in Christ Jesus shal suffex persecution What of Saint Peters prediction of fiery Tryals and Encouragements to prepare for them Nay what of our Saviours Benediction on those that suffer for Righteousness sake Are these Tales and Figments Are these Legends and Foysts Are these Lillies of his field not to be compared to the Solomons of their fancy in all his Royalty I trow there is no man so fond but sees self more set up then Christ in this Pageant for take away sufferings and where is Faith where Charity where Martyrdome nay where is or to what purpose that animative reference of the Holy Ghost displaying Christ glorious in witnessing a good confession before Pontius Pilate his Judg who could wash his hand and protest Christs innocency and yet durst not deliver him from the rage of the multitude No wonder they cry down Scripture and Fathers and Church Stories who cry up such wild excentrick worldly subtilties for Religion and own Christ with their mouthes as the Jewes did him on the Cross only the more to reproach him Well let these stray from the fold as wildly as they will it is thy part O holy soul to keep close to thy colours Voti tunc Christianis erat pro Christi nomine gladio percuti S. Hieron in vita Pauli Eremitae de Temp. Decii Christ looketh thou shouldst not only he ready to own but of need be to dye for him thou must expect sorrows perhaps not such as with Spira will make thee despair turn thy back on Gon as Ephraim did in the day of Battel but such as may exercise thy Grace correct thine out-goings mind thee of thine end admonish thee of thy duty rouze thee to get thine Evidence ready to make thy Calling and Election sure and by a holy end prepare thee for a blessed Exchange The Promise is to be secure not exempt not that yee shall not to be assaulted but not be overcome not that ye shall not be chastned but that ye shall not be condemned not that evils shall not come neer you but that they shall not domineer over you not that ye shall not be buffetted by Satan but that Divine Grace shal be sufficient for you The Peace of God gained by Acquaintance with him is no plea of prescription against trouble and evil but this it doth it modifies evil so that it comes not noxiously neer a godly man as it is evil so it s kept at distance as it is a Mark of Divine love as it is a voice to reclaim as it is commanded to be Gods Monitor to us so we must welcome it as did David It is good for me that I was afflicted and pray for it as preventive Physick that keeps us from Plethorick Distempers Many men may thank God for their crosses without which they had never come to Heaven there is a most notable Story in the Legend of a blind woman who besought Saint Bridget to give her sight the Saint so called at her intreaty Quo presentor sum mundo eo absentior sum Christo did and when she had seen four dages she desired Saint Bridget that she would take away her sight again adding this for reason The more I see of the world the less am I conversant with Christ 4. Lastly The peace in Acquaintance with God will keep thee from thr Evil of Evils Death eternal God suffers not his to fall into that pit out of which there is no redemption His as they have no part in the sin of the Damned so shall they not partake in the torment of the Damned 'T is not Go ye Blessed but Go ye Cursed into everlasting sire prepared for the Divel and his Angels And indeed this is the Mercy of Mercies this is one part of the Recompence of Vertue and Godly life that it shall not only have comfort in seeing God gloriously waving the Banner of love over it but becoming its Guard to Heaven and nullifying Satans attempts on it this is that in which the mercy of God shines as at noon tide and comfortably exalts its self above Justice as that which crowns God and renders him Beloved and admired of all that know him But perhaps O man thou art curious to know what this Death Eternal is This is a vanity and if thou beware not may be the vexation of thy spirit but if thou wouldest ken the scantling of it our blessed Lord hath defined it to be utter darkness 〈◊〉 8.12 where is weeping and watling and gnashing of teeth it is exile from God and judgment to the society of damned spirits for ever Death Eternal what is it not that is absolute tristicity it is a living death and a dying life it is the wages of sin the sentence of Justice the utmost period of Plagues a most exquisite misery a most Merciless Torment an Eternal Passion Eternal Death it is misery to the eye for it shall not see God it is a worm gnawing on the heart for it shall consider the evil it hath done for which is inflicted that evil it