to righteousness unto holiness as it is written Be ye holy for I am holy saith the Lord. Lev. 11.45 3. Now as Christianity checks and restrains self-love so doth self-love keep men from understanding and approving the Christian doctrines for how can he that seeks and loves himself rightly apprehend that whatever the world dotes upon is meer vanity that Estates and Honours bring great vexations and great slavery that to forgive Enemies and do good to them that hate us is the part of a noble and generous mind that 't is better to despise than to possess riches that 't is more honourable to be subject where God commands than to bear rule and to domineer that for a man to restrain his appetite and conquer himself is more glorious than to win battels and take fenced Cities These are Paradoxes hard and incredible sayings to the self-lover whose fondness of himself ties him fast to this earth to whatever can be useful and any ways pleasant to the flesh whereas the Children of God live to God being not led and govern'd by the flesh but by the spirit they live in the flesh but not after the flesh some of their actions are natural whilest they are in the body yet they proceed from a supernatural principle and are designed to a nobler end for they continually deny themselves and mortifie all sensual unruly desires Self-lovers hold a great regard should be had to the flesh 't is true but it must be such as Christ hath taught us to keep it under otherwise Saint Paul hath declar'd that to be carnally minded is death CHAP. XXXI That Self-love is that Babylon out of which God hath called us 1. GOD at first placed man in Paradise but Adam in whom we all sinned transported us into this world out of Paradise out of Jerusalem into Babylon out of our freedom into slavery out of integrity into corruption out of our countrey into banishment and out of life into death Thus from truth and perfection we fell into vanity we are now like unto vanity nay every man is but vanity as the Psalmist saith Psal 39.6 Man is vain in his body which ends in death and corruption vain in his soul which being inslav'd to sin is obnoxious to death eternal and vain in all his outward enjoyments which all perish or must be forsaken when he dies Yet man strangely dotes on this vanity he passionately runs after these transitory things which are all cheats and lies whereby he is drawn into thousands of pernicious errors and out of the Heavenly Jerusalem into a Hellish Babylon 2. Now these two Cities are built by two sorts of love to love God so as to despise our selves makes the City of God and to love our selves so as to despise God makes the Devils Babylon the City of this World The way to this is broad and short to that is streight difficult and long because dull and earthly as now we are we more easily fall on the earth and descend down to Hell than we can raise up our selves and ascend to Heaven Let every man therefore examine himself and find out what he chiefly loves for if he loves God so as to deny himself he is doubtless a Citizen of the Jerusalem which is from above but if he loves himself so as to prefer his own desires to God 't is plain he belongs to that Babylon out of which God hath called his Children For thus the Scripture cries aloud Go ye forth of Babylon and remove out of the midst of her Isa 48.20 Jer. 50.8 and again the Psalmist Psal 137.8 O Daughter of Babylon who art to be destroyed happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones We come out of Babylon when we leave the confusion of sin forsaking our disorderly course of life and we dash the children of Babylon against the stone when our love to Christ overcomes our ill desires and ill inclinations Self-love is the death of the Soul and the love of God is its life therefore he doth not truly love himself who by self-love destroys himself CHAP. XXXII How men naturally seek themselves even in their best works 1. IT may seem strange to observe that whereas mens opinions and inclinations are so various and different yet all men are agreed in this that none appears vile to himself none is willing to yield and submit to others none though never so mean but thinks himself somebody and is desirous to be taken notice of every one seeks to be higher than others every one is indulgent to himself and severe to others all men will have their will and their saying all applaud to their own inventions and conceits and censure others they count their own follies wisdome and notwithstanding their great ignorance there is nothing but what they think to know They carefully hide their own faults and pretend to those virtues they know they have not And what is most of all to be wonder'd at even good men who endeavour to please God and seem to aim at nothing but his honour and glory Even they sometimes in their best actions by a secret and natural instinct almost unknown to themselves seek their own comfort and complacency most of all and the more excellent are their works the more subtil and undiscernable is this snare which self-love sets to the most spiritual 2. What better than to obey God to read his Sacred Word and preach it to receive and administer his Holy Sacraments Yet these duties are commonly stain'd with some secret desire of praise and except the Christian be very watchful over his own heart he may easily lose his better reward Though I speak with the tongues of men and Angels saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 13.1 and have not Charity I am become like sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal And though a man should give all his goods to the Poor and even