not tasting that sweet relish of devotion which have been usually afforded thereto if love reside in the heart it will surely dispose it to a sensible grief it will inspire such exclamations as those of the Psalmist How long Lord wilt thou hide thy face hide not thy face from thy servant for I am in trouble turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies draw nigh unto my soul and redeem it Even our Saviour himself in such a case when God seemed for a time to withdraw the light of his countenance and the protection of his helpfull hand from him or to frown and lay his heavy hand upon him had his soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extreamly grieved and full of a deadly anguish neither surely was it any other cause than excess of love which made that temporary desertion so grievous and bitter to him extorting from his most meek and patient heart that wofull complaint My God my God why hast thou forsaken me But especially when our iniquities have as the Prophet expresseth it separated between our God and us and our sins have hid his face from us when that thick cloud hath eclipsed the light of his countenance and intercepted his gracious influences when by wilfully offending we have as the Israelites are said to have done rejected our God cast him off and driven him from us so depriving our selves of propriety in him and the possession of his favour then if any love be alive in us it will prompt us with those good men in their penitential agonies to be grievously sensible of and sorely to bewail that our wretched condition there will not if we so heartily love God and value his favour as they did be any soundness in our flesh or rest in our bones our spirit will be overwhelmed within us and our heart within us desolate Our heart will be smitten and withered like grass upon the consideration and sense of so inestimable a loss Love will render such a condition very sad and uneasie to us will make all other delights insipid and distastfull all our life will become bitter and burthen some to us neither if it in any measure abides in us shall we receive content till by humble deprecation we have regained some glimpse of God's favour some hope of being reinstated in our possession of him Farther yet 5. Another property of this Love is to bear the highest good will toward God so as to wish heartily and effectually according to our power to procure all good to him and to delight in it so as to endeavour to prevent and to remove all evil if I may so speak that may befall him and to be heartily displeased therewith Although no such benefit or advantage can accrue to God which may increase his essential and indefectible happiness no harm or dammage can arrive that may impaire it for he can be neither really more or less rich or glorious or joyfull than he is neither have our desire or our fear our delight or our grief our designs or our endeavours any object any ground in those respects yet hath he declared that there be certain interests and concernments which out of his abundant goodness and condescension he doth tender and prosecute as his own as if he did really receive advantage by the good and prejudice by the bad success respectively belonging to them that he earnestly desires and is greatly delighted with some things very much dislikes and is grievously displeased with other things for instance that he bears a fatherly affection toward his creatures and earnestly desires their welfare and delights to see them enjoy the good he designed them as also dislikes the contrary events doth commiserate and condole their misery that he is consequently well pleased when piety and justice peace and order the chief means conducing to our welfare do flourish and displeased when impiety and iniquity dissension and disorder those certain sources of mischief to us do prevail that he is well satisfied with our rendring to him that obedience honour and respect which are due to him and highly offended with our injurious and disrespectfull behaviour toward him in commission of sin and violation of his most just and holy commandments so that there wants not sufficient matter of our exercising good will both in affection and action toward God we are capable both of wishing and in a manner as he will interpret and accept it of doing good to him by our concurrence with him in promoting those things which he approves and delights in and in removing the contrary And so surely shall we do if we truly love God for love as it would have the object to be its own as it tends to enjoy it so it would have it in its best state and would put it thereinto and would conserve it therein and would thence contribute all it is able to the welfare to the ornament to the pleasure and content thereof What is it saith Cicero to love but to will or desire that the person loved should receive the greatest good that can be Love also doth reconcile conform and unite the inclinations and affections of him who loves to the inclinations and affections of him who is beloved Eadem velle eadem nolle to consent in liking and disliking of things if it be not the cause if it be not the formall reason or essence as some have made it 't is at least a certain effect of love If then we truly love God we shall desire that all his designs prosper that his pleasure be fulfilled that all duty be performed all glory rendred to him we shall be grieved at the wrong the dishonour the disappointment he receives especially we shall endeavour in our own practice with Holy David to perform 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all that God wills desires or delights in to eschew whatever offends him Our desire our delight our endeavour will conspire with and be subordinate to his for it would be a strange kind of love that were consistent with the voluntary doing of that which is hurtfull injurious or offensive to that we love such actions being the proper effects the natural signs of hatred and enmity If any man say I love God and hateth his brother he is a liar saith Saint John and If any man seeth his brother need and shutteth his bowels toward him how doth the love of God abide in him He that in his affections is so unlike so contrary unto God he that is unwilling to comply with God's will in so reasonable a performance he that in a matter wherein God hath declared himself so much concerned and so affected therewith doth not care to cross him to displease and disappoint him how can he with any shew of truth or with any modesty pretend to love God Hence it is that keeping of God's Commandments is commonly represented to us as the most
affection thereto if beautifull spectacles harmonious sounds fragrant odours delicate savours do necessarily and certainly please the respective senses why should not with the like sure efficacy the proper objects of our mind affect it if duly represented and conveyed thereto If the wit of the most ingenious Artists the cunning of the deepest Politicians the wisedom of the sagest Philosophers are but meer blindness and stupidity in comparison to the wisedom of God the lowest instance or expression of whose wisedom his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his folly as Saint Paul speaks is wiser than men doth excell the results of man's highest wisedom yet them we admire and commend in men why then do we not much more adore the divine wisedome If the abilities of them who dexterously manage great business or atchieve prosperously great exploits are indeed meer impotency in regard to God's power whose weaknesse that is the smallest effects of whose power is as Saint Paul again tells us stronger than men surpasses the utmost results of humane endeavour yet those things in men we extol and celebrate how can we then forbear to reverence the divine power If the dispensers of freest and largest bounty among men the noblest patriots the most munificent benefactours the most tenderly affectionate friends be in respect of God unworthy to be counted or called good as our Saviour tells us If ye being bad know to give good things and There is none good but God yet such persons are much beloved and applauded how then can we abstain from paying the like measure of affection and respect to the divine goodness if good qualities so inferiour and defective obtain so much from us whence comes it that the infinitely superiour and most perfect excellencies of God do not beget in their proportion a sutable regard and veneration in us toward him whence if not either from our not firmly believing them or not rightly apprehending them or not