suffereth it is a vexation to the senses which to augment the tortures of their condition shal be renewed and made more sensible it is an excess which shall never have end but be eternally what it is and impossible to be what it is not Death Eternal it is the region of Blasphemy the Caldron of Nimrods Nero's Judasses those chambers of ruine into which they descend who desert God by sin and are deserted by God in just Judgment Death Eternal it is a gulfe without bottom a doom beyond ransome a fire that burnes and is never extinguished and a restless craver never satisfied What shall I say other then that of the Psalmist Remember this yee that frrget God Psal 50.22 lest he tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver These are the Evils from which peace in Acquaintance with God priviledgeth the soul But how cries the holy soul cometh this to be my priviledge How O soul Surely not by thy merit but 1. By the Mercy of God which hath bestowed that good as an Enticement to be his God invites sinners to his Mercy Isai 30.18 He waites to be gracious he would have them come to the waters of Life and drink freely Matth. 11.28 he calls to you to come Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden he rewards them when they come Those that come unto me I will in no sort cast away he complains of them when they do not come John 5.40 They will not come unto me that they might have life God in goodness begins with man and gives him co-operating Grace and it is his own obduration that makes Mercy retreat while we are willing he assists us but when we draw back he will have no pleasure in us Mercy makes the Marriage betwixt God and the Soul and Peace is the Dowry that God gives his Beloved those that are one with
shall determine and till then Breve putabe malum quod finis melior subsequetar S. Hieron ep 25. ad Blesillam bear them manfully For though sorrow be in the night of this life yet in the Morning of Eternity joy shall be to those sons of the morning on whom Christ the Sun of Righteousnesse ariseth for whom he is a Ransome and to whom he will be a glorious Benefactor The consideration hereof makes a good mans Departure hence more comfortable then can be the puissantst Nimrod's For though Saladine the great Conqueror of Asia Es Saladinus Asia Dominator ex tante Regno tantisque opibus nibil aliud secum fert Wolph in Memor ad ann 1192. carries nothing with him to his grave of all his Power and Wealth but his winding sheet yet doth a holy soul expire with assurance that he hath a building of God not made with hands but eternall in the heavens Indeed corporal death as an avoydance of evils and a safe port to a tempestuous life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suidas in yerbo is accounted a great accommodation to man and many have wished for it that they might unbend the bow of Nature which by long girting growes feeble but these little dream'd of that judgement succeeding it which all men must expect and which will make the greatest Foelix tremble From the dread of that the holy soul is freed his Advocate is his Judg the Accuser of impenitents Christs precious blood is his Evidence for Mercy He that hath the blood of this Lamb of God for his Laver cannot but be clean for it purgeth from all sin And he that by faith overcometh the world ought not to fear the fear of men but to stay himself in expectation of that Livery of Lustre which Christ hath promised to those whose names are in the Book of Life Rev. 3.5 and whom he will publikely avow his before the Father and the holy Angels To these death is sweet Why sweet it is their rest from labors it is their incoate Jubilee it is their pass by the first guard which obstructs their access to Christ whom to love is their grace and with whom to live their glory it is their Remove from a Valley of Tears to a Mount of Triumph from a tedious Service into an absolute Freedom from Sorrowes to Joyes from wants to Plenty from Pains to Pleasures from Decay to Confistence This is the portion of Gods children this is the Canaan for Israelites this the Kingdom prepared this the Top and Top-Gallant of a Christians Faith and Hope on this his eye of Faith is fixed with this his hand of Love is joyned and after this his foot of Perseverance speeds refusing all discouragements with that confidence Heaven makes amends for all This I am sure transcends the utmost bounds of Mortal largess the greatest Mirror of manhood the likest unlimited Presidents of Soveraignety can but give Rewards and Honours impermanent as themselves are these sons of Change cannot draw what lot they please and entail the Crowne of Glory on whom they most favour The greatest indulgence Legal Right and general Obedience expresseth to Temporal Monarchs is but that they declare the Heir to their petty Dominions Internal Vertues are not ex traduce nor are External Advantages ever entailed to our imperfect Bequests God onely can speak that Peace which is melody to a holy ear He can call the soul that is ready to sink as he did Peter on the water Matth. 