precept of dilection of enemies sits but light upon the carriage of the Cross of Christ The sixteenth Treatise Considerations upon the Unsuccessfulness of a good Cause Divided into six Sections §. I. That much Religion is required to assist us in this probation THere is no Argument wherein Natural Reason hath more need of a Supernatural prompter to help us to frame our conclusions then in this of the miscarriage and frustration of pious and just designs especially in publike causes For God hath left us a convenient light whereby to read the right of Causes and our duties to them which is our sincerest and most disinteressed Reason judging by the known Laws of his Will But to discern whether the Success or Defeature of any Cause concur most to the universal end of Gods Providence this knowledge is seated in unaccessible light We may read Gods present Will in Events but not his consequent Order which may require the demolishment of many particular goods to build up the frame of the universal therefore the present ruine of single pieces of Equity doth not derogate any thing from the goodness of their Nature Wherefore the right of Causes ought not to be sentenced by the irregularity of Successes which are always uniform to Gods universal design though disproportioned according to the model of our Reason Surely they who shall seek to penetrate the Divine Providence by the eye of Reason so far as to make a draught of the reasons of all particular occurrences in the variations of Events make such an attempt as one that should gaze upon the Sun to enjoy more light then when he looked upon the Earth For they who press into this light shall quickly be oppressed by the same splendor they design for illumination And yet the infirmity of man is subject to such a kinde of Temptation viz. To study even the decyphering of all Gods characters in which his hand to the Creatures is very often sent For the successes and prevalence of Injustice against Honesty and Vertue may be aptly termed Gods eyphers in which his hand is soon discerned but not his sense Nevertheless we do familiarly take Events for the key of all the characters of Gods Providence and presume to read many of his Secrets very confidently by this key of the present form and figure of Events Nay our zeal is often so ingenious in this art of decyphering as it perswades us that we may even run and read the right of Causes by this light of Successes Insomuch as S. Pauls case in Malta is very familiar in the world for while the Viper is hanging upon the Cause and we are looking when it shall fall down and perish then we make our Judgement to be Gods Sentence and when the Viper is shaken into the fire and that destroyed by us which was expected as our destruction when a cause recovers from this danger then commonly that is cryed up for Gods Cause which before passed for his Curse This is a familiar conclusion with such who as we may say know Gods Providence onely by fight that is by the external marks of Successes and have no acquaintance with the nature and condition◠thereof Therefore as it is said of Philosophy That a slight and superficial knowledge of it may incline the minde of man to Atheism for if our minde stay and rest upon second causes which are next to our senses this fixure of our thoughts may keep our minde short of the Supreme cause but if we make a farther advance and progression into the reason of Philosophy it will lead the minde up to Religion as it shews the congruous dependency and subordination of all causes to Divine Providence So in the first rudiments of Religion which present us with a superficial aspect of Gods Justice under the notion onely of rewarding and punishing This first impression may move us to conclude of the quality of causes by Gods present declaration in their promotion or their prejudice but a judicious advance into the farther grounds of Religion will carry us to a reverent suspense of our conclusions upon the present apparences of all Events and apply us to the contemplation of Gods universal Providence which the Psalmist calls Gods great abysse which when it is the most stormy to our Reason when it drowns and desolates in our apprehension the right and justice of Humane actions even then it runs in the proper course of universal Justice and Equity There is also a regularity even in the very wave it seems broken into subverting all Humane order though the concertation of this method falls not within our capacity for the Psalmist himself says when the waves of this Ocean were gone over his head Thy way is in the Sea and thy pathes in many waters and thy steps are not to be traced A profound immersion in Religion covers our Reason with a reference to Gods universal Providence in those cases which seem to be void of his particular justice whereas a looking upon Successes by the first glances of Religion and discoursing on their Reasons by the flashy light of our private zeal to the Cause may easily raise impertinent conclusions upon the