Christian and the last leaveth us this precise advice in order to the same regulation He that looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein being not a forgetfull hearer but a doer of the worke this man shall be blessed in his deed and if any man thinke himselfe religious not bridling his tongue but seducing his heart this mans religion is vaine The thirteenth Treatise Handling whether to be in love and to be devout are in consistent In eight Sect. §. I. The nature of Love and of Devotion compared LOve in humane nature is both the sourge and center of all passions for not only Hope Feare and Joy but even Anger and Hatred rise first out of the spring of Love and the courses of these passions which seem to runne away from it do by a winding revolution returne backe to rest again in Love for there could be no aversion if the last end of it were not some affection which our Love pursueth through opposition with which our Anger and Hate combate but in order to the conquest of our first Love so that all the powers of a rationall Nature seeme to be ministeriall to this soveraigne power of Love since even in Grace also Love is both the way and the end of Beatitude For God himselfe is Love and none end in God that do not go by Love Therefore S. Augustine saith excellently that a short definition of all Vertue is the order of Love for since Love is the first impulse and motion of our intellectuall appetite which is the Will towards an union with what it apprehends under the notion of good if God be rightly apprehended as the supreame good and our Loves primarily directed to that union then all our affections descend from that due elevation upon the lower stations of the creatures as upon stepps set in order by God for our affections to passe down upon his workes and repasse again upon the same gradations up to the Creator Therefore we must examine whether that state of mind which the world termeth being in Love admit of this order wherein consisteth the vertue of all Devotion I have before treated and defined what it is to be Devout so I conceive it expedient now to determine what it is to be in Love for as there are many antipathy's which while they are out of the presence of one another discover not their repugnancies but being set together do quickly declare their aversions so if we state prophane and sacred love by one another we shall the easilier discerne whether there be any incompatibility between them for he who transfigureth himselfe into an Angell of light doth more artificially disguise this passion then any other and presenteth it to our minds under the fairest notion he can utter it knowing that Love is the best colour he can use in his own transfiguration I have already described Devotion to you in these familiar termes of a being in love with Heaven whereby I conclude that being in Love is the most intensive appropriation of all the powers of our mind to one designe now how such an assignment of our Soule to the love and service of the creature which is to be in love with one can consist with the precept of loving the Creator with all our heart and all our mind is a question too hard for even the Devill to resolve therefore to reconcile Passion with Devotion he doth commonly detract somewhat from them both in his definitions of them to us representing it as a lesse alienation and transaction of the mind to be in love and a lesse exaction on the soule to be devout Thus mans first supplanting Counsellor offereth himselfe for a reconciler of this inconsistency and pretendeth to accord these two loves as we use to compose civill differences where likely each party doth remit some of his interest to facilitate the agreement and thus many taking off somewhat from the nature of humane passion and abating some of the rights of divine Love think they may both concurre in the soule by this arbitration as who should say when God is allowed the supreamest part in formall adoration the creature may share in the inferiour portion of the mind which is the seate of Passion and be allowed a love to a degree of Passion Many are deceived by this as with an equall composition which truly examined is to conclude that if the Arke be set in the quire Dagon may stand in the body of the Church but he whose Temple our heart is alloweth no independent love to the creature to stand by his at any distance all our affections must rest involved in his Love and must issue from thence upon the creature but as by commission and delegation from that master Love So I may say of such compounders that pretend there may be some of the heart allotted to support humane Passion as was said of the inhabitants of Samaria after the captivity wherein were mixed the Jewes and Babilonians These feare the Lord but serve their Idols for indeed they who give not God all their Love give what they do chiefly to his feare and so may be said to feare God not to love him but to serve and love their passions Yet it may be there are some who being frighted with the precisenesse and amplitude of the precept of loving God disavow me in my definition of being in Love saying I have done an ill office to humane Passion in this exaltation of it putting it upon a claime of so great rights as must needs make a quarrell between it and Devotion when they pretend they do covenant between their eyes and their affections in the admiration of beauty for the preserving the prerogative of divine Love alleadging that all the vehemency of their affections is in order to the estimation of the excellency and perfection of Gods workes and disclaime any infringing the rights of Religion This is commonly answered by some when they are before grave and pious examiners when they find themselves fallen as I may say among Gods party then they have his word ready to passe with but when they come off to their own side when they are giving account of their passions to those persons they serve under then commonly they take all occasions to do all ill offices to divine Love and study to affront Devotion as if it were a Rivall that pretended to that affection for which they are in suite and then the entirenes of the oblation of their minds is what they most insist upon and God knoweth Religion is not so much as thought upon unlesse it be to take from it some divine tearmes to set out the offering of their passion §. II. Some subtile temptations detected and liberties reproved PRophane Passion is a flame in our sensitive Appetite which doth commonly refine and subtilize the faculty of our imagination enabling the fancy very much to circumvent the reason suggesting this beliefe to
may justly be noted as Malignants which legally in Religion ought to be sequestered nay even friendship it selfe with persons to be feared lyeth under some cloud as requiring a continual suspitious eye upon it to keepe it safe from all intelligence with sensual appetites in so much as when it is sincerest it must be watched with great prudence to be kept safe for which cause in stead of all these perillous commerces of our love I will preferre so secure an object to it as Saint Augustine saith of it Love but and do what you will this is the increated beauty of God in which there is not only no feare to be had of our over-loving it but even there is no fear of our not being out-loved by it and so our love is alwayes secured to us Therefore O Soule Why doest thou halt and hesitate about the loving him who must needs love thee faithfully and art so prone to love that which if it love thee at all must do it perfidiously either deceiving thee or some other thou shalt alwayes be unhappy in loving such which if another love thou shalt be offended or if they love another thou shalt be tormented The love of God is exempted from all griefe or care for in his loving of others thou shalt joy and that all may be in love with him thou shalt wish This is the transcendent sufficiency of Gods good that he may love all and be beloved of all without any detriment or diminution of either the lover or the beloved but with a fuller joy of both All other things are infirme scanted and indigent which are not sufficient for the loving of two or the being beloved by two without defrauding of one of them You then that by love seeke contentment why do you love that which even the loving of is disquiet O love him who even in the necessary disquiets of this life can make you happy how idle is it to love such goods which by loving thou deservest to want and not to love that good where the act of loving is the fruition of it for God being beloved becommeth yours other goods when you love you become theirs and so indeed you want even your selfe by such loves God is only to be wanted by not being loved and all other things which you leave for God you find again in his Love O then love that only which alone is all things To conclude all you who have much to be forgiven for other loves transferre betimes all your affections upon him where you may hope with the blessed Penitent To have much forgiven you for loving much Thus only you can hope to attain to the state Saint Paul prescribeth to abstain from all appearance of evill that your whole spirit and soule and body may be preserved blamelesse to the comming of our Lord Jesus Christ and God grant that our soules may meet him with the lamps of the wise Virgins only lighted in them and then we shall be no more in danger of ceasing to love what we should when we enter into our masters joy which is eternall love The fourteenth Treatise The Test and Ballance of Filiall and Mercenary Love In five Sections §. I. Of the value of Love and Gods tolerating some mixture of selfe-respects in it WHen Esdras had cleared to the seduced people that the Law of God could not dispense with their retaining of such strange women of the Land as lay in their bosomes they pleaded for some time to make this painfull divorce saying It was not the worke of a day or two So methinks many who are convinced in this point of the prohibition of this alien and strange conjunction of our Love which is the child of God with vain passion the daughter of the earth pretend that by degrees they will sever this impurity from their loves because it requireth some time and much grace to make this division I confesse it is not the worke of a few good motions or remorses it asketh as it were a melting and liquefaction of our hearts to separate this drosse from the pure substance of love but we are so much furthered towards this operation as the fire we must worke it in costeth nothing but the asking It is that which the Spouse saith are coales of fire and have a vehement flame and hath a speciall vertue to purge and calcine our affections according to the Prophets advice of separating the pure from the impure and we may confidently call for this fire downe from heaven by the Spirit of our master to consume these his enemies the concupiscence of the eye and the concupiscence of the flesh that are the opposers of this purgation and refinement of our hearts which he demandeth of us as silver seven times tryed Reflecting upon the exactnes of this receiver of hearts if we resolve to trade with our loves for the Kingdome of heaven we must examine sincerely what temper of purity is currant with God for as passion doth both lighten and vitiate them in one kind so is there another sort of drossines in our nature which doth often too much imbase our love by an over-allay of selfe respect that rendereth it too mercenary and of too low a value it is very requisite then to be rightly enformed of the Standard by whose purity all our love that passeth for the purchase of the Kingdom of heaven must be tryed tested In our contract for heaven there is a strange singularity since both the paiment and the purchase are one and the same thing differing only in degrees of intension and purification for infirme and imperfect love is our price and love perfected and consummate is our possession namely God who is love is all as love is the best thing even in heaven as well as in earth it is consonantly appointed for the chiefe commerce between them wherefore God asketh but the heart of man even for all himself knowing that the heart in the most entire transaction of it selfe in this life can remit but imperfect and defective love we must examine severely what rates of imperfectnes God admitteth in our affections for in favour of our poverty he accepteth some part of our payment in that which is as I may say the base money of our nature mercenary love which he alloweth for the conveniency of our indigent and decayed estate Methinks by this allusion we may appositely explain what degree of allowablenes mercenary love may be accepted at for as base money is a meanes of commerce between the rich and the poore and is not commonly allowed in payments above some low summe so God in condescendence to the poverty and incommodity of our nature permitteth mercenary love in some proportion to be currant between his plenty and our penury but will not accept our totall discharge in it we may have some selfe-respect in our affections to God that may represent to us our rewards as a beneficiall traffique
us in the childhood of our love to lead it by degrees to filiall love which is the full age of our affections For indeed while our love is in this first infancy our minds may be well said to be in bondage under the elements of the world rather serving upon a servile contract then acting as heires of the Promise which dignity a Christian evidenceth only by filiall Love indeed the other sort is rather legall then evangelicall and alone bringeth nothing to perfection §. III. Filiall love described and some strong incentives presented to kindle it in us NOw then as the Apostle saith Let us leave these beginnings and rudiments of the doctrine of Christ and covet earnestly the best gifts and I will shew unto you a more excellent way by as much as the matter of the altar of perfumes was more precious then that of Holocausts let us then leave fouling our hands with this brasse of mercenary love and fall a telling out this gold of Filiall dilection Filiall love is an adherence of our hearts to God under this mixt notion principally of his own being and secondarily of our relation to him So as this may be said to be a repercussion of his own light upon him as simply as our compounded nature can reflect it the light of Gods countenance impressed upon us being by this love reverberated upon the divine nature From the eyes of the hand-maid fixed upon the eye of her mistresse more in order to the duty of her nature then in private affection to her selfe So that this kind of love seemeth to be in the regeneration of man in the age of reason what the soul is in his first generation to wit the first principle of life For our devotion is but as it were an Embrion before it receive this animation which is induced by an infusion even of that love wherewith God loveth himselfe since it is the holy Spirit diffused in our hearts that quickneth and informeth them by this kind of love This is then the onely sort of affection worthy of God whereby we returne him that part of the divine nature we partake by his communication while we seem thus to remit the holy-Ghost back to him out of our hearts loving God with the same affection we derive from this residence in our soules Methinks the dignity and present delight of this noble love though it were an unthrift anticipation in this our minority and were to be discounted to us out of our future estate of loving might tempt a soule to take up for her present joy and satisfaction the suavity and blessednesse of this excellent love how much the rather ought we then aspire to this degrees of loving when the estate of our reversion is reproved proportionately to the degrees of this our anticipation This may well be the Method of such a father whose