which God hath giuē you serueth you but to feele griefe more sensibly or that God hath made you great that your teares might haue the greater fall Time which easeth the most ignorant people of their euils cannot it finish the sighes of a person whom God hath so much enriched with his knowledge Shall it not be better to ioy in future good things which are great and certaine then to afflict our selues for euils past which are remediles Herein surely God is offended if in worldly crosses we find more occasion of griefe then matter of ioy in heauēly riches And wrongfully do we complaine of our afflictions seeing we hurt our selues we doe vnderhand as it were confesse that God hath not afflicted vs enough The Psalmist saith indeed that God putteth vp our teares into his bottels as precious things but he speaketh of teares bred of repentance or of griefe to see God blasphemed and despised amongst men For God gathereth not vp obstinate tears which extending themselues beyond their limits occupie the time due to consolation How many times giuing your selfe to reading haue you bedewed the holie scripture with your teares and yet this booke containeth the matter of our ioy And in the booke of Psalmes the tunes wherof you loue and yet much more the matter where you see your own picture and the anatomie of your inward affections Haue you not obserued that all the Psalmes which haue their beginnings troubled and whose first lines containe nothing but profoūd sighes and broken complaints do end in delight and termes which witnes contentment and peace of conscience Let your tears Madame be formed vpon this example and let them end in spirituall ioy Let your faith raise her selfe from vnder her burthen and let the sluces of afflictions which God hath stopped her course withal make her to runne forth with the greater impetuousnes let her take strēgth from resistance Hereunto the meditation of Gods graces will much serue you the which if you coūterballance with your euils they will mightily weigh them downe The onely attention of future glorie which you apprehend by faith can it not digest all bitternesse That faith which filled the Martyrs with ioy in the midst of their present torments may she not in our rest comfort vs against the memorie of passed euils And you who acknowledge what seruitude those people liue in which are dragged into perdition by the inuisible chaines of opiniō and custome can you sufficiently magnifie the grace which God hath giuen you in honoring you with his alliance and enlightning you with his truth Yea and in your life time how many of Gods assistances how many difficulties happily ouergone God hauing giuē you the grace to be alone in your family an example of constancie and holy perseuerance in the profession of his truth hauing made you great that in the contradiction of the world you might be an example of firmenesse and constancie And yet admit your wounds were more grieuous as taking all at the worst our liues being so short they cānot long last for you are not troubled to seeke consolations against death seeing that death it selfe is a consolation vnto vs. For God if he receiue the sighs which wee powre foorth in our praiers much more regardeth he the sighes which our soules giue vp vnto him in our deaths Which being a place of shelter and which putteth our soules into securitie we ought not onely looke for his coming but euen go forth to meete him hastening his comming by our desires by the example of S. Paul who saith that his desire tendeth to dislodge and be with Christ And to say with Dauid O when shall I present my selfe before Gods face For our soules being bound vnto our bodies by two bonds wherof the one is naturall and the other voluntarie if through hatred and contempt of life present we vntie the voluntary bond waiting the time when God shall breake the naturall death then coming shall find the businesse begun and our soules prepared to this dissolution These cogitations Madame and such like haue hitherto giuen you consolation the which although you be sufficiently prouided of and haue alwayes readie many spirituall remedies yet you borrow from other the receipts and haue thought that I could contribute something to your consolation And to this effect hauing heard talke of some of my Sermons vpon the Loue of God you would needs make vse of the power you haue ouer me demanding them of me in writing knowing well that of the discontentments of this life there is no such gentle remouall as the loue of God or more stronger remedy then that he loueth vs. Herefrom I drew backe a long time partly through idlenesse accompanied with some other distractions partly through feare apprehending your iudgement which far surpassing ordinarie spirits feedeth it self not vpon vulgar meates At length after long delay being not any longer able to striue against your instant requests which are vnto me as so many commandements I haue let this discourse come forth in publick vnder the protection of your name to the end that the imperfections thereof may likewise be imputed vnto you and that you might beare also a part of the blame for hauing assisted at the birth of that which ought not to haue seene the light but I shall be easily excused as hauing obeyed you For honor shal it euer be vnto me to execute your cōmandements and to employ my selfe to do you most humble seruice as being your Most humble and most obedient seruant Peter du Moulin A Table of the Chapters and principall points contained in this Treatise of the Loue of God OF true and false loue Chap. 1. fol. 1. Fiue degrees of the loue of God Chap. 2. fol. 24. 