him a Madman that should say the Sea were not greater then a trifling Brook and certainly it no less folly to suppose that the Goodness of GOD doth not as much nay infinitely more exceed that of all the Creatures The Sun is a lively Mirror of that Eternal Act of Love which is the Glory of his Essence but it is infinitely less prone to communicate its Beams and doth less Good to it self and infinitely less to all other Creatures It shines for their sakes nevertheless and clothes it self with Glory by the splendor of its Beams and is an Emblem of GOD who exerteth his Power with infinite Pleasure and by communicating his Essence in an infinite Manner propagates his Felicity and Glory to the utmost Height and Perfection By proceeding from himself to all Objects throughout all Worlds he begets and dwelleth in himself he inhabits Eternity in a Blessed and more vigorous Manner by establishing the Felicity of all his Creatures and become theirs infinite and Eternal Glory Wherein his particular Kindness and Love to us appeareth because he hath fitted us with Qualities and Powers adapted for so great an End and as particularly appropriated all to us as the Sun to the Eye of every Spectator For our Bodies and our Souls are made to enjoy the Benefit of all and his Desire is that we should attain the End for which we are created On his side all is prepared on ours nothing is wanting but Love to embrace and take pleasure in his Goodness which shineth in all these Things and created them on purpose that being manifested by them we might delight in it for ever HE that loveth not GOD with all his Heart liveth a Life most contrary to Nature For to Love is as natural for the Soul as to shine for the Sun and the more Lovely any thing is the more prone we are to Delight in it if any thing be infinitly Amiable weare prone to Love it in an infinite measure we prefer the Better above the worse cannot rest but in the best of all Reason is the Essence of the Soul and tends always to the utmost Perfection The more Divine and Glorious any Thing is the more high and Noble is the Love that we bear it No Beauty less then the most Perfect no Pleasure no Wisdome no Empire no Learning no Greatness Wealth or Honour less then the most sublime can be our full Satisfaction no little degree of Love nothing less then the most Supreme and violent can content us So that GOD being most truely perfect in all these is the Adequate Object of all our Desires and the only Person sit to be esteemed in an infinite manner It is as natural for Man to Love him as to desire and delight in any being which supplies the ordinary and daily necessities of his Life TO Love him as we ought implies two things that are agreable to the Nature of Love yet very rarely to be found among the Sons of Men a desire to please him and a Desire to enjoy him The Desire of Pleasing is a constant fruit and effect of Love For he that Loves is very desirous to approve himself and to do whatsoever he thinks will be grateful to his Beloved According to the Decree of Love the desire is more or less Where we Love Earnestly we are extreamly Earnest and Careful to please Where Love is remiss there is little need or Regard of any thing But infinite Love It is impossible to declare what favour and Zeal it will produce If we Love GOD we shall keep his Commandements with a Tenderness and Desire so extreme that no Joy will be so great as the Observation of his Laws It will be with us as it was with our Lord Jesus Christ it will be our Meat and Drink to do the Will of our Father which is in Heaven The measure of our Love will not infuse some slight and faint Endeavours of Pleasing but put us on the most painful and costly Duties make us willing to forsake our own Ease Goods Friends yea Life it self when we cannot keep them without offending our Creator THE desire of Enjoying is constantly seen in our Love to one another If any man hath a friend whom he intirely loveth he desires his Conversation Wishes to be always in his Company and thinketh the Time long till he and his friend be together And thus will it be in our Love to GOD if as great and Hearty as it ought to be In this Life our Enjoyment of GOD is more imperfect more compleat and perfect in the Life to come Here upon Earth we desire to converse with him in his Ordinances in Prayer Meditation hearing his Word in receiving the Sacrament which are intended all for this purpose to bring us into a neerer Intimacy and familiarity with GOD by speaking so to him hearing him speak and shew himself to us If we love him indeed we shall highly Value these Ways of Conversing with him it is all here upon Earth whereby we can enjoy him It will make us with David esteem one Day in his Courts better than a thousand We shall delight in all the Means of approaching to him as often as possible and use them diligently to the End of uniting us more and more unto him who is the Object of our Desire and the Life of our Souls And for as much as there is another Enjoyment of GOD which is more compleat and perfect we shall groan earnestly desired to be dissolved and be with Christ where we may see no more in a Glass but Face to Face and Know as we are Known For Love is strong as Death many Waters cannot quench Love neither can the floods drown it Affliction Persecution Sickness any thing that will bring us to Heaven will be acceptable and Delightful IF you would know more fully why GOD desires to be Beloved you may consider that Love is not onely the Motive and Incentive to Vertue the Cause of Obedience but the form and Essence of every Grace and the fufilling of the Law We shall chuse him for our GOD and have no other GODS but him no Delights no Sovereign Enjoyment but him alone We shall honour him with all our Souls and adore him with every Power of our Will and Understanding We shall not regard Images and shadows but worship him immediately in Spirit and in Truth We shall not take his Name in vain nor contentedly stand by when others abuse it But shall praise his Name and desire to see it glorified throughout the World For Love desires the Honour and delights in the Glory and Advancement of its Beloved We shall reverence his Sanctuary and keep his Sabbaths desiring Rest from other Avocations that we may contemplate his Glory in all his Works For his sake we shall observe the Laws of the second Table and Love our Neighbour as our self For to Love him is no Impediment but a Strong Engagement and incentive to the Love
all things mightst see him This is the Good of GOD his Vertue is this to appear and be seen in all Things This is the bottom of all other Greatnesses whatsoever GOD is infinitely communicative infinitely prone to reveal himself infinitely Wise and able to do it He hath made the Soul on purpose that it might see him And if the Eye that was made for the World being so little a ball of Earth and Water can take in all and see all that is visible if the sight of the Eye be present with all it beholdeth much more is the Soul both able to see and to be present with all that is Divine and Eternal I know very well that a Man divided from GOD is a weak inconsiderable Creature as the Eye is if divided from the Body and without the Soul but united to GOD a Man is a transcendent and Celestial thing GOD is his Life his Greatness his Power his Blessedness and Perfection And as the Apostle saith He that is joyned to the Lord is one SPIRIT His Omnipresence and Eternity fill the Soul and make it able to contain all Heights and Depths and Lengths and Breadths whatsoever And it is the desire of the Soul to be filled with all the fulness of GOD. Magnanimous desires are the natural results of a Magnanimous Capacity The desire of being like Gods knowing Good and Evil was the destruction of the World Not as if it were unlawful to desire to be Like GOD but to aspire to the Perfection in a forbidden way was unlawful By Disobedience and by following our own Inventions by seeking to the Creature to the stock of a Tree to make us Like GOD that is erroneous and poor and despicable but to know our selves and in the strait and divine Way to come immediately to GOD to contemplate him in his Eternity and Glory is a right and safe Way for the Soul will by that means be the Sphere of is Omnipresence and the Temple of the God-head It will become ETERNITY as Trismegistus speaketh or ONE SPIRIT with God as the Apostle And then it must needs be present with all things in Heaven and in the Earth and in the Sea as GOD is for all things will be in it as it were by Thoughts and Intellections A Magnanimous Soul then if we respect its Capacity is an immovable sphere of Power and Knowledge far greater than all Worlds by its Vertue and Power passing through all things through the Centre of the Earth and through all Existencies And shall such a Creature as this be contented with Vanities and Trlfles Straws and Feathers painted Butterflies Hobby-horses and Rattles These are the Treasures of little Children but you will say a Man delighteth in Purses of Gold and Cabinets of Jewels in Houses and Palaces in Crowns and Scepters Add Kingly Delights and say he delighteth in Armies and Victories and Triumphs and Coronations These are great in respect of Play-things But all these are feeble and pusillanimous to a great Soul As Scipio was going up to Heaven the Earth it self seemed but a Nutshel and he was ashamed of all his Victories and Triumhs amazed at his madness in Quarrelling and fighting about Territories and Kingdoms contracted to a Star and lost into nothing the whole Earth is but one invisible Point when a man foareth to the height of Immensity and beholdeth and compasseth its everlasting Circumference which is infinite every way beyond the Heavens It is the true and proper Immensity of the Soul Which can no more be contented with the narrow confinement of this World no more rest in the Childishness of all the noise of the Interests of Men be no more satisfied with its Earthly Glories than the SUN can be shut up in a Dark-Lanthorn It is true indeed it would desire to see as the Angels do the least and lowest of all the Creatures full of the Glory and Blessedness of GOD all Wisdom and Goodness in every thing and is apt to complain for want of some eternal and Celestial Light wherein to behold them but if all the expansions of Time and Eternity should be void and all the extents and out-goings of Infinity empty round about them though things upon Earth nay and things in the Heavens should be never so Rich and divine and beautiful yet such is the Magnanimity of a Great Soul that it would hugely be displeased its loss and its distaste would be alike Infinite Infinite Honours infinite Treasures infinite Enjoyments things endless in number value and excellency are the Objects of its Care and Desire the greatness of its Spirit leads it to consider and enquire whether all the spaces above the Heavens and all the parts of GOD's everlasting Kingdom be full of Joyes whether there be any end or bound of his Kingdom whether ther there be any defect or miscarriage any blemish or disorder in it any vile and common thing any remissness or neglect any cause of complaint or deformity As also whether all the Ages of the World are Divine and Sacred whether after they are gone they abide in their places whether there be anything in them to entertain the Powers of the Soul with delight and feed them with satisfaction What end what use what excellency there is in Men Whether all the waies of GOD are full of beauty and perfection all Wisdom Justice Holiness Goodness Love and Power What Regions eternal Blessedness is seated in What Glory what Reason what Agreeableness and Harmony is in all his Counsels Whether those durations of Eternity before the World is made are full or empty full of bright and amiable Objects or dark and obscure Whether the government of the World be perfect whether the Soul be Divine in it self whether it be conducive to its own felicity or to the happiness of all those in whom it is concerned Whether the World shall end If it shall after what manner whether by Design or Accident Whether All Ages and Nations shall rise from the Dead Whether there shall be a general Doom or a day of Judgment Whether I am concerned in all the transactions and passages at that day Whether all Mankind shall be united into one to make up one compleat and perfect Body whereof they all are the fellow-Members What shall be after the End of the VVorld Whether we shall live for ever Whether we shall see GOD and know one another Whether we shall reign in eternal Glory Whether in the Confusions of Hell there be any Beauty and whether in the Torments of the damned we shall find any joy or satisfaction Whether all the Riches Customs and Pleasures of this World shall be seen Whether in the World to come any fruit shall appear and arise from them for which they shall be esteemed to have been not in vain but profitable in relation to all Eternity What kind of Life we shall lead and what kind of Communion and fellowship Angels and Men shall have with each other
naked another when attired and capable of being modified with several Habits so are the Powers and Faculties of the Soul As they are in the Nature of Man without Exercise they are void and Naked But by many acts of Vice or Vertue they put on a Habit which seems chiefly to consist in an Inclination and Tendency to such Actions a Facility of Working an Aquaintance with them a Love to them and a Delight in them For by long Custome it turns to a second Nature and becomes at last as Necessary as Life it self a confirmed Habit being taken in and incorporated with the Powers of the Soul by frequent exercise 2. IN the second Definition we add that Vertue is a right and well ordered Habit. A Habit is something added to that which wears it and every Power of the Soul is naked without the Quality wherewith long Custom cloaths it Much of the Formal Reason of Vertue is shut up in those Words Right and well ordered For confused irregular and careless Habits will be alwayes erroneous and Deformed and must consequently end in Dishonor and Miseries He must aim at the Mark that hits it for only those actions that are well guided produce right and well order'd Habits which right and well orderd Habits alone can carry us to our Sovereign end A Mind in Frame is a Soul clothed with Right Apprehensions Thoughts and affections well ordered Principles and Contrivances well proposed Means and Ends rationaly consulted all considered and the Best chosen Long Custom in uring us to the Benefit and Excellence of these disposes the Soul into a right and well ordered Habit or Frame of spirit which regards that Glorious End for which we were created BY force of which we attain our Happiness Idleness and vertue are as Destructive to each other as fire and water In all vertue there is some force and in all Force much action A vertuous Habit ceaseth to be virtuous unless it actually incline us to virtuous Operations As the Powers of the Soul when they are well exerted turn into Vertues so is it by that Exertion that we attain our Happiness Vertue is that right and well ordered Habit by force of which we attain our Happiness IT S force is never expressed but in exercise and operation Yet even when we are asleep it may tacitely incline us and make us ready when we awake to be Vertuous Perhaps the Habit Sleeps and awakes with the Body But if the Habit and its Energie be the same thing it still sleepeth when its energie ceaseth if they be Divers the Habit may continue for some time without the force of its Operation BUT not to Divert into Blind and Obscure Corners Whether the Soul of a man a sleep may be stiled Vertuous â—r no Whether the Habits continue in him at that time without their Acts is nothing to our purpose It is Sufficient that when he is awake he that hath a Vertuous Habit is in all his Actions inclined and Carried to his own Felicity unless he falls into an oblivion worse than Sleep because without some such Damnable and vicious Lethargy he is always mindful of his Last End and tends towards it in a Direct Line ALL his Actions derive a Tincture from the first Principle that Habit of Soul by which he is carried toward his own Felicity All those Actions that Spring from that Habit tend to Bliss and by force of that Habit are made Vertuous and with facility performed ALL the Difficulty is in the Begnining Vertues in the beginning are like green fruits four and imperfect but their Maturity is accompanied with sweetness and delight It is hard to acquire a vertuous Habit at first but when it is once gotten it makes all Virtue exceeding Easie nor Easie alone but Happy and delightful For a virtuous Habit as certainly acts according to its own nature as the Sun shines which is light by Constitution It acts freely yet when it does Act it must needs act Vertuous and can do nothing else For it is no vertuous Habit but some other Principle that exerteth vicious and bad Operations HAPPINESSE is with so much Necessity the end of Vertue that we cannot take a Due Estimate of the Excellence of Vertue without considering the tendency which it has to Felicity For as the Means are extravagant and indeed no means that have no Relation nor Proportion to their End so would all the Vertues be inept and Worthless no Vertues if they did not in some Sort conduce to our Happiness For Happiness is the adequate End which by nature we seek Wether it be Glory or pleasure or He nor that we design or wealth or Learning all that is Delightful and Grateful to our reason is comprehended in our Happiness If we desire to glorifie GOD or to please the Angels or be grateful to men it is because we love our selves and delight in our own Happiness and conceit all those action whereby we so do either a Means or a part of it So that in the Partition and Distribution of Vertues we must take another Course to display their Glory by exhibiting them in such a prospect as that is wherein their Place and office will appear in their Tendency towards mans last End his Blessedness and Glory CHAP. IV. Of the Powers and Affections of the Soul What virtues pertain to the Estate of Innocency what to the Estate of Grace what to the estate of Glory TWO things in Felicity are apparent to the Eye Glory and Treasure and the Faculties of the soul do in a several manner affect both The Understanding was made to see the value of our Treasure and the freedome of Will to atcheive Glory to our actions Anger to stir us up against all Difficulty and opposition that might stand in our way Appetite to pursue the Pleasure in either Fear to heighten our concernment that we might more dread the danger of losing that Happiness wherein no less then Glory and Treasure are infinitely united Reason it self to compare Felicities and weigh which is the most perfect Desire to covet it Hope to encourage us in the pursuit of it Aversion for the avoiding of all Temptations and Impediments Love to the goodness of it Joy for its fruition Hatred to keep us from the Misery which is contrary thereunto Boldness to attempt it Sorrow and Despair to punish and torment us if we fail to attain it For these two being unpleasant affections serve to engage us in the pursuit of Happiness because we are loath to experience the Sence of such Troublesome passions AMBITION and Covetousness are Inclinations of the Soul by the one of which we are carried to Glory by the other to Treasure And as all the rest so may these be made either Vertues or Vices Vertues when they are Means conducive to the Highest end Vices when they distract and entangle us with inferior Objects THE Inclinations and affections of the Soul may be Defective or excessive in