attentively considering them Our belief of them in gross and at large we may suppose as connected with the belief of God's existence and included in the very notion of God the defect therefore must proceed from the remaining causes want of a right apprehension or neglect of attentive consideration about them as to the first of these it is common for men to have confused imperfect and wrong conceptions about the Divine Attributes especially in the recesses of their mind which although they spare to utter with their mouths yet they vent in their practice if we for instance imagine that we can comprehend the extent of God's designs or fathome the depth of his counsels if we measure and model his reasons of proceeding according to our fancy as if his thoughts were as our thoughts and his ways as our ways or as if he did see as man sees if we can bless our selves in following our own imaginations counsels and devices although repugnant to the resolutions of divine wisedom taking these not to befit or not to concern us as we find many in the Scripture reproved for doing we greatly mistake and undervalue that glorious Attribute of God his Wisedom and no wonder then if we do not upon accompt thereof duly reverence and love God likewise if we concerning the divine Power conceit that notwithstanding it we shall be able to accomplish our unlawfull designs that we may as it is in Job harden our hearts against him and prosper that we can any wise either withstand or evade his power as also many are intimated to doe in Scripture even generally all those who dare presumptuously to offend God we also misconceive of that excellent Attribute and the contempt of God rather then love of him will thence arise If concerning the divine goodness and holiness we imagine that God is disaffected toward his Creatures antecedently to all demerits or bad qualifications in them yea indifferent in affection toward them inclinable to do them harm or not propense to do them good if we deem him apt to be harsh and rigorous in his proceedings to exact performances unsutable to the strength he hath given us to impose burthens intolerable upon us will not such thoughts be apt to breed in us toward God as they would toward any other person so disposed rather a servile dread little different from downright hatred or an hostile aversation than a genuine reverence or a kindly affection toward him If we fancy him like to pettish man apt to be displeased without cause or beyond measure for our doing somewhat innocent neither bad in it self nor prejudicial to publick or private good or for our omitting that which no law no good reason plainly requires of us what will such thoughts but sowre our spirits toward him make us fearfull and suspicious of him which sort of dispositions are inconsistent with true love If on the other side we judge him fond and partial in his affections or slack and easie as it were in his proceedings apt to favour us although we neglect him to indulge us in our sins or connive at our miscarriages will not such thoughts rather incline us in our hearts to slight him and in our actions insolently to dally with him than heartily and humbly to love him if we conceit his favour procured or his anger appeased by petty observances perhaps without any good rule or reason affected by our selves when we neglect duties of greater worth and consequence the more weighty matters of the Law what is this but in stead of God to reverence an Idol of our own fancy to yield unto him who is onely pleased with holy dispositions of mind with real effects of goodness not duties of humble love but acts of presumption and flattery But if contrariwise we truly conceive of God's wisedom that his counsels are always throughly good and that we are concerned both in duty and interest to follow them although exceeding the reach of our understanding or contrary to the suggestions of our fancy concerning his power that it will certainly interpose it self to the hindrance of our bad projects that it will be in vain to contest therewith that we must submit unto or shall be crushed by his hand concerning his goodness that as he is infinitely good and benign so he is also perfectly holy and pure as he wisheth us all good and is ready to promote it so he detesteth our sins nor will suffer us to doe himself our selves and our neighbour any wrong as most bountifull in dispensing his favours so not prodigal of them or apt to cast them away on such as little value them and do not endeavour to answer them as a faithfull rewarder of all true vertue and piety so a severe chastiser of all iniquity and profaneness as full of mercy and pity toward them who are sensible of their unworthiness and penitent for their faults so an implacable avenger of obstinate and incorrigible wickedness in fine as
nature and to whose will it renders us conformable for as doing ill breeds a dislike to goodness and an aversion from him who himself is full thereof and who rigorously exacts it of us as bad conscience removes expectation of good from God and begets a suspicion of evil from him consequently stifling all kindness toward him so doing well we shall become acquainted with it and friends thereto a hearty approbation esteem and good liking thereof will ensue finding by experience that indeed the ways of wisedom vertue and piety are pleasantness and all her paths are peace that the fruits of conscientious practice are health to our body and to our soul security to our estate and to our reputation rest in our mind and comfort in our conscience goodness will become pretious in our eyes and he who commends it to us being himself essential goodness will appear most venerable and most amiable we shall then become disposed to render him what we perceive he best deserves entire reverence and affection 5. But I commend farther as a most necessary mean of attaining this disposition assiduous earnest prayer unto God that he would in mercy bestow it on us and by his grace work it in us which practice is indeed doubly conducible to this purpose both in way of impetration and by real efficacy it will not fail to obtain it as a gift from God it will help to produce it as an instrument of God's grace Upon the first accompt it is absolutely necessary for it is from God's free representation of himself as lovely to our minds and drawing our hearts unto him although ordinarily in the use of the means already mentioned or some like to them that this affection is kindled our bare consideration is too cold our rational discourse too faint we cannot sufficiently recollect our wandring thoughts we cannot strongly enough impress those proper incentives of love upon our hearts our hearts so dampt with sensual desires so clogg'd and pester'd with earthly inclinations so as to kindle in our souls this holy flame it can onely be effected by a light shining from God by a fire coming from heaven As all others so more especially this Queen of graces must proceed from the father of lights and giver of all good gifts he alone who is love can be the parent of so goodly an off-spring can beget this lively image of himself within us it is the principal fruit of God's Holy Spirit nor can it grow from any other root than from it it is called the love of the Spirit as its most signal and peculiar effect in fine the love of God as Saint Paul expresly teaches us is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given unto us given but that not without asking without seeking a grace so excellent God we may be assured will not dispense a gift so pretious he will not bestow on them who do not care to look after it who will not vouchsafe to beg it if we are not willing to acknowledge our want thereof if we refuse to express our desire of it if we will not shew that we regard and value it if when God freely offers it and invites us to receive it he doth so by offering his holy Spirit the fountain thereof unto us we will not decently apply our selves to him for it how can we expect to obtain it God hath propounded this condition and 't is surely no hard no grievous condition if we ask we shall receive he hath expresly promised that He will give his Spirit his Spirit of love to them who ask it we may be therefore sure performing the condition duly to obtain it and as sure neglecting that we deserve to go without it Prayer then is upon this accompt a needfull means and it is a very profitable one upon the score of its own immediate energy or vertue for as by familiar converse together with the delights and advantages attending thereon other friendships are begot