even from the beginning there hath been Civitas dei Civitas mundi children of light and children of this world or to use the modern distinctions the Godly and the Wicked Regular and Secular persons Not because some have made new vows wore distinct habits or chosen new guides and separated from the Church but because some have lived after the flesh some after the Spirit that is some have followed Gods revealed will some onely their own some have obeyed the precepts of Christ and too many their own lusts and humors However I would not make any exprobrations against either Monks or Schismaticks by disobliging truths rather commend what is praise worthy in them because I would have and 't is every Christians duty to be really devout mortified and precise without entring the Cloister or the Conventicle For indeed I am somewhat jealous and not without reason that the ingaging men to be Religious and Vertuous by other considerations besides their Christian duty hath done some prejudice to Religion because now there be some that fansie self-denial and contempt of the world to belong only to Friers and others that to abstain from swearing and drunkenness is only the part of a Puritan Whereas Christianity binds those duties on all its Professors and every one by his Baptismal vow is bound to perform them though he doth not submit himself to the Rule of S. Francis or the dictates of the Assembly Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue if there be any praise think on these things saith the Apostle they are all parts of our duty Whatever is good in it self or any ways a means to make us good is commanded or recommended in holy Scripture is contained in the Christian Rule wherefore I say the Christian Professor designing to attain higher degrees of holiness the highest pitch of Christian perfection attainable in this life needs not separate from the Church nor make new vows nor wear distinct habits but only mind seriously and sincerely discharge the obligations which he lies under in being a Disciple and a Servant of the Holy JESVS My design therefore is not to Incloister particular persons Vellem universos Christianos ita vivere ut qui nunc soli Religiosi vocantur parum Religiosi viderentur but to make a large Monastery of the whole Common-wealth at least to make every family a School of Vertue and Piety and every man an Ascetick and strict liver wishing heartily with Erasmus that they who hitherto have been called Precise and Religious by way of appropriation might justly lose that name by the more exemplary lives of all other Christians But though it be my wish it is not my hope in the least to see any such thing come to pass by means of this little volume Many much bigger and better have not been able to effect it They that will not hear Moses and the Prophets nay Christ the Lord himself will be far enough from being perswaded by the meanest of his servants And where the Text it self is not regarded no Comment can signifie much I mean that if the Holy Religion we own be not able to reform our lives if the Gospel which is here preached and professed in purity doth not make us holy 't is in vain to expect any other instruments should prevail But yet our indeavours ought not to be wanting it may not be in vain to diversifie Christian instructions severall ways of perswasion may affect several persons and perhaps that which to day is slighted will to morrow make a deep impression However it is more or less the duty of every one of us with great S. Paul to trie all means that by any means we may save some at least that we may save our selves that if those arguments which we think most forcible cannot convince others they may may at least move us to take the better heed that after we have preached to others we our selves be not cast-aways Now to this end having observed how much in all cases men will do and suffer for love I have thought nothing would more conduce than to make a Christian love God with a sincere and devout affection a devout love being undoubtedly not only the best part but also the best instrument of true Religion an irreconcilable enemy to sin a friend or rather a nurse to all holy vertues No enticement could have drawn penitent Magdalen to any of her former sins whilest in the fervency of her love she washed her Saviours feet with her tears and 't is known by experience that when reading meditation the sight of a dying friend or any such thing hath softened a mans heart into a religious temper temptations will be then so far from prevailing that they durst not so much as appear before him But when he returns to mind earthly things and hath his thoughts taken up again with the concerns of this present life he finds that his spiritual strength decays by the same proportions that his love becomes cold and he grows indevout again Love is the Queen if not the fountain of passions the great mover and governor of actions and affections could we keep the fire of Divine Love always burning in our breasts it would be the most powerful and best instrument of Holy-living it would make self-denial and the yoke of Christ easie it would make acts of vertue and Religion pleasant and it would make us delight in pleasing God as much as we naturally do in pleasing our selves Therefore I have made it my aim and design in the following Pages to seize upon the affections to inkindle in the hearts of Christians the heavenly flames of the love of God To that end I have represented the more general benefits of God to mankind and especially that of Redemption by the greatest demonstration of love that ever was given the death of the Blessed JESVS which if duly considered would be an irresistible motive to love him I have shewed the power the pleasure and the great advantages of love and I have used devout meditations and ejaculations as it were to transport our souls to heaven by love for to adore that God whom love brought down from thence to save us 'T is certain that most of them that perish perish for want of consideration and I have heard dying men wonder at themselves how they could be so stupid as not to mind those things which are of an infinite concern and should rather take up all our thoughts and our cares than be neglected or forgot one only moment Israel doth not understand my people doth not sider Isa 1.3 Love may be said to be that fire which God would have always to burn upon his Altar Lev. 6.12 that is in our hearts which are his Temple where the sacrifices of good works and the incense of devotion should always
that the bare belief of the truth of the New Testament is a strong and indispensable obligation to a cheerful universal and persevering obedience to all its precepts the very profession of being Christians doth strictly bind us to the performance of all Christian duties But the necessity of a Holy faith and a holy hife hath been so fully evinced and asserted and all things that pertain to life and godliness so cleerly and learnedly explained by Catholick Writers Ancient and Modern especially many pious Fathers and Sons of this Church since the Reformation that I need nor can add nothing to their learned labours We want charity not knowledge Therefore now I turn my self as my design is to draw inferences from known and granted premises to move the affections and affect the heart and by various arts and meditations to kindle and nourish in our breasts the fire of a divine Love CHAP. XV. An invitation to enter the Cloister of Love I Ask therefore hast thou conceived a fair Idea of Christianity hast thou observed the glory and greatness of its Mysteries the holiness of it's Doctrine and the perfection of its precepts and counsels hast thou considered and admired the great exemplar of all vertues the Holy JESUS author of this Holy Institution hast thou read his life with an observing eye and hast thou viewed the fair copies of this perfect Original which have been drawn by many of his Saints in the imitation of his example hast thou weighed the excellency of his promises the great immunities and the invaluable advantages which belong to his followers hast thou seriously pondered the great obligations which the love of JESUS hath laid upon thee and art thou desirous to be happy by loving again and being grateful if so enter this Cloister of love Love JESUS and thou shalt reign with him The Cloister I mean is not the precinct of a particular Abbey or the confinement of a narrow Cell but as to the place it is the Catholick Church whose inclosure is large enough to entertain all the Religions in the world all that are of the Christian Order And the Rule I would have thee follow is not not that of any Founders nor even that of Pachomius said to have been brought down by Angels but that which the Son of God himself delivered the Gospel-rule the Christian Laws which were bound upon us by him that is our Lord and our Judge and to whom gratitude duty and interest obligeth us all to be obedient Hath not God given his beloved Son the heathen for his inheritance and the utmost parts of the earth for his possession Cur sic arctamus Christi professionem quam ille latissime voluit patere ego certe sic optarim Evangelicam Religionem sic omnibus esse cordi c. Ench. Psal 2. Why then saith Erasmus Should we confine the excellency and perfection of Christianity to particular places Why should we make that short and narrow which Christ would have to be of an universal extent If it be words we affect is not a City a great Monastery the Abbot whereof is the Bishop set over it by Christ Would to God the Christian Rule were so well beloved and observed that no man might seek or desire the Benedictin or Franciscan I say so too all this is true and to be wished yet the universal comprehends many particular Churches and the Christian Rule hath also many several interpretations therefore to be plain and positive the Church of England as the purest part or member of the Catholick which hath repurged corrupt innovations maintaining still a due conformity with Antiquity is that which I recommend to thee above all others and for the best interpretation of the Sacred Canon the Doctrine and Worship of this Church is that which I would have thee prefer to all the rest CHAP. XVI The Vow to be taken at the entrance of Loves Monastery BUt because I speak not to dissenters nor intend to dispute with them thou wilt say that thou hast entred this Cloister already and hast undertaken its Rule and so far 't is well But there is this difference betwixt what thou hast already done in this matter and what now I wish thee to do that thou didst not come of thy self but wert brought into this society that it was by proxy thou promisedst to observe the orders of it and that what was done at that time is never to be repeated Whereas now by an after election by free and considerate acts of thine own will I would have thee often renew thy holy vows and protestations and to do it with a great sense of love and gratitude Ratifie then thy former ingagements by being confirmed if thou art not and if thou art by a hearty and sincere endeavour to perform thy vows and promises which are as follows First To renounce the Devil and all his works the pomps and vanities rf this wicked world with all covetous desires of the same and the sinful lusts of the flesh Secondly To believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith And Thirdly To keep Gods Holy Will and Commandments and walk in the same all the days of thy life This vow contains all thy duty the highest pitch of Christian perfection Quod summum est id omnibus est enitendum ut saltem mediocria assequamur nec est quod ullum vitae genus ab hoc scopo submoveamus c. Eras rules for the most Regular and Spiritual Life let thy serious application and earnest indeavour to observe it discriminate and sever thee from the prophane and less religious world Thou needest no distinct inclosure no distinct habits no distinct patrons or offices thy sincere Study thy Religious care to discharge this obligation In Vestimentis non est contritio mentis Ni mens sit pura nihil confert regula dura will sufficiently cloister thee in from the looser society and conversation of men and will make a difference great enough betwixt thee and them But though thou dost remain in the civil society of the world and the neighbourhood of thy neighbour yet various are the ways that lead through the world to heaven and here I undertake to teach thee a sure and short one through which all glorified Saints have past Some persons here are eminent in one vertue In Coelo videbimus amabimus hic amandum ut videamus some in another some are guided by hope and some by fear Many different are the considerations and helps whereby men are brought to make themselves happy in doing their duty but the motive the guide the way Dilectio est via rectissima absque devio via bevis absque taedio via plana absque tumulo via clara absque nubilo via secura absque periculo c. Idiot Cont. the instrument I recommend thee above all others is Love Love is the strongest motive the surest guide the safest way the best instrument in
the world to live well to keep thee from wandring to bring thee to heaven to conquer all oppositions and do the work of God throughly Love is by far the best Monastery it will both secure thee from the world and yet enable thee to do much good in it Love hath a general intendance over all vertues and duties and makes them pleasant to us and acceptable to God Love is the fulfilling of the Law Love and thou canst never do amiss love and thou canst never miscarry CHAP. XVII Considerations of the nature of Love and first of Self Love LOve is the common Prince and parent of other passions as they all take their Laws so they take their Origine from it Or to speak more properly love it self is all passions and it obtains several different names according to its several acts and objects Love saith S. Aug. is called desire Amor inhians habere quod amatur cupiditu est idem habens eoque fruens laetitia est fugiens quod ei adversatur timor est idque cum acciderit sentiens tristitis est Aug. de Civ Dei l. 14. c. 7. when it gasps after its beloved object when 't is possest of it it takes another denomination and is called joy or pleasure when it flies from what it abhors it hath the name of fear and 't is called sorrow when what it feared overtakes it But still love is the only passion desire anger joy and sorrow hope and fear are either the motions or acts or else the accidents of it This clearly shews the great power and activity of this noble passion for 't is well known that the greatest and indeed all humane actions that are free proceed from these natural affections and so are the effects of love There is no need to distinguish the several sorts thereof declaring that love is either natural or supernatural sensual or spiritual of friendship or of interest for all these are the same faculty or passion in man differing in their principles or objects only neither would it much avail to give and explain accurate and studied definitions of love which is much better felt than exprest and much better declared by actions than words it will be more useful to consider that as love is the principle of all passions so it is of all vertues and vices This fountain sendeth forth the clearest and the foulest streams and like all other things the greater its excellency the worse is its abuse so that it should be our greatest care to use it well and set it upon the right object No joy in enjoyment without love without it no pleasure in fruition it is the great instrument of happiness if we place it aright and it brings the greatest infelicities if we misplace it 'T is a misguided love that makes men vicious that causeth all the disorders in the world because men love themselves more than God and so would be Gods to themselves the Authors of their own happiness expecting their greatest felicities either from their bodies as the sensual Epicures or from their minds as the proud Stoicks Hence it is that in the head of a long catalogue of the blackest sins S. Paul sets self-self-love as the cause and origine of all the rest saying that in the worst and most perilous times Men should be lovers of their own selves 2 Tim. 3.2 4. and again that they should be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God which being the greatest depravation of the understanding and of the will of men plungeth them into the greatest sins and thence into the greatest miseries Certain it is that piety or true goodness consisteth in willingly submitting one self to the Divine Pleasure either to suffer or obey and certain it is that self-love will admit of neither it makes a man uncapable of Religion the Essence whereof is to deny our own to comply with God's Will and so instead of that Godliness Justice and Sobriety which are the three Generals comprehensive of all religious duties this muddy head-spring self-love sends forth three muddy streams which cause the overflowing of ungodliness and almost drown the world under a deluge of wickedness These be the love of sensual pleasures called Voluptuousness the love of riches called Covetousness and the vain-glorious love of honour called Pride or Ambition These three are disclaimed and renounced by all Christians in the first part of their Baptismal vow for the love of them confounds the world and all Religion makes men criminal in souls bodies and estates and is the great enemy to their rest and salvation Therefore S. John who calls these the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life gives us this necessary cauti n love not the world neither the things that are in the world if any man love the world the love of the father is not in him 1 John 2.15 that is as our Blessed Saviour saith no man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other ye cannot serve God and Mammon Mat. 6.24 There is no halting betwixt God and Baal the one or the other must be acknowledged for Lord there cannot be two contrary Sovereigns together and the same thing cannot be granted to two several competitors if we love the world it reigns in our hearts and God is excluded if we give our love to the world Amor motus est cordis qui cum se inordinate movet cupiditas dicitur cùm vero ordinatus est charitas appellatur Aug. de subst dil c. 2. we cannot possibly give it to God also so then the love of our selves is Concupiscence the mother of all sin and impurity and the love of God is Grace or charity the fountain of all holiness and vertue and these two according as they are predominant in men make here the distinction betwixt the penitent and the impenitent betwixt the just and the unjust and will make the great difference hereafter betwixt those that shall dwell in the embraces of the God of Love to eternity and those that shall dwell with everlasting burning for every man is what he loves Talis est quisque qualis est dilectio ejus terram diligis terra es c. Aug. Tract 2. in 1 Joh. as S. Augustine saith the irresistible power of that mighty passion doth in some manner transform him into that which his love embraceth and therefore to know whether a man be good or bad we inquire not what he knows or what he believes but what he doth love being sure that his morals are of the same nature as his love because his desires and actions are all guided by it CHAP. XVIII That the Love of JESVS requires we should mortifie self-Self-love THis makes it our greatest duty as it is our greatest interest to rule by Reason and Religion that passion which certainly will rule over us to
and insignificant attempts its strength is great as well as its endeavours Great are the dangers and difficulties which love overcomes it carries the ambitious lover of honour through many uneasie perils to a fading laurel it carries the covetous lover of riches through the most hard and slavish labours to his false and treacherous Mammon and it carries likewise the devour lover of JESUS through obedience and self humiliation through briars and uneasie crosses through patience and the greatest sufferings to the enjoyment of his Beloved Love can do all things since it brought God down from heaven to become man and die for man Who shall separate us from the love of Christ saith S. Paul Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword nay in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us for I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Rom. 8.35 c. As much as to say that the power of love is irresistible that it answers all objections and conquers all obstacles notwithstanding mans high provocations and great unworthiness love made the Almighty lay down the arms of his just vengeance and open his bosom of mercy to give his dear and only Son to man for a Saviour God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life John 3.16 And likewise man is enabled or rather forced by love to do and suffer any thing as soon as Divine Love enters a mans heart of proud it makes him humble of lustful and intemperate it makes him chaste and sober of covetous it makes him charitable of dainty and effeminate it fits him to be a Martyr No ill habits so deeply rooted but love can pluck them up no cross so heavy but love can bear it Many waters cannot quench love saith Soloman neither can the floods drown it Cant 8.7 No the strongest torrent of affliction is but like drops of water sprinkled upon the fire it increaseth the flames and the ardency thereof Love is as strong as death verse 6. and death is very strong Magnum verbum fortis ut mors dilectio magnificentius exprimi non potuit fortitudo charitatis quis enim morti resistat ignibus undis ferre regibus resistitur venit una mors quis et resistit nihil illa fortius propterea viribus ejus charitas comparatur Aug. in Psal 121. stronger than all visible creatures We daily fight against death and beat it back by rest and food and Physick we dispute the victory with it many years but it is ever victorious at last so is love it never gives over till it hath conquered all oppositions its courage increaseth together with its difficulties the more obstacles in its way the greater its endeavours the more fierce its contentions Death severs a man from himself and disunites what seems inseparable love also takes the lovers soul from him and unites it to the beloved so that he lives more in what he loves than in himself love is as strong as death Death converts the greatest sinners or at least keeps them from sinning at all any longer so doth love it certainly mortifies all even the most reigning sins it will not suffer them to sin that love God We can tame wild beasts by industry overcome the barrenness of the earth by labour resist the angry elements by Art and Physick no evil but hath a remedy only death hath none there is no striving against it so that nothing can better express the irresistible power of love than to say that it is as strong as death The last property of love I shall now mention is that love sweetens bitter things makes our labours pleasant and even our sufferings delightful How heavy is that yoke which is imposed by an ungrateful hand The Souldier prest to the service can hardly bear his arms but he that is inrolled by love thinks them light and bears them with pleasure the slave that works in the Mines counts his very life a burthen the niggard that works much harder likes well his drudgery because the love of riches is his task-master he that serves his master out of fear works faintly and with a heavy heart he that serves him out of love doth it diligently and yet with chearfulness the Christian pilgrim who is driven heaven-ward with fears and terrors goeth on with much reluctancy and a sorrowful heart he that is drawn with the cords of love follows with joyfulness minds not the ruggedness of his way and even rejoyceth in his weariness because it brings him nearer and nearer to his beloved he that that could say the love of Christ constraineth us could say also we rejoyce in tribulations 'T was the love of JESUS made primitive Christians work hard and suffer much Nullo modo sunt onerosi labores amantium sed etiam ipsi delectant sicut venantium piscantium interest ergo quid ametur nam in eo quod amatur aut non laboratur aut labor amatur Aug. with comfort and unspeakable joy and 't is for want of that sweet and Divine Love that Christians now find sorrow and great difficulty in that little they do or suffer for JESUS The labours of love are ever pleasant nothing is hard that love binds upon us CHAP. XXII A farewel to all sinful desires THis great power of love is now to be drawn into act and these considerations to be reduced into practice Now therefore enter more seriously than ever this Cloister of love ingage thy self further into the society of the true lovers of JESUS enter now actually and affectionately upon the work and labour of love Remember now thy Baptismal Vows remember them I say now that the love of Christ constrains binds thee to fulfil them Things are best preserved by that which first gave them being And now thy making good that stipulation thy part of that gracious Covenant whereby thou art related to Christ that according to the design of that Sign of the Cross which was drawn upon thee as the badge of thy profession thou wouldest not be ashamed to profess the Faith of Christ crucified and manfully to fight under his banner against sin the world and the devil and to continue his faithful Souldier and Servant unto thy lives end So now thou shouldest accomplish this promise by faith working by love Now then retire a while and enter thy Closet sequester thy thoughts from the world and confer with thy Soul about thy duty and thy great interest Call to mind the obligations the love of JESUS hath laid upon thee and how thou hast promised to requite it by renouncing all things that are contrary to thy love and
me whilst I obey what he hath commanded I do what is infinitely my duty what his love to me challengeth and what my love to him desires to return Had I ten thousand years to live and could I serve him all that while and do nothing else I could not repay him for the least part of that great ransom he hath paid for me neither could I deserve any thing of those great wages which he will give me but my life is but short and he allows me time for other things even for pleasure and recreation I have therefore a most gracious Master and therefore I resolve and promise to do what he requires of me I will except at nothing he commands it shall be my joy to pay my duty to him I will make it appear that I serve out of love and affection O my dearest JESUS would my heart did feel what it should Qui viget affectu non gemâ—t imperie would I could express what it feels and would I could perform as much as I express But O my Blessed Lord how frequently and unhappily do I forget that thou art my Master and I thy servant that my chiefest business is to do thy will and that my greatest happiness as well as duty is to obey thee Is it not because I also forget that thou didst redeem me from a most wretched slavery that thou didst pay an immense price for me that thou becamest a servant for me before thou requiredst any service from me and that thou didst first love me before thou dist intreat my love O thou great Lover and Saviour of men I wholly give my self to thee body and soul heart and affections I desire to be thine I pray that thou wouldst make me to be thine and that thou wouldest own me for thine that so thou maist be mine to eternity Wouldest thou know saith S. Aug. what thou must give for heaven give thy self Aliud non quaerit precium nisi te ipsum tantum valet quantum es te du habebis illud Manual that is the price nothing less will serve that alone is accounted sufficient heaven is worth just what thou art give thy self and thou shalt certainly have it Do not men seek to serve and oblige great persons expecting to be by them gratified are they not ambitious to wait upon Princes in regard of an honourable stipend and why should I not count it the greatest Honour and preferment to serve the King of Kings and Lord of Lords the salary he pays his servants is infinitely greater than any the greatest Monarch can give they oftentimes cast off with disgrace their most faithful officers my Lord is so far from so doing that he bears with the faults of his meanest servants and never turns out any that will live with him 'T is highly difficult to become a Prince his favorite many spend their time their wealth and themselves and never can get the least share in his affections but I am sure my heavenly Master loveth me I know it by what he hath done by what he daily doth and by what he hath declared he would do for me Although he hath bought me and so might well require the utmost I can do without any reward yet he hires me and gives me more infinitely more than I can earn or claim I will therefore be diligent faithful and zealous in fulfilling the work he hath appointed me I will often say to my self I am a servant and a lover of JESUS a servant and a lover of the Blessed JESUS I will every morning consider what can I do this day of what my Lord hath commanded me what duties of sobriety righteousness or godliness can I discharge to make it appear that JESUS is the Master I own and obey None of us liveth to himself and no man dies to himself for whether we live we live unto the Lord or whether we die we die unto the Lord Whether we live therefore or die we are the Lords for to this end Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living CHAP. IX Meditation to excite us to a sincere and fervent love O MY Soul whither canst thou fly for to be secure and at rest thou dost converse with snares and temptations thou art taken up with cares and concerns that come to nothing whither canst thou retire to be free from dangers what place of leisure canst thou find wherein thou maist secure thy duty and thy happiness The Love of JESUS must be thy refuge thy Claustrum Animae a Cloister or shelter for thee to dwell in and be safe Thither retire under the banner of love Cant. 2.4 and there thou shalt want neither protection nor encouragement Ye that love the Lord hate evil he preserveth the Souls of his Saints he delivers them out of the hand of the wicked Light is sown for the Righteous and gladness for the upright in heart Psal 97.10 Consider what love hath done for thee and thou shalt easily believe that it can do much upon thee Love like active fire Omne agens omne amans vult sibi passum amatum assimilare turns all things into its likeness It vested the most perfect God with thy flesh and infirmities Because resemblance begets love Ne etiam similitudo deesset amori ecce immortalis mortalis factus est God would become like thee that thou mightest love him And if thou wilt entertain and follow the Love of JESUS it will make the become like him if thou wilt walk in love as he walked Eph. 5.2 it will make thee easily follow his footsteps and arrive to his perfect happiness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Rom. Behold how great how wonderful a thing is Love Its power and perfection can not be uttered we want words for to express them In this was manifested the love of God towards us because God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him 1 John 4.9 He made thee with a word Qui te totum semel dicendo fecit in reficiendo dixit multa pertulit dura Bern. but to save thee he wrought many wonders and suffered many pains The Jews when they saw him weep for dead Lazarus behold said they how he loved him when thou seest him shed not only tears but his bloud also dying that thou maist live wilt thou not say behold how he loved me and then my soul what canst thou do but return love for love It is easie and it is profitable and it affords the greatest of pleasures to love him who thus loved thee If by a hearty sincere love thou canst dwell in the bosom and approach the heart of thy dearest Lord there thou shalt find the sweetest rest the purest joy the best of instructions and the greatest helps and incouragements to perfect holiness till thy happiness be perfect If with an unfeigned