14.29 Come to me and it is a happy ear that heares his voice and followes it There is no cause of fear when Obedience answers Divine Commands God never suffers them to lose their labour who duly seek what their soul lacketh and whom their soul delighteth in Himselfe nor is any mans Exit so conspicuous and noble as his whose death hath hope and whose renewed life is Glory and Eternity for though all rest from their Labours when their bodies are inhumated Rev. 14.13 yet are not all blessed because works of Comfort follow only those who dye recti in curia Coelesti in amity with the Churches Prince and the Believers Pilot Christ Jesus Luk. 1.23 31. I will never envy the Prodigal's one fatted Calf when I may have all my Faith dare beg and my Father will give since my Saviour assures me it is but ask and have I will ask but not I trust amiss For Wisdom to know how to live exactly in doubtfull times Patience whereby to undergo mischievous provocations Grace to manage what I have aright and acceptance of what I doe while I strive to do what I can and am humbled that I can be no more serviceable to him who deserves far above whatever creatures can think or doe FINIS The Errata may be thus corrected In the first Meditation Page 3 line 14 read meet with l 22 margin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 5 l 27 r quarter p 9 l 9 r Coat Armor p 8 l 32 r since p 10 l 15 r Ruryp p 23 l 27 ◠〈◊〉 p 25 boom r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p 46 l 27 r those p 47 l 17 r. rection p 50 l 27 m r particeps p 53 l 22 r to one another p 56 l 30 r had p 59 l 30 r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the second Meditation P 4 l 3 after â—â—urred p 9 l 25 r veliety p 25 l 14 r exacts p 28 l 28 r sinners p 32 l 21 r no need p 34 l 15 r gift p 36 l 18 r his sores p 38 l 2 r hath p 42 l 10 r Oracular p 47 l 23 r retractation p 51 l 11 r God p 52 l 6 r dayes mar r praesentior p 59 l 6 r wil it be DIVINE MEDITATIONS ON ACQUAINTANCE With GOD. BY E.W. Esquire There be many that say Who will shew us any good Lord list up the light of thy countenance upon us Psal 4.6 Omnis copia quae non est Deus meus mihi est egestas LONDON Printed by Thomas Maxey 1653. The Introduction WHen I first gave vent to these night Meditations by penning them I had much debate with my self whether to conceal or publish them were most comely and convenient when I recollected the frequent prejudices that attend good meanings and the great odium that is cast on serious men by those triflers whose utmost ambition it is to blast the blessed fruit of Vertue by their unbenign breathes of detraction and how few there are of the Genteel World that think any thing more poysie then Romances worthy their perusal I condemned it to the heap of wast Papers as that which curious eyes would view with regret and captious natures peruse with little calmness But for as much as I have hitherto often offended God I will accuse my self and humbly implore his pardon in sacrificing by fire many though not beauteous yet undisfigured children of my fancy to silence upon the Altar and on the account
communication When I hear men bravely accomplish'd repine that they cannot quit scores with their injurious foes I think of that reply of S. Anthony which S. Jerom mentions he gave to blind Didimus who complained he wanted eys I wonder quoth he that a prudent man should grieve for the loss of that Miror prudentem virum ejus rei dolere damno quaâ—â— formica muscae culices habent et non latari illius possessione quam soli Sancti Apostolâ— meruerunt In vita Anthonii apud Nicephor l. 9. c. 17. Acts 20.35 which flies fleas and ants have and not rejoice in that treasure in his possession which holy men and Apostles yea Worthies only deserve and have It being a far more blessed thing to give pardon then receive provocation I know this is not onely a paradox to men of high mettle who admire punctilioes of Honour and had rather die then not dispute a tittle or word misplaced but even to all who find it hard to suppresse these Jebusites the inhabitants of our internal Canaan whoso long as we live Josh 15.62 will be in us Passions of all sorts are clamorous and wil have audience and if they