Scripture supposeth it in all that have embraced Christianity and is earnest and pressing in its exhortations to it We beseech you Brethren and exhort you by the Lord JESUS that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God so ye would abound more and more for ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord JESUS for this is the will of God even your sanctification 1 Thess 4.1 2. Again but ye have not so learned Christ as to follow the greediness and lusts of the Gentiles If so be that ye have heard of him and have been taught by him as the truth is in JESUS that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Eph. 4.20 21. c. And in another place this change being absolutely necessary is absolutely supposed to be wrought in us by our imbracing the Christian Faith If ye are risen with Christ seek those things which are above for you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication uncleanness inordinate affection evil concupiscence and covetousness which is idolatry in the which ye walked sometime when ye lived in them but now you also put off these anger wrath malice blasphemy evil communication out of your mouth lie not one to another seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him Col. 3.1 2 c. In these and many more places to the same purpose it is plainly implyed that true Christians are mindful and careful to fulfil their baptismal promises to renounce the devil and all his works c. It is not love alone that binds this duty upon us our profession absolutely requires it of all that have given their name to Christ and expect Salvation from him Love may inforce the obligation and assist us to discharge it but it is the design and the tenor of Christianity it self to reclaim us from sin to sanctifie our affections that our lives and actions may be holy as becomes the Gospel The grace of God which bringeth salvation teacheth us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live in this present world soberly righteously and godly Tit. 2.11.12 This is the sum of our duty that we should be temperate in our bodies and minds just and charitable in our intercourse with other men and pious in our minds devout in acts of Religion and worship to God the learning and practising this lesson is that whereby the offered salvation is obtained and laid hold on that whereby we must make it appear that we indeed own Christ for our Lord and Saviour and that we do truly love him with all our hearts and souls Now therefore I must remember that I am not mine own I am his that made and redeemed me I am his to whom I have given my self when I undertook manfully to fight under his banner against sin the world and the devil To me is addrest that exhortation Thou O man of God flee these things strifes disputes and covetousness before mentioned and follow after righteousness godliness faith love patience meekness fight the good fight of faith lay hold on eternal life 1 Tim. 6.11 12. I am become a Souldier of JESUS to me S. Paul speaks as well as to Timothy Thou therefore endure hardness as a good Souldier of Jesus Christ No man that warreth intangles himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a Souldier 2 Tim. 2 3 4. If I were in the Militia of any other Prince I might endure hardness enough before I could obtain his favour or indeed be taken notice of heat and cold hunger thirst and weariness sleepless nights and perpetual dangers all this and much more I might endure many years and not be looked on here my General hath prevented me with his kindness he first fought against mine enemies he first loved me and endured hardship for me and he notes every thing I suffer for him sets it down and assigns a reward to it Under another Commander I might do brave actions behave my self valiantly and yet not be seen here my General hath always his eyes upon me he incourageth me and rejoiceth to see my fortitude he is alway ready to help me and is most delighted when he sees me zealous and diligent I might fight long enough for an earthly King I could only get a poor subsistence or an empty fame but never so much as one province of his dominions here fighting for my heavenly King I shall get unvaluable treasures immortal glory and a Kingdom which shall have no end To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne Rev. 3.21 I will therefore never again fight against the captain of my salvation and I will never forsake him I will often renew my vows often swear allegiance to him upon that sacred blood which he shed for me and which he gives me to comfort and strengthen my heart I will daily think on those things that may increase my zeal and diligence and help me to resist temptations and I will suffer any thing use all means possible to perform these resolutions and approve my self unto death a lover of JESUS If any man loves not the Lord JESUS let him be Anathema Maranatha FINIS THE Reformed Monastery OR The LOVE Of JESUS The Second Part. LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun in S. Paul's Church-yard the West-End MDCLXXVIII THE PREFACE I Have now gone through the greater half of my task the negative part of our Baptismal