nor can that of the Psalmist be doubted In his Presence there is fulness of Joy and at his right hand there are Pleasures for evermore that is his Omnipresence is full of Joys and his Eternity of Riches and Pleasures nor is it to be denied that the Soul is by its Creation intended for the Throne of GOD. For it is made capable of his Omnipresence and Eternity and as the Apostle speaketh may be filled with all the fulness of GOD which fulness is adequate to the Immensity of his Eternal Power of which you will see more in the Vertues of Love Wisdom Righteousness and Holiness This only is here to be noted that Nature never made any Power in vain but ever intendeth the Perfection of what it produceth and prepareth objects for the understanding the Perfection of which Power is the actual attainment of that Knowledge of which it is capable THE principal objects of our Knowledge are GOD and a Mans self The Kingdom of GOD his Laws and Works his Ways in all Ages his Counsels and his Attributes Mans Interest and Duty Transactions of the World the Thoughts and Actions of Angels and Men are considerable which tho they may be stiled less material Objects of the understanding yet in relation to GOD and a Mans felf are of great Importance GOD as he is the Life and fountain of all Felicity the End of all Perfection and the Creator of our Being Almighty in Power infinite in Wisdom and Goodness Author of the universe and Lord of all the Creatures is most fit to be Known Plato makes him the very Light of the understanding and affirms that as three Things are necessary to Vision the Eye rightly prepared the object conveniently seated and Light to convey the Idea to the Eye so there are three things required to compleat and perfect Intelligence an understanding Eye an Intelligible Object and a Light intelligible in which to conceive it Which last is GOD. Nor is the Royal Psalmist and Divine Philosopher David far from the Notion while he saith In thy Light we shall see Light For GOD is the Light of the understanding His Nature is the Light of all the Creation Therefore it is said by Christ himself that the Knowledge of GOD is Life Eternal For his Light is the Life of men and without him we can do nothing Till we Know his Nature we cannot apprehend the Excellency of his Works For all their Goodness is derived from him and ends in him His Love moved him to create the World and the principal End for which it was made is the Glory of the Creator in the Felicity of his Creatures The Glory of the Creatures is seen in his By his Wisdom and Goodness we are guided to the Hope and Investigation of their Excellence His infinite bounty made them all our Treasures that for the Perfection of their Beauty and Worth we might celebrate his Praises HE that would not be a stranger to the Universe an Alien to Felicity and a foreiner to himself must Know GOD to be an infinite Benefactor all Eternity full of Treasures the World it self the Beginning of Gifts and his own Soul the Possessor of all in Communion with the Deity That the Business of Religion is Complacency in GOD and that GOD never laid aside his Wisdom in any Operation of his Power never forgot to make the least of his Works agreeable to his Goodness Nay rather he is so perfect that his infinite Goodness Wisdom and Power are exerted wholy and wholy Conspicuous in every Operation It is the Beauty of Truth that maketh Knowledge of such infinite Value For if all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowing be ordained for a Wise and Knowing Man if all Objects in the clear Light of Heaven and Eternity be laudable and Glorious if Divine Wisdome hath so far obtained that the number and Value of GODS Gifts is accurate and exactly answerable to the nature of its causes if every Soul that will live in his Image may be the friend of GOD and acquire the Empire of the World and be Beloved of Angels and admired of Men if fruition be the End of Knowledge and all Things made that they may be enjoyed Knowledge is the only Thing that enriches the Soul and the Knowing Man is the friend of GOD. The Exercise and Pleasure of this Divine Amity is the End of the Creation and the Perfection of the Soul The Knowledge of a Mans-self is highly conducive to his Happiness not only as it gives him Power to rejoyce in his Excellencies but as it shews him his End for which he was created For by Knowing what Inclinations and Powers are in his Soul he discerns what is agreeable with and fit for his Essence what objects and what Operations are couducive to his Welfare what means he is to use for the Attainment of his End and what that is wherein his Perfection consisteth If the Powers of his Soul are illimited his Desire infinite and his Reach Eternal if he be able to see and enjoy all Worlds and all that is above all Worlds in the Image of GOD. If his Ambition carry him to be Pleasing to all Angels and Men and to be Glorious in the Eyes of all Kingdoms and Ages if his Abilities are indeficient for the fruition of all that is Excellent in eternity it self it is a token that he is ordained for GOD and the enjoyment of his Kingdom and a wicked folly to restrain himself to the miserable Contentment of a Cell or Cottage and to delight in nothing but some fragments of the Creation that in Comparison of the whole are infinitely Defective OF all other things I would have this most deeply engraven in the mind that GOD hath exceeded all Imagination in the Works of his Hands that he that overcometh shall be the Son of GOD and inherit all Things that there is an infinite end why the secrets of all hearts shall at last be revealed that in Heaven all Thoughts and Things shall be Known that the Kingdome of Heaven is so Glorious that all the blessed are Perfect Sovereigns every one the Possessor and End of it all that all Things proceeding immediately from GOD are the Best that are possible that the best and the worst things as ordered by him are perfectly amiable and subservient to Felicity that he himself alone hath a Proper Right to all that is excellent and that GOD is in every Thing to be enjoyed that he is enjoyed only when his essence and his Works satisfie the Desires of perfect reason and exceed all Wishes in filling and delighting the soul That having filled the soul with infinite Wisdome he has laid infinite Obligations upon us and set infinite Rewards before us made Laws in finitely amiable and given us Duties infinitely Desirable for which he deserves eternal Adorations and Thanksgivings CHAP. VI. Of Love and Hatred The necessity and sweetness of Love It s General use and efficacy The several
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
Communion with him can be its satisfaction The Terrours Allurements and Censures of men are the dust of its feet their Avarice and Ambition are but feebleness before it Their Riches and Contentions and Interests and Honours but insignificant and empty trifles All the World is but a little Bubble Infinity and Eternity the only great and soveraign things wherewith it converseth A Magnanimous Soul is alwaies awake The whole globe of the Earth is but a Nutshell in comparison of its enjoyments The Sun is its Lamp the Sea its Fishpond the Stars its Jewels Men Angels its Attendance and GOD alone its soveraign Delight and supream Complacency The Earth is its Garden all Palaces its Summer houses Cities are its Cottages Empires its more spacious Conrts all Ages and Kingdoms its Demeans Monarchs its Ministers and publick Agents the whole Catholick Church its Family the eternal Son of GOD its Pattern and Example Nothing is great if compared to a Magnanimous Soul but the Soveraign Lord of all Worlds Mistake not these things for arbitrary flourishes of Luxuriant fancy I speak as I am inspired by Felicity GOD is the Cause but the knowledge of a Mans self the Foundation of Magnanimity Trismegistus counteth thus First GOD secondly the World thirdly Man the World for Man and Man for GOD. Of the Soul that which is sensible is Mortal but that which is reasonable Immortal The Father of all things being full of Light and Life brought forth Man like unto himself whom he loved as his proper Off-spring for he was all Beauteous having the Image of his Father This in his Poemander Again he saith Man is a