1. Degree to loue God because of the good he doth vs and which we hope to receiue of him fol. 28. 2. To loue God for his own sake because he is soueraignlie excellent and chieflie to be beloued fol. 45. 3. Not onlie to loue God aboue all things and more then our selues but also not to loue anie thing in this world but for his sake Fol. 67. 4. To hate our selues for the loue of God Fol. 79. 5. Is the loue wherewith we shall loue God in the life to come Fol. 94. Of the marks and effects of the loue of God Cha. 3. Fol. 102. 1. Marke is that it extinguisheth all voluptuous loue Fol. 105. 2. That it is the peace and tranquillitie of the soule Fol. 122. 3. That it is charitie to our neighbours Fol. 136. 4. And the pleasure to cōmunicate often with God Fol. 153. 5. It is the zeale of the glorie of God Fol. 184. Fiue meanes or aids to inflame vs in this loue of God Chap. 4. Fol. 202. 1. Meanes is the image of vices Fol. 206. 2. The choise of friends Fol. 215. 3. The hatred of the world Fol. 226. 4. Prayer Fol. 238. 5. The hearing and reading of the word of
zeale of Gods house you shall neuer want occasion to loue him Take away from him his goods his honours yea his cloathes yea euen his bodie all these ornaments will remaine and that excellencie which consisteth in the image of God and the graces of his Spirit I am not ignorant that the secrets of mens hearts are very deep and oftentimes the friends which a man chuseth for vertuous do becom vicious or else shew they were neuer otherwise In this case the man which loueth God ought to reprehend his friend and to reforme him if he can possible Flatterie hath takē away from true friendship all his termes except the libertie to reprehend To be afraid to chide ones friend lest wee should offend him is a respect full of crueltie as if whē hee were readie to be drowned thou shouldst feare to catch him by the haire of the head lest hee should leese a haire or two If by these reprehēsions thy friend do not amēd the friendship of a man must then giue place vnto Gods loue We must do like Moses who made vse of his rod whilest it was a rod but fled from before it when it became a serpent And yet in this case it were better to separate our selues by little and little and to vnsow friendship rather then to teare it asunder Vnto all these difficulties the loue of God serueth as a rule Many heathen haue gathered a number of precepts of friendship but haue not discouered this secret which ruleth all their rules that is to learne first to loue God and to cause our friendships to be deriued frō his loue Such as the braine is vnto the sinewes the liuer vnto the veines and the heart vnto the arteries that very same is the loue of God vnto humane friendships that is to say they are but threds and branches which depend thereon This diuine loue not being therein friendships are no friendships but a conspiration an accord or agreemēt to disagree with God friendships grounded vpon pleasure or vpon gaine which ceasse when pleasures leese their taste through age or when profite diminisheth or is not equally distributed but friendships groūded vpon the loue of God are firme because they are grounded vpon a sure foundatiō Which loue ought so far to aduance it selfe that for the loue of God we ought not onely to loue our friends but euen our enemies because God willeth it Matth. 5. Because that amongst these enmities some marks of Gods image do yet appeare because they are as it were rods in Gods hand for our amendment and inforcements vnto his feare The fourth degree of the loue of God WE are not yet at the highest For we must come euen to the hating of our selues for the loue of God For euen as there is not in man any loue more strong or more naturall then the loue of our selues so is it that same which most resisteth the loue of God and which is most vneasy to be surmounted That which the shirt is in our cloathing the same is the loue of our selues in our affections to wit that which is last put off There we are to fight a great combat it is as it were Sathans last intrenchment frō whence he is vneasily driuen away Yet none can loue God as he ought who hateth not his owne nature who is not grieued at his owne desires and maketh not mortall war