Vow and of our Duty The greater half I call it because our Nature stands not in aequilibrio in an indifference betwixt good and evil but is depraved and ill inclined and the way to vertue will be smooth and pleasant when once by grace and love we have renounced our sins and our vicious propensities are both subdued and rectified If therefore thou hast entred and liked this Cloister so far thou maiest safely advance further and go through what remains if thou hast approved and observed its Rules hitherto the rest cannot but be acceptable and easie to thee As a Traveller in a strange Enemy-Country meets with many hardships and dangers but at home amongst friends delights in journeying So the Love of JESVS among the works of the devil the sinful lusts and vanities of this world might meet with difficulties and a rugged way but now conversing with faith and good works the holy will of God and his glorious rewards it will proceed with joy and a pleasant speedy progress I have called the Love of JESVS The Reformed Monastery
of sorrow and tedious sadness and are left in the world to struggle with the temptations of a discontented mind would perhaps take Sanctuary in a Religious house and give themselves up wholly to JESVS and forget their temporal sorrow by heavenly joys and meditations and at last bless that storm and shipwrack which cast them into that unknown land of rest and safety Some that are forward and ready to promise well and take good resolutions have not strength enough to keep them but are prevailed upon by the importunity of those temptations they meet withall in the converse of men they perhaps being fled from those occasions of sin might by the good example and good instructions of a Religious Society secure themselves and stand to their holy ingagements Some who never loved the world or that are grown weary of it or have passionate longings for heaven would willingly free themselves of the cumbrances and distractions of worldly business to enjoy the leisure and opportunities of meditations devotion and other spiritual exercises And some that are much taken with the strict lives and beads and orisons of Papist-Friers would look home and spend their commendations on the purer Religion and better ordered lives and devotions of those in this Church that should wholly devote themselves to God However 't is not to be denied but that men are much affected and influenced by the place the company the way of living and the outward circumstances wherein they are ingaged and I believe it might be now as true a proverb as ever Benè vixit qui benè latuit he lives best and most safe who is least acquainted with the world and lives farthest from it I might add further that such pious foundations or restitutions might be so ordeoed as to afford a very great advantage to our Church and Religion For thence persons of good parts and great piety devoted to the advancement of the true Christian Faith and free from those cares and cumbrances that are upon others might be sent as Missionaries to make it their business to reclaim persons of all sorts from schism errors and heresies and even from loosness and irreligion Not but that we have an abundant supply of persons very well fitted for that blessed imployment from our great Seminaries of Learning But their necessary attendance upon their Ministry and particular Cures besides other avocations deprive them of the leisure and opportunities of running after their strayed sheep They can well guide and feed such as duly keep within their folds but such as break out and wander they have not time to seek after And yet great is the number of these especially about great Towns where small incouragements and stiff opposition are a great hindrance to the gaining of Converts This excellent and charitable work could be best done by them that should have nothing else to do But first let every one work out his own salvation and make sure work for himself that will best enable him to work upon others But though we want some conveniences for withdrawing from temporal affairs to mind eternity and our souls the better yet we must go to heaven wherever we live we must live to God that we may live with God therefore if we cannot have a material Claustrum ubique portate interius Norb. ab praemonst we must have a Spiritual cloister which may defend us against temptations and guide and assist us in doing our duty Such a one is the love of Jesus it will protect us against all dangers and spiritual enemies better than the strongest walls of any Abbey and will make us devout and zealous in Gods service beyond what the exhortations of the wisest Abbot could do Dum crescit fortitudo amoris interni infirmatur fortitudo carnis whilst love is strong the flesh is mortified and its lusts are subdued Greg. Mag. Amanti nihil est difficile nihil impossibile love can do all things of its self it passeth over all difficulties and there is no obstacle which it overcomes not August Love can supply the want of all outward helps and advantages let it but be our care to secure love and it will secure us Let us therefore feed and entertain it by reading and meditation by frequent