divine and living thing not to be compared to any Beast that lives upon the Earth but to them that are above in the highest Heavens that are called Gods Nay rather if we shall be bold to speak the truth he that is a MAN INDEED is above them He is infinitely greater than the gods of the Heathen And a God like unto himself as the Wise Man observes he cannot make At least saith Trismegistus they are equal in Power For none of the things in Heaven will come down upon Earth and leave the limits of Heaven bur a Man ascends up into Heaven and measures it He knoweth what things are on high and what below And that which is the greatest of all he leaveth not the Earth and yet is above so mighty and vast is the greatness of his Nature Wherefore we must be bold to say that an Earthly Man is a Mortal God and the Heavenly GOD is an Immortal MAN THIS is the Philosophy of the ancient Heathen wherein though there be some Errors yet was he guided to it by a mighty sence of the interiour Excellency of the Soul of Man and the boldness he assumes is not so profane but that it is countenanced here and there in the Holy Scripture GOD himself said unto Moses Lo I have made thee a God to Pharoah Again he telleth him concerning Aaron He shall be to thee instead of a Mouth and thou shalt be to him instead of God And again concerning all the Great men of the World in general I have said ye are Gods but ye shall die like Men. But let us see the Reason of the Heathen a little on which he foundeth his great Opinions In one place he maketh his Son Tatius to say I conceive and understand not by the sight of mine Eyes but by the intellectual Operation c. I am in Heaven in the Earth in the Water in the Air I am in the living Creatures in Plants in the Womb every where Whereupon he asketh him Dost thou not know O my Son that thou art born a God and the Son of The One as I am And the ground of this Question he unfoldeth in another place thus Consider him that contains all things and understand that nothing is more Capacious than that which is Incorporeal nothing more swift nothing more powerful but of all other things it is most Capacious most swift and most strong And judge of this by thy self Command thy Soul to go into India and sooner than thou canst bid it it will be there Bid it pass over the Ocean and suddenly it will be there not as passing from place to place but suddenly it will be there Command it to flie into Heaven and it will need no wings neither shall any thing hinder it not the fire of the Sun nor the AEther nor the turning of the Sphears nor the bodies of any of the Stars but cutting through all it will flie up to the last and furthest Body And if thou wilt even break through the Whole and see those things that are without the World if there be any thing without i.e. if the World be confined thou maist Behold how great Power how great swiftness thou hast Canst thou do all these things and cannot GOD After this manner therefore contemplate GOD to have all the whole World in himself as it were all Thoughts or Intellections If therefore thou wilt not equal thy self to GOD thou canst not understand GOD. For the like is intelligible by the like Increase thy self to an immeasurable Greatness leaping beyond every Body and transcending all Time become ETERNITY And thou shalt understand GOD. If thou belive in thy self that nothing is impossible but accountest thy self Immortal and that thou canst understand all things every Art every Science and the manner and custom of every living thing become higher than all Height and lower than all Depth comprehend in thy self the qualities of all the Creatures of the Fire the Water the Dry and the Moist and conceive likewise that thou canst at once be every where in the sea in the Earth at once understand thy self not yet begotten in the Womb Young Old Dead the things after Death and all these together as also all Times Places Deeds Qualities Quantities thou maist or else thou canst not yet understand GOD. But if thou shut up thy Soul in thy Body and abuse it and say I understand nothing I am afraid of the Sea I cannot climb up into Heaven I know not who I am I cannot what I shall be what hast thou to do with GOD For thou canst understand none of those fair and good things but must be a lover of the Body and Evil. For it is the greatest evil not to know GOD. But to be able to Know and to Will and to Hope is the strait Way and the divine Way proper to the Good It will every where meet thee and every where be seen of thee plain and easie when thou dost expect or look for it It will meet thee Waking Sleeping Sailing Travelling by Night by Day when thou speakest and when thou keepest silence For it is nothing which is not the Image of GOD. His Close is most divine And yet thou sayest GOD is Invisible but be advised for who is more manifest than he For therefore he made all things that thou by
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
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
the Ice for all their Followers For their business was extraordinary to change the state and condition of Kingdoms to alter the publick Rites of Religion both among Jews and Gentiles and therein to shake and dissetile the Secular Interests of Millions as well as to touch and offend the Conscience in defaming that for which so many Ages had so great a Veneration This created all the difficulty in their Lives But where the publick Rites of Religion are approved and a Man is born in peaceable and quiet Times I do not see but the most Vertuous Men inherit all the Honour and Esteem of the People and whatever estate and degree they are of reign in the fullest and freest Prosperity Nor has the Death of Christ of little prevailed upon Earth but that all the World does now take notice of the Glory of his Doctrine and far better understand the excellency of Vertue than they did before They feel and admire its influences Insomuch that as fome Vertuous Men grow contemptible by their Vices so do the most debanched and vicious Men find a Necessity of appearing Vertuous if they mean to be Honourable for as all Errours receive their strengths from some Truths professed by Hereticks so do all Vices and vicious Persons owe their supports to the powerful strengths of those Vertues on which they lean and which they use though in a wicked manner for their own security For they cannot rise and thrive in the World without some Vertue or shew of Vertue at least to cover and help out their Vices Three things I desire you to note seriously when you have first observed that it is a very hard matter to hate an Excellent Man or contemn him when he is known The one is that Enmities and Disgraces are like the pangs and throws of the New-Birth they fall like Storms and Showers upon budding Vertues in their spring and greeness When a Man first begins to be Vertuous he is despised suspected unknown it may be censured and hated But when he has made himself eminent and conspicuous is a man of tried and approved Vertue well known for a Person of Honour and Worth the first Envies and Censures abate and if he constantly exercise all Honesty and Goodness with great activity courage and prudence he shall conquer all his Enemies and inherit the benefit of his own Vertues in the peace and tranquility of his happy Condition Note also that it is not so much the Malignity of the World as some Vice of the Proficient or some occasion that Religious men give the World to blaspheme Religion by some Infirmity or other that makes them to be hated And this I note because I would have you not cry out of other Mens Corruptions so much as of your own There is a little Pride or Covetousness or Laziness or Scorn or Anger or Revenge some one Deformity or other that gives Men advantage against us when they deride at our Profession but under the Name and Notion of Vertue no Man was ever yet upbraided As a Fool perhaps and a Coward but not as a Wise and gallant Man he may be scorned Thirdly Some Secular Interest may put People together by the Ears but no Man is hated for being perfectly Vertuous Misapprehensions Slanders Injuries Quarrels about Estates and Possessessions may arise but where the Land is at peace and the True Religion established no Man is hated for being Wise and