against them being desirous to finish this combat by death to be dissolued that he might be with God readie to be prodigall of his bloud that he may be sparing of Gods glorie waxing wearie of this bodie of ours as of a mouing prison or portable sepulcher Like vnto him that being in prison looketh through the grates desiring his libertie so looke you not to get out at the doore you shall onely get out through the ruines thereof by the destructiō of this body as whē the prison sinketh the prisoner escapeth at some breach thereof Hee which shall haue most made warre with himselfe shall haue the more peace with God he which shall not haue pardoned himself God shall pardon him he which shall haue despised yea hated his owne life he shall saue it Here is the fourth degree or step of loue and the highest that man can reach vnto in this life It was this degree of loue which made the Apostle to crie out Alas miserable man that I am who shall deliuer me from the bodie of this death It was this degree of loue which caused Dauid hauing a scepter in his hand being vanquisher of his enemies and filled with earthly riches and honor to acknowledge himselfe but a stranger and way faring man vpō earth It is this degree of loue which hath sustained Martyrs in their torments the heate wherof hath bene hoter then the heate of the fire can you think that they had their muscles of steele or bodies vncapable of torment and paine it is not so But as the heate of a feauer drieth vp outward vlcers and a lesser heate is surmounted by a greater so the interior heate of Gods loue did surmount the heate of the flame and had more strength to sustain them then paine had power to preuaile against them Martyrs whose vertues do yet vnto this day sustaine our vices whose ashes do yet heate our coldnesse whose bloud doth yet crie speaking both for the truth of the Gospell and against our slacknesse who in a litle time are so farre degenerate from their constancy Surely if they do not serue vs for an example they will serue vs for a reproach and condemnation Now to come to this degree of loue we must haue a long and hard combat for our flesh is rebellious mutinous and couetousnes so rooted therein that to pluck it vp as witnesseth the Son of God himselfe is as if a man should cut off a hand or plucke out an eye And Saint Paul also calleth our desires our members Notwithstanding God saith that he will make an end of his worke in our infirmitie he maketh vs to be victorious but after many fals Oftentimes man being placed as in a crosse-way betweene the spirit and the flesh betweene the loue of God and the loue of the world hee feeleth contrarie suggestions and a maruellous combat How many times commeth it to passe that after the loue of God hath had the vpper hand and that the faithful hath resolued to be good by and by his desires doe reassemble thēselues giue a new assault vnto the feare of God The faithful being thus assailed either with some appetite of reuenge of rapine or lust shall feele this loue of God speaking thus vnto him in his heart Miserable man whither goest thou doth not God see this despisest thou his threatnings reiectest thou his promises forgettest thou thy vocation Wherfore wouldest thou grieue the Spirit of God wherefore wouldest thou bring a scandall vpon his Church Where are the promises which thou
which he knoweth without our communicating them Certainly the word of God is our good counseller who counselleth vs without flatterie who ruleth vs without ambiguitie and the Prophet Esay cha 9. calleth Iesus Christ the Counseller not onely because hee hath manifested to vs the counsel of God in the Gospell but because he is to counsell vs in our doubts and resolue vs in our deliberations That which I say of our difficulties ought also to be vnderstood of our sorrowes in which wee ought to addresse our selues to God make our complaint to him powre out our teares discouer our afflictions vnto him with a son like libertie and though he know them well without this cōmunicating yet will he thereby giue vs ease and contenting Take example hereof in the Psalmes of Dauid where you haue an anatomie of the thoughts of the faithfull and the picture of a diuers agitation within him You shall see many Psalmes as the 6. the 22. the 51. c. wherein the beginnings are full of feare the entry ful of anguish and as it were within two fingers of despaire but in the end you see nothing but ioy and assurance so that you would thinke that the Psalme were composed by two men of contrary humors From whence commeth this so sudden change was it that in the midst of his prayer some good newes arriued which might allay his griefe no such matter but thus that according as hee grew more and more feruent with God his soule rising from vnder her burthē stayed her selfe vpon his promises came forth with peace assurance Who is that faithfull Christiā who hath practised this exercise and hath not