there we shall behold the Perfections of the Divine Nature though covered with the vail of humane Infirmities and when we have fram'd unto our selves the clearest Notion that we can of a Being Infinite in Power in Wisdom and Goodness the Author and Fountain of all Perfections let us fix the Eyes of our Soul upon it that our Eyes may affect our Heart and while we are Musing the fire will burn Especially if hereunto we add the consideration of Gods Favour and Good-will towards us nothing is more Powerfull to engage our affection then to find that we are beloved expressions of Kindness are alwayes pleasing and acceptable unto us though the person should be otherways mean and contemptible but to have the love of one who is altogether lovely to know that the Glorious Majesty of Heaven hath any regard unto us how must it astonish and delight us how must it overcome our Spirits and melt our Hearts and put our whole Soul unto a Flame Now as the Word of God is full of the expressions of his Love towards Man so all his Works do loudly proclaim it he gave us our being and by preserving us in it doth renew the donation every moment he hath placed us in a rich and well furnished World and liberally provided for all our necessities he raineth down blessings from Heaven upon us and causeth the Earth to bring forth our provision he giveth us our Food and Raiment and while we are spending the productions of one year he is preparing for us against another he sweetneth our lives with innumerable comforts and gratifieth every faculty with suitable objects The Eye of his Providence is alwaies upon us and he watcheth for our safety when we are fast a sleep neither minding him nor our selves But least we should think these Testimonles of his kindness less considerable because they are the easie issues of his Omnipotent Power and do not put him into any trouble or pain he hath taken a more wonderful Method to endear himself to us he hath testified his affection to us by suffering as well as by doing and because he could not suffer in his own Nature he assumed ours The Eternal Son of God did cloath himself with the Infirmities of our flesh and left the companie of those Innocent and Blessed Spirits who knew well how to Love and adore him that he might dwell among Men and wrestle with the obstinacy of that rebellious race to reduce them to their Alleagiance and felicity and then to offer himself up as a Sacrifice and Propitiation for them I remember one of the Poets hath an Ingenious fancy to Express the Passion wherewith he found himself overcome after a long resistance that the god of Love had shot all his Golden arrowes at him but could never pierce his Heart till at length he put himself unto the bow and darted himself straight into his breast Methinks this doth some way adumbrate Gods Method of dealing with Men he had long contended with a stubborn World and thrown down many a blessing upon them and when all his other gifts could not prevail he at last made a Gift of himself to testifie his affection and conciliate theirs The account which we have of our Saviours Life in the Gospel doth all along present us with the story of his Love all the pains that he took and the troubles that he endured were the wonderfull effects and uncontrollable evidences of it But O that last that dismal Scene Is it possible to remember it and question his kindness or deny him ours Here here it is my dear Friend that we should fix our most serious and solemn thoughts that Christ may dwell in our Hearts by Faith and we may be rooted and grounded in Love comprehending with all the Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and knowing the Love of Christ which passeth knowledge that so we may be filled with all the fulness of God We ought also frequently to reflect on those particular Tokens of Favour and Love which God hath bestowed on our selves how long he hath born with our follies and sins and waited to be gracious unto us wrestling as it were with the stubbornness of our hearts and essaying every method to reclaim us We should keep a register in our Minds of all the eminent Blessings and Deliverances we have met with some whereof have been so conveyed that we might clearly perceive they were not the issues of chance but the gracious effects of the Divine Favour and the signal returns of our Prayers Nor ought we to imbitter the thoughts of these things with any harsh or unworthy suspition as if they were designed on purpose to enhaunce our guilt and heighten our eternal Damnation No no my Friend God is Love and he hath no pleasure in the ruine of his Creatures if they abuse his goodness and turn his grace into wantonness and thereby plunge themselves into the greater depth of guilt and misery this is the effect of their obstinate wickedness and not the design of those benefits which he bestowes If these considerations had once begotten in our hearts a real Love and Affection towards Almighty God that will easily lead us unto the other Branches of Religion and therefore I shall need say the less unto them We shall find our hearts inlarged in Charity towards men by considering the relation wherein they stand unto God and the impresses of his Image which are stamped upon them They are not only his Creatures the workmanship of his hands but such of whom he taketh special care and for whom he hath a very dear and tender regard having laid the designs of their happiness before the foundations of the World and being willing to live and converse with them to all the Ages of Eternity The meanest and most contemptible person whom we behold is the off-spring of Heaven one of the Children of the Most High and however unworthily he might behave himself of that relation so long as God hath not abdicated and disowned him by a final Sentence he will have us to acknowledge him as one of his and as such to embrace him with a sincere and cordial affection You know what a great concernment we are wont to have for those that do any wayes belong to the person whom we love how gladly we lay hold on every opportunity to gratifie the Child or Servant of a Friend and sure our Love towards God would as naturally spring forth in Charity towards men did we mind the interest that he is pleased to take in them and consider that every Soul is dearer unto him than all the material World and that he did not account the Blood of his Son too great a price for their Redemption Again as all men stand in a near relation to God so they have still so much of his Image stamped on them as may oblige and excite us to love them In
of the Eternal Son of God in taking our Nature upon him but only reflect on our Saviour's lowly and humble deportment while he was in the world He had none of those sins and imperfections which may justly humble the best of men but he was so intirely swallowed up with a deep sense of the infinite Perfections of God that he appeared as nothing in his own eyes I mean in so far as he was a Creature He considered those Eminent Perfections which shined in his Blessed Soul as not his own but the gifts of God and therefore assumed nothing to himself for them but with the profoundest humility renounced all pretences to them hence did he refuse that ordinary compellation of Good Master when address'd to his humane Nature by one who it seems was ignorant of his Divinity Why callest thou me Good saith he there is none good but God only As if he had said The goodness of any creature and such only thou takest me to be is not worthy to be named or taken notice of 't is God alone who is originally and essentially Good He never made use of his Miraculous Power for vanity or ostentation he would not gratifie the curiosity of the Jewes with a sign from Heaven some Prodigious appearance in the Air nor would he follow the advice of his Country-men and Kindred who would have had all his great Works performed in the eyes of the World for gaining him the greater fame but when his Charity had prompted him to the relief of the miserable his humility made him many times enjoyn the concealment of the Miracle and when the glory of God and the design for which he came unto the world required the publication of them he ascribed the honour of all to his Father telling them That of himself he was able to do nothing I cannot insist on all the instances of Humility in his deportment towards men his withdrawing himself when they would have made him a King his subjection not only to his Blessed Mother but to her husband during his younger years and his submission to all the indignities and affronts which his rude and malitious Enemies did put upon him the history of his holy Life recorded by those who conversed with him is full of such passages as these and indeed the serious and attentive study of it is the best way to get right measures of humility and all the other parts of Religion which I have been endeavouring to describe But now that I may lessen your trouble of reading a long Letter by making some pauses in it Let me here subjoyn a Prayer that might be proper when one who had formerly entertain'd some false notions of Religion begins to discover what it is A Prayer INfinite and Eternal Majestie Author and Fountain of Being and Blessedness how little do we poor sinful Creatures know of Thee or the way to serve and please Thee We talk of Religion and pretend unto it but alas how few are there that know and consider what it means how easily do we mistake the affections of our Nature and issues of self-self-love for those Divine Graces which alone can render us acceptable in thy sight It may justly grieve me to consider that I should have wandered so long and contented my self so often with vain shadows and false images of Piety and Religion yet I cannot but acknowledge and adore thy goodness who hast been pleased in some measure to open mine eyes and let me see what it is at which I ought to aim I rejoyce to consider what mighty improvements my Nature is capable of and what a Divine temper of spirit doth shine in those whom thou art pleased to choose and causest to approach unto thee Blessed be thine Infinite Mercy who sent thine own Son to dwell among men and instruct them by his Example as well as his Lawes giving them a perfect Pattern of what they ought to be O that the