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
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
is magnified and Ages enlightned the Ministry of Angels and the Dispensations of Providence by which the Care and Tenderness of GOD is shewn the infinite measures and Violences of his Love the infinite Variety and Number of Obligations the present Advantages and Benefits the Eternal Rewards the Relation of GOD to Man as a Father and a friend a Bridegroom and a King a Light and Example the sweetuess of our Union and Communion with him and the Gift of the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven all these Things which the Angels desire to look into were by the Christian Religion with the rest before mentioned plainly revealed with our victory over Death the Resurrection of our Bodies and Life Eternal IN the Light of these Circumstances the Interior form of Vertuous Acts more evidently appears For to exercise Vertue in the Quality and Capacity of a Son of GOD is another sort of Business than to exercise Vertue as an ordinary Mechanick and to do all things being clothed with a Sence of our Coelestial Grandeur as we are Heirs of the World infinitely Beloved of GOD ordained for his Throne Delightful in the Eyes of all Angels and Men Beloved and honored by all the Creatures made Partakers of the Divine Nature intending and designing to Please all Spectators in Heaven and Earth by the excellency of our Actions This makes every little Deed as it were infinite within while the Matter of the Action seemeth nothing it renders the Form Divine and Blessed THE best Actions of the prophaner Heathen fell under the notion of Dead Works By which name the Apostle calleth all wicked Deeds to intimate the Privation of all that excellency that ought to be in Humane Actions Every Deed and Thought of ours ought to be Inspired with Life from Heaven The Light of the Understanding and the vigor of the Will is the Soul that informes it When it is void of Knowledge and springs not from that series of GODS infinite Love that ought to animate it nor regardeth those Eternal Joys that are set before us nor at all considers those Obligations that are laid upon us it is bereaved of its Vital and Essential form it is like a fair Carcase without a Soul unsensible of those Interests and Concerns that ought chiefly to be valued and promoted And by this you may see clearly that the Matter of a Good act falles infinitely short of that Perfection wherewith it ought to be inspired if this Soul or Form be wanting which tho less visible to the Eye of flesh is of as much greater Excellence and Importance as the Soul in nature is above Body THUS when a Heathen giveth to the Poor the matter of the Act is the very self same which a Christian man does So is an Act of Courage or Patience in encountring Death the subduing of the Appetite and the Denial of a Lust a piece of Justice against Interest and friendship an Act of Prudence Temperance or Fidelity In all these if we respect the Matter of them Heathens have acted in a manner as high as any Christian and consequently appear to vulgar Apprenhensions as Heroick and Stupendious But consider the inside the Heathen did it that he might satisfie his Conscience and and please the GODS that he might acquire honor and immortal fame or please the generous Inclination of his own Soul which delighted in Honor and Worth or assert his own Principles or five his friends or preserve his Country And doubtless these are Great and brave considerations but they are limited and finite and Sick of two Defects for the most part that are incurable They were Sacrifices of Obedience to false Gods plain Idolatry and attended with an ignorant Loftiness and Height of Mind that confided in them and besides this they aspired to little more then a Glorious name in following Ages WHEREAS the Christian makes all Kind of Graces to meet and concentre in every Action Wisdom Goodness Justice Courage Temperance Prudence Humility Penitence Patience Meekness Liberality Cheerfulness Gratitude Joy in the Holy Ghost Devotion Piety Faith Hope Charity all Kind of Holiness And his Action extends to all the Objects of these Graces and includes their Causes He remembers the infinite Obligations that are laid upon him by that Deity which infinitely Loves him the Benefit of the Creation and the Glory of the Divine Image the Guilt of fall and that blot and misery that lyes upon him the Wonder of his Redemption and the Love of Christ his Death and Passion the Miraculous Pains and Endeavors of GOD in all Ages to reclaim him the Giving of the Holy Ghost and his holy Baptism the New Covenant which he is in with GOD the Height and Glory of his Place and station the Beauty of the World and his Dominion over all the Living Creatures the Joy and Amity of all the Angels the Benefit and Welfare of all his Neighbours the Joy and Prosperity of future Ages the Glory of GOD the Honour of his Church and the Propagation of Religion the Salvation of others Souls and the Eternal State and condition of his own the Acquisition of a Coelestial and Eternal Kingdom and the Delight he taketh in an infinite Sphere of Eternal Joys the fervent Desire he has to be Grateful to the Almighty all these by the Light of his Divine and Coelestial Knowledge enter into the Act for want of which the other work that is wrought by an Ignorant Heathen is in a Manner rightly