present apparences and such hasty judgements are so little capable of giving rest to our mindes as they must needs keep them in a continual vassellation according to the vicissitudes of contrary occurrences Wherefore as meer eagerness and zeal to the mastery and prevalence of any Cause ought not to be the motive of electing our party for in that affection there is always some obliquity from the straight love of Right◠and leaning towards the conveniency not an uprightness in our address to Justice so the success of our election ought as little to raise or abate the zeal to our Cause for by this varying of our measures we seem to square our conformity to Gods method as it answereth to the model of our Reason by which we have framed conclusions upon our own suppositions of Equity And this expectation of the Success of our Cause comes nearer oftentimes to the flattering our own judgement then applauding the Divine order and disposition of Events §. II. Motives to constancy after a prudent election of our Cause GOd hath left us sufficient marks by which to discern the right of publike Causes though our mistake of them be very familiar being swayed by some private partiality which looks more upon the beam reflected back on our selves then upon the direct beam as it shines upon the publike good But supposing us mis-led by our judgement I conceive it less blameable to persevere firmly in our first application then to be shaken from our party meerly by the motions of adverse Events In the first case man doth but miss his way in seeking God and in the last he seems to fear God may miss his way in coming to man for we know God is often said to come down to men in several acts of his Providence and
god-head she could in number have made up that losse of quality she brought in all the celest all bodies into the account of Divinity serving the Militia of Heaven instead of the maker and we may call to minde that as humane bodies grew Giants mindes seemed to shrink into dwarfs when they fell in love as I may say with the daughters of men that is the conceptions of their owne naturall Reason in this point of Divinity And we may well suppose that the Giants soules in the law of nature became so by espousing this daughter of God which we may properly call Grace whereby their heads passed the skie and touched Heaven it selfe in this beliefe of the unity of the godhead and by this conjunction with grace reason produced their issue of a rectified Religion hence is it that we finde the Patriarks frequently visited by celestiall spirits as the allies as I may say of this daughter of Heaven they had espoused and most doe conclude that all those who in the law of nature continued in a rectified belief and worship of God were maintained in that state by grace supplementall to the virtue of single Reason How far humane Reason may alone finde the way to rectified Religion is a question to exercise curiosity rather then excite piety and very commonly reason in the disquisition of faith doth rather sink the deeper into the earth by falling from her over aspiring then she doth six her selfe upward in her proper station and besides this danger me thinkes there is this difference betweene them that are working upon reason to extract Religion and those that are feeding upon sincere faith that the first are labouring the ground for that fruit which the last are feasting on or that the first are plowing while the last are gathering of Manna I shall indeavour therefore to serve in this spirituall refection ready to be tasted treating of faith already digested rather then to be provided by ratiocination for devotion is faith converted into nourishment by which the soul contracting a sound active strength needs not study the composition of that aliment it finds so healthfull §. II. Treating the best habit of mind in order to the finding a rectified Religion ME thinks Religion and Devotion may be fitly resembled to the Body and the Soule in Humanity The first of which issues from an orderly procession of nature by a continuing virtue imparted all at once to mediate causes the last is a new immediate infusion from heaven by way of a creation continually iterated and repeated So Religion at large as some homage rendred to a supreme relation flows into every mind along with the current of natural causes But Devotion is like the Soule produced by a new act of grace directed to every particular by speciall and expresse infusion and in these respects also the analogie will hold that as Religion hath the office of the body to containe Devotion so Devotion hath the function of the soule to informe and animate Religion And as the soule hath clearer or darker operations according as the body is well organized or disposed so Devotion is the more zealous or remisse proportionately to the temper and constitution of the Religion that containeth it Sutable to the Apostle Saint James his intimation to us that Pure Religion keeps us unspotted from the world I shall not take upon