his Body to be burnt yet without Charity without the love of God hath purified his heart it will profit him nothing According to the saying of the Prophet Haggai 1.6 Ye eat but ye have not enough ye drink but ye are not filled with drink and he that earns wages earneth wages to put into a bag with holes for thus good works avail nothing if done out of respect to our selves and not to please God This being therefore the bent of our corrupt nature to draw us to our selves we ought carefully to examine our selves and search the hidden corners of our hearts that there lurk not in them some ill purpose of vain-glory or self-interest to mix with our best actions either first or last This is the Rule of a true Christian Life always to seek and love the things of God and never his own CHAP. XXXIII Things which every Christian is bound to know in order to obedience 1. EVery Disciple of Christ ought to know those Divine and Human Laws under which he lives and the which he is
too restless and busie from prodigality many fall to covetousness and from superstition to profaneness and irreverence The last cheat of Opinion I shall now reckon is that it generally makes us judge and esteem our selves not according to our own sense and consciousness but according to the vain thoughts and talk of other men We defer so much not only to our own but also to others opinions that except they will count us happy we cannot be so We are not contented to live to our selves but we must also entertain a troublesome imaginary life to please we know not whom people that perhaps know us not and to be sure care not for us whose judgment we our selves slight in other things Thus neglecting that true and real life which we our selves enjoy we make it our care and indeavour to preserve and adorn that life which depends on others and hath no subsistence but in ours and other mens fancy and so far doth this delusion prevail that what we our selves feel and know is nothing to us except others be acquainted with it From all these mischievous errors and deceptions of opinion we cannot be freed by the power of natural reason without the supernatural light of the Divine Grace enlighten our minds For our opinions become true or false according as is the light that guides us CHAP. XI That the Doctrine of Salvation is much slighted even by some that pretend to it 1. ALL knowledge is good that agrees with truth but he that would work out his salvation with fear and trembling had need learn first what concerns it because our time is short and great learning in other things is great trouble and great vanity It is the saying of S. James that to him that knows to do good and doth it not to him it is sin 4.17 As if he should say that it is ill to eat and not digest For as indigested meat nourisheth not but rather hurts so much knowledge not concocted and converted to use by the fire of holy charity fills men with pride and such peccant humors and at last ends in death These two things men are to care for whilst they are in this World first to keep the life of the Soul which consists in the grace and the favour of God and secondly to preserve their temporal life but for the first many are unconcern'd let what will become of the Soul their study and all their labour is that it may be well with the body And so they run blindfold after their lusts and sensual enjoyments being wise indeed as children of this world but having none of that wisdom which makes men wise unto Salvation 2. They that speak doubtfully and deceitfully are odious to men saith the Son of Sirach much more are they odious to God that live so whose very life is a lie as well as their words They pretend to know God and his holy ways and vainly boast to follow them when yet they go quite contrary they reprove and tutor others not themselves they cunningly dissemble their vices and make a shew of those virtues they are strangers to But they cannot deceive God who searcheth the heart and their hypocrisie cannot be hid from him who seeth the things that are in secret and at the last day will bring all to light And O that men would view their stains and imperfections in the great and eternal light of that terrible day for then they could easily discern and as easily cleanse and amend them We have but these two ways to take notice of our defects and deformities either in the light of our own reason comparing them to our selves or in the light of Divine Revelation bringing them forth before the bright and glorious presence of the most holy God The first is like a winter days light dim and cold but the second is the sun-shine of a summer-day so clear as to make the least mote visible and hot enough to burn and consume all our dross But to see this saving divine light a man must come out of himself and go to God in whom alone is truth and wisdome and out of whom all things are meer impostures and follies CHAP. XII That Self-will is a great Evil and must be renounc'd 1. ALL our actions contrary to God's will and in compliance to our own are the fewel for that fire which is unquenchable For self-will may be said to be the maker of Hell and the leader to it the Author of all the evils which eternally afflict all the wicked that rebell'd against God As likewise even in time the less a man follows his own will the farther he is from being miserable the nearer he comes to true happiness And he that hath wholly renounc'd to his own desires and inclinations hath the greatest assurance that can be had here of being eternally happy hereafter How this is to be done our Blessed Saviour taught us when he said follow me for he himself