have happened to me have faln out to the furtherance of my liberty in Christ Philippians Chapter the first Verse the twelfth I shall not then endeavor to write the Laudative but rather the Life of Solitude in which the intermixtures of Good and Ill are co-incident to one another And though I do not pretend the measures of my minde should exactly fit many others yet the matter of my propositions which is Vertue and Piety will endure the taking to pieces and translating into many good Forms according to the sizes of several Dispositions In God there is this inexplicable Mystery there is Unity and Singleness without Solitude for out of the Singularity of the Divine Essence there is a Natural Fecundity and Emanation of a Plurality of Persons in which consists Gods incapacity of solitariness for without this connatural Society Divines affirm God might be said to be solitary even in the middest of all his Creations as Man was said to be alone among all the Creatures of Paradice before he had a Consort of his own Nature We need not stay any longer in this Mountain of the Divine Essence clouded and overshadowed with this Mystery of a TRINITY in UNITY it is sufficient that it afford us but so much Light as to shew That Solitude is not consonant to the Nature of Man as he is GODS Image and so provision was quickly made for that supply after the singleness of his Creation We must resort then to some Supernatural intervention that may mediate between Mans Nature and the Nature of Solitude when he is reduced to it and thereby acquaint him with another kinde of society when he is sequestred from that which is so familiar to him Thus as it were rather translating his communication into another language then razing out the impression in him of the love of company And this is to change the nature of his society and not the sociableness of his Nature §. II. Solitude divided into three sorts and the first discoursed of ME thinks all the states of Solitude may be pertinently divided into these three sorts of Voluntary Violent and Neutral The first is the operation of a Super natural agent upon Mans Will which works upon it as the Wise man says Forcibly and sweetly drawing our mindes out of the world in such a gentle soft separation as vapors are extracted out of the earth while the vertue of the heavenly Spirit attracts our Will out of grosser immersions in the earth unto the pure speculation of Divine objects the grace of such evocations falling as the Psalmist saith like dew upon a fleece So as this egress out of the society of the world may be nominated supernatural in the means though voluntary in the act The next is when any exterior natural agent forcibly deprives us of the liberty of all society and this may often be just in order to the general society of the world which is maintained sometimes by violences exercised on particulars but is always offensive to the nature of Man And so I term this sort of Solitude Violent The third which I state as Neutral is a mixture and compound between the aptness and constitution of particular natures and some exterior intervention of violence and offence to that humor by which we are most affected to the world as a defeature of some hope whereunto our mindes were most applyed or some loss of what our affections had made an intire transaction of themselves unto or some injury above our reach of any reparation and many the like violations of our mindes in the world upon which we break off correspondence with it And this condition of Solitariness I call Neutral as having somewhat of both the other states of Voluntary and Violent for both these qualities concur to the composure of this kinde of separation from Society For the first sort of these Solitudes which I call Voluntary that part of it which is disagreeable to the instinct of Nature is reconciled by the mediation of the Author of Nature who nourisheth the mindes he calls ouâ— into this Desert with lighter and more Spiritual society which he showers down from Heaven upon them as the Psalmist says Man feeds upon the bread of Angels Prayer and Meditation which associates his Spirit to such company as he thinks he hath rather one body too much with him then want of any There are many of the children of Abraham whom God calls as he did their Father summoning them by his voyce to come out of their Countrey from their Kindred and from their Fathers house unto a Land that he will shew them and to this citation many do faithfully answer quitting the Native Region of all their Inclinations the habitudes of Flesh and Blood which are so near of kin to them and all the sweetnesses of communication and solaces of company which are the domesticks of their Fathers house and the familiars of our Humane Nature and separating themselves from all these in 〈…〉 e appâ—tencies take their journey into the strange Region of Solitude privacy and recluseness and when the Soul like the Psalmists Spouse shall thus forget her own people and her fathers house then the King shall be in love with her beauty and then this delectation of the Soul in our Lord confers all the petitions of the heart upon it When God makes these extraordinary selections and vocations to this passage through the Desert unto the Land of Promise he spreads a Cloud over them by day which shadows them from all the ardors of their sensitive appetite and sets up a pillar of Fire before them in the night of that fire which Christ came to bring into the earth that illuminateth all the obscurities whereunto our Nature is subject in the ecclipâ—e of Society and warmeth and cherisheth that shivering chilness wherewith our Nature is so apt to be benumb'd in the privation of the elementary light and heat of our Nature which is Communication and Society This holy fire that accompanies them doth not onely as the Psal mist says Make their night as day to them but even the devesture of themselves their solace and delectation and by the same degrees that they are severed and discharged of themselves they are replenished with that Society which entertaineth them with that joy wherein the fingleness is the universality of it for it is never all things to any heart but when it is there alone This is the peace of Christ exulting in our hearts And in Colloss 3. 15. this Society is the whole Trinity which as the Prophet says Leads first into solitude and then speaks to the heart as though it would have nothing but the heart it self present at this entertainment Such passengers as are truly led by this conduct have for their Viatick that hidden Manna given them which is promised in the Revelation in which they finde the several tastes of all their inclinations the relish of the
instrument sized and fitted to worke upon our natures and he who was the best Moral Chymick that ever wrought upon the matter of temporallities by the experiments of all fruitions extracted this as the quintessence of them all Vanity of vanities all is vanity under the sunne and vexation of spirit Here then is the product and summe of all our loves and fruitions in this world and after this convincing manifest of the worthlesnesse of all other creatures alas how much a more deplorable conviction hath he left us of the vanity of man by his owne fall and prevarication when in the splendor of all this light of verity a few fading colours in a womans face dazel'd even his Eagles eyes and so his blindnesse and infatuation is become a clearer evidence of the infirmity of mans nature then even all the beames of his illuminating pen. They who will look attentively upon this naked image of Solomon need no other character of our humanity there they shall discover all that the world accounts the security of happynesse to be the likeliest betrayers of it For he whose knowledge exceeded the stock of nature and whose possessions were equall with all natures provisions may be said to have fallen by the weight of his felicities how infirme a thing then is man that cannot carrie even his own wishes without falling under them when he is charged with their successes for alas how much doth familiar evidence attest this truth that man in honour becomes like the beast that perisheth May not our carnall nature then be justly discredited to us by considering that our life is either a perplexity of wishes or a perversion of successes and this convincing evidence which common experience offereth proveth what Solomon sayes that this is the affliction which God hath given to the sons of men to exercise them in it since indeed this world is but a stage for their wrastling and contention And if we look upon our nature in the exercise and triall of it in the other extream of affliction we shall finde their feeblenesse even in those pillars that were the strongliest supported by grace namely Elias who seemed to have had so little mixture of the elements in his nature as he is called by the holy spirit a fire and a burning light yet even he in his fiery triall had so much earth about him as to faint under his carriage and to cry out to be delivered even of his life as of a burthen thus strong was that little weakness of our nature he had about him holy Jer. who seemes to have brought none but holy earth out of his mothers wombe by the testimony of his