Good and Holy and Chaste and Just and Liberal and Honest and Merciful and Meek and Couragious but the more admired for being Holy and Blessed when he joyns all GODS Vertues together A man may be perverse and turbulent a Schismatick and a Heretick and by a rash and erroneous Zeal bring many Enemies and Penalties on himself while he rails against the Magistrates and reviles the Bishops and Pastours of the Church breaks the Laws and disturbs the Kingdom prophanes and blasphemes GODS publick Worship and endeavours to overthrow the established Religion and Discipline among us But all the Troubles which a man brings on himself by any such means as these are not to be fathered on Vertue but rightly to be ascribed to their proper Causes Had he that suffered them been more Vertuous he had been less miserable And truly this I may say for the glory of Christianity Where it is freely and purely Professed in any Nation or Kingdom as at present in Ours a Man may be as divine and heavenly as an Angel And if he be Liberal and Kind and Humble and Cheerful especially if withal he be Undaunted and Couragious most exceedingly Honest and Faithful in his dealings the more Holy and Divine he is the more he is commended and valued in the Land but if he have any flaw the greater stir he makes in Religion the more he is hated He loses his Credit and undergoes the Censure of a supercilious Hypocrite AS for all the Enemies which Strife and Contention about Worldly Goods occasion to a Vertuous Man he is no more liable to them than other persons And yet when he meets them he has far more advantages over his Enemies than other Men. For being full of Courage he dares do any thing that is fit against them and that sparkle of the Lion makes them to dread him whereas a Coward is baffled and run over in a moment Being full of Temper and Humility he is not apt to exasperate them and make them mad as hot and angry Spirits are apt to do By Kindness he obliges and wins and softens them By Prudence he knows how to manage them and all his other Vertues come in as so many strengths against them Being Just he never quarrels but in a Good Cause being Good and Merciful he is not apt to make an Enemy Being Wise and Holy his Soul is in another World and it is no trivial Injury that can make him contend Being Liberal and Magnanimous he is prone to do Heroical things and to make himself Venerable to his very Adversary And above all to tender and to love his Soul and to steer all the Contention to both their benefit We rail on the World when the fault is in our selves The most of Men professing Vertue are but Children in Worth very weak and very defective And too timorous too GOD knows They neither trust GOD enough nor carry Vertue to the height Vertue is base and not Vertue while it is remiss It never shineth gloriously and irresistibly till it be acted almost in a desperate manner He only is the Great Man that contemns Danger Life and Death and all the World that he may be supreamly and compleatly Vertuous ENEMIES may sometimes spring from Envy And indeed there alone lies the Core of the Matter when some Men imperfectly Vertuous abhor others for being more Excellent than themselves at least for being more Honoured and more Prosperous Here again Temporal Interest is the ground of the Enmity For thus our Saviour was hated by the
and Conversations It s exercise in Self-denial measure mixture and proportion Its effects and atchievments Chap. XXIII Of Temperance in God How the Moderation of Almighty Power guided in his Works by Wisdom perfecteth the Creation How it hath raised its own Glory and our Felicity beyond all that simple Power could effect by its Infiniteness Chap. XXIV Of Patience It s original How God was the first patient Person in the World The nature and the glory and the blessed effects of his eternal Patience The Reason and design of all Calamities Of Patience in Martyrdom The extraordinary reward of ordinary Patience in its meanest obscurity Chap. XXV The cause of Meekness is Love It respects the future beauty and perfection of its object It is the most supernatural of all the Vertues The reasons and grounds of this Vertue in the estate of Grace and Misery It s manifold effects and excellenlencies Of the Meekness of Moses and Joseph Chap. XXVI Humility is the basis of all Vertue and Felicity in all estates and for ever to be exercised As Pride does alienate the Soul from God Humility unites it to him in adoration and amity It maketh infinite Blessedness infinitely greater is agreeable to the truth of our condition and leads us through a dark and mysterious way to Glory Chap. XXVII That Contentment is a Vertue Its causes and its ends Its Impediments Effects and Advantages The way to attain and secure Contentment 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 Chap. XXIX Of Modesty It s nature It s original Its effects and consequences 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 Chap. XXXI Of Magnificence in God Its resemblance in Man The chief Magnificence of the Soul is Spiritual It is perfectly expressed in the outward life when the whole is made perfect and presented to God God gives all his Life to us and we should give ours all to him How fair and glorious it may be Chap. XXXII Of Gratitude It feeds upon Benefits and is in height and fervour answerable to their Greatness The Question stated Whether we are able to love GOD more than our selves It is impossible to be grateful to GOD without it A hint of the glorious Consequences of so doing Chap. XXXIII The Beauty of Gratitude It s principal Causes Amity and Communion are the great effect of its Nature The true Character of a grateful Person Gods incommunicable Attributes enjoyed by Gratitude All Angels and Men are a grateful Persons Treasures as they assist him in Praises He sacrifices all Worlds to the Deity and supreamly delighteth to see him sitting in the Throne of Glory An APPENDIX Of Enmity and Triumph Of Schism and Heresie Fidelity Devotion Godliness Wherein is declared how Gratitude and Felicity inspire and perfect all the Vertues To the Reader The Author 's much lamented Death hapning immediately after this Copy came to the Press may reasonably move the Readers charity to pardon those few Errata's which have escaped in the Printing by so sad an occasion CHRISTIAN ETHICKS OR DIVINE MORALITIE Opening The Way to Blessedness By The rules of Virtue and Reason CHAP. I. Of the End for the sake of which Virtue is desired IT is the Prerogative of Humane Nature to understand it self and guide its Operations to a Known End which he doth wholly forfeit that lives at random without considering what is worthy of his Endeavors or fit for his Desires THE End is that which crowns the Work that which inspires the Soul with Desire and Desire with a quick and vigorous Industry It is last attained but first intended in every Operation All Means which can be used in the Acquisiton of it derive their value from its Excellency and we are encouraged to use them only on the Account of that End which is attained by them IT is the Office of Morality to teach Men the Nature of Virtue and to encourage them in the Practice of it by explaining its use and Efficacy THE Excellence of Virtue is the Necessity and Efficacy thereof in the Way to Felicity It consisteth in this Virtue is the only Means by which Happiness can be obtained SINCE the Consideration of the End is that alone which does animate a Man to the use of the Means they that treat of Virtue do worthily propose the End in the beginning and first shew the Excellency of Bliss before they open the Nature of Virtue For it is a vain thing to discover the Means unless the End be desired by those to whom the Nature and use of them in their tendency to that End is taught and commended for if the End be despised all endeavors are but fruitless which instruct us in the Means and the Knowledge of them vain if they never be used or improved THAT Reason whereby Man is able to Contemplate his End is a singular Advantage wherein he is priviledged above a Beast It enables him not only to examine the Nature and perfection of his End but the Equity and fitness of the Means in Order thereunto and the singular Excellency of his first Cause as its Glory and Goodness