Holy Life of the Blessed Jesus may be alwayes in my thoughts and before mine eyes till I receive a deep sense and impression of those Excellent Graces that shined so eminently in him and let me never remit my endeavours till that new and Divine Nature prevail in my Soul and Christ be formed within me ANd now my dear Friend having discovered the nature of True Religion before I proceed any further it will not perhaps be unfit to fix our Meditations a little on the Excellency and advantages of it that we may be excited to the more vigorous and diligent prosecution of those Methods whereby we may attain so great a felicity But alas what words shall we find to express that inward satisfaction those hidden pleasures which can never be rightly understood but by those holy Souls who feel them a stranger intermeddleth not with their joy Holiness is the right temper the vigorous and healthful constitution of the Soul its faculties had formerly been enfeebled and disordered so that they could not exerce their natural functions it had wearied it self with endless tossings and rollings and was never able to find any rest now that distemper is removed and it feels it self well there is a due harmony in its faculties and a sprightly vigour possesseth every part the understanding can discern what is good and the will can cleave unto it the affections are not tyed to the motions of Sense and the influence of External objects but they are stirred by more Divine impressions are touched by a sense of invisible things Let us descend if you please into a nearer and more particular view of Religion in those several branches of it which were named before let us consider that love and affection wherewith holy Souls are united to God that we may see what Excellency and Felicity is involved in it Love is that powerful and prevalent passion by which all the faculties and inclinations of the Soul are determined and on which both its perfection and happiness doth depend The worth and excellency of a Soul is to be measured by the object of its love he who loveth mean and fordid things doth thereby become base and vile but a noble and well-placed affection doth advance and improve the spirit unto a confirmity with the perfections which it loves The images of these do frequently present themselves unto the Mind and by a secret force and energie insinuate into the very constitution of the Soul and mould and fashion it unto their own likeness Hence we may see how easily Lovers or Friends do slide unto the imitation of the person whom they affect and how even before they are aware they begin to resemble them not only in the more considerable instances of their deportment but also in their voice and gesture and that which we call their meen and air and certainly we should as well transcribe the vertues and inward beauties of the Soul if they were the object and motive of our love but now as all the
Creatures we converse with have their mixture and alloy we are alwayes in hazard to be sullied and corrupted by placing our affection on them Passion doth easily blind our eyes that we first approve and then imitate the things that are blameable in them The true way to improve and ennoble our Souls is by fixing our love on the Divine Perfections that we may have them alwayes before us and derive an impression of them on our selves and beholding with open face as in a glass the glory of the Lord we may be changed into the same Image from glory to glory he who with a generous and holy ambition had raised his eyes toward that uncreated Beauty and Goodness and fixed his affection there is quite of another spirit a more excellent and heroick temper than the rest of the world and cannot but infinitely disdain all mean and unworthy things will not entertain any low or base thoughts which might disparage his high and noble pretensions Love is the greatest and most excellent thing we are masters of and therefore it is folly and baseness to bestow it unworthily it is indeed the only thing we can call our own other things may be taken from us by violence but none can ravish our love if any thing else be counted ours by giving our love we give all in so far as we make over our hearts and wills by which we possess our other enjoyments it is not possible to refuse him any thing to whom by love we have given our selves nay since it is the priviledge of gifts to receive their value from the mind of the giver and not to be measured by the event but by the desire he who loveth may in some sense be said not only to bestow all that he hath but all things else which may make the beloved person happy since he doth heartily wish them and would really give them if they were in his power in which sense it is that one makes bold to say That Divine Love doth in a manner give God unto himself by the complacency it takes in the happiness and perfection of his Nature But though this may seem too big an expression certainly love is the worthiest Present we can offer unto God and it is extreamly debased when we bestow it another way When this affection is misplaced it doth often vent it self in such expressions as point at its genuine and proper object and insinuate where it ought to be placed The flattering and blasphemous terms of adoration wherein men do sometimes express their Passion are the language of that affection which was made and designed for God as he who is accustomed to speak to some great Person doth perhaps unawares accost another with those Titles he was wont to give to him But certainly that Passion which accounteth its object a Deitie ought to be bestowed on him who is really so Those unlimited submissions which would debase the Soul if directed to any other will exalt and ennoble it when placed here those chains and cords of love are infinitely more glorious than liberty it self this slavery is more noble than all the Empires in the World Again as Divine Love doth advance and elevate the Soul so it is that alone which can make it happy the highest and most ravishing pleasures the most soiid and substantial delights the humane Nature is capable of are those which arise from the endearments of a well-placed and successful affection That which imbitters Love and makes it ordinarily a very troublesom and hurtful Passion is the placing it on those who have not worth enough to deserve it or affection and gratitude to requite it or whose absence may deprive us of the pleasure of their converse or their miseries occasion our trouble To all these Evils are they exposed whose chief and supream affection is placed on Creatures like themselves but the Love of God delivers us from them all First I say Love must needs be miserable and full of trouble and disquietude when there is not worth and excellency enough in the Object to answer the vastness of its capacity so eager and violent a Passion cannot but fret and torment the spirit when it finds not wherewith to satisfie its cravings and indeed so large and unbounded is its nature that it must be extreamly pinched and straitned when confined to any Creature nothing below an Infinite Good can afford it room to stretch it self and exerce its activity and vigour what is a little skin-deep beauty or some small degrees of goodness to match or satisfie a Passion which was made for God designed to embrace an Infinite Good No wonder Lovers do so hardly suffer any Rival and do not desire that others should approve their passion by imitating it they know the scantness and narrowness of the good which they love that it cannot suffice two being in effect too little for one Hence Love which is strong as death occasioneth Jealousie which is cruel as the grave the coals whereof are coals of fire which hath a most violent flame But Divine Love hath no mixture of this gall when once the Soul is fixed on that Supream and All-sufficient Good it finds so much perfection and goodness as doth not only answer and satisfie its affection but master and over-power it too it finds all its love to be too faint and languid for such a noble object and is only sorry that it can command no more it wisheth for the Flammes of a Seraph and longs for the time when it shall be wholly melted and dissolved into love and because it can do so little it self it desires the assistance of the whole Creation that Angels and Men would concur with it in the admiration and love of those Infinite Perfections Again Love is accompanied with trouble when it misseth a suitable return of affection Love is the most valuable thing we can bestow and by giving it we do in effect give all that we have and therefore it must needs be afflicting to find so great a gift despised that the Present which one hath made of his whole Heart cannot prevail to obtain any favour for him Perfect love is a kind of self-dereliction a wandering out of our selves it 's a kind of voluntary death wherein the lover dyes to himself and all his own interests not thinking of them nor caring for them any more and minding nothing but how he may please and gratifie the party whom he loves thus is he quite undone unless he meet with reciprocal affection he neglects himself and the other hath no regard to him but if he be beloved he is revived as it were and liveth in the soul and care of the person whom he loves and now he begins to mind his own concernments not so much because they are his as because the beloved is pleased to own an interest in them he becomes dear unto himself because he is so unto the other But why should I
