such proportion to the purer light of glory she expecteth as the sight which the three Apostles had of Christs Body transfigured on Tabor holds to that they are to have of it glorified in Heaven for as the brightness of Lightning and the cand or of Snow did in some measure represent to them the far transcending lustre and beauty that was to be looked for in his Body beatified so these admirable intellectual Verities which are the objects of a true Contemplative Soul in this life do in some degree figure to it the unexpressible notions rising out of a fruitive Contemplation of the increated Verity insomuch as these elevated Spirits may be conceived to have such a kinde of advantage over others who may also be faithful in lower stations of Christianity as the three Disciples called up to Tabor had of them that were left below the Mountain For certainly this sight must have imprinted in their mindes a more lively and affecting image of the amiableness of glorified Bodies then the others could apprehend But as Christ admitted few even of his Apostles to this sight of him so doth God vouchsafe to select and elevate but very few to this superlative pitch of Contemplation of whom we may say with the Psalmist This is the generation of them that seek the face of the God of Jacob who we know was one of the most eminent in this high vocation feeding on this bread of Angels and having this Spiritual Manna showâ—red down upon him while he was feeding the flocks of others in a servile obligation And holy David in all his exterior bitternesses tasting of this Spiritual reflection saith as it were this Grace to it How great is the multitude of thy sweetness O Lord which thou hast hid for them that fear thee thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy face from the disturbance of men This expresseth well their state of minde which is covered from the sight of the world in the secret of Gods face that is in his most private and reserved kindenesses and as God hideth himself in his own inaccessible light so such Souls adhering unto God and becoming as the Apostle â—aith one Spirit are hid to the world in the excessive light of their Graces which common apprehensions cannot penetrate of such mindes we may most peculiarly say Who knoweth the things of such men save the Spirit that is in them which searcheth the deep things of God while their apprehensive faculty perfecteth it self by extracting the pure species of Truth and their affecting power is perfected by transmitting it self exteriorly upon the object that attracteth it Thus the understanding is never satiated by a continual receiving nor the affection ever diminished by an incessant issuing it self out upon the object but doth rather acquire by this perpetual Self-alienation In this admirable commerce doth the true Contemplative Soul negotiate with her own Maker while what is imported from him into the Understanding obligeth the Will to export unto him her faculty of loving and thus knowledge infused draweth forth love and love efused remitteth back fresh illuminations This Angelical correspondence with God the Contemplative Man entertaineth and hath in proportion to his Nature the same priviledge that Angels have when they assume apparent Bodies for their ministery on Earth namely to finde no intermission of their seeing God So in all the exterior offices which the Soul acteth by the ministery of the Body in such persons the Minde doth not remove out of that apprehended presence of God whereof her transitory state is capable insomuch as a profound Contemplator may be said to be never so much alive to this life as when he seemeth to be the most dead to it For in the image of Death when the other powers of his Minde cannot controul his Fancy that may introduce imaginations into him superfluously relative to this life and removed from the scope of all his reasonable cogitations which never move but in a presential reverence of God So that the Natural Man may be said to live in him no longer by the strength or power of his Nature but meerly by the infirmity of it that requireth such a suspension of the Spiritual Man which lives so powerfully in such a person as he seems fully in possession of Christs promise of his Fathers and his coming and making his abâ—de with him which according to the division made by the Holy Ghost of the whole Man may be conceived to be done in this maner The Father residing in that portion called the Soul as it importeth the Origine of all vital operations the Son resting in the Minde as that is the seat of our actual intelligence or understanding and both of them may be said to expirate and breathe forth the Holy Ghost into the Heart as that is taken for the continent of our affections and by this means the whole Man cometh as near the loving God with all his Soul with all his Minde and with all his Heart as this traverse and interposed vail of Flesh and Blood can admit him forgetting with Saint Paul the things that are behinde and stretching forth himself to those that are before by this constant Application preserving the whole Spirit Soul and Body without blame to the coming of our Lord Christ Jesus Considering then the properties of these golden vessels of Charity placed within the outward vale of the Temple and looking continually towards the Propitiatory seated within the inward vale which figured the beatifical vision even their Bodies may be well compared to the grate upon the Altar of Incense from which all the ashes of carnal appetites
