Blessedness By it he is capable of all their Affections and of the Services which his Laws require By it all Angels and Cherubims are moved to admire and adore his Glory By it all Creatures visible and invisible are made his Treasures By it he is multiplied and magnified in every Soul as the same Object is in several Mirrors being intirely represented in every living Temple of his Eternal essence By it he becometh his own end and the Glorious Author and the King of Heaven By it he liveth a Divine and a Blessed Life and by it he is what he is for ever By it all the Graces Exaltations and Vertues of all his Creatures are made his Joys and their Persons and Praisers are Delightful to him Of all his Laws and Decrees and Counsels his Goodness is the fountain It is the Original and final Cause of all our Thanksgivings Our ease and repose and Satisfaction our Bliss and enjoyment are founded in it and caused by it For its own Pleasure all our Delights are made exquisite in their place and the most of them Eternal For its own Glory it maketh all its Creatures Glorious and prizeth its own Glory because it is the Sovereign Delight of all its Creatures It is every way compleat and perfect as infinitely Convenient as it is Great in Bounty as Good to it self as to all others There is no End of all its Perfection and for that Cause it is Incomprehensible TO be made Partaker of the Divine Nature without having the Goodness of Almighty GOD is impossible Nor can we enjoy his Goodness or bear the similitude of his Glory unless we are good in like Manner We enjoy the Goodness of GOD and may be said to have it either when we have its Similitude in our selves or the Pleasure of it in others Since the Goodness of GOD is the great Object of our Joy its Enlargment is our Interest and the more there are to whom he is Good and the more he communicates his Felicity to every one the Greater Pleasures he prepares for us and the more is our goodness therein delighted To see innumerable Millions in Communion with him and all of them made Glorious and Blessed and every one seated in his throne is the greatest Elevation of our Souls and the highest Satisfaction in the World When our Goodness meeteth his in all Places and congratulates the Felicity of every person we may then use the Words of our Saviour because we are endued with the same Mind and Affection And as he accepts all the Good that is done to his Members as done to himself saying Inasmuch as ye have done it to the least of these my Brethren ye have done it to me Our Souls will reply Inasmuch as thou hast done all this to the least of these my Brethren thou hast done it to me for loving our Neighbours as our selves all Angels and Men will be our fellow Members our Brethren our other selves As we delight in all Acts of Goodness for their own sakes that are done to us so shall we delight in all the Bounties of GOD for theirs who are the partakers of them and in GOD for this very reason Because he is good to all We shall be as Happy in others as in our selves and Esteem the Goodness of GOD our Felicity because it hath prevented our Goodness and done all for them which were it undone we should desire to do our selves because our Goodness is a principle that carries us to delight in their perfect Felicity VVhich that we may do the more Sweetly and with more full Satisfaction and perfect Reason his Goodness to all others is but the Perfection of Goodness to us for they are all made Blesed for our fuller and greater Felicity HAD GOD withheld or withdrawn his Goodness from all others it had not been Greater to us but less The Stars are no hindrance to our Enjoyment of the Skie but the Light and Beauty of the place which we contemplate Were they all annihilated the Heavens would be obscure They do us many Services of which we should be bereaved by their Absence and Destruction GOD by giving Beams and influences to them made our Treasures more rich and fair which are increased and multiplied by their Beauty and Number Did the Sun shine upon us and upon Nothing else it would be less beneficial to us than now it is Its Beams that are scattered seem to be lost yet were they contracted upon one his Body would be consumed and all the rest of the World be dark about him those Rays which fly from the Sun to the utmost parts of the World illuminate all Objects and from them more conveniently return to the Eye with their Beauty and Glory which by those Rayes that are dispersed become visible and Profitable They fall not all upon every single man but work for him in other places begetting Herbs and Fruits and Flowers and Minerals and Springs and Trees and Jewels with all that is rich and delectable in the VVorld for his fruition It serves Beasts and Fowles and Fishes for my sake and for my sake does it serve even Men and Angels That they being more Divine and Glorious Creatures might adorn Heaven and Earth with their Persons which without them would be void and Empty For we all desire to be seen and Known and Beloved and for that Cause without Living Agents should be very Desolate and discontented THUS you see if GOD had given all Eternity and Immensity to a man if he had made no other Creatures but him alone his Bounty had been defective Whereas by the Creation of these he hath filled Eternity and Immensity with Treasures All which he hath made ours by commanding them to Love us as themselves fit to be enjoyed and beloved by us by filling them with his Goodness and making them in his Image For every one of them is to Love all his Creatures as he does and to delight in the Beauty and Felicity of all and to be the joy and Delight of all as as he is And the Greater and the Richer and the fairer they are the more Great and Happy are we because they are made our Lovers and Friends our Brides and Brethren our Sons and Daughters our Fathers and our Servants which the more Honourable and Excellent they are the more Delightful the more Glorious and Blessed these are their Love is the more precious and Acceptable True Goodness removes all Envy and Contention out of the VVorld and introduces nothing but Peace and Bounty and Joy unspeakeable and full of Glory WE Love nothing more then to be Delightful to others and to have our Glory seen is a natural Desire which our Saviour has countenanced by his own Petition It is our Interests that the Eys should be innumerable that see and admire the Glory which we had with the Father in some Sense before the VVorld was that they should see I mean how much we are Beloved of GOD
of all his Creatures We shall honour our Parents for his sake and preserve the Life of our Neighbour We shall not rob him of his happiness in his Wife nor wrong him in her Chastity and Fidelity towards him We shall not steal from him nor diminish his Possessions We shall not defame him nor hurt him by Lies but vindicate and preserve his Reputation it will be our joy and Satisfaction to see his honour clear and unblemished We shall not injure him so much as in a thought nor covet ought that is his either for necessity or pleasure but study to add to his Contentments WERE all the World as full of this Love as it ought to be Paradice would still continue and all Mankind would be the Joy and Glory of the whole Creation The Love of GOD towards all would dwell and abide in every Soul and the Felicity of all would be the particular Joy of every person All the Earth would be full of Repose and Peace and Prosperity nothing but Honour and Kindness and Contentment would replenish the World Which leads me now to that other Branch of Love which is Charity to our Neighbour CHAP. XIX Charity to our Neighbour most natural an Easie in the Estate of Innocency Adams Love to Eve and his children a great Examplar of our Love to all the World The Sweetness of Loving The Benefits of being Beloved To Love all the World and be beloved by all the World is perfect security and Felicity Were the Law fulfilled all the World would be turned in Heaven CHARITY to our Neighbour is Love expressed towards GOD in the Best of his Creatures We are to Love GOD in all the Works of his Hands but in those especially that are most near unto him chiefly those in which he manifesteth himself most clearly and these are they that are most like him most exalted by him most loved of him and most delightful to him ANGELS and Men are so distinct from the residue of the Creation that all the Works of GOD as if they were Things of another Kind are put in Subjection under their feet They were made in his Image and are often called the Sons of GOD. They are the Sovereign Objects of his Eternal Love every one of them considered a part is so Glorious as if he were the Sole individual friend of GOD and King of the Universe so that they are to be treated in another Manner as High and Sacred Persons elevated a-above the Race of ordinary Creatures as a Progeny of Kings that are all of them friends to the King of Kings Ambassadours representing his Person in whom he is injured or Obliged I confess there are many Disguises that overcast the Face of Nature with a vail and cloud these Sovereign Creatures the Excellency the Absence and Distance and unknown Nature of Angels the Perversness of Nature the Ignorance and Unkindness and Disorders of Men Darken and Eclipse this Glorious Duty and make it uncouth and difficult to us But all these Disorders came in by Sin and it is expedient to remove the Confusions that blind us in our miserable Estate and to look upon this Vertue of Charity in the Naked Beauty which appeareth to us in the Light of Eden IN the Purity of Nature Men are Amiable Creatures and prone to Love To great Advantages of which Sin and misery hath bereaved us and to which we are restored but in Part even then when we are Sanctified Where the Beauty of the Object is intire and perfect and the Goodness of the Spectator clear and undefiled to Love is as Natural and Easie as for fire to enflame when applied to convenient matter For the Beauty of the Object is Oyl and Fuel to the affection of the Spectator It is not more Easie to delight in what is pleasant than it is to desire what is Good and Amiable To be commanded to take pleasure in it is Liberty not Constraint To be forbidden would be hard A Prohibition would be the Severest Law and the most cruel Bondage There was no Possitive Law in Eden that required a Man to Love his Neighbour it was a Law of Nature The Nature of the Object required it and our Nature prompted it self thereunto The Service that Law required was perfect freedome Adam was commanded to Love Eve by a silent Law Surprized by her Beauty and captivated by the Chains of Nature He was amazed at so fair a Creature her Presence was so Delightful that there was no need of a Law an injunction had imported some Sluggishness in the zeal of his Affection His Appetite and Reason were united together and both invited him to lose himself in her Embraces She was as acceptable a Present of the Love of GOD as Wisdome and Goodness could invent for him He was too apt to admire her had not her Soul been as worthy as her Symmetry was transcendent He admired the Bounty of the Donor in so Great a Gift and Great Part of his Life was to be spent in the Contemplation of his Treasure He had a Noble Creature made in the Image of GOD for him alone Her soul was far more excellent in Beauty then her Face a Diviner and more Glorious Object than the whole world Her Intelligence and Vivacity Her Lofty and clear Apprehensions Her Honour and Majesty Her Freedome of Action her Kindness of Behaviour her Angelical Affections Her fitness for Conversation Her sweet and Tender Principles a million of Graces and Endowments conspiring to enrich Her Person and Perfection made all the World to serve Adam with one Degree of Pleasure more in serving and pleasing her The Universe seemed to be Nothing but the Theatre of their mutual Love as if all the World were made for nothing else but to minister to her for his sake and to make him happy in the Enjoyment of Her While the fruition was sanctified by a Just acknowledgement and Thanksgiving to the Author WE produce Eve only for a President this first sweetness is but a Pattern and Copy of what follows fair Prologue to a more magnificent scene and used by us as a meer Introduction Adam was able to Love Millions more and as She was taken out of his side so were they to spring from his Bowels All to be as Great and fair and Glorious as she as full of Soul and as full of Love As the Woman was the Glory of man so were their Off-springs the Glory of both I mean they had been so by the Law of Nature had not the due course of it been disturbed Which Accident is wholy to be fathered on Adams fondness to please his Wife and to be mothered upon her Lightness and Credulity But we being here to disclose the Felicity which is hid in the fulfilling of GODS Laws and to justifie his Love in commancing this Charity to our Neighbors must not regard the Malevolence of Men but look upon the pure Intention of the Law and the success that would have
Christian ETHICKS OR Divine MORALITY Opening the WAY to BLESSEDNESS By the RULES of VERTUE AND REASON By THO. TRAHERNE B. D. Author of the Roman Forgeries LONDON Printed for Jonathan Edwin at the Three Roses in Ludgate-street 1675. TO THE READER THE design of this Treatise is not to stroak and tickle the Fancy but to elevate the Soul and refine its Apprehensions to inform the Judgment and polish it for Conversation to purifie and enflame the Heart to enrich the Mind and guide Men that stand in need of help in the way of Vertue to excite their Desire to encourage them to Travel to comfort them in the Journey and so at last to lead them to true Felicity both here and hereafter I need not treat of Vertues in the ordinary way as they are Duties enjoyned by the Law of GOD that the Author of The whole Duty of Man hath excellently done nor as they are Prudential Expedients and Means for a mans Peace and Honour on Earth that is in some measure done by the French Charron of Wisdom My purpose is to satisfie the Curious and Unbelieving Soul concerning the reality force and efficacy of Vertue and having some advantages from the knowledge I gained in the nature of Felicity by many years earnest and diligent study my business is to make as visible as it is possible for me the lustre of its Beauty Dignity and Glory By shewing what a necessary Means Vertue is how sweet how full of Reason how desirable in it self how just and amiable how delightful and how powerfully conducive also to Glory how naturally Vertue carries us to the Temple of Bliss and how immeasurably transcendent it is in all kinds of Excellency And if I may speak freely my Office is to carry and enhance Vertue to its utmost height to open the Beauty of all the Prospect and to make the Glory of GOD appear in the Blessedness of Man by setting forth its infinite Excellency Taking out of the Treasuries of Humanity those Arguments that will discover the great perfection of the End of Man which he may atchieve by the capacity of his Nature As also by opening the Nature of Vertue it self thereby to display the marvellous Beauty of Religion and light the Soul to the sight of its Perfection I do not speak much of Vice which is far the more easie Theme because I am intirely taken up with the abundance of Worth and Beauty in Vertue and have so much to say of the positive and intrinsick Goodness of its Nature But besides since a strait Line is the measure both of it self and of a crooked one I conclude That the very Glory of Vertue well understood will make all Vice appear like dirt before Jewel when they are compared together Nay Vice as soon as it