enlarge in so known a matter nothing can be more clear than that the happiness of Love depends on the return it meets with and herein the Divine Lover hath unspeakably the advantage having placed his affection on him whose Nature is Love whose Goodness is as Infinite as his Being whose Mercy prevented us when we were his enemies therefore cannot choose but imbrace us when we are become his friends it is utterly impossible that God should hide his Face and deny his Love to a Soul wholly devoted to him and which desires nothing so much as to serve and please him he cannot disdain his own Image nor the heart in which it is engraven Love is all the tribute which we can pay him and it is the Sacrifice which he will not despise Another thing which disturbs the pleasure of Love and renders it a miserable and disquiet Passion is absence and separation from those we love it is not without a sensible affliction that friends do part though for some little time it is sad to be deprived of that society which is so delightful our life becomes tedious being spent in an impatient expectation of the happy hour wherein we may meet again but if death have made the separation as sometime or other it must this occasions a grief scarce to be parallelled by all the misfortunes of humane life and wherein we pay dear enough for the comforts of our friendship But O how happy are those who have placed their love on him who can never be absent from them they need but to open their eyes and they shall every where behold the traces of his Presence and Glory and converse with him whom their Soul loveth and this makes the darkest Prison or wildest Desart not only supportable but delightful to them In fine a Lover is miserable if the person whom he loveth be so They who have made an exchange of hearts by love get thereby an interest in one anothers happiness and misery and this makes Love a troublesome Passion when placed on Earth The most fortunate person hath grief enough to marre the tranquillity of his friend and it is hard to hold out when we are attacked on all hands and suffer not only in our own person but in anothers But if God were the Object of our Love we should share in an infinite happiness without any mixture or possibility of diminution we should rejoyce to behold the Glory of God and receive comfort and pleasure from all the Praises wherewith Men and Angels do Extol him It should delight us beyond all expression to consider that the Beloved of our Souls is infinitely happy in himself and that all his Enemies cannot shake or unsettle his Throne That our God is in the Heavens and doth whatsoever he pleaseth Behold on what sure foundations his happiness is built whose Soul is possessed with Divine Love whose will is transformed into the Will of God and whose greatest desire is that his Maker should be pleased O the peace the rest the satisfaction that attendeth such a temper of mind What an infinite pleasure must it needs be thus as it were to lose our selves in him and being swallowed up in the overcoming sense of his goodness to offer our selves a living Sacrifice alwayes ascending unto him in flammes of love never doth a Soul know what a solid Joy and substantial pleasure is till once being weary of it self it renounce all propriety give it self fully up unto the Author of its being and feel it self become a hallowed and devoted thing and can say from an inward sense and feeling My Beloved is mine I account all his interest mine own and I am his I am content to be any thing for him and care not for my self but that I may serve him a person moulded unto this temper would find pleasure in all the dispensations of Providence Temporal Enjoyments would have another relish when he should taste the Divine Goodness in them and consider them as tokens of Love sent by his dearest Lord and Maker And chastisements though they be not joyful but grievous would hereby lose their sting the rod as well as the staff would comfort him he would snatch a kiss from the hand that were smiting him and gather sweetness from that severity nay he would rejoyce that though God did not the will of such a worthless and foolish creature as himself yet he did his own Will and accomplished his own designs which are infinitely more holy and wise The Exercises of Religion which to others are insipid and tedious do yield the highest pleasure and delight to Souls possessed with Divine Love they rejoyce when they are called to go up to the house of the Lord that they may see his power and his glory as they have formerly seen it in his Sanctuary They never think themselves so happy as when having retired from the world and gotten free from the noise and hurry of affairs and silenced all their clamorous passions those troublesom guests within they have placed themselves in the presence of God and entertain Fellowship and Communion with him they delight to adore his Perfections and recount his Favours and to protest their affection to him and tell him a thousand times that they love him to lay out their troubles or wants before him and disburthen their hearts in his Bosom Repentance it self is a delightful exercise when it floweth from the principle of love there is a secret sweetness which accompanieth those tears of remofse those meltings and relentings of a Soul returning unto God and regrating its former unkindness The heightned endearments of Lovers newly reconciled after some estrangements of their affections are a very imperfect shadow and resemblance of this The severities of a holy Life and that constant watch which we are obliged to keep over our hearts and ways are very troublesom to those who are only ruled and acted by an External Law and have no law in their Minds inclining them to the performance of their duty but where Divine Love possesseth the Soul it stands as Sentinel to keep out every thing that may offend the Beloved and doth disdainfully repulse those temptations which assault it it complyeth cheerfully not only with explicite Commands but with the most secret Notices of the Beloved's pleasure and is ingenious in discovering what will be most grateful and acceptable unto him it makes Mortification and Self-denial almost change their harsh and dreadful names and become easie sweet and delightful things But I find this part of my Letter swell bigger than I designed indeed who would not be tempted to dwell on so pleasant a Theme I shall endeavour to compensate it by brevity in the other Points The next Branch of the Divine Life is an Universal Charity and Love The Excellency of this Grace will be easily acknowledged for what can be more noble and generous than a Heart inlarged to imbrace the whole World whose
wishes and designs are levelled at the good and welfare of the Universe which considereth every man's interest as it 's own He who loveth his Neighbour as himself can never entertain any base or injurious thought or be wanting in expressions of bounty he had rather suffer a thousand wrongs than be guilty of one and never accounts himself happy but when some one or other hath been benefited by him the malice or ingratitude of men is not able to resist his love he overlooks their injuries and pities their folly and overcomes their evil with good and never designs any other revenge against his most bitter and malitious Enemies than to put all the obligations he can upon them whether they will or not Is it any wonder that such a Person be reverenced and admired and accounted the Darling of Mankind This inward goodness and benignity of spirit reflects a certain sweetness and serenity upon the very countenance and makes it amiable and lovely it inspireth the Soul with a noble resolution and courage and makes it capable of enterprising and effectuating the highest things Those Heroick Actions which we are wont to read with admiration have for the most part been the effects of the Love of ones Country or of particular Friendships and certainly a more extensive and universal affection must be much more powerful and efficacious Again as Charity flows from a Noble and Excellent temper so it is accompanied with the greatest Satisfaction and Pleasure it delights the Soul to feel it self thus enlarged and to be delivered from those disquieting as well as deforming Passions Malice Hatred and Envy and become Gentle Sweet and Benign had I my choice of all things that might tend to my present felicity I would pitch upon this To have my heart possessed with the greatest kindness and affection towards all men in the World I am sure this would make me partake in all the happiness of others their inward endowments and outward prosperity every thing that did benefit and advantage them would afford me comfort and pleasure and though I should frequently meet with occasions of grief and compassion yet there is a sweetness in commiseration which makes it infinitely more desireable than a stupid insensibility and the consideration of that Infinite Goodness and Wisdom which governs the world might repress any excessive trouble for particular Calamities that happen in it and the hopes or possibility of mens after-happiness might moderate their sorrow for their present misfortunes Certainly next to the love and enjoyment of God that ardent Charity and affection wherewith blessed Souls do imbrace one another is justly to be reckoned as the greatest felicity of those Regions above and did it universally prevail in the world it would anticipate that blessedness and make us taste of the Joyes of Heaven upon Earth That which I named as a Third Branch of Religion was Purity and you may remember I described it to consist in a contempt of sensual Pleasures and resoluteness to undergo those troubles and pains we may meet with in the performance of our duty Now the naming of this may suffice to recommend it as a most Noble and Excellent Quality There is no slavery so base as that whereby a man becomes drudge to his own Lusts nor any Victory so glorious as that which is obtain'd over them Never can that person be capable of any thing that is Noble and Worthy who is sunk in the gross and feculent pleasures of Sense or bewitched with the light and airy gratifications of fancy but the Religious Soul is of a more Sublime and Divine temper it knows it was made for higher things and scorns to step aside one foot out of the ways of Holiness for the obtaining of any of these And this Purity is accompanied with a great deal of Pleasure whatsoever defiles the Soul disturbs it too all impure delights have a sting in them and leave smart and trouble behind them Excess and Intemperance and all inordinate Lusts are so much Enemies to the health of the Body and the interests of this present life that a little consideration might oblige any rational man to forbear them on that very score And if the Religious person go higher and do not only abstain from noxious pleasures but neglect those that are innocent this is not to be look'd upon as any violent and uneasie restraint but as the effect of better choice that their Minds are taken up in the pursuit of