prayers and acts of love Coelum terra omnia quae in eis sunt non cessant mihi dicere ut a mem Dominum Deum meum Aug. and by observing and tasting how gracious the Lord is in all his works all things in heaven and earth do incessantly cry to us that we should love God God draws us after him Hos 4.11 with cords of a man with bands of love therefore by love we can best follow him 1 John 3.18 But let us not love in word or in tongue but in deed and in truth and hereby we shall know that we are of the truth and we shall assure our hearts before him THE Reformed Monastery Or the Love of JESUS CHAP. I. That Love obligeth us also to fulfil the positive part of our Baptismal Vow with a protestation of obedience to it MY former disobedience and rebellions against my Blessed Lord and dearest Master I have examined and bewailed I have considered that by sin I wound and crucifie him afresh and therefore have resolved to sin no more never to lift up hand or heart against him But will love be satisfied with this is it a sufficient demonstration of love not to abuse not to injure a friend No sure I must proceed further love requires more than this I must not only abstain from what would anger him I love but I should further do that that will please him 'T is part of my duty as it was of my vow not only to renounce the Devil and all his works but also to believe all the articles of the Christian Faith and to keep Gods holy Will and Commandments and walk in the same all the days of my life As for the Articles of the Christian Faith I believe them from my heart and resolve to own and confess them whilst I live I never will dispute or object against them and I hope I should chuse to die before I would renounce any of them as for other less necessary doctrines I will be guided by my Spiritual Governors in controversies I will submit to the judgment of that Holy Church in whose Communion I live and so I will read and ponder Gods Holy Word especially the new Testament that I may know my Masters will and be incouraged to do it not that I may find out new mysteries and maintain the private opinions of a party It remains then only that I should keep Gods Holy Will and Commandments and walk in the same all the days of my life And this I also undertake it shall be my daily and constant study and endeavour I resolve to obey to the utmost of my power and I also promise further to manifest my love by free-will-offerings as
the world to live well to keep thee from wandring to bring thee to heaven to conquer all oppositions and do the work of God throughly Love is by far the best Monastery it will both secure thee from the world and yet enable thee to do much good in it Love hath a general intendance over all vertues and duties and makes them pleasant to us and acceptable to God Love is the fulfilling of the Law Love and thou canst never do amiss love and thou canst never miscarry CHAP. XVII Considerations of the nature of Love and first of Self Love LOve is the common Prince and parent of other passions as they all take their Laws so they take their Origine from it Or to speak more properly love it self is all passions and it obtains several different names according to its several acts and objects Love saith S. Aug. is called desire Amor inhians habere quod amatur cupiditu est idem habens eoque fruens laetitia est fugiens quod ei adversatur timor est idque cum acciderit sentiens tristitis est Aug. de Civ Dei l. 14. c. 7. when it gasps after its beloved object when 't is possest of it it takes another denomination and is called joy or pleasure when it flies from what it abhors it hath the name of fear and 't is called sorrow when what it feared overtakes it But still love is the only passion desire anger joy and sorrow hope and fear are either the motions or acts or else the accidents of it This clearly shews the great power and activity of this noble passion for 't is well known that the greatest and indeed all humane actions that are free proceed from these natural affections and so are the effects of love There is no need to distinguish the several sorts thereof declaring that love is either natural or supernatural sensual or spiritual of friendship or of interest for all these are the same faculty or passion in man differing in their principles or objects only neither would it much avail to give and explain accurate and studied definitions of love which is much better felt than exprest and much better declared by actions than words it will be more useful to consider that as love is the principle of all passions so it is of all vertues and vices This fountain sendeth forth the clearest and the foulest streams and like all other things the greater its excellency the worse is its abuse so that it should be our greatest care to use it well and set it upon the right object No joy in enjoyment without love without it no pleasure in fruition it is the great instrument of happiness if we place it aright and it brings the greatest infelicities if we misplace it 'T is a misguided love that makes men vicious that causeth all the disorders in the world because men love themselves more than God and so would be