come with Petitions and make moderate requests 't is fit they should be heard God hath placed them in us as the Angels that ascend and descend the ladder of our lives and while they are modest and bounded they serve God and beautifie man Love and Joy makes me sociable Fear and Anger makes me wary Sorrow prompts me to poysiness and solidity Love makes me admire God in his Nature Works and administrations Joy calls me to a testimony of my gratitude for Mercie 's favours not onely to necessity but plenty Fear aws me from abuse of what enjoying I am happy and wanting I may be miserable Anger evidenceth my dislike of that which is evil and Sorrow my loss of what is good or at least apprehended so to be Passions in the Minde are like members in the body good or evill in their use The hand acting Murther the eye darting lust the mouth speaking blasphemy the foot nimble to doe mischief is as far from the designe of God in creating them as the passions concupiscible and irascible are when they are most exorbitant and presse hardest on man to tempt God and dishonour himself Passions the elements of excellent Graces have been vessels of honour in Gods Family Moses his Zeal and Phinehas his Justice Davids Tendernesse Jeremies Tears and Peters Penitency are things offered to God with acceptance Our blessed Saviour who knew no sin nor had sinful passion yet was holily and harmlesly passionate at Lazarus his decease he groaned he wept John 11. Lazarus our friend sleepeth Death was but a sleep to him whom Christs tears bemoaned and his power resolved to awaken again to a worldly life Vers 11. yea not only Saints and Martyrs but also Heathen men whose chief riches were in this Conquests of Nature and inordinate appetite have been notable for this Love is an open-handed passion and cannot deny to the party it loves Tama tranquillitatis fuit ut vultuÌ„ nunquam mutaverit moerere vel gaudio the key to the cabinet of life Secrates his Aspasia Aristotle's Hermia Plato's Archenassa brought great infamies on those mirrors of Science Marcus Aurelius whom Capitolinus reports to be of such a composed nature that he never changed countenance either for joy or grief yet when his beloved Faustina died 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wept bitterly and more then some thought was decent but his Friend Pius corrected the censorious unnaturalnesse of those Bachilour standers by with this Permit him to be a man neither Power nor Learning ought to cashier affection Permitte illâ— ut homo sit noque enim vel Philosophia vel imperium tollis affectâ—s He deserves to be eternally in the horn-book and never to come to the primer of Esteem who cannot water his plants and his couch too when he bids adieu to such a Companion as with the famous Dutchess of Suffolk will go a pilgrimage with her Mr. Berty Anno 1558. Holingsh p. 1143. 1144. and not think either her honour debased or her life imbittered by such a wander with her Love and for her Religion Nay I will be no bail for his true answer of the Acton of Ingratitude brought against him who hath now heretofore had or hereafter may have a Wife like that of Dionysius of Syracuse who takes him for better for worse An elegisti 〈◊〉 secundarum fortunarum sociam non adversarum and would be the companion of his Banishments as she had been of his Greatness and yet can bid her farewell with dry eyes or an unbroken heart Solomon for all his Wisdom and Caesar in spight of his manliest stomack here bites the lip and comes to this bar of tears crying Guilty I have read of some that have dyed for Joy and Grief for Love and Hatred yea so active are the Passions in us that it is not only hard but almost impossible to give man a better definition then Passion Not Passions then simply but the exorbitancies of them are to be decryed and suppressed I like not the frigidity of those whose resolves are so far North that the warmest love which Vertue presents them hardly kindles at most doth not inflame them to pay their sacred debts in kind Nor do I approve of that impure madness and Amazon ardor which the young Dutchess of Meron expressed to Bruchgrave of Noremberg Nisi prohiberent quatuor oculi 〈◊〉 Van. Manden disc Moral 7. in 6. Preceptum p. 838. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cicer. ad Philiscum Dion l. 38. p. 71 Maximum sapientia indicium officium ut ipse ubique parsit idem que sit Seneca son to Count Frederick Zollern who hearing that he had said that he could love and would marry the Dutchess if four eyes did not hinder which she interpreted to be her two children with her owne hands murthered them to make way for his enjoyment Passion as it is vitiated and deflected from its right use as fire out of the chimney and water out of the channel puts all into confusion and misrule this to prevent is the part and prime quality of a wise man and though it be easier to say then to do it yet ought it to be the endeavor of every sober mind to attain this Mastery without which man is never more in danger then from these enemies of his owne house for then do we provoke God to deprive us of good and send evil things upon us when we are imtemperately acted by them to use them forbiddenly and when we glorifie not God but engage our selves to admire and prize them beyond that bound which God hath set us and that value he hath put on them Lots wise may love Sodom as a pleasant and useful place but when once God discovers the sin of
may say to thee Well done good and faithful servant and continue thee ruler in thine own house which many thy betters are not who yet are not greater sinners then thou though greater sufferers His usages varyed from Hosannahs to Crucifige's bids thee not marvel If the same breath blows hot and cold or that Favour hath a dark and bright side to thee He died lastly a shameful death do not thou defeat a noble death by a shameless life Thou O holy Soul hast met with disappointments here Who hath not Let thy comfort be that thou art or oughtest to be above all this world can afford Perhaps thy crosses have been in those things thou most admiredst Thou art well served who lovest any thing passionately but God whom thou shouldst love with all thy heart with all thy minde and with all thy might thy defeats are in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of thy hoped for fruition God sees thou art too indulgent to flesh and he loves to abase confidence in it What to others proves Gold to thee becomes drosse Comfort thy self thy best advantage is to come Heaven makes amends for all those manageries thou thinkst wise and wary succeed not when as thou wouldst wait upon God there is more in the lot cast into the lap then thou art aware of honest indeavors in the end have sure pay Patence though late profligates difficulty and disarms petulant resolution Mercy often forms noble Mercuries of rude logs and the greatest designs of beauty from the dull lowrings of mortal opposition That which is sowen in weaknesse shall in Gods time rise in power and bear down all that stand against it Thou lastly art out of love with thy self because thou canst not have thy will of this world study to prepare for that better before thou desire a cal from this death is a terror to those who have not part in the first Resurrection And if O holy soul thou findest thy comforts come in and thy God gives thee access to him with boldness then despise whatever would part thee and thy joyes chear up thy selfe with this that Christ is thine in his life thy pattern in his Spirit thy Comforter in his Word thy Rule in his death thine Attonement and in his glorious Session in Heaven thy Triumph that he is thy Sun by whose influence thou shalt be drawn up after him that he is thy sheild to defend thee from evil that he will give thee grace to glorifie him in a holy life before men and grace thee with glory before his Pather and his holy Angels But O holy soul all is not Gold that glisters all sufferings are not sanctified to sufferers because Pride and Folly has Martyrs which Christ crowns not Christs slock hear his voice and not a strangers keep in the fold not wander into by-wayes Let it be thy care to suffer not as a busie body not as an enemy to Government and a subverter of Order and civil Peace Non erga qui propter iniquitatem et propter Christianae unitatis impiam divisionem sed qui propter justitiam persecutionem patiuntur â—bi Martyres veri suns S. Aug. Ep. 50. ad Bonifac. Countem in these mistakes sober and prudent Christians ought not to be involved nor can any from just grounds of Magistratick severity against offenders take comfort in sufferings but as a Christian Martyr not with clamour but meekness Ann. 33. Q. Eliz Acts 7. last not reviling Powers as did Hacket but praying for persecuters as did Stephen Lord lay not this sin my suffering to their charge See O holy soul thou cleanse the inside of the cup and keep thy heart upright and trim Christ cares not for Pharisaicall outsides and ceremonious pomps he delights in the inner man in those addresses that are made to him from a pure heart and faith unfained to evidence which to men who judg by outward appearance the bodies concurrence in all devout and lowly demeanour is requisite And since thou knowest him a Spirit fear nothing more then a spiritlesse offering and beleeve nothing less acceptable to him then to be denyed the Male of thy Flock thy best and ripest parts Take heed thou mistake not Leah for Rachel and chuse the blear-ey'd world before Christ the Word that from the beginning to this moment speaks life and love to thee And who in all holy reverence be it written drank the health of Eternity to thee in his own bloud Matth. 