Christian ETHICKS OR Divine MORALITY Opening the WAY to BLESSEDNESS By the RULES of VERTUE AND REASON By THO. TRAHERNE B. D. Author of the Roman Forgeries LONDON Printed for Jonathan Edwin at the Three Roses in Ludgate-street 1675. TO THE READER THE design of this Treatise is not to stroak and tickle the Fancy but to elevate the Soul and refine its Apprehensions to inform the Judgment and polish it for Conversation to purifie and enflame the Heart to enrich the Mind and guide Men that stand in need of help in the way of Vertue to excite their Desire to encourage them to Travel to comfort them in the Journey and so at last to lead them to true Felicity both here and hereafter I need not treat of Vertues in the ordinary way as they are Duties enjoyned by the Law of GOD that the Author of The whole Duty of Man hath excellently done nor as they are Prudential Expedients and Means for a mans Peace and Honour on Earth that is in some measure done by the French Charron of Wisdom My purpose is to satisfie the Curious and Unbelieving Soul concerning the reality force and efficacy of Vertue and having some advantages from the knowledge I gained in the nature of Felicity by many years earnest and diligent study my business is to make as visible as it is possible for me the lustre of its Beauty Dignity and Glory By shewing what a necessary Means Vertue is how sweet how full of Reason how desirable in it self how just and amiable how delightful and how powerfully conducive also to Glory how naturally Vertue carries us to the Temple of Bliss and how immeasurably transcendent it is in all kinds of Excellency And if I may speak freely my Office is to carry and enhance Vertue to its utmost height to open the Beauty of all the Prospect and to make the Glory of GOD appear in the Blessedness of Man by setting forth its infinite Excellency Taking out of the Treasuries of Humanity those Arguments that will discover the great perfection of the End of Man which he may atchieve by the capacity of his Nature As also by opening the Nature of Vertue it self thereby to display the marvellous Beauty of Religion and light the Soul to the sight of its Perfection I do not speak much of Vice which is far the more easie Theme because I am intirely taken up with the abundance of Worth and Beauty in Vertue and have so much to say of the positive and intrinsick Goodness of its Nature But besides since a strait Line is the measure both of it self and of a crooked one I conclude That the very Glory of Vertue well understood will make all Vice appear like dirt before Jewel when they are compared together Nay Vice as soon as it is named in the presence of these Vertues will look like Poyson and a Contagion or if you will as black as Malice and Ingratitude so that there will need no other Exposition of its Nature to dehort Men from the love of it than the Illustration of its Contrary Vertues are listed in the rank of Invisible things of which kind some are so blind as to deny there are any existent in Nature But yet it may and will be made easily apparent that all the Peace and Beauty in the World proceedeth from them all Honour and Security is founded in them all Glory and Esteem is acquired by them For the Prosperity of all Kingdoms is laid in the Goodness of GOD and of Men. Were there nothing in the World but the Works of Amity which proceed from the highest Vertue they alone would testifie of its Excellency For there can be no Safety where there is any Treachery But were all Truth and Courtesie exercis'd with Fidelity and Love there could be no Injustice or Complaint in the World no Strife nor Violence but all Bounty Joy and Complacency Were there no Blindness every Soul would be full of Light and the face of Felicity be seen and the Earth be turned into Heaven The things we treat of are great and mighty they touch the Essence of every Soul and are of infinite Concernment because the Felicity is eternal that is acquired by them I do not mean Immortal only but worthy to be Eternal and it is impossible to be happy without them We treat of Mans great and soveraign End of the Nature of Blessedness of the Means to attain it Of Knowledge and Love of Wisdom and Goodness of Righteousness and Holiness of Justice and Mercy of Prudence and Courage of Temperance and Patience of Meekness and Humility of Contentment of Magnanimity and Modesty of Liberality and Magnificence of the waies by which Love is begotten in the Soul of Gratitude of Faith Hope and Charity of Repentance Devotion Fidelity and Godliness In all which we shew what sublime and mysterious Creatures they are which depend upon the Operations of Mans Soul their great extent their use and value their Original and their End their Objects and their Times What Vertues belong to the Estate of Innocency what to the Estate of Misery and Grace and what to the Estate of Glory Which are the food of the Soul and the works of Nature which were occasioned by Sin as Medicines and Expedients only which are Essential to Felicity and which Accidental which Temporal and which Eternal with the true Reason of their Imposition why they all are commanded and how wise and gracious GOD is in enjoyning them By which means all Atheism is put to flight and all Infidelity The Soul is reconciled to the Lawgiver of the World and taught to delight in his Commandements All Enmity and Discontentment must vanish as Clouds and Darkness before the Sun when the Beauty of Vertue appeareth in its brightness and glory It is impossible that the splendour of its Nature should be seen but all Religion and Felicity will be manifest Perhaps you will meet some New Notions but yet when they are examined he hopes it will appear to the Reader that it was the actual knowledge of true Felicity that taught him to speak of Vertue and moreover that there is not the least tittle pertaining to the Catholick Faith contradicted or altered in his Papers For he firmly retains all that was established in the Ancient Councels nay and sees Cause to do so even in the highest and most transcendent Mysteries only he enriches all by farther opening the grandeur and glory of Religion with the interiour depths and Beauties of Faith Yet indeed it is not he but GOD that hath enriched the Nature of it he only brings the Wealth of Vertue to light which the infinite Wisdom and Goodness and Power of GOD have seated there Which though Learned Men know perhaps far better than he yet he humbly craves pardon for casting in his Mite to the vulgar Exchequer He hath nothing more to say but that the Glory of GOD and the sublime Perfection of Humane Nature are united in
in which no Defect or Blemish can be discerned perfect in the variety and Number of its Powers in the fitness and Measure of every power in the use and value of every Endowment A perfect Soul is that whereunto nothing can be added to please our Deâ—â—re As all its Objects are perfect so 〈◊〉 it self It is able to see all that is to be seen to love all that is Lovely to hate all that is Hateful to desire all that is Desirable to honour all that is Honorable to esteem all that can be valued to delight in all that is Delightful and to enjoy all that is Good and fit to be enjoyed If its Power did fall short of any one Object or of any one Perfection in any Object or of any Degree in any Perfection it would be imperfect it would not be the Master piece of Eternal Power PERFECT life is the full exertion of perfect power It implies two things Perfection of Vigour and perfection of intelligence an activity of life reaching through all Immensity to all Objects whatsoever and a freedome from all Dulness in apprehending An exquisite Tenderness of perception in feeling the least Object and a Sphere of activity that runs parallel with the Omnipresence of the Godhead For if any Soul lives so imperfectly as to see and know but some Objects or to love them remisly and less then they deserve its Life is imperfect because either it is remisse or if never so fervent confined PERFECT Fruition as it implieâ— the Perfection of all objects more nearly imports the intrinsick Perfection oâ— it s own Operations For if its Object be never so many and perfect in themselves a Blemish lies upon the Enjoyment if it does not reach unto all their Excellence If the Enjoyment of one Object be lost or one Degree of the enjoyment abated it is imperfect PERFECT Vertue may best be understood by a consideration of its Particulars Perfect Knowledg is a thorow compleat understanding of all that may be Known Perfect Righteousness is a full and adequate Esteem of all the value that is in Things It is a Kind of Spiritual Justice whereby we do Right to our selves and to all other Beings If we render to any Object less than it deserves we are not Just thereunto Perfect Wisdome is that whereby we chuse a most perfect end actualy pursue it by most perfect Means acquire and enjoy it in most perfect manner If we pitch upon an inferiour end our Wisdom is imperfect and so it is if we pursue it by feeble and inferior Means or neglect any one of those Advantages whereby we may attain it And the same may be said of all the Vertues NOW if all Objects be infinitely Glorious and all Worlds fit to be enjoyed if GOD has filled Heaven and earth and all the Spaces above the Heavens with innumerable pleasures if his infinite Wisdome Goodness and Power be fully Glorified in every Being and the Soul be created to enjoy all these in most perfect Manner we may well conclude with the Holy Apostle that we are the children of GOD and if Children then Heirs Heirs of GOD and joynt heirs with Christ if so be that we suffer with him that we may also be glorified together That our light Affliction that is but for a Moment worketh out for us a far more exceeding and eternal Weight of Glory That beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord we shall at last be transformed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. For all his Works of which the Psalmist saith They are worthy to be had in remembrance and are sought out of all them that have pleasure therein are like a Mirror wherein his Glory appeareth as the face of the Sun doth in a clear fountain We may conclude further that Vertue by force of which we attain so great a Kingdome is infinitely better then Rubies all the Things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her So that with unspeakable comfort we may take Courage to go on not only in the study but the Practice of all kind of Vertues concerning which we are to treat in the ensuing Pages For as the Apostle Peter telleth us He hath given to us all things that pertain to Life and Godliness through the Knowledge of him that hath called us to Glory and virtue whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious Promises that by these you might be Partakers of the Divine Nature having escaped the Corruption that is in the World through List. And besides this saith he giving all diligence adde to your Faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness Charity For so an Entrance shall be Ministred to you abundantly into 〈◊〉 everlasting Kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Which Kingdom being so Divine and Glorious as it is we have need to bow our Knees to the GOD and father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named that he would grant us according to the Riches of his Glory to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inward Man that Christ may dwell in our Hearts by Faith that we being rooted and grounded in Love may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the Breadth and Length and Depth and Height and to know the love of Christ which passeth Knowledg that we may be filled with all the fulness of GOD. TO be Partaker of the Divine nature to be filled with all the Fulness of GOD to enter into his Kingdom and Glory to be transformed into his Image and made an Heir of GOD and a joynt Heir with Christ to live in Union and Communion with GOD and to be made a Temple of the Holy Ghost these are Divine and transcendent things that accompany our Souls in the Perfection of their Bliss and Happiness the Hope and Belief of all which is justified and made apparent by the explanation of the very nature of the Soul its Inclinations and Capacities the reality and greatness of those Vertues of which we are capable and all those objects which the Univers affordeth to our Contemplation CHAP. III. Of Vertue in General The Distribution of it into its several Kinds its Definition BEfore we come to treat of particular Vertues it is very fit that we speak something of VERTUE in General VERTUE is a comprehensive Word by explaining which we shall make the way more easy to the right Understanding of all those particular Vertues into which it is divided Forasmuch as the Nature of Vertue enters into knowledge Faith Hope Charity Prudence Courage Meekness Humility Temperance Justice Liberality c. Every one of these hath its essence opened in part by the explication of that which entreth its Nature which is VERTUE in General THE Predicament of
interwoven all our Vertues and Graces and Vices all our Tears and Devotions and Prayers our Servants the Poor the Rich our Relations Parents Friends Magistrates and Ministers are set and exhibited in their proper places they appear to the life with all our Behaviors towards them and though we did deny a Poor mans Request for the sake of another and this and that and the other particular action did not at present extend to all but the Soul was feign to use much wisdom in contracting its operation for the greater advantage in finding out its Duty in moderating its Behaviour in ballancing its occasions and accounts yet in the result of all it will be found full of Bounty and Goodness to all by taking care to be just and pleasing to all in the beauty of its Conversation When two things it desires to do are incompatible to each other it studies which of the two was more just and fit and necessary which tends most to the full and final perfection of its Life the interest of a Child sometimes carries it from another man a debt of Necessity is paid with that we would give for a work of Charity yet when all is Obedience Duty and Love that life is a most Magnificent Gift A Wife a Sister must be respected in her place a Son a Servant a Friend before a Stranger if the case be such that one of them only can be relieved All in the Family being made in the Image of GOD as well as the Beggars without doors are Objects of our Charity But so much Goodness being in the bottom of the design and so much Prudence and Justice in the denial Where his Gold and Silver faileth his affection may be infinite and the restraints he sets upon his Actions be the several cuts and distinctions in the Work the very true Engravings that make the Jewel or the Crown Glorious It s Matter is Life it self yet the Workmanship far excess the Matter when it is as Accurate and Divine as it ought to be This great and deep Thought makes every little act of Life magnificent and glorious a better Gift to GOD in its place than the Creation of all Worlds before him While a mans Love is really infinite towards all and he is ready to sacrifice himself with Moses and St. Paul for the good of the World but is fain to set a restraint upon himself for the sake of others The very grief which true Goodness conceives at the deficiency of its power and the force that lies upon it in so ungrateful a Necessity where it must be an Umpire and a Judge between its Bowels and its Children is a molestation which he endures in the midst of his duty filling all Spectators with as much pleasure as him with pain All shall be remembered and all these things which are now so grievous shall themselves become a part of our future Glory REMEMBER alwaies thou art about a Magnificent work and as long as thou dwellest here upon Earth lay every action right in its place Let not Patience only but every Vertue have her perfect work Let Wisdom shine in its proper sphere let Love within be infinite and eternal in the light of true Knowledge it is impossible to exceed be right in all thy Conceptions and wise in all thine Elections and righteous in all thy Affections and just in all thy Actions let the habits of Compassion and Mercy appear and break out fitly upon all occasions and the severity of Justice too for the preservation of the World Let all be underlaid with solid Goodness and guided with Prudence and governed with Temperance ordered with Care and carried on with Courage lay hold on thy Incentives by a lively Faith and on all the strengths of Eternity by a glorious Hope let all be sweetened with a gracious Charity fortified and secured with invincible Meekness and profitably concealed and vail'd over with Humility let thy Contentment put a lustre and grace upon all let Magnanimity and Modesty appear in thy actions Magnificence and Liberality act their part let Resignation to the Divine Will and Gratitude come in to compleat all these and thy Life be beautified with the sweet intermixture of Obedience and Devotion Thy GODLINESS will be so divine that all Angels and Men will be perfectly pleased especially when thou hast wiped out the Miscarriages by the bloud of the Lamb which in a little chrystal Vial pure and clear thou ought'st alwaies to carry about with thee when thou hast washed away the defilements contracted in the work with the Tears of Repentance Those Tears too he putteth in his Bottles and they will turn into Jewels There is not one drop so small but it shall turn into a Precious Stone and continue for ever as it were frozen into a Gem. Many O Lord my GOD are thy wonderful Works which thou hast done and thy Thoughts which are to us ward they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee If I would declare and speak of them they are more than can he numbered how precious also are thy Thoughts O GOD how great is the sum of them if I should count them they are more in number than the Sand When I awake I am still with thee And with whom else can I be for thou only art infinite in Beauty and Perfection O my GOD I give my self for ever unto thee CHAP. XXXII Of Gratitude It feeds upon Benefits and is in height and fervour answerable to their Greatness The Question stated Whether we are able to love GOD more than our selves It is impossible to be grateful to GOD without it A hint of the glorious Consequences of so doing WHAT GOD has made us able to do by way of Gratitude you must see in the Chapter of Magnificence The Love wherewith all these things ought to be done shall be so great in the estate of Perfection our Charity and Wisdom so directly intend all Angels and Men and especially GOD above all blessed for ever our Gratitude and Goodness make us so zealous for their satisfaction that no pleasure in the whole World shall be comparable to that of being Delightful to them To receive all is sweet but to communicate all adorned thus within the sphere of our own lives is infinitely beyond all that can be sweet in the reception both for our glory and satisfaction There is ever upon us some pressing want in this World and will be till we are infinitely satisfied with varieties and degrees of Glory Of that which we feel at present we are sensible when that want is satisfied and removed another appeareth of which before we were not aware Till we are satisfied we are so clamorous and greedy as if there were no pleasure but in receiving all When we have it we are so full that we know not what to do with it we are in danger of bursting till we can communicate all to some fit and amiable Recipient and more delight