me the spirituall Physitian to consult the indispositions and remedies of differing Religions but relying more upon the Testimony of confessed experiments then the subtilty of that litigious art I shall prescribe one receipt to all Christian tempers which is to acquire the habit of Piety and Devotion for this in our spirituall life is like a healthfull aire and a temperate diet in our naturall the best preservative of a rectified faith and the best disposition to recover from an unsound Religion for the Almes and Prayers of the Centurion were heard and answered when they spoke not the language of the Church and the Angel was sent to translate them into that tongue in which God hath chose onely to be rightly praised that which his Eternall Word Christ Jesus hath peculiarly affected and annexed to his Church this shews the efficacie of piety and the exactnesse of Gods order who hath inclosed his eternall graces within those bounds into which he brings all that shall partake of them and so doth naturalize all such strangers as he intitleth to them doth not allot any portions to aliens but reduceth all them he will endow into that qualification he requireth which is into the rank of fellow-citizens of the Saints and of the houshold of God he leaves none with a dispensation of remaining forreiners The Angel that called the Centurion directed him to the gate of the Church Saint Peter did not bring him a protection to rest in his owne house with the exercise of his naturall pieties and so for those that are straying without the inclosure of the Catholique Church if they walk by the light of naturall charity morall piety and devotion in their religious duties this is the best disposition towards the finding of the way the truth and the life of whom the Psalmist sayes He is neere to all those that seeke him and those who are thus far advanced in morality may be said to be in atriis Templi in the Church-yard which is in a congruous disposition for farther advance into the body of the church I shall endeavour then to affect every one with the love of purity and holinesse of life for to those that are already rooted and growing in the Church this disposition will be are that fruit the Apostle soliciteth for them that their love may abound more and more in knowledge and in all judgement And in those who are yet strangers and forreiners as he calls them this reverentiall feare of God seemes to chase the wax for the seale of the holy Spirit for Prayers and Almes doe as it were retaine God for their Counsel and as his Clients open their cause to him in these tearms of the Psalmist Lord cause me to know the way wherein I should walk for I lift up my soule unto thee And such may be said to be halfe way towards their end that doe worship in a zealous spirit and are likely never left there but helped on to the other part of worshipping in truth by him that hath ordained our worship to consist of Spirit and Truth so that devotion sincerity in any Religion are the best Symptomes of our designation to the true and sincere Religion Wherefore having made this generall presentation of piety and virtue to all parties I shall not stay to wrastle in the Schooles but rather strive to set such Church-musick as all parties may agree to meet at the service and this I presume may sound in tune unto most eares that where consort and harmony in faith appeareth it is a good note of that
when the Psalmist says He bowed the Heavens and came down there was a cloud and mist under his feerâ— So that we must not look to trace his paces nor judge of his design by some strokes and touches of his hand but expect the time when the whole piece of his universal Providence shall be exposed and finished altogether Then we shall discern how all postures which taken severally did seem deformed when they are set together in the whole design do make an admirable concordance of Justice and Mercy We must remember what S. Peter says A thousand years and one day are the same instant object to God so as he sees all the broken and shâ—vered pieces of our several times intire at once in the mirror of his intellect whereby all is evenness and uniformity in his spirit and sight which is fraction and irregularity in our successive view of the broken portions of his Providence Do not they then who are confused and distracted in their Opinions upon the prevalence of unjust actions against the honest and unquestionable party do as if one should see a crooked and mis-shapen figure severed from the whole design whereof it is a part and knowing it to be of a great Masters hand should yet wonder at it and suspect the failing of the Artist when if this single figure were seen in the complete design it would appear to be made for that mis-shapen posture it was to represent in order to the perfection of the whole piece For the particular present events in Humane actions which seem crooked and deflected from the rule of Justice are such portions of Gods Providence severed for a time from the whole