called a Work of Darkness I do not speak this as if I would discourage a Heathen from doing the Best that he is able or condemn those reasons upon which he proceedeth in his Vertuous Deeds No nor as if all this were necessary to the Acceptance of an Action But to shew how highly Christianity does ennoble the Soul of Man how far more sublime its Principles are and how far more perfect it makes his Actions When they are what they may be And withal to provoke Christians to a more Intelligent and lofty Practice of Christian Vertues lest they differ not in their Morals from the better sort of Heathens All these things are necessary to the perfection of an Action tho not to its Acceptance And GODS Omnipresence and Power and Wisdom and Love ought to be considered in all places among all Persons upon all occasions And the Blood of Christ and the infinite Glory of Eternal Bliss But that which above all I chiefly intend is to shew what influence the great Perfection of Felicity hath upon all our Vertues not only to stir us up to do them but by entering their Constitution to inspire them with their Beauty and form for their fuller Lustre Glory and Perfection That we may see also how Great and Transcendent that Life must be wherein every Act is capable of so much Majesty and Magnificence if I may so speak by reason of the variety of its Ends and Causes And how abominable and absurd they are all that
again divided into two For some of them are Laws that teach us our Duty some of them Propositions only or bare and Simple Affirmations which we call Articles guiding our Apprehensions in the Truth of those Things which are meet to be Known Speculation is intended in the one and Practice in the other NATURAL Doctrines are Objects of Divine Faith only as they are revealed by the Word of GOD. For the Authority of the Witness is that which maketh our Faith Divine They are called Natural because how ever Blind any man is in his present condition upon a diligent Search those Things may be clearly discerned by the Light of Nature Those Doctrines which are Objects of Divine Faith and yet may be found out by the Investigation of Reason are such as these That there is a GOD that the World was made that man was created in GODS Image that he hath Dominion over the works of his Hands that he is or ought to be tenderly Beloved of all mankind that he is to be good and full of Love to others that he is to render all Objects their Due Esteem and to be Grateful for the Benefits he hath received of his great Creator that the first Estate of the Worlds Creation was pure and perfect that Sin came in by the Accidental abuse of the Creatures Liberty that Nature is Corrupted that Death was introduced as the Punishment of Sin that the Soul is Immortal that GOD is infinitely Just and Wise and Holy that he will distribute Rewards and Punishments according to Right that there is such a Thing as Eternity and Immensity that the Body is frail and subject to Diseases that we receive all Things from GOD and depend in the fruition of all upon his Power and Providence that it is Wife to please him and foolish to displease him that Punishment is due to Sin and that GOD hateth it that Reward is due to Vertue and GOD delighteth in it that there is a Conscience in the Soul by which it feels and discovers the Difference between Guilt and Innocence That man is a Sinner that he is prone to Evil and Obnoxious to GODS Wrath that nevertheless he is spared by the Long-suffering of GOD and that GOD Loveth him and desireth his Salvation That there is a felicity and a Supream Felicity appointed for man that he is a free Agent and may lose it if he pleases that misery is the Consequent of the Loss of Felicity that GOD delighteth in all those that Love and practice Vertue that he hateth all those that drown their Excellencies in any Vice that Sorrow and Repentance are necessary for all those that have offended GOD that there is Hope to escape the Punishment of Sin if we endeavour to live as piously as we ought All these things are evident in themselves by the Light of Nature because they may either be clearly deduced from the principles of Reason or certainly discerned by plain Experience And are therefore taught by the Word of GOD either because they had need to be revived and raised up to light from under the Rubbish of our Fall or because GOD would sanctifie Nature by his express Consent or make its Dictates more remarkable and Valid by his Approbation and confirm all by the Seal of his Authority or because a fair Way is laid open by these to more retired and Coelestial Mysteries FOR when we know these Things we are prone to enquire what GOD hath done what Way there is to recover our ancient Happiness what Remedies are prepared for the corruption of Nature how the Guilt of Sin may be removed how we may be aided and assisted in the works of Virtue by what Means our Reconciliation with GOD is wrought and in what manner we ought to demean our selves that we may be accepted of him for the knowledge of our former health is necessary for the clear apprehension of our present Sickness and the sense of our Infirmitie fits us for the Physician When we know all that Nature can teach and see something needful that Nature cannot unfold when we are condemned by our Conscience yet feel our selves beloved find that we have forfeited all yet see the Glory of the creation continued for our