more sublime and refined delights so that they cannot be concerned in these any person that is engaged in a violent and passionate affection will easily forget his ordinary gratifications will be little curious about his dyet or his bodily ease or the Divertisements he was wonted to delight in No wonder then if Souls overpowered with Divine Love despise inferiour pleasures and be almost ready to grudge the Body its necessary attendance for the common accommodations of life judging all these impertinent to their main happiness and those higher enjoyments they are pursuing As for the hardships they may meet with they rejoyce in them as opportunities to exercise and testifie their affection and since they are able to do so little for God they are glad of the honour to suffer for him The last Branch of Religion is Humility and however to vulgar and carnal eyes this may appear an abject base and despicable quality yet really the Soul of man is not capable of an higher and more noble endowment It is a silly ignorance that begets pride but Humility arises from a nearer acquaintance with excellent things which keeps men from doating on trifles or admiring themselves because of some petty attainments Noble and well Educated Souls have no such high opinion of Riches Beauty Strength and other such like advantages as to value themselves for them or despise those that want them and as for inward worth and real goodness the sense they have of the Divine Perfections makes them think very meanly of any thing they have hitherto attain'd and be still endeavouring to surmount themselves and make nearer approaches to those infinite Excellencies which they admire I know not what thoughts people may have of Humility but I see almost every person pretending unto it and shunning such expressions and actions as may make them be accounted arrogant and presumptuous so that those who are most desirous of praise will be loath to commend themselves What are all those complements and modes of Civility so frequent in our ordinary converse but so many protestations of our esteem of others and the low thoughts we have of our selves And must not that Humility be a noble and excellent endowment when the very shadows of it are accounted so necessary a part of good breeding Again this Grace is accompanied with a great deal of happiness and tranquility the proud and arrogant person is a trouble to all that converse with him but most of all unto
himself every thing is enough to vex him but scarce any thing sufficient to content and please him he is ready to quarrel with every thing that falls out as if he himself were such a considerable person that God Almighty should do every thing to gratifie him and all the Creatures of Heaven and Earth should wait upon him and obey his will The leaves of high Trees do shake with every blast of wind and every breath every evil word will disquiet and torment an arrogant man but the humble person hath the advantage when he is despised that none can think more meanly of him than he doth of himself and therefore he is not troubled at the matter but can easily bear those reproaches which wound the other to the Soul and withal as he is less affected with injuries so indeed he is less obnoxious unto them Contention which cometh of Pride betrayes a man into a thousand inconveniencies which those of a meek and lowly temper are seldom meeting with True and genuine humility begetteth both a veneration and love among all wise and discerning persons while Pride defeateth it's own design and depriveth a man of that honour it makes him pretend to But as the chief Exercises of Humility are those which relate unto Almighty God so these are accompany'd with the greatest satisfaction and sweetness it is impossible to express the great pleasure and delight which Religious persons feel in the lowest prostrations of their Soul before God when having a deep sense of the Divine Majesty and Glory they sink if I may so speak unto the very bottom of their beings and vanish and disappear in the presence of God by a serious and affectionate acknowledgment of their own nothingness and the shortness and imperfections of all their attainments when they understand the full sense and emphasis of the Psalmist's exclamation Lord what is Man and can utter it with the same affection neither did ever any haughty and ambitious person receive the praises and applauses of men with so much pleasure as the humble and religious do renounce them Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give glory c. Thus I have spoken something of the Excellencies and Advantage of Religion in it's several Branches but should be very injurious to the Subject did I pretend to have given any perfect account of it Let us acquaint our selves with it My dear Friend Let us acquaint our selves with it and experience will teach us more than all that ever hath been spoken or written concerning it But if we may suppose the Soul to be already awakened unto some longing desires after so great a Blessedness it will be good to give them vent and suffer them to issue forth in some such aspirations as these A Prayer GOod God! what a mighty felicity is this to which we are called How graciously hast thou joyn'd our Duty and Happiness together and prescribed that for our work the performance whereof is a great reward And shall such silly worms be advanced to so great a height Wilt Thou allow us to raise our eyes to Thee Wilt thou admit and accept our affection Shall we receive the impression of thy Divine Excellencies by beholding and admiring them and partake of thy infinite Blessedness and Glory by loving Thoe and rejoycing in them O the happiness of those Souls that have broken the fetters of self-Self-love and dis-intangl'd their affection from every narrow and particular good whose Understanding are inlightned by thy Holy Spirit and their wills inlarged to the extent of thine who love thee above all things and all Mankind for thy sake I am perswaded O God I am perswaded that I can never be happy till my carnal and corrupt affections be mortify'd and the pride and vanity of my spirit be subdued and till I come seriously to despise the world and think nothing of my self But O when shall it once be O when wilt Thou come unto me and satisfie my Soul with thy likeness making me holy as thou art holy even in all manner of conversation Hast thou given me a prospect of so great a felicity and wilt thou not bring me unto it Hast thou excited these desires in my Soul and wilt thou not also satisfie them O teach me to do thy Will for thou art my God thy Spirit is good lead me unto the Land of Uprightness Quicken me O Lord for thy Names sake and perfect that which concerneth me Thy Mercy O Lord endureth for ever forsake not the works of thine own hands I Have hitherto considered wherein True Religion doth consist and how desirable a thing it is but when one sees how infinitely distant the common temper and frame of men is from it he may perhaps be ready to despond and give over and think it utterly impossible to be attain'd he may sit down in sadness and bemoan himself and say in the anguish and bitterness of his spirit They are happy indeed whose Souls are awakened unto the Divine Life who are thus renew'd in the spirit of their minds but alas I am quite of another constitution and am not able to effectuate so mighty a change if outward observances could have done the business I might have hoped to acquit my self by diligence and care but since nothing but a new Nature can serve the turn what am I able to do I could bestow all my Goods in Oblations to God or Alms to the Poor but cannot command that Love and Charity without which this expence would profit me nothing This gift of God cannot be purchased with money if a man should give all the substance of his house for love it would utterly be contemned I could pine and macerate my body and undergo many hardships and troubles but I cannot get all my corruptions starved nor my affections wholly wean'd from Earthly things there is still some worldly desires lurking in my heart and those vanities that I have shut out of doors are alwayes getting in by the windowes I am many times convinced of my own meanness of the weakness of my body and the far greater weakness of my Soul but this doth rather beget indignation and discontent than true humility in my spirit and though I should come to think meanly of my self yet I cannot endure that others should think so too In a word when I reflect on my highest and most specious attainments I have reason to suspect that they are all but the effects of Nature the issues of Self-love acting under several disguises and this principle is so powerful and so deeply rooted in me that I can never hope to be delivered from the dominion of it I may toss and turn as a door on the hinges but can never get clear off or be quite unhing'd of Self which is still the center of all my motions So that all the advantage I can draw from the discovery of Religion is but to see at a huge distance that
