number than the hairs of my head He could say that God is provoked every day and in that Psalm of Asaph which is a Roll of Reports how God's peculiar people from the time of Moses unto David carried themselves toward him we find it many a time did they provoke him and those words are thrice repeated there And in that 106 th Psalm of the like subject the cause of the Plagues breaking in amongst them is shewed to be their own provocations Thus they provoked him to anger with their own inventions and the plague brake in amongst them And doubtless our provocations in these days are not lighter in the Ballance Now let a man seriously consider how some of the very Heathen loved Virtue for it self and admired it in its native dress and how little she allures us when she is daily presented to us adorned with the promises of a Temporal and of an Everlasting happiness When notwithstanding the terrors and threats of the Lord on the one hand and the alluring passionate invitations on the other we do provoke and as it were challenge God to strike by the most trivial acts which profit us nothing And he will find little reason to wonder at his stripes unless that they are so mild and so few Of which although every man can keep a perfect Inventory and is ready to declare them with enhansement and aggravation yet if he be questioned of the causes his sins he would be forced to answer with David's exclamation who knoweth how oft he offendeth And can any man expect even in this World to separate God's two great attributes of Justice and Mercy Indeed the latter is here in this World usually above all his works and 't is his mercies that we are not consumed but if we would separate them 't is best for us to feel his Justice in our life and his Mercy at our death Let us I say consider our own deservings and we shall find but little reason for complaint but may well cry out I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him Are not all his Temporal blessings on condition and shall we be disturbed at the loss when we voluntarily commit the forfeiture If we sell our Inheritance for a Mess of Pottage here or a less thing we should rather grieve and be troubled at our own follies than our want Let us turn our thoughts upon the first cause which is indeed the right way of cure and instead of being grieved at our loss be grieved at our sins the causes of our loss and there I suppose it will be no offence to wish with the Prophet our heads fountains of tears This will prove the properest method for our cure to try to effect it by diversion or revulsion and by pouring out our tears for our sins or provocations stop the perpetual dropping and distillation of our losses Besides our general let us search out our particular provocations I am perswaded there are but few men but with a very little search might find our their sins in their very peculiar sufferings I do not mean only where their sufferings are the very native consequent effect of their sins as pain is sometimes from Intemperance and poverty from Riot but in the case of God's more immediate hand as the death of Relations and Friends whether we even in reference to them have performed our duties as we ought whether we have been true Fathers and true Friends in respect of their Eternal welfare or at least whether we have not rather loved them for our own sake than his and rejoyced more in the gift than in the giver I have often thought on that saying storied of Cardinal Woolsey when he was arrested for his Tryal That if he had taken so much care and diligence to please his God as he had done his King and Master he would not then have left him in his old age And I am sure did but any of us place his affections aright and take delight and complacency in the Author and giver as much as in the gift we should never find such perturbation in the loss of the latter but comfort our selves in this that we yet enjoy him who is able to give us all things Nay we that have lost our Children or perhaps some of us that never had any have yet had thoughts or desires our Families should endure for ever and would have our Lands called after our own Names and it is but just therefore we should have no posterity to praise our foolish sayings Perhaps we have like St. Peter said It is good to be here and wot not neither what we said and have had thoughts of building Tabernacles and therefore are our Houses become desolate When we have directions on whom to cast our cares when we have had instructions or information of another Kingdom and another Inheritance with cautions not to set our affections on this when we love our Wife or Children better then Christ shall we think our selves worthy of him No It is rather fit if we forsake not them they should forsake us that we might follow him and since we cannot or will not wean our selves God should wean us and embitter our delights we so much lowe after 4. And now if the sight of our viciousness does not yet the very goodness of God might put a stop to the current of our passions from the consideration in the last place that notwithstanding our sins our remaining enjoyments yet surmount our sufferings To convince us in this there needs nothing but a recollection or rubbing up of our memories which indeed are like to Tables of Brass covered over with dust whereon all the benefits we receive from God we write with our Fingers and all his chastisements we engrave with aqua fortis that it may eat deep enough and in the doing the one quite wipe away the other Otherwise the multitude of those slighter characters might keep us from complaint nay they would so fill up the Table as that there would be no room left for the other That multitudo misericordiarum as the Psalmist calls it would so fill us as that we should turn our Psalm of Deus ultionum or Domine ne in furore into Benedic anima mea and cry out Praise the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his benefits Indeed in this notion we may extoll his attribute of Mercy above all the rest without hurting our selves and if we knew in what particular to begin I am sure we knew not where to make an end of God's bounties towards us but that has been so well particularized by divers Pens that every man may find enough to satifie himself I for my part in general have cause to bless God with Iacob and say though I cannot say I am become two bands that I am unworthy of the least of all the mercies and the truth which
forth to light seeing I could not disown it If men struck at it and accused or challenged me for the monstrosity or ugliness thereof I should have indeavoured to defend it and maintained it to be somewhat perfect in its lineaments and features when otherwise I might in some short space have been as desirous to have it smothered as any man and would have been content to be the Executioner of it my self if people would forbear to look too much on me Perhaps we think we are bound in duty to vindicate Gods honour 'T is true we are But our true and proper vindication of God consists rather of a few good works than a multitude of words And t is to be feared that for want of the manifestation of the first Our father which is in heaven is so little and seldom glorified and so much and so often vilified as he is Certainly this were the ready way to convince others of a God to shew we heartily believe there is one our selves which is not demonstrable any way so well as by good works And if the number of those who alledge there is none do daily increase it may be assigned for none of the meanest least or slightest causes that our works do not so clearly manifest to the world that we verily and assuredly believe there is a God as some of theirs do that they believe as well as say there is none There is no man who believes there is a God but believes withal God is able and will in due time vindicate his own honour and let the world know there is an Almighty one in Israel And I for my part could never yet find or perceive that mens minds became changed in their course for having their opinions severely oppugned or canvased in writing but that usually they become more stiff and refractory in their course thereby and that such an out-cry and clamour is the readier way to whet the spleen and with it the fancy than mollify the heart and with it clarify the reason If any commission be granted us or allowed us to fight for God after this manner it had need be executed with abundance of caution and in most perfect charity remembring there is no one we term Atheist but is the very image of God as well as any other And 't will be difficult for us who believe that to think any of his image wholly devoid of all manner of sense of him whatever he say As to the generality of men talking after this manner not of design they usually seem quick and discerning enough and are doubtless men of brave spirits Men which bear a kind of indignation in their breasts against being gull'd or sliely drawn into an opinion by any seducing false spirit And 't is some wonder they do not espy which I pray God one day they may that those things I mentioned before self-interest and self-conceit are no less busy inmates in unmaking God than as they themselves sometimes talk they are in making one and that he who starts up with old arguments new vamp'd in these our days after the dispute seemed for many ages to be laid asleep is shrewdly to be suspected that he labours of the one or the other The moderate inquiry into the original of all things might not ill become the first ages of the world and I cannot much blame men in former days for this kind of search But when God has once delivered himself so far as man is able to comprehend him graciously or miraculously to a nation or people and seemed to be engrafted into the thoughts of all mankind I think some peculiar men may be as much to blame in thinking to maintain and defend his existence by the proper strength and force of their reason as some others have been to question it of late If men once allow themselves the liberty or think it is allowed them to let the fancy have its full scope and range in any matter without correction they may easily shake the strongest foundation that hath been laid in the world by unanswerable Nicodemus's questions And therefore surely a Nicodemus his reply may at sometimes be as proper for them as a grave or sage one such an one as to him who inquiring if God were eternal or from eternity and the whole visible universe created out of nothing at a certain space of time or that time had its being or beginning from thence What God did or how he was imployed before the creation received this answer that God was preparing hell or a place of torment for all such futile idle inquisitors as himself I do think I were able my self by objections questions and cavils to nonplus or puzzle the wisest and learnedst of the world and seem to render them incapable to satisfy other mens minds demonstratively and plainly of the truth of those things whereof my own mind rested moderately and sufficiently already satisfied but if I committed such a folly and any man went about to answer me I should not esteem him wise how learned soever he might be but think according to our Proverb he might shake hands with me I wish men who go about to defend a God by their reason be not guilty sometime of the same fault with those who deny one and do it as much or more to be esteemed deep-sighted and wise and to shew their learning or reading as for the pure love of God or the truth It is a subject if I may be allowed so to call it which would make a good man nay a sober wise man even tremble while he goes about to handle or think seriously on And he who is truly wise will not adventure or think he is able to know or define his Maker before he know himself which never man yet did from all the reason he was indowed withal I know it were no difficult matter for a man of an ordinary capacity once master of the languages to muster up and run over the opinions of almost all the ancient and modern Philosophers about this point of Theism finely to marshal them set them in opposition one against the other and at length with some little new invention of his own appoint or determine which should overcome in the case But perhaps at this day he might be generally thought in such case as this the wiser of the three Grecian Sages that knew when and how far to hold his peace A man may be mistaken in his aims whether it be of leading and conducting others into the paths of wisdom and truth or being reputed wise himself by saying too much as well as too little and I pray God none of us become so far deceived as to lay the way more open for profaneness and daring of the Almighty while we go about as we say or pretend to close and hedge it up I am much afraid our abilities will never extend to salve the Phaenomena we so much talk of or make any thing apparent in
