god-head she could in number have made up that losse of quality she brought in all the celest all bodies into the account of Divinity serving the Militia of Heaven instead of the maker and we may call to minde that as humane bodies grew Giants mindes seemed to shrink into dwarfs when they fell in love as I may say with the daughters of men that is the conceptions of their owne naturall Reason in this point of Divinity And we may well suppose that the Giants soules in the law of nature became so by espousing this daughter of God which we may properly call Grace whereby their heads passed the skie and touched Heaven it selfe in this beliefe of the unity of the godhead and by this conjunction with grace reason produced their issue of a rectified Religion hence is it that we finde the Patriarks frequently visited by celestiall spirits as the allies as I may say of this daughter of Heaven they had espoused and most doe conclude that all those who in the law of nature continued in a rectified belief and worship of God were maintained in that state by grace supplementall to the virtue of single Reason How far humane Reason may alone finde the way to rectified Religion is a question to exercise curiosity rather then excite piety and very commonly reason in the disquisition of faith doth rather sink the deeper into the earth by falling from her over aspiring then she doth six her selfe upward in her proper station and besides this danger me thinkes there is this difference betweene them that are working upon reason to extract Religion and those that are feeding upon sincere faith that the first are labouring the ground for that fruit which the last are feasting on or that the first are plowing while the last are gathering of Manna I shall indeavour therefore to serve in this spirituall refection ready to be tasted treating of faith already digested rather then to be provided by ratiocination for devotion is faith converted into nourishment by which the soul contracting a sound active strength needs not study the composition of that aliment it finds so healthfull §. II. Treating the best habit of mind in order to the finding a rectified Religion ME thinks Religion and Devotion may be fitly resembled to the Body and the Soule in Humanity The first of which issues from an orderly procession of nature by a continuing virtue imparted all at once to mediate causes the last is a new immediate infusion from heaven by way of a creation continually iterated and repeated So Religion at large as some homage rendred to a supreme relation flows into every mind along with the current of natural causes But Devotion is like the Soule produced by a new act of grace directed to every particular by speciall and expresse infusion and in these respects also the analogie will hold that as Religion hath the office of the body to containe Devotion so Devotion hath the function of the soule to informe and animate Religion And as the soule hath clearer or darker operations according as the body is well organized or disposed so Devotion is the more zealous or remisse proportionately to the temper and constitution of the Religion that containeth it Sutable to the Apostle Saint James his intimation to us that Pure Religion keeps us unspotted from the world I shall not take upon me the spirituall Physitian to consult the indispositions and remedies of differing Religions but relying more upon the Testimony of confessed experiments then the subtilty of that litigious art I shall prescribe one receipt to all Christian tempers which is to acquire the habit of Piety and Devotion for this in our spirituall life is like a healthfull aire and a temperate diet in our naturall the best preservative of a rectified faith and the best disposition to recover from an unsound Religion for the Almes and Prayers of the Centurion were heard and answered when they spoke not the language of the Church and the Angel was sent to translate them into that tongue in which God hath chose onely to be rightly praised that which his Eternall Word Christ Jesus hath peculiarly affected and annexed to his Church this shews the efficacie of piety and the exactnesse of Gods order who hath inclosed his eternall graces within those bounds into which he brings all that shall partake of them and so doth naturalize all such strangers as he intitleth to them doth not allot any portions to aliens but reduceth all them he will endow into that qualification he requireth which is into the rank of fellow-citizens of the Saints and of the houshold of God he leaves none with a dispensation of remaining forreiners The Angel that called the Centurion directed him to the gate of the Church Saint Peter did not bring him a protection to rest in his owne house with the exercise of his naturall pieties and so for those that are straying without the inclosure of the Catholique Church if they walk by the light of naturall charity morall piety and devotion in their religious duties this is the best disposition towards the finding of the way the truth and the life of whom the Psalmist sayes He is neere to all those that seeke him and those who are thus far advanced in morality may be said to be in atriis Templi in the Church-yard which is in a congruous disposition for farther advance into the body of the church I shall endeavour then to affect every one with the love of purity and holinesse of life for to those that are already rooted and growing in the Church this disposition will be are that fruit the Apostle soliciteth for them that their love may abound more and more in knowledge and in all judgement And in those who are yet strangers and forreiners as he calls them this reverentiall feare of God seemes to chase the wax for the seale of the holy Spirit for Prayers and Almes doe as it were retaine God for their Counsel and as his Clients open their cause to him in these tearms of the Psalmist Lord cause me to know the way wherein I should walk for I lift up my soule unto thee And such may be said to be halfe way towards their end that doe worship in a zealous spirit and are likely never left there but helped on to the other part of worshipping in truth by him that hath ordained our worship to consist of Spirit and Truth so that devotion sincerity in any Religion are the best Symptomes of our designation to the true and sincere Religion Wherefore having made this generall presentation of piety and virtue to all parties I shall not stay to wrastle in the Schooles but rather strive to set such Church-musick as all parties may agree to meet at the service and this I presume may sound in tune unto most eares that where consort and harmony in faith appeareth it is a good note of that
designe to fix it and so convert it into earthly treasure but as good Physitians do onely in order to the extracting medicines and remedies out of it And by this Method as they render Mercury beneficiall by drawing from it some good quality and fixing that upon some other body while that substance remaineth unfixed and volatile We may likewise without setting our thoughts to work upon temporall goods in hope to make our happynes by the fixure of them wel derive great utility from them by the infusion of some of their virtue making thereof remedyes for the necessityes of our neighbours Such an extraction Daniel counselled the King to draw out of his perishable felicity and by this Method while the matter of worldly goods remaineth fluent and transitory there may be great utility derived even from the consideration of these qualities For by using this matter according to the nature of it by keeping it passing and transient through our hearts and hands we may provide a fixed and eternall happinesse This advice is given us by the Author both of Nature and Grace to make out of the unfaithfull company of this worlds friendship such loyall friends as shall receive us into those tabernacles where no good is lesse then eternall This is a practicall use which Devotion will alwayes introduce in our temporall possessions There is also another speculative influence which it hath in order to the settlement of our mind namely the frequent meditation on the instability of all things sublunary which cogitations are pregnant seeds of the contempt of this world whereby we learn to draw the cure of the venome out of the bowels of the beast it self distilling out of the serious contemplation of the mutability of all worldly happines a remedy against the evill of that ficklenes and impermanency and by this course we raise some succour out of the adverse party of our own frailty For they who ponder frequently how all things sublunary move continually in an interchangeable flowing and refluencie may easily learn not to imbarque their mindes in any earthly delights never so fairly secured without expecting adverse revolutions and repeales of those joyes and by this preparation Devotion doth by degrees teach us to make our peace Postable upon all the tides of fortune understanding them to be truly the current of Divine providence This light we can receive onely from the beames of Grace and they shine the clearer in our hearts the more Devotion is kindled in them For this Spirituall flame as it riseth alwayes attracteth more of that first fire that