further than only to stir up our dull affections and raise holy passions in us But if we sincerely forsake our sins and evidence our love to JESUS 't is not greatly material what means or instruments we use §. 28. Meditation on the passion My love is crucified said that loving and holy Martyr Ignatius declaring how earnestly he wish't to die for JESUS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so considering the passion of JESUS I meditate with him My love is crucified my dearest Saviour dies in most bitter pains he hath been rudely bound and drag'd from place to place he hath been stript tied to a post and whipt like a vile slave he hath been buffetted and caned and abus'd with all manner of contumelies and now I see him crown'd with thorns all over spittle and blood I see him stretch'd upon the cross where his hands and his feet are nail'd his head hangs down I read in his pale face and his weeping eyes the extremity of his pain the anguish of his wounded soul Lord art thou he whom my soul loveth O Domine Jesu Christe si intelligentia quam mihi dedisti uti vellem sicut deberem cernerem manifeste quo modo imo quam sine modo à me creatura tua amari merueris qui prior dilexisti me tantus tantum gratis tantillum talem ingratum Idiot art thou my dearest JESUS were it my father my brother my friend or my benefactor that should suffer this undeservedly how would I pitty them but should they suffer this upon my account Lord I could not outlive such a sight if nothing else love would certainly wound my soul to death But behold it is so this crucified this dying man is my father he gave me my being he is my brother he came down from heaven and took humane flesh that he might have that relation to me he is my friend he lays down his life to save mine he is my greatest benefactor from him I receive all I have all the blessings the good things I injoy I owe to his kindness But heark methinks I hear him speak to me these pathetick these moving words Christian dearest Christian for whom here I die consider seriously imprint it in thine heart what in my words what in my mysteries thou readest of my suffering for thee consider who I am what I indure and to what end I am the eternal Son of God whom the Angels adore I became Man to make thee partaker of the Divine Nature I am infinitely rich the whole universe is mine I became thus destitute of all things to purchase true riches for thee I am of an Almighty Power the whole world was made and subsists by me I am now weak to make thee strong I am overcome of mine enemies to make thee conquer thine I am crown'd with glory and cloth'd with Majesty I now wear these thorns and am become naked to clothe thee with robes of righteousness and Crown thee with a Royal Diadem I am the inexhaustible fountain of joy and happiness I now indure sorrows and miseries to make thee joyful and happy I am infinitely pure and innocent I am become a sacrifice for sin to merit thy pardon and to sanctifie and make thee holy I am the Author of life the first and the last I now die to make thee live for ever nothing but love moves me thus to suffer for thee This us'd to be written under Crucifixes Aspice serve Dei sic me posuere Judaei Aspice mortalis pro te datur hostia talis Aspice devote quoniam sic pendeo pro te Introitum vitae reddo tibi redde mihi te In cruce sum pro te qui peceas desine pro me Desine do veniam dic culpam corrige vitam and nothing but love I require for it Dearest soul thy sins are more grievous to me than my wounds add not sorrow to my sorrow by remaining impenitent deny not this request to thy dying bleeding Saviour that thou wouldst mortifie thy lusts and forsake thy sins all that is past I heartily forgive if thou becomest true penitent I freely give my self for thee and beg that thou wouldst give thy self to me §. 29. Protestations of love to JESUS What shall I say now dearest Lord Words cannot answer thee I am amaz'd I am astonished I know not how to speak my tongue cannot express what my heart feels Lord I will say nothing I will answer with sighs and tears with devout affections by resigning and giving up my body and soul to thee I will answer by obedience by actions by now falling to work to reform my life to mortifie my sinful lusts to cut off the members of the body of sin Sweetest JESU I will love thee with all the affections my heart can entertain no bosome sin shall be so dear to me but for thy sake I will heartily part with it no lust shall be so pleasing but I will kill it at thy request and command even my natural desires and inclinations will I gladly deny when they come in competition with that duty and love I owe and ever will pay JESUS sect 30. Of a sincere amendment But fickle and unhappy creatures that we are we often promise well but seldome stand to our ingagements our resolutions are good and our performances very defective The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak I must not therefore rest in generals but I must resolve more especially against those sins I am inclined to and not only against them but also upon the means whereby I may overcome and mortifie them as avoiding the occasions and inticements inflicting on my self such severities as may be proper remedies and tying my self to such pious exercises as I know will drive away the temptation To forsake my sins is not to forbear drunkenness when perhaps I am not inclined to it or to avoid swearing when I look upon it as an unpleasing and unprofitable sin or to hate covetousness when by nature I am liberal but knowing what sin pleaseth me most what vice my temper inclines me to and what temptation is most strong and importunate upon me by my calling or my company against that to fortifie my self and imploy the utmost of my strength against that to watch and pray and use sincere and earnest indeavours To forsake my sins is not to say I will forsake them Some men when they are call'd upon by fear adversity or the secret voice of God within them are forward enough to ingage with the Elder Brother in the Gospel Lord I will go and work in thy vineyard but their hot zeal and hasty promise soon decays into negligence and at last into a cold denial Though I resolve against my natural corruptions never so seriously that will not subdue them without I use proper means for it to take up my cross and follow Christ to forsake all for him to deny my self to take the kingdom of heaven by force
1 Cor. 13.5 charity doth not seek her own saith S. Paul we may desire our promised reward and set our affections upon it as it is a demonstration of Gods infinite love and goodness or because it will be the expressing of our duty and thankfulness when we shall love and glorifie and adore God perfectly and for ever or rather because the reward is God himself who will be to every faithful servant his exceeding great reward Gen. 15.4 as well as to faithful Abraham rewarding sincere obedience with the fruition of himself being all in all to his Saints But still I say love is not selfish but free and generous if nothing were to be gain'd by it it would have satisfaction enough in shewing its self 't is an unspeakable pleasure to a devout lover to act and labour for JESUS when he thus thinks with himself by the performance of this duty by this act of vertue by this good work I serve my dearest Lord I oblige my best friend I express my love to him whose infinite kindness to me hath conquer'd my heart whom I love as my own soul and for whom I would willingly die O happy soul who feelest what an exceeding joy it is to love JESUS or rather unhappy soul who canst shew so little love to JESUS Unhappy necessities of a frail body unhappy distractions of a troublesome world Why am I by you depriv'd of the continual pleasure of waiting continually on my Divine and most loving Master But blessed be my gracious Lord that I might have more opportunities of pleasing him and expressing my affections to him he hath made vertues of necessities he hath turn'd nature into grace and of humane duties he hath made acts of Religion in relieving mine own and others wants If I observe the rules of sobriety and charity he takes thence occasion to bless and reward me as if he were thereby glorified in discharging the duties of my place and calling If I am diligent and faithful though my work be never so mean he owns it as a service done to him Servants saith S. Paul obey your masters in all things Col. 3.22 and do it heartily as to the Lord and not to men 23. knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance for ye serve the Lord Christ If I am consciencious in all my ways and works he takes it as a mark of my love and part of my duty to him O that the constant course of my conversation might speak the sincerity of my affection to my Blessed Lord. Dearest JESUS the Cross thou didst bear for me was heavy and painful to extremity but thy yoke is light and pleasant thy service is perfect freedom O let it be my delight and daily imployment as it is my duty to serve and obey thee to follow thy blessed example and be instrumental in winning hearts to thee let me love thee so intirely that I may love nothing but thee nothing but for thy sake Fac precor Domine B. Ansel me gustare per amorem quod gusto per cognitionem sentiam per affectum quod sentio per intellectum Amen §. 6. We belong to Jesus and are not our own Love regards not so much what is commanded as who it is that commands it if it be the Beloved requires any thing love doth it cheerfully without reluctancy another with earnest begging should not have that granted which the least word of a friend shall obtain The commands of Christianity are easie and most rational in keeping of them consisteth our present and future happiness Yet the ture lover of JESUS looks farther he considers that it is his God and Saviour who would have him obey he to whom he belongs to whom he ows himself and infinitely more for every Christian ows JESUS to JESUS who gave himself for him The old saying was emendus cui imperes buy your slaves buy those that will be commanded by you none of us can say so to the God whom we serve for he hath indeed bought us Ye are not your own saith S. Paul ye are bought with a price thence it is strongly infer'd therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods We are not at our own dispose our Divine Master hath a most just propriety in us we are wholly his and would to God we were his as much by affection and resignation as by right the price he hath paid for us is no less than himself he hath given his life that ours might be his We were redeem'd from our vain conversation by the precious blood of Christ who died for us that we might live to him he could get nothing by that dear purchase but our love only for we were his before it is he that made us only we had estrang'd our selves from him and plac't our love upon other things and he could not count us his own while we loved him not §. 7. Meditation our obligation to serve JESUS I must therefore consider whose I am I am Christs by a strong and incontestable title while I serve him I do that proper work which belongs to me whilst I obey what he hath commanded I do what is infinitely my duty what his love to me challengeth and what my love to him desires to return Had I ten thousand years to live and could I serve him all that while and do nothing else I could not repay him for the least part of that great ransom he hath paid for me neither could I deserve any thing of those great wages which he will give me my life is but short and he allows me time for other things even for pleasure and recreation I have therefore a most gracious Master and therefore I resolve and promise to do what he requires of me I will except at nothing he commands it shall be my joy to pay my duty to him and I will make it appear that I serve out of love and affection Vae miserae animae quae Christum non quaerit nec amat arida manet misera c. Aug. Man O my dearest JESUS would my heart did feel what it should would I could express what it feels and would I could perform as much as I express But O my Blessed Lord how frequently and unhappily do I forget that thou art my Master and I thy servant that my chiefest business is to do thy will and that my greatest happiness as well as duty is to obey thee Is it not because I also forget that thou didst redeem me from a most wretched slavery that thou didst pay an immense price for me that thou becamest a servant for me before thou requiredst any service from me and that thou didst first love me before thou did intreat my love O thou great Lover and Saviour of men I wholly give my self to thee body and soul heart and affections I desire to be thine I pray that thou wouldst make me
evil will be sufficient where love is and where it is not more would do no good and that little I shall say concerning the positive part of our duty doing that which is good will suffice also that Christian who knows what it is to love God The truth is my design is only to direct or beget love to shew its great power and the great advantages it brings Could I but teach thee often to repeat from thy heart as some Ancient Christians at the Celebration of the Lords Supper I love thee dear Jesus I love thee dear Jesus I should think to have profited thee more than if I had unfolded mysteries and displayâ—d much learning in the fairest and most exact method For I am sure that love would soon teach thee to know and to do that which pleaseth God to know and to perform the whole of thy duty Praecipuam Christiana pietatis portionem docuit quisquis ad hujusinflammavit amorem He hath taught the best part of Religion and to the best purpose who hath taught others to love it 'T is certain that if we give our love to God we shall afterwards refuse him nothing where a man gives his heart he will not refuse his hands or his knees where he gives his soul he will not deny his bread or his goods God shall have all that he requires and all we can offer to him if he hath our love and affections No qualification but love will make us true Christians Alia virtus cum peccato sed dilectio tua omni peccato contrariatur omni temptationi resistit Idiot no other vertue but may consist with some sin love alone is contrary to all no other grace can resist all temptations love alone hath that unlimited power no other grace will enable us to discharge all our obligations love alone is the fulfilling of the law all gifts and vertues without love can not fit a man for heaven nor make him dear to God but love can do it of it self they that be faithful in love Wisd 3.9 shall abide with him As there are Dragons that are bright and glittering and have precious stones in their heads as there are Comets that have the light and the elevation of stars so there are vicious persons false Christians that are indow'd with excellent parts and are eminent in some vertues but it profiteth nothing without love If I speak the tongues of Men and Angels 1 Cor. 13.1 c. saith S. Paul If I have the gift of prophesie and understand all mysteries if I have all faith so that I remove mountains if I give my goods to the poor and even my body to be burn'd and have not charity I am nothing and it profits me nothing Of all other gifts and abilities it may be said 1 Cor. 8.1 as of knowledge that they all puff up but charity alone edifieth among those creatures which stand and worship before God there is not only a Man and an Eagle which may represent persons of great learning fitted for high speculations but also a Lion and an Ox whereby Christians of meaner parts and knowledge are signified for these are capable of love as much as the others and 't is love alone qualifies men to dwell with that God who is love it self as S. John calls him God is love 1 Joh. 4.16 and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him God loves men that they may love him again saith S. Aug. Amat Deus ut ametur nil aliud vult quam amari c. he only requires that we would love him knowing that that love is of it self