but the Greatest of these is Charity CHAP. XX. Of Prudence It s Foundation is Charity its End Tranquillity and Prosperity on Earth its Office to reconcile Duty and Convenience and to make Vertue subservient to Temporal Welfare Of Prudence in Religion Friendship and Empire The End of Prudence is perfect Charity CHARITY is that which entereth into every Vertue as a main Ingredient of its Nature and Perfection Love is the fountain and the End of all without which there can be no Beauty nor Goodness in any of the Vertues Love to one self Love to GOD Love to man Love to Felicity a clear and intelligent Love is the Life and Soul of every Vertue without which Humility is but Baseness Fortitude but Feirceness Patience but Stupidity Hope but Presumption Modesty but Simpering Devotion but Hypocrisie Liberality is Profuseness Knowledge vanity Meekness but a sheepish Tameness and Prudence it self but fraud and Cunning. For as all other Vertues so is prudence founded on Charity He that is not Good can never be Prudent for he can never benefit himself or others For the Designes of Prudence are to secure one self in the Exercise of every Vertue and so to order the Discharge of ones Duty as neither to hurt a mans self in his Life Estate Honour Health or Contentment nor yet to fail in the Attainment of that Worth and Beauty which will make our Lives Delightful to others and as Glorious to our selves as Beneficial and Delightful PRUDENCE hath an eye to every Circumstance and Emergence of our Lives It s Designe is to make a mans self as Great and glorious as is possible and in pleasing all the World to order and improve all Advantages without incurring the least inconvenience To reconcile our Devotion Obedience and Religion to our Interest and Prosperity in the World To shun all extreams to surmount all Difficulties to overrule all Disadvantages to discern all Opportunities and lay hold on all Occasions of doing Good to our selves It s Office is to consult and contrive and effect our own Welfare in every Occurrence that can besal us in the World and so to mingle all Vertues in the Execution of our Duties that they may relieve and aid and perfect each other in such a manner as at once to be pleasing to GOD profitable to his Creatures and to our selves To take heed that we do nothing out of Season nor be guilty of any Defect or Excess or Miscarriage All the Vertues are United by Prudence like several Pieces in a Compleat armour and disposed all like Souldiers in an Army that have their several Postes and Charges or like the several Orders and Degrees in a Kingdom where there are Variety of Trusts services to be done and every Man has his Office assigned by the King and knows his own work and is fitted for the same FOR as no one man is sufficient for all the same person cannot be chief Priest in the Temple and General in the Army and Admiral at Sea c. So neither can every Vertue serve for all purposes but there must be several Vertues for several Ends. AS the King ordereth and directeth all his Officers and subjects in their several Places if they do their duty in their own sphere the Great End is attained by all which no one of them alone was able to Effect so here one Vertues supplies the Defects of another and tho every one of them moves in his own Precincts and does not at all intermeddle with anothers charge yet the Work is done as effectually as if any one Vertue did all alone WHILE all the Vertues conspire to supply what is wanting in each other Prudence is the general Overseer and Governour of all which while every single Vertue is ignorant of what the other are doing fits and proportions the subservient Ends to which every one of these Directeth its Care and Labour and Skill to the Great and last End of all the intire Perfection and Glory of the Kingdome So that here upon Earth Prudence seemeth to be the King of Vertues because we have such a Multiplicity of Concernes and Affairs to look after that it is impossible for any one Vertue but Prudence alone to attend them all THIS discovereth the Excellency of Vertue detected a very great Error to which we are liable while we are prone imprudently to expect more from any Vertue than it is able to perform We are apt to believe that in every Vertue there is an infinite Excellency And this great Expectation of ours is a good opinion of Vertue yet turneth not seldome to its Disgrace and Infamy For when we look upon any single Vertue and see it so Defective that it scarce answereth one of many Ends because we find our selves deceived in our expectation of its perfection and the Service of that Vertue so Curt and narrow which we thought to be infinite we are distasted at its Insufficiency and prone to slight it as a poor inconsiderable Business infinitly short of our Hopes and expectations Nay and to be discouraged from the practice of it because we find it attended with many Difficulties and inconveniences which it is not able to remedy or answer Thus are we deterred from Liberality for fear of the Poverty to which it exposeth us from Meekness because it encourageth all People to trample us under feet from Holiness because it is scorned and hated in the World from Fortitude and Courage because of the Perils and Hazzards that attend it from self-Denial because of the Displeasures we do to our selves in crossing our Appetite Nay sometimes men are so wicked as to hate to be obliged for fear of the Inconveniences of Gratitude and are much Prejudiced against Fidelity and Love and Truth and Constancy For all these Vertues can answer but one exigence for which they are prepared especially in our Daily Conversation with men and a mistake in one of them doth expose us to more Inconveniences then its Benefit is worth THIS is the Offence and the Truth is no Vertue is of any Value as cut off from the rest We may as well expect all Beauty in a Nose divided from the Face or an eye pluckt out of the head all Perfection in an Ear or a tongue cut off all serviceableness in a Hand or Foot dismembred from the Body as a full and perfect Security from any one Vertue whatsoever If one were sufficient the rest would be Superfluous Mans Empire and Dominion would be a very narrow Thing at least a very Empty and Shallow thing if any one Vertue were enough for his Felicity As his Exigencies and Concerns are Innumerable so are his Cares and Endowments his Honors and Pleasures his Offices and Employments his Vertues and Graces His Offices and his Vertues must be at least so many as will serve to regulate all his Concerns And if any be so comprehensive as to cure many Exigencies at the same time his Vertues are the Greater
Quality contains within it either Natural Dispositions or Habits Habits may be either Vertuous or Vicious Virtuous Habits are either Theological Intellectual Moral or Divine And these are branched into so many Kinds of Vertue as followeth THE Theological Vertues are generally divided into Three Faith Hope and Charity which are called Theological because they have GOD for their Principal Object and are in a peculiar manner taught by his Word among the Mysteries of Religion To which we may add Repentance forasmuch as this Virtue tho it be occasioned by sin is chiefly taught by the Word of GOD and respects GOD as its Principal Object For which reason we shall account the Theological Virtues to be four Faith Hope Charity and Repentance to which if we making them more we may add Obedience Devotion Godliness THE Intellectual Vertues are generally reckoned to be five Intelligence Wisdome Science Prudence Art Which forasmuch as the Distinction between them is over-nice and curious at least too obscure for vulgar Apprehensions we shall reduce them perhaps to a fewer number INTELLIGENCE is the Knowledg of Principles Science the Knowledg of Conclusions Wisdom that knowledg which results from the Union of both Prudence and Art have been more darkly explained The Objects of Wisdom are alwayes Stable Prudence is that knowledge by which we guide our selves in Thorny and uncertain Affairs Art is that Habit by which we are assisted in composing Tracts and Systems rather then in regulating our Lives and more frequently appears in Fiddling and Dancing then in noble Deeds were it not useful in Teachers for the Instruction of others we should scarce reckon it in the number of Vertues ALL these are called Intellectual Vertues because they are Seated in the Understanding and chiefly exercised in Contemplation The Vertues that are brought down into action are called Practical and at other times Moral Because they help us in perfecting our Manners as they relate to our Conversation with Men. THE Moral Vertues are either Principal or less Principal The Principal are four Prudence Justice Temperance and Fortitude Which because they are the Hinges upon which our whole Lives do turn are called * Cardinal and are commonly known by the name of The four Cardinal Vertues They are called Principal not onely because they are the chief of all Moral Virtues but because they enter into every Vertue as the four Elements of which it is compounded THE less Principal Vertues are Magnificence and Liberality Modesty and Magnanimity Gentleness of behaviour Affability Courtesie Truth and Urbanitie all these are called less Principal not because they are indifferent or may be accounted useless for then they would not be Vertues but because tho their Practice be of extraordinary Importance in their places they are more remote and less Avail in the Way to Felicity and are more confined in their Operations DIVINE Vertues which we put instead of the Heathenish Heroical are such as have not only GOD for their Object and End but their Pattern and Example They are Vertues which are seen in his eternal Life by Practicing which we also are changed into the same Image and are made partakers of the Di Knowledge and Truth in the Sublimest Height we confess to be Three but we shall Chiefly insist upon Goodness and Righteousness and Holiness All which will appear in Divine Love in more peculiar manner to be handled BESIDES all these there are some Vertues which may more properly be called Christian because they are no where Else taught but in the Christian Religion are founded on the Love of Christ and the only Vertues distinguishing a Christian from the rest of the World of which sort are Love to Enemies Meekness and Humility ALL these Virtues are shut up under one common Head because they meet in one common Nature which bears the name of Vertue The Essence of which being well understood will conduce much to the clear Knowledge of every one in particular VERTUE in General is that habit of Soul by force of which we attain our Happiness Or if you please it is a Right and well order'd Habit of mind which Facilitates the Soul in all its operations in order to its Blessedness These Terms are to be unfolded 1. VERTUE is a Habit All Habits are either Acquired or Infused By calling it a Habit we distinguish it from a Natural Disposition or Power of the Soul For a Natural disposition is an inbred Inclination which attended our Birth and began with our beings not chosen by our Wills nor acquired by Industrie These Dispositions because they do not flow from our Choise and industry cannot be accounted Virtues T is true indeed that vertuous Habits are sometimes infused in a Miraculous Manner but then they are rather called Graces then Vertues and are ours only as they are Consented to by our Wills not ours by choise and acquisition but only by Improvement and exercise Tho they agree with Virtues in their Matter and their end yet they differ in their Original and form For as all Humane Actions flow from the Will and the Understanding so do all Vertues when they are rightly understood whereas we are Passive in the reception of these and they flow immediately from Heaven AND it is far more conducive to our Felicity that we should conquer Difficulties in the attainment of Vertue study chuse desire pursue and labour after it acquire it finally by our own Care and Industry with Gods Blessing upon it then that we should be Dead and Idle while virtue is given us in our Sleep For which cause GOD ordered our state and Condition so that by our own Labour we should seek after it that we might be as well pleasing in his Eys and as Honorable and Admirable in the Acquisition of vertue as in the Exercise and Practice of it And for these reasons GOD does not so often infuse it and is more desirous that we should by many repeated Actions of our own attain it GOD does sometimes upon the General Sloth of mankind inspire it raising up some persons thereby to be like salt among corrupted men least all should putrifie and perish Yet is there little reason why he should delight in that way without some such uncouth and Ungrateful necessity to compell him thereunto FOR any man to expect that GOD should break the General Order and Course of Nature to make him Vertuous without his own Endeavours is to Tempt GOD by a presumptuous Carelesseness and by a Slothful abuse of his Faculties to fulfil the parable of the unprofitable Servant THE Powers of the Soul are not vertues themselves but when they are clothed with vertuous Operations they are transformed into Vertues For Powers are in the Soul just as Limbs and Members in the Body which may indifferently be applied to Vertues and Vices alike be busied and exercised in either AS the Members are capable of Various Motions either comely or Deformed and are one thing when they are
when we see all these Virtues in their several Places and Offices their Objects and their Uses the Ends for which and the occasions on which they were introduced all are Delightful to the Reason of mans Soul and highly Eligible while GOD is adored and admired for the depth of his Wisdom and Goodness and beloved for the Equity and Excellency of his Proceedings For all these Occasional Vertues are but Temporary when our Life and this present World are past and gone as a Dream Love and Joy and Gratitude will be all that will continue for ever in which Estate Wisdom and Knowledge Goodness and Righteousness and True Holiness shall abide as the Life and Glory into which the Souls of all that are Blessed will be transformed Repentance shall be gone and Patience cease Faith and Hope be swallowed up in fruition Right Reason be extended to all Objects in all Worlds and Eternity in all its Beauties and Treasures seen desired esteemed enjoyed Let it be your Care to dive to the Bottom of true Religion and not suffer your Eyes to be Dazled with its Superficial Appearance Rest not in the Helps and Remedies that it bringeth but search for the Hidden Manna the substantial Food underneath the Satisfaction of all Wishes and Desires the true and Coelestial Pleasures the Causes of Love and Praise and Thanksgiving founded in the Manifestations of Gods Eternal favour especially in the Ends for the sake of which all Helps and Remedies are prepared For it is exceeding true that his Laws are Sweeter then the Hony and the Hony Comb and far more precious then thousands of Gold and Silver CHAP. V. Of the Necessity Excellency and Use of Knowledge its Depths and Extents its Objects and its End KNOWLEDGE and Love are so necessary to Felicity that there can be no Enjoyment or Delight without them Heaven and Earth would be Dark and obscure Angels and Men vain and unprofitable all the Creatures base and unserviceable Felicity impossible were there no Knowledge Nay GOD himself without Knowledge and Love could not well exist for his very Essence is seated in infinite Knowledge GOD is Light and in him is no Darkness at all He is Love by nature and there is no hatred in his Essence His very Godhead is all Perfection by the infinite Knowledge and Love in his Nature THE Original of our Knowledge is his Godhead His Essence and his will are the Fountain of it and the stream so excellent that in all Estates it is for ever to be continued as the Light and Glory of the whole Creation THE understanding Power which is seated in Soul is the Matter of that Act wherein the Essence of Knowledge consisteth Its form is the Act it self whereby that Power of knowing apprehendeth its Object IT S nature is invisible like that of all other Spirits so simple and uncompounded that its form and matter are the same For all Powers when transformed into Act are Acts themselves And the faculty of understanding in a Compleat and Perfect Act of Knowledge attains its Perfection and is Power exerted or an Act in its Exercise For every Act is Power exerted THE Power of Knowing is vain if not reduced into Act and the Soul a