just man when he was robb'd of his goods and cattel had his houses burnt his children slain and his body filled with botches and sores neither chargeth these on the Chaldeans Sabeans or Egyptians nor on the fire no nor on the Devil himself but acknowledging the hand of God in all gives God thanks for all saying It is thou Lord who gavest all that hast taken away all and blessed be thy name that is the power and mercy of the Lord and in all this Job sinned not Job 1.21 nor charged God foolishly but wisely and thankfully entertained these sufferings as great benefits and blessings from the Lord. We finde S. Paul vehemently afflicted complaining of the thorn in his flesh 2 Cor. 12.7 and the messenger of Satan buffetting him suppose these to be like unto the wrongs and injuries done thee by thine enemies and then learn by S. Pauls example how to behave thy self in this case where we hear the Apostle praying thrice that is earnestly and often that it might depart from him and though his Saviour had promised that whatever he asked in his name it should be granted yet in this case S. Paul is not heard but his suffering is continued but know why for though the thorn and the devil bâ— not removed yet they are continued for his greater good for by them he hath the presence and assistance of Gods grace for so the Spirit of God answered My grace is sufficient for thee V. 9. and hereupon the Apostle in stead of grieving or complaining most gladly rejoyceth that the power of Christ may rest upon him and for this cause he not onely rejoyceth but as there he professeth he takes pleasure in his reproaches necessities persecutions and distresses and he gives his reason for all When I am weak saith he to the world and the flesh then am I strong and comforted in the Lord Can there be any greater benefit then this redounding to the heart of man while he suffers and revengeth not the hate and wrongs of his enemies whereby saith our Saviour ye are not onely made like to your Father Matâ— 5. â—8 but are made perfect like your Father And this may satisfie the question Whether it be of more merit to love a friend or an enemy which is answered first by that of our Savior to love your friends and those that love you is to do no more then the publicans and sinners do and he that doth but this saith our Saviour hath his reward in returning love for love but to love our enemies saith Christ is to attain the height and perfection of love and so be like and perfect as our Father which is in heaven is perfect The old Proverb with the Heathen was I am a friend till I come to be sacrificed for my friend but then no longer a friend but God saith S. Paul commendeth his love towards us that he would dye for us Rom. 5.8 while we were yet sinners that is as in another place they are called enemies so that the height perfection and merit of Christian love is seen in the love of our enemies more then of our friends We may urge this duty further from the great and eternal reward held forth and promised to the lovers of their enemies in a tempest on the sea when the ship is tossed the best way to keep thy brains steady is to look up to heaven the application is ready at hand and this course took that holy Martyr S. Stephen Acts 7.34 who when his enemies gnashed upon him with their teeth as enraged against him be then saith the Text looked stedfastly into heaven where he â—â—w the glory of God and Jesus on his right hand and this caused him not onely to pray for himself Lord Jesus receive my spirit but to pray for his persecuting enemies saying Lord lay not their sins to their charge It is storied of Abraham that his seed should be strangers in Egypt where they should serve Gen. 1â— 13 and be afflicted 400 years but that nation God saith be will judge and not onely so but that his Israel shall go forth out of Egypt with great substance and after that shall go to their fathers in peace and shall be buried in a good old age so that the patient suffering of the worlds injuries is rewarded with freedom plenty of goods long life honorable burial and peace that peace of God which S. Paul saith passeth all understanding Christ when he gave this law of love to our enemies hath explained and made it Gospel-proof when he saith Hereby ye shall make God your Father and if he be our Father then we are his Sons and if Sons saith S. Paul then also we are heirs with Christ in the heavenly kingdom The last reason to provoke us to this duty may be the example of Christ and the holy ones praying for their enemies and the inevitable necessity that we cannot in this world live without enemies and therefore are to make as we say a vertue of necessity and therein imitate God who draweth sweet out of sowre and good out of evil and by a godly alchymie draw patience from their persecution and praise to God for granting us patience and a greater reward after all our sufferings If some Country as Crete Ireland or the like want poysonous beasts yet no land or countrey is without contentious rancorous men yea no village is without some such for aâ— David said so may we They have compassed me round about and are as bulls and lyons roaring and seeking where and whom to devour I have read of one who foolishly bragg'd that be had never an enemy in the world to whom another more wisely replied saying Then I conceive you have never a friend for sure there is not a man living that hath any thing in him worthy a man but for his wisdome his justice his valour his honour or wealth he shall be envied quarrelled with pursued or persecuted so that he that will think to live free from these must as S. Paul go out of this world In this world saith our Saviour unavoidably ye must and shall suffer tribulation onely be of good comfort saith the same Saviour for I have overcome this world and that by my suffering and leaving this act and suffering of mine as an example to you that as I so ye likewise should suffer For so not onely Moses S. Stephen and S. Paul did suffer and yet pray for their enemies and persecutors but above all let our Lord and Master Christ be as our Law-giver so in this our pattern and example for imitation who descending from heaven and humbling himself to the ignominious death of the Cross for his desperate enemies yet then on the Cross suffering under them prayed for them in these words Father forgive them Luk. 23.34 for they know not what they do their malice hatred and revenge is such that they know not what they do
