god-head she could in number have made up that losse of quality she brought in all the celest all bodies into the account of Divinity serving the Militia of Heaven instead of the maker and we may call to minde that as humane bodies grew Giants mindes seemed to shrink into dwarfs when they fell in love as I may say with the daughters of men that is the conceptions of their owne naturall Reason in this point of Divinity And we may well suppose that the Giants soules in the law of nature became so by espousing this daughter of God which we may properly call Grace whereby their heads passed the skie and touched Heaven it selfe in this beliefe of the unity of the godhead and by this conjunction with grace reason produced their issue of a rectified Religion hence is it that we finde the Patriarks frequently visited by celestiall spirits as the allies as I may say of this daughter of Heaven they had espoused and most doe conclude that all those who in the law of nature continued in a rectified belief and worship of God were maintained in that state by grace supplementall to the virtue of single Reason How far humane Reason may alone finde the way to rectified Religion is a question to exercise curiosity rather then excite piety and very commonly reason in the disquisition of faith doth rather sink the deeper into the earth by falling from her over aspiring then she doth six her selfe upward in her proper station and besides this danger me thinkes there is this difference betweene them that are working upon reason to extract Religion and those that are feeding upon sincere faith that the first are labouring the ground for that fruit which the last are feasting on or that the first are plowing while the last are gathering of Manna I shall indeavour therefore to serve in this spirituall refection ready to be tasted treating of faith already digested rather then to be provided by ratiocination for devotion is faith converted into nourishment by which the soul contracting a sound active strength needs not study the composition of that aliment it finds so healthfull §. II. Treating the best habit of mind in order to the finding a rectified Religion ME thinks Religion and Devotion may be fitly resembled to the Body and the Soule in Humanity The first of which issues from an orderly procession of nature by a continuing virtue imparted all at once to mediate causes the last is a new immediate infusion from heaven by way of a creation continually iterated and repeated So Religion at large as some homage rendred to a supreme relation flows into every mind along with the current of natural causes But Devotion is like the Soule produced by a new act of grace directed to every particular by speciall and expresse infusion and in these respects also the analogie will hold that as Religion hath the office of the body to containe Devotion so Devotion hath the function of the soule to informe and animate Religion And as the soule hath clearer or darker operations according as the body is well organized or disposed so Devotion is the more zealous or remisse proportionately to the temper and constitution of the Religion that containeth it Sutable to the Apostle Saint James his intimation to us that Pure Religion keeps us unspotted from the world I shall not take upon me the spirituall Physitian to consult the indispositions and remedies of differing Religions but relying more upon the Testimony of confessed experiments then the subtilty of that litigious art I shall prescribe one receipt to all Christian tempers which is to acquire the habit of Piety and Devotion for this in our spirituall life is like a healthfull aire and a temperate diet in our naturall the best preservative of a rectified faith and the best disposition to recover from an unsound Religion for the Almes and Prayers of the Centurion were heard and answered when they spoke not the language of the Church and the Angel was sent to translate them into that tongue in which God hath chose onely to be rightly praised that which his Eternall Word Christ Jesus hath peculiarly affected and annexed to his Church this shews the efficacie of piety and the exactnesse of Gods order who hath inclosed his eternall graces within those bounds into which he brings all that shall partake of them and so doth naturalize all such strangers as he intitleth to them doth not allot any portions to aliens but reduceth all them he will endow into that qualification he requireth which is into the rank of fellow-citizens of the Saints and of the houshold of God he leaves none with a dispensation of remaining forreiners The Angel that called the Centurion directed him to the gate of the Church Saint Peter did not bring him a protection to rest in his owne house with the exercise of his naturall pieties and so for those that are straying without the inclosure of the Catholique Church if they walk by the light of naturall charity morall piety and devotion in their religious duties this is the best disposition