in which no Defect or Blemish can be discerned perfect in the variety and Number of its Powers in the fitness and Measure of every power in the use and value of every Endowment A perfect Soul is that whereunto nothing can be added to please our Deâ—â—re As all its Objects are perfect so 〈◊〉 it self It is able to see all that is to be seen to love all that is Lovely to hate all that is Hateful to desire all that is Desirable to honour all that is Honorable to esteem all that can be valued to delight in all that is Delightful and to enjoy all that is Good and fit to be enjoyed If its Power did fall short of any one Object or of any one Perfection in any Object or of any Degree in any Perfection it would be imperfect it would not be the Master piece of Eternal Power PERFECT life is the full exertion of perfect power It implies two things Perfection of Vigour and perfection of intelligence an activity of life reaching through all Immensity to all Objects whatsoever and a freedome from all Dulness in apprehending An exquisite Tenderness of perception in feeling the least Object and a Sphere of activity that runs parallel with the Omnipresence of the Godhead For if any Soul lives so imperfectly as to see and know but some Objects or to love them remisly and less then they deserve its Life is imperfect because either it is remisse or if never so fervent confined PERFECT Fruition as it implieâ— the Perfection of all objects more nearly imports the intrinsick Perfection oâ— it s own Operations For if its Object be never so many and perfect in themselves a Blemish lies upon the Enjoyment if it does not reach unto all their Excellence If the Enjoyment of one Object be lost or one Degree of the enjoyment abated it is imperfect PERFECT Vertue may best be understood by a consideration of its Particulars Perfect Knowledg is a thorow compleat understanding of all that may be Known Perfect Righteousness is a full and adequate Esteem of all the value that is in Things It is a Kind of Spiritual Justice whereby we do Right to our selves and to all other Beings If we render to any Object less than it deserves we are not Just thereunto Perfect Wisdome is that whereby we chuse a most perfect end actualy pursue it by most perfect Means acquire and enjoy it in most perfect manner If we pitch upon an inferiour end our Wisdom is imperfect and so it is if we pursue it by feeble and inferior Means or neglect any one of those Advantages whereby we may attain it And the same may be said of all the Vertues NOW if all Objects be infinitely Glorious and all Worlds fit to be enjoyed if GOD has filled Heaven and earth and all the Spaces above the Heavens with innumerable pleasures if his infinite Wisdome Goodness and Power be fully Glorified in every Being and the Soul be created to enjoy all these in most perfect Manner we may well conclude with the Holy Apostle that we are the children of GOD and if Children then Heirs Heirs of GOD and joynt heirs with Christ if so be that we suffer with him that we may also be glorified together That our light Affliction that is but for a Moment worketh out for us a far more exceeding and eternal Weight of Glory That beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord we shall at last be transformed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. For all his Works of which the Psalmist saith They are worthy to be had in remembrance and are sought out of all them that have pleasure therein are like a Mirror wherein his Glory appeareth as the face of the Sun doth in a clear fountain We may conclude further that Vertue by force of which we attain so great a Kingdome is infinitely better then Rubies all the Things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her So that with unspeakable comfort we may take Courage to go on not only in the study but the Practice of all kind of Vertues concerning which we are to treat in the ensuing Pages For as the Apostle Peter telleth us He hath given to us all things that pertain to Life and Godliness through the Knowledge of him that hath called us to Glory and virtue whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious Promises that by these you might be Partakers of the Divine Nature having escaped the Corruption that is in the World through List. And besides this saith he giving all diligence adde to your Faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness Charity For so an Entrance shall be Ministred to you abundantly into 〈◊〉 everlasting Kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Which Kingdom being so Divine and Glorious as it is we have need to bow our Knees to the GOD and father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named that he would grant us according to the Riches of his Glory to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inward Man that Christ may dwell in our Hearts by Faith that we being rooted and grounded in Love