the most indisposed to render to one another For as Aristotle de Repub. lib. 1. pag. 298. hath observed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As man in his perfect state is the best of all Animals so separated from Law and Right he is the worst For out of Society we see his Nature presently degenerates and instead of being inclined to assist grows always most salvage and barbarous to his own kind Since therefore we have so much need of each others help Society is absolutely necessary to cherish and preserve in us our natural Benevolence towards one another without which instead of being mutually helpful we should be mutually mischievous For as the same Philosopher hath observed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. ibid. He that cannot contract Society with others or through his own Self-sufficiency doth not need it belongs not to any Commonwealth but is either a wild Beast or a God We being therefore so framed for Society and under such necessities of entring into it it hence necessarily follows that being associated together we are all obliged in our several Ranks and Stations so to behave our selves towards one another as is most for the Common Good of All and that since the Happiness of each particular Member of our Society redounds from the Welfare of the Whole and is involved in it we ought to esteem nothing good for our selves that is a Nuisance to the Publick Because whatsoever this suffers I and every man suffer and unless I could be happy alone that can never be for my Interest in particular that is against my Interest in common Now in such a mutual Behaviour as most conduces to our common Benefit and Happiness as we are in Society with one another consists all Social Virtue the proper Use and Design of which is to preserve our Society with one another and to render it a common Blessing to us all And hereunto five things are necessary viz. 1. That we be charitably disposed towards one another 2. That we be just and righteous in all our Intercourses with each other 3. That we behave our selves peaceably in our respective States and Relations 4. That we be very modest towards those that are Superiour to us in our Society whether it be in Desert or Dignity 5. That we be very treatable and condescending to all that are Inferiour to us Under these Particulars are comprehended all those Social Virtues upon which the Welfare and Happiness of Humane Society depends Now that the Practice of all these is included in the Christian Life and doth effectually conduce to our everlasting Happiness I shall endeavour particularly to prove And I. AS rational Creatures associated and so related to one another we are obliged to be kindly and charitably disposed towards each other For the end of our Society being mutually to aid and assist one another it is necessary in order hereunto that we should every one be kind and benevolent to every one that so we may be continually inclined mutually to aid and do good Offices to one another And so far as we fall short of this we fall short of the End of our Society For to be sure the less we love one another the less prone we shall be to promote and further each others Welfare and consequently the less Advantage we shall reap from our mutual Society But if instead of loving we malign and hate each other our Society will be so far from contributing to our Happiness that it will be only a means of rendring us more miserable For it will only furnish us with fairer Opportunities of doing Mischief to one another and that mutual Intercourse we shall have by being united together in Society will supply us with greater Means and Occasions to wreak our spight upon each other For Society puts us within each others reach and by that means if we are enemies renders us more dangerous to one another like two adverse Armies which when they are at a Distance can do but little hurt but when they are joined and mingled never want opportunities to destroy and butcher one another So that Hatred and Malice you see renders our Society a Plague and we were much better live apart poorly and solitarily and withdraw from one another as Beasts of Prey do into their separate Dens than continue in one anothers reach and be always liable as we must be while we are in Society to be baited and worried by one another AND as Hatred and Malice spoils all our Society in this Life and renders it worse than the most dismal Solitude so it will also in the other For whensoever the Souls of men do leave their Bodies they doubtless flock to the Birds of their own Feather and consort themselves with such separate Spirits as are of their own Genius and Temper For besides that good and bad Spirits are by the eternal Laws of the other World distributed into two separate Nations and there live apart from one another having no other Communication or Intercourse but what is between two Hostile Countries that are continually designing and attempting one against another so that when wicked Souls do leave this Terrestrial Abode and pass into Eternity they are