as he testified came not into the world to do his own will but the will of the Father that sent him so that to follow him we must follow his obedience forsake our own will to comply with his to follow him we must take up and bear his yoke and his Cross which to the flesh is indeed hard and afflictive but to the Spirit is comfortable and delicious 2. This our Christian profession doth require from us that in all our works and undertakings we may heartily say Not my will but Gods will be done This also is the design of the supreme eternal will of God in creating and preserving mens wills that they may freely serve him and in all things fulfil his good pleasure And truly it is the greatest and most blessed freedom to be in subjection to God to be able from our hearts to say in all events Even so Father for so it hath seemed good before thee My only will is Gods will may be done He is infinitely good and wise I freely resign my self to him and desire evermore to have an entire dependence on him and to be contented with all the disposals of his Providence and that in all things his blessed name may be glorified All mens troubles and vexations proceed from their unwillingness to submit to God for there is not a greater pain or grief than to be what we would not be CHAP. XIII Of the advantages of Solitariness and Retirement 1. TO be much alone in quiet silence and there to examine and instruct ones self is the way to have our senses and our thoughts well compos'd Therefore a wise man hates much talk and much company keeps his eyes close to curiosities and his ears to flying reports and cumbers not himself with too much of the world remembring the saying of wise Ben-Sirach that he shall become wise that hath little business Ecclus. 38.24 God is but one and he can best commune with God that dwells by himself And if a wise man be called
eyes and mind on that Original which he means to copy So should a follower of Christ in all his words and actions set before himself his Master's Life as the most perfect exemplar he is resolv'd to imitate and never to swerve from 2. Now he that professeth Christ and remains in him should walk as he walked carefully observe and follow the steps of his new and better Lord. For as whilest we remain in the state of Nature and follow its instinct we are Children of wrath and are slaves to Satan and to our own lusts so now we are redeem'd from that unhappy slavery by the bloud of Christ his Grace must be the principle of all our actions we must carefully follow him whose members we are 1 Cor. 15.47 The first man is of the Earth earthly the second man is the Lord from Heaven therefore as we have born the Image of the Earthy we should also bear the Image of the Heavenly making that our first and chiefest care that we walk worthy of our high calling as being led by his Spirit from whom we have our highest title for if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his saith the Apostle Rom. 8.9 3. Now he alone hath the Spirit of Christ whose outward and inward life that is whose actâ—ons and affections are according to the Pattern of Christ's blessed example who endeavours always to speak and act as Christ his Master did According as we are exhorted not to walk after the flesh but after the Spirit being created anew in Jesus Christ unto good works We should look unto the Rock whence we are hewn not living after the methods of depraved man but walking in the ways of that righteous God from whom we have our being that we being holy in all manner of conversation may be own'd to be the children of our Father which is in Heaven For he certainly is no child of God who is not led and sanctified by the Spirit of Christ CHAP. XVIII The Just liveth by faith not by the laws of flesh and bloud 1. FAith is to all virtues and to a Christian life the same thing as the root is to the tree the foundation to the building and the Spring to the fountain for it is the first lesson of Christianity from whence we learn all the rest there we must first begin and without it it is impossible to please God for the just lives by faith The Commendation Job gives to wisdom Chap. 28. is justly due to Faith Faith being the principle of it and likewise it is evident and granted by all wise men that Solomon's high Encomium of Wisdom doth but set forth the Divine excellencies of Faith Wisd 7. Gold in respect of her is as little sand and silver shall be counted as clay before her she is a treasure unto men that never faileth which they that use become the friends of God She is the brightness of the everlasting light the unspotted mirrour of the power of God and the Image of his goodness The doctrine of Faith apprehended by Faith teacheth us all Truth informs our Souls what we ought to love what to shun and what to pursue It teacheth us that what the world counts good is evil And that worldly calamities are good if indur'd patiently It teacheth us to despise things visible and temporal and all that which is for no use but to the material part of us It teacheth us to know God and to know our selves which is the true saving knowledge and the highest of our wisdome And it frees us from the pernicious errors of this foolish world and from its wretched slavery to make us wise unto salvation and set us at perfect liberty 2. There is a vast distance and great contrariety betwixt the instructions of faith and the customs of this present world but then Christ who delivers the first being ever true and infallible it is clearly our duty and interest to live by faith and not by sense to follow the holy light of our holy faith not the wicked example of