in private and another wherein though we utter no sound yet we conceive the expressions and form the words as it were in our Mind which I presume is most commonly used in private devotion so there is a third and more sublime kind of prayer wherein the Soul takes a higher flight and having collected all its forces by long and serious Meditation it darteth it self so to speak towards God in sighs and groans and thoughts too big for expression As when after a deep Contemplation of the Divine Perfections appearing in all his Works of Wonder it addresseth it self unto him in the profoundest adoration of his Majestie and Glory or when after sad reflections on its vileness and miscarriages it prostrates it self before him with the greatest confusion and sorrow not daring to lift up its eyes or utter one word in his presence or when having well considered the beauty of holiness and the unspeakable felicity of those that are truly good it panteth after God and sendeth up such vigorous and ardent desires as no words should be sufficient to express continuing and repeating each of these acts as long as it finds it self upheld by the force and impulse of the previous Meditation This mental Prayer is of all other the most effectual to purifie the Soul and dispose it unto a holy and religious temper and may be termed the great Secret of Devotion and one of the most powerful instruments of the Divine Life and it may be the Apostle hath a peculiar respect unto it when he saith that the Spirit helpeth our infirmities making intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered or as the Original may bear that cannot be worded Yet I do not so recommend this sort of Prayer as to supersede the use of the other for we have so many several things to pray for and every petition of this nature requireth so much time and so great an intention of spirit that it were not easie therein to overtake them all to say nothing that the deep sighs and heavings of the heart which are wont to accompany it are something oppressive to Nature and make it hard to continue long in them But certainly a few of those inward aspirations will do more than a great many fluent and melting expressions Thus my dear Friend I have briefly proposed the Method which I judge proper for moulding the Soul unto a holy frame and the same means which serve to beget this Divine Temper must still be practised for strengthning and advancing it and therefore I shall recommend but one more for that purpose and 't is the frequent and conscientious use of that holy Sacrament which is peculiarly appointed to nourish and increase the Spiritual Life when once it is begotten in the Soul All the Instruments of Religion do meet together in this Ordinance and while we address our selves unto it we are put to practise all the Rules which were mentioned before Then it is that we make the severest Survey of our Actions and lay the strictest Obligations on our selves Then are our Minds raised to the highest contempt of the World and every Grace doth exercise it self with the greatest activity and vigour all the subjects of Contemplation do there present themselves unto us with the greatest advantage and then if ever doth the Soul make its most powerful Sally's towards Heaven and assault it with a holy and acceptable force And certainly the neglect or careless performance of this Duty is one of the chief causes that bedwarfs our Religion and makes us continue of so low a size But it is time I should put a close to this tedious Letter which is grown to a far greater bulk then at first I intended If these poor Papers can do you the smallest service I shall think my self very happy in this Undertaking at least I am hopeful you will kindly accept the Sincere Endeavours of a Person who would fain acquit himself of some part of that which he owes you A Prayer AND now O most gracious God Father and Fountain of Mercy and Goodness who hast blessed us with the Knowledge of our Happiness and the way that leadeth unto it excite in our Souls such ardent desires after the one as may put us forth to the diligent prosecution of the other Let us neither presume of our own strength nor distrust thy Divine Assistance but while we are doing our utmost endeavours teach us still to depend on Thee for the success Open our Eyes O God and teach us out of thy Law Bless us with an exact and tender sense of our duty and a taste to discern perverse things O that our wayes were directed to keep thy Statutes then shall we not be ashamed when we have respect unto all thy Commandments Possess our hearts with a generous and holy disdain of all those poor enjoyments which this World holdeth out to allure us that they may never be able to inveigle our Affections or betray us unto any Sin Turn away our eyes from beholding vanity and quicken thou us in thy Law Fill our Souls with such a deep sense and full perswasion of those great Truths which Thou hast reveal'd in the Gospel as may influence and regulate our whole Conversation and that the life which we henceforth live in the flesh we may live through Faith in the Son of God O that the infinite Perfections of thy Blessed Nature and the astonishing Expressions of thy Goodness and Love may conquer and overpower our hearts that they may be constantly arising towards Thee in flames of Devoutest Affection and inlarging themselves in Sincere and Cordial Love towards all the World for thy sake and that we may cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in thy fear without which we can never hope to behold and enjoy Thee Finally O God grant that the consideration of what thou art and what we our selves are may both humble and lay us low before Thee and also stir up in us the strongest and most ardent aspirations towards Thee We desire to resign and give up our selves to the Conduct of thy Holy Spirit lead us in thy Truth and teach us for thou art the God of our Salvation Guide us with thy Counsel and afterwards receive us unto Glory for the Merits and Intercession of thy Blessed Son our Saviour Amen FINIS AN ACCOUNT OF THE BEGINNINGS and ADVANCES OF A Spiritual Life Written at the Desire of M. L. V. R. The Occasion of this Discourse Mistakes about Religion What Religion is It s Permanency and Stability It s freedome and unconstrainedness 1 Joh. 3. 9. Joh. 4. 34. Religion a Divine Principle What the Natural Life is The different tendencies of the natural life Wherein the Divine Life doth consist Religion better understood by actions than by words Divine Love exemplified in our Saviour His Diligence in doing Gods Will. His Patience in bearing it His constant Devotion His Charity to men His Purity His Humility The Excellency and advantage of Religion Prov. 14. 10. The Excellency of Divine Love The Advantages of Divine Love The worth of the Object The certainty to be beloved again The Presence of the beloved person That Divine Love makes us partake in an infinite happiness He that loveth God finds sweetness in every dispensation The duties of Religion are delightful to him Psal. 63. 2. The Excellency of Charity The Pleasure that attends it The Excellency of Purity The Delight it affords The Excellency of Humility The pleasure and sweetness of an humble temper The despondent Thoughts of some newly awakened to a right sense of things Act. 8. 20. Cant 8. 7. The unreasonableness of these Fears Deut. 33. 27. Psal. 89. 19. Esay 26. ver 19. Esay 53. ver 11. Heb. 7. 24 25. Matth. 12. 20. Cant. 8 7. 2 Pet. 1. 19. Prov. 4. 18. Psal 84 7. Heb. 11. 34. 2 King 6. 16 17. We must do what we can and depend on the Divine assistance I Chron. 22. 16. 1 Cor. 15. 58. Psal. 104. 14. Jer. 4. 3. We must shun all manner of Sin We must know what things are sinful Psal. 119. 9. Heb. 4. 12. Psal. 17. 4. We must resist the Temptations to Sin by considering the Evils they will draw on us 2 Pet. 3. 10. 1 Cor. 4. 5. Isa. 33. 14. We must keep a constant watch over our selves We must often examine our Actions It is fit to restrain our selves in many lawful things We must strive to put our selves out of love with the World We must do those outward Actions that are commanded We must endeavour to form internal Acts of Devotion Charity c. Consideration a great instrument of Religion Heb. 1. 3. To beget Divine Love we must consider the excellency of the Divine Nature Act. 17. 27. Heb. 1. 3. Lam. 3. 31. Psal. 39. 3. We should meditate on his Goodness and Love Eph. 3. 17 18 19. To beget Charity we must remember that all men are nearly related unto God That they carry his Image upon them To beget Purity we should consider the Dignity of our Nature We should meditate oft on the Joys of Heaven 1 Joh. 3. 3. Humility ariseth from the consideration of our failings Thoughts of God give us the lowest thoughts of our selves Prayer another Instrument of Religion The advantages of mental Prayer Religion is to be advanced by the same means by which it is begun The use of the Holy Sacrament
Pious and Learned Countreyman of mine for the private use of a Noble Friend of his without the least design of making it more publick Others seeing it were much taken both with the Excellent purposes it contained and the great clearness and pleasantness of the Stile the natural Method and the shortness of it and desired it might be made a more publick good And knowing some Interest I had with the Author it was referred to me whether it should lye in a private Closet or be let go abroad I was not long in suspence having read it over and the rather knowing so well as I do that the Author has written out nothing here but what he himself did well feel and know and therefore it being a Transcript of those divine Impressions that are upon his own heart I hope the Native and unforced genuineness of it will both more delight and edifie the Reader I know those things have been often discoursed with great advantages both of Reason Wit and Eloquence but the more Witnesses that concurr in sealing these Divine Truths with their Testimonies the more evidence is thereby given It was upon this account that the Author having seen a Letter written by a Friend of his to a Person of great Honour but of far greater Worth of the rise and progress of a Spiritual Life wherein as there were many things which he had not touched so in those things of which they both discourse the harmony was so great that he believed they would mutually strengthen one another was earnest with his Friend that both might go abroad together and the other pressing him to let his Discourse be published he would not yield to it unless he granted the same consent for his And so the Reader has both the one after the other which he is desired to peruse with some degrees of the same seriousness in which they were both penned and then it is presumed he will not repent him of his pains ERRATA P. 23. l. 4. for is read are p. 76. l. 20 for but r. when p. 81. l. ult after be r. as Page 5. l. 8 for love r. have p 6. l. 19. put a point after it p. 16. l. 7. for Implored r. Imployed p. 19. l. 26. for Calumnies r. Calmness p. 26. l. 5. dele as and r. it after that p. 29. l. 25. for forced r. formed p. 59. for of r. as The LIFE of GOD IN The SOUL of MAN My Dear Friend THis designation doth give you a Title to all the Endeavours whereby I can serve your Interests and your Pious Inclinations do so happily conspire with my Duty that I shall not need to step out of my road to gratifie you but I may at once perform an office of Friendship and discharge an exercise of my Function since the advancing