sufficient to make us eternally happy I have therefore all along fitted my discourse and meditations to every mans capacity and opportunities as much as I could because all may love and all must love that will be happy And though I may have recommended some things as means and instruments yet I have prescribed nothing as a duty but the great obligations which were laid upon us when we were baptized into Christ My Monastery as to the place is the Church as to the rule is the love of Jesus and the Orders of it are such as should be observed by all Christians I might indeed have mention'd many useful directions given by Ancient Fathers and Spiritual Guides to such as made profession of greater piety and stricter lives than others but they could not have suted with all conditions and callings therefore I have appointed no other rule to those that shall enter this Cloister but the love of Jesus in a sincere obedience to his holy precepts or a voluntary compliance with his Divine Counsels Not that I would deny that places for Religious Retirement might afford many great advantages in order to greater devotion and heavenly mindedness for I bewail their loss and heartily wish that the piety and charity of the present age might restore to this nation the useful conveniency of them Necessary Reformations might have repurg'd Monasteries as well as the Church without abolishing of them and they might have been still houses of Religion without having any dependance upon Rome Multi sunt qui possunt Religiosam vitam etiam cum saeculari habitu ducere plerique sunt qui nisi omnia reliquerint salvari apud Deum nullatenus possunt Greg. M. Ep. ad Maur. imp All men are not inclining to nor fitted for an active life some would be glad to find a place of rest and retirement for contemplation some who by melancholy or by the terrors of the Lord are frighted from their sins and from the civiliz'd world into Quakerism into an unhappy sullenness and Apostasie would perhaps exchange their silks and laces for the coarser garments of mortified professors of a Monastick life and find among them that happiness and peace of the soul which they vainly seek for in their wretched and deluded Brotherhood some who upon great afflictions and sudden changes of fortune fall into a state of sorrow and tedious sadness and are left in the world to struggle with the temptations of a discontented mind would perhaps take Sanctuary in a Religious house and give themselves up wholly to Jesus and forget their temporal sorrow by heavenly joys and meditations and at last bless that storm and shipwrack which cast them into that unknown land of rest and safety some that are forward and ready to promise well and take good resolutions have not strength enough to keep them but are prevail'd upon by the importunity of those temptations they meet withal in the converse of men who being fled from those occasions of sin might by the good example good instructions of a Religious Society secure themselves and stand to their holy ingagements some who never lov'd the world or that are grown weary of it or have passionate longings for heaven would willingly free themselves of the cumbrances and distractions of worldly business to
to be thine and that thou wouldst own me for thine that so thou mayst be mine to eternity wouldst thou know saith S. Aug. Aliud non quaerit precium nisi te ipsum tantum valet quantum es te da habebis illud Manual what thou must give for heaven give thy self that 's the price nothing less will serve that alone is accounted sufficient heaven is worth just what thou art give thy self and thou shalt certainly have it Do not men seek to serve and oblige great persons expecting to be by them gratified are they not ambitious to wait upon Princes in regard of an Honourable stipend and why should I not count it the greatest Honour and preferment to serve the King of Kings and Lord of Lords The salary he pays his servants is infinitely greater than any the greatest Monarch can give they oftentimes cast off with disgrace their most faithful officers my Lord is so far from so doing that he bears with the faults of his meanest servants and never turns out any that will live with him 'T is highly difficult to become a Prince his favorite many spend their time their wealth and themselves and never can get the least share in his affections but I am sure my heavenly Master loveth me I know it by what he hath done by what he daily doth and by what he hath declar'd he would do for me Although he hath bought me and so might well require the utmost I can do without any reward yet he hires me and gives me more infinitely more than I can earn I will therefore be diligent faithful and zealous in fulfilling the work he hath appointed me I will often say to myself I am a servant and a lover of JESUS I am a servant and a lover of JESUS I will every morning consider what can I do this day of what my Lord hath commanded me what duties of sobriety righteousness or godliness can I discharge to make it appear that JESUS is the Master I own and obey Rom. 14.7 8 9. None of us liveth to himself and no man dies to himself for whether we live we live unto the Lord or whether we die we die unto the Lord Whether we live therefore or die we are the Lords for to this end Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living §. 8. Our love and obedience God requires This double duty of dying unto sin and living unto righteousness absteining from that which is evil and doing that which is good I am oblig'd to perform by strong and indispensible obligations if I do not I certainly perish When we say in common speaking that we do things out of love we mean that we are free and may chuse whether we do them or no we are not bound to it but here all along where I undertake to discharge the duties of Religion out of love I do not in the least mean so I acknowledge my self under the greatest necessity of discharging my baptismal vow of living according to the Gospel Rule otherwise my neglect of it would be my ruine I should perish in my disobedience Love it self is a duty the first and greatest commandment Mat. 22.37 thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind I recommend love therefore Meliores quos dirigit amor plures quos corrigit timor Aug. as the noblest the most powerful motive to a Religious obedience as that which makes our duty easie and pleasant and gives a value to what we do or suffer for God I know there is those who teach that by our well-doing we must not seek for salvation and that our obedience is not requir'd to our justification but may be a mark or an effect of it faith having done the work before but this groundless and mischievous opinion is contradicted by thousands of plain express Scriptures He that heareth these sayings of mine and doth them not is like the man that built his house upon the sand Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doth the will of my father which is in heaven If thou wilt enter life keep the Commandments and innumerable others with all those that affirm that God shall judge and reward every man according as his works have been No the holy Religion we profess requires a conformity betwixt the Holy JESUS and his followers that by a devout imitation we should copy his example that we should be fruitful in good works and by a sincere and universal obedience serve God all days of our life Heb. 2.2 For if the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a full recompence of reward 3. how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation by being disobedient to our Lord JESUS who having wrought and reveal'd it offers it to us on the condition of an affectionate obedience to his Gospel Heb. 6.7 c. The earth which drinketh the rain that cometh upon it and beareth thorns and briers is rejected and nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burnt such is their condition who receiving the heavenly dew of Divine Grace in their admission into and profession of Christianity yet still remain barren or bring forth evil fruit But beloved saith the Apostle we are perswaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation for God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love which ye have shewed towards his name and we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end He says not we desire that you may be confident and perswaded of your salvation but that by love and diligent obedience ye may ascertain your hope 1 Pet. 1.10 make your calling and election sure as S. Peter speaks for indeed God hath not appointed us to wrath 1 Thes 5.9 10. but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with him Ephes 4.1 in holiness of life worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called for we are Gods work-manship created in Jesus Christ unto good works Ephes 2.10 which God hath ordained that we should walk in them This then is the way wherein of necessity we must walk that as we ingag'd and promis'd when we were Baptized into Christ so we should live ever after which S. Col. 2.6 Paul expresseth thus As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in him Col. 1.10 and again walk worthy of the Lord being fruitful in every good work This is the rule whereby we must order the course of our lives Phil. 1.27.3.20 that our conversation be as becomes the Gospel of Christ that our conversation be in heaven whence
we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ that whatsoever things are true 4.8 honest just pure lovely of good report any vertue any thing praise-worthy may be our constant study and practice We must labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of our Lord 2 Cor. 5.9 because we shall all appear before him and receive according as we obey him now in his absence §. 9. Incouragements to obey Jesus All this and much more to the same purpose which I have read and observed in the Sacred Books of the New Testament hath convinc'd me that it is the design of Christian Religion to make me meek and humble sober and contented just and charitable devout and religious vertuous and holy this I own to be my duty and I will indeavour my self heartily to perform the same And that I may do it with cheerfulness â—nd affection I will stir and quicken â—he holy fire of love in my heart by pâ—ous considerations When any duty to God or man calls upon me for acâ—ion and performance and I find in my soul too much of dulness or reluctancy I will again by meditation suppose my dying Saviour present telling me how much he hath done and suffered for me and desiring me as I love him to do that duty which lies before me Christian if thou dost understand the greatness of my love which brought me here to die for thee if thou art sensible of it and wouldst make any return for it do this obey this command this may be the last thing thou shalt ever do for me this may be the last tryal of thy love sure it would grieve thee to have denied this small request to him that gives his life that gives himself for thee Or else I will suppose my self in the presence of my Divine Master sitting on his heavenly throne with his glorified servants about him shewing me the crown he hath assign'd to me and saying N. N. wilt thou deny to do this at my earnest request wilt thou be so unkind to me Sure I have deserved better at thy hands than so sure I who am much above thee have done much more for thee than that comes to but besides I would highly recompence thee These my friends I have rewarded with the bliss and glory they enjoy for having done such things for me and I would reward thee as bountifully here is eternal life eternal rest eternal glory for thy recompence as thou lovest me as thou lovest thy self obey that thou maist be happy To this what answer could I make but such as this Lord not only this but any thing else thou hast commanded I am willing to fulfil and obey I bewail my dulness and depraved nature that makes me so unready so unactive in thy service but Lord thou knowest that I love thee I would undertake any labour any trouble to make it appear I would die to justifie it Yet sweetest JESU I beg of thee to increase my love to increase it to such a degree that like thy heavenly attendants I may burn with that Divine fire and be all love to thee Sund. 25. after Trinity that so I may be always prepar'd and desirous to do thy will Stir up we beseech thee O Lord the wills of thy faithful people that they plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works may of thee be plenteously rewarded through JESUS Christ our Lord. Amen Love is the fulfilling of the Law Christian Reader I hope that what I have writ thou wilt also read and repeat heartily in the first Person for to that end I have thus contriv'd it to ingage thine affections to make thee speak as of thy self these soliloquies acts of love and acts of resolution which run throughout the whole discourse and I would have thee use that method which may much affect thee to make dialogues betwixt thy Saviour and thy soul and betwixt thy soul and thy self for certain it is that for thee N. N. by name JESUS was crucified and died and certain it is that thou thy self shalt die and be judged and rise again to an intolerable eternity if by carelessness and inconsideration thou hast been unmindful of thy Lord and thy soul or else rise again to eternal joys if thou hast sincerely lov'd and serv'd JESUS Job 15 10 If ye keep my Commandments ye shall abide in my love even as I have kept my Fathers Commandments and abide in his love §. 10. Of free-will-offerings Thus much of necessity must be done my duty as well as my love constrains me to it Not to break negative precepts and to obey positive ones that is to cease from sin and to work righteousness is required of me if I do it by love I have made my task pleasant but yet a task it is which must be fulfill'd Not but that there is mercy for sins against the New-covenant for the transgression of Gospel precepts there is joy in heaven at the conversion of a sinner what ever his sins have been and it ought greatly to indear God to us that he is so willing to forgive so desirous to have us repent that we may be capable of his pardon but whether soon or late whether after crying guilts or ordinary sins still I say there must be a true contrition a sorrow and repentance for our sins proceeding from the love of God and a sincere indeavour to please and obey him for the future and so thus far we are drawn by a moral necessity by the desire of our own happiness which is not to be obtain'd any other way But shall we stay just here and not go one step further than is required 't is well indeed when we are safe and that must be secur'd first of all and with the greatest care but shall our love proceed no further Sure that Christian who is best assur'd of his salvation will love God most of all and make to him the greatest and most hearty returns When a man is qualified for heaven and enjoys the greatest happiness this world is capable of that is a sense of Gods favour and a well-grounded assurance of a future bliss his soul cannot but melt into the most affectionate love for that gracious God whose mercy and loving kindness hath brought him into that happy condition and fitted him by his grace for a much happier and they I say that are in such a case for to them only I now speak may well do something more than what needs they must may well enlarge their affections to God beyond the bounds of prescribed duties it is a good sign a sign of a sincere and a pious heart when a man is forward to undertake for God when he doth not weigh grains and scruples lest he should part with any of his right and liberty but affords God a full measure and running over and think he never gives enough and still desires that he might do infinitely more for him 'T is true