appeareth in the Design and Contrivance Especially in making mans Happiness so compleat and perfect THE Heathens who invented the name of Ethicks were very short in the Knowledge of Mans End But they are worse then Heathens that never consider it THE more Excellent the End is the more prone by nature we are to pursue it and all the Means conducive thereunto are the more Desirable REASON which is the formal Essence of the Soul of Man guides Him to desire those Things which are absolutely supreme For it is an Eternal Property in Reason to prefer the Better above the Worse He that prefers the worse above â—he Better acts against Nature and â—wervs from the Rule of Right Reason WHATEVER Varieties of Opinion there are concerning Happiness all conclude and agree in this that Mans last End is his perfect Happiness And the more Excellent his Happiness is the more ought his Soul to be enflamed with the Desire of it and inspired with the greater Industry THE more perfect his Bliss is the greater is the Crime of despising it To pursue an infinite and Eternal Happiness is Divine and Angelical to pursue a Terrene and Sensual Felicity is Brutish but to place Felicity in Anger and Envy is Diabolical the pleasures of Malice being Bitter and Destructive TO
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
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
Benefit A mad man or a fool may by accident save a mans Life or preserve an Empire yet be far from that Goodness which is seated in the VVill and Understanding Which plainly shews that the Goodness chiefly regarded is in the Soul of him that does any thing convenient not in the Benefit received but in the Mind of the Benefactor And the Truth is that the External Benefit tho it saves the Lives and Souls and Estates and Liberties and Riches and Pleasures and Honors of all mankind acts but Physically by a Dead or passive Application the root of its influence and value is seated in another place in the Soul of him whose Goodness was so Great as to sacrifice his Honor and Felicity for the Preservation and Welfare of those whom he intended to save It is feated in the Counsel and Design of the Actor It is a hard matter to define it but it is something like a willing Conformity to the Interests and Affections of his fellow Creatures attended with a voluntary Convenience in a person Obliged and subject to Laws to all those Obligations that are laid upon him to all the Rewards that are set before him but especially to the Desires and Commands of his Superior to whom he Naturally owes himself and desires to be pleasing To Act upon Great and Mighty Principles in a vigorous free and Genorous Manner for the sake of those that obliged him and for the sake of those to whom his Kindness is shewn increases the Measure of Moral Goodness but its Perfection is seated in a Loyal Respect and Perfect Gratitude to GOD Almighty Who by being infinitely Good to us has infused and created such a Goodness in the Soul that its principal Joy and Delight is to please him For tho all Creatures consult themselves their own Preservation yet the force of Gratitude upon an Ingenuous Soul is very powerful Moral Goodness is an Alacrity and Readiness of the Will to sacrifice it self upon consideration of the Benefits a Man hath received to anothers Benefit Enjoyment Comfort Satisfaction DIVINE Goodness is an Active and Eternal Principle stirring up it self without Obligation or reward to do the best and most excellent Things in an Eternal manner It is proper only to GOD Its Excellency is Supreme its Beauty infinite its Measure endless its Nature ineffable its Perfection unconceiveable It hath no Cause but it is the Cause of all other Things whatsoever It is a Living and Eternal Act of free and undeserved Love an indeficient Ocean of Bounty which can never be fathomed or by finite Degrees be wholy received It is Invisible in its Essence but Apparent in its effects Incomprehensible but manifest enough to be believed and adored It is an infinite and Eternal Essence which is Good to it self by being Good to all infinitely Good to it self by being without Bound or Measure Good to all its Objects It is an infinite and Eternal Act which continually ponders and intirely intends the Welfare of others and establishes its own in a voluntary manner by that intention An Act whose Essence is seated in the Preparation of all Delights and the Communication of all its Glories It s Felicity is Eternal and Infinite yet seated intirely in the Felicity of others It doth infinite Good to all its Recipients Meerly for the sake of the Excellency of the Act of Doing Good It delighteth in the Excellency of that Act and useth all its power in doing Good that the Act in which it delighteth might be infinitely perfect And the perfect Act in which it finally resteth is the Goodness which all adore and desire It s Sovereign Joy and Pleasure is to be delightful to others All its Creatures are Delightful to it self only as they imitate and receive its Goodness Should we run into its Properties they are innumerable and Endless but as infinite in Beauty as variety and greatness It is the utmost Height of all Goodness as well as the Original and end of all It exceedeth Moral Goodness as much as that exceedeth Natural and infinitely more In Physical Goodness there is a Mechanical fitness and Dead convenience but all it can pretend to is the Benefit and Pleasure of Moral Agents For the Sun and Moon and Stars and Trees and Seas and Minerals are made for Men. Whereas Moral Goodness is made to enjoy all Physical Goodness that in a higher sphere it might be pleasing to GOD and is immediately subservient to his Divine Essential Goodness THIS Divine Goodness is the first Perfection of the efficient Cause of the Worlds Creation which of necessity derives an immediate Excellency into all the Creatures because it is the most Communicative and active Principle that is But the Necessity is attended with a Liberty no less then infinite For it freely pleaseth it self in all its operations and its Pleasure is to delight it self in the Acquisition of Felicity for others It s freedom is a necessary Circumstance of its operation For the Glory of its inclination and Kindness could not be much less be seen did it act by Necessity of Nature Imposition Chance or Accident When the Act is in Being it worketh Physically and it is no Wonder that such an Act should produce such Effects and be so Beneficial For when it is done it cannot be otherwise but that such and such Effects must follow its Existence They are as Natural as if they were Essential to it All the Wonder is what should determine the Liberty of the Agent at first to do such Great and Mighty Things for others sake and all that can be said is his own Goodness and the Excellency of the Action For it is not with GOD as it is with Men few men will be at the expence of Doing what all admire all that receive the Benefit applaud and delight in the Action and so much the more by how much the more Hazzardous and great and Painful it was but scarcely one will endure the Difficulty of an Heroick Deed for the sake of others GOD on the contrary takes infinite Delight in the Action which all admire and because it is infinitly great and Heroick and perfectly Divine finds his Liberty and Ease in that Act and is so taken with the Beauty of the Work that his infinite Pleasure exceeds all the necessity and fate in Nature THAT Pleasure which he taketh in promoting the Happiness of all Existences created and increated is his Goodness It is the infinite use of Perfect Liberty freely Delighted in as Pleasant to himself as to all Intelligent Spectators and all Enjoyers It is easie to discern that this goodness is the Foundation and Essence of his Happiness and glory BY it he becomes Delightful to himself by it he becomes Delightful to others By it he communicates all his Powers and Perfections with pleasure and receives the Services of all the Creatures with high Satisfaction By it he is concerned in the Joy of others and enjoys their