Gods to themselves the Authors of their own happiness expecting their greatest felicities either from their bodies as the sensual Epicures or from their minds as the proud Stoicks Hence it is that in the head of a long catalogue of the blackest sins S. Paul sets self-love as the cause and origine of all the rest saying that in the worst and most perilous times Men should be lovers of their own selves 2 Tim. 3.2 4. and again that they should be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God which being the greatest depravation of the understanding and of the will of men plungeth them into the greatest sins and thence into the greatest miseries Certain it is that piety or true goodness consisteth in willingly submitting one self to the Divine Pleasure either to suffer or obey and certain it is that self-love will admit of neither it makes a man uncapable of Religion the Essence whereof is to deny our own to comply with God's Will and so instead of that Godliness Justice and Sobriety which are the three Generals comprehensive of all religious duties this muddy head-spring self-love sends forth three muddy streams which cause the overflowing of ungodliness and almost drown the world under a deluge of wickedness These be the love of sensual pleasures called Voluptuousness the love of riches called Covetousness and the vain-glorious love of honour called Pride or Ambition These three are disclaimed and renounced by all Christians in the first part of their Baptismal vow for the love of them confounds the world and all Religion makes men criminal in souls bodies and estates and is the great enemy to their rest and salvation Therefore S. John who calls these the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life gives us this necessary cauti n love not the world neither the things that are in the world if any man love the world the love of the father is not in him 1 John 2.15 that is as our Blessed Saviour saith no man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other ye cannot serve God and Mammon Mat. 6.24 There is no halting betwixt God and Baal the one or the other must be acknowledged for Lord there cannot be two contrary Sovereigns together and the same thing cannot be granted to two several competitors if we love the world it reigns in our hearts and God is excluded if we give our love to the world Amor motus est cordis qui cum se inordinate movet cupiditas dicitur cùm vero ordinatus est charitas appellatur Aug. de subst dil c. 2. we cannot possibly give it to God also so then the love of our selves is Concupiscence the mother of all sin and impurity and the love of God is Grace or charity the fountain of all holiness and vertue and these two according as they are predominant in men make here the distinction betwixt the penitent and the impenitent betwixt the just and the unjust and will make the great difference hereafter betwixt those that shall dwell in the embraces of the God of Love to eternity and those that shall dwell with everlasting burning for every man is what he loves Talis est quisque qualis est dilectio ejus terram diligis terra es c. Aug. Tract 2. in 1 Joh. as S. Augustine saith the irresistible power of that mighty passion doth in some manner transform him into that which his love embraceth and therefore to know whether a man be good or bad we inquire not what he knows or what he believes but what he doth love being sure that his morals are of the same nature as his love because his desires and actions are all guided by it CHAP. XVIII That the Love of JESVS requires we should mortifie Self-love THis makes it our greatest duty as it is our greatest interest to rule by Reason and Religion that passion which certainly will rule over us to
and with whom my love hath crucified me and that now is the time to make it appear that I love him and to justifie the sincerity of my protestations And so for covetousness pride intemperance and all such temptations I will reject their attempts and proffers with indignation as a true friend would scorn the solicitations to betray his friend thus saying to my self What shall I be false to him I love to him that loveth me who hath shed his bloud for me and to whom I have often protested that I would even die for him shall I break the sacred bonds of love and my most sacred vows and put my soul into a state of regret unquietness shame and sorrow for this vile transitory profit or pleasure O my dearest JESUS thou knowest that I love thee I beseech thee make that love victorious against thine enemies and mine I would rather die than deny thee for any interest in the world and I hope thou wilt not deny me at the last day but own me among thy faithful servants Lord I serve thee not for nothing great are the reasons why I should obey thee thou hast done much for me and from thee I still expect much infinite rewards for such due and poor services Lord let me die before I deliberately over sin against thee and forfeit thy love by falling from mine Thus by love I resolve to conquer my self to deny and mortifie my lusts by love I will strive to overcome all unlawful desires all sinful motions and then I shall