and often to consider what God is what he hath done what he doth and what he will do for us if we love him sincerely as also what we are whence we come whither we go and how easie it is for us to be eternally happy if we will set our affections upon God who deserves them so infinitely Doubtless inconsideration is the cause why God is not loved It is not possible men could resist the charms of his love if they would open the eyes of their mind and of their faith to view them But how few are there that do it How fully is the prophesie fulfill'd Mat. 24.12 Iniquity shall abound and the love of many shall wax cold To how many Christians might our Blessed Saviour say as once to the Jews I know you Joh. 5.42 that you have not the love of God in you How justly might now S. Paul complain Phil. 2.21 all men seek their own not the things which are Jesus Christs And how justly might our Blessed Lord the great lover of men complain in the words of his Apostle I will gladly spend and be spent for you or rather I have gladly spent and been spent for you though the more abundantly I love you 2 Cor. 12.15 the less I be loved Want of love is a very sad general evil among Christians in these worst of times and I hope some will be by me perswaded not carelesly to say that they shall do as well as others but as wise men would in pestilent times carefully to provide Antidotes to prevent or cure the infection But alass how should I perswade others de ingratis etiam ingrati queruntur Physician cure thy self I help to propagate the distemper and therefore am very unfit to prescribe against it Shall the unthankful teach gratitude Shall the Pharisee perswade others when he saith and doth not If it be as one saith qui non ardet non accendit that he that burns not with the Divine Fire of love cannot inflame others with it then I may well cry out with him vae mihi frigenti wo is me unhappy creature who am so far from burning that I am almost quite cold and indeed I know and grieve the defects and imperfections of my love and have writ for my self more than for any others and I heartily wish better hearts and pens would treat of this subject and help that way amongst others to reinkindle that almost extinct fire of charity and devotion in the hearts of men and in mine own who would thankfully use their assistance and heartily pray for a reward to them I have no more to say by way of Preface but that if I have been so unhappy as to write any thing contrary to the Doctrine of the Church I disown and retract it before hand and would blot it out with my blood as for particular persons who may find fault with any thing herein I desire them to pass it by It matters not much if they like not every passage and expression if they do but follow what they judge to be good and approve my design and love Jesus with all their hearts it will be enough for their profit and my satisfaction 1 John 4.9 He that loveth not knows not God for God is Love Claustrum Animae THE Reformed Monastery Or the Love of JESUS §. 1. Of the benefits of God to mankind IT were as easie to find out the bottomless depth of the inexhaustible fountain of the Divine Bounty as to tell the Streams which run from it Gods mercies are over all his works and all things that are made are a demonstration as much of his goodness as of his being I will not therefore undertake to number what is innumerable or to express what we cannot so much as comprehend but only insist briefly upon some of the most general benefits of God to mankind and in the representing of them endeavour to make us read our duty and to inflame our hearts with love §. 2. Of Creation First It is God that hath made us and not we our selves we owe him our very being thine hands have made and fashioned me saith David thine eyes did see my substance being yet imperfect Psal 119.13 and in thy book were all my members written Let us say therefore with the same Prophet 134.16 I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made and let us with him fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker You know that by the Laws of God and of all Nations there is an indispensable obligation upon all children to love and honour their Parents because they brought them into the world now certainly the obligation doubles upon every man in respect to his Father which is in heaven for our natural parents were but second causes under him his own power it was that form'd and created us they ingendred our mortal bodies only he is the Father of Spirits he himself gave being to our immortal souls Therefore let every man pay to his Maker those duties he would expect from his child Mal. 1.6 if I am a Father saith God where is mine honour If from our heavenly Father we have receiv'd our life and being let us pay that respect and love and obedience to him which thereby are become his due But there is yet more in this Creation is not a transient act the same power that once gave us our being doth still exert it self in the continuation thereof When a child is born he subsists by himself his parents need not take any care that he returns not to his pristine condition but we have the same dependance upon God in our preservation as we had in our creation should he withdraw his Almighty hand we should return to our first nothing in him we live and move and have our being Therefore we are the more bound to serve and love him that he not only made us to be but gives us as it were a new being every moment by continuing our life and duration by that Almighty will whereby he effected our first production Now if we consider further not only that God made us but what he made us it will yet inforce those bonds of duty which Creation tied upon us For it was in our Makers power either to make us vile and abject as the vilest of beasts or to deny us those faculties and abilities which are most honourable and most useful to our nature but he made us Men the most wonderful of his creatures in us he joyn'd what heaven and earth had most excellent an immortal Spirit created after his image with the most elaborated the most perfect of material things Take a view of the marvellous organs of thy senses of the curious contrivance of those joints and ligaments which unite thy several members of those various and delicate channels which contain thy blood and spirits in a word of all the parts and passions of thy body which are all made for
the horrors and torments of Hell hath laid on thee at least as great obligations to love him as if he had brought thee out of it after thou hadst been long detain'd therein Therefore I desire thou wouldst bring thy thoughts back again to that unpleasant abode and consider thy self as if thou wert shut up in that dismal dungeon and then express what thou wouldst give to be releast what thou wouldst do for him that should bring thee out of that horrible and bottomless pit I know that they that are afflicted with sharp pains and grievous sicknesses would purchase health with all the wealth they have and I believe no reward would hire a man to hold his hand in the fire but for one hours time therefore I doubt not but that if it were in a mans power he would give this and a thousand more worlds to be brought out of an ever-burning furnace and I am perswaded that if thou wilt suffer thy fansy to be active in framing the black and dreadful scene of hellish horrors about thee thou wilt then heartily say were I owner of the whole universe I would joyfully give it to come out of these ever-burning flames which torment my body and to be freed from this never dying worm the remorses of my guilty conscience which torture my soul but because I have nothing freely would I give my self to him that should bring me out of this woful place O I would follow him any where do any thing that he should command me imbrace his feet kiss the ground they tread on and give him all the demonstrations of a sincere and passionate Love Well thy petition is granted before 't was presented the Love and Mercy of JESUS hath prevented thy request and distress New make good thy vows and resolutions Love and Serve JESUS thy Redeemer and give thy self up wholly to him I know that many may be good Christians without being snatch't out of the fire without these terrors and affrightments but I am shewing what our condition had been without a Saviour what is that gulf of perdition whence JESUS hath sav'd us if we will be saved by him and I mention these terrors of the Lord as S. Paul calls them to perswade men to be motives of an active and vehement Love For 't is too observable that few men seriously consider what Redemption means what it was we were redeemed from else they could no◠be so indevout so disobedient so unthankful to their Saviour S. Paul supposing as I do here that without Christ we were already dead and perish't makes it the reason of that Constraining Love which enabled him and other Primitive Christians to suffer so patiently and act so zealously for JESUS the love of Christ saith he constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead as if he should say we were certainly dead irrecoverably lost had not Christ died to purchase life and salvation for us therefore we cannot chuse but love him and it is no wonder if that love be strong and if we are govern'd and acted by it That thou maist therefore love affectionately and live devoutly consider seriously that death the misery of that condition wherein thou wert and ever must have been hadst thou not a JESUS I might add that we were delivered from the power and slavery as well as from the condemnation of sin but this is included in the other it being impossible to be saved from the wrath to come without bringing forth fruits meet for repentance and as it is mercy and grace on God's part so on ours it is matter of duty and earnest indeavour and must be the result and effect of our love first that we offend not and then that we serve diligently and faithfully him that redeemed us from our vain conversation and gave himself for us that we being dead unto sin might live unto righteousness §. 7. How we were Redeemed A further ingagement to love and obey will be to consider the manner how our redemption was effected and the price that was paid for it thus The Blessed Son of God the Second Person of the Ever-glorious Trinity undertook that work himself which none else could perform for us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary In praesepe jacet sed mundum continet ubera sugit sed angeles paseit Aug. Ser. de purific 2. and was made man In this act of his miracles and mercies seem to vie one with another that the God of Eternity should be born in time that the Creator of all things should be the Son of a Creature that the most highest should abase himself to the low condition of a servant that God should become an infant is a miracle of Love which we can admire and adore but never fully comprehend The greatness of God is unsearchable his excellencies and perfections are incomprehensible he is infinitely good powerful wise and holy Man contrariwise is in himself wicked and weak ignorant impure and miserable there is so great a disproportion betwixt God and man Haec est mensura amoris non solum quantum fecit nos quanta fecit pro nobis sed quantillus factus est pro nobis so wide so immense a distance that nothing less than an infinite love could have fill'd up the gulf betwixt those two so different natures and united them into one person 'T was never seen that a shepherd would creep upon all four and cover himself with a sheep-skin to call his flock out of danger and to expose himself for it but the good shepherd did much more When he came to lay down his life for his lost and wandering sheep and gather them into his fold he took on him not only the likeness but the very nature of them he became the lamb of God that he might be the shepherd of mankind Though he was infinitely more above man then men are above beasts yet he became the son of man that he might become the Saviour of men 'T was never seen that a Sovereign Prince would seek to reduce to loyalty the most abject of his rebellious subjects by mixing blood with them uniting their families together but behold the Supreme Monarch of heaven and earth contracts a near affinity with his ungrateful rebels who are as vile and miserable as they are criminal that he may free them from their guilt and win them to their duty and their happiness Proud and wretched sinner thou wouldst be so far from entring into the kindred of meaner persons those that are much thine inferiors that thou canst hardly indure to be in their company and behold the most Glorious and Holy God thine offended Sovereign is become thy near relation is become thy Brother that he may win thine affections and become thy Saviour His life all along was a continuation of his great mercy and humility he
happiness to a man even that incomprehensible and increated goodness which is the inexhaustible fountain of perfect Bliss and Felicity in whose presence there is fulness of joy at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore Secondly It 's Heigth It is above the regions of the air in the highest heavens the sublimity and greatness of it's glory is exprest by being like the Angels of God by shining forth as the Sun by a kingdom a crown incorruptible a crown of life and sitting with the Son of God in his throne Thirdly it's Depth It is pure and unmingled it admits of nothing afflictive neither death nor sorrow neither hunger nor thirst neither pain nor anguish all tears are wip'd from their eyes There is the absence of all evil and the presence of all good therefore 't is called the joy of our Lord than which nothing can express a greater for God is intirely and perfectly happy and so incapable of any sorrow that the least sight of the Beatifical vision would turn hell it self into a paradise Fourthly and lastly Its Length It 's never ceasing duration it admits of no end or period it is everlasting it is eternal it is for ever and ever after as many millions of years as there is drops of water in the sea it will but begin and after as many thousands of millions more it will be no neerer ending then it was at first still eternal and ever eternal This is that Bliss which we had forfeited by sin and are reintitled to by the passion of Christ that Bliss which if often and duly consider'd would make us despise the world long for heaven love affectionately and serve diligently that JESUS who offers it to us and died to purchase it Wherefore S. Paul prays so earnestly for the Ephesians that God would give them the Spirit of Wisdom and revelation the eyes of their understanding inlightned Ephes 1.18 that they might know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of his glory of his inheritance in the Saints That we might once be possest of this bliss as well as deliver'd from hell was the Cause why JESUS descended down from heaven became poor took on him the form of a Servant and humbled himself unto death even the death of the Cross for the joy that was set before him Heb. 12.2 he despised the shame and endured the Cross saith S. Paul That joy we may say was not the injoyment of heavenly bliss for himself 't was his without suffering there was no need he should bear the Cross for to obtain it he had a sure title to it by nature the joy therefore that was set before him was the joy of saving us the joy of rescuing us from the jaws of death the gulf of eternal perdition the joy of paying the price of our Redemption the joy of making us capable of eternal joys the joy of purchasing the glories and felicities of heaven for us in a word the joy of shewing us his love and expecting the returns of ours This was the joy why he despised the shame because his shame should raise us to glory this was the joy why he indured the Cross because his Cross should exalt us to a happy and honourable Throne This meditation of the great and manifold benefits of God and the wonderful love and charity he hath shewed us in JESUS we may and should prosecute much farther in all instances for 't is infinite and never enough to be consider'd and admir'd But Reader if that little I have here set down doth not affect thee and if being affected with it thou dost not resolve to return to God all possible acknowledgments and demonstrations of a grateful love Haeece via a meris est vera non ficta via cordialis non verbalis via fructuosa non ociosa via non solùm sermonis sed etiam operis Idiot then read no further for as what precedes is matter of mercy from Gods part so what follows is matter of duty on thine I shall now infer that we must love God because he first loved us and that if the love of JESUS to us hath made him bear our Cross our love to him must make us bear his yoke if he died for us because he loved us then we must live to him to make it appear that we love him Our love to Christ saith an excellent late Author is not a subtil airy and metaphysical notion Sherl 412. as some represent it but is a vital principle of action which governs our lives and makes us fruitful in good works thus it should be at least and thus I intend it the tryal of love is obedience if ye love me saith our Blessed Saviour keep my Commandments §. 