absence when he shall hear least of it A third enemy to friendship is Anger you may observe that when God spake unto Elijah 1 Kin. 19.11 12. there first came a renting wind then a shaking earthquake and after both a burning fire but the Text tells that God the Spirit of meekness and love was in neither of these but in a small still or gentle voyce This this and not rage or fury is the parent of love and therefore Moses who was a meek man is the onely man to be called Gods friend And yet S. Paul teacheth us that there is an anger that may not be sinful for so saith he Be angry and sin not Eph. 4.26 and anger sins not then when it makes sin the object or butt of his displeasure and this anger Moses wanted not when he brake the two Tables wherein God himself wrote his Law but if ye observe this anger was not set against the persons of the people sinning for these be bewailed these he prayed for and with a wonderful measure of love when he wished rather that himself should be blotted out of Gods book then that they should be destroyed but all his anger was bent against sin and that not against a petite out against a most hainous and abominable sin gross Idolatry So that there is an anger in a friend which is not onely tolerable but commendable and it is like that of the Prophet when he saith Psa 141.5 Let the righteous smite me it shall be a great kindeness and let him reprove me it shall be an excellent oyle which will not break my head The Greeks as the Latines have distinguished anger by two words the one is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and iracundia by which is understood an ebullition or boiling of the blood which as it comes from a natural cause so it oft-times and in many is almost as soon gone as it suddenly came and this usually is found to be a consequent of the best dispositions the other anger is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a setled lasting wrath arising from a malicious heart and a revengeful stomach S. Paul himself seems to allow or favor this distinction when he saith Be angry and sin not Eph. 4.26 let not the Sun go down upon your wrath neither give place to the devil and this latter properly and not that former anger is it which we here speak against as being the deadly enemy to true friendship CHAP. XXVIII Of Self-love WE read not that man is expresly commanded to love himself because every one is so inclinable to it that the danger lies in our over-love to our selves yet it is implyed when we are taught to love our neighbour as our self and under this command is likewise implyed what we should not do to our neighbour as not to rob not to kill him We should not defraud our selves of what is justly and necessarily requisite for us much less should we destroy or kill our selves And this tacit precept of loving our selves is so much the stronger because it is natural â—nd ariseth from the first principles infused into man and never becomes vitious or sinful until it transgress or goes beyond the limits prescribed unto it which limits being to love God first above above all things and for himself for that he is the Alpha the first of all the first by whom all things were made and were all made for the exaltation of his glory And the second limit or bounding of our love being to our neighbour who is Gods image and our second self and therefore to love him as our self now when man shall so love himself as that he loves no other but himself then this love is corrupted and forbidden as sinful And into this sin as the first and root of all other sins did our first parents Adam and Eve fall when the devil tempting Eve he told her that by eating the forbidden fruit she should be like God the inordinate love to her own so great a seeming good moved her to desire what was forbidden and thereby to forsake God in disobeying his commands Pride properly was not the first sin in that Adam or Eve would be like God but the love of themselves was the cause of that pride And as Eve was the first that fell into the transgression of not loving God through her self-love so very soon after Adam dropt into the same transgression of not loving his neighbour for he when God called him to an account took nothing upon himself nor any way excused Eve but laid all the blame and sin upon her which was not to love her as his friend or neighbour and all this came from self-love The devil accusing Job asks God whether Job served or loved him for nought wherein his meaning was That neither Job the upright nor any other loved God as they ought wholly for God but for themselves Jacob vows unto God Gen. 28. â—0 but hear his conditions If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go and will give me food and raiment so that I come again to my fathers house in peace then shall the Lord be my God Might not the devil interpose and ask Doth Jacob serve God for nought the like may be said of the mother and the sons of Zebedee whose thoughts when Christ drew near his passion were for honour and precedency above their fellow-Apostles so that self-love seeketh primarily its own good though at the cost and charges of another And so tender-hearted and loving we are to our selves that when God hath poured out all the vessels of wine and oyle of his graces mercies and benefits yet if he require but some small return of a thankful love expressed by some holy exercises in the Church or at home how apt are we to say as the Spouse I have put off my coat how shall I put it on Cant. 5.3 I have washed my feet how shall I defile them small things about our garments or our very feet shall keep us from God or else we will say as in the Proverbs There is a Lyon in the way In our way to God we feign and suppose Lyons dangers of losing liberty or estates and rather then we will lose or hazard any thing for God we will swear backward and forward and serve the devil rather then God and we think we have excused all sufficiently by saying we were forced thereunto for we saw a Lyon in the way when oft-times this Lyon is of our own making or fear rather then that there were any such indeed and all this is the bastard-brat of â—â—lf-love And if you ask me what hath been the Mother and Nurse of all Heresies as that first of Simon Magus of the Gnosticks and Nicolaitans who to be great and to enjoy filthy pleasure were sometimes Jews sometimes Christians at other times Gentiles in their Professions but sure they would never willingly
Tabor did but typically prefigure the glory of his passion so that here not there the standers by and since that the Christian world proclaimed him Mat. 27.54 what before was believed but by few that he was truly the Son of God Men on earth study to blazon their coats with Dogs Hogs Cats and the like and by these means think to traduce their names as famous to posterity though themselves never in their lives did an act worthy of a Dogs-taile whereas our most blessed Lord Christ who acted all things worthy the Son of the most high God and all for the good of mankind had no other coat-armour but the Crosse which his love procured and wrought and hath thereby made him justly to be adored and worshipped as the God of the whole world CHAP. VII Love transformeth the Lover into the thing beloved NOT onely some choice Philosophers but learned Fathers of our Church have deemed and called a friend a second self the half of the soule or the same And among them one saith he that loveth intirely is dead as to his own body and liveth in that body which he loveth for that love carrieth with it if not the whole substance yet the principall vigorous acting faculties of the soule This position in some sense is made good in the divine Lover by that of S. Paul when he saith Your life is hid Col. 3 3â— with Christ in God where love to God hath mortified the Lover as to the body and to the world and makes him live by and in Christ for truly the soule cannot be thought or said to live but where it appears to move or work Hereupon some wittily have pronounced