and nourished so even by that acquaintance as it were with God which devotion begets by experience therein how sweet and good he is this affection is produced and strengthened As want of entercourse weakens and dissolves friendship so if we seldom come at God or little converse with him it is not onely a sign but will be a cause of estrangement and disaffection toward him according to the nature of the thing prayer hath peculiar advantages above other acts of piety to this effect therein not onely as in contemplation the eye of our mind our intellectual part is directed toward God but our affections also the hand of our soul by which we embrace good the feet thereof by which we pursue it are drawn out and fixed upon him we noâ— onely therein behold his excellencies but in a manner feel them and enjoy them our hearts also being thereby softned and warmed by desire become more susceptive of love We do in the performance of this duty approach nearer to God and consequently God draws nearer to us as Saint James assures Draw near saith he unto God and he will draw near to you and thereby we partake more fully and strongly of his gracious influences therein indeed he most freely communicates his grace therein he makes us most sensible of his love to us and thereby disposeth us to love him again I add that true fervent and hearty prayer doth include and suppose some acts of love or some near tendencies thereto whence as every habit is corroborated by acts of its kind so by this practice divine love will be confirmed and increased These are the means which my meditation did suggest as conducing to the production and growth of this most excellent grace in our souls III. I should lastly propound some Inducements apt to stir us up to the endeavour of procuring it and to the exercise thereof by representing to your consideration the blessed fruits and benefits both by way of natural causality and of reward accruing from it as also the wofull consequences and mischiefs springing from the want thereof How being endewed with it perfects and advances our nature rendring it in a manner and degree divine by resemblance to God who is full thereof so full that he is called Love by approximation adherence and union in a sort unto him how it ennobles us with the most glorious alliance possible rendring us the friends and favourites of the Sovereign King and Lord of all brethren of the first-born whose names are written in heaven enriches us with a right and title to the most inestimable treasures those which eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor have entred into the heart of man to conceive which God hath prepared for them that love him a sure possession of the supreme good of all that God is able to bestow all whose wisedom and power whose counsel and care it eternally engageth for our benefit how all security and welfare all
rest and peace all joy and happiness attend upon it for that The Lord preserveth all them that love him preserveth them in the enjoyment of all good in safety from all danger and mischief and that to those who love God all things co-operate for their good how incomparable a sweetness and delight accompany the practice thereof far surpassing all other pleasures perfectly able to content our minds to sustain and comfort us even in the want of all other satisfactions yea under the pressure of whatever most grievous afflictions can befall us How contrariwise the want thereof will depress us into a state of greatest imperfection and baseness setting us at the greatest distance from God in all respects both in similitude of nature and as to all favourable regard or beneficial communication from him casting us into a wretched and disgracefull consortship with the most degenerate creatures the accursed fiends who for disaffection and enmity toward God are banished from all happiness how it extreamly impoverisheth and beggereth us devesting us of all right to any good thing rendring us incapable of any portion but that of utter darkness how it excludeth us from any safety any rest any true comfort or joy and exposeth us to all mischief and misery imaginable all that being deprived of the divine protection presence and favour being made objects of the divine anger hatred and severe justice being abandoned to the malice of hell being driven into utter darkness and eternal fire doth import or can produce I should also have commended this love to you by comparing it with other loves and shewing how far in its nature in its causes in its properties in its effects it excelleth them even so far as the object thereof in excellency doth transcend all other objects of our affection how this is grounded upon the highest and surest reason others upon accounts very low and mean commonly upon fond humour and mistake this produceth real certain immutable goods others at best terminate onely in goods apparent unstable and transitory this is most worthy of us employing all our faculties in their noblest manner of operation upon the best object others misbeseem us so that in pursuing them we disgrace our understanding misapply our desires distemper our affections mispend our endeavours I should have enlarged upon these considerations and should have adjoined some particular advantages of this grace as for instance that the procuring thereof is the most sure the most easie the most compendious way of attaining all others of sweetning and ingratiating all obedience to us of making the hardest yoke easie and the heaviest burthen light unto us In fine I should have wished you to consider that its practice is not onely a mean and way to happiness but our very formal happiness it self the real enjoyment of the best good we are capable of that in which alone heaven it self the felicity of Saints and Angels doth consist which more then comprehends in it self all the benefits of highest dignity richest plenty and sweetest pleasure But I shall forbear entring upon so ample and fruitfull subjects of meditation and conclude with that good Collect of our Church O Lord who hast prepared for them that love thee such good things as pass man's understanding pour into our hearts such love toward thee that we loving thee above all things may obtain thy promises which exceed all that we can desire through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen The Third Sermon MATT. 22. 39. And the Second is like unto it Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self THE essential goodness of God and his special benignity toward mankind are to a considering mind divers ways very apparent the frame of the world and the natural course of things do with a thousand voices loudly and clearly proclaim them to us every sense doth yield us affidavit to that speech of the Holy Psalmist The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord we see it in the glorious brightness of the skies and in the pleasant verdure of the fields we taste it in the various delicacies of food supplied by land and sea we smell it in the fragrancies of herbs and flowers we hear it in the natural musick of the woods we feel it in the comfortable warmth of heaven and in the cheering freshness of the air we continually do possess and enjoy it in the numberless accommodations of life presented to us by the bountifull hand of nature Of the same goodness we may be well assured by that common providence which continually doth uphold us in our being doth opportunely relieve our needs doth protect us in dangers and rescue us from imminent mischiefs doth comport with our infirmities and misdemeanours the which in the divine Psalmists style doth hold our soul in life and suffereth not our feet to be moved doth redeem our life from destruction doth crown us with loving-kindness and tender mercies The dispensations of grace in the revelation of heavenly truth in the overtures of mercy in the succours of our weakness in the proposal of glorious rewards in all the methods and means conducing to our salvation do afford most admirable proofs and pledges of the same immense benignity But in nothing is the divine goodness toward us more illustriously conspicuous than in the nature and tendency of those Laws which God hath been pleased for the regulation of our lives to prescribe unto us all which do palpably evidence his serious desire and provident care of our welfare so that in imposing them he plainly doth not so much exercise his Sovereignty over us as express his kindness toward us neither do they more clearly declare his will than demonstrate his good-will to us And among all divine Precepts this especially contained in my Text doth argue the wonderfull goodness of our heavenly Law-giver appearing both in the manner of the proposal and in the substance of it The Second saith our Lord is like to it that is to the Precept of loving the Lord our God with all our heart and is not this a mighty argument of immense goodness in God that he doth in such a manner commend this duty to us coupling it with our main duty toward him and requiring us with like earnestness to love our neighbour as to love himself He is transcendently amiable for the excellency of his nature he by innumerable and inestimable benefits graciously conferred on us hath deserved our utmost affection so that naturally there can be no obligation bearing any proportion or considerable semblance to that of loving him yet hath he in goodness been pleased to create one and to endew it with that privilege making the love of a man whom we cannot value but for his gifts to whom we can owe nothing but what properly we owe to him no less obligatory to declare it near as acceptable as the love of himself to whom we owe all To him as the sole authour and free donour