26.58 and invites thee to pledg him in that Eucharistick Nectar which our holy Mother the Church fils out to all worthy Communicants and in which 1 Cor. 11.25 by command of him they celebrate the memoriall of his Passion And if O holy Soul the sorrows of thy life are too pressing for thee to prevail against Call thy Saviour to thy rescue He is a ready help in trouble He is a door of hope in the valley of Achor Hos 2.15 Achor vallis turbationis Gloss He that was thine Antisignanus in sorrow expects thou shouldest follow his Colours There is no fear of suffering and dying with this Phocion of Eternity who for his Martyrs hath Comforrs in Nolitimere mori cum Phocione and Crowns after torments This this held up Primitive Saints even to generous contempt of Death Saint Jerome reports that Hylarion being to die with eyes fixed on heaven thus spake My soul go forth of thy prison the body Egredere quid times egredere anima mea quid dubitas Septuaginta prepe aunis servisti Christo et mortem times In vita Hylar what fearest thou wherein doubtest thou Thou hast served Christ almost 70 years and dost thou now fear to dis I know it is a great work to obtain this Conquest Turkish Hist p. 220. to bring a Bajazet of mortal pride into the Cage of Self-denyall yet the Scholar of Christ must be this Tamberlaint and con this Part exactly Plus debet Christi Discipulus praestare quam mundi Philosophus S. Hieron Epist 26. ad Pammachum Christians who excell Philosophers in their Wages must also go beyond them in their Work And if O holy Soul thou retreatest and darest not enter the lists 't is a sign thou art unsatisfied of thy duty and settest light by thy birth-right Heb. 11.8 which is no better evidenced to thee then by Afflictions the badg of Legitimation Consider therefore that whatever trouble befalls thee is to file off thy pollution to give thy Vertue a transparency and to make thee more like him who is far above the Powers and Principalities of this vain World and its dulling and dangerous â—nvie Bid therefore defiance to all that would either court or compell thee to resigne Faith Hope Charity Patience Perseverance or any other piece of thy holy Armour to diffidence and impsous despair Consider every thing in this world shall have end and then if not before thy frailties and thine enemies injuries
the natures of Creatures and things we should soon discover our follies to be too brutish either to be admired or followed and the Creation would soon renite obedience to so senslesse Governours But blessed be God he hath not left us without a witnesse of his liberality He hath informed our specious bodies with perfect souls and made a noble Lodging of State for himself that high room and top battlement our Understanding which though too vast to be filled with the little puncto's and contemptible grains of worldly nothings yet receives completion from God and those apprehensions of him which he in much condescension to us is pleased to vouchsafe us not to make us proud of our fatnesse but provident to improve fulnesse to gratitude and to serve him more compleatly who does good and is good and from whom goodnesse effluxeth to all creatures for of his fulnesse they receive fulnesse That this Understanding is the Key of Discovery and Acquaintance needs no second to confirm it for even nature tels us by the Rule that there is no desire of what we know not Ignoti nulla cupido and Scripture directs to this as the path to all gracious Intercourse with God in one passage of holy Writ I hear this asserted Psal 9.10 They that know thy Name will put their trust in thee in another He that cometh to GOD must believe that he is Heb. 11.6 Now effects imply causes as Cisterns do Springs and Rivers Seas If God be to be believed on he must be conceived of and understood by those that thus believe him for as articulation is consequent to generation so is adhaesion to assent and assent to intellect The necessity of intellect to head the will and affections which in a sort compleat acqaintance is evincible from many things from the order of God in Creation Nature which makes this as the womb at which port every thing which tends in its progresse to action enters The light natural