Despair has comfort and refreshment answerable to it in infinite Hope 'T is the present food and Support of our Lives 't is the Anchor of our Souls in the midst of all the Storms and Tempests in the World 't is the foretaste of Bliss and Coelestial Glory a Glympse and Appearence of the Beatifick Vision without which to Live is to Dye and to Dye is to perish for evermore THE Great Reason for which a right Hope is accounted so Great a Vertue is because its Objects do really surpass all Imagination The fulness of the GODHEAD in the Soul of Man the Perfection of the Divine Image a Transformation for Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord Communion with the Father Son and Holy Ghost infinite Love and Bounty the Estate of a Bride in Communion with GOD the Possession of his Throne with another Kind of sweetness then the Bridegroom himself enjoys the Resurrection of the Body and Life Eternal in a Kingdome where all Occasions of Tears and Fears shall ever be removed Where all Regions and Ages and Spaces and Times and Eterternities shall be before our Eys and all Objects in all Worlds at once Visible and infinitely Rich and Beautiful and Ours Our very Appetites also being ravished with Sensible Pleasures in all our Members not inconsistent with but springing from these high and Supeperior Delights not distracting or confounding our Spiritual Joys but purely Superadded and increasing the same while our Bodies are made like to his most Glorious Body by that Almighty Power whereby he is able to subdue All Things to himself all these infuse their Value and the Hope that is exercised about these Things is a Vertue so great that all inferior Hopes which this doth Sanctifie are made Vertues by it but without this all other Hopes are Debasements and Abuses of the Soul meer Distractions and delusions and therefore Vices I Know very well that Presumption and Despair are generally accounted the Extreams of Hope and the only vices that are Opposite thereunto But I Know as well that there may be many Kinds and Degrees of Hope of which so me may be vicious and some Vertuous and that some sorts of Hope themselves are Vices When ever we make an inferior Desire the Sovereign Object of our Hope our Hope is abominable Idolatrous and Atheistical We forget GOD and magnifie an inferior Object above all that is Divine To Sacrifice all our Hopes to Things unworthy of them or to be Remiss and sluggish in Hoping for Things of infinite Importance is apparently Vicious But to be just to all our Encouragements and to lift up our Eys to the Eternal GOD with an humble Expectation to wait upon him and to hope for all that from his Bounty which his Goodness has promised to desire the most high and perfect Proofs of his Love is the Property of a most Great and Noble Soul by which it is carried above all the World and fitted for the Life of the most high and perfect Vertue CHAP. XVII Of Repentance It s Original its Nature it is a Purgative Vertue It s necessity its Excellencies The measure of that sorrow which is due to Sin is intollerable to Sense confessed by Reason and dispensed with by mercy REPENTANCE is a Sowre and austere Kind of Vertue that was not created nor intended by GOD but introduced by Sin made fair by Mercy in remitting the offence and pardoning the Sin It is a Strange Kind of off-spring which flows from Parents so infinitely different and has a mixture in its Nature answerable to either an Evil which it derives from Sin and a Goodness which flows from Mercy It s Evil is that of Sorrow Indignation and Shame Its Goodness is the usefulness and necessity of the thing considering the Condition we are now in It is highly ingrateful to Sence but transcendently convenient and amiable to Reason for it is impossible for him that has once been defiled with sin ever to be cleansed or to live after in a Vertuous manner unless he be so ingenious as to lament his Crime as to loath acknowledge and detest his Error THE Union of the Soul and Body is mysterious but that Sin and Mercy should be united as Causes so infinitely different for the production of a Child so Black and so Beautiful is the Greattest Wonder which the Soul can contemplate on this side Heaven and will continue to be remembred for ever and appear more Wonderful than before when the perfect Disparity and Opposition between them is clearly seen in the Light of Glory THE Efficient Cause of Repentance is either Remote or Immediate It s immediate Efficient Cause is the Gracious Inclination or the Will of the Penitent its remote Efficient is GOD the Father of Lights from which every Good and Perfect Gift descended It s Material Cause is Sorrow It s Formal Cause which makes it a Vertue is the Reason and Manner of that Sorrow the Equity and Piety wherewith it is attended containing many ingredients in its Nature too long a particular to be described here It s Final Cause is either immediate or ultimate the first is Amendment the last Salvation BEING thus bounded by its Causes its Definition is Easie Repentance is a Grace or Christian Vertue wherein a man confesses hates and forsakes his Sin with Grief that he hath been Guilty of it and purposes of Amendment of Life in Order to His Peace and Reconciliation with GOD that he may answer the Obligations that lye upon him discharge his Duty lay hold on the Advantages of GODS Mercy escape everlasting Damnation and be made a Partaker of Eternal Glory AMONG the Vertues some are Purgative and some are Perfective The Purgative Vertues are all Preparatory to Bliss and are occasioned only by the Disorder of the Soul the perfective are Essential to our formal Happiness and Eternally necessary by the Law of Nature Repentance is not in its own Nature If Simply and absolutely considered necessary to Bliss But in Relation to Sinners it is as necessary as Physick to the Recovery of Health or as the Change it self is by which we pass from the Distemper we are Sick of to the right and Sound Estate which we had lost by the Disease As the malady is accidental so is the Cure For the Nature of Man may be well and perfect without either this or the other He that is originally pure has no need of a Purgative Vertue but he that is faln defiled musts needs rise and wash away the filth before he can be clean FOR this Cause even among the Heathens themselves the more Knowing and Learned have a Conscience of Sin their Priests and Philosophers devised several Rites and Manners of Purgation which they taught and imposed on their Disciples with much Circumstance and Ceremony in order to their Reception Nor was there any Temple or Religion in the World that pretended not something to Diviner Mysteries Which were graced beautified
that though the disproportion between them and their Assurance or Hope or Desire seem infinite and the end which they aim at by their Magnanimity is judged impossible though their attempt appear a ridiculous madness to them to whom the Verities of Religion appear incredible yet they are no whit discouraged or disheartened at the matter but stoutly march on being animated by the alarum of such a Trumpet such a Drum as Magnanimity is His Faith is more Divine by conquering the discouragements of the World than if he met with no censure or opposition IF you would have the Character of a Magnanimous Soul he is the Son of eternal Power and the Friend of infinite Goodness a Temple of divine and heavenly Wisdom that is not imposed upon by the foul and ragged disguises of Nature but acquainted with her great Capacities and Principles more than commonly sensible of her interests and depths and desires He is one that has gone in unto Felicity and enjoyed her beauties and comes out again her perfect Lover and Champion a Man whose inward stature is miraculous and his Complexion so divine that he is King of as many Kingdoms as he will look on One that scorns the smutty way of enjoying things like a Slave because he delights in the Celestial way and the Image of GOD. He knows that all the World lies in Wickedness and admires not at all that things palpable and near and natural are unseen though most powerful and glorious because men are blind and stupid He pities poor vicious Kings that are oppressed with heavy Crowns of Vanity and Gold and admires how they can content themselves with such narrow Territories yet delights in their Regiment of the World and paies them the Honour that is due unto them The glorious Exaltation of good Kings he more abundantly extols because so many thousand Magnanimous Creatures are committed to their Trust and they that govern them understand their Value But he sees well enough that the Kings glory and true repose consists in the Catholick and eternal Kingdom As for himself he is come unto Mount Sion and to the City of the living GOD the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable Company of Angels to the General Assembly and Church of the First-born which are written in Heaven and to GOD the Judge of all and to the Spirits of Just men made perfect and to JESUS the Mediatour of the New Covenant And therefore receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved he desires to serve GOD acceptably with reverence and godly fear And the truth is he can fear nothing else for GOD alone is a consuming fire He very well understands what the Apostle saith and dares believe him I cease not to give thanks for you making mention of you in my Prayers that the GOD of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Glory may give unto you the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of him the eyes of your Understanding being enlightened that ye may know what is the HOPE of his Calling and what the RICHES of the GLORY of his INHERITANCE in the Saints And what is the EXCEEDING GREATNESS of his POWER to us-ward who believe according to the WORKING of his Mighty Power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own RIGHT HAND in the HEAVENLY places far above all Principality and Power and Might and Dominion and every Name that is named not only in this WORLD but in that also which is to come And hath put ALL THINGS under his feet and he gave him to be HEAD over all Things to the CHURCH which is his BODY THE FULNESS OF HIM THAT FILLETH ALL IN ALL. Now to him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the Power that WORKETH in us Unto him be Glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all AGES World without end Amen A great and a clear Soul knoweth that all these intimations must needs be true for it is an amazing Miracle that they should be otherwise Infinite Love and Eternal Blessedness are near allyed and that these should cease is contrary to all Nature in GOD in the Soul of Man in Heaven in Earth in the order of the Universe and contrary to all that VISIBLE GLORY which in the World appeareth CHAP. XXIX Of Modesty It s Nature It s Original Its Effects and Consequences MODESTY is a comely Grace in the Behaviour of a Man by which he piously dissembleth his own Perfections and blusheth at his Praises It springeth from a certain fear and sence of his Imperfection 'T is the shadow of Guilt and a beautiful cover of Original Corruption It is sometimes Natural and which is contrary to all other Vertues more truly vertuous for being so For then it is Simple Genuine and Real but studied Modesty is affected and artificial yet where Nature has not been so obliging as to give the endowment 't is not altogether to be condemned since it is agreeable to the best of our conditions in this World and supplies a defect in his Nature that is born without it IT is akin to Shame yet increases the honour of him that wears it it is the shade of Vertue yet makes it brighter It is a tincture of Humility visible in a vermilion and deeper die and the more natural and easie the more sweet and delightful IT charms the Envy of those that admire us and by seeming to extinguish our worth gives it a double beauty It reconciles a man to the Enemies of his Grace and Vertue and by a softness irresistible wins a Compassion in all Spectators It is a Vertue which by refusing the honour that is due unto it acquireth more a real Counterfeit and the only honest and true dissimulation It is an effeminate yet a laudable quality a spice of Cowardice more prevalent than Courage a Vertue by which we despise all meaner Honours while we are ambitiously carried to the highest Glory It seemeth inconsistent with Magnanimity yet is her youngest Sister IT hath not many Objects nor are its Aims apparent nor its Ends conspicuous It is the Mother of fine and delicate Resentments its strength consisteth in tenderness and fear He that is Magnanimous in one respect may be modest in another Praises and Commendations are the fuel of its Nature it feedeth upon them while it grows by rejecting them It delights in what it feareth and is full of discords but more full of harmonies It is pleased in its displeasure and alwaies fighteth with its own Repugnancies It is a Vertue mixt of Sence and Reason its region is in the Body more than in the Soul and in all its Spiritual motions it is attended with Corporeal impressions The Blood and Spirits dance in the Veins as if Nature were delighted with its own Confusions By captivating the favour of Men upon Earth it affecteth the very Angels in Heaven with much of pleasure It
they are freely given are not to be despised THAT which I desire to teach a man is How to make a Good use of all the Advantages of his Birth and Breeding How in the Increase of Riches and Honors to be Happy in their Enjoyment How to secure himself in the temptations of Affluence and to make a man glorious in himself and delightful to others in Abundance Or else if Affliction should arise and the State of Affairs change how to triumph over adverse Fortune and to be Happy notwithstanding his Calamities How to govern himself in all Estates so as to turn them to his own advantage FOR tho felicitie be not absolutely perfect in this World nor so compleat in Poverty as in a great and plentiful Estate you are not to believe that wealth is absolutely necessary because sometimes it is requisite to forfeit all for the sake of Felicity Nothing is absolutely necessary to Bliss but Grace and vertue tho to perfect Bliss Ease and Honour be absolutely necessary THERE are many degrees of Blessedness beneath the most Supream that are transcendently Sweet and delightful And it sometimes happens that what is most bitter to Sence is pleasant to Reason RATHER then make Shipwrack of a good Conscience we must do as Mariners in a storm cast our riches over board for our own Preservation It is better losing them then our selves VERTUE is Desirable and Glorious because it teacheth us through many Difficulties in this Tempestuous World to Sail Smoothly and attain the Haven CHAP. II. Of the Nature of Felicity its Excellence and Perfection THE Peripateticks so far forth as they contemplated the Nature and Estate of man in this World were Wise in defining the Goods of the Body Soul and Fortune to concur to Mans perfect Happiness For Difficulties and Conflicts are not Essential to the Nature of Bliss nor confistent with the fruition of its fulness and Perfection THERE is the Way and the journeyes end IN the Way to Felicity many things are to be endured that are not to be desired And therefore is it necessary to make a Distinction between the way to Felicity and the Rest which we attain in the end of our Journey THE Goods of the Soul are absolutely necessary in the Way to Happiness the Goods of the Body are very convenient and those of Fortune Commodious enough But the latter of these are not with too much eagerness to be pursued THE Goods of the soul are wisdom Knowledg Courage all the Virtues all the Passions Affections Powers and faculties And these you know are absolutely necessary THE Goods of the Body are Health Agility Beauty Vivacity Strength and Libertie and these shall in Heaven it self together with those of the Soul he enjoyed By which you may discern that the Goods of the Body are real Parts and Ingredients of Happiness THE Goods of Fortune are food and Rayment Houses and Lands Riches Honours Relations and Friends with all those convenient Circumstances without the Body that are subject to chance By which vertue is assisted and of which a noble use may be made in Works of Justice Hospitality Courtesie and Charity which may redound to our greater Felicity here and in heaven THE more Honor and pleasure we enjoy the Greater and more Perfect is our present Happiness Tho many times in the Way to Felicity we are forced to quit all these for the Preservation of our Innocence GALLANT Behavior in flighting all Transitory things for the Preservation of our Virtue is more conducive to our future Perfection then the greatest ease imaginable in our present condition IT is incumbent upon us as a special part of our Care to take heed that we be not ensnared by the easiness of Prosperity and that we do not set up our Rest in the Way to Happiness nor deceive our selves in thinking the Goods of Fortune Essential nor discourage our selves by thinking it impossiable to be Happy without them Our Thoughts and Affections must be always disentangled that we may run with Alacritie the Race set before us and close with the Sublimest Perfection of Bliss as our only portion and Desire FELICITY is rightly defined to be the Perfect fruition of a Perfect Soul acting in perfect Life by Perfect Virtue For the Attainment of which Perfection we must in the Way to Felicity endure all Afflictions that can befall us For tho they are not Parts of Felicity themselves yet we may acknowledge them great Advantages for the Exercise of Virtue and reckon our Calamities among our Joys when we bear and overcome them in a virtuous Manner because they add to our Honor and contribute much to our Perfection both here and hereafter FOR this purpose we are to remember that our present Estate is not that of Reward but Labour It is an Estate of Trial not of Fruition A Condition wherein we are to Toyl and Sweat and travail hard for the promised Wages an Appointed Seed Time for a future Harvest a real Warfare in order to a Glorious Victory In which we must expect some Blows and delight in the Hazzards and Encounters we meet with because they will be crowned with a Glorious and joyful Triumph and attended with ornaments and trophies fa r surpassing the bare Tranquillity of idle peace WHEN we can cheerfully look on an Army of Misfortunes without Amazement we may then freely and Delightfully contemplate the Nature of the Highest Felicity ARISTOTLE never heard of our Ascension into Heaven nor of sitting down in the Throne of GOD yet by a lucky Hit if I may so say fell in point blanck upon the Nature of Blessedness For a perfect fruition by perfect virtue is all that can be thought of It implies our Objective and our formal Happiness OBJECTIVE Happiness is all the Goodness that is fit to be enjoyed either in GOD or in his Creatures while Formal Happiness is an active Enjoyment of all Objects by Contemplation and Love attended with full Complacency in all their Perfections PERFECT Fruition implies the Perfection of all its Objects Among which GOD himself is one Angels and Saints are next the World also with all the variety of Creatures in it the Laws of GOD and his wayes in all Ages his Eternal Counsels and Divine Attributes are other Objects of our Content and Pleasure Unless all these be perfect in their Nature Variety Number Extent Relation Use and Value our fruition cannot be simply perfect because a Greater and more perfect fruition might upon the production of better Objects be contrived and no fruition can be truly perfect that is not conversant about the highest things The more Beautiful the Object is the more pleasant is the enjoyment But where Delight may be increased the Fruition is imperfect A Perfect Soul is a Transcendent Mystery As GOD could not be Perfect were it possible there could be any Better Essence then he so neither would the Soul be perfect could any more Perfect Soul be created IT is a Soul
their exercise towards Objects In relation to the Highest Object there is no danger of excess We can never too violently either love or desire our Supream Happiness our Hope can never exceed its greatness we can never too much rejoyce in the fruition of it Nor can we exceed in Anger or Hatred against those Things that would bereave us of it or too much fear the Misery of that Life which will be ever without it or be affected with too much Sorrow and Despair at the Losse of it But if we look upon inferior Things which are meerly Accidental to the nature of Feâ—icity such as the Favour of men Injuries Crosses Temporal successes the Beauty of the Body the goods of Fortune and such like our affections and passions may be too excessive because â—he good or evil of these is but finite whereas the Good of Sovereign Bliss is altogether infinite and so is the evil of Eternal Misery WHEN our own Actions are Reguâ—ar there is nothing in the World but may be made conducive to our highest Happiness Nor is there any value in any Object or Creature in the World but â—s it is Subservient to our Bliss No member of the Body no sence or endowment of any Member no Inclination or Faculty of the Soul no passion or affection no Vertue no Grace no Spiritual Gift no Assistance no Means of Grace nothing how great or Precious soever can be of any Value but in order to Felicity In real truth nothing without this can be Great or Estimable Every Vertue therefore must have this in common with all the Laws and Ordinances and Works of GOD they must all directly or Obliquely tend to our supreme Happiness upon this dependeth all their Excellency SOME Vertues are necessary in the Estate of Innocency some in the Estate of Grace some in the Estate of Glory WITHOUT seeing it is impossible to enjoy our Happiness or find out the Way unto it therefore is Knowledge necessary in all estates without Loving it is impossible to Delight in its Goodness The Office of Righteousness is to render to every Thing a Due esteem And without this it is apparent that no Treasure can be to us tho in it self never so great of any value Holiness is the conscience that we make of discharging our duty and the Zeal wherewith we avoid the Prophaness of its Contrary Goodness is necessary because we our selves cannot without that be Amiable nor unless we be Delightful to others enjoy our selves or acquire Glory The office of Wisdom is to chuse and pursue the Highest end by the Best of all means that can be chosen THESE are Transcendent Vertues whereby even GOD himself doth enjoy his Felicity They are incumbent on us by the Law of nature and so essentially united to our Formal Happiness that no Blessedness or Glory can be enjoyed without them Therefore are we to look upon them as the Life and Soul of Religion as Eternal Duties in all Estates for ever to be exercised They are all Exercised in the very fruition it selfe as will more apparently be seen when we come to every one of these Vertues in particular They were enjoyned in the Estate of Innocency without any need of a positive Law by the very nature of GOD and the Soul and of things themselves and must be exercised in the state of Grace and will abide for ever in the State of Glory THAT Vertues might be ours in being wrought