defiled by the Guilt of Sin For as long as we think GOD to be an infinite and Eternal Enemy to all Offenders we cannot use any Endeavor to please him because we Know there is no Hope of Reconciliation and the vanity of the Attempt appears like a Ghost that always haunts us and stands in our Way to oppose and discourage us in the Archievment we would undertake For to Fight with Impossibility is so Foolish a thing that Nature it self keeps us back from doing it Till therefore we believe our Reconciliation possible we have no Strength at all to endeavour our Salvation Our Despair oppresseth and frustrates our Desires with the inevitable Necessity of our Eternal shame and Guilt and misery TO believe that GOD will be so Gracious as to pardon our horrible Apostacy and Rebellion is a Work so Great that GOD accepteth it instead of all other Works of Innocence and Piety to believe that he hath given his Eternal Son to dy for us and that he so Loved us as to come down from Heaven to suffer the wrath of GOD in our stead is so much against the Dictates of Nature and reason that GOD imputeth this Faith alone for Righteousness not as if there were no Good Works necessary beside but by this alone we are justified in his Sight and out Justification cannot be ascribed to any other Work of ours whatsoever Howbeit that which maketh Faith it self so Great a Vertue is that we thereby receive a Power and an Inclination with all to do those Works of Love and Piety the Performance and the Reward of which was the very End of our Saviours Coming THAT there is implanted in Man a Faculty of believing is as certain as that his Eys are endued with the Faculty of seeing or his Soul with Knowledge or any other Faculty And that this Power implanted is of some Use in Nature is as sure as any Thing in the World For nature never gave to any thing a Power in vain this therefore being one of the Powers of the Soul must have a certain End ordained for it And its use is the Excercise of Faith in order to that End OBJECTS of Faith are those Things which cannot be discovered but by the Testimony of others For some things are known by Sence some by Reason and some by Testimony Things that are Known by Sence are present some time or other to the Senses themselves Those Things which Reason discovers are Known as Effects are by Causes or as Causes by Effects a Good and rational Demonstration being made by the Concatenation of Causes and Effects depending upon each other whereby Things remote from Sence are evident to Reason because the one is necessarily implied by the existence of the other But some Things there are which have no such necessary Dependance at all such are the fortuitous Occurences that have been in the World with all those Actions of free Agents that flow meerly from their Will and pleasure For of these there can be no certain Knowledge when they are past but by History and Tradition That the World was made so many years ago that Man was created in an estate of Innocency that he fell into Sin that GOD appeared and promised the seed of the Woman to break the Serpents Head that there was a Flood that Sodom and Gomorrah was burnt by fire that all the World spake one Language till the Confusion at Babel that there were such men as Julius Caesar or Alexander the Great or such as Abraham and Moses and David that the children of Israel were in Egypt and were delivered from thence by Miracles that they received the Law in the Wilderness and were afterwards setled in the Land of Canaan that they had such and such Prophets and Priests and Kings that Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary that he was GOD and Man that he died and rose again that he ascended into Heaven and sent the Holy Ghost down upon his Apostles Nay that there is such a City as Jerusalem all these things can no other Way be understood but only by Faith for no Light of Nature nor principle of Reason can declare such verities as these among which we may reckon these that all the Nations in the World except that of the Jews were Pagans and Idolatrous till the Gospel began to come forth from Jury that by the Miracles and Perswasions and Faith and Patience and Persecutions and Deaths of the Martyrs they were converted and forsook their Dumb Idols and erected Temples to the GOD of Heaven that his Eternal Son was crucified in Judea that such Emperors made such Laws that such Councils were held in such Ages that such and such Fathers sprung up in the Church that there is such a Place as Rome and Constantinople these and many Millions of the like Objects to them that live in this Age and never stirred any further then the English Coast are revealed only by the Light of History and received upon Trust from the Testimony of others Nevertheless there is as great a Certainty of these Things as if they had been made out by Mathematical Demonstration or had been seen with our Eys FOR tho there are some false and some Doubtful Testimonies yet there are also some that are True and Certain And least all Faith should be utterly blind and vain and uncertain there are External Circumstances and inward Properties by which those Testimonies which are true and infallible are distinguished from others ALL those Things that are absolutely necessary to the Welfare of Mankind the Knowledge of which is of general Importance that are unanimously attested by all that mention them and universally believed throughout all the World being as firm and certain as the Earth or the Sun or the Skye it self We are not more Sure that we have Eys in our Heads then that there are Stars in the Heavens tho the Distance of those Stars are many Millions of Leagues from our Bodily Organs THE Objects and Transactions which in former Ages occur to our Eys I mean the Spiritual Eys of the intelligible Soul that are seated within are by Faith received and brought to the understanding When they are transmitted to our Knowledge their Nature is apprehended immediately by the Soul and their existence examined by Reason There being certain clear and infallible Rules by which their Truth or falshood may be discerned And for this Cause is it that we are commanded to Try all Things and bold fast that which is Good It is our Duty to be ready always to give a reason of the Hope that is in us For Reason is a transcendent faculty which extendeth to all Objects and penetrates into all misteries so far as to enquire what probability may be in them what Agreement or repugnance there is in the Nature of the Things revealed what Harmony or Contradiction there is in the Things themselves what Correspondence in all the Circumstances what consistence between those
Things which we certainly Know and those which we are perswaded to believe what Authority the Relation is of what is the Design and integrity of the Relators what is the Use and End of the things revealed whether they are important or frivolous absolutely necessary meerly convenient or wholy Superfluous things to be abhorred or things to be desired Absurd or Amiable what Preparations went before what Causes preceded their Existence what Effects followed what Concomitants they had what Monuments of them are now left in the world How the Wise and Learned judge of them what Consent and Unity there is in all the Relations and Histories and Traditions of the Things reported WHERE there is no Repugnance between the Objects offered to our Faith and the Things we already know no Inconsistance in the Things themselvs no difference no Contention between the Relators no fraud in promoting nor folly discernable in the first Embracing of the Things that are published no Want of Care in Sifting and examining their Reality nor any want in the Hearers of Industry Skill and Power to detect the Imposture there is a fair Way laid open to the Credible of such Objects attested and revealed with such Circumstances But if the Things attested were openly transacted in the face of the World and had Millions of Spectators at the first if they were so publick as to be taken notice of in all Kind of Histories of those times and places if they were founded on great and weighty causes if they were pursued by a constant Series and succession of affairs for many Ages if they produced great and publick alterations in the World if they overcame all suspicious oppositions obstacles and impediments if they changed the state of Kingdoms and Empires if old Records and Monuments and Magnificent Buildings are left behind which