portions to his heires are the injoying himselfe no wonder then that the desire to preoccupate this state should augment the childrens inheritance For the Father who is infinite love must needs be largest to them who have advanced to themselves the most of Filiall love and the reason is that this Celestiall Father can reward nothing but his own gifts assigning alwayes second benefits by the measures of his first liberality and thus the more he hath inriched us with this love the more he remunerateth the possession of it so that mercenary love when it is understood will be found to damnifie it selfe by this projected aeconomy of selfe-provision for in this commerce all private reference imbaseth so much the species wherewith we negotiate as it falles in value just as much as it riseth in quantity When we reflect upon the state of humane nature we may collect easily how much God desireth this correspondence of Filiall love since even from the forfeiture of all our filiall dignity he tooke the rise of a nearer and firmer alliance of our nature unto his and fastned it so to this filial constitution as he took it out of mans own power ever to divide or sever it againe from this relation for even the sinne of man can never divorce our humanity now from this filiall state since the naturall Sonne of God will now no more cease to be man then to be God so inseparably is our nature now fixed in this filiall reference for though individuals may by want of Filial love to the divine nature separate themselves from a blessed participation thereof in eternity yet our nature can never fall from this divine conjunction but shall remaine elevated above that of Cherubims and Seraphins to all eternity O who can contemplate this and consent to love God lesse nobly then our present nature will admit considering we have even the noblenesse of our nature now set out to us as an object of our love for as it is in Jesus Christ we cannot over-love our own humanity and since God hath done as much as was possible for him in honour of our nature shall man be content to love this God lesse then is possible for his constitution nay there are grave Divines who indeare this obligation upon our humanity by this supposition that God lost the love of much nobler creatures by his preference of mans nature before theirs and if the supreamest of all creatures thought this as a partiality to an unworthy subject a provocation to leave loving of God shall not this prefer'd creature derive from hence a powerfull motive to raise and purifie his love in respect of this so obliged proposure whereof the Apostle glorieth and insisteth much upon the prelation of the seed of Abraham before the nature of Angels as one of the strongest inducements to â—nterest our hearts in this filial affection And since God hath prefer'd the nature of man before that of Angels not onely in point of honour but likewise in the part of succour why may we not suppose he valueth more the love of men then that of Angels this conception may safely be made use of to incite us to the studying the abstraction and spiritualizing our loves to the purest degree of our compound nature in which the very disadvantage we have more then pure spirits in the devesture of self-respects may be converted into a conducement to the value of our purity by reason the opposition of our bodyes in this disinterested love is counted to us an indearement of our hearts when in this reluctancy of one halfe we reduce our love to that decree of implicity which is compatible with this our complexure and as Saint Jerome saith of the chastity of virgins composed with that of Angels There is more felicity in the one but more fortitude in the other So we may say respectively of their two loves that there is more happynesse in the one but more Heroicknesse in the other What Angelicall love exceedeth in the finenesse of abstraction humane may answer in the fidelity of extraction since his is laboured
then see of them resplendent in that clarity This Celestiall mirrour maketh a reflection much differing from all materiall ones for it doth not send back to us the same image we set before it but a farre better then we had any capacity to expose unto it for when our love looketh upon God refer'd simply to his own essentiall purity This sort of mirrour returneth to us not so much the image of our loves to God as the representation of Gods love to us by reason we see then God loving us in this our intuition of his goodnesse which reflection sheweth us a better character of this manner of our love then we could have prefigured to our selves and when we behold our selves in that image of Gods loving us we cannot overvalue our selves under that notion so that this is a blessed and a safe course joyntly to please God and humour our own nature in a selfe-complacency Thus have I endeavoured to figure these two loves and I have set them both in the tabernacle but in unequall ranks of dignity the one without among the utentsils of brasse the other within the vail among the instruments of gold so as the most ignoble of these two species is allowed in the service of religion in some degree but is not accepted single as sufficient for our religious oblation For God tollerateth no longer the infirmity of that love whereof we our selves dispence with the insufficiency so that the relying upon mercenary love may decry it while our disclaiming the meannesse of it may hold it up current with him to whom King David paying the purest species said Thou art my God and standest i◠no need of my goods §. V. Advises in order to the preserving this sort of Love and fraternall dilection represented as a gracious rule whereby to judge of our rectitude in filiall love THese two loves being thus set by one another whereof I have not only drawn the several complexions but delivered the diverse constitutions there is little doubt which of them will be preferred but much which will be rightly pursued for our degenerated nature is apt to believe that the verball preferring of Filiall love is the having it and certainly many who have been neare it have missed of it by concluding they had attained it and many have lost it by conceiving it might be kept and left loose without much attendance whereas they should remember that it is not the Spring of our fallen nature that of it selfe riseth to that point from whence it fell it is the force of grace which can only raise and re-mount it to this elevation and our spirits must continually attend this operation of Grace to force up this pure affection against the risings of our sensitive appetites which make steepe oppositions to this reflux insomuch as if this worke be not assiduously intended our affections quickly sinke into the channell of our earthy nature which is interested and mercenary love They who pretend to keepe their hearts exalted as the Prophet saith above the altitudes of the earth in this purer element of filiall love must watch it continually when they hope they have it and still pray for it as if they feared they had it not and there is no so ill sign of our having any of it as our presuming we have enough of it as Saint Augustine saith of the knowledge of God that he who hath speculated his nature never so long when he commeth to think he hath found a compleat definition of God may be then said to understand the least of him So may I say of Filiall love they who have been never so long filling their heatrs with it when they presume they are full enough are then the most devoyded of it It is in our love referring to the immensity of God as in numbers relating to infinity wherein any summe never so great when it is once cast up and stai'd in any total may be said to be further from infinity then a much lesser number which is still running on without any determined period So any degree of love to our Creator being once voluntarily bounded and circumscribed is farther off from our interminate duty of loving then an affection never so much behind that is still advancing without a purpose of terme or limitation This then may be an infallible note of the deficiency of our love when in any straine of interior fervor we conclude we may stay our loves at such a pitch and make plaines upon it never aiming at a higher flight and this may be a secure rest for such hearts as are yet never so infirme in their loves that as long as they pursue sincerely the premotion and advance of them loving all they can and resolving never to love lesse then all they can improve their loves by any solicitude they may believe they love enough for nothing reacheth nearer Gods actuall infinity then this as I may say optative infinity in the soul of man which though she can never reach the other infinite existence yet hath a possibility of never staying or limitting her motions towards it This consideration drew from Saint Bernard this elegant indearement of the capacity of love in these words to God O otherwise incomprehensible Majesty to a soul loving thee thou seemest comprehensible for though the conception of no soul or Spirit can comprehend thee yet the love of a true lover of thee comprehendeth all thou art when he loveth all thy being how great soever it be What greater incentive can we wish for the purifying our love then to conceive that capacity to be granted to our love on earth which is denyed to our understanding even in heaven to wit the full comprehension of God but there is no love unlesse perfect filiall that can beare this so large ascription For our mercenary affection may be said to look upon divinity but as an object angular onely as it pointeth unto our selves and doth not spread out souls upon the spherical and circular form of the divine goodnesse as it is it selfe imbracing all forms and beings which latitude and expansion is peculiar unto Filiall love as an operation of that all-comprising charity diffused in our hearts by the holy-Ghost For all our love to God is inspired by himself as the light inlightning maketh the light that is illuminated God hath provided so kindly against our mistaking of our way to this excellent love as he hath set us a sensible mark to guide us by which is fraternall love which we have as a kind of visible object whereby to direct our course so that if our love lose sight of this mark we may be sure it is out of the way to filiall affection for the beloved Apostle in pursuit of his Masters specifical difference given to know his disciples from others which was the loving of one another giveth him the lie that is so bold as to say he loveth God when he hateth his brother
And sure it is a speciall mercy the. laying for us these sensible steps of sociable dilection whereon we may feel our hearts rising up to that imperceptible object of the Deity that by loving what we do sie we may direct the course of our love to what we do not see if we wanted this land-mark whereof the Pharisees took down the upper halfe when they shortened the precept of loving our neighbour to the length onely of reciprocall friendship our love would be much more exposed to deviation in the course to heaven For we know it is much easier to keep our way at land where we have diverse sensible marks for our guidance and information of our advance then at sea where we keep our course by accounts of art and little visible directions and our love to our brothers seemeth to be a passage of our minds by land since in that motion in our own element we have many marks and signes of the rectitude of our love whereas the elevation of our loves to the invisible being of God seemeth to be a course at sea wherein we are conducted onely by spirituall and abstracted notions We may therefore account our selves much favoured by having fraternal love as a sign secure token of our loves being in a straight and rectified addresse to God and the bosome disciple of Christ fixeth this as the pole by which our love may safely set his course to our Celestiall Father affirming that He who loveth his brother abideth in light and in him there is no scandale this is grounded on his Masters assertion that the second precept of loving our brother was like the first of loving God and these two loves may me thinks be said to be different but as the Divines say Gods attributes are distinct from his Essence not really in their own nature though they are severed by distinct conceptions in our understandings to wit of Gods wisdome goodnes justice c we form conceptions distinct from his essence which are all really the same thing with it In like manner we frame diverse notions of this charity as it is divided into these distinct exercises which is really the same is distinguished onely by our understanding according to these several respects towards God and our brother for it is the same inspired love that streameth it selfe into these diverse acts or operations Let us then blesse God for this precept of Fraternall love given us as a visible pillar of fire which while we have in our eye we may be confident of being in our way to the term of Filiall love consummate in the sight of our Father who is as yet visible but in his images wherefore let us attend unto this duty as to a light shining in this our dark place untill the day-star of Filiall love rise in our hearts Thus have I set before you Christian Charity in the forme of Jacobs ladder on which our love must ascend to him who rests upon the top of it and in this similitude mercenary love seemeth to answer well to the lower rounds neerest the earth on which our infirme nature is allowed to set her first steps and so to rise by degrees to the uppermost marches which touch heaven to the which none reacheth but filiall love and our fraternall charities seeme to be the side-pieces which combine and compaginate the whole frame so that these three concurrencies do compleat the meanes of our soules re-ascent to her Creator And since Christian grace is derived from the filiall relation in the Deity Filiall love in this state of our adoption must needs be the pillar strength of Christianity which like the pillars of the holiest part of the Tabernacle hath the head cast of gold and the fact of silver that is it containeth not onely the purity and preciousnes of speculative love but the pliantnes and commerce of practicall charity whereby the feet in action hold a proportionate value to the head in speculation thus by the intelligence of speculative and the industry of acting charity our souls are safely re-conveyed into our Fathers bosome where the portion of every child is no lesse then the becomming like the Lord of all our elder brother Christ Jesus whose Filial love hath purchased this co-inheritance for us upon this condition onely on our part of loving our father and his with an affection copied after his and the liker we draw this image the more we shall resemble him when we shall become like him by once looking on him let every one then that hopeth this sanctifie his love as his is sanctified The fifeenth Treatise The Duties of a Christian towards Enemies Divided into five Sections §. I. The precept of loving Enemies sweetned by miny Reasons drawn from Christs injoyning it and his acting it NEver â—an spake like this said our Saviors enemies of him when they came armed with Malice and Authority to offer him violence This singular attribution was due to all he said but cannot me thinks be more apposite to any thing he uttered then to this injunction of Love your enemies as good to them that hate you The strangeness of this precept seemeth to imply That the Author of Nature onely could be the proposer of it because the complyment with it seemeth to require a reversal of the instincts of Nature and looks like a greater undertaking then the re-edifying the Temple in three days this seeming as many miracles proposed as there are Humane tempers in the world to be wrought upon For the answering of Hatred and Injury with Love and Charity seemeth more incompetent with our Nature then the proposition which posed Nicodemus since iâ— may be said to be less strange for Nature to revert to what she hath once been then to transcend so much her own dispositions as to be raised from a Humane to an Angelical temper For in this state of Charity the spirit seems no ways acting by the impulses of the senseâ— Me thinks those Coelestial Doctrines should have attested to his enemies that it could be no less then the Creator of Men and Angels that could undertake these Conversions of old men into children and all men as it were into Angels and he it was indeed who proposed this renovation and exaltation of our Nature and well might he do it who had in his person brought God into Infancy and Man into Divinity We may â—iâ—y then proclaim of him with them that heard him referring specially to this article of Loving enemies that he taught not as the Scribes but as having power For the Doctors of the Law durst so little press this duty upon the people though it were contained in their Commandments as in complyance with the hardness of their hearts they ventured rather to allow a Bill of Divorce to their loves in this case of consorting with enemies and in this perverted liberty Christ found the people strongly habituated Insomuch as we may say not improperly