sanctification in it yet even this sanctified oare had so much drosse found in it when the burning fire was shut up in his bones as to run over even into the cursing the day of his birth and to prepose his mothers being a tombe for him before a deliverer of him into that light wherein he saw so much misery and affliction May we not well say then in reference to that of Solomon if the best men on earth make this confession of the misery of their nature what doe the worst and the most depraved Thus have we seene frailty and infirmity of our corrupted nature taken from the best figures of it in diverse postures of temporall felicity and affliction and we perceive that in one state it is so unhappily disposed as the pronenesse of it to ingratitude is raised by the very degrees of obligations and benefits it receiveth Insomuch as the plenty of temporall blessings proves often an over-ballancing even of the power of abundant grace as we see manifested in the infidelityes of Solomon and againe we find in the other triall how the weight of sufferance boweth and deflects a little even the strongest pillars of humanity among which we doe bring in Saint Pauls deposition of this truth where we make upon all these surveys this his reflection O wretched man who shall deliver thee from this body of death and corruption But we are not so miserable as not to have a present answer to this sad question the grace of God by Jesus Christ our Lord. Wherefore let us goe on and look upon our nature as it is Deified in him and as the other representations might make us lament our birth with Job upon our dunghill so this aspect of it in the person of Christ may recall us to rejoyce with Zachary in the Temple and allow our nature this selfe-ascription justly assumed by the second organ of the reparation thereof henceforth all generations shall call me blessed this assumption may be well allowed our nature when we look upon it with S. Paul not living in it selfe but Christ living in it The second Treatise The reparation of Humane Nature divided into two Sections §. I. Treating the admirable meanes God chose for this worke and the rehabilitation resulting to man from this proceeding of God HAving seene the figure of man made much liker the image of him who said he would raise himselfe and become like God then like God himselfe who made man after his own image what meanes is there left to restore that which all the subtilty of the supreamest Angel had much adoe to disfigure when ruine is so much easier then reparation If Lucifer himselfe had applyed all his abilities to have given man satisfaction he could hardly have excogitated such a meanes of mans redintegration for it may be disputed whether it had not been a higher pitch of disrespect to have designed God to have put on this wretched nature of man then it was to project for his own Angelicall nature an independency on the divine So here the spirits of men and Angels are confounded when they consider both these natures of God and man first apart in their peculiar properties and then behold them united in this incomprehensible manner in the person of God here Saint Austins exclamation is more proper then any inquisition one Abisse calls on another the Abisse of misery attracts that of mercy here is the transcendency of all wonder that the unworthynesse and demerit of humane nature should prove the exaltation of it For now the Church doth not stick to say foelix culpa proclaiming even the fault to have been happy that procured such a redemption and a melioration Lord what was man that thou should'st be thus mindfull of him who had nothing left to move thee but his being become worse then nothing did this invite thee to shew thy selfe more God in his refection then in his creation wherein his nullity had thus much towards his being viz. no actuall opposition to thee which his iniquity had and so his reparation seemed more incapable of thy love then his nothing was of thy omnipotency in his first production In this deplorable state of humane nature become even Gods enemy he did not only reconcile but even subject
the earth is thine In this verity he rejoyced extracted out of all his transitory felicity And King Ezekias having his treasury and cabinets filled with all pretious stores might have rejoyced in the truth of those blessings without deriving from them vanity and presumption as much as he boasted of them to the Babylonians so much untruth he found in that felicity whereof he seemed to have forgot the changeable property and was quickly instructed by the Prophet in the insecurity of such goods whereby he discerned how he had rejoyced in the untruth of his temporal happines out of which he might have extracted matter of a true and sincere rejoycing for Gods Spirit attesteth to us that he doth not cast away the mighty whereas he himself is mighty All the attainders lying upon great and rich men in the Scripture are brought against such as rejoyce in the errours and deceits of temporall goods such as either sacrifice all their wealth to the Idols of their fancy or such as make an Idol of their wealth and offer up all their thoughts unto it The voluptuous or the avaritious are those that fall under the sentence of the Gospell and their crime is not what they possesse but what possesseth them when they doe not rejoyce in the truth of their goods but delight themselves in contriving errours and fallacies out of them and as the Apostle sayes Change the Truth of God into a lie So that the defectivenesse of their happinesse ariseth out of their degression from Truth and whence doth all the blessednesse which Christian faith annexeth to sufferance issue but from this spring of verity which streameth out that joy and exultation is proposed to us in the afflictions of this life How come the thorns of sufferance to beare grapes the wine whereof rejoyceth the heart while our senses are prickedct wounded with this spinous or thorny matter Surely this cordiall is made of the Spirit of Truth which may be extracted out of all the asperities of this life first by considering the true state of Humane Nature designed to sufferings not only by sentence but by Grace in order to the aversing us from the love of this world next by contemplating the truth of those glorious promises which are made to a virtuous correspondency with Gods Order in his disposure of his creature so that both the materiall goods and evills of this life afford no legitimate joy but what the mind beareth when she is teeming with Truth we may therefore resolve with King David that when Truth doth spring out of the earth righteousnesse shall looke downe from Heaven §. III. The fallacies of some Objections solved and rejoycing in Truth concluded for our reall Happinesse BUt now me thinkes having determined the happinesse of this life in the loving and rejoycing in Truth many that thinke themselves unhappy wonder at this conclusion and conceive me disproved by their defeatures perswading themselves to have beene alwayes suitors and lovers of Truth when the Truth is that they doe not first seeke verity for the object of their love but conclude they have found it in what they have placed their love Supposing their opinions of such joyes as they pursue to be sincere and solid truthes insomuch as I may well resolve such sonnes of men that They love vanity and seek after lies In that region of the world which I have travelled the most I may reflect to the inhabitaints of it one raigning error which may convince many of insincerity in their addresses to Truth for the ground of their happinesse this it is the trusting the infidelity of fortune to others for our owne felicity designing our stock out of the spoiles of our fellowes and in this course doe we not fixe the hopes of our happinesse upon what can never passe to us but by such an infidelity as must assure us we are in continual danger of a like dispossession this must needs be our case when the expectance of the unfaithfulnesse of fortune is made the assignment of our prosperity And yet we see how Courts are commonly divided into these two partyes of some that are Sacrificing to their owne nets and others that are fishing for such nets the first is the state of such as are valuing themselves for what they have taken the second of those who are working and casting out how to catch what the others have drawne and in this manner there are many who pretend to be lovers of Truth that make these fallacies the very ground of that web of happinesse they have in hand This is so preposterous a course for ingenious spirits in order to true felicity as surely there is much of a curse in this method and God warranteth my beliefe both by the Prophets and Apostles when speaking by the voyce of Esay to this case he saith They have chosen their owne wayes wherefore I also will chuse their delusions and by Saint Paul the holy Spirit saith Because they received not the love of Truth for this cause God sends them strong delusions that they should beleeve a lie Let the worlds darlings examine what they confide in for the security of their joyes and they will finde it is the Father of lies they trust for the truth of their felicity who being not able to diminsh the increated verity sets all his