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A29033
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Some motives and incentives to the love of God pathetically discours'd of, in a letter to a friend / by the Hon[ora]ble R.B., Esq.
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Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691.
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1659
(1659)
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Wing B4032; ESTC R11830
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73,891
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200
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SOME MOTIVES AND INCENTIVES To the Love of GOD. Pathetically discours'd of in A Letter to a Friend BY The honble R. B. Esq Let us consider one another to Provoke unto Love Heb. 10.24 London Printed for Henry Herringman and are to be sold at his Shop at the Anchor in the lower walk in the New Exchange 1659 TO THE COUNTESSE OF WARWICK My Deare Sister I Expect you should somewhat wonder that after having for above Eleven years been carefull to keep this following Letter from the Publick View and that too notwithstanding the Sollicitation not to say Importunity of divers Illustrious Persons and even Your Commands to Release it from its Confinement I should now at length give way to its Passing Abroad into the World and its making You a Publick and Solemn Addresse Wherefore judging my self obliged to give You an Account of a Paper for which You have long been pleased so Highly and so Obligingly to Concern Your self I must to remove Your Wonder inform You that I am Reduc'd to this Publication in mine own Defence For whilst I was far from Dreaming of permitting this Epistle to passe out of my Closet it happen'd that a broken Copy of it did by I know not what Misfortune for me fall into the hands of a Necessitous Person who would needs perswade himself that by Printing it he might relieve some of his present Wants and thereupon proffer'd to sell the Copy for a sum of Mony But my good Fortune leading him to a Stationer to whom my name was not unknown he very civilly sent me forthwith notice of the Proposition that was made him and after came himself to acquaint me that the Copy about which he had been treated with being but One of two or Three that were then abroad some or other of them would questionlesse soon find the way to the Presse This unwelcome Accident did little less Trouble than Surprize me for Besides that it impos'd on me the necessity of a Publication I had so long declin'd and Besides that I knew that Composures of a very differing Nature being Expected from me the appearing of This instead of Them would make this Unwelcome to many though it had fewer Imperfections than it has Besides these things I say my Sight was then and is still so impair'd by a distemper in my Eyes and the Hours I could dispose of were so prae-ingag'd to Philosophicall Themes that I could not promise my self so much as to Read it over before its going to the Printer But considering after all this that the Copy I had by me was like to prove more Full and lesse Faulty than any of those that some endeavourd to obtrude upon the World I thought it lesse Inconvenient to venture mine own abroad than to run the hazard of a Surreptitious Edition of a Discourse that could so ill bear the appearing with any other Blemishes than those it brought with it into the World from my Pen. And therefore having put it into the hands of Persons whose eminent Abilities the more Knowing part of the Nation has long and justly admir'd and begg'd their Impartiall Opinion and Castigations of it giving them entire Liberty to Alter and Expunge whatever they dislik'd and finding by hastily turning over the Leaves that their Castigations were onely enough to let me see that they had heedfully read it over and were accompanyed with Encouragements which care was taken to keep me from looking upon as meer Complements I let it go to the Presse without so much as having once Perus'd it or heard it read over since the Stationer first gave me the Advertisement I told You of Which I made the less scruple to do because a Critick whose Judgment and Piety I much reverence seriously endeavour'd to perswade me that I ought not in Conscience to decline publishing what be was pleased to think proper to Kindle or Cherish the Flames of Divine Love in the Breasts of the Readers And my Haste it self did afterwards Promise me these advantages That notwithstanding my Book 's not comming forth sooner I should not Lose the Excuse of Youth I had when it was Written nay and That the Faulty passages which may be met with in it will perhaps be charged upon those that suffered them to passe uncorrected when they had so absolute a Power to Expunge or Reform them These and the like Motives having induc'd me to consent to the Publication of the following Letter I needed not Deliberate long To whom I should Addresse it For since that Accomplish'd Lindamor whom it so much Concern'd has left the World there is no Person in it to whom this Addresse is any thing near so due as unto You Dear Sister It was at that delicious Leeze where You are now the Mistress that this Letter was writen and it was of You that I borrow'd those hours I spent in writing it 'T was to You that I show'd it almost Sheet by Sheet before I resolv'd to send it away 'T is You that can best Excuse the Imperfections of it as knowing not onely the more Obvious but the more Private Avocations and other Disadvantages among which it was penn'd 'T is You that have ever since Sollicited me to divulge it and have given me the greatest Encouragements to do so not onely by those Sollicitations which imply'd Your own favourable Opinion of it but by procuring me by Concealing or Disguising my name the unsuspected Approbation of divers competent Judges In a word this Addresse belongs upon so many Scores to You that I could not make it any where else without manifestly Wronging You. I know Dear Sister that it is Not Vsuall to Dedicate Books to so near a Relation and that it Is usuall in Dedicatory Epistles both to Depreciate what one has Written and to Extoll the Person that one Writes to especially if it be one of Your Sex and Quality But You know too that I never Swore Allegiance to Custom and therefore will not I Suppose Wonder to see me as little Sollicitous to Conform to it on This occasion as on Others In an Age when so few Persons have Merit enough to keep that from being Flattery which should be but Praise I am not at all Ambitious of casting my self upon the unhappy Necessity of either Flattering or appearing Rude when by better choosing the Objects of my Addresses I can as Occasion requires give Praises without Untruth or forbear them without Incivility Nor dare I presume that a Lye Ceases to be a Fault by being Put into a Dedicatory Epistle as Antiently the Hurtfull Beasts forgot their Pernicious Nature when brought into the Ark Not to mention that Books of Devotion have generally the strange and unhappy Fate of being Lesse-Welcome to them that Most than to them that Lesse need them As for the Discourse I present You though my Opinion of it may be guess'd at by the Privacy to which I have so long Confin'd it Yet because as in Physick to have