maketh the fray charity will avoid it for it neither will strike the first in offence nor the second in revenge Charity therefore may well be styled the band of peace it being that onely which can knit mens souls together and keep them from breaking out into dissensions It alone is that which will prevent bickering and clashing about points of credit or interest if we love not our neighbour or tender not his good as our own we shall be ever in competition and debate with him about those things not suffering him to enjoy any thing quietly struggling to get above him scrambling with him for what is to be had IX 4. As charity preserveth from mischiefs so it procureth many sweet comforts and fair accommodations of life Friendship is a most usefull and pleasant thing and charity will conciliate good store thereof it is apt to make all men friends for love is the onely general philtre and effectual charm of souls the fire which kindleth all it toucheth and propagateth it self in every capable subject and such a subject is every man in whom humanity is not quite extinct and hardly can any such man be seeing every man hath some good humour in him some bloud some kindly juice flowing in his veins no man wholly doth consist of dusky melancholy or fiery choler whence all men may be presumed liable to the powerfull impressions of charity its mild and serene countenance its sweet and gentle speech its courteous and obliging gesture its fair dealing its benign conversation its readiness to do any good or service to any man will insinuate good-will and respect into all hearts It thence will encompass a man with friends with many guards of his safety with many supports of his fortune with many patrons of his reputation with many succourers of his necessity with many comforters of his affliction for is a charitable man in danger who will not defend him is he falling who will not uphold him is he falsly accused or aspersed who will not vindicate him is he in distress who will not pity him who will not endeavour to relieve and restore him who will insult over his calamity will it not in such cases appear a common duty a common interest to assist and countenance a common friend a common benefactour to mankind Whereas most of our life is spent in society and discourse charity is that which doth season and sweeten these rendring them gratefull to others and commodious to ones self for a charitable heart is a sweet spring from whence do issue streams of wholsome and pleasant discourse it not being troubled with any bad passion or design which may sour or foul conversation doth ever make him good company to others and rendreth them such to himself which is a mighty convenience In short a charitable man or true lover of men will saith S. Chrysostome inhabit earth as a heaven every-where carrying a serenity with him and plaiting ten thousand crowns for himself Again X. 5. Charity doth in every estate yield advantages sutable thereto bettering it and improving it to our benefit It rendreth prosperity not onely innocent and safe but usefull and fruitfull to us we then indeed enjoy it if we feel the comfort of doing good by it It solaceth adversity considering that it doth not arise as a punishment or fruit of ill-doing to others that it is not attended with the deserved ill-will of men that no man hath reason to delight for it or insult over us therein that we may probably expect commiseration and relief having been ready to shew the like to others It tempereth both states for in prosperity a man cannot be transported with immoderate joy when so many objects of pity and grief do present themselves before him which he is apt deeply to resent in prosperity he cannot be dejected with extream sorrow being refreshed by so many good successes befalling those whom he loveth One condition will not puff him up being sensible of his neighbours misery the other will not sink him down having complacence in his neighbours welfare Uncharitableness proceeding from contrary causes and producing contrary effects doth spoil all conditions rendring prosperity fruitless and adversity comfortless XI 6. We may consider that secluding the exercise of charity all the goods and advantages we have our best faculties of nature our best endowments of soul the gifts of providence and the fruits of our industry will become vain and fruitless or noxious and banefull to us for what is our reason worth what doth it signifie if it serveth onely for contriving sorry designs or transacting petty affairs about our selves what is wit good for if it must be spent onely in making sport or hatching mischief to what purpose is knowledge if it be not applied to the instruction direction admonition or consolation of others what mattereth abundance of wealth if it be to be uselesly hoarded up or vainly flung away in wicked or wanton profuseness if it be not employed in affording succour to our neighbours indigency and distress what is our credit but a meer noise or a puff of air if we do not give a solidity and substance to it by making it an engine of doing good what is our vertue it self if it be buried in obscurity or choaked with idleness yielding no benefit to others by the lustre of its example or by its real influence What is any talent if it be wrapped up in a napkin any light if it be hid under a bushel any thing private if it be not by good use spread out and improved to publick benefit If these gifts do minister onely to our own particular advantage to our personal convenience glory or pleasure how slimme things are they how inconsiderable is their worth But they being managed by charity become precious and excellent things they are great in proportion to the greatness of their use or the extent of their beneficial influence as they carry forth good to the world so they bring back various benefits to our selves they return into our bosome laden with respect and reward from God and from man they yield thanks and commendation from without they work comfort and satisfaction within Yea which is infinitely more considerable and enhanceth the price of our gifts to a vast rate they procure glory and blessing to God for hereby is God glorified if we bring forth much fruit and no good fruit can grow from any other stock than that of charity Uncharitableness therefore should be loathed and shunned by us as that which robbeth us of all our ornaments and advantages which indeed marreth and corrupteth all our good things which turneth blessings into curses and rendreth the means of our welfare to be causes of mischief to us for without charity a man can have no goods but goods worldly and temporal and such goods thence do prove impertinent baubles burthensome encumbrances dangerous snares banefull poisons