configuration for which reason in this single existence of them they seem disproportioned Wherefore in this case we should look upon parts and portions of Gods works with the eyes of the wise man concluding All things live and remain for all uses and they are all obedient all things are double one against another and he hath made nothing imperfect So that which taken single may seem imperfect to our sense being set doubled and united to that part it belongs unto becomes uniform and complete in the total of Gods Justice Since then our Faith tells us That God hath disposed all things in weight and measure we must suspend our judgement while the ballance is yet suspending and not resolve by the present raising or depression of the scale unless we pretend to hold Gods hand where our eye leaves it For we know the scales of Providence are always in motion as the Psalmist says Now he humbles this part now he exaltâ— the other Whereupon this is that holy Kings supercession and suspense of his judgement in these tides of the Abysse of Gods Providence Thy cogitations are too profound for me David rests his own cogitations in that depth which they cannot fathom and satisfies his incapacity with rejoycing in Gods Incomprehensibleness proclaiming joyfully Thy Justice is as the Mountains and thy Judgements as the vast Ocean in which they who will study the reasons of the ebbings and flowings of happy and adverse Events in all kinde of Causes shall be more confounded then the Philosopher was in the reason of the tides of the Sea But one may more properly relieve himself by doing with our Reason as it is said he did with himself by casting it into the bosome of the unsearchable Order concluding Since I cannot comprehend the design of it it shall contain and involve my submission to it And being thus sunk deep enough into that Divine Element we shall not feel the storms and agitations which are on the upper part of the waters §. III. The variableness of the Vulgar upon Events and a prudent conduct proposed THe Athenians were a people so affected with curiosiâ—y and novelty as rather then they would want new Religions they would have even unknown gods so as their Liberties did not onely reach to the making of new Religions but new gods therefore it is no wonder if their Poets were their Priests which moved S. Paul to argue with them out of their Authorities It was no wonder this people who had a several god presiding over every Humane action should judge the equity of all causes by Events insomuch as when S. Paul preached to them one God and his single Providence as the orderer and contriver of all productions and mutations they thought this an abridgement of the priviledge of their Reason to be enjoyned a subscription to one supreme Providence without any private satisfaction to their discourse in the occurrences of this life For when he told them That by Gods works man could but feel out as it were by palpation in the dark the notion of the Deity and could not expect to reade the reason of his administration by any light but that of Faith this seemed to them babling and talking idlely in S. Paul Neither is it any wonder that people undetermined in Religion should be so superstitious in Successes as to make some Religion out of them for where Religion hath been loosest Fortune always passed for a Deity and it is not strange that they who worship Fortune should sacrifice their Reason to Successes for then truly mens private Fortunes become their Religions But where the knowledge and worship is resolved and uniform the Divine Providence is erected in stead of Fortunes Altar our Reason is offered up as an Holocaust totally consumed and resigned to this order and the fat of the Sacrifice is the evacuation of all our own judgements in the event of things which do wholly transcend our Reason Yet do I not pretend we should be wholly unmoved or unaffected with happy Successes but in such cases we ought to look upon them as they are simply in themselves mercies not respectively as we judge them sentences in our Cause for in adversity the matter doth not declare Gods meaning when somtimes it is intended to purge improve somtimes determinately to punish us therefore the matter of misery may be disliked but not Gods meaning in it So prosperous Successes are sometimes meant as approbations and often as derelictions to the desires of our hearts wherefore the matter of them may be affected but the meaning of them not peremptorily concluded Hence it is that as in our enemies we may hate the sin and not love the man the worse so in our temporal advantages we may be joyed with the success and yet not like the cause the better which is to have an equal disposition in them For the choyce of our Cause must rest upon that immoveable Centre of the right and justice thereof which when by our best and most disinteressed Reason we conceive fixed and setled nothing that doth not better our Reason can evidence more to us the goodness of our Cause and uncertain Natural Events have not that vertue of improving our Reason they may more easily weaken it if we study