which they forge themselves so as commonly when the possession thereof cometh to be questioned before God it indureth not the tryal In this case we cannot recuse our Enemies for our Jury since they are more proper then indifferent persons for this tryal which is to be judged upon the testimonies of our humble and patient sufferings few will protest against flexibleness under the depression of Gods hands but most would fain hold the screw themselves whereby they are let down for fear of falling too violently or too low but true Humility abandoneth it self to the supreme hand under which all other move but instrumentally not excepting against any violent motions of secondary hands whereinto it is delivered to be exerâ—ised And if upon the pain we feel from our Enemies hand we would with the eye of Humility look strictly inward upon our selves we should for the most part discern that it is dressing some defect we apprehended not before as either the cancer of Self-love which we have all in our breasts or some tumor rising in Prosperity or the Ulcer of Sensuality or the vertigo and giddiness of youth or the drowsiness and tepidity of Ease and Accommodation All which may be said to be like worms to Ships that breed in us eating and consuming us under water most when we lie still in the harbors of temporal rest and security so that perfect Humility understanding the unsoundness of Humane Nature apprehendeth Enemies as Gods Surgeons making all their operations rather Cures of some Infirmity then woundings of any vertuous quality I may then safely propose to you the study of Humility as the best qualification for the discharge of this precept since he who commandeth us to take this yoke upon us biddeth us learn of him to carry it because he is meek and humble of heart therefore by the same disposition we must needs be the best enabled in his method to fulfil all righteousness Nor doth this precept of Loving enemies and Forgiving offences any way slack or retard the exercise of Justice whose sword though it draw blood yet it sheddeth none for it striketh onely in application to Gods order not mans passion Princes therefore who are but Gods sword-bearers by the right of their offices when they are provoked by any personal injury as Ingratitude or any other infidelity not legally criminal should remember That though they have many other arms about them yet they are warranted to strike with none but the sword of Justice Revenge is justice that Nature would do her self whereby that power which hath the command of regular Justice may easily be deceived by our Nature which when it is checked by the Law of God in this point of self-righting seeketh to slip in this appetite under the cover of the Law of Man Thus the animosity which powerful persons have in their hearts easily runs through their veins into their hands which hold and deliver out the publike Justice into which private interests do so commodiously insinuate themselves as it requireth a great attention of grace to discern this surreption and reject this intrusion of Revenge into the train and comitancy of Justice Me thinks Princes not being exposed so much as others to personal irritations have it discounted to them in the equal imposition of this duty on them of Forgiving private offences and repressing the sence of particular displeasures since this Bridle must needs set the most uneasily upon their heads the Crown seeming to take up so much room as there is little left for the reins of this Command In others the violence of their Nature is often easily staid and repulsed by the steepness of the rise up to Revenge but they are put to hold it pressing downhil so that unless Grace bear the reins very hard Nature will easily run away in this precipitate passion but as this difficulty maketh the restraint of this impetus the more painful so the mastery thereof becometh more meritorious to them then it is to less tempted Conformists Certainly Princes who faithfully observe this command make more of their provocations then they do of most of their bounties for by this subjection they lay up their power in Heaven in stead of laying it out on Earth and at that day when all the Treasures of their Civil Liberalities shall be melted and dissolved these their Sufferings and Self denials shall remain impassible in that fire which the Apostle saith shall try all our works Blessed then are onely those who while they live here in greatness and authority build their Monuments of such materials as may endure the fire of that day when even the light affections of this life shall prove hay and stubble about their owners passing through a flame and the heavy passions of Anger and Malice shall sink their bearers into such flames as are never to be passed Wherefore the best Monuments Princes can erect for their eternity are arches of these solid Vertues of Humility Patience and Charity which are the more strengthned the more they are charged with the remission of injuries and the dilection of enemies These will out last all their Pyramides of secular Ostentation and Magnificence the King of Heaven Earth hath left them the model of this arch in his life who was then in the strongest point of his Oharity when he was bowed into this triumphant arch of Humility bearing his Cross under which as his body sunk so his love to his enemies grew the more erected none then can be so great as to be exempted from this conformity nor any so miserable as not be solaced by this association I may well then cast up all my divisions respecting several conditions and different provocations into this total That whosoever confess they have any sins whereof they expect a forgiveness from God must resolve to forgive their Brother what offences soever shall require their remission since this condition is expresly set upon their own pardons If you forgive not men neither will your Father remit unto you your offences And our Savior Christ at his remove from his Disciples left them this specifical distinction from the worlds dependants The loving one another so as we may say That our suffering King and Master hath set his Arms upon this Precept for all his followers to wear and to be discerned by O let us then cast off our old Badges of Envy and animosity which are indeed but the Cognizances of Cain and let us put on his Livery to whom we rightfully belong remembring we are not our own having been bought by a great price to glorifie and bear God in our body And when we carry Christ crucified in our thoughts along with our own Crucifiers the pretensions of our Nature to her resentments will be out of countenance in that company and drawing all the grievances and aversions of our Nature as coupled in the yoke with Christ we shall easily confess That even the burthen of this
Churches service being set by the hand of that great Master who in this last lesson of his owne voyce did concert this symphony in the musick of the Church and even ingaged his father to preserve this unity and consort by these words Holy Father keepe through thy owne name those whom thou hast given me that they may be one as we are one This cleereth to us the marke of concordancy in faith to be one of the most respondent unto Christs signature on his Church And as one may without arrogating to himselfe much of the science of a Physitian venture to pronounce what is the best temper to be composed of so may I safely affirme that Religion to be of the best constitution which consisteth the most perfectly of these two divine elements well intermixed Zeale and Charity the which may be said to make a good complexion in the face of Religion the first relating to the colour of the blood and the last to the fairnesse of the skin through which the good tincture of zeale is transparent in the works of charity wherefore the well tempering of these two qualities make that beauty in the Spouse of which the Bridegroome saith Behold how faire is my Love there is no spot in her And as the face although it be not an infallible yet is one of the best indications of the bodies health for although there be not any so secure symptomes in it as conclude against all infirmities yet there are some so resolving marks of unhealthfulnesse in the face as cannot mislead a prognostike of some infirmity So may we make a probable judgement of the foundnesse of a Religion by the faire and healthful aspect thereof and by the ill looks and disfigurements of some Religions we may warrantably sentence the unsoundnesse of them for there are some that have such marks of uncleannesse on their skin as not onely the Priest but even the People may discern the Leprosie This considered the most advised judgement touching Religion for the generality of men is the preferrence of that which hath the most promising countenance of this perfect constitution of unity in faith of orderly zeale and of active charity for out of these materials onely that flame is raised which our glorious high Priest came to kindle upon the earth The Fourth Treatise Of Devotion In two Sect. §. I. Devotion regularly defined and some accidents that raise it explicated THere is nothing seems more requisite towards the sincere practice of it then the sound definition of Devotion for it is much easier to copie well then to designe perfectly this worke Neverthelesse it is the familiar presumption of the world to passe themselves Masters by drawing the expressions of their piety by their own imagination rather them to work then by the Churches draughts and patterns and thus many are mistaken in the manner more then in the meaning of their religious duties for devotion consists more of conformity to order in pious applications then in contrivement of them wherefore this prescription of some spirituall director is given by God Obey them that rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your soules And herein is provided a rest as I may say for our zeale to discharge it selfe upon for when it is shot without that stay it often falls very wide of the right mark which the holy Spirit hath set up to us by the Psalmist in Not unto us O Lord but unto thy Name give glory So that this is the safest principle for all good inclinations to build upon viz. the right notion and understanding of devotion taken from some prudent director for even the steadiest hands draw straighter lines stayed and guided by a rule then left to their own loose motion And I may without presumption undertake to shape a generall good rule by the Model of the Churches doctrine whereby to take the right dimensions of rectified Devotion for this may be done by an unskilfull hand in the practicall part as good instruments may be made by Mechanicks who want the science of using them Devotion is a fervour infused into our soule by Grace which breatheth out continually an alacrity promptitude in regular and ordinate performances of all such religious duties as are ordained by God for the exteriour testimony of the interiour love and reverence we owe him This good habit of the mind is the fierie spiration of the holy Ghost taking in such sort upon our wills as it raiseth a flaming evidence of our love to God in all our actions and this is properly to be baptized with the Spirit and with fire to have all our affections turned Christian by the accension of that holy fire in our hearts which Christ said he came to cast into the earth and required the kindling and ardencie of it in us so that the activity of this spirituall fire in our soules is that we tearme our devotion which implyes a conformity of our affections in morality and our opinions in religion to the revealed will of God our appetites we conforme in acquiring such habits of virtue as are expresly enjoyned us by God in his commandments and our own conceptions we submit in our conformity to such acts of religious worship as are directed to us by the Church which God hath invested with power of direction by these words of his commission They that heare you heare me and they that despise you despise me promising also the spirit of truth to rectifie all the executions of this power and the residence of that spirit to the end of the World In order to the preservation of that capacity imparted hence is it that there is no zeale or fervour of spirit which may properly passe for Devotion that is not touched at the test of the sanctuary which is obedience to the Churches regulations for many may thinke themselves in Saint Pauls discipline in the ferrour of the spirit when they are neerer Saint Judes commination of perishing in the contradiction of Core for as Saint John sayes The Spirit of Truth and of Errour is discerned by hearing the voyce of the Church not by singing loud in it therefore it is not the straining our notes but the singing in tune that makes the musick of Devotion wherewith God is delighted But supposing the flame of our Devotion to be lighted by a coal from the Altar the higher it riseth the neerer it cometh to Heaven for there must not be only interiour heat but exteriour light in it Saint John Baptist is a perfect image of Devotion in that Character Christ gives of him he was a burning a shining light which signifieth internall sincerity and active exemplarity and our Saviour intimates these two requisitions in our Devotion when he gives us this order Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good workes and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven wherefore