15. What all these benefits require from us Now then we are to consider that God giving knowledge of salvation to men hath also thereby proclaim'd their duty Manifesting his love he hath ingag'd and requir'd theirs as our being call'd to be Christians makes a great and real change as to the happiness of our condition a great and real change it ought also to make as to the holiness of our conversation Therefore S. Rom. 2.16 Paul calls the Gospel the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth and he prays for the Ephesians Ephess 3.18 that they might know the love of Christ that so they might be fill'd with all the fulness of God as to say that the knowledge of the love of Christ is exceeding powerful and efficacious and would replenish them with all graces and vertues for this cause he sets so high a value upon the excellency of this knowledge Phil. 3.8 esteeming all the world but dung in comparison of it and he exhorting the Cretians to be ready to every good work puts them in mind that they who were once disobedient deceived serving divers lusts had been deliver'd from that unhappy condition by the appearance of the love of God our Saviour towards man Tit. 3. as in other places he exhorteth Christians to walk worthy of their calling worthy of the Gospel thereby declaring that the manifestation of the Divine Love in the Preaching of the Gospel was the promulgation as of their happiness so of their duty whereby they were rescued as well from living as from perishing in their sins 'T is the appearance of that grace of God which bringeth salvation Tit. 2.11 that teacheth men to live soberly righteously and godly and 't is the receiving and crediting that Heavenly Doctrine that quencheth the fiery darts of Satan that purifies the heart and overcomes the world so that the bare belief of the truth of the New Testament is a strong and indispensable obligation to a cheerful universal and persevering obedience to all its precepts the very profession of being Christians doth strictly bind us to the performance of all Christian duties But the necessity of a Holy Faith and
a Holy Life hath been so fully evinc'd and asserted and all things that pertain to life and godliness so cleerly and learnedly explain'd by Catholick Writers Ancient and Modern especially many Pious Fathers and Sons of this Church since the Reformation that I shall not insist upon the fundamentals either of Faith or Practice to inforce it As indeed my design is not to instruct but to move the affections not to argument or explain but to draw inferences from known and granted premises to administer prudential helps and Religious counsels and by devout meditations to affect the heart §. 16. An invitation unto the Cloister of love I ask therefore hast thou conceived a fair Idea of Christianity hast thou observ'd the glory and greatness of it's Mysteries the holiness of it's Doctrine and the perfection of its precepts and counsels hast thou consider'd and admir'd the great exemplar of all vertues the Holy JESUS author of this Holy Institution hast thou read his life with an observing eye and hast thou view'd the fair copies of this perfect Original which have been drawn by many of his Saints in the imitation of his example hast thou weigh'd the excellency of his promises the great immunities and the invaluable advantages which belong to his followers hast thou seriously ponder'd the great obligations which the love of JESUS hath laid upon thee and art thou desirous to be happy by loving again and being grateful If so enter this Cloister love JESUS and thou shalt reign with JESUS The Cloister I mean is not the precinct of a particular Abbey or the confinement of a narrow Cell but the Catholick Church whose inclosure is large enough to entertain all the Religions in the world all that are of the Christian Order And the Rule I would have thee follow is not that of any Founders nor even that of Pachomius said to have been brought down by Angels but that which the Son of God himself delivered the Gospel-rule the Christian Laws and appointments hath not God given his Beloved Son the heathen for his inheritance Psal 2. and the utmost parts of the earth for his possession Cursic arctcmus Christi professionem quam ille latissime voluit patere ego certe sic optarim Evangelicam Religionem sic omnibus esse cordi c. Ench. Why then saith Erasmus Should we confine the excellency and perfection of Christianity to particular places Why should we make that short and narrow which Christ would have to be of an universal extent If it be words we affect is not a City a great Monastery the Abbot whereof is the Bishop set over it by Christ Would to God the Christian Rule were so well belov'd and observ'd that no man might look or desire the Benedictin or Franciscan I say so too all this is true and to be wished yet the universal comprehends many particular Churches and the Christian Rule hath also many several interpretations therefore to be plain and positive the Church of England as the purest part or member of the Catholick which hath repurg'd corrupt innovations and maintains a Blessed Conformity with Antiquity is that which I recommend to thee above all others and for the best interpretation of the Sacred Canon the Doctrine and Worship of this Church is that which I would have thee prefer to all the rest §. 17. The vow to be taken at the entrance of it But because I speak not to dissenters nor intend to dispute with them thou wilt say that thou hast entred this Cloister already and hast undertaken it's Rule but though it be so thou mayst do it the second time by a second choise an after-election Thou didst not come of thy self but wast brought in when first thou entred'st this society and 't was by a proxy thou promisedst to observe the orders of it therefore now that thou hast the use of reason 't is very necessary thou shouldst do it again by a free and considerate act of thine own will Ratifie then thy former ingagements by being confirm'd Quod summum est id omnibus est enitendum ut saliem mediocria assequamur nec est quod ullum vitae genus ab hoc scopo submoveamus c. Eras if thou art not and if thou art by a hearty and sincere indeavour to perform thy vows and promises which are as follows First To renounce the Devil and all his works the pomps and vanities of this wicked world with all covetous desires of the same and the sinful lusts of the flesh Secondly To believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith And thirdly To keep Gods Holy Will and Commandments and walk in the same all the days of thy life This vow contains all thy duty the highest pitch of Christian perfection rules for the most Regular and Spiritual Life let thy serious application and earnest indeavour to observe it discriminate and sever thee from the prophane and less Religious world Thou needest no distinct inclosure no distinct habits no distinct patrons or offices thy sincere Study thy Religious care to discharge this obligation will sufficiently cloister thee in from the looser society and conversation of men and will make a difference great enough betwixt thee and them But though thou dost remain in the civil society of the world and the neighborhood of thy neighbour yet various are the ways that lead through the world to heaven and here I undertake to teach thee a sure and short one through which all glorified Saints have past Some persons here Qui timendo non facit male male faceret si liceret itaque etsi facultas non datur voluntos retinetur August in Psal 32. are eminent in one vertue some in another some are guided by hope and some by fear Many different are the considerations and helps whereby men are brought to make themselves happy in doing their duty but the motive the guide the way Dilectio est via rectissima absque devio via brevis absque taedio via plana absque tumulo via clara absque nubilo via secura absque periculo c. Idiot Cont. the instrument I recommend to thee above all others is Love Love is the strongest motive the surest guide the safest way the best instrument in the world to live well to keep thee from wandring to bring thee to heaven to conquer all oppositions and do the work of God thoroughly Love hath a general intendance over all vertues and duties and makes them pleasant to us and acceptable to God Love is the fulfilling of the Law Love and thou canst never do amiss love and thou canst never miscarry §. 18. Of Love and first of Self-love Love is the common prince and parent of other passions as they all take their Laws so they take their Origine from it Or to speak more properly Amor inhians habere quod amatur cupiditas est idem habens eoque fruens laetitia ect fugiens quod
eiadversatur timor est idque cum acciderit sentiens tristitia est Aug. de Civ Dei l. 14. c. 7. love it self is all passions and it obtains several different names according to its several acts and objects Love saith S. Aug. is called desire when it gasps after its beloved object when 't is possest of it it takes another denomination and is call'd joy or pleasure when it flies from what it abhors it hath the name of fear and 't is called sorrow when what it fear'd overtakes it But still love is the only passion desire anger joy and sorrow hope and fear are either the motions or acts or else the accidents of it This clearly shews the great power and activity of this noble passion for 't is well known that the greatest and indeed all humane actions that are free proceed from these natural affections and so are the effects of love There is no need to distinguish the several sorts thereof declaring that love is either natural or supernatural sensual or spiritual of friendship or of interest for all these are the same faculty or passion in man differing in their principles or objects only neither would it much avail to give and explain a â—â—rate and studied definitions of love which is much better felt than exprest and much better declar'd by actions than words it will be more useful to consider that as love is the principle of all passions so it is of all vertues and vices This fountain sendeth forth the clearest and the foulest streams and like all other things the greater its excellency the worse is its abuse so that it should be our greatest care to use it well and set it upon the right object No joy in enjoyment without love without it no pleasure in fruition it is the great instrument of happiness if we place it aright and it brings the greatest infelicities if we misplace it 'T is a misguided love that makes men vicious that causeth all the disorders in the world because men love themselves more than God and so would be Gods to themselves the Authors of their own happiness expecting their greatest felicities either from their bodies as the sensual Epicures or from their minds as the proud Stoicks Hence it is that in the head of a long catalogue of the blackest sins S. Paul sets self-love as the cause and origine of all the rest saying that in the worst and most perilous times Men should be lovers of their own selves 2 Tim. 3.2.4 and again that they should be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God which being the greatest depravation of the understanding and of the will of men plungeth men into the greatest sins and thence into the greatest miseries Certain it is that piety or true goodness consisteth in willingly submitting ones self to the Divine Pleasure either to suffer or obey and certain it is that self-love will admit of neither it makes a man uncapable of Religion the Essence whereof is to deny our own to comply with God's Will and so instead of that Godliness Justice and Sobriety which are the three generals comprehensive of all Religious duties this muddy head-spring self-self-love sends forth three muddy streams which cause the overflowing of ungodliness and almost drown the world under a deluge of wickedness These be the love of sensual pleasures call'd voluptuousness the love of Riches call'd covetousness and the vain-glorious love of honour call'd pride or ambition These three are disclaim'd and renounc'd by all Christians in the first part of their Baptismal vow for the love of them confounds the world and all Religion makes men criminal in souls bodies and estates and is the great enemy to their rest and salvation Therefore S. John who calls these the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life gives us this necessary caution 1 Joh. 2.15 love not the world neither the things that are in the world if any man love the world the love of the father is not in him that is as our Blessed Saviour saith Mat. 6.24 no man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other ye cannot serve God and Mammon There is no halting betwixt God and Baal 1 Kings 18.21 the one or the other must be acknowledged for Lord there cannot be two contrary Sovereigns together and the same thing can't be granted to two several competitors if we love the world it reigns in our hearts and God is excluded if we give our love to the world we cannot possibly give it to God also Amor motus est cordis qui cum se inordinate movet cupiditas dicitur cum vero ordinatus est charitas apellatur Aug. de subst dil c. 2. so then the love of our selves is concupiscence the mother of all sin and impurity and the love of God is grace or charity the fountain of all holines and vertue and these two according as they are predominant in men make here the distinction betwixt the penitent and the impenitent betwixt the just and the unjust and will make the great difference hereafter betwixt those that shall dwell in the imbraces of the God of love to eternity and those that shall dwell with everlasting burning for every man is what he loves as S. Talis est quisque qualis est dilectio ejus terram diligis terra es c. Aug. Tract 2. in 1 Joh. Augustine saith the irresistible power of that mighty passion doth in some manner transform him into that which his love imbraceth and therefore to know whether a man be good or bad we inquire not what he knows or what he believes but what he doth love being sure that his morals are of the same nature as his love because his desires and actions are all guided by it §. 19. How they that will be profest lovers of JESUS must mortifie self-love This makes it our greatest duty as it is our greatest interest to rule by reason and Religion that passion which certainly will rule over us to set our love upon the right object upon God not upon our selves Not that we should or can be our own enemies and seek our own ruine no man ever yet hated his own flesh Ephes 29. saith S. Paul the worst of Misanthropes are kind to themselves and we may as soon lose our being as the desire of our well-being and indeed as we should have in the state of innocency so we may still love our selves in God only God must be preferr'd before all and 't is impossible we should be happy but in loving him above all things with all our hearts and souls but now that we are in a state of sin and depravation there must be a dereliction of our natural desires and affections a renunciation to our own wills that we may comply with the will of God and be