is named in the presence of these Vertues will look like Poyson and a Contagion or if you will as black as Malice and Ingratitude so that there will need no other Exposition of its Nature to dehort Men from the love of it than the Illustration of its Contrary Vertues are listed in the rank of Invisible things of which kind some are so blind as to deny there are any existent in Nature But yet it may and will be made easily apparent that all the Peace and Beauty in the World proceedeth from them all Honour and Security is founded in them all Glory and Esteem is acquired by them For the Prosperity of all Kingdoms is laid in the Goodness of GOD and of Men. Were there nothing in the World but the Works of Amity which proceed from the highest Vertue they alone would testifie of its Excellency For there can be no Safety where there is any Treachery But were all Truth and Courtesie exercis'd with Fidelity and Love there could be no Injustice or Complaint in the World no Strife nor Violence but all Bounty Joy and Complacency Were there no Blindness every Soul would be full of Light and the face of Felicity be seen and the Earth be turned into Heaven The things we treat of are great and mighty they touch the Essence of every Soul and are of infinite Concernment because the Felicity is eternal that is acquired by them I do not mean Immortal only but worthy to be Eternal and it is impossible to be happy without them We treat of Mans great and soveraign End of the Nature of Blessedness of the Means to attain it Of Knowledge and Love of Wisdom and Goodness of Righteousness and Holiness of Justice and Mercy of Prudence and Courage of Temperance and Patience of Meekness and Humility of Contentment of Magnanimity and Modesty of Liberality and Magnificence of the waies by which Love is begotten in the Soul of Gratitude of Faith Hope and Charity of Repentance Devotion Fidelity and Godliness In all which we shew what sublime and mysterious Creatures they are which depend upon the Operations of Mans Soul their great extent their use and value their Original and their End their Objects and their Times What Vertues belong to the Estate of Innocency what to the Estate of Misery and Grace and what to the Estate of Glory Which are the food of the Soul and the works of Nature which were occasioned by Sin as Medicines and Expedients only which are Essential to Felicity and which Accidental which Temporal and which Eternal with the true Reason of their Imposition why they all are commanded and how wise and gracious GOD is in enjoyning them By which means all Atheism is put to flight and all Infidelity The Soul is reconciled to the Lawgiver of the World and taught to delight in his Commandements All Enmity and Discontentment must vanish as Clouds and Darkness before the Sun when the Beauty of Vertue appeareth in its brightness and glory It is impossible that the splendour of its Nature should be seen but all Religion and Felicity will be manifest Perhaps you will meet some New Notions but yet when they are examined he hopes it will appear to the Reader that it was the actual knowledge of true Felicity that taught him to speak of Vertue and moreover that there is not the least tittle pertaining to the Catholick Faith contradicted or altered in his Papers For he firmly retains all that was established in the Ancient Councels nay and sees Cause to do so even in the highest and most transcendent Mysteries only he enriches all by farther opening the grandeur and glory of Religion with the interiour depths and Beauties of Faith Yet indeed it is not he but GOD that hath enriched the Nature of it he only brings the Wealth of Vertue to light which the infinite Wisdom and Goodness and Power of GOD have seated there Which though Learned Men know perhaps far better than he yet he humbly craves pardon for casting in his Mite to the vulgar Exchequer He hath nothing more to say but that the Glory of GOD and the sublime Perfection of Humane Nature are united in
in which no Defect or Blemish can be discerned perfect in the variety and Number of its Powers in the fitness and Measure of every power in the use and value of every Endowment A perfect Soul is that whereunto nothing can be added to please our Deâ—â—re As all its Objects are perfect so 〈◊〉 it self It is able to see all that is to be seen to love all that is Lovely to hate all that is Hateful to desire all that is Desirable to honour all that is Honorable to esteem all that can be valued to delight in all that is Delightful and to enjoy all that is Good and fit to be enjoyed If its Power did fall short of any one Object or of any one Perfection in any Object or of any Degree in any Perfection it would be imperfect it would not be the Master piece of Eternal Power PERFECT life is the full exertion of perfect power It implies two things Perfection of Vigour and perfection of intelligence an activity of life reaching through all Immensity to all Objects whatsoever and a freedome from all Dulness in apprehending An exquisite Tenderness of perception in feeling the least Object and a Sphere of activity that runs parallel with the Omnipresence of the Godhead For if any Soul lives so imperfectly as to see and know but some Objects or to love them remisly and less then they deserve its Life is imperfect because either it is remisse or if never so fervent confined PERFECT Fruition as it implieâ— the Perfection of all objects more nearly imports the intrinsick Perfection oâ— it s own Operations For if its Object be never so many and perfect in themselves a Blemish lies upon the Enjoyment if it does not reach unto all their Excellence If the Enjoyment of one Object be lost or one Degree of the enjoyment abated it is imperfect PERFECT Vertue may best be understood by a consideration of its Particulars Perfect Knowledg is a thorow compleat understanding of all that may be Known Perfect Righteousness is a full and adequate Esteem of all the value that is in Things It is a Kind of Spiritual Justice whereby we do Right to our selves and to all other Beings If we render to any Object less than it deserves we are not Just thereunto Perfect Wisdome is that whereby we chuse a most perfect end actualy pursue it by most perfect Means acquire and enjoy it in most perfect manner If we pitch upon an inferiour end our Wisdom is imperfect and so it is if we pursue it by feeble and inferior Means or neglect any one of those Advantages whereby we may attain it And the same may be said of all the Vertues NOW if all Objects be infinitely Glorious and all Worlds fit to be enjoyed if GOD has filled Heaven and earth and all the Spaces above the Heavens with innumerable pleasures if his infinite Wisdome Goodness and Power be fully Glorified in every Being and the Soul be created to enjoy all these in most perfect Manner we may well conclude with the Holy Apostle that we are the children of GOD and if Children then Heirs Heirs of GOD and joynt heirs with Christ if so be that we suffer with him that we may also be glorified together That our light Affliction that is but for a Moment worketh out for us a far more exceeding and eternal Weight of Glory That beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord we shall at last be transformed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. For all his Works of which the Psalmist saith They are worthy to be had in remembrance and are sought out of all them that have pleasure therein are like a Mirror wherein his Glory appeareth as the face of the Sun doth in a clear fountain We may conclude further that Vertue by force of which we attain so great a Kingdome is infinitely better then Rubies all the Things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her So that with unspeakable comfort we may take Courage to go on not only in the study but the Practice of all kind of Vertues concerning which we are to treat in the ensuing Pages For as the Apostle Peter telleth us He hath given to us all things that pertain to Life and Godliness through the Knowledge of him that hath called us to Glory and virtue whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious Promises that by these you might be Partakers of the Divine Nature having escaped the Corruption that is in the World through List. And besides this saith he giving all diligence adde to your Faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness Charity For so an Entrance shall be Ministred to you abundantly into 〈◊〉 everlasting Kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Which Kingdom being so Divine and Glorious as it is we have need to bow our Knees to the GOD and father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named that he would grant us according to the Riches of his Glory to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inward Man that Christ may dwell in our Hearts by Faith that we being rooted and grounded in Love may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the Breadth and Length and Depth and Height and to know the love of Christ which passeth Knowledg that we may be filled with all the fulness of GOD. TO be Partaker of the Divine nature to be filled with all the Fulness of GOD to enter into his Kingdom and Glory to be transformed into his Image and made an Heir of GOD and a joynt Heir with Christ to live in Union and Communion with GOD and to be made a Temple of the Holy Ghost these are Divine and transcendent things that accompany our Souls in the Perfection of their Bliss and Happiness the Hope and Belief of all which is justified and made apparent by the explanation of the very nature of the Soul its Inclinations and Capacities the reality and greatness of those Vertues of which we are capable and all those objects which the Univers affordeth to our Contemplation CHAP. III. Of Vertue in General The Distribution of it into its several Kinds its Definition BEfore we come to treat of particular Vertues it is very fit that we speak something of VERTUE in General VERTUE is a comprehensive Word by explaining which we shall make the way more easy to the right Understanding of all those particular Vertues into which it is divided Forasmuch as the Nature of Vertue enters into knowledge Faith Hope Charity Prudence Courage Meekness Humility Temperance Justice Liberality c. Every one of these hath its essence opened in part by the explication of that which entreth its Nature which is VERTUE in General THE Predicament of
satisfactions and sensual Pleasures might be limited and ordered as it most consists with his highest Happiness Humility in the acknowledgement of his own Unworthyness who was taken out of Nothing and Gratitude in a kind of just Retribution to his Benefactor for all the Glory to which he was advanced ALL these Vertues are in themselves Delightful and Easie in their Exercise they immediately respect Felicity and are by nature necessary to Mans enjoyment of it they are consonant to Reason and agreeable to the Circumstances of his Happy Condition His Fear and Humility which were in Paradise the severest were aided and comforted with a Transcendent Hope and Assurance that upon his Diligent Care he might be Eternally Blessed and with the Sweet Sence of his Happy Change and a Glorious Admiration resulting from the Comparison between his present Estate and the Estate to which by his Creator he was to be exalted I will not say but there were more Vertues than these to be Exercised in Eden But by these you may discern of what nature they all are and conjecture they must be such as obedience to God and Charity to one another ALL Harsh and Sour Virtues came in by Sin and we are to look upon them not as Vertues intended by God and Nature but occasioned afterwards because their Use and Existence is accidental WHEN we fell into Sin we let Death and Misery into the World contracted shame and guilt upon our selves defiled our Nature with Deformities and Diseases and made many Things upon that Occasion necessary to our Happiness that before were not so And whereas they have a Mixture of Bitterness and Advantage in them we may thank our selves for the Bitterness and GOD for the Advantage For as we by Sin forfeited our Happiness so a new Obedience consisting in the practice of proper Vertues was necessary to recover it Vertues whose Names and Natures were of another kind and never heard of before All which we must look upon not as Food but Physick and considering them under the notion of Remedies not admire that there should be something in them Distasteful to Sence tho they are now when their Occasions are known infinitely agreeable to Reason THEY are but an AEquivocal Off-spring of the Fall Sin could never beget such beautiful Children as Meekness Repentance Patience Alms-Deeds Self Denyal Submission and Resignation to the Divine Will Fortitude Contentment in all Estates c. WHILE there was no Sin there was no need of Penitence while there was no Pain or Misery no Patience Without wrongs and Injuries there is no use of Meekness nor place for Alms-Deeds where there is no Poverty no Courage where are no Enemies In Eden there was no ignorance nor any Supernatural Verities to be confirmed by Miracles Apostles therefore and Prophets Ministers and Doctors were superfluous there and so were Tythes and Temples Schools of Learning Masters and Tutors together with the unsavoury Duty incumbent on Parents to chastife their Children For as all would have been instructed by the Light of Nature so had all been Innocent and Just and Regular Whereupon no Magistrate had been needful to put any to Shame no Courts of Judicature nor Lawyers in the World No Buying and Selling and thereupon no commutative Justice because the Blessed Earth had naturally been fertile and abounded with rich and Glorious Provisions Nakedness had been the Splendor and Ornament of Men as it will be in Heaven the Glorious Universe had been their common House and Temple their Bodies fited for all Seasons no Alien or Stranger no Want Distress or War but all Peace and Plenty and Prosperity all Pleasure and all Fellow Citizens throughout the World Masters and Servants had been unknown had we continued in that Estate all had enjoyed the Liberty of Kings and there had been no Dominion but that of Husbands and Fathers a Dominion as full of sweetness as so gentle and free a Relation importeth I can see no Use that there had been of Trades and Occupations onely the pleasant Diversion that Adam had in dressing the Garden and the consequents of that I am sure there had been no Funeral Pomps no Sickness Physick or Physician There had been no Faith in the Incarnation of the Son of God because no occasion for that Incarnation no Ceremonial Law of Moses no Baptism nor Lords Supper because there were no supernatural Mysteries to be Typified but the clear Light of a Diviner Reason and a free Communion with God in the Right discharge of those Vertues Divine and Moral which naturally belong to the Estate of Innocency All which Original and Primitive Vertues ought now to continue as it were the Face of Religion beneath that Mask or Vizor of Ordinances and new Duties which Sin and Corruption hath put upon it Tho we have forgotten the Vertues of our first Estate and are apt now to terrifie our selves with that Disguise wherewith we have concealed their Beauty by regarding only the Vertues that were occasioned by Sin and Misery IT is a great Error to mistake the Vizor for the Face and no less to stick in the outward Kind and Appearance of things mistaking the Alterations and Additions that are made upon the Fall of Man for the whole Business of Religion And yet this new Constellation of Vertues that appeareth above-board is almost the only thing talked of and understood in the World Whence it is that the other Duties which are the Soul of Piety being unknown and the Reason of these together with their Original and Occasion unseen Religion appears like a sour and ungratefull Thing to the World impertinent to bliss and void of Reason Whereupon GOD is suspected and hated Enmity against GOD and Atheism being brought into and entertained in the World FOR it is an Idea connatural to the Notion of GOD to conceive him Wise and Good And if we cannot see some Reason in his Ways we are apt to suspect there is no Deity or if there be that he is Malevolent and Tyrannical which is worse then none For all Wisdom and Goodness are contained in Love And if it be true that GOD is Love he will shew it in our Beings by making us Great and Excellent Creatures in his Gifts and Bounties by surrounding us with real and serviceable Treasures in all his Laws as well as in all his Works by consulting our Welfare in the one and in the other And as he makes the World Glorious and Beautiful for us to dwell in so will he make such Actions and Vertues only needful to be exercised by us as are excellent and Divine he will impose no Duties but such as are full of reason and lead us more Advantageously to Bliss and Glory We are apt to charge our own Faults on God by confounding all things and because we see not how Penitence and Meekness and Acts of Charity in rolieving the Poor directly and immediately bring us unto Bliss are apt to repine at their Imposition But