this precept requires not only a fervour which we feel our selves but a splendour that may illuminate others by the edification of our lives When our Saviour stateth us as pilgrims in this transitory world he advises us to have our Loynes girl and our Lights burning which intimateth promptitude to the exercise of Charity and fervency in the act of our love And Devotion comprizes fully this equipage for our journey since it collects us and strengthens us for motion and is likewise that fire which is the best security we can carry with us in our passage through the wildernesse we travail to arme us against all the wild sensualities that lie in our way since it hath this speciall virtue to fright and disperse all that is irrationall And this spirituall fire hath many analogies with materiall insomuch as the holy spirit sayes of it The coales thereof are coales of fire and have a vehement flame and me thinkes this one remarkable similitude betweene them may be fitly applyed viz. as fire doth convert many substances which were unfruitfull unclean into a matter both generative and clensing by the consumption and reduction of them into ashes which have both these qualities so Devotion by consuming our passions which were both barren impure converts our affections into the love of penance and mortification which are the ashes of our consumed offences and so are made both fruitfull and purging by this conversion into matter of humiliation by which kind of soyling many converts improve much the good seed fal'n into their hearts for that penitent reflexion Devotion makes upon our vaine and foul passions and affections which is the consumption and incineration of them becomes purgative by sincere contrition and generative of all fruites of Charity since the zeale of mortification is not only a marke of our repentance but a meanes of our perfection when holy David sayes he eate ashes like bread they were made of his loose passion consumed by the flame of his Devotion and so converted into seeds of penance and we know how fruitfull these ashes proved to his former sterility The water of expiation in the Law was made with the infusion of ashes and certainly there is nothing more clensing then the matter of our offences consumed by Devotion and aspersed upon our memories for nothing makes us more zealous to take out all their staines upon our lives according to the Apostles observation of the effects of godly sorrow What carefulnesse what clearing of our selves what indignation what vehement desire what zeal yea what revenge it workes so as you see what fertility Devotion raiseth out of the consumption and ashes of our sinnes which is the Apostles godly sorrow §. II. Devotion described a more familiar way and the best naturall temper in order thereunto BEcause Devotion hath hitherto spoke the Language of the Church it may seeme uneasie unto many to be understood therefore I shall put it into the vulgar tongue of the Court and so make it more familiar for apprehension and by the warrant of S. Pauls condescendence to the capacities he wrote unto I may speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh and therefore venture without any levity to say Devotion is a Divine passion Love raised to the height of passion upon humane objects is a power in our mind whereon most of the world doth rather pretend an excellency over others then plead any excuse for such an incapacity in their nature wherefore this will be an expression of devotion that will serve and fit most apprehensions And certainly as strangers doe discreetly to change their habit when they come to dwell in forreigne parts especially if they be rude and uncivilized so pure devotion being a stranger to our carnall nature which is of it selfe wild and undisciplined comming to plant it selfe and live with it may be better suited for the purpose of introduction with the apparell of passion which is native then with her owne habit of purity though more decent and becoming for this exteriour simil 〈…〉 de may give the love of God at first more convenient conference with our sense which usually doth but looke strangly at her when she appeares first in her owne spirituall habit which is so different from the spotted garment of flesh and blood So that Devotion being thus put into the fashion and speaking the language of the place it comes to may hope for admittance without much wonder unto our understandings and by acquaintance with them informing them of the benefits of her association may obtaine a plantation in our wills and affections and thus by degrees come to be naturaliz'd in our dispositions and by this easie way of introduction Devotion may come to get possession in some minds by commerce of a good companion sooner then by open claime of her owne rights for we may conclude what right Devotion hath to our mindes by this that when prophane passion seekes to value it selfe and to possesse the minds of others it puts on a heavenly habit and speakes the language of Devotion in reverence and adoration thus as it were confessing the due interest piety hath in our hearts May not piety then to recover the easilier her due without irreverence be put into the lighter figure of passion I may therefore in order to a pious successe propose the being devout under the tearmes of being in love with Heaven because it is the likeliest way of perswasion to the world to propose not the putting away but the preferring of their loves and so transferre them to a fairer object not extinguish the fervency of their act and I believe without any levity of conceipt that hearts wrought into a tendernesse by the lighter flame of nature are like mettals already running easilier cast into Devotion then others of a hard and lesse impressive temper for Saint Austin said the holy Magdelen changed her object only not her passion and one may joyne him with her to authorize this opinion for love like gold though it be cast into an idol the perversion of the forme doth not disvalue the mettall and we know the same gold that Gods People tooke from his Enemies in the forme of their idols after it was purged by fire was consecrated to the tabernable and then it seemed to have a double capacity of honouring God as an offering of his servants and as a trophe from enemies so when the flame of the holy Spirit which is Devotion hath purged and purified our loves that were cast into the images of humane passions the same love is sanctified and assigned to Divine Service and brings a more speciall glory to God as it is not only an oblation of his children but also a spoile of his enemy This is not meant to countenance the alienation of our loves at any time from God but to commend that disposition of nature where love seemes the predominant instinct for
certainly such a temper is apter for a right conversion then a harsh and sowre constitution of the mind the first is a good mould of earth with ill seed cast into it and so the fruit may be ill while the pregnancy of the earth is good the other is a heath naturally unfruitfull and requires much more manuring to make it beare Wherefore that nature which hath not a kindly pregnancy in it to beare love is not the best mould for the seed in the Gospell for though it may render thirty it can hardly yeeld the increase of a hundred fold in Devotion Certainly we may then very religiously preferre the constitution of such mindes whose powers are best disposed for the act of loving for love as it is the greatest treasure of our soules so is it the only security stands bound to God for all our debts all the other faculties of man seeme to be receivers only and this the discharger of all their accounts but love hath this extraordinary blessing the greater expense it makes upon this occasion the richer it growes for the more our love payes God the more it improves the same estate but we can assigne nothing but this pure species of love to the receipt of heaven Wherefore all empty formalities and unsincere affectations in exteriour exercises that would passe for Devotion are me thinkes like servants that have got on fine clothes of their Masters by which strangers may mistake their quality but their Masters are not deceived by them so these garments and coverings of Devotion may abuse the eye of the world but we know the master of all sanctity distinguishes dissimulation in all the specious similitudes it weareth And I should beleeve a varnished hypocrite may be more offensive to the sight of God then a zealous unvailed idolater for this is but mistaken in God and the other seemeth to suppose God may be mistaken in him and certainly there is nothing more capitall against the lawes of Heaven then counterfeiting the coyne which piety may not improperly be tearmed as being the price and measure of all exchanges between heaven and earth of these false coyners King David sayes They slatter God with their mouth lye unto him with their tongues and he gives them Gods answer thus The Lord shall laugh them to scorn We may conclude then that the sincere love of God is the spirit and soul of Devotion and therefore is to be intire in every severall part of our religious exercises when God dignifies man with similitude to his own image it is the soul not the body that hath this Divine relation so in the service of God which is a consistence of two such parts united of spirit and of matter the spirit and breath of life doth not reside in the materiall part which is sensible religious offices but in the informing and animating part which is Devotion the which answereth to the soule in humanity as I have endeavoured to demonstrate And thus I hope that I have not indecently apparell'd Devotion in the habit of the place it is recommended to clothing it in this soft rayment of passion being to come unto the houses of Kings But now me thinkes I heare some sensuall and voluptuous persons cry out to warne their passions to stand upon their guard objecting that I like a pyrat have thus put up friends colours while I am in chase calling devotion love and passion that it might the easilyer enter our hearts which when it hath done it takes and imprisons all our humane delights To these I may answer that I have put up these colours indeed that those vessels I would speak with might not fly from piety at first sight as from an enemy to pleasure that speaking with them I might shew them how Devotion comming and possessing our mindes doth rather compose the munity then infringe the true liberty of our affections For grace findes Humane Nature like a vessell richly fraught for commerce with Heaven most commonly in a mutiny where the affections that should saile her rise up against their Commander resolving to make spoile of their commodities and to turne to the piracy of sense taking all whereof sensuality can possesse it selfe and if Devotion enter and compose this sedition and convey the affections cheerefully to their direct commerce with Heaven this may be rather thought a delivery then a violation And surely our senses cannot more justly complaine of Devotion as a dispossessor of their properties then wilde people can call a Law-giver a tyrant For piety doth but regulate the functions not ruine the faculties of our senses and licentiousnesse cannot more rightly be called the mindes liberty then nakednesse the bodies freedome For lawes and apparell doe both in their kinds cover natures nakednesse and lawes like clothes impart conveniencies the one to the minde as the other to the body without impeaching the decent and proper exercises of either and so Devotion doth but reduce the wild multitude of humane affections and passions under the Monarchall Government of the love of God under which they may enjoy a more convenient freedome then let loose in their owne confused Anarchy which they confesse when they are converted by God to this belief of their condition that to serve God is to raigne The Fift Treatise Discoursing whether sensible pleasure may consort with Devotion In two Sections §. I. The rectifying our Affections chiefely our love in the sense of beauty UPon the title of this Chapter me thinkes I see our humane affections stand with the same perplexed attention as a condemn'd multitude at the reading of a Proclamation of Grace to some particular specified names each one watching and praying for his owne Thus doe our humane passions seeme now concerned believing themselves all condemn'd by piety each one me thinkes in a frighted and tacit deprecation of their censure is expecting with anexity to know whether Devotion will allow them life and consistence with her edicts The answer to this must be that I shall only put to death the blind and the lame whch are commonly set to keep the strong hold of our corrupted nature against virtue As they were upon the walls of Sion to keep out David Such Devotion must destroy for they are hated by her Soule and are not to be admitted into the Temple Secular justice is allowed a latitude in mercy to which this spirituall judge cannot extend his favour viz. rather to save diverse guilty then to cut off one innocent for Devotion must rather put to death many innocent affections then save one criminall by reason that in this case mercy renders the judge a complice of the crime so that our Devotion must not looke upon the face of any of our affections but judge by the testimony our conscience brings in against them Yet piety is not so inhumane as many may apprehend that know not the nature thereof for it delighteth not in the death of our
many that we may easily proportion a correspondence between our affections to sensible and spirituall objects setting them in the due subordination of the sence to the understanding and when this order is settled in our minds we are perswaded there may be allowed this intelligence which passeth often between the greatest distances of degrees that what appertaines properly to the dignity of spiritualities may be borrowed sometimes innocently and applyed to adorne and grace the worth of materiall goods and after this manner I suppose we may accommodate these attributes of divine and heavenly and many other such jewels of the crown of God to illustrate the accomplishments of corporeall blessings In this method many Lovers seeme to thinke they may use Gods spirituall Altar as we do his material Altars in Churches from whence the ornaments are borrowed and transposed from one to another according to different solemnities for many use as familiarly all the proprietyes of divine love for the gracing of their passion as if God had lent them his attributes to set off the shrine of their affections which do usually stand dressed up with Sacred vessels with all the termes of veneration and adoring and thus doth our unfaithfull councellor perswade us in effect to set up altar against altar upon pretence of a faire correspondence between Grace and nature This is truly to be blinded by the God of this world as the Apostle saith to treat any such compartition of our heart between our faith and our fancy applying alternatively the same expressions of estimation to them both when we know all the appurtenances to Gods altar are so fastned to it by his own hand as the very borrowing of them for secular uses is sacriledge The same composition of oyntment which God did appropriate to the services of the Tabernacle was forbid to be imploy'd upon bodyes in the delicacies of the flesh under the same paine as sacriledge and that confection of perfumes which was peculiarly Gods odour was not to be compounded for any common application and when we poure out so familiarly Gods attributes upon our loves as an unction of suavity and delicacies upon flesh and blood and perfume our passions with the same composition of prayses and exaltations which are properly affected to divine uses we do certainly incur this kind of irreligious presumption and how familiar this loose effusion is of all the most Sacred termes upon this subject of our passion I need not argue but enter this ill custome as a high indignity to God though it passe commonly for no more then a light intemperancy of the fancy which is little questioned truly it is most an end the foul ardor kindled in the heart that seeths this uncleane froth out of the mouth which staineth all the Moral virtues it toucheth for prophanenesse taints wit and civility and all other good qualities it runnes through and so though prophane love may sharpen the brain it alwayes sowreth the heart which is the vessell of devotion if there be then many hearts farre from God while they honour him with their lips we may safely conclude no heart can be neer to God while the lips are so farre from honouring him as leading out his propertyes Wherefore let no body presume that they may innocently convert a hymne into an Iopean that is to transferre the prerogative prayses of divinity to the flattery of his owne Diana In the religion of the heathen Romanes