God for the reversing of such orders in which exigencies we may earnestly press the hastening of Gods time and concurrently attend his will with patience for that is Gods time to which our Prayers have brought God as that price was Gods price to which Abraham brought God for Sodom This I hope will sufficiently explicate the sence of formal and material conformity to Gods Will and so enlighten us in many obscurities and scuples which the tenderness of our Conscience may cast over us as apprehensions of con 〈…〉 against Gods order in our sorrow and resentment of publike or private calamities §. V. The infirmity of our Nature conforted by Examples Holy and Prophane and the acquiescence to Gods Order with constancy perswaded BEcause this tryal of us requireth all the strength of our Grace or our Reason to secure us farther from being dismayed at the proneness of our Nature to slackâ—â— in the confidence of our Cause upon the prosperity of the advers party we may look upon one of the strongest vessels of Gods building and we may finde him in this storm driving upon all his anchors when he confesseth My 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 almost gone and my steps well â—igh stipping away when I saw the peace of sinners they are not in trouble as other men neither are they plagued as others He could have no ease in the inquisition of the reason of this inverted appearance of Justice till as he says he went into the Sanctuary of God So when we finde our selves upon Davids slippery steps we must follow him who leads us to take Sanctuary in Gods universal Providence taking hold of his Altar there his Inscrutable Wisdom and the passions of our Nature will be afraid to violate that holy Refuge in disputing to draw us out of that Sanctuary by their Violences as long as our thoughts rest themselves there and our Reason doth not venture abroad to rove in the inquisition of second causes It was upon the holy ground of this Sanctuary that King David trode when he climbed up the mount Olivet barefoot his steps were then firm and sure even upon all these sharp stones which were under them even those stones which Shimei threw in his way did not give him the least trip he walked upon this ground of The Lord hath ordained him to curse David who shall then say Wherefore hath he done so it may be the Lord will look on my affliction and requite me for this days cursing Here we see King David walks so firmly on Gods Order and Providence as his steps broke in pieces all Shimei's stones they trode upon and he was now no more moved in the diffidence of his cause then he was elated with the right of it when Shimei came to meet him and lay prostrate at his feet to be trode upon He then raised up his enemies person and kept onely his injuries under his feet which were so many steps to raise his eternal Throne and certainly all that Shimei threw at him proved the most precious stones which the Hand of Providence set in the Everlasting Crown of this Blessed King Thus we see the common infirmity even of the most sanctified Natures while they are working upon the stock of their own Reason in Humane occurrences and what a firmness and stability we may finde when we lay all our thoughts up to rest in the bosom of the Divine Providence taking this advice in all advers Events Yea when thou shalt say he considereth not be judged before him and expect him And as it is observed in the motions of the Heavens that as the Orbs are nearer the first mover so they go the faster in the common diurnal motion the slower in their own peculiar which is opposite to the other so we may truly say the nearer our mindes are raised to an adherence to the first Divine moving order our Reason shall go the quicker in a consenting motion to all the common occurrences of Providence and shall move the gentlier in the retrograde motion of her own Orb of Nature and consequently the disquiets of our Nature shall move less in their passionate oppositions to all sinister Events and we shal be the less frighted when with the Apostles we are going into the cloud remembring the reproach God maketh to tottering confiders Am I onely a God at near hand and not the same at distance If ever we could have hoped to have been informed of the reason of the present advantages allowed to the wicked it should have been when the Prophet Jeremy one sanctified even in his Mothers womb did so earnestly ask God this question with a conjuration upon his Justice saying Lord thou arâ— just when I argue with thee yet let me talk with thee of thy Judgements Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper Wherefore are all they happy that deal treacherously And yet God affords him no answer to this desire but leaves him in such a suspense and perplexity as in an holy confusion he challengeth even God of having misinformed him in his Judgements upon sinners which were so long deferred So we