art to deface all created Truthes which worke in this region of the world I now treat of he designeth by such a course as he used with the Person of Truth it selfe when he was upon earth for he carryeth up our imagination to the highest point of esteeme he can raise it of earthly possessions from whence he exposeth to our fancies the glories and beauties of this world in deceitfull apparencies as if they were permanent and secured fruitions and our wills are commonly perswaded to bowe downe and reverence such false suggestions whereof the infidelity augmenteth by the degrees of our Devotion in that beliefe since the more we confide in their stability the more falshood doe we admit for our happinesse and thus are we abused in the possession of Truth while we affect all our delights under that notion by the subtilty of the great enemy of Truth we are as Saint Augustine saith elegantly brought to hate Truth by loving those things which we love only as we imagine them to be true for the impermanency of this worlds goods is odious to us which is the truth of their nature and we affect in them their assurance as a truth without which we would not love them and yet that opinion is a meere delusion This may satisfie many who account themselves unhappy by the mutations of fortune and the dispossessions of their secular commodities for they shall finde themselves unfortunate but in the same measure they misapprehended the true nature of such fruitions by as much as they over-loved them so much are they distressed by their losses so the
of others §. III. The vitiousnesse of Flattery displayed with an allowance of decent civilities in exchanges of Courtship HAving proposed to Courtiers for their chiefe security solid Humility discerned from superficiall civility I must desire them to be very sincere in the examination of this vertue for humanity and courtesie externall do often so well counterfeit the stamp of it as it had need be touched at some occasion of suffering to find the falsity of the metall and for the greater safety of this vertue it were to be desired we could banish and eliminate out of the verge one of the best Waiters at Court though of the worst servants in it namely Flattery which is alwayes an enemy to Humility though it seeme often neare allyed unto it by submissive appearances For we know the first progenitor of Pride was also the primary father of Lyes from which all Flattery descends in a collaterall Line Hence it is that there is alwayes some of the bloud of Pride in all adulation though it go cloathed in never so servile an habit of submission And that we may see how naturally Flattery issueth out of Pride wee may consider into what a base and inferiour posture Lucifer contrived himselfe when he cast the first seeds of Flattery into our earth did he not lye prostrate at those feet he was undermining while he was flattering them with their capacity of treading on him and becomming like Gods And this seeming subjection was it not designed by the sublimest part of his Pride which meant to captivate and subject the minds he wrought upon in this posture In like manner all the servile formes of complacency and deference to others which Flattery casts it selfe into in the magnifying their worth and excellency hath this serpentine insinuation in it to wit the hoping to infuse the easilyer the Flatterers sense into them which project in the complyers must needs rise from a beliefe of their own minds being so superior to those they are applyed to worke upon as they can impose upon them the beliefe of all their suggestions and so subdue their spirits which thought is the very soule of Pride to conclude our minds to have such a transcendency over others for no body flatters another but in beliefe of being credited So that all Flattery being anatomized will be found to live by the heart of Pride which is indeed the first living part of Sicophantry in what body soever of humble verisimilitudes it seemes to move And upon this ground we may say that a meane Parasite is a prouder thing then the most magnifyed Prince he humoureth in as much as the presumption on the excellence of mind as it is more spirituall is nearer the originall of Pride And as it was excellently said of a wise King That witchcraft is the height of Idolatry because though it exhibits no exterior offices of Worship but rather disclaimes them yet is it the highest mentall veneration of the seducing spirit and so the truest idolatry In like manner it may be said that Flattery is the supremacy of Pride because though there be no externall profession of selfe-love in it but rather of an alienation from it yet it is a continuall exercise of the supreamest arrogancy which is the Flatterers valuation of his own abilities Whereupon it seemes that a Philosopher being asked what was the most noxious beast to humane nature answered of wild beasts a Tyrant and of tame ones a Parasite and we may adde that the tame ones seeme the worst of the two for the wild ones take the greatest part of their ferocity by coupling with them since this commixion is the generation of all tyrannie wild power enjoying servile praise Humane nature could not fall in love with the exorbitancy of wickednesse if she saw it naked and beheld the bare deformity of that object therefore to make this conjunction there must intercede the art of flattery to colour the basenes and inhumanity of outrageous mischiefe with some faire varnish of decency as either with the right of greatnesse or the liberties of nature or many other such shadowes by which Sycophants keepe Tyrants minds the fiercer by holding them in this darkenes chained up by the magnifying and applause of their appetencies so that this may be truly said in the tearmes of the Psalmist to be the pestilence that walketh in the darke which the light of truth would easily asswage somewhat even in the greatest rage of corrupted nature We may therefore fitly say that Flattery is the oyle of the sinner wherewith Tyrants are annointed by these Ministers of their passions and we know King David saith this should not be the unction falling on the head of Princes For this reason we cannot too strongly brand the forehead of these Court Charlatans since there is so much known art to take out the markes of the character of a Parasite and to continue still in the practise of this mystery of iniquity I confesse therefore it is hardly to be hoped that this sentence of expulsion of Flattery out of Courts can be strictly executed for when it is pressed and straitned by these reproaches then like the Poets Proteus it varyes shapes and appeares presently covered with another forme either in that of duty to superiors or civility to equals or due commendation of merit and will never answer to this indictment of Flattery And indeed these formes which she shifts herselfe easily into are the legitimate issues of morality by which all the fit alliances are made in civill society the two first bearing order and distinction beween Persons and the last producing fertility in vertue Wherefore we cannot impeach this commerce of customary civility and complements for there is a discipline belonging to the practicall part of morality which is referred to the discretion of the Ministers of it which Courtiers may be most properly termed and the rites and ceremonies of mutuall civilities are ornaments requisite to raise respect and sorme order in all the exercises of morality therefore as it is not possible to set and regulate in such sort those voluntary descants of complement as to put them into such measured notes as they must precisely runne in to keepe them from straying into Flattery I will only set Courtiers this lesson of the Apostle which may keepe some time and measure in the consort of their vocall civilities You are called unto liberty only use not this liberty for an occasion to the flesh but by love to serve one another and by this order those finer threads of Court civilities may make as strong a band of charity as rough and grosser materials §. IIII. The use of sober prayses treated and reciprocall civilities regulated I Do not in this sharpe insectation of sordid Flattery mean to asperse the good name of praises and commendations for I must allow them to be convenient brests to nurse young and tender dispositions to vertue and the good inclinations