every one had their houshold gods that did not derogate from the honor of those they worshipped in the Temples each one was allowed his Genius each family their Penates for familiar gods at home which they observed loved more though they feared not so much as their state gods methinks they that would maintaine a consistancie betweene those two altars of humane passion and divine love take the priviledges of that religion allowing themselves their Genius or fancy for a domestick god which they affect more though they acknowledge not so much as their Church of God But the reason why the Gods of the heathens did admit this association was that they were not jealous Gods and cared as little for the singlenesse of the heart as they knew the secrets thereof whereas our God is just the contrary both a jealous and an Omniscient God and as all hearts are his not onely by creation but by purchase with no lesse a price then all his love so it cannot be expected he should receive hearts back againe with lesse then all their love §. III. The errours of prophane jealousie argued and a Pious jealousie propounded MEthinks passionate lovers who know nothing so well as the nature of jealousie which studyeth continually the anotamy of hearts and is so severe to the least defective part should not hope to passe any insincerity upon a jealous God if they did not study too much the quality of jealousie and too little the nature of God for if they attended that it would shew them God cannot be jealous according to the nature of man where jealousie implyes doubt and perplexity of inquiry for to God the secrets of hearts are manifest even while they are secrets to themselves he preconceiveth what all hearts shal ever freely conceive so God calleth himselfe a jealous God as knowing the nature of humane jealousie which is so sensible of the least substraction from what we affect to assure us by that title he can admit no participation in what he vouchsafes to love It is to inlighten man in the knowledge of his severity not to obscure the beliefe of his omniscience that he cals himselfe a jealous God which quality is as propitious in Gods love as it is malignant in mans for humane jealousie among all the falsities it suggests for our disquiet telleth us but one important truth and that we seem to believe little by the eagernes of our solicitations which is the infidelity and variablenesse of all humane loves that are so unfaithfull as our greatest passions are commonly unsecured by our tendernesse and caution of them and Gods jealousie assureth us of the immutability of his love which we can loose onely by our not being jealous of it for the more watches we set over it in our lips and the more guards in our hearts the more it is obliged by this circumspection nor must we think to keep it safe in our hearts while the doors of our lips stand open to all the passengers of a prophan and libertine tongue so that if we make a serious reflexion on it there is none of Gods attributes so sure a guide for our way to him as a jealous God Whereupon I may well ask the Synagogue of Libertines this puestion of Saint James Do you thinke that the Scripture saith in vain The Spirit that dwelleth in you covets you even to emulation and Saint Paul explicates this when to indeare his zeale to soules he calls it the emulation of God and we know God is
not as man that he may be deceived the same Spirit is jealous of us which peirceth and divideth asunder the soule and the Spirit and is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart Therefore they who look upon the beauty of Gods love in the beams of his mercy should alwayes reflect upon the shadow of his love which is his jealousie and is inseparable from the substance of his charitie But commonly Libertine lovers when they raise their thoughts as high as God look upon his mercyes being above all his works and account that as a City of refuge whereunto they can easily flie for protection of these kind of infirmities of nature pleading all their offences to be rather occasionall frailties then purposed infidelities to God and so while they have this attribute of Gods mercy in their eye like the hill seated upon a mountaine they think they cannot loose their way to it though they loyter and wander in their youth out of the strait and narrow way straying by the light excursions of their passion And certainly no one sinne hath misled more then this purposed Piety in which the Devill is a diligent advocate for Gods mercy For all active vitiousnesse hath a kind of hot feavor which keeps the conscience awake at least but this rowling between mercy and justice is a certaine motion that very often rocketh the conscience into a drowsinesse till our last sleep after which the worm it wanted never lets it rest againe How many say with Christ Yet a little and the world shall not see me who go out of the world in this stretching of themselves in a little more sleep a little more slumber Therefore I will recommend one jealousie to lovers which think themselves secure of Gods mercy by being but loose sutors for it let me propose to them to be very jealous of it I am sure they can know nothing of Gods heart which ought to make them confident of his mercy longer then they are actually watching it for it is seriously true in this case what is familiarly said to justifie vain jealousie that we cannot love mercy much and not be jealous of it nay I may add that the very apprehension of the insecurity of it is the fruition of this love for it is a possession of mercy to be solicitous and attentive in feare of losing it in this sense Solomon saith Blessed is he who is alwayes fearing and David prayeth that his flesh may be pierced with this feare But alas prophane passion is commonly a derider of all holy fear and accepts onely that which vaine jelousie imposeth on her and so the fear passion hath proves rather a curse then a custody for her love for the feares of lovers may be properly said to be such as the Wise-man elegantly discribes in the Aegyptian darknesse when their fire afforded them no light and those flashes of lightning which passed by them did but fright them so much the more being so terrified with what they saw they concluded that much more horrid which they saw not and thus their feare proved nothing to them but a betrayer of the succours of reason I need not put this on upon a lovers jealousie to try if it wil serve it by an application of those qualityes for it will appeare to any body that knoweth it as apposite and fit as if it had been made by the measure of that passion therefore I may wel conclude that love to be very unhappy which rejects all Pious feare and accepteth willingly this perplexing terrour §. IV. The deceipt of passion in promise of mercy and power of resisting temptations VAin passion is so malignant as it corrupteth the best power of mindes which is love and perverteth the best quallity of bodyes which is beauty nay it is so apt to make a wrong use of all beauty as it doth commonly misapply the beauty of grace which is mercy for it setteth our thoughts too much upon that faire delightfull attribute of God and seldome alloweth his justice a due proportion of them for many lovers acquaint themselves with Gods mercy as the Pharisees did converse with Christs person they are heires of Gods mercy and eat and drink with it familiarly but have no intelligence with his other attributes and so when they come to claime that acquaintance with it of having been taught and fed by it they are in danger to be disclaimed with I know you not depart from me mercy shall not then know them for their having been too familiar with her no more then God shall own the acquaintance of swearers who have beene so familiar with him thereforethe Wise-man giveth them an excellent counsell Say not the mercy of the Lord is great and he will have pitty on the multitude of my sinnes for his mercy and his anger are neer one another and his anger looketh upon sinners and most of all when they look not upon his anger For this reason lovers who usually set before their eyes mercy put before justice should use mercy not as a cover but as a Cristal onely to look through it upon the figure of justice in which it may intenerate and soften somewhat the hard strokes of that figure for the severity of Gods judgements may well be sweetened by this transparent supervesture of his kindnesse but when mercy is laid as a covering which too much obscureth justice to us then likely the more we look upon it the more we see our passion in it and the love of God the lesse for hope which vaine passion findeth a virtue in our hearts it commonly leaveth a vice by flattering hope into excesse and corrupteth it often by the art of overpraising it and so leadeth it imperceptibly up to presumption therefore I may properly say to many lovers presuming on mercy as Saint John Baptist did to such a kind of confidence think not to say within your selves we have Abraham for our father but bring forth works worthy of repentance let them not think mercy is intailed to the stock of their confidence but stated upon the conformity and fidelity of their lives for those that do the works of Abraham are onely his sonnes the children of feare and trembling are the onely heires of mercy But there are many mindes that seeme made of such a stuffe as was forbid the children of Israel which was a contexture of linnen and wollen which command did figuratively intimate that simplicity and intirenesse was to be the garment of the inward man against this rule many pretend they can weave purity and passion together and keep their minds sound and innocent in this composition and for this consorting humane love is very intuentive and ingenious in designing faire and specious termes of subordination in which this love pretends it may consist and be limited under divine love But many who pretended at first to keep their affections running through the beauty of
the creature in a regular re 〈…〉 ux back to the Ocean of all beauty find them intercepted in this dangerous passage and when they are once staid by degrees they come to intend nothing but the making their passion the deeper by an effusion of another upon it and thus they fall into the state which God reprocheth by the Prophet they commit these two evils They forsake God the fountaine of living waters and hew themselves out cisterns broken cisterns that hold no water For alas how unsound are all those conserves of humane beauty which containe mans passion we cannot say which is the lesse solid or durable either the matter of them which is but fading colour or the maker of them which is yet more fickle fancy neverthelesse in these broken vessels do men trust their love when they are even in the securest or strongest passion since inordinate love is so unsafe a conserve for our happynesse as even our own wishes cannot fixe it long upon one object and our reason can much lesse weigh it by graines as our owne wills take it from our senses and so keep our love to the creature in such a proportion as it may be tryed by the ballance of the sanctuary whether it have just that quantity which is allowed our affection to the creature Therefore let none perswade themselves they can keep their affections running on currently through particular inclinations back to the Universall center of love and upon that confidence license many insinuating familiarities with women for it is very hard even for the most purified humane affections to fall from beauty where nature maketh so many fences to stay them to passe on without making some eddyes in a reluctant motion looking backward with a profession of some unwillingnesse to passe so quickly forward in that course of purity they should continue and if as Saint Peter saith the severest watchers of their nature have task hard enough what shall be hoped of the indulgers of it certainly they who will cherish nature in her first appetites shall quickly finde her second past their checking and then as the Wise-man saith in this case Who wil pitty a sorcerer that is stung with a Serpent for they who are familiar with temptations will quickly be acquainted with infection let them remember then our Masters counsell that will have their body kept lighted to keep their eye pure since the Prince of darknesse observeth a rule quite contrary to the first law of the Father of light for when he hath put out an eye of his servants he doth not release him but makes him the more slave §. V. The faultinesse and flatteries to women discovered and disswaded NOthing hath more perplexed the animosity of man then the search into the nature and transmission of Originall sinne which the curiosity of woman produced it seemeth God is pleased to punish that first presumption in point of knowledge with a perpetuall perplexity of doubt in the very thing which was then introduced into nature and the onely one of mans own making which he did by yeelding to woman who furnished him the matter whereunto he gave the forme of Originall sinne and ever since they have both conspired to pervert the greatest blessings of their corporall nature into occasions of propagating sin for the same seeds of vain glory spring up upon all invitations The first temptation that prevailed upon woman was her becomming like God and the same tempter seemeth to imploy mans passion to performe his promise so that it is upon his commission men offer all those prophane flatteries by which they worship their passions and yet even all these presumptuous expressions of passion testify that all our love appertaineth to God for these mis-intended excesses unawares set the right superscription upon the addresses of their affections when they set divinity and adoreablenesse as the titles whereunto their loves are directed and so their tongues as it were by instinct declare the property of love to be Gods while they cannot call them lesse then Gods to whom they misgive their love and love which by nature and instinct is so conversant with God may easily slip into this mistake for as when we are bred and habituated to one company we are very apt to call those we speak to by accident by those names which are most familiar to us so love which by nature is most intimate with God when it is by accident diverted to other company seemeth to mistake their names and gives them that which is so imprinted in it and yeeldeth them the same reverence proper to that title thus even the farthest removes of their affections from God are remembrances of their loves being intirely due to him when even the possessed tongues like the evill spirits in the Gospel do testifie Gods right There is nothing sure the devil hateth more then beauty it is so much his contrariety who is all foulenesse and deformity yet there is nothing he flatters so much he serveth it with the supplenes of a Parasite till he gain his ends by it and being the best Artist with a gentle hand he layeth fresh colours of praises on the externall figure of beauty every day whereby Gods Image is quickly so covered as they who admire it most take no notice unlesse it be profanely of any such character upon it and the Glasse this servant holdeth to Women makes them no reflex but of those vain colours of flatteries which he hath laid upon the Figure and thus as at first he deceived woman by credulity in expectance now he seemes to delude her by confidence that shee is possessed of all his ascriptions to her and beauty set under this burning glasse of praises and admirations easily lighteth selfe Love in the heart which is a flame catches at all materials that are offered to entertain it nor is there any thing so apt to soment selfe-love as that Straw and Stubble of light prayses which the passions of others cast upon it Whence it is that prophane lovers do as the Prophet saith Walke in the light of their own fire and in the sparkles which they have kindled while abusing the liablenesse of woman to selfe-love and vanity they are continually striking fire out of their fancies upon this tinder that is straining their wits to cast excessive praises upon this so taking Subject of Womans beauty wherein men should be very temperate knowing how little a sparke fireth the whole Wood and turneth all the goods of Nature into jewels for Pride and Vain-glory the flame whereof is so deceitfull as when we believe it polnteth upward to the honour of our Maker it tendeth downward to the centre of fire without light for the fire of self-love as it is kindled by the breath of the Father of Lies so it partaketh of the quality of his flames to be without light since it keepeth us in darknes to our selves and imper-ception of our own true dimensions