those Occurrences occasioned our Reason it self assists our Belief and our Faith is founded upon Grounds that cannot be removed Much more if the Things be agreeable to the Nature of GOD and tend to the Perfection of Created Nature if many Prophesies and long Expectations have preceded their Accomplishment if the misteries revealed are attested by Miracles and painted out many Ages before by Types and Ceremonies that can bear no other Explication in Nature nor have any Rational use besides if all the Beauty of former Ages is founded in and compounded by their Harmony if they fitly answer the Exigencies of Humane Nature and unfold the True Originals of all the Disorder and Corruption in the world if the Greatest and Best Part of Learning it self consists in the Knowledge of such affairs if the Doctrines on which they attend be the most pure and Holy and Divine and Heavenly if the most of them are rooted in Nature it self when they are examined and considered but were not discerned nor Known before if they supply the Defects of our Understanding and lead us directly to felicity if they take off our Guilt and are proper Remedies to heal the Distempers and Maladies of our Corruption if they direct and quiet the passions of Men and purifie their Hearts and make men Blessings to one another if they exterminate their vices and Naturally tend to the Perfection of their Manners if they lead them to Communion with GOD and raise up their Souls to the fruition of Eternity enlarge their Minds with a Delightful Contemplation of his Omnipresence enrichâ—â— them with infinite varieties of Glorious Objects fit to be enjoyed if they perfect all the Powers of the Soul and Crown it with the End for which it was was prepared Where all these Things meet together they make a Foundation like that of the Great Mountains which can never be moved But if there be any flaw or Defect in these Things if any of them be wanting our Faith will be so far forth lame and uncertain as our Reason shall discern its Cause to be failing NOW of all the Thingsthat the World doth afford the Christian Religion is that alone wherein all these Causes of Faith perfectly concur Insomuch that no Object of Faith in all the World is for Certainty Comparable to that of Religion Never had any Truth so many Witnesses never any Faith so many Evidences they that first taught and published it despised all the Grandeurs and Pleasures in the World designed nothing but their Eternal Felicity and the Benefit of men trampled all Honours and Riches under feet attested the Truths they taught and revealed by Miracles wrought not in obscure Corners but in the Eye of the Sun many Nations far distant from each other were in a Moment reduced and changed at a time Millions of Martyrs were so certain of the Truth of these Things that they laught at Persecutions and Flames and Torments The Jews that are the great enemies of Christianity confess those Histories and Prophesies and Miracles and Types and Figures upon which it is founded They reverence the Book wherein they are recorded above all the Writings in the World confess that they had it before our Saviour was born and glory that it was theirs before it was ours Their whole Faith and Religion is made up of Such Materials which being granted it is impossible the Christian Religion should be false Turks acknowledge the Historical Part. The Artifices of Corruptors have been all detected and must of necessity so be as long as there are inquisitive Men in the World All Schismaticks and Hereticks have cavilled and disputed about the true Interpretation of certain Texts but never so much as Doubted much less shaken the foundation Nay when you look into Matters well the very Certainty of the one was the occasion of the other The great Moment of what they took for granted made the strife the more Eager THIS Advantage our Faith has above all it is suspected only by Lazy and Profane half witted men that are as Empty as self conceited as rash as Wanton and as much Enemies to Felicity and Vertue as to Truth and Godliness But the more you search into it the more Light and Beauty you shall discern in the Christian Religion the Evidences of it will appear still more deep and abundant as endless in Number force and Value as they are unexpected AMONG other Objects of Felicity to be enjoyed the Ways of GOD in all Ages are not the least considerable and Illustrious Eternity is as much Beautified with them as his Omnipresence is with the Works of the Creation For Time is in Eternity as the World is in Immensity Reason expects that the one should be Beautiful as well as the other For Since all Time may be Objected to the Eye of Knowledge altogether and Faith is prepared in the Soul on purpose that all the Things in Time may be admitted into the Eye of the Soul it is very Displeasing to Humane Reason that Time should be horrid and Dark and empty or that he that has expressed so much Love in the Creation of the World should
be Unmindful of our Concerns in the Dispensations of his Providence Especially Since the World how Glorious soever it is is but the Theatre of more Glorious Actions and the Capacity of Time as Great and Large as that of the Universe Ages are as long and as Wide as Kingdoms Now if GOD have altogether neglected the Government of the World all Time will be Dark and vain and innumerable Bright and Delighful Objects which were possible to be desired denied to the Soul and the better half of GODS Love be removed But if GODS Will and Pleasure be Uniform in his Operations and Time it self Beautified by this Wisdome Goodness and Power as well as the World our Faith will have a peculiar Excellency because it is that by which all the Beauties in Time and Providence are enjoyed Especially if it be able to see and feel them in clear Light and in as lively a manner as the Reason of the Soul can do when most fully informed It is evident that without this Faith the Greater half of our Felicity can never be enjoyed TO Know that we are Men encompassed with the Skies and that the Sun and Moon and Stars are about us with all the Elements and Terrestrial Creatures is matter of Sence and Reason as it is also that we have the Dominion and use of them and that such Excellencies and Degrees of Goodness are Connatural to them But their utmost Perfection is discovered only by the Truth of Religion that alone discloses their first Cause and their last End without which all their Intermediate uses are Extremely Defective It is for more Pleasant to see the Infinite and Eternal GODHEAD from the incomprehensible Height of his Glory shooping down to the abyss of Nothing and actually making all these Transcenent Things out of Nothing for our sakes then to see our selves at present surrounded with them This is the first Act of all the Ornaments of Time and Nature Which tho it be founded on clear Reason yet is it an Object of our Highest Faith as it is revealed by the Word of GOD and therefore it is said Through faith we understand that the Worlds were made For Faith and Reason are not so divided but that the formally Distinct they may enter into each others Nature and Materially be the same The very same Object I mean that is Known to Reason may by Faith be believed Reason not destroying but confirming Faith while it is Known upon one account and believed on another For there is a Mutual Convenience between these two Faith is by Reason confirmed and Reason is by Faith Perfected TO see GOD stooping down to Create the World and Nothing follow is not so Beautiful as to see him afterward in the Act of making Man and Giving him Dominion over all the Creatures It is more pleasant to see Man made in GODS Image then to see the World made for the use of Man For the End of the Creation is that upon which all the Perfection of its Glory does depend and the more Noble Man is for whose use the World was made the more sublime and Glorious its End is To see him placed in the Estate of Innocency Light and Glory wherein he was secure from Death and Sin and Sickness and Infelicity if himself pleased is very Delightful so it is to see that Nature never intended any of those Abortive Errors that now so confound us But to see the End why man was placed in such an Estate to be his Trial and the