be offered to him now that sacred fire must have fewel to entertain it it must be nourished by reading good books and especially by frequent and pious meditations Wherefore I have endeavoured as much as I could to feed those holy flames by representing things as they are and I would have every Christian seriously and often to consider what God is what he hath done what he doth and what he will do for us if we love him sincerely as also what we are whence we come whither we go and how easie it is for us to be eternally happy if we will set our affections upon God who deserves them so infinitely Doubtless inconsideration is the cause why God is not loved It is not possible men could resist the charms of his love if they would open the eys of their mind and of their faith to view them But how few is there that mind attentively their obligations to love God how few that seriously ponder how much it is their duty and their interest to love him heartily who is infinitely lovely in himself and infinitely good to us or rather how fully is the prophesie fulfilled Iniquity shall abound and the love of many shall wax cold Mat. 24.12 To how many Christians might our Blessed Saviour now say as once to the Jews I know you that you have not the love of God in you John 5.42 How justly might now S. Paul complain all men seek their own not the things which are Jesus Christ's Phil. 2.21 And how justly might our Blessed Lord the great lover of men complain in the words of his Apostle I will gladly spend and be spent for you or rather I have gladly spent and been spent for you though the more abundantly I love you the less I be loved 2 Cor. 12.15 This want of Divine Charity is a very sad and general evil amongst us Christians in these worst of times and I have observed that even amongst them that hope for heaven the major part go no farther in their love than only to desire pardon and salvation without seeking to make any returns suitable to those undeserved and incomprehensible mercies Against so much stupidity and ingratitude I have opposed the following Treatise of Divine Love or the Love of JESUS which I hope will help to reinkindle or at least stir up the holy fire in some Christian souls by the argument it self if by no other means Whilest my Reader fixeth his mind on this most excellent and delightful subject his own thoughts will improve my considerations and many better may be suggested to him And if any ways I can occasion his spiritual advantage and the glory of my Blessed Lord I have attained my aim And now have no more to say by way of Preface but that if I have been so unhappy as to write any thing contrary to the Doctrine of the Church I disown and retract it before hand and would blot it out with my blood as for particular persons who may find fault with any thing herein I desire them to pass it by It matters not much if they like not every passage and expression if they do but follow what they judge to be good and approve my design and love Jesus with all their hearts it will be enough for their profit and my satisfaction He that loveth not knows not God for God is Love 1 John 4.9 THE Reformed Monastery Or the Love of JESUS The Introduction IT were as easie to find out the bottomless depth of the inexhaustible fountain of the Divine Bounty as to tell the Streams which run from it Gods mercies are over all his works and all things that are made are a demonstration as much of his goodness as of his being I will not therefore undertake to number what is innumerable or to express what we cannot so much as comprehend but only insist briefly upon some of the most general benefits of God to mankind and in the representing of them endeavour to make us read our duty and to inflame our hearts with love CHAP. I. Of the general Benefits of God to mankind and first of Creation 1. IT is God that hath made us and not we our selves we owe him our very being thine hands have made and fashioned me saith David thine eyes did see my substance being yet imperfect and in thy book were all my members written Psal 119.73 Let us say therefore with the same Prophet I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made Psal 134.16 and let us with him fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker You know that by the Laws of God and of all Nations there is an indispensable obligation upon all children to love and honour their Parents because they brought them into the world now certainly the obligation doubles upon every man in respect to his Father which is in heaven for our natural parents were but second causes under him his own power it was that form'd and created us they engendred our mortal bodies only he is the Father of spirits he himself gave being to our immortal souls Therefore let every man pay to his Maker those duties he would expect from his child If I am a Father saith God where is mine honour Mal. 1.6 If from our heavenly Father we have received our life and being let us pay that respect and love and obedience to him which thereby are become his due But there is yet more in this Creation is not a transient act the same power that once gave us our being doth still exert it self in the continuation thereof When a child is born he subsists by himself his parents need not take aay care that he returns not to his pristine condition but we have the same dependance upon God in our preservation as we had in our creation should he withdraw his Almighty hand we should return to our first nothing in him we live and move and have our being Therefore we are the more bound to serve and love him that he not only made us to be but gives us as it were a new being every moment by continuing our life and durati n by that Almighty will whereby he effected our first production Now if we consider further not onely that God made us but what he made us it will yet inforce those bonds of duty which Creation tied upon us For it was in our Makers power either to make us vile and abject as the vilest of beasts or to deny us those faculties and abilities which are most honourable and most useful to our nature but he made us Men the most wonderful of his creatures in us he joyned what heaven and earth had most excellent an immortal Spirit created after his image with the most elaborated the most perfect of material things Take a view of the marvellous organs of thy senses of the curious contrivance of those joints and ligaments which unite thy several members of those various and delicate channels which
more because his debt is also forgiven and yet he is freed from that trouble and sorrow which his fellow debtor underwent Why then thy gracious Redeemer by saving thee from the horrors and torments of Hell hath laid on thee at least as great obligations to love him as if he had brought thee out of it after thou hadst been long detained therein Therefore I desire thou wouldst bring thy thoughts back again to that unpleasant abode and consider thy self as if thou were shut up in that dismal dungeon and then express what thou wouldst give to be releast what thou wouldst do for him that should bring thee out of that horrible and bottomless pit I know that they that are afflicted with sharp pains and grievous sicknesses would purchase health with all the wealth they have and I believe no reward would hire a man to hold his hand in the fire but for one hours time therefore I doubt not but that if it were in a mans power he would give this and a thousand more worlds to be brought out of an ever burning furnace and I am perswaded that if thou wilt suffer thy fancy to be active in framing the black and dreadful scene of hellish horrors about thee thou wilt then heartily say Were I owner of the whole universe I would joyfully give it to come out of these ever-burning flames which torment my body and to be freed from this never dying worm the remorses of my guilty conscience which torture my soul but because I have nothing freely would I give my self to him that should bring me out of this woful place O I would follow him any where do any thing that he should command me imbrace his feet kiss the ground they tread on and give him all the demonstrations of a sincere and passionate Love Well thy petition is granted before 't was presented the Love and Mercy of JESUS hath prevented thy request and distress Now make good thy vows and resolutions Love and Serve JESUS thy Redeemer and give thy self up wholly to him I know that many may be good Christians without being snatcht out of the fire without these terrors and affrightments but I am shewing what our condition had been without a Saviour what is that gulf of perdition whence JESUS hath saved us if we will be saved by him and I mention these affrighting truths to perswade men to be motives of an active and a vehement Love For 't is too observable that few men seriously consider what Redemption means what it was we were redeemed from else they could not be so indevout so disobedient so unthankful to their Saviour S. Paul supposing as I do here that without Christ we were already dead and perisht makes it the reason of that Constraining Love which enabled him and other Primitive Christians to suffer so patiently and act so zealously for JESUS The love of Christ saith he constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead as if he should say we were certainly dead irrecoverably lost had not Christ died to purchase life and salvation for us therefore we cannot chuse but love him and it is no wonder if that love be strong and if we are governed and acted by it That thou maist therefore love affectionately and live religiously consider seriously that death the misery of that condition wherein thou wert and ever must have been hadst thou not a JESUS a merciful Saviour and Redeemer I might add that we were delivered from the power and slavery as well as from the condemnation of sin but this is included in the other it being impossible to be saved from the wrath to come without bringing forth fruits meet for repentance and as it is mercy and grace on Gods part so on ours it is matter of duty and earnest indeavour and must be the result and effect of our love first that we offend not and then that we serve diligently and faithfully him that redeemed us from our vain conversation and gave himself for us that we being dead unto sin might live unto righteousness CHAP. VI. How graciously and wonderfully we were redeemed A Further ingagement to love and obey will be to consider the manner how our redemption was effected and the price that was paid for it thus The Blessed Son of God the Second Person of the Ever glorious Trinity undertook that work himself which none else could perform for us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary and was made man In this act of his miracles and mercies seem to vie one with another In praesepe jacet sed mundum continet ubera sugit sed angelos pascit Aug. Ser. de purific 2. that the God of eternity should be born in time that the Creator of all things should be the Son of a Creature that the most highest should abase himself to the low condition of a servant that God should become an infant is a miracle of Love which we can admire and adore but never fully comprehend The greatness of God is unsearchable his excellencies and perfections are incomprehensible he is infinitely good powerful wise and holy Man contrariwise is in himself wicked and weak ignorant impure and miserable there is so great a disproportion betwixt God and man so wide so immense a distance Haec est mensura amoris non solum quantum fecit nos quanta fecit pro nobis sed quantillus factus est pro nobis that nothing less than an infinite love could have filled up the gulf betwixt those two so different natures and united them into one person 'T was never seen that a shepherd would creep upon all four and cover himself with a sheep skin to call his flock out of danger and to expose himself for it but the good shepherd did much more When he came to lay down his life for his lost and wandering sheep and gather them into his fold he took on him not only the likeness but the very nature of them he became the Lamb of God that he might be the shepherd of mankind Though he was infinitely more above man then men are above beasts yet he became the Son of man that he might become the Saviour of men 'T was never seen that a Sovereign Prince would seek to reduce to loyalty the most abject of his rebellious subjects by mixing blooud with them uniting their families together but behold the Supreme Monarch of heaven and earth contracts a near affinity with his ungrateful rebels who are as vile and miserable as they are criminal that he may free them from their guilt and win them to their duty and their happiness Proud and wretched sinner thou wouldst be so far from entring into the kindred of meaner persons those that are much thine inferiors that thou canst hardly endure to be in their company and behold the most Glorious and Holy
canes and clubs and put a reed instead of a scepter in his hand and when he was all over spittle and blood they brought out their mock-King and Pilate presented him to the people and said behold the man thinking to move them to pity by so sad a spectacle but nothing less than his death would satisfie their enraged cruelty therefore he was condemned and then abused afresh by the Souldiers and loaded with his Cross and driven out of the City to Mount Golgotha Now here begins a new scene of sorrows the afflicted Son of Man having lost much blood and suffered so much having been rudely haled from the garden to Annas from Annas to Caiphas from Caiphas to Pilate from Pilate to Herod from Herod to Pilate again and from thence to the place of his Execution arrives at last faint and weary and sorrowful upon Mount Calvary where he was to die here his hands and feet which are most sensible parts of our bodies by being most full of nerves were pierced through and nailed to the Cross and though there was a seat where to rest his body as the Ancients say yet the Cross being lift up and put into the hollowness of the ground to make it stand upright his wounded body was shaken and affected doubtless with a most acute pain He was exposed naked not only to the view of the multitudes but also to the open air which was extremely cold in that the Sun was hid he was burnt inwardly with an excessive heat and driness being tired with so many journeys and being exhausted of spirits and moisture by his sorrows and bleeding insomuch that he complained of this above all his other sufferings crying out I thirst though we may say that he thirsted most our happiness that he thirsted to drink out the dregs of his bitter cup that we might drink the cup of Salvation He wanted the use of his hands and feet being tied to suffer so that he could not so much as stir nor wipe the blood off of his face he was afflicted with the sight of his afflicted Mother who from her wounded soul reflected sorrow upon her dying Son and Saviour His soul was also as it were crucified by the sense of the Divine Anger against the sins of men for the which he was making expiation insomuch that he complained that God had forsaken him And lastly his heart-strings were broke and his body deprived of life by a most violent and bitter death And now who shall not love JESUS and who shall not admire that love which is exprest in the breadth of the Cross Lord how exceeding broad was thy Cross which contained so many sorts of torments Nothing can be compared to it but thy charity which made thee take it up that we might be charged with nothing but a pleasant and easie yoke But Lord why do we most vile and sinful creatures refuse to bear thy light burthen when thou the Most Holy and Most Highest hast born for us so sad and intolerable a load CAAP. IX The length of the Cross WE are now to measure the length of the Cross that is the time of Christs bitter passion the tedious duration of his sufferings which began with his birth and continued to his last breath The Life of JESUS as we have seen was as it were a chain of miseries every link every connection had something grievous and afflictive he was a man of sorrows therefore we no where read that ever he laught or injoyed the pleasures and the mirth of this world but that he suffered much and wept several times is recorded by the Evangelists Every day was in some manner the day of his Crucifixion which to us is Good but to him was sad Friday for he knowing all along what he was to suffer and living in expectation of that cruel death we may say that his fears did in some manner prevent his murtherers and by anticipation acted upon him while he lived what they were to inflict on him to put him to death for he was pleased to assume together with our nature our innocent passions and infirmities I have a Baptism saith he to be Baptized with and how am I constrained until it be accomplished that was the Baptism of his Blood which he wisht for because of his love to mankind his great desire of paying our ransoms but feared because of the repugnance of his humane nature to such bitter sufferings wherefore saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am constrained I am in a streight betwixt two I wish and yet I fear to die But that which we most properly call his Passion because it exceeded the rest of his sufferings lasted eighteen hours without intermission nine of Thursday night and nine of Friday from the time of his agony in the garden about nine at night while three in the afternoon of the day following all which time he suffered those several sorts of pains and tortures which are already mentioned all that time he drank full draughts of that bitter cup the fear whereof made him sweat drops of blood when he began to taste of it all that time he suffered what no tongue can express but what all hearts should endeavor to feel and to think of daily Lord JESU thou wert tormented a long time that we might not be tormented to all Eternity grant that we may endure any thing for thee and from thee our God who didst endure so much for men and from men CHAP. X. The depth of the Cross WE have seen that bar of the Cross on which the hands of our Blessed Saviour were nailed the breadth and the length that is the variety and the tediousness of the pains and sufferings he underwent for us Now we are to consider the biggest piece which stood upright whereon his body rested and his feet were nailed the depth and the height that is the pureness and the greatness of his sorrows If we read with attention the passion of Christ in the four Gospels we shall see our Blessed Redeemer as it were sunk into a deep abyss of misery by the heavy burthen of our sins he might well cry by his Prophet See whether there is any sorrow like unto my sorrow for the greatest of humane afflictions admit of many comforts whereas he was deprived of all as there was no part in us but was infected with sin there was none in him but was affected with pain he was all over stripes and sores an universal wound within and without he suffeed in all his capacities in his outward and inward senses in all the parts and faculties of his soul and body the very circumstances of his passion did all concur to make it more bitter and afflictive He was deprived of that ordinary comfort of being assisted by his friends all the Disciples forsook him and fled as the Prophet had foretold of him I have trodden the wine-press alone and of the people there was none with me I looked and
there was none to help I wondred that there was none to uphold Isa 63. He was like a mild and defenceless lamb in the midst of ravenous wolves there were none about him but such as thirsted for his blood And no wonder if man forsook him when he was in some manner forsaken even by his Father It pleased God to give him up to the cruelties of wicked men and the sorrows of death and that his Divine Nature though personally and inseparably united to his humanity should for a time suspend the effects of its beatifying union and leave him suffer as a man in soul and body the greatest pains without the least comforts They that saw our crucified Saviour suffer so patiently as not to open his mouth to complain might have thought that he had no sense of pain therefore he cries out so bitterly My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Why dost thou suffer me to be plunged into this gulf of sorrow so that I have nothing but anguish within and without Why dost thou suffer me to be almost overwhelmed by so great a distress and art so far from helping me and from the words of my complaint Psal 22. Lord we had deserved to sink and evermore to cry and groan in the bottomless pit and to rescue us thou art pleased to descend very low and with strong crying and tears to say de profundis clamavi out of the depths have I cried unto thee O Lord hear my voice Psal 130. be pleased to hear us dearest Lord when we call upon thee and make thy voice sink into our hearts and there find a cheerful admission and a constant and sincere obedience CHAP. XI The height of the Cross NOw we have only the height of the Cross to look on that is the sublimity the greatness of the torments of Christs crucifixion that in this sense his Cross was very high appears already by what hath been said and yet we may consider further that he being conceived by the Holy Ghost of a most pure Virgin was therefore of a most healthful constitution so that his senses being very quick and apprehensive were sensible of pain beyond other men's and so all the blows and wounds he received and his being nailed and stretched three long hours on the Cross as upon the Rack must needs have been a most exquisite torture Also the vigor of his nature being neither weakned nor spent by age or distempers he being full of strength and in the flower of his age was capable to taste the smart and sharpness of his pain to the very last moment of his life and so 't is written by S. Luke that he cryed with a loud voice when he gave up the ghost to shew that he was still very strong and that his death was bitter and violent to extremity There was likewise an invisible Cross which afflicted his soul and made it sorrowful even unto death his heart was like wax melted in the midst of his bowels Psal 22. and in the midst of so many and such intolerable pains his murtherers shook their heads made mouths at him scoft at his sorrows by cruel and insulting mockeries and by their tongues and derisions aggravated those sufferings which their hands could hardly increase but thaâ— the Cross of Christ was higher in the greatness of its pains than that of any Martyr of any man that ever suffered is evident enough only by considering who it was that was crucified on it for it was more that JESUS being perfect God as well as man should shed one drop of blood than that all Men and Angels should for Millions of years bear the greatest torments Lord we were wonderfully made by thy power but we are yet more wonderfully redeemed by thy mercy Lord what is man that thou shouldst thus be mindful of him or rather what is man that he is unmindful of thee CHAP. XII What an infinite love is exprest by the Cross NOw we have seen the whole frame of the Cross writ all over in blood with characters of love expressions of the greatest kindness for a testimony that JESUS loved us unto death Not any sorrow or anguish in his soul not any gap or wound in his body but are as many mouths to cry aloud in the ears of all men Behold what manner of love God had for his enemies his sinful and unworthy creatures to suffer such things to die in such a manner for to redeem them and make them happy Now let us if we can comprehend the breadth and the length O dilectio quam magnum est vinculum tuum quo ligari potuit Deus Idiot the height and the depth of the love of JESUS that love which bound him much harder than the cords of the Jews and nailed him to his Cross much faster than those Irons which pierced his hands and feet for he that could with one word cast his enemies to the ground could easily have broke their bands and escaped from them but that his love did constrain him and make him desirous and willing thus to die What man would suffer one half of what Christ did for his dearest Benefactor And then how immense and wonderful was that charity which he exprest in suffering the ignominy and pains of the Cross for those that were his enemies and had highly injured him and from whom he could expect no reward but only to be loved again Let us therefore remember it throughout this whole book or rather throughout our whole life that we have been redeemed from eternal despair and misery and from our vain and sinful conversation not by any corruptible thing as silver and gold but by the precious blood of Christ shed with great pain and great ignominy CHAP. XIII Of the eternal happiness merited for us by the Cross of Christ and measured by it THis Love of JESUS is more already by far than ours can answer Could our hearts burn perpetually with those brightest flames of love which beatifie the Cherubims could they contain all the most passionate affections of all Saints both in heaven and earth yet we could not love JESUS so much as he deserves for having died to save us from eternal death and yet he did more he suffered death that we might have life that we might have eternal life Not only that we might not be intirely miserable but also that we might be perfectly happy Heaven is the purchase of the Blood of Christ as well as Redemption from hell God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us when we were dead in trespasses and sins hath quickned us together with Christ and hath raised us up and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Ephes 2.5 Let us meditate a while upon that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory reserved in heaven for us 2 Cor. 4.17 and in it consider the same dimensions as in the price wherewith it was bought the Cross of