Wherefore it must needs lye as a heavier charge upon men then they usually account it the breaking this bruised Reed by pressing so much flattery upon it for the aptnes which beauty hath to raise selfe-love may be reputed an allay of the naturall blessing thereof it may be this propensity to selfe-deceiving is set as another Fine upon womans head for her first fault and the facility of her minds conceiving and the pleasure of bearing this spirituall issue of selfelove is another kind of judgement upon her first credulity and to be thus endangered in her soule by the pleasure of her best materiall property which is beauty seemeth a greater penalty then the sorrow of her other labour Upon which ground Lovers do likely treate at first by Parly to introduce self-selfe-love into the heart by the Presents of flatteries and certainly more are betrayed by Natures intelligence with the subtilty of adulation then taken by the breach of interest For indeed selfe-love in woman hath a strange quality the more it perswades her to over-value her selfe the more it tempteth her to cast her selfe away and so men cheapen their bargain most by commending what they would have Therefore let not even those who without any designe do suffer their tongues to ruâ—ne loose by fashion in the praises of Womens graces and beauties thinke this aymelesse roving of their fancies altogether innocent though they pretend only to spring and put up their good humours and not to set and take their affections for convertly they undermine vertue though they lay not a Traine to blow it up The Tempter never wanteth ministers that watch hearts as they grow hollow and void of humility to fill them up with vanity and then the Mine is too easily sprung so many may be guilty of filling of hearts with Pride and selfe-love while they meant only to empty their own fancy and thus their wits serve the Tempter as Jonathans Page did his master for they carry Arrowes which the Devill shootes upon Design though they are not privie to the intention It is no wonder that fraile woman should be so much deceived in the colours and features of all their good qualities since the Devill and Man joyne and study nothing so much as to make them flattering reflexes of their persons and powers of their mind and so woman is entertained commonly in her first manner of delusion for that is still taken from her which shee believeth is given her the being like God for her innocence is a much better resemblance of God then mans vain adoration But let not men thinke they have an easie account to make for all those levities which they expose so handsomely as womens eyes are deceived by those false lights for that which will prove an aggravation of mens faults will serve as an extenuating circumstance for womens defence their wit and dexterousnes may deduct somewhat from the guilt of womans trespasses for she may plead now some commiserablenes by saying the man who was given me as my sentence to obey deceived me and as one of the reasons given why God did compassionate the fall of Man and not of Angels is that they sinned without any exteriour sollicitation so certainly abused woman shall find this circumstance as some intercession for her the being assaulted by a forreigne power of temptation which may move God the easilyer to call such to him as Christ did the Woman who had a spirit of infirmity so long upon her that tyed her from looking upward and Christ giveth this reason for his calling her when she did not it seemeth thinke on him that she was bound by Sathan and she is a good figure of the infirmity of her Sex which is easily overcome and bound by the violence of exterior temptations wherefore God doth more easily commiserate their fallen frailties and calleth them with more pitie then he doth the stronger Sex which have the crime of abusing their strength towards the others defection Wee can but hope that the Samaritane Lover was comprised in the conuersions of her towne we are sure of her sanctification and we have little reason to hope of the adulterers remission when the Woman found such commiseration in Christ so as we may conclude God is more indulgent to the infirmity of woman extenuated and modified by the exterior pressure of temptation then he is to the infidelity of man who is as it were trusted with a charge of superiority rather to succour then supplant the weaknes of that Sex Admitting this they who are so licentious in all their entertainments of Women should remember sometimes the penalty Christ hath set upon the scandalizing of little ones for there are few women that are not alwayes children in this point of being able to beare fond praises and adulations without enfeebling and lightening their minds so as all those levities which the fancies of men vapour out in their conversation with these little ones are Mill-stones which they are insensibly hanging upon their own necks while they are thus scandalizing them that is while they are leaning and pressing upon the infirmity of nature that way it standeth already bowed And since humane nature is of so fraile a constitution as the purest blood of it is the easilyest tainted we ought to be the more sober and temperate in treating and entertaining the most infirme part of it which is Beauty with the delicacies of praises since by nature it is so apt to make excesses upon such diet If we consider how profuse and inordinate even the most reserved Lovers are in this entertainment we may easily sentence even this light riot to be poyson to piety and devotion which saith with the Psalmist I will take heed to my wayes that I sinne not with my tongue what can then be answered for them who take care of their tongues only to make way for their sinne and since we are to account for idle words methinks that order should easily determine never so slight a passion to be inconsistent with Religion for we know they are the aliment and life of all such excesses and certainly no idle words are so hard to answer for as upon this subject of vain love Upon other occasions many vapouring extravagancies are like squibs thrown up and breake in the aire above the heads of the company and so offend no body but upon this purpose they are likely Traines laid to take fire and worke some ill effect so that idle words upon the ground of passion grow not as Weeds wild out of the pregnancy of the earth but are set as poysonous plants with design of making venemous compositions How heavy these light words will lye upon them let every one judge by this rule that they are to be accounted for at the same price each one setteth upon them for just as much as they would have them passe whether they be taken or no at that rare by those they would put them off
delight the owners of it shewing what a reall blessing beauty hath by being made by God one of the best opticke glasses for the helpe of mans spirituall eye by report from his corporeall in the speculation of divinity for by this inference of the Wise-man he may argue If we are delighted with these materiall beauties we may judge how much more beautifull and lovely is the Lord and Creator of them adding that by the greatnesse of the beauty of the creatures the heathens were inexcusable that they did not find the truth of one Creator We may remarke a speciall providence of God in the order of nature providing against the pervertiblenesse of this great blessing of beauty for the most vehement cupidity of our nature ariseth not before the use of reason the abuse of beauty and the use of reason are both of an age whereby we have a defence coupled with the time of temptation and our reason when it is seriously consulted for our safety hath the voyce of the holy cryer in the desart and directeth us to a stronger then her selfe which was before her though it appeared after her this is Grace which we may call in to our succour in all the violencies of our nature so as with these pre-cautions I propose beauty to be truly honoured in that highest degree of nobility which God hath been pleased to rank it among his materiall creatures preserving religiously the Prerogative Rights of the Soveraign of our hearts who demandeth not the putting out of the right eye as the Ammonites did for a mark of slavery but proposed it onely as a medicine in case of scandall when the liberty of the whole body is indangered by it whereby we see devotion doth not infringe any of the rights of humanity in the valuation of materiall blessings for in not admitting vain passion it doth rather defend then diminish the liberties of humane nature which are truly inslaved by the tyrannies of passion Now in answer to that question concerning friendship with women I professe to intend so little the discrediting of reall friendship with them as I approve it for an excellent preservative against the contagiousnesse of passion for as passion hath been well said to be friendship runne mad so friendship may be properly styled sober passion since it hath all the spirit and cordiality of the wine of love without the offensive fumes and vapors of it and so doth the office of exhilarating the heart without intoxicating the braine Insomuch as we finde that our friendship with the proprietor of what we are tempted to covet doth often even by the single virtue of morality suppresse those unruly appetites Therefore when the power of Christianity is joyned to re-inforce it we may expect it should much the easilier correct frailty of nature It hath been well said of friendship that it is the soule of humane society and if our friendship hold this Analogy with the soul to be equally intire in every part of the body it is very safe with women if the love be no more in the face then in the feet as long as it is like a soule thus spiritually distributed equally in the whole compound of body and mind it is not in danger of the partiality of passion which never maketh this equall communication of it selfe but lodgeth solely in the externall figure of the body and friendship thus regularly spirituall may find a sensible as well as a lawfull delight in the beauty and lovelynesse of the person for beauty hath somewhat that affecteth and taketh our nature which methinks is somewhat like to that we call the fire or the water in diamonds which are certain rayes of luster and brightnesse that seem the Spirit of the whole matter being equally issued from all parts of it and so there may be a kind of spirit and quicknesse of joy and delight that may shine upon us from the object of a beautifull person whom we may love so spiritually as to consider nothing in the person severed from the whole consistence and virtuous integrity of soul and body no more then we do the fire of a diamond apart from the whole substance Thus beauty may innocently raise the joy of friendship whiles sincere friendship doth suppresse the danger of beauty which is onely the kindling of passion wherefore if it be rightly examined passion which pretendeth to honour beauty more then friendship will be found but to vilifie and debase it for passion useth this diamond but as a flint to strike materiall sparkles of lust out of it whereas friendship lookes upon the fire of this diamond as delighted only with the luster of nature in the substance of it which reflects alwaies the splendor of the Creator unto a Pious ' and religious love But this high Spirituall point of friendship with women where we have no defence by consanguinity against the frailty of flesh and blood is not so accessable as we should presume easily to reach it many loves have stray'd that pretended to set out towards it therefore we cannot be too cautious in this promise to our selves of security in such difficulties for our spirit can make no such friendship with our flesh as to rely upon the fidelity thereof without his own continuall vigilancy wherefore S. Peters advise is very pertinent in these intelligences Converse in feare in this time of your sojourning for otherwise I may presage to you in the termes of the Prophet Evil shall come upon you and you shal not know from whence it riseth for friendship doth often when it is too much presumed upon rob upon the place it did first pretend to guard being easily tempted by the conveniency our senses finde in that trust And as those theeves are the hardliest discovered that can so handsomely change their apparencies upon the place as they need not flie upon it so friendship when it is debaushed into passion is very hardly detected For when it is questioned by Gods authorized examinants it resumeth the lookes and similitude of innocent friendship and so remaineth undiscovered not onely by the exterior inquest but very often it eludeth a slight interior search of our own conscience thereby proving the most dangerous theef in the familiarities with women For this reason I must charge this admission of friendship towards women with this clause of Saint Paul While you stand by saith presume not but feare for in this case we may warrantably invert the rule of Saint John and say that perfect love bringeth in feare wherefore I will conclude this case with Solomons sentence Blessed is the man who feareth alwayes he that hardneth his heart shall fall into mischiefe § VIII The Conclusion framed upon all the premised Discourse and our Love safely addressed NOw then upon these evidences we may fairely cast passion in this charge of Treason against the Soveraign of all our love and consequently all libertine discourse and familiarities with women