that the beloved is become an homicide and guilty of murder if he return not love for love but robs the Lover of his soul not returning his again to the Lover And some Philosophers have conceived that the soul of a dead friend by a strange transmigration hath been secretly conveighed into the body of a friend living and there kept alive and operating and all this to be effected and brought to passe by the spirituall power of love S. Augustine comes somewhat neer to these conceits when he saith My love is as the weight in a clock or the magnetick virtue in the load-stone for whithersoever I am moved or caried that it is which carieth or moveth me and my soule Every one therefore it strongly behoveth seriously to consider before he setleth upon what he intends to set his love for if on earth he becomes earthly if flesh fleshly if heaven heavenly which agreeth well with those terms given in holy Scriptures to severall kinds of affectionate lovers Our most blessed Saviour prayeth for us that we may be in him and be one with him Joh. 17.21 as Christ is in and with his Father which holy residence and blessed union must be next to Gods goodnesse the work of love S. Paul saith of himself that he is crucified with Christ Gal. 2.20 neverthelesse saith he I live and yet he adds it is not I that live but Christ liveth in me if you ask him how this can be he tells you in the words following the life which I now live I live by faith this is the instrumentall mean if you enquire into the cause of this life it is there mentioned when he saith by the son of God who loved me and gave himself and all his merits and benefits to work for and in me Our carnall and prophane loose lovers usually court their mistresses with these and the like unhallowed speeches You are my life my heart my soul which oft-times is more true then godly Divinely spoke King David O that we would imitate him God is my light and salvation Plato said that a friend is like a good looking-glasse in and by which the other friend may see himself and be seen by others for so it was in Jonathan and David that who saw the one discerned the other Or you shall find two friends united by true love to be like the mother and the child where if the child smile or weep the mother doeth the like and as the Chamelcon appeareth to be of that colour with the thing to which it is joyned so is it with good and true lovers who like Hippocrates twins looked laughed cried each as the other and were of like colour condition and passion each as other so that the union of friends made by sincere love is well compared and presented by inoculating a bud into another stock whereby it is made one with it Now in man there be three unions and each of them caused or bottomed on love the first is that of the soule and body matched together by a naturall love The second is the union of soules whether as among ordinary friends or as among Christs disciples Act. 2.1 who were of one heart and mind endevouring to keep the unity of the spirit as S. Paul speaks in the bond of peace Eph. 4.3 the former of these is wrought by a naturall the other by a spirituall love The third union is that which is betwixt God and mans soule when as S. John saith God is in the righteous 1 Joh. 4.16 and they in him and the efficient cause of this union is Divine love Which union as of all other and above all things in this world it is to be most desired estemed and preserved so is the separation or divorce the most to be feared grieved for and most carefully to be prevented for as by that blessed union we are made partakers of all the best things that earth or heaven can afford so by that separation we not only lose all the blessings by that union acquired but we purchase to our selves all the miscries vexations and torments that hell the Devils and our owne conscience can afflict us with the cutting off a finger from the hand is painfull of the hand from the arm painfull and damagefull and of the head from the body painfull grievous and deadly but the dividing or divorcing the soule of man from God the life of the soule is a pain grief and losse not to be expressed no nor to be imagined fully no not by them that suffer and feel it Of all separations and divorces O my soule be fearfull and carefull to avoid this and O thou the God of my soule be gracious and mercifull unto me that through blindnesse of understanding or hardnesse of heart I never incurre the dreadfull sentence of such a divorce or separation CHAP. VIII Vehement love causeth extasies making the Lover besides or to rob himself of himself LOve saith the Wise man is strong as death and in this comes neer to death Cant. 5.6 in that it makes the Lover oft-times not to see what he fixeth his eye on not to answer what he hears or what he is demanded and indeed oft-times to put him into such trances as that he seems
Greek they say may here as elswhere among sacred and profane Writers signifie a separation or setting apart the person of man and beast to suffer death or the like as a sacrifice thereby to expiate the offence of others and if this sense may be admitted then much more cannot be inferred then that S. Paul preferred his Countrey-mens spirituall and eternall estates before his own temporall or before his life which shewes that which we allege for to prove the transcendency of his love Others conceive the words anathema or accursed from Christ to mean Excommunication and this to be like that casting out of Cain Gen. 4.14 where it is said and from thy face shall I be hid Gods face noting typically the Church or visible congregation of Gods servants and this wish or desire in the Apostle though it goe farre yet because it includes not an everlasting separation but such as by Gods mercy and the Apostles repentance may be relaxed it is not so scrupulous and dangerous as The third sense of the words viz that S. Paul hereby should wish his eternall disherisance from heaven for his brethren and Countrey-men which curse separation or disherisance if it be the sense of the words then some answer that the word is I could have wished it So that S. Paul doth not expresly and plainly say I do wish this but I could or my love is such that rather then my Countreymen to whom the Promise and the Covenant is made should perish and they lose the benefit thereof I could finde in my heart to wish that I might be separated But say they he doth not explicitely and in the indicative mood say I do wish But if this answer be not admitted as satisfactory but that S. Paul seems to wish as a dear friend and tender father to be kept from eternall joyes rather then want the company of his children and Countrymen whom he calls by a neer relation brethren the question then will be as it is generally made how far forth this desire may be held justifiable or be accounted sinfull as to himself to wish the privation of his own eternall blisse Which question or difficulty some thus assoile 1. That for the greater promotion and exaltation of Gods glory this may be desired being that this is the first main principall end of mans being made or redeemed to advance the glory of God and that Gods glory should the more appeare by the restoring and saving of the Jews cannot be denied or