our Saviour and it will greatly press and increase our obligations to love him It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Paul calls it each word is a part of its dimension First the Breadth it comprehends all joys and pleasures all things that are good and desirable all that can yield satisfaction and create happiness to a man even that incomprehensible and increated goodness which is the inexhaustible fountain of perfect Bliss and Felicity in whose presence there is fulness of joy at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore Secondly Its height It is above the regions of the air in the highest heavens the sublimity and greatness of its glory is exprest by being like the Angels of God by shining forth as the Sun by a kingdom a crown incorruptible a crown of life and sitting with the Son of God in his throne Thirdly its Depth It is pure and unmingled it admits of nothing afflictive neither death nor sorrow neither hunger nor thirst neither pain nor anguish all tears are wiped from their eyes There is the absence of all evil and the presence of all good therefore 't is called the joy of our Lord than which nothing can express a greater for God is intirely and perfectly happy and so incapable of any sorrow that the least sight of the Beatifical vision would turn hell it self into a paradise Fourthly and lastly its Length its never ceasing duration it admits of no end or period it is everlasting it is eternal it is for ever and ever after as many millions of years as there is drops of water in the sea it will but begin and after as many thousands of millions more it will be no nearer ending than it was at first still eternal and ever eternal This is that Bliss which we had forfeited by sin and are reintitled to by the passion of Christ that Bliss which if often and duly considered would make us despise the world long for heaven love affectionately and serve diligently that JESUS who offers it to us and died to purchase it Wherefore S. Paul prays so earnestly for the Ephesians that God would give them the Spirit of Wisdom and revelation the eyes of their understanding inlightened that they might know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints Ephes 1.18 That we might once be possessed of this bliss as well as delivered from hell was the Cause why JESUS descended down from heaven became poor took on him the form of a Servant and humbled himself unto death even the death of the Cross for the joy that was set before him he despised the shame and endured the Cross saith S. Paul Heb. 12.2 That joy we may say was not the injoyment of heavenly bliss for himself 't was his without suffering there was no need he should bear the Cross for to obtain it he had a sure title to it by nature the joy therefore that was set before him was the joy of saving us the joy of rescuing us from the jaws of death the gulf of eternal perdition the joy of paying the price of our Redemption the joy of making us capable of eternal joys the joy of purchasing the glories and felicities of heaven for us in a word the joy of shewing us his love and expecting the returns of ours This was the joy why he despised the shame because his shame should raise us to glory this was the joy why he endured the Cross because his Cross should exalt us to a happy and honourable Throne This meditation of the great and manifold benefits of God and the wonderful love and charity he hath shewed us in JESUS we may and should prosecute much farther in all instances for 't is infinite and never enough to be considered and admired But Reader if that little I have here set down doth not affect thee and if being affected with it thou dost not resolve to return to God all possible acknowledgments and demonstrations of a grateful love then read no further for Haece via amoris est vera non ficta via câ—rdialis non verbalis via fructuosa non ociosa via non sâ—lùm sermonis sed etiam operis Idiot as what precedes is matter of mercy from Gods part so what follows is matter of duty on thine I shall now infer that we must love God because he first loved us and that if the love of JESUS to us hath made him bear our Cross our love to him must make us bear his yoke if he died for us because he loved us then we must live to him to make it appear that we love him For this is love saith S. John that we keep his Commandments 1 John 5.3 By our hearty obedience we are to declare that we are sensible of his love and desirous to requite it This trial of our affections he himself doth require If ye keep my Commandments ye shall abide in my love and ye shall be my Friends if ye do whatsoever I have commanded you John 15.10 CHAP. XIV That the mercies of our Redemption chalenge our love and hearty obedience NOw then we are to consider that God giving knowledge of salvation to men hath also thereby proclaimed their duty Manifesting his love he hath ingaged and required theirs as our being called to be Chistians makes a great and real change as to the happiness of our condition a great and real change it ought also to make as to the holiness of our conversation Therefore S. Paul calls the Gospel the powr of God unto salvation to every one that believeth Rom. 2.16 and he prays for the Ephesians that they might know the love of Christ that so they might be filled with all the fulness of God Ephes 3.18 as to say that the knowledge of the love of Christ is exceeding powerful and efficacious and would replenish them with all graces and vertues for this cause he sets so high a value upon the excellency of this knowledge esteeming all the world but dung in comparison of it Phil. 3.8 and he exhorting the Cretians to be ready to every good work puts them in mind that they who were once disobedient deceived serving divers lusts had been delivered from that unhappy condition by the appearance of the love of God our Saviour towards man Tit. 3. as in other places he exhorteth Christians to walk worthy of their calling worthy of the Gospel thereby declaring that the manifestation of the Divine Love in the Preaching of the Gospel was the promulgation as of their happiness so of their duty whereby they were rescued as well from living as from perishing in their sins 'T is the appearance of that grace of God which bringeth salvation Tit. 2.11 that teacheth men to live soberly righteously and godly and 't is the receiving and crediting that Heavenly Doctrine that quencheth the fiery darts of Satan that purifies the heart and overcomes the world so
set our love upon the right object upon God not upon our selves Not that we should or can be our own enemies and seek our own ruine no man ever yet hated his own flesh saith S. Paul Ephes 29. the worst enemies to mankind are kind to themselves and we may as soon lose our being as the desire of our well being But we must understand that our supream happiness consisteth in the enjoyment of God who is that infinite increated Goodness that can alone fully beatifie us God is infinitely happy and hath the possession of his infinite perfections by loving himself and we also become happy by loving him with all our hearts and souls it was so in the state of innocency and so it is still and ever shall be and Angels and men became miserable only by departing from the love of God which was then as 't is now to be exprest by obedience So that when man prefers any thing to God he not only departs from his duty but also from his sovereign bliss In the time of mans integrity God was to be regarded and loved first and most of all so it must be still the difference is that then man did it naturally and now by a supernatural assistance he did it then by the grace of his Original Righteousness and now by the grace of the Gospel he did it then without reluctancy now he hath sinful appetites and passions which he must deny and mortifie before he can do it Therefore our blessed Saviour requires it at the very entrance of his School as a necessary qualification to all that will be his Disciples that they should deny themselves and hate all things in comparison of him If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me and again if any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters and his own life also he cannot be my Disciple Luk. 9.23.14.26 that is he that will own JESUS and be owned by him must in all things give him the preeminence must relinquish his natural desires deny his own will that he may yield an humble obedience to God he must forsake all things that come in competition with him and even part with his dearest relations and his own life as though he hated them rather than commit what God hath forbidden or disclaim what he would have us profess this self-abnegation Ille satis se diligit qui sedulo agit ut summo fruatur bono this daily self crucifixion is no act of self-hatred as the world might think but the greatest kindness we can shew to our selves or others for 't is the onely way whereby to make our lives comfortable here and eternally happy in the world to come and in many cases more hard and less advantageous we practise self-denial of our free choice As he therefore that cuts off one of his limbs hates not himself but seeks the preservation of his body and he that casts his goods over-board hates them not but prefers his safety to them so in this case he that parts with his earthly enjoyments hates them not but prefers heaven to this earth he that loseth this present life hates it not but loves eternal life beyond it and he that forsakes his friends or parents to follow his Saviour in the discharge of a good conscience hates them not but seeks to win them to their happiness by preferring his God and his Salvation to their unjust desires In this case the promise is verified that he that parts with any thing for Christs sake receives an hundred fold in compensation and he that loseth his life certainly finds it therefore hating our kindred and our own lives is otherwise exprest in S. Matthew he that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me c. Mat. 10.37 As much as to say that it is only required that the love of God should be predominant that JESUS should be dearer to us than all persons whatever and that in the first place we should love God with all our minds with all our strength and with all our souls for then afterwards the love of our selves Recte novit vivere qui recte novit amare Aug. and others being subordinate would become regular and innocent CHAP. XIX How great a Vertue is Divine Charity or the Love of God NOw as all sins and miseries proceed from a misplaced love so all vertues and felicities are the product of love well guided and placed on the right object this is as beneficial and advantagious as the other is pernicious that is Sicut radix omnium malerum est cupiditas ita radix omium bonorum est charitas Serm. de Charit as S. Augustine saith that as self-self-love is the root of all evil so the love of God is the root of all good the stock whence all vertues do grow The excellency of Divine Love is so great so transcendent Sine charitate fides potest esse sed non prodesse Aug. 1 Cor. 13. that it alone is accepted on its own account and all other things for its sake a faith strong enough to work miracles alms the most expensive and even the flames of Martyrdom profit nothing without love as S. Paul teacheth love it is that makes all good works meritorious in the best sense love it is that gives a value to all other vertues or rather it is love that produceth all good works and vertues as they are so indeed Love is the discharge of our whole duty the fulfilling of the law saith S. Paul Rom. 13.10 love is that grace which renews and sanctifies our natures and abides for ever it is the greatest the most excellent gift of God it is even the Divine Spirit Vnitas Spiritus continet omnia Serm. Pont. Donum est Spiritus San tus in quo nobis omnia bona dantur who unites all things within the bonds of love and unity saith S. Aug. and with whom all good things are ever given Divines teach that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son by way of love wherefore he is called nexus amoris quo conjungitur Pater cum Filio Filius cum Patre that is in the Language of the Church that in the Unity of the same Spirit Charitas qua Pater diligit Filium Filius Pa rem quae est Spiritus Sanctus ineffabilem communionem amborum demonstrat De Trin. l. 15. the Father and the Son live and reign evermore or as S. Augustine expresseth it The love wherewith the Father and the Son love mutually is the Holy Spirit and represents best the Mystery of their Incomprehensible Union Now that Divine Spirit which is the eternal love of God to himself is given to us in the grace of love or charity which are one and the same whereby we are all joined together into one body and all
united to God therefore in our holding Communion with the Church we are commanded to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Ephes 4.3 and we are taught that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us Rom 5.5 and that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost are all one 2 Cor. 13.14 so that to come to the highest pitch and finish the elogium of love we we may say with S. John that God is love and then we have said all God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him 1 Joh. 4.16 that is God is an abyss of love and goodness by love he gives himself to us and by love we give up our selves to him and are transformed into him Wonder not therefore if the effects of love are so glorious and wonderful Deus charitas est brevis laus sed magna laus brevis in ser none magna in intellectu c. Aug. Tract 9. in Ep. Johan when it proceeds immediately from God and is the communication of himself to us when it is the grace of Jesus Christ and the most precious gift of the Divine Spirit when it is the Sanctification of our natures and the bettering and perfecting of the noblest of humane affections natural love that powerful passion whereby all things and all men are governed CHAP. XX. That love always pursues what it thinks good and is never satisfied till it hath obtained it THough the properties of love in general be better known by experience than they can be by discourse Ineffabilem prorsus ego sentio amorem Dei qui sentiri magis quam dici posset Basil yet it may serve to good purpose to say something of them the first whereof is that love always embraceth what is good either in truth or appearance for Mans inclinations are still the same as they were in the state of innocence though much depraved we still pursue after what we think will make us happy only we mistake Like the bramble in the fable which having lost a rich freight of the finest silks and now takes hold of the coarsest stuffs to recover its loss so have all men a secret sense that they are faln from a state of felicity and have lost a jewel of infinite value which still they esteem and love though they know it not and therefore now to recover the eminency of their first station they are climbing upon every molehil petty mountains of ambition to recover their lost jewel they pick up every pebble stone where they see a glimpse of beauty where they relish any thing of goodness there they set their love and affection as if that were the summum bonum which is but an imperfect shadow of it so that we are like an infortunate lover who being seized by a phrensy forgets and forsakes his Mistress and dotes on her picture We neglect God and fall in love with those things that have the least impress of his perfection and then like Idolaters we pay that worship to the work which is due to the maker only Therefore ought we to take great heed that we be not taken with every seeming beauty or goodness but that we examine whether that be the thing which will make us intirely happy and beyond which we shall wish for nothing For if it be not we must pass it by and seek further and never rest nor set our hearts on any thing till we have found that true and perfect good most obvious and easie to be found which being loved will be certainly possest and being possest will make us perfectly happy and that is God alone It is the meditation of S. Augustine Thou maist seek after honours and not obtain them thou maist labour for riches and remain poor thou maist dote on pleasures Amaturus honorem forte non perventurus quis me amavit non ad me pervenit quisquis me quaerit cum ipso sum c. Tract 10. in Ep. Johan and have many sorrows but our God the Supreme Goodness saith Who ever sought me and found me not who ever desired me and obtained me not who ever loved me and mist of me I am with him that seeks for me he hath me already that wisheth for me and he that loveth me is sure of me the way to come to me is neither long nor difficult love makes me present to every lover A second property of love is that it never rests and is never satisfied until it be possest of the beloved object This makes abused worldlings so busie so perpetually restless and active about the purchase of their beloved vanities and this makes devout Christians like S. Paul Phil. 3. never to count themselves to have apprehended but forgetting the things which are behind and reaching forth to those that are before to press forward towards the mark the price of their high calling the object of their love and most passionate desires This restlessness and activity of love found work enough for the Fathers of the Desarts whose indefatigable pains to mortifie their sinful appetites whose unwearied diligence to serve God whose swift and violent motion heaven-ward is the object of our wonder and upbraids our sloth and negligence They were almost wholly freed from the necessities of the body which is the endless task and work of other men and yet they were always employed they had almost nothing to do and yet were never idle the love of Eternity the love of JESUS kept them in action they dwelt in peace and yet were never at rest Our heart which is the seat of love can never be quiet till it returns within Gods embraces till it be possest of that infinite good which all men love though but a few know it See the several plots and undertakings of men in the world 't is love sets them at work 't is to obtain what their blind affections run after that they are so assiduous and so laborious See the prayers and pious exercises the self-denials and mortifications the manifold acts of charity and the great patience of Christians in the Church 't is love also hath set them their task and makes them so diligent so watchful till they have fulfilled it We sometimes wipe the tears from our eyes and our sorrows admit of joyful intervals our anger doth not last always and sometimes hatred is asleep but love like the heart wherein it dwells can never cease to act and move till it ceaseth to be Habet omnis amor vim suam nec potest vacare amor in anima amantis Aug. where ever love is it shews its life and power and is always doing CHAP. XXI That Love is strong and effective and sweetens all labours IN the third place as love is active so it is effective it doth not spend it self in useless
the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy holy Spirit that we may perfectly love thee and worthily magnifie thy holy name now and for evermore Amen CHAP. XXVI Of a sincere amendment which must be wrought by proper means BUT fickle and unhappy creatures that we are we often promise well but seldom stand to our ingagements our resolutions are good and our performances very defective The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak I must not therefore O my Soul rest in generals but I must resolve more especially against those sins I am inclined to and not only against them but also upon the means whereby I may overcome and mortifie them as avoiding the occasions and inticements inflicting on my self such severities as may be proper remedies and tying my self to such pious exercises as I know will drive away the temptation To forsake my sins is not to forbear drunkenness when perhaps I am not inclined to it or to avoid swearing when I look upon it as an unpleasing and unprofitable sin or to hate covetousness when by nature I am liberal but knowing what sin pleaseth me most what vice my temper inclines me to and what temptation is most strong and importunate upon me by my calling or my company against that to fortifie my self and imploy the utmost of my strength against that to watch and pray and use sincere and earnest endeavours To forsake my sins is not to say I will forsake them Some men when they are called upon by fear adversity or the secret voice of God within them are forward enough to ingage with the Elder Brother in the Gospel Lord I will go and work in thy vineyard but their hot zeal and hasty promise soon decays into negligence and at last into a cold denial Though I resolve against my natural corruptions never so seriously that will not subdue them without I use proper means for it to take up my cross and follow Christ to forsake all for him to deny my self to take the kingdom of heaven by force to cut off my right hand and pluck out my eyes when they offend is more than barely to resolve and promise high and proceed no further They that are Christ's have not only verbally renounced but actually crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts Gal. 5.24 therefore now I have given up my self to Christ and desire ever to be his I must pray heartily and watch diligently against my sins those especially that are most pleasing and customary to me I must like S. Paul not not fight in the air against generals but keep under my body be temperate in all things and strive to the utmost for the incorruptible crown I must use that violence to my self such harsh applications acts of penance and mortification of my own or the Spiritual Physicians appointment as are fit and requisite to cure my distemper to expel or reform that evil inclination which is inconsistent with my love to JESUS To that end it will be very useful frequently to meditate on the passion of Christ the day of our change our appearance in judgment the joys of heaven the torments of hell and the amazing consideration of Eternity and I am perswaded that it would be an excellent instrument of Reformation and very useful in many cases to acquaint the Spiritual Judge and Physician with the distempers of our Souls and the state of our conscience But what ever means we use for our amendment we must be sure that they be effectual And as he that would cure a natural evil applies a stronger remedy where a weaker is found insufficient so must he that would cure the spiritual diseases of his soul still use stronger applications boggle at nothing that may be requisite to escape his danger and recover his health But be sure we really desire to be healed for then all things conducing to that end will be welcome and acceptable Si desideras via brevis est swavis si negligis longa est laboriosa Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown but we an incorruptible He that would vanquish his antagonist was in the first place to vanquish himself to endure hardship and severity and use all endeavours for the victory for a fading garland so he that will overcome his lusts and master himself and obtain that heavenly crown which never sadeth must use great industry many arts all means that can conduce to that end CHAP. XXVII Love the best instrument of Self-Reformation and true penitence with an act of hearty contrition BUT the voluminous directions of Casuists and Confessionists cannot reach all cases and all particulars to shorten our labour therefore let the love of JESUS do the work of self-reformation and it will be soonest and best done Love will find out the most effectual means for the extermination of our sins and love will use them to the best purpose Certain it is that love in all instances sets men upon acts of self-denial as great Generals and many more who forego the peaceable injoyment of the comforts they might have at home and expose themselves to dangers because they love honour merchants who forsake their dearest relations and run through many great troubles and perils because they love gain and the more generous love of friendship which hath caused many to chuse great incoveniences and even death to serve their friends and therefore certain it is also that the love of JESUS will make his yoke and even his Cross easie will make us deny our selves and forbear what displeaseth him though otherwise pleasing to us That men might be without excuse God hath made a short work upon the earth Vt nemo habet excusationem in die judicii veluit Deus sicut scriptum est consummare abbreviare verbum super terram Aug. de Doct. Christiana l. 1. c. 1. saith S. Aug. by contracting his immensity into the narrow dimensions of man he hath abbreviated his doctrine and our task JESUS is the Center and the sum of our Faith and Religion and the love of JESUS is the content of our duty I have determined saith S. Paul not to know any thing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified and we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness but to them that are called Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God 1 Cor. 2.2 and 1.24 that is in whom God fully reveals his will and gives us full power to fulfil it Therefore saith the Apostle God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of Jesus Christ my Lord by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world Gal. 6.14 The knowledge and love of JESUS our Crucified Saviour is the most proper means to teach us our duty the greatest motive to undertake it and the best instrument to perform and effect
it withall it will kill our lusts crucifie the members of the body of sin and carry us through the labours and difficulties of penitence and sincere amendment it will be the fulfilling of repentance as it is the fulfilling of the law For as love is strong to overcome strong enemies to kill the greatest sins so is it wise and quicksighted to see and to find out the least A loving friend will not only not slander and defame his friend not rob or strike or murther him but will forbear all words and actions which might bring him the least grief or inconvenience love will not only not give the greatest provocations but even not disoblige or displease in the least instances And now my soul I must apply this home and thereby examine how true are my resolves and protestations if my love to JESUS my Lord be sincere it will not only keep me from confederation with his profest and greatest enemies but even make me shun and forsake the most secret and contemptible of them I mean that the love of JESUS will never suffer me to entertain any the least sin and whenever I find that I have been unhappily seduced to commit any it will cause me to grieve and sadly to repent that I have displeased my dearest Saviour and wounded that tender love I owe him and profess ever to have for him And indeed it is reported of many devout persons great lovers of JESUS that they would sorrow and weep for ordinary failings for small omissions more than others would for much greater sins Divine Love like a bright burning flame will feel a commotion and disturbance by the least drop of water that falls upon it a small irregularity will be more grievous to a pious lover of JESUS than great crimes to another Therefore he that could say the love of Christ constraineth us would also highly complain and groan under the sense of our unavoidable imperfection O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Rom. 7.24 Nothing will make us more sensible of our least and most common sins than the love of JESUS it will make us angry at and impatient of them and earnest and severe in reforming of them Now therefore as I profess my self a sincere and affectionate lover of JESUS I am obliged to undo as much as may be what I have done amiss and to do it no more this earnestly and vigorously I must now resolve and beg the divine grace an assistance to perform it I must make amends and restitution to those I have any ways damnified in body goods or name and even ask their pardon for the injury and then bewail my sins grieve that I have offended my Divine and loving Master and beg his forgiveness and indeavour by tears and contrition to wash away the stain and spots wherewith my soul is polluted and displeaseth the holy eyes of the Holy JESUS And so to own and to love JESUS my Master binds upon me all the duties of holy penitence repentance must now be my my work and I must live like a true penitent Especially on Lent Fridays and such other times as the Church appointed and devout Christians use for mortification and more solemn devotion I must then and even every night call my ways to remembrance And besides those greater provocations wherewith I have offended my Lord in the days of my folly and inconsideration I ought also to take notice of those sins of daily incursion I last committed and weep over them all and beg for pardon and this I say especially on penitential days For though true contrition should always abide in the heart of every one that truly loves JESUS yet there are occasions and proper times to bring it forth when we are to make it our business to soften our hearts and make them melt into penitent tears Which must be done by religious exercises pious meditations and such acts of contrition as this My dearest JESUS I owe to thy kindest goodness my being and all the blessings I enjoy and I know that thou didst come down from heaven to die on the Cross that I might not die in hell to eternity to suffer a bitter and shameful death that I might live in eternal joys I hope to see thy glorious face one day I hope to receive a crown from thy gracious hands I hope to dwell in thy blissful society for ever Dearest Saviour if thou wert upon earth I would go all the world over to prostrate my self before thee to kiss the ground thy Holy Feet should tread to serve thee to shew my love and gratitude to thee Dearest Lord I would now joyfully give up my life for thee I would lose the last drop of my blood to please and glorifie thee I would die rather than deny thee Why then unhappy wretch that I am do I offend thee to whom I owe my self and all that I have Why do I wound thee by my transgressions who wast wounded for them by thy love Why do I grieve thee who purchasest eternal joys for me Why do I displease thee with whom I hope to live and dwell and from whom I expect mercy and salvation Why do I sin against thee whom I love with all my soul and why do not I live to thee for whom I would die Lord if what thou hast done and suffered for me be not able to win my heart what canst thou do more but O break and yield sinful heart of mine open the way to tears and grief and let the love of thy dearest Saviour enter and fill and ever possess thee CHAP. XXVIII That Love will sweeten as well as produce the truest penitence and that true wisdom not melancholly is the guide of sincere penitents SUch considerations and soliloquies as these will produce not only lacrymas doloris tears of grief but also lacrymas amoris tears of love and true contrition and moreover will make pleasant all the severities of repentance which are so unacceptable and so repugnant to nature those things that would be ungrateful as acts of justice on our selves or obedience and submission to a severe Master will become delightful as acts of love to a gracious beloved Lord. In amore nihil amari in love all things are sweet that are done or suffered for the sake of the beloved I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in distresses for Christs sake saith S. Paul 2 Cor. 12.10 that great lover of JESUS not that those things are of their own nature pleasant whether inflicted by our selves or others 't was for Christs sake that he liked them He likewise that by self-denial and revenge on himself expressing his sorrow for his sins shews his love to JESUS is certainly delighted with the most afflictive of those voluntary sufferings as they are expressions of his love Accordingly 'tis said of some Religious persons that their watchings and fastings and all the severities to