and correspondence but if we assigne all our love too partially to the interest of our private blessings we are in danger of losing heaven by trading only for it by reason this kind of love seemeth to treat with God only as he is in heaven not to affect heaven as it is in God and so we may faile of both by this misplacing of them in our desire they who seeke God first are sure to find heaven with him but they who looke at heaven only are not so sure to find God for in this Court the very aspiring to the Kings favour is the acquiring it and we know the having grace and credit is a better security for the making of benefit then the affecting of gaine is an addresse to the attaining of favour This considered we must be advised not to reckon too much upon this baser species of mercenary love for though it be admitted for some part of our account it will not be accepted for the whole summe of our purchase it must be the gold tryed in fire which the Angell adviseth us to provide that must make the greatest part of the price of that precious Pearle for which we traffique and this is filiall love even as pure as wee can refine it in this our â—ordid constitution Wherefore I conceive it will be expedient to lay out some pieces of both these loves that those who desire to discerne their differences may have some facility to weigh their own dispositions by these portions of either of them exhibited as just measures whereby they may judge their due proportions §. II. Mercenary Love defined and the relying much on it disswaded MErcenary Love is that which affecteth God chiefly in order to our own remuneration and so seemes to looke up to heaven rather as on a mirrour of reflexion then as on the essentiall splendor of Gods presence whereby this aspect on God seemes more referred to the sight of our selves in him then to the seeing of him in himselfe this kind of love then savoureth much more of the minds immersion in our senses then of the spirituall nature of the soule which by her own instinct pointeth back to heaven in order to a free returne to God from whom she issued rather then that she is drawn thither by a reflexion on her selfe and the more the soule is abstracted from selfe-respects the more genuine and kindly return she maketh of love which free and ingenuous reaspiring to her own repatriation we terme filiall love which is to love God more fervently for what he is to us by his own nature then for what we are promised to be by his grace which is a due to God who as he is a father to us in so admirable a kind as his love to us not his delight as in other fathers is the occasion of our being so his being rather then his blessings ought to be the object of our love But in our degenerated nature mercenary love seemeth to be the Elder Brother yet as it is the sonne of the Bond-woman so is it not the heire of the blessing though God doth heare the voice of this Ishmael and assignes some allowance to it yet he settleth not the Covenant upon it Filiall Love is our Isaac the issue of a free ingenuous Soule the spouse of God and of that stock Christ as the Apostle saith is born in our hearts and the chiefe blessings of christianity are entailed upon this seed of the Holy Ghost Filiall Love Notwithstanding we must acknowledge this Ishmael of mercenary love to be a legitimate issue though of a servile mother for King David himselfe owneth the Linage of it saying I enclined my heart to performe thy statutes for reward So as I do not censure the matter but advise the regulation of the measure of it For it may be said to be of the nature of Dwarfes which are an imperfection not a perversion of nature and so like them the lesse it groweth the better it remaineth the littlenesse of it making some amends for the infirmity And we may say aptly that this kind of love is permitted us for the hardnes of our hearts for from the beginning it was not so since we know God made the soule to reflect backe upon himself directly as a Beame emitted from his own goodnes and so it was to revert upon him in as direct a line as Rayes are reverberated upon the substance from whence they issue But we know who changed this course of the soule of man and taught her this flexuous serpentine motion of self-selfe-love in which she seemeth now to revert to God For self-selfe-love moveth in a posture of indirectnesse and retorâ—â—on winding and looking backe upon selfe-respects yet Gods indulgence is such as he tolerateth this infirme crooked regresse of the soule when by the succour of grace the heart is sollicitous to rectify and straighten the course of our loves reflux bending as little as we can in the obliquity of our nature towards private references and addressing the major part of our wishes in heaven to the glory of God When our hearts do sincerely aime and point at this straight filiall love God like a tender father doth rather compassionate then reproach the wrinesse and indirectness of our paces in this feeblenes of our feet when our hearts are set straight in this way of our loving him as we see fathers deale with little children which they call to them when they beginne to try to go alone when they see them crosse their feet and reele forward in their weake faltering motions sometimes falling by the way they do rather cherish them then chide them for this imbecility so God when he seeth the heart straining forward with the best of our powers towards a simple immediate love of him doth not discourage this infirme staggering of our nature between mercenary and filiall love and in conformity to this his Method with his children God saith by the Prophet I have taught Ephraim to go and taken them by their armes and then in condescendence to our degenerous and ignoble nature he advanceth further and saith I drew them with the cords of Adam with bands of love that is God presenteth us with such attractives as affect most our interested constitutions which are the objects of remuneration and private salary and of these threads made of the fleece as it were of our own nature he vouchsafeth to frame cords to draw us and fasten us to the love of him but we must not take this mercifull indulgence given to our defectuosities as a dispensation for the sordidnes of our loves but rather in a holy effect and contention of gratitude strain to love God the more purely and irrespectively to our selves in regard of the transcendent benignity of this dispensation This supposed we ought to consider mercenary love under the same notion as Saint Paul exhibits to us the Law of Moses as a Preceptor or Tutor to
and formed out of repugnant matter for man must overcome what Angels have not to resist many materiall adherencies incorporate in his senses insomuch as the sonnes of men for the purifying their affections must as it were cease to be themselves and these spirituall substances for the simplifying of their loves need but rest and remaine themselves Wherefore in this ods of natures in this act of loving the difficulty on mans part passeth as an allowance of some disparity in point of finenesse and separatenesse and taking our loves with this allowance they may be thought as currant with God as those abstracted affections facilitated by a more simple nature so that when man sigheth as the Apostle saith as burthened with inviscerate interests longing to put on this pure spirituall vesture of Filiall love this kind of heavinesse of spirit may be said to make his love weight in heaven and indeed the easiest way to lighten this kind of burthen of selfe-respect is to sigh it away by degrees for nothing looseneth and bloweth off more this dust about our hearts then these breathings and aspirations of the soule in a resentment of those impure mixtures the body infuseth into her love to God so that we are as I may say allowed what our nature aboundeth the most in which is sorrow to make up that wherein our love is the most defective which is simplicity and immixture since a pure and sincere sorrow for the mixture and impurity of our affections to this indulgent Father is accepted as a compensation for the defect of pure and Filial love §. IV. Motives to Filiall love drawn from our severall relations to God as also from the dignity and advantages of this sort of love LEt us observe a little under what affecting notions the divine Trinity vouchsafeth to exhibit it selfe to the love of man the first person under that of a father the second of a brother the third of a comforter or a friend so that the love of man may be said to be an act wherein they have all one indentity while they are distinguished into these three obliging relations issuing out of the unity of love thus the deity seemeth to draw it selfe out into these several lines of benevolence to take in all the wayes and avenues to our love since there is no inclination that is not suted and matched by theâ—e agreeable correspondencies if our affections do not so easily ascend to the relation of a father we have that of a brother which is level and even with the current of our naturall love and if it seem to runne too stilly and slow in this channell we have the respect of a friend and comforter to turn it into in which our affections may be said to runne downward in respect of their pleasant current and so to have the quicker motion thus hath the divine charity fitted all the sympathies of our rationall nature with competent and attractive motives to ingage our loves unto it selfe Doth not then this Method prove what God saith by the Prophet What could I do that I have not done for this generation shall man then leave any thing undone that his love may retribute When the Prophet aslaeâ—h in admiration of Gods condescendence What is man that thou art thus mindful of him may we not answer that though man was nothing but by Gods minding him yet now by that act of bounty he is become sonne brother and friend to God Then may we not ask now with greater wonder What is man that he can be unmindfull of God and attend to the loving himselfe who is nothing thereby deducting from his love to God who offered him yet more for his affection the becoming even like himselfe for but loving him all he can and specially when selfe-love which opposeth this integrity reduceth him to worse then nothing surely no body can seriously ponder this state and obligation of man and not cry out with the Prodigall if he have hitherto mispent and dissipated his love Father I am unworthy to look upon thee in this relation and if he have not been such an unthrift neverthelesse if he find much mercenary drosse sticking upon his love let him humble himselfe with the unsetled father in the Gospel confessing Lord I love thee but impurely and do thou purge the impurity of my love and love that calleth in for this succour groweth strong enough by this displicence of his weaknesse This indulgent dispension with our defective love floweth from that gratious relation of friends to the Son of God which dignity seemeth so firmly instated in our nature as the conferrer of it did not degrade even Judas after the forfeiture thereof he was received with the title of friend when he came to renounce all his rights to that concession it seemeth he was yet in a capacity of being restored if he would but have pleaded by love and sorrow for his restauration he might have sold God and yet have injoyed him if he would but have loved him after he had sold him had he instead of casting the price of his dispaire into the materiall temple brought but back his faith and his love to the living temple casting himselfe forward at his feet as a counterfall to recover his falling backward when he fell from them had he then with penitent kisses repai'd unto Christs feet besought the taking off that perfidious impudence which stuck upon his lips we may well believe Christ would have received him in this returne with Friend thou art welcome comming with these kisses to signe the Sonne of man's being the Sonne of God and it is very probable he would then have equalized the good theef O what cannot love obtaine of him who loved us so much as he seemed not to love himselfe in the expression of it Let us then copy this love as well as our disproportions allow us and aspire to such a dilection of him as may seeme a desertion and even an exinanition of our selves which were as the Apostle saith the degrees of his love to us and in this our imitation of his love we have a strange advantage of him for he was faine to take upon him the forme of a servant to expresse his excessive charity and we put on a divine similitude in this our exhibition of pure disinterested love to him for we manifest our partaking of the divine nature in this denudation of our own when our love is refined and purged from mercenary respects And when we penetrate into the divine nature we perceive that we are so farre from losing any thing by this self-post-posure as we lose even no time in point of our remuneration For there is no interim between our loves looking on God for himselfe and the seeing our interests in God since in the same instant our loves look directly upward upon this mirour of the Deity it reflecteth to us our own blessednesse and the lesse we looked for our selves the more we
their own unreconciled hearts an Altar whereon they offer up to Christ crucified all their angers and animosities which have this property of smelling very ill while they are growing and of making an excellent perfume when they are burning and consuming in the fire of Charity God smelleth these divers savors in them in both these conditions and surely S. Paul leaveth us no hope that any act can move God which turneth not upon the Centre of Charity to on◠Brother since even that compassion which should break down our own houses to build up harbors for others and that Faith which did remove our Mountains and our Meadows into the possession of our necessitous neighbors all these actions I say would be but painted schrines wanting the substance of what they figure and represent if Charity were not the engine that carryed all these motions there may be many works that hold this analogy with a tinckling Cymbal the making their sound out of their hollowness the being conscient of this emptiness of sincere Charity may counsel the raising noise and voyce of their Piety by the sound and report of exterior Charities to such the Angel declareth I finde not your works full before my God Nor can we now excuseably mistake in the measures of this Charity since Christ Jesus hath left us impressed and stampt upon his own life a new model of compliance with this new Commandment how unanswerable then is the method of many who in stead of copying this exemplar draw their charity to enemies by their own designs by fitting this figure rather for their own Cabinet then the Church of Christ this is the course of such as form their observance of this precept by the square of their disposition and facility to forgive some particular offences that do not much sting their Nature and allow enemies but such a sort of love as savoreth of contempt which taketh away the taste and gust of Revenge And so this maner doth indeed rather but change the dyet of our Nature then keep her fasting in this precept from all her flattering appetites for her vicious palate relisheth no less scorn and undervalue of enemies then revenge and vindication So that the figure of this Charity is lame and mis-shapen and appeareth not taken off from that mould which we have of our original the form whereof is Loving one another as he hath loved us and in his model we shall not finde the least oblique angle of contempt to enemies and sure though we cannot keep in the forming of our Charity an Arithmetical proportion to that of Christ yet we must observe a Geometrical one in this our conformity which is to say Though we are not able to attain to an equality of his Charity in point of quantity and greatness yet our love may be in some sort at least adequated to his in point of form and proportion loving just so as he did though not just as much as he therefore we are commanded to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect upon this occasion of our demeanor to enemies which signifieth a conformity and similitude not an equality or commensuration to the Divine perfection As little Lodges may be built by the same model of the greatest Pallaces so we are to design our Charity to our enemies by the figure of Christs unto his which excludeth all sort of animosity or malevolence against adversaries and interdicteth all self-reparation by contempt or despection of them which voideth all the merit of sufferance and forgiveness and they who neglect the making their charity like unto that of Christ in these proportions I have explained will finde it so ill done when it cometh to be set by that figure it ought to resemble as it will not be known for Charity so far will it be from becoming eternally like the Original Charity by looking on it when every well copyed Charity shall pass into that configuration §. IV. The inordinateness of our love difficilitateth this Duty dissimulation in this conformity reproached and many benefits derivable from a sincere compliance represented As also presumption upon the Theory of this Duty disswaded THe misapprehension of the Nature of Love seemeth a great occasion of our mindes being so aliened from the love of enemies pleasing objects do commonly strain our