towards the finding of the way the truth and the life of whom the Psalmist sayes He is neere to all those that seeke him and those who are thus far advanced in morality may be said to be in atriis Templi in the Church-yard which is in a congruous disposition for farther advance into the body of the church I shall endeavour then to affect every one with the love of purity and holinesse of life for to those that are already rooted and growing in the Church this disposition will be are that fruit the Apostle soliciteth for them that their love may abound more and more in knowledge and in all judgement And in those who are yet strangers and forreiners as he calls them this reverentiall feare of God seemes to chase the wax for the seale of the holy Spirit for Prayers and Almes doe as it were retaine God for their Counsel and as his Clients open their cause to him in these tearms of the Psalmist Lord cause me to know the way wherein I should walk for I lift up my soule unto thee And such may be said to be halfe way towards their end that doe worship in a zealous spirit and are likely never left there but helped on to the other part of worshipping in truth by him that hath ordained our worship to consist of Spirit and Truth so that devotion sincerity in any Religion are the best Symptomes of our designation to the true and sincere Religion Wherefore having made this generall presentation of piety and virtue to all parties I shall not stay to wrastle in the Schooles but rather strive to set such Church-musick as all parties may agree to meet at the service and this I presume may sound in tune unto most eares that where consort and harmony in faith appeareth it is a good note of that
see Christ promiseth us in expresse termes the company of the Father and his residence in us Wherefore Now O happy man that thou art look not down upon the stage of the Serpent where he lyeth still hissing at thee to call thy thoughts to the earth since thou didst first hearken to him But raise thy lookes upward to the throne of Heaven where the splendor of thy humanity at the right Hand of God reflecteth to thee thy owne dignity for even in the mirrour of the word wherein God the Father seeth himselfe man may now see his own image there man may see not only his nature made after Gods image but God himselfe in the image of his nature Correspond with thy own worthynesse then O exalted creature and live as if thou had'st never seene thy selfe in any other glasse for here is that eminence truly conferred on thee which thou did'st at first so vainly affect of being like God and the holy Spirit is thy councellour in this claime of thy divinity and thy comforter against the disswasions of thy first projector who would now divert thee from the aspiring to the consort and participation of the divine nature which is offered to thy aspiring This premised and ponder'd man may say I rejoyce even in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me and triumph in me for my strength is made perfect in weaknesse and may consort the harp of David to the same tune of praysing mans condition professing thy friends O Lord are become exceeding honourable their principality is exceeding strengthened for when mans infirmities appear in temptations and suggestions to deface the image and Character of the holy Ghost in him then hath he the holy Spirit to second him in the defence of his own image So that by the adjunction of these helpes even all mans infirmities may be converted into his glories and man hath nothing left to undeifie him now but his owne preferrence of degeneration and flavery to the enemy of his nature before his adherence to her Author Finally upon all these representations I may justly re-extoll and magnifie the dignity of humane nature which we may consider sent down at first from Heaven as Gods image and next as a state to which God himselfe did vouchsafe to come down in person and taking it upon him will inhabit therein eternally and then that the holy Spirit of the Father and the Son abideth in it as in his Temple which he sanctifies incessantly nay more that it is designed to partake the same glory which the whole Trinity injoyeth by being promised to be made like him who hath it all the God and man Christ Jesus O then he that may hope this let him never plead his frailty or infirmity in discredit of his nature let him not in a dejection of spirit seek to cover his pusilanimity with O wretched man I finde a Law reluctant in me against all these motives and incentives of my aspiring to divinity but rather let him boldly pronounce in such a holy confidence as is prescribed him I can doe all things in him that strengthens me for since God is in so many sorts with us who shall prevaile against us Therefore in all these reluctances let us aspire to be more then conquerors by him who so much loveth us The Third Treatise Of Religion §. I. Considering it under the generall Notion of some reference to a Divine Power REligion riseth in the first dawning