is magnified and Ages enlightned the Ministry of Angels and the Dispensations of Providence by which the Care and Tenderness of GOD is shewn the infinite measures and Violences of his Love the infinite Variety and Number of Obligations the present Advantages and Benefits the Eternal Rewards the Relation of GOD to Man as a Father and a friend a Bridegroom and a King a Light and Example the sweetuess of our Union and Communion with him and the Gift of the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven all these Things which the Angels desire to look into were by the Christian Religion with the rest before mentioned plainly revealed with our victory over Death the Resurrection of our Bodies and Life Eternal IN the Light of these Circumstances the Interior form of Vertuous Acts more evidently appears For to exercise Vertue in the Quality and Capacity of a Son of GOD is another sort of Business than to exercise Vertue as an ordinary Mechanick and to do all things being clothed with a Sence of our Coelestial Grandeur as we are Heirs of the World infinitely Beloved of GOD ordained for his Throne Delightful in the Eyes of all Angels and Men Beloved and honored by all the Creatures made Partakers of the Divine Nature intending and designing to Please all Spectators in Heaven and Earth by the excellency of our Actions This makes every little Deed as it were infinite within while the Matter of the Action seemeth nothing it renders the Form Divine and Blessed THE best Actions of the prophaner Heathen fell under the notion of Dead Works By which name the Apostle calleth all wicked Deeds to intimate the Privation of all that excellency that ought to be in Humane Actions Every Deed and Thought of ours ought to be Inspired with Life from Heaven The Light of the Understanding and the vigor of the Will is the Soul that informes it When it is void of Knowledge and springs not from that series of GODS infinite Love that ought to animate it nor regardeth those Eternal Joys that are set before us nor at all considers those Obligations that are laid upon us it is bereaved of its Vital and Essential form it is like a fair Carcase without a Soul unsensible of those Interests and Concerns that ought chiefly to be valued and promoted And by this you may see clearly that the Matter of a Good act falles infinitely short of that Perfection wherewith it ought to be inspired if this Soul or Form be wanting which tho less visible to the Eye of flesh is of as much greater Excellence and Importance as the Soul in nature is above Body THUS when a Heathen giveth to the Poor the matter of the Act is the very self same which a Christian man does So is an Act of Courage or Patience in encountring Death the subduing of the Appetite and the Denial of a Lust a piece of Justice against Interest and friendship an Act of Prudence Temperance or Fidelity In all these if we respect the Matter of them Heathens have acted in a manner as high as any Christian and consequently appear to vulgar Apprenhensions as Heroick and Stupendious But consider the inside the Heathen did it that he might satisfie his Conscience and and please the GODS that he might acquire honor and immortal fame or please the generous Inclination of his own Soul which delighted in Honor and Worth or assert his own Principles or five his friends or preserve his Country And doubtless these are Great and brave considerations but they are limited and finite and Sick of two Defects for the most part that are incurable They were Sacrifices of Obedience to false Gods plain Idolatry and attended with an ignorant Loftiness and Height of Mind that confided in them and besides this they aspired to little more then a Glorious name in following Ages WHEREAS the Christian makes all Kind of Graces to meet and concentre in every Action Wisdom Goodness Justice Courage Temperance Prudence Humility Penitence Patience Meekness Liberality Cheerfulness Gratitude Joy in the Holy Ghost Devotion Piety Faith Hope Charity all Kind of Holiness And his Action extends to all the Objects of these Graces and includes their Causes He remembers the infinite Obligations that are laid upon him by that Deity which infinitely Loves him the Benefit of the Creation and the Glory of the Divine Image the Guilt of fall and that blot and misery that lyes upon him the Wonder of his Redemption and the Love of Christ his Death and Passion the Miraculous Pains and Endeavors of GOD in all Ages to reclaim him the Giving of the Holy Ghost and his holy Baptism the New Covenant which he is in with GOD the Height and Glory of his Place and station the Beauty of the World and his Dominion over all the Living Creatures the Joy and Amity of all the Angels the Benefit and Welfare of all his Neighbours the Joy and Prosperity of future Ages the Glory of GOD the Honour of his Church and the Propagation of Religion the Salvation of others Souls and the Eternal State and condition of his own the Acquisition of a Coelestial and Eternal Kingdom and the Delight he taketh in an infinite Sphere of Eternal Joys the fervent Desire he has to be Grateful to the Almighty all these by the Light of his Divine and Coelestial Knowledge enter into the Act for want of which the other work that is wrought by an Ignorant Heathen is in a Manner rightly called a Work of Darkness I do not speak this as if I would discourage a Heathen from doing the Best that he is able or condemn those reasons upon which he proceedeth in his Vertuous Deeds No nor as if all this were necessary to the Acceptance of an Action But to shew how highly Christianity does ennoble the Soul of Man how far more sublime its Principles are and how far more perfect it makes his Actions When they are what they may be And withal to provoke Christians to a more Intelligent and lofty Practice of Christian Vertues lest they differ not in their Morals from the better sort of Heathens All these things are necessary to the perfection of an Action tho not to its Acceptance And GODS Omnipresence and Power and Wisdom and Love ought to be considered in all places among all Persons upon all occasions And the Blood of Christ and the infinite Glory of Eternal Bliss But that which above all I chiefly intend is to shew what influence the great Perfection of Felicity hath upon all our Vertues not only to stir us up to do them but by entering their Constitution to inspire them with their Beauty and form for their fuller Lustre Glory and Perfection That we may see also how Great and Transcendent that Life must be wherein every Act is capable of so much Majesty and Magnificence if I may so speak by reason of the variety of its Ends and Causes And how abominable and absurd they are all that
be Unmindful of our Concerns in the Dispensations of his Providence Especially Since the World how Glorious soever it is is but the Theatre of more Glorious Actions and the Capacity of Time as Great and Large as that of the Universe Ages are as long and as Wide as Kingdoms Now if GOD have altogether neglected the Government of the World all Time will be Dark and vain and innumerable Bright and Delighful Objects which were possible to be desired denied to the Soul and the better half of GODS Love be removed But if GODS Will and Pleasure be Uniform in his Operations and Time it self Beautified by this Wisdome Goodness and Power as well as the World our Faith will have a peculiar Excellency because it is that by which all the Beauties in Time and Providence are enjoyed Especially if it be able to see and feel them in clear Light and in as lively a manner as the Reason of the Soul can do when most fully informed It is evident that without this Faith the Greater half of our Felicity can never be enjoyed TO Know that we are Men encompassed with the Skies and that the Sun and Moon and Stars are about us with all the Elements and Terrestrial Creatures is matter of Sence and Reason as it is also that we have the Dominion and use of them and that such Excellencies and Degrees of Goodness are Connatural to them But their utmost Perfection is discovered only by the Truth of Religion that alone discloses their first Cause and their last End without which all their Intermediate uses are Extremely Defective It is for more Pleasant to see the Infinite and Eternal GODHEAD from the incomprehensible Height of his Glory shooping down to the abyss of Nothing and actually making all these Transcenent Things out of Nothing for our sakes then to see our selves at present surrounded with them This is the first Act of all the Ornaments of Time and Nature Which tho it be founded on clear Reason yet is it an Object of our Highest Faith as it is revealed by the Word of GOD and therefore it is said Through faith we understand that the Worlds were made For Faith and Reason are not so divided but that the formally Distinct they may enter into each others Nature and Materially be the same The very same Object I mean that is Known to Reason may by Faith be believed Reason not destroying but confirming Faith while it is Known upon one account and believed on another For there is a Mutual Convenience between these two Faith is by Reason confirmed and Reason is by Faith Perfected TO see GOD stooping down to Create the World and Nothing follow is not so Beautiful as to see him afterward in the Act of making Man and Giving him Dominion over all the Creatures It is more pleasant to see Man made in GODS Image then to see the World made for the use of Man For the End of the Creation is that upon which all the Perfection of its Glory does depend and the more Noble Man is for whose use the World was made the more sublime and Glorious its End is To see him placed in the Estate of Innocency Light and Glory wherein he was secure from Death and Sin and Sickness and Infelicity if himself pleased is very Delightful so it is to see that Nature never intended any of those Abortive Errors that now so confound us But to see the End why man was placed in such an Estate to be his Trial and the End of that his freindship with GOD whose Exercise consisteth in voluntary Acts of Gratitude and Amity and the End of those the Beauty of his Life and his fuller Exaltation to Bliss and Glory this is far more Pleasant then the other To see him fall is infinitely Displeasing but the fault is intirely charged on himself And had GOD Eternally destroyed him tho we perhaps had never lived to see it yet we confess it would have been just in it self and the Justice Adorable But to see GOD exalting his mercy in pardoning the offence and for all our sakes redeeming Man by the Death of his Son is sweet still as it is also to see his infinite Justice and Holiness in the Manner of our Redemption To see him lay the foundation of our Hope on a certain Promise seconded with his Long-suffering yet defer the Accomplishment of it for our greater Benefit wisely forbearing to send his Son till the fulness of Time is very transporting but the Reason of it is very Difficult to understand His foresight of our Obstinate Blindness and Incredulity was the Cause of His Dealy That he might gain Time before our Saviour came to speak of him to paint him forth to make him the expectation of the World and the Hope of all Nations To see him for that End reveal himself to Abraham Isaac and Jacob and bringing down their Posterity into the Land of Egypt that he might make that Nation out of which our Saviour was to spring Famous by Miracles and by his Conduct and Government of them more Glorious then all Nations to appear himself among them and give his Oracles unto them and to make them conspicuous to the Eye of all the World by mighty Signes and Wonders and Judgments punishing them for their offences yet Graciously continuing a Seed among them that christ might be raised up according to the Prophesies that went before concerning him To see all the Mysteries of the Gospel painted out in so Lively a Manner in all the Types and Figures of the Ceremonial Law and that Service with so much splendor and Glory continued before he came by the Space of two thousand years wherein all the mysteries of his Kingdome are exhibited to see the Volumen of the Book in which it was written of him so highly magnified and exalted by them that crucified him after it was written and that now continue so much to oppose him as the Jews do To see the Prophets at various Times and in Divers manners so clearly to describe all the particulars of his Life and Doctrine his Eternity his Godhead the Hypostatical Union his Incarnation in the Virgins Womb his Poverty his Meekness his Miraculous Life his Death and Passion his Resurrection and Ascention into Heaven the Sudden and Miraculous Conversion of the Gentiles compared to a Nation 's being born at once the very Town where he should be born and the City from whence the Law should go forth into all the World and the Temple in which the Gospel should begin to be preached To see the Accomplishment of all these Things attended with so many Glorious and Transcendent Wonders and the utter subversion of that Nation for their Incredulity when they had slain him To see Kings and Queens become the Nursing Fathers and Mothers of the Church and so many Glorious Empires receive his Law that was hanged on a Tree To see Temples erected over all the World to a Crucified GOD