are we upon the same accompt not to perform ill offices toward any man not to disturb him in the enjoyment of his innocent pleasure nor to hinder him in the advancing his lawfull profit nor to interrupt him in the prosecution of his reasonable designs nor any wise to vex and grieve him needlesly and above all not to detain him in nor to aggravate his affliction For these are actual violations of peace and impediments of good correspondence among men Farther 3. In this Duty of living peaceably is included an obligation to all kind of just and honest dealing with all men punctually to observe contracts impartially to decide controversies equally to distribute rewards to injure no man either in his estate by violent or fraudulent encroachments upon his just possessions or in his reputation by raising or dispersing slanderous reports concerning him For these courses of all others are most destructive to peace and upon the pretence of them most quarrels that ever were have been commenced Justice in its own nature is and by the common agreement of men hath been designed the Guardian of peace and sovereign remedy of contention but not to insist long upon such obvious subjects 4. It much conduceth to the preservation of peace and upholding amicable correspondence in our dealings and transactions with men liable to doubt and debate not to insist upon nice and rigorous points of right not to take all advantage offered us not to deal hard measure nor to use extremities to the dammage or hindrance of others especially when no comparable benefit will thence accrue to our selves For such proceedings as they discover in us little kindness to or tenderness of our neighbours good so they exceedingly exasperate them and persuade them we are their enemies and render them ours and so utterly destroy peace between us When as abating something from the height and strictness of our pretences and a favourable recession in such cases will greatly engage men to have an honourable opinion and a peaceable affection toward us 5. If we would attain to this peaceable estate of life we must use toward all men such demonstrations of respect and courtesie which according to their degree and station custom doth entitle them to or which upon the common score of humanity they may be reasonably deemed to expect from us respective gestures civil salutations free access affable demeanour cheerfull looks and courteous discourse These as they betoken good-will in them that use them so they beget cherish and encrease it in those whom they refer to and the necessary fruit of mutual good-will is peace But the contrary carriages contemptuous or disregardfull behaviour difficulty of admission to converse a tetrical or sullen aspect rough and fastidious language as they discover a mind averse from friendly commerce so they beget a more potent disdain in others Men generally especially those of generous and hearty temper valuing their due respect beyond all other interests and more contentedly brooking injury than neglect Whence this skill and dexterity of deportment though immediately and in its own nature of no great worth and regulating actions of small importance gestures looks and forms of speech yet because it is a nurse of peace and greatly contributes to the delightfulness of society hath been always much commended and hath obtained a conspicuous place in the honourable rank of vertues under the titles of courtesie comity and affability and the opposites thereto rudeness and rusticity have been deservedly counted and called vices in morality 6. This Precept directly prohibits the use of all reproachfull scornfull and provoking language these being the immediate results of enmity and actual breaches of peace Whence Saint Paul conjoins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 3. 2. To speak evil of no man to be no quarrellers or fighters but gentle shewing all meekness unto all men For war is managed and that with more deadly animosity with the tongue as well as with the hand There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword saith Solomon and whose teeth are spears and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword saith David Words are with more anguish felt than blows their wounds are more incurable and they leave a deeper scarr Men usually dread more the loss of their honour than their lives and take more grievously the ravishing of their credit than the depredation of their estate Living peaceably therefore implies as much abstaining from opprobrious words as injurious actions yea more for reviling is not onely a violation of peace but a dishonourable waging of war like shooting arrows dipt in poison and discharging sluggs against our neighbours reputation practices condemned by all as base and inhumane and contrary to the laws of a noble warfare being arguments we affect rather our adversaries utter ruine than a gallant victory over him There be fair ways of disputing our cause without contumelious reflections upon persons and the errours of men may be sufficiently refuted without Satyrical virulency One good reason modestly propounded hath in it naturally more power and efficacy to convince him that is in a mistake or to confound him with shame that is guilty of a fault than ten thousand scoffs and ignominious taunts When we are to express those deeds of nature the performance of which is concealed as containing in it something of supposed turpitude we are wont to veil them in such modest circumlocutions that by the hearers without offence to their bashfulness may sufficiently be understood So when it is needfull or expedient to confute the opinions or reprove the actions of men if we either charitably design their amendment or desire to maintain peaceable correspondence with them it behoves that we do not by using the most broad and distastfull language immoderately trespass upon their modesty and patience that to use Seneca's phrase we do Agere cardm non tantùm salutis sed honestae cicatricis De Clem. lib. 1. c. 17. Have a care not only to cure the wound but to leave a comely scar and not to deform him whom we endeavour to reform for no sore is the easilier cured for being roughly handled and least of all those in manners and opinion A soft hand and a tender heart and a gentle tongue are most convenient qualities of a spiritual Chirurgeon But farther to this purpose 7. If we desire to live peaceably with all men we are to be equal in censuring mens actions candid in interpreting their meanings mild in reprehending and sparing to relate their miscarriages to derive their actions from the best principles from which in the judgment of charity they may be supposed to proceed as from casual mistake rather than from wilfull prejudice from humane infirmity rather than from malicious design to construe ambiguous expressions to the most favourable sense they may admit not to condemn mens practices without distinct knowledge of the case and examining
wits and exciting emulation among them Others there be concerning matters of more weighty moment yet having their resolution depending upon secrets unsearchable or the interpretation of ambiguous words and obscure phrases or upon some other uncertain conjectures and are yet rendred more difficult by being intangled with inextricable folds of subtilty nice distinctions and crafty evasions devised by the parties engaged in them for the maintenance of their causes respectively whence it hath happened though with immense care and diligence of both parts they have been long canvased that yet they do and in all probability will for ever remain undecided So that now to engage in contest about them may be reasonably deemed nothing more than a wilfull mispense of our time labour and good humour by vainly reciprocating the saw of endless contention Other questions there be in themselves of more easy resolution and of considerable importance which yet by extreme opposition of parties are so clouded and overgrown with insuperable prejudices that the disputing them is seldom attended with other success than an inflaming our selves and others with passion Others are by small and obscure parties managed against the common consent and against the positive decrees of the most venerable authoities among men by ventilating which as truth is like to gain little so peace is sure to suffer much For as it is no wise a safe or advised course except in case of necessary defence to subject received opinions to the hazardous trial of a tumultuary conflict their credit being better upheld by a stately reservedness than by a popular forwardness of discourse as buildings stand fastest that are never shaken and those possessions remain most secure that are never called in question so on the other hand to countenance new and uncouth paradoxes as it argues too much arrogance and presumption in confronting our single apprehensions against the deliberate sense and suffrage of so many men yea so many ages of men and is likely to prove a succesless attempt like swimming against the current accompanied with much toil and little progress so it serves no good end but only foments divisions and disturbs both our private and the publik peace But most of all we are to be cautelous of medling with controversies of dangerous consequence wherein the publick weal and quiet are concerned which bare the roots of sacred authority and prostitute the mysteries of government to vulgar inspection Such points ought to be subjects of law not of syllogism and the errours in them to be corrected by punishment rather then confuted by argument neither can it be thought reasonable that the interest of publick peace should depend upon the event of private disputation It concerns us therefore if we would live peaceably in such disputable matters reserving all due reverence to the judgments of the most the best and wisest persons to be content in a modest privacy to enjoy the results of a serious and impartial disquisition patiently enduring others to dissent from us and not attempting by needless fruitless and endless contentions to gain others to our persuasions especially since the truth contended for may not be worth the passion employed upon it and the benefits of the victory not countervail the prejudices sustained in the combat For goodness and vertue may often consist with ignorance and errour seldom with strife and discord And this consideration I shall conclude with those exhortations of Saint Paul Tit. 3. 