which they had tied themselves as exercises of true repentance became in process of time so pleasant to them by the devoutness of their affections that they were affraid of having their Paradise here in this world and consulted their Spiritual guide about it And certainly nothing but love could carry the primitive Solitaries and Coenobites through that uneasiness and hardship they willingly undertook and endured many years and rejoyced in and would not have exchanged for all the pleasures in the world they being persuaded that thereby they recovered and secured the favour of JESUS whom they loved and whose love they esteemed more than all worldly enjoyments Perhaps it will be said by some that such things are the effect of melancholy or a forward and misguided zeal not of true piety But let it be considered that natural love it self hath done and still doth wonderful things The love of friendship the love of lust the love of riches and ambition have set men upon difficult attempts have made them despise great dangers have carried them through many labours and sufferings and perhaps as great as the most mortified Christian ever undertook for JESUS and Eternity This hath been and is still the effect of Natural Love and sure Divine Love whose object is so infinitely more excellent may do at least as much Besides things temporal seem great at a distance but near at hand they appear as they are indeed mean and contemptible whereas contrariwise things eternal as they seem small and despicable afar off so near at hand they appear great and immense they overwhelm the mind Hence it is that dying men who are on the brink of eternity are amazed at the thoughts and near prospect of it and express great regret for their past inconsideration and promise great things for the future if they might live longer looking upon the world as an empty nothing not to be regarded where eternity appears and hence it is also that they who approach things eternal and view them by meditation and contemplation are of the same mind have the same apprehensions of them and act accordingly doing those things which dying men repent they have not done For indeed it is no illusion or deceit but a great and real truth that the world and all its concerns are nothing compared to eternity and that we can never be too careful to obtain eternal joys and avoid eternal sorrows How much the blessed Apostles and primitive Christians were acted by this consideration S. Paul gives us to understand saying that whilst they looktnot on things visi-and transitory but on things invisible and eternal then their afflictions were light and but for a moment 2 Cor. 4.16 c. though they lasted many years and were so great that the very thoughts of them can make us tremble yet they were light and momentary whilst they looked on eternity and they fainted not though their outward man decayed daily by their great mortifications and their laborious zeal to serve God and all this whilst we look not on the things that are seen but on the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal So that it is the effect of a wise and most rational consideration to value and love him above all things who by dying for us hath rescued us from eternal ruine and obtained eternal happiness for us and to make it appear by all means possible doing or suffering any thing that may manifest our love to JESUS and assure us of a blessed eternity It may justly be feared that the indevotion and luke-warmness of very many not the worst of Christians will not make them acceptable to God who declares that he will spue them out of his mouth that are neither hot nor cold Rev. 3.16 and that their carelessness and indifferency in religious duties will hardly secure their eternal interest However I think that it is a shame to see Benedictins Franciscans Carthusians and others forsake the merriments pleasures and honors of the world rise up early and late go to rest wear nothing but Cilices and coarse cloth feed poorly and lie hard and all this and much more to observe the Rule of S. Bruno S. Francis or some other fanciful or melancholy Devoto who obliged them to some absurd some needless and many uneasie observations from whom they never received any benefit and from whom they can expect no kind of remuneration and at the same time to see Christians nice and dainty unwilling to deprive themselves of any pleasure or to undergo any thing of hardship for to observe the most reasonable holy and advantagious Rule of Christ from whom they have received the greatest favours from whom they expect the greatest rewards and to whose service and obedience they have devoted themselves by a solemn vow in holy Baptism CHAP. XXIX That severities and mortifications well regulated are subservient to Repentance and the Love of JESVS I Know that some put too great a stress on such outward observations and corporal austerities and whilst they pervert the right use of them greatly abuse themselves and it may be deceive others also but withall it must be granted that others in the other extreme as unadvisedly reject and condemn them as unprofitable and superstitious and as unreasonably count themselves Religious because they despise as other because they are fond of them I shall not determine which of the two are in the worst error Both certainly are mistaken and the truth I apprehend to be this The example of our Blessed Saviour which is our best pattern and most profitable lesson plainly declares that such exercises are of great use if not necessity in our spiritual warfare against sin and temptations So likewise the precepts of cutting off our right hand or foot when they make us offend of denying our selves and taking up the Cross and many more to the same purpose make it our duty to use the proper and appointed means of mortification And that they are acceptable to God we are assured by Christ himself When ye fast be not as the hypocrites but anoint thy head and wash thy face that thou appear not unto men to fast but to thy Father which sees in secret and thy Father which sees in secret shall reward thee openly Mat. 6.18 Here fasting stands for all acts of self-denial as being the most afflictive and though the measures thereof be not described yet that God hath a great respect and recompense for it as well as for prayers and alms is clearly affirmed by our Blessed Lord. So that their remains no doubt but that all corporal austerities prudently undertaken and managed whether of our free susception or appointed to us by our Spiritual Guide or the Governours of Christs Church to whom we are bound to submit our selves they being in his stead to us there is no doubt I say but that these especially the last are generally very
profitable in some cases absolutely necessary and always well pleasing to God They are instruments of Religion whereby our lusts are subdued the body kept under and the Spirit it self mortified They are marks of the sincerity of our sorrows and our regret to have offended God And they are testimonials of our love to JESUS and our earnest desire to secure our duty to him for the future All this is attested and proved true not only by holy Scripture and the injunctions of the Christian Church but also by the practice and experience of all devout persons affectionate lovers of the Blessed JESUS CHAP. XXX A short Meditation for penitential days REmember that Fasting and Alms are the two wings of Prayer and that all three must unite their strength to raise our heavy hearts from this earth and lift them up to the regions of Love All three together ascended as a memorial before God to plead for Cornelius And our Blessed Saviour in one Sermon Mat. 6. joined them all three and assigned to them one reward Thus therefore meditate O my Soul on thy days of humiliation My Blessed Lord I know that I have been too much addicted to sensual pleasures and now to speak my grief for it here I mourn and afflict my self judging my self unworthy even of those refreshments thou hast allowed me I have too much served Mammon and been too greedy of the world and now I devote all I have to thee giving this as an earnest that all I have is thine and that now I will use it for my self with more moderation and spend it on others with greater charity that thou maist be acknowledged and glorified for thy gracious gifts and I may speak my dependence on thee My heart hath been too far from thee and for my negligence in thy service thou mightst justly blot my name out of the list of thy Servants but here I return to thee with tears and prayers begging that still thou wouldst be my Lord and Master and I may be more faithful and active in waiting upon thee I pour out my soul before thee desiring it may evermore cleave unto thee most affectionately and that no creature whatever may ever be able to draw me from that love and duty I owe thee Lord had I offended any earthly Prince that had power on me in that grievous manner as I have offended thy Divine Majesty I should be loaded with irons cast into a dungeon and never admitted to see his face and to beg his pardon But thou givest me liberty and invitest me to plead for my self to come and prostrate my self at thy feet to implore thy mercy to retract my folly and shew how much I am grieved for it and if I am sincere in this I am assured of thy pardon and that thou wilt receive me to favour again Lord I beseech thee as it is written in thy Book that I have sinned so therein let it be registred that I truly repent that I judge and punish my self and indeavour what I can to undo and recall it again Let the penance I here perform my sighs and tears my prayers and bitter sorrows intitle me to the merits of thy precious blood let them stand on record that I may be justified at the last day to have been a true penitent that here the judgments I have deserved may be turned from me that having been here numbred among thy Servants who duly own thee before men I may hereafter be numbred among thy Saints in glory everlasting And Lord let my love to thee be proportionable to my sins and thy great mercies that I also may hear that blessed voice much is forgiven thee because thou lovedst much and I may go and sin no more CHAP. XXXI That repentance must loook forward to the securing of our duty for the time to come With instances and resolutions to that effect BUT one great half of repentance is yet behind that which is most to be attended to that which I must chiefly design in all acts of mortification is that I return no more to those sins for the which I grieve and afflict my self I must not only grieve that I have not forsaken those lusts and vanities I renounced when I became a Christian but I must now actually f rsake them and perform my vows Except I do this my repentance is vain and my love not sincere True contrition doth include love and love includes an hearty obedience But here lies the difficulty The occasions and inticements of sin will doubtless come again my thoughts will now always be fixt upon Divine Objects my mind will return to the world my passions will be disorderly and my appetite unruly again how shall I stand and resist and be safe in the time of danger in the hour of trial and temptation this I must do this I resolve to do devoutly to lift up my Soul to JESUS my Master and beg his assistance to remember my ingagements and my protestations and consider how much I am bound to love and obey my Lord and Saviour rather than my lusts and how infinitely much I shall gain by it to summon all the strength and all the powers of devout Love to my aid and to use all those means I have before resolved upon for the resisting of temptations and doing my duty Thus when a provocation to anger is given and I find my heart rise and my spirits take fire and grow turbulent instead of giving way to the mischievous passion or suffering that it should proceed to hatred and revenge I will turn aside and check my self with the remembrance of my meekest Saviour who was led as a Lamb to the slaughter and opened not his mouth who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered the greatest injuries yet used no threatning leaving us an example that we should follow his steps I will remember how ill it becomes me to be angry with others who have so much reason to be angry with my self for having so highly and frequently provoked my God to anger I will consider how ill it becomes me to be revengeful and severe to others when all my hopes and all my happiness depend upon forbearance and mercy I will think of and fear that just exprobration of my Lord against the revengeful thou wicked servant shouldst not thou have had compassion on thy fellow servant as I had pity on thee and I will remember that it is JESUS who died for me JESUS for whom I would die who intercedes for mine enemies and so will rather rejoice that I have some of that kind of love to repay to my dearest Saviour which he shewed to me when I was his enemy If lust enticeth me to acts of impurity I will call to mind the corruption and dissolution of this vile body of sin I will think on my last account the day of judgment and the dreadful flames of hell and I will remember him who for me was crucified
and with whom my love hath crucified me and that now is the time to make it appear that I love him and to justifie the sincerity of my protestations And so for covetousness pride intemperance and all such temptations I will reject their attempts and proffers with indignation as a true friend would scorn the solicitations to betray his friend thus saying to my self What shall I be false to him I love to him that loveth me who hath shed his bloud for me and to whom I have often protested that I would even die for him shall I break the sacred bonds of love and my most sacred vows and put my soul into a state of regret unquietness shame and sorrow for this vile transitory profit or pleasure O my dearest JESUS thou knowest that I love thee I beseech thee make that love victorious against thine enemies and mine I would rather die than deny thee for any interest in the world and I hope thou wilt not deny me at the last day but own me among thy faithful servants Lord I serve thee not for nothing great are the reasons why I should obey thee thou hast done much for me and from thee I still expect much infinite rewards for such due and poor services Lord let me die before I deliberately over sin against thee and forfeit thy love by falling from mine Thus by love I resolve to conquer my self to deny and mortifie my lusts by love I will strive to overcome all unlawful desires all sinful motions and then I shall rejoice in the victory It shall not make me either proud or peevish or severe to others but rather humble and meek cheerful and contented so that it shall be seen by my outward deportment how much pleasure and tranquillity my soul hath inwardly that I rejoice in what I do for Christ that it is delicious to me to deny my self for his sake to oblige so great so true so generous a lover as JESUS who hath done all acts of friendship for me and owns me for his friend I call you not servants but friends ye are my friends indeed if ye do whatsoever I have commanded you Joh. 13.14 Those that are accounted gallant men in the world will venture their lives to second a friend in an idle an unchristian quarrel and their wound they bear with courage and count them honourable 'T was to serve a friend how much more should I rejoice in that violence I offer to my appetites and unruly desires in what I do or suffer for to please and serve my heavenly my best my dearest friend whom I can never love so much as he deserves and in loving of whom I am infinitely happier than if I should enjoy all the pleasures of sin as long as I live I only grieve and am displeased that I can do so little for him that I can requite his love no better I know that many persons have done far more for their less deserving friends than I do or can do for my Saviour JESUS CHAP. XXXII A singular example of humane Love with a short reflection upon it IT is reported by Greek historians of two loving sisters Eudoxia and Irenea daughters to the last unhappy Prince of Morea Niceph. Gregor Chalcondys who with his life lost his Crown and Country that an uncle saved them from the general desolation and captivity which soon succeeded the lost battel and carried them to old Andronicus their kinsman then Emperour of Constantinople There with pity they found a kind welcome and as great respects as they could wish Their beauty their vertues and accomplishment surpast their princely birth and were as eminent as their fortune was low so that young Andronicus who was to succeed in the Empire was in process of time taken with Eudoxia loved her passionately and obtained the Emperours consent to marry her This caused great troubles to Irenea who liked it well as she loved her sister but could not but grieve at it as she loved the Prince for unhappily she had setled her affections on him Upon this she fell sick and almost to death and it being observed that some distemper in her mind caused the distemper of her body her sister protesting of her love to her assuring her that Eudoxia should have only the title and the trouble but Irenea the priviledges and the power of an Empress conjured her to declare what caused her discontent Having understood what it was and grieving that she should be the occasion of her sisters danger and sorrow she presently took from her head a jewel the Prince had given her in form like a half-moon and with it she so wounded and disfigured her face that she cured the Prince of his love as she designed and afterwards retired to Galliopoli where she entred a Cloister and devoted the rest of her life to God The Prince finding in Irenea what he had lost in Eudoxia soon after entertained the same passion for her he had for her sister but Irenea remembring her sisters generosity forgot her affection to the Prince considering what Eudoxia had voluntarily suffered for her how great how tender a love she had exprest in what she had done resolves to forsake Andronicus to forgo her ease and pleasure and what she had so earnestly desired rather than be ungrateful Whereupon she steals away from the Court goes to Galliopoli enters her sisters Cloister and having exprest to her her love and acknowledgments she takes the same vows and resolves to live and die to God and with her beloved sister This story makes me grieve and blush that so little gratitude should be paid to JESUS for greater benefits for that incomparable love he hath shewed men in dying for them that I my self should so ill requite his much greater kindness so poorly and imperfectly return his most wonderful love What shall I think it much to refrain my intemperance for his sake who for mine fasted long and often and tasted vinegar and gall shall I think it much to mortifie my pride and anger for him who for my sake despised the shame of the Cross and returned nothing but meekness to the greatest provocations shall I think it much to refrain my worldly covetous desires for him who for me became poor naked destitute of all things though he were Lord of all shall I think it much to deny my self some momentary sensual pleasures for him who carried my sorrows who shed his blood and was crucified to save me No my dearest JESUS thy love hath overcome my heart I will be no more what I have been henceforth it shall be my wealth my delight my glory and ambition to serve and obey thee give thee all possible demonstrations of a devout a most passionate love CHAP. XXXIII Some Scriptures to shew the necessity of departing from Sin according to our Baptismal Vow With some protestations to conclude this first Part. THis Repentance and Reformation is what our Religion requires The
Scripture supposeth it in all that have embraced Christianity and is earnest and pressing in its exhortations to it We beseech you Brethren and exhort you by the Lord JESUS that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God so ye would abound more and more for ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord JESUS for this is the will of God even your sanctification 1 Thess 4.1 2. Again but ye have not so learned Christ as to follow the greediness and lusts of the Gentiles If so be that ye have heard of him and have been taught by him as the truth is in JESUS that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Eph. 4.20 21. c. And in another place this change being absolutely necessary is absolutely supposed to be wrought in us by our imbracing the Christian Faith If ye are risen with Christ seek those things which are above for you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication uncleanness inordinate affection evil concupiscence and covetousness which is idolatry in the which ye walked sometime when ye lived in them but now you also put off these anger wrath malice blasphemy evil communication out of your mouth lie not one to another seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him Col. 3.1 2 c. In these and many more places to the same purpose it is plainly implyed that true Christians are mindful and careful to fulfil their baptismal promises to renounce the devil and all his works c. It is not love alone that binds this duty upon us our profession absolutely requires it of all that have given their name to Christ and expect Salvation from him Love may inforce the obligation and assist us to discharge it but it is the design and the tenor of Christianity it self to reclaim us from sin to sanctifie our affections that our lives and actions may be holy as becomes the Gospel The grace of God which bringeth salvation teacheth us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live in this present world soberly righteously and godly Tit. 2.11.12 This is the sum of our duty that we should be temperate in our bodies and minds just and charitable in our intercourse with other men and pious in our minds devout in acts of Religion and worship to God the learning and practising this lesson is that whereby the offered salvation is obtained and laid hold on that whereby we must make it appear that we indeed own Christ for our Lord and Saviour and that we do truly love him with all our hearts and souls Now therefore I must remember that I am not mine own I am his that made and redeemed me I am his to whom I have given my self when I undertook manfully to fight under his banner against sin the world and the devil To me is addrest that exhortation Thou O man of God flee these things strifes disputes and covetousness before mentioned and follow after righteousness godliness faith love patience meekness fight the good fight of faith lay hold on eternal life 1 Tim. 6.11 12. I am become a Souldier of JESUS to me S. Paul speaks as well as to Timothy Thou therefore endure hardness as a good Souldier of Jesus Christ No man that warreth intangles himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a Souldier 2 Tim. 2 3 4. If I were in the Militia of any other Prince I might endure hardness enough before I could obtain his favour or indeed be taken notice of heat and cold hunger thirst and weariness sleepless nights and perpetual dangers all this and much more I might endure many years and not be looked on here my General hath prevented me with his kindness he first fought against mine enemies he first loved me and endured hardship for me and he notes every thing I suffer for him sets it down and assigns a reward to it Under another Commander I might do brave actions behave my self valiantly and yet not be seen here my General hath always his eyes upon me he incourageth me and rejoiceth to see my fortitude he is alway ready to help me and is most delighted when he sees me zealous and diligent I might fight long enough for an earthly King I could only get a poor subsistence or an empty fame but never so much as one province of his dominions here fighting for my heavenly King I shall get unvaluable treasures immortal glory and a Kingdom which shall have no end To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne Rev. 3.21 I will therefore never again fight against the captain of my salvation and I will never forsake him I will often renew my vows often swear allegiance to him upon that sacred blood which he shed for me and which he gives me to comfort and strengthen my heart I will daily think on those things that may increase my zeal and diligence and help me to resist temptations and I will suffer any thing use all means possible to perform these resolutions and approve my self unto death a lover of JESUS If any man loves not the Lord JESUS let him be Anathema Maranatha FINIS THE Reformed Monastery OR The LOVE Of JESUS The Second Part. LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun in S. Paul's Church-yard the West-End MDCLXXVIII THE PREFACE I Have now gone through the greater half of my task the negative part of our Baptismal Vow and of our Duty The greater half I call it because our Nature stands not in aequilibrio in an indifference betwixt good and evil but is depraved and ill inclined and the way to vertue will be smooth and pleasant when once by grace and love we have renounced our sins and our vicious propensities are both subdued and rectified If therefore thou hast entred and liked this Cloister so far thou maiest safely advance further and go through what remains if thou hast approved and observed its Rules hitherto the rest cannot but be acceptable and easie to thee As a Traveller in a strange Enemy-Country meets with many hardships and dangers but at home amongst friends delights in journeying So the Love of JESVS among the works of the devil the sinful lusts and vanities of this world might meet with difficulties and a rugged way but now conversing with faith and good works the holy will of God and his glorious rewards it will proceed with joy and a pleasant speedy progress I have called the Love of JESVS The Reformed Monastery