guided by his Divine Laws In the time of man's integrity God was to be regarded and loved first and most of all so it must be still the difference is that then man did it naturally and now by a supernatural assistance he did it then by the grace of his Original Righteousness and now by the grace of the Gospel he did it then without reluctancy now he hath sinful appetites and passions which he must deny and mortifie before he can do it Therefore our Blessed Saviour requires it at the very entrance of his School as a necessary qualification to all that will be his Disciples that they should deny themselves and hate all things in comparison of him Luk. 9.13 If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me 14.20 and again if any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters and his own life also he cannot be my Disciple that is he that will own JESUS and he own'd by him must in all things give him the preeminence must relinquish his natural desires deny his own will that he may yield an humble obedience to God he must forsake all things that come in competition with him and even part with his dearest relations and his own life as though he hated them rather than commit what God hath forbidden or disclaim what he would have us profess this self-abnegation Ule satis se diligit qui sedulò agit ut summafrnatur bono this daily self-crucifixion is no act of hatred as the world might think but the greatest kindness we can shew to our selves or others as he that cuts off one of his limbs hates not himself but seeks the preservation of his body and he that casts his goods over-board hates them not but prefers his safety to them so in this case he that parts with his earthly injoyments hates them not but prefers heaven to this earth he that loseth this present life hates it not but loves eternal life beyond it and he that forsakes his friends or parents to follow his Saviour hates them not but loves JESUS above them and seeks to win them to JESUS In this case the promise is verified that he that parts with any thing for Christs sake receives an hundred-fold in compensation and he that loseth his life certainly finds it Therefore hating our kindred and our own lives is otherwise exprest in S. Mat. 10.37 Matthew he that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me c. As much as to say that it is only requir'd that the love of God should be predominant that JESUS should be dearer to us than all persons whatever and that in the first place we should love God with all our minds with all our strength and with all our souls for then afterwards the love of our selves and others being subordinate would become regular and innocent §. 20. Of the love of God Now as all sins and miseries proceed from a misplaced love so all vertues and felicities are the product of love well-guided and plac'd on the right object this is as beneficial and advantageous as the other is pernicious that is as S. Sicut radix omnium malorum est cupiditas ita radix omnium bonorum est charitas Serm. de Charit Augustine saith that as self-love is the root of all evil so the love of God is the root of all good the stock whence all vertues do grow The excellency of Divine Love is so great so transcendent Sine charitate fides potest esse sed non prodesse Aug. 1 Cor. 13. that it alone is accepted on its own account and all other things for its sake a faith strong enough to work miracles alms the most expensive and even the flames of Martyrdom profit nothing without love as S. Paul teacheth love it is that makes all good works meritorious in the best sense love it is that gives a value to all other vertues or rather it is love that produceth all good works and vertues as they are so indeed Love is the discharge of our whole duty the fulfilling of the law Rom. 13.10 saith S. Paul love is that grace which renews and sanctifies our natures and abides for ever it is the greatest the most excellent gift of God it is even the Divine Spirit Vnitas Spiritus continet omnia Serm. Pent. Donum est Spiritus Sanctus in quo nobis omnia bona dantur who unites all things within the bonds of love and unity saith S. Augustine and with whom all good things are ever given Divines teach that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son by way of love wherefore he is call'd nexus amoris quo conjungitur Pater cum Filio Filius cum Patre that is in the Language of the Church that in the Unity of the same Spirit the Father and the Son live and reign evermore Charitas qua paâ—er diligit filium filius patrem quae est Spiritus Sanctus ineffabilem communionem amborum demonstrat De Trin. l. 15. or as S. Augustine expresseth it the love wherewith the Father and the Son love mutually is the Holy Spirit and represents best the Mystery of their Incomprehensible Union Now that Divine Spirit which is the eternal love of God to himself is given to us in the grace of love or charity which are one and the same whereby we are all joyn'd together into one body and all united to God therefore in our holding Communion with the Church we are commanded to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Ephes 4.3 and we are taught Rom. 5.5 that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us 2 Cor. 13.14 and that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost are all one so that to come to the highest pitch and finish the elogium of love we may say with S. John that God is love 1 Joh. 4.16 and then we have said all God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him that is God is an abyss of love and goodness by love he gives himself to us and by love we give up our selves to him and are transformed into him Wonder not therefore Deus chari tas est brevis laus sed maâ—na laus brevis in sermone magna in iatellectu c. Aug. Tract 9. in Ep. Johan if the effects of love are so glorious and wonderful when it proceeds immediately from God and is the communication of himself to us when it is the grace of Jesus Christ and the most precious gift of the Divine Spirit when it is the Sanctification of our natures and the bettering and perfecting of the noblest of humane
me through with many sorrows lust inticeth me to wound me when I have consented to it and pride promiseth me honors to cumber me and expose me to envy JESUS is infinitely lovely he is all perfection and goodness and he desires to be loved not for any advantage of his own but to make his lovers intirely and eternally happy but you painted idols of abused mortals are in your selves ugly and even loathsome though at a great distance ye may seem somewhat fair yet near at hand ye are nothing but deformity ye always prove vain and vexatious ye seek to enter mens hearts only to tyrannize and torment them and betray them to eternal sorrows JESUS is a true and constant lover he ever owns his friends he never fails them that love him he helps them in their distresses he comforts them in their sorrows and when they die he stands by them but ye temporal deceitful pleasures are false and inconstant ye forsake your friends in their greatest need ye flatter them for a few Summer days while the Sun shines kindly upon them but in the rigors of Winter when an unprosperous storm ariseth you are gone ye leave them to die comfortless they carry nothing of you when they go from hence but the bitter remembrance of your treacherousness JESUS is a most grateful lover he ever returns love for love he is ever found of them that seek him to them that desire him he ever gives himself every true lover of JESUS is sure to injoy him but you worldly injoyments are generally most unkind to your most passionate lovers ye flee from them that run after you ye grieve and vex your greatest admirers ye are ever uncertain false and ungrateful I will therefore never love you again nay I resolve to hate and persecute you to mortifie the lusts of my flesh to humble the pride of my heart and overcome the covetous desires of my mind but JESUS shall reign in my heart him will I love him will I serve him will I indeavour to please in all things I will be wholly his therefore I renounce all friendship with you that are his enemies there can be no agreement betwixt the Holy JESUS and this sinful world If any man love the world 1 Joh. 2.15 the love of the father is not in him §. 26. Of the antipathy betwixt sin and Jesus Fleshly lusts are against the purity of JESUS pride is against his humility and wordly-mindedness contrary to his heavenly promises and his mercifulness These are never to be reconcil'd with JESUS they are mortal enemies mortal I may call them because they were his murtherers or rather because he died to put them to death We were not redeem'd with corruptible things as silver and gold from our vain conversation but with the precious blood of Christ JESUS shed his blood to redeem us as well from the practice and commission as from the punishment and destruction of sin Nay the first is that which he chiefly design'd because though we should not be punish'd yet if we remain in sin we are unhappy holiness being the ultimate end perfection and happiness of man Blessed are the pure in heart for without holiness no man shall see God S. Paul therefore saying that Christ died unto sin that is to take away sin infers from thence Rom. 6. that we being baptized into Christs death our old man is now crucified that the body of sin might be destroy'd that henceforth we should not serve sin and S. Peter likewise makes it the purpose why Christ did bear our sins their punishment on his own body on the tree 1 Pet. 2.24 that we thereby being dead unto sin might live unto righteousness Christ gave himself for us Gal. 1.4 that he might redeem us from this present evil world 1 Joh. 3.8 The Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil Sin is that which God hates above all things sin is that which is most contrary to his nature and to our happiness and so JESUS was crucified that sin might be destroy'd he died that sin might live no longer and therefore I renounc'd all sin the Devil and all his works when JESUS own'd me for his friend and I own'd him for my Lord and Master they are incompatible their inconsistency is irreconcilable if I hold to the one I must despise the other if I love one I must hate the other I will therefore as I am most bound and as I have promis'd forsake sin and follow JESUS I will fight against his enemies and side with him against my own corrupt affections while I have a being I will love and obey JESUS §. 27. Of outward helps and means Now To effect this means are to be us'd for our hearts will not of a sudden be brought to a Religious temper 't is not bare resolutions will make us resist temptations when they assault us with their most prevailing inticements grace indeed is never wanting to us but if we be wanting to our selves we receive it in vain if we second it not with our indeavours we make it ineffectual Now among private means of grace for I speak not of those that may be had in the Church in the dispensation of the word and Sacraments belonging to all fasting alms and prayers which are also acts of Religion may hold the first rank But besides them there are other adminicula pietatis instruments of holy contrition handmaids to devotion which though they be indifferent and uncommanded yet may help to move our affections and secure our duty Such are retirement from the world reading of good Books pious Meditations humble prostrations c. And though needless scruples and rejecting of Ancient Ceremonies be now much in use and credit yet amongst them I will reckon the sign of the Cross which was certainly us'd by Primitive Christians very frequently and yet without superstition thereby to vouch it to others and even to themselves that they own'd JESUS Christ crucified for their Lord and Saviour as also it was made upon our fore-heads in Holy Baptism in token that we should not be ashamed to profess the faith of Christ crucified Caro signatur ut anima muniatur Tert. and manfully to fight under his banner against sin the world and the devil c. And to the same purpose we may use it on our selves again to testifie that we own the profession we then made and tacitely to confirm and renew our vows of obedience and fidelity not to conjure away spirits and work such feats as many intend it for in the Church of Rome but to strengthen our good resolutions by moving and affecting our hearts Certain it is that nothing palpable or visible may in this life be the object of our worship it may have some power on the heart as well as what comes in by the ear but though it have the warrant of antiquity yet it may not serve any
things which are not seen are eternal So that it is the effect of a wise and most rational consideration to value and love him above all things who by dying for us hath rescu'd us from eternal ruine and obtain'd eternal happiness for us and to make it appear by all means possible doing or suffering any thing that may manifest our love to JESUS and assure us of a blessed eternity It may justly be fear'd that the indevotion and lukewarmness of very many not the worst of Christians will not make them acceptable to God who declares that he will spue them out of his mouth that are neither hot nor cold Rev. 3.16 and that their carelessness and indifferency in religious duties will hardly secure their eternal interest However I think that it is a shame to see Benedictins Franciscans Carthusians ' and others forsake the merriments pleasures and honors of the world rise up early and late go to rest wear nothing but Cilices and coarse cloth feed poorly and lie hard and all this and much more to observe the Rule of S. Bruno S. Francis or some other fansieful or melancholy Devoto who oblig'd them to some absurd some needless and many uneasie observations from whom they never receiv'd any benefit and from whom they can expect no kind of remuneration and at the same time to see Christians nice and dainty unwilling to deprive themselves of any pleasure or to undergo any thing of hardship for to observe the most reasonable holy and advantageous Rule of Christ from whom they have receiv'd the greatest favours from whom they expect the greatest rewards and to whose service and obedience they have devoted themselves by a solemn vow in holy Baptism §. 35. Corporal Austerities may please God Now if it be doubted whether voluntary Corporal Austerities be acceptable to God I answer that the example of our Blessed Saviour which we are to imitate and follow makes it unquestionable besides those Scriptures which command us to deny our selves to take up our Cross to cut off even hands and feet when they make us offend and that declaration of our Blessed Saviour Mat. 6.18 when ye fast be not as the hypocrites fasting comprehends all external mortifications which Christ appoints not when and how to be us'd but leaves to our free choise and the determination of the Church only declaring how much God is pleas'd with them but anoint thy head and wash thy face that thou appear not unto men to fast but to thy father which is in secret and thy father which sees in secret shall reward thee openly the same that is promis'd to Prayers and alms These I say make it as clear as the light that God recommends accepts and rewards spontaneous acts of Mortification when perform'd without hypocrisie or ostentation They are instruments of Religion whereby our lusts are subdu'd the body kept under and the spirit it self mortified they are marks of the sincerity of our sorrow Homo paenitent est homo sibi iratus of our regret to have offended God and our anger against our selves for it and they are testimonials of our love when we thus take Gods cause in hand punishing the offender for past offences and seeking to prevent others that might follow For this I dare appeal to the true lovers of JESUS who needed not this digression to convince them that acts of self-denial are pleasing to God and pleasing to themselves I must therefore the better to declare my love to JESUS upon appointed days especially or also at other times as occasion may be offered either inflict on my self voluntary afflictions or deprive my self of lawful pleasures as that pious Prince who pour'd out to God that water 2 Sam. 23.16 which he thirsted exceedingly sometimes in the matter of meat and drink put a knife to my throat when I might indulge to it remembring how in that matter I have offended and inwardly speaking my grief for it and my desire of the food of Angels the dainties of the great Supper of the Lamb sometimes forbear a merry meeting and devote to charity what I should spend on my recreation and so in many innumerable other cases as opportunity and the secret whispers of love shall suggest and all this without scruple without affectation without pride for where we are not bound such things may be omitted so the great duty of contrition and love be secure §. 