can look for no satisfaction in this point greater then that answer which God makes to Daniel when he asked What sha 〈…〉 â—e the end of these things Go thy ways Daniel for the words are closed and sealed up till the time of the end Wherefore in all the distractions and subversions of Kingdoms pri 〈…〉 Ruines and Confusions we must recur to Daniels conclusion Blessed be the Name of the Lord wisdom and power are hâ—â— he removes and constitutes KINGS and Kingdoms By this precedent as near as our giddy Nature will admit we must seek to fix our mindes upon that incomprehensible course of Gods Providence which changeth all things without any mutation in it self and the nearer we come to this conâ—ixure unto that stability the less obnoxious we shall be to the estuations of joys and fears or the anxiety of wonder in all contingencies For the chief motive of the disquiet of our minde is the imperfect broken view we have in this life of the chain and coherence of second causes we see several links lying scattered and parted without the rings which make the connexion that is we see daily mutations of all conditions from good to bad and interchangeably from advers to prosperous estates but we discern no reason that linketh and accordeth these variations with our judgements making a coherence satisfactory to our understandings in this distributive part of Gods Justice This half-sight of the form of things excites wonder in us which is broken knowledge when our understanding meets objects of strange effects divided from their apparent causes for if we could see at once this chain of Providence set together all events hanging linked to their final reasons our wonder would presently cease As we may suppose if the Prophet Daniel had lived to see actually the accomplishment of his Visions
ill an odour as their former Sacriledge If these Animadversions meet likewise with any such as are not urged by the pressure of their Consciences but rather solicited so much by their natural temper and disposition to privacy and retiredness as upon the least provocation of the world they are apt to break with it these humors are desired to stay and pause â—â—riouâ—ly and long on this suggestion for this may often be the operation of Melancholy which works this hasty promptitude And as Melancholy is the highest degree of choler in the Humors so in these hasty sallies out of the society of the world there may well be more Natural Humor then Spiritual Disposition and so this be rather a Disease then a devout Constitution Wherefore like sick men that forbear food long while the Humor is consuming these retreaters may for some time live quietly as long as this Humor of the worlds disrelish is wasting and spending it self but after that is digested the appetite of the world returns and likely gnaws upon their peace they having no natural food for it Hence is it that such complexions ought to be very advised in this their assigning of themselves according to the propensity of their Humors which perswades them often that what is indeed but the Ecâ—ho of their own voyce of Nature which speaks in them is a Spiritual vocation For their Natural Constitution raifeth that desire in their imaginative part which causeth a little repetition and answer of it in the Judiciary and Rational power of their minde but it is rather from the hollowness of their reason then the solidity of it that this Eccho is returned The result therefore of all these Examinations of several Cases must be Not to conduct our selves by the precedents of special extraordinary vocations of some whom Christ hath sent for out of the streets and by-ways of the world that is immediately from the foulness and immundicity of their lives and by his Messengers of Crosses and Afflictions compelled them to come into his house For these Cases are prerogatives of Gods Grace which do not alter the known Laws that are enacted by him by which Laws we ought to try our vocations to wit by the mature advice of those Judges he hath seated in his Tribunal upon Earth his Church and by their Sentences to make the tryal of all our own private impulses or motions of our Spirit to this dispossession and abnegation of the world Christ himself hath ruled this case in an excellent Parable of one that builds a Tower which is properly adopted to the design of a contemplative life as it is the erection of a frame of life raised high above the other parts of the Earth and intended for prospect and discovery so that none must undertake this edifice but after computation of the pertinencies requisite for the finishment lest they expose themselves to the reproach of having begun what they were not able to finish and this reckoning and account of our provision must be made by the consulting of a prudent Spiritual Surveyor not trusting to the Architecture of our own Spirit in which we must zealously often and humbly consult the eternal Architect of all Spiritual frames for a sincere discernment of his order in the regulating our own