by our selves and be Vertues indeed in being wrought with Difficulty that we might be so much the more Laudable and Glorious in our eternal Condition GOD gave us Liberty in the beginning that we might chuse what we would and placed us in such an Estate that having in us only the Seeds and Principles of all Vertue we might exercise our natural Powers of our own Accord for the Attainment of that actual Knowledge Wisdom and Righteousness wherein the Perfection of our soul consisteth and by which the Perfection of our Bliss is to be enjoyed That being Naked by Nature tho Pure and clean we might cloath our selves with our own Habits attain the Glory of those Ornaments in our own Acts for which we were created And work our own Righteousness in such a Way as GOD had appointed FOR the Glory which we were to attain is that Goodness which we are to shew in our own voluntary Care and obedience and that Goodness is chiefly expressed in the kind and Genuine Exercise of our own Liberty while we are tender of Displeasing him to whom we are Obliged and so Good as to gratifie his Desires tho we had no restraint upon us TO make our selves amiable and beautiful by the Exercise of our own Power produces another kind of Beauty and Glory than if we were compelled to be good by all his preventing Power All Goodness is spoiled by Compulsion Our own Actions springing from an interiour Fountain deep within the Soul when voluntarily and freely exerted are more acceptable and the Will whence they spring is more excellent and perfect This I would have you to note well for the intrinsick Goodness and Glory of the Soul consists in the Perfection of an excellent Will and without this it might be a piece of Dirt surrounded with Gold but no imputed or annexed value could make it a Jewel THE Actions of GOD or of the Angels or of other men towards it add no value to the Soul if it will do nothing of it self If it be Idle or unactive the more excellent the Actions of GOD and of all other Creatures are towards it so much the more deformed and perverse is the Soul nor will all the Glory of its Powers and Inclinations excuse it but the more Great and Divine they are the more abominable will it make it self by abusing them in frustrating their Inclinations FOR the removing of all Constraint and the infusing of greater Excellency and Beauty into these holy Actions which he required from them it pleased GOD to make Men obnoxious to Temptations that having obstacles to overcome and disadvantages to strugle with Mans Righteousness might be more full of Vertue and himself made capable of Victory and Triumph For this End he seated him in a low Estate even in an Estate of Trial wherein was the Occasion of Exercising Faith and Hope because his Felicity was distant from him Faith in believing the Promises of God and Hope in waiting for the Accomplishment of his Bliss He had Occasions for Fear also in in relation to Gods Power and Justice who was able to remove his Happiness upon the least offence and to bring upon him that Misery that was denounced for his Transgression In this Estate of Trial Prudence which is conversant in nice Affairs was to watch and consider and direct his Behaviour in the midst of those Dangers and Temptations that might possibly be expected His Temperance was to be exercised in the Government of his Appetite so that all inferiour
when we see all these Virtues in their several Places and Offices their Objects and their Uses the Ends for which and the occasions on which they were introduced all are Delightful to the Reason of mans Soul and highly Eligible while GOD is adored and admired for the depth of his Wisdom and Goodness and beloved for the Equity and Excellency of his Proceedings For all these Occasional Vertues are but Temporary when our Life and this present World are past and gone as a Dream Love and Joy and Gratitude will be all that will continue for ever in which Estate Wisdom and Knowledge Goodness and Righteousness and True Holiness shall abide as the Life and Glory into which the Souls of all that are Blessed will be transformed Repentance shall be gone and Patience cease Faith and Hope be swallowed up in fruition Right Reason be extended to all Objects in all Worlds and Eternity in all its Beauties and Treasures seen desired esteemed enjoyed Let it be your Care to dive to the Bottom of true Religion and not suffer your Eyes to be Dazled with its Superficial Appearance Rest not in the Helps and Remedies that it bringeth but search for the Hidden Manna the substantial Food underneath the Satisfaction of all Wishes and Desires the true and Coelestial Pleasures the Causes of Love and Praise and Thanksgiving founded in the Manifestations of Gods Eternal favour especially in the Ends for the sake of which all Helps and Remedies are prepared For it is exceeding true that his Laws are Sweeter then the Hony and the Hony Comb and far more precious then thousands of Gold and Silver CHAP. V. Of the Necessity Excellency and Use of Knowledge its Depths and Extents its Objects and its End KNOWLEDGE and Love are so necessary to Felicity that there can be no Enjoyment or Delight without them Heaven and Earth would be Dark and obscure Angels and Men vain and unprofitable all the Creatures base and unserviceable Felicity impossible were there no Knowledge Nay GOD himself without Knowledge and Love could not well exist for his very Essence is seated in infinite Knowledge GOD is Light and in him is no Darkness at all He is Love by nature and there is no hatred in his Essence His very Godhead is all Perfection by the infinite Knowledge and Love in his Nature THE Original of our Knowledge is his Godhead His Essence and his will are the Fountain of it and the stream so excellent that in all Estates it is for ever to be continued as the Light and Glory of the whole Creation THE understanding Power which is seated in Soul is the Matter of that Act wherein the Essence of Knowledge consisteth Its form is the Act it self whereby that Power of knowing apprehendeth its Object IT S nature is invisible like that of all other Spirits so simple and uncompounded that its form and matter are the same For all Powers when transformed into Act are Acts themselves And the faculty of understanding in a Compleat and Perfect Act of Knowledge attains its Perfection and is Power exerted or an Act in its Exercise For every Act is Power exerted THE Power of Knowing is vain if not reduced into Act and the Soul a melancholly and Dreadful Cave or Dungeon of Darkness if void of Knowledge Had GOD himself a Power of Knowing Distinct from its Operation if he never exercised that Power it would be useless to him His Glory and Blessedness are seated in the Light of that Knowledge whichto us upon Earth appeaeth Inaccessible IF we would be perfect as our Father which is in Heaven is perfect our Power of knowing must be transformed into Act and all Objects appear in the interior Light of our own understanding For tho all Eternity were full of Treasures and the Whole World and all the Creatures in it transformed into Joys and our Interest to all never so perfect yet if we are Ignorant of them we shall continue as poor and Empty as if there were nothing but Vacuity and Space For not to be and not to appear are the same thing to the understanding WERE a Man a Seraphim by his Essence or something by nature more Glorious and Divine then the Highest Order of the most Blessed Angels nay the greatest Creature that Almighty power was able to produce his Soul and Body would signifie nothing if he were unknown to himself and were not aware of his Excellence IF you would have a solid Prospect of any Vertue you must understand that Vertues are Powers transformed into right wise and regular Acts avoiding all extremes of remissness on the one hand and excess on the other The Extreams of Knowledge are Ignorance and Error FOR ought you know Heaven and Earth are as full of Treasures as Almighty Power was able to create them and you by Nature the best and highest of all possible Creatures made like GOD for the highest and best of all possible Ends and called to live in Communion with him in all his fruitions but being vilely corruptted you have lost the sence of all these Realities and are ignorant of the Excellences of your own Estate and Nature I am sure that GOD is infinite in Wisedom Goodness and Power and nothing is wanting on his Part to perfect your Desires But yet you may be blind and idle and ignorant and dead in a manner while you are wanting to your self and have need of nothing but clear and perfect apprehensions but because they are Sottish and Erroneous at present they may make you miserable and Poor and Blind and Naked IF Sin had been like Circe's Cup and changed the shape of Mans Body to that of a Swine or Dragon the Depravation of his Nature had been plain and visible yet without knowing what kind of Form he had before it would not appear because we should be unsensible of his first Form and unable to compare the one with the other But Sin is a Moral Obliquity and the change it produceth in the Soul is Spiritual It makes a man to differ far more from himself than any alteration of Body can do but withal so blinds his Understanding that he does not remember what he was in his first Parent Tho the first Man who had experience of both Estates was able to compare them because in his Corruption he might possibly retain a Sence of that Nature and Life which he enjoyed in his integrity Yet all his Posterity that are born Sinners never were sensible of the Light and Glory of an Innocent Estate and for that cause may be wholy ignorant both of GOD and themselves utterly unable to conceive the Glory of the World or of that Relation wherein they should by Nature have stood towards all the Creatures IT is impossible to conceive how great a change a slight Action may produce It is but pressing the Wick a little with ones Finger and a Lamp is extinguished and Darkness immediately made to overspread the Room The Glory and
to Love without Obligation or Reward to be the Sole Author of all Felicity and to over-flow with Goodness of himself freely without any Motive to prevent the Beauty and Existence of his Object and to Love from all Eternity in an immutable manner And this is the nature of Divine Love Howbeit even here are infinite Ends and Causes of his Love tho they are all in Himself For he Loves that he may Love and begets that Love which is his Essence His Love is the foundation of all his Treasures the Cause and End of the whole Creation and that alone by which he proceeds from himself to all his Creatures and by those to himself again for ever All his Kingdome and Greatness and Pleasure all his Wisdome and Goodness all his Life and Perfection is seated in Love which is his Beauty and his Holiness his Bounty and his Godhead He Loves therefore that he may be all Beauty and Goodness and Holiness and that he may enjoy himself and the Eternal Pleasure of his Essence in Glory and Blessedness for ever IT is GOD alone that Loves by his Essence Angels and Men may Love by Inclination but their Affection is Accidental to their nature begins in time may alter and cease It is subject to Chance Obligation and Reward and ought to be guided according to the Pleasure of an Higher Agent In this it differs from the Love of God but in many things there is a great Agreement and proportion between them For GOD has made the love of Angels and men so like his own by extending their Knowledge to all objects that infinite Perfections are contained in their love It is as GODLIKE as any Thing created is capable of being for Almighty Power and infinite Wisdome are employed in the production of it FOR the better understanding of this Love we will consider it in the power of Loving in the inclination to Love in its act and Perfection It may seem a surprizing verity but the Power of Loving is as necessary to Blessedness and Glory as life it selfe an inclination to love as necessary as the Power and the act of Love as necessary as the Inclination The world is useless without Life and Life without Love the Body without the Soul the Soul without the Power of Loving the Power of Loving without the Inclination the Inclination without the Act. IN the Power of Loving I shall note nothing at present but its Extent and Capacity In Beasts it is confined but in Men it is Endless As a Beast is unable to examine what spaces are above the Heavens so is it unable to extend its Affections beyond the memory of things perceived for a Beast cannot represent to it self the Idea's of its Progenitors nor see into Ages that are before its birth nor contemplate Objects that will be after it is Dead But man can see and know and love any object in any Age or Kingdom in the World He can look into any Region tho it be never so far removed and be as familiary conversant with any Person or Transaction there when represented once in a clear Light as with any Object in his own country He can look into Eden consider Adams Dust in its first Creation survey the Procedure of God in his Six Dayes Works pass out of Time into Eternity it self run up to the Original and fountain Head of all existence ponder the nature of GOD search in his Bosom for his Eternal Counsels pierce into the Centre of the Earth and survey the Circumference of all Immensity His Love can follow his Knowledg in all its flights while in spirit he can be present with all the Angels He is able to Love not only his Family and Relations but all the City and Country where he liveth all the Kingdom all the Cities and Kingdoms in the world all the Generations in all Kingdoms all the Spirits of Just men made perfect all the Cherubims and Seraphins and GOD blessed for ever This is the extent The capacity of Love is so alsufficient that his Affection is not diminished but the more he loves one the more he is able and the more inclined to love all that are united to him As in ordinary friendship the more we love the Father the more we love his Wife and all his children For the more we love any Person the more we love all that love him or are beloved by him As the reasons of our Love increase so may our Love it selfe the capacity of Love being so indeficient that it never can be exceeded or surmounted by its Object THE Capacity of Love being so exceeding vast multiplies and heightens in the Soul of man that is apt to overflow of its own Accord For nothing is so prone to communicate it self as that Active Principle of Love that Soul which is Generous and Divine being disposed to the exercise of Love because therein it findeth its Proper Element The very Sun is not more inclined to communicate its Beams then the Soul to love For the Soul being made in the Image of GOD who is Love by his Essence must needs be like him in Power and Inclination and is made for nothing else but the Attainment of its perfection so that it can never rest till it actually love after his similitude Some Operation it must of Necessity have For as all Life so all pleasure is founded in Action IF Love in its Perfection be considered all that is lovely is Beloved by the soul all the Capacity of Love is filled with its objects and all the Goodness of the Creator and his Creatures at once enjoyed It is the Life and pleasure and enlargment of the Soul it is the Wisdom and Goodness and Glory of the Soul I confess there be many Errors and Diseases in Love and that Love is alwayes miserable in its Effects that is vicious yet it so bewitches the Sences that the Soul being captivated by the Force of present Delight is violently carried in an irresistible appetite to those Things which Reason condemnes and advises to shun as Evil. Medea's faction most prevails in the World Video meliora proboque Deteriora Sequor LOVE is then a vice when it is irrational and illegal rebellious and Sensual Blind Defective Unjust Absurd When Evil things are beloved when Good things are preferred above the Better and the Best neglected VERTUOUS Love is that which proceedeth from a well governed understanding and is seated in a Will that is guided by Reason It renders to all things their just Due and is the Powerful Parent of all Kind of Vertues This Love may be considered either in its Properties or Effects the last of which relate to the Soul it self to the Conversation of the whole man to all its Objects when it is well understood it will be found the proper and immediate Means by which we attain our Perfection and Felicity CHAP. VII What Benefit GOD himself does receive by his Eternal Love That when our
and Eternities we render all Things their Due we reap the Benefit of all we are Just and Wise and Holy we are Grateful to GOD and Amiable in being so We are not divided from but united to him in all his Appearances Thoughts Counsels Operations we adorn our souls with the Beauty of all objects whatsoever are transformed into the Image of GOD live in communion with him nay live in him and he in us are made Kings and Priests unto GOD and his sons forever There is an exact and pleasant Harmony between us and all the Creatures We are in a Divine and spiritual Manner made as it were Omnipresent with all Objects for the Soul is present only by an Act of the understanding and the Temple of all Eternity does it then becom when the Kingdom of GOD is seated within it as the world is in the Eye while it lives and feels and sees and enjoyes in every object to which it is extended it s own its objects Perfection IF by our voluntary Remisness or Mistake or Disorder we dote upon one Object or suffer some few things to engage our Souls so intirely as to forget and neglect all the rest we rob all those we desert of their due Esteem and abridge our selves of that Liberty and Extent wherein the greatness of our soul consisteth As if the Sun that is made to shine upon all the World should withdraw its Beams from the Stars and the Heavens and chuse to shine upon nothing else but a Spire of Grasse a grain of Dust or a little sand We lose innumerable Objects and confine our selves to the Love of one by sacrificing all our Affection to that become guilty of Idolatry in one respect of Atheism in another For we elevate that Creature which we love alone into the place of GOD and we rob the Creator of that supream affection which is due unto him And in so doing bereave our selves of the Sovereign Object in the fruition of which all the rest are happily enjoyed Thus when a man so Loveth his Wife or Children as to despise all mankind he forfeits his Interest in all Kingdoms and the Beauty of all Ages is taken from his Eys his Treasures are contracted and his Felicity is maimed and made Defective When a Covetous man doteth on his Bags of Gold the Ambitious on Titles of Honor the Drunkard on his Wine the Lustful Goat on his Women the foolish Hector on his Dice and Duels they banish all other Objects and live as absurdly as if a King should relinquish his Crown and confine his Thoughts and Care to a Country Mannor I will not deny but that there are many Disorders and Evils in the World many Deformities Sins and Miseries but I say two things first that in the Estate of innocency wherein all things proceeded purely from GOD there was no Sin nor sickness nor Death nor Occasion of Complaint or Calamity Secondly that all the Evils that are now in the world men brought on themselves by the Fall And there is great need of distinguishing between the works of GOD and the works of men For all that GOD did is Lovely and Divine nothing is bitter and distasteful but what we have done himself surveyed the whole Creation and pronounced concerning every Thing that it was exceeding Good So that he was in all his Works an Object of Complacency To these we add two Considerations more That of all the Evils and Mischeifs which men have introduced there is not one left uncorrected in his Kingdome Secondly that GOD bringeth Order out of Confusion Light out of Darkness Good out of Evil and by a Providence irresistable and a Power infinite so limiteth and divideth all that even Evils themselves become the Matter of his Victory the Ground of his Triumph They are all improved and he makes the Greatest Evils Objects of Joy and Glory NOW if all Things before GOD are fit to be enjoyed all Good Things perfect all Evil overcome if without any Change of Place or Scituation all Things are naked and open before his Eyes and there be no Walls to exclude or Skreens to hide no Gulph to pass nor Distance to over come but all things equally neer and fair there is some Hope that the same Felicity is prepared for the soul which is made in his Image and that every thing being fit for GOD is full of infinite Depth and Beauty For which Cause St. John being in Spirit saw all the Kingdomes of the World become the Kingdomes of the Lord and of his Christ and heard every Creature which is in Heaven and on the Earth and under the Earth and such as are in the Sea and all that is in them saying Blessing and Honor and Glory and Power be unto him that Sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb for evermore This we are the rather induced to believe because the Faithful Servant is commaned to enter into the Joy of his Lord and our Masters Joys are the Rewards of Believers Our Savionr telleth us his Lord will make his Wise Servant Ruler over all his Goods in one-place and over all that he hath in another TO see beyond all Seas and through all interposing Skreens and Darknesses is the Gift of the Understanding and to be able to Love any Object beyond the Skies any Thing that is Good from the Centre of the Earth to the Highest Heavens is the Property of the Soul which it exerciseth here by Parts and Degrees but shall at once exert at the Day of Consummation The Infinity of the Father in the Son the Godhead of the Son in the Holy Ghost will entirely be enjoyed IT is the Glory of man that his Avarice is insatiable and his Ambition infinite that his Appetite carries him to innumerable Pleasures and that his Curiosity is so Endless that were he Monarch of the World it could not satisfie his Soul but he would be curiously inquisitive into the original and End of Things and be concerned in the Nature of those that are beyond the Heavens For having met with an infinite Benefactor he would not be sit for his Bounty could any finite Object satisfie his Desire and for this Cause is his Reason so inquisitive to see whether every thing be Delightful to his Essence which when he findeth agreable to his Wish and to exceed his Imagination it is impossible to declare how his Avarice and Ambition will both rejoyce how much his Appetite will be satisfied and his Curiosity delighted To sit in the Throne of GOD and to enjoy Communion with him in those Things which neither Eye hath seen nor Ear heard nor hath it entered into the Heart of Man to conceive is no mean thing the Advancement is infinitely Greater then we are able to understand No young man can gaze upon a Beauteous face with greater Pleasure no Epicures Sence he ravished with more Delight than that which he apprehends in so Glorious a fruition THE very sight of