felt ease And if an obstinate pensiuenes which holdeth the hand still on the wound seize on our spirits and consume them ought it not to be imputed vnto the want of cōmunicating with God for teares suppressed procure double smart and although but vnprofitably spent yet do they discharge vs of griefe and giue aire vnto the wound But being spent before God who hath bound himselfe by promise yea euen by oath not to abandon vs doth bring vs a great consolation before God I say who doth register our requests yea euen preuenteth them so farre forth as Dauid saith in the 32. Psalme that God hath pardoned him his sinne not only after his praier but euen as soone as he had any will to craue it For he requireth not any praiers of vs because he hath need of our seruice but because wee haue need of his grace and that according to his iustice it cannot be giuen to those which shall not daigne to craue it As the Sunne draweth vp vapours from the earth not for it selfe but to render them to the earth in raine to moisten and fatten it so God the true Sun of our soules draweth frō vs our sighs and prayers not for his own profit but to make them raine downe again vpon vs in so many blessings This same frequēt communication with God in our afflictions will teach vs to turne away our eyes from men which do afflict vs towards God who doth employ them that we may not be like the angrie dog which biteth the stone which is cast at him The man that shall loue will say as Dauid when Shimei cursed him Suffer him to curse for the Lord hath bidden him The Lord proueth me or correcteth me my sinnes fortifie mine enemies and make them necessarie the stroakes of God are more wholsome then the flatteries of the world In our domesticke harmes let vs take heed of resembling such hurt men as falling into frensie do teare all things prepared to dresse them withal Yea euen out of affliction and in full prosperitie what sweetnesse pleasure is there in this communication For according to the commandement of our Sauiour Math. 6. the faithful shal enter into his closet and hauing shut his doore shal pray vnto his Father who seeth him in secret and who will reward him openly There being couered from the eyes of men he shall discouer himselfe before God with lesse distraction more familiarity There after hauing spoken to himselfe he will frame his owne inditement condemne himselfe that God may pardon him And taking the law as a looking-glasse he will acknowledge therin the spots of his soule will seeke to couer them by faith to correct them by repentance There he wil meditate vpō the works of God throughout the world his iudgements against his enemies his benefites towards his Church and particularly vnto himselfe how God hath guided him instructed him and brought him vnto his knowledge How many monarks peoples haue set themselues against the church being weake and contemptible in appearāce and haue crushed themselues thereagainst but the church of God subsisteth and so shall do vnto the end Yea euen vsing a ladder as it were in his meditation he shal raise himselfe to the contemplation of the workes of our redemption marking therein how God would haue the remedies proportionable vnto the euil For because man desiring to make himselfe like vnto God by exalting himselfe is fallen into death God hauing made himself like vnto mā by abasing himself hath restored him vnto life And as the woman brought vnto man the fruite of death so God would that woman to wit the holy Virgine should bring man the fruite of life And as out of the profound sleepe of the first Adam God drew him forth a womā who was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh so by the death of the second Adam which the Scripture calleth a sleep God hath gotten him a Spouse that is to say his Church which is one bodie with him In this same meditation he wil admire how in one person God hath vnited himselfe vnto man hauing ioyned the author of life with a mortall bodie shutting vp all his celestiall treasures in a vessell of earth to the end wee might there draw of his fulnesse How by the infirmity of this flesh he vanquished the force of Satan from his extreme shame hath drawn exceeding glory from the death of that man drawne the life of all mē by that very same vertue through which in the beginning of the world hee had drawne light out of darknesse In this contemplatiō as being enflamed with this diuine loue he will raise vp himself through faith euē vnto the ioyes of heauen where God discouers himselfe face to face where the harps of Saints sound forth where the Seraphins assisting before the throne crie Holy holy holy is the Lord of hoasts O how sweete a thing is it to ioyne vnto these their praises and haue a part in this celestiall harmonie One onely beame of this glorie in the transfiguratiō of Iesus Christ on the mountaine had taken away from S. Peter the remembrāce of his home and of his wife and family It were good said he that we stayed here and would haue set vp tents there How much more