doubted by any 2. Or as before the Text speaks not that I do wish but that I could so wish and that I could wish may imply that this wish in the Apostle is not so absolute as simply to desire his own damnation for his Countrymens salvation but that it may well comprehend under it at least a tacite condition as Lord I wish it if so it agree with thy will decree and good pleasure for whatever is agreeable to this must be and is justifiable and no waies sinfull 3. S. Paul may be construed thus to meane if for any cause under Gods glory I may desire mine own exclusion from Heaven then I could wish it for my Countrymens benefit and salvation such was the heighth and depth of the love of this blessed Apostle which desires at least to translate all its own good to his beloved CHAP. X. The Causes and Motives of Love I Shall not yet here touch upon the prime and principall cause of Love which is God but of that which is neerest unto God goodnesse which is the true proportionate object of the will and so of our love Insomuch that if the will at any time makes choice of the contrary which is evill this comes to passe by the wills being deceived by a false object and counterfeit colour in appearance of some seeming good For the will in its pure constitution doth not cannot affect or desire that which in it self simply is and so appears to be evill A man blinded in his reason and deceived by the pleasancy of wine or the beauty of women may will the unlawfull company of the one and the inordinate use of the other yet in neither doth he will or desire fornication or drunkennesse as they are evils but as he is ashamed to be termed a fornicator or a drunkard so though he become or be both yet he desires not drunkennesse or fornication but onely the base delight and pleasure in them which hath deceived and cousened his desire under a shew of that which seemed then unto him good For God which made all by weight and measure hath given to our understanding and will certain naturall inclinations which as laws cause them to affect their proper objects which are truth to the understanding and goodnesse to the will So that who is perverted or willingly perverteth the truth this is done by the false colour and shadow of truth and so it comes to passe in the matter of our will which ever desires that which is good and if deceived it is by that which appears at that time so to be Aristotle hath ranged Love into three kinds according to the three severall objects alluring the will and desire The one is love of pleasure and delight which too commonly follows and is entertained by youth Another is the love of wealth and is the servant mostly of old age A third is the love of that which is comely and honest which I fear hath the least part or predominancy in mans will where private interest bears the sway We have read that in ages before us vertue honour and beauty had the mastery in the will but those objects are laid aside and are past away with those times Some ancient Fathers give a reason why our Saviour openly proclaimed his gift of paradise to the Thiefe on the Crosse rather than to the Patriarchs and Prophets and it was say they because he at that time when Christ was publickly disesteemed and contemptuously used by all that he then proclaimed him to be the Messias and the Saviour of the world This singular bounty therefore of our Saviour accompanied that rare piece of faith and love in the Thief to whom at that time when the Thief profest him Christ had shewed no miracle nor done him savour Whereas now adaies few serve or worship Christ unless he honour or serve their turns so that were it not for the benefits he daily bestows on us he might for us live as retired in the contemplation of his own infinite goodnesse with little or no love of the world Next to goodnesse not onely Philosophers but the holy Scriptures have assigned knowledge to be an especiall worker of love Our Saviour saith This is life eternall Joh. 17. â— to know the Father and the Son for from this knowledge ariseth our love and by them both we attain to life everlasting Unbelief ignorance or the forgetfulnesse of this principle as to say with the foole there is
to defend him from the hurt or violence of the weather so that the love of the first is like that of the Strumpets all for reward or what will ye give me and by these means he makes the principall of what he should love God but the accessory to the thing he loves and the accessory indeed the things of the world and flesh he makes the principall part of his love Whereas the true lover makes God the prime originall principall cause and mover of all his love and all things else but subordinate and subservient to this love The regenerate and unregenerate children of God in this world make use of Gods blessings and so return their love to God as Isaac blessed his two sons Jacob and Esau where the father in blessing Jacob ver 28. begins with heaven Gen. 27. God give thee of the dew of heaven yet he after adds the fatnesse of the earth but in blessing Esau ver 39. he begins with the earth Behold thy dwelling shall be of the fatnesse of the earth and of the dew above In like manner God gives his truly beloved Israel the dew the desire and love of heaven in the first place but to the Edomite first the fatnesse of the earth and according as their desires are set so also are their loves this mans to the world and the others to God And by these their loves as by certain and infallible rules ye may know and discerne what they are CHAP. XX. The love of the heavenly Angels unto man IN this Chapter of Angels my Authour is very large and attributes mare unto Angels then I can finde sufficient ground for therefore I shall abbreviate and deliver no more from him then I conceive is warrantable Which is In Scripture we have no mention of an Angel untill the world was above nineteen hundred years old Gen. 16.7 and who that Angell was that appeared and talked with Hagar is questioned By the learned among which many are of opinion that it was God himself for that he said ver 10. I will multiply thy seed and that she answered v. 13. and called the name of the Lord that spake unto her Thou God seest me But if this were not God but a created Angell the question may be wherefore Moses so faithfully and fully speaking of Gods works in that great Creation neither then nor in all the time since till this of Genesis hath any word of an Angell Some are of opinion that Moses writing more especially to his Countrymen the Jews omitted the history of the Angels creation lest the Jews over apt as the most simple people are to Idolatry might by it have fallen into such an esteem of them as to have adored them Or Moses writing his history of the Creation in brief exprest onely what more directly concerned man to know concerning his duty and service to God yet when he finds a just and necessary cause he then omits not to speak of them as in this story of Hagar Now what they are though we have not in Scripture any exact discourse or definition of their natures yet the Psalmist hath exprest the end and office why they are created when he saith God shall give his Angels charge over thee Psame 91.11 to keep thee in all thy waies and this that