presently incorporated by the Laws of that invisible State into the Nation of wicked Spirits and confined for ever to their most wretched Society and Converse besides this I say Likeness doth naturally congregate Beings and incline them to associate with those of their own Kind Now Rancour and Malice is the proper Character of the Devil and the natural Genius of Hell and consequently 't is by a malicious Temper of Mind that we are naturalized before-hand Subjects of the Kingdom of Darkness and qualified for the Conversation of Furies So that when we go from hence into Eternity this our malignant Genius will render us utterly averse to the friendly Society of Heaven and naturally press and incline us to consort with that wretched Nation of spightful and rancorous Spirits with whom we are already joined by a Likeness and Communion of Natures But O! much better were it for us to be shut up all alone for ever in some dark Hole of the World where we might converse only with our own melancholy Thoughts and never hear of any other being but our selves than to be continually plagued with such vexatious Company For though we who are spectators only of Corporeal Action cannot discern the manner how one Spirit acts upon another yet there is no doubt but Spiritual Agents can strike as immediately upon Spirits as bodily Agents can upon Bodies and supposing that these can mututually act upon one another there is no more doubt but they can mutually make each other feel each others Pleasures and Displeasures and that according as they are more or less powerful they can more or less aggrieve and afflict one another And if so what can be expected from a company of spightful and malicious Spirits joined in Society together but that their
to force and extort it when those that are superiour in Might and Power do all rule with a fierce and tyrannical Will and will condescend to nothing that is beneficial for their Subjects and those that are inferiour do obey with a perverse and stubborn Heart and will submit to nothing but what they are forced and compelled to and 't is nothing but meer Power and Dread by which they rule and are ruled in a word when they all mutually hate and abominate each other and those that command are a Company of cruel and imperious Devils that impose nothing but Grievances and Plagues and those that obey are a Company of surly and untractable Slaves that submit to nothing but what they are driven to by Plagues so that Plagues and Grievances are both the Matter and the Motive of all their Obedience and Subjection when this I say is the State of their Society with one another how is it possible but that they should be all of them in a most wretched and miserable Condition For where all is transacted by Force and Compulsion as to be sure all is among such a Company of perverse and self-willed Spirits there every one must be supposed to be so far as he is able a Fury and a Devil to every one and those that do compel are like so many salvage Tyrants continually vexed and enraged with stubborn Oppositions and Resistances and those that are compelled like so many obstinate Gally-Slaves are continually lashed into an unsufferable obedience and forced by one Torment to submit to another and thus all their Society with one another is a perpetual Intercourse of mutual Outrage and Violence THIS being therefore the miserable Fate and Issue of a perverse and stubborn and untractable Temper the Gospel whose great design is to direct us to our Happiness doth industriously endeavour to root it out of our Minds and to plant in its room a gentle obsequious and condescending Disposition For hither tend all those Evangelical Precepts which require us to become weak to the weak that we may gain them 1 Cor. ix 22 to bear with their infirmities Rom. xv 1 and support them and be patient towards them 1 Thess. v. 14 And on the other hand to submit our selves to our Elders 1 Pet. v. 5 and to those that have the rule over us Heb. xiii 17 to obey our Magistrates our Parents and our Masters to be subject to Principalities and not speak evil of Dignities to honour Kings and submit to their laws and Governours 1 Pet. ii 13 14. in a word to honour all men as they deserve 1 Pet. ii 17 and to hold good men in reputation Phil. ii 19 and in honour to prefer one another Rom. xii 10 The sense of all which is to oblige us to treat all men as becomes us in the Rank and Station we are placed in to honour those that are our Superiours whether in Place or Vertue to give that modest Deference to their Judgments that Reverence to their Persons that Respect to their Virtues and Homage to their Desires or Commands which the Degree or Kind of their Superiority requires to condescend to those that are our Inferiours and treat them with all that Candour and Ingenuity Sweetness and Affability that the respective Distances of our State will allow to consult their Conveniencies and do them all good Offices and pity and bear with their Infirmities so far as they are safely and wisely tolerable By the constant Practice of