of the light of nature for the soul as soon as she doth but see her selfe by the reflex of any discourse discernes her own relation to some superiour cause to which she assigneth some present reverence and reason as it riseth and ascendeth breaketh the day a little further but leaveth the mind still in such a twy-light as the understanding doth hardly distinguish singularity in the supremacy discryed above it selfe for reason doth but as it were feele out her way to Divinity by a kinde of palpation and sensible touches upon materiall creatures and cannot by an immediate elevation of her faculties to immateriall notions raise her selfe up to the speculation of any spirituall substance much lesse to the supreme spirituall Essence So that by the meere light of nature the mind oftner scatters and breakes the object of Divinity then singleth it into unity This deficiency appeareth in the speculations of most of the Philosophers who all looked naturally upward for some supream reference and asscription of their being but unto most of them Heaven like a crack'd mirrour broken by their various imaginations reflected multiplyed images of the Divinity whereby we may discerne that the perception of unity in the divine Essence is not derived so much from the emission of the rayes of naturall Reason as from a reception of a supernaturall light whereby reason is rather illuminated from above it selfe then singly producing this selfe-illustration and this forrein clarity diffused upon our reason is the Grace of the Divine essence which elucidates to our minde the simplicity and indivisiblenesse of the object from whence this gracious splendour issueth upon our understanding Grace thus inspired worketh by the soule as light doth by the sense not inducing the faculty but only the exercise of sight for grace doth not conferre any new faculty to the soul but only perfecteth the capacity of naturall reason in this act of singling the notion of the Diety and settling the unity of a Creator in our beleef And this first position alwayes suggesteth some Religion taken largely as a recognition by some exteriour homage of one Supreamacy above our Nature but this estate admits of much diversity in Religious beliefs in which even the wise men of the World as Saint Paul termeth them did stray and lose themselves growing vain in their own imaginations for by a seeming pretext of piety namely of making religious addresses enough to God they made many Gods under the colour of one Supream addresse By this Errour we may perceive that naturall reason needeth still a further conduct from grace to lead it to a rectified Religion Certaine it is that the materiall and visible species of this world afford some notion of the invisible producer as in mines whereof the specificall matter is of a much meaner substance there are found some veines of Gold and Silver so out of the grosse masse of nature those that work upon it by single reason may easily extract some Spirituall ore of Religion for through the elemented body of the universe there run some veines of intimation of a spirituall nature independent on all matter which reason may discerne and so resolve some Religious acknowledgment of a Divine principle as the producer of subordinate causes and effects but how apt humane reason is to sever and disunite this principle we may easily judge when we remember how soone reason forgot her owne origine and as if having lost the unity of the
the earth is thine In this verity he rejoyced extracted out of all his transitory felicity And King Ezekias having his treasury and cabinets filled with all pretious stores might have rejoyced in the truth of those blessings without deriving from them vanity and presumption as much as he boasted of them to the Babylonians so much untruth he found in that felicity whereof he seemed to have forgot the changeable property and was quickly instructed by the Prophet in the insecurity of such goods whereby he discerned how he had rejoyced in the untruth of his temporal happines out of which he might have extracted matter of a true and sincere rejoycing for Gods Spirit attesteth to us that he doth not cast away the mighty whereas he himself is mighty All the attainders lying upon great and rich men in the Scripture are brought against such as rejoyce in the errours and deceits of temporall goods such as either sacrifice all their wealth to the Idols of their fancy or such as make an Idol of their wealth and offer up all their thoughts unto it The voluptuous or the avaritious are those that fall under the sentence of the Gospell and their crime is not what they possesse but what possesseth them when they doe not rejoyce in the truth of their goods but delight themselves in contriving errours and fallacies out of them and as the Apostle sayes Change the Truth of God into a lie So that the defectivenesse of their happinesse ariseth out of their degression from Truth and whence doth all the blessednesse which Christian faith annexeth to