wold he haue bin rauished if himselfe had bene transfigured as the Apostle saith that Iesus Christ shall transforme our vile bodies that they may be made like vnto his glorious bodie Who doubteth but that when this glorie vanished S. Peter was seized with great sorrow and so indeede the heart of the faithfull comming from this meditation againe to consider these base and earthly things is necessarily touched with a great distast and base esteeme of them and is grieued to see himselfe tied thereunto and to say with Dauid Psal 42. O when shall I present my self before the face of God It was these thoughts which made the Prophet greedie and thirstie after the Lord. These were the thoughts which made Paul desire to be dislodged and to be with Christ which made him thinke that which was gaine vnto others to be losse vnto him These are the thoughts which haue euen in our time sustained the Martyrs which haue made them go vnto death as cheerfully as those which come thence For loue is strong saith Salomon as death yea stronger seeing it maketh one to despise life This ardour of loue is entertayned in our soules by a frequent cōmunication with God and wee may easily see that the cause of our slacknesse and coldnesse in this loue is because wee speake not often with God The most exquisite friendships doe waxe cold for want of communication how much more if friendship neuer hath bene as indeed man is naturally borne and inclined vnto enmitie with God This is a common euill to wit that wee are much exercised in speaking with others but very litle with our selues and yet lesse with God If some houres of leisure do steale vs from men they giue vs not any whit the more vnto God If we enter alone into our closet we enter not euer the sooner into our selues to examine our consciēces to search our wounds to feele the pulses of our consciences or to talk with God And yet none shall see him aboue who hath not carefully sought him here below and hath not carefully walked with him by prayers meditations and by the studie and reading of the word This let vs study and from our life which is deuided into a thousand parts amongst a thousand occupatiōs suites solicitations publicke and domesticke affaires let vs withdraw some houres to giue our selues vnto God retiring our selues out of the throng and noise of this world quietly to meditate on those things which pertaine to our saluation As if by a litle channell we wold diuert a part of the troubled waters of a stream that they may run more gently and cleerly A running brooke presenteth not any images nor a spirit which is euer in action alwaies pussed with businesse hardly can hee frame himselfe vnto the image of God We must then separate some houres to speake with God All the time of our life is lost except that which is thus husbanded That time alone is only ours which we giue to God Let none here alledge his domesticke affaires For if we be Gods children his seruice is part of our domesticall affaires yea and whilest we are doing our handy workes what hindereth vs that we may not think of God and send him vp by our broken sighes those sort of prayers which the ancient Fathers called eiaculatoriae short praiers which may be said euery where prayers lanced forth spiritual sallies borne of the present occasion prayers which haue no other ornament but feruency whose clauses haue no other contexture but necessitie Who doubteth but that the Prophet Eliseus ploughing of his field of that verie labour of his tooke occasion to say We sow here in teares but we shall reape in heauen with ioy Or that the Apostle S. Paul labouring with his hands to make tents of this earthly trauell tooke occasion to thinke of our heauenly rest The way is euery where open vnto praier and the loue of God is ingenious to suggest thoughts which like sparkes of pietie mount vp vnto God The fift marke of the Loue of God THe life of the bodie is discerned by these two markes 1. by motion 2. by feeling The loue of God being the life of our soules is also knowne by these two things The foure marks of this loue which wee haue hitherto presented are the motions of our soules for they are holy actions and spirituall motions produced by the loue of God but this fift marke is the feeling to wit an affection which maketh a man sensible to be moued either with griefe or with ioy according as God is blasphemed or glorified Carnall and vicious loue may serue vs for an example We reade of the sonne of king Antigonus that being grieuously sicke and none knowing the cause of his maladie his Physitian perceiued the cause to be the loue of his mother in law because that she being entred into the chamber his pulse began to beate extraordinarily The like happeneth in the loue of God All men that are therewith possessed when that they see God glorified or his name his truth blasphemed