the regulation made by Gods precepts and the churches explanations Thus a courtier may preserve himselfe from being at all moved or shaken in his judgement for Christ and Religion by not apprehending whether he be accounted or no a friend to Cesar to wit whether he retain the courts opinion of being agreeable or complaisant or good company Gods lesson given to the Prophet Ezekiel upon this occasion is very proper in such cases of temptation Sonne of man though thou doest dwell among Scorpions be not afraid of their words nor dismayed at their lookes though they be a rebellious house For those who do sincerely stand upon their defence lifting up their hands in the posture of the Psalmist in all the volleys of Darts shall never want that child to incompasse them which he promiseth Thousands shall fall on both sides of him but the danger shall come no nearer him the Sunne shall not burne him by day nor the Moon by night the Sun-shine of Fortune shall not tanne or dis-colonr the fairenes and candor of his mind nor the Night or coldnesse of his grace or credit shall not damp or benumme the vigour of his spirit To conclude let a Courtier at his entrance into this vocation remember to read the Bill I have set upon the Court gates at the beginning of this Argument and before he go in let him say with Moses in a devout apprehension of his infirmity If thy presence go not with me let me not go up to this place and so in all his advances into the roomes of State in any sort of his preferment let him remember that whereof all the Majesty he seeth is but a figure and by this meanes he may easily keepe the originall presence in his sight which object will prove a light to his eye and a lampe to his feet shewing him according to the Apostles rule How to walke worthy of God who hath called him into his Kingdome and glory The eleventh Treatise Of medisance or detraction In two Sections §. I. The true nature of the crimè of Detraction and the subtilty of it in disguising it selfe HAving entred you safely into the Court and conducted you as I may say through the roomes of State and shewed their ordinary furniture of snares as Ambition Flattery and Dissimulation it followes in order to passe into the withdrawing roomes and cabinets which are commonly furnished with the finest and daintiest stuffs to wit with more subtle and refined temptations among which I conceive there is none more sharpe and piquant and consequently lesse controverted or reproved then Detraction and Medisance Wherefore it will not be amisse to worke a little to file downe as much as we can the point of it by the instruments of Religion which the Holy Spirit ministereth to us fitted for this purpose by the hand of Solomon Remove from thee a froward mouth and let detracting lips be farre from thee But lest this first severe aspect may seem to affront any innocent good humour upon the Stage of conversation t is fit to declare that I only understand by Medisance all such speeches as may probably derogate from the fame and good repute of our neighbour which though it be done in never so gracefull or facetious a manner hath still the deformity of sin lying under the finest coverings any fancy can cast over it and consequently ought not to be admitted into good company upon the recommendation of never so handsome cloathes The Chimiques say that in all materiall bodies there is a salt which is the most spirituall and active portion of them which suggesteth to me this conceipt that in the immaterialities of our passions there may be said to be a kind of salt or spirit which is the most subtill and sharpe point of them and upon this score I may say that Medisance is the salt of envy as containing the most quick and piquant part of this passion it agreeth likewise in this property with Salts and Spirits calcined which do not sensibly discover the matter out of which they are extracted being reduced into differing formes neither doth Medisance in many cases manifest at all the quality from whence it is derived being drawn into another appearance of jest and ingeniosity and surely the nature of such poysonous plants ought to be the most proclaimed the taste whereof is pleasant and the occurrence familiar among innocent herbs of which kind is this spirit of detraction which I may not unfitly compare to Mercury sublimate that tasteth like sugar wherefore the children of this Family ought the more cautiously be advertised of the malignity thereof since the matter lyes so often in their way The Apostle Saint James as Gods advocate brings a hainous charge against this libertinage which in the world doth pretend to passe at the highest for no more then a trespasse not a sin but thus he informeth against it Detract not from one another he that detracteth from his brother or he that judgeth his brother detracteth from the Law and judgeth the Law so that not onely the credit of man but even the honour of God seemeth violated by these invasions since even the law of God is said to be impleaded by such aspersions God seemeth to have tender'd so much the good fame of man as he hath joyned his own honour with it as a convoy against the insults of our vitious fancyes that we might at least respect Gods concernment in the violation of the fame of one another detraction is thus proved to be one of the greatest offenders in humane society yet the familiarity covereth so much the faultinesse as it suffereth the seldomest of any criminall by reason of the many disguises it can interchange insomuch as sometimes religious justice that would not connive knoweth not how to take notice of it meeting it so ingeniously transformed but for the most part it is not strictly looked after The case of medisance in courts is like that of loose women in the world that are very handsome who do oftener gain and corrupt the officers of justice then they are detected and indicted by them for abuses and derisions of one another passe for such a kind of Pecadillâ—o among the children of this age as they conceive it the office of a Gentleman rather to rescue and shelter it when it is pursued by just reprehension then to deliver it up as a criminall but surely if we consider whose law the Apostle telleth us is offended and impugned by these asperities we shall find the Method of Jael to be followed rather then that of Rahab with these emissaries of the Prince of this world which are imployed by him to bring him back the fruits of our corrupted earth which is very luxuriant in this mistery of iniquity insomuch as we may say of this unhappy facundity that our earth needs no rain to fall upon it that is no externall provocation to fertilize it there riseth
to viz. whether they make that cozening advantage by them or no with the creature they must answer for as much to the Creator as they projected to make of them and thus as the Prophet saith As much Wind as they have sowed so much Tempest they shall reape §. VI. Presumption upon our vertue discussed and the danger thereof remonstrated THere are many Lovers who when they find no direct design of impurity at first in their passions conclude them competent with their salvation and care not how neare the wind they steere nor how many boards they make as long as they believe they can reach the Port with this wind which is so faire for their senses therefore they pretend they need not stand so strait a course as making Jobs covenant with their eyes nor setting Davids watch over their lips provided they set a guard over their heart that no foule possession enter upon that seate thus do they expose many faire models of their love which in speculation may seem designed according to the square of Religion but how hard it is to build adequately to the speculative measures in this structure none can tell that presume to know it our senses are not inanimate materials that obey the order of the spirits designe but rather labourers which are easily debauched to worke contrary to the measures and rule of the Spirit hence it is that they who will undertake in this case all they can argue possibly for humane nature render it impossible by their undertaking it for they reckon not their presumption as any impediment which in the practise as being an irritation of God out-weighs all the other difficulties and the more alwayes the lesse it is weighed in the designe therefore as Solomon saith The wise man declineth evil and the foole heapes on and is confident The beliefe of impossibility is the most prudent supposition in such experiments as cannot be essayed without some desperate exposure of our selves it may be demonstrate by reason that we may have halfe of our body over a precipice so the centre of the weight be kept in an exact aequilibrium that part which is pensile can never weigh down the other which is supported but we should thinke one mad that would try this conclusion when the least motion changeth the Position and consequently destroyeth the practicer of this speculation so those that pretend to keept their soules equally poised in the just measures between piety and prophane love their eyes hanging over the precipice of temptations which do so easily turne their heads and then alter all the positions of their mind adventure upon just such a spirituall experiment He that seeketh danger shall perish in it is attested by the unhappy president of the wisest of men and it is superfluous to instance other testimonies of this truth When David and Solomon the two brazen pillars of the Temple being the direction and fortitude of the Princes of Israel were melted and poured out like water as David himselfe confesseth by the ardors of his flesh and so they seem to stand in holy record as two high eminent markes set upon these sands to advertise the strongest vessels not to venture to passe over them and if Saint Paul that vessel of election after his having seen the beauty of Heaven to possesse his heart thought himselfe hard matched with the Angell of Sathan and cryed out to heaven for helpe against him shall any presume to entertain and cherish this ill Angell and hope to overcome him with flattery and civility for they make this tryall who lodge