they may the better do he adds in another Psalme He maketh his Angels Spirits Psalme 114.4 his Ministers a flaming fire or a flame of fire as the Apostle renders it Which summed up the result will be Heb. 1.7 that Gods good Angels are created for the good and benefit of Gods good servants on earth to whom under and from God they are in a kinde of ministery or service as is expresly spoken by the Apostle Are they not all ministring Spirits Hebr. 1.14 sent forth to minister for them who shall be heires of salvation And Psa 34.8 The Angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that feare him and delivereth them And that they may do God service for mans good God hath made them for their activenesse agile and swift as Spirits and for their fervency and zeale in discharge of their office as a flame of fire The Scripture is plentifull in the confirmation thereof therefore when Hagar is blessed in the promise of a great issue Gen. 16. it is done by an Angell and when she and her son were in a famiâ—hing distresse they receive their comfort by an Angel Gen. 21.17 and they were Angels that brought and delivered Lot out of the fire in Sodome Gen. 19. â—15 When King Hezekiah and the people of Judah were in eminent danger to be swallowed up and destroyed by the vast and potent army of the Assyrians 2 Kings 19. then the Angel of the Lord smote of the Assyrians in one night 185000. And we finde the three servants of God cast into the fiery Furnace when God sends his Angell and delivered them that trusted in him then Daniel cast into the Lions Den Dan. 3.28 we see in the same place the Angel of God shutting the Lions mouths Dan. 6.22 that they cannot hurt him And the blessed Babe Christ his Mother and supposed Father being in jeopardy of their lives by that blood-sucker Herod Matth. 2.13 behold the Angell of the Lord counsels and guides them forth from the malice and rage of that tyrant And an Angel of the Lord did as much for Peter Act. 12.8 when he was cast into prison and ready the same night to have been destroyed by another Herod Many rare examples have we of the deliverances of Gods servants out of great and imminent dangers and of other their helps and comforts in time of need and distresse by the hand and help of Gods ministring Spirits the good Angels To shut up all they were Angels who pronounced John the Baptist to be the light and forerunner of the Messias 〈◊〉 1.13 Mat. 1.10 They were Angels who proclaimed the birth of the Son of God Mat. 4.11 our for ever most blessed Saviour Angels they were that ministred unto him after his long fasting Luk. 22.43 and that comforted him in his sad passion Matth. 28.5 and Angels that preached the joy of his resurrection Joh. 20.12 Thus farre we may safely go and with the warranty of Sacred writ pronounce to Gods glory and his mercy the loving offices performed by Angels to Gods dear servants but to say as my Authour and diverse otherwise learned Divines do that every particular man hath his Tutelar guardian Angel to attend guide and protect him I cannot say for the two places by them cited to prove this where it is said of the little Ones Mat. 18 1â— Their Angels in heaven do behold the face of God which is in heaven and that where it is said of Peter It is his Angel Act. 12.15 confirme not their Tenet For by their Angels and his Angel in those two
which will and desire each studieth the others good as earnestly and affectionately as his own yea and so far oft-times than he preferreth the outward good of his friend before his own And that such friendship hath been found they tell us of Pylades and Orestes Damon and Pythias Theseus and Pirithous who took upon them to be the persons of their friends imprisoned and in danger of life thereby to hazard their own liberties and lives for the freedome and preservation of their friends To the setling and confirming of this friendship I shall lay down some conditions as necessarily requisite First that there be a kinde of equality betwixt friends which though the learned Roman Tully allows not yet with some Grecians it passed as a Proverb that Amity is Equality which is to be understood not so much in the outward estate and place of wealth honour and office as in the condescension and submission of the reason and will of the one to the other with a due observation to the place and dignity of the other And so Jonathan though the eldest Son of King Saul became a friend to David a shepherd for saith the Text the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David 1. Sam. 1â— and Jonathan loved him as his own soul and in this respect may a King be a friend to his Subject for Christ himself thus calleth his disciples and true followers friends Joh. 15. â—4 15. who although he never did nor could devest himself of the glorious Deity yet to the making good his friendship he became in all things as man sin onely excepted yea as he called these his friends Servants in the Text before so that he might prove himself the more their friend he not onely was found in fashion as a man and as they to be a man of no reputation but more he took upon him the form of a servant â—hil 2. and accordingly shewed it before his passion when he humbled himself to the washing his Apostles feet A second condition requisite to this confirmation of friendship is a community of all communicable goods Plato the great Philosopher held this so necessary not only for friendship betwixt private men but for the general peace in a State that he banished from his Common-wealth this thing called Mine and Thine as the onely bane both of friendship and publick peace which opinion some wise men have approved with this small distinction of possession and use So that though the one friend according to the Law be the Lord and Proprietary of his Lands and Moneys yet the use and benefit thereof in case of necessity or conveniency shall be enlarged to his friend And surely as the Apostle speaks if we have Christ with him we have all things for all things are his so he that hath the soul and the heart of a friend with and by these he cannot but command for his necessary use his temporal goods which as before he that shall deny in so doing he denies himself to be a friend And this condition hath a great part of its ground from this That betwixt friends there must be as before I spake of Jonathan to David but one soul or the soul of the one so knit to tho other that each loveth the other as it were with the same soul This love is exprest to be betwixt the bridegroom and the bride Christ and his Church where she saith My beloved is mine Cant. 2.16 and I am his where first he is made hers by the love of his soul and then I am my well-beloved c. 6.3 and my beloved is mine she first returns her soul and love to him and confirms his to her self and when love hath thus united their souls all the affections and actions of the soul to say will and do the same thing will follow It is storied of two twins That when the one laughed or cried or the like the other did the same and so it should be betwixt friends and such friendship or love is commended unto us in holy Writ not onely by the example of Christs disciples who were said to be of the same minde Acts 2. 