partly to work upon thy fancy that by thy Christian profession thou mightest think thy self as entred into a new state of life and cloistered in from loose company and sinful injoyments and also to give thee to understand that though thou beest not under any severe monastick ingagements yet by thy being a Disciple and servant of JESVS thou art bound to be strict and watchful over thy self to use those remedies against sins and temptations and those proper helps to devotion which are useful and subservient to Vertue and Religion and will assist thee to secure thy duty and thy happiness Old heresies we know often revive and appear under a new dress and it may serve the ends of true goodness and piety to diversifie Christian instructions and to bring them forth under new and different forms What one is not moved withall may affect another and the very novelty of a name or method may make that to be looked upon which otherwise would pass unregarded I know that I have fallen very short of what my Subject could bear and perhaps some will think that I have not been full enough in my particulars and in my directions but my only design was to beget and entertain Divine Love in our Souls well knowing that that love afterwards would soon inlarge our hearts and our knowledge and guide us right in all cases If I can but teach thee Reader to love JESVS with all thy heart I am sure I have brought thee into the easiest and the only safe way to Heaven He hath taught the best part of Religion and to the best purpose Praecipuam Christianae pietatis portionem docuit quisquis ad hujus inflamavit amorem Eras who hath taught others to love it And they certainly love it and obey it too that truly love its Author the Blessed JESVS If we truly love him we shall afterwards refuse him nothing Where a man gives his heart he will neither refuse his hand nor his knee neither service nor worship where he gives his Soul and affections he will willingly bestow all the rest God shall certainly command us and all that we can dispose of without any reservation if we secure our love to him Therefore Love is called the bond of perfectness It is the onely qualification can make us true Christians Alia virtus cum peccato sed dilectio tua omni peccato contrariatur omni temptationi resistit No other vertue but may consist with some sin love alone is contrary to all no other grace can resist all temptations love alone hath that unlimited power Nothing but love can enable us to discharge all obligations Love is the fulfilling of the Law All other gifts and vertues without love cannot fit a man for heaven nor make him dear to God but love can do it of it self Love JESVS sincerely and affectionately and then you shall be sure to live here to him and hereafter with him to eternity As there are Dragons that are bright and glittering and have precious stones in their heads as there are Comets that have the light and the elevation of stars so there are vicious persons false Christians that are indowed with excellent parts and are eminent in some vertues but it profiteth nothing without love If I speak the tongues of Men and Angels saith S. Paul 1 Cor. 13.1 c. If I have the gift of prophesie and understand all mysteries If I have all faith so that I remove mountains if I give my goods to the poor and even my body to be burned and have not charity I am nothing and it profits me nothing 1 Cor. 8.1 Of all other gifts and abilities it may be said as of knowledge that they all puff up but charity alone edifieth Among those creatures which stand and worship before God there is not only a Man and an Eagle which may represent persons of great learning fitted for high speculation but also a Lion and an Ox whereby Christians of meaner parts and knowledge are signified for these are capable of love as much as the others and 't is love alone qualifies men to dwell for ever in the embraces of the God of love for God is love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him 1 John 4.16 God loves men that they may love him Amat Deus ut ametur nil aliud vult quam amari c. Aug. and he onely requires that they would love him knowing that that love is of it self sufficient to make them eternally happy I have therefore all along fitted my discourse and meditations to every mans capacity and opportunities as much as I could because all may love and all must that will be happy And though I may have recommended some things as means and instruments yet I have prescribed nothing as a duty but the great obligations which were laid upon us when we were baptized into Christ So that in this Monastery all must enter and live that would live in heaven and the Rules and Orders of it should be observed by all that desire to own Christ before men and to be owned by him at the last day I might indeed have here inserted many perhaps not unuseful directions given by Ancient Fathers and Spiritual Guides to such as made profession of greater piety and stricter lives than others but they could not have suted with all conditions and callings therefore I have appointed no other rule to those that shall enter this Cloister but the love of JESVS in a sincere obedience to his holy precept or a voluntary compliance with his Divine Counsels Not that I would deny that places for Religious Retirement might afford many great advantages in order to greater devotion and heavenly mindedness for I bewail their loss and heartily wish that the piety and charity of the present age might in a just and primitive measure restore to this Nation the useful conveniency of them Necessary Reformations might have repurg'd Monasteries as well as the Church without abolishing of them Multi sunt qui possunt Religiosam vitam etiam cum saeculari habitu ducere plerique sunt qui nisi omnia reliquerint salvari apud Deum nullatenus possunt Greg. M. Ep. ad Maur. Imp. and they might have been still houses of Religion without having any dependance upon Rome All men are not inclining to nor fitted for an active life some would be glad to find a place of rest and retirement for contemplation some who by melancholy or by the terrors of the Lord are frighted from their sins and from the civilized world into Quakerism into an unhappy sullenness and Apostasie would perhaps exchange their silks and laces for the coarser garments of mortified professors of a Monastick life and find among them that happiness and peace of the soul which they vainly seek for in their wretched and deluded Brotherhood Some who upon great afflictions and sudden changes of fortune fall into a state
God shall enable me But first my love is to appear by doing what is commanded This is the love of God that we keep his Commandments saith S John 1 John 5.3 and he that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me saith our Blessed Saviour John 14.21 There can be no love without obedience this is its first and chiefest Tryal if a man love me he will keep my words ver 23. Now then should my beloved Lord ask me as once he did S. Peter N. N. dost thou love me would not my heart answer with his zealous Apostle Yes Lord thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee I would lay-down my life for thee John 21.15 and 13.37 Now to this he replies again if thou lovest me keep my Commandments John 14.15 Every time we tell him Lord I love thee thou knowest that I love thee He doth answer again if thou lovest me keep my Commandments So that without we observe this we can no ways pretend to love him I am therefore to take notice of and to amend sins of omission which too too many among Christians mind little or not at all In the matter of sobriety I am commanded whether I eat or drink to do it as all things else to the glory of God and to be contented whatsoever state I am in for chastity I am commanded to know how to keep my vessel in sanctification and honor for acts of corporal and spiritual mercy I am commanded to be merciful as my heavenly Father is merciful and to forgive injuries as I desire my self to be forgiven for reverence to my betters I am commanded to honour and obey my superiors Ecclesiastical and Civil in what concerns Divine Worship I am bound to read and pray and meditate to instruct my self and family to receive the Blessed Sacrament to have a veneration and respect for all things that belong or relate to God and him to love and fear and trust and adore evermore All these with the particulars included in them and all other duties and the special precepts of the New Testament is the task I chearfully undertake and in the performance whereof I will approve my self a sincere lover of JESUS CHAP. II. How great a happiness in Eternity follows our love and obedience HIS yoke is easie and his burthen light his Commandments are not grievous and yet in keeping of them there is great reward a temporal happiness than which none is greater in this world and an eternal happiness infinitely greater than any this world can afford Do not I see what pains most men are at to get a subsistence for this world how they run and sweat and spend themselves to provide for this perishing life which yet is miserable short and uncertain and shall I not labour for the meat which abideth to eternal life shall I be at no pains to secure that life which hath no end and knows no misery O that I could duly understand the difference betwixt this life and the life to come how would I slight the one and desire the other or rather how chearfully would I imploy this present to obtain that which is to come Is not there servants that work hard day by day a whole year together for small wages who are almost perpetually employed about their masters business and yet have sometimes no thanks and often but a sorry reward and am not I one of those labourers whom my Lord hath hired to work in his vineyard Mat. 21. Am not I one of those servants whom he hath intrusted with his goods to whom he hath intrusted talents to improve for him and do not I desire he should tell me one day well done thou good and faithful servant Mat. 21. Is not my salary great greater than any Prince on earth could make it greater than I could wish greater than I can comprehend eternal rest eternal joys eternal happiness eternal glories eternity it self he himself will be my reward Eternity Eternity Eternity Blessed Eternity Eternity never enough to be considered Eternity never enough to be valued shall I obtain thee by what I do here for my Lord shall I obtain thee by that imperfect service I pay to my gracious Master O God who hast prepared for them that love thee Sixth Sund. after Trin. such good things as pass mans understanding pour into our hearts such love towards thee that we loving thee above all things may obtain thy promises which exceed all that we can desire through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen Lord I am not worthy to be called thy Son I have often begg'd to be one of thy hired servants the meanest so I love and obey best O let me like thy servant Moses ever have a respect to the recompence of the reward ever consider what I shall get by serving thee that I may be diligent persevering and cheerful in doing my duty O my soul blush to consider how laborious men are for the unsatisfying acquests of this earth how eager thou hast been thy self in pursuing of them how slothful how unactive and heavy thou art in working for eternal rest for the treasures of eternity for the glories of heaven for those Divine Pleasures which are at the right hand of God for evermore Whence comes this unhappy soul is it not from inconsideration because thou dost not lift up thine eyes to see whither the way of love and obedience will bring thee because thou dost not look beyond the world upon things eternal because thou dost not often enough meditate upon heaven and eternity that unvaluable infinite recompence which awaits thee as soon thy work is finished Resolve therefore to amend this and daily once at least to consider what are thy wages what thou shalt get by serving God As the Apostle says of afflictions that they are light and but for a moment whilst we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen the same we may say of the most difficult of Christian duties that they are light and but for a moment that they are easie and soon done that there is no tediousness no hardship in them whilst we look upon things eternal whilst we have a respect unto the recompence of the reward CHAP. III. That to win our hearts and duty God propounds great rewards to us THis consideration doubtless would be powerful and effectual would wake and stir us up and make us active and lively if we had it often in our minds Therefore our Blessed Saviour to incourage his followers and make them diligent in his service doth often give them to understand what by parables and what by plain declarations that they should not serve him for nought and that they should be no losers by him that he would consider them for their time for their expences for their sufferings and for their labours that he would take notice of the least thing they should do for him so that even
a cup of water given for his sake should not go unrewarded and that their reward would be great bountiful and most excellent far above their deserts and even above their wishes and apprehensions an angelick nature a glory bright as the Sun it self an eternal life an heavenly an endless kingdom his own joys should be their portion and their recompence And we find also the Holy Apostles assuring those whom they brought to work in their Lords vineyard that they should certainly have their hire and be paid most generously for their work God will render to every man according to his deeds to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory honour and immortality shall be rendred eternal life Rom. 2.6.7 Every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour 1 Cor. 3.8 And S. Paul to incourage the Corinthians tells them that we Christians are entred into a race at the end whereof we may see the Laurel palmam in stadio positam a glorious prize an incorruptible crown if we will run and strive for it 1 Cor. 9.24 and he likewise tells the Ephesians that whatsoever good thing any man doth the same shall be receive of the Lord whether he be bond or free Eph. 6.8 S. Peter also teacheth that we should be moved and encouraged by the greatness of the promised reward to forsake our lusts and wholly devote our selves to God exceeding great and glorious promises are given unto 〈◊〉 that by these you might be partakers of the Diviae Nature having escaped the pollution that is in the world through lust 2 Pet. 1.4 Christ is become the author of eternal salvation to themt obey him Heb. 5.9 And so the result of all these may be comprehended in the exhortation of S. Paul My beloved Brethren be ye stedfast unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 In this sense good works are meritorious in that they procure us a reward a reward infinitely greater than their own desert Let us not therefore as the Apostle exhorts be weary in well-doing for we shall reap in due season if we faint not Gal. 6.9 Let us compare together the returns of vice and vertue how unlike are the fruits of them and let us bear this short saying in our minds if we do ill the pleasure is soon past the grief and punishment abide long upon us if we do well the trouble is soon ended the joy and reward of it remain for ever Let us pray with S. Paul the Lord direct our hearts into the love of God and the patient waiting for Christ 2 Thes 3.5 who when he comes brings his reward with him and to this let us add this Collect of the Church Grant us grace O Lord so to follow thy blessed Saints in all vertuous and godly living that we may come to those unspeakable joys which thou hast prepared for them that unfeinedly love thee through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen CAAP. IV. That Love hath a secret pleasure and reward in it self with a meditation to that purpose BUT Though it may encourage us to love that gracious God who gives so very much for that little we are able to do yet Love it self is not mercenary charity doth not seek her own saith S. Paul 1 Cor. 13.5 we may desire our promised reward and set our affections upon it as it is a demonstration of Gods infinite love and goodness or because it will be the expressing of our duty and thankfulness when we shall love and glorifie and adore God perfectly and for ever or rather because the reward is God himself who will be to every faithful servant his exceeding great reward Gen. 15.4 as well as to faithful Abraham rewarding sincere obedience with the fruition of himself being all in all to his Saints But still I say Love is not selfish but free and generous if nothing were to be gained by it it would have great satisfaction in shewing it self the work and labour of love is a noble pleasure to a pious heart When he thus reflects on his obedience and thinks with himself By the performance of this duty by this act of vertue I serve my dearest Lord I oblige my best friend I express my love to him whose infinite kindness to me hath conquered my heart whom I love as my own soul to whom I wholly give my self and for whom I desire both to live and die O happy soul who feelest what an exceeding joy it is to love JESUS or rather unhappy soul who canst shew so little love to JESUS Unhappy necessities of a frail body unhappy distractions of a troublesome world Why am I by you deprived of the continual pleasure of waiting continually on my Divine and most loving Master But blessed be my gracious Lord that I might have more opportunities of pleasing him and expressing my affections to him he hath made vertues of necessities he hath turned nature into grace and of humane duties he hath made acts of Religion In relieving mine own and others wants if I observe the rules of sobriety and charity he takes occasion thence to bless and reward me as if he were thereby glorified In discharging the duties of my place and calling if I am diligent and faithful though my work be never so mean he owns it as a service done to him Servants saith S. Paul obey your masters in all things and do it heartily as to the Lord and not to men knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance for ye serve the Lord Christ Col. 3.22 23. If I am conscientious in all my ways and works he takes it as a mark of my love and part of my duty to him O that the constant course of my conversation might speak the sincerity of my affection to my blessed Lord. Dearest JESUS the Cross thou didst bear for me was heavy and painful to extremity but thy yoke is light and pleasant thy service is perfect freedom O let it be my delight and daily employment as it is my duty to serve and obey thee to follow thy blessed example and be instrumental in winning hearts to thee let me love thee so intirely that I may love nothing but thee nothing but for thy sake Fac precor Domine me gustare per amorem quod gusto per cognitionem sentiam per affectum B. Ansel quod sentio per intellectum Amen CHAP. V. Reflections on the vanity of temporal things with some holy resolves and ejaculations COnsider O my soul how deceitful how vain is this present world how inconstant and unsatisfying how vexatious and troublesome Doth not thine experience tell thee that the more thou lovest the best of earthly thing the more crosses and sorrows befal thee the more thou enjoyest of them the more weary thou art the farther from happiness and true contentment I have observed that
the dead are soon forgotten and that the world neither can nor indeed takes care to do any thing for its greatest slaves and admirers after they are gone and yet our greatest toil and vexation is to live here so as to please the world We are not pleased to have our wants supplied and to be free from pain except the world be pleased also That imaginary life which we live in the account of others is by far the more troublesome and the more uncertain for we are never well except others will think us to be so But O my soul why dost thou cumber thy self with so many things even with things that have no existence but in thine and other mens fancy one thing is necessary love God and seek his heavenly Kingdom and thou art rich and happy to the full Let thy thoughts wait one while on the most prosperous sinners in the world how empty is their soul how distracted their mind how restless their conscience Do they not live in a storm and hurry and at last sink into the grave with the greatest regret and bitterness and what would they not give in the day of vengeance that they might pass from the left to the right hand of their Judge Consider and tremble with what amazement and impotent rage they will struggle to change their place that they might change their doom But now turn and follow the just See their inward peace and their secret joy what comfort they have in their afflictions what hope in their lives what undaunted assurance in their death but who can express those endless pleasures those ravishing joys wherein they enter when they come to enjoy and see him face to face whom here they loved and sought after O my deluded heart be not deceived by vain appearances that is certainly true which shall be true at last and shall remain unchangeable to eternity If it be so that indeed thou must die and one of those two states must be thy portion for ever then put on now those affections which thou shalt certainly entertain when thou shalt be near to expire look upon things now as thou shalt at last and it will make thee wise and make thee see the Truth naked For that is certainly true which is true at last and all other appearancces are but varnish and illusion Dwell seriously upon this consideration and it will make thee clearly see that true wisdom is to love and fear God and the greatest happiness to live under his protection to be in his favour whose loving kindness is better than life That one consideration well weighed will make thee understand that there is no great worth or pleasure in those lusts and vanities thou didst renounce when thou becamest a Christian that thy vow was onely the renouncing of thy greatest misery 'T will make thee understand that it was no great hardship thou didst undertake when thou promisest to serve God and be a Souldier of JESUS under the Banner of the Cross That 't was only the obliging thy self to be truly happy and to enjoy perfect Freedom And now my soul considering that of necessity thou must either by sin serve the Devil and destroy thy self or by vertue and piety serve God and gain eternal bliss what shouldst thou do but intirely devore thy self to thy Blessed thy best Master Breathing out heavenward such Ejaculations as these My dearest Lord I was once brought and presented to thee when through the waters of Baptism I past into thy Family and became thy Servant Lord I do here repeat the same oblation and now again yield my self to be thine Here I do from my heart disown and bewail all those acts of mine whereby at any time I have disowned or displeased thee could the shedding of my blood recal or expiate them I could freely pour it out and die Wherein soever I have behaved my self as if I were not thine I here what I can retract it with regret and sorrow Lord pity my weakness and pardon my folly and let me be received again into the number of thy Servants I am ready to do or suffer any thing thou shalt please so I may still belong to thee O let our first contract my Baptismal ingagement stand notwithstanding my breach of it I resolve now to mind and observe it better assist me sweet JESU and let me ever live to thee Lord now I as heartily yield up my self to thee that I may love and obey thee as I shall when I die that thou maist save me I had rather serve thee than be the greatest Prince on earth I had rather obey thee than command all mankind I prefer thy favour to all the riches of this world I had rather suffer and even die for thee than without thee to have all the pleasures and the joys of this life Lord I will love and serve thee for ever CHAP. VI. That Christ having bought us hath now a just title to our love and service LOVE regards not so much what is commanded as who it is that commands it if it be the Beloved requires any thing love doth it chearfully without reluctancy another with earnest begging should not have that granted which the least word of a friend shall obtain The commands of Christianity are easie and most rational in keeping of them consisteth our present and future happiness Yet the true lover of JESUS looks farther he considess that it is his Lord and Saviour who would have him obey he to whom he belongs to whom he owes himself and infinitely more for every Christian-owes JESUS to JESUS who gave himself for him The old saying was emendus cui imperes buy your slaves buy those that will be commanded by you none of us can say so to the God whom we serve for he hath indeed bought us Ye are not your own saith S. Paul ye are bought with a price thence it is strongly infer'd therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods We are not at our own dispose our Divine Master hath a most just propriety in us we are wholly his and would to God we were his as much by affection and resignation as by right the price he hath paid for us is no less than himself he hath given his life that ours might be his We were redeemed from our vain conversation by the precious blood of Christ who died for us that we might live to him He could get nothing by that dear purchase but our love only for we were his before it is he that made us only we had estranged our selves from him and placed our love on other things and he could not count us his own while we loved him not CHAP. VII How much we are ingaged to serve our Blessed Lord with renewed promises to do it faithfully I Must therefore consider whose I am I am Christs by a strong and incontestable title while I serve hfm I do that proper work which belongs to
affection thou canst daily repeat these few words which have been frequently in the mouth of some devout persons I love thee dear JESUS I love thee dear JESUS thou hast learned that which will teach thee both to live and die well Then thou wilt value nothing not life it self but so far as it is subservient to love and thou shalt be so far from being afraid of death that thou shalt wish with a primitive Saint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God in S. Basil it were in thy power to die many times for JESUS A devout love for him will make thee find that true peace and satisfaction which the world with endless labour vainly seeks in earthly enjoyments It will make thee say but without fear of change or disappointment with the rich man in the Gospel Soul eat and drink be merry take thine ease thou hast much goods laid up for many years Luk. 12. yea for eternity Worldly men as though they had a dropsie the more they drink out of their broken Cisterns the more they thirst the more unsatisfied they remain but they that love and fear God lack nothing they drink living waters out of that fountain which is never drie they have him in their souls with whom true peace and felicity is ever enjoyed O fortunanatissime cui quod amas domi est O happy soul that art possest of that which thou lovest thou hast enough at home to make thee intirely happy without ever seeking abroad O my soul entertain that blessed guest which instead of being chargeable will discharge thee of all thy wants and fears and troublesome burthens Love will strengthen thee against temptations Poterant leges delicta punire cons ientiam munire non poterant Lact. and secure thee from sin It will deliver thee from the terrors and bondage of the Law and bring thee to the rest Brevis differentia inter legem Evangelium timor amor Aug. and freedom of the Gospel-yoke As it self grows on towards perfection So will it still increase thy hapiness till its consummation But my Soul suffer not thy love to be fantastick and to spend it self in thoughts and wishes the expressions of love are obedience and submission with a devout life Whoso keepeth his word in him is the love of God perfected hereby know we that we are in him 1 John 2.5 Princes have many flatterers and but a few friends JESUS also hath many pretenders and but a few lovers Multitudes will wait upon him in Mount Gerizim to receive his blessing in Sinai where he gives his Law he hath but a few attendants and fewer yet in Golgotha where he himself suffers and calls us to take up his Cross Therefore my Soul by obedience self-denial and an humble patience justifie the sincerity of thy love and protestations Follow now thy Saviour by love and a sincere imitation and thou shalt certainly come to see his face and to dwell with him in glory for where he is there shall his servant be John 12.26 They that be faithful in love shall abide with him Wisd 3.9 CHAP. IX Christianity absolutely requires our love and strictest obedience THis double duty of dying unto sin and living unto righteousness abstaining from that which is evil and doing that which is good I am obliged to perform by strong and indispensable obligations If I do not I certainly perish When we say in common speaking that we do things out of love we mean that we are free and may chuse whether we do them or no we are not bound to it but here all along where I undertake to discharge the duties of Religion out of love I do not in the least mean so I acknowledge my self under the greatest necessity of discharging my Baptismal Vow of living according to the Gospel Rule otherwise my neglect of 〈◊〉 would be my ruine I should perish in my disobedience Love it self is a duty the first and greatest commandment thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind Mat. 22.37 I recommend love therefore â—s the noblest the most powerful moâ—ive to a religious obedience Meliores quos dirigit amor plures quos corrigit timor Aug. as that which makes our duty easie and pleasant and gives a value to what we do or suffer â—or God I know there is those who teach that by our well doing we must not seek for salvation and that our obedience is not required to our justification but may be a mark or an effect of it faith having done the work before but this groundless and mischievous opinion is contradicted by thousands of plain express Scriptures He that heareth these sayings of mine and doth them not is like the man that built his house upon the sand Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doth the will of my father which is in heaven If thou wilt enter life keep the Commandments and innumerable others with all those that affirm that God shall judge and reward every man according as his works have been No the holy Religion we profess requires a conformity betwixt the Holy JESUS and his followers that by a devout imitation we should copy his example that we should be fruitful in good works and by a sincere and universal obedience serve God all the days of our life For if the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a full recompence of reward how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation Heb. 2.2 3. by being disobedient to our Lord JESUS who having wrought and revealed it offers it to us on the condition of an affectionate obedience to his Gospel The earth which drinketh the rain that cometh upon it and beareth thorns and briers is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burnt such is their condition who receiving the heavenly dew of Divine Grace in their admission into and profession of Christianity yet still remain barren or bring forth evil fruit But beloved saith the Apostle we are perswaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation for God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love which ye have shewed towards his name and we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end Heb. 6. 7 c. He says not we desire that you may be confident and perswaded of your salvation but that by love and diligent obedience ye may ascertain your hope make your calling and election sure as S. Peter speaks 1 Pet. 1.10 for indeed God hath not appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us that whether We wake or sleep we should live together with him 1 Thes 5.9.10 in holiness of life worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called Ephes 4.1 for we