melancholly and Dreadful Cave or Dungeon of Darkness if void of Knowledge Had GOD himself a Power of Knowing Distinct from its Operation if he never exercised that Power it would be useless to him His Glory and Blessedness are seated in the Light of that Knowledge whichto us upon Earth appeaeth Inaccessible IF we would be perfect as our Father which is in Heaven is perfect our Power of knowing must be transformed into Act and all Objects appear in the interior Light of our own understanding For tho all Eternity were full of Treasures and the Whole World and all the Creatures in it transformed into Joys and our Interest to all never so perfect yet if we are Ignorant of them we shall continue as poor and Empty as if there were nothing but Vacuity and Space For not to be and not to appear are the same thing to the understanding WERE a Man a Seraphim by his Essence or something by nature more Glorious and Divine then the Highest Order of the most Blessed Angels nay the greatest Creature that Almighty power was able to produce his Soul and Body would signifie nothing if he were unknown to himself and were not aware of his Excellence IF you would have a solid Prospect of any Vertue you must understand that Vertues are Powers transformed into right wise and regular Acts avoiding all extremes of remissness on the one hand and excess on the other The Extreams of Knowledge are Ignorance and Error FOR ought you know Heaven and Earth are as full of Treasures as Almighty Power was able to create them and you by Nature the best and highest of all possible Creatures made like GOD for the highest and best of all possible Ends and called to live in Communion with him in all his fruitions but being vilely corruptted you have lost the sence of all these Realities and are ignorant of the Excellences of your own Estate and Nature I am sure that GOD is infinite in Wisedom Goodness and Power and nothing is wanting on his Part to perfect your Desires But yet you may be blind and idle and ignorant and dead in a manner while you are wanting to your self and have need of nothing but clear and perfect apprehensions but because they are Sottish and Erroneous at present they may make you miserable and Poor and Blind and Naked IF Sin had been like Circe's Cup and changed the shape of Mans Body to that of a Swine or Dragon the Depravation of his Nature had been plain and visible yet without knowing what kind of Form he had before it would not appear because we should be unsensible of his first Form and unable to compare the one with the other But Sin is a Moral Obliquity and the change it produceth in the Soul is Spiritual It makes a man to differ far more from himself than any alteration of Body can do but withal so blinds his Understanding that he does not remember what he was in his first Parent Tho the first Man who had experience of both Estates was able to compare them because in his Corruption he might possibly retain a Sence of that Nature and Life which he enjoyed in his integrity Yet all his Posterity that are born Sinners never were sensible of the Light and Glory of an Innocent Estate and for that cause may be wholy ignorant both of GOD and themselves utterly unable to conceive the Glory of the World or of that Relation wherein they should by Nature have stood towards all the Creatures IT is impossible to conceive how great a change a slight Action may produce It is but pressing the Wick a little with ones Finger and a Lamp is extinguished and Darkness immediately made to overspread the Room The Glory and
nor can that of the Psalmist be doubted In his Presence there is fulness of Joy and at his right hand there are Pleasures for evermore that is his Omnipresence is full of Joys and his Eternity of Riches and Pleasures nor is it to be denied that the Soul is by its Creation intended for the Throne of GOD. For it is made capable of his Omnipresence and Eternity and as the Apostle speaketh may be filled with all the fulness of GOD which fulness is adequate to the Immensity of his Eternal Power of which you will see more in the Vertues of Love Wisdom Righteousness and Holiness This only is here to be noted that Nature never made any Power in vain but ever intendeth the Perfection of what it produceth and prepareth objects for the understanding the Perfection of which Power is the actual attainment of that Knowledge of which it is capable THE principal objects of our Knowledge are GOD and a Mans self The Kingdom of GOD his Laws and Works his Ways in all Ages his Counsels and his Attributes Mans Interest and Duty Transactions of the World the Thoughts and Actions of Angels and Men are considerable which tho they may be stiled less material Objects of the understanding yet in relation to GOD and a Mans felf are of great Importance GOD as he is the Life and fountain of all Felicity the End of all Perfection and the Creator of our Being Almighty in Power infinite in Wisdom and Goodness Author of the universe and Lord of all the Creatures is most fit to be Known Plato makes him the very Light of the understanding and affirms that as three Things are necessary to Vision the Eye rightly prepared the object conveniently seated and Light to convey the Idea to the Eye so there are three things required to compleat and perfect Intelligence an understanding Eye an Intelligible Object and a Light intelligible in which to conceive it Which last is GOD. Nor is the Royal Psalmist and Divine Philosopher David far from the Notion while he saith In thy Light we shall see Light For GOD is the Light of the understanding His Nature is the Light of all the Creation Therefore it is said by Christ himself that the Knowledge of GOD is Life Eternal For his Light is the Life of men and without him we can do nothing Till we Know his Nature we cannot apprehend the Excellency of his Works For all their Goodness is derived from him and ends in him His Love moved him to create the World and the principal End for which it was made is the Glory of the Creator in the Felicity of his Creatures The Glory of the Creatures is seen in his By his Wisdom and Goodness we are guided to the Hope and Investigation of their Excellence His infinite bounty made them all our Treasures that for the Perfection of their Beauty and Worth we might celebrate his Praises HE that would not be a stranger to the Universe an Alien to Felicity and a foreiner to himself must Know GOD to be an infinite Benefactor all Eternity full of Treasures the World it self the Beginning of Gifts and his own Soul the Possessor of all in Communion with the Deity That the Business of Religion is Complacency in GOD and that GOD never laid aside his Wisdom in any Operation of his Power never forgot to make the least of his Works agreeable to his Goodness Nay rather he is so perfect that his infinite Goodness Wisdom and Power are exerted wholy and wholy Conspicuous in every Operation It is the Beauty of Truth that maketh Knowledge of such infinite Value For if all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowing be ordained for a Wise and Knowing Man if all Objects in the clear Light of Heaven and Eternity be laudable and Glorious if Divine Wisdome hath so far obtained that the number and Value of GODS Gifts is accurate and exactly answerable to the nature of its causes if every Soul that will live in his Image may be the friend of GOD and acquire the Empire of the World and be Beloved of Angels and admired of Men if fruition be the End of Knowledge and all Things made that they may be enjoyed Knowledge is the only Thing that enriches the Soul and the Knowing Man is the friend of GOD. The Exercise and Pleasure of this Divine Amity is the End of the Creation and the Perfection of the Soul The Knowledge of a Mans-self is highly conducive to his Happiness not only as it gives him Power to rejoyce in his Excellencies but as it shews him his End for which he was created For by Knowing what Inclinations and Powers are in his Soul he discerns what is agreeable with and fit for his Essence what objects and what Operations are couducive to his Welfare what means he is to use for the Attainment of his End and what that is wherein his Perfection consisteth If the Powers of his Soul are illimited his Desire infinite and his Reach Eternal if he be able to see and enjoy all Worlds and all that is above all Worlds in the Image of GOD. If his Ambition carry him to be Pleasing to all Angels and Men and to be Glorious in the Eyes of all Kingdoms and Ages if his Abilities are indeficient for the fruition of all that is Excellent in eternity it self it is a token that he is ordained for GOD and the enjoyment of his Kingdom and a wicked folly to restrain himself to the miserable Contentment of a Cell or Cottage and to delight in nothing but some fragments of the Creation that in Comparison of the whole are infinitely Defective OF all other things I would have this most deeply engraven in the mind that GOD hath exceeded all Imagination in the Works of his Hands that he that overcometh shall be the Son of GOD and inherit all Things that there is an infinite end why the secrets of all hearts shall at last be revealed that in Heaven all Thoughts and Things shall be Known that the Kingdome of Heaven is so Glorious that all the blessed are Perfect Sovereigns every one the Possessor and End of it all that all Things proceeding immediately from GOD are the Best that are possible that the best and the worst things as ordered by him are perfectly amiable and subservient to Felicity that he himself alone hath a Proper Right to all that is excellent and that GOD is in every Thing to be enjoyed that he is enjoyed only when his essence and his Works satisfie the Desires of perfect reason and exceed all Wishes in filling and delighting the soul That having filled the soul with infinite Wisdome he has laid infinite Obligations upon us and set infinite Rewards before us made Laws in finitely amiable and given us Duties infinitely Desirable for which he deserves eternal Adorations and Thanksgivings CHAP. VI. Of Love and Hatred The necessity and sweetness of Love It s General use and efficacy The several
to Love without Obligation or Reward to be the Sole Author of all Felicity and to over-flow with Goodness of himself freely without any Motive to prevent the Beauty and Existence of his Object and to Love from all Eternity in an immutable manner And this is the nature of Divine Love Howbeit even here are infinite Ends and Causes of his Love tho they are all in Himself For he Loves that he may Love and begets that Love which is his Essence His Love is the foundation of all his Treasures the Cause and End of the whole Creation and that alone by which he proceeds from himself to all his Creatures and by those to himself again for ever All his Kingdome and Greatness and Pleasure all his Wisdome and Goodness all his Life and Perfection is seated in Love which is his Beauty and his Holiness his Bounty and his Godhead He Loves therefore that he may be all Beauty and Goodness and Holiness and that he may enjoy himself and the Eternal Pleasure of his Essence in Glory and Blessedness for ever IT is GOD alone that Loves by his Essence Angels and Men may Love by Inclination but their Affection is Accidental to their nature begins in time may alter and cease It is subject to Chance Obligation and Reward and ought to be guided according to the Pleasure of an Higher Agent In this it differs from the Love of God but in many things there is a great Agreement and proportion between them For GOD has made the love of Angels and men so like his own by extending their Knowledge to all objects that infinite Perfections are contained in their love It is as GODLIKE as any Thing created is capable of being for Almighty Power and infinite Wisdome are employed in the production of it FOR the better understanding of this Love we will consider it in the power of Loving in the inclination to Love in its act and Perfection It may seem a surprizing verity but the Power of Loving is as necessary to Blessedness and Glory as life it selfe an inclination to love as necessary as the Power and the act of Love as necessary as the Inclination The world is useless without Life and Life without Love the Body without the Soul the Soul without the Power of Loving the Power of Loving without the Inclination the Inclination without the Act. IN the Power of Loving I shall note nothing at present but its Extent and Capacity In Beasts it is confined but in Men it is Endless As a Beast is unable to examine what spaces are above the Heavens so is it unable to extend its Affections beyond the memory of things perceived for a Beast cannot represent to it self the Idea's of its Progenitors nor see into Ages that are before its birth nor contemplate Objects that will be after it is Dead But man can see and know and love any object in any Age or Kingdom in the World He can look into any Region tho it be never so far removed and be as familiary conversant with any Person or Transaction there when represented once in a clear Light as with any Object in his own country He can look into Eden consider Adams Dust in its first Creation survey the Procedure of God in his Six Dayes Works pass out of Time into Eternity it self run up to the Original and fountain Head of all existence ponder the nature of GOD search in his Bosom for his Eternal Counsels pierce into the Centre of the Earth and survey the Circumference of all Immensity His Love can follow his Knowledg in all its flights while in spirit he can be present with all the Angels He is able to Love not only his Family and Relations but all the City and Country where he liveth all the Kingdom all the Cities and Kingdoms in the world all the Generations in all Kingdoms all the Spirits of Just men made perfect all the Cherubims and Seraphins and GOD blessed for ever This is the extent The capacity of Love is so alsufficient that his Affection is not diminished but the more he loves one the more he is able and the more inclined to love all that are united to him As in ordinary friendship the more we love the Father the more we love his Wife and all his children For the more we love any Person the more we love all that love him or are beloved by him As the reasons of our Love increase so may our Love it selfe the capacity of Love being so indeficient that it never can be exceeded or surmounted by its Object THE Capacity of Love being so exceeding vast multiplies and heightens in the Soul of man that is apt to overflow of its own Accord For nothing is so prone to communicate it self as that Active Principle of Love that Soul which is Generous and Divine being disposed to the exercise of Love because therein it findeth its Proper Element The very Sun is not more inclined to communicate its Beams then the Soul to love For the Soul being made in the Image of GOD who is Love by his Essence must needs be like him in Power and Inclination and is made for nothing else but the Attainment of its perfection so that it can never rest till it actually love after his similitude Some Operation it must of Necessity have For as all Life so all pleasure is founded in Action IF Love in its Perfection be considered all that is lovely is Beloved by the soul all the Capacity of Love is filled with its objects and all the Goodness of the Creator and his Creatures at once enjoyed It is the Life and pleasure and enlargment of the Soul it is the Wisdom and Goodness and Glory of the Soul I confess there be many Errors and Diseases in Love and that Love is alwayes miserable in its Effects that is vicious yet it so bewitches the Sences that the Soul being captivated by the Force of present Delight is violently carried in an irresistible appetite to those Things which Reason condemnes and advises to shun as Evil. Medea's faction most prevails in the World Video meliora proboque Deteriora Sequor LOVE is then a vice when it is irrational and illegal rebellious and Sensual Blind Defective Unjust Absurd When Evil things are beloved when Good things are preferred above the Better and the Best neglected VERTUOUS Love is that which proceedeth from a well governed understanding and is seated in a Will that is guided by Reason It renders to all things their just Due and is the Powerful Parent of all Kind of Vertues This Love may be considered either in its Properties or Effects the last of which relate to the Soul it self to the Conversation of the whole man to all its Objects when it is well understood it will be found the proper and immediate Means by which we attain our Perfection and Felicity CHAP. VII What Benefit GOD himself does receive by his Eternal Love That when our