End of that his freindship with GOD whose Exercise consisteth in voluntary Acts of Gratitude and Amity and the End of those the Beauty of his Life and his fuller Exaltation to Bliss and Glory this is far more Pleasant then the other To see him fall is infinitely Displeasing but the fault is intirely charged on himself And had GOD Eternally destroyed him tho we perhaps had never lived to see it yet we confess it would have been just in it self and the Justice Adorable But to see GOD exalting his mercy in pardoning the offence and for all our sakes redeeming Man by the Death of his Son is sweet still as it is also to see his infinite Justice and Holiness in the Manner of our Redemption To see him lay the foundation of our Hope on a certain Promise seconded with his Long-suffering yet defer the Accomplishment of it for our greater Benefit wisely forbearing to send his Son till the fulness of Time is very transporting but the Reason of it is very Difficult to understand His foresight of our Obstinate Blindness and Incredulity was the Cause of His Dealy That he might gain Time before our Saviour came to speak of him to paint him forth to make him the expectation of the World and the Hope of all Nations To see him for that End reveal himself to Abraham Isaac and Jacob and bringing down their Posterity into the Land of Egypt that he might make that Nation out of which our Saviour was to spring Famous by Miracles and by his Conduct and Government of them more Glorious then all Nations to appear himself among them and give his Oracles unto them and to make them conspicuous to the Eye of all the World by mighty Signes and Wonders and Judgments punishing them for their offences yet Graciously continuing a Seed among them that christ might be raised up according to the Prophesies that went before concerning him To see all the Mysteries of the Gospel painted out in so Lively a Manner in all the Types and Figures of the Ceremonial Law and that Service with so much splendor and Glory continued before he came by the Space of two thousand years wherein all the mysteries of his Kingdome are exhibited to see the Volumen of the Book in which it was written of him so highly magnified and exalted by them that crucified him after it was written and that now continue so much to oppose him as the Jews do To see the Prophets at various Times and in Divers manners so clearly to describe all the particulars of his Life and Doctrine his Eternity his Godhead the Hypostatical Union his Incarnation in the Virgins Womb his Poverty his Meekness his Miraculous Life his Death and Passion his Resurrection and Ascention into Heaven the Sudden and Miraculous Conversion of the Gentiles compared to a Nation 's being born at once the very Town where he should be born and the City from whence the Law should go forth into all the World and the Temple in which the Gospel should begin to be preached To see the Accomplishment of all these Things attended with so many Glorious and Transcendent Wonders and the utter subversion of that Nation for their Incredulity when they had slain him To see Kings and Queens become the Nursing Fathers and Mothers of the Church and so many Glorious Empires receive his Law that was hanged on a Tree To see Temples erected over all the World to a Crucified GOD
of the Soul and its Honour founded in the freedom of its Desire Whatsoever it does not desire and delight in tho the matter of the performance be never so excellent the Manner is spoiled and totally Blasted Now can we compel another to desire or delight in any Thing The Soul in it self hath an Inclnation to or an a version from every object The Ingennity and Worth of the Soul is expressed in the Kindness of its own Intention in the freedom of its Desire to do what is Excellent in the delight it taketh to love its Goodness is founded Now tho GOD infinitely hated Sin yet he gave us an irrevocable Power to do what we pleased and adventured the Hazzard of that which he infinitely hated that being free to do what we would we might be Honourable and delightful in doing freely and of our own Accord what is Great and Excellent For without this Liberty there can be no Love since Love is an active and free affection that must spring from the Desire and pleasure of the Soul It is the Pleasure of a Lover to promote the Felicity of his object Whatsoever Services he is compelled to do he is either meerly passive in them or Cross unto them they are all void of the Principal Grace and Beauty that should adorn them and make them pleasant and satisfactory men may be Dead and moved like stones but in such causes there is no Love neither do they act of themselves when they are over-ruled and forced by another For this cause hath it pleased God in order to our Perfection to make the most Sublime and Sovereign Creatures all Free wherein he hath expressed the greatest Love in the World As we may see by all the Displeasures and Pains it hath cost him through our Abuse of so illimited and great a perfection But where his Love is most Highly and Transcendently expressed there are we most prone to suspect it Nature is so Cross and disorderly There can be no Wisdom without a voluntary Act for in all Wisdome there is Counsel and design Where no consultation nor Election precedes the best operation in all the World is Blind and Casual Fortune and chance must have no hand in that which wisdom Effecteth no more then Force and necessity must have in that Goodness where all the kindness ought to be in the Intention of the Benefactor There is something in it which I cannot explain It is easily conceived but will never I think in Words be expressed The Will has a mighty hand in all the Divinity of perfect Goodness It is the Mind of the Doer that is the principal object of all our Desire and Expectation HAVING for these Causes made his Creatures free he has forfeited their Choise and secured their Determination as far as was possible He hath done all that can be devised to make them Love us and left nothing undone but only that which was absolutely necessary that they might Love They could not Love us if they were not left to themselves to do it freely And their Ability being provided for nay an Inclination given to make them willing he has strictly commanded enjoyned them to Love by Nature allured them ordered us so that we might be fit to be Beloved he hath made it sweet and rational to Love given them his own Example and solemnly protested that he will accept of no Love to himself but what is accompanied with Love to his friends and servants engaged them to Love or be Eternally miserable And if for all this they will not Love the fault is none of his All that he has done to let secure then Love to himself he has done to secure then Love to us and is as much or more concerned in their Love to us then in that which himself requireth and Expecteth Nay he hath made it impossible for them truly to Love themselves without doing of it And if they will neither Love GOD nor themselves we may well be despised for Company He infinitely desires their Love and would take infinite Pleasure in the Operation There is no Way to make themselves Honourable and Delightful to GOD but only by Loving us as his soul requireth And by all these Inducements and Causes are we our selves stirred up to Love freely to exert the Power of Love to others in like manner THAT which yet further commendeth this Vertue of Love unto us is that it is the only Soul of all Pleasure and Felicity in all Estates It is like the Light of the Sun in all the Kingdomes and Houses and Eyes and Ages in Heaven in Earth in the Sea in Shops and Temples in Schooles and Markets in Labours and Recreations in Theatres and Fable It is the Great Daemon of the World and the Sole Cause of all Operations It is evidently impossible for any Fancy or Play or Romance or Fable to be composed well and made Delightful without a Mixture of Love in the Composure In all Theatres and Feasts and Weddings and Triumphs and Coronations Love is the Soul and Perfection of all in all Persons in all Occupations in all Diversions in all Labours in all Vertues in all Vices in all Occasions in all Families in all Cities and Empires in all our Devotions and Religious Actions Love is all in all All