are Gods workmanshep created in Jesus Christ unto good works which God hath ordained that we should walk in them Ephes 2.10 This then is the way wherein of necessity we must walk that as we ingaged and promised when we were baptized into Christ so we should live ever after which S. Paul expresseth thus As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in him Col. 2.6 and again walk worthy of the Lord being fruitful in every good work Col. 1.10 This is the rule whereby we must order the course of our lives that our conversation be as becomes the Gospel of Christ that our conversateon be in heaven whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ Phil. 1.27 and 3.20 that whatsoever things are true honest just pure lovely of good report any vertue any thing praise-worthy Phil. 4 8. may be our constant study and practice We must labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of our Lord because we shall all appear before him and receive according as we obey him now in his absence 2 Cor. 5.9 CHAP. X. Considerations to encourage us in the discharge of our Christian duty with a caution to the Reader ALL this and much more to the same purpose which I have read and observed in the Sacred Books of the new Testament hath convinced me that it is the design of Christian Religion to make me meek and humble sober and contented just and charitable devout and religious vertuous and holy this I own to be my duty and I will endeavour my self heartily to perform the same And that I may do it with cheerfulness and affection I will stir and quicken the holy fire of love in my heart by pious considerations When any duty to God or man calls upon me for action and performance and I find in my soul too much of dulness or reluctancy I will again by meditation suppose my dying Saviour present telling me how much he hath done and suffered for me and desiring me as I love him to do that duty which lies before me Christian if thou dost understand the greatness of my love which brought me here to die for thee if thou art sensible of it and wouldst make any return for it do this obey this command this may be the last thing thou shalt ever do for me this may be the last tryal of thy love sure it would grieve thee to have denied this small request to him that gives his life that gives himself for thee Or else I will suppose my self in the presence of my Divine Master sitting on his heavenly Throne with his glorified servants about him shewing me the crown he hath assigned to me and saying N. N. wilt thou deny to do this at my earnest request wiit thou be so unkind to me Sure I have deserved better at thy hands sure I who am much above thee have done much more for thee than that comes to but besides I would highly recompence thee These my friends I have rewarded with the bliss and glory they enjoy for having done such things for me and I would reward thee as bountifully here is eternal life eternal rest eternal glory for thy recompence as thou lovest me as thou lovest thy self obey that thou maist be happy To this what answer could I make but such as this Lord not only this but any thing else thou hast commanded I am willing to fulfil and obey I bewail my dulness and depraved nature that makes me so unready so unactive in thy service but Lord thou knowest that I love thee I would undertake any labour any trouble to make it appear I would die to justifie it Yet sweetest JESU I beg of thee to increase my love to increase it to such a degree that like thy heavenly attendants I may burn with that Divine fire and be all love to thee that so I may be always prepared and desirous to do thy will Stir up we beseech thee O Lord Sund. 25. after Trin. the wills of thy faithful people that they plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works may of thee be plenteously rewarded through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Christian I would here advise thee before I pass further That thou wouldst not judge of several things in this Book by thy present liking of them Devotional things are discerned more by the affections than by the judgment the relish of them doth depend upon the temper of the Soul And so those resolves and meditations which now it may be please thee not may hereafter be very acceptable when thou art otherwise disposed to be sure when thou art ready to leave the world and enter thy portion of Eternity If now therefore thou wilt bring thy mind to such a frame as then it will be in I need not fear but that what I have writ thou wilt also read and repeat heartily in the first Person for to that end I have thus contrived it to ingage thine affections to make thee speak as of thy self these soliloquies acts of love and acts of resolution which run throughout the whole discourse It may affect thee much and to good purpose frequently to confer with thy Soul and with thy Saviour about thy duty and thy happiness However be sure thou beest serious and sincere For certain it is that for thee N. N. by name JESUS was crucified and died and certain it is that thou thy self shalt die and be judged and rise again to an intolerable eternity if by carelesness and inconsideration thou hast been unmindful of thy Lord and thy soul or else rise again to eternal joys if thou hast sincerely loved and served JESUS If ye keep my Commandments ye shall abide in my love even as I have kept my Fathers Commandments and abide in his love John 15.10 CHAP. XI That Love will prompt us to free-will offerings and things it never doth enough THus much of necessity must be done my duty as well as my love constrains me to it Not to break negative precepts and to obey positive ones that is to cease from sin and to work righteousness is required of me if I do it by love I have made my task pleasant but yet a task it is which must be fulfilled Not but that there is mercy for sins against the New-covenant for the transgression of Gospel precepts there is joy in heaven at the conversion of a sinner whatever his sins have been and it ought greatly to indear God to us that he is so willing to forgive so desirous to have us repent that we may be capable of his pardon but whether soon or late whether after crying guilts or ordinary sins still I say there must be a true contrition a sorrow and repentance for our sins proceeding from the love of God and a sincere endeavour to please and obey him for the future and so thus far we are drawn by a moral necessity by the desire of our own happiness which is
not to be obtained any other way But shall we stay just here and not go one step further than is required 't is well indeed when we are safe and that must be secured first of all and with the greatest care but shall our love proceed no further Sure that Christian who is best assured of his salvation will love God most of all and make to him the greatest and most hearty returns When a man is qualified for heaven and enjoys the greatest happiness this world is capable of that is a sense of Gods favour and a well grounded assurance of a future bliss his soul cannot but melt into the most affectionate love for that gracious God whose mercy and loving kindness hath brought him into that happy condition and fitted him by his grace for a much happier they I say that are in such a case for they only can be capable of what I now treat of may well do something more than what needs they must may well enlarge their affections to God beyond the bounds of prescribed duties It is a good sign a sign of a sincere and a pious heart when a man is forward to undertake for God when he doth not weigh grains and scruples lest he should part with any of his right and liberty but affords God a full measure and running over and thinks he never gives enough and still desires that he might do infinitely more for him 'T is true that properly speaking all is due to God and the more any the best Christian returns the more he hath received and so the more he is indebted but yet God is pleased not to require all that he gives nor all that we may give that we may have wherewith to make a free-will-offering that we may have something to give him that he requires not tokens of our greateer love and gratitude It was foretold that under the Gospel in the day of Christs power his people should offer him free-will-offerings with an holy worship Psal 110.3 And David himself under the Law was at his quid retribuam What shall I render unto the Lord for all the benefits that he hath done unto me Psal 116. Though the benefits which God vouchsafed his people then were much inferiour to them he hath since bestowed upon us for eye had not then seen nor ear heard neither was it entred into the heart of man what great things God would do for them that love him as he hath now declared in the revelations of his Gospel though he had tied them to a burthensome and most expensive service yet he accepted their voluntary vows and ingagements and was well pleased with them yet he would receive their free-will offerings and delight in them And sure we are more obliged than the Jews to let our love and gratitude break forth beyond the limits of commands and express injunctions and now that God hath opened to us his rarest treasures his own bosome for to give us his beloved Son he will not reject our free oblations the voluntary acknowledgments of his undeserved and unspeakable mercies 'T is not to be denied without giving the lie to the learning and piety of the best Christians in all ages but that there is in the New Testament counsels as well as precepts some things recommended though not commanded He that sells all that he hath for to buy the pearl of great price and they that make themselves Eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven were not injoined so to do but are well approved of and that God who gives a plentiful harvest to him that sows bountifully 2 Cor. 9.6 is doubtless well pleased with his open handedness and charitable profusion And as it is the best indication of a devout and loving soul cheerfully to exceed what is strictly required it is also the best sence to immure and secure our duty for then when we slack and abate we may be still within our due bounds Nay more I am confident that as it is best and safest it is also easier to give free will offerings than only just to pay the daily commanded sacrifice because those proceed from affection these perhaps only from injunction A friend desired to go one mile goes two or ten and finds his way pleasant because love leads him but he that is prest to the same journey and is acted by fear and compulsion while he resolves not to go one foot farther than needs he must will easily be tempted to stay one short of what he should But this is better understood by the devout lovers JESUS than I can express it Precepts are given to all men as tributes are exacted of all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beat. Doroth. Doct. 1. saith an Ancient guide of souls but as in the world great persons and favourites not only pay the tax but also offer presents and gifts to the Prince so in the Church the most Religious observe not only the precepts but also intimations and counsels and give to God not only what he exacts but also free oblations all that they are able How many thousands of Saints now in heaven have taken this course how many that now wear the bright crown of virginity might have enjoied the comforts of marriage had not the love of JESUS prevailed over their natural desires how many who might have possest great estates enjoy now the greater treasures of eternity for having made themselves poor to relieve the needy members of JESUS how many who now sit on thrones of glory have chosen here to follow JESUS in meanness and humility when honours and worldly pomps were at their command how many are now rewarded with high degrees of everlasting bliss for having devoted their whole time upon earth to the service of the Blessed JESUS when they might have spent more of it upon their profit or pleasure and how many now living aspire to the same felicities and recompences by cheerfully following the same ways and expressing a sincere and unbounded love by such free oblations Cur non possum quod isti istae S. Aug. Why cannot I do what these my Christian Brothers and Sisters have done and do still hath not God done as great things for me as for them hath he not given me the same promises as they had do not I hope to be their companion and fellow citizen in heaven And why then cannot I love as much as they did I should therefore and do resolve to make no reservations JESUS shall have the command of all he hath given me of all he hath enabled me to do I shall keep nothing from him which may express my love and gratitude and do him service Dearest JESUS I know I can never do for thee so much as I should and I know that I shall never do so much as I would thou gavest thy self for me and thou wilt give thy self to me and Lord what am I worth and what is the worth of all I can do It is a great
favour that thou wilt accept of me and my weak endeavours I know that if heaven were capable of any grief it would be only that we have not loved thee enough upon earth when thou fillest our souls with thy divine ravishing joys we shall wish we had done nothing here but serve and love thee O give me grace now whilst I live to do what I shall wish to have done when I die let me do now I am absent from thee what I shall wish to have done when I dwell with thee let me love thee infinitely and without measure Modus amandi Deum sine modo S. Bern. An offering of a free heart will I give thee and praise thy name O Lord because it is so comfortable Psal 54.6 CHAP. XII That our obedience to the Church is an excellent expression of our love to Christ THE first instance of our love in this way of free-will offerings should be a pious obedience to our Mother the Church not but that it is many ways required but because 't is almost wholly neglected What by pride and refractoriness what by ignorance and indevotion and what by loosness and ireligion that obedience which ought to be paid to those that have the rule over us in the Lord to the standing rules and orders of our Spiritual Governours is so generally laid aside that many that would yet dare not press it upon the people and that even they that obey do it secretly and as though 't were dishonourable are in a manner ashamed to own it Hence comes that great neglect of Confirmation that most necessary and ancient if not Apostolick constitution hence the desuetude of fasting upon appointed days and even of bidding of them and the non-observance of Holy days and times of solemn devotion hence the slight regard had to the publick worship of God and the seldom receiving of the Lords Supper hence the reservedness and unhappy secrecy or most people in not acquainting their spiritual guides with the state of their conscience when it needs and not receiving their comforts and directions hence the not sending for the Elders of the Church to do their office upon sick persons and the seldom desiring their absolution and hence even in too many of the Clergy the neglect of daily saying Divine Offices as they are commanded and observing other injunctions peculiar to them I may say that it fares with our Church as with some Princes who have their due sovereignty denied them because they are Christians as if by becoming members and defenders of the Church they were become subject to Pontifical Chairs and Puritan Synods for so many would not have this Church obeyed because 't is Reformed they would not have its laws observed because it makes them inferior to Gods as though by not imposing a blind superstitious and over severe obedience as Rome doth this Church were become uncapable of exercising any authority over her children and requiring any duty from them But I say let those that love JESUS amend this for his sake for the Church is his spouse and hath received her power from him let them yield a free and religious obedience to Ecclesiastical injunctions for his sake who hath said he that receiveth you receiveth me It is doubtless our duty so to do and I am sure it will be a good token of a pious heart when we shall obey them in the Lord whom the Lord hath set over us We shall make it appear that we own the Authority of our heavenly King when we are subject to those his officers by whom he now reigns over us to whom he hath given the keys of his kingdom and whom he hath appointed Stewards of his saving Mysteries we shall have a right and a share in the Mysterious representation of of the great expiatory sacrifice which by the Church is celebrated in the Eucharist and in those Divine Services and solemn Prayers which the Church offers to God daily and we shall receive the full benefit of being members of the Church and holding communion with it If this were not absolutely required yet I am sure it will be a very acceptable free-will offering if we do it devoutly and joyfully because we love JESUS and this Christian obedience to the known rational and pious orders of the Church will answer the best part of that ancient and so much magnified self-abnegation vowed by the Coenobites when they gave up themselves to be in all things ruled and commanded by their superiors and it will exercise those two heavenly graces meekness and humility which the world despiseth but all true Christians own to be most Divine as they that bring rest to the soul Mat. 11.29 and make us most conformable to the meek and humble JESUS Solomon knew the true mother by her love to the child and the true child of God may be known by his love and duty to his Mother the Church CHAP. XIII Of several voluntary Oblations AS for corporal austerities commanded or uncommanded I have said something of them already and the chiefest use and design of them is to mortifie sensual lusts and to keep under the body that the spirit may rule and be obeyed yet as they are exercises of repentance marks of the just indignation we conceive against our selves for having displeased God as they may effect or express a disrelish of temporal pleasures a longing for heavenly joys and an endeavour to take up our cross and follow JESUS they may be the matter of a free-will offering and they may find a gracious reward and acceptance insomuch as they proceed from a sincere love to JESUS Prayer also thanksgiving reading meditation acts of Religion though as to the substance they be the discharge of the greatest duty God requires of us the worship and adoration of his Divine Majesty yet as to the quantity they may become free oblations the expressions of a greater love He that with devout affections enlargeth his offices or counts the frequency of them by Canonical hours and wisht for opportunities and he that sets apart large portions for religious exercises or in the following of his necessary business doth often lift up his heart and thoughts to heaven and heavenly things makes a voluntary offering of some of his time to him of whose eternity he hopes to be partaker He that defalks some hours from the refreshment of his body to bestow them upon his soul he that chuseth a meaner condition and employment that having fewer avocations he may spend more time upon Religion and he that bears with some wrongs and injuries that being free from the distractions of quarrels and law suits he may be the better disposed to serve God hath bought the blessed opportunity of attending JESUS and indearing himself to him Charity likewise whether Spiritual or Corporal whether in giving or in forgiving may be carried further than is absolutely required and so become a free oblation He that takes great pains to instruct
with him They made it appear by their patient cheerful and magnanimous sufferings that they valued nothing but JESUS and Eternity We are not now exposed to the same dangers for the profession and belief of Christianity but we may make our love and zeal appear by our contempt of the world and aspiring after heaven by our charity to men and abounding in the work of the Lord by keeping the Commandments as well as dying for the Creed the same Lord and Saviour that requires our Faith to the one demands our obedience to the other And now if we spend our time in the hearty observance of our Lords Precepts and intimations in doing and inlarging our duty to the utmost of our power if we thus confess him before men by living to him then are we prepared to die for him and he will certainly own us as much as if we had Our Crown now this way may be enriched and our love shewn and perfected as well as by the flames of Martyrdom And O happy we that we can come and more happy yet if we do come to sing Allelujah and eternally praise our gracious Redeemer with the noble Army of Martyrs where the love we had here shall fill our hearts with divine joy Vbi tota virtus erit O anima videre quod amas summa felicitas amare quod vedes Aug. and be increased to the proportions of our endless and unspeakable Bliss The Lord direct our hearts into the love of God and into the patient waiting for JESUS our Master 2 Thes 3.3 I need not here insert cautions against vain glory and self complacency after we have done the most we are able for if it proceeds not from the love of God it is nothing worth and if it doth it will never bring pride nor vanity Charity vaunteth not it self and is not puffed up 1 Cor. 13.4 Only in the words of a pious Saint If we had died a thousand times for JESUS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. S. Johan Clim Grad 23. 11. yet we should not have repaid him the least part of what we owe his infinite mercy and condescension for vast is the difference betwixt the blood of God and the blood of his creatures and servants if we judge according to the dignity and not to the substance of it What hast thou that thou hast not received remember what JESUS saith to all Christians He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me Mat. 10.37 and whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath he cannot be my disciple Luk. 14.33 We can never do too much for JESUS but we may easily do too little though the most we can do will never merit heaven yet the least shall not obtain it 't is safe and impossible to exceed but 't is easie and dangerous to be defective O God who hast prepared for them that love thee such good things as pass mans understanding Sixth Sund. after Trin. pour into our hearts such love towards thee that we loving thee above all things may obtain thy promises which exceed all that we can desire through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen I have now assigned Love its full task to repent and mortifie our lusts to serve and obey God and to abound in good works even free-will offerings I have no more for it to do I would only have it to encrease to grow towards perfection to be constant and to endure unto the end To help this forward I have here added a meditation on the exaltation of our Blessed Saviour some useful directions for the ordering of our lives and four concluding Considerations whereby to assist direct and encourage the sincere lover of JESUS in the discharge of this great and blessed duty the work and labour of Love Let us consider one another to provoke unto Love and to good works Heb. 10.24 CHAP. XV. Meditation on the Exaltation of the Blessed JESVS LIve and reign sweetest JESU for ever My dearest Lord I heartily â—ejoice in that great power and glory to â—hich now thou art exalted When I conâ—â—der what thou didst do to rescue us from Misery and to make us happy how thou didst lay by thy glories to intitle us to them becamest poor to pay our debt becamest weak to die and to vanquish our enemies When I consider this Ita ne summus omnium unus factus est omnium quis hoc fecit amor dignitatis nescius dignatione dives affectu potens suasu efficax quid violentius triumphat de Deo amor Bern. I cannot but admire the greatness of thy charity whereby thou wert moved thus to relieve and succour us in suffering and abasing thy self I cannot also but be transported with joy that in thy conflict with our enemies thou didst obtain the victory and thereby a Kingdom that shall have no end Lord if thou hadst perished in our quarrel if death had still detained thee what grief what remediless anguish had it been to our souls not only to see our hopes frustrated but also to see him opprest and overcome who with so much pity and generosity ingaged for our deliverance But thou livest dearest Lord thou art triumphant thou hast got the keys of death and of hell Thou art the head and Saviour of the Church Thou art the Judge of all men Thou art the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords Thou sittest at the right hand of the Majesty on high above all principalities and powers All power is given to thee in heaven and in earth At thy Name O Blessed JESU every knee must bow and that we do most willingly gladly acknowledging that thy name is exalted above every name Thou alone hast redeemed and hast power to save us Thou alone hast the might and right to command us Unhappy they that will not worship thee and submit to thy government Unhappy they that impart thine honour to created beings and will not wholly depend upon thee Blessed be God that we have a Saviour whom without idolatry we may love and worship to whom we may offer our humble petitions and at whose feet we may prostrate our selves Blessed be God that he himself would become our Saviour Had an Angel or man been able and deputed to work our Redemption our love and gratitude might have been excessive and provoked God to jealousie But now Blessed JESU we cannot humble our selves too low before thee we cannot exalt thee too high we can never exceed in paying our acknowledgments to thee Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing Unto him therefore that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen Rev. 5.12