Love is made compleat and Perfect it will be like his and the Benefit of it will be Eternal BEFORE we can fully discern the Benefit of Love or see the Glory of it in all its high and admirable Effects we must consider what Love is and doth in GOD. For as we have said The Life of GOD is Love nay the Apostle saith GOD is Love By Loving he begot his Love And if his Love be his Godhead his Essence is an infinite and Eternal Act of Love by extending which through all infinity and by Loving Eternally he begot his infinite and Eternal Essence which is the Love that filleth all Worlds with Beauty and Glory When you consider it well An Act of Love is begotten by Loving And if his Wisdome and Goodness and Blessedness and Glory be seated in Love his Love is his Wisdome which is the Son of GOD and his Goodness and his Glory and his Blessedness For all these tho we conceive them diversly are the same Thing and of the Son of GOD it is said that he is the Wisdom of the Father and the Brightness of his Fathers Glory He is the Life of the Father by whom also he made the Worlds and the Love of the Father for whom all Things were created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers all Things were created by him and for him For GOD enjoyeth all Things by his Love which is his Eternal Son and made them as perfect and delightful as it was possible for things created to be that he might take Pleasure in them As he himself is made Glorious and Delightful in the Eyes of all Angels and Men by Love so doth his whole Kingdom arise and Spring from Love the Beauty and felicity of all his Creatures their Joys and Praises their Uses and Perfections are founded in his Love ' by his Love he begetteth all his pleasures in himself by his Love he made his Treasures infinite and by that alone doth he take infinite Pleasure and Delight in himself and his Kingdome Thus useful is the Love of GOD. Had not GOD from all Eternity Loved had he never desired nor delighted in any thing he had never exerted his Almighty Power never communicated his Goodness or begot his Wisdom never enjoyed Himself never applyed himself to the Production of his Works never appeared in his Glory to any eie whatsoever Removing his Love we remove all the Properties and Effects of his Essence and are utterly unable to conceive any Idea of his Godhead For his Power tho it be Almighty yet if it be Dead and idle is fruitless and Deformed Idle Power is not the Essence of the Deity but a meer Privation and Vacuity or at least a positive Being as ignoble as it is unactive The Reason of his Works is founded in Love so are all the Obligations that are laid upon his Creatures to adore him All their Rewards are founded in Love and by Love prepared All his Laws are the Laws of Love all his Attributes and Counsels are Love in several formes acting upon several occasions When his Love communicates it self in Joys to innocent Creatures it is Goodness when it attains the most perfect End by the most perfect means it is Wisdome when it rescues guilty Creatures from Hell it is Mercy when it punishes the Rebellious it is Justice when it inspires Obedience into any obstinate Person it is Grace when it delights in the Beauty of all its Works it is Blessedness when it appears in the perfection of its works it is glory For Glory is the perfection of Beauty that ariseth from and is seated in the lustre of excellent Actions discovering the internal Properties of an excellent Agent which is by those his Properties and Actions made Delightful to all Judicious Spectators NOR is it onely in GOD but in us also that the fruits and Benefits of Love are ineffable For by loving as it ought to do the Soul acquires its own Perfection and is united to all its Objects By loving as it ought to do it is made Holy and Wise and Good and Amiable Onely by Loving does it embraces the Delights of which it is capable Love is the root and Soul of those Actions for which a Creature is desired and praised by others IT is an infinite Advantage that we are able to live in GODS Image if we please For if GOD alone be infinitely Glorious and Blessed there is no way for us to become Glorious and Blessed but by being made either by our selves or some other like unto him BY nature he hath implanted the Similitude of his power which we are to improve by Grace turning it into Act after his Similitude To be able to Love is neither Grace nor vertue but a meer Gift of GOD a natural Endowment which may be Blasted or compleated Actually to love is the Work of vertue for by that Act we enjoy our Felicity HAD GOD limited and confined our understanding our power of Loving had been shut up in Bounds Had he made it infinite but not prepared objects for the same our Love had been deluded and had lost its force Had he made some Objects but not so many as it was capable of Loving it had been Superfluous and dissatisfied Had he prepared Objects innumerable and Endless but made them evil our Love had been irrational had he commanded us to Love them Had he made more Objects then we were able to love we had been discontented But having made all Objects infinitely Amiable and Glorious and filled his Immensity and Eternity with himselfe and with the Lustre of his Actions Love is an infinite Vertue because nothing is wanting but an Act of Love to enjoy them IF they are all Amiable in all Respects they are all according to our Hearts desire in their Natures Places Durations Ends Occasions Causes Uses Service Relations Properties Operations c. All things as they immediatly proceed from him are in all respects most perfectly pleasing And if we have an Eye to see and discern this and a Soul able to resent the Benefit if our nature be so vast and perfect as to see and take pleasure in all their Circumstances it is the most unreasonable and bruitish thing in the world to withdraw our Affection from them nay it is worse then Diabolical For we Kill our selves we blast our Felicity we offend GOD we slight the Beauty of all his Creatures we break his Laws we act against nature we darken the Light and Splendor of our Souls we deface his Image we grieve his Love we do the most vicious and abominable thing that is imaginable But if we excite and a waken our Power we take in the Glory of all objects we live unto them we are sensible of them we delight in them we transform our souls into Acts of Love and Knowledge we proceed out of our selves into all Immensities
fear he did not understand it As Seneca luckily hit upon that saying Deus me solum dedit toti mundo totum Mundum mibi soli GOD gave me alone to all the World and all the World to me alone yet could not understand it For had he Known what it was he said he would have made a better use of it and been more copious and explicite in the Illustration An actual Respect had to infinite Obligations and Rewards a Desire in every action to please an infinite and eternal Lover to Glorifie a Divine and Endless Benefactor to bring forth the fruits of infinite Benefits and to be truely Grateful for all the Advantages of a mans Creation that is made to have Dominion over all the World these are higher and better Qualifications of those Vertuous Actions which Christians perform than Heathens understood And yet if nature were divested of its Corruption the Natural Man that is no Christian might by the Light of Nature be fitted to understand them And the Truth is I wonder much the World being so Beautiful and Glorious in every Eye so really deep and valuable in Worth so peculiarly applied to the use and service of every person that the Heathens did miss the fruition of it and fail to measure themselves and their Felicity by the Greatness of its Beauty and the Joy which all the Creatures ought to produce in the mind of Man by their real Services For the Earth is really better than if all its Globe were of beaten Gold the Seas are better than if all their Abysses were full of Diamonds the Air is better than if all the space between us and the Skys were full of Scepters and the Sun alone a greater Treasure then all the wealthy Mines in the Indies every man is surrounded with all the Light of their Advantages and so much served by them as if no man but himself were alive in the World So that it is a natural and easie Investigation even for Heathens themselves to discern the mystery of Bliss and to discover the misery of Humane Nature to be founded in some Disease of the Will or Understanding And to return from Inadvertency and Sloth to Truth and Righ Reason which was the ready Way to true Felicity For they Knew not the Arcanum or Hidden mystery of Divine Laws nor the Excellency and Perfection of immortal Souls which make every one a Soveraign and Transcendent Creature yet they might easily observe the miserable Effects of Eternal Solitude and in external Services how useful and comfortable men were ordained by Nature to be to one another EVERY man Loves to have many Eys fixt on his Beauty and to have many Delightful Objects and Transactions for his own Be the Theatre never so Magnificent the Actions and the Actors are more Delightful to the Spectators than the Gildings and Dead Engravings Were all other men removed out of the World to make room for one the empty Theatre would remain but the Spectacle be lost all the Cities and Kingdoms and Ages would be removed with all that was lively and rare and Miraculous in all their Occurrences Palaces and Temples had been prevented Houses and Villages Fields and Vineyards The World had been a Wilderness overgrown with Thorns and Wild Beasts and Serpents Which now by the Labor of many hands is reduced to the Beauty and Order of Eden It is by Trades and Occupations that a man gets him Corn and Wine and Oyl c. all which he would have been without had he never seen any Company but himself condemned to Idleness and melancholly Vertues and Praises had been things unknown Admiration and Honor Love and Knowledge the mysteries of Religion and Piety all the speculations of Wisdom for want of Education had been lost at least the Sence and Exercise of these Bright and Glorious Things for wont of Conversation Corrupted Nature being prone to afford no other fruits but Barbarism and Ignorance in that Solitary Condition For the Powers of the Soul are improved by Tradition and it is by the Information of others that our minds are awakened to perceive the Dignity of our own Nature the Value of all the Creatures and our Interest unto them But Religion teaches us far more the Beginning and the End of the World how highly we are honored and beloved of GOD the Manner wherein we are to converse with him the transcendent Excellency of Souls and the Divine Perfections of the Deity What his Omnipresence and Eternity is how we are to be enlarged in our Apprehensions and Desires and prepared for infinite and Eternal fruitions in what Quality and Capacity we are to live in the world and Exercise Vertue how we are to spend our Time and employ our Powers on all Objects every one as Lord of the Creation and the friend of GOD How all Angels and Men are commanded to Love us as themselves and by that Love to serve and delight us more than by all other Actions and Offices whatsoever That every Soul is a more excellent Being than the visible World more nearly allyed to God and more precious in it self than any Treasure whatsoever That it is endued with Powers Inclinations and Principles so fitly subservient and conducive to Blessedness that any one of these is more Delightful then all inanimate Things in the Contemplation and Enjoyment of which we may justly be lost in Wonder and Extasie All this by the Light of Nature is asserted but covered with so Gross a vail that we discern it not till it is newly revealed by the Ministery of Men. And upon all these Accounts are Men themselves which are generally mistaken to be Impediments Means Assistances of our Happy living BUT however familiar and near and easie these Great and evident Truths appear it so happened that the Heathen Philosophers were Blind unto them and in the midst of their Searches after Felicity failed of the Discovery they became vain in their Imaginations placing felicity in a meer Apathy or conceited 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a self-sufficiency or in a brave Contempt of all misfortunes in a forced Contentment Dark and empty or in Sensual Pleasures or in the Goods of fortune either alone or conjoyned with those of the Soul and Body which they lamely enumerated and knew not how to imploy as if the Discovery of the highest and best Truths in nature had been reserved for him that redeemed Nature and the Plainest Truths had been appointed to honor and attend that Religion which brought supernatural My steries to Light by the Preaching of the Gospel BY this last the Qualifications of an humble and pious Soul a Penitent and Grateful Person sensible at once of his infinite Guilt and Grandure were introduced Another foundation laid upon the Meritorious Death and Passion of GOD the Son of GOD a Second Love continued in the Deity to the miserable after an infinite forfeiture all the Oracles and Visions and Miracles by which the Nature of Man
defiled by the Guilt of Sin For as long as we think GOD to be an infinite and Eternal Enemy to all Offenders we cannot use any Endeavor to please him because we Know there is no Hope of Reconciliation and the vanity of the Attempt appears like a Ghost that always haunts us and stands in our Way to oppose and discourage us in the Archievment we would undertake For to Fight with Impossibility is so Foolish a thing that Nature it self keeps us back from doing it Till therefore we believe our Reconciliation possible we have no Strength at all to endeavour our Salvation Our Despair oppresseth and frustrates our Desires with the inevitable Necessity of our Eternal shame and Guilt and misery TO believe that GOD will be so Gracious as to pardon our horrible Apostacy and Rebellion is a Work so Great that GOD accepteth it instead of all other Works of Innocence and Piety to believe that he hath given his Eternal Son to dy for us and that he so Loved us as to come down from Heaven to suffer the wrath of GOD in our stead is so much against the Dictates of Nature and reason that GOD imputeth this Faith alone for Righteousness not as if there were no Good Works necessary beside but by this alone we are justified in his Sight and out Justification cannot be ascribed to any other Work of ours whatsoever Howbeit that which maketh Faith it self so Great a Vertue is that we thereby receive a Power and an Inclination with all to do those Works of Love and Piety the Performance and the Reward of which was the very End of our Saviours Coming THAT there is implanted in Man a Faculty of believing is as certain as that his Eys are endued with the Faculty of seeing or his Soul with Knowledge or any other Faculty And that this Power implanted is of some Use in Nature is as sure as any Thing in the World For nature never gave to any thing a Power in vain this therefore being one of the Powers of the Soul must have a certain End ordained for it And its use is the Excercise of Faith in order to that End OBJECTS of Faith are those Things which cannot be discovered but by the Testimony of others For some things are known by Sence some by Reason and some by Testimony Things that are Known by Sence are present some time or other to the Senses themselves Those Things which Reason discovers are Known as Effects are by Causes or as Causes by Effects a Good and rational Demonstration being made by the Concatenation of Causes and Effects depending upon each other whereby Things remote from Sence are evident to Reason because the one is necessarily implied by the existence of the other But some Things there are which have no such necessary Dependance at all such are the fortuitous Occurences that have been in the World with all those Actions of free Agents that flow meerly from their Will and pleasure For of these there can be no certain Knowledge when they are past but by History and Tradition That the World was made so many years ago that Man was created in an estate of Innocency that he fell into Sin that GOD appeared and promised the seed of the Woman to break the Serpents Head that there was a Flood that Sodom and Gomorrah was burnt by fire that all the World spake one Language till the Confusion at Babel that there were such men as Julius Caesar or Alexander the Great or such as Abraham and Moses and David that the children of Israel were in Egypt and were delivered from thence by Miracles that they received the Law in the Wilderness and were afterwards setled in the Land of Canaan that they had such and such Prophets and Priests and Kings that Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary that he was GOD and Man that he died and rose again that he ascended into Heaven and sent the Holy Ghost down upon his Apostles Nay that there is such a City as Jerusalem all these things can no other Way be understood but only by Faith for no Light of Nature nor principle of Reason can declare such verities as these among which we may reckon these that all the Nations in the World except that of the Jews were Pagans and Idolatrous till the Gospel began to come forth from Jury that by the Miracles and Perswasions and Faith and Patience and Persecutions and Deaths of the Martyrs they were converted and forsook their Dumb Idols and erected Temples to the GOD of Heaven that his Eternal Son was crucified in Judea that such Emperors made such Laws that such Councils were held in such Ages that such and such Fathers sprung up in the Church that there is such a Place as Rome and Constantinople these and many Millions of the like Objects to them that live in this Age and never stirred any further then the English Coast are revealed only by the Light of History and received upon Trust from the Testimony of others Nevertheless there is as great a Certainty of these Things as if they had been made out by Mathematical Demonstration or had been seen with our Eys FOR tho there are some false and some Doubtful Testimonies yet there are also some that are True and Certain And least all Faith should be utterly blind and vain and uncertain there are External Circumstances and inward Properties by which those Testimonies which are true and infallible are distinguished from others ALL those Things that are absolutely necessary to the Welfare of Mankind the Knowledge of which is of general Importance that are unanimously attested by all that mention them and universally believed throughout all the World being as firm and certain as the Earth or the Sun or the Skye it self We are not more Sure that we have Eys in our Heads then that there are Stars in the Heavens tho the Distance of those Stars are many Millions of Leagues from our Bodily Organs THE Objects and Transactions which in former Ages occur to our Eys I mean the Spiritual Eys of the intelligible Soul that are seated within are by Faith received and brought to the understanding When they are transmitted to our Knowledge their Nature is apprehended immediately by the Soul and their existence examined by Reason There being certain clear and infallible Rules by which their Truth or falshood may be discerned And for this Cause is it that we are commanded to Try all Things and bold fast that which is Good It is our Duty to be ready always to give a reason of the Hope that is in us For Reason is a transcendent faculty which extendeth to all Objects and penetrates into all misteries so far as to enquire what probability may be in them what Agreement or repugnance there is in the Nature of the Things revealed what Harmony or Contradiction there is in the Things themselves what Correspondence in all the Circumstances what consistence between those