lighted it and thus from our affections being inflamed by devotion our understandings take this light whereby they discerne the greatest security we can contrive for our contentments in this world to be the being so prepared for mutations that our wils may be so loose from anchorage upon any earthly pleasure as they remove easily from their hold on that delight and put out to the sea of Gods providence in all the stormes of adversity And considering how Gods way is in the sea and his paths in many waters and that his foot-steps are not to be discerned Our affections may easily repaire their earthly losses by that treasure they may find in this Ocean of Gods will the riches whereof we make ours by entring into his will as often as we are driven out of our own by the variations of this world and by this Pious acquiescence to all vicissitudes of this life we shall come to a constant good habit of mind as men at sea obtain an unmoved state of body for as they do not confirm their health by the steddynesse of the vessell in a calme but by the custome and habitude of the rowlings and tossings of it in severall weathers So shall we settle the peace of our mind not by the calme equality of a prosperous condition but by the acquaintance and inurement to severall adverse revolutions And this is undoubtedly the best Method in point of attaining a good constituton of happynes in this life for King David himself found little security in this I have said in my prosperity I shall never be moved For he seemeth to retract this opinion all in a breath the next words confessing Thou hast hid thy face from me and I was troubled Wherefore his reflexion upon the instability of our humane condition proved a more assured stay for him in his agitations when he concluded Doubtlesse all things are vanity every man living surely man passeth as an Image yea and he is troubled in vain §. III. Resultancies from the meditation of humane frailty and a resolving the right of Happynes as belonging to Devotion THe state of humane Nature being thus determined me thinks there may be an excellent medicinall extraction drawn by prudence directed by Grace out of the nature of temporal felicity in order to the fortifying our minds which may not improperly be tearmed the Spirit or salt of humane frailty since it may work upon the mind as Phisitians say those kind of Diaphoretical medicines do upon the body the which although they do not produce any violent sweat yet they clense by opening the pores and keeping the body in a continued transpiration and breathing out of the Malignity After this manner may our minds be purged and rectified by this meditation of our frailty which notwithstanding it forceth not out any notorious expressions of the contempt of this world in a sensible alteration of our course of life yet it may maintain the mind in a constant temper of purifying by a soft evacuating much of the uncleannesse of her sensitive appetite through an insensible perspiration of mortifying thoughts and the proper time to minister this receipt is in the health of our fortune while we are in an easie fruition of the joyes and solaces of this life for then the perswasion of their insecurity holds us loose from that dangerous adherence which carryeth away our peace along with their removals but this prescript looseth much of the efficacy when it is taken but after our mindes are decayed and infeebled by the sadnesse and weight of affliction because in that ease they commonly want that vigor of reason which should cooperate with this remedy and in that respect what might have been a sufficient stay to our minds while they stood straight and upright may not be able to redresse and erect them when they are faln and dejected I will therefore leave this prescription thus signed by the Holy Spirit Say not I possesse many things and what evill can come to me hereafter but in the good dayes remember the evill for the malice of one hour maketh oblivion of great voluptuousnesse and therefore in another place the same hand giveth this advice From the morning to the evening the time changeth All things are soon done before the Lord A wise man will fear in every thing But lest me should conceive happynes to be
shall sweare by the Temple it is nothing but he that sweares by the Gold of the Temple is a debtor making no account of that which was truly a sacred obligation and making a great scruple in what was nothing so obligatory And do not those who are so punctuall in their reputation concerning all morall accomplishments and so unconcerred in the opinion of their christian performances seem to practise the same impertinency For all morality is in relation to christianity but what the gold was to the Temple since it is only sanctifyed by being serviceable and ministeriall to Religion wherefore they who pretend exactnes in all civill and sociable honesties unlesse it be in order to divine duties and obligations may be doubted to be more Disciples of the Pharisees then of JESUS more affecters of the praises of men then advocates for the part of vertue But this information against this Solecisme in the stile of many Courtiers virtues doth not discredit the vocation though I need not fear much the taking away the good name of it in the world for this discipline in morality and fashion of punctuality in civill dutyes if the principle thereof be sincere in the love of Moral virtue may work and accomodate the mind to a generall habit of sincerity which when it is referred to religious uses proves a facilitation towards fidelity and perseverance in them as Saint Paul his Pharisaicall strictnesse and severity was a great promotion of the true religious fervor of his Apostleship So this naturall preparation in Courtiers in these points of courage loyalty and civility raiseth the flame of their devotion the higher when those so well disposed materials are kindled by the Prophets Seraphim or by the Apostles fiery tongues The pregnancy of many Courtiers in sanctity ingrafted upon the stock of naturall good parts and acquired virtues alloweth us to say as Saint Augustine said of Saint Cyprian who grew by nature in the highest part of the world and was singularly endued with all humane literature before his conversion how well over-laid with the gold of Egypt did Cyprian come out of it with which he enriched Jerusalem And so the Church may truly acknowledge that many Courtiers have brought out with them much of this precious mettall of humane prudence and sagacity by which virtuous qualities and honestations they have been more happy then others in their applications to move the mindes of men in whose tempers they had been so well versed this ingenious and versatill habit of mind which they had acquired in the commerce of the world hath made their spirituall practice upon the world much more successefull then that of others whose sepulative piety is lesse accommodable with the humours of the patient and certainly they owe much of these furtherances and inablements to the civill Discipline and Politique literature of Courts I still conclude therefore in defence of the vocation of courtiers while I reproach to them the perversion of their advantagees in education for since nature is the ground on which grace is planted the temper of the ground conduceth much to the increase may be expected for without doubt the civill breeding of Moses did much contribute to all his naturall excellencies and the being the most reverend and respected person of the Court did not at all elate his heart the softnesse of his education was rather a good previous disposition for the effect of the Supernaturall Agent in point of the admirable meâ—knesse of his Spirit of whose Court life the records of the Jewes deliver unto us much more then the holy Writ Josephus reports to us how the comlinesse of his person and gratiousnesse of his meene and behaviour was such as all the Kingdome of Egypt was taken with admiration of them and the opinion of his virtue was such as they repaired to him in a great extremity of an invasion of the Aethiopians for his conduct in a pressing distresse of their Armies and how that by his prudence and Magnanimity they overcame their enemies Insomuch as Moses was honoured sometime as a successor of Joseph and no lesse cryed up for a redeemer of Egypt 〈…〉 and there is no doubt but he was as sincerely virtuous while he was the adopted heire of Pharaoh as when he fell to be the sonne in law to Jethro so that the softnesse of his breeding did not at all enervate the sanctity of his mind Therefore we may say that the pallaces of Egypt will bear a Moses as well as the plaines of Madâ—â—n The Prophet Esay was nephew to a King and bred as is supposed in the Court with all the tendernesses which are affected and allotted to the royall bloud of Princes and his conversation was altogether in the Courts of diverse Kings where he shined in no lesse flame then Elias in the Desert Those words were as powerfull which cal'd back the sunne upon the diall of the Court as those which cal'd down fire from heaven in mount Carmel And as diverse Princes have changed their condition of representing Christ in his Kingly office for the Character of his Priestly function relinquishing their houses of