may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the Breadth and Length and Depth and Height and to know the love of Christ which passeth Knowledg that we may be filled with all the fulness of GOD. TO be Partaker of the Divine nature to be filled with all the Fulness of GOD to enter into his Kingdom and Glory to be transformed into his Image and made an Heir of GOD and a joynt Heir with Christ to live in Union and Communion with GOD and to be made a Temple of the Holy Ghost these are Divine and transcendent things that accompany our Souls in the Perfection of their Bliss and Happiness the Hope and Belief of all which is justified and made apparent by the explanation of the very nature of the Soul its Inclinations and Capacities the reality and greatness of those Vertues of which we are capable and all those objects which the Univers affordeth to our Contemplation CHAP. III. Of Vertue in General The Distribution of it into its several Kinds its Definition BEfore we come to treat of particular Vertues it is very fit that we speak something of VERTUE in General VERTUE is a comprehensive Word by explaining which we shall make the way more easy to the right Understanding of all those particular Vertues into which it is divided Forasmuch as the Nature of Vertue enters into knowledge Faith Hope Charity Prudence Courage Meekness Humility Temperance Justice Liberality c. Every one of these hath its essence opened in part by the explication of that which entreth its Nature which is VERTUE in General THE Predicament of
and Eternities we render all Things their Due we reap the Benefit of all we are Just and Wise and Holy we are Grateful to GOD and Amiable in being so We are not divided from but united to him in all his Appearances Thoughts Counsels Operations we adorn our souls with the Beauty of all objects whatsoever are transformed into the Image of GOD live in communion with him nay live in him and he in us are made Kings and Priests unto GOD and his sons forever There is an exact and pleasant Harmony between us and all the Creatures We are in a Divine and spiritual Manner made as it were Omnipresent with all Objects for the Soul is present only by an Act of the understanding and the Temple of all Eternity does it then becom when the Kingdom of GOD is seated within it as the world is in the Eye while it lives and feels and sees and enjoyes in every object to which it is extended it s own its objects Perfection IF by our voluntary Remisness or Mistake or Disorder we dote upon one Object or suffer some few things to engage our Souls so intirely as to forget and neglect all the rest we rob all those we desert of their due Esteem and abridge our selves of that Liberty and Extent wherein the greatness of our soul consisteth As if the Sun that is made to shine upon all the World should withdraw its Beams from the Stars and the Heavens and chuse to shine upon nothing else but a Spire of Grasse a grain of Dust or a little sand We lose innumerable Objects and confine our selves to the Love of one by sacrificing all our Affection to that become guilty of Idolatry in one respect of Atheism in another For we elevate that Creature which we love alone into the place of GOD and we rob the Creator of that supream affection which is due unto him And in so doing bereave our selves of the Sovereign Object in the fruition of which all the rest are happily enjoyed Thus when a man so Loveth his Wife or Children as to despise all mankind he forfeits his Interest in all Kingdoms and the Beauty of all Ages is taken from his Eys his Treasures are contracted and his Felicity is maimed and made Defective When a Covetous man doteth on his Bags of Gold the Ambitious on Titles of Honor the Drunkard on his Wine the Lustful Goat on his Women the foolish Hector on his Dice and Duels they banish all other Objects and live as absurdly as if a King should relinquish his Crown and confine his Thoughts and Care to a Country Mannor I will not deny but that there are many Disorders and Evils in the World many Deformities Sins and Miseries but I say two things first that in the Estate of innocency wherein all things proceeded purely from GOD there was no Sin nor sickness nor Death nor Occasion of Complaint or Calamity Secondly that all the Evils that are now in the world men brought on themselves by the Fall And there is great need of distinguishing between the works of GOD and the works of men For all that GOD did is Lovely and Divine nothing is bitter and distasteful but what we have done himself surveyed the whole Creation and pronounced concerning every Thing that it was exceeding Good So that he was in all his Works an Object of Complacency To these we add two Considerations more That of all the Evils and Mischeifs which men have introduced there is not one left uncorrected in his Kingdome Secondly that GOD bringeth Order out of Confusion Light out of Darkness Good out of Evil