this wicked world And withal 't is much to be observ'd that depraved as we now are there is nothing in us nothing in our nature but what is contrary to the principles of the Christian Faith and altogether destructive of them For 't is the constant dictate and endeavour of flesh and bloud and natural reason to procure by all means possible a well-being to our selves in this present world without taking any further care of a better life and a blessed Eternity This evil men have from Adam and from those lusts which reign in their mortal bodies and the best of men have still some cause to groan under the sense of it Rom. 7. The good that I would I do not and the evil which I hate that I do O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death St. Paul answers the Grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ will deliver us For by Grace we are sav'd from our blindness and impotency and enabled to see and chuse that which is good and to perform the same and the first and chiefest work of that grace is faith whereby we are united to Christ and receive a new life from him CHAP. XIX That Faith works in a Christian self-denyal and contempt of the World 1. GReat is the power and strength of Faith for it makes the faithful Christian to be as it self is unshaken and unmovable The true believer whose faith is lively and active regards and seeks nothing but God and in him alone finds light and peace delight and full satisfaction but in the world and in the sons of men he finds neither rest nor pleasure for in time of need there is no help in them They are like all other things under the Sun perishing and unstable so that he that relies on them must expect the same destiny whereas he that trusts on God who is unmoveable is established for ever As the Saints that see God as he is become like unto him so should our life express the holiness of our belief our actions should be a lively representation of what we see by faith and we should glory in nothing but in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ which to the lovers of this present world is a reproach and an offence 2. The first man indeed in the state of his innocence might have come to Bliss by a free and lawful use of those good creatures which God had prepar'd for him in the delights of Paradise but after he had rebel'd against God and infected his unborn posterity with sin the Divine Wisdom appointed another way to Bliss that is the way of the Cross and Self-denyal through which Christ himself past and appointed the same to all his followers saying Luke 9.23 If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross daily and follow me And again Luke 14.26 33.
oblig'd to observe The Divine are contain'd in the Ten Commandments and in the New Testament which contains the precepts of Faith Hope and Charity Faith obligeth all the Faithful to believe the doctrines of Christianity as they are sum'd up in our Creed By Hope we trust by the grace of God and our own sincere endeavour to obtain and use all necessary means of Grace and Eternal Life at last all which in this assurance we heartily beg in the Lord's Prayer And Charity requires of us to love God above all things and our Neighbour as our selves A Christian by these three virtues is made a new and holy creature Faith inlightens and directs his understanding Hope raiseth him up and sets his will at work for God and to God Charity unites him wholly It is also necessary to understand the necessity of Baptism and the Lord's Supper and true Repentance which are all Divine Institutions indispensably necessary to all that will be saved For except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Joh. 3.5 And Except we eat the flesh and drink the bloud of Christ we have no life in us Joh. 6.53 And as for Repentance it is the only remedy we have for the sins committed after Baptism that by it we may be made clean again 2. Lastly there are also Human Laws Enacted by the Church or the State we live in and them we are also to know and to observe with meekness and humility and for Conscience sake But no man of himself is able to keep all these Laws which God hath bound upon us none can obey them without the true light from above enlighten and guide him as it is written Psal 94.12 Blessed is the man whom thou chastnest O Lord and teachest him in thy Law For ever since sin came into the World men without the light of Faith sit in darkness and the shadow of death and take an account of good and evil not by the measures of truth but by their lusts and depraved passions We must therefore earnestly beg the divine assistance that he that commands what he wills would enable us to do what he hath commanded healing our blindness and impotency destroying self-love and filling our hearts with devout love to him for the end of the Commandment is Charity and he that truly loves God keepe his Commandments without hypocrisie or reservation CHAP. XXXIV The difference betwixt the outward and the inward man 1. OUR Christian hope is not for this World nor for this present time and we were not created to enjoy that Earthly happiness which the World only seeks but God made us for that Eternal Bliss which he hath promised and whose excellency we cannot as yet understand For eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither is it entred into the heart of man what things God hath prepared for them that love him We therefore that are called to the possession of that Kingdom which was prepared for us from the beginning of the World ought not to govern our selves only by human reasons and live by natural instincts after the common