9. But foolish questions and genealogies and contentions and law-contests decline for they are unprofitable and vain And in 2 Ep. to Tim. cap. 2. v. 23. But foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they gender strifes And the servant of the Lord that is a minister of Religion must not strive but be gentle to all men apt to teach patient In meekness instructing those that are * contrarily disposed And in the same Chapter v. 14. Of these things put them in remembrance charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit to the subverting of the hearers Of so pernicious consequence did Saint Paul esteem unnecessary wrangling and disputing to be But farther 11. If we desire to live peaceably we must restrain our pragmatical curiosity within the bounds of our proper business and concernment not being curiosi in aliena Republ. invading other mens provinces and without leave or commission intermeddling with their affairs not rushing into their Closets prying into their concealed designs or dictating counsel to them without due invitation thereto not controlling their actions nor subjecting their proceedings to our censure without competent authority For these courses men usually look upon as rash intrusions both injurious and reproachfull to them usurping upon that freedom of choice which all men passionately affect to preserve entire to themselves and arguing them of weakness and incapacity to manage their own business neither do men more naturally drive away flies that buzze about their ears and molest them in their employments than they with disdain repell such immodest and unseasonable medlers in their affairs Let no man suffer saith Saint Peter as a busy body in other mens matters intimating that those who are impertinently inquisitive into other mens matters make themselves liable to suffer and that deservedly for their fond curiosity and bold presumption And He that passeth by and medleth with strife belonging not to him is like one that taketh a dog by the ears saith Solomon that is he catcheth at that which he cannot hold and vainly aims at that which he cannot effect and rashly irritates those which will turn upon him and bite him If therefore we would neither molest others nor be disquieted our selves we must be like natural agents never working ought beyond our proper sphere of activity But especially if we desire to live peaceably we must beware of assuming to our selves a liberty to censure the designs decrees or transactions of publick authority and of saying to our Superiours what dost thou and much more by querulous murmurings or clamorous declamations of bringing envy and odium upon them Few private men are capable of judging aright concerning those things as being placed beneath in a valley and wanting a due prospect upon the ground and causes of their proceedings who by reason of their eminent station can see more and farther then they and therefore are incompetent Judges and unjustly presume to interpose their sentence in such cases But suppose the actions of Superiours notoriously blameable and scandalous and that by infallible arguments we are persuaded thereof yet seeing neither the taxing of nor complaint against them doth in any wise regularly belong to us nor the discovery of our mind therein can probably be an efficacious means of procuring redress and immediately tends to diminish the reputation and weaken the affection due to government and consequently to impair the peaceable estate of things which by them is sustained we are wholly to
abstain from such unwarrantable unprofitable and turbulent practices and with a submiss and discreet silence passing over the miscarriages of our Superiours to wait patiently upon the providence and implore the assistence of Him who is the only competent Judge of such and sovereign disposer of all things who hath their hearts in his hands and fashioneth them as he thinks good Farther 12. If we would live peaceably with all men it behoves us not to engage our selves so deeply in any singular friendship or in devotion to any one party of men as to be entirely partial to their interests and prejudiced in their behalf without distinct consideration of the truth and equity of their pretences in the particular matters of difference not to approve favour or applaud that which is bad in some to dislike discountenance or disparage that which is good in others not out of excessive kindness to some to give just cause of distast to others not for the sake of a fortuitous agreement in disposition opinion interest or relation to violate the duties of justice or humanity For he that upon such terms is a friend to any one man or party of men as to be resolved with an implicit faith or blind obedience to maintain what-ever he or they shall affirm to be true and what-ever they shall doe to be good doth in a manner undertake enmity against all men beside and as it may happen doth oblige himself to contradict plain truth to deviate from the rules of vertue and to offend Almighty God himself This unlimited partiality we owe only to truth and goodness and to God the fountain of them in no case to swerve from their dictates and prescriptions He that followed Tiberius Gracchus in his seditious practices upon the bare accompt of friendship and alledged in his excuse that if his friend had required it of him he should as readily have put fire to the Capitol was much more abominable for his disloyalty to his Country and horrible impiety against God than commendable for his constant fidelity to his friend And that Souldier which is said to have told Caesar in his first expedition against Rome that in obedience to his commands he would not refuse to sheath his sword in the breast of his Brother or in the throat of his aged Father or in the bowels of his pregnant Mother was for his unnatural barbarity rather to be abhorred than to be esteemed for his loyal affection to his General And in like manner he that to please or gratify the humour of his friend can be either injurious or treacherous or notably discourteous to any man else is very blameable and renders himself deservedly odious to all others Laelius who incomparably well both understood and practised the rules of friendship is by Cicero reported to have made this the first and chief Law thereof Vt neque rogemus res turpes nec faciamus rogati That we neither require of our friends the performance of base and naughty things nor being requested of them perform such our selves And in the heraldry or comparison of duties as all others must give place to those of piety verity and vertue so after them the duties of humanity justly challenge the next place of respect even above those which belong to the highest degree of friendship due to our nearest relations yea to our Country it self precisely taken abstracted and distinguished from those of humanity For the World is in nature the first the most comprehensive and dearest Country of us all and our general obligations to mankind are more ancient more fundamental and more indispensable than those particular ones superadded to or superstructed on them The peace therefore of the World and the general welfare of men its Citizens ought to be more dear to us and the means conducing thereto more carefully regarded by us in our actions than either the love favour or satisfaction of any particular persons is to