sufferance issue but from this spring of verity which streameth out that joy and exultation is proposed to us in the afflictions of this life How come the thorns of sufferance to beare grapes the wine whereof rejoyceth the heart while our senses are prickedct wounded with this spinous or thorny matter Surely this cordiall is made of the Spirit of Truth which may be extracted out of all the asperities of this life first by considering the true state of Humane Nature designed to sufferings not only by sentence but by Grace in order to the aversing us from the love of this world next by contemplating the truth of those glorious promises which are made to a virtuous correspondency with Gods Order in his disposure of his creature so that both the materiall goods and evills of this life afford no legitimate joy but what the mind beareth when she is teeming with Truth we may therefore resolve with King David that when Truth doth spring out of the earth righteousnesse shall looke downe from Heaven §. III. The fallacies of some Objections solved and rejoycing in Truth concluded for our reall Happinesse BUt now me thinkes having determined the happinesse of this life in the loving and rejoycing in Truth many that thinke themselves unhappy wonder at this conclusion and conceive me disproved by their defeatures perswading themselves to have beene alwayes suitors and lovers of Truth when the Truth is that they doe not first seeke verity for the object of their love but conclude they have found it in what they have placed their love Supposing their opinions of such joyes as they pursue to be sincere and solid truthes insomuch as I may well resolve such sonnes of men that They love vanity and seek after lies In that region of the world which I have travelled the most I may reflect to the inhabitaints of it one raigning error which may convince many of insincerity in their addresses to Truth for the ground of their happinesse this it is the trusting the infidelity of fortune to others for our owne felicity designing our stock out of the spoiles of our fellowes and in this course doe we not fixe the hopes of our happinesse upon what can never passe to us but by such an infidelity as must assure us we are in continual danger of a like dispossession this must needs be our case when the expectance of the unfaithfulnesse of fortune is made the assignment of our prosperity And yet we see how Courts are commonly divided into these two partyes of some that are Sacrificing to their owne nets and others that are fishing for such nets the first is the state of such as are valuing themselves for what they have taken the second of those who are working and casting out how to catch what the others have drawne and in this manner there are many who pretend to be lovers of Truth that make these fallacies the very ground of that web of happinesse they have in hand This is so preposterous a course for ingenious spirits in order to true felicity as surely there is much of a curse in this method and God warranteth my beliefe both by the Prophets and Apostles when speaking by the voyce of Esay to this case he saith They have chosen their owne wayes wherefore I also will chuse their delusions and by Saint Paul the holy Spirit saith Because they received not the love of Truth for this cause God sends them strong delusions that they should beleeve a lie Let the worlds darlings examine what they confide in for the security of their joyes and they will finde it is the Father of lies they trust for the truth of their felicity who being not able to diminsh the increated verity sets all his art to deface all created Truthes which worke in this region of the world I now treat of he designeth by such a course as he used with the Person of Truth it selfe when he was upon earth for he carryeth up our imagination to the highest point of esteeme he can raise it of earthly possessions from whence he exposeth to our fancies the glories and beauties of this world in deceitfull apparencies as if they were permanent and secured fruitions and our wills are commonly perswaded to bowe downe and reverence such false suggestions whereof the infidelity augmenteth by the degrees of our Devotion in that beliefe since the more we confide in their stability the more falshood doe we admit for our happinesse and thus are we abused in the possession of Truth while we affect all our delights under that notion by the subtilty of the great enemy of Truth we are as Saint Augustine saith elegantly brought to hate Truth by loving those things which we love only as we imagine them to be true for the impermanency of this worlds goods is odious to us which is the truth of their nature and we affect in them their assurance as a truth without which we would not love them and yet that opinion is a meere delusion This may satisfie many who account themselves unhappy by the mutations of fortune and the dispossessions of their secular commodities for they shall finde themselves unfortunate but in the same measure they misapprehended the true nature of such fruitions by as much as they over-loved them so much are they distressed by their losses so the