manner of men who are unacquainted with the ways of Eternity and the motions of Divine Grace But happy are they that wisely dive into the depth of things who live to God and commune with him in their hearts and suffer not their thoughts and affections to range and dwell abroad 2. These men live an inward life they are recollected and dwell at home always disposed to hear Gods voice within them and to understand his secrets Whereas they live an outward life that are most affected with outward things having fair pretences for their worldly-mindedness being greedy of news and curious sights and sensual pleasures walking saith the Apostle Eph. 4.17 in the vanity of their minds alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them For the more a man profits in carnal wisdom the more ignorant he becomes in the things of God As much as we love the creatures as much we lessen our love to the Creator CHAP. XXXV How dangerous it is to be governed by opinion and false apprehension of things 1. HE is a wise man that weighs things justly and then esteems them according to their intrinsick value for every thing in the world hath a twofold aspect or a double face the one natural and real and the other disguised and fallacious The first is what God judgeth and hath revealed it to be and the second depends on mens passions and false opinions Thus for Example the Dignity of a Bishop is in effect and according to Gods appointment a high and Angelic office of such a weight as should make human strength tremble and shrink under it it is a place of great honour but also it requires the greatest labour and diligence to watch for the Souls intrusted with the dignified Prelat who shall give a strict account for them in the day of judgment But in the Worlds account a Bishoprick is only a degree of honour in the Church which promotes the owner of it to riches and greatness and temporal advantages Hence it is that they that rightly apprehend what the office is fear and avoid it and are so far from seeking that they refuse it when offer'd and it is much to be feared that they follow the worlds judgements and seek themselves that seek it and make it their aim and the object of their passionate desires The same may be said of all other dignities and places of trust in Church and State Generally men have a wrong notion of them and understand not their definition and hence the confusions and malvorsations that are in the world that men mistake things and hate truth and will not see nor follow divine light but the darkness of their own perverse hearts 2. Such names are commonly used amongst men as are consecrated by the Bloud of Christ and the highest virtues of his greatest Saints as that some be called Bishops Priests Deacons Monks or Hermits Some Kings Princes and Magistrates and all together Christians but who is there that duly considers the great worth the strength and true significations of those names what virtues what perpetual care what duties they require from such as bear them the bare Titles with a vain shadow of the things remain but the reality and significancy of them is vanish'd few men are in truth what they call themselves few live according to the name of Christian because few make it their first care to follow the example of Christ This unhappy deceit is also an effect of the first and worst of evils Self-love the most crafty deceiver hardly found out by the wisest and seldome quite conquer'd by the best of men 3. The truth is that the good and evil things of this present life are so mixt and confused that if we take an exact view of the nature of them we shall hardly discern the one
audible voices to the ears The pleasure which those senses receive from a beautiful sight or a sweet harmony may be called their life and their death or mortification in proportion to this is their being deprived of those objects whereon they act with delight which deprivation is very useful if not altogether requisite to arrive to a state of vertue and sanctification For nothing is more destructive of a Christian Life than a life of sense the imagination being as it were in the middle betwixt the soul and the senses when these work upon her as they are moved by outward objects she likewise works upon the soul and draws it to assent to the voluptuousness of lower faculties and this is not to be avoided without we bar our senses by a strict restraint from those things which affect them with sinful delights 3. In this consists the death of sense which is to be considered as twofold the first Natural when there is such a real separation betwixt sense and its object that they cannot possibly meet The second Moral when sense perceives but enjoys not its object being restrain'd from the pleasure of it The first some judge to be less difficult and more safe it being easier to avoid all occasions of sinful pleasure than to keep a due moderation when we ingage in them but in this discretion and due measures are to be observ'd The second is accordingly thought to be more dangerous because sensual pleasures are very inticing and insinuating and are known by sad experience to have a great prevalency over the Soul and nobler affections 4. And then farther it is to be consider'd that we suckt the poyson of voluptuousness together with our milk from our very infancy we learn'd to indulge sense and though we have often experimented that its delights and satisfactions are short and vain and unsatisfying and withal pernicious and highly afflictive to the Soul yet still we have the same notions of them they stick close to our mind and those pleasing though false