typicall of this internall Luminary was the first Creature as that which God erected to give light to his Library the World which God compiled of nothing by a power eternal complete and indeterminable and the first tryall hee put man upon was to touch his Intellect and to try the magnetisme of that faculty which could draw all things to it and incorporate it self with every thing And if when there was no distortion if before the mis-rule which sin and Satan brought into the Understanding this was the tendency of that Faculty It must still remain what it was as to the Nature and sacred Design of God though vayled and denegrated by accessions of sin and contractions of punishments which by understanding any thing but God and in order to God is just up on it The faculty then is the same in its nature in its imployment onely the Rose hath prickles the Swan deformed legs Death is in the pot if God doth not heal the waters and turn our Understandings to that right object Himself whom to know is life eternal And whom to glorifie as God our most excellent and onely good is the sole end of our creation Nor is the order of God in Creation the only Instance of this precedence of the Intellect but experience attests this in the whole latitude of Instances the Heavens by that instinct they have as it were and after their kind do their duty to earth Man nay their Maker by a duct which to them is in stead of Intellect do they serve times and seasons do they remit and extend influence according to the law of their first Cause and the Birds and Beasts by their sensual Energy analogous in some sort to Intelect in man direct their course and run their race not attempting to love or flye that which is not Good or Evil in their eye and pleasing or displeasing to their Natures Now if that rule of the Schools be true which neither is yet nor ever will be contradicted That the work of Nature is the work of the God of Nature Opus Natura est opus Authe ris then what is the concurrent practice of Universal Nature according to its specifick being must be Positive and Absolute and so from him who is the Beginning and End of all things and therefore most true And so I have mounted the first Step the Vnderstanding Acquaintance imports Understanding for how shall Desire be heightned but from Knowledge and Knowledg be gained but by that Faculty which is admissive and receptive of it Rom 10.14 How can they saith S. Paul believe on him of whom they have not heard and how can they hear without a Preacher Nor is this Step consummative to our Acquaintance if here we stay pitching this as the Non ultra beyond which we will not go for God hath placed his Seat on High and the Rounds of the Ladder which reacheth him are many he will have us engaged in much colluctation many breathings and pantings before we come up to the Mount of Mercy where Peace is and Evil is not and therefore he cryes out to man Step 2 in the second place for his Heart his Will which is the Jewel in this Cabinet of Glory This this to the Intellect is as the Sailes to the Ship takes the Winds gales and carrys it to the Port of Loss or Gain this this is the Womb in which are the Issues of life and death this this is the Paradise which we ought to guard with the Flaming Sword of an uninterrupted and earnest Zeal for as the Sailes move the Ship by reason of the wind which acts upon them and so is causal of their swelling as they of the Ships motion and according to the quantity of the wind so ordinarily is the way of the Ship so doth this act upon the Intellects premises admitting whatever hath the Watch-word from that Centinel I say not that the Will alwayes followes the rectified Understanding but this I say No man wills what is evil under the notion of evil Bonum velle convertuntur for the Wil and Good are convertible and many greatest evils have some good in conjunction with them for which they are admitted though as to the predominant parts of them they deservedly be termed and judged Evil for whatever erreth from the perfect Rule of Gods Law and defaceth the Image of God in the soul hath not the allowance of Heaven to make it currant Now this Will of man is highly concerned to the completion of reasonable Actions it being the vehiculum which carries the Intellect to its Object and thereto unites it the Understanding approves the Match but the Will tyes the knot and adunates as I must know before I can will so must I will before I can be acquainted with that I will which is the reason why between things averse there is no acquaintance properly so called but rather an Antithesis and Retrogade Motion Contraryes meet not nor