very young upon their approach to their presence many years after unknown have had a secret joy within themselves without the least seeming precedent imagination of their being such I cannot say how much of truth there may be in the affirmation but if there be then that blind faculty of the Soul as we sometimes term Affection may move without the precedent assistance of its fellow faculties And it would seem no wonder to me if the imagination set on work thereupon after some search should at length pitch upon some such cause but certainly the imagination more or less must necessarily be set on work therein The two who journied to Emaus mention the burning of their hearts within them upon our Saviours talking to them without the least precedent imagination that I can collect that it was he who talked with them Nay the Text says their eyes were holden and sense is the ordinary inlet upon which the Imagination presents to the Affections That they should not know him And he calls them Fools and slow of heart to believe thereupon As if belief might arise from the motion of the heart without the precedent work of the Imagination from sense And truly Sir since I am verily I hope perswaded That every faculty in mans Soul is Divine and different from that of Beast which work only from sense I do not or can rationally think that the Affections motion depends solely upon the Imagination's presentation but that the Imagination is often irritated upon the Affections first Motion or strugling or otherwise through the good will and pleasure of some insensible power immediately working in us the one or the other is strangely set on work I must confess of Beasts I do think that Sense being the only port and inlet of the Soul and a thing through which every object makes its stroke the first Spiritual Motion is necessarily upon the Imagination Nay that Imagination is no other in them than some more refined curious part or quintessence of the Blood lodged immediately over those doors and cells of the Body which raises and creates some such kind of thing as will and affections in them rather than inclines any will or affection in them before created or inspired Because we never find such kind of Motion in them as either to affect or will above the reach of sense or contrary to sense But that through sense only from the Imagination there is raised in them an appetite to or aversion from such and such object And thereupon it is that they are neither misled or misguided by their Imagination neither is there any great or lasting Disease of the mind but what raised through sense only may be soon allayed and quieted therefrom First their Imagination misleads or misguides them not for having its dependance only thereon and working thereafter and not capable to work upon the impulse of any thing but what as of it self penetrates through Sense It receives every object in its more proper exact Nature Figure and Form than ours And it being most certain that their sense is generally more open and clear to receive than ours they mistake not or misapprehend not as we do Hence it is that they are seldom mistaken in the face of the Heavens in which we are so often of our selves deceived and that our Prognostick from their sense and their motion and contrivance thereupon is generally truer than what we can make from our own The hastning home of that little Creature the Bee by multitudes into their Hives is a more infallible sign of an ensuing storm than we are able to espy by the best help of our intellectual faculties sometimes otherwise imployed than from sense through a weak and disturbed sense and which the strange work thereof does not seldom disturb Indeed hence it is that a Beast if not stopped by force or by some more pleasing Imagination raised from present sense is able of it self which man cannot do to return to its ancient place of abode at a great distance how strangely soever or through what mazes soever conveyed from thence And we may observe in its ordinary motion it will return more directly I may say more knowingly by the paths it went and came than the wisest of men nay a Fool will do this much better than a Wise man because though his Imagination be subject to be recalled from attendance on Objects offering themselves through present sense and imployed on others by some sordid affection yet it is generally obedient to present sense and is not so much in subjection to reason as to assist that faculty or taken up by that in help of revolving or weighing of things past or future and the causes thereof I could never yet collect from the narrowest observation I could make any power or ability in Beast to revolve a thing in the mind without the help or introduction of present sense no nor any affection raised in them to work or recall the Imagination from its present work without its help I must confess lust or itching of the flesh or rather appetite a thing below an affection and inherent in Plants may and does seem to recall their Imagination in them sometimes and with a neglect of present sense set it on work so as to contrive for their prey or food or the like But for any Affection of it self an affection to do it I cannot observe Sense shews the female only the product of her body and thereupon the Imagination is stirred to raise and create a kind of affection to it which we call love so as in defence thereof anger may be kindled and in deprivation thereof sorrow may arise but the Imagination works for neither of these of themselves nor do they continue to be as I conceive longer than some Object makes the impulse through sense And therefore we shall observe there is no bleating or lowing but from bleating and lowing or the approach and beholding again the place where they usually fed or nourished their young or the like stop or divert that and their love or sorrow is at an end Darius his Horse as I have mentioned could neigh when he beheld the place where his lust was first raised but I question much when the impress the Imagination has made in such Creature is once wiped away for the present through some new introduction of sense whether it can be raised again without the fresh stroke of some Object relating thereto through sense Or whether the Horse were capable to revolve that act in his mind at any time without such means to introduce or raise a thought Now if the Imagination in Beast work only immediately upon Senses introduction as we have reason to conceive it does and that thereupon their affections are raised only their Affection necessarily attending their Imagination changes according to the change of Objects through Sense For what is created or raised by and through that merely may be fully satisfied through that
fruition will often admit the entrance or intrusion of somewhat else not to fill it but to rake and tear it for a time and therefore it must be some gracious stop of the Souls craving rather than properly its satisfaction or content some blindfolding or hooding from the ordinary presentments of the World Some little diversion and way of exercise of all or at least its best faculties as it were out of our selves and that by the gracious warmth of that Sun of Happiness in duely beholding his Image first the earnest of Happiness since we cannot behold him as he is which is Happiness it self And how this may most commonly happen or readily come to pass I have indeavoured according to my ability to declare under that often happy prospect of true Charity Now give me leave here to speak a little of some things wherein we are often deceived To mention ought of Happiness like to arise from any bodily pleasures common to Beasts as eating drinking or the like wherein Man becomes as certainly deceived as any thing were below a manly Soul But I shall speak only of the Souls peculiar seeming satisfaction in hope according to that saying Soul take thine ease thou hast goods laid up Surely many men who have spent their years in turmoil as well as their days in Vanity about it may be said to have gathered much and tasted little some have had so many pleasant seats as that they could not take their pleasure in any and perhaps have entred Friendship with so many that they could never enjoy the Happiness of true Friendship with one On the other side any sedentary contemplative course of life will as soon deceive a man's expectation that seeming withdrawing a man's self out of the World while he is in it and a poetick fancy of some Earthly Elysium to be found here will never create that satura quies so much talked of it may prove a vale of rest unto the Body but not unto the Soul nor a Happiness to either The Imagination cannot be at rest one moment and whatsoever it brings in to the Affections if it appear not useful and necessary it will prove but unsavory to them and be so rendred now and then by it self and raises them trouble about trivial matters as quick and soon as about weighty The proper chief and peculiar pleasure or delight of the Soul from any cause that ever I could find or guess is the reverberation of some good works or a light or joy arising or springing from thence which in a retiredness from the World will miss of many objects to act upon from which this Happiness might redound I know there was a great Emperor and a wise who after he had tasted what Fruits busy greatness but perhaps not good works could afford voluntarily surrendred up his Scepter and could not be prevailed with upon the greatest invitation and most urgent Reason to accept it again but feelingly said 't is likely He took more true delight in the growth of the Lettice in his Gardens than the increase of his Dominions And doubtless there are many more would give up their Verdict for that state of life as most of all tending towards Happiness which God appointed Adam in the state of his Innocency But I who