followed had it been as it might have been perfectly observed ALL Adams Children had been himself divided and multiplied into millions and every one a Greater Treasure to him than the whole world The Stars had not been by a thousand Degrees so great an Ornament to the skies as they to the Earth an ofspring of Incarnate Angels an assembly of corporeal Seraphims a Race of Celestial Kings every one loving and Honouring Adam as the Fountain of their Being and the Author of their Well being of the one in begetting them of the other by standing and abiding in his Integrity They had all been so many Pledges of his Wives Affection Monuments of love New and Powerful Endearments Enlargements of their Parents Being Mirrors and Memorials of both their perfections For all had been made for every one and every one had been the Joy nay and the Beauty of all All had been every ones Objects and every one the Spectator of all every one would have delighted in the Beauty of all and all had conspired and strived together in the love of every one their concurrence infulfilling the Law would have banished all sin and Oppression Discontentment and sorrow Wrong and Injury Theft and Murder and Adultery and Lying out of the World there had been no noise of War or Contention or anger or Envy or Malice or Revenge this accursed the Black Guard had never appeared but all would have been Delightful to one another Affections Honours Benefits and Services Pleasures Praises and Prosperities these alone had filled the World with Beauty Security Peace and Glory Wisdome Goodness Love and Felicity Joy and Gratitude had been all that had been Known had Love been intirely and inviolably observed BUT where GODS Laws are broken there is confusion and every Evil Work Which nevertheless does more highly commend the excellency of his Nature and reflect a Praise upon that Authority which must first be despised before any Misery can come into the World If the Duty which the Law requires be all sweetness and Felicity and Glory Compleatly good and on every side Advantageous and Profitable we that fail in the Discharge of our Duty may be condemned but GOD is to be admired and still to be confessed most Glorious and Holy because he delights in the welfare of his Creatures and makes Religion so desireable a Mystery and enjoynes such admirable Things as would make all transcendently Blessed and Good and Perfect were they perfectly observed He designes that all should be amiable whom we are commanded to Love and that we should be not only prone to Love but actually full of it and the reason why he consistutes Love as the Sovereign Law is because as our Saviour saith There is none other greater Commandement none more Blessed or Divine or Glorious none more conducive to our Bliss his pleasure the perfection of his Kingdome Removing the Law of Love it is impossible to put another Law in its Place which can answer the Designs of his Wisdome and Goodness of comply with the Exigencies of our Estate and condition It is as easie to change the Nature of GOD and devise another deity as Good and convenient as to invent a better Law then this which is plainly of all other the most Divine and Holy If we ascend up into Heaven and take a perfect account of all the Opperations and Effects of Love as they appear in Glory we may first give our selves the Liberty of Wishing and consult what of all Things possible is most fit to be desired Had we a Power to chuse what Kind of Creatures would our selves be made could we desire to be any thing more great and Perfect then the Image of GOD In the full extent and utmost height of its Nature it is the Resemblance of all his Blessedness and Glory To have Beings without Power or power without Operations will never make us like GOD because by an infinite and Eternal Act of Power he is what he is Actions are so necessary that all Felicity and Pleasure is continually founded in some act or other and no Essence is of any value but as it employs it self in a delightful manner What Law then would we have to regulate our actions by Since Actions are of different Kinds some good some Evil some convenient some Hurtful some Honourable and some Delightful some Base and Odious some are Miserable and some are Glorious we would chuse such a Law to guide our Actions by as might make them honourable and delightful and good and Glorious All these are with Wisdome and Blessedness shut up in Love And by Love it is that we make our selves infinitly Beautiful and Amiable and Wise and Blessed while we extend that Delightful and Blessed Affection to all objects that are Good and Excellent so that on this side we have all we can desire Essences Laws and Actions that most tend to our full and compleat perfection If on the other side we look after objects for this Affection and desire to have some Creatures most Excellent and fit for their Goodness to be Beloved what Creatures can we wish above all other that can be made to satisfie and please us Can any thing be more high and perfect then the similitude of GOD GOD is LOVE and his Love the Life and Perfection of Goodness There is no Living Goodness so sweet and amiable as that alone none so Wise none so Divine none so Blessed VVhat Laws can we desire those Creatures to be guided by but the Laws of Love By Love they are made Amiable and delightful to us by Love they are made Great and Blessed in themselves All Honour and Praise Benevolence and Good-will Kindness and Bounty Tenderness and Compassion all Sweetness and Courtesie and Care and Affabilitie all Service and Complacency are shut up in Love It is the Fountain of all Benefits and Pleasures whatsoever All Admiration Esteem and Gratitude all Industry Respect and Courage are shut up in Love and by Love alone doth any object of ours Sacrifice it self to our Desire and Satisfaction So that on that side our Wishes are Compleated too while the most High and Blessed and Glorious Creatures love us as themselves For thereby they are as much our Felicity as their own and as much take pleasure and Delight therein As for GOD his Way is perfect like curious needle work on either side compleat and exquisite ALL that we can fear or except against is his Omission in forbearing to compell his Creatures to love whether they will or no. But in that Liberty which he gave them his Love is manifested most of all In giving us a Liberty it is most apparent for without Liberty there can be no Delight no Honour no Ingenuity or Goodness at all No action can be Delightful that is not our Pleasure in the Doing All Delight is free and voluntary by its Essence Force and Aversion are inconsistent with its nature Willingness in its operation is the Beauty
and Eternal Reason The similitude of which Reason being the Essence of the Soul all these things fall out for our glory and satisfaction also NOW if GOD himself acquired all his Joyes by Temperance and the glory of his Kingdom is wholly founded in his Moderation We may hope that our Moderation and Temperance in its place may accomplish Wonders and lead us to the fruition of his by certain steps and degrees like those that are observed in the Womb towards Manhood and in the School of our Childhood towards perfect Learning TOO much Rain or too much Drought will produce a Famine the Earth is made fertile by a seasonable mixture of Heat and Moisture Excess of Power may overwhelm but moderation is that which perfecteth and blesseth the Creation ALMIGHTY Power is carried far beyond it self or really is made Almighty by vertue of that Temperance wherein Eternal Wisdom is eternally Glorified IF any thing be wanting to the full demonstration of the perfection of GODS Kingdom it is the consideration of his Delay for we are apt to think he might have made it Eternally before he did But to this no other Answer is necessary though many might be made then that all Things were from all Eternity before his Eyes and he saw the fittest Moments wherein to produce them and judged it fit in his Wisdom first to fill Eternity with his deliberations and Counsels and then to beautifie Time with the execution of his Decrees For were there no more to be said but this his Empire is eternal because all Possibilities nay and all Impossibilities are subject to his Will But if it be confessed that Eternity is an everlasting Moment infinite in duration but permanent in all its parts all Things past present and to come are at once before him and eternally together Which is the true Reason why Eternity is a standing Object before the Eye of the Soul and all its parts being full of Beauty and Perfection for ever to be enjoyed IF any man be disposed to cavil further and to urge that GOD might at the very first have placed Angels and Men in the state of Glory the Reply is at hand that GOD very well understandeth the beauty of Proportion that Harmony and Symmetry springs from a variety of excellent Things in several places fitly answering to and perfecting each other that the state of Trial and the state of Glory are so mysterious in their Relation that neither without the other could be absolutely perfect Innumerable Beauties would be lost and many transcendent Vertues and Perfections be abolished with the estate of Trial if that had been laid aside the continual appearance and effect of which is to enrich and beautifie the Kingdom of GOD everlastingly That GOD loveth Man far more than if he had placed him in the Throne at first and designeth more Glory and Perfection for him than in that dispensation he could have been capable of all which springeth from the Restraint of his Power in some occasions that it might more fully be exerted in the perfection of the whole and of all things that were possible to be made might end in the Supream and most absolutely Blessed Therefore upon the whole Matter we may conclude with solomon Happy is the man that findeth Wisdom and the man that getteth Understanding For the Merchandize of it is better than the Merchandize of Silver and the Gain thereof than of fine Gold She is more precious than Rubies and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared with her Length of Daies is in her right hand and in her left hand Riches and Honour Her Waies are waies of Pleasantness and all her Paths are Peace She is a Tree of Life to them that lay hold upon her and happy is every one that retaineth her The LORD by Wisdom hath founded the Earth by Understanding hath he established the Heavens My Son let not them depart from thine Eyes Keep sound Wisdom and Discretion Wisdom is the principal Thing therefore get Wisdom and with all thy Getting get Understanding For the same Wisdom which created the World is the only Light wherein it is enjoyed CHAP. XXIV Of Patience It s Original How GOD was the first Patient Person in the World The Nature and the Glory and the blessed Effects of his Eternal Patience The Reason and Design of all Calamities Of Patience in Martyrdom The extraordinary Reward of ordinary Patience in its meanest obscurity PATIENCE is a Vertue of the Third estate it belongs not to the estate of Innocence because in it there was no Affliction nor to the estate of Misery because in it there is no Vertue but to the estate of Grace it appertains because it is an estate of Reconciliation and an estate of Trial wherein Affliction and Vertue meet together In the estate of Glory there is no Patience THIS is one of those distastful Vertues which GOD never intended It received its bitterness from Sin its life and beauty from GOD's Mercy If we dislike this Vertue we may thank our selves for we made GOD first to endure it And if all things are rightly weighed no Creature is equal to GOD in Sufferings We made it necessary for the Eternal GOD-HEAD to be Incarnate and to suffer all the Incommodities of Life and the bitter Torments of a bloody Death that he might bear the Penance of our Sins and deliver us from eternal Perdition THE Corporeal Sufferings of our Saviour are not comparable to the Afflictions of his Spirit Nor are there any Sufferings or Losses so great as those we cast upon the GOD-HEAD He infinitely hateth Sin more than Death and had rather be Crucified a thousand times over than that one Transgression should be brought into the World Nothing is so quick and tender as Love nothing so lively and sensible in resenting No loss is comparable to that of Souls nor any one so deeply concerned in the loss as GOD Almighty No Calamity more peircing than to see the Glory of his Works made Vain to be bereaved of his Desire and frustrated of his End in the whole Creation He had rather we should give him the Blood of Dragons or the cruel Venom of Asps to drink than that we should pollute our selves or his Kingdom with a Sin Nay it were better if without a Sin it could be done that the whole World should be annihilated than a Sin committed For the World might be Created again with ease and all that is in it be repaired with a word but a Sin once committed can never be undone it will appear in its place throughout all Eternity Yet is so odious and so infinitely opposite to the Holiness of GOD that no Gall or Wormwood is comparable thereunto To see his Beloved blasted his Love despised and his Son rebellious to see the most amiable Law in the World broken his Kingdom laid waste and his Image defaced to see all his Labour marred and spoiled his Benefits slighted
and his infinite Goodness abused and undervalued all Obligations imposed and all Rewards prepared in vain is worse than to see ones Palace on fire as soon as it is builded or ones Wife smitten with Leprosie and ones only beloved Son run mad For a Child to trample on his Fathers Bowels is nothing in Comparison He therefore that feels what he made GOD to endure what Grapes of Sodom and Clusters of Gomorrah he offered to his Teeth how evil a thing and bitter it is to forsake GOD how the Scripture saith He was grieved at the Heart when he saw the Corruption and Impiety of the Earth and how the Sorrow inflicted was so sore as to make him repent that he had made Man in the World he surely will be more concerned at the Evil he hath done than at any Evil he can otherwise suffer and his Godly Sorrow as Moses's Rod did eat up all the Rods of the Egyptians will devour all other Sorrows whatsoever TO consider that GOD was the first Patient Person in the World must needs sweeten the Bitterness of Patience and make it acceptable unto us to consider that we alone brought it upon our selves and may thank our selves for the folly of its Introduction must make us out of very Indignation against our selves contented to suffer and in pure Justice quietly to digest it but to consider yet further that GOD by bearing our Offences with Patience took off the trouble of them from us and by refusing to ease himself of the greatness of his displeasure in pouring it back again on our own heads digested it so as to turn our eternal Torments into transitory Woes nay into his own Agonies and Pains on the Cross this will help our Reason to rejoyce at our light Afflictions which are but for a moment especially since they work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory The first Impression of that abominable Mischief which occasioned Patience in GOD made it a Calamity but not a Vertue Detestation and Grief in themselves are but Sufferings and meer Sufferings have no Vertue nor so much almost as Action in them If his detestation and grief had broken out in Impatience we had all been destroyed Anger and Fury had been poured down upon us That which made it a Vertue was the great and mighty Continence whereby it was kept in and governed for all our Benefit For it was full of Goodness and Compassion and Mercy and Love and that was indeed the vertue of Patience in which so much Magnanimity and Government did appear so much Wisdom and Stedfastness and Immutability and upon this vertue of that Act whereby he retained his displeasure the whole Kingdom of Grace and the glory of his Mercy and Love and the blessedness and exaltation of his Church is founded it depended upon it and from his Patience it proceeded PATIENCE then is that Vertue by which we behave our selves constantly and prudently in the midst of Misfortunes and Troubles That Vertue whereby we do not only forbear to break out in Murmurings and Repinings or support our selves from sinking under Afflictions or suppress our Discontentments and refrain from Anger and Disquiet but whereby we retain our Wisdom and the goodness of our Mind notwithstanding all the