those powers of my Minde form some digested Character of what I design which finished Draught of my own thoughts when I shall reade over I shall no longer work upon it but behold the Image I have framed out of the past divisions and compoundings of my thoughts and then my Minde will rest and enjoy my determined notions So that as I do now speculate and shall upon the finishing of these two Characters contemplate them without any farther agitation of my Minde In like maner the state of Speculation is a disquisition of sundry Divine Verities whereby to form some determined notions which are the objects that Contemplation is to be fixed upon in an acquiescent state when the discursive motion is arrived at the term of rest it pointed at and then contemplating the result of our former discoursings we do as it were reade over and enjoy this digest of our Imaginations wherefore as the act of our Comprehending doth excel that of our Reasoning in respect the intellect sees at one look or intuition what the Reason collecteth but by divers circuits of Discourse and so seemeth but a purveyor of what the intelligence possesseth in one instant In like maner the Contemplative state by the same reason transcends the Speculative and 〈◊〉 thinks in such a proportion as the intellect of Angels excelleth that of rational Souls for the first comprehendeth in one act without the tardity of discourse all intelligible species connatural to it and the last is fain to stay upon the abstracting of intelligible species from materialities and the conferring and co 〈…〉 of them with one another by ratiocination before it can settle conclusions wherefore Speculation seemeth to be a Humane act and Contemplation as it were an Angelical These lines have I hope drawn a fair parâ—ition between these two acts of a devout Soul whereby they appear not to be coincident as they are commonly misunderstood although they are co ordinate to one another not that I do presume that God hath obliged himself to this order of transfusing this grace of Contemplation always through the medium of studious Speculation For I am not ignorant of his immediate communicating this hand of intuitive fruition of his Verities to some choyce Souls unqualified for this preparatory course of Reading and Meditation God is admirable in his Saints in manifesting his Grace and Omnipotence by divers maners but as Saint Paul saith Though none 〈…〉 eth the minde of the Lord yet we have the minde of Christ wherefore I have given this direction as I said when I first entred upon it to conduct Travellers in this path which is Christs high way marked for us of Asking Seeking and Knocking and this is the beaten track of his Church which doth not circumscribe God within this method Sometimes the Spirit of the Lord catcheth up some humble illiterate Souls and setteth them immediately upon the top of this Mountain as he did Philip the Deacon at Azâ—â—us but for the most part he conveyeth those he calleth to this land of Visions as he did Abraham by these three days journeys I have gested to you before they come to this high station For God doth commonly carry these Spiritual discoverers which he calleth to take a little sey of the fruits of the Land of Promise all over this course of Spiritual exercises before they come to gather this fruit of Contemplation which seemeth to be a bunch of Grapes of that immense Vintage of Wine whereof the Psalmist speaking saith They shall be inebriated by the fulness of thy house For an inchoative state of Contemplation in this life is as it were a cluster of Grapes of the same Vine to wit the Grace of Christ which afterward is reduced into what was the last intent of the planter that is into the Wine of the Saints perfected Contemplation of the Divine Essence So that having given you clear and practicable instructions in order to the taking a right way towards this state of acquiescence the singular excellencies whereof I have with my best skill pourtraicted unto your judgements and affections I shall adde onely this laudative of the Holy Spirit as very appliable to this happy state of Contemplation Many daughters have gathered together riches but thou hast passed them all Upon these premised Considerations I may conclude the same order observable in the offering up this Spiritual Incense which was held in the preparing and burning the material Incense of the Tabernacle which act was a figure of this our Religious Duty we must then first by Mortification keep clean and fair the grate of the Altar by Lecture and studiousness we are to gather and mix the Gums and Spices of pious Conceptions by Speculation and meditating we must bear and pounce the Odours into a fine powder to wit collect pure and refined images of Verities and then by Contemplation we come to fire and exhale the perfume of the whole Composition By this method we erect our hearts according to those gradations designed by the Psalmist and the Law-giver shall give a blessing when they go thus from vertue to vertue the God of gods shall be seen in Sion §. V. Of the sensible delight springing from this Head of Contemplation as also the close of the whole Work HAving treated the blessedness of the intellectual part of this Contemplative state which may be said to stand for the Soul thereof there remaineth the adjoyning that portion which answereth to the Body in this compound of happiness which is the sensible joy wherewith the affections are replenished which delectable good affecting the sensitive powers is a redundancy or waste falling from the vertue of that Truth which overfloweth in the supremest portion of our Minde in some such maner as the beatitude of the Body is derived from the superfluent riches of the Soul in the state of glory and as the Soul shall then over-pay all the ministerial offices of her Body in this life by the mediatâ—on whereof her powers are now exercised imparting to the Body far more noble capacities So doth the intellect in this life when the minde is in the state of Contemplation superabundantly recompence the ministery of the Senses for the conveyance of those species whereupon the understanding acreth in Lecture and Speculation by far exceeding joys and â—uavities diffused upon the affections such indeed as are not to be conceived unless it be by those that have tasted them whereof the Psalmist saith Blessed is the people that knoweth jubilation upon which words St. Gregory noteth that the Holy Spirit saith Not speaks but knoweth this jubilation because it may be conceived but not fully expressed by the enjoyer of it The Soveraign Contemplator King David by the assistance of the Holy Spirit giveth us the fairest light we have of it when he saith My heart and my flesh have rejoyced in the living God the first whereof imports the satisfaction of the intellectual and the last