have had some taste of the pleasure of it and perhaps better understand it than some who admire it will not recommend it as a station wholly exempt from disquiet Even since our first Trespass we are subject to be afraid if we hear but a voice in the Garden and the very withering of any gourd we have there is enough to raise our anger especially if before like Ionah we rejoyced or were exceeding glad at the growing of it though we made it not to grow I do not think but there are and have been many of late days as well as in Davids time both publick and private men who while they lived counted themselves happy men nay some who have lived all their days in the Sun-shine of the World and set at last too in brightness and though their pomp has not followed them yet have escaped that Prophet's prediction of never seeing light and are now at rest and happy but these are but rare Largesses of Gods bounty and goodness Such a condition there might be and they might be contented in it but yet they could not be so happy as to cross Solon's observation of Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera c. since they could never be secured from danger of misery or the thoughts of it And therefore in our search after some proper way and means to reduce the Soul to a quiet state which effected is some degree of Happiness we must reject what are called the goods of the Body and Fortune and have recourse to what will enlighten or improve that which is eternal in us and is truly our selves Amongst which what we call Learning may deservedly be ranked But yet I think the multiplicity even of that which is rather the treasure than the goods of the mind doth more distract than instruct us more burden than ease and satisfy the mind Of this I take St. Paul to speak when he saith knowledge pusseth up and that Solomon meant no other when he tells us He that increaseth knowledge increases sorrow as appears by his foregoing confession that he had given his heart to seek and search out by Wisdom concerning all things that are done under Heaven which he found a sore travel Surely it is acquired and adventitious knowledge not the power to know and discern so far as may concern our future safety that molests us for of that Solomon saith It is pleasant to the Soul The bringing in of Foreign Plants and setting them in a man 's own Soil provided he have a judgment to distinguish good from evil may be good and in some measure pleasant but to have his own Soil improved to such a degree as to raise or produce as wholesom and as savory and such as may nourish and heal as well as delight him or others which every man may do in some measure by digging at home is better and will prove more cordial to him He who takes in too much of this Foreign kind of Lading will find it though light yet cumbersom and troublesome and neither please his Pilot nor his Passengers his Intellect or his Affections I cannot but think that many originally excellent brave Souls like clear Springs might of themselves and from themselves have afforded pure and curious Waters which by receiving in so many inlets and imagining thereby with a rapid stream to carry all before them have become not only useless but troubled and muddy and withal not seldom lost as well their original name as their Virtue Repute and Estimation Truth is a blessed thing and happy is he I will affirm that finds her but there are few of our high-flown learned men I
it to produce more than an harsh unpleasant and not lasting fruit The fruits of the Spirit of which Love and Joy are by the Apostle reckoned as the principal come to us by gift and addition not by culture or alteration Nay if we have learn'd that Lesson of content and by consequence have sometime joy and peace with St. Paul it is so much the infusive document of a gracious Master and so far from being acquired by our native understanding that we daily want his reiterated Grace to call on us to learn and when we are heavy laden to come unto him for ease If we have learn'd to tred the waters and to walk upon a tempestuous Sea for some steps we shall notwithstanding find cause with St. Peter to cry out Lord save me or I perish which cry is yet my cry For I do declare unto the World that I have not at any time found the recovery from a disease to be a sufficient charm against its return It will come again sometimes and if it come there will lie a necessity upon us and we shall be forced for the cure to use over again the same sanative ingredients and the most approved Recipe in sorrow is and ever will be that of St. Iames If any man be afflicted let him pray call on him who works in us to think to will and to do according to his good will and pleasure and has said he is near to all them that call upon him yea that call upon him faithfully 'T is he from whom comfort springs as light out of darkness and 't is he from whom we must expect as it were a new creation and beg he may say Let there be light in us and there will be light And in his light as the Psalmist says there is life that is a vigorous active state able to dispell all the black clouds raised by Sin and Satan He is the comforter who must put true joy and gladness into our hearts by the merits of his Son and the secret inspiration of his Holy Spirit and they are his comforts alone which must refresh our Souls in the multitude of the sorrows we have in our hearts St. Paul is pleased to stile him the God of all comfort who comforteth us in all our tribulations that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we our selves are comforted of God And in one place he calls him the God of patience and consolation with a kind of inference that God ever crowns his Grace of patience with his Blessing of consolation And he does declare God to be the sole proper and peculiar Fountain of comfort in an instance of his gracious working upon himself Nevertheless says he God that comforteth those that are cast down comforted us by the coming of Titus For the coming of Titus out of Achaia into Macedonia at that time cannot seem to have in it any natural energy to work so much upon St. Paul for that coming appears to us a matter of no great consequence only St. Paul seems to shew us that God so disposed his heart at that time that that should work as a Cordial to him which of it self barely had no such natural operation Nay in one place God does as it were appropriate the issues of comfort to himself by a reiteration I even I am he that comforteth you From the diversity of humours in our natural temper has arose that Adage of fortuitum est placere and from the same diversity we may inferr and change the word à Domino est placere Because we daily see men affected and delighted not from any inherent quality in the subject because to effect that the thing per se must have somewhat of good in it but properly and peculiarly nothing is good save God only and therefore to make a thing seem good and delightful to us it must first have his stamp and impress upon it visible to us And if the Psalmist s demand should be applied to outward goods and one in that very notion should cry out who will shew us any good he will find no perfect solution without the effect in the sequent verse Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance and then will Rod and Staff and Fire and Faggot comfort us The light of whose countenance that we may all have in some measure let us more especially pray to him and give praise with the best member we have David's own words and imitate somewhat that Divine Psalmist I must acknowledge I ever found some comfort in my sorrows by reading those Divine spiritual Soloquies of his and do not think but that every other man may and that however they may upon the reading in prosperity glide over his heart in adversity they will fix and settle there There is no pattern in them for stupidity nor no sullen expression of My punishment is greater then I am able to bear but this or the like Then cried I unto the Lord and he delivered me out of my distress And to cry unto him in the very words of that compendious excellent Prayer being the Collect appointed in our Church-Liturgy for the fourth Sunday after Easter for I cannot find a better may be no unfit conclusion Almighty God who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men grant unto us thy people that we may love the thing which thou commandest and desire that which thou dost promise that so amongst the sundry and manifold changes of the World our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen To which may not improperly be added that for the sixth Sunday after Trinity O God! who hast prepared for them that love thee such good things as pass mans understanding pour into our hearts such love towards thee that we loving thee above all things may obtain thy promises which exceed all that we can desire through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen Amen These following Ejaculations were used in the state of the disease O Lord thy hands have made me and fashioned me thou art he that broughtest me out of my mothers womb and hast shewed thy strength in my weakness Many and grievous have been my infirmities since my youth up and yet walk I in the Land of the living I have been more infirm than my Brethren which are gone before me yet hast thou granted me length of days I have provoked thee more than they yet hast thou spared me out of the abundance of thy mercy Thou hast to the wonder of others spared me whose thoughts have been when shall he die and his name perish Thou hast taken away more righteous than my self and placed me in their rooms to take my pastime like Leviathan in this World But I have not rightly considered thy doings nor to what end thou hast done these things For thou hast enlightned