other mens Souls shining in the Acts of their Understanding throughout all Eternity and extending themselves in the Beams of Love through all Immensity and thereby transformed every one of them into a Sphear of Light comprehending the Heavens every Angel and every Spirit being a Temple of GODS Omnipresence and Perfection this alone will be a ravishing Spectacle to that Goodness which delights to see innumerable Possessors of the Same Kingdome Much more will the Perfection of the Kingdome it self which by infinite Wisdome is so constituted that every one is the Sovereign Object the First born and Sole heir and End of the Kingdome Every one the Bride of GOD every one there a King yet without Confusion or Diminution every one distinctly enjoying all and adding to each others fruition TO understand all this and not to delight in it is more miserable then not to understand it To see it without being able to enjoy it is to pine away in a prison from whence we see the Glory of a Palace and repine in our misery at the Pleasures of those that are about it To delight in these Things without being affected with them is impossible Nor is there any Affection but that of Love whereby we can enjoy them THE Angels see the Glory of GODS Kingdom and delight in it the Damned see the Joys of the Blessed and are tortured by them the Wicked upon Earth neither see nor are affected with them the Saints on Earth apprehend them in part and believe them desire and endeavour after them they wait with Expectation for the whole and by certain degrees as it were in a Glass enjoy the Image and Reflection of them As many as they comprehend they actually delight in for their love is awakened and extended to the goodness of all they understand which it feeds upon by meditation and turnes into Nourishment for the Beneffit of their Souls which are made more Great and Strong and Vigorous by their Fruitions But without Love it is easie to see that no Goodness can be at all enjoyed GOD does desire Love from us because his Wisdom very well knows that without Love the World would be in vain and the End of the Creation frustrated his Goodness is diffusive and infinitly desires to communicate it self which it cannot do unless it be Beloved To receive it is the highest service we can do unto it nothing being more agreeable to the Nature of his Goodness then that it should be enjoyed His Blessedness consisteth in the pleasure he taketh in the Felicity of others and brancheth it self out into two Parts the Pleasure of Communicating all to others and the pleasure of receiving all from others in the satisfaction which he taketh to see others Blessed in the Returns of those joys and Praises which are offered up to his Goodness and Glory His Glory desires to be seen and delighted in To be esteemed and beloved to be honored and admired is natural to Glory the Brightness of whose splendor is more Sensibly Pleasant in the Reflection of its face and in the Joy that it makes in anothers Soul His Holiness takes Pleasure in pure and upright Actions of all which Love is the fountain There is an Objective fitness and Excellency in Love for which it is infinitely valued by him It is one of the first and immediate Properties of Love to desire to be beloved to make its object most Amiable and Beautiful as well as Blessed to be united to it to have its own Goodness acknowledged its Essence approved its excellency desired admired and delighted in to see all its Actions Appearances Gifts and Tokens esteemed and to feel its own Efficacy in the Grateful Acceptance it finds in the Raptures it occasions in the flames it enkindles in anothers Soul Now Love is the fountain of all Honour Gratitude Praise and Esteem By Love the Soul is transformed into the Similitude of GOD by love made Bright and Beautiful all its Blessedness and Glory are founded in its Love it is by Love it self made Communicative and Diffusive and Great and Rich and as the Scripture speaketh fit for Delights All Obedience and service are founded in Love And if a Creature that is Beloved must freely give up it self to anothers Pleasure before it can shew its Love or intirely be enjoyed Love is of all other things in the World most fit to answer Love because the very heart and Soul is given thereby to the Person that desires it LOVE is the Fountain of all Benefits and Pleasures House Estate and Lands Authority Wealth and Power Life it self is consecrated and Devoted by a Lover to his Object So that on our side all is given to GOD by Love as well as by Love it is received from him The Heavens and the Earth and all the Creatures are Gifts and Tokens of his Love Men and Angels are a Present of his Love which he hath infinitely adorned and made endlessly serviceable to every Soul that is Beloved All these his Love would have us to receive with a due Esteem and therefore is it than of his Love he will have us to exercise our reason aright and Love them as much as their Goodness deserveth When we see and understand their Excellence and Esteem them according to the transcendent value that appeareth in them we adorn our selves with their fair Ideas we enlarge and beautifie our Souls with Bright and clear Apprehensions and which is much more with regular and well ordered Affections we enrich our selves and increase our Greatness in the fruition of his Gifts we are lively and pleasant and vigorous Creatures full of Knowledge and Wisdome and Goodness and fit to offer up all these things unto him again while we empty them as Helps and Advantages in that Service which we pay unto him For our Love to himself is enkindled by these Incentives and while we sacrifice our selves and them unto him we delight in nothing more then to see him that is so Great in Love and Bounty the Author and Possessor of all his Glories CHAP. VIII Of the Excellency of Truth as it is the Object and Cause of Vertue The Matter and form of Vertuous Actions That their form is infinitely more Excellent then their Matter and the Heathen Morality infinitely defective and short of the Christian. I do not see that Aristotle made the End of Vertue any other then a finite and temporal Felicity which is infinitely short of that felicity which is here begun and enjoyed for ever He did not make GOD the Object and End of the Soul and if all Acts are distinguished into their Kinds by their Objects and their Ends those Vertues must be infinitely base that have no other Objects or Ends but Creatures and those only Divine and Noble that flow from an infinite and Eternal Original respect an infinite and Eternal Object rest in an Infinite and Eternal End His Difinition of Felicity importeth all this but his Behavior makes me to
whom Fear Honour to whom Honour One no man any thing but to Love one another for the he that Loveth another hath fulfilled Law Kings and Magistrates and Ministers and Parents and Children must have all their Due and so must GOD Blessed for ever Adoration to whom Adoration is due and Obedience to whom Obedience In strict Justice we must render Hatred to whom Hatred is Due and Love to whom Love Hope is due to certain Grounds of Encouragemeut and Sorrow to certain sorrowful Objects But all our Passions must still be guided by the Rule of the Law and all our Actions as Honour and Equity require PARTICULAR Justice is conversant in the Distribution of Rewards and Punishments or else it observes the Rules of Equity and Reason in Buying and Selling. It is called particular because the Excercise of it is not allotted to all the Power of rendring Rewards and Punishments being committed to a few namely to the Magistrates and among Private persons many not at all accustomed to Buying and Selling. This Vertue being to be exercised by some particular men is particular Justice However it has occasioned a Distinction in the Thing whereby Justice is divided into Distributive and Commutative the one being used in Courts of Judicature the other in the Market IT was a notable Observation of Plato that by reason of our Dim Eyes we are not able to see immediately what Vertue does in Secret in the Soul And therefore he sayes that as an Old man that is blear-ey'd if he hath something given him to read in little Characters finds it necessary first to see the same in Capital Letters so to observe first what Vertue doth in a Commonwealth is expedient to him that would understand what it doth in his own Soul The Throne is upholden by Justice the Majesty of Kings and the Glory of Kingdomes is preserved by Justice When Vertue is rewarded and Vice supprest the City flourisheth as the Laws are the Rampart of Mens Estates Justice is the Rampart of the Law the Guardian Angels of every family State and Kingdome Kings and Counsellors and Priests and Soldiers and Tradesmen have all their several Office and proper Duty in a Kingdome and that Nation is blessed with order and Beauty where every one contains himself in his proper Duty But where Tradesmen invade the Priests office and defile the Altar the Soldiers turn Counsellors and every Consellor deposes the King nothing but Confusion can follow in such a State The Senses and Members of the Body are like Tradesmen they traffick with sensible Objects the Irascible passions of the Soul are Soldiers and very apt to rebel and Mutiny the Conscience is the Priest in the Temple of the Mind Right Reason is the King and the Concupiscible Affections or smoother Passions especially Avarice and Ambition may pass for Counsellors They may do well to put a man in mind of his Interest but when they depose Right Reason and usurp the Throne Ruine must follow in the Soul the Passions will turn Consellors the Trades-men invade the Temple and all Rights Sacred and Profane be blended together To sell offices of Trust and Places of Judicature is for a King to do that himself which Rebels attempt in violence to put unworthy men in places of Trust promiscuously that will sell Justice by Retail as they bought it by Whole Sale Justice is a a Severe Vertue and will keep up all the Faculties of the Soul upon hard Duty For otherwise it would not pay to Felicity its Due But where its Care is remiss in taking an Account and solid Goods are barterd away to counterfeit false Commodities the Soul will grow loose and poor in a moment All its Powers subordinate and Superior will forget their Duty and the Healthy Estate of the Mind fall into Anarchy and Confusion All its Hopes and Felicities will be lost for want of that Justice which Distributes to every Power its proper office THERE are two passages that I mightily desire to be imprinted in the Memory of all the World and they are both of our Saviour The one is He that is faithful in a little shall be Ruler over much The other is this Who then is that faithful and Wise Servant whom his Lord hath made Ruler over his Houshold to give them meat in due season Blessed is that Servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing He that is faithful in a little is faithful also in much To be Just in a little Silver and Gold and accurate in deciding Causes between a Man and his Neighbour are Actions that in their own Nature seem to have little tendency to Bliss and Glory But when we consider that we are Servants for a time entrusted by a Lord that will come and examine what we have done we are not to measure our Hopes by those little Acts as they determine in a Moment but in relation to the Recompences which our Lord will give when he cometh For our Saviour hath added Blessed is that Servant c. Verily I say unto you that he shall make him Ruler over all his Goods But and if that evil Servant shall say in his Heart my Lord delayeth his Coming and shall begin to smite his fellow Servants and to eat and drink with the Drunken the Lord of that Servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him and in an hour that he is not ware of and shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with Hypocrites there shall be Weeping and gnashing of Teeth IF GOD should be loose and careless in his Kingdome as it is infinitely Greater then all other Dominions so would it quickly be more full of confusions Especially Since the King would then himself be so loose and Careless For Licence and profaness are of a spreading Nature and such as the King is such is the people The vices of Kings do always punish themselves in the Imitation of their subjects especially where the Distinction between Profane and Holy is lost and there is no Hope and Fear of Punishments or Rewards If GOD should declare it by any Act of his to be a Thing indifferent whether men did well or ill it would mightily abate the Rectitude of his nature and Eclipse his Majesty His Sovereignty would be slighted and his Will despised which ought infinitely to be dreaded While Justice is infinite and there is an infinite difference put between Good and Evil his Creatures we see are apt to abuse their Liberty and Rebel and become Apostates tho they have an infinite pleasure to aspire after and an infinite destruction or Wrath to fear What would they do if the Divine Will were feeble and remiss and exacted no reverence to its Law and Pleasure It is the Height and Glory of GOD that he sets an infinite Rate upon Excellent Deeds and infinitely detests and abhors the Wicked Their last ends are not more distant then their first Beginnings in his Esteem
Christ is an incredible mystery to them that do not consider the Love of GOD towards Men in the Creation of the World But they that measure it by his Laws and works and see it in the value of their own Souls would think it very Strange if that Love which appeareth so infinite in all other things should be defective only in its Ways of Providence They easily believe it may express it self in the Incarnation Especially Since all Ages are Beautified with the Effects and Demonstrations of this verity that GOD so Loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have Everlasting Life For Love is apt to transform it self into all shapes that the necessity of its Object requires and as prone to suffer as rejoyce with it as apt to suffer for it as with it Many fathers have died for their Children many for their Country but the Love of GOD exceedeth them all To be beloved in our Guilt is exceeding Wonderful but this also is in the Nature of Love it may be provoked with the Guilt or moved with Compassion at the misery of a Sinner WHERE the Love is extreamly violent and the weak Estate of the Object fit for Compassion it is more inclined to Pity than Revenge Tho where the Object is strong and endued with all advantages it is more offended at the Outrage of its Rebellion WHETHER we consider the Nature of Man or his Estate before the Fall we have some reason to believe that he was more Beloved then the Holy Angels for there was more exquisite Care and Art manifested in the Creation of his Person and his Condition was fitted for a more curious Tenderness and Compassion if he offended IF you look into the Nature of Angels and Men you will find this mighty Difference between them Angels are more Simple Spirits Men are Images of GOD carefully put into a Beautiful Case Their Souls would seem equal to the Angels were they not to live in Humane Bodies and those Bodies are Superadded certainly for unspeakable and most Glorious Ends the visible World was made for the sake of these Bodies and without such persons as men are it would be utterly useless The Hypostatical Union of two Natures so unspeakable different as the Soul and Body are is of all things in the World most mysterious and Miraculous Man seems to be the Head of all Things visible and invisible and the Golden clasp whereby Things Material and Spiritual are United He alone is able to beget the Divine Image and to multiply himself into Millions His Body may be the Temple of GOD and when it pleased GOD to become a Creature he assumed the Nature of Man Angels are made Ministring Spirits for the sake of Man and by him alone GOD and his works are United IF you respect his Condition he was made a little lower than the Angels that he might be crowned with Glory and Honour Lower for a Time that he might be Higher for ever The Angels were placed in such an Estate that if they fell it would be with more shame yet if they stood it would be with less Glory For having the Advantages of Greater Light and strength to Sin against them was more Odious and to stand in them less Wonderful While man being more remote from GOD was more Obnoxious to Dangers and more Weak to resist them His Want of Clear Light if he fell would lessen his offence And the Difficulties wherewith he was surrounded if he stood would increase his Vertue which by consequence would make his Obedience more pleasing and much augment his Eternal Glory All which put together when Angels and Men both fell fitted Man rather to be chosen and redeemed he being the Greater Object of Compassion and Mercy THE Degrees and measures of that Mercy which was shewn to Man in his Redemption are very considerable When he was Weak and unable to help himself when he was Guilty when he was an Enemy when he was Leprous and deformed when he was Miserable and Dead before he desired or Thought of such a Thing God freely gave his Son to die for his Salvation and condescended to propose a reconciliation Which should teach us tho higher then the Cherubims and more pure then the Light tho our Enemies are never so base and injurious and ingrateful nay Obstinate and Rebellious to seek a reconciliation by the most Laborious and Expensive Endeavors to manifest all our Care and kindness toward them pursuing their Amendment and Recovery For the same Mind ought to be in us that was in Christ Jesus who being in the form of GOD thought it no Robbery to be Equal with GOD yet took upon him the Form of a Servant and being found in fashion as a man humbled himself to the Death of the Cross Wherefore GOD also hath highly exalted him and given him a Name above every Name that at the Name of Jesus every Knee might bow The very reason why we so infinitely adore him being the incomparable Height and Perfection of his Mercy expressed in his Humiliation and Abasement for us If we would enter into his Glory we must walk in the Way which he hath trod before us for that only will lead us into it THO GOD hath in his infinite Mercy redeemed us from the unavoidable Necessity of being Damned yet hath he with infinite Prudence ordered the Way and Manner of our Redemption in such sort that we are not immediately translated into Heaven but restored to a new Estate of Trial and endued with Power to do new Duties as pleasing to him as those which he required from us in Eden For he Loved a Righteous Kingdome from the Beginning wherein his Laws were to be obeyed Rewards and Punishments expected and administred in a Righteous manner THE Great and necessary Duties in this second Kingdome are Faith and Repentance introduced by his Wisdom and occasioned by Sin necessary for our Justification and Sanctification and Superadded to the former THIS Kingdome of Evangelical Righteousness being founded on the Blood of Christ is by Death and Sin and by the Supernatural Secrets of Love and Mercy made infinitely more Deep and mysterious than the former CHAP. XV. Of Faith The Faculty of Believing implanted in the Soul Of what Nature its Objects are The Necessity of Faith Its End Its Use and Excellency It is the Mother and Fountain of all the Vertues FAITH and Repentance are the Principal Vertues which we ought to exercise in the Kingdome of Evangelical Righteousness because by them alone a Sinner is restored to the Capacity and Power of living in the Similitude of GOD in the Practice of his Divine and Eternal Vertues For without Faith it is impossible to please GOD because we can never believe that he is the Rewarder of all those that diligently seek him without that Credit which is necessary to be given to the Discovery of his Love to them that are