power to rest in His house of prayer So many both Kings and courtiers of the most eminent have in their own stations in the world shined out as the Apostle saith Like bright lights to the world in the middest of a perverse generation and have deserved Saint Peters testimony of Lot of being Righteous both in hearing and seeing notwithstanding all the seducements proposed to those senses And certainly such objects of virtue are more impressive upon our affections then those which may be greater in themselves but more distantiall from our eye in such a manner as we see that great branches of lights hanging very high cast not so much light for the use of the room as much lesser proportions placed among the company so those elevated sanctityes which are in the upper part of the Church in holy sequestrations do not communicate to the lower part of the world so much exemplary virtue as those lesse purified but more familiar and more proportioned pieties in the lives of secular persons remarkable for sincere holinesse and devotion such lives conversant in the world are like a perfumers shop which gives some good scent to all the passengers through the street though it may be there are not so choice and pretious odors in it as in some places in the same street which impart none of their sweets abroad because they are intercepted by the inclosures of walls which keep them from any accesse to the passengers so privacie and reclusenesse may containe a more sublime kind of sanctity yet not be in so communicative a position as those fragrant plants which grow abroad in the trafficable parts of the world §. VII Comparisons between vocations disavowed and advices offered in order to a due correspondence with the grace of a Courtiers profession BY what I have pleaded in this last argument
I do not pretend to prefer the porch of Solomon before the Sanctuary I intend to keep the due distances in my measures between sacred and secular vocations each of them stand in their proper order and constitute the grace and decency of the Temple which King David did love so much For as the Father hath many mansions in his house so the Sonne hath severall offices in his sorted to those distinctions and the holy Ghost marshals and ranks all those diversities of callings in such sort as to frame an harmonious consonancy between both Houses of the Church militant and triumphant according to what the Apostle informeth us that There are diversity of gifts and differencies of administrations made by the same Spirit who divideth to every one severally as he will Wherefore my purpose is not to measure or weigh the preferablenesse of severall vocations but onely to set that of Courtiers rectified and straight in the understanding of the world to the end that not onely the consistence of this calling with piety may be evidenced against the popular traducement but that also the advantages of this vocation being rightly ballanced with the prejudices may confute courtiers themselves in this error of supposing they may discharge part of their infidelity to God upon the infelicity of their vocation in order to Piety Every state of life hath an assignment of grace commensurate to the necessities of that calling all things are disposed in number weight and measure as the Wise man informeth us so that although the temptations be more in number and weight then in more retired and in glorious courses yet the abilities and understandings of the persons are commonly stronger then in vulgar stations whereby they are better inabled to apprehend their dangerous exposures and accept them from the divine order as a Rent charge of perill laid upon the plenty of their temporall estates by which discernment they may convert even the species of their seducements into the treasure of patience and humility deriving from the perilous part of their condition conclusions against the worth of things never so glorious being but transitory since by these fruitions greater and eternall glory is so much endangered And by this reflexion even all those fiery darts which fly about the Court headed with the wilde fire of the Prince of darknesse though they have a fabulous sirname which the Poets have invented to disguise them to wit the golden shafts of Cupid quite contrary to this their due ascription when they light upon this shield of faith and expectance of eternall joy and glory are easily extinguished So that a good humble courtier marching as I have directed him in all his wayes upon the foundation of humility and poverty of spirit may keep a safe course in all the highest storyes of fortune and be no more scorched with pride or vanity then with fire-works playing in the ayre and though the Prince of that Region entertaineth all Courts much with such flashie shewes that is with the glittering vanities and resplendencies of the world yet to an humble and discerning soul they will seem no more then squibs breaking into sparkling shivers of fire which shine but for a moment and die with the ill scent of those rags whereof they are composed Upon all these considerations it seemeth to me to import all the successe of this course of life the fixing in our mind this principle that all humane life especially the active part is constituted in a state of continuall malitancy in which notion courtiers should account themselves as the chief officers of the field and so remember that the condition of being in the head of the world is like that of being in the head of troopes since it coupleth alwayes danger equall to the degrees of honour And upon this supposition they ought to be industrious in providing extraordinary armour in which point if they will be but as provident as they use to be for the defence of that life they can but defer and not truly defend or save they are in a state no way disadvantaged for that Coronation promised onely upon the condition of victory since to the greatest vanquishers are proposed the largest Crowns Therefore they who are frighted like Elisha's servant with the incompassure of tempations let them look upward with the Psalmist to the mountaines and they shall see the fiery Legions of the holy Spirit standing for their defence insomuch as they may truly say there are more with us then against us for Saint Iohn gives them this assurance He that is in you is greater then he who is in the world By these defences I hope to silence the popular cry against Courts in exeat aulâ qui vult esse Pius as if a good Christian and a good courtier were not stars of the same hemisphere and so could not be seen together For there are some natures as Seneca saith so shady as to think every thing turbulent and stormy that is but in broad day-light and we may sitly say of the eyes of such minds that they have not yet had the last touch of christianity for like the man in the Gospell who before Christ his last touch saw men but obscurely looking like trees these minds may be said to have a spirituall dimness upon them that doth not see clear nor far enough into the grace of different conditions this touch of Pauls hand when it seemes he was doing the same cure upon the Corinthians may elucidate further this case unto them those who are not Apostles nor Prophets have their ranks allotted and due provisions of graces designed to their severall stations And likewise by these advises I hope to rectifie that so different error in many minds which claime the slipperinesse of their station for a tolleration of many foule falls aledging the fashion of the times and place carfieth them down the stream pretending when the humour of the Prince or the Grandees leaneth and resteth it selfe upon them that their going into the house of Rimmon is much extenuated beleeving that those faults which custome and company impose upon them are set but low upon their account But the grace of a Christian teacheth him not to be insnared by this subtill imposition of complacencies from the worlds Ministery no more then Christ was by that nice question concerning paying of tribute to the Court for christian religion discerns clearly between what is due to Cesar and to God and so a Pious courtier may easily give to Cesar what is Cesars and to God what is Gods and that by an Anological instruction from this rule of Christ allowing all that hath Cesars Image onely on it offerable to Cesar that is all civill complacencies in things unprohibited by God as the complying with all the innocent fashions of the court and reserving all that hath Gods Image on it for God that is making an entire reference of all actions which concerne the soul to