and by a Providence irresistable and a Power infinite so limiteth and divideth all that even Evils themselves become the Matter of his Victory the Ground of his Triumph They are all improved and he makes the Greatest Evils Objects of Joy and Glory NOW if all Things before GOD are fit to be enjoyed all Good Things perfect all Evil overcome if without any Change of Place or Scituation all Things are naked and open before his Eyes and there be no Walls to exclude or Skreens to hide no Gulph to pass nor Distance to over come but all things equally neer and fair there is some Hope that the same Felicity is prepared for the soul which is made in his Image and that every thing being fit for GOD is full of infinite Depth and Beauty For which Cause St. John being in Spirit saw all the Kingdomes of the World become the Kingdomes of the Lord and of his Christ and heard every Creature which is in Heaven and on the Earth and under the Earth and such as are in the Sea and all that is in them saying Blessing and Honor and Glory and Power be unto him that Sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb for evermore This we are the rather induced to believe because the Faithful Servant is commaned to enter into the Joy of his Lord and our Masters Joys are the Rewards of Believers Our Savionr telleth us his Lord will make his Wise Servant Ruler over all his Goods in one-place and over all that he hath in another TO see beyond all Seas and through all interposing Skreens and Darknesses is the Gift of the Understanding and to be able to Love any Object beyond the Skies any Thing that is Good from the Centre of the Earth to the Highest Heavens is the Property of the Soul which it exerciseth here by Parts and Degrees but shall at once exert at the Day of Consummation The Infinity of the Father in the Son the Godhead of the Son in the Holy Ghost will entirely be enjoyed IT is the Glory of man that his Avarice is insatiable and his Ambition infinite that his Appetite carries him to innumerable Pleasures and that his Curiosity is so Endless that were he Monarch of the World it could not satisfie his Soul but he would be curiously inquisitive into the original and End of Things and be concerned in the Nature of those that are beyond the Heavens For having met with an infinite Benefactor he would not be sit for his Bounty could any finite Object satisfie his Desire and for this Cause is his Reason so inquisitive to see whether every thing be Delightful to his Essence which when he findeth agreable to his Wish and to exceed his Imagination it is impossible to declare how his Avarice and Ambition will both rejoyce how much his Appetite will be satisfied and his Curiosity delighted To sit in the Throne of GOD and to enjoy Communion with him in those Things which neither Eye hath seen nor Ear heard nor hath it entered into the Heart of Man to conceive is no mean thing the Advancement is infinitely Greater then we are able to understand No young man can gaze upon a Beauteous face with greater Pleasure no Epicures Sence he ravished with more Delight than that which he apprehends in so Glorious a fruition THE very sight of
Despair has comfort and refreshment answerable to it in infinite Hope 'T is the present food and Support of our Lives 't is the Anchor of our Souls in the midst of all the Storms and Tempests in the World 't is the foretaste of Bliss and Coelestial Glory a Glympse and Appearence of the Beatifick Vision without which to Live is to Dye and to Dye is to perish for evermore THE Great Reason for which a right Hope is accounted so Great a Vertue is because its Objects do really surpass all Imagination The fulness of the GODHEAD in the Soul of Man the Perfection of the Divine Image a Transformation for Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord Communion with the Father Son and Holy Ghost infinite Love and Bounty the Estate of a Bride in Communion with GOD the Possession of his Throne with another Kind of sweetness then the Bridegroom himself enjoys the Resurrection of the Body and Life Eternal in a Kingdome where all Occasions of Tears and Fears shall ever be removed Where all Regions and Ages and Spaces and Times and Eterternities shall be before our Eys and all Objects in all Worlds at once Visible and infinitely Rich and Beautiful and Ours Our very Appetites also being ravished with Sensible Pleasures in all our Members not inconsistent with but springing from these high and Supeperior Delights not distracting or confounding our Spiritual Joys but purely Superadded and increasing the same while our Bodies are made like to his most Glorious Body by that Almighty Power whereby he is able to subdue All Things to himself all these infuse their Value and the Hope that is exercised about these Things is a Vertue so great that all inferior Hopes which this doth Sanctifie are made Vertues by it but without this all other Hopes are Debasements