me with knowledge and hast left me no covering for my faults wherefore I am ashamed and confounded at my own follies Notwithstanding this thy gift and loving kindness towards me I have gone astray and provoked thee more than my Fathers have done wherefore I am become sore oppressed and grieved from thy heavy displeasure I have placed my affections on transitory things which though lighter than vanity have weighed thee down in the ballance of my Soul And notwithstanding my follies and transgressions I have said in my heart What evil happeneth unto me Not remembring that though thou art a God of patience and long-suffering yet thou wilt not leave sin unpunished Wherefore thou sentest out thine arrows of warning and destroyedst my first-born yet I considered not it was thy doing Thrice didst thou repeat thy summoning Judgments after in the same manner and though I was sore troubled yet returned I not with my whole heart to thee But was ready and willing to impute the cause to my own natural infirmities rather than my acquired sins still forgetting that death came by sin Notwithstanding thou of thy goodness and tender compassion towards me in this World didst leave me two Infants as a comfort and as a pledge not to abuse thy grace But I sinned yet more and rejoyced in the gift more than in thee the giver I set my affections on things below and not on things above and rather sought and endeavour'd the planting of my Name here than in the Book of Life Therefore hast thou destroyed my vain hopes by a sudden blast when I least expected it She was flourishing like a Flower of the Field and thy sudden blast went over her so as the place thereof knew her no more In the morning was she fresh and flourishing and in the evening cut down and withered O Lord it was thy immediate hand that did it enforced to strike from my daily continued provocations Neither can any that knows that thou art both just and merciful to all the works of thy Creation impute it to any ordinary natural cause O that my sins should be as the murtherers of my production whilst thou sparest the offender himself But here again hast thou shewed thy mercy and loving kindness in taking them to bliss rather than casting me into utter darkness Thou hast shewed thy mercy to the most loathsom and vilest of thy Creatures who is not only stench and rottenness but an infectious sore I am become a gazing-stock and the talk of all them that know me and live round about me They may say or at least be ready to think within themselves These things are fallen on him for his transgressions and thou punishest him in justice whilst they do not remember that thou art merciful But O Lord let not the evil wishes of the envious who behold my prosperity in other things prevail against me but pardon their offences and shew them that I and mine are under thy protection And out of the multitude of my sins and ttansgressions shew me which of them have more especially provoked thee to make me fruitless that I may more especially abhor them turning from every evil way Had I taken so much delight and joy and comfort in thy Word as in a frail Babe of flesh surely thou hadst not bereaved me thereof Had I honour'd my Father in the flesh I might have had joy in my own Children but now it is far from me Have I endeavoured to heap up Riches and knew not who should enjoy them Have I considered the vanity thereof and yet neglected to do good and distribute wherewith thou wouldst have been well pleased and art thou therefore angry with me and leavest me desolate Many O Lord have been the devices of my heart although I well knew thy counsel only would stand I have seen and read the destruction of other Families how their name has perished how thou pullest down one and raisest up another and yet my heart has rather inclined to the World than to thee my God and advancer But grant O Lord that neither the cares of this World nor the deceitfulness of Riches may choak any good Seed of well-doing either sowed or sprung up in my heart Thou hast commanded us not to set our hearts upon them O shew me thy ways and incline my heart unto thee and not unto covetousness And if I must part with all to follow thee give me an heart to do it I trust thou hast not increased my outward accessions to suffer me to be deceived therewithall or given me Riches because thou sawest I should not have been innocently poor I confess O Lord they are Briars and Thorns yet growing and ready to choak every good Plant but do thou raise in me from thence a plentiful Harvest of good works Make me a faithful Steward of what thou hast committed to my charge or else leave me naked as I came into the World For thou knowest I have ever acknowledged what I enjoy to be from thy gift and never sacrificed to my own Nets Thou hast given me what I never asked and bereaved me of what I most desired but who is able to comprehend the methods of thy Judgments Surely there is something to which our affections ought to tend in which the desire of man can have no excess Is there nothing to be found amiable but what is corruptible shall charity abide when all things cease and for the present know not where to fix it self Shall we at best behold the chequered and bright Clouds raised from the Earth and forget the Sun which gives them brightness and cause him at present to withdraw his beams and leave us in obscure darkness Shall he that gives us all things withdraw himself for want of our beholding him in that notion when we cannot do that but by his immediate gift too When thou O Lord dartest forth the light of thy countenance those little Rays we are capable to behold through the Vail of this flesh make all things amiable and particulars only seem so from a false light of our own imaginary creation He who endeavours to behold thee as thou art or further than thou hast been pleased to shew thy self deservedly becomes blind and perishes by his too near approaches We cannot behold thy light but by reflexion only let us see so much as that we may admire and love thee The invisible things of thee are understood only by the things that are made and thou art seen only by the beauty and greatness of thy Creatures or thy immediate free gift O shew me the light of thy countenance in some measure stablish me again by thy free Spirit and send some Balm into that Soul which thou hast wounded I know the Creator of all things cannot altogether shut up his mercy and loving kindness from his Creatures in displeasure I am as much the work of thy hands as the greatest Monarch Thy ways and methods and thy decrees O Lord
occasion to speak when I shall enquire which of the faculties of the Soul may seem primary in operation yet I think even native reason in some men is able so to throw a Vail over the senses and frame the imagination that there may be conceived in the imagination some more glorious and amiable thing than it can well conceive and from that conception it shall have readily attending it a sensitive love as we call it that is a motion of the heart from some Nerves or Tendons at least a fixation of the heart not to move too extravagantly but be readily obedient to the dictates of reason and I see no ground why we should with reason hope to quite discard them from its obedience or have our passions and affections clean rooted up lest by avoiding that which one kind of Philosopher resembled to the Itch that is be always desiring and joying loving and fearing c. we do light upon a kind of felicity which another Philosopher resembled to the felicity of a Stock or Stone I would not indeed willingly grieve but I had rather sorrow than never joy and the one can never be inherent without the other either rationatively or sensitively Reason I say has some ability and power yet left since our fall not only to correct and reduce the imagination but to direct and point it to seek after somewhat so that if all men should deny a pure rational love they may grant there may be a good sensitive love 'T is true the imagination from sense shews us no living creature better than our selves and we are apt to see through it as in a false glass some amiableness in our selves and so we become lovers of our selves more than lovers of God yet that little strength of reason does sometimes hinder and stop the imagination from presenting that false glass stays the affections from looking too much into it wins the imagination to take part with it self for a while in conceiving our vileness and then by consequence forces it to represent to the affections some amiableness in that being from whence all other things have their being and without which we cease to be any thing so as about some amiable good do the affections always move if they move From one of these two Mirrors I say do I think is the rise of the affections quatenus working in a Body the one of these Mirrors is clear yet false and only of the imaginations framing from sense the other is dark and cloudy unless amended by special grace but true and of reasons correcting The root of each Tree of affections whether bad or good springing from hence is Love Neither can I upon my review find cause to alter my opinion in my Treatise of comfort against loss of Children but do think that some innate faculty of love is the primary mover in the affections and thus I think it may sprout up and bring forth Trees of divers colour'd branches If we look in that false glass mentioned and by reflexion have a good opinion of our selves which is from a love of our selves there shoots out a branch called Pride or in short that is Pride If we become mounted in thoughts to exceed others that is Ambition if we see some cause as we think that others should have a good opinion of us that is Vain-glory if from this sight we are troubled that any other should seem to exceed us and withall there be an endeavour in us to exceed them that is Emulation but if it be only to supplant or hinder them that is Envy If we espy any opposition in another and behold that person as mean and not able to hurt us that is Contempt which is a kind of contumacy or immobility of the heart but if otherwise we discern an ability to hurt it is Frowardness Impatience Fretting Anger Hatred Malice or Revenge according to the nature of the Soil And here certainly Love must be agreed to be the root and to give being on either side There is no man ever opposes or does wrong for the wrongs sake it is to purchase to himself profit pleasure or repute and that is from the love of himself and therefore says Bacon wittily If a man do me wrong why should I be angry with him for loving himself better than me But to go on If we look after or espy ways or means to adorn beautifie and sustain our beloved selves be it by Money Lands or Goods that is Covetousness if we espy a failure in others of love mutual and reciprocal to our beloved selves where 't is expected that is Jealousie if we apprehend future danger or loss it is Fear if present Heaviness Sadness Sorrow if we espy any probable way or means of our acquiring or adding to our acquisitions Hope c. And after this manner might I reckon the springing or growth of all evil affections whatsoever On the other side if that true but dim glass be at any time presented or set before us and we receive any distant sight of an excellency and goodness in the Creator and continual preserver of the Universe our Love a little moves another way and raises a Tree of other manner of affections If we behold in that his Power his Justice or his Love there arises Fear if his Mercy then Hope Joy Comfort If we apprehend him a Protector against all injury Courage Trust and Fortitude if a Revenger of wrong Patience If we espy his providence and care there arises Contentedness if we discern our own inability Humility if our own evil dealings to others Meekness if our failings and errors Trouble Grief and Sorrow if affliction fallen on our Brethren Pity and Compassion and the like And were my opinion asked of the ground and cause of the most Heroick worthy or pious particular action ever done in the World I for my part should determine it in short to be the parties love to God or himself for if it be not the one that has made a man die willingly for his Country as the phrase goes I am sure 't is the other if not Charity some desire of a perpetual lasting Fame of his memory which is a love to and of himself Now whatever men pretend there neither is nor was nor will be any created Soul within a Body wholly exempt from any one passion or affection whatsoever And though some affections seem very contrary so as not to subsist together at least in any height or excess and therefore it was not without some wonder observed of Nero if I remember aright that he who singly beheld his Cruelty would believe he had no Lust and he who beheld his Lust apart would believe he had nothing of Cruelty in him yet they can and do subsist together And though some men may take their denomination from some one faculty or affection chiefly and most commonly predominant as for instance it may be said Moses was a meek man Nebuchadnezzar a proud man