precept of dilection of enemies sits but light upon the carriage of the Cross of Christ The sixteenth Treatise Considerations upon the Unsuccessfulness of a good Cause Divided into six Sections §. I. That much Religion is required to assist us in this probation THere is no Argument wherein Natural Reason hath more need of a Supernatural prompter to help us to frame our conclusions then in this of the miscarriage and frustration of pious and just designs especially in publike causes For God hath left us a convenient light whereby to read the right of Causes and our duties to them which is our sincerest and most disinteressed Reason judging by the known Laws of his Will But to discern whether the Success or Defeature of any Cause concur most to the universal end of Gods Providence this knowledge is seated in unaccessible light We may read Gods present Will in Events but not his consequent Order which may require the demolishment of many particular goods to build up the frame of the universal therefore the present ruine of single pieces of Equity doth not derogate any thing from the goodness of their Nature Wherefore the right of Causes ought not to be sentenced by the irregularity of Successes which are always uniform to Gods universal design though disproportioned according to the model of our Reason Surely they who shall seek to penetrate the Divine Providence by the eye of Reason so far as to make a draught of the reasons of all particular occurrences in the variations of Events make such an attempt as one that should gaze upon the Sun to enjoy more light then when he looked upon the Earth For they who press into this light shall quickly be oppressed by the same splendor they design for illumination And yet the infirmity of man is subject to such a kinde of Temptation viz. To study even the decyphering of all Gods characters in which his hand to the Creatures is very often sent For the successes and prevalence of Injustice against Honesty and Vertue may be aptly termed Gods eyphers in which his hand is soon discerned but not his sense Nevertheless we do familiarly take Events for the key of all the characters of Gods Providence and presume to read many of his Secrets very confidently by this key of the present form and figure of Events Nay our zeal is often so ingenious in this art of decyphering as it perswades us that we may even run and read the right of Causes by this light of Successes Insomuch as S. Pauls case in Malta is very familiar in the world for while the Viper is hanging upon the Cause and we are looking when it shall fall down and perish then we make our Judgement to be Gods Sentence and when the Viper is shaken into the fire and that destroyed by us which was expected as our destruction when a cause recovers from this danger then commonly that is cryed up for Gods Cause which before passed for his Curse This is a familiar conclusion with such who as we may say know Gods Providence onely by fight that is by the external marks of Successes and have no acquaintance with the nature and condition◠thereof Therefore as it is said of Philosophy That a slight and superficial knowledge of it may incline the minde of man to Atheism for if our minde stay and rest upon second causes which are next to our senses this fixure of our thoughts may keep our minde short of the Supreme cause but if we make a farther advance and progression into the reason of Philosophy it will lead the minde up to Religion as it shews the congruous dependency and subordination of all causes to Divine Providence So in the first rudiments of Religion which present us with a superficial aspect of Gods Justice under the notion onely of rewarding and punishing This first impression may move us to conclude of the quality of causes by Gods present declaration in their promotion or their prejudice but a judicious advance into the farther grounds of Religion will carry us to a reverent suspense of our conclusions upon the present apparences of all Events and apply us to the contemplation of Gods universal Providence which the Psalmist calls Gods great abysse which when it is the most stormy to our Reason when it drowns and desolates in our apprehension the right and justice of Humane actions even then it runs in the proper course of universal Justice and Equity There is also a regularity even in the very wave it seems broken into subverting all Humane order though the concertation of this method falls not within our capacity for the Psalmist himself says when the waves of this Ocean were gone over his head Thy way is in the Sea and thy pathes in many waters and thy steps are not to be traced A profound immersion in Religion covers our Reason with a reference to Gods universal Providence in those cases which seem to be void of his particular justice whereas a looking upon Successes by the first