not only the candor of their owne thoughts but likewise the composition of the persons whom such liberties may concerne as also the humours of the company where they are vented for I conceive these three circumstances ought to concur for the licensing such exercises of our fancy first the ingenuous and harmlesse intention of them that minister the mirth next the probability of a right understanding by them who are the subject of it and lastly the likelihood of an innocent apprehension of our jests in the company they are addressed unto for their pleasure and entertainment and I conceive one may be very good company restraining their wits within these three religious limitations for while our words are tuned to the Key of charity Men and Angels may rejoyce together in the gayety of their aires this was the tune which the Psalmist set for himselfe and for us to study having left it thus noted I will take heed to my wayes that I sinne not with my tongue I will keepe my mouth with a bridle Considering the humour of the world and how fashions are sooner decryed by the dislike of such persons as they are designed to fancy then by the prohibitions or order of the state I conceive the best proportioned expedient to the effect of repealing this licentious custome of pillaging one anothers reputation in these excursions of jest and raillery is to terrify the receivers of such spoyles which are those that take them off from the acting parties with applause and delectation wherefore such patrons must be advertised that they know not how deare they pay for such preyes when they imagine they give nothing but a cheerefull countenance for them since indeed they cost them more innocence then many of them would part with for them if that price was directly set upon them let them be admonished then that as the Psalmist saith of the committers of such facts that the poyson of Aspes is under their lips so that it may be properly said of the receivers of such thefts in the tearmes of the Holy Spirit They suck the head of Aspes the Vipers tongue shal kil them Since we are made by God as it were mutual Feoffees in trust for one anothers good name by this order which declareth that God hath given every one commandement concerning his neighbour being therein charged the preservation of our brothers fame to answer Am I my brothers keeper doth indeed savour somewhat of the guilt of the murder Let not then those parties unto whose complacency such licentiousnes is addressed suppose that they may innocently injoy such spoyles which they pretend not to bespeake but only to accept as a present from their familiars for surely all persons of alluring fortunes or of other followed qualities which are noted for entertainers and cherishers of Medisance and bitternesse in conversation do no better then set up a Shop declaredly to take off plundered goods which commodity offered to the violaters cannot chuse but passe for a contribution to the Fact and the mischiefe of this traffique is alwayes proportioned by the eminency of the estate of the person that professeth this commerce for high encouragements do as it were presse these morall plunderers which are such licentious companies that those who raise them so easily as they cost them but their connivance cannot cashiere them again with their command for very often as the Wiseman saith The Charmers themselves are stung with the Serpents they play with and then who shall pity them when they swell upon such stingings Let every one then make this good use of the respect and difference which is given to their persons or conditions the taking upon them to discredit this so pernitious fashion of receiving as justifyable Presents from their observers the desamation of their brother for when this humour of Medisance springeth in the head of the company it runnes fluently into the lesse noble parts but when it riseth first but in the inferior and dependent persons it requireth a force of wit and ingeniosity to raise and diffuse it upward which capacity is not very familiar wherefore I conceive the most powerful receipt against this mischiefe to be the possessing the most eminent and reverenced persons of Courts with the irreligiousnesse of this authorised fashion of Medisance cherished under the disguise of mirth For if Princes do ignoble their minds with this favouring of detraction they do not only license it but seem even to impose it which is such a kind of grievance as offendeth much and yet lesseneth their owne meanes not only in point of their re-obliging but likewise in their part of commanding for what is taken from the true value and estimation of every one by this liberty is lost to the Prince in all the uses he hath of their service so that Princes have not only a religious but a politique duty that requireth of them severity rather then indulgence towards this toleration since their simple connivance will introduce detraction in the fashion called incognito which alloweth all the same liberties to the party so received under this colour of his not professing himselfe to be present in his own quality such a kind of admission doth the connivance of Princes give to Medisance treating with her as if they tooke no notice of her quality and when Princes foule their hands actively in this sullying of others they do as it were publiquely prescribe the fame and reputation of every one and seeme to set a price upon them for every one that can bring them into their delight and entertainment nor is this price limited but may be said to be as much as every accure malicious wit shall rate his hope at by becoming agreeable and familiar with the Prince Saint Austustine saith he doth not wonder at the dissolutenes of the Heathen when their Gods were both Patrons and parterns of their viâ—iousnesse whereby their crimes seemed to them rather sacrifices then sins wherefore it is little wonder to see a Court over-run by any vitious humour that is let in through this overture of the Princes inclination for as patterns of morall liberties the world looke upon them too much as Gods images since their considerations do commonly terminate in the images themselves and do not passe on to the originall or prototipe that is we do not examine whether their wills resemble that exemplar will they represent but conforme our affections directly to the similitude of theirs by reason that our interested thoughts stay likely at our nearest hopes and feares and finding Princes the next and immediate rewarders or punishers of our actions we square and modell them to such expectations as their humours minister unto us Hence it is that though Princes have many preheminencies over others yet in this particular of their morall freedoms they seeme the most limited and restrained of any by reason of the common derivations from their examples Whereupon as Subjects do subscribe to
and as we may be said to lodge God in our hearts so we do carry him abroad no way more visibly then in our mouths and surely the custome of any unclean speech tainteth and spoileth the breath that is to carry him Let us not therefore be deceived with this vulgar diversion to wit that these freedoms of discourse are harmelesse and allowable there is no action of a Christian inconsiderable to God our recreations must be of the same species as our prayers though not of the same degrees of intensive finenesse they must be both of the same nature of innocence though not adequate in the measures of purity we may say methinks not improperly of our recreations and devotions that the first must be holy as the last are holy in the same sense that we must be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect which is in point of similitude not in a degree of equality such as analogy must the pleasures of a Christian hold with his prayers of being resembling though not commensurate in Sanctity We may well infer what an obligation of purity Saint Paul layeth upon Christians when he saith Those that are baptized have put on Christ if we are to consider our selves as clothed with Christ how can we be too curious and circumspect in point of keeping such a vestiment unspotted methinks this should be a good glasse for those who are so curious and neat in their materiall clothes and dressings wherein the least unbecomingnes or disorder is so much examined for by a reflexion from these words of the Apostle they may see with what degree of purity they are incharged methinks this respect may well move them to an exact candour and cleanlinesse in their conversation which is recommended by the holy Spirit under the notion of keeping in all times their vestments white and candid But I pray God much of the worlds proprety and decencies be not affected expresly in order to the staining this our inward garment of Christian purity this is light enough to all intelligent persons for an exploring the rectitude or wrynesse of their behaviours in this particular since even in this vain superficies of neatnesse they may discern a figure of their Spirituall obligation to purity whereof Christ doth prescribe to us the preservation by this exact Discipline of Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation For alas we have the roots of the forbidden fruit planted in our nature which shooâ— up continually so fast as we have work enough to nip and crop off their buds and blossomes and all unclean liberties may well be said to be so much dung and filth we cast about these roots to cherish and set them forwarder but the ranknes and luxuriancy of our tempers in this kind ought rather to be the subject of our extirpation then a ground for owâ— manuring and culture we might better methinks derive much bashfulnesse and confusion from this notion of the pregnancy of our natures towards all these foul productions then work thus with our fancies to stir up the earth about these roots They who extract shaâ—e and humiliation out of the foulnesse of their