pardon and receive again into favour And 't is our only rational way in the like case to acknowledge our errors and get our affections somewhat hot and then melting in us that any dross contracted in our Souls any cankering rust cleaving to them may drop off that they may be somewhat bright and shine again The Heathens who had no other light but this to lead them had their purgations of which Socrates I think was the beginner which though after a vain manner may seem no ways to hurt them And certainly this manner of purgation that is melting into sorrow may do us good and prevent many sharp pains the Soul might otherwise feel even here in the Body I am not about to enquire and determine whether after thus doing we shall be at rest here or how far more or less from hence the Soul may become obnoxious to afflictions or crosses but certainly in all reason she will bear them better when she has done all she can towards a return and can find in her self no ground to think but that her boils proceed rather from some outward than any inward cause and that her disease is rather Epidemical than singular Having our Souls somewhat restored and cleansed somewhat at ease and calm we may I trust without offence and without rejection of more Sovereign Antidotes make use of our Reason towards the preventing of a Tempest in her for the future by finding out and judging if we can first the most probable and chief cause of her billows and why she is often thus tossed and almost shipwrack'd in the World and next espy out some ways or means for the future prevention of these storms But first by the way let us acknowledge that Reason in man such as it is and whereby we exceed all other visible creatures as it is the special gift of God and the thing we have least cause to term our own or too much think of the nativeness or inherency of it in us so it wants a more than ordinary daily support and supply for 't is that faculty or ability in the Soul which I have said man is most subject wholly to lose and be deprived and bereft of and without beholding through it that light which gave it being we may as I may say run mad with our Reason And such Rationalists there are in the World for why some men who have had a greater outward visibility and appearance of Reason than others have yet acted in the conclusion as if they had less if this presumption in them be not the cause or that they looked on their strength of Reason too much as an Habit and too little as a Grace I can find none If the Donor of the Talent be but owned it may surely as well be Traded with as laid up in a Napkin and not unlikely even from it may be found out too some other inherent gift in the Soul which if rightly disposed and ordered I will not say disposed or ordered by Reason may somewhat abate all excrescencies in the Soul and become the chief and only Foundation-stone for any Spiritual building spoken of before even that Tower of defence Faith Reason I say may point at or find out the proper corner-stone for building though she cannot move it of her self or erect any thing on it SECT II. Of Love SUrely he who created us neither gave us Invention to find out nor Reason to judge in vain I must acknowledge I am not able so much as to think a good thought nor well able to judge when my thoughts are as they should or might or ought to be yet that roving faculty of mine call it men what they best like labouring to introduce into my Soul divers and sundry causes of the disquietness tumults and disorders happening in her as well as others my weak Reason after rejection of some has seemed to rest satisfied and pitch'd upon this as the chief if not the only proper cause thereof That that essential part of the Soul Love from whence at some times we feel greatest delight suffers often too narrow an inclosure is pent up and imprisoned by some means or other and has neither that free scope and range or full and clear prospect abroad into the World which Reason is able to allow it and afford it whereby it loses that common acceptable title of Charity in a word Love is not rational but sensual Love may seem with the allowance of our Reason I think to be placed in every of our Souls like the Sun in the Firmament which though it may have peculiar Flowers that require more than its ordinary influence at least its visible rays and we are allowed some such things as we may more particularly call here Flowers of our Sun yet its circuit should be to the ends of the Earth and nothing hid from the heat thereof And then whatever becomes of those Flowers though they are cropt dead or withered it finds innumerable objects to exercise its rays upon and still shines bright and pleasant but if it become once eclipsed by the interposition of any peculiar objects there happens such an Aegyptian darkness in the Soul as most properly may be said to be felt Whenever we look into the Soul and find such a thing as Love there Reason though it be not able to quicken nor blow it up to any bright extensive flame for that is ever from Divine influence yet can demonstrate to us to what end and purpose that spark of Love is inherent in us that is to love the Author of our Being Now as we cannot see God but by his works so neither can we be properly said to love him but through his works Amongst which as there is nothing more deserves our love than such as bear his Image in common with our selves so there is no more certain way to judge of the sincerity of our love to him than by our love to them Thus the Apostle If we love one another God dwelleth in us and again He that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen This is so much the dictate of Reason that I should have thus thought upon consideration had I never seen Scripture and it is to a certain Law antecedent to all that is written that the Scripture it self doth refer it Thus the Apostle speaks I write no new Commandment unto you but an old Commandment which ye had from the beginning and calls it the message from the beginning of the breach of which he gives an instance in Cain's unnatural murder of his Brother before there was any written Law so that the Apostle might in this sense say As touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you for ye your selves are taught of God by the light of Nature and the Law written in the heart to love one another Now if the obligation to this Charity ariseth
from a general Reason as we are born alike are of the same mould have our Being from and equally bear the Image of the same Father should not our Love be universal And may we stile our selves of Paul or of Apollos and then in assuming the Title cast away our Charity and our Reason too Must we in bandying for our Teraphim so far arm our passions and blind our Charity as to reject and contemn others persons for the sake of their Opinions which they differ from us in Whatsoever our Opinions are Truth is God's peculiar we may seek for it and pray for it but I question much whether we ought to run over and trample down one another in the finding of it We are all very apt to err in the pursuit and as I have once said our Liturgy is well begun in the acknowledgment of our errors so I now think it ends as well in our request That it would please God to grant us in this World some knowledge of his Truth and in the World to come life everlasting His it is and so locked up that I doubt no man yet ever had the certain infallible Keys to open it to others Though Pilate believed not our Saviour to be God yet if he had not known that he was taken and believed on for such I do not think he would ever have put that ironical question to him What is Truth He well knew man was not able to define it nor attain to any certain knowledge of it much less appropriate it to himself St. Paul never told us he himself was the Light or the Truth he rather assures us otherwise and that he was not crucified us and we are not very apt to believe St. Peter was But a sober Heathen that should see our heats would be prone to judge we almost thought some other men were who they are I will not go about to determine and that though Truth may be the colour and pretended yet 't is Mammon or Dominion are the Gods they fight for when for the sake of Truth they lose all Charity and in contending for and exalting of Faith the solid fruits of both Good Works are despised I would not be thought in the least to undervalue or reject that gift or tenure in Frankalmoign or Free-Alms a Lawyers term not improper for this place Faith since without it from all the labour and search I am able to make I cannot find sufficiency in man to attain to any possession of a present or reversion of a future happiness I do own it to be the most excellent gift which comes down from Heaven but I fear we are subject sometimes to relie too much on it or if it be not improper so to say put too much confidence in it place it always uppermost in the Soul to the starving of that otherwise vigorous and active quality of the Soul Charity I stand convinced that if the most righteous man on Earth did take a full and intire view of all his best actions whether proceeding from himself or of Grace such as we call gratis data we will not here dispute together with his wilful errors and deformities and make his Reason judge of the weight and merit of each he would distrust and deny himself and all he were able to do and expect his Justification if he expected any of God's mere favour and grace and therefore I am content it should stand for a received truth that the best works of an Infidel are not only unacceptable with God but sinful Yet as I believe the Scriptures excluding many men from the Kingdom of Heaven or future happiness under the divers titles of sinners and all under the notion of Infidels so since there is a salvo for penitents I know not who those sinners are much less do I know the faithful from any outward badge or cognizance they wear and therefore am unfit to judge any but my self For I could never yet nor shall I believe unless I become able first to reject and abandon that Reason I have or that Reason leaves and forsakes me find just cause to condemn in my thoughts any one Nation or People any one Sect or Party or any one single person in the World besides for the bare want of a publick profession I exclude here wilful denial or owning of Faith just according to that model as any one Nation or Council or selected number of men have framed it so long as I behold in him or them those works which are the usual concomitants and attendants of what I think and is generally held to be the true Faith I do not think it safe to wish my Soul with the Philosophers but had all my actions after some knowledge of good and evil been always conformable and agreeable to their Writings and such as the actions of some of them seem to have been I think I should never despair of future happiness or rest were my Faith weaker than some men perhaps will imagine it from my thus writing What was the cause of their good works was it Faith If it were not I am sure it was the Grace of God and to them who owned it so or the work of a Divine power that Grace was not likely to be in vain If any of them was withheld at any time from sinning against God 't was the same God withheld them as withheld Abimelech an Heathen as they and Abimelech and some of them might for ought I know at the last obtain from a bountiful and gracious God mercy and forgiveness as well as a restraint The sound of a Saviour of the World from the beginning and long before his bodily presence on Earth had gone into all the Earth for St. Paul borrows those words Their sound went c. out of the Psalm intitled Coeli enarrant the Heavens declare c. These men might look for some strange deliverer and God might please to shew them more than we can judge of We read of a good and charitable man a Gentile who so loved the Nation of the Iews that he built them a Synagogue concerning whose Faith at that time there is nothing more to be collected from the story of him than that having heard of the fame of Iesus he did believe he was able to heal his Servant and yet the Author and finisher of our Faith gives this testimony of him That he had not found so great Faith no not in Israel though there are others mentioned before who forsook all and followed him and owned him for that Christ the Son of the living God too Truly a Centurion's Faith may best become us an humble not an arrogant Faith and it may in some sort be safest for us to think that if he vouchsafe to come under our roof we are unworthy he should and unfit any manner of ways to entertain him We are apt not only to extol our Faith but to impose and force it upon others