Confusions and Disorders that would disturb us and demean our selves in a serene and honourable manner surmounting the Pains and Calamities that trouble us and that would otherwise overwhelm us While we move in a quick and vigorous manner under our Burthen and by a true Courage improve our Afflictions and turn them into the Spoils of Invincible Reason IT is an easie Observation that Troublous Times are the Seasons of Honour and that a Warlike-Field is the Seed-Plot of great and Heroical Actions Men that live in quiet and peaceful Ages pass through the World as insensibly as if they had all their daies been asleep Hazards and Calamities and Battles and Victories fill the Annals with Wonder and raise Great Men to an eminent degree of Fame and Glory It is Saint Chrysostoms opinion That a Man shews far greater Bravery that grapples with a Disease or surmounts his evil Fortune or behaves himself with Courage in distress bears the burning of his House or the loss of his Goods or the death of his Children with an equal Spirit in the midst of all Calamities retains his Integrity with Humility and Patience and Blesses GOD chearfully submitting with Resignation to his Will and shews himself Constant in all Estates then he that in the midst of a prosperous Condition buildeth Hospitals and Temples shineth in the exercise of Bounty and Magnificence and obligeth all the World without any other Expence than that of his Monies A Pelican that feeds her young ones with her Blood is a more Noble Bird than an Eagle that fills her Nest with Ravine though taken from the Altar For though that of a Sacrifice be the more Sacred food that of ones own Blood is more near and costly TIMES of Affliction are Seed-times for a future Harvest We are made perfect through Sufferings though the Way be mysterious and the Manner almost incomprehensible whereby the Sufferings we endure conduce to our Perfection Consider the Patience of Job how great a spectacle his Sufferings made him to GOD Angels and Men and how glorious he became by his Patience to all Generations THIS Vertue has an Appearance by reason of its Objects and Materials so cross to its disposition that if any thing be difficult in all Nature to be understood Patience is one it being a thing of the most deep and obscure value It s Nature and Effect seem contrary to each other It raises a Man by depressing him it elevates by overwhelming it honours by debafing it saves by killing him By making a Man little and nothing it magnifies and exalts him No Act of Love is attended with such bleeding Circumstances as that of Cruel Resolution in exposing our selves to all Calamities that can befal our Souls for our Beloved's sake It is the glory of the good Shepheard that He laies down his life for the Sheep And for this very Cause is our Saviour honoured by GOD and Men because being in the form of GOD he made himself of no Reputation but took on himself the form of a Servant and died the most cursed Death of the Cross for the sake of the World Wherefore saith the Text that is For which very Cause GOD also hath highly exalted him and given him a Name which is above every Name that at the Name of JESUS every Knee should bow of things in the Heaven things in the Earth and things under the Earth Nor is this Gift of GOD so purely Arbitrary but that it has a foundation in Nature Angels and Men do not bow their Knees only because they are commanded but because they see Reason to incline them to bow their Knees There is something in our Saviours Nature Action and Merit that deserves
Kindness he is a solid and weighty Friend a rare Treasure and exceeding precious Neither my Errors nor Misfortunes are able to change him that loveth me purely because he will love me When his Excellency be found out he will more highly be esteemed not only by his Friend but by all that see him and note his Fidelity INJURIES well forgiven are the highest Obligations in the World especially if a man has been injured after many Benefits A Friend that will so oblige is more to be preferred than the Gold of Ophir MEEKNESS brings a man into respect with his Servants and into power with his Neighbours Anger resteth in the bosom of Fools but Meekness hath alwaies this advantage it is attended with Wisdom and other Vertues as Goodness and Courage A man that is prudent in Affairs and zealous of Good Works faithful in retaining Secrets and so full of Love that he is prone to do all manner of Good with industry and is couragious to expose himself to any Hazard for the benefit of his Neighbours shall keep his Servants in awe and yet be beloved of them He shall be able to do among his Neighbours what he pleaseth He shall when known well become the Father of all their Families they will entrust their Wives and Children in his hands as I have often experienced their Gold their Bonds their Souls their Affairs their Lives their Secrets Houses Liberties and Lands and be glad of such a Friend in whom to be safe and by whom to be assisted But though you have all the Vertues in the World the way to the use of them is blockt up without Meekness for your Neighbours are few of them Wise or Good and if you will be provoked by Injuries you will upon forty occasions so distaste them that they will never trust you You will look as like a Trifle a Knave or a Fool as one of them and be as very a Mad man He that will not do good but to deserving Persons shall find very few to do good to For he shall not be acquainted with Good men and from doing good to others he excludes himself But if all his other Vertues are beautified by Meekness such a man will be like an Angel and live above all his Neighbours as if he were in Heaven So that Meekness is his real exaltation And this made our Saviour to cull out that Blessing for the Meek The Meek shall inherit the Earth Even here upon Earth the Meek are they that are most blessed TO do good to an innocent Person is Humane but to be kind and bountiful to a man after he has been Injurious is Divine Philanthus gave Laws and Countries to the Parthenians and was disgraced and banished But he did them good after the Injury and was made their God as Justine recordeth THE very nature of the Work encourageth us to its exercise because it is GOD-like and truly Blessed But there are many other Considerations moving us unto it Mankind is sick the World distemper'd lies Opprest with Sins and Miseries Their Sins are Woes a long corrupted Train Of Poyson drawn from Adam's vein Stains all his Seod and all his Kin Are one Disease of Life within They all torment themselves The World's one Bedlam or a greater Cave Of Mad-men that do alwaies rave The Wise and Good like kind Physicians are That strive to heal them by their Care They physick and their Learning calmly use Although the Patient them abuse For since the Sickness is they find A sad Distemper of the Mind All railings they impute All Injuries unto the sore Disease They are expresly come to ease If we would to the Worlds distemper'd Mind Impute the Rage which there we find We might even in the midst of all our Foes Enjoy and feel a sweet Repose Might pity all the Griefs we see Anointing every Malady With precious Oyl and Balm And while our selves are Calm our Art improve To rescue them and shew our Love But let 's not fondly our own selves beguile If we Revile ' cause they Revile Our selves infected with their sore Disease Need others Helps to give us ease For we more Mad then they remain Need to be cut and need a Chain Far more than they Our Brain Is craz'd and if we put our Wit to theirs We may be justly made their Heirs But while with open eyes we clearly see The brightness of his Majesty While all the World by Sin to Satan sold In daily Wickedness grows old Men in Chains of Darkness lye In Bondage and Iniquity And pierce and grieve themselves The dismal Woes wherein they crawl enhance The Peace of our Inheritance We wonder to behold our selves so nigh To so much Sin and Misery And yet to see our selves so safe from harm What Amulet what hidden Charm Could fortifie and raise the Soul So far above them and controul Such fierce Malignity The brightness and the glory which we see Is made a greater Mystery And while we feel how much our GOD doth love The Peace of Sinners how much move And sue and thirst intreat lament and grieve For all the Crimes in which they live And seek and wait and call again And long to save them from the pain Of Sin from all their Woe With greater thirst as well as grief we try How to relieve their Misery The life and splendour of Felicity Whose floods so over flowing be The streams of Joy which round about his Throne Enrich and fill each Holy One Are so abundant that we can Spare all even all to any Man And have it all our selves Nay have the more We long to make them see The sweetness of Felicity While we contemplate their Distresses how Blind Wretches they in bondage bow And tear and wound themselves and vex and groan And chase and fret so near his Throne And know not what they ail but lye Tormented in their Misery Like Mad-men that are blind In works of darkness nigh such full Delight That they might find and see the sight What would we give that they might likewise see The Glory of his Majesty The joy and fulness of that high delight Whole Blessedness is infinite We would even cease to live to gain Them from their misery and pain And make them with us reign For they themselves would be our greatest Treasures When sav'd our own most Heavenly Pleasures O holy JESUS who didst for us die And on the Altar bleeding lie Bearing all Torment pain reproach and shame That we by vertue of the same Though enemies to GOD might be Redeem'd and set at liberty As thou didst us forgive So meekly let us Love to others shew And live in Heaven on Earth below Let 's prize their Souls and let them be our Gems Our Temples and our Diadems Our Brides our Friends our fellow-Members Eyes Hands Hearts and Souls our Victories And Spoils and Trophies our own Joyes Compar'd to Souls all else are Toyes O JESUS let them be Such unto us
as they are unto thee Vessels of Glory and Felicitie How will they love us when they find our Care Brought them all thither where they are When they conceive what terrour 't is to dwell In all the punishments of Hell And in a lively manner see O Christ eternal Joyes in thee How will they all delight In praising thee for us with all their might How sweet a Grace how infinite WHEN we understand the perfection of the Love of GOD the excellency of immortal Souls the price and value of our Saviours Blood the misery of Sin and the malady of distemper'd Nature the danger of Hell and the Joyes of which our sorest Enemies are capable the Obligations that lie on our selves and the peace and blessedness of so sweet a Duty Compassion it self will melt us into Meekness and the wisdom of knowing these great things will make it as natural to us as Enjoyment it self as sweet and easie as it is to live and breath It will seem the harshest and most unnatural thing in the World to sorbear so fair so just so reasonable so divine a Duty NOR is it a small comfort that the more vile our Enemies are the more price and lustre is set upon our Actions Our Goodness is made by their Evil the more eminent and conspicuous we improve their Injuries and turn them into Benefits we make a Vertue of Necessity and turn their Vices into Graces make them appear more abominable and vile if they continue obstinate and the greater their Perversness is the more great and honourable is our Vertue It was the praise of Moses that the Man Moses was the Meekest man upon all the Earth yet one passionate expression lost him so much in the esteem of GOD that it hindered his entrance into the Land of Canaan How great an Instrument he was nevertheless in the Conduct and Felicity of the Jews and how much he profited the whole Nation by his Meekness Sacred story does record How Joseph also dealt with his Brethren how he saved all the Family of Israel in the Root by his Meekness and by Meekness purchased an everlasting Name of Glory and Renown all Christian Ages and Nations understand where his Praises are celebrated to this day And the benefit thereof is spread abroad and propagated throughout all Generations for evermore CHAP. XXVI Humility is the basis of all Vertue and Felicity in all Estates and for ever to be exercised As Pride does alienate the Soul from GOD Humility unites it to him in Adoration and Amity It maketh infinite Blessedness infinitely greater is agreeable to the Truth of our Condition and leads us through a dark and mysterious way to Glory MEEKNESS respecteth others faults Humility and Penitence our own But Humility is more large than Penitence and is a distinct Affection of another nature Penitence is an exercise of the Affection of Sorrow and that only for Sin Humility is an acknowledgment of all our Vileness it respects our Original out of nothing as well as our Guilt our Weakness and Unworthiness our dependance upon anothers Will our Debt and Obligation the duty of Obedience and Allegiance which we owe and all the naked Truth of our Condition It confesseth our homage and is sensible of our Smallness and Subjection All that a man hath received it distinguisheth from what he is of himself And its Fruits or Effects are suitable to its Nature It is the Vertue by which we think basely of our selves and behave our selves in a lowly and submissive manner It makes us soft and pliant as Wax susceptible of any form that shall be imposed on us by our Benefactour and prone to Gratitude It is accompanied with a high and mighty sence of Benefits received and made Noble by the honour which it inclines us to return to GOD and Man for all the goodness which they shew unto us It is of incomparable use in our Felicity because it magnifies our esteem of all our happiness and glory IT is not through Ignorance or want of good Will that we speak nothing of Vices the woful deformity of which being exposed to view near the excellence of Vertue would put a greater lustre on all their brightness but the abundance of matter which Vertue it self doth afford forbids us to waste our Time and Paper in the description of their Contraries The glory of their nature being so full and perfect in it self that it needeth not the aid of those additional Arts which labour to set off the dignity of imperfect things by borrowed Commendations And besides this the mischief and inconveniency of every Vice is so great and manifold that it would require a distinct and intire Volume to unfold the deformity of their destructive nature so fully as their baseness and demerit requires It is sufficient therefore here to observe that Pride is of all other things most odious to GOD because it puffeth up the Soul with Self-conceit is forgetful of its Original void of all Gratitude and prone to Rebellion Is it not an odious and abominable thing for a Creature that is nothing in himself to flie in his Creators face and to usurp a dominion over it self to the apparent wrong of its Soveraign Lord to rob its Benefactor of all the glory of his Bounty to renounce and deny all dependance on him and to forswear its homage and allegiance to ascribe all its Glories to it self and abhor all sence of honour and gratitude to look upon it self as the sole original and author of all its Greatness and to be dazled so with the brightness of its condition as to forget the true fountain of it the goodness and the love of him that first raised him to all that Treasure and Dominion to dote on its own Perfections without any reflexion on the Bounty of him that gave them All this is to act a Lie and to be guilty of apparent Falshood It is as full of Fraud and Injustice as is possible and as full of Folly as it is of Impiety For Pride aimeth at the utmost height of Esteem and Honour and is fed by its own beauty and glory yet foolishly undermineth and blasteth the Person it would advance with the greatest baseness and shame imaginable it devours the Beauty which ought to seed it and destroies the Glory in which it delighteth The higher the greater the more perfectly glorious and blessed the Person is that is exalted his Ingratitude which is the dregs of Baseness is the more black and horrid and provokes the greater detestation It forfeits and renounces all the Delight which the goodness of its Lord and Benefactor affordeth it cuts off the Soul like a branch from the root that gave it life and verdure it tends all to division alienation and enmity it turns that Complacency which is its only bliss into wrath and indignation And whereas it delights in nothing more than appearing highly amiable in the eyes of all Spectators it falleth into contempt and