in their thoughts and serve with their fancies strong impressions of humane beauty and propose to keepe their body in order even by the vertue of such a guest pretending that the very object infuseth a remembrance and reverence of purity With this and the like glittering conceipts do many vain Lovers fondly satisfy and abuse themselves which is to answer the question of the Holy Spirit that the fire they carry in their bosomes preserveth them from being enflamed by it we may fitly say to such in answer from the Prophet God laughs at you when all Gods advices are that there is no security against this bosome enemy but violence and diffidence there is no meane between the flesh's being slave or master this treaty of Friendship between it and the spirit proves but Dalilahs kind holding of Sampsons head in her lap while she is shaving him How often do we see the Spirit thus betraid and lye bound by this confidence And truly all those chaines which vain Lovers forge for the figuring out the powerfulnesse of beauty may be said to be those irons the flesh hath cast off and set upon the Spirit which is truly captivated alwayes by the others liberty This considered let none presume that while they deny the 〈…〉 eyes nothing which they covet they can deny their hearts any undue cupidity for this seemeth such an experiment as if one of the children of Israel should have carryed a fiery Serpent in his bosome presuming that while he looked upon the Brazen Serpent he could not be stung sure such a perverted confidence would not have proved safe to the projector So those who believe while they have the love of God before their eyes they may expose them to all the fiery darts of lustfull eyes seem to tempt God by such a vain presumption these are such of whom we may fitly say with the Apostle that Erring themselves they lead others into errour and have a forme of Godlinesse but deny the Power of it being lovers of pleasure more then lovers of God Let no body then trust to any confederacy between the flesh the spirit which is of humane loves making for of all reconciled enemies the flesh is least to be trusted after the accord and love the least for the arbitration therefore let none believe their souls out of danger because in the first paces of their passion they meet no insolent temptations that face them and declare the danger of their advance for the Devill keepes likely his first Method still with those he findeth in the state of innocence he taketh the shape of the serpent and creeps up by insinuation and then changeth his shape into the figure of his power and this transmigration of the evil spirits from one body into another is truer then the fancy of Pythagoras for we find often this Metamorphosis of the devill from the form of a dove unto a serpent from a lamb into a lion since it is the same spirit that moves in the poetical doves of Venus as was acting in Eves serpent thus what hath at first in our love an innocent form passeth quickly into a venemous nature Wherefore severe caution and repulse of the first motions of our sensitive appetite is the onely guard our soules can trust against our bodyes in this case for certainly many lovers sink into temptations in
which is of God not in the lâ—aâ—ned words of mans wisdom but in the Doctrine of the Holy Ghost Nevertheless it is our familiar presumption to 〈◊〉 much upon the vertue of Humane Reason whereof the Philosophers have made so lovely Images as many full 〈◊〉 Pygmalâ—ons Fancy of falling in love as it were with the Statuâ— of Morality which wanting the soul and a 〈…〉 of Grace will be found cold and speechless when they expect the spirit and life of Consolation in such pri 〈…〉 as these of Liberty and Company which seem to shake even the Centre of our natural app 〈…〉 es Those who â—â—st then upon the power of natural Reason for the dispossessing themselves of all anxieties and vexaâ—ions of Spirit will be served like the Sons of S 〈…〉 for the malignity of the world will answer them The grace of God I submit unto as having a power to displace and exâ—el my Mischiefs but who are you that undertake by Nature to cast our all those Evils where with you are possessed and to â—â—ee your Spirit by a lesser power then that which doth possess it your Senses in your viâ—iated Nature being stronger in their appetites then your single Reason is in her discourses So as when their Senses are much offended by the worlds Malices such undertakers will be prevailed upon by the present passion and â—e put to flye naked and wounded in this Enterprise as the Sons of Sâ—â—va were in their Exoâ—cisms The Philosophers who projected Reason to be such a powerful Actor thought she was onely to contend against the infirmity of Flesh and Blood knowing not that the Minde was to wrastle with Superior powers Spiritual rulers in high places against which there is no fence but the putting on the whole armor of God for bare Reason cannot be of proof against those fiery darts of Murmure Repinings and Desolations of Spirit which great extremities of sufferance cast at our hearts Reason being so far from making a constant resistance as very often she joyneth with the provocations and concurreth with the perswasion of revolting against Patience as a more reasonable thing to complain and repine then to resist our Senses in this onely appetite which is left to satisfie our Nature the ease of bemoaning and lamentation We are so much more enlightened then they who boasted of this Self-sufficiency as we are in defiance like Enemies with those they worshipped as gods so that we had need have better Arms then those they have left us to combat with And we may observe the insufficiency of 〈◊〉 presumptions by this instance that what they erected 〈◊〉 Trophy of their Victory is to us the greatest brand of infamy and poverty of Spirit which was the running away out of this life upon any extremity of pressure This even in rectified Reason is the ignoblest way of yielding rather then an act of conquering insomuch as this which seemed to them a demonstration of their position of the mindes impassiveness is an evident confutation of their opinion for this is a total surrender to the power of that passion which hath made this life intolerable Cat himself whom Seneca adoreth as the Deity of Philosophy dissolved all the frame of his Maximes when he was fain to open a violent passage for the flight of his Spirit out of the pressures it either felt or feared Was it not 〈◊〉 fillanimity to choose in favor of his Senses a softer blow from his own hand then he feared from Fortune He should have suppressed the apprehension of tyranny and not have drenched his thirst of liberty in his own blood why did he not quench that and or by casting away his dag 〈…〉 as he did the glass of water in the Desert where he refreshed his whole Army by extinguishing his own Natural appetite This had been the best proof of the apathy of his minde the resolving to suffer even servitude in an Imp 〈…〉 ble temper but by this Self distrusting he did sign with his blood the retractation of his Maxime confessing Seâ—vitude to be insufferable to his minde This precipitation cannot be vindicated from the charge of impatience and discomposure in his minde which is the disproof of all the Stoical assertions Christianity glorieth not in 〈…〉 y innate but in an infused vertue saying He that is in you 〈◊〉 greater then he that is in the world And so the power that holdeth the Spirit of a good Christian is Forein and Divine and consequently 〈◊〉 stronger then any that can shake it although the worlds Earthquakes may make a local mutation of his person 〈◊〉 mains still calmly in any posture wherein God shall set him upon whose providence he knoweth all rowlings and fluctuations to be current and seeth his own security with the Psalmist at his right hand which stayeth him from being moved the same hand that removeth him in all his local changes holdeth him in a tender love to that power which together with the pains of his senses introduceth the spirit of resignation These reflections may be well applyed to dispossess that presuming spirit of the children of this age who pretend to expel all sense of misfortunes by the Exorcism of Moral Philosophy and Natural Reason §. III. Great benefit acknowledged to Moral Philosophy and the right use thereof directed in order to our solacing BY this redargution of the arragancies of meer Rationalists I do not purpose to reject the use of Moral Philosophy in this great work of consolation in distresses but to rank it in a due order ministring and subservient unto Grace For when the peace of God which passeth all understanding is seated as the Principal then Moral Reasons are sitly received as serviceable Accessaries to the Solace and Recreation of the minde If we should first examine and try the Principles of Christian Religion by the best extent of Humane Reason we shall never accept the Mysteries of the Trinity from the single hand of Rational perswasion But when we have pitched our belief of this Verity upon the Word of God when our Faith hath carried our assent as high as Heaven upon her wing from thence we may then descend to the Orb of Reason where Discourse affordeth us many Similitudes and Congruities to open and illustrate to our apprehension this Mystery in such sort as to bring it as it were within sight of Humane Reason in some obscure and imperfect notion So when we have first erected our expectance of confort and support upon the Divine station of Grace then we may step downwards upon the paces and gradations of Reason and finde there solidity of Recreation for our mindes whereupon to rest walk and exercise themselves For then we use Moral Discourse but as an Organ whereby God conveyeth to us the clarity and elucidation of the nobleness of the soul indued by his grace with this capacity of remaining impassive in all exterior violence In order to the illustrating this Position the