which our minds will be gradually cured of all that Perverseness and Surliness of Temper which indisposes us to the respective Duties of our Relations of all that Contempt and Selfishness which renders us averse to the proper Duty of Superiours and of all that Self-Conceit and Impatience of Command which indisposes us to the duty of Inferiours And our Wills being once wrought into an easie pliableness either to Submission or Condescension we are in a forward Preparation of Mind to live under the Government of of Heaven where doubtless under God the supream Lord and Sovereign there are numberless Degrees of Superiority and Inferiority For so some are said to reap sparingly and some abundantly some to be Rulers of five Cities and some of ten some to be the least and some the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven all which implies that in that blessed State there is a great Variety of Degrees of Glory and Advancement And indeed it cannot be otherwise in the Nature of the thing for our Happiness consisting in the Perfection of our Natures the more or less perfect we are the more or less happy we must necessarily be for every farther Degree of Goodness we attain to is a widening and enlargement of our Souls for farther Degrees of Glory and Beatitude And accordingly when we arrive at Heaven which is the Element of Beatitude we shall all be filled according to the Content and Measure of our Capacities and drink in more or less of its Rivers of Pleasure as we are more or less enlarged to contain them So that according as we do more and more improve our selves in true Goodness we do naturally make more and more Room in our Souls for Heaven which doth always fill the Vessels of Glory of all sizes and pour in happiness upon them till they all overflow and can contain no more Since therefore they are all of them entirely resigned to and guided by right Reason there is no doubt but in these their different Degrees of Glory and Dignity they mutually behave themselves towards one another as is most fit and becoming and that since under God the Head and King of their Society there is from the highest to the lowest a most exact and regular Subordination of Members they do every one perform their Parts and Duties towards every one in all those different Stations of Glory they are placed in and consequently do submit and condescend to each other according as they are of a superiour or inferiour Class and Order So that if when we go from hence into the other world we carry along with us a submissive and condescending Frame of Spirit we shall be trained up and predisposed to live under the blessed Hierarchy of Heaven to yield a chearful Conformity to the Laws and Customs of it and to render all the Honours to those above and all the Condescensions to those beneath us in Glory which the Statutes of that Heavenly Regiment do require in doing whereof we shall all of us enjoy a most unspeakable Content and Felicity For though in the Kingdom of Heaven as well as the Kingdoms of the Earth there are numberless Degrees of Advancement and Dignity and one Star there as well as here differeth from another Star in Glory yet so freely and chearfully do they all condescend and submit to each other in these their respective differences of Rank and Station that in the widest Distances of their State and Degrees of Glory they all
Thoughts and Reflections But so long as we keep within the Bounds of Sobriety and do not sally out into malicious or scurrilous or prophane Jesting our Religion doth not only connive at our Mirth but commend and approve it and so remote is it from cramping those Strings and Sinews of the Mind Chearfulness and Action that it recollects their scatterd Vigour and winds up their Slackness to a true Harmony FOR it requires that our speech should be alway with grace Col. iv 6 i. e. as some Expositors understand the Phrase that it should not be whining and melancholy but sprightly and chearful it bids us rejoice evermore 1 Thes. v. 16 and rejoice in the Lord alway and again rejoice Phil. iv 4 that is to indeaver to be chearful in all Conditions and to bear all Events with a serene and lightsome mind And therefore the Apostle reckons this among the blessed Fruits and Effects of that Divine Spirit which accompanies and animates Christianity viz. Joy or Chearfulness Gal v. 22 and this is one of the Particulars in which the same Apostle makes the Christian Laws to consist as they stand opposed to the Ritual Laws of the Jews the Kingdom of Heaven i. e. the Laws of the Christian Church is not meat and drink i. e. consist not of Injunctions or Prohibitions of things that are of a Ritual or indifferent Nature but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. xiv 17 which three Particulars being opposed to things that are unnecessary must by the Law of Oppositions denote things that are necessary and therefore as by Righteousness and Peace must be meant Justice and Peaceableness so by Joy in the Holy Ghost must be meant Chearfulness and Alacrity in doing the will of God