called the Friend of God and God bare him witness that he indeed feared God when in obedience to the divine commandment he would have sacrificed his beloved Isaak and if we sacrifice our will to God to act in all things according to what he hath revealed to square our actions great or small according to the Rules he hath prescribed to us then God will be certified that we indeed love him our readiness to obey his pleasure will speak the heartiness of our affection We see how readily Courtiers conform themselves to the humour and pleasure of their Prince and shall we think it hard to conform to what God hath required of us our obedience being our greatest profit here and our infinite happiness in the world to come Sure 't is no difficult matter to say with that great lover of JESUS Lord what wilt thou have me to do Act. 9.6 and if love hath disposed us to say it 't will be easie enough to do it afterwards In the second place as we must set our hand to that prayer we ought to say daily Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven so must we also submit our necks to it I mean that in compliance to the will of God we must give up our selves as well to patient sufferance as to cheerful obedience One of the great advantages the Coenobites had in their communities was the casting out those two words which are the seeds of contention and the disturbers of the world mine and thine and if we resign all to God who is indeed the true proprietor we shall bear the loss of any thing without repining against him we shall never differ with him about that which is not our own we shall have peace with him whatever we suffer God is the judge he setteth up one and bringeth down another All things that happen are ordered by his infinite power and wisdom therefore in all let us rejoice in his Government and with a cheerful submission humbly bow and worship and say with his Saints Allelujah for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth let us be glad and rejoice and give honour to him Rev. 19.6 If we truly love God we shall as willingly suffer any thing from him as we would for him perswaded that it is for our good we shall not only remain satisfied but thankful also I am sure 't is much more reasonable we should follow Gods will Aequius est ut nos ejus quam ut ille nostram sequatur voluntatem Aug. than he ours And some have said that it is better and more acceptable to God Perfectius est adversa tolerare patienter quam bonis operibus insudare to suffer afflictions patiently than in prosperity to do the best of things Let us therefore in all our sorrows humble our selves and look up to heaven and say Calicem quem dedit Pater The Cup that my heavenly Father giveth me shall I not drink it we shall always prosper and have all things at wish and command all events as one did the winds and weather In vit Patr. if we by love adhere to God and make his will our own He that hath and seeth all things in one may always remain satisfied and have true peace in God Magna res est amor magnum omnino bonum quod solum leve facit omne onerosum sert aequaliter omne inaequale nam onus sine onere portat omne amarum dalce ac sapidum efficit Thom. de Kemp. The guilty prisoner dreads every noise and trembles when the door opens for fear of his deserved doom when on the same accounts the innocent is both calm and joyful expecting to be delivered Now guilt and the highest treason before God is to love any thing better than him and to oppose our will to his he that doth so may well be dismaid and troubled and full of sad apprehensions and he that sincerely loves God and chuseth his will in all things is safe and undaunted always pleased and happy CHAP. XVII The two former Rules explained and enlarged ACTS beget and perfect habits and thus to make our actions and passions so many acts and demonstrations of our love to God will speedily encrease that love and soon bring us to perfect peace and happiness But commonly it is thought that to make it appear that we love God we must do great and extraordinary things fly up above other mens pitch and always be as it were gazing and sighing heaven-ward This hath frighted many from a religious life from devoting themselves to the love of JESUS But the truth is that love is best exprest by doing well our ordinary actions that which is our proper duty and employment Our greatest perfection here is contained in these two 1. To do what God requires of us and 2. to do it well The first is to discharge the duties of that station wherein God hath placed us That every man wherein he is called therein he should abide with God and do his own business This is our task as we are men and as we are Christians Not to do things wonderful and inimitable but faithfully to discharge what our place requires from us to pay to all that love and obedience which nature and Religion appoint to follow our work whatever it be even the most servile labours as to the Lord and not to men knowing that whatever good thing any man doth the same shall he receive of the Lord whether he be bond or free Some enter a dark cell Graeci studia transmarina sect untur sed regnum Dei intra vos est S. Athan. and some go long pilgrimages but wherever providence had placed them there they might best have wrought their Salvation To do what we should do in a mean place Nemo fugit adversarium de loco ad locum sed de vitio ad virtutem Faust Serm. is much better than to undertake greater things which we were not obliged to The first frees us from and the other doth ingage us into temptation The commandment I giâ—e thee this day is not hidden from thee neither is it far off it is not in in heaven neither is it beyond the sea but the word is very nigh thee in thy month and in thy heart that thou maist do it Deut. 30.11 It maketh some Quakers some fantastical and some mad the seeking to profess and to do strange things things out of the road And even in the best of all religious institutes there is nothing good except it be this that they are particular applications of the general Gospel-Rules which particular applications to times persons and places are best made by the designation of divine providence which to every man appoints that sphere wherein he is bound to move regularly Let us therefore humbly acquiesce to Gods wise disposal making that to be our study and work which our state and condition doth require from us and let our next care
be in the second place to be intent upon that and to do it well In what appears before the world commonly men put a varnish upon their actions and their behaviour when oftentimes at home they are loose tyranical and unjust But act in private and every where tanquam sub alicujus boni viri ac semper praesentis oculis said Seneca as always in the sight of God in the most publick view For your actions at home in your closet and in your family are noted and registred before God and 't is by the doing them well that you advance forward towards perfection and glory Hoc age hoc age was often cryed by a herald whilst the heathen worshipped their Gods Mind your business mind that you are about That we must do in all actions even them that relate only to this life diligently and faithfully to do them as well as we can The praise of an actor on the stage of this world is to act his part well and decently whatever it be and that must be our care to be just and exact in being a good servant or master artist or whatever it be In so being consists our perfection and the demonstration of our love to God So likewise in things that pertain to a better life when you pray read or meditate do it with a serious attention and the greatest application your mind is capable of Do it as if you were now to die and that were the last thing you shall ever do for God and for your own soul for if you be in haste in a hurry and in a distraction you wholly lose your time and your reward It is storied in some of the legends that at prayers S. Bernard saw divers Angels noting down the behaviour of the assistants some in golden letters some in ink and some in water only according to the devotion or negligence of them that prayed Though the relation looks much like a fable yet there is this truth in it that they certainly weary themselves to no purpose who serve God without attention and without fervour and do the business of their soul in a careless and trifling way As Mathematicians consider an abstract quantity not regarding whether of Gold or clay so it is not so much the matter of our actions as the manner of doing them that most recommends them to God and makes them expressions of our love to JESUS As for the second Rule of bearing patiently what ever happens It must be also extended to the meanest sorrows and vexations In all things let us be content that Gods will should take place Let us carefully secure our duty and afterwards let us care for no more leave the event to God and let him chuse for us It is to no purpose to resolve to bear evenly great calamities which perhaps shall never happen to gather a stock of patience against violent persecutions and the flames of martyrdom and mean while to be fretful and angry for every loss and trifling accident that crosseth our humour This is but self deceit and an imaginary patience stoutly to resolve upon great evils when they are far off and yield to lesser when present We are rather to remember the words of our Blessed Lord to take up our cross daily and follow him The word daily imports that the evils of every day are to be born with patience and a composed mind And that the wrongs and vexations we meet withall in our intercourse with others as well as great calamitie are our own proper cross which our Christian profession and love to JESUS obligeth us to bear and submit to When a rough-hewn plank is to be join◠to one that is even it must be plained and made smooth by great or smaller strokes at the workmans discretion our deform soul or crooked will is to be close united to God who is most equal and perfect therein consists our happiness we must therefore let him who is pleased to undertake that work polish and rectifie our soul and make them conformable to his blessed will by what means he pleaseth by great or lesser blows according as he knows to be expedient Let us follow the Prince of sufferings by love and imitation cheerfully bearing our cross whatever it be mindful of this profitable advice of the son of Sirach My son if thou come to serve the Lord prepare thy soul for temptation set thy heart aright and constantly endure and make not haste in time of trouble Whatsoever is brought unto thee take cheerfully and be patient when thou art changed to a low estate They that fear the Lord will not disobey his word and they that love him will keep his ways CHAP. XVIII Some more particular directions how to order our lives by the love of JESVS FROM the happy and safe cloister of love wherein thou art entred look not abroad upon that world that lies in wickedness Follow not the multitude to do evil for men take hand in hand Vae tibi slumen moris humani Aug. and betray one another to folly and ruine Gods benefits are lost upon the major part of them they have no sense of the divine mercies ungratitude is their proper character and their greatest guilt Rarae fumant felicibus arae all might easily be happy if they would love and be thankful Read the lives of primitive Saints and consider them that are now truly religious and good men Converse with them and with them learn to spend thy time carefully and well Time is short and precious spend it upon that that will turn to account when time shall be no more It leads to an endless eternity and it is given thee to make that eternity infinite in happiness as in duration Indulge not then to idleness for it will bring temptations upon thee and make them prevailing Labour watchfulness and prayer make us victorious over sin and win the incorruptible crown Use all means whereby thou maist be advanced in thy way to heaven thou canst never work out thy salvation with too much care and diligence 'T is good to make sure work in so great a concern Malo cautior esse quam fortior fortis enim saepe captus est cautus rarissime for multitudes perish through carelesness and presumption and the way to eternal life is streight and narrow But in the use of such means as I recommend take heed of deceiving thy self and resting in outward observations making that the end which is only a way to lead thee to vertue Thou maist carry thy Bible about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and read the Gospel and yet not be a good Christian Thou maist go up to the Temple to pray fast and give alms and profess the greatest strictness with the Pharisee Non Hierosolymis fuisse sed Hierosolymis bene vixisse laudandum Hieron and yet still be an hypocrite except thou dost truly love God Love therefore and often think that thou shalt die for that
love God above all and all things things in him and for him we should also love those things most which have most of his impress and likeness Therefore man who is created after Gods image should be by us loved above all other creatures and that part of man which is chiefly adorned with the likeness of God should have the greater share of our affection God himself values humane souls at a high rate because they are like him as appears by what he hath done and suffered to save them And for the same reason also we should pay to the souls of men the best part of that kindness we owe them and if we do not we give our friends no greater love than children do their puppets for they dress them fine and lay them soft and kiss and embrace them Just as they who aim at nothing more than to make their friends merry to wish them toys and gaudy things and to see them at ease A fondness inexcusable in rational creatures especially in Christians who know the worth of an immortal soul and the great concern of Eternity and yet seek only to gratifie the material part of their friends which is subject to corruption and to ingage their affections to the world which passeth away and they must soon leave As if when King Edward the first was hastening out of the Holy-land hither to receive the Crown which expected him his friends had staid him by the way and invited him to rest and ease and provided for him all Princely delights and entertainments and retarded his coming so long till he had forgot or lost his right and his Kingdom What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole word and lose his soul and what shall a man give in exchange for his soul We are indeed much commanded to love one another and in this consisteth one great half of our Religion all justice and charity and all the duties of the second Table To love our brother as we ought is the best demonstration of our love to God for he that says he loves God and hateth his brother is a liar saith S. John 1 Joh. 4.20 and love worketh no ill to his neighbour and is therefore the fulfilling of the law saith S. Paul Rom. 13.10 but a man is to love his neighbour as himself Mat. 19.19 and therefore as he is most obliged to seek for himself the kingdom of God and its righteousness so should he in the first place endeavour to procure it to his friend Or else we are to love one another as Christ hath loved us Joh. 13.33 and that was in redeeming our souls and purchasing for us heavenly joys and eternal life not in providing ease and sensual pleasures to our bodies here in this world The result of this is that in the first place we should love God infinitely and for his own sake and that in the next we should love those things most which have a nearest relation to God Grace and Vertue Religion Holiness and Men especially their Souls which are an image of the Deity especially sanctified souls which are most like God Afterwards our lesser love for less Divine Objects may be reasonable and innocent and however we have secured a great duty and a great happiness To love God with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the soul and with all the strength and to love his neighbour as himself is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices Mar. 13.33 CHAP. XX. That as it is most just so it is most easie to love God A Second consideration may be that it is most just and easie to love God That it is most just is shewn all along this discourse wherein I have represented the more general and most excellent benefits of God to mankind all the which challenge and deserve the greatest love our hearts are capable of God had required of his people that the first born and the first fruits should be consecrated to him thereby to acknowledge him the author of all their blessings and the giver of all their increase Now the first-born of our souls the first-fruits of our hearts is love which God who gives us all things demands as an acknowledgment from us Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul We therefore commit a greater sacriledge if we deny him so just a tribute than if a Jew had rob'd him of his first grapes or his first ears of corn But it is so much the more just in that it is most easie to love God Infinite perfections an abyss of goodness whence rivers and oceans of good things do perpetually flow one would think should swallow up the hearts and affections of men as indeed it doth of all that duly consider it And more perfectly of beatified Saints and of those blessed spirits who minister before his throne and are all flame for him Besides 't is natural for men to love what is theirs propriety begets or increaseth love Now God is our God he hath given himself for us he doth now and will more intirely hereafter give himself to us he made us for the enjoyment of himself and for that purpose he hath redeemed us and that we might all say with David O God thou art my God that God might shew his kindness and indear himself to us and assert our right to him he hath assumed the names of those relations who love us best whom we love most tenderly and whom we count most ours God the Father is pleased to be called our Father God the Son our Brother and God the Holy Ghost our Comforter as it were our Friend thereby to express that affection which he hath for us and the propriety which we may claim in him Sure 't is an easie thing to love them that love us Nimis durus est animus qui amorem etsi uâ—tro non impendat nâ—lit tamen rependere Aug. and where God hath exprest so much love 't is strangely unnatural if we are not affected with it Every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts saith the Wise man Prov. 19.6 Now what gifts hath our God given us or rather what gifts hath he not given us and what perverse violence do they offer nature that seek to confute Solomons saying in this instance where it should be most true Certainly 't is an easie thing to love infinite perfections an infinite goodness one that ever did and ever doth us gâ—od from whom we daily receive favours so great and so many that we can tell neither their worth nor number Wherefore S. Aug. saith that to love G d is so natural Potes mihi dicere non habeo quod tribuam egenti non possum jejunare non possum fl re Numquid potâ—s mihi diâ—ere charitaâ—em habere non possum c. so easie so infinitely just and so much our duty that to omit it can admit of no
plea nor pretence and is inexcusable and criminal in the highest degree Perhaps thou wilt say I cannot fast I cannot weep I I have not what to give to the poor but canst thou say I cannot love God is there any obstacle in thy way dost thou want inducements or a heart to do it No doubtless 't is the easiest thing in the world to love him that is most lovely to love our greatest benefactor to love him who is infinitely kind and loving to us Some vertues require opportunities and cannot be exercised for want of them but whether thou beest sickly or healthy whether thy condition be high or low whether thy leisure be much or little whether thy calling be easie or laborious Facilis res est Domine JESV CHRISTE superamande dilectio tua à qua nullus cujuscunque status gradus aut conditionis existat excusari potest c. Idiot thou maist love love doth not pinch the belly wearies not the hands makes not the head ake empties not the purse for love is neither grief nor pain 't is easie to all men none can plead any excuse against it CHAP. XIX An Objection answered which might be raised against this Book and its Subject NOW here I will digress a little to answer two Objections which possibly might be made against what I have said of Divine Love The first that I have humanized it too much that whereas it is supernatural and should be spiritual I have made it almost palpable and sensible To this I say that whether we set our love upon earthly or heavenly things upon God or upon the world still it is the same passion which resides in the same humane faculty The will of man and the effects thereof are alike evident and real He that truly loves God hath that same hearty affection for him as to the kind as one friend hath for another only being joined with greater reverence and submission to so glorious a Majesty it is called Religious and devout But a sincere lover of JESUS will seek to please him and to be with him and to enjoy him and do all that for him which men would do for those whom they love heartily all the difference is that Divine Love hath its proper expressions can never be too great and is in all respects infinitely more excellent than the love of any creature Therefore if in some places I have represented things plainly and made that in some manner to be touched by sense which is only the object of faith my design was thereby to move the affections and to bring down the notions of Religion from the head into the heart Faith should be the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11.1 We should consider things of faith whether past or to come as if they had now a real subsistence as if they were present before our eyes their greatness then would be better viewed and have the greater power upon us as Moses who by consideration seeing him who is invisible ver 27. was thereby enabled to prefer the afflictions of Gods people to the pleasures and dignities of the Courts of Pharaoh I believe it was a great advantage to the Piety of Primitive ages that they lived near the time when those things were acted which we now believe at a greater distance for then the Revelations of the New Testament were every Christians discourse and admiration the proximity of the times made them almost visible and the recent footsteps of those great transactions gave them a kind of sensibility whereby their thoughts and considerations were drawn and retained and made serious and efficacious And I believe it may be a great cause of the degeneracy of these after ages that faith is become too notional too metaphysical and abstracted a matter of dispute and science rather than of practice and conscience whereas we should vest the great objects of our faith with material circumstances to make them in some manner the object of sense that to us it might be said as S. Paul to the Galatians Before your eyes JESUS CHRIST hath been evidenly set forth crucified among you Gal. 3.1 and that in all other instances our faith might be to us the evidence of things not seen When we look upon the things of revelation as far distant from us they appear hardly credible and not much to be regarded but a closer viewing of them by a nearer and almost sensible consideration would make them appear great and wonderful would make deep and lasting impressions on our minds and cause us to cry out with grief and wonder Lord what is man that thou art thus mindful of him or rather what is man that he is unmindful of thee However I have the warrant and do claim the priviledge of them that write meditations and make contemplations palpable and to be seen to suppose dialogues to describe what was past long ago as now in doing and to represent things as present and visible and well we may especially when we treat of the love of God shewed to mankind in JESUS for that love became palpable and converst among men and was manifested to sense in the birth the actions and the sufferings of our Blessed Saviour who by becoming man seemed to comply with that unjust and yet general desire which men had of worshipping humane creatures and having things visible and material for the object of their devotion and Religious love CHAP. XXII The second Objection concerning the love of JESVS answered THE other Objection would perhaps be made by them who scruple and refuse to bow at the Holy name of JESUS and who might say that I have mentioned it too often and too often called divine charity The love of JESUS and that in so doing I have been either superstitious or injurious to God To this I answer That as our Blessed Saviour saith He that hateth me hateth my father also Joh. 15.23 so we may say that he that loveth him loveth his father also For the Father the Son and Holy Ghost are one and the same God blessed for ever he that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten and so reciprocally The Divine Essence is but one it admits of no division therefore whatever honour is paid to one of the Divine Persons is paid to all Three the Ever-glorious Trinity is honoured by it But then it must be considered that JESUS the second Person of that Blessed and Glorious Trinity is not only God but also Man and so Mediator betwixt God and Man so that by and through him we pray we worship we love God This is the great the most excellent benefit of God to his Church that he gave JESUS CHRIST his Blessed Son to be the head of it who prays for us Qui orat pro nobis orat in nobis oratur à nobis and prays in us and is prayed to by us as S. Aug. saith As God manifested his
love to men in JESUS so in JESUS men offer the returns of their love to God In this was manifested the love of God towards us because God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him 1 Joh. 4.9 and in this is manifested our love towards God that we receive and love and obey that Son With this God is in no wise offended but rather infinitely well pleased he that loveth me shall be loved of my father saith our Blessed Saviour Joh. 14.21 If a man love me he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him ver 23. and again If any man serve me him will my father honour Joh. 12.26 nay he expresly tells his disciples that the Father loved them because they loved him whom the Father had sent The Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me John 16.27 For though we owe our redemption to the infinite mercies of God Father Son and Holy Ghost yet in a more especial manner we are engaged to the Son who personally came down from heaven for us men and for our salvation JESUS is the Author and finisher of our faith he is the Founder of our Holy Religion it is he hath revealed those doctrines we are to believe it is he hath given us those laws and precepts whereby we are to live it is he from whom we are called Christians it is he who for us despised the shame and endured the Cross who hath shed his blood and given his life a ransom for ours it is he who by contracting a near relation with us becoming our brother hath caused us to be adopted Sons of God and heirs with him of an eternal kingdom it is he who can save them to the uttermost that come to God by him it is he who is the head of the Church Caput positum in coelestiâ—us corpus suum gubernaâ— separatum quidem visione sed annexum charitate Aug. to whom we must be united by Love that we may be his members and derive life from him it is he who is our Lord and Master and will be our judge and our rewarder if we be faithful to him For this end Christ died and rose again that he might be Lord both of the dead and living saith S. Paul Rom. 14.9 God hath made that same JESUS whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ him God hath exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and Saviour saith S. Peter Act. 2.36 and 5.31 All power is given him in heaven and earth and he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet Hence the frequent and urgent exhortations to follow and imitate to serve and obey JESUS Hence those pathetick words of S. Paul The love of Christ constraineth us 2 Cor. 5.14 and again what things were gain to me I counted loss for Christ yea doubtless and I count all things loss for the excellency of the Knowledge of JESUS CHRIST my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ Phil. 3.7 8. 'T is JESUS hath won our hearts to God 't is he hath reconciled us from a state of enmity to a state of love Besides that God was justly angry for our rebellions his glories are so bright so amazing his Divine Majesty so high that to love a being so infinitely above us might have been thought prophaneness or presumption Non bene conveniunt nec in una sede morantur Majestas amor respect not friendship is the affection of subjects to Princes ΦθονεÏὸ Θεὸς was an ordinary Epithete for the heathen gods who were thought to be envious rather than loving to men and even the Israelites were amazed and terrified at the sight of a heavenly messenger crying we shall die for we have seen God 'T is the great humiliation of JESUS hath procured and established an everlasting reconciliation and friendship betwixt God and man God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinnerr Christ died for us Rom. 5.8 and now there is neither death nor life nor Angels nor any other creature can separate us from the love of God which is in CHRIST JESUS our LORD Rom. 8.39 Therefore for a reward of the great sufferings and abasement of JESUS God hath given him a supreme authority over all the world Men and Angels being made subject unto him because he made himself of no reputation and took on him the form of a servant and humbled himself and became obedi unto death even the death of the Cross therefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of JESUS every thing should bow of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth and every tongue should confess that JESUS CHRIST is the Lord to the glory of God the Father Phil. 2.7 8 c. Our love and obedience to JESUS derogates nothing from but belongs to God 'T is to the glory of God the Father God hath highly exalted JESUS for his humiliation and for the same cause we ought also to love and exalt him as much as possibly we can because it was for us not only bow at his name but even kneel and kiss the ground when he only sees us no fear of exceeding here no fear of superstition we can never shew him too much love or respect Psal 72. All Kings shall fall down before him all nations shall do him service prayer shall be made unto him and daily shall he be praised Amen CHAP. XXIII That it is most pleasant and safe to love God A Third consideration will be that it is most pleasant and safe to love God Love may cause trouble but it certainly is the spring or parent of all joy and satisfaction He that hath an affection to nothing hath pleasure in nothing could the imaginary insensibleness of the Stoicks really seize upon any man if he could never be miserable he would also be uncapable of all happiness 'T is true indeed that the love of worldly things in that they are vain and perishing is it self vanity and vexation qui multum amat plus dolet is certainly true of all but the Divine Love He that hath many friends hath many sorrows he that loves many things hath many things to fear for 'T is only God that hath those infinite excellencies which can fully replenish our minds and desires 'T is only God that admits of no variableness neither shadow of turning and therefore 't is the love of God alone that can make us eternally and intirely happy It is reported of a person of great sanctity that an evil spirit confest to him that were it possible for one who loves God to come into hell yet were it impossible he should be miserable but that it would rather sink hell it self and make it