precepts of Philosophy come in the stronger when they enter in their due places unfolding to us the nature of the Universe and spreading fairly before us the contempt of all Temporalities by divers detections of the infidelity of all things sublunary Thus after the right marshalling of this Auxiliary succor the more stock we have of Moral Philosophy the more inlargement we may make of the Recreations of our Spirit in these straights of our condition For as a very learned Humanist converted to Christianity is the more able by the means of this learning to explicate and illustrate the Doctrine whereof he is perswaded In like maner after this first conviction of our mindes touching the necessity of our primary recourse to Grace for the rectitude and conformity of our hearts they who are the most conversant with the Precepts of Reason and Philosophy shall be the best qualified by these helps for the amplification of their entertainments and sweetning the Natural asperity of Solitude We must be sure then to fix this Principle in our thoughts that all Humane Philosophy doth but the part of the wateâ— of Silâ—â— it doth but wash off the dirt of Ignorance from our eyes it is the vertue of the superior direction which sendeth us to that sort of Application which commandeth this admirable effect Reason is used by that supreme agent to take off the foulness and impurity of terrestial objects from the eye of our Minde and to open it into the speculation of vertue but it is Grace which worketh the Miracle of this Serenity of Spirit by these instrumental illuminations of Reason As long then as Philosophy is kept onely as a hand-maid with her eyes looking always upon the eye of her Mistress which is Grace the gift of God so long she proveth very useful to her service but where she is seated as single commander of the family all her specious precepts and directions will prove as the Apostle termeth them but learned fables when this practical office is required of them to instate the minde in that regularity and apathy whereof they are so confident projectors Having setled this Maxime as Disciples of the Psalmist for the fundamental article of Spiritual composure My soul wait thou upon God for from him is my patience then the discoursings and arguments of Morality are proper stuff to adorn our mindes that they remain not bare and naked but furnished with convenient matter of meditation and entertainment Humane literature may be used in this order as Ceremonies are in Religion which are requisite to excite and detain Devotion and Reverence in our Nature that is affected much with sensible coverings of Spiritualities which affording as I may say no hold for our Senses our Mindes are not so easily staid and fixed in an attention upon such Duties therefore such occupations of our Senses are very pertinent towards the raising and arresting our Devotion In like maner the flowers and adornments of Moral Philosophy are apt and serviceable for the affecting and entertaining our Imagination by the gracefulness and elegancy of their perswasions which are very congruent with the nature of our Affections that incline most to notions a little aspersed with sensible matter and so are easiliest staid and quieted in such attentions which hold our Spirits in a more cheerful application to the Arguments of rectified Reason In this order Philosophy may be acknowledged to be a convenient discipline belonging to the doctrine of Peace and Tranquility of Spirit which is grounded in that pax vobiâ— that cometh in like the Master of it resuscitated not through the doors of Humane Reason and then this peace useth discourse and argument as Christ did his body who in condescendence to the weakness of the Faith of his Disciples made them feel and handle it So doth the Holy Spirit clothe his Grace with sensible Reasons so correspondent to our Fancies as they do the easilier acquiesce unto them and thus contribute to the mindes repose and regulation Surely this is the proper function of literate elegancy to figure vertue in so lively and fresh colours that our imagination may be so taken with the beauty of vertue as it may invite our mindes to make love to her in solitude and in this suit our Reason may make good company even out of all our wants and desolations as imploying them to do us good offices to this Mistress by their testimony of our patient acceptance of all sufferings that may advance us in this pursuit which nothing doth more then a temperate constancy in Distresses wherein vertue loveth to try the fidelity of her servants And thus we may make even Solitude prove our access and mediation to our love whileg we are in research and suit to vertue for unto her we know it is confessed that difficulties give the best introduction and entrance So that the uses of Philosophy are much improved by this their proper application to illustrate the amiableness of vertue and by the gaining of our Fancy to facilitate the subjection of our Affections to our Reason whereunto Humane learning conduceth in many respects and it may not unaptly be said to be a kinde of Spiritual Heraldry that doth blazon the Arms of Natural Reason shewing the genealogy and descent thereof from the Father of Lights and marketh the affinities and alliances between Grace and Nature keeping a Register of the Antiquity and Nobility of Moral Vertue in the examples and precedents of all Times and in these respects is very proâ—itable in all states especially in Solitude both to recreate and rectifie the minde of man And indeed nothing inableth us more for the best improvement of the stock of Philosophy then having our wills first fastned unto Gods design upon us before our understandings range abroad into the documents of Morality for exercise and recreation Me thinks we may well be allowed to apply these orders of the Temple of Solomon to our present Argument and say as they who by their consecration were admitted into the holy place of the Temple had liberty to come out and entertain themselves in the outward Courts of the Layeâ—y and the station of Gentiles but they who were not qualified by some holy Character were not admitted into the inward part of the Temple or the Sanctuary So they who have devoted first their Reason to the inscrutable Order of God and have this Character of Christianity imprinted on them may freely and usefully recreate their mindes in the outward Galleries of Philosophy where Humane Reason hath an inlargement and spaciousness for the exercise and solace of the understanding but if our Spirits are but of that rank which are without in the arches of Philosophy and conversant onely in the porches of Moral Vertue this constitution doth not sufficiently qualifie our mindes for admission into the interior Sanctuary of Peace and Tranquility of Spirit So that all I have so much pressed tendeth to perswade every one in this
which our mindes are truly imprisoned while they are dallying with these similitudes of Prisons and Chains to inlarge the liberties of their Fancy when they come to understand and affect rightly the freedom of their mindes may judge this severing from such temptations and fascinating vanities to be a state of real infranchisement and esteem the other giddy agitation of their persons up and down the world floating upon their Fancies but as a Prisoners Dream wherein he may imagine himself Master of his own Keepers while he is faster in hold then when he is awake and truly apprehending his condition They whose mindes then are guilty of these kindes of crimes of making away their time and using their former liberties as instruments in this mischief let them Arraign their Imaginations upon this Indictment of their Memories for by judging and casting themselves they may make a new life out of this suffering and execution of their faulty liberties which if their Prison put to death in their affections as it doth extinguish in their practices they will conclude themselves rather resuscitated then restrained How happy may they be accounted who come to redeem time ever by the evilness of their days to whose civil death and moral resurrection this of the Apostle may be applyed What was sown in corruption is raised in incorruption and what was sown in infirmity is raised in power This being admitted let those who lie under this sentence of Sequestration from the world in stead of setting thâ—â—â— hearts upon the Suit of their Habeas corpus apply them to 〈◊〉 out as I may say their Habeas 〈…〉 tem in which Plea they are sure they have to deal with so indulgent a Judge as he