apprehensions which first entred our hearts will not be rectified nor be gone till we have a long time used serious reflections and considerations till by many acts of self-denyal and contrary virtue we have imprinted in our minds the true principles of Christianity God is a Spirit and a spiritual life is the way to him to chastize and restrain the fancy to keep under the body and be guided by divine precepts is the way to spiritualize our selves and to come to God CHAP. VII Of denying our Sensual appetites especially Intemperance 1. IT is no difficult matter for a man who truly loves and fears God and studies to please him to despise and forsake all worldly pleasures pomps and vanities but to abstain from all food is not to be done for by it our bodies are rescued from death and the necessity of it returns upon us daily But because there is something of delight in the satisfying of this need there is danger also lest luxury mingle with it and pleasure which may follow after be the leading cause to our refection therefore though we cannot wholly forbear eating and drinking yet we must take great heed of the voluptuousness of it that necessity be not the pretence and pleasure the design of eating Nature is satisfied with a little but greediness or daintiness are always craving and sometimes we know not whether want or wantonness call for food and we are glad and willing to mistake that we may have an occasion to gratifie the unruly appetite In these we must daily watch our selves because these temptations do daily return and we must diet our selves with such moderation that we may nourish our bodies and not feed our lusts Plain abstemious and frugal food is the health of Soul and Body and he that pampers not his flesh by the quality or quantity of his meat and drink may easily master all carnal desires 2. To seek after feasts and dainties and to make them the matter of our discourse and our meditation is the part of an Epicure of one whose God is his belly and who minds earthly things but a Christian should be indeed and also live as a penitent pressing necessity should bring him to his table and thither he should come as if bread and water were his onely allowance that whatever is superadded may relish better and he may be more content and thankful and also moderate This we might easily do if we would duly consider how abstemious primitive Christians were how much our blessed Lord fasted and how for us he tasted vinegar and gall This if we would often call to mind and seriously set our selves to the imitation of their Blessed examples our conversation would be in Heaven and our thoughts would be far enough from dwelling in caves and kitchins As for the other fleshly lusts which also war against the Soul all occasions to them are to be avoided and idleness also a strict watch over our senses must be kept the rules of a severe modesty must be observed and especially we must shun all frequent and familiar converse with the other Sex for this without our knowledge and against our will kindles a dangerous and secret fire And lastly we must take great heed that we be not confident of our selves for in such a slippery way he is in some manner already fallen that fears not to fall CHAP. VIII Of Talkativeness and Silence 1. THE Evils of the tongue are past number therefore saith the wise man Prov. 10.19 In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin but he that restraineth his lips is wise Indeed talkativeness is a fountain and a torrent of iniquity It is a mark of ignorance it betrays much folly and is a great enemy to serious thoughts and recollection Mens words for the most part proceed from something of Pride for they commonly speak to teach others and to shew their own wisdom and great parts Every one thinks he knows much and to make it appear and be thought somebody he commonly outs with more than he knows As bad air drawn in doth in time affect infect the body so doth the breath of many words much prejudice the Soul It dissolves the spirit and breeds quarrels and contentions and utters lies and detractions and brings forth loose unseemly jesting and jeering and evils of all sorts In vain doth he indeavour to be devout and to have peace within who doth not refrain his tongue and set a watch before his lips In vain doth he endeavour to amend himself that censures and speaks ill of others This is a snare wherein many are caught to be indulgent to themselves and severe to others to boast and magnifie what is theirs and slight as much what relates to others Few there are that wholly renounce to this vice few that lead so uncorrupt a life as not willingly to tax others corruptions The propensity to this sin is so great that many counted good Christians
and well-being hath set these bounds to our affections that we should love him with all our heart and with all our Soul that we should consecrate to the service of that Love our understanding our life and all our powers and that if we love any thing else it be in reference and in subordination to him that deserves all our Love and should be the master and disposer of it The love of God must therefore lead the way to what else we should love it must always prevail and be the rule of all our affections and then we cannot love nor do amiss CHAP. XXXV Of the Necessity and Measures of Loving our Neighbour 1. WE cannot love God as we should without we love our Neighbour neither can we love our Neighbour except we love God If any man saith I love God and hateth his Brother he is a liar for he that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen and this commandment have we from