4. Rom. 12.15 but by their precept to us as when it is said Rejoyce with them that do rejoyce and weep with them that weep and then in the next words which causeth this mutual compassion Be of the same minde one towards another And not onely have we this precept but Christ hath prayed that we be enabled to the performance hereof when he speaks to his Father Holy Father Joh. 17.11 keep those whom thou hast given me that they may be one as we are one and thus the heart of friends being made one in an honest holy love the one shall not will nor ever bear the sway but they will in some things so submit to the judgement and will of the other that neither shall seem to over-rule the other but at the most they shall seem to rule by turns And love being thus preserved by the unity of an holy soul the fourth condition must take its place That friends must will and desire nothing but that which is just and honest Just betwixt man and man and from man to God and honest that is of good report I have read of one Pericles who being desired by his friend to speak in his cause more then was truth he answered True I am your friend but no further then to the Altar which afterwards become a Proverb among the Grecians and had this sense that when they spake as Witnesses they laid their hands on the Altar which no friend should dare do no not for his friend in a matter of untruth 'T is true that many held this too strict in friendship when they say So much you will do for every man and will you do no more or have you not a case for a friend To which I must briefly say He deserves not to be accounted a friend who of a friend requires more then what is honest and just And from hence ariseth another condition in friendship That the acts and desires of a friend must not solely tend to his own interest and behoof for this is not just but equally or by turns mutually to the good and benefit of each other A picture well drawn looks from its self casting his eyes and countenance and as it were with them following the beholder which way foever he turns and a friend being the image or picture of his friend should in all good desires wishes and actions shew himself like this picture for otherwise he that loves another for himself loves himself and not the other for the end of his love looks inward to himself and not outward to him whom he professeth to love To the better cherishing friendship this sixth condition is somewhat requisite That there should be as much and as often as well may be a mutual interview and conference between friends The
ridiculous thing to declaim against riches or rich men And indeed simply to declaim against either riches or rich men were a thing ridiculous but to say that it is hard for a rich man to enter heaven is to say no more then Christ in express terms hath spoken and hard it was that Christ who cured all other corporall and spirituall infirmities yet this of covetousness he cured not in the man who had great possessions Luk. 10. who though Christ who spake as never man did preached and earnestly perswaded this man to sell all yet he was so far from obeying this command of Christ who profest that he had kept all the rest of the Decalogue that without any civility or good manners tendered unto Christ his Master he rudely and unthankfully departs and never that we heare of returns again to heare him for which no other reason can be given then that which is exprest in the text which saith for he had great possessions And indeed when Christ took Matthew the Publican from the profitable trade of gathering custome or to cure recover the withered that is the covetous hand and these cannot be done but by the great power of God to whom alone all things are possible And yet for all this as you tell me many Godly men have been rich so I tell you that so you may be rich and yet continue god 〈…〉 as you get and use your riches in God 〈…〉 and in Gods name you may use and get them so you get keep and use them in a moderate and ordinate manner by lawfull means and to the right end Now the moderate and ordinate manner considers the action and the time whereas to the action we may seek and seek with care so that this seeking be not with a setling your hearts upon them which the Prophet forbids or with a trusting in them reproved by our Saviour or with such a care as distracts or divides the thoughts and desires of the soul betwixt God and Mammon For this is to serve two different discordant Masters saith Christ which God never will like And the time for this action of your moderate seeking worldly things must be as not before so neither joyned with the seeking of God but after so Christ hath taught Mat. 6.33 Seek ye first the Kingdome of God Then for the manner which must be moderate and ordinate and the means of prosecuting must be answerable that is the means must not be by injustice of fraud or force not by violence or oppression nor by circumvention of wit or tricks in law but by just lawfull faire and cleer dealing and this will so cleer the means as to make them lawfull and just And the end of all your seeking and getting and keeping together worldly things must be not to grow proud to be able to oppress and stifle justice nor to spend them on your lusts of the flesh or purchasing honour but that God the Donor and giver of every good gift may thereby be glorified by raising and propagating the more immediate means of his service and sâ—â—uants in the Church and by relieving the 〈…〉 stressed and oppressed members of our head Christ Thus by these means and to this end seek riches and in Gods name be rich whereas if you faile in these or any of these you neither love God nor your neighbour no nor your selves as you ought but you love the world which is enmilie with God who with the world will first or last destroy all his enemies CHAP. XXXI The brevity frailty mutability uncertainty and misery of mans life Abate the love thereof THe Philosopher hath said it and dayly experience confirms it that of all things dreadfull to nature Death is the most feared and on the other side we speak it as a proverb life is sweet And the Devil knowing this to be most desired by man as most agreeing to his nature when he would provoke God to put the utmost of all trialls upon Job thereby to prove his sincerity Job 2.4 5. he perswades God but to touch his bone and his flesh for then he will curse thee to thy face and the Devil gives his reason for this saying V. 6. skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life yea God himself when he gave the Devil leave to touch 〈…〉 and his flesh yet as though he were not wining to put Job to the utmost triall he enjoyned the Devil to save his life And that you may not think this speech of the Devil proceeded more out of malice to Job then from the grounds of truth heare the Preacher speaking by the Spirit of God who saith A living dog is better then a dead Lion Eccle. 