although hee intend to containe himselfe yet will the pulse of his conscience be extraordinarily moued either with ioy or sorow and impatience It will chance him as it happened vnto Croesus his sonne who hauing bene euer dumbe came suddenly to his speech seeing his father assailed feare and griefe hauing ouercome all naturall hinderances For the Spirit of Iesus Christ dwelling in him produceth the same effects in him as in himselfe of whom it is written The zeale of thy house hath eaten me vp This affection did exulcerate the Apostle Saint Paul being at Athens and grieued his soule to see the Towne so giuen to idolatry This same zeale was it which seized on the soule of Eli his daughter in law so as in her death she was not so much afflicted either for his or for her husbands as for the Arke of the couenant which was taken by the infidels It is of this alone that she speaketh dying The glorie of the Lord saith she is departed frō Israel There is no more certain effect of the loue of God then this here for if at one time we receiue seuerall newes the one of the losse of a law-suite the other of the reuolt of some persons bought and are more grieued with the last then the first Or if we be more angrie to heare Gods name blasphemed then to heare our selues euill spoken of then haue we in vs an assured witnesse that the loue of God is liuely imprinted in our soules Good bloud will not bely it selfe All wel-borne children are touched at the quicke with the iniuries are done vnto their fathers who so is not moued therewith confesseth himselfe a bastard or a stranger This is an euill which we see before our eyes to our great griefe that vnto them which make profession to carrie weapons and to vnderstand the termes of reputatiō if one speake the least crosse
hast made him where is thy mindfulnesse of his benefits Is this the way to the kingdome of heauen Art thou assured that being fallen thou shalt rise againe For a little pleasure mingled with bitternesse wilt thou trouble the peace of thy conscience For a little porttage of herbes wilt thou neglect thy birth-right At these suggestions the faithfull wil stay himselfe he will sigh before God and like Sampson he will breake the bonds of his desires but all is not yet done nor this rebellious flesh is not yet quelled For after these holy resolutions we haue for certain spaces great dulnesse againe Then the diuell espieth occasion if he see vs in bad companie if he see vs idle if we haue discontinued praier reading or hearing of the word of God then our desires doe rouse themselues vp againe then the contrarie suggestions of the flesh and the spirit struggle together for masterie which maketh the life of the faithful oftentimes seem bitter euen to the desiring of death to end this combat O miserable nature enemie to it owne selfe ô ingrafted and deepe rooted corruption O mutinous seditiō which woldest bring vs back into Egypt which after our coming out of Sodome makest vs look backe againe like vnto Lots wife and makest vs loth to leaue the euill we are come from Corruptiō which troubleth our best actions by bad suggestions and besmeareth them with some euill If we thinke vpon death our flesh suggesteth vnto vs that there is yet time inough to thinke thereon If we heare or reade the reprehensions of Gods word it perswadeth vs that it is spoken vnto others If we thinke of heauen it saith we shal come time enough thither If thou thinkest to giue almes it will softly suggest in thine eare What know I that I shall haue no need thereof my selfe If thou wouldest reprehend thy friend for his amendment it will draw thee by a cruel respect namely for feare of offending him Each good affectiō hath as it were two eares like a pot by which the flesh and the world take hold to hinder the execution thereof Here then wee must carefully haue recourse to Gods assistance and imitate Rebecca who had recourse vnto prayer when two children stroue in her wombe a most expresse figure of these two men which are in euery faithful person the one which is the old the other which is the new man the one our corrupted nature the other the regenerate spirit which do couet one against another as saith the Apostle S. Paul Wherfore also God answered Rebecca The elder shall serue the younger For the old man must be subiected vnto the new vntill he be fully ranked in due obedience vnto God The fift degree of the loue of God THere remayneth now the last and chiefest degree or step which is the loue wherwith we shall loue God in the glorie celestiall For we loue things according as wee know them We shall therfore loue God much more then because wee shall much better know him Now saith the Apostle we know in part now we see as in a glasse obscurely but then we shall see face to face Our loue which seeth from a farre off and which is distracted by diuers obiects shall then see neare at hand and shall wholy be fixed vpon God And as whē two