the greatest vilest miserablest and most deformed of sinners and the most defaced Image of his goodness that he would again restore that Image here in some measure give me a Fountain of tears to wash away all its blots and wilful sullies direct me by his Grace here towards his Glory increase my weak Faith that it become an assurance convert my fearful hopes into a full perswasion and certain expectation of that glorious Vision be with me comfort me and strengthen me at the hour of death And when this wearied tossed and turmoil'd Soul that can find no settled rest here shall leave its polluted and sinful habitation purified by Repentance and Faith receive it into Glory And this for the merits and mediation of his Son Iesus Christ our ever blessed Saviour and Redeemer to whom be glory and honour and praise now and for ever Amen SEVERAL EPISTLES To the Reverend Dr. TILLOTSON DEAN of CANTERBURY WHEREIN The Nature the Immortality the Operations and the Happiness of the SOUL of MAN Are further Considered and Illustrated And the Divine Providence over it in a particular manner Asserted By the aforesaid Author LONDON Printed for George Downs The Author's Apology for his Writing To the Reverend John Tillotson D. D. DEAN of CANTERBURY EPIST. I. Wherein the Author after some Apology for the not making publick his said Treatises De Dolore De Anima makes some reflexion on Atheism and blames the unnecessary and extravagant disputes and writings against such as seem tainted or infected with that opinion SIR HAVING reduced my sometimes sad solitary or serious considerations at all times and upon all occasions very inept weak and imperfect ones God knows into some kind of Method and made them legible in paper I took upon me the boldness altogether unknown to you and without so much as discovering my name to approach you before all others and begg the favour of your perusal And this I did not only from a hearsay of your clear judgement and courteous disposition to all men as well strangers as familiars but from a singular opinion I had of you my self That you were a person of a frank and open discourse and one who would plainly and roundly tell me of my faults and my follies discover your real opinion of what lay before you and not permit and suffer me a meer stranger for want of admonition to cherish an imperfect or deformed Embryo and such as might casually hereafter be born into the world to my disgrace but rather while I lived and had the power over it to smother and consume it in the flames The most favourable censure I expected from you was a reprieve of it for some season not a present enfranchisement of it or making it free of the world in my life time and by consequence a kind of confinement of my future thoughts if they should vary from or disagree with these And yet the latter I met withall from you and find that you are pleased to move me not only to allow it present life and future birth but to afford it instant liberty and freedom to walk abroad I might seem ill natur'd not presently to grant his request who so readily condescended unto mine had I no just cause to alledge for a demurr at least if not for a denial and such as may work upon you to desist from any such motion as much as on me for a denial For I must tell you If I hereafter suffer therein I shall readily transfer the blame on you and some perhaps will give you the precedency therein when they come to know the person who perused these papers and blame your oversight beyond my weak and feeble inspect Your universal Charity may so far abound as to overlook many deformities if not errors occasioned perhaps from my immoderate affection Which kind of Charity is a thing not to be expected from other men at least from all Indeed if any man receive good from these Papers he will find greater cause to thank you next under God than me who never at first intended them as a Legacy to the world nor durst nor dare yet own them under any name I trust they would hurt or prejudice no man if publick further than the spending of his time in vain in reading them and surely that 's a sufficient damage or loss to any ingenuous spirit There is enough good seed already sown more than any man can reap in his life time 't were well if the tares of this nature were gathered together in bundles to be burnt from which fate I I know not how to exempt mine I have given you my opinion already in discourse from which I know not well how to recede That if some Judicious person were of power to do it and should banish out of the world and cause to be buried in utter oblivion many thousand volumes now extant he would merit more of the world and perform a far more acceptable service to the wise and learned thereof than he who added one though of never so great use or excellency There is enough said about the soul of man already more perhaps than is or ever will be understood and too much I fear of a higher-subject Every age in each single Nation has afforded or rather introduced some subject matter or other whereabout the Souls of men have more peculiarly busied themselves by way of disputation and made the canvasing of particular opinions a thing in mode and fashion for a certain time and season That which at this instant seems to imploy and busy the tongue the pen or the Press except seditious Pamphlets and the like from the spirit of contradiction or an overweening conceit of ones self never out of fashion most or above all other is the different opinion of men about the original of all things under the notion names or titles of Theism and Atheism wherefore we had some little discourse together occasioned by some short passages of mine in my aforesaid Treatise And for as much as all those Atheistical Tenets now more than ordinarily vented do seem to strike at the very root of religious worship and are wholly derogatory of the glorious Attributes of that God we serve and adore I perceive you are not only to your praise a strong oppugner thereof your self but take pleasure in them also who do the same Now truly I must here tell you That which has fell from me in relation to that subject was rather accidental upon my weak search into the nature operation and faculties of the Soul than of any designed purpose to convince any man of the falshood of those Atheistical opinions Because I am not yet fully convinced in my thoughts of the necessity of any such endeavour but do rather believe all those men we term or hold for professed Atheists would yet gladly receive and imbrace a full perswasion and conviction from others of what they themselves maintain in words and not seldom some of
Heaven if I understand the word nor that reason can demonstrate what God is though it may tell us what God is not And therefore I think reason may be as well too blame for marching too far or soaring too high for its learning or knowledg as sitting quite still or groveling on the earth and permitting the imagination to introduce what forms of a Deity will or best may gratify any the most predominant present affection an habit which has been too much in fashion of late and now a little withdrawing makes way for the other excess I may have said too much my self in this little it has exceeded my original intent and purpose yet this further I must say and begg your pardon and others who shall chance to see it if I say amiss that my wishes are we may all in this great concern carefully avoid extreams and that as we do not set up such a God by faith as reason is able daily to confront so we set not up such a God by reason as there needs no faith to lay hold on For my weak opinion is nay my present resolution is As never wholly to desert my reason for the adoration of any God So never to adore any thing for God my reason is able fully to comprehend EPIST. II. Wherein he treats of the cause of Action or Motion under the notion of Spirit and endeavours to shew our often mistakes in applying our thoughts and actions to the operation of that Spirit of truth in us which though good in themselves may proceed from other cause and advises to solitude at particular seasons as the most ready and likely way to behold in some degree the light of truth BEcause Soul or Spirit hath been heretofore at special seasons the subject of my thoughts and because there are many amongst us who would seem to have great knowledge of a Deity and may be thought too familiar with God under a colour or pretence of being daily enlightened with his Holy Spirit affirming its constant working in them And others quite Aliens and strangers to God not barely by their life and conversation but by their outward profession too and who deny in words as much or more than in the deeds that there is any such thing as a Spirit which in St. Iohn our Saviour tells us God is and that what we term Spirit is a mere Chimaera fansied in our brains Both which kind of persons being equally to modest Society and civil conversation and I may say enemies to true Religion I have adventured with all submission to your more weighty thoughts and solid judgement to present you with my sometimes opinion in reference to what we most properly and peculiarly term Spirit and wherein I say ought in relation to that Spirit of truth I humbly implore its aid that nothing escape my Pen which may in any wise if seen lead others into error or in the least diminish the goodness power glory might Majesty c. dominion of the Almighty First I have thought and do think That we can not rationally attribute or impute the cause of any action or motion whatsoever to ought else than somewhat which we in no wise able to comprehend by our sense term or call a Spirit and that without some such thing the world were an insignificant Lump That from such thing all things live and move and have their being is not to be doubted whether we call it Nature or ought else This Spirit gone forth or sent into the visible world which now has visible