Riddles in the midst of all which to think so well of GOD as he deserveth is the most acceptable thing in the World for it argues a great confidence of his Worth and a Love that is founded on Substantial Causes never to be removed It feedeth the Soul with a lively hope and fair Expectation of great Things from him by which alone we do right to His GODHEAD in acknowledging the Perfection of his Love and Goodness and by which alone we are made able to adore him and to live in Union and Communion with him THERE is great Talk of Friendship it is accounted the only Pleasure in the World Its Offices are highly magnified of all Kindness of Behaviour a through and clear communication of Souls a secure Reliance upon each others Fidelity a perfect Discovery of all our Thoughts Intentions and Resentments an ardent willingness to impart Lives and Estate for the Benefit of our Friend the Reposing of all our Secrets in each others Bosomes to do all services and suffer all afflictions for each others sakes to prefer the Concerns of our Friend upon all Occasions above our own these are the Magnalia Amicitiae Arcana mutuae Benevolentiae the Great and mighty Effects for which Friendship is admired But all these without a good Opinion of our Friend are nothing worth they are but Externals of Friendship the greatest Secret in its Nature is the mutual agreement of Souls and Spirits the Delight which either taketh in the other the honour and esteem they give and receive the Approbation and Love of each others Dispositions the Sence and Admiration of each others Vertues the continual Desire of being alwayes together peculiar Extasie which the Beauty of either occasioneth in the other when of all other Treasures in the World their Persons are the greatest to one another Either is the proper Element and Refrigerium of the others Soul Their Bosomes are the mutual Receptacles and Temples of each others accomplishments whereinto they are received in all their Desert and have Justice done to every degree and Perfection in their Nature their Hearts are the Thrones where they are exalted and magnified and live at Ease are honoured and worshipped extolled and reign as absolute in each others Souls There are some slight aims and Adumbrations of this Friendship on Earth but the best and highest Degree of it here beneath is but a rude and imperfect shadow only GOD is the Sovereign friend all Adoration paid to any one beside is meer Idolatry Our Hearts can be absolutely Sacrificed to none but him because he alone is immutable in Goodness We cannot infinitely honour and delight in any but Him it is he alone that can infinitely honour and delight in us All our Lives Estates and Services are Due to him his Will alone is to be wholly ours because no other Will is infallibly Right Wise Holy but his alone THE Union of our Wills is a Perfection of Love but that at which he aimeth by all his Labours and Gifts and Benefits is our Right and Good Opinion of his Excellencies and Perfections That we should see and discern his interior Properties admire his Graces adore his Perfections adore and magnifie his Beauty and Glory this is the End for which he communicates himself in all his Works and Ways unto us it is the End of the Whole Creation and of all the Excellent Things in the universe for by this he establisheth his Empire in our souls and makes us Pleasing to himself in all our Operations And for this Cause it is that the Apostle plainly tells us that tho we give our Body to be burned and all our Goods to feed the poor without Charity it profiteth nothing To render to GOD the Honour that is due to his Name to receive and admire all his Bounties to rejoyce in all his Operations to adore him in all his Ways to take pleasure in all his Works to fill Heaven and Earth with our Joys and Praises is a Work which cannot but be agreeable by its Nature to his Eternal Essence And if this be the Work of Love it is that which is most Excellent because he is therein both pleased and enjoyed GOD and all his Creatures are united together by Love alone and in the Eternal Exercise of pure and perfect Love all Blessedness and Glory consisteth IF you require what it is to love GOD you will find it worthy of his Highest desire because thereby all our souls nay all his Creatures and his whole Kingdome are perfected for to Love GOD as we ought to do is to Honour him as our Father Benefactor Bridegroom and King to contemplate him as our Cause with Complacency and to rest in him as our End to delight in him as our Creator Preserver Lawgiver and Redeemer to dedicate our selves wholly to that Service whatever it be wherein he is chiefly pleased and delighted It is to love him in himself in all his Works in all his Ways in all his Laws in all his Attributes in all his Thoughts and Counsels in all his Perfections It implies the Knowledge of all Objects the Use of all Means the Attainment of all Ends all Wisdome and Goodness all Obedience and Gratitude all Righteousness and Holiness all Joy and Praise all Honour and Esteem all Blessedness and Glory For it is to Love him with all our Heart and with all our Soul with all our Strength and with all our Might with all our Understanding with all our Will with all our Affection with all the Powers of our soul with all our Inclinations and Faculties in all his Creatures in all his Appearances in Heaven and Earth in Angels and Men in all Kingdoms and Ages It is to see and desire to Esteem and delight in his Omnipresence and Eternity and in every Thing by which he manifesteth himself in either of these so that all Enlargement and Greatness and Light and Perfection and Beauty and Pleasure are founded in it and to Love him to Perfection implies all Learning and Attainment because we must necessarily be acquainted with all Things in all Worlds before we can thorowly and compleatly do it Which here upon Earth to do by Inclination and Endeavour to the utmost of our Power is all that is required of us And if we do it to our utmost it shall be rewarded in the Beatifick Vision with a full and Blessed Pefection with an actual Love exactly resembling his and fully answerable to it in the Highest Heavens THERE are two common Motives of Love among Men the one the Goodness and Excellency of the Person the other his particular Kindness and Love to us And both these are in the Highest Degree in GOD. He is of infinite Goodness and and Excellency in himself for there is nothing Good in the world but what hath received all its Goodness from Him His Goodness is the Ocean and all the Goodnesses of Creatures little Streams flowing from that Ocean Now you would think
in force and Extent but the fewer in Number Their perfect sufficiency is to be measured by the ends for which they are prepared and their Beauty Consists like that of an Army with Banners in the Proportion and Symmetry of the entire Body the mutual Supplies and Succors they afford to one another the Unity of such a Great Variety of things in order to the Attainment of the same great and ultimate end the full and compleat Number of Offices and inferior Ends and the Extream Providence wherewith they are reducible to one supream End which is most High and Excellent It is enough for the Ear if it can hear well tho it is no more able to See or Taste than a Stone it is enough for the eye to see well tho it is no more sensible of Noise then a Rock or a Tree The Office of the Tongue is to Tast well of the Nostril to smell well c. and there is no Defect in any of these because they are every one sufficient for its own immediate end and also tempered and united together that the rest are Supplies to make up the Defect of every single Sence and Organ and altogether perfectly subservient to the whole Man for whose sake they were prepared that he might enjoy the benefit of them all The eye sees for the Ear and the Tongue and all the rest of the Members of the Body the foot supports and carries the eye the hand defends and feeds the Eye the Ear instructs and Counsels the Eye the Nostrils smell for the eye and the Tongue tasts and talks for the Eye which the eye cannot do for it self because it was made to need the assistance of the rest the eye directs all these in Liew of their Services and is of far greater Value then if a man had no other Member but an eye alone For the Eye is the Light of all the members and Great in its Relation to the whole man It sees for the Ear and the Hand and for all and is to all these after some manner Beneficial but without these would be to no purpose There is an infinite Excellency in every Vertue but it is to be sought in its Relation to all the Rest. It is Good for nothing in its Place but for that Particular End to which it is assigned in attaining that end it is subservient to all other Vertues and while it serves all is aided by all The other Virtues remedie the inconveniences to which this doth expose us and being all joyned together earry us safely and securely to our Last end Because the Influence of every one passeth thorow all every single Vertue is Pleasing to God and a means in its place of our whole Felicity The Beauty of all the Vertues is to be sought in Prudence for there they meet in an intire Body their Correspondence and convenience their Symmetry and proportion their Unity and Variety their ful and perfect Harmony makes up the features of the Soul and compleats its Graces just as the Diversity of Members perfects the Body Knowledge gives Light to Love but Love gives Warmth and Feeling to Knowledge Love may perhaps like a Separate Soul dwell in Heaven alone and yet even then it must include all Knowledge and Righteousness and Wisdome and Holiness for if Love know not how to guide it self it will never attain its End nor be a perfect Vertue But here upon Earth t is like the Soul in the Body it must Eat and Drink and see and hear as a thousand Works to do and therefore standeth in need of many Vertues Love without Goodness is perhaps a Thing impossible because it always designs well But Love without Wisdome is a Common Thing for such is all that mistakes its End Love without Discretion is a mischievious Thing Love without Prudence an Helpless Thing Love without Courage a feeble and Cowardly Thing Love without Modesty an impudent and Troublesome Thing Love without the Fear of GOD is Lust and Wantonness and if the most Great and Glorious of all the Vertues stands in need of all its Companions The less and inferior must needs be lame and maimed without the residue especially without the Superior UPON this account it is that so much Care and Study goes to the making up of a Vertuous man All kind of Vertues must concur to Compleat his Perfection The Want of any one Denominates a Vice and makes him Vicious Nay the Want of any one destroys the form and Essence of the rest Vertue is not Vertue but in order to felicity If it hath lost its force it hath lost its Nature As a little Poyson turnes the best Meat from Nourishment into Poyson so doth one Vice cherished and allowed corrupt and viciate all the Vertues in the whole World Hence it is that the Phylosophers say all the Vertues are linked together in the golden Chain of Prudence And that a Thing is made Good by all its Causes Evil by the least Defect For as one Tooth wanting in a Clock makes all the other wheels and Materials Useless tho the frame be never so Elaberate and Curious so doth the abscence of the smallest Vertue make void and frustrate all the residue A man of a Kind and Bountiful Disposition that is loose and intemperate may ruine his Estate and dye like a Prodigal and vain-glorions fool A stout Couragious person that is proud and debauched will be little better then a Souldierly Russian and Live if not like a Thief for Want of Honesty yet like a Swaggering Hector for Want of Discreetion A Man endued with all Kind of Learnning may be Morose and Covetous and by one Vice lose all the Benefit of his Education A Religious Votary that is Splenetick and Revengeful brings a Disgrace upon his whole Profession But he that is Wise and Learned and Holy and Just and Temperate and Couragious and Kind and Liberal and Meek and Humble and Affable and Cheerful and Prudent and Industrious shall be serviceable and Honourable and delightful to others profitable to himself and alwayes Triumphant Especially if he be so discreet and Prudent as to make all these Vertues move like the Stars in their Courses and knows how to apply and manage their Excellencies in their due and proper places upon all occasions for they are so many different in nature that some of their Influences will hit every business and all of them together pass a Grace and Lustre upon each other so Divine and Heavenly that they will make their owner Venerable in the Eys of the World and correct the Malignity of the most injurious and Censorious Which moved our Saviour to exhort us to be Wise as Serpents Innocent as Doves to joyn many Vertues together And occasioned that of the Apostle He that will love Life and see good Days let him refrain his Tongue from Evil and his Lips that they speak no Guile let him eschew Evil and do Good let him seek Peace and
the World are regulated they are as our Savour calleth them Good or Evil Treasures out of which proceeds Murders Adulteries Thefts Slanders c. Or Praises Honours Preferments Riches Pleasures all kind of Gifts and Benefits And the prudent mans main Business is to make himself intirely beloved by all the World which can never be without great Fidelity Courage Goodness Prudence and Dexterity Flattery and Base compliances makes a man Odious THE Last End of prudence is Eternal Happiness and Glory to which it moveth by crooked Meanders and windings out as occasion requireth It is a strange Vertue for its Conversant amongst Terrene and inferior Objects and yet a far more Difficult Vertue then Wisdom it self Wisdome is a more High and Heavenly Vertue but its Rules are always fixed and its objects Stable where as Prudence hath no set and Stated Rules but in all occasions is to mould and shape it selfe it knows not which way till it comes to Action Its Paths are in the Deep and mighty Waters among Storms and tempests CHAP. XXI Encouragements to Courage It s Nature cause and End Its Greatness and Renown Its Ornaments and Companions Its objects Circumstances Effects and Disadvantages how Difficulties increase its vertue It s Verand Triumphs How subservient it is to Blessedness and Glory LOVE and Prudence are the parents of Courage A Feeble Hen a Timerous Mother will Sacrifice their Lives for their young ones And he that forgetteth all his own Interests divests himself together with them of his Fears and despising Death first easily slighteth all other Things Even a Coward by Nature is made more Bold and confident by Skill at his weapon And he that is always assured of the Victory can never be afraid of the Encounter or the Enemy He that is Dexterâ—ous at the use of all Vertues and knows how to apply them so as ever to come off more honourably will laugh at the Trial of his own Innocence and make a Game of Difficulties and Terrors VALOUR is a right and strong Resolution of the Soul whereby it dare encounter with any Difficulty and Trouble for Vertues sake It is the Armour of the Soul against all Impressions of Fear its Effect is an Equal and uniform stayedness of Mind against all Dangerous and Terrible Accidents It containeth Magnanimitie Patience Constancy Invincible Resolution Boldness and Industry in its Nature It s cause is the Love of Vertue and the sence of Honour Indignation against any thing that is Base and vile a High Ambition and desire of Glory It s End is the preservation of a Mans person and Honesty the Conquest of all Opposition in the Way to Bliss the Destruction or Subjection of Enemies Triumph and Conquest the Establishment of Peace the Attainment of Liberty and Glory Its Attendants are Prudence Justice and Temperance the principal Ornament and Grace of valour is Worth and Goodness its Aids and Encouragements are insinite it groweth Great and High by making use of all the Causes of Hope and Confidence Conflicts and Dangers are the Element in which it lives It owns its whole being to them for without Causes of Fear there could be no courage in all Nature The Knowledge of GOD is the root of Divine Valour and Fidelity to his Laws its Commendation The Assurance of his Love and all those Things that serve to beget and confirm it are subservient to it It draws in strength and Encouragements form all Obligations and Rewards from all Great and Holy examples from the Knowledge of its own Sublimity from the Greatness of Felicity from the Omnipotence and Omnipresence and Providence of the Deity from his Truth and Goodness and from all those Things wherein he has manifested his Love above the Heavens OF all the Vertues in greatest Estimation this is most renowned For its Prerogative is so great that it is simply called VERTUE Vertue being the Word to express and signifie Valour among the Latines because the Force and Efficacy that is in it is most visible and Apparent and by that all other Vertues are secured vindicated Exercised and made Useful It is stiled Manhood among the English with a peculiar Emphasis As is the Essence of a man was founded in Courage because his Vigor is emasculated and his Dignity lost that is Effeminate and Timerous for he is scarce a Man that is a Coward WHAT a Glorious and incomparable Vertue this is appeareth from the Baseness and Ineptitude of its Contrary A Coward and an Honest Man can never be the same a Coward and a constant Lover can never be the same a Coward and a Brave Man can never be the same Cowardice and Wisdome are as incompatible forever as Love and Wisdom were thought toâ— be of Old A Coward is always despicable and Wretched because he dares not expose himself to any Hazzards nor adventure upon any Great Attempt for fear of some little Pain and Damage that is between him and an Excellent Atchievment He is baffled from the Acquisition of the most Great and Beautiful Things and non plust with every Impediment He is conquered before he begins to fight The very sight of Danger makes him a Slave He is undone when he sees his Enemy a far off and wounded before the Point of the Sword can touch his shadow He is all wayes a Terror and Burden to himself a Dangerous Knave and an useless Creature STRANGE is the Vigour in aâ— Brave Mans Soul The Strength of his Spirit and his irresistible Power the Greatness of his Heart and the Height of his Condition his mighty Confiedence and Contempt of Dangers his true Security and Repose in himself his Liberty to dare and do what he pleaseth his Alacrity in the midst of Fears his invincible Temper are advantages which make him Master of Fortune His Courage fits him for all Attempts renders him serviceable to GOD and MAN and makes him the Bulwark and Defence of his King and Country LET those Debauched and unreasonable men that deny the Existence of Vertue contemplate the Reality of its Excellency here and be confounded with shame at their Prodigious Blindness Their Impiety designs the Abolishment of Religion and the utter Extirpation of all Faith and Piety while they pretend the Distinction between Vertue and Vice to be meerly feigned for the Awing of the World and that their Names have no foundation in Nature but the Craft of Politicians and the Tradition of their Nurses Are there no Base fellows nor Brave Men in the World Is there no difference between a Lion and a Hare a faint hearted Coward and a Glorious Heroe It s there Nothing Brave nor vile in the world What is become of these Rodomontadoes wits Where is the boasted Glory of their Personal Valour if there be no Defference but Courage and Cowardize be the same thing HOW empty these Self but shallow conceited Ranters are is evident by their short and narrow measures They place all Gallantry and Worth in Valour all the