be valued or pursued And the not observing this rule may reasonably be esteemed to have a great influence upon the continuance of those implacable feuds and dissensions wherewith the world is so miserably torn and shattered Mens being peremptorily resolved to extoll countenance or excuse promiscuously all the principles and proceedings of the party to which they have addicted themselves and to see no errour fault or abuse in them but by all means to depress vilify and condemn if not to reproach calumniate and persecute the opinions and practices of others and not to acknowledge in them any thing considerably good or commendable whence commonly all apprehend their adversaries extremely unjust and disingenuous towards them and are alienated from all thoughts or however discouraged from all hopes of friendly accommodation and reconcilement But he that would live peaceably with all men must be free in his judgment impartial in his dealing and ingenuous in his carriage toward all not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 admiring or wondring at some men as if they were impeccable or infallible nor having the truth in respect of persons abetting in his friends onely what is just and true and allowing the same in others but in neither by signal approbation countenancing any thing false or evil for so demeaning himself he giveth no man just occasion of displeasure or enmity against him 13. If we would live peaceably our selves we should endeavour to preserve peace and prevent differences and reconcile dissensions among others by doing good offices and making fair representations of intercurrent passages between them by concealing causes of future disgust and removing present misunderstandings and excusing past mistakes by allaying their passions and rightly informing their minds by friendly intercessions and pacifick advices For the fire that devoureth our neighbours house threatneth and endangereth ours and it is hard to approach contention without being engaged therein 'T is not easie to keep our selves indifferent or neutral and doing so we shall in likelihood be maligned and persecuted by both the contending parties Blessed are the peace-makers saith our Saviour for they shall be called the sons of God that is they shall be highly esteemed and reverenced for this divine quality wherein they so nearly resemble the God of peace and his blessed Son the great Mediatour but farther without respect to other recompence and from the nature of their employment such are immediately happy and in this their vertuous practice rewards it self that by appeasing others quarrels they save themselves from trouble and enjoy themselves that tranquillity which they procure to others But those informing Sycophants those internuncio's of pestilent tales and incendiaries of discord that from bad nature or upon base design by the still breath of clandestine whispers or by the more violent blasts of impudent calumnies kindle the flames of dissension or foment them among others that by disseminating infamous rumours and by malicious suggestions instill jealousies into and nourish malevolent
from the exceeding variety difference and contrariety of mens dispositions joyned with the morosity aptness to mistake envy or unreasonable perverseness of some which necessarily render the means of attaining all mens good-will insufficient and the endeavours unsuccessfull For men seeing by several lights relishing with diversly disposed palates and measuring things by different standards we can hardly doe or say any thing which if approved and applauded by some will not be disliked and blamed by others if it advance us in the opinion of some will not as much depress us in the judgment of others so that in this irreconcileable diversity and inconsistency of mens apprehensions it is impossible not to displease many Especially since some men either by their natural temper or from the influence of some sowre principles they have imbibed are so morose rigid and self-willed so impatient of all contradiction to or discrepancy from their sentiments that they cannot endure any to dissent in judgment or vary in practice from them without incurring their heavy disdain and censure And which makes the matter more desperate and remediless such men commonly being least able either to manage their reason or to command their passion as guided wholly by certain blind impulses of fancy or groundless prejudices of conceit or by a partial admiration of some mens persons examples and authorities are usually most resolute and peremptory in their courses and thence hardly capable of any change mitigation or amendment Of which sort there being divers engaged in several ways it is impossible to please some without disgusting the other and difficult altogether to approach any of these wasps without being stung or vexed by them Some also are so apt to misunderstand mens meanings to misconstrue their words and to make ill descants upon or draw bad consequences from their actions that 't is not possible to prevent their entertaining ill-favoured prejudices against even those that are heartily their friends and wish them the best To others the good and prosperous estate of their Neighbour that he flourishes in wealth power or reputation is ground sufficient of hatred and enmity against him for so we see that Cain hated his innocent brother Abel because his brothers works were more righteous and his sacrifices better accepted then his own that Josephs brethren were mortally offended at him because his father especially loved and delighted in him that Saul was enraged against David because his gallant deeds were celebrated with due praises and joyfull acclamations of the people and that the Babylonian Princes upon no other score maligned Daniel but because he enjoyed the favour of the King and a dignity answerable to his deserts And who that loves his own welfare can possibly avoid such enmities as these But the fatal rock upon which peaceable designs are most inevitably split and which by no prudent steering our course can sometimes be evaded is the unreasonable perverseness of mens pretences who sometimes will upon no terms be friends with us or allow us their good-will but upon condition of concurring with them in dishonest and unwarrantable practices of omitting some duties to which by the express command of God or evident dictates of right reason we are obliged or performing some action repugnant to those indispensable rules But though peace with men is highly valuable and possessing their good-will in worth not inferiour to any other indifferent accommodation of life yet are these nothing comparable to the favour of God or the internall satisfaction of conscience nor though we were assured thereby to gain the entire love and favour of all men living are we to purchase them at so dear a rate as with the loss of these We must not to please or gratify men commit any thing prohibited or omit any thing enjoyned by God the least glimpse of whose favourable aspect is infinitely more to be prized then the most intimate friendship of the mightiest Monarchs upon earth and the least spark of whose indignation is more to be dreaded then the extreamest displeasure of the whole world In case of such competition we must resolve with Saint Paul Gal. 1. 