effects as I take it to be some emission of that Eternal spirit at the Creation from the Word so I think it generally worketh unknown to its self the will of that Eternal Spirit neither can it cease of it self to work but if re-assumed or gathered again as is expressed in Iob all flesh would perish together c. And that all flesh and all other things Sun Moon c. do not perish is the work of Gods ordinary I trust I may so call it Providence the confirmation Seal of his Creation Such vivifying Spirit as this which men may call nature if they please is gone out into the world and shall continue working every where no doubt until the appointed end of the world yet not apprehensive of its being nor capable of understanding in the least to what end it works may probably cease to work after the manner it now worketh And this kind of Spirit receives no new influence nor seems capable of any new influence from above yet is ordered by what we call Providence But where there is any Spirit conscious of its own working and in some measure capable to conceive from whence it is or at least desirous to enquire after or know the original of its being that Spirit seems to me to be some special emission more than ordinary at the beginning or Creation of the visible world to be of duration and continuance A thing now as it were subsisting of it self and which vanishes not nor can vanish or will be re-assumed again But being as I may say the very Spirit or breath of the Almighty and able to look back towards its original and fountain is capable of some new influence and as I may say regeneration and such is the Spirit of man And therefore we in no wise deny but that the Spirit of man may receive some new light for its motion otherwise than barely and simply by sense the Organ of the body And that no other though intellectual Spirit inferiour thereto can so do or is capable so to do Now of created Spirits superiour to our selves or of greater capacity in point of intellect than our selves as I read or hear of none save Angels created all good as well as we so I cannot conceive that any created or circumscribed Spirit from any power of it self to intermix it self with our Spirit or so move in us as that it may be properly said we are possessed with any other Spirit than our own and therefore 't is most properly said When we are tempted we are drawn away of our own lusts Though I confess I think objects may be brought by the assistance of some such spirit and laid down before our senses or presented to our fancy whereby our lust may seem to begin to move though indeed our lusts be the original of our error But forasmuch as our own spirit is some image of and has its being from the Almighty that is one eternal all powerful spirit it being capable by its reason for no otherwise 't is so to distinguish between good and evil in some measure and to know the will of that almighty One It doubtless may be and is capable also not only to have its reason enlightned from thence but to receive some such new accession of light as that it may not only have a clearer sight of that bountiful Creator than reason is able to afford it but be
has found out every root and string of their Affection and judges good perhaps to indeavour some mutual and interchangeable transplantation of Affection that thing I mean to speak of friendship for the melioration thereof had need be very wary and circumspect in his choice and rely upon a Divine watering and pruning too as well as his own planting or else perhaps though it grow and thrive with him it may bear him little or no good Fruit. The variety and diversity of human Souls with their several seeming inclinations and suddain alterations and that innate unsatiate love in man receiving its inflammation sometimes otherwise than by Sense from whence every one labours and travails to secure and advance it self by some means or other and especially the difficulty of discerning the motion of the Spirit in a mans self much more in another is the cause in my opinion why there is so little of true and real Friendship amongst us in the World and that there have been in all Ages so small a number of faithful Friends reckoned up and that our love is changeable mutable and unconstant When as we may daily espy in other Creatures of different Species even a Lyon and a Whelp bred up together a constant and continued love to each other during their lives I may say without design or without dissimulation Of Friendship I have read or been taught somewhat when I was a Boy which as I long since utterly forgot so I mean not now to have recourse thither again or to any other Author that treats thereof but having already adventured to meddle with the Soul I am minded to say somewhat of that league or union of Souls Friendship to you my Friend and to give you my natural thoughts of it only according to my plain rustick way and manner of delivery Friendship I take to be an union or knitting together of two Souls as is expressed of Ionathan and David in amity so as the one loves the other as it self Or more particularly An human yet sacred tye made and contracted between two Souls in the mutual and reciprocal aspect of some similitude and likeness in each other Each shining in some degree after the similitude and likeness of its Maker So that to the contracting thereof it is necessary the party who loves as a Friend do behold in the other some Image or shadow at least and Goodness Truth Justice Mercy Love especially and the like without this view or supposed view there can arise no such Love as is called Friendship Or if you please we will in short define it thus Whereas Charity is a general love to all men for God's sake So Friendship is a love to some particular person for the persons sake yet ever having a respect to God Friendship being a kind of alliance of two Souls resembles somewhat an alliance by blood or a consanguinity as we call it He who would make out that to any man must necessarily resort to some one fountain head or Ancestour and from thence trace and bring down the blood to himself and the other party without any corruption or attainter intervening And our Soul being a distinct gift and a distinct creation or breathing which we receive not from our Parents it is necessary in Friendship that as two Souls concenter in belief of one head and fountain of their being So there be no visible corruption thereof but that each participate somewhat of the Image of its Maker and leave not quite off to be Loving Just Merciful c. at least be not stigmatized with any Character of Uncharitableness Injustice Cruelty or the like whereby that Image seems defaced and therefore no Atheist can be a friend to any man nor any other man so to him For if there be such an human Creature in the World who verily believes there is no God he must consequently believe there is no such thing as Justice or Mercy or no need thereof towards our particular quiet or well-being and such man's kindness whatsoever he pretend is no other than a mere self-love and respecting himself barely and not Friendship neither can any one love that man who rejects or disowns the Wisdom of his Maker and attributes all to what we call Nature or Chance Besides this If there be any men who own a God and yet live as without God in the World though they readily perform all offices of kindness faithfully to each other that I hold not to be Friendship but call it rather a Satanical League than Friendship such as St. Iames terms enmity with God For a league of Friendship ever respects God because unless in respect to our selves there can be no other original cause to love one another but God alone who indowed us with a love extrinsick as I may say and such as is not natural or arising from the flesh The Soul of man in the Body is prone to cleave to Earthly things and many Leagues it makes and Alliances it doth contract Some upon considerations merely accidental and transient and which fail with those considerations such is that with respects the bounty of another as Solomon saith Every man is a Friend to him that giveth gifts or as the wise Son of Syrach Liberality pleaseth all men and so gains applause respect and Friendship improperly taken but the Friendship thereby obtained proves but like the Winter Brooks that Iob speaks of that what time they wax warm they vanish when it is hot they are consumed out of their place The paths of their way are turned aside they go to nothing and perish And when we stand in most need of their help will most surely deny it Sometimes again love proceeds from external relations as that which a man bears to his own natural Product which although it be usually real and lasting and is allowable good and lawful yet is not praise-worthy and commendable the like being to be found in Beasts and would be as great and lasting in them had they equall knowledge of their own with us nor can be called Friendship since it seldom and of it self begets a Love mutual and reciprocal and cannot indeed be termed other than love of our selves That which doth come nearest to it is the love in Marriage which being mutual and reciprocal when contracted upon fitting terms the Man and Wife thereby are as our great Lawyer thinks according to Scripture he has rightly defined that mystical knot Two Souls in one Body And when it respects Vertue chiefly they may be said to be one Soul in two Bodies When two Souls can place a repose in each other without distrust or diffidence when they dare trust each other as Gods though men that I call Friendship which can never be without some imaginary at least sight of Truth Justice Love c. the one in the other To such a love I will afford and affix the Attribute of good And doubtless such a mutual Love affords the