or too dull or too feeble and impertinent but all its faults are avoided by a fit Temperance of Words and Materials Temperance every where yields the Pleasure And Excess is as destructive as Defect in any Accomplishment whatsoever Vertue being seated in the Golden Mean It is by an Artificial limiting of Power that every Thing is made as it ought to be Compleat and Perfect All kind of Excellence in every sort of Operation springs from Temperance A curious Picture a melodious Song a delicious Harmony by little invisible motions of the Pen or Pencil or by Ductures scarce perceivable in the throat or fingers finisheth the Work where Art is the only power of performing WE know that upon Mens Actions far more does depend than upon Dancing and Painting their Wisdom and Vertue their Honour Life and Happiness And therefore more Care ought to be exhibited in the Actions of which their Conversation is made up and accomplished In their Meats and Drinks and Recreations it is apparent that without Temperance there can be no Success or Order The best Wine in the World makes him that is lavish in the use of it a Sot The most wholsom and delicious Meat upon Earth by excess in eating may turn to a Surfeit If Sports and Recreations take up all a mans Time his Life is unprofitable their End is lost and their Nature changed for instead of recruiting they consume ones Strength and instead of sitting a Man for it devour his Calling AN exact hand over all our Passions and a diligent Eye to extravagant Actions tend much to our Welfare Repose and Honour Loose and impertinent Laughter excessive Cost in Apparel a Lascivious wandering of the Eyes an ungoverned Boldness which turns into Impudence an extremity of Fear which degenerates into Baseness a Morose and sour Disposition Anxiety and needless Care immodest and violent strivings after Things we too eagerly desire inordinate Love too keen and bitter Resentments a fierce and raging Anger a blockish Stupidity a predominant Humour of Melancholy too much Sloth and too much Activity too much Talk and too much Silence all these are diligently to be ordered and avoided for upon the right Temperament of these we are made Acceptable and Amiable and being so are full of Authority and can do within the compass of Vertue and Reason all that we desire among our Friends and Companions for our own good or the benefit of others And by this means also we shall be admitted to the society and friendship of Great men where a Nod or a Word is able to prevail more than the strength of Oxen and Horses among the dregs of the People But for lack of tempering these Ingredients aright and as we ought we become odious and insupportable lose all Esteem and Interest are rejected and trampled under feet as vicious and deformed HERE you may observe that all the qualities and dispositions in Nature are ingredients and materials in our Lives and Conversations and for the most part it is their Excess or Defect that makes the miscarriage when we erre in the Measure There is a certain mixture of Gravity and Chearfulness Remisness and Severity Fear and Boldness Anger and Complacency Kindness and Displeasure Care and Carelesness Activity and Idleness Joy and Sorrow Forwardness and Reservedness nay of Envy Pride and Revenge in every Mans life as well as of Selfishness and flowing Courtesie Plainness and Policy at least the grounds of these things which are neither Vertues nor Vices in themselves yet make Conversation transcendently Vertuous when they are wisely tempered and united together I do not look upon Ambition and Avarice nay nor upon Envy and Revenge as things that are evil in their root and fountain If they be Temperance has a strange vertue in its Nature for as Chymists make Antidotes of Poysons so doth this vertue turn the Matter of all these into a Quintessential perfection Nay Selfishness and Pride it self escape not its influence A little touch of something like Pride is seated in the true sence of a mans own Greatness without which his Humility and Modesty would be contemptible Vertues In all baseness of Mind there is a kind of folly and Cowardice apparent and more veneration follows an humble Man that is sensible of his Excellency An aiery Humor without something of the Melancholy to ballast it a little would be light and trifling And a melancholy Humor without something of Air and Jovialness in it too sour and disobliging Anger without Softness is like untemper'd Steel brittle and destructive and a plyant Humor without some degree of stiffness too near to Flattery and Servility Anger is the matter and fuel of Courage and its appearance afar off puts a Majesty into Meekness that makes it redoubted A sorrowful Humor neatly allayed with a mixture of sweetness begets a tenderness and compassion in the Spectator that turns into a deeper and more serious Love A little Selfishness puts our Companions in mind of our own Interest and makes them perceive that we understand it which adds a lustre to our Self-denial and renders our Liberality more safe and precious Plainness without Policy is downright Simplicity and Policy without Plainness void of Honesty The one makes us Crafty and renders us suspected the other exposes us and makes us Ridiculous but both united are venerable and prudent By the appearance of Revenge in its shady Possibility a man that never does other than Actually forgive does oblige for what is past yet threaten and discourage from the like Offences All these are the Subjects of Temperance A little spice of Jealousie and Emulation are advantagious in the midst of our Security and Resignation They give a relish to our Confidence in and Prelation of others and make our Security and Civility taste of our Love to the Person we prefer and of our Love to Vertue There is not one Humor nor Inclination nor Passion nor Power in the Soul that may not be admitted to act its part when directed by Temperance NOR is it unlawful to alter the Natural Complexion by Care and Study I know very well that the Complexion of the Body can hardly be changed by the strongest Physick and that Choler and Phlegm and abundance of Blood will where they are have their Natural Course without any remedy But the Humors of the Soul are more tractable things they are all subject to the Will in their operations and though they incline yet they cannot act but by consent and permission I know furthermore that Custom and Habit is a Second Nature what was difficult at first becomes at last as easie in its Exercise as if it were innate and that the Soul of a Vertuous man does in process of time act by a new Disposition I know further that all vertuous Operations are free and voluntary and that the office of Vertue is to correct and amend an Evil Nature Let no man therefore be disgusted because a Made-up man is
Space is an infinite Object in his understanding But for the Glory of his Moderation it is evident that he hath attained a far greater and more perfect End HAD he made an Infinite Object of a Spiritual Nature it must be a Spirit endued with illimited Power to see his Omnipresence and Eternity And had he made no more but only this it is to be feared that the Spectator would be displeased for want of Objects in preparing which the Love of GOD should have glorified his Wisdom and Goodness for its fruition IF you say the Omnipresence and Eternity of GOD had been filled with that Creature it is evident that Spirits fill no Room though they see all things and that it had been much better if Objects had been prepared for its Enjoyment HAD he prepared any one Corporeal Object for the fruition of that Creature any Corporeal Object if infinite in Dimensions would be wholly useless nay pernicious and destructive for it would exclude all other Beings to which it might be serviceable out of place and have nothing whereto to be beneficial IF you say it would be Beneficial to GOD or to that Spectator or that Intelligible Power that Spirit for whom it was made It is apparent that no Corporeal Being can be serviceable to a Spirit but only by the Beauty of those Services it performeth to other Corporeals that are capable of receiving them and that therefore all Corporeals must be limited and bounded for each others sake And for this Cause it is that a Philosophical Poet said As in a Clock 't is hinder'd-Force doth bring The Wheels to order'd Motion by a spring Which order'd Motion guides a steddy Hand In useful sort at Figures just to stand Which were it not by Counter-ballance staid The Fabrick quickly would aside be laid As wholly useless So a Might too Great But well proportion'd makes the World compleat Power well-bounded is more Great in Might Than if let loose 't were wholly Infinite He could have made an endless Sea by this But then it had not been a Sea of Bliss A Sea that 's bounded in a finite shore Is better far because it is no more Should Waters endlesly exceed the skies They 'd drown the World and all whate're we prize Had the bright Sun been Infinite its Flame Had burnt the World and quite consum'd the same That Flame would yield no splendor to the Sight 'T would be but Darkness though 't were Infinite One Star made Infinite would all exclude An Farth made Infinite could ne're be view'd But all being bounded for each others sake He bounding all did all most useful make And which is best in Profit and Delight Though not in Bulk he made all Infinite He in his Wisdom did their use extend By all to all the World from End to End In all Things all Things service do to all And thus a Sand is Endless though most small And every Thing is truly Infinite In its Relation deep and exquisite THIS is the best way of accommodating things to the Service of each other for the fruition of all Spectators MODERATION is not so called from Limiting and Restraining but from Moderating and Ruling If Reason require that a Thing should be Great it is the part of Temperance to make it so Where Reason requires it is a point of Moderation to enlarge and extend Power Nay to stretch it out to the utmost of its Capacity if Wisdom order it is but equal To moderate Almighty Power is to limit or extend it as Reason requires Reason requires that it should be so limited and extended as most tends to the perfection of the Universe IF it be more Wise and more tends to the perfection of the Universe that Millions of intelligible Spirits should be Created and every one of them be made in finite in Understanding it shall be done If not Temperance forbears If Sands and Atoms tend more to the perfection of the World than Angels there where they do so Sands and Atoms shall be made and Angels there where they tend more to the perfection of the World So that every thing is best in its proper place Were there no Sands or Atoms there would be no Universe For the Earth the Sea the Skie the Air all Bodies consist of these either united or divided If they had been lest unmade and Angels had been created in their Places there had been no visible World at all TO make Visible Objects useful it was necessary to enshrine some Spirits in Corporeal Bodies and therefore to make such Creatures as Men that might see and feel and smell and taste and hear and eat and drink by their Bodies and enjoy all the Pleasures of the World by their Souls And by their Souls moreover know the Original and End of all understand the design of all and be able to celebrate the Praises of the Creator For by this means pure Essences abstracted from all Corporeity might enjoy the World while they delight in the glory of its Uses and especially in those compleat and amiable Creatures for whom it was prepared IT was expedient also to make their Bodies finite that they might converse together but their inward Intelligences of endless reach that they might see the holy Angels delight in them and by their Love be delightful to them that they might also be able to search into the depth of all Things and enjoy Eternity Nay that they might be fit Recipients for the infinite Bounty and Goodness of GOD which is infinite in its Communications THAT they should be subject to his Laws and depend upon him was necessary in like manner For by that distinction an infinite difference was between him and them that disparity being laid in the foundation though the benefits they receive are altogether infinite the distance is still the more infinite between them for the greater the Bounty is the deeper is the Obligation The Love and Service they owe is infinite and so is the Gratitude TO see all his Glory is to be able to admire it and to adore it with infinite amazement and joy which is to be compleatly just unto it and perfectly blessed There is but one thing more wherein Almighty Power was by Wisdom infinite to restrain it self for the perfection of his Kingdom And that is to create them free that were made to enjoy it Not to determine their Wills by a fatal Necessity but to make their esteem and fruition of GOD and his Works their duty and to leave them to themselves for the more free and voluntary discharge of their duty For by that means it would make them capable of Rewards and Punishments in the Righteous distribution of which the nature and the glory of a Righteous Kingdom consisteth THUS did GOD by infinite Moderation and by a sublime and transcendent Temperance prepare his Kingdom and make every Thing exquisite in his whole Dominion to the praise of his Glory and the satisfaction of his infinite
its own Light the felicity of the Enjoyment becomes its own fortress and security For he that is throughly Happy has so much work to do in Contemplation and Thanksgiving that he cannot have while to be concerned with other mens disorders he loves his Employment too well to be disturbed and will not allow himself the thoughts of Revenge or Anger IN two things Meekness is greatly profitable to a Mans self Possession and Triumph He that permits the Tumult of the World to enter into his Soul and suffers the Temple of the Holy Ghost to be defiled with Rage and Anger makes it an unfit habitation for the Blessed Spirit Doves will not dwell in Pigeon-Houses disturbed or haunted with Vermin nor can Felicity be enjoyed but by serene and quiet Thoughts that are full of tranquillity For where Envying and Strife is there is Confusion and every evil Work But the Wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of Mercy and good Fruits And the fruit of Righteousness is sown in Peace of them that make Peace Which must of necessity precede fruition as Triumph followeth WERE I for my life to interpret that Text of our Saviour The Meek shall inherit the Earth I should in the first place say that every Knowing man may enjoy the beauty and glory of the whole World and by sweet Contemplations delight in all the abundance of Treasures and pleasant Varieties that are here upon Earth especially since by the Ordinance of Nature all men are to be his peculiar Treasures This he might do I say did all men love him and fill the World with Glory and Vertue But since all is confounded by their perverseness and disorder his Fruition is utterly lost unless he will forgive all Injuries and by the vertue of Meekness maintain the quiet of his own Soul in the midst of their distempers The Meek man is not fretted nor disturbed but may enjoy all Still and the unspeakable Joy which all the Glories of Gods Kingdom do afford him shall make him more meek and able also to pacifie and rule and heal the minds of his Enemies and even by the love of Sinners to recover his Right and ancient Fruitions TO be able to live at quiet and enjoy the felicity of Heaven and Earth notwithstanding all the attempts of our Enemies makes them mad when they see they cannot fret us and so by Consequence a greater Revenge is seated in Meekness than in Revenge it self For our Repose is their punishment and torment that hate us Their vexation falleth on their own head when they see they miss of their aim and cannot molest us but it is a joy to see our selves seated in a throne of Repose clean out of their reach it breeds a kind of triumph and ovation in the Soul The secret Conscience of its own Power is a glory and satisfaction unimaginable HE that masters his own Passion is master of anothers mans and seldom falls into those Broils and Inconveniencies that are the destruction of ungoverned and hasty Spirits Which made Solomon to say He that is slow to Anger is better than the Mighty and he that ruleth his Spirit than he that taketh a City HE that troubleth his own house shall inherit the Wind he that is nice and exquisite in exacting all Faults shall never be beloved They are disobliging angry testy men that are hated and the Revengful that do frequently fall into mischief But to be kind to the Unthankful and the Evil and to deal with all men better than they deserve is the way to be beloved by the worst of men and admired by the best MEEKNESS is the retreat of Goodness and the only force in the rear of Liberality He that does one Injury after forty Kindnesses blots out the memory of all his Courtesies and he that revenges an Injury seems to do one For he that did the Wrong seems innocent to himself because he felt it not and seeming innocent takes the Revenge as an undeserved Injury and is lost for ever Now some Injuries we must expect from our best Friends which are alwaies lost for want of Meekness So are all the Benefits we do unless we will forgive as well as give But an Injury forgiven is forgotten by him that did it and the Friendship continues at the expence and to the honour and comfort of the Pardoner as if no Offence had ever been committed Nay if afterwards he comes to see the Candor of his abused Friend he that did the Injury loves him better than before because he pardoned the Wrong MEEKNESS as it preserves Friendship between two makes Goodness invincible and unalterable in one He shall not be good long whose Goodness dependeth on others Merits He is a miserable weak man that is of an Exceptious humor he is a trouble to his own flesh and subject to the power of every Wasp whether he shall be good or no. He is quickly stopt in his Careir of Vertue and easily turned out of the way that is apt to be infected with anothers Malice He carries no Antidotes about him and for want of a Preservative is in danger of the Contagion Meekness is a means of the health of the Soul a Passionate man being all over sore is covered with hot and angry Boils which cannot be touched IT preventeth much mischief in Families An occasion of Anger is like a spark of Fire it is of great Consequence where it falleth If it falls into barrels of Gunpowder it blows up the World if into green Wood or watery places it does no harm Penitent Tears and the verdure of Humility prevent such flames and extinguish the quarrel If Wild-fire be thrown I will put it out with my foot and not by throwing it back give my Enemy the advantage of retorting it upon me A soft Answer pacifieth much Wrath but virulent Speeches are a fire-ball tossed to and fro of them that love Death BY Revenge a man at best can but preserve himself by killing his Enemy but Meekness well managed destroys the Enmity preserves the Person and turns the Enemy into an excellent Friend MEEKNESS is not the way to Peace and Repose and Victory only but to Honour and Glory As it is the strength it is the Glory of a man to pass over a Transgression He that is lightly angered is quickly lost and a fickle Friend is not worth a farthing A straw and a feather shall forfeit all the Obligations in the World in some Tempers Nay he that is Revengful is a dangerous Person and with an Angry man thou shalt not go He has the Plague upon him and is prohibited Company All this is dishonourable But a man that is a resolved and stable Friend that cannot be alter'd that will not change though he be wronged but forgive and pity and continue to serve and love his Friend though he shews him some dirty Tricks he that will surmount all by invincible
extream disgrace before all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth that look upon it and behold its Unworthiness No Toad has so much deformity or poyson or malignity as Pride in its nature It is the ruine of all that is great and turns the brightest of the Seraphims into the most abominable of Devils NOW if Pride be so pernicious and be by nature though a meer Phantasie so destructive what shall Humility be which is full of truth and reality How forcible how divine how amiable how full of truth how bright and glorious how solid and real how agreeable to all Objects how void of errour and disparity how just and reasonable how wise and holy how deep how righteous how good and profitable how mightily prone to exalt us in the esteem of GOD and Man How agreeable to all its Causes and Ends how fit and suitable to all the circumstances of Mans Condition I need not say more It bears its own evidence and carries Causes in it that will justifie our Saviours words He that humbleth himself shall be exalted He that is puffed up has but a counterfeit glory but Humility is full of solid glory It s beauty is so amiable that there is no end of counting its proportions and excellencies The Wise man that saw into the nature of all things very clearly said long before our Saviour was born Pride goeth before a fall but before Honour is Humility He that exalteth himself must needs be humbled because the Colours are envenomed wherewith he painteth his face which in a little time is discerned and at the very first instant the Painting begins to turn into a Canker THE Amiableness of Humility appeareth by its Excellency on these two the greatness of its beauty and success is founded It is so agreeable to all the principles of Nature and Grace and Glory to all the desires of Angels and Men to all the designs of GOD himself and to all the interests and concerns of the Soul that it cannot but be the most advantagious Vertue in the vvhole World It is strange that a man should look with the same Eye upon two Objects so infinitely distant and different from each other But at the same time he seeth GOD and Nothing Heaven and Earth eternal Love and Dust to be his Original Self-love and Justice Wisdom and Goodness Joy and Gratitude have the same Objects but look upon them in a several manner and are very differently affected with them Humility regards all Objects high and low Good and Evil but with a peculiar remark and notice of its own It takes them in in another light and discerns them all with another kind of sence It is in some manner the taste of the Soul Their Truth appeareth to the eye of Knowledge their Goodness is apprehended by the â—â—fe of Love the perfection of their serviceableness to the most perfect End is discerned by Wisdom the benefit which all Spectators receive is the delight of Goodness the incomprehensible depth and mysterious intricacy of their frame and nature is the peculiar Object of our Wonder and Curiosity they help our Faith as they shew a Deity and the truth of all Religion and Blessedness As they are the gifts of GOD they are the provocations of Gratitude and as they are aggravations of Sin they are respected by Repentance As they are the means of our Glory and our proper Treasures they are the