36. Not to return again to our sins when temptations return But the best half of repentance is yet behind that which is most to be attended to that which I must chiefly design in all acts of mortification is that I return no more to those sins for the which I grieve and afflict my self The occasions and inticements of sin will doubtless come again my thoughts will not always be fix'd upon on Divine Objects my mind will return to the world my passions will be disorderly and my appetite unruly again how shall I stand and resist and be safe in the time of danger in the hour of tryal and temptation I resolve to lift up my soul to JESUS and beg his assistance I will remember my vows and ingagements how much I am bound to love and obey JESUS rather than my lusts and how much a gainer I shall be by it Thus when a provocation to anger is given and I find my heart rise and my spirits take fire and grow turbulent instead of giving way to passion or suffering that it should proceed to hatred and revenge I will turn aside and check my self with the remembrance of my meekest Saviour 1 Pet. 2.21 who was led as a lamb to the slaughter and opened not his mouth who when he was revil'd reviled not again when he suffered the greatest injuries yet used no threatning leaving us an exemple that we should follow his steps I will remember how ill it becomes me to be angry with others who have so much reason to be angry with my self for having so highly and frequently provok'd my God to anger I will confider how ill it becomes me to be revengeful and severe to others when all my hopes and all my happiness depend upon forbearance and mercy I will think of and fear that just exprobration of my Lord against the revengeful thou wicked servant shouldst thou not have had compassion on thy fellow servant as I had pity on thee and I will remember that it is JESUS who died for me JESUS for whom I would die who intercedes for mine enemies and will rejoyce that I have some of that kind of love to repay to him which he shewed me when I was his enemy Joh. 13.34 sicut ego vos as I have loved you that ye also love one another If lust inticeth me to acts of impurity I will call to mind the corruption and dissolution of this vile body of sin I will think on my last account the day of judgment and the dreadful flames
4.1 that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God 2. so ye would abound more and more for ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord JESUS for this is the will of God even your sanctification Again Eph. 4.20 but ye have not so learned Christ as to follow the greediness and lusts of the Gentiles If so be that ye have heard of him and have been taught by him 21 c. as the truth is in JESUS that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness And in another place this change being so absolutely necessary is absolutely suppos'd to be wrought in us If ye are risen with Christ seek those things which are above for you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth Coloss 3.1 fornication uncleanness 2 c. inordinate affection evil concupiscence and covetousness which is idolatry in the which ye walked sometime when ye lived in them but now you also put off these anger wrath malice blasphemy evil communication out of your mouth lie not one to another seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him Here is nothing to countenance those frightful fanatical pangs of the New-birth which proceed from Enthusiasm or melancholy nothing to countenance the fansieful applications of a borrowed or rather snatcht-away righteousness but a real change in our affections and our manners is suppos'd and recommended And indeed Tit. 2.11 that grace of God which bringeth salvation teacheth none of these odd and new-devised doctrines but that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts 12. we should live in this present world soberly righteously and godly which is the sum of our duty that we should be temperate in our bodies and minds just and charitable in our intercourse with other men and pious in our minds devout in acts of Religion and worship to God The learning and practising this lesson is that and that alone whereby the offered salvation is obtained and laid hold on §. 40. A protestation of being faithful unto death So now I must remember that I am not mine own I am his that made and redeemed me I am his to whom I have given my self when I undertook manfully to fight under his banner against sin the world and the Devil to me is addrest that exhortation Thou O man of God flee these things strifes disputes and covetousness before mentioned and follow after righteousness godliness faith 1 Tim. 6.11 love patience meekness fight the good fight of faith lay hold on eternal life 12. I am become a Souldier of JESUS to me S. Paul speaks as well as to Timothy 2 Tim. 2.3 Thou therefore indure hardness as a good Souldier of JESUS Christ no man that warreth intangles himself with the affairs of this life 4. that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a Souldier If I were in the Militia of any other Prince I might indure hardness enough before I could obtain his favour or indeed be taken notice of heat and cold hunger thirst and weariness sleepless nights and perpetual dangers all this and much more I might indure many years and not be look'd upon here my General prevented me with his kindness he first fought against mine enemies he first loved me and indured hardship for me and he notes every thing I suffer for him sets it down and assigns a reward to it Under another commander I might do brave actions behave my self valiantly and yet not be seen here my General hath always his eyes upon me he incourageth me and rejoyceth to see my fortitude he is always ready to help me and is most delighted when he sees me zealous and diligent I might fight long enough for an earthly King I could only get a poor subsistence or an empty fame but never so much as one province of his dominions here fighting for my heavenly King I shall get unvaluable treasures immortal glory and a kingdom which shall have no end Rev. 3.21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne I will therefore never again fight against the captain of my salvation and I will never forsake him I will often renew my vows often swear allegiance to him upon that sacred blood which he shed for me and which he gives me to comfort and strengthen my heart I will daily think on those things that may increase my zeal and diligence and help me to resist temptations and I will suffer any thing use all means possible to perform these resolutions and approve my self unto death a lover of JESUS 1 Cor. 16.22 if any man loves not the Lord JESUS let him be Anathema Maranatha FINIS Claustrum Animae THE Reformed Monastery OR THE LOVE OF JESUS The Second Part. LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun in S. Paul's Church-yard the West-End MDCLXXVI THE PREFACF I Have now gone through half of my task the negative part of our Baptismal vow and of our duty and would to God Reader I had inkindled of the Divine fire of love in thy heart and mine but enough to secure us from works of darkness enough to quench and to consume our lusts I would not doubt but it would soon burn light inflame our hearts with a pious zeal and make us so fruitful in good works that men seeing them would glorifie our father which is in heaven I may with a just cause complain of my self concerning this Tractate of mine Eras Epist ad Volus as one did of Erasmus about his Enchiridion that there is more piety in the book than in the Author and withal I may complain of the book also that it is many ways defective that is it supposeth many things previous to the use of it Christian instruction a pious mind pious books pious meditations all helps and instruments of Religion and Holy Living and even in what it handles it falls far short of what the subject would bear The caution therefore I would give is this that no person would think that no other appetites are to be restrain'd no other sins forsaken than those I mention or that no other means to master our lusts and secure our duty are to be us'd than those I specified or that no other acts and expressions of love are to be given than those I have prescrib'd No my design is not to run over particulars and indeed 't is next to impossible for love hath a general intendance over all actions That little I have said concerning Self-Reformations abstaining from that which is
injoy the leisure and opportunities of meditation devotion and other spiritual exercises and some that are much taken with the strict lives and great piety of Papist-Friers would look home and spond their commendations on the purer Religion and better-order'd lives and devotions of those in this Church that should wholly devote themselves to God However 't is not to be denied but that men are much affected and influenc'd by the place the company the way of living and the outward circumstances wherein they are ingag'd and I believe it might be now as true a proverb as ever Bene vixit qui bene latuit he lives best and most safe who is least acquainted with the world and lives farthest from it But though we want some conveniences for withdrawing from temporal affairs to mind eternity and our souls the better yet we must go to heaven wherever we live Claustrum ubique portate interius Norb. Ab. praemonst we must live to God that we may live with God therefore if we cannot have a material we must have a Spiritual cloister which may defend us against temptations and guide and assist us in doing our duty Such a one is the love of Jesus it will protect us against all dangers and spiritual enemies better than the strongest walls of any Abbey and it will make us devout and zealous in God's service beyond what the exhortations of the wisist Abbot could do Greg. Mag. Dum crescit fortitudo amoris interni infirmatur fortitudo carnis whilst love is strong the flesh is mortified and its lusts are subdu'd August Amanti nihil est difficile nihil impossibile love can do all things of its self it passeth over all difficulties and there is no obstacle which it overcomes not Love can supply the want of all outward helps and advantages let it but be our care to secure love and it will secure us Let us therefore feed and entertain it by reading and meditation Coelum terra omnia quae in cis sunt non cessant mihi dicere ut amem Dominum Deum meum Aug. by frequent prayers and acts of love and by observing and tasting how gracious the Lord is in all his works all things in heaven and earth do incessantly cry to us that we should love God God draws us after him Hos 4.11 with cords of a man with bands of love therefore by love we can best follow him 1 Joh. 3.18 But let us not love in word or in tongue but indeed and in truth and hereby we shall know that we are of the truth and we shall assure our hearts before him Claustrum Animae THE Reformed Monastery OR The Love of JESUS §. 1. Of the positive part of our Baptismal vow MY former disobedience and rebellions against my Blessed Lord and dearest Master I have examin'd and bewailed I have consider'd that by sin I wound and crucifie him afresh and therefore have resolv'd to sin no more never to lift up hand or heart against him But will love be satisfied with this is it a sufficient demonstration of love not to abuse not to injure a friend No sure I must proceed further love requires more than this I must not only abstain from what would anger him I love but I should do that that will please him 'T is part of my duty as it was of my vow not only to renounce the Devil and all his works but also to believe all the articles of the Christian faith and to keep Gods holy Will and Commandments and walk in the same all the days of my life As for the Articles of the Christian Faith I believe them from my heart and resolve to own and confess them whilst I live I never will dispute or object against them and I hope I should chuse to die before I would renounce any of them as for other less necessary doctrines I will be guided by my Spiritual Governors in controversies I will submit to the judgment of that Holy Church in whose Communion I live and so I will read and ponder Gods Holy Word especially the New Testament that I may know my masters will and be incourag'd to do it not that I may find out new mysteries and maintain the private opinions of a party It remains then only that I should keep Gods holy will and Commandments and walk in the same all the days of my life And this I also undertake it shall be my daily and constant study and indeavour I resolve to obey to the utmost of my power and I also promise further to manifest my love by free-will-offerings as God shall enable me §. 2. A protestation of obedience But first my love is to appear by doing what is commanded 1 Joh. 5.3 This is the love of God that we keep his commandments saith S. John Joh. 14.21 and he that hath my commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me saith our Blessed Saviour There can be no love without obedience this is its first and chiefest Tryal 23. if a man love me he will keep my words Now then should my beloved Lord ask me as once he did Saint Peter N. dost thou love me Joh. 21.15 would not my heart answer with his zealous Apostle Yes Lord 13.37 thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee I would lay down my life for thee why to this he replies again if thou lovest me 14.15 keep my Commandments Every time a Christian tells Jesus Lord I love thee Jesus answers again if thou lovest me keep my Commandments So that without I observe this I can no ways pretend to love him Therefore I am to take notice of and to amend sins of omission which too too many among Christians mind little or not at all In the matter of sobriety I am commanded whether I eat or drink to do it as all things else to the glory of God and to be contented whatsoever state I am in for chastity I am commanded to know how to keep my vessel in sanctification and honor for acts of corporal and spiritual mercy I am commanded to be merciful as my heavenly father is merciful and to forgive injuries as I desire my self to be forgiven for reverence to my betters I am commanded to honour and obey my superiors Ecclesiastical and Civil in what concerns Divine Worship I am bound to read and pray and mediditate to instruct my self and family to receive the Blessed Sacrament to have a veneration and respect for all things that belong or relate to God and him to love and fear and trust and adore evermore All these and all other duties with the special precepts of the New Testament is the task I chearfully undertake and in the performance whereof I will approve my self a sincere lover of JESUS §. 3. How great a happiness follows our obedience His yoke is easie and his burthen light his Commandments are not