glances of Religion and discoursing on their Reasons by the flashy light of our private zeal to the Cause may easily raise impertinent conclusions upon the present apparences and such hasty judgements are so little capable of giving rest to our mindes as they must needs keep them in a continual vassellation according to the vicissitudes of contrary occurrences Wherefore as meer eagerness and zeal to the mastery and prevalence of any Cause ought not to be the motive of electing our party for in that affection there is always some obliquity from the straight love of Right◠and leaning towards the conveniency not an uprightness in our address to Justice so the success of our election ought as little to raise or abate the zeal to our Cause for by this varying of our measures we seem to square our conformity to Gods method as it answereth to the model of our Reason by which we have framed conclusions upon our own suppositions of Equity And this expectation of the Success of our Cause comes nearer oftentimes to the flattering our own judgement then applauding the Divine order and disposition of Events §. II. Motives to constancy after a prudent election of our Cause GOd hath left us sufficient marks by which to discern the right of publike Causes though our mistake of them be very familiar being swayed by some private partiality which looks more upon the beam reflected back on our selves then upon the direct beam as it shines upon the publike good But supposing us mis-led by our judgement I conceive it less blameable to persevere firmly in our first application then to be shaken from our party meerly by the motions of adverse Events In the first case man doth but miss his way in seeking God and in the last he seems to fear God may miss his way in coming to man for we know God is often said to come down to men in several acts of his Providence and
while others had wondred at Alexanders enterprise upon the Monarchy of the World and all the strange occurrences that did effect that work he would have been little moved at those Events And when cursed Antiochus destroy'd Jerusalem and set up Idols upon the altar of the Temple and abolished all form of true Religion when venerable Mathathias and the glorious Maccabees had reason to rend their garments and to be astonished at the desolation of Gods people Daniel would not have been perplexed and amazed in all this confusion as having had a prenotion of this and the rest of the chain of Providence which made the coherence of this action In the like maner in all other prodigious Events which coupled the successions of the other designs of God upon the world whereof Daniel had a prevision he could not be confused at that whereat others who looked but upon the broken pieces of the chain were justly astonished But if Daniel had survived the issues of all his Revelations and had come to those Times of which he was desirous to know the sequences and determinations and was refused that illumination and told They were sealed Mysteries and not to be opened to him if then he had seen the destruction of Gods people and the violation of all things sacred by the inhumanity of Gods enemies he would then have been posed to have given a reason of these disorders and must have resorted to Davids answer to himself Such knowledge is too wonderful for me it is too high I cannot attain to it Some satisfactory rest may be derived from the experiments and acquaintance with such cases but still the reason of that order which is so preposterous to our conceptions will remain in the smoke of the Temple wherein we may see God is present but not how he worketh in it The order of Gods administration rests in the Temple described in the Revelation which is filled with smoke from the Majesty of God and none can enter into it until all be consumnate One that shall study the Story of the World in one Age or Century shall finde Iniquity and Violence prevailing it may be many years over all Piety and Justice and insequence of time shall come to reade the prosperers and presumers in their powers destroy'd and extirpated by some exemplary vengeance then for some time may meet with vertue and godliness flourishing so as to protect all their Votâ—ries and then as he goes on it may be he will meet with a storm blasting and withering all the fruits of innocence he saw before so flourishing Thus alternatively through the whole age he shall commonly finde an interchangeable variation from the happy to the persecuted state of goodness And although in the period of that portion of time he chance to finde the most notorious impieties of it punished and revenged in such sort as that particular may give him some sensible satisfaction of Gods Justice yet he shall finde in no age the audict so perfectly made up between Impiety and Punishment as he shall not still remain perplexed in the account of Gods reckonings with the world They who shall live to see or reade the full Account of this present Age will certainly finde at the end of