disappear or else make it a paradise for him Though the relation may be fabulous yet I believe the thing it self is true he that is joined to God by love and so possest of him who is the fountain of all joy and bliss it is not possible he can be miserable despair the hell of the damned can never seize his soul However I am confident that the love of God would sweeten all the bitterness of our innocent miseries and that it is only the imperfection of a Christians love that exposeth his mind to the vexation of humane sorrows I am not to my grief a competent witness to this truth but there have been many Saints and devout persons who in the fervency of their love to God have found those joys those ravishments of joy which are ineffable Nihil crus sentit in nervo dum animus est in Coelo and which made them in some manner insensible and incapable of any great sorrow And even the lesser love of more imperfect though sincere Christians doth in a great measure take away the sense of humane calamities and brings to their minds the greatest contentment and delight this world is capable of A mans heart is more where it loves than where it lives Magis est ubi amat quam ubi animat he that loveth dwelleth in God and God in him 1 John 4.16 and what greater Deus Charitas est quid pretiosius qui manet in Charitate in Deo manet quid securius Deus in eo quid jucundius Bern. what more excellent bliss can we imagine or desire what stronger expression could one find to express the highest felicities to dwell in God! to be swallowed up in an abyss of infinite goodness to be overwhelmed in the immensity of Divine Joys and perfection as an atom in the air as a drop of water in the Ocean so so he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God Nothing can better represent those transcendent and delicious raptures wherewith the soul is inebriated and raised above it self Extasim facit amor amatores suo statu demovet sui juris esse non sinit Dionys de divin nom This was it made the Holy Martyrs shout and rejoyce in the midst of the flames they dwelt in God no sorrow no harm could approach them Happy are they that can say with S. Paul Our life is hid with Christ in God Col. 3.3 and I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Gal. 2.20 The love of God fits us for the joys of heaven and is an anticipation of them it powerfullly governs the will and it sweetly overflows the mind it is the perfection of grace and will be the consummation of glory but 't is much easier and happier to feel than to express it How much better is thy love than wine and the smell of thine ointment than all spices Cant. 4.10 One thing that adds much to the worth and the pleasure of Divine Love is that it never fails it is of the nature of its object eternal as God is whether there be prophecies they shall fail whether there be tongues they shall cease whether there be knowledge it shall vanish away but charity never faileth 1 Cor. 13.8 Faith and hope may accompany us as far as heaven-gate but there they for sake us the one is turned into sight and the other into enjoyment love alone enters and abides with us to eternity Our greatest safety therefore as well as pleasure consists in loving God affectionately for that love which never faileth secures our duty here and our happiness hereafter We are sure never to live and never to perish in sin if we love JESUS sincerely He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and there neither sin nor misery can come to hurt him Quid refert natura esse quod potes effici voluntate Chrys What matters it then to be by nature what we may be by choice and affection If of our selves we are not holy and happy we may be so by love the love of God will transform us into his nature and make us partakers of his holiness and happiness Love kills us in our selves that we may live in God Occidit quod fuimus ut simus quod non eramus Aug. It maketh such a change in us that we are no longer what we were as to the sinfulness and wretchedness of our condition Mandato novo facit hominem novum homines amando Deum dii efficiuntur Aug. The New Commandment maketh the New Creature men become Gods by loving God Love considers and dischargeth all the duties of Religion it allows of no omission nor transgression Love is the fulfilling of the law this is love that we keep his Commandments 2 John 6. Ille sancte juste agit qui sanctam habet dilectionem Aug. He is a Holy Man whose love is holy Non faciunt bonos vel malos mores nisi boni vel mali amores Aug. for love having the rule and direction of all mans passions and affections they become either good or bad according to the nature of what they love Therefore to know whether a man be vertuous or no we inquire not what his condition is or what are his parts and learning but what he delights in what he loves for if he loves the world and himself he is certainly vain and vicious but if he loves God he is pious and good and of a certainty he can never perish If natural love be so powerful and active as we know it is how much more when it is set upon God and by him assisted This therefore doth greatly manifest how secure and well guarded they are that love God in that their holy love masters and mortifies their unholy affections What is it that hurries men to sin and hell and destruction but their masterless and unruly passion now love can not only subdue them but even makes them useful and subservient to vertue the love of God sanctifies all passions and makes them serviceable If it cannot make him meek who is of an angry nature it will make him angry against sin and against himself a sinner if it doth not make him bold and generous whose temper inclines him to timorousness it will turn his fear into prudence and make him not dare to offend God if it makes him not cheerful who naturally is melancholy it will turn his sadness into penitent sorrow and make him a blessed mourner And so all other passions love will make them instruments of vertue Amor ubi venerit caeteros in se traducit captivat affectus S. Bern. or occasions of a greater reward that is it will either fight and conquer them or else put them to a good use Love is obeyed wherever it appears and Divine Love is irresistible it overcomes all difficulties nay Nomen difficultatis erubescit it scorns the name of difficulty saith S. Augustine it is as strong and
victorious as death Happy and safe are they that love JESUS Charitas est donum Dei quo nullum est excellentius solum est quod dividit inter filios regni aeterni filios perditionis Aug. de Trin. lib. 15. cap. 18. for that love it is makes the difference betwixt sincere and false Christians betwixt those that shall be heirs of salvation and those that shall go to perdition betwixt heaven and hell Many priviledges may belong to the tares while they grow in the same field with the wheat many Sun-shiny days they may have and many drops of dew and rain may fall upon them but they are not rooted and grounded in love therefore they are plucked up and withered and burned Many gifts of the Divine Spirit wicked men may receive they may prophesie and do miracles in Christs name they may excel in some vertues but the grace of Charity they never receive the love of God never dwells in their hearts Habere Baptismum malus esse poâ—es habere c. Tract 7. in Epist Johan Thou maist be Baptized saith S. Aug. and yet not be good thou maist have knowledge and remain vicious thou maist be called a Christian and be none but thou canst not love God and be wicked thou canst not love God but thou must be holy and happy Thus we see love affords the greatest pleasure and the greatest safety this world is capable of The love of JESUS is a precious jewel precious beyond gold and the best of pearls Charitas est amor rerum quas nonnisi volentes amittimus Aug. he that hath it hath an infinite treasure and it is so much the more to be valued because we may acquiesce in its possession we can never lose it except we will We may lose our riches and we may lose our health we may lose our learning and our eloquence we may lose our friends and our lives but the love of God we can never lose without our consent no time no fortune Verum bonum illud est quod non potes invitus amittere Aug. no Tyrant can snatch it by force out of our hearts as 't is never given against our will so against our will it can never be taken away Charity never faileth Quinquagesima Sunday O Lord who hast taught us that all our doings without charity are nothing worth send thy Holy Ghost and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity the very bond of peace and of all vertues without which whosoever liveth is counted dead before thee grant this for thine only Son JESUS Christs sake Amen CHAP. XXIV That love brings the most lasting joy and satisfaction to the soul THE fourth and last consideration is that the love of God is the solid joy and lasting Tranquillity of the Soul No tormenting fear or sadness can harbour in a heart that loves God the Motto of love might well be that of a late order of Knighthood at Mantua meant of the Holy Chalice Nihil isto triste recepto grief and the love of God are incompatible no sadness should enter that breast wherein dwells Divine Love I need not treat at large of those many doubts and terrors concerning future happiness which grieve and almost distract the hearts of many Christians to prove that it is a happy thing to be freed from them there are few but are so far acquainted with them as readily to assent to it it will be more to purpose to shew that the love of God is the best remedy againâ—â— them the best balsam to heal a woundâ—â— spirit Some persons from their povertâ— bodily pains or other afflictions draw thâ—â— most afflictive inference that God is noâ— their friend and that therefore their coâ—dition is dangerous and very bad if noâ— quite desperate and this adds such weight to their cross that they have a strength to bear it but are ready to sink whereas the love of God hath enableâ— thousands to bear a heavier with patiencâ— with fortitude and even with cheerfulnesâ— I take pleasure in infirmities and distresses and necessities for Christs sake said S. Pauâ— that great lover of JESUS He thâ—â— would suffer for God will suffer from God he that would die and be crucified for JESUS will willingly bear that cross whicâ— JESUS lays upon his shoulders Anâ— indeed 't is a greater vertue meekly anâ— thankfully to accept of that correctioâ— wherewith God visits us than voluntarilâ— to inflict the greatest sufferings on ouâ— selves what proceeds from God is eveâ— best for us and most pleasing to him No Patient will question the love of that Physician who is his intimate friend for that he makes incisions and applies causticks upon him and makes him drink bitter potions all this he takes to be for his own good as proceeding from his friends affection after this manner he that loves God will receive afflictions from him and gratefully acknowledge with David I know that of very faithfulness thou hast caused me to be â—roubled Knowing that all things work togeâ—her for the good of them that love God he will harbour no thoughts of diffidence nor question Gods loving kindness to him but rests satisfied that while he loves God nothing can hurt him and that whatever happens is certainly for his greater advantage But 't is not always the storms of adversity that bring those dark and dismal clouds on the minds of men they come sometimes in fair weather in the greatest prosperity Whence 't is in vain to examine better it is to drive them away for they are as mischievous as black They cast a damp upon mens spirits and freeze their hearts in such a manner that they can receive no spiritual joy they so weaken their hands and feet that they can hardly work for God or walk in his ways so that their condition is sad indeed not because God is their enemy but because they being unreasonably afraid of it are thereby hindred from being his friends To this evil none can prescribe a better remedy than love let such persons love God heartily and all these terrors will vanish way like the vain images of a terrible dream when one awaketh Love begets love therefore we should love God becaâ—â—e he first loved us and love begets a confideâ—â—e of being loved again so that if we love Gâ—d we shall not long doubt but that we are â—â—ved by him and then all is well Anâ—â—f at first our hearts do not melt into devâ—â—â— affections and are not replenished with â—â—e sweetness and comfort of love let us not 〈◊〉 dismayed at it nor too much study our oâ—â— disturbed thoughts and apprehensions 〈◊〉 let us continue to give God demonstratiâ—â—â— of love to abstain from what he forbiâ—â— and to do that which he commands or 〈◊〉 which will please him though uncommaâ—â—ed and then either holy joys and extaâ—â—â—s will come or it will be as well without thâ—â— No man is afraid of his friends nor
of thâ—â— whom he serves and obligeth we eaâ—â—ly suppose that they love us whom we loâ—â— and that they to whom we do good will 〈◊〉 kind to us therefore let us shew to God 〈◊〉 the love we can and by words and actioâ—â— protest that we seek to please him and 〈◊〉 hearts will soon be possest with a blessed aâ—surance that we are dear to him and that 〈◊〉 will never be cruel and severe to us ' Tiâ— reported of a Religious Person whose soâ—â— was grieved and wounded with doubts and fears and with sadness that while he 〈◊〉 one day weeping and praying thus O thaâ— I were sure that I shall persevere and neveâ— fall from God O that I were sure thaâ— God loves me and that I shall one day see his blessed Face how zealous then would I be in mortifying my sins and doing my duty how cheerfully would I serve God every day and take pleasure in suffering for him how would I despise the world and its vanities and fix my thoughts and affections on things above while he was thus expressing the sorrows of his troubled mind he heard the whispers of a secret voice which told him fac quod faceres do now what thou wouldst do if thou hadst all those assurances With this he found himself so affected and refreshed that he took it as an Oracle from heaven and in obeying of it found those comforts he begged Better counsel I cannot give thee fac quod faceres do what thou wouldst do if thy diffident timorousness and jealousies were confuted by a voice from heaven and they will soon be removed Let thy meek submission thy sincere obedience and thy free-will offerings speak thy love to God and thou shalt soon find thy self perswaded that God loves thee dearly and that thy condition is safe and happy Other assurance we are not to expect in this world and this is not to be obtained any other way should thy comfort proceed from any thing else but thy humble and devout love to God it would be fansie and presumption whereas so it is well grounded and never can deceive thee There is no fear in love saith Divine S. John 1 Ep. 4.18 but perfect love casteth out fear 't is never otherwise grace and nature join together to make the effect infallible that a Holy Love should ever produce a Holy Peace if we love indeed and in truth thereby not by new and secret revelations we shall know that we are of the truth and we shall assure our hearts before God 1 Joh. 3.18 Love may well work confidence and joy in our souls for it enjoys already what it loves it is affectuosa unitas unitiva affectio love is inseparable from its object and the essence thereof consists in their union and in some manner unity as our Blessed Saviour praid for his that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us Joh. 17.21 and that this is effected by love he adds ver 26. that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them Though God be exalted infinitely above all things in a sphere of Glory and Majesty so high that the Cherubims with their many wings cannot flie up to it Qui mente integro Deum desiderat profecto jam habet quem amat Greg. Mag. yet thither love soars up and takes God and holds him as his own so that every one that loves God is already possest of him and may say with the spouse I am my Beloveds and my Beloved is mine Cant. 6.3 We come to God by love amando non ambulando and to him we are united by by love amore Deo conjungimur Magna res est amor quo anima per semetÌ„ ipsam fiducialiter accedit ad Deum c. S. Aug. therefore love is a great thing saith that devout father it brings the soul to God with an holy confidence and makes it trust in him and cleave stedfastly to him and rejoyce in him and represent her needs and beg his mercies with fiducial and devout affections And this is so great a truth that death it self with its pains and sorrows alters nothing of it even then in the last agonies the love of God sweetens the bitter cup and still entertains the soul with joy and holy comforts It was the saying of S. Aug. that because the soul hath willingly forsaken God whom she should love infinitely she is forced therefore with grief and regret to forsake her body which she loves too much and that because she voluntarily departed from God who is her life she therefore departeth from the body whose life she is with sadness and much reluctancy Aug. de Trin. lib. 4. cap. 13. Now we may say Charitas libertatem donat timorem pellit c. S. Bern. that when the soul returns to God by love she is freed from this punishment and restored to her first liberty she is willing to die for to be with Christ and then comes a cheerful cupio dissolvi O when shall I come and appear before God Happy is he who living doth so manifest his love to God by Piety and Charity that dying he can say with Theodosius Dilexi love hath been the business and delight of my life I have daily endeavoured by my actions to declare the sincerity of my love to God he is doubtless of the number of those that love the appearing of JESUS and so he goes out to meet him with joy and confidence expecting a kind reception from him whom having not seen yet he loved Nemo se amari diffidat qui jam amat libenter Dei amor nostrum quem praevenit subsequitur c. Bern. and worshipped and served affectionately Let no man that loves God doubt of Gods Love to him for he that loved us when we were his enemies so as to die for us will much more love us when we have for him the hearty affections of friends It is the joy of heaven the joy of the Holy JESUS when his loving kindness hath won and conquered our hearts and 't is our greatest joy 't is for us a heaven upon earth when we love him faithfully and fervently with all our souls and affections The love of God brings that peace to the soul which the world can neither give nor take away O sweet JESU O look thou upon me and be merciful unto me as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name Psal 119.132 CHAP. XXV The Conclusion NOW who can refuse to love God when 't is a thing so just and reasonable so pleasant and easie so safe and advantageous something of necessity we must love every mans heart is full of that passion and every mans life is governed by it 't is but considering who hath done most for us and whom we are most obliged to love who is most lovely and who will best reward our love and we
shall soon understand that God is to be loved above all things infinitely without measure and if we love our selves as we should we shall easily remove our affections from the world to set them upon God and Eternity upon JESUS and his Kingdom Love as we have seen will make it easie and delightful to do our duty will make the yoke of Christ light and enable us with strength and courage to bear our cross cheerfully like Christians it will lead us the shortest and the safest way to heaven and make our journey pleasant it will make us dear to God and to his Saints and blessed Angels and fill our hearts with peace and comforts it will abide with us when we are forsaken by the world and all our friends can do us no good it will accompany us when we go from hence and open heavens gate and enter in with us there to perfect our happiness which it here began to be there our reward as it was here our work and our duty I may now upon too too just an account use the words of S. Bernard Non quod ego ista faciam dico sed quod facere vellem c. Ber. Med. what I have written is not what I do but what I should do what I grieve that I do not what I endeavour to do and what I wish all others might do But withall I shall plead for my self the advice of a Greek Father not to judge too severely of those who teach excellent lessons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Joh. Clim grad 26. § 18. great and profitable truths which they themselves learn and practise but very imperfectly because the usefulness of their instructions may make some amends for the defects of their performance Ephes 6.24 Grace be with all them that love our LORD JESUS CHRIST in sincerity Amen FINIS THE CONTENTS OF THE FIRST PART THe Introduction Pag. 1. CHAP. I. Of the general Benefits of God to mankind and first of Creation Pag. 2 CHAP. II. How much we are obliged to God for our Preservation Pag. 5 CHAP. III. Of the positive Blessings of this life Pag. 8 CHAP. IV. What returns we should make for temporal Blessings Pag. 10 CHAP. V. Of the mercies of Redemption and first a consideration of the infinite miseries we were redeemed from Pag. 12 CHAP. VI. How graciously and wonderfully we were redeemed Pag. 19 CHAP. VII A consideration of the Cross in its four dimensions Pag. 23 CHAP. VIII The breadth of the Cross or the manifold Sufferings of Christ for our Redemption Pag. 25 CHAP. IX The length of the Cross Pag. 29 CHAP. X. The depth of the Cross Pag. 31 CHAP. XI The height of the Cross Pag. 33 CHAP. XII What an infinite love is exprest by the Cross Pag. 35 CHAP. XIII Of the eternal happiness merited for us by the Cross of Christ and measured by it Pag. 37 CHAP. XIV That the mercies of our Redemption challenge our love and hearty obedience Pag. 42 CHAP. XV. An invitation to enter the Cloister of Love Pag. 44 CHAP. XVI The Vow to be taken at the entrance of Loves Monastery Pag. 47 CHAP. XVII Considerations of the nature of Love and first of self-Self-love Pag. 50 CHAP. XVIII That the Love of JESVS requires we should mortifie self-self-love Pag. 55 CHAP. XIX How great a vertue is Divine Charity or the Love of God Pag. 58 CHAP. XX. That love always pursues what it thinks good and is never satisfied till it hath obtained it Pag. 62 CHAP. XXI That Love is strong and effective and sweetens all labours Pag. 66 CHAP. XXII A farewel to all sinful desires Pag. 70 CHAP. XXIII That the love of JESVS and the love of Sin can never consist together Pag. 76 CHAP. XXIV Of outward helps and instruments of love and obedience Pag. 78 CHAP. XXV A passionate Meditation on the Passion of our Blessed Saviour Pag. 83 CHAP. XXVI Of a sincere amendment which must be wrought by proper means Pag. 88 CHAP. XXVII Love the best instrument of Self-Reformation and true penitence with an act of hearty contrition Pag. 92 CHAP. XXVIII That Love will sweeten as well as produce the truest penitence and that true wisdom not melancholy is the guide of sincere penitents Pag. 98 CHAP. XXIX That severities and mortifications well regulated are subservient to Repentance and the Love of JESVS Pag. 103 CHAP. XXX A short Meditation for penitential days Pag. 105 CHAP. XXXI That repentance must look forward to the securing of our duty for the time to come With instances and resolutions to that effect Pag. 108 CHAP. XXXII A singular example of humane Love with a short reflection upon it Pag. 113 CHAP. XXXIII Some Scriptures to shew the necessity of departing from Sin according to our Baptismal Vow With some protestations to conclude this first Part. Pag. 116 THE CONTENTS OF THE SECOND PART CHAP. I. THat Love obligeth us also to fulfil the positive part of our Baptismal Vow with a protestation of obedience to it Pag. 1 CHAP. II. How great a happiness in Eternity follows our love and obedience Pag. 5 CHAP. III. That to win our hearts and duty God propounds great rewards to us Pag. 8 CHAP. IV. That Love hath a secret pleasure and reward in it self with a meditation to that purpose Pag. 11 CHAP. V. Reflections on the vanity of temporal things with some holy resolves and ejaculations Pag. 14 CHAP. VI. That Christ having bought us hath now a just title to our love and service Pag. 18 CHAP. VII How much we are ingaged to serve our Blessed Lord with renewed promises to do it faithfully Pag. 20 CHAP. VIII Meditation to excite us to a sincere and fervent love Pag. 23 CHAP. IX Christianity absolutely requires our love and strictest obedience Pag. 28 CHAP. X. Considerations to encourage us in the discharge of our Christian duty with a caution to the Reader Pag. 32 CHAP. XI That Love will prompt us to free-will offerings and thinks it never doth enough Pag. 36 CHAP. XII That our obedience to the Church is an excellent expression of our love to Christ Pag. 43 CHAP. XIII Of several voluntary Oblations Pag. 46 CHAP. XIV The true notion of Free-will Offerings vindicated with an Exhortation to abound in the work of the Lord. Pag. 50 CHAP. XV. Meditation on the Exaltation of the Blessed JESVS Pag. 57 CHAP. XVI Two general directions about the manifesting of our love to God Pag. 62 CHAP. XVII The two former Rules explained and enlarged Pag. 68 CHAP. XVIII Some more particular directions how to order our lives by the love of JESVS Pag. 74 CHAP. XIX That upon all accounts God should be loved above all things Pag. 78 CHAP. XX. That as it is most just so it is most easie to love God Pag. 84 CHAP. XXI An Objection answered which might be raised against this Book and its Subject Pag. 88 CHAP. XXII The second Objection concerning the love of JESVS answered Pag. 91 CHAP. XXIII That it is most pleasant and safe to love God Pag. 97 CHAP. XXIV That love brings the most lasting joy and satisfaction to the soul Pag. 105 CHAP. XXV The Conclusion Pag. 113 Books printed for Henry Brome Bishop Wilkins Natural Religion Dr. Comber on the Common Prayer in 4 Vol. Guide to Eternity Precepts and Practices for Christian Life Christianity no Enthusiasm or the several kinds of Inspirations and Revelations pretended to by the Quakers tried and found destructive to Holy Scripture and true Religion In Answer to Thomas Elwood's defence thereof in his Tract miscalled Truth prevailing c. Dr. Glanvill of Preaching Help to Prayer c. An Historical Account of the Reforma here in England Everlasting Fire no Fancy Dr. Ford in Gods Judgments Mr. Camfield's Discourse of Angels Dr. Woodford's Paraphrase on the Psalms his Divine Poems