clear Monuments concurring together without any Dissonancy in the Things themselves or Contention of Parties How dost thou know that there was such a man as King James or William the Conqueror Is he not a mad man that will doubt or Dispute it All that thou hast to confirm thee in the certainty of these and infinitely more conspires together to confirm thee in the certainty of the other The History of the Bible is confest by Turks and Jews and Infidels and which is far more by the Testimony of the Church which deserves to be believed above them all And if the History be true there were such Persons as Adam Enoch Noah Abraham Joseph Moses Samuel David Solomon Elias Elisha Josiah Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel Daniel and the rest of the Prophets such persons as Jesus Christ and his Apostles in such Ages such Prophesies and such Accomplishments at vast Distances such Acts and such Miracles and such Doctrines upon such occasions And if all this Matter of fact be true t is impossible but these Doctrines must be Divine which the Devil and wicked men so much Oppose and Blaspheme in the World And if these Doctrines are true then all the Promises of GOD are true and there is a large foundation of Eternal Hope prepared for the Soul because if all these Preparations be not Eternally disgraced by the feebleness of their End the Glory and Felicity which is designed by them is infinite and Eternal THAT all these Things are intended for thy Benefit thou mayst clearly see by thy very Power to see them and by the Natural Influence which they have upon thy Estate and condition For tho it may happen by some succeeding Accident that thy Power to see and enjoy all may be bereaved of its Objects when thine Interest is Eclipsed and forfeited by thy Rebellion and the Influence of all may at last through thine own Default be ineffectual and Malevolent to Thee yet thou art assured by the Nature of GOD and of thy own Soul that it could not be intended Evil from the Beginning nay the very Order and disposition of the Things themselves importeth the Design to be Felicity and Glory For all these Things were written for our Admonition upon whom the Ends of the world are come And the Apostle expresly saith that whatsoever Things were written aforetime were written for our Learning that we through Patience and Comfort of the Scriptures might have Hope This Hope maketh not ashamed because the Love of GOD is shed abroad in our Hearts We Delight in Beauty and by that very Inclination that we have unto it are apt to Delight in any Thing that is Amiable We delight to see the Order and Perfection of GODS Ways and GOD himself taketh Pleasure in manifesting his Wisdome and Goodness for the Behoof of our Souls because he is Great in Bounty and infinite in Love by his very Essence Nay further we are every one Capable of all the Benefit that accrueth thereby and by Nature fitted to celebrate his Praises for all the Advantages that by any of his Dispensations are imparted to us and have Liberty to improve them all for the Acquisition of that Glorious End to which we are ordained The Nature of GOD which is hereby manifested to be Love to his Creatures is that which enableth thee by this very means to honour and adore him and by so doing to enter into his Kingdome where he that did all these Things for a farther End will appear in Glory and shew thee a Perfection of Life and Bliss that is worthy of all this Care and Providence being as great as thy Heart can Wish or desire HOPE is for its Extent and Dimensions vast and wonderful All the Honour Advancement Exaltation Glory Treasure and Delight that is concievable in Time or Eternity may be hoped for all that the Length and Breadth and Depth and Height of the Love of GOD which passeth Knowledge is able to perform All that Ambition or Avarice can desire all that Appetite and Self-Love can pursue all that Fancy can imagine Possibles and Delightful Nay more then we are able to ask or think we are able to desire and aspire after if it be promised to us the very throne of GOD and all the Joys of his Eternal Kingdom And the more Sublime its Objects are the more Eagerly violently does our Hope pursue them because there is more Goodness in them to ravish our Desire TO fall from the Height of ones Hopes where the Kingdome and Glory was infinite to which we aspire is to fall from the Height of Heaven into the Depth of Hell it produceth a misery and Anxiety in the Soul an Indignation and Sorrow answerable to all the Greatness of our Objects and the expectancies of our Hopes Especially where the Hope is Lively and Tender and Strong and Sensible of all it conceiveth FOR it is the property of a true and lively Hope to Elevate the Soul to the Height of its Object tho dull and drowzy Hopes make no Impression or Alteration in the Mind The Soul extends it self with a kind of Pleasure in its Wishes and in touching The Possibility of such Goodnesses as it proposes to its self in its own Imagination Love and Beauty even in Romances are Delightful the very Dreams and Ideas of the Perfections of Bliss have a Pleasure as well as their Reallity The Desires of it are something more Rich and Sacred then the fancy or Imagination but to Hope for such a Thing with a clear and joyful expectation is to grasp at its fruition with a faint Kind of Promise that it shall at last be ours Had our Hopes in Spiritual Things as much Sence as they have in Temporal those Beams of Assurance that enlighten our Hope and fill it with Glory would infuse a solid Strength into our Desire and our pleasures would be so Great that we should not exchange them for all the Empires in the World Especially if it ascended so high as to be founded on infinite and Eternal Causes and the only fears that did chequer our Hope sprung from Nothing but the Danger of being Wanting to our selves For who would think That when our Lives and Liberties are at stake we should be false to our selves that infinite Love and Power should be tendered to us infinite Beauty and Goodness be before us infinite Honour and Pleasure be offered us Eternal Delights inestimable Riches Ever flourishing Joys an infinite Empire be without fraud attainable and we be so Treacherous and false to our selves as to fleight it all It is an Absurdity so incredible that we should lose all these Enjoyments by our own Default and bare Remissness that we shall hate our selves Eternally if we lose so fair an Advantage Yet this is our Case we daily do that which in point of Reason is impossible to be done and for doing which we judge our selves Guilty of Eternal Tortures All the Misery that is lodged in infinite
with Preparatory Washings Humiliations Fashions Attirs Watchings Retirements Shavings Sprinklings Anoyntings Consecrations Sacrifices or some other Disciplines like unto these to be endured and past thorow before their Votaries could be admitted to their mysteries All which Rites as they made a great shew because they were sensible so were they apt to put a magnificent face on their Religion to dispose the Persons exercised by them to a more complying Obedience and to beget a Reverence mixt with Awful Admiration in their ignorant Spectators All which nevertheless were but Emblematical Ordinances signifying something invisible that was necessary to be done of which the Priests themselves knew not the meaning They had the name of Paenitentia in their Common Conversation but applied it to profane and Trivial occasions But Repentance in Religion which is the Soul and substance of those mystical Observations a broken and Contrite Heart an internal Sorrow for their sin was a thing unknown so that all their Appearances how magnificent soever were but Empty shells REPENTANCE alone though never so simple and short in its name being of such value that GOD accepts one contrite Groan above all the Ceremonies even of his own Law And therefore he saith Thou desirest not sacrifice else would I give it thou delightest not in Burnt offering The Sacrifices of GOD are a Broken Spirit A broken and a contrite Heart O God thou wilt not despise FOR tho Repentance be not in it selfe a desirable Vertue nor so much as a Vertue till there be a sphere and Occasion for it wherein to be exercised tho Repentance in it selfe be far worse then obedience yet upon the Account of our Saviours Merits and GODS Love to Sinners it is preferred above the Greatest Innocency and Purity whatsoever For there is more Joy in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth then over Ninety and nine Just persons that need no Repentance If the Soul be of greater value than the whole World if the loss of any Thing we esteem increaseth the sence of its excellency if our Saviour justly and rationally compareth himself to a Shepheard that leaveth Ninety and nine sheep in the wilderness to seek one that is gone astray if he rejoyceth when he hath found it more for that one that was lost then for the ninety and nine which he had in safety if his Delight in the success of his Labours be answerable to their Greatness if the frustration of all his Desires and painful endeavours in seeking it be infinitely Grievious and the Vertues more Amiable and Wonderful which sinners exercise after their Redemption if their Love and their joy and their praise be increased by the extreamity of their Distress and the multitude of the sins that are forgiven them if their Communion with GOD be more sweet and their Happiness more exalted and the Kingdom of GOD it selfe made more sublime and Glorious thereby Repentance hath something more in it then Perfection had before the fall and as sinners have made themselves more infinitly Indebted so are they infinitly more subject to the Arbitrary Disposal of Almighty Power infinitly more Capable of Obligations and Rewards infinitely more Obliged for Pardon and deliverance as well as infinitly more Obnoxious to Divine Justice their Fear and Danger is infinitly Greater they stand in need of infinite Grace and Mercy which when they receive and enjoy their Love and Gratitude are proportionably greater their Delights are more quick and vigorous and full and so are their praises BUT before a sinner can atchieve all this or GOD enjoy the fruit of his Salvation he must needs repent for Repentance is the true and substantial Preparation of the Soul the only Purgative Vertue by which it is fitted for these Divine Attainments It is we confess in outward Appearance a slight invisible Act but as Great within as Wide and Comprehensive as the Heavens It receiveth the Vertue of the Divine Essence of the whole Creation of infinite Mercy of the Blood of Christ of his Humiliation Merit Exaltation Intercession and glory of all the Work of Redemption into it self and having fed it self digested them it receiveth strength by the Influence of these to dispence all their Vertue again in the Production of those Fruits for the sake of which GOD hath filled all the World with miracles the Verdure and Maturity and Perfection of which shall with their beauty and sweetness continue in life and Florish for ever IF we respect Man alone and the things that are done in himself by Repentance it seemeth a Vertue of infinite value It divests him of all his Rebellion Pride and vain Glory strips him of all his Lust and Impiety purges him of all his corruption Anger and Malice pares off all his Superfluities and excesses cleanseth his Soul of all its filthiness and pollution removeth all that is so infinitly Odious to GOD and makes him amiable and Beautiful to the holy Angels It sits and prepares him for all the exercises of Grace and Piety introduces Humility and Obedience into his Soul makes him capable of a Divine Knowledge and makes way for the Beauty of his Love and Gratitude inspires Fortitude and Prudence and Temperance and Justice into his soul renues his Nature and makes â—im a meek and patient Person restores him to that Wisdom and Goodness he had lost cloaths him with rightteousness and true Holiness and seats him again in the Favour of GOD. By Repentance he recovers the Divine Image and by Consequence it extends to all that Blessedness and Glory which is for ever to be enjoyed REPENTANCE is the Beginning of that Life wherein all the sweat Labour of the Martyrs all the Persecutions and Endeavours of the Apostles all the Revelations of the Prophets all the examples of the Patriarchs all the Miracles of old Time all the Mysteries of the Law all the Means of Grace all the Verities of the Gospel begin to take full force and Effect in obtaining that for which they were intended Which sufficiently intimates the value of the Grace and how highly well pleasing it must be to GOD It is the Conception of Felicity and the New Birth of the Inward Man the Dereliction of the Old and the Assumption of a New and more coelestial Nature It is the Gate of the Heavenly Kingdome which they that refuse to enter at can never enjoy It is one of the Keys of Death and Hell by which the Gate of the Prison is unlockt nay the very knocking off the Chains and Manacles of Satan the very Act wherein we regain our Liberty and become the Sons of GOD and Citizens of Heaven It was fitly Typisied in the old Law by the Laver that was set at the Door of the Tabernacle for the Priests to wash in before they entred into the Sanctuary to walk in the Light of the Golden Candlesticks to offer their Devotions at the the Incense Altar and to partake of the shew bread on the Golden Table In
one the other is Dead The Works of Love are the End of all Miracles and more Blessed then they Nay Love is the End of Faith as well as it is of the Law for the Apostle saith The End of the Commandment it Charity out of a pure Heart and of a good conscience and of Faith unfeigned It is the End of the very Creation of the World of all Gods Labors and Endeavours of all his Ways in all Ages all the faculties and powers of the Soul the very End of the Redemption of Mankind the End of the Jewish Oeconomy under the Law the End of all the Dispensations of Grace and Mercy under the Gospel the End of our Saviours coming down into the World the End of all his Miracles Tears and Blood the End of the Holy Ghosts appearing upon Earth the End of all the Means of Grace and in some sort the very last End of all Rewards and Punishments whatsoever The everlasting Continuance of this Love is the End of Eternity it self in a manner and if our Love be not the End of GODS Love his is of ours And if the Truth be deeply inquired into the Intermixture is so sweet that his is the End of ours ours of his For he Loveth us with the Love of Benevolence that we may Love him and he desires to be beloved of us that he may Love us with another Kind of Love distinct from the former even that of Complacency Which Love of Complacency is the Crown of ours and so Delightful to us that it is the very End of our Desire and begetteth in us a new Love of Complacency fitly answering his unto us NOW if Love be the End of all the laws Works and Ways of GOD of all our Saviours Labours and sufferings of our souls and Bodies of the whole Creation of all the Endeavours and Desires of the Deity in all the Dispensations of his Grace and Providence there must be something in its Nature Equivalent to all these Transcendent Undertakings to justifie the Wisdom that selected Love for its Sovereign Object for it is the office of Wisdome to suit the means and their End together so that the Excellency of the one may be worthy of all the Cost and Difficulty of the other For it is a foolish thing to pursue a base and feeble End by Glorious and Wonderful Methods because its Vileness will Disgrace the Design and with it their Beauty their very Grandure will be absurd where their Issue is but contemptible The Apostle therefore telleth us that Love is the fulfilling of the Law and that it is the Bond of Perfectness And pursuing its properties a little more Ample he saith Charity suffereth long and is kind Charity envyeth not Charity Vaunteth not it self is not puffed up doth not behave it self unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no evil rejoyceth not in iniquity but rejoyceth in the Truth beareth all Things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things Charity never faileth c. IT is one noble Effect of Charity that it suffereth afflictions cheerfully and patiently for the sake of its Beloved Another is its Kindness to its Object its sweet and Courteous inclination to do all manner of Good Another for which it is highly valuable is that it envieth not the Felicity or Glory of its Beloved but taketh Pleasure to see it far higher and greater then its own is not apt to vaunt and brag of its Perfections but hath an humble Esteem of all its Atchievments doth not behave it self in distasteful manner but studies and designes the Honour Benefit and satisfaction of its Object But that which of all other is its greatest Perfection is that it seeketh not its own it is not Mercenary or self ended but truly Generous and Heroick in its Performances It Sacrificeth it self and all its interests to the Advantage of its Object it preferreth the person it Loveth above it self desires its Exhaltation and delights in its Glory more then its own It is not easily provoked because it puts the best sence upon all that is done by its Object Thinketh no evil is not suspicious or malevolent or censorious but frameth honourable and fair Ideas of all that is thought or done by its Beloved Hateth all Impurity that may displease its Object all black and crooked Apprehensions that may wrang and disguise it beareth all with Hope and Equanimity because it believeth its Object to be Good and Wise till it must of necessity change its Opinion and entertain a Judgement tending to its condemnation It is no longer Charity then but dislike and aversion when it ceaseth to think well of its Object for it is another Principle or distinct in Nature from Love as its Actions are from the Actions of Love the diversity of the Effects evidently proving a Difference in their Causes THE Quality by which Charity rejoyceth in the Truth is an incomparable excellence and commendation of its Nature Because the Truth is GODS infinite Goodness and Love and Providence which are exercised in preparing Delights and Treasures for his Beloved The truth is the Felicity and Glory of the Soul And if it be true that all Eternity is full of Joys and all the World enriched with Delights that a man is infinitely beloved of GOD and made in his Image on purpose that he might enjoy all the Best of all possible Treasures in his similitude he may well rejoyce in the Truth because no Truth can be greater or more delightful than that himself is exalted to the Throne of GOD and ordained to live in Communion with him BUT that Quality by which the Soul believeth and hopeth all things that concern the Honour and Fidelity of its Beloved is yet more acceptable and delightful than the former For a good opinion of the Nature and Intention of the Person with whom we are united is the Basis and Foundation of all our Respect the Cement of our Peace and the Life and Soul of all that Honour that is paid unto him The very Grace and Beauty of all our Conversation dependeth upon it and if it be true that we are more to love GOD for the intrinsick Perfections of his Essence then for all his Gifts the chief Business of our Knowledge is to Frame glorious Apprehensions of his Nature and to Believe him in all things so Kind and Wise that he is True and Faithful in all his Declarations and most fit to be Honoured in all the Dispensations of his Providence because he is ever mindful of his Protestations and Promises For then we can believe that all things shall work together for our Good can safely trust our selves and all that is ours in his hands resign our selves up to his Disposal with Joy and say Thy Will be done for it is Holy Good and acceptable Thy Will alone is of all other Wilis most Perfect and Desirable There are on Earth indeed more nice Emergencies many Obscurities and