because Joy can be in no other Sense Matter of Necessary Duty By all which its evident that Chearfulness of Temper is so far from being discountenanced by our Religion that 't is required and injoined by it so far as 't is in our Power and Choice And indeed it highly becomes us who serve so good a Master to be free and chearful and thereby to express a grateful sense of his Goodness and of those glorious Rewards which we expect from his inexhaustible Bounty but as for a gloomy Look and dejected Countenance it better beseems a Gally-slave than a Servant of God And as Chearfulness is a Duty that very well becomes our State so it is highly necessary to support and carry us on in our Christian Warfare FOR Chearfulness is Natures best Friend it removes its Oppressions enlivens its Faculties and keeps its Spirits in a brisk and regular Motion and hereby renders it easie to it self and useful and serviceable to God and Man It dispels Clouds from the Mind and Fears from the Heart and kindles and Cherishes in us brave and generous Affections and composes our Natures into such a regular temper as is of all others the most fit to receive religious Impressions and the breathings of the Spirit of God For what the Jews do observe of the Spirit of Prophesie is as true of the Spirit of Holiness that it dwells not with Sadness but with Chearfulness that being it self of a calm and gentle Nature it loves not to reside with black and melancholy Passions but requires a composed and serene Temper to act upon And hence Tertul. in his de Spectac Deus praecepit Spiritum sanctum utpote pro Naturae suae bono tenerum delicatum Tranquillitate Lenitate Quiete Pace tractare non Furore non Bile non Ira non Dolore inquietare i. e. God hath commanded that the holy Spirit who is of a tender and delicate Nature should be entertained by us with Tranquility and Mildness with Quietness and Peace and that we should take care not to disturb him with Fury and Choler or with Anger and Grief And indeed Melancholy naturally infests the holy Spirit and disturbs him in all his operations it overwhelms the Fancy with black Reeks and Vapours and thereby clouds and darkens the Understanding and intercepts the holy Spirits Illuminations and like red coloured Glass before the eye causes the most lovely and attractive Objects to look bloody and terrible It distracts the Thoughts and renders them wild roving and incoherent and thereby utterly indisposes them to Prayer and Consideration and renders them deaf and unattentive to all good Motions and Inspirations It freezes up the Heart with dispairing Fears and Despondencies and represents easie things as difficult to us and difficult as impossible and thereby discourages us from all those vertuous Attempts to which the blessed Spirit doth so importunately excite and provoke us In a word it naturally benums and stupifies the Soul obstructs its Motions and makes it listless and unactive and so by indisposing it to co-operate with the holy Spirit renders it an incapable Subject of his divine Grace and Influence Thus melancholy you see by its sullen and malevolent Aspects doth obstinately resist and counter-influence the holy Spirit without whose Aid and Assistance we can never hope to prosper in our spiritual Warfare WHEREFORE if we mean to succeed in this great Affair it concerns us to use all honest and innocent Means to dispel this black and mischievous Humour and to beget and maintain in our Minds a constant Serenity and Chearfulness of Temper and when ever our Spirits begin to droop and languish to betake our selves to such natural Remedies such harmless Diversions Refreshments and Recreations as are fit and proper to raise them up again and not to suffer them to sink into a Bog of Melancholly Humours whilst 't is in our Power by any honest Art or Invention to support them Which if we can but effect will be of vast Advantage to us in the whole Course of our Religion For in an even Chearfulness of Temper our Spirits will be always lively strong and active and fit for the best and noblest Operations they will give Light to our Understandings Courage to our Hearts and Wings to our Affections so that we shall be able more clearly to discern divine and heavenly things more resolutely to practise and more vehemently to aspire after them and our Considerations will be more fixt our Devotions more intent and all our spiritual Endeavours more active and vivacious For a chearful Temper will represent every thing chearfully to us 't will represent God so lovely Religion so attractive the Rewards of it so immense and the Difficulties of it so inconsiderable and thereby inspire us with so much Life and Courage as that none of all those spiritual Enemies we war and contend against will be able to withstand our Resolution X. TO our Course and Progress in this our spiritual Warfare it is also necessary that we maintain in our Minds a constant Sense and Expectation of Heaven that since the things of the other World are future and invisible and consequently less apt to touch and affect us