taketh their own Will for Security to free their Minde upon it the which being at liberty will be well pleased with the Commitment of their bodies upon the Action of their Time against them when they conceive that this Arrest was the easiest way for them to acquit that Debt by the discharge whereof they can onely recover their forfeited Estate of real Liberty And when their mindes look upon the lovely Image of redeemed and improved time figured upon the walls of their inclosures by falling in love with time they may disprove the Proverb and make a lovely Prison while that becometh a possession of their love and are not their affections happily placed when time contributeth to the beauty of the object This Spiritual inamourment hath all these preheminences and the indearments of such loves are made by the professions of liberty and infranchisement how much a nobler engagement then is this of our mindes above that of such loves which have all direct contrary qualifications Such therefore as address their thoughts to this suit and research shall by degrees finde their familiarity with this love introduce them into the acquaintance of that truth which unvaileth the various miseries of all conditions in this life by the light of Contemplation wherein this promise of the Prophet is verified Then shall thy light rise in obscurity and thy darkness be as the mâ—n day for by this clarity we may discern the whole world in several chains and mancipations and those the most inflaved who are sweating in the world as in a forge to hammer out their own Man 〈…〉 which they make even while they are laying bolts and irons upon others that are cast under them but as it were by the rowling of the Ship on the one side for another contrary wave coming turns them back again beneath those they lay upon and then all the irons they had put on them prove their own surcharge The speculation of these truths may keep the Spirits of Sufferers in more steddiness then is compatible with that estuation of minde which is inseparable from insolent prosperity These calm Meditations suggested by the Spirit of Truth may bring Prisoners into that state which is promised to the clients and followers of these Verities You shall know Truth and Truth shall set you free These Advices in order to the valuation of Time as they do primarily respect eternity so incidentally they refer to the reconciling us unto the great acerbities of the moments of this life where unto I conceive this adjunction also of some Counsel in point of Improvement of Time in relation to the acquiring of Humane knowledge may be a very useful ministry and suppeditation §. V. A method proposed in point of Study and the Vse may be derived from Story towards a right understanding of Divine Providence I Do not pretend to design to any their Studies and Recreations in Lecture every several Vocation will â—â—sily fit it self with inst 〈…〉 pertinent to their Profession I shall advise onely a general method in order to their thriving best in this Spiritual Pasture As I have proposed partitions of our hours into several Applications so should I counsel aâ— every such Section between the change of Books the making some convenient pause of Mediâ—aâ—ion upon the matter of our last attention For when we reade cursorily we do but smell and scent the flowers as they grow but this rumination of the notions is a gathering and collection of them and a kinde of carrying them away in Nosegays and holding to our mindes the sums and digestâ— of their substance by which means their odour lasts the longer and leaveth our memory always the more perfumed so that when our reflections resort thither to smell again the same odours they may finde some of their ayr remaining in that conserve And those who intend to lay in any store of Knowledge to distribute and dispense it upon premeditation must not onely gather these flowers and entertain their breaths the longer by these recogitations but must set themselves to work upon them and as I may say distil their essences through their Pens and thus extract the Spirits of them making them up in these vessels of Note-Books distinguished by common places which are as 〈◊〉 were so many several viols marked with their peculiar properties and sorted respectively to their uses and are kept in this Cabinet of our Note-Book ready by us to draw out again either through our pen or to distribute in our conversation or any other function of our profession For when we have thus extracted these Spirits out of the Books we have wrought upon it is a Spiritual treasure lying by us which we may relie upon as a stock for all our necessities either for private and interior provision oâ— publike and forein communication This way of distillation or confection of our studies preserving them for lasting uses is even without any 〈…〉 ference to their participation unto others the best 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the perfuming and sweetning our time to our selves in 〈◊〉 unpleasant ayr of Solitude for this work breatheth an 〈…〉 into our Fancy all the day long which by filling it keepeth out the fumes of our natures disease and impresseth the more strongly on
patience and resignation by these intervening trials of our temper and likely the thoughts we have in temptations to frowardness are the copies of our minde upon which God judgeth their proficiency in the school of patience which he hath put them to There are diverse forms in prisons to which God preferreth our mindes by degrees and the highest seemeth to be the remaining humbly patient in a destitution of all sensible consolation from the Spirit of God to which we rise not but after some experiments of such desolations so that the best advice to this case is in our propensions to frowardness and petulancy to conclude That we are then set to bring in those exercises of vertue that must prefer us to a higher form all the Saints have passed by this examâ—n insomuch as David saith in this case My soul refused to be conforted I was mindfull of God and was delighted here you see the storm and the passing of it over by remembring the qualities of such blasts and stresses of temptations He is then the best scholler that studieth the least by his own arguings to clear to himself these obscure interjections of displicence and ill humor and cieling up his thoughts flieth directly to the top of the Cross resting there with the Man of sorrow where his minde finding My God why hast thou forsaken me may easily be answered in all her own perplexities and desolations and in stead of fearing her self to be forsaken may suppose she is following of Christ in this anxiety to which he was voluntarily subjected to solace by his Society our Nature in this infirmity whereunto that is necessarily exposed so as in these disquiets when the book of our Spirits seemeth closed up to us and we are ready to weep for our not being worthy to open it we may suppose our good Angel doing the office of the Elder to St. John bidding us not to be dismaid for the man of sorrow hath opened all these sealed anguishes by his taking the same impression upon his Spirit and indeed when our mindes are well died in the blood of the Lamb these aspersions of disquiets do not at all stain our Soul though there may seem some refractariness in our Spirits in these overcast intervals But to secure us from incurring any irregularity by this Spiritual Contention in the Temple of the Holy Ghost the safest way is not to seek a defence by the power of our Reason but to yield up our Spirits to suffer under this indisposition as long as it shall please the Holy Spirit to remain withdrawn even within our own Spirit beyond our discernment and many times in this ariâ—ity of our Devotion when our hearts are as I may say parched and cracked in this drought of Divine Refreshment if our wills are faithfully resigned to this exercitation of our Faith every such crack or overture in our hearts caused by the shutting up of Heaven proveth a mouth opened and calling for that holy dew which never fails to be showered down in due season upon such necessitous fidelities insomuch as this aridity and desolation interposed for some time doth often prove more fruitful then a common kindely season of repose and acquiescence I desire therefore to recommend specially this Advice to this state of Solitude which is very liable to these obscure interjections not to expect peace of minde onely from what we do sensibly receive from God but also from what we do sensibly give unto him for in this our commerce with Heaven there is this Supernatural way of Traffique we do not onelâ— pay God with his own gifts but we may give him even what we want and do not receive from him that is we may present him with our privation of his sensible Graces by our acceptance of this poverty and destitution And this offering of our emptiness is no less propitiatory then the first fruits of our Spiritual abundances This Advertisement I conceive very pertinent to my design of furnishing my fellow Soldiers with the armor of God that they may resist in the evil day and in all things stand perfect for it may be properly said of their condition that they are to wrastle not onely against flesh and blood but against the