the Sweetness of Society is seated in Love the Life of Musick and Dancing is Love the Happiness of Houses the Enjoyment of Friends the Amity of Relations the Providence of Kings the Allegiance of Subjects the Glory of Empires the Security Peace and Welfare of the World is seated in Love Without Love all is Discord and Confusion All Blessings come upon us by Love and by Love alone all Delights and Blessings are enjoyed All happiness is established by Love and by Love alone is all Glory attained GOD Knoweth that Love uniteth Souls maketh men of one Heart in a House filles them with Liberallity and Kindness to each other makes them Delightfull in presence faithful in Absence Tender of the Honour and Welfare of their Beloved Apt to obey ready to please Constant in Trials Patient in sufferings Couragious is Assaults Prudent in Difficulties Victorious and Triumphant All that I shall need to observe further is that it compleated the Joys of Heaven Well therefore may Wisdome desire Love well may the Goodness of GOD delight in Love It is the form and the Glory of his Eternal Kingdome And therefore it is that the Apostle saith Charity never faileth but whether there be Prophesies they shall fail whether there be Tongues They shall cease whether there be Knowledge it shall vanish away For we know in part and we Prophesie in part but when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away For now we see through a Glass darkly but then Face to Face now I Know in part but when shall I know as also I am Known And now abideth Faith Hope and Charity these three
and his infinite Goodness abused and undervalued all Obligations imposed and all Rewards prepared in vain is worse than to see ones Palace on fire as soon as it is builded or ones Wife smitten with Leprosie and ones only beloved Son run mad For a Child to trample on his Fathers Bowels is nothing in Comparison He therefore that feels what he made GOD to endure what Grapes of Sodom and Clusters of Gomorrah he offered to his Teeth how evil a thing and bitter it is to forsake GOD how the Scripture saith He was grieved at the Heart when he saw the Corruption and Impiety of the Earth and how the Sorrow inflicted was so sore as to make him repent that he had made Man in the World he surely will be more concerned at the Evil he hath done than at any Evil he can otherwise suffer and his Godly Sorrow as Moses's Rod did eat up all the Rods of the Egyptians will devour all other Sorrows whatsoever TO consider that GOD was the first Patient Person in the World must needs sweeten the Bitterness of Patience and make it acceptable unto us to consider that we alone brought it upon our selves and may thank our selves for the folly of its Introduction must make us out of very Indignation against our selves contented to suffer and in pure Justice quietly to digest it but to consider yet further that GOD by bearing our Offences with Patience took off the trouble of them from us and by refusing to ease himself of the greatness of his displeasure in pouring it back again on our own heads digested it so as to turn our eternal Torments into transitory Woes nay into his own Agonies and Pains on the Cross this will help our Reason to rejoyce at our light Afflictions which are but for a moment especially since they work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory The first Impression of that abominable Mischief which occasioned Patience in GOD made it a Calamity but not a Vertue Detestation and Grief in themselves are but Sufferings and meer Sufferings have no Vertue nor so much almost as Action in them If his detestation and grief had broken out in Impatience we had all been destroyed Anger and Fury had been poured down upon us That which made it a Vertue was the great and mighty Continence whereby it was kept in and governed for all our Benefit For it was full of Goodness and Compassion and Mercy and Love and that was indeed the vertue of Patience in which so much Magnanimity and Government did appear so much Wisdom and Stedfastness and Immutability and upon this vertue of that Act whereby he retained his displeasure the whole Kingdom of Grace and the glory of his Mercy and Love and the blessedness and exaltation of his Church is founded it depended upon it and from his Patience it proceeded PATIENCE then is that Vertue by which we behave our selves constantly and prudently in the midst of Misfortunes and Troubles That Vertue whereby we do not only forbear to break out in Murmurings and Repinings or support our selves from sinking under Afflictions or suppress our Discontentments and refrain from Anger and Disquiet but whereby we retain our Wisdom and the goodness of our Mind notwithstanding all the Confusions and Disorders that would disturb us and demean our selves in a serene and honourable manner surmounting the Pains and Calamities that trouble us and that would otherwise overwhelm us While we move in a quick and vigorous manner under our Burthen and by a true Courage improve our Afflictions and turn them into the Spoils of Invincible Reason IT is an easie Observation that Troublous Times are the Seasons of Honour and that a Warlike-Field is the Seed-Plot of great and Heroical Actions Men that live in quiet and peaceful Ages pass through the World as insensibly as if they had all their daies been asleep Hazards and Calamities and Battles and Victories fill the Annals with Wonder and raise Great Men to an eminent degree of Fame and Glory It is Saint Chrysostoms opinion That a Man shews far greater Bravery that grapples with a Disease or surmounts his evil Fortune or behaves himself with Courage in distress bears the burning of his House or the loss of his Goods or the death of his Children with an equal Spirit in the midst of all Calamities retains his Integrity with Humility and Patience and Blesses GOD chearfully submitting with Resignation to his Will and shews himself Constant in all Estates then he that in the midst of a prosperous Condition buildeth Hospitals and Temples shineth in the exercise of Bounty and Magnificence and obligeth all the World without any other Expence than that of his Monies A Pelican that feeds her young ones with her Blood is a more Noble Bird than an Eagle that fills her Nest with Ravine though taken from the Altar For though that of a Sacrifice be the more Sacred food that of ones own Blood is more near and costly TIMES of Affliction are Seed-times for a future Harvest We are made perfect through Sufferings though the Way be mysterious and the Manner almost incomprehensible whereby the Sufferings we endure conduce to our Perfection Consider the Patience of Job how great a spectacle his Sufferings made him to GOD Angels and Men and how glorious he became by his Patience to all Generations THIS Vertue has an Appearance by reason of its Objects and Materials so cross to its disposition that if any thing be difficult in all Nature to be understood Patience is one it being a thing of the most deep and obscure value It s Nature and Effect seem contrary to each other It raises a Man by depressing him it elevates by overwhelming it honours by debafing it saves by killing him By making a Man little and nothing it magnifies and exalts him No Act of Love is attended with such bleeding Circumstances as that of Cruel Resolution in exposing our selves to all Calamities that can befal our Souls for our Beloved's sake It is the glory of the good Shepheard that He laies down his life for the Sheep And for this very Cause is our Saviour honoured by GOD and Men because being in the form of GOD he made himself of no Reputation but took on himself the form of a Servant and died the most cursed Death of the Cross for the sake of the World Wherefore saith the Text that is For which very Cause GOD also hath highly exalted him and given him a Name which is above every Name that at the Name of JESUS every Knee should bow of things in the Heaven things in the Earth and things under the Earth Nor is this Gift of GOD so purely Arbitrary but that it has a foundation in Nature Angels and Men do not bow their Knees only because they are commanded but because they see Reason to incline them to bow their Knees There is something in our Saviours Nature Action and Merit that deserves