constitution hence the desuetude of fasting upon appointed days and even of bidding of them and the non-observance of Holy-days and times of solemn devotion hence the slight regard had to the publick worship of God and the seldom receiving of the Lords Supper hence the reservedness unhappy secresie of most people in not acquainting their spiritual guides with the state of their conscience when it needs and not receiving their comforts and directions hence the not sending for the elders of the Church to do their office upon sick persons and the seldom desiring their absolution and hence even in too many of the Clergy the neglect of daily saying Divine Offices as they are commanded and observing other injunctions peculiar to them I may say that it fares with our Church as with some Princes who have their due Sovereignty denied them because they are Christians as if by becoming members and defenders of the Church they were become subject to Pontifical Chairs and Puritan Synods for so many would not have this Church obey'd because 't is Reformed they would not have its laws observ'd because it makes them inferior to Gods as though by not imposing a blind superstitious and oversevere obedience as Rome doth this Church were become uncapable of exercising any authority over her children and requiring any duty from them But I say let those that love JESUS amend this for his sake for the Church is his spouse and hath receiv'd her power from him let them yield a free and Religious obedience to Ecclesiastical injunctions because JESUS hath said he that receiveth you receiveth me It is doubtless our duty so to do and I am sure it will be a good token of a pious heart when we shall obey them in the Lord whom the Lord hath set over us We shall make it appear that we own the Authority of our heavenly King when we are subject to those his officers by whom he now reigns over us to whom he hath given the keys of his kingdom and whom he hath appointed Stewards of his saving Mysteries we shall have a share in the Mysterious representation of the great expiatory sacrifice which by the Church is celebrated in the Eucharist and in those Divine Services and solemn Prayers which the Church offers to God daily and we shall receive the full benefit of being members of the Church and holding communion with it if this were not absolutely requir'd yet I am sure it will be a very acceptable free-will-offering if we do it devoutly and joyfully because we love JESUS and this Christian obedience to the known rational and pious orders of the Church will answer the best part of that ancient and so much magnified self-abnegation vow'd by the Coenobites when they gave up themselves to be in all things rul'd and commanded by their superiors and it will exercise those two heavenly graces meekness and humility which the world despiseth but all true Christians own to be most Divine Mat. 11.29 as they that bring rest to the soul and make us most conformable to the meek and humble JESUS §. 12. Of several voluntary oblations As for corporal austerities commanded or uncommanded I have said something of them already and the chiefest use and design of them is to mortifie sensual lusts and to keep under the body that the spirit may rule and be obey'd yet as they are exercises of repentance marks of the just indignation we conceive against our selves for having displeas'd God as they may effect or express a disrelish of temporal pleasures a longing for heavenly joys and an indeavour to take up our cross and follow JESUS they may be the matter of a free-will-offering and they may find a gracious reward and acceptance in so much as they proceed from a sincere love to JESUS Prayer also thanksgiving reading meditation acts of Religion though as to the substance they be the discharge of the greatest duty God requires of us the worship and adoration of his Divine Majesty yet as to the quantity they may become free oblations the expressions of a greater love He that with devout affections inlargeth his offices or counts the frequency of them by Canonical hours and wish't for opportunities and he that sets apart large portions for religious exercises or in the following of his necessary business doth often lift up his heart and thoughts to heaven and heavenly things makes a voluntary offering of some of his time to him of whose eternity he hopes to be partaker He that defalks some hours from the refreshment of his body to bestow them upon his soul he that chuseth a meaner condition and imployment that having fewer avocations he may spend more time upon Religion and he that bears with some wrongs and injuries that being free from the distractions of quarrels and law-suits he may be the better dispos'd to serve God hath bought the blessed opportunity of attending JESUS and indearing himself to him Charity likewise whether Spiritual or Corporal whether in giving or in forgiving may be carried further than is absolutely required and so become a free oblation He that takes great pains to instruct the ignorant to convert sinners by all means to win souls to JESUS may manifest a greater love than was absolutely necessary to his own salvation and he that makes it his business and delight to prevent quarrels or make reconciliations to comfort and defend the afflicted and oppressed to visit hospitals and relieve the poor and to spend all his substance in pious uses for the honour of God and Religion and for the present and future happiness of men may exceed what God would have rewarded and by shewing so great a love inrich his crown of glory and recompence I only mark the head-springs or store-houses of those arbitrary gifts wherewith men may honour God and enrich themselves the several emanations and offerings which may proceed from them being free and innumerable cannot be specified and should not be impos'd Where there is love there is a willing mind and where there is a willing mind a man in other cases as well as in charity is accepted 2 Cor. 8.12 according to what he hath and not according to what be hath not Some husbandmen sow that they may have wherewith to pay their debts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. S. Johan Clim Grad 26. §. 43. which marks the labours and offerings of penitents who indeavour to make what satisfaction they can for their injuries to God or man Some sow that by the expected crop they may increase their wealth which represents the good works of more innocent persons who aspire to a great reward and a glorious crown Some sow that they may have something wherewith to express their gratitude and make presents to their kind land-lord or benefactor whereby is signified the best of Christians who in all things seek and design the glory and advantage of their Lord. And others sow that they may be thought
diligent and receive commendations from the passers by these are an emblem of the most imperfect Christians who in Gods service seek their own glory and of whom our Blessed Saviour says that they have their reward However all must sow and every one as he doth it sparingly or bountifully so shall he reap at last But heaven is a cheap purchase give we never so dear for it Decay of Christian Piety The Gospel reveals and offers a glorious kingdom great and eternal felicities but he that expects their possession because he reads and believes them is like him that should fansie the whole world shall be his because he hath the History or the Map thereof Ecclus. 37.11 Consult not then with a coward in matters of war as the Son of Sirach adviseth consult not with an irreligious age in matters of Piety and Religion and think it not enough to do as the most do When first Christian Religion was preach't in the world and men understood what JESUS had done for them and what he had promis'd they thought nothing too much nor too good for him they chearfully parted with temporal pleasures honors and riches with their liberties their limbs blood their very lives that they might be faithful to JESUS and come to reign with him they made it appear by their patient chearful and magnanimous sufferings that they valued nothing but JESUS and eternity We are not now expos'd to the same dangers for the belief and profession of Christianity but the commands thereof may have Martyrs as well as the Creed the same Lord and Saviour requires our obedience to the one who exacts our faith to the other he that spends his life in the observance of his Lords precepts and counsels in thus confessing of him before men may be intitled to as great a reward as he that dies that he may not renounce his Religion and deny his Faith I need not insert cautions against vain glory and self complacency after we have done the most we are able for if it proceeds not from the love of God it is nothing worth and if it doth it will never bring pride nor vanity Charity vanteth not it self and is not puffed up 1 Cor. 13.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. S. Johan Clim Grad 23.11 Only in the words of a pious Saint If we had died a thousand times for JESUS yet we should not have repaid him the least part of what we owe his infinite mercy and condescension for vast is the difference betwixt the blood of God and the blood of his creatures and servants if we judge according to the dignity and not to the substance of it What hast thou that thou hast not received remember what JESUS saith to all Christians He that loveth father or mother more than me Mat. 10.37 is not worthy of me and he that loveth son or daughter more than me Luk. 14.33 is not worthy of me and whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath he cannot be my disciple We can never do too much for JESUS but we may easily do too little though the most we can do will never merit heaven yet the least we may do shall not obtain it 't is safe and impossible to exceed but 't is easie and dangerous to be defective 6. 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 JESUS Christ our Lord Amen I have now assign'd love its full task to repent and mortifie our lusts to serve and obey God and to abound in good works even free-will-offerings I have no more for it to do I would only have it to increase to grow towards perfection to be constant and to indure unto the end To help this forward and to conclude I have here added four considerations wherewith to assist and incourage the sincere lover of JESUS to the discharge of this great and blessed duty the work and labour of love §. 13. That God should be loved above all things The first is that it is most unjust and unreasonable to love any creature to the prejudice of the Creator As all things have their being from God so they have from him all the goodness and beauty which makes them lovely to us and God drawing upon visible objects fair copies of his invisible perfections design'd to be lov'd in them or that they should be lov'd in him and for his sake If men being delighted with the beauty of the heavenly host took them to be gods Wisd 13.3 let them know how much better the Lord of them is for the first Author of beauty hath created them 5. for by the beauty and greatness of the creatures proportionably the maker of them is seen Beauty and goodness are the proper object of love and therefore God who is the first and supreme beauty and goodness should be loved before all things We indeed reverence Princes in their seals and arms in their meanest servants cloth'd with their livery but should a subject set up these in the royal throne and transfer to them or even to the greatest Favorite those special honours which belong to the Prince only he should justly be deem'd a Rebel and his proceedings would be as unjustifiable as the disloyal distinction of taking arms by the Kings Authority against his Person Yet such are the proceedings of all disorderly lovers I mean of all sinners who setting more of their affections upon the creatures than upon God the Creator pay them afterwards a greater veneration than they do to him having exalted honours pleasures and riches into the Imperial chair they do more for them than for the Sovereign himself nay they obey them to his prejudice and against his express command Thus vicious unreasonable men burn in the shade and freeze where the Sun shines they dote upon inferior beauties and neglect the highest and most perfect they take fire at dark shadows and find no heat in the brightest light Great men have a respect paid them in their degenerating posterity great Artists are respected in their liveless children we highly honour unhappy Pagans in those labors of theirs which adorn our closets and libraries God only is dishonour'd in his works the more perfect he hath made them the more injurious they prove to him Phidias and Apelles are remembred with veneration in a fine picture or Statue God only is ingratefully forgotten in a lovely creature whereof he is Maker An absurd impiety this is Absurdum est genu posito simulacra adorare suspicere fabros vero qui ea fecerunt contemnere which Seneca reprov'd in his Fellow-heathen to worship and deifie the carved image and to take no notice of the Carver that made it God hath done like a
loving father who jealous of his sons affection would have none to tend him but such as wear his livery would have the picture of himself hang in every room and all the goods in the house markt with his name and cypher So God who loves men tenderly and desires to be by them lov'd again hath put something of himself in all the creatures he hath appointed to serve us that which way soever we turn our eyes we might be put in mind of him he hath stampt his name in more or less legible Characters upon all the goods and utensils of this his great house the world wherein he hath plac'd us And now shall we do like a simple child who turning his back upon his father should look and smile on his picture and caress it and wait upon it and ask it blessing while he slights the original So absurd a thing would be counted madness and move pity or laughter but when we act the same folly in loving the world whilst we despise God we are highly criminal we highly provoke our heavenly Father thus to return to him contempt disobedience for the gracious tokens of his love From hence it follows that as we should love God above all and all things things in him and for him we should also love those things most which have most of his impress and likeness Therefore man who is created after Gods image should be by us lov'd above all other creatures and that part of man which is chiefly adorn'd with the likeness of God should have the greater share of our affection God himself values humane souls at a high rate because they are like him as appears by what he hath done and suffered to save them And for the same reason also we should pay to the souls of men the best part of that kindness we owe them and if we do not we give our friends no greater love than children to their puppets for they dress them fine and lay them soft and kiss and imbrace them Just as they who aim at nothing more than to make their friends merry to wish them toys and gaudy things and to see them at ease A fondness inexcusable in rational creatures especially in Christians who know the worth of an immortal soul and the great concern of Eternity and yet seek only to gratifie the material part of their friends which is subject to corruption and to ingage their affections to the world which passeth away and they must soon leave As if when King Edward the first was hastning out of the Holy-land hither to receive the Crown which expected him his friends had staid him by the way and invited him to rest and case and provided for him all Princely delights and entertainments and retarded his coming so long till he had forgot or lost his right and his kingdom What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul and what shall a man give in exchange for his soul We are indeed much commanded to love one another and in this consisteth one great half of our Religion all justice and charity and all the duties of the second Table To love our brother as we ought is the best demonstration of our love to God 1 Joh. 4.20 for he that says he loves God and hateth his brother Rom. 13.10 is a liar saith S. John and love worketh no ill to his neighbour Mat. 19.19 and is therefore the fulfilling of the law saith S. Paul but a man is to love his neighbour as himself and therefore as he is most oblig'd to seek for himself the kingdom of God and its righteousness so should he in the first place indeavour to procure it to his friend Or else we are to love one another as Christ hath loved us Joh. 13.33 and that was in redeeming our souls and purchasing for us heavenly joys and eternal life not in providing ease and sensual pleasures to our bodies here in this world The result of this is that in the first place we should love God infinitely and for his own sake and that in the next we should love those things most which have a nearest relation to God Grace and Vertue Religion Holiness and Men especially their Souls which are an image of the Deity especially sanctified souls which are most like God Afterwards our lesser love for less Divine Objects may be reasonable and innocent and however we have secur'd a great duty and a great happiness Mar. 13.33 To love God with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the soul and with all the strength and to love his neighbour as himself is more than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices §. 