naturall propensions may be said to do some such cure open themselves as Christ did upon one of the blind men to wit upon their own eyes by thus laying their own dirt upon them and those who catch at all occurrencies in discourse to advance their light impulses may be said to continually raising a dust out of their loose earth to put out not onely their own eyes but likewise those of the company they frequent Referring to this depravation there is one familiar iniquity which deserveth a particular animadversion which is this custome of letting our tongues runne full counter to this Christian precept of Watch lest you enter into temptation For alas how frequent is this practise of watching to lead all words into temptation by binding and straining even the modest words of others into a crooked and lascivious sense this vitiousnesse argueth a great sullnesse of the evill spirit when it runs over with such a waste even upon the words of our neighbour and well considered me thinks this is one of the most censurable parts of this licentiousnesse in regard it laboureth to taint the whole body of conversation as it corrupteth the nature of words which are the Publique Faith whereupon all innocent discourse must needs trust it selfe so that this perversion seemeth a publick impediment to the commerce of all vertuous communication wherefore this distorting of equivocall words which passeth commonly for a triviall peccancy if it be well examined will be found a very dangerous admission for me thinks this may be termed a verball adultery as it vitiateth and corrupts the property of another which would have remained innocent without that sollicitation and therefore seemeth much a fouler fault then a single incontinency of our own words This discourse puts me in mind of a most ingenuous piece of S. Augustines Confessions upon the reflection on the uncleannesse of his youth whereof my repetition will be sufficient application Thou O Lord Phisitian of my soule afford some benefit to others by my infirmities grant that the confession of my evils past which thou hast remitted and covered blessing me with a change of my soule by thy grace when they are read and heard may awake and stirre up the hearts of Auditors that they may not sleep in despaire and say alas we cannot rise but rouse themselves up by the love of thy mercy and sweetnesse of thy grace whereby every weake one is sufficiently enabled who by that influence commeth to be conscious of his own infirmity Let those I impart this confession to lament my ills and long for my good all my good is thy provision and gift as my evils and faults are thy judgements Let them sigh for these and sing thy praise for the other Let both pitie and praise ascend up to thy sight from the hearts of my brothers the which are thy incensors and thou O Lord delighted with the odour of thy holy Temples have mercy upon me according to thy great compassion and for thy holy names sake give not over what thou hast begunne but consume totally my imperfections These words will be too easily applyed since all those who have known me cannot be ignorant of my culpablenesse in those particulars against which I have informed in these two Treatises and truly if I could represent the just shame and confusion I feele in the reflection upon my guiltinesse in this kind I believe it would undeceive many in their opinion of the lightnesse of such faults for we may learn by what meanes humane nature is the likeliest to be moved unto Reformation by the Proposition of the unhappy rich man in the Gospell who concluded that his brothers would certainly be converted if they had one sent back to them from the dead to preach and represent their sufferings and surely
not as man that he may be deceived the same Spirit is jealous of us which peirceth and divideth asunder the soule and the Spirit and is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart Therefore they who look upon the beauty of Gods love in the beams of his mercy should alwayes reflect upon the shadow of his love which is his jealousie and is inseparable from the substance of his charitie But commonly Libertine lovers when they raise their thoughts as high as God look upon his mercyes being above all his works and account that as a City of refuge whereunto they can easily flie for protection of these kind of infirmities of nature pleading all their offences to be rather occasionall frailties then purposed infidelities to God and so while they have this attribute of Gods mercy in their eye like the hill seated upon a mountaine they think they cannot loose their way to it though they loyter and wander in their youth out of the strait and narrow way straying by the light excursions of their passion And certainly no one sinne hath misled more then this purposed Piety in which the Devill is a diligent advocate for Gods mercy For all active vitiousnesse hath a kind of hot feavor which keeps the conscience awake at least but this rowling between mercy and justice is a certaine motion that very often rocketh the conscience into a drowsinesse till our last sleep after which the worm it wanted never lets it rest againe How many say with Christ Yet a little and the world shall not see me who go out of the world in this stretching of themselves in a little more sleep a little more slumber Therefore I will recommend one jealousie to lovers which think themselves secure of Gods mercy by being but loose sutors for it let me propose to them to be very jealous of it I am sure they can know nothing of Gods heart which ought to make them confident of his mercy longer then they are actually watching it for it is seriously true in this case what is familiarly said to justifie vain jealousie that we cannot love mercy much and not be jealous of it nay I may add that the very apprehension of the insecurity of it is the fruition of this love for it is a possession of mercy to be solicitous and attentive in feare of losing it in this sense Solomon saith Blessed is he who is alwayes fearing and David prayeth that his flesh may be pierced with this feare But alas prophane passion is commonly a derider of all holy fear and accepts onely that which vaine jelousie imposeth on her and so the fear passion hath proves rather a curse then a custody for her love for the feares of lovers may be properly said to be such as the Wise-man elegantly discribes in the Aegyptian darknesse when their fire afforded them no light and those flashes of lightning which passed by them did but fright them so much the more being so terrified with what they saw they concluded that much more horrid which they saw not and thus their feare proved nothing to them but a betrayer of the succours of reason I need not put this on upon a lovers jealousie to try if it wil serve it by an application of those qualityes for it will appeare to any body that knoweth it as apposite and fit as if it had been made by the measure of that passion therefore I may wel conclude that love to be very unhappy which rejects all Pious feare and accepteth willingly this perplexing terrour §. IV. The deceipt of passion in promise of mercy and power of resisting temptations VAin passion is so malignant as it corrupteth the best power of mindes which is love and perverteth the best quallity of bodyes which is beauty nay it is so apt to make a wrong use of all beauty as it doth commonly misapply the beauty of grace which is mercy for it setteth our thoughts too much upon that faire delightfull attribute of God and seldome alloweth his justice a due proportion of them for many lovers acquaint themselves with Gods mercy as the Pharisees did converse with Christs person they are heires of Gods mercy and eat and drink with it familiarly but have no intelligence with his other attributes and so when they come to claime that acquaintance with it of having been taught and fed by it they are in danger to be disclaimed with I know you not depart from me mercy shall not then know them for their having been too familiar with her no more then God shall own the acquaintance of swearers who have beene so familiar with him thereforethe Wise-man giveth them an excellent counsell Say not the mercy of the Lord is great and he will have pitty on the multitude of my sinnes for his mercy and his anger are neer one another and his anger looketh upon sinners and most of all when they look not upon his anger For this reason lovers who usually set before their eyes mercy put before justice should use mercy not as a cover but as a Cristal onely to look through it upon the figure of justice in which it may intenerate and soften somewhat the hard strokes of that figure for the severity of Gods judgements may well be sweetened by this transparent supervesture of his kindnesse but when mercy is laid as a covering which too much obscureth justice to us then likely the more we look upon it the more we see our passion in it and the love of God the lesse for hope which vaine passion findeth a virtue in our hearts it commonly leaveth a vice by flattering hope into excesse and corrupteth it often by the art of overpraising it and so leadeth it imperceptibly up to presumption therefore I may properly say to many lovers presuming on mercy as Saint John Baptist did to such a kind of confidence think not to say within your selves we have Abraham for our father but bring forth works worthy of repentance let them not think mercy is intailed to the stock of their confidence but stated upon the conformity and fidelity of their lives for those that do the works of Abraham are onely his sonnes the children of feare and trembling are the onely heires of mercy But there are many mindes that seeme made of such a stuffe as was forbid the children of Israel which was a contexture of linnen and wollen which command did figuratively intimate that simplicity and intirenesse was to be the garment of the inward man against this rule many pretend they can weave purity and passion together and keep their minds sound and innocent in this composition and for this consorting humane love is very intuentive and ingenious in designing faire and specious termes of subordination in which this love pretends it may consist and be limited under divine love But many who pretended at first to keep their affections running through the beauty of