rejoice in the victory It shall not make me either proud or peevish or severe to others but rather humble and meek cheerful and contented so that it shall be seen by my outward deportment how much pleasure and tranquillity my soul hath inwardly that I rejoice in what I do for Christ that it is delicious to me to deny my self for his sake to oblige so great so true so generous a lover as JESUS who hath done all acts of friendship for me and owns me for his friend I call you not servants but friends ye are my friends indeed if ye do whatsoever I have commanded you Joh. 13.14 Those that are accounted gallant men in the world will venture their lives to second a friend in an idle an unchristian quarrel and their wound they bear with courage and count them honourable 'T was to serve a friend how much more should I rejoice in that violence I offer to my appetites and unruly desires in what I do or suffer for to please and serve my heavenly my best my dearest friend whom I can never love so much as he deserves and in loving of whom I am infinitely happier than if I should enjoy all the pleasures of sin as long as I live I only grieve and am displeased that I can do so little for him that I can requite his love no better I know that many persons have done far more for their less deserving friends than I do or can do for my Saviour JESUS CHAP. XXXII A singular example of humane Love with a short reflection upon it IT is reported by Greek historians of two loving sisters Eudoxia and Irenea daughters to the last unhappy Prince of Morea Niceph. Gregor Chalcondys who with his life lost his Crown and Country that an uncle saved them from the general desolation and captivity which soon succeeded the lost battel and carried them to old Andronicus their kinsman then Emperour of Constantinople There with pity they found a kind welcome and as great respects as they could wish Their beauty their vertues and accomplishment surpast their princely birth and were as eminent as their fortune was low so that young Andronicus who was to succeed in the Empire was in process of time taken with Eudoxia loved her passionately and obtained the Emperours consent to marry her This caused great troubles to Irenea who liked it well as she loved her sister but could not but grieve at it as she loved the Prince for unhappily she had setled her affections on him Upon this she fell sick and almost to death and it being observed that some distemper in her mind caused the distemper of her body her sister protesting of her love to her assuring her that Eudoxia should have only the title and the trouble but Irenea the priviledges and the power of an Empress conjured her to declare what caused her discontent Having understood what it was and grieving that she should be the occasion of her sisters danger and sorrow she presently took from her head a jewel the Prince had given her in form like a half-moon and with it she so wounded and disfigured her face that she cured the Prince of his love as she designed and afterwards retired to Galliopoli where she entred a Cloister and devoted the rest of her life to God The Prince finding in Irenea what he had lost in Eudoxia soon after entertained the same passion for her he had for her sister but Irenea remembring her sisters generosity forgot her affection to the Prince considering what Eudoxia had voluntarily suffered for her how great how tender a love she had exprest in what she had done resolves to forsake Andronicus to forgo her ease and pleasure and what she had so earnestly desired rather than be ungrateful Whereupon she steals away from the Court goes to Galliopoli enters her sisters Cloister and having exprest to her her love and acknowledgments she takes the same vows and resolves to live and die to God and with her beloved sister This story makes me grieve and blush that so little gratitude should be paid to JESUS for greater benefits for that incomparable love he hath shewed men in dying for them that I my self should so ill requite his much greater kindness so poorly and imperfectly return his most wonderful love What shall I think it much to refrain my intemperance for his sake who for mine fasted long and often and tasted vinegar and gall shall I think it much to mortifie my pride and anger for him who for my sake despised the shame of the Cross and returned nothing but meekness to the greatest provocations shall I think it much to refrain my worldly covetous desires for him who for me became poor naked destitute of all things though he were Lord of all shall I think it much to deny my self some momentary sensual pleasures for him who carried my sorrows who shed his blood and was crucified to save me No my dearest JESUS thy love hath overcome my heart I will be no more what I have been henceforth it shall be my wealth my delight my glory and ambition to serve and obey thee give thee all possible demonstrations of a devout a most passionate love CHAP. XXXIII Some Scriptures to shew the necessity of departing from Sin according to our Baptismal Vow With some protestations to conclude this first Part. THis Repentance and Reformation is what our Religion requires The