Rulers of the darkness of this world the Flesh shooting all her sharpest darts in the privation of Liberty and the Spirit his in the destitution of the most humane sympathy of Conversation This resignation then which I have proposed includeth a disswasion of any anxious solicitude concerning the cause of our sufferance for the ranging of our thoughts to spring second causes may keep us too much upon the scent of the earth the Apostle's advice is properer in this case Seek upward and not upon the earth which was the first point from whence this circle of my discourse did set forth and to allay this feaverish disquiet in our Patient I may fitly apply this Opiaâ—e of the Apostle If you are dead to the elements of this world why do you yet decree as living in the world This perplexing your selves with the thoughts of the world is to lose the benefit of this your civil death whereby you may rest from the labors of the living This you may rest upon in general That in this life there is no sort of Suffering but may be converted into Sanctification If you lie under a just sentence you may by an humble conformity to Gods Justice make it a release of a greater penalty then you feel in all your deprivements If you suffer injuriously for your engagement in a righteous Cause your Consolation is so much supposed as you have a command to rejoyce in 〈…〉 tion in view of the glory of your reward And if every imprisoned Christian may be said to be a rough draught of Christ since he avoweth his personation in them they who suffer for the Defence of Justice and Vertue may be said to be Christs Images coloured and more exactly finished wherefore such may expect to be readily received with I know you easily your scars and wounds which you bring with you coming out of my service have finished the figure of my similitude And we may resolve That such Champions shall be set near Christ where the number of their wounds shall be so many marks of their Consanguinity with the bleeding Lamb and the weight of their Chains shall be the estimate of their Crowns All sorts of Christians then may fill their several measures of Confort out of this Fountain of Christian Doctrine that all they who do not directly suffer for Christ may yet suffer as Christians and so attain the reward of a Prophet I will then close up my Present to them with this Seal of the Bands of our fellow Prisoner and Master Doctor Let us forget thâ—se things which are behinde and reaching forth 〈◊〉 thâ—se things which are before press forward to the mark for the priâ—â— of the high calling of
this the Sword which he saith he came to send and not Peace Wherefore this hostility declared against our Flesh must be remembred to be the first Article of that peace of the Spirit which is concluded in Contemplation §. III. The requisiteness of Lecture in order to this Spiritual elevation THe next Stage whereby we are to rise is pious Lecture which subject calls back my thoughts upon the first state of mans knowledge wherein we may consider That the first Humane Soul came into this world perfect in the intellectual part by Science infused and needed not stay for the help of her corporeal organs to acquire any for those instruments whereby she was to act were ready in their perfection before she was seated in them since Gods forming perfectly the body of man preceded his breathing into it the breath of Life And so we finde that he was able to reade presently in the book of Gods works wherein he read the character of Gods hand in every creature that was set before him and as I may say superscribed their names upon them by the secret impression he read of their Nature But not being satisfied with this excellent degree of intelligence he began to affect the reading even in Gods own increated book The knowing like God himself Upon this presumption the rational soul of Man was cast down from this high form and set so much backward as ever since both the Vegetative and Sensitive souls precede her long in the perfection of their acts and she is obliged to stay their leisure before she can act her best according to her faculty which must cost her also pains and care to reduce it unto the best extent thereof Thus is now the rational Soul sentenced to feed her self by her kinde of sweat and labor so that she is not onely to acquire most of her natural knowledges by a laborious industry but she is also set to work by study and attention even upon those supernatural Principles that are infused into her as those of Faith Hope and Charity even these infused habits will not so much as remain in her without her own study and solicitude to preserve them much less can they be improved to their best degree without much intendment and application And to facilitate the perfection of the Soul in this life God hath been pleased to make his own Character and to leave it legible under his own Hand his holy Scriptures wherein all his attributes are penn'd in the fairest maner to affect our understandings and to take our affections insomuch as of the holy Writ it may be well said to God The light of thy countenance is impressed upon it This living spring of Verities the Holy Ghost hath left upon the earth from whence all the rivelets of pious Books derive their waters which are so proper to refresh and see undate the minde of Man as the Holy Ghost doth but rarely use his own power of impregnating and replenishing Souls with immediate inspirations but vouchsafeth for the most part to be conveyed into our mindes by the mediate spirations into them of vertuous notions from his subalternate instruments the pens of his holy Ministers which he doth certainly inspire with qualities â—o well proportioned to our capacities as they deliver Divine Truths unto our mindes under such familiar and agreeable forms as are most apt to work upon our affections This is the design of the Holy Ghost in all pious Books wherein his Spirit remaineth covered in the elements of mans conceptions for words may be said to be a kinde of body to thoughts as the Divinity of Christ did under the vails of Flesh and Blood In like maner it is the Divine vertue of the Holy Spirit that worketh all those devout effects which are produced by the instrumental conceptions of pious Writers Wherefore as the Scriptures are to be read with perswasion that God is presentially speaking to us so all Books of Devotion are to be used with this opinion of their speaking to us as delegated and deputed from God The minde of Man abhorreth vacuity and though her Nature tend upward to be replenished with Spiritual notions yet if she be void of them she sinketh presently to earth to take in any grosser furniture so that if she be not provided with such pure species as may keep her pointing at her own Centre in stead of being elevated as it were above her self in Contemplation she will fall below her self into some terrene amuzement Wherefore a habit of pious Lecture is most necessary in order to the replenishing her with Spiritual Images that may keep her eye always erected up upon them and may we not well infer the requisiteness of reading for the support of the Spiritual Man since Saint Paul doth not onely advise his so elevated Disciple Timothy to attend unto reading but chargeth him with great solicitude to bring him some Books even after he had told him he had consummated his course and the time of his revolution was near If he who had been in Paradice already in a transcient state and was so near his going thither to a permanent did still make use of Books how necessary must they be for all such as aspire to any Spiritual exaltation §. IV. Speculation placed as the last step in this ascent of the Soul THis last station carrieth us up to the top of this Mount Moria from whence we have descended and so is the steepest part and the uneasiest mounting of all the rest as it is nearest the vertical point of our fixure This last step then is Speculation or Meditating which act of our discursive faculty is commonly taken as univocal with this other of our minde fixed in Contemplation but when they are rightly distinguished there appeareth such a diversity as is between the last strains of motion and the term of acquiescence For Speculation is properly the busie attention of the minde in the inquest of truth ranging and casting out all ways to bring in conclusions for the Spirit to fix and rest upon in Contemplation which as I have said is a fruitive possession of Verities which flowers the minde doth no longer gather or collect but rather hold in her hand ready made up in nosegays that she is smelling to Me thinks these two different states of the Minde may be rendred very intelligible by a conception my Fancy hath sprung while it is ranging for some fit expression of this very act which my Minde is now exercising and I may say That Speculation and Contemplation differ â—ust so as my present writing of their differences doth from my reading them anon when I have finished them For now my imagination is beating and casting all ways for some well suited similitude whereby to illustrate the diversity of these two acts and my memory is sifting and sorting apposite words to express my conceptions and thus by degrees I shall by means of this studious Application of