of Virtue and Holiness which I hope you make your greatest study is the peculiar business of my Imployment This therefore is the most proper instance wherein I can vent my affection and express my gratitude towards you and I shall not any longer delay the performance of what promise I made you to this purpose for though I know you are provided with better helps of this nature then any I can offer you nor are you like to meet with any thing here which you knew not before yet I am hopeful that what cometh from one whom you are pleased to honour with your Friendship and which is more particularly designed for your use will be kindly accepted by you and God's Providence perhaps may so direct my thoughts that something or other may prove useful to you Nor shall I doubt your pardon if for moulding my discourse into the better frame I lay a low foundation beginning with the Nature and Properties of Religion and all along give such way to my thoughts in the prosecution of the subject as may bring me to say many things which were not necessary did I onely consider to whom I am writing I cannot speak of Religion but I must regrate that among so many pretenders to it so few understand what it means some placing it in the Understanding in Orthodox Notions and Opinions and all the account they can give of their Religion is that they are of this or the other perswasion and have joyn'd themselves to one of those many Sects whereinto Christendom is most unhappily divided Others place it in the outward man in a constant course of external duties and a model of performances if they live peaceably with their Neighbours keep a temperate dyet observe the returns of Worship frequenting the Church or their Closet and sometimes extend their hands to the relief of the Poor they think they have sufficiently acquitted themselves Others again put all Religion in the affections in rapturous heats and extatick devotion and all they aim at is to pray with passion and think of Heaven with pleasure and to be affected with those kinde and melting expressions wherewith they court their Saviour till they perswade themselves that they are mightily in love with him and from thence assume a great confidence of their salvation which they esteem the chief of Christian Graces Thus are these things which have any resemblance of Piety and at the best are but means for obtaining it or particular exercises of it frequently mistaken for the whole of Religion nay sometimes Wickedness and Vice pretends to that name I speak not now of those gross Impieties wherewith the Heathens were wont to worship their Gods there are but too many Christians who would consecrate their vices and hallow their corrupt affections whose rugged humour and sullen pride must pass for Christian severity whose fierce wrath and bitter rage against their enemies must be called holy zeal whose petulancy toward their Superiours or rebellion against their Governours must have the name of Christian courage and resolution But certainly Religion is quite another thing and they who are acquainted with it will entertain far different thoughts and disdain all those shadows and false imitations of it They know by experience that true Religion is an Union of the Soul with God a real participation of the Divine Nature the very Image of God drawn upon the Soul or in the Apostle's phrase it is Christ formed within us Briefly I know not how the nature of Religion can be more fully expressed than by calling it a Divine Life and under these terms I shall discourse of it shewing first how it is called a Life and then how it is termed Divine I choose to express it by the name of life first because of its permanency and stability Religion is not a sudden start or passion of the Mind not though it should rise to the height of a rapture and seem to transport a man to extraordinary performances There are few but have convictions of the necessity of doing something for the salvation of their Souls which may push them forward some steps with a great
The root of the divine life is Faith the chief branches are Love to God Charity to Man Purity and Humility For as an Excellent Person hath well observed however these names be common and vulgar and make no extraordinary sound yet do they carry such a mighty sence that the tongue of Man or Angel can pronounce nothing more weighty or excellent Faith hath the same place in the Divine life which Sense hath in the natural being indeed nothing else but a kind of sense or feeling perswasion of Spiritual things It extends it self unto all Divine Truths but in our lapsed estate it hath a peculiar relation to the declarations of God's mercy and reconcileableness to Sinners through a Mediator and therefore receiving its denomination from that principal object is ordinarily termed Faith in Jesus Christ. The Love of God is a delightful and affectionate sence of the Divine perfections which makes the Soul resign and sacrifice it self wholly unto him desiring above all things to please him and delighting in nothing so much as in fellowship and communion with him and being ready to do or suffer any thing for his sake or at his pleasure though this affection may have its first rise from the Favours and Mercies of God toward our selves yet doth it in its growth and progress transcend such particular considerations and ground it self on his infinite goodness manifested in all the Works of Creation and Providence A Soul thus possessed with Divine Love must needs be inlarged towards all Mankind in a sincere and unbounded affection because of the relation they carry unto God being his Creatures and having something of his Image stamped upon them and this is that Charity I named as the second branch of Religion and under which all the parts of Justice all the duty 's we owe to our Neighbour are eminently comprehended for he who doth truly love all the world will be nearly concerned in the interests of every one and so far from wronging or injuring any person that he will resent any evil that befals to others as if it happened to himself By Purity I understand a due abstractedness from the body and mastery over the inferiour appetites or such a temper and disposition of mind as makes a man despise abstain from all pleasures and delights of sence or fancy which are sinful in themselves or tend to extinguish or lessen our relish of more divine and intellectual pleasures which doth also infer a resoluteness to undergo all those hardships he may meet with in the performance of his duty so that not only Chastity and Temperance but also Christian Courage and Magnanimity may come under this head Humility imports a deep sence of our own meanness with a hearty and affectionate acknowledgment of our owing all that we are to the Divine Bounty which is alwayes accompanied with a profound submission to the Will of God and great deadness toward the glory of the world and applause of men These are the highest Perfections that either Men or Angels are capable of the very foundation of Heaven laid in the Soul and he who hath attain'd them needs not desire to pry into the hidden Rolls of God's Decrees or search the Volumes of Heaven to know what 's determined about his everlasting condition but he may find a Copy of God's Thoughts concerning him written in his own breast his love to God may give him assurance of God's favour to him and those beginnings of happiness which he feels in the conformity of the powers of his Soul to the Nature of God and compliance with his Will is a sure pledge that his felicity shall be perfected and continued unto all Eternity And it is not without reason that one said I had rather see the real impressions of a God-like Nature upon my own Soul then have a Vision from Heaven or an Angel sent to tell me that my name were inroll'd in the Book of Life When we have said all that we can the secret Mysteries of a new Nature and Divine Life can never be sufficiently expressed language and words cannot reach them nor can they be truly understood but by those Souls that are enkindled within and awakened unto the sense and relish of Spiritual things There is a spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth this understanding The power and life of Religion may be better expressed in actions than in words because actions are more lively things and do better represent the inward principle whence they proceed and therefore we may take the best measure of those gracious indowments from the deportment of those in whom they reside especially as they are perfectly exemplified in the holy life of our Blessed Saviour a main part of whose business in this world was to teach by his practise what he did require of others and to make his own conversation an exact resemblance of those unparalell'd Rules which he prescribed So that if ever true Goodness was visible to mortal eyes it was then when his presence did beautifie and illustrate this lower world That sincere and devout Affection wherewith his Blessed Soul did constantly burn toward his Heavenly Father did express it self in an intire resignation to his Will it was this was his very meat to do the will and finish the work of him that sent him this was the exercise of his Childhood and the constant imployment of his riper age he spared no travail or pains while he was about his Father's business but took such infinite Content and Satisfaction in the performance of it that when being faint and weary with his Journey he rested him on Jacob's Well and intreated a drink of the Samaritane Woman the success of his Conference with her and the accession that was made to the Kingdom of God filled his Mind with such delight as seemed to have redounded to his very Body refreshing his spirits and making him forget the thirst whereof he complain'd before and refuse the meat which he had sent the Disciples to buy Nor was he less patient and submissive in suffering the Will of God then diligent in doing of it he endured the sharpest Afflictions and extreamest Miseries that ever were inflicted on any mortal without a-repining thought or discontented word for tho he was far from a stupid insensibility or a phantastick or Stoical obstinacy and had as quick a sense of pain as other men and the deepest apprehension of what he was to suffer in his Soul as his Bloody Sweat and the sore amazement and sorrow which he profest do abundantly declare yet did he intirely submit to that severe dispensation of Providence and willingly acquiesced in it And he prayed to God that if it were possible or as one of the Evangelists hath if he were willing that Cup might be removed yet he gently added nevertheless not my will but thine be done Of what strange importance are the expressions Joh. 12. 27. where he first