use and service stand in need of an Atonement yet Know not where to get it our Exigency meeting with the grace of GOD the sence of our Misery and Hope united our own Guilt and GODS Mercy of both which we have the feeling and experience adopts us for the Reception of the Holy Gospel wherein those thing are revealed that come in most fitly to answer our Expectations Satisfaction for Sin by the Death of Christ and the Incarnation of his GODHEAD above the course of Nature for that End His active and passive Obedience in our Stead our Justification thereby the application of his Merits to our souls by faith the Glory which we owe him for so great an undertaking the coming down of the Holy Ghost to Sanctifie our Nature and the dignity of Both these Persons by reason of their Unity in the eternal Essence for the manifestation of which the Mysterie of the Trinitie is largly revealed these supernatural Points come in so suitably and are so agreeable to Nature so perfectly fit in their places so marvellously conducive to the perfection of the Residue that the very Harmony and sweetneess of altogether is enough to perswade us of their Credibility and then the Matter of fact comes in with the Testimony and Authority of GODS Word assuring us that these Things are so by History and Prophesie The Miracles at our Saviours Birth alone one would think enough to clear the business much more if we take in all the Miracles of his life wherein his Glory appeared as of the only begotten of the Father more fully yet if we take in the Miracles of his Death and abundantly more if the Glory of his Resurrection and Ascension be added But especially the Coming down of the Holy Ghost and the Power the Apostles received from heaven all the Prophesies that went before and all the successes that followed after all the Faith and Learning of the Fathers all the Canons and Decrees of Councils all the Transactions of the World drawn down to our own Age in a continued series illustrate and confirm all that is revealed BUT you will say How shall we know such Histories to be true and that such Prophesies and Prophets were in their several Ages Since we never saw the same with our eyes and there are many sleights and Fables in the World How dost thou know there are any Antipodies Thou didst never see them Or that there is any Sea which thou didst never behold Or that the next River has a Fountain Head Is not the Universal Tradition of all the world wherein the Church of Rome nay the Catholick Church is but a little Part a clear Light for a matter of Antiquitie attended with a Stream of Effects and
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
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
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
all his Counsels and Perfections that as our Saviour saith The Father loveth the son and hath given all things into his hand And again The Father loveth the Son and sheweth him all things that himself doth so we might become the Sons of GOD and see his Love and to delight in all that he hath done for us For which cause he afterwards saith Henceforth I call you not Servants for the Servant Knoweth not what his Lord doth But I have called you friends for all Things that I have heard of my Father I have made Known unto you THE Omnipresence and Eternity of GOD are so far from filling the Soul that they fit it only to be filled with infinite Objects For by the Indwelling of GOD all Objects are infused and contained within The Spiritual Room of the Mind is Transcendent to Time and Place because all Time and Place are contained therein There is a Room in the Knowledge for all Intelligible Objects A Room in our Esteem for all that is worthy of our Care and Desire I confess this Room is strange and Mysterious It is the Greatest Miracle perhaps in Nature For it is an infinite Sphere in a Point an Immensity in a Centre an Eternity in a Moment We feel it tho we cannot understand it WHATEVER we close our Eye against we exclude out of our Knowledge Whatsoever we Hate we reject tho we Know it We give a Place in our Heart only to that which we receive and embrace with a Kind Affection ETERNITY it self is an Object of Esteem and so it is the infinity of Almighty GOD there are infinite Causes for which they ought to be Esteemed Our Esteem of these cannot be abridged for upon the least substraction of the smallest Part Infinity is lost and so is Eternity We must be able to esteem the utmost Extent of every Perfection of GOD or our Righteousness in relation to that will be infinitely Defective The Proportion between our Esteem and its Object is that wherein Righteousness is seated if our Esteem be finite it is utterly destroyed for where the Object is infinite insteed of Proportion there is infinite Disproportion FROM Righteousness in Esteem we proceed to Righteousness in Choice We weigh and consider what is fittest to be valued and what we find of greatest Esteem we most desire To prefer the Better above the worse is a righteous Choise but to prefer the Worse is abominable Impiety The Election of GOD may be more strictly or Generally conceived His Election of perticular persons from the Rebellious Mass of Mankind to be employed as Ministers in restoring the residue is a matter of Grace which as Arbitrary and free is occasioned by the Accident of their General Rebellion and his Mercy thereupon Howbeit it is Righteous