extream disgrace before all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth that look upon it and behold its Unworthiness No Toad has so much deformity or poyson or malignity as Pride in its nature It is the ruine of all that is great and turns the brightest of the Seraphims into the most abominable of Devils NOW if Pride be so pernicious and be by nature though a meer Phantasie so destructive what shall Humility be which is full of truth and reality How forcible how divine how amiable how full of truth how bright and glorious how solid and real how agreeable to all Objects how void of errour and disparity how just and reasonable how wise and holy how deep how righteous how good and profitable how mightily prone to exalt us in the esteem of GOD and Man How agreeable to all its Causes and Ends how fit and suitable to all the circumstances of Mans Condition I need not say more It bears its own evidence and carries Causes in it that will justifie our Saviours words He that humbleth himself shall be exalted He that is puffed up has but a counterfeit glory but Humility is full of solid glory It s beauty is so amiable that there is no end of counting its proportions and excellencies The Wise man that saw into the nature of all things very clearly said long before our Saviour was born Pride goeth before a fall but before Honour is Humility He that exalteth himself must needs be humbled because the Colours are envenomed wherewith he painteth his face which in a little time is discerned and at the very first instant the Painting begins to turn into a Canker THE Amiableness of Humility appeareth by its Excellency on these two the greatness of its beauty and success is founded It is so agreeable to all the principles of Nature and Grace and Glory to all the desires of Angels and Men to all the designs of GOD himself and to all the interests and concerns of the Soul that it cannot but be the most advantagious Vertue in the vvhole World It is strange that a man should look with the same Eye upon two Objects so infinitely distant and different from each other But at the same time he seeth GOD and Nothing Heaven and Earth eternal Love and Dust to be his Original Self-love and Justice Wisdom and Goodness Joy and Gratitude have the same Objects but look upon them in a several manner and are very differently affected with them Humility regards all Objects high and low Good and Evil but with a peculiar remark and notice of its own It takes them in in another light and discerns them all with another kind of sence It is in some manner the taste of the Soul Their Truth appeareth to the eye of Knowledge their Goodness is apprehended by the â—â—fe of Love the perfection of their serviceableness to the most perfect End is discerned by Wisdom the benefit which all Spectators receive is the delight of Goodness the incomprehensible depth and mysterious intricacy of their frame and nature is the peculiar Object of our Wonder and Curiosity they help our Faith as they shew a Deity and the truth of all Religion and Blessedness As they are the gifts of GOD they are the provocations of Gratitude and as they are aggravations of Sin they are respected by Repentance As they are the means of our Glory and our proper Treasures they are the Objects of Contentment but Humility looks upon them in relation to its Unworthiness compares them with it self and its own deserts and admires the disproportion that is between them It useth them all as grounds of a deeper and profounder Lowness in the esteem which it ought to have of it self and as the incentives to Love and Gratitude which it paies in the depth of a more profound Acknowledgment and Adoration THIS habit or affection of the Soul is not inconsistent with its Joy and Glory as by some foolish people that are by Ignorance and Errors far from GOD is generally supposed but highly conducive and subservient to its perfection It gives us the tenderest and greatest sence it passeth thorow all things embraceth the Poles and toucheth all Extreams together The Centre it self is but the middle of its profundity it hath a Nadir beneath it a lower point in another Heaven on the other side opposite to its Zenith In its own depth it containeth all the height of Felicity and Glory and doubles all by a mystery in Nature It is like a Mirror lying on the ground with its face upwards All the height above increaseth the depth of its Beauty within nay turneth into a new depth an inferiour Heaven is in the glass it self at the bottom of which we see the Skie though it be not transplanted removed thither Humility is the fittest Glass of the Divine Greatness and the fittest Womb for the conception of all Felicity for it hath a double Heaven It is the way to full and perfect Sublimity A man would little think that by sinking into the Earth he should come to Heaven He doth not but is buried that fixeth and abideth there But if he pierceth through all the Rocks and Minerals of the inferiour World and passeth on to the end of his Journey in a strait line downward in the middle of his way he will find the Centre of Nature and by going downward still begin to ascend when he is past the Centre through many Obstacles full of gross and subterraneous Darkness which seem to affright and stifle the Soul he will arrive at last to a new Light and Glory room and liberty breathing-place and fresh-air among the Antipodes and by passing on still through those inferiour Regions that are under his feet but over the head of those that are beneath him finally come to another Skie penetrate that and leaving it behind him sink down into the depth of all Immensity This he cannot do in his Body because it is gross and dull and heavy and confined but by a Thought in his Soul he may because it is subtile quick aiery free and infinite Nothing can stop or exclude it oppress or stifle it This local descent through all the inferiour Space and Immensity though it brings us to GOD and his Throne and another Heaven full of Joyes and Angels on the other side the World yet is it but a real Emblem of the more spiritual and mysterious flight of Humility in the mind We all know that the way to Heaven is through Death and the Grave beyond which we come to another Life in Eternity but how to accommodate this to the business of Humility few understand By this Vertue we are inclined to despise our selves and to leave all the garish Ornaments of Earthly bliss to divest our selves of the splendors of Temporal prosperity and to submit to all Afflictions Contempts and Miseries that a good Cause can bring upon us In the eyes of other men we are beneath their feet and so
enjoyment I hope in like manner nay I see it plainly And of all these Joyes the Cross of Christ is the Root and Centre I confess it is difficult to gain this high and divine Contentment because its measure and value is infinite Nay there are other causes both Temporal and Eternal that may seem to be impediments One was a business which David did experience The prosperity of the Wicked They live in so much Splendour Pomp and Grandeur have so much Respect and Reverence paid unto them and reign as it were in the high Esteem of all that are round about them in such a manner that a Poor good man is hardly lookt upon among them His condition seemeth Servile and he is little regarded David carried the Temptation far higher yet triumphed over it Psal. 73. 1 c. Truly GOD is good to Israel even to such as are of a clean heart But as for me my feet were almost gone my steps had well nigh slipt For I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the Wicked For all the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning Whether it be through Nature or its Corruption I cannot tell at least I will not stand to dispute it but it is somewhat grievous to see men of the same mould with our selves so highly magnified and our selves slighted and unable to appear with Equality among them because the true Greatness of our Souls is hidden oppressed and buried as it were in the Meanness of our Condition But yet we have excellent Company David and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles and all the Martyrs that are now so glorious And if you please you may consider what these Great men do when the shew is over We when we come abroad are weak and despised and they when they are alone A Vertuous man is Great within and glorious in his Retirements is honoured also among men in Truth and Reality the rest make an outward shew and are honoured in Ceremony We are accepted in the eyes of GOD and his holy Angels and they are condemned Their Life is a Dream and ours is Eternal We expatiate over all the World with infinite Joy and Pleasure in our Solitudes and they are nothing when they return to themselves That wherein the greatest difficulty of all doth consist is the boundless desire and ambition of the Soul whereby we are tempted to envy any thing that is above us and for ever to be displeased unless our glory and blessedness be Eternal I do not mean Immortal only but of everlasting Extent and infinite Beauty We soar to the Best and highest of all that is possible And unless in all Ages and Kingdoms our Satisfaction be compleat and our Pleasure exquisite we are prone to be tormented with the perfection of our Desires But GOD having given himself and all his Kingdom and Glory to us there is no room for Complaint All his Power being glorified by his Wisdom and Goodness for our advancement we need nothing but a clear sight of the face of Truth and a lively sence of our Condition to ravish and transport us into Extasies and Praises THE happiness of a Contented Spirit consists not alone in the fruitions of its Bliss but in the fruits and effects it produceth in our Lives It gives us many advantages over Sin Temptation Fear Affliction Poverty Sickness Death and all other Casualties to which we are obnoxious by reason of our frail and fickle condition But all these I shall pass over and only mention two which are worth our care and desire Security and Power AS there is a vain and empty Contentment so there is a rash and foolish Security For a man to wink at all Hazards to which he is exposed and without any consideration of what may befal him to give himself up to his ease and pleasure is as great a madness as it is for a General environed with Enemies to sleep without his Guards or be totally negligent of his Camp and his Army But when he has Conquered all his Enemies then to be filled with Melancholy fears and Pannick terrours is as great a weakness as a man of Worth can be capable of Even in the midst of them when he has surveyed all their strengths and made full provision for their incursions he may take his rest with liberty provided he be moderate and wary in his proceedings This last is our Condition We must not live as if there were no Sickness and Death in the World We must remember there are Calamities of every kind and fortifie our selves with Principles and Resolutions against them all put on the whole Armour of GOD which is called sometimes the Armour of Light and stand prepared for all Assaults whatsoever When we have so done as it is a terrible thing to be surprized so it is a glorious thing with open eyes to see and know all the Evil that is in Death Imprisonment Persecution Shame and Poverty Famine Banishment Pain and Torment and yet to be secure in the midst of our fruitions There is a worthless and there is a divine Security It is a poor business for a man to be secure that has nothing to lose A Beggar sings upon the Road without any fear of Thieves But to be full of Gold and Jewels yet safe from danger to be secure in a Palace of Delights in the midst of a Kingdom and in the possession of all its glory to rest with safety this is a valuable and sweet Security a safety enriched with solid Enjoyments much more is it here upon Earth to have the bliss and security of Angels Among Wolves and Tygers and Bears and Dragons among Thieves and Murtherers Bloody Men and Devils among Dead-mens Bones and Graves and Sepulchres when showers of Arrows fall round about us and Hell is beneath us this is something more than to be secure where no danger is near no Calamity possible It is a kind of triumph in Security and hath a peculiar glory in it which the very security of Heaven is incapable of And yet poor frail Man obnoxious and liable to all these destructions is safe among them all when he is once gotten into the heart of GOD's Kingdom and surrounded with Felicity It s very Beauties are its Strengths He knows himself beloved of the eternal GOD and that the King of Terrors is but a disguised Bug-Bear a dark and doleful passage to the Ignorant but to him a bright and transparent way to the King of Glory This Blessedness is of stable incorruptible nature which nothing can destroy It digesteth all kind of Evils and turneth them into nourishment There is a Wisdom above us and a Wisdom within us that maketh all things work together for good to them that love GOD and nothing is able to hurt us but our selves Now for Power which Felicity giveth There is an intrinsick power in the enjoyment it self for which Felicity is to be admired in