and Abuses of the Soul meer Distractions and delusions and therefore Vices I Know very well that Presumption and Despair are generally accounted the Extreams of Hope and the only vices that are Opposite thereunto But I Know as well that there may be many Kinds and Degrees of Hope of which so me may be vicious and some Vertuous and that some sorts of Hope themselves are Vices When ever we make an inferior Desire the Sovereign Object of our Hope our Hope is abominable Idolatrous and Atheistical We forget GOD and magnifie an inferior Object above all that is Divine To Sacrifice all our Hopes to Things unworthy of them or to be Remiss and sluggish in Hoping for Things of infinite Importance is apparently Vicious But to be just to all our Encouragements and to lift up our Eys to the Eternal GOD with an humble Expectation to wait upon him and to hope for all that from his Bounty which his Goodness has promised to desire the most high and perfect Proofs of his Love is the Property of a most Great and Noble Soul by which it is carried above all the World and fitted for the Life of the most high and perfect Vertue CHAP. XVII Of Repentance It s Original its Nature it is a Purgative Vertue It s necessity its Excellencies The measure of that sorrow which is due to Sin is intollerable to Sense confessed by Reason and dispensed with by mercy REPENTANCE is a Sowre and austere Kind of Vertue that was not created nor intended by GOD but introduced by Sin made fair by Mercy in remitting the offence and pardoning the Sin It is a Strange Kind of off-spring which flows from Parents so infinitely different and has a mixture in its Nature answerable to either an Evil which it derives from Sin and a Goodness which flows from Mercy It s Evil is that of Sorrow Indignation and Shame Its Goodness is the usefulness and necessity of the thing considering the Condition we are now in It is highly ingrateful to Sence but transcendently convenient and amiable to Reason for it is impossible for him that has once been defiled with sin ever to be cleansed or to live after in a Vertuous manner unless he be so ingenious as to lament his Crime as to loath acknowledge and detest his Error THE Union of the Soul and Body is mysterious but that Sin and Mercy should be united as Causes so infinitely different for the production of a Child so Black and so Beautiful is the Greattest Wonder which the Soul can contemplate on this side Heaven and will continue to be remembred for ever and appear more Wonderful than before when the perfect Disparity and Opposition between them is clearly seen in the Light of Glory THE Efficient Cause of Repentance is either Remote or Immediate It s immediate Efficient Cause is the Gracious Inclination or the Will of the Penitent its remote Efficient is GOD the Father of Lights from which every Good and Perfect Gift descended It s Material Cause is Sorrow It s Formal Cause which makes it a Vertue is the Reason and Manner of that Sorrow the Equity and Piety wherewith it is attended containing many ingredients in its Nature too long a particular to be described here It s Final Cause is either immediate or ultimate the first is Amendment the last Salvation BEING thus bounded by its Causes its Definition is Easie Repentance is a Grace or Christian Vertue wherein a man confesses hates and forsakes his Sin with Grief that he hath been Guilty of it and purposes of Amendment of Life in Order to His Peace and Reconciliation with GOD that he may answer the Obligations that lye upon him discharge his Duty lay hold on the Advantages of GODS Mercy escape everlasting Damnation and be made a Partaker of Eternal Glory AMONG the Vertues some are Purgative and some are Perfective The Purgative Vertues are all Preparatory to Bliss and are occasioned only by the Disorder of the Soul the perfective are Essential to our formal Happiness and Eternally necessary by the Law of Nature Repentance is not in its own Nature If Simply and absolutely considered necessary to Bliss But in Relation to Sinners it is as necessary as Physick to the Recovery of Health or as the Change it self is by which we pass from the Distemper we are Sick of to the right and Sound Estate which we had lost by the Disease As the malady is accidental so is the Cure For the Nature of Man may be well and perfect without either this or the other He that is originally pure has no need of a Purgative Vertue but he that is faln defiled musts needs rise and wash away the filth before he can be clean FOR this Cause even among the Heathens themselves the more Knowing and Learned have a Conscience of Sin their Priests and Philosophers devised several Rites and Manners of Purgation which they taught and imposed on their Disciples with much Circumstance and Ceremony in order to their Reception Nor was there any Temple or Religion in the World that pretended not something to Diviner Mysteries Which were graced beautified