for he does Right to himself and to all his Creatures and Perfections therein For thereby notwithstanding the universal Apostasie of the World he upholdeth and continueth his Righteous Kingdome But the Primitive Election by which when he had considered the nature of all Possible Things he chose the fittest and the Best was wholy Natural For according to the Merit of all Objects he chose them which Merit nevertheless was to be infused by himself in their first Creation Whether a star were a Thing fit to be made Whether the Sun should be limited whether his Image should be infinite whether naked Spirits or Bodies should be created or Bodies and Spirits personally united Whether Men should at first Instant be placed in Glory or in an Estate of Trial whether when they fell into Sin they should be redeemed or no what Laws were most fitting under the Covenant of Works what conditions were most proper for the Covenant of Grace What Helps and Assistances Men should have what Impediments and Obstacles all these and many Millions of Objects more passed his Examination in order to the Perfection of his Kingdome as it did also whether he should Create a Kingdome or no and look what surpassed in Esteem as best and most Eligible that he chose to create and Perform To fail in a Tittle had been an infinite fault because had he in any one perticular preferred the Worse above the better he had contracted a Blot upon his own Wisdome and Goodness and made the whole Creation deformed For there is such a Love to Righteousness implanted in our Natures that should GOD be unjust to a poor Indian beyond the Seas we should be grieved at the Blemish and any Blemish in him would blast our Felicity For the Justice of the Soul is an impartial Thing and its Severity Greatest where its Expectations is the Highest It is more easie with GOD to be infinitely Wise then with Man to be any thing He may be Exact and perfect in every action with Greater Ease then any other of his Creatures can because he is Almighty Omniscient and Omnipresent all the Advantages of his Wisdom and Knowledge and Goodness and Power would be Aggravations of his fault should he Sin against himself The least offence would be an infinite Blot in him because committed against all Wisdome Goodness and Power and a misery to us because it would tend to the Ruine of his Creatures The Accurate Perfection which he acquires in all his Ways having to do with so many millions of Objects becomes our infinite Joy our Amazement and Wonder a Transcendent Cause of Complacency and Adoration it fills Eternity with Delights and Praises The possibility of doing otherwise in him that is Subject to no Laws awakens our Concernment But the prevention of our fear by the establishment of our Security supplies our contentment he is an Absolute and free Agent and therefore we may fear a miscarriage in his Choise but as from all Eternity he hath determined himself and is by his Essence an Eternal Act of Wisdom and Righteousness he secures our Felicity and makes it more Great because he is not imposed on by another but freely of himself delights in the most Excellent things THIS relateth to the Righteousness of action whereby GOD did execute all his Decrees and does Eternally For Nothing is past but all things in him are immediately neer and present for ever If you desire further Information concerning the Nature of Righteous Actions Those Actions are properly called Righteous that are adequately fitted to their ends and Causes And in this respect there is in every being under several Circumstances a several Righteousness THE Effect of Righteousness with men is Peace and Assurance for ever because Righteous men are Agreable to GOD and all his Creatures rightly answer all their Natures and assist in the Harmony of the whole Creation It is Fruition and Blessedness because all the perfection and Goodness of GOD is with his Kingdome received into the Soul by the Righteous esteem of all Objects It is the Beauty and Glory of the Inward Man because a voluntary Agent that does incline himself to such excellent Actions is
and Nations upon Earth adoring his Glory in the Highest Heavens Especially to see the manner of his satisfaction by way of Sacrifice in our stead the laying of our Sins upon his Head the sprinkling of his Blood upon all Nations so lively represented the Necessity of such a Saviour exhibited by the Rigor and Severity of the Law his Person and his Office being pointed out in so particular a Manner all this as it is sweet Heavenly so does it enrich the Contemplation of the Soul make it meet to walk in Communion with GOD in all Ages adoring his Wisdome and Goodness and Power admiring delighting in the fulness of his Love And all these most Great Transporting Things we receive into our souls by Faith alone BUT that which above all other Things is most satisfactory is to see Jesus Christ the end of the Law and the centre of time the main Business of all the Dispensations of GODS Providence and the only Hinge upon which all mysteries both of the Law and Gospel Principally turn HAD he come in the Beginning of the World there had been no Room nor Place for all these Prophesies and Figures and Expectations and Miracles Precedeing his Birth we had had nothing but a bare and naked Tradition that he had been in the world which by the carelesness of men had passed away like a Dream and died unprofitably As