it the Fractions and Divisions â—urnm'd up nearer the true Account of Gods Justice then it appears now in all these scattered orderless figures which seem to have little reference to Equity but still the end of this Age will leave some confused parcels of Injustice which are referred to the succession of time to make up and rectifie And in this kinde of sequence and relation Times will turn and rowl over to one another the last bringing still somewhat imperfect to the next it flows into until Time it self shall be drowned in eternity so that while we see as Solomon tells us All things happen alike to him that offers Sacrifice and him that breaks down Altars he gives us this excellent caution not to be tempted to say there is no Providence If thou seest the violent perverting Justice and Judgement in a Province marvel not at the matter for he that is higher then the highest regardeth and there be higher then they This is a cordial the Holy Spirit hath confected for us to take in the strongest fits of Humane vicissitudes to keep us from fairâ—ing in the unsuccessful state of a righteous cause I shall onely give one or two Historical instances of many which all Times afford in this Argument The first is so memorable and adequate in all circumstances for our instruction as no times can match a better and no sort of Christians can reject it as president This is the case of St. Lewis King of France a person so holy as if the most sanctified voyces of his Time had been to elect a King they would probably have chosen him This great and holy King starning with the zeal of repossessing Christians of the Holy Land which is a figure of their Birthright the heavenly Jerusalem kindled most of the Christian Princes with the same ardor which carryed many of their persons upon the place for the atchievement of this blessed Design The beginning of this Enterprize was prosperous in the recovery of many possessions from the Infidels and restitution of the Worship of Christ into them But soon after Gods secret Judgements strook this Army with an evident mark of his present displeasure and by a pestilent sickness consumed most of his Forces insomuch as he was reduced to a dishonorable Treaty with Gods Enemies and forced to return with a total defeature of his Design Under which rough hand of God his sanctity in Syria like one of their Palm-trees grew the higher by the weight of adversity it was charged with and after a perilous return into France in his old age his zeal burning still the brighter in all the darkness of his Successes he made a second Expedition with three of his Children upon the same Enterprize and landing in Africa his Army was again seized by the destroying Angel and one of his Sons strool first and presently he himself was arrested by the same hand and executed in his sentence of Mortality though truly delivered out of his prison and translated to that higher Crown which he had conquered in all his defeats This was the unhappy Event according to the stile of the world which that pious King and unquestionable Cause left the world to opine upon of which we cannot give a better vote then he himself did in his sickness out of the Wise-mans mouth Who can conceive the ways of God 〈◊〉 more then a Tempest which no eye can see for most of his works are hidden Who can declare the works of his Justice or who can stand under them for his covenant is afar off and the tryal of all is in the end There is another notorious president I have met with in the Ecclesiastical Story which I have
s 2. Inconstancy of vain affections p. 41. s 2. Incredulity in prayer a mental stammering p. 83. s 1. Imitation of Princes is very familiar for the reasons of gain p. 91. s 2. Iustice for our first fault requireth the love of enemies p. 272. s 2. Injustice prospering not to be wondred at p. 307. s 2. Imperfection of Mans Will in many election consisting with his liberty p. 325 326. Iealousies nature treated and the good use of it in Gods love p. 155. sect 1 2. Instincts of expressing our passion sheweth our loves to be due to God p. 161. s 2. L LOve justifieth the Incarnation of God p. 13. s 3. Love from man enjoyned by the Incarnation of God p. 13. s 2. Love rendring it self to Devotion is not ill treated p. 38. s 4. Love to enemies forgot in the Law and revived in the Gospel like the fire of the Altar after the Captivity p. 266. s 2. Liberty rather given to our Souls then restraint made by the Precept of loving enemies p. 267. s 1. Love of enemies proveth a counterpoison to the forbidden fruit p. 269. s 3. Love to enemies misinterpreted in a figurative sense by many p. 273. s 2. Love to enemies not ordains as they are simply enemies p. 275. s 2. Love irregular causeth our aversion to the love of enemies p. 282. s 1. Liberty dear to Humane Nature p. 339. s 2. Learning how it becometh most useful towards consolation p. 348. s 1 2. Liberty of minde gained overpays the captivity of the body p. 354. s 1 2. Love of the world recovereth often after our