their own unreconciled hearts an Altar whereon they offer up to Christ crucified all their angers and animosities which have this property of smelling very ill while they are growing and of making an excellent perfume when they are burning and consuming in the fire of Charity God smelleth these divers savors in them in both these conditions and surely S. Paul leaveth us no hope that any act can move God which turneth not upon the Centre of Charity to on◠Brother since even that compassion which should break down our own houses to build up harbors for others and that Faith which did remove our Mountains and our Meadows into the possession of our necessitous neighbors all these actions I say would be but painted schrines wanting the substance of what they figure and represent if Charity were not the engine that carryed all these motions there may be many works that hold this analogy with a tinckling Cymbal the making their sound out of their hollowness the being conscient of this emptiness of sincere Charity may counsel the raising noise and voyce of their Piety by the sound and report of exterior Charities to such the Angel declareth I finde not your works full before my God Nor can we now excuseably mistake in the measures of this Charity since Christ Jesus hath left us impressed and stampt upon his own life a new model of compliance with this new Commandment how unanswerable then is the method of many who in stead of copying this exemplar draw their charity to enemies by their own designs by fitting this figure rather for their own Cabinet then the Church of Christ this is the course of such as form their observance of this precept by the square of their disposition and facility to forgive some particular offences that do not much sting their Nature and allow enemies but such a sort of love as savoreth of contempt which taketh away the taste and gust of Revenge And so this maner doth indeed rather but change the dyet of our Nature then keep her fasting in this precept from all her flattering appetites for her vicious palate relisheth no less scorn and undervalue of enemies then revenge and vindication So that the figure of this Charity is lame and mis-shapen and appeareth not taken off from that mould which we have of our original the form whereof is Loving one another as he hath loved us and in his model we shall not finde the least oblique angle of contempt to enemies and sure though we cannot keep in the forming of our Charity an Arithmetical proportion to that of Christ yet we must observe a Geometrical one in this our conformity which is to say Though we are not able to attain to an equality of his Charity in point of quantity and greatness yet our love may be in some sort at least adequated to his in point of form and proportion loving just so as he did though not just as much as he therefore we are commanded to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect upon this occasion of our demeanor to enemies which signifieth a conformity and similitude not an equality or commensuration to the Divine perfection As little Lodges may be built by the same model of the greatest Pallaces so we are to design our Charity to our enemies by the figure of Christs unto his which excludeth all sort of animosity or malevolence against adversaries and interdicteth all self-reparation by contempt or despection of them which voideth all the merit of sufferance and forgiveness and they who neglect the making their charity like unto that of Christ in these proportions I have explained will finde it so ill done when it cometh to be set by that figure it ought to resemble as it will not be known for Charity so far will it be from becoming eternally like the Original Charity by looking on it when every well copyed Charity shall pass into that configuration §. IV. The inordinateness of our love difficilitateth this Duty dissimulation in this conformity reproached and many benefits derivable from a sincere compliance represented As also presumption upon the Theory of this Duty disswaded THe misapprehension of the Nature of Love seemeth a great occasion of our mindes being so aliened from the love of enemies pleasing objects do commonly strain our affections into such excesses as we often know no love but under the notion of a distemper in the concupiscing faculty and while our affections are accustomed to this inordinateness we can hardly comprehend how love should be compatible with displeasures and contrarieties So that the perversion of our amities induceth this alienation from our enemies Could we then hold love from straining into passion we might easily stay anger from passing into sin as is evidenced by the lives of all those who have discarded the pleasures of this age whom we see keep in their hands so contentedly the injuries and offences thereof We finde it verified in such estates the growing potent when they are infirm and the imitation of receiving Judas with Friend why art thou come they who are past being betrayed by the worlds kisses are beyond the being disordered by the spittings of his ministers But that even those who are not called to this upper story of Christianity may not mistake the nature of this love assigned to enemies by the image of that love they figure due to friends they may be satisfied That we are not enjoyned the same state and composure of minde to the adversaries and offendors as to the friends and allies of our Nature There is a certain inviscerate tenderness of affection growing in our hearts for children and kindred which is a kinde of spring of natural love rising in our mindes and running from thence in our blood through our senses and carrying with it a sensible joy and delectation in such affections This sort of love is not ordained to be communicated to enemies and there is an intimacy and union between friends resulting from an intercourse of mutual sympathy which raiseth a pleasant alteration in the sensitive appetite referring to such correspondencies These sorts of consonancies and kindeness are not assigned by God to the persons of our enemies and maligners this constraint is not put upon our Nature To finde a refreshing air in the furnace of Babylon is a transcendent grace and rarely conferred but upon such as have been polluted with the meats of the Kings Table Those who from their youth have disrelished the vain pleasures and honors of the world may be gratified with this special benediction of being tenderly affected to the persons of enemies and the being solicitous to serve them in conformity to the perfection of our patern our Savior Christ But our precise obligation reacheth no farther then a sincere and cordial remission and forgiveness of all our offendors never seeking the least indirect retaliation upon the persons fame or fortunes of our enemies Upon the deficiency in these points is