Objects of Contentment but Humility looks upon them in relation to its Unworthiness compares them with it self and its own deserts and admires the disproportion that is between them It useth them all as grounds of a deeper and profounder Lowness in the esteem which it ought to have of it self and as the incentives to Love and Gratitude which it paies in the depth of a more profound Acknowledgment and Adoration THIS habit or affection of the Soul is not inconsistent with its Joy and Glory as by some foolish people that are by Ignorance and Errors far from GOD is generally supposed but highly conducive and subservient to its perfection It gives us the tenderest and greatest sence it passeth thorow all things embraceth the Poles and toucheth all Extreams together The Centre it self is but the middle of its profundity it hath a Nadir beneath it a lower point in another Heaven on the other side opposite to its Zenith In its own depth it containeth all the height of Felicity and Glory and doubles all by a mystery in Nature It is like a Mirror lying on the ground with its face upwards All the height above increaseth the depth of its Beauty within nay turneth into a new depth an inferiour Heaven is in the glass it self at the bottom of which we see the Skie though it be not transplanted removed thither Humility is the fittest Glass of the Divine Greatness and the fittest Womb for the conception of all Felicity for it hath a double Heaven It is the way to full and perfect Sublimity A man would little think that by sinking into the Earth he should come to Heaven He doth not but is buried that fixeth and abideth there But if he pierceth through all the Rocks and Minerals of the inferiour World and passeth on to the end of his Journey in a strait line downward in the middle of his way he will find the Centre of Nature and by going downward still begin to ascend when he is past the Centre through many Obstacles full of gross and subterraneous Darkness which seem to affright and stifle the Soul he will arrive at last to a new Light and Glory room and liberty breathing-place and fresh-air among the Antipodes and by passing on still through those inferiour Regions that are under his feet but over the head of those that are beneath him finally come to another Skie penetrate that and leaving it behind him sink down into the depth of all Immensity This he cannot do in his Body because it is gross and dull and heavy and confined but by a Thought in his Soul he may because it is subtile quick aiery free and infinite Nothing can stop or exclude it oppress or stifle it This local descent through all the inferiour Space and Immensity though it brings us to GOD and his Throne and another Heaven full of Joyes and Angels on the other side the World yet is it but a real Emblem of the more spiritual and mysterious flight of Humility in the mind We all know that the way to Heaven is through Death and the Grave beyond which we come to another Life in Eternity but how to accommodate this to the business of Humility few understand By this Vertue we are inclined to despise our selves and to leave all the garish Ornaments of Earthly bliss to divest our selves of the splendors of Temporal prosperity and to submit to all Afflictions Contempts and Miseries that a good Cause can bring upon us In the eyes of other men we are beneath their feet and so
comparison of which all other Powers are but poor and feeble To speak with the tongue of Men and Angels to move Mountains or turn them into Gold to raise the Dead to command the Sun are common things The power of creating Worlds is but vain without the power of enjoying them All Honour Pleasure and Glory are shut up in Felicity Had we a power of Creating and enjoying all Worlds it were infinitely short of the power of enjoying GOD because he is infinitely greater and higher than all the Creating Power is superfluous to us because all is most exquisite and perfect already The fools Wishing Cap and the Philosophers Stone are but trifles All things that are not gold are better than gold Felicity giveth us the power of enjoying all even GOD himself all Angels and Men and all Worlds nay all their Riches Splendors and Pomps in their places which is the most amiable and desirable the most sweet and profitable Power of all other BUT when we are Contented there is another Power worth the having which Felicity giveth us It enables us to despise the Menaces and Anger 's of Men it setteth us above their reach and inspires us with a comely boldness to dare to do any thing that is good as well as with ability to dare to suffer any thing that is evil He that is secure and he that hath enough is independant and bold as a Lion And besides all this he has a certain lustre in his Actions that gives him authority and power over others to intercede and prevail in his requests to live in honour and good esteem and to make many subservient to his best occasions He is great in Heaven and whatever he asks of his eternal Father in his Sons Name with Wisdom and Piety shall not be denied him He can touch the hearts of millions by his Fathers Mediation For the hearts of Kings are in the hands of the Lord to turn them as the Rivers of water He made his people to be pitied of all them that carried them away Captive and gave them favour in the sight of the Egyptians And this secret alone is of more value then we can well describe To receive power from Heaven to be Vertuous to delight in Vertue to be irresistible and invincible in the practice of it is a very divine and glorious Priviledge Felicity it self is the fountain of this Power and the knowledge of its greatness that which enflames us with the love of it Felicity is excellent not only as it is the end of Vertue but the encouragement of it He that is Content has a great advantage above all other men because he moves with greater ease and passeth through all difficulties with greater pleasure A general of an Army that works with the Common Souldiers in the Trenches does the same work but with more honour and less labour He is not servile in it as the rest are but his pleasure is to do it for all their encouragement He does it in the quality of a Prince and with less molestation he has higher Incentives and more sublime Rewards Yet he does it too with greater merit and acceptance A man that sees and knows the glory of his high and heavenly Estate does all things triumphantly The sweetness of his Bliss alters the very nature of his Fights and Battles He does all things in the light without groaning and reluctancy He marches on with dancing and melody and chearful looks and smiles and thanksgivings whereas they that know not the glory of Felicity groap in the dark they that are discontented move heavily and are in all their proceedings lame and maimed THE way to attain the felicity of Contentment is to attain Felicity that we may be contented True Felicity is the source of Contentment and of all Vertue It is never to be gotten but by digging after Knowledge as for hidden Treasures Praying for it is a good way but Prayers without Industry is a meer mockery Industry on the other side without Prayer is loose Presumption For a man to pray to GOD to make his Field fruitful without ploughing and sowing is madness and to expect all from his own labour without GOD's Blessing impiety But GOD never yet said to any of the seed of Jacob Seek ye my face in vain WHEN Contentment is gotten it must be secured by the same means by which it was obtained Care in fencing is as necessary as Care in ploughing and there is Labour too but sweet and delightful even in reaping in the Harvest But all the work is reduced into narrow room Thou hast no charge over any other than thine own Vineyard When thou hast gotten the knowledge of Felicity and thy self the grand means of Contentment is continually to enjoy it With all thy getting get Wisdom and with all thy keeping keep thy Heart For out of it are the Issues of Life and Death Nothing can waste thy Conscience but Sin and nothing trouble thy Repose but what disturbs thy Conscience Let Vertue and Felicity be thy only good and believe firmly that nothing can hurt thee but SIN alone One evil action done by thy self is more mischievous to thee then all the Calamities and Sufferings in the World CHAP. XXVIII Of Magnanimity or Greatness of Soul Its Nature It s Foundation in the vast Capacity of the Understanding It s Desire Its Objects are infinite and eternal Its Enquiries are most profound and earnest It disdaineth all feeble Honours Pleasures and Treasures A Magnanimous Man is the only Great and undaunted Creature MAGNANIMITY and Contentment are very near allyed like Brothers and Sisters they spring from the same Parents but are of several Features Fortitude and Patience are Kindred too to this incomparable Vertue Moralists distinguish Magnanimity and Modesty by making the one the desire of greater the other of less and inferiour Honours But in my apprehension there is more in Magnanimity It includes all that belongs to a Great Soul A high and mighty Courage an invincible Patience an immoveable Grandeur which is above the reach of Injuries a contempt of all little and feeble Enjoyments and a certain kind of Majesty that is conversant only with Great things a high and lofty frame of Spirit allayed with the sweetness of Courtesie and Respect a deep and stable Resolution founded on Humility without any baseness an infinite Hope and a vast Desire a Divine profound uncontrolable sence of ones own Capacity a generous Confidence and a great inclination to Heroical deeds all these conspire to compleat it with a severe and mighty expectation of Bliss incomprehensible It soars up to Heaven and looks down upon all the dominion of Fortune with pity and disdain Its aims and designs are transcendent to all the Concerns of this little World Its Objects and its Ends are worthy of a Soul that is like GOD in Nature and nothing less than the Kingdom of GOD his Life and Image nothing beneath the Friendship and
putteth us in mind of Guilt and Innocency at the same time and by confession of the one adds lustre to the other By making way for the acceptance of a mans Person it giveth more esteem success and efficacy to his other Vertues And by this means it hath much of excellency in a little HE that hath it not must needs acquire something like it and if he be elaborate in expressing it must hide his Art under the vail of Nature Though it be remote from the highest End it may be guided to it and when so directed is alwaies innocent It is very just for while other Vertues make it a Vertue it is a Grace unto them all You may look upon it as a tangible flame and see it in others but must feel it in your self before you can understand it It is old in Children young in middle Aged men at last an Infant It is greatest in the beginning of our life it decayeth in Youth in Old Age it vanisheth at least changeth its dwelling for it ceaseth to be in the Body of an Aged man and turneth into Courtesie or Civility in the Conversation When it dieth it is buried in Humility and liveth in its Tomb being empaled in as it were with Meekness and waiting daily for its Resurrection Much cannot be said of it precisely but it is best commended when left to your Practice It is the only tender Infant of all the Vertues like Cupid among the gods it appeareth frequently and is much exercised in the School of Venus but is capable of more high and more noble uses MODESTY in Apparel is commended in the Scriptures It implies Moderation and Chastity together It is sometimes opposed to Lasciviousness sometimes to Excess sometimes to Impudence And is a great Vertue if for nothing else but the exclusion of these abominable Vices THE other Vertues seem to be the Members and substantial parts of the Body of worth Modesty like the Air and Meen of them all It is the guard of the Soul against Loosness and Pride a Vertue repressing the sumes of self-conceit and a kind of silent restraint of all that Arrogance that delights in pomps and superfluities THOUGH it be a little Vertue its Reality is apparent for unless it be made up with some other supplies the want of Modesty is pernicious and destructive IT is exercised in small things but is of long extent in the vertue of its influence and because of the multiplicity of its uses and occasions amounts to a considerable degree of Goodness It hath something like Love in its nature for it preferreth another above it self and in that its magnetical and obliging quality much consisteth In honour preferring one another It fulfils that Law wherein our most near and tender Interest is concerned In preferring one another there is a lovely 〈◊〉 more sweet and happy than the best Agreement It is of all other the most 〈◊〉 strife and 〈◊〉 Contâ—â—â—â—â—â— CHAP. XXX The excellent Nature of Liberality Rules to be observed in the practice of it Regard to our Servants Relations friends and Neighbours must be had in our Liberality as well as to the Poor and Needy How our external acts of Charity ought to be improved for the benefit of mens Souls Liberality maketh Religion real and substantial LIBERALITY in the common use and acceptation of the Word differs from Magnificence as Modesty from Magnanimity There is much of liberty and freedom in its Nature For Avarice is a strict and sour Vice and they that are guilty of it are called Misers but a Bountiful man hath a good eye and is as free from Anxiety as he is free in disbursing His Communicative humor is much his enlargement he knows little of Confinement Care or Bondage THERE are two Vertues that endanger a Mans welfare in this World and they have all the Temporal Promises Meekness seems to encourage our Enemies to trample us under feet because it promiseth Impunity And it is directly said The Meek shall inherit the Earth may he so far from having Enemies that the Meek shall inherit the abundance of Peace And concerning Liberality which makes a man a Beggar at least threatens to make him so by wasting his Estate the Scripture saith The Liberal Soul shall be made fat The Liberal Heart deviseth liberal things and by liberal things shall be stand MEN are almost in all things contrary in GOD. For since they tumbled out of Eden they have lost their wits and their heads are downwards They think it wisdom to keep their Mony against a rainy day and to lay it up for fear of Poverty But Solomon adviseth them to the direct contrary and maketh it an Argument why they should be Liberal Becaus they know not what evil may come upon the Earth We cannot put our Treasures into safer hands than into GOD Almighty's Nor can we make any use of Gold and Silver comparable to that of Charitable uses By this it is that we lay up a good foundation against the time to come and oblige others to receive us into Mansions here into everlasting habitations hereafter MY Lord Bridgeman late Lord Keeper confessed himself in his Will to be but a Steward of his Estate and prayed GOD to forgive him all his offences in Getting Mispending or not Spending it as he ought to do And that after many Charitable and Pious works perhaps surmounting his Estate though concealed from the notice and knowledge of the World I have heard of a smart obliging Calumny fastned on a Great Man of France by one that had largely tasted of his Bounty for having been in his House honourably entertained for some space of time and observing how much the Palace was frequented by all kind of Learned Men and how Liberal the Master of it was especially to men of Worth and Vertue he charges the Man with the greatest Covetousnes in the World because he turned all his Riches into Obligations As if he had put all his Estate and Monies to Use But to covet affections and be rich in hearts is no deformity THE truth is when the waies whereby Love is begotten in the Soul are well examined and the happiness of being truly beloved and delighted in is known no man is so wise as the Liberal man He is his own end while he thinks not of it For nothing is more conducive to his 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 than the bounty of Munificence which enriches his Soul There are three things which beget Love Beauty Benefits and Praises They are all three shut up in Goodness which is the fountain of Liberality The beauty of the face is a silent Oratory a high stile of Commendation without an Epistle yet by doing Benefits it prevaileth more than by any of its Charms and maketh it self great by enriching others Love inspires it with an amiable Soul and if others are delighted with their own Praises he that is liberal in the acknowledgment of mâ—ns Vertues and giveth Honour to the Worthy
the welfare of his Subjects were there nothing else in the Duty but that consideration is an infinite encouragement He that receiveth you receiveth me is such an obligation that as it is all Goodness in it self so is it all Motive unto us Eternity will scarce be sufficient to fathom its depth Do we feed GOD himself in feeding the Poor and his eternal Son Jesus Christ Are these Needy persons the Representatives of the GODHEAD in whom we are to shew all our affection love and gratitude to the fountain of all Life and Happiness How infinite ought our Liberality to be when we consider the excellency of our Bliss and Benefactour Are they beloved are they all his Sons the very express image of himself all disguised and concealed Kings all Temples of eternal Glory What measure can confine or shut up our bowels Are the Spectators so innumerable so divine so blessed so nearly allyed to our selves so rich and great and beautiful are they so deeply concerned in the welfare of others and does every act of Charity extend to all shall we appear in the very act it self eternally before them What a vast ambition of pleasing all these glorious Persons should be exprest in every operation of the Soul As every Thought is seen throughout all eternity and every Word that is spoken here on Earth heard in the utmost extents of immensity so is there a kind of Omnipresent greatness in the smallest action for it is vertually extended through all the omnipresence of Almighty GOD even as every Centre wherein it can be done is eternally near nay and within him in the remotest part of his omnipresence 'T is dilated in a moment and fills the immensity of GOD with its nature According to its kind it affecteth all his Essence in all spaces whatsoever YET is there a Rule for the bounding of all external acts of Charity and another for improving it Intelligence is the light wherein Alms-deeds ought to shine and attain their glory Love is the soul of Compassion and Zeal the fervour of Perfection without which though a man bestow all his Goods to feed the Poor and give his Body to be burned it profiteth nothing Where this great abyss of goodness is Prudence may dispence it as it seeth occasion All other Vertues attending upon it it is impossible to destroy it self here on earth unless the case be so urgent that it is better die than to live in the World For a good man sheweth favour and lendeth but it is added He will guide his affairs with discretion The first Rule is to secure the life and growth of the tree by causing it so to bear one year that it may bring forth fruit another It is no good husbandry to cut it down nor any charity to make it wither and expire And on this very account a Charitable man must preserve himself that he may do more good by continuing longer able to do it HE that will examine the proportions and measures of his Liberality may take this Rule for the second Let thy Superfluities give place to other mens Conveniencies thy Conveniencies to their Necessities thy Necessities to their Extremities A third Rule is this Our Riches must be expended according to the several Circumstances and occasions of our lives A Liberal man will not pinch and starve his Servants For it is contrary to the nature of Bounty to oppress any to hurt any to trample upon any He will be good to all and to those most that are near unto him GOD hateth robbery for burnt Offering or that Strangers should eat the Childrens meat or that Beggars or Riotous persons should devour the right of a mans Servants He that does brave acts abroad but is a Niggard within doors has a glorious train spread abroad like a Peacock but stands upon black feet and may bear that unlucky bird for his Crest which is the emblem of Pride and Vain-glory. So is it with young Prodigals that oppress poor Tradesmen by defrauding them of their Debts yet are lavish enough to the Poor and Needy This is a defect with which Goodness is inconsistent and it blasteth their Charity It is better take off 100 pound a year from ones benevolence to the poor than wrong a Servant or Creditour of a shilling The Rule therefore is this First secure the works of Necessity have food and rayment for thy self keep out of debt Next render to every man his due in point of Justice and employ no man thou canst not pay rather perish thy self than oppress another If thou art able and hast any thing to spare then let the miseries of the Needy be supplied in the works of Compassion and Charity but let not all be swallowed up here thy Neighbours and Acquaintance and Friends and Kindred claim a share and thou must secure something for the works of Courtesie and Hospitality So order all both in thy Estate and Life that the kindness of GOD may shine in all So doing thy Stewardship shall be acceptable to the whole World and thy Memory blessed among men and Angels Our Saviour when he wrought his Miracles as he opened the eyes of the blind healed the sick cast out Devils raised the dead gave food to the hungry tongues to the dumb ears to the deaf and legs to the lame so did he give advice to the ignorant and interpret all his design by those Parables and Sermons which attended his Cures Good Counsel is oftentimes a greater gift than a Trunk of Mony While the Iron is hot it is time to strike Good Counsel is like a bitter Pill that must be gilded with Liberality If the Word of GOD be like good seed the heart in which it is sown is softened by Sorrow and ploughed up by affliction and prepared to receive it by the husbandry of Providence And the properest Season that can be chosen for Instruction is the time of Obliging He that intendeth the welfare of the Soul by all the good works he doth to the Body is deep and perfect in Charity A wise man will improve his advantages and enrich his Gifts with pious discourses A Benefactour has authority to talk what he listeth and bribes his Auditor to patience by his Bounty Since He that winneth Souls is wise a profound Liberality will not let slip a golden Opportunity nor suffer his Gift to be dark and insignificant He will make mention of the glory of GOD and the Love of Christ the guilt of Sin the danger of Hell and the hope of Heaven and alwaies endeavour to make his Love apparent to that GOD for whose sake he pities the Poor and is kind towards all For as much as man hath two parts and his Body is without the Soul but a putrid Carkass he will put life into his Mony and inspire his Munificence with all his Reasons that his Bounty may consist of two parts in like manner and have a Soul for its Interpreter Liberality to the Soul is