affections into such excesses as we often know no love but under the notion of a distemper in the concupiscing faculty and while our affections are accustomed to this inordinateness we can hardly comprehend how love should be compatible with displeasures and contrarieties So that the perversion of our amities induceth this alienation from our enemies Could we then hold love from straining into passion we might easily stay anger from passing into sin as is evidenced by the lives of all those who have discarded the pleasures of this age whom we see keep in their hands so contentedly the injuries and offences thereof We finde it verified in such estates the growing potent when they are infirm and the imitation of receiving Judas with Friend why art thou come they who are past being betrayed by the worlds kisses are beyond the being disordered by the spittings of his ministers But that even those who are not called to this upper story of Christianity may not mistake the nature of this love assigned to enemies by the image of that love they figure due to friends they may be satisfied That we are not enjoyned the same state and composure of minde to the adversaries and offendors as to the friends and allies of our Nature There is a certain inviscerate tenderness of affection growing in our hearts for children and kindred which is a kinde of spring of natural love rising in our mindes and running from thence in our blood through our senses and carrying with it a sensible joy and delectation in such affections This sort of love is not ordained to be communicated to enemies and there is an intimacy and union between friends resulting from an intercourse of mutual sympathy which raiseth a pleasant alteration in the sensitive appetite referring to such correspondencies These sorts of consonancies and kindeness are not assigned by God to the persons of our enemies and maligners this constraint is not put upon our Nature To finde a refreshing air in the furnace of Babylon is a transcendent grace and rarely conferred but upon such as have been polluted with the meats of the Kings Table Those who from their youth have disrelished the vain pleasures and honors of the world may be gratified with this special benediction of being tenderly affected to the persons of enemies and the being solicitous to serve them in conformity to the perfection of our patern our Savior Christ But our precise obligation reacheth no farther then a sincere and cordial remission and forgiveness of all our offendors never seeking the least indirect retaliation upon the persons fame or fortunes of our enemies Upon the deficiency in these points is
have happened to me have faln out to the furtherance of my liberty in Christ Philippians Chapter the first Verse the twelfth I shall not then endeavor to write the Laudative but rather the Life of Solitude in which the intermixtures of Good and Ill are co-incident to one another And though I do not pretend the measures of my minde should exactly fit many others yet the matter of my propositions which is Vertue and Piety will endure the taking to pieces and translating into many good Forms according to the sizes of several Dispositions In God there is this inexplicable Mystery there is Unity and Singleness without Solitude for out of the Singularity of the Divine Essence there is a Natural Fecundity and Emanation of a Plurality of Persons in which consists Gods incapacity of solitariness for without this connatural Society Divines affirm God might be said to be solitary even in the middest of all his Creations as Man was said to be alone among all the Creatures of Paradice before he had a Consort of his own Nature We need not stay any longer in this Mountain of the Divine Essence clouded and overshadowed with this Mystery of a TRINITY in UNITY it is sufficient that it afford us but so much Light as to shew That Solitude is not consonant to the Nature of Man as he is GODS Image and so provision was quickly made for that supply after the singleness of his Creation We must resort then to some Supernatural intervention that may mediate between Mans Nature and the Nature of Solitude when he is reduced to it and thereby acquaint him with another kinde of society when he is sequestred from that which is so familiar to him Thus as it were rather translating his communication into another language then razing out the impression in him of the love of company And this is to change the nature of his society and not the sociableness of his Nature §. II. Solitude divided into three sorts and the first discoursed of ME thinks all the states of Solitude may be pertinently divided into these three sorts of Voluntary Violent and Neutral The first is the operation of a Super natural agent upon Mans Will which works upon it as the Wise man says Forcibly and sweetly drawing our mindes out of the world in such a gentle soft separation as vapors are extracted out of the earth while the vertue of the heavenly Spirit attracts our Will out of grosser immersions in the earth unto the pure speculation of Divine objects the grace of such evocations falling as the Psalmist saith like dew upon a fleece So as this egress out of the society of the world may be nominated supernatural in the means though voluntary in the act The next is when any exterior natural agent forcibly deprives us of the liberty of all society and this may often be just in order to the general society of the world which is maintained sometimes by violences exercised on particulars but is always offensive to the nature of Man And so I term this sort of Solitude Violent The third which I state as Neutral is a mixture and compound between the aptness and constitution of particular natures and some exterior intervention of violence and offence to that humor by which we are most affected to the world as a defeature of some hope whereunto our mindes were most applyed or some loss of what our affections had made an intire transaction of themselves unto or some injury above our reach of any reparation and many the like violations of our mindes in the world upon which we break off correspondence with it And this condition of Solitariness I call Neutral as having somewhat of both the other states of Voluntary and Violent for both these qualities concur to the composure of this kinde of separation from Society For the first sort of these Solitudes which I call Voluntary that part of it which is disagreeable to the instinct of Nature is reconciled by the mediation of the Author of Nature who nourisheth the mindes he calls ouâ— into this Desert with lighter and more Spiritual society which he showers down from Heaven upon them as the Psalmist says Man feeds upon the bread of Angels Prayer and Meditation which associates his Spirit to such company as he thinks he hath rather one body too much with him then want of any There are many of the children of Abraham whom God calls as he did their Father summoning them by his voyce to come out of their Countrey from their Kindred and from their Fathers house unto a Land that he will shew them and to this citation many do faithfully answer quitting the Native Region of all their Inclinations the habitudes of Flesh and Blood which are so near of kin to them and all the sweetnesses of communication and solaces of company which are the domesticks of their Fathers house and the familiars of our Humane Nature and separating themselves from all these in 〈…〉 e appâ—tencies take their journey into the strange Region of Solitude privacy and recluseness and when the Soul like the Psalmists Spouse shall thus forget her own people and her fathers house then the King shall be in love with her beauty and then this delectation of the Soul in our Lord confers all the petitions of the heart upon it When God makes these extraordinary selections and vocations to this passage through the Desert unto the Land of Promise he spreads a Cloud over them by day which shadows them from all the ardors of their sensitive appetite and sets up a pillar of Fire before them in the night of that fire which Christ came to bring into the earth that illuminateth all the obscurities whereunto our Nature is subject in the ecclipâ—e of Society and warmeth and cherisheth that shivering chilness wherewith our Nature is so apt to be benumb'd in the privation of the elementary light and heat of our Nature which is Communication and Society This holy fire that accompanies them doth not onely as the Psal mist says Make their night as day to them but even the devesture of themselves their solace and delectation and by the same degrees that they are severed and discharged of themselves they are replenished with that Society which entertaineth them with that joy wherein the fingleness is the universality of it for it is never all things to any heart but when it is there alone This is the peace of Christ exulting in our hearts And in Colloss 3. 15. this Society is the whole Trinity which as the Prophet says Leads first into solitude and then speaks to the heart as though it would have nothing but the heart it self present at this entertainment Such passengers as are truly led by this conduct have for their Viatick that hidden Manna given them which is promised in the Revelation in which they finde the several tastes of all their inclinations the relish of the
allure us May not that be justly then contemned which either afflicteth us for the present or betrayeth us for the future O how admirable is God in this piece of distributive Justice to Mankinde who having by his Providence comparted the conditions in this world into such a diversity of states as cannot admit all to the fruition of secular Delights hath commanded that none should love them by which order the lowest ranks are much compensated in this respect That it is a harder task to forbear loving such things when we enjoy them then it is to contemn them when we know we can neither expect them nor ought to love them If they who use this world must be as though they used it not those who use least of it may be said to be seated the nearest to this performance and certain it is That their state is the most conterminate to that of the true Propriator of the whole world while he was upon the earth who did himself use those things most which we use to love the least and yet alloweth us to enjoy even the most pleasing proporties of the earth provided we do not love the world in that relation All secular goods were so unworthy of the love of the God and Man Christ Jesus as they are not allowed the love even of single Mary for all the most precious and glorious things of this world are ordained to serve Man as his slave unto whose offices there can be assigned no love for this wages doth presently invert the two conditions rendring the lover the slave How reasonable then must it be to address unto him all our love who hath by his love to us subjected all these things unto us and hath so disposed it as to maintain our Prerogative there is required no Art but the contemning of what stands thus subjected Whereupon I may well press you in this point as the Apostle doth Let this minde be in you which was also in Christ Jesus his comportment towards the world was intended to give you the same minde Look then upon your Nature in the author and finisher of our Faith and you shall see Mans dominion over the World maintained by contemning it the world was so perfectly crucified to him all his life as he contemned the being crucified by the world despising as the Apostle saith even the greatest shame and confusion of this world And what could this Divine Man do more to imprint in us this aversion to the world then these two acts in not vouchsafeing to enjoy any of those things the cupidities whereof use to vitiate us to leave all them abased and vilified and in not declining the sufferance of such things whereof the terror doth likely subject us to the world to render them easie and acceptable What hath the world then left in it for Motives either of our love or fear of it that even God himself may not be said both to have undervalued and undergone And what we are enjoyned neither to love nor fear cannot seem uneasie for us to despise especially when this advantage is annexed That we gain more by contemning the whole world then we can by enjoying our own divident therein For whereas Fortune keeps many worldlings poor the Contempt of the world keeps Fortune her self wanting and indigent leaving her nothing to give to such a disposition So that in stead of incurring the reproach of the Prophet in setting up a Table to Fortune and offering libaments upon it this habit of minde sacrificeth and destroyeth Fortune upon the Altar of the Holy Spirit and thus even the feathers of Fortune to wit The vanities and levities of this Age when they are incensed and consumed by a holy Contempt of this world may make a sweet Savor in the Temple of God whereupon I may say That these sorts of feathers which while they are burning in the flame of our sensitive passions yield an odour of death unto death when they are consuming in this Sacrifical fire of a zealous Contempt and Renunciation of them afford a savor of life unto life in this act of their destruction in our mindes In the time of the Law when the Commodities of the Earth seemed to be proposed as the Salary of Mans vertue there might be some colour to love this world and so in that state God accepted the Beasts of the Earth for Holocausts But in the Gospel when no less then the enjoying of God himself and all his goods is exhibited for the term of our desires it cannot seem unequal that even the whole World should be required for a Holocaust immolated and consumed by a Religious Annihilation of it in our Mindes to the honor of such a Remunerator §. II. Motives by the property of a Christian to contemn the World VVHen we consider our selves under the notion of Members to such a Head as hath offered up as a Holocaust even the Creator of the whole Universe it seemeth not strange but rather suitable for such Members to Sacrifice the whole World to hold some proportion unto their Head especially since his offering of himself was in order to the enabling us to Sacrifice and destroy this world Doth not this our Head God and Man Christ Jesus say That even in his life the judgement of this world was given it was sentenced to Contempt by his despising it he that did not disdain to own the Infirmities of Man did notwithstanding protest against his being of this world so much hath he left it vilified to us And doth not he say If he were exalted above the earth be would draw all men unto him So that in this exaltation is proclaimed our Duty and capacity of transcending this world and treading on it with Contempt by the attractive Vertue of this our Head raised above all the Heavens And we may remember That the first Members he was pleased to unite unto him upon Earth were instantly elevated to that height of being above the world seated in this abnegation and despection May I not then fitly say with Saint Paul These things were done in a figure of us since what they left to lighten them for this transcendency is an apposite figure of what we are to do in order to this elevation namely To relinquish our Nets in this world which we may understand in two sences that comprise all our directions in this case to wit either as we are actively catching and chasing the Commodities of this Age or as we are passively taken and intangled in the love of what we enjoy In the first of these states we may be said to have our Nets in our hand and in the second to have them in our hearts so that to leave our Nets signifieth to relinquish both our solicitous Cupidities and Passions in point of pursuing the goods of this World and our Inordinate love in case of their possession And this disposition of Minde raiseth us to that exaltation