be Pride or Passion or any corrupt and vitious humour that prompteth us to any design and whether God will be offended or any body harmed by it And if we have no time for long reasonings let us at least turn our eyes toward God and place our selves in his Presence to ask his leave and approbation for what we do Let us consider our selves under the All-seeing Eye of that Divine Majesty as in the midst of an infinite Globe of light which compasseth us about both behind and before and pierceth to the innermost corners of our Soul the Sense and remembrance of the Divine Presence is the most ready and effectual mean both to discover what is unlawful and to restrain us from it There are some things a person could have a shift to palliate or defend and yet he dares not look Almighty God in the face and adventure upon them If we look into him we shall be lightned if we set him alwayes before us he will guide us by his Eye and instruct us in the way wherein we ought to walk This Care and Watchfulness over our Actions must be seconded by frequent and serious reflections upon them not only that we may obtain the Divine Mercy and Pardon for our Sins by an humble and sorrowful acknowledgment of them but also that we may reinforce and strengthen our resolutions and learn to decline or resist the temptations by which we have been formerly foyl'd It is an advice worthy of a Christian though it did first drop from a Heathen Pen That before we betake our selves to rest we renew and examine all the passages of the day that we may have the comfort of what we have done aright and may redress what we find to have been amiss and make the shipwracks of one day be as marks to direct our course in another This may be called the very art of Virtuous living and would contribute wonderfully to advance our reformation and preserve our innocency But withall we must not forget to implore the Divine assistance especially against those Sins that do most easily beset us and though it be supposed that our hearts are not yet moulded unto that Spiritual frame which should render our Devotions acceptable yet methinks such considerations as have been proposed to deter us from Sin may also stir us up to some natural seriousness and make our Prayers against it as earnest at least as they are wont to be against other Calamities and I doubt not God who heareth the cry of the Ravens will have some regard even to such Petitions as proceed from those natural Passions which himself hath implanted in us besides that those Prayers against Sin will be powerful engagements on our selves to excite us to watchfulness and care and common ingenuity will make us asham'd to relapse unto those faults which we have lately regrated before God and against which we have begged his assistance Thus are we to make the first essay for recovering the Divine Life by restraining the natural inclinations that they break not out into sinful practises but now I must add that Christian Prudence will teach us to abstain from gratifications that are not simply unlawful and that not only that we may secure our innocence which would be in continual hazard if we should strain our liberty to the utmost point and be always walking on the Marches but also that hereby we may weaken the forces of Nature and teach our appetites to obey we must do with our selves as prudent Parents with their Children who cross their wills in many little indifferent things to make them manageable and submissive in more considerable instances he who would mortifie the pride and vanity of his spirit should stop his ears to the most deserved praises and sometimes forbear his just vindication from the Censures and aspersions of others especially if they reflect only upon his prudence and conduct and not on his Virtue and Innocence He who would check a vindictive humour would do well to deny himself the Satisfaction of representing unto others the Injuries which he hath sustain'd and if we would so take heed to our ways that we sin not with our tongue we must accustome our selves much to solitude and silence and sometimes with the Psalmist Hold our peace even from good till once we have gotten some command of that unruly member Thus I say we may bind up our natural inclinations and make our appetites more moderate in their cravings by accustoming them to frequent refusals but it is not enough to have them under violence and restraint Our next Essay must be to wean our affections from created things and all the delights and entertainments of the lower life which sink and depress the Souls of men and retard their motions toward God and Heaven And this we must do by possessing our Minds with a deep perswasion of the vanity and emptiness of worldly enjoyments This is an ordinary theme and every body can make declamations upon it but alas how few understand and believe what they say These Notions float in our Brains and come sliding off our Tongues but we have no deep impression of them on our spirits we feel not the truth which we pretend to believe We can tell that all the glory and splendour all the pleasures and enjoyments of the World are vanity and nothing and yet these nothings take up all our thoughts and ingross all our affections they stifle the better inclinations of our Soul and inveigle us into many a Sin it may be in a sober mood we give them the slight and resolve to be no longer deluded with them but these thoughts seldom out-live the next temptation the vanities which we have shut out at the door get in at a postern there are still some pretensions some hopes that flatter us and after we have been frustrated a thousand times we must continually be repeating the experiment The leaft difference of circumstances is enough to delude us and make us expect that satisfaction in one thing which we have missed in another but could we once get clearly off and come to a real and serious contempt of worldly things this were a very considerable advancement in our way The Soul of Man is of a vigorous and active nature and hath in it a raging and unextinguishable thirst an immaterial kind of fire always catching at some object or other in conjunction wherewith it thinks to be happy and were it once rent from the World and all the bewitching enjoyments under the Sun it would quickly search after some higher and more excellent Object to satisfie its ardent and importunate cravings and being no longer dazel'd with glistering vanities would fix on that Supream and All-sufficient Good where it should discover such beauty and sweetness as would charm and over-power all its affections The love of the World and the love of God are like the scales of a ballance as the one falleth the other
some this Image is more Eminent and conspicuous and we can discern the Lovely Treats of Wisdom and Goodness and though in others it be miserably sullied and defaced yet is it not altogether razed some lineaments at least do still remain All men are endued with Rational and Immortal Souls with Understanding and Wills capable of the highest and most excellent things and if they be at present disordered and put out of tune by wickedness and folly this may indeed move our compassion but ought not in reason to extinguish our Love When we see a person of a rugged humour and perverse disposition full of Malice and Dissimulation very foolish and very proud it is hard to fall in love with an object that presents it self unto us under an Idea so little grateful and lovely but when we shall consider these evil qualities as the Diseases and Distempers of a Soul which in it self is capable of all that wisdom and goodness wherewith the best of Saints have ever been adorned and which may one day come to be raised unto such heights of perfection as shall render it a fit companion for the holy Angels this will turn our aversion into pity and make us behold him with such resentments as we should have when we did look on a beautiful body that were mangled with wounds or disfigured by some loathsome disease and however we hate the vices we shall not cease to love the man In the next place for purifying our Souls and dis-intangling our affections from the Pleasures and Enjoyments of this lower life let us frequently ponder the excellency and dignity of our Nature and what a shameful and unworthy thing it is for so noble and divine a Creature as the Soul of Man to be sunk and immersed in bruitish and sensual Lusts or amused with airy and phantastical delights and so to lose the relish of solid and spiritual pleasures that the Beast should be fed and pampered and the Man and the Christian be starved in us Did we but mind who we are and for what we were made this would teach us in a right sense to reverence and stand in awe of our selves it would beget a holy modesty and shamefacedness and make us very shy and reserved in the use of the most innocent and allowable pleasures It will be very effectual to the same purpose that we frequently raise our Minds toward Heaven and represent to our thoughts those Joyes that are at God's right hand those pleasures that endure for evermore for every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure If our Heavenly Country be much in our thoughts it will make us as strangers and pilgrims to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the Soul and keep our selves unspotted in this world that we may be fit for the enjoyments and felicities of the other But then we must see that our Notions of Heaven be not gross and carnal that we dream not of a Mahometan Paradise nor rest on those Metaphors and Similitudes by which these joys are sometimes represented for this might perhaps have a quite contrary effect it might intangle us further in carnal affections and we should be ready to indulge our selves a very liberal foretaste of those pleasures