in which I have made too many Experiments not to be by you allow'd to make some Comparisons to it For first it never forsakes its Inclinations for the Steel next being united to it it retains so constantly its Attractive qualities that it gives not the Needle any Motive of deserting it and thirdly it doth never rightly touch the amorous Steel without leaving an Impression which ever after disposes it to a Conversion to that Magnetick Posture which best fits it to receive fresh Influences To which let me add this other resemblance betwixt God's work on Us and the Load-stone's on the Iron that the Kind Stone attracts a Needle to it not to Advantage it self by that Union but to Impart its Virtue to what it draws Besides Absence and Rivalls those frequent Ruiners of other Lovers happinesse can threaten nothing of formidable to yours For Absence which so divorces us from that which animates us that Lovers do not so improperly style it Death if Death be but the Separation of Soul and Body by God's Ubiquity we are secured from He is ever present With us or rather In us You that not long since so highly valu'd the Opportunities of conversing with your Mistriss for some few Moments shall here find your Priviledges improv'd to a Permission nay an Invitation of entertaining the Object of your Love at all times no hour renders your visits Unseasonable nor no length Tedious he is rather welcomest to God that comes to him Oftenest and stays with him Longest What favours were vouchsaf'd to that antient Prophetesse who was likewise one of the first Evangelists who for many years departed not from the Temple but served God with Fastings and Prayers Luk 2.37 c. Night and Day the beginning of St. Luke's Gospell may inform you The midnight-Hymns of Paul and Silas did not only not disturb or Offend him they prais'd Act. 16.25 26 c. but procur'd the visit of an Angell to bring them miraculous and unexpected Liberty as a proofe of the Acceptablenesse of their not-Canonicall Devotions Gen. 5. 22 23 24. When Enoch had walked with God as many years as the year has dayes God was so farre from being Importun'd or Tir'd by that lasting assiduity that vouchsafing him an unexampled exampled Exemption from death he was pleas'd by a new and nearer Cut to Heaven to admit him to a yet Closer more Immediate and more Undistracted Communion with himself And when Moses had spent no lesse than forty dayes and forty nights in conversing if I may use so Familiar a term with God in the Mount Exod. 34.30 he brought down thence instead of a Pennance for his Importunity so signall and radiant a Testimony of Gods peculiar Favour that his dazl'd Country-men were as much Disabled as Invited to gaze on an Object of so much wonder And then How proud doe we see many Lovers of their Sufferings when she but Knows of them for whom they are endured But in Seraphick Love there is not the least good Wish or privatest Suffering nay not a whispering Sigh or closer Thought that silently Groans or Aspires in the Amorous Soul but He both sees and heares that Puts his Servant's teares into his Bottle Ps 36.8 sweetning and recompencing the greatest Misfortunes that his Love occasions with such Support and Joyes as hinder us to feel them and make them deserve a contrary name Each amorous Soul may say to God with David Thou knowest my down-sitting Ps 139.2 3. and my up-rising thou understandest my thoughts afar off thou compassest my path and my lying down and art acquainted with all my wayes And Christ also himself has so attentive an Eye upon the Amorous Soul that he is held forth in the Apocalypse as telling the Ruler of the Church of Smyrna Revel 2.8 9. I know thy works and tribulation and poverty And saying to the Angell of the Church of Pergamus Revel 2.12.13 I know thy works and where thou dwellest even where Satans seat is and thou holdest fast my name and hast not denied my Faith even in those dayes wherein Antipas was my Faithfull Martyr who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth So that no endearing Circumstance of our Love scapes unobserv'd by Him who has done and suffered so much to engage us to it God remembers not our Endeavours to serve Him the lesse for Our having forgotten them Matth. 25.37 c. When saw we thee any way distressed and relieved thee will be the Question of those to whom Heaven it self will be at the last Day awarded as having ministred to their Redeemer Those that in Degenerate times such as ours Lindamor did like Lot in Sodom mourn for their Sins that mourned not for their own and condol'd among themselves the Spreading Wickednesse of the times they liv'd in though probably the dangers threatned them by the very Sinfulnesse they deplor'd made them affect such Privacyes in their Conferenâ—s as freed them from the Thoughts of being over-heard yet the Scripture informs us and 't is a Comfortable as well as Memorable Passage that the Lord hearkened Mal 3.16 17. and heard it and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name Then shall he return and discern between the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not I know says Christ not only to the Angell of Smyrna but to each true sufferer for Him thy works Rev. 2.9 10. and tribulation and poverty Fear none of these things that thou shalt suffer Be thou faithfull unto death and I will give thee a Crown of Life God is often pleas'd to accept those good thoughts and Intentions of his Servants which never arrive at actuall Performances Though David built not the Temple he design'd yet his Son that did it informs us that God said unto him 2 Chron. 6.8 Forasmuch as it was in thine heart to build an house for my Name Thou didst well in that it was in thine heart c. And 't is the Epithet our Saviour gives God Mat. 6.6 Your Father which seeth in secret c. Nor need we fear our Rivalls should supplant us since we can have none in Devotion whose Prayer and Endeavour it is not that God would love us more For his Love to you being as the chiefest Merit the strongest Motive and Title unto theirs they cannot but Wish him well whom God doth Love so and cannot Wish him better then by imploring for him fresh Additions both of that Love of God and gratefull Dispositions to return it Our Saviours assures us that there is Joy in the Presence of the Angels of God over one Sinner Luk. 15.7 10. that repenteth And the sole Hymne except a visionary one I find recorded of the Coelestiall Quire Luk. 2.13 14. was sung for a Blessing to mankind wherein for ought I know their Love and Sympathy