of the Soul and its Honour founded in the freedom of its Desire Whatsoever it does not desire and delight in tho the matter of the performance be never so excellent the Manner is spoiled and totally Blasted Now can we compel another to desire or delight in any Thing The Soul in it self hath an Inclnation to or an a version from every object The Ingennity and Worth of the Soul is expressed in the Kindness of its own Intention in the freedom of its Desire to do what is Excellent in the delight it taketh to love its Goodness is founded Now tho GOD infinitely hated Sin yet he gave us an irrevocable Power to do what we pleased and adventured the Hazzard of that which he infinitely hated that being free to do what we would we might be Honourable and delightful in doing freely and of our own Accord what is Great and Excellent For without this Liberty there can be no Love since Love is an active and free affection that must spring from the Desire and pleasure of the Soul It is the Pleasure of a Lover to promote the Felicity of his object Whatsoever Services he is compelled to do he is either meerly passive in them or Cross unto them they are all void of the Principal Grace and Beauty that should adorn them and make them pleasant and satisfactory men may be Dead and moved like stones but in such causes there is no Love neither do they act of themselves when they are over-ruled and forced by another For this cause hath it pleased God in order to our Perfection to make the most Sublime and Sovereign Creatures all Free wherein he hath expressed the greatest Love in the World As we may see by all the Displeasures and Pains it hath cost him through our Abuse of so illimited and great a perfection But where his Love is most Highly and Transcendently expressed there are we most prone to suspect it Nature is so Cross and disorderly There can be no Wisdom without a voluntary Act for in all Wisdome there is Counsel and design Where no consultation nor Election precedes the best operation in all the World is Blind and Casual Fortune and chance must have no hand in that which wisdom Effecteth no more then Force and necessity must have in that Goodness where all the kindness ought to be in the Intention of the Benefactor There is something in it which I cannot explain It is easily conceived but will never I think in Words be expressed The Will has a mighty hand in all the Divinity of perfect Goodness It is the Mind of the Doer that is the principal object of all our Desire and Expectation HAVING for these Causes made his Creatures free he has forfeited their Choise and secured their Determination as far as was possible He hath done all that can be devised to make them Love us and left nothing undone but only that which was absolutely necessary that they might Love They could not Love us if they were not left to themselves to do it freely And their Ability being provided for nay an Inclination given to make them willing he has strictly commanded enjoyned them to Love by Nature allured them ordered us so that we might be fit to be Beloved he hath made it sweet and rational to Love given them his own Example and solemnly protested that he will accept of no Love to himself but what is accompanied with Love to his friends and servants engaged them to Love or be Eternally miserable And if for all this they will not Love the fault is none of his All that he has done to let secure then Love to himself he has done to secure then Love to us and is as much or more concerned in their Love to us then in that which himself requireth and Expecteth Nay he hath made it impossible for them truly to Love themselves without doing of it And if they will neither Love GOD nor themselves we may well be despised for Company He infinitely desires their Love and would take infinite Pleasure in the Operation There is no Way to make themselves Honourable and Delightful to GOD but only by Loving us as his soul requireth And by all these Inducements and Causes are we our selves stirred up to Love freely to exert the Power of Love to others in like manner THAT which yet further commendeth this Vertue of Love unto us is that it is the only Soul of all Pleasure and Felicity in all Estates It is like the Light of the Sun in all the Kingdomes and Houses and Eyes and Ages in Heaven in Earth in the Sea in Shops and Temples in Schooles and Markets in Labours and Recreations in Theatres and Fable It is the Great Daemon of the World and the Sole Cause of all Operations It is evidently impossible for any Fancy or Play or Romance or Fable to be composed well and made Delightful without a Mixture of Love in the Composure In all Theatres and Feasts and Weddings and Triumphs and Coronations Love is the Soul and Perfection of all in all Persons in all Occupations in all Diversions in all Labours in all Vertues in all Vices in all Occasions in all Families in all Cities and Empires in all our Devotions and Religious Actions Love is all in all All the Sweetness of Society is seated in Love the Life of Musick and Dancing is Love the Happiness of Houses the Enjoyment of Friends the Amity of Relations the Providence of Kings the Allegiance of Subjects the Glory of Empires the Security Peace and Welfare of the World is seated in Love Without Love all is Discord and Confusion All Blessings come upon us by Love and by Love alone all Delights and Blessings are enjoyed All happiness is established by Love and by Love alone is all Glory attained GOD Knoweth that Love uniteth Souls maketh men of one Heart in a House filles them with Liberallity and Kindness to each other makes them Delightfull in presence faithful in Absence Tender of the Honour and Welfare of their Beloved Apt to obey ready to please Constant in Trials Patient in sufferings Couragious is Assaults Prudent in Difficulties Victorious and Triumphant All that I shall need to observe further is that it compleated the Joys of Heaven Well therefore may Wisdome desire Love well may the Goodness of GOD delight in Love It is the form and the Glory of his Eternal Kingdome And therefore it is that the Apostle saith Charity never faileth but whether there be Prophesies they shall fail whether there be Tongues They shall cease whether there be Knowledge it shall vanish away For we know in part and we Prophesie in part but when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away For now we see through a Glass darkly but then Face to Face now I Know in part but when shall I know as also I am Known And now abideth Faith Hope and Charity these three
in force and Extent but the fewer in Number Their perfect sufficiency is to be measured by the ends for which they are prepared and their Beauty Consists like that of an Army with Banners in the Proportion and Symmetry of the entire Body the mutual Supplies and Succors they afford to one another the Unity of such a Great Variety of things in order to the Attainment of the same great and ultimate end the full and compleat Number of Offices and inferior Ends and the Extream Providence wherewith they are reducible to one supream End which is most High and Excellent It is enough for the Ear if it can hear well tho it is no more able to See or Taste than a Stone it is enough for the eye to see well tho it is no more sensible of Noise then a Rock or a Tree The Office of the Tongue is to Tast well of the Nostril to smell well c. and there is no Defect in any of these because they are every one sufficient for its own immediate end and also tempered and united together that the rest are Supplies to make up the Defect of every single Sence and Organ and altogether perfectly subservient to the whole Man for whose sake they were prepared that he might enjoy the benefit of them all The eye sees for the Ear and the Tongue and all the rest of the Members of the Body the foot supports and carries the eye the hand defends and feeds the Eye the Ear instructs and Counsels the Eye the Nostrils smell for the eye and the Tongue tasts and talks for the Eye which the eye cannot do for it self because it was made to need the assistance of the rest the eye directs all these in Liew of their Services and is of far greater Value then if a man had no other Member but an eye alone For the Eye is the Light of all the members and Great in its Relation to the whole man It sees for the Ear and the Hand and for all and is to all these after some manner Beneficial but without these would be to no purpose There is an infinite Excellency in every Vertue but it is to be sought in its Relation to all the Rest. It is Good for nothing in its Place but for that Particular End to which it is assigned in attaining that end it is subservient to all other Vertues and while it serves all is aided by all The other Virtues remedie the inconveniences to which this doth expose us and being all joyned together earry us safely and securely to our Last end Because the Influence of every one passeth thorow all every single Vertue is Pleasing to God and a means in its place of our whole Felicity The Beauty of all the Vertues is to be sought in Prudence for there they meet in an intire Body their Correspondence and convenience their Symmetry and proportion their Unity and Variety their ful and perfect Harmony makes up the features of the Soul and compleats its Graces just as the Diversity of Members perfects the Body Knowledge gives Light to Love but Love gives Warmth and Feeling to Knowledge Love may perhaps like a Separate Soul dwell in Heaven alone and yet even then it must include all Knowledge and Righteousness and Wisdome and Holiness for if Love know not how to guide it self it will never attain its End nor be a perfect Vertue But here upon Earth t is like the Soul in the Body it must Eat and Drink and see and hear as a thousand Works to do and therefore standeth in need of many Vertues Love without Goodness is perhaps a Thing impossible because it always designs well But Love without Wisdome is a Common Thing for such is all that mistakes its End Love without Discretion is a mischievious Thing Love without Prudence an Helpless Thing Love without Courage a feeble and Cowardly Thing Love without Modesty an impudent and Troublesome Thing Love without the Fear of GOD is Lust and Wantonness and if the most Great and Glorious of all the Vertues stands in need of all its Companions The less and inferior must needs be lame and maimed without the residue especially without the Superior UPON this account it is that so much Care and Study goes to the making up of a Vertuous man All kind of Vertues must concur to Compleat his Perfection The Want of any one Denominates a Vice and makes him Vicious Nay the Want of any one destroys the form and Essence of the rest Vertue is not Vertue but in order to felicity If it hath lost its force it hath lost its Nature As a little Poyson turnes the best Meat from Nourishment into Poyson so doth one Vice cherished and allowed corrupt and viciate all the Vertues in the whole World Hence it is that the Phylosophers say all the Vertues are linked together in the golden Chain of Prudence And that a Thing is made Good by all its Causes Evil by the least Defect For as one Tooth wanting in a Clock makes all the other wheels and Materials Useless tho the frame be never so Elaberate and Curious so doth the abscence of the smallest Vertue make void and frustrate all the residue A man of a Kind and Bountiful Disposition that is loose and intemperate may ruine his Estate and dye like a Prodigal and vain-glorions fool A stout Couragious person that is proud and debauched will be little better then a Souldierly Russian and Live if not like a Thief for Want of Honesty yet like a Swaggering Hector for Want of Discreetion A Man endued with all Kind of Learnning may be Morose and Covetous and by one Vice lose all the Benefit of his Education A Religious Votary that is Splenetick and Revengeful brings a Disgrace upon his whole Profession But he that is Wise and Learned and Holy and Just and Temperate and Couragious and Kind and Liberal and Meek and Humble and Affable and Cheerful and Prudent and Industrious shall be serviceable and Honourable and delightful to others profitable to himself and alwayes Triumphant Especially if he be so discreet and Prudent as to make all these Vertues move like the Stars in their Courses and knows how to apply and manage their Excellencies in their due and proper places upon all occasions for they are so many different in nature that some of their Influences will hit every business and all of them together pass a Grace and Lustre upon each other so Divine and Heavenly that they will make their owner Venerable in the Eys of the World and correct the Malignity of the most injurious and Censorious Which moved our Saviour to exhort us to be Wise as Serpents Innocent as Doves to joyn many Vertues together And occasioned that of the Apostle He that will love Life and see good Days let him refrain his Tongue from Evil and his Lips that they speak no Guile let him eschew Evil and do Good let him seek Peace and
the World are regulated they are as our Savour calleth them Good or Evil Treasures out of which proceeds Murders Adulteries Thefts Slanders c. Or Praises Honours Preferments Riches Pleasures all kind of Gifts and Benefits And the prudent mans main Business is to make himself intirely beloved by all the World which can never be without great Fidelity Courage Goodness Prudence and Dexterity Flattery and Base compliances makes a man Odious THE Last End of prudence is Eternal Happiness and Glory to which it moveth by crooked Meanders and windings out as occasion requireth It is a strange Vertue for its Conversant amongst Terrene and inferior Objects and yet a far more Difficult Vertue then Wisdom it self Wisdome is a more High and Heavenly Vertue but its Rules are always fixed and its objects Stable where as Prudence hath no set and Stated Rules but in all occasions is to mould and shape it selfe it knows not which way till it comes to Action Its Paths are in the Deep and mighty Waters among Storms and tempests CHAP. XXI Encouragements to Courage It s Nature cause and End Its Greatness and Renown Its Ornaments and Companions Its objects Circumstances Effects and Disadvantages how Difficulties increase its vertue It s Verand Triumphs How subservient it is to Blessedness and Glory LOVE and Prudence are the parents of Courage A Feeble Hen a Timerous Mother will Sacrifice their Lives for their young ones And he that forgetteth all his own Interests divests himself together with them of his Fears and despising Death first easily slighteth all other Things Even a Coward by Nature is made more Bold and confident by Skill at his weapon And he that is always assured of the Victory can never be afraid of the Encounter or the Enemy He that is Dexterâ—ous at the use of all Vertues and knows how to apply them so as ever to come off more honourably will laugh at the Trial of his own Innocence and make a Game of Difficulties and Terrors VALOUR is a right and strong Resolution of the Soul whereby it dare encounter with any Difficulty and Trouble for Vertues sake It is the Armour of the Soul against all Impressions of Fear its Effect is an Equal and uniform stayedness of Mind against all Dangerous and Terrible Accidents It containeth Magnanimitie Patience Constancy Invincible Resolution Boldness and Industry in its Nature It s cause is the Love of Vertue and the sence of Honour Indignation against any thing that is Base and vile a High Ambition and desire of Glory It s End is the preservation of a Mans person and Honesty the Conquest of all Opposition in the Way to Bliss the Destruction or Subjection of Enemies Triumph and Conquest the Establishment of Peace the Attainment of Liberty and Glory Its Attendants are Prudence Justice and Temperance the principal Ornament and Grace of valour is Worth and Goodness its Aids and Encouragements are insinite it groweth