great high swelling riuers come to encounter one another they make a maruellous inundation so the loue of our selues and the loue of God are like two streames which neuer ioyne themselues together on earth but shall meete in heauen What then shall the vehemencie be of both these affections when they shal be mingled both together and ioyned in one loue For then in louing God we shall loue our selues because God shall dwell in vs and because that saith the Apostle S. Iohn we shall be like vnto him Nor are we not to doubt but that the Angels and Saints do loue themselues ardently but with a loue which distilleth from the loue of God O happie and admirable loue of ones selfe which is mingled with the loue of God! Let vs forbeare to loue our selues vntill that time and let vs loue nothing in our selues but what doth prepare vs and entertain vs with the hope of this loue But because this loue with which we shal loue God in Paradice doth grow from the view contemplation of his face for loue is kindled by the sight let vs learne what sight this shall be that shall cause this our loue Our bodily eies see things by two meanes either by receiuing their images for so we see the bodies exposed to our view or by receiuing into our eyes the thing it selfe which wee see so wee see the light which wee see in such sort as that it entereth euen into our eyes Now God who is the chiefest of lights will make our soules to see him in heauen in this latter fashion For he dwelleth in his Saints and is in them all in all But in this life he causeth himselfe to be seene by images that is by the contemplation of his works in which hee hath imprinted a picture as it were of himselfe and the expresse markes of his vertue Therfore we shal then see our God in such sort as we now see the light but that now we see it not but by the windowes of the bodie that is by the eyes for then wee shall receiue throughout all our parts the light of God which shall enlighten vs on all sides with the beames of his holinesse Euen as if a man were all eye throughout and should receiue light in himselfe on all sides This same sight of God will make vs like vnto God as Saint Iohn saith We shall be like vnto him for we shall see him as he is For as a looking-glasse cannot be exposed to the Sunne but it will shine like the same so God receiueth none to contemplate his face but hee transformeth them into his owne likenesse by the irradiation of his light and perfection And as God is charitie and loue it selfe as the same Apostle teacheth it is necessary that the creature being by this view made like vnto God should also be seized with this loue and enflamed with this spirituall fire A fire which hath giuen name vnto the Seraphins so called because of their ardour which is nothing else but the loue of God the feruour of their zeale and their readines to do him seruice Here necessarily must end these degrees or steps of loue and our meditation can mount no higher it is the last steppe of Iacobs ladder by which we mount vp vnto God CHAP. III. Of the markes and effects of the loue of God WE all make profession to loue God but few loue him seriously By this professiō we deceiue men yea we deceiue our selues but cānot deceiue God Wherefore it is necessarie to bring hither the touchstone to discerne the true and pure loue of God from the false and
our haires how much more care will hee haue of our soules for which his Sonne hath died This same loue made Dauid say Psal 23. Euen when I should walke in the way of the shadow of death I would feare none euill for thou art with me thy rod and staffe do comfort me Hereby we may iudge what difference there is betweene louing God and men Let vs not speake of the weaknesse of our friends to deliuer vs their little constancie in their loue yea and of the cruel officiousnes of some friends who desire to see their friends in trouble to make them beholding vnto them for succouring them And let vs talke that which is best and honestest in our friendships I say then if there be any one who loueth a douzen persons faithfully he must then necessarily be miserable for it is a very likely matter that one of a douzen persons will euer be in trouble or sicke or afflicted If then a man shall according to the lawes of friendship participate of his friends afflictions shall he not by hauing many friends be in perpetuall miserie And if any one of them be absent it is a subiect of continuall apprehension So that many are of opinion that to be obdurate and without compassion is commodious Faithfull friendships are kindes of sicknesses ingenious to feare and which from diuers parts draw vnto themselues griefe and compassion The loue of God hath none of these incōmodities for we loue him for whom we can be in no feare and who puts vs out of all feare for our selues and warranteth vs from all euill Now if the loue of God be so full of rest in comparison of the most faithful honest