having wounded it by Grace or Reason p. 376. s 1. Lecture proved necessary for the passage to Contemplation p. 394. Liberties of jesting how they are allowable p. 131. s 1. Liberties indecent though little disfigure the reputation of women p. 147. s 3 Liberties of scurrility excused by the presumers in them p. 137. s 2. Love though mercinary how to be accepted p. 182. M MAns nobility by creation p. 2. s 3. p. 3. Mans excuse of his fall p. 3. s 2. Mans self-deceit p. 6. s 1. Meditation conducent to peace of Spirit p. 58. s 2. Meditation on the changeableness of all the pleasures we enjoy serveth towards the securing our happiness p. 61. s 3. Moral Philosophy answereth not to the promises of Speculation in our necessities p. 62. s 1. Mans reason for his forgiving the first injury of women p. 275. s 1. Morality more studied at Court then Religion p. 117. s 1 2. Moral civility useful to improve the zeal of religious duties p. 118. s 1. Mirth a great disguise of Medisance p. 128. s 2. Morality single is insufficient for our support in great pressures p. 342. s 3. Moral Philosophy set in a due order for consolation in distresses p. 345. Meditations on the vain figure of this world p. 361. s 1. Meditation on eternity a relief against all temporary pressures p. 367. s 1. Mortification of the flesh requisite for all acts of pure Speculation p. 392. s 2. Medisance most entertained by the encouragement of great persons p. 129. s 1. Mercy of God misconâ—â—ived p. 156. s 2. more 158. s 1. Mercy rightly understood p. 158. s 〈◊〉 Mercinary love how far allowed p. 185. Mercinary love of the nature of dwarfs p. 185. s 1. N NVns eminent purity p. 18. s 〈◊〉 Nature gives some light towards the sight of God p. 1â— s 2. Nature discredited single for happiness p. 57. s 2. Naturalists shall rise up in judgement against ill Christians p. 277. s 3. O OPinion of Temporalities confuted p. 7. s 2. Order given by God for direction in Religion p. 28. s 1. Opinion why it prevaileth often above Truth p. 68. s 2. Obligation in point of love to enemies p. 283. s 2. Orders of Providence not discerned occasioneth all our wonder p. 305. s 1 2. Order described p. 327. Order for disposing our time pleasantly and usefully in Imprisonment p. 351. s 1. Order of the three Persons of the Trinity residing in a Contemplative Soul p. 389. Order of rising up to Contemplation p. 391. s 1. P PRide first introduced and how continued p. 3. s 3. Philosophers deceived in the Divinity p. 21. s 2. Piety advised in all religions p. 24. s 2. Passion it self maketh use of Religion to express it self p. 32. s 2. Passion transferred may honor God in a double respect p. 33. s 1 2. Piety doth the office of a Law-giver not of an Insulter p. 35. s 3. Piety not incompatible with pleasure p. 37. s 2. Pleasures allowed by Devotion p. 41. s 1 2. Propriety in temporal goods abateth the value and Piety repairs it p. 42. s 2. Philosophers variances concerning happiness p. 51. s 2. Prayer assigned for the way to finde truth and consequently happiness p. 79. s 2. Prayer must be sincere and fervent to become officious p. 82. s 2. Prayer is often accepted when the suit is not accorded p. 84. s 1. Princes vertues may make Courts schools oâ— Piety p. 91. s 1. Princes especially obliged to piety p. 91. s 2. Prudence for Courtiers p. 97. s 1. Praises allowable in many cases and how they are to be applied p. 110. s 2 3. Princes obliged to forgive personal injuries p. 280. s 1 2. Providence not to be judged of by pieces p. 295. s 2. Prayer against Gods menaces allowed the Prophets p. 301. s 1. Providence seemeth as it were disguised upon earth p. 359. s 2. Presumption on our power to resist the temptations of Beauty is dangerous p. 166. s 2. Q THe quality of peace expectable in this life p. 84. sect 2. The quality of private conditions towards the discernment of the worlds instability p. 105. s 1. Quarrels with the world do sometime occasion good vocations to sanctity p. 328. s 3. The qualities of prophane passion p. 152. s 2. The quality of temptations slighted at first as easily masterable p. 171. s 2. R REason much degenerated in our faln Nature p. 〈◊〉 sect 2. Reason injured by opinion p. 7. sect 2. Repaired Nature by Christ exalted above the original innocence p. 15. s 1. p. 16. s 2. Revenge contrived unto piety p. 17. s 2. Reasons course up to Divinity p. 21. s 1. Repentance may convert even our sins into good fruit p. 30. s 2 3. Remedies extractable out of the meditation of our frailty p. 60. s 1. Riches possessed and improved towards piety p. 70. s 2. Religion lightly considered may perplex us in the judgement of events but more profoundly looked into setleth on us p. 292. s 3. Religion the onely refuge in the perplexity of advers events to a good cause p. 302. s 2 3. Reason of distracting events not to be hoped for in this world p. 304. s 2. Retreats out of the world turned into delusions by the Devil p. 332. s 2. Reason single vainly overvalued by the Philosophers p. 340. s 2 3. Remedies drawn