designs with this address of the cautious Spirit of Holy David Lord grant me to know the way wherein I should walk for I have lifted up my soul to thee This parting and separation from our own Will is the first leave we must take in our valediction to the world and this is not to be done by a hasty dismission of it for so it is but a weight thrown upward which is fastened to us and falls quickly back again therefore it must be loosened and severed by degrees and steeped as it were in the fresh springing water of Prayer and Mortification whereby it will peel and fall away the easilier Some perseverence in this disposition is requisite to blanch and whiten the intention perfectly St. Pauls advice for our preparation for the Holy communion is me thinks very properly applicable to this our preparation for participating of this Spiritual food for Religious Solitude is the Table of the Holy Ghost Therefore let a man examine himself and then eat of this bread of life for he that presumes to taste of it unworthily may be truly impeached as guilty of much irreverence to the Holy Spirit in venturing to come to the Communion of his Gifts and Graces rashly without a due consulting of his invitation I need not urge our precaution and advisedness in this case farther since our temerity in it is brought to be a kinde of Sin against the Holy Ghost Whereupon I will close up this Advertisement in St. Johns words Beloved believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God for many false promises of this Spirit of an happy Solitude are current in the world it being truer in no case then in this It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God who sheweth mercy The nineteenth Treatise Of Violent Solitude or Close Imprisonment Divided into eight Sections §. I. How unwillingly our Nature submits to the loss of Liberty and Society IN the case we treated last the Will needed a premonition against the deception of sight for our Will in fits of Melancholy looketh commonly through the glass of our Imagination upon such objects as flatter that humor most This Perspective of our Fancy is often cut into such angles as represent various and false colours of perswasions wherewith the Will is inveigled such species proving not real when our Reason cometh strictly to oversee them Therefore in the election of Solitude the elective faculty was to be instructed against the falacies of discourse upon which the Resolution is to be grounded but this case requireth a different direction For here the best course the Will can take to rectitude is to be totally blinded and cieled that she may make the straighter mount upward to the eternal Will and not amuse or perplex her self by looking about with a solicitous inspection into second causes but may pitch at the first flight upon the primary cause of all Contingencies Our Nature requireth much precaution in this aptitude to intangle us under the pretext of infranchisement by the liberty of reasoning out the Causes of all advers Accidents for in this case of loss of Liberty and Company our Nature likely seizeth on curious disquisitions of all Humane Reasons as the next thing she takes hold on to make company out of them and the contrivement of issues out of these straights is a sort of freedom our Nature takes as some imaginary reparation in her necessity by reason wherof these are coÌ„monly the first occupations wherein our Fancy seeketh some divertisement and this entertainment may lighten the weight a little by removing it to and fro in our Fancy not
s 2. Inconstancy of vain affections p. 41. s 2. Incredulity in prayer a mental stammering p. 83. s 1. Imitation of Princes is very familiar for the reasons of gain p. 91. s 2. Iustice for our first fault requireth the love of enemies p. 272. s 2. Injustice prospering not to be wondred at p. 307. s 2. Imperfection of Mans Will in many election consisting with his liberty p. 325 326. Iealousies nature treated and the good use of it in Gods love p. 155. sect 1 2. Instincts of expressing our passion sheweth our loves to be due to God p. 161. s 2. L LOve justifieth the Incarnation of God p. 13. s 3. Love from man enjoyned by the Incarnation of God p. 13. s 2. Love rendring it self to Devotion is not ill treated p. 38. s 4. Love to enemies forgot in the Law and revived in the Gospel like the fire of the Altar after the Captivity p. 266. s 2. Liberty rather given to our Souls then restraint made by the Precept of loving enemies p. 267. s 1. Love of enemies proveth a counterpoison to the forbidden fruit p. 269. s 3. Love to enemies misinterpreted in a figurative sense by many p. 273. s 2. Love to enemies not ordains as they are simply enemies p. 275. s 2. Love irregular causeth our aversion to the love of enemies p. 282. s 1. Liberty dear to Humane Nature p. 339. s 2. Learning how it becometh most useful towards consolation p. 348. s 1 2. Liberty of minde gained overpays the captivity of the body p. 354. s 1 2. Love of the world recovereth often after our