friendships amongst mē how much more then in comparison of vnhonest loues which torture the conscience which hide themselues for shame where spending riot ielousie lyings in waite alteration of humors torment the mind with a perpetuall vnquietnes The third marke of the loue of God IN the third place the loue of God is manifested by the loue of ones neighbor It is impossible to loue God hate his image to loue Iesus Christ who is the head hate our neighbours who are his members it were as if a man kissing another should tread on his toes things vnsufferable as saith the Apostle Saint Iohn He who saith he loueth God and hateth his brother is a lier for who so loueth not his brother whom he seeth how can he loue God whom he hath not seene That is to say if he haue not so much as naturall loue how can he haue the supernatural Wherfore in the summarie of the law expressed in the Gospell vnto the loue of God is adioyned the loue of our neighbor as a necessary consequent an vndoubted proofe And the Apostle S. Paul saith that all the law is accomplished in this word alone Thou shalt loue thy neighbour as thy self Not that it is enough to loue ones neighbour without louing God but because the loue of ones neighbor doth necessarily presuppose the loue of God Now if we ought to loue our neighbours for Gods sake it followeth that aboue all we ought to loue those which loue God following the commandement of the Apostle vnto the Galathians chap. 6. Let vs do good vnto all but principally vnto the houshold of faith with whom we haue many good things in common to be together children of one Father and likewise brethren of Iesus Christ nourished with the same meate which is the word of one houshold namely the Church trauellers and pilgrims together combattants for one selfesame cause called vnto one selfesame hope coheires of one selfesame kingdom All which are consideratiōs resembling many lines which doe all meete in one point for these are obligations to loue one another who doe all of vs meete in Iesus Christ in whom we are all one because we are one with him This charity amongst the faithfull is extended two wayes The one is the charitable relieuing of our afflicted brethrē The other is peace and concord amongst our selues As touching our brotherly reliefe it necessarily commeth from the loue of God as S. Iohn saith Who so shall haue goods in this world and see his brother in necessitie and shall shut vp his compassion how shall the loue of God dwell in him Also God appointeth himselfe a rewarder of almes as done vnto him self yea euen vnto a cup of cold water Math. 10. To giue vnto the poore is to lend out money for vsurie vnto God Prouer. 19. Of all that we possesse wee shall saue nothing but that which we shall haue thus giuen By this meanes sayth Iesus Christ in Luke 16. we make our selues friends which shal receiue vs into the euerlasting tabernacles Thou fearest to leese thy money by giuing it and yet the bestowing it in almes is the meanes to keepe it Thou fearest to leese thy mony by giuing it and fearest not to leese thy selfe by keeping it For our goods auariciously reserued are not only spoiled but do also spoile and corrupt our spirits It will be for this sinne that God will iudge the wicked at the latter day Math. 25. The wicked rich man who despised the poore Lazarus crauing a morsell of bread doth now beg of Lazarus a droppe of water to allay his heate An heate begun by the retentiō of those goods which were due to the poore which as Saint Iames saith shal consume the flesh of the rich like fire and are as a treasure gathered for them against the latter day And iustly are they ranked with murderers For as there is two wayes to put out a lampe either by blowing it or not powring in oile in good time so the couetous man if he take not away the life of the poore by killing him at least he suffereth him to wither and drie away for lacke of powring into him some liberalitie The roote of this dutie is the loue of God which redounds vpon his members wherfore also as the loue of God is free and voluntarie so also must not our almes be forced or vnwillingly done but free and voluntarie God loueth a cheerfull giuer 2. Cor. 9. 7. saith the Apostle Saint Paul And to this purpose he calleth there in that same place almes-deeds a seede A seed which wee cast in the earth but gather the crop in heauen Seeing then wee must giue cheerfully it is here the contrarie of that which is said in the 126. Psalm Those which shall sow in teares shall reape in ioy and triumph For hee who shal sow this reliefe with teares shall reape with griefe None shall reape with ioy in heauen if he haue not ioyfully sowed vpon earth An almes giuen vnwillingly doth not onely leese all reward but also deserueth no pardon It fareth alike with almes which are vaingloriously giuen and to be seene of men which our Lord condemneth in the 6. of Matthew Also it fares alike with almes done