the solaces of the appetitive part of the Soul that is the seat of the Affections which though they are not always equally feasted with delectation yet are they for the most part entertained with a competent measure of gladness and exhileration and sometimes are recreated with an extraordinary jucundity in such a maner as the Prophet Elisha's trenches were filled with water without any appearance of wind or rain to produce this effect that is to say the inferior part of the Soul feeleth a sensible delight and refreshment without any inordinate emotion or alteration of those sensitive powers wherein this delight is excited insomuch as they finde the sweet effects of these two Affections both Love and Joy the first rising not from the wind of passion and the other not being instilled by the rain of any material fruition and thus the delights of these two Affections from to be in such mindes as they are in Angels and Souls separate from Bodies to wit as they are acts of the Will not alterations of the sensitive appetite How blessed is the state of such Souls when even the sensitive power of their Minde seemeth to operate as if their Spirits were totally abstracted or their Natures were Angelical and therefore may not improperly be said to measure this world with such a golden Reed as the Angel in the Revelation did the heavenly City that Saint John saith was the measure of a Man which is of an Angel for this squaring of their affections by the rule of pure Charity rendreth them in a great measure proportionate to the same Angelical operations And in this admirable maner doth the hand of their Maker square and model such choyce Souls to fit and adjust them for the filling up the vacant rooms of Angels according to the design of him who hath said They shall be like the Angels of God iâ— Heaven Having conjoyned this sensitive portion unto the the rational we have exhibited this Contemplative stare in that accomplished beatitude this life admitteth And surely the Soul of Man in this mortal state doth as naturally cover the adjunction of this delectable part in her affections unto the other illuminated portion of her intellect as a Soul though glorified doth the addition of her Body And as by this last accession the Soul doth not augment her beatitude by way of intersion or exaltation but onely in point of extension and amplitude so doth the addition of this delight of the affections rather inlarge and dilate the blessedness of this state of Contemplation then elevate or heighten the vertue of the Soul in that condition the felicity whereof I may will leave sealed with this Signet of the Holy Spirit This is the gift of God and the possessor thereof shall not much remember the days of his life because God answereth him in the joy of his heart After this edition of the high Prerogatives of the true Contemplative life lest any one should conceive the inferior Vocations any way discredited I will present all the several stations of this world with this Consolation and Instruction of Saint Paul As God hath distributed to every one as the Lord hath called every one so let him walk For although the ear have not an absolute dignity equal with the eye yet in the dignity of proportions there is an equality between them Wherefore I will offer this excellent Conclusion of Saint Austine to all the engaged conditions of this world The love of Truth desireth a holy vacancy the pressure of Charity imposeth just occupations which charge if it be not laid on by some charitable obligation the best is to attend unto the perception and contemplation of Truth but in case of our being entred into a lawful Engagement that is to be born for the necessity of Charity but yet not so as the delectation of Verity be totally deserted lest that Religious Sâ—avity being substracted we â—e the easilier oppressed by thâ— other secular necessity This Advice may serve for a convenient direction to all such as are drawing in the yoke of any secular Engagement or are loose in the state of a tree Election of entring into this sweet yoke of Christ drawing in the Chariot of Contemplation Being now arrived at the farthest point of the Horizon of this state of Grace we cannot pass forward without entring upon the other Haemisphere of the state of Glory which I hope God will enable me to exhibite unto you in the other part of this Map I first designed which I will leave now divided by this Aequator severing the two halfs of that Spiritual Globe whereof I had first intended to give you an intire Edition But finding in the other part many Spiritual Positions according to the old Doctrine of the Suns moving and the Earths being fixed which Maximes would not well agree with the new Mathematical Discovery of the Earths moving and cotation I have thought better to publish at first this uncontroverted part of my Work and reserve the other till a farther decision of this question And since the whole Work was designed as a Sacrifice of a Leper in order to his cleansing the purgation being yet very imperfect I may not unfitly say That this is one of the Sparrows which I humbly offer up upon the running waters of a penitent Soul and promise That the other shall be let flye into the world hereafter when God shall be pleased farther to advance the emundation for the accelerating whereof I humbly request all their Prayers who shall be so benign as to conceive they owe me any thing for this Part or shall make any account of my owing them the other And I may fitly end this Semicircle of my Pen with the best half of Saint Pauls valediction to the Romans Now I beseech you brethren for the Lord Jesus Christs sake and for the love of the Spirit that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me that the oblation of my service may become acceptable in Jerusalem to the Saints Now the God of peace be with you all Amen Sicut portavimus imaginem terreni portimus imaginem coelestis 1 Cor. 15. 49. Nam prudentia carnis mors est prudentia spiritus vita pax Rom. 8. 6. FINIS Imprimatur NA BRENT Junii 12. 1647. An Alphabetical TABLE OF The most remarkable Points of Instruction in these TREATISES A AFfections planted in our sensitive nature for good use page 37. section 4. Advantages of conformity to vertue in our sensitive part of the minde p. 38. sect 2. Ambition consistent with Devotion p. 42. s 4. Ambitions ordinary acceptation p. 43. Advantages to be made of love to enemies p. 284. s 3. Advices for the best method of reading p. 355. Advantages which true contemplators have above other sorts of pious lives p. 387. B BEauty may be honored without offence to Piety p. 39. sect 2. Beauty's prerogatives allowed p. 39. s 3. Beauty