Great and High by making use of all the Causes of Hope and Confidence Conflicts and Dangers are the Element in which it lives It owns its whole being to them for without Causes of Fear there could be no courage in all Nature The Knowledge of GOD is the root of Divine Valour and Fidelity to his Laws its Commendation The Assurance of his Love and all those Things that serve to beget and confirm it are subservient to it It draws in strength and Encouragements form all Obligations and Rewards from all Great and Holy examples from the Knowledge of its own Sublimity from the Greatness of Felicity from the Omnipotence and Omnipresence and Providence of the Deity from his Truth and Goodness and from all those Things wherein he has manifested his Love above the Heavens OF all the Vertues in greatest Estimation this is most renowned For its Prerogative is so great that it is simply called VERTUE Vertue being the Word to express and signifie Valour among the Latines because the Force and Efficacy that is in it is most visible and Apparent and by that all other Vertues are secured vindicated Exercised and made Useful It is stiled Manhood among the English with a peculiar Emphasis As is the Essence of a man was founded in Courage because his Vigor is emasculated and his Dignity lost that is Effeminate and Timerous for he is scarce a Man that is a Coward WHAT a Glorious and incomparable Vertue this is appeareth from the Baseness and Ineptitude of its Contrary A Coward and an Honest Man can never be the same a Coward and a constant Lover can never be the same a Coward and a Brave Man can never be the same Cowardice and Wisdome are as incompatible forever as Love and Wisdom were thought toâ— be of Old A Coward is always despicable and Wretched because he dares not expose himself to any Hazzards nor adventure upon any Great Attempt for fear of some little Pain and Damage that is between him and an Excellent Atchievment He is baffled from the Acquisition of the most Great and Beautiful Things and non plust with every Impediment He is conquered before he begins to fight The very sight of Danger makes him a Slave He is undone when he sees his Enemy a far off and wounded before the Point of the Sword can touch his shadow He is all wayes a Terror and Burden to himself a Dangerous Knave and an useless Creature STRANGE is the Vigour in aâ— Brave Mans Soul The Strength of his Spirit and his irresistible Power the Greatness of his Heart and the Height of his Condition his mighty Confiedence and Contempt of Dangers his true Security and Repose in himself his Liberty to dare and do what he pleaseth his Alacrity in the midst of Fears his invincible Temper are advantages which make him Master of Fortune His Courage fits him for all Attempts renders him serviceable to GOD and MAN and makes him the Bulwark and Defence of his King and Country LET those Debauched and unreasonable men that deny the Existence of Vertue contemplate the Reality of its Excellency here and be confounded with shame at their Prodigious Blindness Their Impiety designs the Abolishment of Religion and the utter Extirpation of all Faith and Piety while they pretend the Distinction between Vertue and Vice to be meerly feigned for the Awing of the World and that their Names have no foundation in Nature but the Craft of Politicians and the Tradition of their Nurses Are there no Base fellows nor Brave Men in the World Is there no difference between a Lion and a Hare a faint hearted Coward and a Glorious Heroe It s there Nothing Brave nor vile in the world What is become of these Rodomontadoes wits Where is the boasted Glory of their Personal Valour if there be no Defference but Courage and Cowardize be the same thing HOW empty these Self but shallow conceited Ranters are is evident by their short and narrow measures They place all Gallantry and Worth in Valour all the
Artificial and not Natural for when the Conversation is sincerely guided to a good End the more free and voluntary it is it is the more Noble the more Industry and Desire a man expresses in attaining all these measures and perfections they are the more Vertuous and the Probity of his Will is to be the more accepted For Vertues are not effects of Nature but Choice Which how free soever it may appear is as stable as the Sun when founded on Eternal principles it secures any Friend in the good and amiable Qualities he desires in his Beloved as much as Nature it self could do though they depend upon the Will which is capable of changing every moment This of Temperance in the Government of our Humors I shall add but one Note more and that is That a wise man discards the Predominancy of all Humors and will not yield himself up to the Empire of any for he is to live the life of Reason not of Humor Nor will he have any Humor of his own but what he can put off and on as he sees occasion He will cleave eternally to the Rules of Vertue but will comply in his Humor so far as to make his conversation sweet and agreeable to every Temper Religion and Charity as well as Courtesie and Civility prompt to this and where these concur with his Reason and favour his Interest he may well do what S. Paul taught him become all things to all men that he might gain some And this encouragement he hath A man by sacrificing his own may comply with the satisfaction of all the World and find his own far more great and honourable and sweet and amiable in the End far more high and blessed in the Love and Esteem he shall obtain thereby than if he had gratified his first inclination without any respect to the Prelation of others It will bring him to the fruition of Pleasures far greater than those he despised TEMPERANGE in the full composition and use of Vertues is far more sublime and more immediately approacheth the end of Vertue than any Temperance in Meats and Drinks It is resident nearer the Throne of Felicity and seateth us by her You may see its Task as it is prescribed in Prudence But for Example sake we will instance it in Meekness which of all the Vertues is the most weak and naked A meek Spirit receiveth its Temper its encouragement strength and facility from the union and concurrence of all the Vertues Knowledg is its light and Love the principle of its life and motion Wisdom guideth it to the highest End Righteousness is a great incentive thereunto while it teacheth us to esteem the favour of God and the excellency of those Souls whose value maketh us tender of their Repose and prone to honour them with a due esteem as well as to desire their peace and salvation Holiness maketh us to delight in our Duty Goodness inclines us to sacrifice our own to the welfare of others Mercy leads us to pity their Infirmities and more to compassionate their Misery than to be provoked with their Distemper Justice makes us to pay our Saviours Love and Merits what we owe unto him All these establish the habit of Meekness in our Souls Fortitude does several waies conspire thereunto for it makes us to adventure upon any Trouble that we can fall into thereby and puts a lustre upon us in the act of Meekness Patience habituates the Soul to Afflictions and makes our sence of Injuries easie Repentance minds us of other employments than Anger and Revenge even a contrite Sorrow for our own Offences Humility gives us a sence of our own Unworthiness and a willingness to be yet more low than our Enemies can make us It inclines us also to confess that we have deserved far worse and more bitter Evils and to despise our selves which when we truly do no Injuries or Wrongs can move us Faith carries us up to higher Enjoyments Hope hath respect to the promised Reward Our Love towards GOD enflames us with Desire to please him Charity to our Neighbour is prone to forgive him Prudence teacheth us to expect no Figs from Thorns nor better entertainment from Briars and Brambles but rather to right our selves by improving their Wrongs and to turn their Vices into our Vertues Magnanimity despiseth the Courtship of Worms and scorneth to place its rest and felicity in Trifles Liberality is industrious to find out occasions of Obliging and Conquering Contentment is fed by higher Delights and beautifies our Meekness with a chearful Behaviour Magnificence carries us to the most high and illustrious Deeds and by very great and expensive Methods to multiply favours and benefits on our Beloved for all are our Beloved whether Friends or Enemies Temperance it self takes off the stupidity and sluggishness of our Meekness puts activity and vigour into it that it may not be a Sleepish but Heroick Vertue nay adorns secures and perfects it by the Addition and Exercise of all these and by giving to every other Vertue its Form and Perfection makes them more fit and able to aid and assist us here It moderates our Passions and puts a better dose of Life into our Consideration If there be any other Virtue it is not so remote but that it may lend us its helping hand and be subservient to the perfection of our Love and Meekness Which however simple it may appear in Solitude is very strong and irresistable amazing as far from Contempt as the Sun is from Darkness when it is animated with Courage and made illustrious by Love enriched with Liberality and made bright by Knowledg guided by Wisdom to the highest End and by Prudence to well-known and advantagious tho inferiour Purposes When the Soul appeareth neither foolish nor Cowardly nor base nor soft but High and Magnanimous in its Operation Meekness is redoubted IN the Throne of Glory all the acts of Faith and Hope and Repentance shall be for ever perfected or swallowed up in fruition The fruit of all occasional and transient Vertues shall remain the Divine Vertues shall be so firmly united that in their Act and Exercise they shall be one for ever By Knowledg we shall see all that the light of Heaven and Eternity can reveal By Love we shall embrace all that is amiable before GOD and his holy Angels By Wisdom we shall use the most glorious Means for the attainment and enjoyment of the highest End which is GOD in all his Joys and Treasures in the use of those Means we must actually enjoy all Blessedness and Glory Righteousness and Holiness and Goodness and Charity shall with all the rest be the Lineaments and Colours of the Mind the Graces and Beauties of the blessed Soul They shall shine upon its face and it self shall be glorious in the perfection of their Beauty as GOD is It s Goodness shall make it a fountain of Delights to all the other Creatures It shall be all Humility yet all
we are in our own till we are gone a little further but on the other side of all this Baseness we find a better Life in Communion with the Deity For asmuch then saith St. Peter as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh arm your selves likewise with the same mind for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of Men but to the will of GOD. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we walked in Lasciviousness Lusts Excess of Wine Revellings Banquettings and abominable Idolatries wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of Riot There is a motion from Vice to Vertue and from one degree of Grace to another by which we leave the phantastick World with all its Shews and Gauderies and through many Afflictions and Persecutions come to the real and solid World of Bliss and Glory WHAT hand Humility has in leading us through all Afflictions and in facilitating the way of Pressure and Calamity I need not observe I shall note the Errour which men incur by their Weariness and Haste who because they do not immediately see the Bliss of Humility and Patience if they do not curse yet they boggle at all Calamity These men ought to be informed that the middle of the Way is not the place of Rest and Perfection They must pass thorow all these things to the further Regions of Clarity and Glory Men are not to stick in Calamities themselves but if Humility lead them to suffer all Indignities with Patience it must lead them further to the bottom of their estate and condition to the true light and to the clear and perfect sight of their own Vileness In which they shall see their Original their Misery their Sin their Glory their GOD and themselves their Bliss and their Forfeiture their Recovery and their Saviour their Hope and Despair their Obligations in the height of eternal Love and Bounty and their shame and confusion in the depth of their Apostasie and Ingratitude their infinite demerit and GODS infinite Mercy the riches of free Grace and their own Unworthiness And in all these the length and breadth and depth and height of the Love of GOD which passeth Knowledge that they might be filled with all the Fulness of GOD. HUMILITY makes men capable of all Felicity All deep Apprehensions and great Resentments all extents and distances of things all degrees of Grace and Vertue all Circumstances that increase the guilt of Sin all Adorations Prostrations Admirations Debasements Thanksgivings Praises Exaltations are founded in Humility All the Fulness of all Estates all Honour and Obedience all Devotion and Worship all the beauty of Innocence all the deformity of Sin all the danger of Hell all the cost of our Redemption all the hatred of our Stupidity and Perverseness all the hope of Heaven all our Penitence and Grief all our Fear and Expectation all our Love and all our Joy are contained in Humility there they are expressed there they are exercised There they are enlarged and beautified in like manner There they grow deep and serious and infinite there they become vigorous and strong there they are made substantial and eternal All the Powers of the Soul are employed extended and made perfect in this depth of Abysses It is the basis and foundation of all Vertue and Gratitude whatsoever It is in some sort the very fountain of Life and Felicity it self For as nothing is great but in comparison of somewhat less so nothing is sweet but what is New and Eternal All Life consists in Motion and Change The pleasure of Acquiring is oftentimes as great and perhaps alwaies greater than that of Enjoying The long possession of that which we have alwaies had takes away the sence and maketh us dull Old and Common things are less esteemed unless we rub up our Memories with some helps to renew them and our sences together Gifts are alwaies sweeter in the coming than in the abiding with us And if what I observe in the course of nature be of any force there is no possibility of enjoyment at least no perfection in fruition without some relation to the first Acquisition Old things are apt to grow stale and their value to be neglected by their continuance with us I have noted it often in the joy that young Heirs have when they first come to their Estates and the great felicity which Lovers promise to themselves and taste also when they meet together in the Marriage-bed The pleasures of all which pass off by degrees not solely by reason of our dulness and stupidity but far more from a secret in the nature of things For all Delight springs from the satisfaction of violent Desire when the desire is forgotten the delight is abated All Pleasure consists in Activity and Motion While the Object stands still it seemeth dead and idle The sence of our want must be quick upon us to make the sence of our enjoyment perfect The rapture proceeds from the convenience between us the marvellous fitness that is in such Objects to satisfie our Capacities and Inclinations The misery and vacuity must needs be remembred to make that Convenience live and to inspire a sence of it perpetually into us The coming of a Crown and the joy of a Kingdom is far more quick and powerful in the surprize and novelty of the Glory than in the length of its Continuance We perceive it by the delight which Lovers taste in recounting their Adventures The Nature of the thing makes the memory of their first Amours more pleasant than the possession of the last There is an instinct that carries us to the beginning of our Lives How do Old men even dote into lavish discourses of the beginning of their lives The delight in telling their old Stories is as great to themselves as wearisom to others Even Kings themselves would they give themselves the liberty of looking back might enjoy their Dominions with double lustre and see and feel their former Resentments and enrich their present Security with them All a mans Life put together contributes a perfection to every part of it and the Memory of things past is the most advantagious light of our present Condition Now all these sparkles of Joy these accidental hints of Nature and little raies of Wisdom meet together in Humility For an Humble man condescendeth to look into his Wants to reflect upon all his Vices and all his Beginnings with far deeper designs than is ordinarily done WE recount these ordinary discoveries of the inclination of Nature because Humility is if I may so speak the Rendezvous of their perfection All the stirrings of Grace and Nature all the acts of GOD and the Soul all his Condescensions and beginnings to advance us all his Gifts at their first coming all the