9.4 and he gives his reason for this assertion for saith he the Dead have no more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the Sun so that as this wise min prefers a merry life before a sad for this saith he dryes the bones and hastens death so he prefers as the wisest Philosophers have done a sad yea a tortured life before an easie death in as much as while there is a being there is hope but the not being at all deprives us of all that can be wished and this is the generall dictate or vote of nature in the best of men Now that some have as the Apostle speaks dared to dye for a friend for God or for honour or the like this proceeded from a higher cause then bare nature either it is from grace as in the Christian or their desire was urged and heightned by some sting of ambition propounding to it self an immortality of name and honour whereby they thought to recompense the mortality of their body by a never dying glory in the world Yet notwithstanding this inbred desire of life did man consider and rightly weigh the brevity and shortness of his life take it at the longest 2 The uncertainty thereof caused through the frailty and brickleness of the materials and the many casualties cutting off and shortning this appointed brevity 3 And then lay 〈◊〉 the ballance to these the infinite daily miseries with which this short fraile mutable uncertain time of life is surcharged he would find little or no cause to settle his love and delight on this present life but to fix it wholly on that better life which may be full of joy for ever with God in heaven Now the term or bounds of mans life we find in Scriptures to be divers for before the flood we read that many lived above nine hundred years Gen. 6.3 In the next generation after the flood the Patriarchs and others exceeded not much one hundred twenty years for God saith his days shall be a hundred twenty years And in the third generation we find this term shortned seventy Ps 90.70 for so speaks that Psalme penned by David The days of our age are threescore years and ten this
sight of the Lord yet because he might have been unprepared at that time therefore God gave him time to think and prepare himself and that all things were not so well in order for the soul of that good King as they should have been for a dying man it appears by the message of the Lord sent unto him saying set thy house in order for thou shalt dye and not live They come short who say by house here is meant only houshold affaires for can we think that God had more respect or care to these then to the soul of Hezekiah which is the Temple and house of God though trusted to Hezekiahs keeping and when Hezâ—kiah is commanded to set his house in order before his death 2 King 18.3 it is apparent enough that somewhat therein necessary to be put in better order was out of good order and therefore as apparent it is that the very best may pray if for no other reason though many more there are yet for this that he may set his house in order before he dye for as the best swept house may gather some dust or uncleannesse in an hour so the purest soule of man and therefore as he is ever bound to pray Lord forgive me so he is ever bound to pray From sudden death good Lord deliver me that he may before his death say the same prayer which many suddenly surprised by death have not had time to say neither at their death to pray or say as S. Stephen or our most blessed Saviour who though they were before their deaths approach as well prepared for death as could be yet even then and as blessing God for this benefit and mercy they prayed not only for themselves but for others whereas he who is suddenly stroke dead hath no time with that blessed Martyr or the son of God to say Father forgive them or Lord have mercy on me The theef that dyed near Christ found this as an especiallmerc y from heaven that before his death he had time and grace to say Luk. 23.42 Lord remember me when thou comest into thy kingdome and this mercy was a thousand times greater to the theef on the Crosse then if he had dyed on his bed without prayer I am not ignorant that such seeming Saints as mislike of this prayer against sudden death reply that men are daily put in mind of their death by the frequent preaching of the Gospel and the hourly spectacles of mortality and these are enough to prepare them against a sudden death I know that the like frequent preaching might be means enough and sufficient to prevent and resist all sin and is it therefore so effectual but that notwithstanding al the preaching sin continues I would I could say it abounds not for all the preaching and would I could not truly say that it more abounds by the latter kind of preaching But tell me I pray did not Noah preach unto the old world of the deluge which should destroy them and therefore that they should repent and be prepared for death had not Sodome fair warnings in the like kind and had not Jerusalem caveats and preparatives given it by Christ himself to prepare and prevent that which might suddenly fall on them But did these warnings and preachings produce the effect and to tell us we should be ever prepared for death is no more then to tell us we should avoid all sinne but this telling this preaching works not ever the effect for which preaching was ordained and therefore in Gods name pray against sudden death In the Prophet Ezekiel and the Revelations of S John Ezek. 1â— Rev. 1. we find the Beasts said to be full of eyes as though they had eyes not only in their heads but in their hands feet tongues that all should watch against the approach of death and for a preparation to Judgement and not only the Apostles but Christ himself often preached this lesson to his disciples and lest they might forget it three times a little before his departure out of the world Christ bids his disciples watch Mat. 26. and in the parable of the Virgins he gives the reason of this advise for ye know neither the day nor the hour Mat. 25.13 wherein the son of man calleth either to death or judgement For as it is in another parable he shall come secretly and closely as a theef that he may not be discovered Mar. 13.39 but take thee unawares he shall come in the night therefore saith he that you be not surprised watch He that hath any enterprise or great work to do and hath but an hour a day or a week or a short set time allotted for the same how carefull he is to observe the time how it passeth that it slips not away before his work be ended And can man be sayed to have any greater work to finish then so to negotiate and do his business here that he may be ready and prepared whensoever he shall be summoned by death to give an account of his stewardship and so not fear that doome Go thou accursed into hell fire but rather that other Come ye blessed of my Father enter into the kingdome prepared for you S. Peter for close of this point 2 Pet. 3. 16 11 12 is most worthy our reading and best consideration Seeing saith he the Lord will come suddenly unexpectedly and to us uncertainly as a theef in the night what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness looking for and hasting unto the comming of the day of God And as the frailty and uncertainty of mans life should instrnct us to this so should the iniquity and misery thereof cure the itch of the desire of life which is no less to the best then what Job speaks Job 14.1 Ge. 47.9 man is of few days and full of trouble which is verified in Jacob who pronounced his to be such when he sayed Few and evill have the days of the years of my life been the years few but all the days full of evill of evill either of sin to be lamented or of affliction to be suffered and for this cause as many Philosophers blamed nature as a stepmother to man so many nations and people rejoyce at their friends going out but weepe at their comming into the world And Tertullian hath a conceit call it a conceit because I cannot warrant it that male children as soon as born express their lamentation by A A as sons of Adam and the females by E E as comming from Eve the parents of all their misery and sorrow Yet this is apparent that when God had fashioned the earth and the two great lights Gen. 1â— the Sun and the Moon and after that he had made the waters and the beasts that after every days work of each of these it is said God saw them that they were good which he forbeares to speak of man in speciall