all things mightst see him This is the Good of GOD his Vertue is this to appear and be seen in all Things This is the bottom of all other Greatnesses whatsoever GOD is infinitely communicative infinitely prone to reveal himself infinitely Wise and able to do it He hath made the Soul on purpose that it might see him And if the Eye that was made for the World being so little a ball of Earth and Water can take in all and see all that is visible if the sight of the Eye be present with all it beholdeth much more is the Soul both able to see and to be present with all that is Divine and Eternal I know very well that a Man divided from GOD is a weak inconsiderable Creature as the Eye is if divided from the Body and without the Soul but united to GOD a Man is a transcendent and Celestial thing GOD is his Life his Greatness his Power his Blessedness and Perfection And as the Apostle saith He that is joyned to the Lord is one SPIRIT His Omnipresence and Eternity fill the Soul and make it able to contain all Heights and Depths and Lengths and Breadths whatsoever And it is the desire of the Soul to be filled with all the fulness of GOD. Magnanimous desires are the natural results of a Magnanimous Capacity The desire of being like Gods knowing Good and Evil was the destruction of the World Not as if it were unlawful to desire to be Like GOD but to aspire to the Perfection in a forbidden way was unlawful By Disobedience and by following our own Inventions by seeking to the Creature to the stock of a Tree to make us Like GOD that is erroneous and poor and despicable but to know our selves and in the strait and divine Way to come immediately to GOD to contemplate him in his Eternity and Glory is a right and safe Way for the Soul will by that means be the Sphere of is Omnipresence and the Temple of the God-head It will become ETERNITY as Trismegistus speaketh or ONE SPIRIT with God as the Apostle And then it must needs be present with all things in Heaven and in the Earth and in the Sea as GOD is for all things will be in it as it were by Thoughts and Intellections A Magnanimous Soul then if we respect its Capacity is an immovable sphere of Power and Knowledge far greater than all Worlds by its Vertue and Power passing through all things through the Centre of the Earth and through all Existencies And shall such a Creature as this be contented with Vanities and Trlfles Straws and Feathers painted Butterflies Hobby-horses and Rattles These are the Treasures of little Children but you will say a Man delighteth in Purses of Gold and Cabinets of Jewels in Houses and Palaces in Crowns and Scepters Add Kingly Delights and say he delighteth in Armies and Victories and Triumphs and Coronations These are great in respect of Play-things But all these are feeble and pusillanimous to a great Soul As Scipio was going up to Heaven the Earth it self seemed but a Nutshel and he was ashamed of all his Victories and Triumhs amazed at his madness in Quarrelling and fighting about Territories and Kingdoms contracted to a Star and lost into nothing the whole Earth is but one invisible Point when a man foareth to the height of Immensity and beholdeth and compasseth its everlasting Circumference which is infinite every way beyond the Heavens It is the true and proper Immensity of the Soul Which can no more be contented with the narrow confinement of this World no more rest in the Childishness of all the noise of the Interests of Men be no more satisfied with its Earthly Glories than the SUN can be shut up in a Dark-Lanthorn It is true indeed it would desire to see as the Angels do the least and lowest of all the Creatures full of the Glory and Blessedness of GOD all Wisdom and Goodness in every thing and is apt to complain for want of some eternal and Celestial Light wherein to behold them but if all the expansions of Time and Eternity should be void and all the extents and out-goings of Infinity empty round about them though things upon Earth nay and things in the Heavens should be never so Rich and divine and beautiful yet such is the Magnanimity of a Great Soul that it would hugely be displeased its loss and its distaste would be alike Infinite Infinite Honours infinite Treasures infinite Enjoyments things endless in number value and excellency are the Objects of its Care and Desire the greatness of its Spirit leads it to consider and enquire whether all the spaces above the Heavens and all the parts of GOD's everlasting Kingdom be full of Joyes whether there be any end or bound of his Kingdom whether ther there be any defect or miscarriage any blemish or disorder in it any vile and common thing any remissness or neglect any cause of complaint or deformity As also whether all the Ages of the World are Divine and Sacred whether after they are gone they abide in their places whether there be anything in them to entertain the Powers of the Soul with delight and feed them with satisfaction What end what use what excellency there is in Men Whether all the waies of GOD are full of beauty and perfection all Wisdom Justice Holiness Goodness Love and Power What Regions eternal Blessedness is seated in What Glory what Reason what Agreeableness and Harmony is in all his Counsels Whether those durations of Eternity before the World is made are full or empty full of bright and amiable Objects or dark and obscure Whether the government of the World be perfect whether the Soul be Divine in it self whether it be conducive to its own felicity or to the happiness of all those in whom it is concerned Whether the World shall end If it shall after what manner whether by Design or Accident Whether All Ages and Nations shall rise from the Dead Whether there shall be a general Doom or a day of Judgment Whether I am concerned in all the transactions and passages at that day Whether all Mankind shall be united into one to make up one compleat and perfect Body whereof they all are the fellow-Members What shall be after the End of the VVorld Whether we shall live for ever Whether we shall see GOD and know one another Whether we shall reign in eternal Glory Whether in the Confusions of Hell there be any Beauty and whether in the Torments of the damned we shall find any joy or satisfaction Whether all the Riches Customs and Pleasures of this World shall be seen Whether in the World to come any fruit shall appear and arise from them for which they shall be esteemed to have been not in vain but profitable in relation to all Eternity What kind of Life we shall lead and what kind of Communion and fellowship Angels and Men shall have with each other
VVhether the VVorks of GOD were unworthy of his Choice or the best of all that were possible What his Laws are as to their nature and excellency Whether his Love be really sincere and infinite Whether there be any such thing as infinite Wisdom Goodness and Bounty Blessedness and Glory Such things as these are the Concerns and Inquiries of a Magnanimous Soul And if its expectations and desires are absolutely satisfied it will easily appear and break forth upon all Occasions into the most high and Magnanimous Actions Trismegistus or whoever else was the Author of that Book saw the deep Capacity of his own Soul but if a Conjecture may be made by the residue of the discourse did not understand the end at least not clearly for which it was implanted Some knowledge he had that all the things in Eternity were the Objects of that Power by reason of which he calls them Fair and Good but that they were to be the Treasures and Enjoyments of the Soul I do not find him affirming He that knows this must needs be of our Saviours mind who when all the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them were shewed him by Satan in a moment of time despised them all For the divine and Celestial Kingdom is infinitely greater and in a far more perfect manner to be enjoyed HE that knoweth the Honour which cometh from above will despise the Honour which men can pay and in comparison of that Honour which cometh from GOD only esteem all the Honour of this World but false and feeble Not as if Men were in the truth of Nature vile and despicable Creatures a Magnanimous man knows all others to be by Nature like himself and is apt to reverence all of his kind as sublime and Celestial Creatures But he is a Man of a clear and discerning Spirit and the Corruption of Nature makes him to slight all that is defiled He sees that Men are generally Evil deformed and blind erroneous perverse and foolish poor and miserable And that all the Honour which they generally give is irrational and feigned A little colour in the face a gay Coat a fine Horse a Palace and a Coach an Exchequer full of Gold or some such light and superficial Causes are all the grounds of the respect that they pay us And if the Glory and Esteem I have Be nothing else than what my Silver gave If for no other ground I am with Love or Praises crown'd 'T is such a shame such vile such base Repute 'T is is better starve than eat such empty Fruit. IF a King be dejected from his Throne it is but a poor comfort that he is admired by Persons condemned to die and praised by Beggars The dignity and power of the Persons that admire us is of great consideration in the love and delight which they take in us They all must vanish and perish as a Dream no Honour is truly great but that which is continual and endless too A great and mighty Soul can care for no Honour but that which comes from wise and amiable Persons that are themselves great and honourable most rich and powerful holy just blessed and glorious Honour from GOD and his holy Angels from the eternal Son of GOD and all his Saints is marvellous and substantial That Honour which is paid upon great and solid causes because a Man is well-pleasing to GOD and exalted to his Throne because he is the very true Image of GOD and has dominion over all the Creatures because he is infinitely beloved of GOD and all Angels and Men are commanded to love him because he is redeemed by the Blood of Christ and made a Temple of the Holy Ghost because he is a Priest and King to his eternal Creatour because he is full of Goodness and Wisdom adorned with all kind of Vertue and made an Heir of eternal Glory because he is Faithful and True and Just and Holy because he hath conquered Death and Hell and Sin and the Grave and triumpheth over them this is being paid by such Persons Honour indeed and to desire this Honour is the Property and the Vertue of a Magnanimous Soul An Eagle cannot stoop at Flies An Alexander or a Caesar cannot debase or confine their Souls to the pleasures of a Cottage in a Wilderness Infinite Hopes and infinite Desires infinite Fears and Despairs and Sorrows infinite Joyes and Delights and Glories infinite Adorations Praises and Thanksgivings infinite and eternal Objects are the only fit and proper Concerns for the Affections of a Great and Magnanimous Soul The very signification of the word is Greatness of Soul or if you please of Mind For a distinction may be made between the Soul and Mind The Soul of Man is the immutable essence or form of his Nature unimployed His power of Reasoning is alive even then when it is quiet and unactive and this is his Soul It is one and the same in all men and of it self equally inclined to all great and transcendent things but in the most it is misguided baffled and suppressed and though it be never so great it is to no purpose This greatness implanted by Nature is not Magnanimity It is a Natural disposition not an acquired habit as all Vertue is A Man is then said to be of such a Mind when he determines or thinks in such a manner His mind is Good that intendeth well his mind is Evil that designeth mischief So that the Mind is the Soul exerting its power in such an act and the greatest Soul in all the World is but Pusillanimous that mindeth little things A great Soul is Magnanimous in Effect a Mind applyed to mighty Objects Some men have a Magnanimity infused by the power of Education and are led by Custome to Great things and in a manner by Necessity for such is their Place and Calling that they are frequently led to greater Objects than other men Of this sort are the most eminent rank of Grandees and Princes Kingdoms and Thrones and Privy Councils and Queens and Armies are their natural Dialect This is no Vertue for though it be not innate by Nature yet they are born to it and it is given by Fortune Others consider what they have to do and make an election and though they are born in a poor and despicable estate are not Magnanimous by Nature or Fortune but by Choice and voluntary Election Not to satisfie the humour of a high Blood choler and fire nor to answer the necessities of a higher Calling but to discharge the office of Vertue and Wisdom And this is the Off-spring of the Will the true and genuine Vertue Which as it is far more worthy than any of the rest is guided to far better and more glorious Objects and more diffusively given by the Bounty of GOD to all kind of Men in all Conditions In the Poor it is more marvellous than in the Great and Rich It has such an undaunted property in its Nature
is full of musick in his words of a sweet and pleasing behaviour agreeable in his deeds and fraught with the Honour which he imparteth so freely A Liberal man is cloathed like the Sun with the Raies of his own glory and establishes himself in the hearts of his Neighbours and reigns like a King by the sole interest of Vertue and Goodness Every man is a Friend to him that giveth many Gifts He may be as holy and as temperate and as wise as an Angel no man will be offended at him because he beautifies his Religion with so much goodness He enjoys himself and his Riches and his Friends and may do what he will with perfect liberty because he delights in the felicity of all that accost him He puts embroideries on Religion by the chearfulness of his Spirit and carries a light wherever he goes that makes men to reverence his Person and esteem his Censures He moves in a sphere of Wonders his life is a continual stream of Miracles because he is alwaies sacrificing himself and his Possessions to the benefit of the World and the comfort of others Benefits and Blessings are his Life-guard like his guardian Angels alwaies attendant on him His House is the habitation of joy and felicity and yields a spectacle of Contentment to every beholder His Neighbours are his Security not his Suspicion and other mens Houses the forts and ramparts about his own No man will hurt him because they extinguish their own contentment and benefit in him Theytender him as the apple of their eye because he is a greater comfort and advantage than that unto them The ancient custome of Paradice so long since lost and forgotten in the World revives in its Family where all men are entertained as Brothers and Sisters at the expences of GOD and Nature He taketh care because Thrift is the suel of Liberality and is Frugal that he may be Bountiful All his aim and labour is that he may maintain Good Works and make his light so shine before men that they seeing his good works may glorifie his Father which is in Heaven There is a generous Confidence discovered in all his Actions and a little glimpse of Heaven in his Behaviour for he lives as if he were among a company of Angels All mens Estates are his and his is theirs If he had them all he would impart them and restore them to supply their Wants perhaps not with so much wisdom as GOD hath done but with as much pleasure and contentment as his goodness can inspire in the exercise of power so kindly and well employed But because the designs of GOD are infinitely deeper than he can well apprehend and laid all in eternal Wisdom he is pleased and delighted that his Care is prevented and that GOD hath done that for other men to which his own inclination would readily prompt him were it left undone If it were permitted him to wish whatsoever he listed of all other things he would chiefly desire to be a Blessing to the whole World and that he is not so is his only discontentment But for that too there are remedies in Felicity when he knows all his desire is granted For a Life beautified with all Vertue is the greatest gift that can be presented to GOD Angels and Men. And when all Secrets shall be revealed all hidden things brought to light his life shall be seen in all its perfection and his Desires themselves be the enjoyments and pleasures of all the Creatures There is a certain kind of sympathy that runs through the Universe by vertue of which all men are fed in the feeding of one even the Angels are cloathed in the Poor and Needy All are touched and concerned in every one Like the Brazen Pillars in the Temple of Minerva if one be smitten all resound the blow throughout the Temple or like the strings of several Lutes skrewed up to Unisones the one is made to quaver by the others motions If Christ himself be fed in the Poor much more may Angels and Men. At the last day we find no other scrutiny about Religion but what we have done or neglected in Liberality Come ye blessed of my â—ather inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the World