we may plainly see by their Backwardness to believe these Things notwithstanding their strength and Beauty and the reiterated Appearances of GOD to excite and awaken Man-kind notwithstanding his care to erect a Ministery among us for this very end that Jesus Christ might be Known HAD he not been GOD and MAN in one Person had no satisfaction been necessary for our sins had he not made satisfaction for us there had been no Necessity of believing on his name The light of nature had been sufficient to guid us to sorrow and Obedience all this trouble and care might have been spared all this Oeconomy might have been changed into a Government of less expence and the most of these proceedings had been impertinent and superfluous For they all receive their Attainment and Perfection in Jesus Christ who is the fulness and substance and Glory of them NOR is it the excellency of Faith alone that it looks back upon Ages past it takes in the Influences of all these that it may bring forth fruit in our Lives for the time to come For what is it but the Faith of these things attended with the Glory which is intimated by them that made so many Divine and Heavenly persons so many Wise and Holy Heroes so many Saints and Martyrs What can enflame us with the love of GOD inspire us with Courage or fill us with Joy but the Sence of them A true and lively Faith is among Sinners the only Root of Grace and Virtue the only Foundation of Hope the only Fountain of excellent Actions And there fore it is observed by the Apostle Paul that by Faith Abel offered a more Excellent sacrifice than Cain by Faith Enoch walked with GOD by Faith Noah prepared an Ark in which being warned of GOD he saved himself from the general Deluge by Faith Abraham did such Things as made his Seed to multiply above the Stars of Heaven by Faith Moses despised the Honours and Treasures of Egypt and endured as seeing him that was invisible What should I say more saith the Apostle For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of Sampson and of Jeptha of David also and of Samuel and of the Prophets who through Faith subdued Kingdoms wrought Righteousness obtained Promises Stopped the mouths of Lions Quenched the violence of fire escaped the Edge of the Sword out of Weakness were made strong waxed valiant in fight turned to flight the Armies of the Aliens Women received their Dead raised to Life again and others were tortured not accepting Deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection and others had tryal of cruel Mocking and Scourges yea moreover of Bonds and Imprisonments They were stoned they were sawn asunder were tempted were slain with the sword they wandred about in Sheep-skins and Goat-skins being destitute afflicted tormented of whom the World was not worthy they wandered in Deserts and Mountains and in Dens and Caves of the earth All these things were done through Faith while yet there were but a few Things seen to encourage them But the whole Accomplishment of mysteries and myracles is far more fair and vigorous and enflaming the Beauty of the whole Body of GODS Dispensations fitly united in all its Parts being an eternal Monument of his Wisdom and Power declaring the Glory of his Love and Kingdom in a more Eminent manner and making us more then conquerors in and thorrow Jesus Christ who loved us and gave himself for us CHAP. XVI Of Hope It s foundation its Distinction from Faith its Extents and Dimensions its Life and Vigor its Several Kinds its Sweetness and Excellency JANUS with his two Faces looking backward and forward seems to be a fit Emblem of the Soul which is able to look on all Objects in the Eternity past and in all Objects before in Eternity to come Faith and Hope are the two Faces of this Soul By its Faith it beholdeth Things that are past and by its Hope regardeth Things that are to come Or if you please to take Faith in a more large and Comprehensive Sence Faith hath both these Faces being that Vertue by which we give Credit to all Testimonies which we believe to be true concerning Things past present and to come Hope is a Vertue mixt of Belief and Desire by which we conceive the Possibility of attaining the Ends we would enjoy and are stirred up to endeavour after them Faith respects the Credibility of Things believed to be True Hope the Possibility and Goodness of their Enjoyment The Simple Reality of Things believed is the Object of the one the facility of their attainment and our Interest united are the Object of the other HOPE presupposes a Belief of the Certainty of what we desire It is an Affection of the Soul of very general Importance Which forasmuch as it is founded on Faith and derives its strength from the Sure Belief of what we hope to attain and there can be no fruition of that which is not really existent to lay the foundation of our Hope more firmly we will again consider the Objects of Faith in the best Light wherein their apparent certainty may be discerned THE Objects of Divine Faith revealed in the holy Scripture may fitly be ranked into three Orders For the Matter of the Bible being partly Historical and partly Prophetical and partly Doctrinal the Objects of Divine Faith fall under these three Heads of Doctrine History and Prophesie THE Doctrine of the Scripture is of two sorts for some Doctrines are Natural some are Supernatural The Natural are
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