The fall from so great a height would fill the Soul with a cruel remembrance and the want of its former glory and bliss be an infinite torment Now if it loved nothing but it self it could endure all this rather than forsake it self or lose or be bereaved of its essence it would endure any misery whatsoever Or to speak more correct and accurate sence it would be incapable of any Passion Patience or Misery but only that which flow'd from its abolition Nothing could prejudice it but the change of its Being THAT is not likely to love it self after the way which some conceive proper to Self-love which is willing to forsake it self upon any Misery and apt to forget it self upon any great felicity It loves it self that it might enjoy such a pleasure but loves that pleasure so much beyond it self that it is ready to go out of it self and is almost beside it self for the fruition of it Loving it self only for that end and that chiefly and for its own sake it loves that far more than it loves it self And there is no limit nor bound when it once begins to love any thing more than it self it may proceed eternally and provided its Object be infinitely more excellent it will easily and greedily love it infinitely more than it can it self and value the continuance of its own life only for the sake of that which it so infinitely esteems and delights in It is true indeed it presupposes its Capacity but what would that capacity be worth were it not for Objects WERE there no SUN it were impossible for so fair an Idea to be conceived in a Mirror as is sometimes in a Glass when it is exposed to the skie The Mirror is in it self a dark piece of Glass and how so much fire and flame and splendor should come from it while it is a cold Flint or piece of Steel how it should be advanced by any Art whatsoever to so much beauty and glory as to have a Sun within it self and to dart out such bright and celestial beams no man could devise Yet now there is a Sun the Matter is easie 't is but to apply it to the face of the Sun and the Glass is transformed And if GOD dwelleth in the Soul as the Sun in a Mirror while it looketh upon him the love of GOD must needs issue from that Soul for GOD is love and his love is in it The impression of all his Beauty swallows up the Being of the Soul and changes it wholly into another nature The Eye is far more sensible of the Day and of the beauty of the Universe than it is of it self and is more affected with that light it beholds than with its own essence Even so the Soul when it sees GOD is sensible only of the glory of that eternal Object All it sees is GOD it is unmindful of it self It infinitely feels him but forgets it self in the Rapture of its Pleasure BUT we leave Illustrations and come to the reason of the thing in particular The Soul loving it self is naturally concerned in its own happiness and readily confesseth it oweth as much love to any Benefactour as its bounty deserveth And if the value of the Benefit be the true reason of the esteem and Reason it self the ground of the return A little Kindness deserveth a little love and much deserveth more Reason it self is adapted to the measure of the good it receiveth and for a shilling-worth of Service a shilling-worth of Gratitude is naturally paid For a Crown or a Kingdom the Soul is enflamed with a degree of affection that is not usual Now GOD created and gave me my self for my Soul and my Body therefore I owe him as much as my Soul and Body are worth and at the first dash am to love him as much as my self Heaven and Earth being the gifts of his Love superadded to the former I am to Love him upon that account as much more as the World is worth and so much more than I love my self If he hath given all Angels and Men to my fruition every one of these is as great as my self and for every one of those I am to love him as much as that Angel or Man is worth But he has given me his Eternity his Almighty Power his Omnipresence his Wisdom his Goodness his Blessedness his Glory Where am I Am I not lost and swallow'd up as a Centre in all these Abysses While I love him as much as all these are worth to which my Reason which is the essence of my Soul does naturally carry me I love him infinitely more than my self unless perhaps the possibility of enjoying all these things makes me more to esteem my self and increases my Self-love for their sake more than for my own Thus when I see my self infinitely beloved I conceive a Gratitude as infinite in me as all its Causes Self-preservation is made so natural and close a Principle by all the hopes and possibilities to which I am created Those Hopes and Possibilities are my tender concern and I live for the sake of my infinite Blessedness Now that is GOD And for his sake it is that I love my self and for the glory and joy of delighting in him I desire my continuance and the more I delight in him my Continuance is so much the more dear and precious to my self Thus is GOD infinitely preferred by Nature above my self and my Love to my self being thoroughly satisfied turns into the Love of GOD and dies like a grain of Corn in the Earth to spring up in a new and better form more glorious and honourable more great and verdant more fair and delightful more free and generous and noble more grateful and perfect The Love of GOD is the sole and immediate Principle upon which I am to act in all my Operations NOW if you enquire what Advantages accrue by this Love to the Soul of the Lover we are lost again in Oceans of infinite Abundance The strength and brightness and glory of the Soul all its Wisdom Goodness and Pleasure are acquired by it founded in it derived and spring from it as we have before declared upon the Nature of Love The solution of that one Question will open the mystery Whether we gain more by his Love or our own All that we gain by his Love amounts to the Power of Loving the Act of Loving we gain by our own and all that depends upon it BY his Love he existeth eternally for our Enjoyment as the Father of GLORY which is begotten by it self but we do not gain all this by his Love but by our own Some man would say We gain our Souls and Bodies by the Love of GOD all Ages and Kingdoms Heaven and Earth Angels and Men infinite and eternal Joyes because all these were without our care or power prepared by him and his love alone They were prepared indeed by his Love but are not acquired or enjoyed by
which is taken in the communication of our Bounties And in this there is founded a certain sympathy of Delight which carries us to feel and be affected with anothers Joy and makes it an Object and a Caufe of ours nay almost the very Form aud Essence of ours when we are the Authors of it A Grateful Soul holds Intelligence with GOD as it receives his Bounties it delights in his Complacencies THE great effect of Obligation and Gratitude is Amity and Communion A Grateful Soul is deeply concerned in the Honour of his Benefactor in his Benefactors Pleasure Life and Safety in all his Successes Prosperities Advancements in all his Felicity and Glory He is afflicted in all his Afflictions he is delighted in all his Enjoyments he is crowned in all his Promotions he is wronged and injured in all his Affronts he is touched with the least Displeasure that can befal him Nay he is more tender of his Benefactors Repose than his own The apple of his Eye is the tenderest part in himself yet he had rather have it touched than the Person of his Benefactor No wounds can wound him more than those which his Benefactor receiveth and he in him His own wounds may kill his Body but these destroy his Contentment A thousand Injuries and Calumnics against himself he can forgive and is never provoked but when his Friend is offended He slights himself and prefers his Benefactor He would make his Face a Stepping stone to his Benefactors Glory He exposes his body to Swords and Spears and Arrows for his Benefactors safety He would rather be torn to pieces and suffer a thousand Deaths than permit his Benefactor to be slain or dishonoured Now all this in time of Trial and distress would seem disadvantagious But besides the Obligation there is Sence of Honour that compâ—â—â— a man thereunto and a certain beauty in the act of Gratitude distinct from the goodness of the Benefit that is so naturally sweet to the goodness of the Soul that it is better to die than renounce it And a certain Baseness on the other side an odiousoess in Ingratitude in the very act so abominable that it blasts any Safety and Repose that can be gotten by it WHERE the Benefits are small the Vertue of Gratitude is less powerful and perfect for its strength depends upon its food and nourishment A thin and spare diet is not very healthful for it Though all the benefits that are done upon the Earth by Men to Men are infinitely mean if compared to those which the Godhead does to the least of his Creatures yet the World is full of the praise of this Vertue and an Ingrateful man is the most hateful Object living Former Ages afford us many rare and glorious Examples of the power of Gratitude and its sacred Zeal for and tenderness of its Object The union between the Body and the Soul is nothing comparable to the union of Love and its Beloved though the Causes are but slight upon which it is founded The Soul will often forsake its mansion to dwell with its beloved It esteems all its beauties and Members only for its Beloloveds sake Yet Colours and Features a little red and white a sparkling Eye a brisk Conversation and a delectable Humor are all that breed it all that produce this mighty effect this prodigy of Nature There is something more where the Life and Honour of a man has been saved by the kindness of a Benefactor especially if he be rich and amiable that has delivered us If he be great and honourable that was the Author of the benefit the obligation is the greater For the Worth of the Person enters into the nature of the act and enhances its value Yet all this put together is exceeded by the Gratitude of a worthy Soul because his own Worth inclines him to be more Generous than the Cause requires and to magnifie the benefit by the mighty addition of his own goodness It is the natural property of Goodness to communicate it self any occasion of doing it is instead of a Cause But when there is a Cause it is like a spark to Powder it enkindles a flame in his Inclination All acts of Gratitude have a great deal of sweetness in their own nature and for the sake of that beauty which is seated in themselves will not be rigorous and exact in their proportions since it is a beautiful thing to exceed in Goodness It s own disposition prompts it to do more than is deserved by the Kindness it receives and if not to conceive it self more obliged than it is yet to be more honourable in its Returns than the meer goodness of its Benefactor can exact because it conceives it self by its own Vertue obliged to be Noble and Munificent in all its acknowledgments BUT however slow Gratitude may be in the Returns which it maketh for smaller benefits it is infinitely prone to exceed all measure when it is infinitely obliged Praises are not fed by mean Contentments but by sublime ones The acknowledgment is cool where the benefits are small and the Contentments imperfect where they are limited and restrained Full Satisfaction hath another kind of influence on the Soul of Man than single Kindnesses or some few particular Supplies An infinite Bliss produces more vigorous and joyful efforts than bare Acknowledgments Here upon Earth there are disquiets and destres and expectations and Complaints and defects and imperfections fears and interests to be still secured that lame and darken our Contentment and Gratitude But in Heaven all these admixtures of alloy are remov'd The glory of the light in which our Gratitude appeareth adds lustre and beauty to the increase of its Perfection In the utmost height of our Satisfaction there is such an infinite and eternal force that our Gratitude breaks out in exulting and triumphing Effusions all our Capacities Inclinations and Desires being fully satisfied we have nothing else to do but to Love and be Grateful An infinite and eternal Kingdom given to him that was taken out of Nothing by a King that is infinite in greatness and beauty all his Joyes and all his Treasures it makes the Soul a fountain of Delights whole nature is to receive no more but overflow for ever When the Soul cometh once to love GOD so infinitely above it self as the cause requireth its only delight is to magnifie him and to see him blessed The beauty and sweetness of its own Gratitude is as rich and divine as all his Gifts It is tempted here infinitely more to exceed its Causes than ever before Amazements Admirations Affections Praises Hallelujahs Raptures Extasies and Blessings are all its delights The pleasure of Loving is its only business it is turned all into flame and brightness and transportation and excess It infinitely passes Light and Fire in quickness and motion all Impediments are devoured and GOD alone is its Life and Glory The more Great the more high the more excellent he is the more
blessed is it self the more joyful and the more contented It s Nature is to shine and burn and admire to offer and to sacrifice up it self to its Joyes And GOD is its soveraign Joy its perfect happiness To suspend its beams were to act against Nature All overtures of Pleasure Beauty Glory Power Exaltation and Honour it would have added to its happiness The more Great the more Good the Wiser GOD is the greater is its Happiness The more he is admired and praised the greater is its Happiness The more he is magnified and pleased the greater is its Happiness All the Excellencies and Perfections in its Objective bliss though they are not locally removed are removed into the Soul of him that enjoyes it and there express themselves far more powerfully and effectually than if they were there alone No joy can be like that of seeing its Creatour adored no Service like that of magnifying its Beloved no pleasure like that of delighting its Beloved no melody like that of praising its Benefactor no honour like that of obeying its Preserver All Worlds are its Treasures because they manifest his Power and Glory all Angels and Men its Delights because they see and acknowledge the beauty of its Soveraign and eternal Perfection all Creatures the Instruments of its Joy that celebrate his Praises In him it enjoyes the glory of all Eternity the infinite beauty of all Immensity the innumerable riches of all Worlds the pleasures and adorations of all the Angels the state and magnificence of all Empires the splendour and perfection of all Ages all which it has in it self by his infinite Bounty as its own immediate and proper Possessions but far more divinely and sweetly enjoyes them by vertue of its Gratitude and Love to him whose they originally are and from whom they proceeded For the very true reason why it enjoyes it self and all its own Treasures is because it loves it self And the more it loves him the more it will be delighted with his fruitions It is more concerned it feels more it sees more it tastes more it possesses more it rejoyces more in its Object than it self The imagination and fancy that is in Love frames all the thoughts of its Beloved in it self it has an exquisite and tender sence of every change and motion in the mind of its Beloved Stir not up nor awake my Love till he please is the song of a feeling and affectionate Soul Every prick with a Needles point in its Object is a stab with a Dagger to it self It s heart bleeds in every drop of its Objects finger It loves his Beloved ten thousand times more than it self and is infinitely more pleased with its exaltation than its own The happiness of its Object is most its own True Gratitude is crowned in its Benefactor enthroned in its benefactor admired in its benefactor adored in its benefactor Nothing in all the World is so easily ravished as Love nothing is so lively as Love nothing so lovely Nothing so violent in its grief or joy nothing so capable of pain or pleasure All the Victories and Triumphs of its Saviour are its own My Joy my Life my Crown my Glory my exceeding great Reward my Love my Soul my Idol nay the GOD of my Soul my All in all This is the language of Love in its Rapture Seraphick Love It is Altar Heart and Sacrifice Angelical Love It is Priest and Temple All Service Freedom Duty Reward Desire Enjoyment Honour Praise Adoration Thanksgiving Extasie Pleasure Bliss and Happiness It is all Goodness and Beauty Paradice Heaven the life and Soul of Heaven All that is incommunicable in GOD Eternity almighty Power supream Dominion independent Majesty infinite Immensity with all the adorations and praises of all the Creatures are by such a Love and Gratitude enjoyed Loving GOD more than it self it is more happy in GOD than if it were a GOD. Could Is Deity be taken away and seated in it self the Soul of a Grateful Creature would be grieved at the exchange Even GOD in his place is perfectly enjoyed All Envy is by perfect Gratitude removed All Discontentment at any thing in its Object especially at its Objects Blessedness is abolished It is carried above all Thrones Dominions and Powers and still ascends eternally higher the higher its Object is exalted Could it be miserable in it self it would be happy in its Object but the higher it is exalted the more is its Creatour delighted If the resentment be wholly Spiritual the Soul perhaps may be transformed to Gratitude as Gratitude is to Contentment and Praise and Thanksgiving But it will have no Body no frail and corruptible Flesh no bones or members to look after All its operations are of one kind all its works and concernments are the same It has no Fear or Care to divert it no impediment or danger or distraction Pure Gratitude is so divine a thing that the Soul may safely wish to be turned all into Gratitude It s Employment and Nature are all one acknowledgment and benevolence united together It sacrifices all Worlds to the Deity and with infinite delight desires to offer all Honour and Glory to him It is very sensible that it can never pay so much Honour to GOD as is his due unless it be assisted with all the Tongues of Men and Angels It goes along with their Joyes and consents to their Praises In them it adores and by them it admires with them it conspires and takes in all their powers and divine affections It fees with all their Eyes hears with all their Ears speaks with all their Mouths and useth all their Hearts in loving and adoring All the tendencies and operations of Universal Nature are subservient to its desires It surmounts the Songs of David and yet we know how earnestly he exhorted all Creatures to praise him Praise ye the Lord Praise him in the Sanctuary Praise him in the Firmament of his Power Praise him in his mighty Acts Praise him according to his excellent Greatness Praise him in the Heights Praise him all ye Angels Praise him all his Hosts Praise him Sun and Moon Praise him all ye Stars of light Praise him ye Heaven of Heavens And when all is done it still confesseth that his Name is exalted far above all Blessing and Praise HE that praiseth GOD only for his Health and Food and Rayment and for his blessing on his Calling as too many only do either is very ignorant or upon a strict scrutiny will be detected for upbraiding GOD for the meanest of his bounty For his Love must infinitely be defective that is able to bestow Gifts infinitely more yet giveth us none but these He that sees not more Causes of Joy than these is blind and cannot see afar off The very truth or Religion is obscure to him and the cause of Adoration unknown He wanteth ten thousand demonstrations of the Love of GOD and as many Incentives to coflame his Soul in the Return