him that he who loveth God loveth his Brother also 1 Joh. 4.20 The Commandment makes no exception though the man be poor though he be a stranger nay though he be vicious and thine enemy yet he is thy Neighbour and thy Brother and he must be lov'd The expressions of thy love may vary according to his needs and thine opportunities Yet they must be hearty real and effective for The End of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure heart and of a good Conscience and of Faith unfained 1 Tim. 1.5 And we must not love in word neither in tongue but in deed and in truth 1 Joh. 3.18 2. As Christ loved us and gave himself for us not that we deserv'd any love but because he lov'd God and us in God to whom he purchast us so must we love all men not for ours or their sakes but for God's sake having no further regard to what is good in them than only as it relates to God True Christians are so strictly united together by love that what one hath not in himself he with joy finds it in others and what one hath more than the rest he willingly imparts it to all As by our love to God we are united and in some manner become one spirit with him so by the mutual love of men of Christians especially they become one among themselves so that what one hath to himself is for the good of all and what one hath not in himself he hath and enjoys in others Thus love is the fulfilling of the Law and the fulfilling of all Righteousness According as is the mans Charity in the beginning progress or perfection so is his goodness and his righteousness and then most perfect in this life when even life it self is parted with for love 3. The modus or measure of love to our Neighbour is twofold positive and negative First To do to him as we would he should do to us Secondly And not to deal with him any otherwise than as we would he should deal with us Every one therefore in the sight of God to whom all things are known must consider seriously what he would others should do or not do to him and if he desires others should he patient towards him and bear with his faults and infirmities and speak well of him c. Then let him be careful to do so to others 'T is a sure indication of a perverse heart for a man in a private capacity to do that to another which he should be sorry to suffer himself A good Christian doth not inquire into the manners and faults of others but leaves them to his view and correction to whom all judgment is given He examines judgeth and punisheth himself and makes self-reformation his serious and constant business Whatever he sees or hears his mind is undisturb'd and abides in peace for if it be good he praiseth God if evil he turns it to good by turning his mind from it towards God in Prayers and Resignation 4. If his Office and Charity obligeth him to reprove and to correct others he doth it with a zeal sweet and benign and compassionate to his Brothers infirmity for roughness and ungovern'd passion cannot consist with Charity If the ill actions of others are capable of an excuse he excuseth them however he censures not knowing that nothing human is so perfect and holy but may be ill interpreted and at the best may be some way defectuous enough to be liable to reprehension if carping men let loose their censorious humors Whilst men are men they will have some imperfections and to be zealous against them is under pretence of preciseness to give way to peevish impatience or proud censoriousness He that is too busie to tax and judge others will never grow better himself CHAP. XXXVI True Friendship and the true Offices of it 1. FRiendship is the communion of good things and therefore it follows the nature of those things which friends have common Now there being nothing truly good but things supernatural and eternal true friendship must consist in the communication of these mutually Hence it is that carnal friendship is soon dissolved because things of sense cannot last nor always confine the spirit whereas spiritual friendship is never broken for though it may seem to be interrupted by little angers and contentions yet true piety and the love of God sweetens the harshness of them and keeps the knot indissoluble As for that friendship which too much sets our hearts upon any person and may be called Doting it should be stifled and avoided as being mischievous and it is to be known by these tokens when the party belov'd is always in our thoughts and we can never be well without him when we fear his displeasure above all things when in him we rest as in our center and we sacrifice to him all our actions and most important concerns And let none flatter themselves that this is pure innocent friendship without any self-interest for it is altogether sensual it depraves the heart and affections it is an enemy to all wisdom and true Religion and it begins and ends in the flesh and 't is to be observ'd that this kind of friendship is never betwixt persons truly good and vertuous 2. Men of real worth are always well composed grave and of a sweet deportment they are courteous to all but they are familiar to few and they flatter none in their conversation modesty discretion an exact justice and an unaffected severity is to be observed They seek not to make a shew outwardly their life is inward and secret they live to God and to their own conscience They fairly converse with men outwardly when it is fitting but their heart cleaves to God and they will not disturb themselves with the silly impertinencies or petty concerns of the world Their designs and affections differ much from the vulgar multitude and therefore their words and actions are guided with