for I was hungry and ye gave me meat thirsty and ye gave me drink naked and ye cloathed me a Stranger and ye took me in I was sick and ye visited me I was in Prison and ye came unto me Inas much as ye have done it to the least of these my Brethren ye have done it unto me LOVE it seems will sit in Judgment on the World and the Rule of Trial shall be the fulfilling of its Laws Love shall be the glory too of all the Assâ—ssors And every act of Cruelty and Oppression infinitely odious in all their eyes THERE was a certain King which would take account of his Servants and when he had begun to reckon one was brought unto him that ought him 10000 Talents But for asmuch as he had not to pay his Lord commanded him to be sold and all that he had and payment to be made The Servant therefore fell down and worshipped him saying Lord have patience with me and I will pay thee all Then the Lord of that Servant was moved with Compassion and loosed him and forgave him the Debt But the same Servant went out and found one of his fellow-Servants which ought him 100 pence and he laid hold on him and took him by the throat saying Pay me that thou owest And his fellow-Servant fell down at his feet and besought him Have patience with me and I will pay thee all And he would not but went and cast him into Prison till he should pay the Debt So when his fellow-Servants saw what was done they were very sorry and came and told to their Lord all that was done Every neglect and contempt of our fellow Brethren is injurious and grievous to GOD Angels and Men for there is one common Principle in all Nature to hate evil Deeds and especially those of Rigour and Severity when we our selves stand in need of Mercy and have received Favour This common principle of Sympathy and Compassion intitles us to all the good that is done to any Man in the World The love of Equity and Reason and the natural inclination that carries us to delight in excellent Deeds gives us an interest in all that are performed The beauty of the one is as sweet and blessed as the deformity of the other is odious and distastful And if we our selves are infinitely obliged and live by the bounty and goodness of another after we have forfeited the Kings favour have received it again with pardon and forgiveness nay and with more and greater benefits if we shall not be liberal to one another it is a strange inequality But the discharge of our duty will make us amiable and delightful That the King of Glory is so concerned in
in the Communication than we did in the Reception This is the foundation of real Gratitude and the bottom of all that Goodness which is seated in the bent and inclination of Nature It is a Principle so strong that Fire does not burn with more certain violence than Nature study to use all when it hath gotten it and to improve its Treasures to the acquisition of its Glory THE Holiness of all the work consists in the Fervour wherewith it is done and if our Love shall in Heaven answer all its Causes it will be equal to all its Obligations and Rewards and as infinite in a manner as the excellencies of its objects the very love of GOD towards all things will be in it our Love shall be in all his and his in ours And if we love GOD Angels and Men all Vertue Grace and Felicity as they deserve we shall so delight in excellent actions and in appearing amiable and glorious before them that we would not for all Worlds miscarry in a tittle And therefore every defect even after pardon will be an infinite disaster as well as blemish This is one effect of Gratitude in Nature And if it were not for the Satisfaction of Jesus Christ and the efficacy of Faith and Repentance in his Blood the least Sinner in all Nature would be eternally miserable notwithstanding the advantages of Christs blood It is the desire of the Soul to be spotless in it self And if it be so prophane as to build upon these advantages without taking care to be as excellent as it is able it is the most ungrateful Creature in the World and is too base and dirty to appear in Glory TO talk of overflowing in the disbursments and effusions of Love and Goodness till our emptiness and capacity be full within is as impertinent and unseasonable as to advise a Beggar to give away a Kingdom or a dead man to breath or one that is starving to give Wine and Banquets to the Poor and Needy But when a man is full of blessedness and glory nothing is so easie as to overflow unto others to forbid or hinder him is to stifle and destroy him Breath with the same necessity must be let out as it is taken in A man dies as certainly by the confinement as the want of it To shut it up and deny it are in effect the same When a man hath the glory of all Worlds he is willing to impart the delights wherewith he is surrounded to give away himself to some amiable Object to beautifie his Life and dedicate it to the use and enjoyment of Spectators and to put life into all his Treasures by their Communication To love and admire and adore and praise in such a case are not only pleasant but natural and free and inevitable operations It is then his supream and only joy to be amiable and delightful For the actions of Love and Honour belong in a peculiar manner to a plentiful estate Wants and Necessities when they pinch and grind us in a low condition disturb all those easie and delicate Resentments which find their element in the midst of Pleasures and Superfluities Hence it is that high-born Souls in Courts and Palaces are addicted more to sweet and honourable excesses than Clowns and Peasants The one spend their life in Toil and Labour the other in Caresses and soft Embraces Amities and Bounties Obligations and Respects Complements and Visits are the life of Nobles Industry and Care is that of the meaner People Honours and Adorations are fit for the Temple not for the Market Soft and tender Affections are more in the Court than in the Shop or Barn There is some difference in this respect even between the City and Country But Heaven is the Metropolis of all Perfection GOD is a mighty King and all his Subjects are his Peers and Nobles Their life is more sublime and pleasant and free because more blessed and glorious Their very Palaces and Treasures are infinite Incentives to the works of honour and delight and they cannot rest either day or night but continually cry Holy Holy Holy Lord GOD of Hosts Heaven and Earth are full of the Majesty of thy Glory Their Beauties and Perfections enflame one another Their very Joyes inspire them with eternal Love and as all Care and Labour are removed so are all delights and extasies established Ravishments and Caresses Adorations and Complacencies all the force and violence of Love Charms Allurements high Satisfactions all the delicacies and riches of sweet Affection Honours and Beauties are their Conversation Towards GOD towards themselves towards each other they are all Harmony and Joy and Peace and Love they flie upon Angels wings and trample upon Spices Aromatick Odeurs and Flowers are under feet the very ground upon which they stand is beset with Jewels Such you know were the foundations of the Walls of the New Jerusalem and the pavement of the Street was beaten Gold GOD and the Lamb were the Light and the Temple of it THAT we are to Enjoy all Angels and Men by communicating our selves unto them is a little mysterious but may more easily be understood than a thing so obscure as The Enjoyment of GOD by way of Gratitude That we are to love GOD more than our selves is apparently sure at least we ought to do it but whether it be possible is a question of importance That we gain infinitely by his Love is certain but that we gain more by our own is prodigiouslâ— It is our duty to love him more than our selves but whether it be our Nature or no is doubtful It is impossible to ascend at the first step to the top of the Ladder Even Jacobs Ladder will not bring us to Heaven unless we begin at the bottom Self-love is the first round and they that remove it had as good take away all For he that has no love for himself can never be obliged He that cannot be obliged cannot delight in GOD He that cannot delight in him cannot enjoy him He that cannot enjoy him cannot love him He that cannot love him cannot take pleasure in him nor be Grateful to him Self-love is so far from being the impediment that it is the cause of our Gratitude and the only principle that gives us power to do what we ought For the more we love our selves the more we love those that are our Benefactors It is a great mistake in that arrogant Leviathan so far to imprison our love to our selves as to make it inconsistent with Charity towards others It is easie to manifest that it is impossible to love our selves without loving other things Nature is crippled or if it has her feet has her head cut off if Self-preservation be made her only concern We desire to live that we may do something else without doing which life would be a burden There are other principles of Ambition Appetite and Avarice in the Soul And there are Honours and Pleasures and Riches
the Ice for all their Followers For their business was extraordinary to change the state and condition of Kingdoms to alter the publick Rites of Religion both among Jews and Gentiles and therein to shake and dissetile the Secular Interests of Millions as well as to touch and offend the Conscience in defaming that for which so many Ages had so great a Veneration This created all the difficulty in their Lives But where the publick Rites of Religion are approved and a Man is born in peaceable and quiet Times I do not see but the most Vertuous Men inherit all the Honour and Esteem of the People and whatever estate and degree they are of reign in the fullest and freest Prosperity Nor has the Death of Christ of little prevailed upon Earth but that all the World does now take notice of the Glory of his Doctrine and far better understand the excellency of Vertue than they did before They feel and admire its influences Insomuch that as fome Vertuous Men grow contemptible by their Vices so do the most debanched and vicious Men find a Necessity of appearing Vertuous if they mean to be Honourable for as all Errours receive their strengths from some Truths professed by Hereticks so do all Vices and vicious Persons owe their supports to the powerful strengths of those Vertues on which they lean and which they use though in a wicked manner for their own security For they cannot rise and thrive in the World without some Vertue or shew of Vertue at least to cover and help out their Vices Three things I desire you to note seriously when you have first observed that it is a very hard matter to hate an Excellent Man or contemn him when he is known The one is that Enmities and Disgraces are like the pangs and throws of the New-Birth they fall like Storms and Showers upon budding Vertues in their spring and greeness When a Man first begins to be Vertuous he is despised suspected unknown it may be censured and hated But when he has made himself eminent and conspicuous is a man of tried and approved Vertue well known for a Person of Honour and Worth the first Envies and Censures abate and if he constantly exercise all Honesty and Goodness with great activity courage and prudence he shall conquer all his Enemies and inherit the benefit of his own Vertues in the peace and tranquility of his happy Condition Note also that it is not so much the Malignity of the World as some Vice of the Proficient or some occasion that Religious men give the World to blaspheme Religion by some Infirmity or other that makes them to be hated And this I note because I would have you not cry out of other Mens Corruptions so much as of your own There is a little Pride or Covetousness or Laziness or Scorn or Anger or Revenge some one Deformity or other that gives Men advantage against us when they deride at our Profession but under the Name and Notion of Vertue no Man was ever yet upbraided As a Fool perhaps and a Coward but not as a Wise and gallant Man he may be scorned Thirdly Some Secular Interest may put People together by the Ears but no Man is hated for being perfectly Vertuous Misapprehensions Slanders Injuries Quarrels about Estates and Possessessions may arise but where the Land is at peace and the True Religion established no Man is hated for being Wise and Good and Holy and Chaste and Just and Liberal and Honest and Merciful and Meek and Couragious but the more admired for being Holy and Blessed when he joyns all GODS Vertues together A man may be perverse and turbulent a Schismatick and a Heretick and by a rash and erroneous Zeal bring many Enemies and Penalties on himself while he rails against the Magistrates and reviles the Bishops and Pastours of the Church breaks the Laws and disturbs the Kingdom prophanes and blasphemes GODS publick Worship and endeavours to overthrow the established Religion and Discipline among us But all the Troubles which a man brings on himself by any such means as these are not to be fathered on Vertue but rightly to be ascribed to their proper Causes Had he that suffered them been more Vertuous he had been less miserable And truly this I may say for the glory of Christianity Where it is freely and purely Professed in any Nation or Kingdom as at present in Ours a Man may be as divine and heavenly as an Angel And if he be Liberal and Kind and Humble and Cheerful especially if withal he be Undaunted and Couragious most exceedingly Honest and Faithful in his dealings the more Holy and Divine he is the more he is commended and valued in the Land but if he have any flaw the greater stir he makes in Religion the more he is hated He loses his Credit and undergoes the Censure of a supercilious Hypocrite AS for all the Enemies which Strife and Contention about Worldly Goods occasion to a Vertuous Man he is no more liable to them than other persons And yet when he meets them he has far more advantages over his Enemies than other Men. For being full of Courage he dares do any thing that is fit against them and that sparkle of the Lion makes them to dread him whereas a Coward is baffled and run over in a moment Being full of Temper and Humility he is not apt to exasperate them and make them mad as hot and angry Spirits are apt to do By Kindness he obliges and wins and softens them By Prudence he knows how to manage them and all his other Vertues come in as so many strengths against them Being Just he never quarrels but in a Good Cause being Good and Merciful he is not apt to make an Enemy Being Wise and Holy his Soul is in another World and it is no trivial Injury that can make him contend Being Liberal and Magnanimous he is prone to do Heroical things and to make himself Venerable to his very Adversary And above all to tender and to love his Soul and to steer all the Contention to both their benefit We rail on the World when the fault is in our selves The most of Men professing Vertue are but Children in Worth very weak and very defective And too timorous too GOD knows They neither trust GOD enough nor carry Vertue to the height Vertue is base and not Vertue while it is remiss It never shineth gloriously and irresistibly till it be acted almost in a desperate manner He only is the Great Man that contemns Danger Life and Death and all the World that he may be supreamly and compleatly Vertuous ENEMIES may sometimes spring from Envy And indeed there alone lies the Core of the Matter when some Men imperfectly Vertuous abhor others for being more Excellent than themselves at least for being more Honoured and more Prosperous Here again Temporal Interest is the ground of the Enmity For thus our Saviour was hated by the