Nature viz. all kinde of crosses and vexations seem to chase us out of the field they convey us into that retreat whereunto God hath designed us This is a frequent contrivement by Gods Providence to secure his friends by the chase and pursuit of his enemies and theirs as he preserved David from acting against him by the malevolence of the Princes of the Philistines who thought they had shamed him by rejecting and casting him out of their Troops when indeed they preserved him innocent from staining himself in the blood of his Brethren So God excites very familiarly the adversities of this world to remove and seemingly to expel his servants out of it to deliver them from the guilt of loving the world providing thus against their longer engagement with his Adversary who is the Prince of this World And as God vouchsafes to serve himself sometimes of the storms which the Prince of the Ayr raiseth in this world by making them carry such wracks upon his coast of Solitude as he designs to save with the loss onely of their temporal fraights So the Prince of the World doth sometime make use of this Shore for the casting away of many to whom he shews it as a secure harbor or shelter which they have under their Lee and can reach when they please upon any distress of weather And thus as an Angel of Light he promiseth this Sanctuary of retiring to God as a security which cannot fail even after all the provocations of him whereby he perswades many to sport themselves with him in his large alleys in the days of their youth and fortune Leave no flower ungathered as the Wise man says of thâ—s season And when either the winter of Nature or of Fortune hath withered and blasted all those sweets then it is time enough to retire to Gods cover for shelter who refuseth no sort of Refugiats These insinuations do work with many so as to embolden them to live profusely upon the present stock of their Time and Fortune with this purpose of taking Sanctuary either at some assigned time of their Age or upon any pressing Contingency Hence is it that taking their Councel of Gods Enemy he presents such Clients to him as have robb'd him all their life in a purpose to repair to him for protection against the Law and exemption from his hand of Justice and thus in effect the house of Prayer is turned and designed by such Projectors to be but an harbor of Theeves How often doth the Prince of Darkness amuse many with this falacy who walk with him in his large alleys even by this light he shews them by which they conceive to see a safe issue out of this broad way into the narrow paths of the Kingdom of Light But alas how many lose themselves in this labyrinth and are founder'd in this calm Sea of the world even while they have this coast of retreat and Solitude in their eye And how many others who are entred into the Port sink there by those leaks they bring in with them never being able to stop those overtures in their mindes through which worldly affections and passions soak continually into their thoughts some ill habit or other still keeping intelligence with the world And for this cause many either revolt back openly to it or else hold some private treacherous correspondence with it in a nauseousness and distaste of all Spiritual aliment and a tepid irresolution between breaking off and holding on that course and remaining in this nauseousness we know how disagreeable this temper is to Gods stomack so that many presuming to take this Water of Tryal being polluted by a long co-habitation with temporal loves it proves to them rather putrifaction then purgation and their mindes in stead of a Spiritual conception and improvement break out into an unsound and fruitless dissipation Likewise as this deceitful project of relinquishing the world is often preferred by the Father of Lyes to many sensual and brutish lives so me thinks it hath this property common to many Animals who believe when they have hid their head that their whole body is covered because such whom St. Jude calls bruâ—e beasts seem to conclude that when their bodies shall be retired and sequestred from the world their mindes are removed and estranged from it But they quickly finde the brutality of that opinion by the blows and wounds wherewith the Images of the world assault and charge their mindes by this disabuse they perceive her nakedness and exposure to all those vexations from which they thought themselves guarded and covered and God who regards only the posture and nearness of the heart to him doth adjudge a punishment sâ—ted to this presumption in revenge of their promising themselves the being able to carry their mindes out of the world into his Sanctuary at their own assignments he often receives the body onely and leaves the minde still in this habitual loosness making the bodies division in this separation from the world the revenger of this presumption of adventuring to dispose of one of the most dear properties of Grace namely the retreat of our mindes by the right of Nature For nothing is more peculiar to Grace then to impart the joy and peace of the Spirit in a state of contradiction to all the cases of the Flesh It is in some sort a design of Simony to expect the gifts of the Holy Spirit upon the exchange of a local transaction of our persons Holy King David had not onely stept into the way but was running in the way of God when he had his heart dilated and enlarged unto him so as his Flesh and his Spirit both joyned in an exultation in the living God Therefore it is very useful Animadversion not to relie upon the Covenants of our own private Spirit for the conveyance of this so happy condition to us of a godly retreat and â—eposure of our selves since the more Nature promiseth the less interest she hath in it this self-arrogation being an evidence against our title to this possession of Grace Upon these considerations I may advise such as are come to labor under the burthen of their mundanities which they have been less cautious in loading themselves with in respect of this final discharge they have proposed to remember when they come to Christ to be disburthened that precedent in the Gospel which relates aptly to their cases which is that of the ten Lepers who when they came to Christ stood after off and lifted up their voyces with JESUS have mercy upon us the consciousness of their pollution kept them at that reverend distance And Christs answer in this case is a very pertinent direction to such Spiritual Lepâ—â—s Go and show your selves to the Priests take advise of Gods Ministers and their opinions of the clâ—anness and purity of their intentions before they venture into the communion of this Sanctuary of holy Solitude otherwise their present offering may prove of as
allure us May not that be justly then contemned which either afflicteth us for the present or betrayeth us for the future O how admirable is God in this piece of distributive Justice to Mankinde who having by his Providence comparted the conditions in this world into such a diversity of states as cannot admit all to the fruition of secular Delights hath commanded that none should love them by which order the lowest ranks are much compensated in this respect That it is a harder task to forbear loving such things when we enjoy them then it is to contemn them when we know we can neither expect them nor ought to love them If they who use this world must be as though they used it not those who use least of it may be said to be seated the nearest to this performance and certain it is That their state is the most conterminate to that of the true Propriator of the whole world while he was upon the earth who did himself use those things most which we use to love the least and yet alloweth us to enjoy even the most pleasing proporties of the earth provided we do not love the world in that relation All secular goods were so unworthy of the love of the God and Man Christ Jesus as they are not allowed the love even of single Mary for all the most precious and glorious things of this world are ordained to serve Man as his slave unto whose offices there can be assigned no love for this wages doth presently invert the two conditions rendring the lover the slave How reasonable then must it be to address unto him all our love who hath by his love to us subjected all these things unto us and hath so disposed it as to maintain our Prerogative there is required no Art but the contemning of what stands thus subjected Whereupon I may well press you in this point as the Apostle doth Let this minde be in you which was also in Christ Jesus his comportment towards the world was intended to give you the same minde Look then upon your Nature in the author and finisher of our Faith and you shall see Mans dominion over the World maintained by contemning it the world was so perfectly crucified to him all his life as he contemned the being crucified by the world despising as the Apostle saith even the greatest shame and confusion of this world And what could this Divine Man do more to imprint in us this aversion to the world then these two acts in not vouchsafeing to enjoy any of those things the cupidities whereof use to vitiate us to leave all them abased and vilified and in not declining the sufferance of such things whereof the terror doth likely subject us to the world to render them easie and acceptable What hath the world then left in it for Motives either of our love or fear of it that even God himself may not be said both to have undervalued and undergone And what we are enjoyned neither to love nor fear cannot seem uneasie for us to despise especially when this advantage is annexed That we gain more by contemning the whole world then we can by enjoying our own divident therein For whereas Fortune keeps many worldlings poor the Contempt of the world keeps Fortune her self wanting and indigent leaving her nothing to give to such a disposition So that in stead of incurring the reproach of the Prophet in setting up a Table to Fortune and offering libaments upon it this habit of minde sacrificeth and destroyeth Fortune upon the Altar of the Holy Spirit and thus even the feathers of Fortune to wit The vanities and levities of this Age when they are incensed and consumed by a holy Contempt of this world may make a sweet Savor in the Temple of God whereupon I may say That these sorts of feathers which while they are burning in the flame of our sensitive passions yield an odour of death unto death when they are consuming in this Sacrifical fire of a zealous Contempt and Renunciation of them afford a savor of life unto life in this act of their