implies Greatness and Bounty united THE Creation of the Universe was a great and Magnificent work because the lustre and beauty of the WORLD is a sublime and wonderful Gift imparted to millions The bounty of GOD in adorning all ages with Cities and Empires for the benefit and enjoyment of all the World is another piece of his Royal Magnificence The infusion of a Soul so divine and everlasting into the Body of a Man is an act of love transcendently greater than all the Aquaeducts and Trophies in the World For such a Celestial presence such a sublime and illimited power such a vast and noble Workmanship as that is which can see and comprehend all Eternity and Time together extend to all Objects in all Worlds and fill Immensity with life and joy and love and knowledge with light and beauty and glory with adorations and praises though its essence be invisible and all its splendour within is next under GOD the highest Object of all the admiration of Men and Angels It is a being as publick as the Sun the great occasion of all the extasies of the Seraphims the wonder and the rapture of all the Cherubims the glory of GOD communicated to the World in so divine a Creature a miraculous effect of his eternal Power and the resemblance of his Godhead among all the Creatures THE Incarnation of his Eternal Son and the giving of the Holy Ghost was another Magnificent effect of his almighty Power so was the preparation of his Word with the Gifts he gave unto Men in the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles adorned with all the varieties of their Labours and Vertues Wisdom Courage and Patience Lives and Examples Deaths and Sufferings Oppositions and Successes Miracles and Revelations The Jewish Nation alone is a Magnificent gift to the whole World The Apostle phraseth the Regiment of it as a matter of Bounty Now if the Fall of them be the Riches of the World and the diminishing of them the Riches of the Gentiles how much more their Fulness And again When he ascended up on high and led Captivity captive he gave Gifts unto Men some Apostles and some Prophets c. When he presented all Nations and Kingdoms as a token of his love to the Angels when he gave all those glorious Hosts in the Heavens to the vision service and pleasure of Men much more when he gave all these in their marvellous order and amity united to every Soul When he filled the Heaven of Heavens with Joyes and gave all the glory of his Kingdom to one and that one to every one he manifested the glory of his Magnificent power in that of his great and transcendent goodness And in relation to this we may cry out with the Apostle more than for the mysterious Regiment of a little Nation as he doth upon the account of GODS dealing with the Jews O the depth of the riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of GOD How unsearchable are his judgments and his waies past finding out For all things are yours Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the World or Life or Death or things present or things to come all are yours and ye are CHRISTS and CHRIST is GODS Wherefore he saith My Thoughts are not your Thoughts nor your Waies my Waies For as the Heavens are higher than the Earth so are my Waies higher than your Waies and my Thoughts than your Thoughts You give triflles and give them but to one I give Worlds and give them to every one You divide and disperse your Gifts and lessen by dispersing them I communicate and unite my Gifts and augment by giving them You think it impossible for one man to enjoy all things I think it possible for innumerable Millions You think your interest is abated and your fruition endangered by the communication of your Treasures to many I know they are increased and multiplied by the number of the Enjoyers You think Gold and Silver to be the greatest Gifts and that nothing is yours but what is shut up within such Shores and Walls and Hedges I know that Men are the greatest Treasures and that your interest is extended through all Worlds and your Possessions illimited For according to the tenour of these words and a little before he saith Thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles and make the desolate Cities to be inhabited Fear not for thou shalt not be ashamed neither be thou confounded for thou shalt not be put to shame for thou shalt forget the shame of thy Youth and shalt not remember the reproach of thy Widowhood any more For thy Maker is thy husband the Lord of Hosts is his Name c. And a little after he saith Thou shalt also be a Crown of Glory in the hand of the Lord and a royal DIADEM in the hand of thy GOD. Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken neither shall thy land any more termed Desolate but thou shalt be called Hephzibah and thy land Beulah for the Lord deligheth in thee and thy Land shall be married For as a young Man marrieth a Virgin so shall thy Sons marry thee and as the Bridegroom rejoyceth over the Bride so shall thy GOD rejoyce over thee For a Son to marry with his Mother is Incest it is Confusion also for a Child to go in unto his Fathers Wife And yet the Church of GOD shall be the lawful Bride of every one of all her Sons Here is Magnificence GOD giveth himself and his eternal Son and his Holy Spirit and his Bride and his Apostles and Prophets and all the Universe to every Soul Which justifieth that saying of St. Chrysostome GOD loveth every one with all the Love wherewith he loveth the whole World His Magnificence exceedeth all Limits Laws Imaginations Wishes Possibilities and he maketh every one Heir of the World Coheir with Christ to inherit all things every one more than the sole end of all his Kingdom For all the Ornaments and Riches of a Bride are given with her Person her Palace and Attendants are her Lovers upon the Marriage as well as she and all things that magnifie or make her amiable are subservient to his enjoyment and really his that is her Husband So that GOD giving us his Church to be our Mother and our Bride hath intended us in all the things whereby he benefited her in all kingdoms and ages and hath loved us in all the Love which he hath exercised towards her and all the fruit of all his Love to the whole World resteth in our Exaltation This is the Magnificence of Almighty GOD to every Soul in his Kingdom And for this it is that the Church is called The Assembly of the First-born because all her Children are the perfect Heirs and Kings and Bridegrooms every one compleatly and more to his satisfaction than if he were so alone For as GOD is wholly every
done were he in our places He cannot be the Soul of any of his Creatures but would be the Soul of that Soul the joy and delight of that Soul the life and glory of that Soul and that he cannot be unless that Soul will delight in him and love and honour him It is not he must honour himself but that Soul His desire is that that Soul would freely turn and delight in him freely of its own accord would incline it self to consider his Excellencies and dedicate it self to love and honour him This is one way for the Soul to be Magnificent towards Men too who by Nature delight to see GOD beloved and satisfied in a point of such infinite importance IT is true indeed that GOD can be full of Indignation and punish but for love to turn into anger is no compensation for the pleasure it lost by our miscarriage and to punish is a strange and troublesome work in which Love is extinguished or else afflicted Infinite Love puts an infinite value on the Gift And I think it is Magnificence to give a Gift of infinite value OUR Magnificence towards Men must be laid on a deep and eternal foundation We must be willing to give our selves to their comfort and satisfaction And that we cannot do but by imitating GOD in all his Goodness studying their felicity and desiring their love with the same earnestness to the utmost of our power doing in all places in all things in all Worlds the things they desire supposing them to be what they ought to be like Gods themselves THE best Principle whereby a man can stear his course in this World is that which being well prosecuted will make his Life at once honourable and happy Which is to love every man in the whole World as GOD doth For this will make a man the Image of GOD and fill him with the mind and spirit of Christ it will make every man that is the Representative of GOD and of all the World unto him It will make a man to reverence GOD in all Mankind and lift him up above all Temptations Discouragements and Fears It will make him to meet the love of GOD Angels and Men in every Person It will make a man truly glorious by making him pleasing to GOD and universally good to every one diffusive like the Sun to give himself to all and wise to enjoy their compleat Felicity If there were but one the Case is evident supposing more than one his duty is to love every one the more for all their sakes For since he must love all and they are all to love one and every one he must please them all by gratifying their love to one and by doing so to every one they are all concerned in the welfare of one and pleased in the love that is born to every one This in the state of Glory will be clear where every one like the Sun shall be clearly seen extending his love to all though here upon Earth where our estate is imperfect by reason of the imperfection of our Knowledge it doth not appear Our actions are limited for being finite in our outward demeanour they must needs be regulated by Justice and Wisdom But two things come in here to the assistance of Magnificence whereof the first is the inferiour perfection of our Love to all the second is the universal Satisfaction which the beauty of our outward life will afford at last Concerning the last two things are fit to be considered First that as GOD has communicated the Sun by making it visible to all and there is not a Star but is seen by all Nations and Kingdoms so has he communicated the Soul by making it visible to all and there is not a Thought that shall remain uncovered nor an action but it shall be seen by all for ever Secondly that as GOD himself is admired for his Inward Love so is he for the operations of his Outward Life I mean for his Works and Judgments When they saw his Works finished The Morning Stars sang together and all the Sons of GOD shouted for joy The Elders are represented before his Throne casting down their Crowns and saying Thou art worthy O Lord to receive Glory and Honour and Power for thou hast created all these things and for thy pleasure they are and were created Where the perfection of GODS Pleasure in the GLORY of the Creation is evidently discovered to be one of the Joyes of Heaven a great matter of their Contemplation an eternal cause of their Praises His infinite and eternal Love is that by which he is All Glorious within all the sweetness of his Essence and all the perfection of the Soul is there but yet his Saints in the Church Triumphant sing the Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb saying Great and Marvellous are thy WORKS Lord GOD Almighty Just and True are thy WAYES thou King of Saints His Works are the substantial Creatures in Heaven and in Earth his Waies are his proceedings and dispensations among them in all ages For all shall appear together for ever the one being Great and Marvellous the other beautified with Truth and Justice So that neither of these doth swallow up the other but both are distinct and perfect Our Love may be infinite on the Inside and yet our Life be diversified with many limited and particular actions Now if our Life be like GODS eternally to be seen and our Actions in passing pass not away but in the sphere of our life abide for ever our Life all at once is a mysterious Object interwoven with many Thoughts Occurrences and Transactions and if it be to be presented to GOD like a Ring or a Garland we had need to be very choice in the mixture of our Flowers and very curious in the Enammel of so rare a Token Perhaps it is his Crown nay our own His and our Royal Diadem It shall shine like a glory about our Souls for ever That there should be any dirt or blemish in it is inconsistent with our Felicity but it is a Magnificent Present if it be enchased with Jewels well chosen and curiously set I mean with the most pure and fit elections the most Wise and Just and excellent Actions the most bright and clear Apprehensions the most divine and ardent Affections The last are like Gold the ground work of the Crown but the work it self is a mixture of elaborate Distinctions that sparkle in their lustre like Gems of several cuts and colours An imperial Crown is a Magnificent Present from a King to a King But a Life like GODS in a sphere for which Time was lent that it might be well wrought and presented before him when made perfect as far surpasseth the most glorious Crown that did ever sit upon Monarchs brows as that can be supposed to excel a dull Clod of Earth or a piece of Rusty Iron There all Obligations and Laws and Duties and Occasions are
Grace infused by vertue of which we keep all those Promises which we made to GOD in our holy Meditations and all those holy Resolves which in our best Retirements we put upon our selves to do his Will even in the midst of all Assaults and Temptations It is a Vertue by which we remain Constant in all Persecutions and Allurements not warping or moving aside on any Consideration neither melting with Pleasures nor flinching at Distresses but continuing faithful to the death that we may obtain the Crown of Life He certainly that sees himself a King of all Worlds and Brother to our Lord JESUS CHRIST who hath said He that doth the will of my Father is my Mother Sister and Brother will not be wrought on to forsake or hazard so great a Bliss His knowledge of its Perfection will animate his Soul with all Fidelity IT will draw him from the World too and make him desire to be much alone that he may be much with GOD. A Covetous man will be telling his Monies an Ambitious man aspires to be alwaies near the Kings Person an Epicure is for his Wine or Women or Feasts continually A Vertuous man is more Covetous more Ambitious more prone to Celestial Epicurisme if I may so speak than all the World besides And so art thou if thou art really engaged in the study of Felicity A Pious man has greater Treasures higher Honours more pure Pleasures sincerer and truer Delights a more glorious Friend than all the Earth beside Why should we not enjoy him why should we not retire to adore him why not delight in Devotion and Communion with him There a Man is to feed by sweet Contemplation on all his Felicities He is there to pray for open Eyes and a pure Heart that he may see GOD. There thou art to exercise thy strengths and acquaint thy self with him to look into all Ages and Kingdoms to consider and know thy self to expâ—ciate in the Eternity and Immensity of GOD and to gain that GODLINESS which with real Contentment is Great Gain There thou art to stir up thy self by way of pure Remembrance to recollect thy scattered and broken Thoughts and to cloath thy self with all thy necessary Perfections FOR Godliness is a kind of GOD-LIKENESS a divine habit or frame of Soul that may fitly be accounted The fulness of the stature of the Inward Man In its least degree it is an Inclination to he Like GOD to Please him and to Enjoy him He is GOD-LIKE that is high and serious in all his Thoughts humble and condescending in all his Actions full of love and good-will to all the Creatures and bright in the knowledge of all their Natures He delights in all the Works of GOD and walks in all the Wayes of GOD and meditates on all the Commandements of GOD and covets all the Treasures of GOD and breaths after all his Joyes He that hates all that GOD hates and desires all that GOD desires and loves all that GOD loves and delights in all his delights is GODLY He that aspires to the same End by the same Means and forms himself willingly to the same Nature Every Like in Nature draweth to its Like the Beautiful and the Wise and the Good and the Aged but especially the GOD-Like There is more reason why they should delight in each other They have more Attractives and Incentives GODLINESS or GOD-LIKENESS is the cement of Amity between GOD and MAN Eternity and Immensity are the sphere of his Activity and are often frequented and filled with his Thoughts Nothing less than the Wisdom of GOD will please the GOD-LIKE Man Nothing less content him than the Blessedness and Glory of his Great Creatour He must enjoy GOD or he cannot enjoy himself That is he must rest satisfied in him as the Creatour the Law-giver the Lord and Governour of the World and for that end must be compleatly satisfied with the Glory and Perfection of all his Works and Laws and Wayes He must delight in all his Counsels that he may enjoy him as the Great Counsellour of all Nature and see the Beauty of his Mind that he may take pleasure in him as the Blessedness of the Angels the Redeemer of Men the Sanctifier of his Elect People and the Soveraign End of all things He must enjoy him as his own supream and eternal Object his King his Father Bridegroom Friend Benefactour All in all Which he can never do till he sees GOD to be the best Father the best King the best Benefactour Bridegroom and Friend in all the World Nor that till he sees the Beauty of the whole Creation the great and wonderful things of his Law the marvellous glory of his All-wise dispensations the Sacred perfection of his Decrees and the nature of his Essence And all these must be as sweet and satisfactory to himself as they are to the Deity To be GOD-Like is a very sublime and most glorious Perfection which no man can attain that is not either curiously satisfied in all these things or humbly confident of their Beauty and Perfection And for Cause have we thus written upon all the Vertues that all that need it and read the Book may be elevated a little higher than the ordinary Rate have something more erect and Angelical in their Souls be brought to the Gates at least of GODS Kingdom and be endued with GODLINESS a little more compleatly by their Care than hitherto they have been because they know both that GOD is and is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him FINIS Minners in Latine are called Mores whence the English word Moral is derived Cardo is a â—â—ing Col. 1 9 10 11 12. Col. 116. Joh. 3. 35. Joh. 5. 20. Joh. 15. 15. Wis. 7. 1 Cor. 4. 5. Note All this is spoken for Encouragement and Imitation Gal. 3. 21 2 Cor. 5. 21. Eph. 5. 25 26 27. Eph. 5. 30. Psal. 5. 4 5 6. 1 Pet. â—15 Heb. 11. Rom. 15. 4 Psal. 51. 16. 17. Luke 15. 1 Cor. 13 1. Mark 12. 30 31. 1 Cor. 13. 4 5 c. y s 1 Pet. 3. 10. Prov. 17. 8. Rev. 14. 15. Prov. 3. 19 20. Job 7. 17 18. Psal. 11. 4 5. Dan. 11. 35. Zech. 13. 9. 1 Pet. 1. 6 7. 1 Pet. 4. 12 13 14. 1 Pet. 4. 1 2 3 4. Dr. Hammond Psal. 21. Tully in Somn. Scipion 2 Cor. 9. 6 1 Joh. 4. 20. Rom. 11. 12. Roâ—â—â—â—â— 1 C Isai. 55. Isai. 54. 3 4 5. Isai. 62. 3. 4 5. * Rom. 4. 13. †Ro. 8. 17. * Rev. 21. 7. Job Rev. 4. 11. Rev. 15. 3 4 5. Psal. 40. 5. Psal. 183. 17 18. Of Hereticks and Schismaticks 1 Cor 4. â—