be building of Babels to get himself a name We shall find in every brave Spirit so intitled something of the Roman temper It would leave some mark of its being here and never considers of any such saying as Thou fool this night c. much less that the world may be and continue when neither the word Roman nor the name of any one Family or People now being on the face of the Earth unless what is already registred in Scripture shall be used in mens mouths or so much as known Let no man too confidently think of immortalizing his name either from Writing or the Press It was a bold thought as well as a saying which proceeded from one when he had finished his work that it should live in despight of Iupiters anger We may well think notwithstanding his elegance he never rightly understood his Iupiter that is an eternal power who making all things out of nothing is able to reduce all things to nothing and cause things which have been as if they never were This bold saying with some of the like of his fellow Poets though it be not actually confuted in our days is not therefore to be received as Oracular Though I believe the Creation of the World with others I find no firm or just ground to believe it is so near an end as some others have accounted it from Prophecies which I much doubt whether any of us ever yet rightly understood And then we may as well believe in Reason the future oblivion of all present actions as the present oblivion of most past ones and that of Nations for ought we know or can reasonably imagine indowed with as brave Spirits and as industrious to preserve their memory and deliver it over to Posterity as we our selves A thing the whole race of human Nature for want of truly beholding a present Vanity and another manner of future felicity has is and ever will be prone unto And I my self am prone to think that before any imaginary fifth Monarchy takes place that is before the World have an end there may be yet fifteen or more successively take place and amongst these 't is not altogether irrational to conjecture that God to punish us for our Pride and self-conceit here or other secret purposes best known to himself may raise up one of such power that he may give Laws unto the World One who may make such a destruction as that in after ages Learning and Arts may seem chiefly beholding to some of his Successors for its rise And yet in this rage and tempest to shew his own power and might according to his promise preserve intire his Holy word Some have imagined the Turk may do as much as I have said Well! we have authority to say Of that day and hour knoweth no man We reckon and account upon time while we live but as time is nothing to God so time will quickly be no more with us but we shall be swallowed up in Eternity Indeed upon a call to repentance St. Iohn Baptist's words are true and necessary the kingdom of Heaven is at hand Our passage is quick and speedy and our Souls now Earthly Inhabitants must in short space know their doom And were it imaginable that they with our Bodies could sleep and become as 't were insensible till that last day though they should sleep together Myriads of ages yet upon sound of the last Trump and their then awaking it could seem no otherwise to them than as yesterday Here do we often hunt after we know not what and think to catch hold on something stable and permanent but when our very Bodies awake again through their very instruments of Sense our Souls may behold themselves to have been here but in a dream This inscription on all things here Vanity whereof Solomon seems to have had a full and clear view and was the man who first delivered the same over to us in writing is a very good and I may say too a gracious sight and prospect and a very ready one I think to point us to inquire after if not find out something which is free and clear from such inscription But it is a further most gracious and glorious donative if we ever behold it and we must never expect to behold it as of our selves and from our own strength our Opticks are naturally too weak There have been many as well Heathens as others who have obtained a pretty fair view of the vanity of all things here below from their very light of Reason what any of them saw farther I cannot say nor will go about to determine but I should have thought that tenth Satyr of Iuvenal to have proceeded from somewhat more than an ordinary poetical rapture or fancy had it not been for the conclusion therein monstro quod ipse tibi possis dare When once we think we behold that sight as of and from our selves our eyes become weak and dazled and from too intent a view of this World we are disabled to see and contemplate the glory of another that sight must be reached unto us upon our humility in beholding the other and of our selves we cannot reach it But this is a needless instruction for you and improper for this place We were minded in our search to inquire and behold what and how far worldly imployments of the Soul were necessary and commendable Whereabout I never thought it good to indeavour to hang clogs and fetters on any mans but rather add wings to it Neither is it good to amaze men with speculative Notions but rather to incourage all men to be up and doing provided a way be opened first to behold that mark which every Soul should chiefly aim at and that is God's Glory And therefore if a man can behold that and place it as the prime object and make it the main end and chief Scope and design of all his work and motion Let him go on though he expect and promise himself thereby Power Honour Riches c. besides The Heathen in setting forth and painting of Virtue covered her with fair and rich outward ornaments and trappings because they thought no man would take hold on and imbrace her naked And 't is no more than what usually are found belonging to her Yet these appurtenances should not be looked on but in transitu and esteemed a dowry of Grace after Marriage not of necessary compact before But besides a good primary intention in every Souls motion it will be very necessary and requisite for every Soul to keep a due and constant watch over her self lest at any time unawares she sacrifice to her own nets For though her good motions like Springs may seem to proceed out of the Earth yet they are in truth from the Sea and though as the Earth we receive fruit and increase thereby we ought at no time to dam them up within our bowels lest they become putrid and unwholesome but allow
any time even to eat and drink was from the hand of God As if when all were said that could be said there were a provident wise disposal of all things beyond the reach of human capacity to which he referred us A quick discerning sight of Reason often by the level of Justice and Charity though Gods gracious direction which some men have pretty ready at hand and in a sort fixed in the Soul has many and great advantages here and were to be wished if but for this one attendant which St. Paul glances at that a man might suffer fools gladly That is not fret and vex himself at the beholding the inherent folly and madness of some men in the World He who is at any time indowed with this discerning gift of the Soul ought to own it with all thankfulness but yet there is no appropriating though attributing may be sometimes allowable and tolerable of divine gifts to human nature lest in saying We will be wise we find with Solomon at the same instant It is far from us It is sufficient to render human Nature somewhat unhappy and incapable of any setled tranquillity of mind that this one seeming inherent gift or Attendant in the Soul Right Reason or Prudence shewing her self sometimes as our Vassal does at other times become so treacherous as to desert and forsake us and leave us only light enough to have the want of her espied It is and will be owned as some point of knowledge to observe the cloudiness which sometimes hangs over us To discern our want of so clear a sight into very human affairs as others are at the same time indowed withall or we perhaps at other times How often weaker eyes in estimation outvye us as we say and that we are forced as it were to borrow or take our light or have our Candle lighted from them as I may say Now if we do not at such time withall consider and behold our selves rather a subject of infused light capable of receiving more or less according as it may further the good will and pleasure or secret purpose of some Almighty Power than an independent light of our selves or shining at any time by our own proper power or strength Every view or espial of such defect which is often incident to the wisest man must necessarily torment and vex us And no man how wise soever is able to prevent these billows arising from such his often cogitations nor able to shroud himself from this very kind of storm or be at rest in his mind without recourse to some such shelter as this that there is some Eternal light which lighteth every man which cometh into the World according to his good will and pleasure and from whom every good and perfect gift descendeth as from the father of lights And therefore I am prone to think those Heathens so much in esteem with us either secretly owned all their common abilities in this kind as divine gifts without assuming a self-sufficiency or yet thinking themselves wise by Fate for so it is likely they call'd Providence did in a manner render up their Souls to their Donor or Author from whom how much further they might be enlightned in the end I know not or else rather palliated a tranquillity of mind than really felt any If they had any thing of Wisdom or foresight as we say they must needs espy their own defects and weakness and that view must necessarily beget some disease in the Soul unless they were able to behold or believe a wise disposal of all things as well as an inevitable one For as to any thing under no better notion than Fate Destiny or Necessity as well blind as inexorable it would afford a man rather ground for discontent and sooner prompt him to curse his fate than acquiesce in it But if any man will admit they beheld an irresistible but yet all-seeing and wise power under any of those names I will not quarrel or dispute with him about words Thus have my thoughts sometime rambled in relation to Happiness here or a desire of any thing here to make us so Never let us envy any man for his outward accessions They will do us no good if we had them for his inward indowments we know not what they are or how easy and pleasant in his Soul or how they would fit us if we injoyed them or the like Let him who is able only to satiate the Soul moderate our desires here and make us wise onely unto Salvation and then are we happy even here whether we know it or no. Epist. IX Wherein the Author maintains Divine Wisdom and Providence ruling in and over the Soul of man more especially and more apparently if considered than any work of the Creation And that the Affections in the heart of man seem that part of the Soul whereon God more especially exercises his prerogative moulding and changing them on the suddain to his secret purposes beyond and even contrary to any foresight conjecture or Imagination of the very Soul it self THere are already extant no doubt the footsteps or Monuments of many more excellent Souls than mine which have indeavoured by their Writings unknown to me to render conspicuous to the World or to a succession of Souls after them a constant and continued operation of one only Eternal intellectual wise mind in every the most vulgar and ordinary motion of the most common visible work in the Creation And surely he who has but the ordinary discerning Spirit of a man is either strangely fascinated or else had need go out of this World and be transplanted into some other before he can become capable to deny in his heart the belief of such a thing it is so obvious to sense in each particular Nature as we call it has no such certain impress upon its habitude or motion as that we can in any case rely thereon for when she seems to intend one thing Providence draws forth another not contrary to Nature And upon the most diligent search thereinto we cannot arrive to any satisfaction or come to an end of our enquiries but after all we doubt and wonder and are nonplus'd Cause direct us to Cause and all to one that is the first and Supreme insomuch as every Herb according to the old saying is sufficient to demonstrate a God and give some higher title to the cause of all being and motion than Nature The Soul of man and its strange excellent faculties has not seldom happened to be as you may perceive the wonderful subject of my thoughts and therefore I would not seem here to descend any lower than that to find out or maintain a providence nor indeavour to extract that out of a Flie which is more visible and may far sooner be perceived in man himself if he could or would but look into himself That the Soul of man or Spirit and life in man as some would is that work or extract in