destruction in our mindes In the time of the Law when the Commodities of the Earth seemed to be proposed as the Salary of Mans vertue there might be some colour to love this world and so in that state God accepted the Beasts of the Earth for Holocausts But in the Gospel when no less then the enjoying of God himself and all his goods is exhibited for the term of our desires it cannot seem unequal that even the whole World should be required for a Holocaust immolated and consumed by a Religious Annihilation of it in our Mindes to the honor of such a Remunerator §. II. Motives by the property of a Christian to contemn the World VVHen we consider our selves under the notion of Members to such a Head as hath offered up as a Holocaust even the Creator of the whole Universe it seemeth not strange but rather suitable for such Members to Sacrifice the whole World to hold some proportion unto their Head especially since his offering of himself was in order to the enabling us to Sacrifice and destroy this world Doth not this our Head God and Man Christ Jesus say That even in his life the judgement of this world was given it was sentenced to Contempt by his despising it he that did not disdain to own the Infirmities of Man did notwithstanding protest against his being of this world so much hath he left it vilified to us And doth not he say If he were exalted above the earth be would draw all men unto him So that in this exaltation is proclaimed our Duty and capacity of transcending this world and treading on it with Contempt by the attractive Vertue of this our Head raised above all the Heavens And we may remember That the first Members he was pleased to unite unto him upon Earth were instantly elevated to that height of being above the world seated in this abnegation and despection May I not then fitly say with Saint Paul These things were done in a figure of us since what they left to lighten them for this transcendency is an apposite figure of what we are to do in order to this elevation namely To relinquish our Nets in this world which we may understand in two sences that comprise all our directions in this case to wit either as we are actively catching and chasing the Commodities of this Age or as we are passively taken and intangled in the love of what we enjoy In the first of these states we may be said to have our Nets in our hand and in the second to have them in our hearts so that to leave our Nets signifieth to relinquish both our solicitous Cupidities and Passions in point of pursuing the goods of this World and our Inordinate love in case of their possession And this disposition of Minde raiseth us to that exaltation
above the Earth whereunto Christians are attracted by their Head and truly they who will not Sacrifice their Nets with the Apostles in this sence do Sacrifice to their own Nets in the sence of the Prophet they Worship the World wherein they are taken and insnared Let such Worldings remember what CHRIST saith to them from his elevation above this world even while he was in it Whither I go you cannot come And the Reason followeth You are from beneath I am from above you are of this world I am not of this world And let them reflect on what was said to the relinquishers of their Nets That they shall sit with the Son of Man in Majesty upon Thrones judging the world which in some imperfect measure is fulfilled even in this Life by the most Sublimated Contemners of this World of which God saith by the PROPHET He will raise them above the altitudes of the Earth and by the APOSTLE That they have not received the Spirit of this World but the Spirit that is of God that they may know the things that are given them of God I have sufficiently delivered my self in this Point throughout all this Work not to be misunderstood now at last in this Sacrificing of our Nets which I have proposed since I have often concluded That all several Vocations have their respective capacities of Contemning this World even while they seem the most affected by it So that this Discourse doth not aim at the frighting any one out of their station in the world since those who have the most of this world using it as if they used it not may do as well in their order as those who choose to use the least they can of it for fear of abusing it For we know the Earth is familiarly and may be properly compared to a Sea in this respect as it is no place of abode but of passage through it and in their course there are no Vessels that have not somewhat more or less of them under water that is some thoughts and attentions upon this world and as they are lighter or heavier laden with the Commodities of this Life they carry the more or less of themselves above water the less their cogitations are immersed in Temporalities the higher their mindes pass through this World But as there are Vessels of several lasts so it is the property of some to draw more water then others therefore such cannot be said to be nearer sinking because they have more of them under water then lighter Barques Every condition hath his respective Fraight of Application to this World which may draw some deeper then others into the solicitudes of this Age but unless we voluntarily overcharge our Vocation every one may pass safely with his proper Weight But we must remember specially this particular in the Comparison That as in Ships the part which saileth them and carrieth them on their course is all above water so that portion of our Minde those Thoughts and Intendments that advance and carry us to Heaven are those which are Spiritual and elevated above this World the ballast of our Mortal part will keep some portions of our Thoughts in all conditions somewhat immersed in the Earth but the sails of our Immortal portion must carry on the whole Man to his Celestial Harbor I may therefore justly exhort and animate all conditions in the Contempt of this World in this voyce of the Apostle You are of God little children and have overcome it because greater is he that is in you then 〈◊〉 that is in the world The one and twentieth Treatise Of the Preheminences of a true contemplative life Divided into five Sections §. I. Contemplation defined and some excellencies thereof discoursed COming now off from this troubled Sea for the finishing touches of this perswasion I will carry your eyes a little upon the pourtraicture of such a Sea as was shewed to Saint John by the Angel for a marvelous Sign For indeed this state of Minde I purpose in this last place to expose unto you is me thinks fitly emblem'd by that Sea of glass mingled with fire on which they stand having harps in their hands that have overcome the image of the Beast And in this order may follow the application The spaciousness of their Souls that are extended in perfect contemplation is aptly figured by that property of the Sea their equanimity and clearness by the smoothness and lucidness of Glass the fervor of their Spirits is fitly symbolized by a mixture of Fire in this Sea of Glass this Spiritual ardor being as requisite to compose this temper as fire is to make Glass And farther we may say That as Glass is formed of many unconsisting parts that are consolidated and clarified by fire so is this even and clear habit of minde composed of divers intellectual Verities compacted and elucidated by the flame of Contemplation and the Harps in their hands represent the harmony and concordancy between the sensitive organs and rational powers in the mindes of devout Contemplators which keeps in tune a Spiritual joy and acquiescence It was an ingenious project of Archimedes the undertaking to remove the whole material World in case there were assigned him a Centre out of it upon which to place his Instrument This work we may say to have been effected in a Spiritual sence by the Man Christ Jesus and by such a maner as the other was contrived namely by having an Engine fixt upon a Centre out of this world which was his Humanity upon his Divinity upon which basis rested all his power wherewith he removed the whole Spiritual frame of the world and upon this Centre he stood when he said I am not of this world and even by a weak Reed fixed upon that Centre he removed and cast forth the Prince of the World for his Humane Nature was as it were the Engine or Instrument standing upon his Divine as on a Centre extrinsecal to this World and so that wrought instrumentally upon the World and was sufficient when it was exalted from the earth to draw all things to it self And why may I not say that some such capacity seemeth communicated to the Members of Christ Jesus that is of fixing their mindes though but Humane upon a Centre extrinsecal to this world viz. The contemplation of Divine Verities and by that means to remove all this World out of that place where it useth to stand in our corrupted Nature And certain it is That many have and do act this power upon the Earth by fixing their Spirits upon Contemplation which is a Centre without this world It were easie for me to point at many of these elevated Spirits which like the Constellations in the Firmament are known by Names more then the other Star 〈…〉 But to decline all shew of any particular preference I shall single none but do my obeysance in general to all ranks of such blessed Contemplators