having wounded it by Grace or Reason p. 376. s 1. Lecture proved necessary for the passage to Contemplation p. 394. Liberties of jesting how they are allowable p. 131. s 1. Liberties indecent though little disfigure the reputation of women p. 147. s 3 Liberties of scurrility excused by the presumers in them p. 137. s 2. Love though mercinary how to be accepted p. 182. M MAns nobility by creation p. 2. s 3. p. 3. Mans excuse of his fall p. 3. s 2. Mans self-deceit p. 6. s 1. Meditation conducent to peace of Spirit p. 58. s 2. Meditation on the changeableness of all the pleasures we enjoy serveth towards the securing our happiness p. 61. s 3. Moral Philosophy answereth not to the promises of Speculation in our necessities p. 62. s 1. Mans reason for his forgiving the first injury of women p. 275. s 1. Morality more studied at Court then Religion p. 117. s 1 2. Moral civility useful to improve the zeal of religious duties p. 118. s 1. Mirth a great disguise of Medisance p. 128. s 2. Morality single is insufficient for our support in great pressures p. 342. s 3. Moral Philosophy set in a due order for consolation in distresses p. 345. Meditations on the vain figure of this world p. 361. s 1. Meditation on eternity a relief against all temporary pressures p. 367. s 1. Mortification of the flesh requisite for all acts of pure Speculation p. 392. s 2. Medisance most entertained by the encouragement of great persons p. 129. s 1. Mercy of God misconâ—â—ived p. 156. s 2. more 158. s 1. Mercy rightly understood p. 158. s 〈◊〉 Mercinary love how far allowed p. 185. Mercinary love of the nature of dwarfs p. 185. s 1. N NVns eminent purity p. 18. s 〈◊〉 Nature gives some light towards the sight of God p. 1â— s 2. Nature discredited single for happiness p. 57. s 2. Naturalists shall rise up in judgement against ill Christians p. 277. s 3. O OPinion of Temporalities confuted p. 7. s 2. Order given by God for direction in Religion p. 28. s 1. Opinion why it prevaileth often above Truth p. 68. s 2. Obligation in point of love to enemies p. 283. s 2. Orders of Providence not discerned occasioneth all our wonder p. 305. s 1 2. Order described p. 327. Order for disposing our time pleasantly and usefully in Imprisonment p. 351. s 1. Order of the three Persons of the Trinity residing in a Contemplative Soul p. 389. Order of rising up to Contemplation p. 391. s 1. P PRide first introduced and how continued p. 3. s 3. Philosophers deceived in the Divinity p. 21. s 2. Piety advised in all religions p. 24. s 2. Passion it self maketh use of Religion to express it self p. 32. s 2. Passion transferred may honor God in a double respect p. 33. s 1 2. Piety doth the office of a Law-giver not of an Insulter p. 35. s 3. Piety not incompatible with pleasure p. 37. s 2. Pleasures allowed by Devotion p. 41. s 1 2. Propriety in temporal goods abateth the value and Piety repairs it p. 42. s 2. Philosophers variances concerning happiness p. 51. s 2. Prayer assigned for the way to finde truth and consequently happiness p. 79. s 2. Prayer must be sincere and fervent to become officious p. 82. s 2. Prayer is often accepted when the suit is not accorded p. 84. s 1. Princes vertues may make Courts schools oâ— Piety p. 91. s 1. Princes especially obliged to piety p. 91. s 2. Prudence for Courtiers p. 97. s 1. Praises allowable in many cases and how they are to be applied p. 110. s 2 3. Princes obliged to forgive personal injuries p. 280. s 1 2. Providence not to be judged of by pieces p. 295. s 2. Prayer against Gods menaces allowed the Prophets p. 301. s 1. Providence seemeth as it were disguised upon earth p. 359. s 2. Presumption on our power to resist the temptations of Beauty is dangerous p. 166. s 2. Q THe quality of peace expectable in this life p. 84. sect 2. The quality of private conditions towards the discernment of the worlds instability p. 105. s 1. Quarrels with the world do sometime occasion good vocations to sanctity p. 328. s 3. The qualities of prophane passion p. 152. s 2. The quality of temptations slighted at first as easily masterable p. 171. s 2. R REason much degenerated in our faln Nature p. 〈◊〉 sect 2. Reason injured by opinion p. 7. sect 2. Repaired Nature by Christ exalted above the original innocence p. 15. s 1. p. 16. s 2. Revenge contrived unto piety p. 17. s 2. Reasons course up to Divinity p. 21. s 1. Repentance may convert even our sins into good fruit p. 30. s 2 3. Remedies extractable out of the meditation of our frailty p. 60. s 1. Riches possessed and improved towards piety p. 70. s 2. Religion lightly considered may perplex us in the judgement of events but more profoundly looked into setleth on us p. 292. s 3. Religion the onely refuge in the perplexity of advers events to a good cause p. 302. s 2 3. Reason of distracting events not to be hoped for in this world p. 304. s 2. Retreats out of the world turned into delusions by the Devil p. 332. s 2. Reason single vainly overvalued by the Philosophers p. 340. s 2 3. Remedies drawn