10. Do I yet conciliate God or do I endeavour to sooth men for if I yet soothed or flattered men so you know 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies I were not the servant of Christ. Nor are we that we may satisfy any mans pleasure to contravene the dictates of Reason that subordinate guide of our actions to doe any dishonourable or uncomely action unworthy of a man misbeseemour education or incongruous to our station in humane society so as to make our selves worthily despicable to the most by contenting some Nor are we bound always to desert our own considerable interest or betray our just liberty that we may avoid the enmity of such as would violently or fraudulently encroach upon them Nor are we in the administration of justice distribution of rewards or arbitration of controversies to respect the particular favour of any but the merits onely of the cause or the worth of the persons concerned Nor are we by feeding mens distempered humours or gratifying their abused fancies to prejudice or neglect their real good to encourage them in bad practices to foment their irregular passions to applaud their unjust or uncharitable censures or to puff up their minds with vain conceit by servile flattery but rather like faithfull Physicians to administer wholsome though unsavoury advice to reveal to them their mistakes to check their intended progress in bad courses to reprove their faults seasonably and when it may probably doe them good though possibly thereby we may provoke their anger and procure their ill-will and as S. Paul saith become their enemies for telling them the truth Nor are we ever explicitely to assent to falsehoods so apprehended by us to bely our consciences or contradict our real judgments though we may sometimes for peace-sake prudently conceale them Nor to deny the truth our defence and patronage when in order to some good purpose it needs and requires them though thereby we may incurre the dislike and forfeit the good-will of some men Nor are we by entertaining any extraordinary friendship intimate familiarity or frequent converse with persons notoriously dissolute in their manners disorderly in their behaviour or erroneous in weighty points of opinion to countenance their misdemeanours dishonour our profession render our selves justly suspected run the hazard of contagion or hinder their reformation And especially we are warily to decline the particular acquaintance of men of contentious dispositions mischievous principles and factious designs a bare keeping company with whom looks like a conspiracy an approving or abetting their proceedings The refusing any encouragement signification of esteem or vouchsafing any peculiar respect to such we owe to the honour of vertue which they disgrace to the love of truth which they oppugn to the peace of the world which they disturb and to the general good of mankind which
they impeach And so S. Paul warns us not to mingle or consort not to diet or common 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with men of a dissolute and disorderly conversation And to mark them which cause seditions and scandals contrary to Christian doctrine and to shun or decline them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to repudiate deprecate the familiarity of Hereticks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And S. John forbids us to wish joy or to allow the ordinary respects of civil salutation to Apostates and Impostours lest by such demonstration of favour we communicate with them in their wicked works None of which Precepts are intended to interdict to us or to disoblige us from bearing real good-will or dispensing needfull benefits to any but to deter us from yielding any signal countenance to vice and impiety and to excite us to declare such dislike and detestation of those heinous enormities as may confer to the reclaiming of these and prevent the seduction of others So Saint Paul expresly 2 Thess. 3. 14. But if any man obeyeth not our injunction by epistle do not consort with him that he may by shame be reclaimed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And account him not an enemy but admonish him as a brother Nor ought lastly the love of peace and desire of friendly correspondence with any men avert us from an honest zeal proportionable to our abilities and opportunities of promoting the concernments of truth and goodness though against powerfull and dangerous opposition I say an honest zeal meaning thereby not that blind heady passion or inflammation of spirit transporting men beyond the bounds of reason and discretion upon some superficially plausible pretences to violent and irregular practices but a considerate and steady resolution of mind effectually animating a man by warrantable and decent means vigorously to prosecute commendable designs like that S. Jude mentions of striving earnestly for the faith once delivered to the Saints For this zeal may be very consistent with yea greatly conducible to the designs of peace And 't is not a drousiness a slack remissness a heartless diffidence or a cowardly flinching from the face of danger and opposition we discourse about or plead for but a wise and wary declining the occasions of needless and unprofitable disturbance to our selves and others To conclude this point which if time would have permitted I should have handled more fully and distinctly though to preserve peace and purchase the good-will of men we may and ought to quit much of our private interest and satisfaction yet ought we not to sacrifice to them what is not our own nor committed absolutely to our disposal and which in value incomparably transcends them the maintenance of truth the advancement of justice the practice of vertue the quiet of our conscience the favour of Almighty God And if for being dutifull to God and faithfull to our selves in these particulars any men will hate vex and despite us frustrate our desires and defeat our purposes of living peaceably with all men in this world we may comfort our selves in the enjoyment of eternal peace and satisfaction of mind in the assurance of the divine favour in the hopes of eternal rest and tranquillity in the world to come Now briefly to induce us to the practice of this duty of living peaceably we may consider 1. How good and pleasant a thing it is as David saith for brethren and so we are all at least by nature to live together in unity How that as Solomon saith better is a dry morsel and quietness therewith then a house full of sacrifices with strife How delicious that conversation is which is accompanied with a mutual confidence freedom courtesy and complacence how calm the mind how composed and affections how serene the countenance how melodious the voice how sweet the sleep how contentfull the whole life is of him that neither deviseth mischief against others nor suspects any to be contrived against himself and contrariwise how ingratefull and loathsom a thing it is to abide in a state of enmity wrath dissension having the thoughts distracted with solicitous care anxious suspicion envious regret the heart boiling with choler the face overclouded with discontent the tongue jarring and out of tune the ears filled with discordant noises of contradiction clamour and reproach the whole frame of body and soul distempered and disturbed with the worst of passions How much more comfortable it is to walk in smooth and even paths then to wander in rugged ways overgrown with briars obstructed with rubs and beset with snares to sail steadily in a quiet then to be tost in a tempestuous Sea to behold the lovely face of Heaven smiling with a chearfull serenity then to see it frowning with clouds or raging with storms to hear harmonious consents then dissonant janglings to see objects correspondent in gracefull symmetry then lying disorderly in confused heaps to be in health and have the natural humours consent in moderate temper then as it happens in diseases agitated with tumultuous commotions How all senses and faculties of man unanimously rejoyce in those emblems of peace order harmony and proportion Yea how nature universally delights in a quiet stability or undisturbed progress of motion the beauty strength and vigour of every thing requires a concurrence of force cooperation and contribution of help all things thrive and flourish by communicating reciprocal aid and the world subsists by a friendly conspiracy of its parts and especially that political society of men chiefly aims at peace as its end depends on it as its cause relies on it as its support How much a peacefull state resembles Heaven into which neither complaint pain nor clamour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in the Apocalypse do ever enter but blessed souls converse together in perfect love and in perpetual concord and how a condition of enmity represents the state of Hell that black and dismal Region of dark hatred fiery wrath and horrible tumult How like a paradise the world would be flourishing in joy and rest if men would chearfully conspire in affection and helpfully contribute to each others content and how like a savage wilderness now it is when like wild beasts they vex and persecute worry and devour each other How not only Philosophy hath placed the supreme pitch of happiness in a calmness of mind and tranquillity of life void of care and trouble of irregular passions and perturbations but that Holy Scripture it self in that one term of peace most usually comprehends all joy and content all felicity and prosperity so that the heavenly consort of Angels when they agree most highly to bless and to wish the greatest happiness to mankind could not better express their sense then by saying Be on earth peace and good-will among men 2. That as nothing is more sweet and delightfull so nothing more comely and agreeable to humane nature