wherein we had placed our everlasting felicity but when we come once to conceive aright of those Pure and Spiritual pleasures when the happiness we propose to our selves is from the sight and love and enjoyment of God and our minds are filled with the hopes and fore-thoughts of that Blessed Estate O how mean and contemptible will all things here below appear in our eyes with what disdain will we reject the gross and muddy pleasures that would deprive us of those Coelestial enjoyments or any way unfit and indispose us for them The last Branch of Religion is Humility and sure we can never want matter of consideration for begetting it all our wickednesses and imperfections all our follies and our sins may help to pull down that fond and overweening conceipt which we are apt to entertain of our selves That which makes any body esteem us is their knowledg or apprehension of some little good and their ignorance of a great deal of evil that may be in us were they throughly acquainted with us they would quickly change their opinion The thoughts that pass in our heart in the best and most serious day of our life being exposed unto publick view would render us either hateful or ridiculous and now however we conceal our failings from one another yet sure we are conscious to them our selves and some serious reflections upon them would much qualifie and allay the vanity of our spirits Thus holy Men have come really to think worse of themselves than of any other person in the world not but that they knew that gross and scandalous Vices are in their nature more heynous than the surprisals of tentation and infirmity but because they were much more intent on their own miscarriages than on those of their Neighbours and did consider all the aggravations of the one and every thing that might be supposed to diminish and alleviate the other But it is well observed by a Pious Writer That the deepest and most pure Humility doth not so much arise from the consideration of our own faults and defects as from a calm and quiet Contemplation of the Divine Purity and Goodness Our spots never appear so clearly as when we place them before this Infinite Light and we never seem less in our own eyes than when we look down upon our selves from on high O how little how nothing do all those shadows of perfection then appear for which we are wont to value our selves That humility which cometh from a view of our own sinfulness and misery is more turbulent and boysterous but the other layeth us full as low and wanteth nothing but that anguish and vexation wherewith our Souls are apt to boyl when they are the nearest object of our thoughts There remains yet another Mean for begetting a Holy and Religious disposition in the Soul and that is fervent and hearty Prayer Holiness is the Gift of God indeed the greatest gift he doth bestow or we are capable to receive and he hath promised his holy Spirit to those that ask it of him in Prayer we make the nearest approaches unto God and lye open to the influences of Heaven Then it is that the Sun of Righteousness doth visit us with directest rayes and dissipateth our darkness and imprinteth his Image on our Souls I cannot now insist on the advantages of this exercise or the dispositions wherewith it ought to be performed and there is no need I should there being so many Books that Treat on this subject I shall only tell you That as there is one sort of Prayer wherein we make use of the voice which is necessary in publick and may sometimes have its own advantages
into as many branches as men have several appetites and inclinations The root and foundation of the animal life I reckon to be Sense taking it largely as it is opposed unto Faith and importeth our perception and resentment of things that are either grateful or troublesom unto us Now those animal affections considered in themselves and as they are implanted in us by nature are not vitious or blameable nay they are instances of the Wisdom of the Creator furnishing his Creatures with such appetites as tend to the preservation and welfare of their lives these are instead of a Law unto the brute Beasts whereby they are directed towards the ends for which they were made but Man being made for higher purposes and to be guided by more excellent Laws becomes guilty and criminal when he is so far transported by the inclinations of this lower Life as to violate his duty or neglect the higher and more noble designs of his creation Our natural affections are not wholly to be extirpated and destroyed but only to be moderated and over-ruled by a superiour and more excellent principle In a word the difference betwixt a religious and wicked man is that in the one the Divine life bears sway in the other the animal doth prevail But it is strange to observe unto what different courses this natural principle will sometimes carry those who are wholy guided by it according to the divers circumstances that concur with it to determine them and the not considering this doth frequently occasion very dangerous mistakes making men think well of themselves by reason of that seeming difference which is betwixt them and others whereas perhaps their actions do all the while flow from one and the same original If we consider the natural temper and constitution of mens Souls we shall find some to be airie frolick and light which makes their behaviour extravagant and ridiculous whereas others are naturally serious and severe and their whole carriage composed into such gravity as gains them a great deal of Reverence and Esteem some are of an humurous rugged and morose temper and can neither be pleased themselves nor endure that others should be so but all are not born under such sowre and unhappy Stars for some persons have a certain sweetness and benignity rooted in their natures and they find the greatest pleasure in the endearments of Society and the mutual complacency of Friends and covet nothing more than to have every body obliged to them And it is well that Nature hath provided this complectional tenderness to supply the defect of true charity in the world and to incline men to do something for one another's welfare Again in regard of Education some have never been taught to follow any other rules than those of Pleasure or Advantage but others are so enured to observe the strictest rules of decency and honour and some instances of Virtue that they are hardly capable of doing any thing which they have been accustom'd to look upon as base and unworthy In fine it is no small difference in the deportment of meer natural men that doth arise from the strength or weakness of their Wit or Judgment and from their care or negligence in using them intemperance and lust injustice and oppression and all those other impieties which abound in the world and render it so miserable are the issues of self-love the effects of the animal life when it is neither over-powered by Religion nor govern'd by natural reason but if it once take hold of reason and get judgment and wit to be of its party it will many times disdain the grosser sort of vices and spring up unto fair imitations of Virtue and Goodness if a man have but so much reason as to consider the prejudice which intemperance and inordinate lust doth bring unto his health his fortune and his reputation self-love may suffice to restrain him and one may observe the rules of Moral Justice in dealing with others as the best way to secure his own interest and maintain his credit in the world But this is not all this natural principle by the help of reason may take a higher flight and come nigher the instances of Piety and Religion it may incline a man to the diligent study of Divine Truths for why should not these as well as other speculations be pleasant and grateful to curious and inquisitive humors it may make men zealous in maintaining and propagating such opinions as they have espoused and be very desirous that others should submit unto their Judgment and approve the choice of Religion which themselves have made it may make them delight to hear and compose excellent discourses about the matters of Religion for Eloquence is very pleasant whatever be the subject nay some it may dispose to no small height of sensible devotion the glorious things that are spoken of Heaven may make even a carnal heart in love with it the Metaphors and Similitudes made use of in Scripture of Crowns and Scepters and Rivers of pleasure c. will easily affect a man's fancy and make him wish to be there though he neither understand nor desire those spiritual pleasures which are described and shadowed forth by these and when such a person comes to believe that Christ has purchased these glorious things for him he may feel a kind of tenderness and affection towards so great a Benefactor and imagine that he is mightily inamoured of him and yet all the while continue a stranger to the holy temper and spirit of the Blessed Jesus and so instead of a Deity he may imbrace a cloud and what hand the natural constitution may have in the rapturous devotions of some melancholy persons hath been excellently discovered of late by several Learned and Judicious Pens To conclude there is nothing proper to make a man's life pleasant or himself eminent and conspicuous in the World but this natural principle assisted by Wit Reason may prompt him to it and tho I do not condemn these things in themselves yet it concerns us nearly to know and consider their nature both that we may keep within due bounds and also that we may learn never to value our selves on the account of such attainments nor lay the stress of Religion upon our natural appetites or performances It is now time to return to the consideration of that Divine Life whereof I was discoursing before that life which is hid with Christ in God and therefore hath no glorious shew or appearance in the world and to the natural spirit will seem a mean and insipid notion As the Animal life consisteth in that narrow and confined love which is terminated on a mans self and in his propension towards those things that are pleasing to Nature So the Divine Life stands in an universal and unbounded affection and in the mastery over our natural inclinations that they may never be able to betray us to those things which we know to be blamable