14. 'T is most just and easie to love God A second consideration may be that it is most just and easie to love God That it is most just is shown all along this discourse wherein I have represented the more general and most excellent benefits of God to mankind all the which challenge and deserve the greatest love our hearts are capable of God had requir'd of his people that the first-born and the first fruits should be consecrated to him thereby to acknowledge him the author of all their blessings and the giver of all their increase Now the first-born of our souls the first-fruits of our hearts is love which God who gives us all things demands as an acknowledgment from us thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul We therefore commit a greater sacriledge if we deny him so just a tribute than if a Jew had rob'd him of his first grapes or his first ears of corn But it is so much the more just in that it is most easie to love God Infinite perfections an abyss of goodness whence rivers and oceans of good things do perpetually flow one would think should swallow up the hearts and affections of men as indeed it doth of all that duly consider it And more perfectly of beatified Saints and of those blessed spirits who minister before his throne and are all flame for him Besides 't is natural for men to love what is theirs propriety begets or increaseth love Now God is our God he hath given himself for us he doth now and will more intirely hereafter give himself to us he made us for the injoyment of himself and for that purpose he hath redeem'd us and that we might all say with David O God thou art my God that God might shew his kindness and indear himself to us and assert our right to him he hath assum'd the names of those relations who love us best whom we love most tenderly and whom we count most ours God the Father is pleas'd to be call'd our Father God the Son our Brother and God the Holy Ghost our Comforter as it were our friend thereby to express that affection which he hath for us and the propriety which
may be fabulous yet I believe the thing it self is true However I am confident that the love of God would sweeten all the bitterness of our innocent miseries and that it is only the imperfection of a Christians love that exposeth his mind to the vexation of humane sorrows I am not to my grief a competent witness to this truth but there have been many Saints and devout persons who in the fervency of their love to God have found those joys Nihil crus sentit in nervo dum animus est in Coelo those ravishments of joy which are ineffable and which made them in some manner insensible and incapable of any great sorrow And even the lesser love of more imperfect though sincere Christians doth in a great measure take away the sense of humane calamities and brings to their minds the greatest contentment and delight this world is capable of Magis est ubi amat quam ubi animat A mans heart is more where it loves than where it lives he that loveth dwelleth in God and God in him 1 John 4.16 and what greater Deus Charitas est quid pretiosius qui ma net in Charitaâ—e in Deo manet quid securius Deus in eo quid jucundius Bern. what more excellent bliss can we imagine or desire What stronger expression could one find to express the highest felicities to dwell in God! to be swallow'd up in an abyss of infinite goodness to be overwhelm'd in the immensity of Divine Joys and perfections as an atome in the air as a drop of water in the Ocean so he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God Nothing can better represent those transcendent and delicious raptures wherewith the soul is inebriated and raised above it self Extasin faâ—it amorâ— amatores suo statu di monet sui juris esse non sinit Dionys de Divin nom This was it made the Holy Martyrs shout and rejoyce in the midst of the flames they dwelt in God no sorrow no harm could approach them Happy are they that can say with S. Col. 3.3 Paul Our life is hid with Christ in God and I live yet not I Gal. 2.20 but Christ liveth in me The love of God fits us for the joys of heaven and is an anticipation of them it powerfully governs the will and it sweetly overflows the mind it is the perfection of grace and will be the consummation of glory but 't is much easier and happier to feel than to express it Cant. 4.10 How much better is thy love than wine and the smell of thine ointment than all spices One thing that adds much to the worth and the pleasure of Divine Love is that it never fails it is of the nature of its object eternal as God is whether there be prophecies 1 Cor. 13.8 they shall fail whether there be tongues they shall cease whether there be knowledge it shall vanish away but charity never faileth Faith and hope may accompany us as far as heaven's gate but there they forsake us the one is turned into sight and the other into injoyment love alone enters and abides with us to eternity Our greatest safety therefore as well as pleasure consists in loving God affectionately for that love which never faileth secures our duty here and our happiness hereafter We are sure never to live and never to perish in sin if we love JESUS sincerely He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and there neither sin nor misery can come to hurt him Quid refert natura esse quod potes effici voluntate Chrys What matters it then to be that by nature that we may be by choise affection If of our selves we are not holy and happy we may be so by love the love of God will transform us into his nature and make us partakers of his holiness happiness Love kills us in our selves that we may live in God Occidit quod fuimus simus quod non eramus Aug. It maketh such a change in us that we are no longer what we were as to the sinfulness and wretchedness of our condition The New Commandment maketh the New Creature Mandato novo facit hominem norum homines amando Deum dii effici untur Aug. men become Gods by loving God Love considers and dischargeth all the duties of Religion it allows of no omission nor trausgression 2 John 6. Love is the fulfilling of the law this is love that we keep his Commandments Ille sancte juste agit qui sanctam habet dilectionem Aug. He is a Holy Man whose love is holy Non faciunt bonos vel malos mons nisi boni vel mali amores Aug. for love having the rule and direction of all mans passions and affections they become either good or bad according to the nature of what he loves Therefore to know whether a man be vertuous or no we inquire not what his condition is or what are his parts and learning but what he delights in what he loves for if he loves the world and himself he is certainly vain and vicious but if he loves God he is pious and good and of a certainty he can never perish If natural love be so powerful and active as we know it is how much more when it is set upon God and by him assisted This therefore doth greatly manifest how secure and well guarded they are that love God in that their holy love masters and mortifies their unholy affections What is it that hurries men to sin and hell and destruction but their masterless and unruly passion now love can not only subdue them but even makes them useful and subservient to it the love of God sanctifies all passions and makes them serviceable If it cannot make him meek who is of an angry nature it will make him angry against sin and against himself a sinner if it doth not make him bold and generous whose temper inclines him to timorousness it will turn his fear into prudence and make him not dare to offend God if it makes him not cheerful who naturally is melancholy it will turn his sadness into penitent sorrow and make him a blessed mourner And so all other passions love will make them instruments of vertue Amor ubi venerit caeteros in se traducit captivat affectius S. Bern. or occasions of a greater reward that is it will either fight and conquer them or else put them to a good use Love is obey'd wherever it appears and Divine Love is irresistible it overcomes all difficulties Nomen difficultatis erubescit nay it scorns it disowns the name of difficulty saith S. Augustine It is as strong as death saith the Scripture it breaks the strongest and most vicious habits and like death it is ever victorious Happy and safe are they that love JESUS Charitas est donum Dei quo nullum est excellentius solum est quod
therefore let us shew to God all the love we can and by words and actions protest that we seek to please him and our hearts will soon be possest with a blessed assurance that we are dear to him and he will never be cruel and severe to us 'T is reported of a Religious Person whose soul was griev'd and wounded with doubts and fears and with sadness that while he was one day weeping and praying thus O that I were sure that I shall persevere and never fall from God O that I were sure that God loves me and that I shall one day see his Blessed Face how zealous then should I be in mortifying my sins and doing my duty how cheerfully should I serve God every day and take pleasure in suffering for him how would I despise the world and its vanities and fix my thoughts and affections on things above while he was thus expressing the sorrows of his troubled mind he heard the whispers of a secret voice which told him fac quod faceres do now what thou wouldst do if thou hadst all those assurances With this he found himself so affected and refresh'd that he took it as an Oracle from heaven and in obeying of it found those comforts he begg'd Better counsel I cannot give thee fac quod faceres do what thou wouldst do if thy diffident timorousness and jealousies were confuted by a voice from heaven and they 'll soon be remov'd Let thy meek submission thy sincere obedience and thy free-will-offerings speak thy love to God and thou shalt soon find thy self perswaded that God loves thee dearly and that thy condition is safe and happy Other assurance we are not to expect in this world and this is not to be obtain'd any other way should thy comfort proceed from any thing else but thine humble and devout love to God it would be fansie and presumption whereas so it is well-grounded and never can deceive thee 1 Joh. 4.18 There is no fear in love saith Divine S. John but perfect love casteth out fear 't is never otherwise grace and nature joyn together to make the effect infallible that a Holy Love should ever produce a Holy Peace if we love indeed and in truth 1 Joh. 3.18 thereby not by new and secret revelations we shall know that we are of the truth and we shall assure our hearts before God Love may well work confidence and joy in our souls for it injoys already what it loves it is affectuosa unitas unitiva affectio love is inseparable from its object and the essence thereof consists in their union if not unity Though God be exalted infinitely above all things in a sphere of Glory and Majesty so high that the Cherubim with their many wings cannot flie up to it Qui mente integra Deum desiderat profecto jam habet quem amat Greg. Mag. yet thither love sores up and takes God and holds him as his own so that every one that loves God is already possest of him and may say with the spouse I am my Beloveds and my Beloved is mine Cant. 6.3 We come to God by love S. Aug. amando non ambulando and to him we are united by love Magna res est amor quo anima per semetipsam fiducialiter accedit ad Deum c. amore Deo conjungimur therefore love is a great thing saith that devout father it brings the soul to God with an holy confidence and makes it trust in him and cleave stedfastly to him and rejoyce in him and represent her needs and beg his mercies with fiducial and devout affections And this is so great a truth that death it self with its pains and sorrows alters nothing of it even then in the last agonies the love of God sweetens the bitter cup and still entertains the soul with joy and holy comforts It was the saying of S. Aug. that because the soul hath willingly forsaken God whom she should love infinitely she is forc'd therefore with grief and regret to forsake her body which she loves too much and that because she voluntarily departed from God who is her life Aug. de Trin. lib. 4. cap. 13. she therefore departeth from the body whose life she is with sadness and much reluctancy Now we may say that when the soul returns to God by love Charitis libertatem donat timorem pellit c. S. Bern. she is freed from this punishment and restor'd to her first liberty she is willing to die for to be with Christ and then comes a cheerful cupio dissolvi O when shall I come and appear before God Happy is he who living doth so manifest his love to God by Piety and Charity that dying he can say with Theodosius Dilexi love hath been the business and delight of my life I have daily indeavour'd by my actions to declare the sincerity of my love to God he is doubtless of the number of those that love the appearing of JESUS and so he goes out to meet him with joy and confidence expecting a kind reception from him Nemo se amari diffidat qui jam amat libenter Dei amar nostrum quem praevenit subsequitur c. Bern. whom having not seen yet he lov'd and worship'd and serv'd affectionately Let no man that loves God doubt of God's Love to him for he that lov'd us when we were his enemies so as to die for us will much more love us when we have for him the hearty affections of friends It is the joy of heaven the joy of the Holy JESUS when his loving kindness hath won and conquer'd our hearts and 't is our greatest joy 't is for us a heaven upon earth when we love him faithfully and fervently with all our souls and affections The love of God brings that peace to the soul which the world can neither give nor take away Her sins which are many Luke 7.47 are forgiven because she loved much §. 19. The Close Now who can refuse to love God when 't is a thing so just and reasonable so pleasant and easie so safe and advantageous something of necessity we must love every mans heart is full of that passion and every mans life is govern'd by it 't is but considering who hath done most for us and whom we are most oblig'd to love who is most lovely and who will best reward our love and we shall soon understand that God is to be lov'd above all things infinitely without measure and if we love our selves as we should we shall easily remove our affections from the world to set them upon God and Eternity upon JESUS and his kingdom Love as we have seen will make it easie and delightful to do our duty Onus sine onere portat Kemp. will make the yoke of Christ light and enable us with strength and courage to bear our cross cheerfully like Christians it will lead us the shortest and the safest way to