which I leave and commend to your reading and meditation A sixth is that the wife be nor apt to resist or crosly to reply against her husband Prov. 15.1 The wise man in generall tells us that a soft answer frangit reads the vulgar breaks anger wherein is a mystery that that which is soft can break and it can be no less then a secret in nature infused by God into the soul of man and note that woman though at first she were made out of a rib yet that is not so hard as some bones and it was out of the husbands rib too that it should not resist him who was the matter of her being Fire we all know will soon break out by the collision or clashing of two hard matters as iron beating on flint but rub a thousand weight of oyle or feathers against twenty flints no fire will issue and lightning and thunder breaks the sword in the scabbard A woman complaining that her husband was so waspish and crosse that she could not contain but reply her neighbour taught her this remedy that while her husband was chiding she should hold water in her mouth till his fit was over which with thanks the woman found to be an especiall remedy I have red that anciently among some Greâ—ks the Bride on the day of mâ—riage was presented with a horse bridled and sadled not to teach that she should be ready to ride and gallop abroad but that she should be as that horse with her tongue bridled and silent at her husbands command In a word that I talk not too much in an argument of silence Prov. 31.26 Bathsheba tells the wife that she must open her mouth in wisdome and that in her tongue must be the law of kindness not sharpness or replies but what ever the husband be kindness must be observed by her as a law and by this law she shall find great ease and no small benefit to her self For the wives gentle meekness which is a seventh necessary requisite is like goats milke to an adamantine husband which as is storied will of it self dissolve the hardest diamond which no iron steel or the like can do For the soul of man as the Pâ—ilosopher observes is a generous and noble piece which though it cannot be drawn or forced yet it may be led and won Or like a strong well fenced Castle it may be mined but not battered S. Paul to win the Thessalonians made himself like a Nurse 1 Th. 2.7 which stills and gaines the love of the Child by lullabies a merry note and the dug and not by curstness 2 Tim. 2.24 25. Gal. 5.22 or blowes And the servant of the Lord who desires to win soules and bring them to Christ must be gentle patient meek for this is the fruit of the holy Spirit which descended on Christ in the figure of a Dove a Dove which as they say hath no gall neither can she chatter though offended but only mourns In a word the Psalmist saith the wife must be as a vine not as a scratching bramble no nor though sweet as a rose yet she must not be pricking as a rose but as the vine which brings not forth sowre but pleasant grapes to make her husbands heart not sad but merry For close of this if the husband be a Naball a churle a fool a distempered person let the wife learn to be an Abigail who would not move or stir him to choler or griefe when he was in heate of wine 1 Sam. 25 36. but after his rest when she found him well tempered then she speaks unto him and gently too I will summe up the duties of a wife with that precept of S. Paul which I will read as the Hebrews Tit. 2.5 backward or beginning with the last first and the last duty here exprest is that she be obedient to her husband and that is to be wrought or caused by the next before it when he commands her to be good that is benign gentle courteous The third duty ascending is that she be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like the tortoise except on sufficient cause ever in her shell that is an house-keeper or housewife The duty preceding this is that she be chast for this chastity is a great preserver of retiredness when on the contrary gadding abroad is no great friend to chastity The duty first here placed and which is first in repute and esteem is that she be discreet and prudent Which vertue is not only a great help to preserve chastity and to keep the wife at home but an especiall cause or worker of the wives courteous carriage and due obedience to her husband according to that of Salomon Prov. 19.14 Ecclus 26.14 A prudent woman is the gift of the Lord and a silent and prudent woman is the gift of God So S. Paul in setting down the commendable virtues and duties of wives begins with this let them be discreet or wise for without this they will hardly be châ—st Seldome housewives and never good and obedient to their husbands To this observation I may add one more as the last to this point that neither the Apostle nor any other pen-man of God ever commended beauty wealth honour as to be sought after in the choice of a wife But house-wifery chastity gentleness obedience and the crown of all prudence and therefore I should never counsel any to make choice of a woman in mariage who is confident of her wit wealth beauty or birth nor the woman to be maried to that man that presumes on his wisdome wealth power or honour for when these are over valued in either each will undervalue the other to contempt or at least to some discontent I have been long I hope women will not beshrew me for it in setting down the duties of wives to their husbands I shall be shorter and I wish that they would not blame me for it in the duty of the husband because as Christ and the Apostles spake of the law so the whole duty of the husband is comprised in this one word love So that though under love both in the law and the husbands duty many things are required which are not simply and properly called love yet all these flow and stream from this one spring of love and this is the cause that S. Paul only saith Eph. 5. Col. 3. husbands love your wives Now love being 1. naturall 2. carnall 3. politicall 4. divine I may say in a qualified sense that all these loves are commanded the husband under this one word love a naturall love because the woman was of and from man being flesh of his flesh 2. the carnall love because thee shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into or one flesh 3. politicall for a sweet society and peopling the world 4. a divine love 〈…〉 be in holiâ—â—â—â— such as Câ—â—â—â—â—hawed compriseth all that possibly any woman can require or desire from her husband For